In the forty-fifth lesson on Shalsheles HaYachas we come to the story of the Rebbe's life, part five. We began the year 5689 and its first sentence, and today we will deal with everything connected to the Rebbe's wedding, which begins here in Shalsheles HaYachas from 3 Kislev.
The shidduch between the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin had already been discussed some four or five years before the date of the wedding, before Kislev 5689, but the actual tenaim were held only at the beginning of Kislev, right before the wedding. Shalsheles HaYachas states that this was on "3 Kislev", but in fact this needs to be corrected: it took place on 6 Kislev.
The tenaim were held with only a small gathering present. The Rebbe once related this, and said that even fewer than a minyan took part. The witnesses at the tenaim were the chassid R' Mordechai Chefetz and the chassid R' Chatshe Feigin.
As mentioned, the shidduch began several years earlier, but the date of the wedding was not set for a long time. And why did the matter take so long?
Leaving Russia: at first they waited until they would leave Russia.
Financial difficulties: even after they left Russia there were still financial difficulties, and there was no money for a wedding; and they waited until it would become possible.
Waiting for the Rebbe's parents: even after everything was already ready, they waited longer, in case the Russian government would grant the Rebbe's parents, Rav Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana, permission to leave Russia for the wedding. In practice they were not given permission, and the wedding took place without the Rebbe's parents being present.
And in the language of Shalsheles HaYachas: "3 Kislev - entered into tenaim with the Rebbetzin the tzaddekes Marat Chaya Mushka (may she rest in peace, may her merit protect us)". By the time these words were printed, it was already after the passing of the Rebbetzin, may she rest in peace, may her merit protect us.
The next detail is "12 Kislev", Sunday of the week: "travels (together with his father-in-law and his family) to Warsaw". On that day the Rebbe Rayatz and his family traveled together with the chassan - the Rebbe - by train from Riga to Warsaw, since the wedding actually took place in Warsaw. And as is described, thousands of Jews came to the train station in Riga to take leave of the Rebbe Rayatz, of the chassan and of the family who were traveling to the wedding.
"On 14 Kislev he married the daughter of his holiness the Rebbe Maharayatz, the Rebbetzin the tzaddekes Marat Chaya Mushka, may she rest in peace, may her memory be a blessing". The wedding was held on Tuesday of the week, 14 Kislev.
There are many fascinating and interesting details surrounding the wedding. A fascinating diary was written by the chassid Reb Eliyahu Chaim Althaus, who also served as the constant attendant of the chassan, the Rebbe, throughout all the days before the wedding, and he describes in a vivid style everything that happened around the wedding and at the wedding itself. It is very fascinating to read his diary; we will not read all of it, but only a few points.
As mentioned, the Rebbe's parents were not at the wedding, and they were in Yekaterinoslav. There is a whole account in which Rebbetzin Chana describes how they celebrated the wedding in Yekaterinoslav at the time the Rebbe was getting married in Warsaw, and how all the people from the area came there - a fascinating account of this matter.
And one interesting point: many people around the world sent telegrams of mazal tov to the Rebbe's parents on the day of the wedding. The postal regulations in Russia, and in that period especially, were very restrictive - a limitation of the hours during which telegrams could be received, a prohibition against receiving telegrams in Lashon HaKodesh but only in a foreign language, and all sorts of restrictions. But on that day, 14 Kislev, an interesting change occurred:
The postal clerks worked with special service beyond the usual.
Exceptional permission was granted to receive telegrams in Lashon HaKodesh on that day.
An instruction was received that on this day the telegrams would not pass through censorship, but would be delivered directly.
Something entirely unnatural; and so, in honor of the day of the Rebbe's wedding, all the telegrams to the Rebbe's parents in Leningrad were received.
I will also note a few technical and interesting details surrounding the wedding. A month before the wedding, when it was already known that the Rebbe's parents would not be arriving, the question of the unterfirers arose. At every wedding there are unterfirers who escort from the side of the chassan and from the side of the kallah; from the kallah's side were the Rebbe Rayatz and the Rebbetzin, but who would there be from the side of the chassan, whose parents were not present? A month earlier the Rebbe Rayatz asked his uncle and aunt - the daughter of the Rebbe Maharash, who was the sister of the Rebbe Rashab, and the son-in-law of the Rebbe Maharash - Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka and Rav Moshe HaKohen Ornstein, to be the unterfirers on the Rebbe's side.
