This evening, the 9th of Kislev, marks the 252nd anniversary of the birth and the 198th anniversary of the passing of the Second Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Dovber, also known as the Mitteler Rebbe, the “Middle Rebbe.” On Sunday, the 10th of Kislev, the 199th anniversary of his Liberation from the tsarist prison is observed. Miracles and signs accompanied him throughout his life.
His father, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad movement, known as the Alter Rebbe, and his wife, Rebbetzin Sterna, had no sons for fourteen years, which caused them great sorrow. On the eve of his own passing from this world, the great tzaddik and disseminator of Chassidic teachings, the Maggid of Mezeritch, a disciple and successor of the Baal Shem Tov, summoned the Alter Rebbe. He informed him that a son would soon be born to him and commanded that the child be given his name. A year later, a boy was born to the Alter Rebbe and was given the name Dovber.
It was the Mitteler Rebbe who was destined to establish the capital of Chabad in Lubavitch. Although, after the passing of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Dovber lived for some time in Kremenchug. Then, as if yielding to the insistence of the Belarusian Chassidim, he set out for Lubavitch. On the site of a fire where the house once stood in which the Alter Rebbe had studied with Issachar Dov, he established his residence and blessed the town as the capital of Chassidut and the dwelling place of the leaders of Chabad.
Rebbe Rayatz explained the reason why such an unassuming shtetl as Lubavitch received this status: “Lubavitch was not chosen by chance to occupy such a significant place in the lives of the hidden tzaddikim, and later in the lives of the Rebbeim and Chassidim of Chabad. For spiritual people, Lubavitch, due to its special geographical location, was a place uniquely suited to separate from the external world and devote themselves completely to Torah and Service to the Almighty, or to begin a new life based on the traditional, pure foundation of the Torah.” For over a century from that day, Lubavitch was the residence of four generations of Chabad leaders, and the movement itself became known as Lubavitch, as did the head of Chabad.
The Mitteler Rebbe established a special committee responsible for restoring the Jewish communities of Belarus that suffered from the war of 1812; he secured from the tsarist government the allocation of land plots in the Kherson province and founded Jewish agricultural settlements on them, including the famous colony “Nagar Tov” on the Dobraya River (now the urban-type settlement of Bereznehuvate in the Mykolaiv region) and many others.
The Mitteler Rebbe also established the first Lubavitch settlement in Eretz Israel, in the city of Hebron. The Rebbe traveled extensively, visiting even remote Jewish villages, actively collecting funds for Jews in need in the Holy Land. Precisely this aid, directed to Eretz Israel, served as the formal pretext for the Rebbe’s arrest by the tsarist authorities. He was accused of transferring money to an enemy of Russia – the Ottoman Empire, which formally ruled Eretz Israel at that time. Informers even forged a letter from the Rebbe, and based on this, he was imprisoned. However, the Mitteler Rebbe refuted all the charges, proving their complete groundlessness, and was freed on the 10th of Kislev 1826, the day after his 53rd birthday.
The Rebbe foresaw that the following year, 5588, would be a year of great persecution and unfavorable decrees for Jews. For instance, the decree “On Cantonists” was announced, involving the conscription of Jewish children into the tsarist army with the aim of estranging them from Judaism, along with other anti-Jewish government regulations. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in 5588, the Mitteler Rebbe went to Hadiach to pray at the ohel of his father, the Alter Rebbe. He was accompanied by thousands of Chassidim, and the Mitteler Rebbe told them: “I have prevailed upon my father to release me from the position of Rebbe.” The Chassidim thought he intended to travel to Eretz Israel and murmured that he was leaving them like sheep without a shepherd. The Mitteler Rebbe answered them: “My son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, is with you, and he will be a faithful shepherd to you.”
Immediately after the holidays of the month of Tishrei, the Rebbe became seriously ill. Starting his journey from Hadiach to Lubavitch, he only reached the town of Nizhyn, where his progressing illness confined him to bed. The most prominent doctors could not alleviate his suffering, but the Rebbe urged the Chassidim not to despair and to be joyful, for the world is in distress, and joy mitigates judgment. On his 54th birthday, the Rebbe repeatedly lost consciousness, and in the evening, having instructed that he be dressed entirely in white, he began speaking to the Chassidim, explaining to them the verse “Walk after Hashem.” Before dawn, he concluded his discourse with the words: “For with You is the source of life; by Your light do we see light,” and uttering them, the Mitteler Rebbe departed the material world.
His son-in-law, the Tzemach Tzedek, said: “Such a departure from the world we have not found since the day of the departure of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi), who departed in the middle of uttering Torah.” On that same day, he was buried in the city of Nizhyn, and the first anniversary of his liberation – the 10th of Kislev, which the Chassidim had prepared to celebrate with great joy, became a day of profound mourning for the entire Jewish people.
In the photo – the Ohel of the Mitteler Rebbe in the city of Nizhyn, Chernihiv region.
