We are at the twelfth lesson in the chain of the lineage - in the second part of the life of the Mitteler Rebbe. We have reached the year 5575.
"In the year 5575 he made efforts and worked with government circles to set aside plots of land in the district of Cherson, and he founded Jewish colonies there". It is known that in the time of the Mitteler Rebbe the material condition of the Jews was very bad, and the Mitteler Rebbe proposed to the government that they grant him land, and upon it he settled some two thousand Jewish settlers who would be farmers - these are the colonies he established in Cherson and throughout that region.
As the Rebbe relates in his diary notes, all the land was registered in the name of the Mitteler Rebbe, and all two thousand settlers were exempted from taxes. They were even helped to get there: they were given horses so that they could reach the colonies, and permission was granted for all their animals to graze along the way in the government's fields - apparently a special concession.
The Mitteler Rebbe even published a letter, printed in his Igros Kodesh, about the great benefit specifically of working the land. Among other things he notes that this would reduce antisemitism, and that the government would draw the Jews closer and they would find greater favor in its eyes - for the government does not like the sorts of commerce that Jews are accustomed to, whereas when they would be farmers the matter would pass quietly and peacefully.
I once heard a reasoning that I have not seen written down, but it sounds fine: one who works the land remains with his family the entire time and does not leave his place, and thereby the life of yiras Shamayim of the families is preserved. In contrast, when the father is a merchant and is forced to travel most of the year to all sorts of places, by the nature of things it is harder to run a Jewish home properly. This is one of the reasons that the Mitteler Rebbe wanted the occupation of Jews to be working the land.
"5576-77 he founds a Chabad chassidic settlement in Chevron". Apparently the settling of the chassidim in Chevron took place in stages, since in several places similar or slightly later years are noted, and it seems that 5576 was really the first stage, in which the Mitteler Rebbe gave permission to chassidim to travel to Eretz Yisrael. In the chronicles it is described that at first they lived in Tzefas, and later they came to Chevron.
Interesting is what the Mitteler Rebbe notes in one of his letters: "I found it written in the name of the Radbaz, that whoever has a holding of an estate in the holy city of Chevron will be spared from chibut hakever". The Mitteler Rebbe bought a plot there, which became the shul in Chevron and was registered in his name, and to this day this holding belongs to him - for he wanted to have a holding in Chevron. One can say that the oldest Chabad shul in the world is in Chevron, from the time of the Mitteler Rebbe, when Chabad chassidim settled in Chevron.
The next detail is the year "5577 - he visits the colonies", those colonies that he established in Cherson. He would visit there from time to time "and would stay there" a few months, "from Pesach until Elul" - almost half a year - in order to strengthen them and so forth.
"In the year 5587 he was arrested" - the well known arrest of the Mitteler Rebbe occurred "on the basis of an informer's slander" - that same type of slander that was informed against the Alter Rebbe, that he was collecting money in order to rebel against the Russian government. They took him into imprisonment on 28 Tishrei 5587.
As you will recall, at the beginning of his nesius there was a period in which the Mitteler Rebbe traveled on his way to Lubavitch, and along the way he collected money from chassidim in order to fund his activities. He wrote a letter to the chassid Reb Pinchas Reizes, and described in it that along his way he had collected three or four thousand rubles, and he turned to him to choose two more chassidim, so that they would be three, and they would sit together to decide how to distribute the money.
Over the years this letter came into the hands of the one who informed against the Mitteler Rebbe, and he introduced a forgery into it - he added just two letters: instead of "three or four thousand" he wrote "one hundred and three" or "one hundred and four", that is, one hundred and three or one hundred and four thousand rubles instead of three or four thousand, an enormous sum. And then they claimed before the government: if in such a small place he collected so much money, apparently who knows what is going on there, and they are seeking to act against the government. And indeed because of this the Mitteler Rebbe was taken into imprisonment, and as the continuation states: "and on the tenth of Kislev he was freed" - on 10 Kislev 5587, which is the famous festival of redemption of the Mitteler Rebbe.
"When the king's decree was publicized regarding the taking of young Jews for army service", the Mitteler Rebbe took this very hard, and he wanted to act in a spiritual manner to nullify the decree - "he made his journey to visit the sanctuary of the tziyun, the ohel of his holy father, in Haditch". He traveled from Lubavitch to Haditch and stayed there a long time; in one of the notes it is written that he traveled in Tammuz 5587 and remained there until the middle of Cheshvan 5588 - several months - and he did not leave the place, solely in order to pray about the decree of conscripting the young Jews.
After he finished in Haditch, in the middle of Cheshvan 5588, he began his journey back, and in the middle of the way his passing occurred: "On the fourth day, 9 Kislev 5588" - which is his birthday - "while he was in the city of Nezhin, district of Chernigov, when he was returning from his visit to the ohel of his holy father, he passed away". His passing was on his birthday.
It is told that the Mitteler Rebbe would always say that he was afraid of the year 5588, and he said about it: "This is a year upon which decrees are hinted", Rachmana litzlan. Once he said that when they took his father, the Alter Rebbe, to the second imprisonment - as described in the stories of the Alter Rebbe - the Alter Rebbe was fifty four years old. And he said: "They gave father a choice from Heaven as to what he would choose at the age of fifty four - suffering or passing away; and father chose suffering, and therefore they took him to the second imprisonment". And he concluded: "Apparently the second option he left for me". And indeed his passing was on his birthday, at the age of fifty four, exactly at the age at which his father was taken to imprisonment.
It is further told that on one occasion - apparently during his journey to his father's tziyun in Haditch - he came out from the tziyun with great joy and with a truly shining countenance, and he said: "I accomplished by father that they release me from the rabbanus". The chassidim did not think that he was hinting at his passing, since the Mitteler Rebbe was saying all along that he wished to travel to Eretz Yisrael, and they were certain that his intent was that he had received permission from his father to leave the chassidim and travel to Eretz Yisrael. They argued before him: "How will you leave the chassidim without a leader?", and he said to them: "My son in law is with you" - the reference is to the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, who indeed afterward became the leader, the next Rebbe.
After this story he traveled from there, arrived in Nezhin, and there he became very ill and passed away. In Beis Rebbi many wondrous descriptions are brought of the manner of his passing, which was similar in many things to the passing of Rashbi. On his fifty fourth birthday, nun daled, on that very day was his passing, "and there is his honored resting place" - and his place of burial is in Nezhin, where he passed away.