We are at the thirty-second lesson in the Shalsheles HaYachas, in the history of the Rebbe Rayatz, part two. We concluded the description of the year 5662, and from here we will continue on.
"5665 - participates in organizing the fundraising campaign for Pesach needs for the soldiers in the Far East." This was already told in the history of the Rebbe Rashab: in those years the war between Japan and Russia broke out, and Jewish soldiers served at the front in northeastern China, near the Russian border. The Rebbe Rashab was greatly involved in this, and here it is added that the Rebbe Rayatz too was involved in obtaining funds and obtaining matzos to distribute to the Jews at the front. It is also told there that things reached the point where even the Russian government assisted in this effort. A "matzah distribution campaign," then, already existed in those years.
"5666 - travels to Ashkenaz and Holland, and works to have the banks exert their influence to quiet the spirit of the pogroms" - the Rebbe Rayatz traveled to Germany and to Holland. At that time pogroms were breaking out in Russia against a background of antisemitism and hatred of Jews, with the claim that the Jews were taking control of the Russian economy. It is true that large financial institutions were in Jewish hands, since Jews naturally were talented and worked hard, but the matter was presented as though the Jews were robbing all the money, and thus the masses were incited.
The banks in Holland and in Germany had an indirect connection to the Russian economy. Very large Jewish-owned banks operated there, such as Rothschild and the like, which invested a great deal of money in Russia's economic development, and consequently they had an indirect influence through which it was possible to quiet the pogroms. The Rebbe Rayatz traveled to these places in order to meet with the bank directors and to exert influence through them, to help and to save Jews from the pogroms in Russia. Once again we see the Rebbe's efforts to help Jews in every matter, material and spiritual, and on a worldwide scale.
"5668 - participates in the work of the Vilna conference." It is not described here exactly what happened there, but all of this follows from the fact that his father brought him into communal work, and various conferences were held in various areas. "5669 - travels to Ashkenaz," again to Germany, "to meet with communal activists." These were worldwide conferences and gatherings that had ramifications and influence upon the Jewish people in Russia.
"5670 - is involved in preparing the rabbinical conference." Here only a few words are written, but in the year 5670 a very famous conference took place in which the Rebbe Rashab was involved, and in the book of the history of the Rebbe Rashab there is printed a pamphlet that the Rebbe Rashab wrote describing what happened at that conference. The opening is interesting, in which he writes that since many wish to know what took place, and various rumors are circulating, he found it necessary to write down the sequence of events precisely. This was a very important conference, for the Russian authorities sought to introduce all sorts of reforms into Judaism, to interfere in Jewish education and in the Jewish communities and the like. The Rebbe Rashab was a very central figure at that conference, and he influenced the decisions that they should not listen to the Russian authorities and not allow them to introduce changes. This was an existential struggle over the future of Judaism in Russia, and the Rebbe Rayatz also invested a great deal, and was together with his father that year in working for the success of the conference.
"From the year 5662 until 5671 he was arrested four times at various times, in Moscow and Petersburg, on account of the aforementioned work" on behalf of the Jewish people, over the course of nine years. Here it is brought that he was arrested four times, even though in the accounts that the Rebbe Rayatz himself relates elsewhere about those years, three times are mentioned, and one time was not noted. These were not lengthy imprisonments, like the famous arrest, but arrests of a few hours, yet this was the case throughout all those years. Each time there was a different cause: a school of the "Mefitzei HaHaskalah" in Lubavitch, who informed on him and caused the arrest; the Poalei Zion party in Lubavitch; and each time there were different informers, who caused the Rebbe Rayatz to be brought in for interrogations and a sort of arrest. They put him under arrest in order to stop his activity, but of course they did not succeed in anything, and he withstood all of this with great firmness.
"5677 - participates in the work of the rabbinical conference in Moscow." Again it is not detailed here what it was, as we saw earlier regarding the conferences in Petersburg, Vilna and many places. "5678 - participates in the work of the Kharkov conference."
"5680 - accepts the nesius." The Rebbe Rashab passed away on 2 Nissan 5680, and in the will that he left he wrote that his only son, the Rebbe Rayatz, should be appointed to take his place in leading the chassidim. He also wrote a personal note to the Rebbe Rayatz, in which he said: "You shall speak the words of the living G-d before our friends, upon the faithful foundations in the words of our holy Rebbeim, and you shall endeavor to explain the matters to others with good taste and understanding" - and so he wrote to him many times.
The Rebbe Rayatz accepted the nesius upon himself immediately. This found expression in that at the very conclusion of the shivah after his father's passing - the seventh day fell on Shabbos, Shabbos parshas Tzav - the Rebbe Rayatz said on that Shabbos after minchah the first maamar of chassidus, the dibbur hamaschil "Reishis Goyim Amalek" 5680. This was, as chassidim understand it, the Rebbe Rayatz's acceptance of the nesius.
"5681 - organizes communal work for the strengthening of Judaism and Torah in the land of Russia" - this is already a first activity after accepting the nesius, in a more significant manner. In that same year, "and founds the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah in Warsaw." In one letter written by one of the famous chassidim, Rav Elchanan ('Chonye') Morozov, it is written that the yeshivah in Warsaw was established at the suggestion of the Rebbe Rayatz, and that he sent Rav Alter Simchovitz there, who had first been the director of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah in Shchedrin, to direct the yeshivah in Warsaw.
Apparently the Rebbe Rayatz pushed for the establishment of the yeshivah, but not in an official way, and perhaps they did not know that it came from him. For in the Igros Kodesh of the Rebbe Rayatz there appears a letter from that same year, 5681, from 11 Tammuz, which he wrote to the temimim of Tomchei Temimim in Warsaw, and in it the style is: "I received word that the older students founded a yeshivah," and the Rebbe Rayatz encourages them greatly and guides them as to how the conduct of the yeshivah should be. Likewise it is told in the sefer Reshimos in the name of Rav Rivkin, that when the Rebbe Rayatz heard that the yeshivah had indeed been established, he was "in immeasurable amazement and tremendous excitement" - a description of how greatly the Rebbe Rayatz rejoiced at the founding of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah in Warsaw. Up to here, and the continuation will follow with the help of Hashem.