We are at the twenty-ninth lesson in the chain of the generations, in the third part concerning the Rebbe Rashab.
"5664-5665 - founds committees to send matzah to the Jewish soldiers in the Far East." These were the years of the war between Japan and Russia, and the Rebbe Rashab was occupied with sending matzos to the Jewish soldiers stationed at the front - in Shanghai, in Dairen and in Harbin, in northeastern China, near the Russian border. At that time the Rebbe Rashab was in France, and there lived a very wealthy Jew, a philanthropist and successful businessman, Baron Gunzburg. Even though there were differences of opinion between them - for on many occasions the Rashab opposed the Haskalah studies of the maskilim, which Baron Gunzburg supported, and there was no close relationship between them - the Rebbe Rashab traveled to him in order to influence him to make efforts to obtain a permit to send the matzos to the Jewish soldiers.
It is told that the Baron said to the Rebbe: "Jews have a solution, there is Pesach Sheni; if we do not succeed now, there is Pesach Sheni." The Rebbe answered him that at the front there are no barons - at the front there are simple Jews, who know nothing of clever calculations, and they need matzos for Pesach. In the end the Russian government also agreed and even assisted in the matter; the matzos arrived on time and in proper fashion, and everything turned out well. This is the effort mentioned here in brief.
"5666 - works in Petersburg to quell the pogroms, and succeeds." A year earlier, in 5665, a large rabbinical assembly took place in Vilna, and the government ruled that rabbis and teachers would have to undergo training in secular studies. The Rebbe Rashab opposed this with great force and expressed himself sharply: "Come what may, it will not happen and will not come to pass." The government was very angry, and even arrested the Rebbe during that period. The government's response to this came the following year, 5666, in whose winter pogroms broke out against the Jews - against the background of a sort of rebellion against the monarchy that had taken place a year earlier. The Rebbe made great efforts in the matter, spoke with the communal activists about how to stop the pogroms, and at the end of the month of Teves he traveled to Vitebsk, to Moscow and to Petersburg, and took part in a secret assembly that was held in Moscow. And here it is written that the Rebbe succeeded in quelling the pogroms.
"5667 - "draws up a detailed plan called 'Hisagdus HaYereim,' and transmits it through Rav Breuer and the rav, the sage, a God-fearing man, moreinu HaRav Yaakov Rosenheim." That year the Rebbe Rashab was in Germany, in the city of Würzburg, for almost the entire year - from Cheshvan until close to Rosh Hashanah - and in the middle of the year he came to Lubavitch for just a few weeks and returned there. The official reason for this lengthy stay was his state of health: he had difficulty breathing, and therefore he traveled to Würzburg to be examined by great professors and to treat the problem. At a certain stage the Rebbe Rayatz joined him as well.
But the Rebbe made use of his stay in Würzburg to act in several areas, chief among them strengthening Judaism in Germany. At that time he met with the two men mentioned here: Rav Breuer, a communal activist, author and thinker, the grandson of Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch, who was a great activist in Germany; and Rav Yaakov Rosenheim, also one of the leading activists in Germany and the founder of Agudas Yisrael. Through them the Rebbe Rashab worked to draw up a plan to assist and help Jews.
"5668 - participates in the assembly of communal activists in Germany, in the city of Berlin." At the end of that summer, at the end of the month of Sivan, the Rebbe traveled to Berlin and to a place called Marienbad, this too for medical purposes - to undergo examinations by several professors, and because of the healing springs to which the professors had recommended he travel. On his way back to Lubavitch he stopped over in Berlin and met with the rabbis of Germany, in order to discuss the situation of the Jews in that place.
"5669 - at the Katowice assembly, announces that he is withdrawing from Agudas Yisrael." The Rebbe Rashab was at first among those who established and founded Agudas Yisrael, but in the end he withdrew from it out of concern. As appears in his letters, the committee of Agudas Yisrael joined together with the Zionists, and they had no discernment as to whom to admit and whom not to; out of concern for the lack of order in this, he announced his withdrawal.
"5671 - founds Yeshivas Toras Emes in the city of Chevron, may it be built and established." The Rebbe Rashab sent a group of students from the yeshivah in Lubavitch, headed by Rav Shlomo Zalman Havlin, to found a yeshivah in the spirit of Tomchei Temimim, and they founded it in Chevron. At first a group of seven students arrived, among them well-known figures such as Rav Alter Simchovitch and Rav Chatshe Feigin; the seven students who traveled there brought in several locals as well, and thus Yeshivas Toras Emes in Chevron was founded. Later the yeshivah moved to Yerushalayim, but its founding is recorded here in the year 5671.
