We are at the fifty-first lesson on the chain of lineage in the Rebbe's history, part eleven. We have reached the year 5706.
It is written here in one modest, unassuming line: "5706 - publishes a Haggadah shel Pesach with likutei minhagim v'taamim (a collection of customs and reasons) gathered by him". Every talmid chacham and everyone who understands the matter, upon reading this Haggadah, comes away astounded by the power of the likutei minhagim v'taamim that the Rebbe compiled on the Haggadah shel Pesach.
Rav Zevin defined it in his own words, and this is part of what he wrote: "With extreme brevity, we are given, for every paragraph, every sentence and every phrase of the Haggadah, the sources in the Rishonim and the poskim, together with the essence of the laws and customs pertaining to that point in the Seder" - that is, on the Seder night - "along with fitting commentaries gathered from a choice selection of the Rishonim and Acharonim, and of course there are novel insights and reasons of the author himself", meaning of the Rebbe himself.
And someone who wrote a different review of the Haggadah wrote that it is hard to understand how such an immense wealth of erudition fit into a slim booklet of forty-seven pages, when most of the pages are the body of the Haggadah itself and only a small part is the words of the compiler and editor - and even so, there are tremendous novel insights there.
It is evident that the Rebbe named his work following the way of the Alter Rebbe: the Alter Rebbe wrote the Tanya and called it "Likutei Amarim", in the language of one who gathers, and the Rebbe called the Haggadah "Likutei Minhagim v'Taamim", in that very same language.
Seven sections in the commentary on the Haggadah:
Although the commentary is not divided into sections, one who studies it finds in it seven types of material:
Sources for the passages recited in the Haggadah, and the order of how those passages developed over the generations.
The laws of the Seder night, in the most concise form.
Reasons and sources for those laws and those customs.
Questions that arise on the text of the Haggadah, with an answer and explanation for each one of them.
An explanation of the Chabad customs for the Seder night.
The reasons and sources for the Chabad customs in the ways they differ from other customs.
An explanation of the Alter Rebbe's directives that appear within the Haggadah, and the sources for every detail.
A truly wonderfully comprehensive work, and all of it written in abridged, condensed form. This the Rebbe disseminated in the year 5706.
It is written here: "5707 - travels to Paris (on 25 Adar) to meet his mother, the Rebbetzin Marat Chana, may she rest in peace, and stays there about two months". It says here about three months, but the Rebbe was in Paris for more than three months, since he traveled on 25 Adar and returned to New York on 28 Sivan.
This took place after the Rebbe had not seen his mother for more than twenty years, and now his mother had left Russia. The Rebbe traveled especially to greet her, and he was with her there close to seven months, and afterwards they returned together to the United States, and the Rebbe's mother lived near him all those years. There are many accounts of the tremendous efforts made by the Rebbe Rayatz to get the Rebbe's mother out of Russia, and it succeeded.
And further on in that same year 5707: "On 28 Sivan he returns to New York together with his mother. During his stay in Paris he holds farbrengens with Anash and arouses them regarding the giving of dmei maamad and regarding hiskashrus to his holiness the Rebbe Maharayatz".
During those months that the Rebbe was in Paris he met with various figures and farbrenged with the chassidim. One of the farbrengens took place on his birthday, 11 Nissan. Only then did it become known for the first time that this was the Rebbe's birthday, for beforehand they did not know it; it was the Rebbe's mother who revealed it to the chassidim, and she told them to ask the Rebbe to farbreng, and of course he agreed. That was the first time the Rebbe farbrenged with the chassidim on 11 Nissan.
At these farbrengens, as noted here, the Rebbe aroused the chassidim regarding the giving of "dmei maamad" - money that chassidim would send personally to the Rebbe, for his personal needs. At those farbrengens in Paris the Rebbe said that chassidim wanted to be connected with the Rebbe in material matters as well: not only through studying his Torah and fulfilling his directives, but that they should have a share in the Rebbe's personal material expenses - and this is the matter of "maamad".
That farbrengen aroused the chassidim anew regarding this matter. It is told that at that farbrengen the Rebbe said "and I am the one who begins", and took a bill out of his pocket and placed it on the table, and with that he aroused everyone to give dmei maamad.
I will describe one more farbrengen that took place in France just before the Rebbe left the country, at which he farbrenged with the chassidim and took leave of them. The farbrengen took place in the home of the chassid Reb Shneur Zalman Butman, and the Rebbe farbrenged in his home an entire night. At first many people were present, and not necessarily chassidim, but many who had come to know the Rebbe during this period and came to take leave of him. Toward midnight, all those who were less connected slowly left, and only the hard core of the chassidim remained.
And then something astonishing happened: the Rebbe asked each one of those present what his name was, and began to speak about each and every one - what the meaning of his name is, and how his name is connected to his personality - and so he went one by one, and explained this to each one according to nigleh, according to Kabbalah and according to chassidus. This was the way of the Rebbe's father, who would find the connections in details and in names.
So it was on that night. They wrote that after the Rebbe finished the round of the ordinary names, he moved on to nicknames: sometimes a person is called by a certain name, but his nickname among his friends is different, with some inflection or alteration, and the Rebbe began to explain the nicknames as well. A night in which the Rebbe revealed, on the one hand, tremendous erudition, and on the other hand, things that were like words of prophecy, tailored to each and every one - what his purpose is and what his essence is. This was the Rebbe's parting from the chassidim in France.