the rebbe's - Beis Moshiach

14 KISLEV
8
SATISFIED WITH
THE SHIDDUCH
What was the dowry that the Rebbe Maharash
received? Why wasn’t the Rebbe Maharash
present at the wedding of his son, the Rebbe
Rashab? How old was the Rebbe Rashab when
his shidduch was made? Why did the Rebbe
Rashab stop in the middle of the maamer at his
only child’s wedding? What did Rabbi Meir
Shapiro say after he spoke with the Rebbe
MH”M at his wedding? * Wedding tidbits to
mark Yud-Dalet Kislev, the anniversary of the
Rebbe and Rebbetzin.
HE DOESN’T KNOW THE
CHASSAN EITHER
The Rebbe Maharash’s wedding
meal was celebrated with great joy on
Friday, Erev Shabbos Parshas Naso 8
Sivan 5608 (1848), when he was
fourteen years old. During the meal, R’
Hillel Paritcher turned to the kalla’s
father, Rabbi Chaim Shneur Zalman
(son of the Tzemach Tzedek) and said,
“You are doing a shidduch with a
mechutan you don’t know!” (Even
though the father of the groom was his
own father, the Tzemach Tzedek, R’
Hillel meant that R’ C.S.Z. did not
truly know his own father’s greatness.)
Even though the Tzemach Tzedek
was sitting some distance away, he
BEIS MOSHIACH - 15 Kislev 5766
heard what R’ Hillel said to his son and
said, “He doesn’t know the chassan
either.”
During the week of Sheva Brachos,
the kalla fell sick and passed away
three months later. In order to console
the chassan, his father, the Tzemach
Tzedek said a room should be given to
the chassan near his own room, so that
whenever he (the chassan) wanted, he
could enter his father’s holy room.
That is what they did, and when
the Rebbe Maharash went in to see his
father, his father showed him holy and
wondrous manuscripts, including
those he did not show his other sons.
(Seifer HaToldos Admur Maharash)
SECOND MARRIAGE
The Rebbe Maharash’s second
shidduch was made a year later and
this is how it came about:
Once, Rebbetzin Shayna, wife of
the Mitteler Rebbe, suggested to her
son-in-law, the Tzemach Tzedek, that
the Rebbe Maharash marry one of her
two orphan granddaughters, Gittel and
Rivka, daughters of her daughter Sarah
and son-in-law R’ Aharon of Shklov
(both of whom did not live long).
The Tzemach Tzedek replied: They
are suggesting a shidduch from the
town of Liepli with a dowry of 20,000
rubles. What kind of dowry will the
chassan receive with your suggestion?
Said the Rebbetzin: It says, “eshes
chaver k’chaver” (the wife of a Torah
scholar is like him) – I give the
chassan forty years of eshes chaver!
The Tzemach Tzedek agreed to her
suggestion and chose the younger
sister, Rivka. The older sister Gittel
forgave her younger sister and gave her
consent to her marrying first. The
Tzemach Tzedek took care of her too
and later on chose a good chassan for
her from Niezhen.
During the meal made at the
tenaim, the sister, Gittel, asked leave to
say something. When the Tzemach
Tzedek agreed, she said: The simple
meaning of the statement, “nashim
daatan kalla” (women’s intellect is kalla,
light) is that a woman is always
thinking about when she will be a
kalla.