"5676 - 17 Marcheshvan - leaves Lubavitch and moves his residence to the city of Rostov on the Don River." During the period of the First World War, when the German army drew near to Smolensk - already close to the Lubavitch region - the Rebbe Rashab decided to leave Lubavitch. Our Rebbeim had dwelt in Lubavitch for more than a hundred years, a hundred and two years, from the Mitteler Rebbe until the Rebbe Rashab, who decided to leave. At the start of the journey there was still no plan as to where they were headed, but then a request arrived from the Jewish community in Rostov, asking that the Rebbe come to them and that all expenses be covered by the community. The Rebbe responded to their request, and the center of Chabad moved to Rostov.
As is known, the concept "Lubavitch went into ten exiles" appears in the Rebbe's sichos, and there is a list of the ten exiles and where they went from Lubavitch. The first place mentioned is Rostov, and it is written "Rostov on the Don River" - the Don River was one of the very large rivers of western Russia, and its mouth was near Rostov, and therefore Rostov is mentioned by its name.
"End of 5676 - founds the yeshivos in the land of Georgia." Rostov was, on the one hand, the first exile from Lubavitch, and on the other hand this is noted as the year in which the revival of Georgian Jewry began. Rostov is situated geographically relatively close to Georgia, and in those days there were tens of thousands of Jews in Georgia; but most of the masses were not Torah scholars - although the Jews of Georgia, even the masses among them, were greatly distinguished in their fear of Heaven, there were not many Torah scholars among them.
A delegation of the community's dignitaries from Georgia came to the Rebbe Rashab in Rostov, and asked that he send them rabbis who would teach the people, teach them Chabad chassidus and strengthen Judaism in Georgia. And indeed the Rebbe sent the first permanent shliach to Georgia, Rav Shmuel Levitin, who traveled to Kutaisi, and there the revival of Georgian Jewry began - as detailed here, that he founded the yeshivos in the land of Georgia.
"5677 - makes efforts and succeeds in having a legal exemption from army service granted to two thousand three hundred eighty-two guardians of the holy watch: rabbis, shochtim and bodkim, chazzanim, etc." Already earlier, in the summer of 5676, the Rebbe made efforts that all the rabbis, shochtim, bodkim, chazzanim and the like should receive an exemption from army service, and he worked on behalf of such a large number - over two thousand - that they should have an exemption from army service on account of their spiritual work.
"On Motzaei Shabbos Kodesh Vayikra, the night of Sunday, 2 Nissan, in the year 5680, at half past the third hour" - that is, at four thirty in the morning - "he passed away, and his resting place of honor is in the city of Rostov on the Don River."
The passing of the Rebbe Rashab and of the Alter Rebbe both took place on Motzaei Shabbos. There is an interesting explanation of the Rebbe on this matter: even though the Gemara says that one who passes away on the eve of Shabbos - it is a good sign for him, and one who passes away on Motzaei Shabbos - it is a bad sign for him, nevertheless the Alter Rebbe and the Rebbe Rashab passed away specifically on Motzaei Shabbos. The Rebbe explains that if one looks at the person himself, at what is good for him on a personal level - it is a good sign for him on Friday and not on Motzaei Shabbos; but the nesi'im of Israel, their main concern is to look after the Jewish people and the community as a whole. And it is known that at the time of a tzaddik's passing a great time of favor descends upon the entire Jewish people, and therefore they chose that their passing should be specifically on Motzaei Shabbos, with the beginning of the weekdays, when Jews need an added infusion of strength, the "Fear not, My servant Yaakov." They gave up their personal benefit, so long as there would be help and assistance for the Jewish people as a whole.
Also well known is the famous saying that the Rebbe Rashab said before his passing: "I am going up to Heaven, and the writings" - meaning the maamarim - "I am leaving for you." That is, that he placed himself within the writings of his maamarim, from which we can receive his light.
And it is interesting, and perhaps not many know this, that the Rebbe Rashab was buried in a certain place in the Jewish cemetery, and some twenty years later he was transferred from his place of burial to another place in Rostov - because the communist regime sought to destroy the entire cemetery there. There is an interesting account of how a number of chassidim, whose names are known, were involved in transferring the Rebbe's holy body to another place in Rostov, to the place where he is today - which is the second place, and not the original place. This is the life story of the Rebbe Rashab.