We are in the nineteenth lesson in the chain of lineage, in the fifth part of the history of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek. Today we will learn about his sons and daughters - seven sons and two daughters - and we will go through them one by one.
"His sons:
a) His honorable holiness the holy Rav, the Rav the chassid Rabbi Baruch Shalom" the first son of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, and he is the great-grandfather of the Rebbe; further on we will see the chain of generations that came from him and the order of descent through which the Rebbe was born from his offspring.
His name was given to him after the father of the Alter Rebbe and the father of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek: the father of the Alter Rebbe was called Baruch, and the father of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek was called Shalom Shachna, and he was named after both of them.
He was born approximately in the year 5595. It is told that his sandak was the Alter Rebbe, who was very fond of him and taught him the taamim of the Torah reading and the taamim of Kesuvim - it is known that the Alter Rebbe had very distinctive taamim for each of the parts of Tanach, and he taught his grandson the taamim personally. It is also written that his father, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, would study Etz Chaim and Pri Etz Chaim with his eldest son.
In his character he was exceedingly humble and modest. In the presence of his father, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, he would not open his mouth at all, except on occasions when the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek explicitly said to him: "Tell what you remember from the Zeide" - and then, out of honoring his father, when his father asked, he ventured to open his mouth and tell; but generally he conducted himself with modesty. For this reason, after the passing of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, he did not accept upon himself any leadership or nesius anywhere, which his brothers did accept, as we will see; he had no wish whatsoever to accept the nesius in any area or in any form.
His passing was on 16 Shevat 5629, and his tziyun is in the Ohel of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash - he is buried next to his father. This is the first son, Rabbi Baruch Shalom.
"b) His honorable holiness Admur the Rav Yehuda Leib" already from his title it is evident that he is called "Admur". He was born in the year 5572, that is, before the passing of the Alter Rebbe, and with him too the Alter Rebbe was the sandak - as is known, the mara d'asra may be sandak for several sons in the same family, and he was the sandak of the first son and of the second son.
He was very connected to his grandfather, the Mitteler Rebbe; he would go to hear maamarim, and the Mitteler Rebbe was very fond of him and would wait for him to arrive in order to say the maamarim in his presence. So connected was he to the Mitteler Rebbe, that after his passing many years went by in which he was not connected to his father as a chassid - as a son to his father, yes, but as a chassid it took him a long time. And the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek invested much effort in this, for he wanted his son to be his chassid.
It is told that the Tzemach Tzedek succeeded in this in the year 5603, at the time of the famous conference in Petersburg that we have already told about: he took him along with him to Petersburg, and then he managed to influence him to become his chassid. The Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek gave him instructions to repeat chassidus in public and to give people advice in material and spiritual matters, and he received actual power from his father for this. After his father's passing he moved to live in Kopust, and many chassidim came to be connected to him, but he did not live long: half a year after the Tzemach Tzedek, on 3 Cheshvan 5627, the Maharil, Rabbi Yehuda Leib, passed away, at the age of fifty six.
"c) His honorable holiness Admur the Rav Chaim Schneur Zalman" from his name one can understand that he was born after the passing of his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, and therefore he was named after him. He was born about a year after the passing, in the year 5574. In Beis Rebbi it is told about him that he was a most exceptional Jew in avodas Hashem, and he too received an instruction from his father to repeat chassidus and to answer people's questions in material and spiritual matters.
After the passing of the Tzemach Tzedek he remained living in Lubavitch for two or three years, and in the year 5629 he moved to the city of Liadi, the city where the Alter Rebbe had lived, and chassidim traveled to be connected to him. In Liadi he lived eleven years, and on 4 Teves 5640 he passed away. In Beis Rebbi they point out interesting and wondrous parallels between him and the Alter Rebbe:
He was named after him.
He lived in Liadi eleven years, exactly the number of years that the Alter Rebbe lived there.
He passed away in the month of Teves, like the Alter Rebbe who passed away in the month of Teves.
He passed away at the age of sixty six, the age of the Alter Rebbe at his passing.
"d) His honorable holiness Admur the Rav Yisrael Noach" he was born in Lubavitch in the year 5575 or 5576. It is told about him that he was an immense gaon, mainly in nigleh, and afterwards an immense gaon in chassidus as well. He repeated maamarim before the chassidim already during his father's lifetime, and his father, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, appointed him rosh yeshiva. After his father's passing he stayed in Lubavitch for a few years, and afterwards moved to Nizhin, where he lived about fifteen years. At the age of sixty six, on the first day of the festival of Pesach 5643, he passed away. Nizhin is the place where the Mitteler Rebbe passed away and where his tziyun is, and he is buried in the Ohel of the Mitteler Rebbe in Nizhin.
"e) His honorable holiness Admur the Rav Yosef Yitzchak" there are differing views regarding the year of his birth - in one place it is written 5582, and in Beis Rebbi an earlier date is written, 5579. After his marriage he moved to live in the place where his father-in-law, the Rebbe Yaakov Yisrael of Cherkas, lived, and still during the lifetime of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek he left his father-in-law's place and moved to live in the city of Ovruch near Zhitomir, and at times he would also come to Lubavitch. A great many wondrous stories were told about him. He passed away young, at the age of fifty seven, in the month of Kislev 5636.
"f) The Rav the chassid Rabbi Yaakov" with him "Admur" is not written, since he passed away very early and at a young age, still during the lifetime of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek. He lived in Orsha. It is written that he was born between the fifth son, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, and the Rebbe Maharash - according to the various versions in the year 5570, or 5580, or 5583 - and already in 5597 he passed away, when he was about fourteen years old. Even so, he managed to marry, and one son was born to him whose name was Rabbi Yaakov, after the father-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe, who was a teacher in Zhlobin and whose name was Rabbi Yaakov. He is buried in the city of Tulchin.
"g) His honorable holiness Admur the Rav Shmuel", the Rebbe Maharash, about whom we will tell at greater length further on, when we reach the history of the Rebbe Maharash.
"His daughters:
a) The Rebbetzin Rada Freida. Her husband the Rav the chassid the Rav Schneur" who was her cousin. The mother of Rebbetzin Rada (Rode) Freida was a daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe, and her husband's father, Rabbi Nachum, was a son of the Mitteler Rebbe; thus they were first cousins.
In the Rebbe's diary notes it is told that at the wedding of Rada Freida and her husband the Rav Schneur, Admur the Tzemach Tzedek announced in the middle of the wedding that the Alter Rebbe was coming - of course, a long time after his passing - and that everyone should be quiet and should guard themselves from improper thoughts. And at a certain point he said to the chosson: "Bend your head, the Rebbe wants to bless you, the Zeide wants to bless you" - a wondrous thing that took place at their wedding.
"b) The Rebbetzin Devorah Leah. Her husband the Rav the gaon, the Rav the chassid, the Rav Levi Yitzchak" Zalmanson, and his family was from the city of Vitebsk. Not much is told about him, but as we explained earlier, when the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek established a yeshiva in Lubavitch, his son-in-law, the Rav Levi Yitzchak, was appointed to be the director of the yeshiva.
These are the sons and daughters of the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek.