We are at the forty second lesson in Shalsheles HaYachas - the life story of the Rebbe, part 2. We stopped at the description of the Rebbe's travels in his childhood, during the summer, several times and for a number of weeks, to stay with his grandfather and grandmother, where they cared for him.
"Learns with tremendous diligence and succeeds" - the documentation we have about this period, as we related in the previous section, is that the Rebbe's melamed in his childhood was the chassid R' Shneur Zalman Vilenkin, whom the Rebbe's father asked to serve as melamed. Another description comes from one of the children who learned together with the Rebbe, the chassid R' Nachum Goldschmid, who later moved to Eretz Yisrael; in his memoirs he describes the sons of R' Levi Yitzchak, who had an unusual nature of perseverance. The Rebbe was very serious all the time, while the other brothers were at times in a state of extra joy. The melamed continued to teach the Rebbe until about the age of eleven.
At the age of eleven the melamed said that he could no longer teach the Rebbe, claiming that the Rebbe's talents were greater than his own. Then the Rebbe's father brought another melamed, an immense talmid chacham from another city, and the learning took place in the home of the Rebbe's father.
Over the years the Rebbe related at farbrengens many interesting anecdotes from the period of his learning in "cheder". One example the Rebbe told in 5745, regarding the study of Gemara and the rules of how one should learn Gemara. The Rebbe says that at the end of Maseches Berachos the rules of the Talmud are printed, and the Rebbe said that even his melamdim did not learn the rules of study with him; he discovered them for the first time when a Vilna Shas came into his hands, quite a number of years after he had already been learning on his own. The Rebbe said that when he looked into them, he saw that these were not the rules written within the Gemara - when the halachah follows whom in monetary matters or in matters of prohibitions - but rather rules of how to learn. And to our regret, no special attention was given to this back then.
It is told that the second melamed too said, when the Rebbe reached the age of bar mitzvah, that he was unable to teach him; and then the Rebbe's father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, became his melamed. And this is the description brought here in brief: "Under the guidance of his father, the gaon and chassid, the mekubal, Moreinu HaRav Levi Yitzchak, of blessed memory (Av Beis Din of Yekaterinoslav), and in the dawn of his youth he acquires knowledge in all parts of the Torah, nigleh and nistar" - brief words about the Rebbe's tremendous diligence throughout all these years.
Here there is a jump from 5659 until "5678", and there is no description of what happened in the years in between. In 5678 it is written "Stands at his father's right hand" - meaning, the Rebbe helped and assisted his father. There is no lengthy description here, but at least twice at farbrengens, once in 5732 and once in 5739, the Rebbe told about himself that being the firstborn of his father, who was the chief rabbi of Yekaterinoslav, and since he had command of the Russian language, he was called upon to assist his father; many times he was in confrontations with the Yevsektzia, he dealt with them and was not impressed by them, and he simply stood at his father's right hand "and assists him (among other things) in leading the community".
Another point mentioned here: "and in organizing assistance" - he assists his father, among other things, in organizing assistance "for the refugees from Poland who arrive in masses in Yekaterinoslav as a result of the First World War". Many refugees arrived and there was a need to help them, and the Rebbe's father was responsible for everything that was being done, and the Rebbe was his right hand in this matter.
"5682 - Visits Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in Charkov, and likewise in the year 5684". What happened in those years in which the Rebbe visited Charkov and Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim there? As is related, the Rebbe had a brother, R' Berel, who was later murdered in the Holocaust, who needed to go to doctors many times. The doctors were in Charkov, and the Rebbe would travel to accompany his brother to them. While in Charkov he would visit Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim, and the temimim who learned there describe that the Rebbe and his brother would visit the yeshivah and speak with the students in Torah matters. It is described here that he visited several times, both in 5682 and in 5684.
"5683 - Travels to visit Rostov" As we already related in the life story of the Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe Rashab left Lubavitch and moved to Rostov, and so too the previous Rebbe. The year 5683 is three years after the passing of the Rebbe Rashab. In that year the Rebbe traveled to visit Rostov, "where he met for the first time with the Rebbe Rayatz". In the diary written by Rabbi Chadakov it is described what the Rebbe told him: that the first time he visited and met the Rebbe Rayatz was on Sukkos 5683 in Rostov, as is written here.
In that same year, although it is not detailed here, the Rebbe was in Rostov another time, and this was already in connection with the shidduch. As is related, in the summer of that year, 5683, the family of the Rebbe Rayatz left Rostov and traveled for rest to a place called Kislovodsk, and the Rebbe joined them for a certain time. The purpose of the trip was the first meeting with the one designated to be his bride, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, for the sake of the shidduch. The Rebbe Rayatz returned from there to Rostov, and the Rebbe returned together with him, after he had already met with the Rebbetzin, and he remained there several days with the previous Rebbe.
"5684 - Travels to Leningrad, where he is present for the first time at a farbrengen of the Rebbe Rayatz, (who drew him especially close)". On this point there are differences between the sources: here it is written that the first farbrengen at which the Rebbe was present by the Rebbe Rayatz was in Leningrad in 5684, whereas elsewhere it is written that it was indeed in 5684, but not in Leningrad, rather in Rostov. So it is not entirely clear when the first farbrengen was at which the Rebbe was present by the Rebbe Rayatz.
In 5684, where we currently stand, it is written that the Rebbe Rayatz drew the Rebbe especially close, and there is an interesting addition here: "The Rebbe Rayatz brings him into the inner circle of his affairs and his public leadership". The Rebbe Rayatz already brought the Rebbe into the management of various matters connected with leadership, "and places upon him special tasks in various areas" - and among the titles by which they defined the Rebbe, the Rebbe Rayatz called him "defining him among other things as his "minister of education"".
This appears in the memoirs written by Rebbetzin Chana. There it is related that the Rebbe Rayatz immediately recognized the Rebbe's qualities and did not let him leave him, and said that he was appointing him as minister of education. And it is related that there was a professor named Bertshenko, who turned to the previous Rebbe and asked for an explanation of the symbol of the Magen David according to Kabbalah. The Rebbe Rayatz said to him: I will call my minister of education and he will give you an explanation. He called the Rebbe and asked him to come to Leningrad; the Rebbe stayed there three months, and wrote a comprehensive composition of explanations on this subject of the Magen David.
At the conclusion of the section on 5684 it is written that the Rebbe "stands at his right hand especially in his holy battle for the safeguarding of the Jewish people in Soviet Russia". There is no precise detail here, but the Rebbe was involved in these matters and carried out various activities, both open and clandestine.
"The Rebbe Rayatz designates him as a groom for his daughter" - in 5684 it was established that the Rebbe is the intended groom of the previous Rebbe. The wedding itself was later, in 5689, as is related further on, but already then he designates him as a groom. And here he adds an interesting point, why and from where this began: "by the instruction of his father, the Rebbe (Maharashab), of blessed memory" - an instruction of the Rebbe Rashab - that the bride should be "the righteous Rebbetzin Mrs. Chaya Mushka (of blessed memory)". The chassidim relate, and so it appears in the sefer "Lishmoa Ozen" of Rabbi Duchman and in many places, that the Rebbe Rashab said to his Rebbetzin that with regard to this granddaughter, Chaya Mushka, one should think about one of the sons of R' Levi Yitzchak. These words were said years earlier, and following this statement the shidduch of the Rebbe as the son in law of the Rebbe Rayatz came about.