The Lubavitcher Rebbe and the City of Chevron: In Honor of Chag HaGeulah
Rabbi Yosef Hartman, Author of "Leoram Nischanech"
When Chevron, the city of our Forefathers is mentioned, immediately the holy image of the Mittele Rebbe, Rabbi Dovber Schneuri, comes to mind. The holy and revered Mittele Rebbe was the son of the founder of Chabad, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi – author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Oruch that last week on the 10th of Kislev we celebrated the holiday of his redemption.
The Mittele Rebbe had a burning love for Eretz Yisroel in general, and the holy city of Chevron in particular. He was born in on the ninth of Kislev, 5534 (1773).
He devoted himself to improve the situation of Jews in general and Chassidim in particular in both the physical and spiritual realms. He spread the doctrine of Chassidus to Jewish Torah sages and ordinary village dwellers alike.
In the years 5576-7 (1816-7) the Mittele Rebbe founded the Lubavitcher community in Chevron. It was the first Chabad community in Chevron, and indeed in the the Holy Land.
Rabbi Dovber bought at full price the "small synagogue" behind the Avraham Avinu synagogue, and instructed all his followers, even the poorest, to buy four cubits of land in Chevron. The Rebbe explained this instruction according to the words of the Radbaz: "anyone who owns a parcel of land in Chevron – will be saved from 'the beating of the grave'". This synagogue served the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim of Chevron up until the terrible riots and massacre in the city. Today the shul has been restored and renovated by the Chabad House in Chevron, headed by Shliach Rabbi Danny Cohen.
"You will merit to go to Chevron"
On the very day that Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the Alter Rebbe, was released from prison, the 19th of Kislev, 5559, a daughter was born to his son, Rabbi Dovber, the Mittele Rebbe. When he was informed about the birth of his new granddaughter, the Alter Rebbe asked to name her "Menucha Rochel" saying: "From now on we will have menucha (rest)".
Rebbetzin Menucha Rochel was very ill in childhood, and the doctors despaired of her life. Family members ran quickly to ask for a blessing from her father. He replied: "whisper in her ear: you will merit to go to Chevron ..." Indeed, immediately afterwards, she was cured. In the year 5605 she merited to settle in Chevron with her husband, the Rav and Chossid Rabbi Yaakov Kuli Slonim , z"l.
In the year 5886 the Mittele Rebbe was denunciated to the Czarist government by a fellow Jew, and was arrested. One of the charges was for sending money to Eretz Yisroel, thereby supporting the Turkish Sultan, a then enemy of the Russian Czar. It was a very similar to the charge brought against his revered father, the Alter Rebbe, years before.
On the tenth of Kislev he was released from prison, to the delight of tens of thousands of his devoted followers. One year later, on his birthday, the ninth of Kislev, he passed away, at the young age of exactly 54 years. The Mittele Rebbe was laid to eternal rest in the city of Niezhin, Ukraine.
|
|
