# 368 (s5765-11/ 11 Kislev 5765)

The Brother, the Son and the Nephew

The two Chabad chasidim also wanted to receive wine from the Ruzhiner Rebbe's hand.

The Brother, the Son and the Nephew

When the second Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Dov Ber (known as the "Mitteler Rebbe") passed away, there were three prospective successors. Though all three were immensely qualified for the leadership of the Chabad movement, all three unanimously declined all the importuning of the Chasidim.

These three were: Rabbi Chaim Avraham, the brother of Rabbi Dov Ber and youngest son of the first Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman (known as the Alter Rebbe); Rabbi Menachem Nachum, the Mitteler Rebbe's son; and the Tzemach Tzedek, the son of the Alter Rebbe's eldest daughter and one of the Mittler Rebbe's sons-in-law.

As time passed, the pressure among the Chasidim to find a successor escalated, yet it seemed that no solution was in sight. Two Chasidim, despairing of a solution being found, declared, "It is impossible to be without a Rebbe!" They decided to travel to Ruzhin with the intention of accepting the Ruzhiner Rebbe as their Rebbe.

Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin was the grandson of the Mezritcher Maggid, and so highly thought of for his enormous piety and divine inspiration that he was called the "Holy Ruzhiner."

These two Chasidim traveled to Ruzhin for Shavuot. As was the custom there, (as well as among many other Chasidim,) the Ruzhiner distributed shirayim -- food from his table -- to his Chasidim. It was Yom Tov and the Ruzhiner began to distribute wine from his own kiddush cup to each of the Chasidim.

The two Chabad Chasidim also wanted to participate and receive wine from the Ruzhiner and they proffered their cups for the "wine of blessing."
The Ruzhiner, however, refused them, saying, "If you want some wine, you may take it yourself, but I will not give it to you."

The two were very surprised and protested, "Why won't you give it to us, after all we have come here in order to accept you as our Rebbe?"

Upon hearing those words, the Ruzhiner sat down at the table and began to deliver a deep Chasidic discourse based on the theme, "The Giving of the Torah began, not at Mount Sinai, but at the burning bush." He explained in great depth that when G-d gave Moshe the task of taking the Children of Israel out of Egypt, G-d told Moshe to "tell the Jews that I have remembered you and want to take you out of Egypt."

Moshe's reaction was strange. He replied that he was afraid the Jews would ask him what is G-d's name. To this G-d replied, "Tell them My Name is, 'I will be what I will be.' "

The Ruzhiner posed the question, "Why did Moshe ask this question of G-d? For Moshe did know G-d's name, as he had been handed down a tradition that the four-letter name was spelled with a Yud and a Hei and a Vav and again Hei. And why did G-d answer, 'I will be what I will be'?"

The Ruzhiner elucidated the point through the use of numerical equivalents which are often used to explicate texts. He explained that the numerical equivalent of the tetragrammaton is 26, while that of the words "I will be what I will be" equals 441*** which is "emet" -- truth. G-d desired that Moshe be able to reveal to the Jews the truth.

"The word 'emet'," continued the Rebbe, "is also an acronym for, "Torat Menachem Emet" ["the Torah of Menachem is truth"].

When the two Chabad Chasidim heard these words being spoken by the Holy Ruzhiner, they realized that he was intimating that they should return home to the city of Lubavitch and that the Tzemach Tzedek, whose name was Menachem Mendel, should become Rebbe.

Upon arriving in Lubavitch two weeks later, the Tzemach Tzedek had already acquiesced. The returning Chasidim repeated to their fellows the discourse they had heard from the mouth of the Holy Ruzhiner in regard to the word "emet" intimating that the Tzemach Tzedek should be the Rebbe.

The Chasidim recalled with amazement that the Tzemach Tzedek had delivered the same discourse that very same Shavuot, but when he reached the part which identified the acronym of emet with his name, Menachem, he hadn't said it. Instead, he had merely hesitated and smiled to himself. Now, they all understood why he had smiled.

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[Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from the rendition on www.lchaimweekly.org (#419).]

***Editor's note:
The Hebrew word for "I will be" has a numerical value of 21. "I will be" twice, squared, 21 x 21, equals 441.

Biographical note:
Rabbi Dov Ber Shneuri [9 Kislev 1773 - 9 Kislev 1827] was the eldest son and successor to Rabbi Shneur Zalman, founder of the Chabad movement. The author of numerous deep, mystical texts, he is known in Lubavitch circles as "the Mittler (Middle) Rebbe."

Rabbi Yisrael Friedmann of Ruzhin [1797 - 3 Cheshvan 1850] was a great-grandson of the Maggid of Mezritch. At a young age was already a charismatic leader with a large following of chassidim. Greatly respected by the other rebbes and Jewish leaders of his generation, he was -and still is-referred to as "The Holy Ruzhiner." Six of his sons established Chassidic dynasties, several of which -Sadigora, Chortkov, etc- are still thriving today.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn [1789-1866], the third Rebbe of Chabad, was known as the Tzemach Tzedek, after his books of Halachic responsa and Talmudic commentary called by that name. He was renowned not only as a Rebbe, but also as a leading scholar in his generation in both the revealed and hidden aspects of Torah.

Yrachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and editor of Ascent Quarterly and the AscentOfSafed.com and KabbalaOnline.org websites. He has hundreds of published stories to his credit.