[Avodah] Who First Said it?

[Akiva Blum]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: avodah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org 
> [mailto:avodah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org] On Behalf Of David Riceman
> Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 9:36 PM

> > : R Micha wrote:
> > : >For that matter, your father's sentiment about how the Gra saved
> > : >Chassidus is also attributed to the Rebbe Rashab.
> >
> >   
> RZS
> > : Attributed by whom?  Before just now, I mean.
> >   
> Also in Sefer M'kor Baruch (I don't own a copy so I can't 
> cite a page, 
> but there's a section in which he mentions discussions he or 
> his father 
> had with TRR [I'd appreciate help with the appropriate 
> acronyms] about TVG).


It's in the Mekor Baruch vol. 3 Chap 20.  I would translate it but the hebrew
there is too flowery.

He quotes the Rebbe reb Mendele (Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, Zemach Zedek) in
conversation with the Aruch haShulchan, that the Rebbe said to his father-in-law
and grandfather-in-law that the chassidim owe an enormous debt of gratitude to
the Gra, and they agreed with him. The Rebbe explained the chassidus might have
gone 'off the tracks', and the Alter rebbe, due to the Gra's battling, kept it
straight. In addition, he wrote the Shulchan Aruch haRav to keep the chassidim
connected to halachah.

It also appears in the English "Recollections'.

Akiva