We are at the eleventh lesson in the chain of lineage, and in it we begin the first part of the life of the Mitteler Rebbe, the second in the order of the Chabad Rebbeim. And this is the heading: "Hod Kevod Kedushas Admur Marana veRabbana DovBer". The Mitteler Rebbe was named after the Maggid of Mezritch, the teacher of the Alter Rebbe.
It is known that the Alter Rebbe married in the year 5520, as we already learned in the story of his life, and many years passed before a son was born to him: for fourteen years he had no children, and his first son, the Mitteler Rebbe, was born only after fourteen years. It is told that beforehand he asked the Maggid for blessings for children, and the Maggid even gave him a segulah, saying that hachnasas orchim is a segulah for children.
It is related in Sefer HaToldos that two days before the Maggid's passing, on 9 Kislev, the Maggid called in the Alter Rebbe and spoke with him about the whole order of things: exactly how one conducts the night before the bris milah, how one conducts the Shabbos before the bris that is called "shalom zachar", and he explained to him the entire order of the matters. There is a great deal of detail there, and among other things he said to him: it is written "Chazon Ovadiah", from the haftarah of those days. What is "Chazon Ovadiah"? "Ovadiah" is a combination of two words - oved Yah, one who serves Hashem; and one who serves Hashem has a "chazon", a vision, and he sees what is happening. And he added: a son will be born to you, and you shall call him by my name.
And indeed, the Mitteler Rebbe was born exactly one year later. The Maggid said this two days before 9 Kislev 5533, and on 9 Kislev 5534, a year later, the Mitteler Rebbe was born, and therefore he was called by the name DovBer, like the name of the Maggid of Mezritch. And these are the Rebbe's words: "Born 9 Kislev 5534".
The next detail noted here is "in the year 5548". The Mitteler Rebbe was then fourteen years old, and in that year "his wedding" took place. As the Rebbe relates in his sichos, several shidduchim were proposed to the Mitteler Rebbe, and he chose the shidduch that could be brought about the fastest, because he longed to hear the maamarim that his father, the Alter Rebbe, would say at the wedding and at the sheva brachos. That is what determined for him whom to marry - whichever would be soonest - and he married at the age of fourteen.
The next detail: the year "5550-5551 - the guidance of the younger chassidim was placed in his hands". Here the matter is written very briefly, and in the notes of the Rebbe Rayatz it is set out in more detail. In 5551, when the Mitteler Rebbe was only sixteen years old, the Alter Rebbe placed upon him the guidance of all the avreichim who were in Liozna. He further told him that there are many avreichim supported at their father's table or at their father in law's table, and are not present in the place, and he must maintain contact with them by letter and manage everything relating to this matter. And the Mitteler Rebbe occupied himself with this with very great interest.
The Mitteler Rebbe once related that when the Alter Rebbe placed this work upon him, he said to him: how must one look at an avreich? How must one look at a Jew? - one must look at a Jew as he stands in the primordial thought, up to Adam Kadmon. That is, to see the Jew as he is in his most perfect state, a son of the Holy One, blessed be He; that is how one must look at him, and in such a manner deal with him.
The next detail is already after the passing of the Alter Rebbe and the Mitteler Rebbe's acceptance of the nesius: "in the year 5573", when he was thirty nine years old, "in the month of Teves, he accepted the nesius". The passing of the Alter Rebbe was on 24 Teves 5573, and afterward - "the sun sets and the sun rises" - the Mitteler Rebbe accepted the nesius immediately thereafter.
And where was the Mitteler Rebbe at that time? He was not present at his father's passing, for the Alter Rebbe had sent him beforehand to Kremenchug on a certain mission. And when the Alter Rebbe passed away, the Mitteler Rebbe was not present at the time of the passing; they informed him afterward, and some time later he took the nesius upon himself.
And so the next line notes: "18 Elul, he established his residence in the town of Lubavitch, district of Mohilev". As mentioned, the Mitteler Rebbe was in Kremenchug at the time of the Alter Rebbe's passing. The Alter Rebbe's burial place is in Haditch, and after the burial the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek - grandson of the Alter Rebbe and son in law of the Mitteler Rebbe - remained living in Haditch for a certain period, while the rest of the family moved to a nearby town called Romen.
After the Mitteler Rebbe accepted the nesius, there was a very great awakening among the Chabad chassidim throughout all the provinces of Russia: every group and every region wanted the Mitteler Rebbe to come and live among them, and many delegations from various places came to ask him to settle in their region.
In practice the Mitteler Rebbe remained in Kremenchug, in the same place where he had been at the time of the passing. The passing was in the month of Teves, and he remained in Kremenchug until the beginning of Sivan; after the festival of Shavuos he left Kremenchug, and then the decision took shape with him to move and live in White Russia, that is Belarus.
The journey there also lasted several months. In every place he stopped and said chassidus to the people, and more chassidim drew close, and finally he established his permanent place of residence in Lubavitch. And from then began the Chabad chain in Lubavitch, from the Mitteler Rebbe and after the passing of the Alter Rebbe. The settling in Lubavitch was on Monday, 18 Elul 5573.
The next detail, and with it we will stop: "in the year 5574", which is the first year after accepting the nesius in 5573, "he established a special committee for the rebuilding of the Jewish towns in the region of White Russia which had been destroyed during the war". In those years the famous war between Russia and France took place, and one of the reasons that the Alter Rebbe left his place and was tossed about on the roads was on account of that war.
During the war Napoleon's army invaded Russia with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, with the aim of reaching Moscow, and that entire region suffered greatly from destruction, looting, hunger and battles between the French and the Russians; as a result, many Jewish communities were significantly harmed and destroyed. One of the things the Mitteler Rebbe did at the beginning of his nesius was to make sure that those Jewish communities which had been destroyed during the war were rebuilt, and here it is noted as a special matter - that a special committee was established which worked to restore the Jewish towns to their proper standing.