In the diary of Rav Althaus it is described that on the day of the wedding itself in Warsaw they seated the chassan, the Rebbe, at the head of the table. The Rebbe did not want this, since the Rebbe Rayatz was there, but despite his wish they seated him at the head of the table. To his right sat the Rebbe Rayatz, and to his left sat the father-in-law of the Rebbe Rayatz, Rav Avraham Schneerson, the grandfather of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. Around the table sat many guests, among them various Rebbes who were in Warsaw, Poland, in those years.
In the diaries an interesting point is noted, which is brought in several places: the Rebbe Rayatz sat at the wedding wearing a shtreimel. And what is unique about this note? As an aside: the Rebbe Rashab and the Rebbe Rayatz would wear a shtreimel only on Shabbosos and festivals, and only when they were actually in Lubavitch; whenever they traveled out of Lubavitch, even on Shabbosos and festivals they would not wear a shtreimel. And from the time they left Lubavitch entirely - the Rebbe Rashab left already in 5676 and moved to Rostov - he did not wear a shtreimel at all; and the Rebbe Rayatz too, from the time he accepted the nesius, did not wear a shtreimel.
On the day of the Rebbe's wedding the Rebbe Rayatz returned to a shtreimel - the shtreimel of the Rebbe Maharash, which he took on the day of the wedding. From then on the Rebbe Rayatz returned to the shtreimel, until 10 Shevat, and every Shabbos and festival he would wear it, and the beginning was on the day of the wedding. And there is an interesting account that the Rebbe Rayatz relates, that his father came to him after his passing to tell him that there is a special power and a special mazal tov upon the shtreimel that he began to wear from the time of the Rebbe's wedding.
The one who officiated at the kiddushin at the wedding was the Rebbe Rayatz, and the kesubah was read at the chuppah by the Rebbe of Radzin. The witnesses on the original kesubah were the chassid Reb Eli' Simpson and the chassid Reb Menachem Mendel Kuperstoch. But there was a story with the kesubah: the kesubah was lost after the Rebbe's wedding, and therefore some time later a new kesubah had to be written - called a "kesubah d'arkesa", for when a person loses his kesubah a special kesubah is made, and it contains a special text about the replacement of the lost kesubah. And then, of course, there were new witnesses on the new kesubah: Rav Chatshe Feigin, mentioned above as a witness at the tenaim, and R' Eliyahu Chaim Althaus, whom we mentioned wrote the diary - he was the witness on the Rebbe's second kesubah.
"On the day of the wedding he met" - the Rebbe - "with the Rav HaGaon Reb Menachem Zemba, may Hashem avenge his blood". Reb Menachem Zemba was a Jew who was among the most prominent Gur chassidim, and among the most famous Torah giants of that generation, and the leader of Polish Jewry before the Holocaust. He was at the Rebbe's wedding, and the Rebbe met with him. "And with the Rav HaGaon Reb Meir Shapiro, of blessed memory" - the head of the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva and its founder, also known as the founder of the Daf Yomi enactment; he too was at the Rebbe's wedding, "and several other of the great ones of Israel".
The account here is rather abbreviated, and as mentioned one can read many interesting details in the diary. We will read a few more lines: "On Thursday, 16 Kislev" - in the middle of the days of sheva brachos - "they return to Riga". The sheva brachos were held in Warsaw on 14 and 15 Kislev, which were Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Thursday they already returned to Riga, and the continuation of the sheva brachos was in Riga.
"After his wedding his holiness the Rebbe, his father-in-law, charges him to farbreng from time to time" - with the chassidim, "on Shabbos Kodesh Mevorchim HaChodesh, and on yomei d'pagra", special days, that the Rebbe should farbreng with the chassidim - "and to convey before them his words of inspiration toward fear of Heaven and the service of Hashem in the way of chassidus".
And further authorities that the Rebbe Rayatz gave to the Rebbe immediately after the wedding: "likewise his holiness the Rebbe, his father-in-law, refers to him those who ask questions in matters of halachah, Kabbalah and chassidus" - the Rebbe Rayatz would refer the questioners to him, that he should answer them. "And charges him with special tasks in matters of the leadership of the chassidim and of the community" - from the wedding onward the Rebbe Rayatz brought the Rebbe, little by little, into the communal work connected with the leadership of the chassidim.