Shneur Zalman of Liady[1] (Hebrew: שניאור זלמן מליאדי, September 4, 1745 – December 15, 1812 O.S. / 18 Elul 5505 – 24 Tevet 5573), was an Orthodox rabbi and the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism, then based in Liadi in the Russian Empire. He was the author of many works, and is best known for Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Tanya and his Siddur Torah Or compiled according to the Nusach Ari.
He is also known as the "Baal HaTanya" (Master of the Tanya), and by a variety of other names including "Shneur Zalman Baruchovitch," Baruchovitch being the Russian patronymic from his father Baruch,[2] by the acronym "RaShaZ" (רש"ז), by the title "Baal HaTanya ve-haShulchan Aruch'" (Master of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch), as the "Alter Rebbe" ("Old Rebbe" in Yiddish), "Admor HaZaken" ("Old Rebbe" in Hebrew), "Rabbenu HaZaken", "Rabbenu HaGadol", "our great rabbi", the "GRaZ", and the "Rav".
Shneur Zalman was born in 1745 in the small town of Liozna, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (present-day Belarus). He was the son of Baruch, great5-grandson of the mystic and philosopher Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the "Maharal of Prague". He was a prominent (and the youngest) disciple of Dovber of Mezeritch, the "Great Maggid", who was in turn the successor of the founder of Hasidic Judaism, Yisrael ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov.
He displayed extraordinary talent while still a child. By the time he was eight years old, he wrote an all-inclusive commentary on the Torah based on the works of Rashi, Nahmanides and Abraham ibn Ezra.
Until the age of twelve, he studied under Issachar Ber in Lyubavichi (Lubavitch); he distinguished himself as a Talmudist, such that his teacher sent him back home, informing his father that the boy could continue his studies without the aid of a teacher.
At the age of twelve, he delivered a discourse concerning the complicated laws of Kiddush Hachodesh, to which the people of the town granted him the title "Rav".
At age fifteen he married Sterna Segal, the daughter of Yehuda Leib Segal, a wealthy resident of Vitebsk, and he was then able to devote himself entirely to study. During these years, Shneur Zalman was introduced to mathematics, geometry and astronomy by two learned brothers, refugees from Bohemia, who had settled in Liozna.One of them was also a scholar of the Kabbalah. Thus, besides mastering rabbinic literature, he also acquired a fair knowledge of the sciences, philosophy, and Kabbalah.[citation needed] He became an adept in Isaac Luria's system of Kabbalah, and in 1764 he became a disciple of Dov Ber of Mezeritch. In 1767, at the age of 22, he was appointed maggid of Liozna, a position he held until 1801.
In the course of the Hasidic movement's establishment, opponents (Misnagdim) arose among the local Jewish community. Disagreements between Hasidim and their opponents included debates concerning knives used by butchers for Shechita, the phrasing of prayers among others.[8] Shneur Zalman and a fellow Hasidic leader, Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk (or, according to the tradition in the Soloveitchik family, Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev), attempted to persuade the leader of Lithuanian Jewry, the Vilna Gaon, of the legitimacy of Hasidic practices. However, the Gaon refused to meet with them.
Shneur Zalman's sons were: Dovber Schneuri who eventually succeeded him, Chaim Avraham, and Moshe. Shneur Zalman's daughters were named Freida, Devorah Leah and Rochel. Other families have lore telling that they are also descendants, but they are undocumented in existing family records.
Rabbi Dovber Schneuri succeeded his father as Rebbe of the Chabad movement.
At the age of 39, while studying in the city of Kremenchug, his father died. He then moved to the small border-town of Lubavichi, from which the movement would take its name. His accession was disputed by one of his father's prime students, Rabbi Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye, however the majority of Shneur Zalman's followers stayed with Dovber, and moved to Lubavichi. Thus Chabad had now split into two branches, each taking the name of their location to differentiate themselves from each other.He established a Yeshivah in Lubavitch, which attracted gifted young scholars. His son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, headed the Yeshivah, and later became his successor.
Thus, while Dovber Schneuri succeeded his father as Rebbe of the Chabad movement, a senior disciple of his father, Rabbi Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye, a popular and respected figure, differed with him on a number of issues and led a breakaway movement.
When Schneur Zalman died, many of his followers flocked to one of his top students, Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye. He had been Shneur Zalman’s closest disciple for over thirty years. While many more became followers of Dovber Shneuri, known to his followers as the Mitteler Rebbe, the Strashelye school of Chassidic thought was the subject of many of Dovber's discourses. Aharon HaLevi emphasized the importance of basic emotions in divine service (especially the service of prayer). Dovber Shneuri did not reject the role of emotion in prayer, but emphasized that if the emotion in prayer is to be genuine, it can only be a result of contemplation and understanding (hisbonenus) of the explanations of Chassidus, which in turn will lead to an attainment of "bittul" (self-nullification before the Divine). In his work entitled Kuntres Hispa'alus ("Tract on Ecstasy"), Dovber Shneuri argues that only through ridding oneself of what he considered disingenuous emotions could one attain the ultimate level in Chassidic worship (that is, bittul).
Moshe Schneersohn (born c. 1784 - died, before 1853) was the youngest son of Shneur Zalman. According to scholars he converted to Catholicism and died in a St. Petersburg asylum. Chabad sources say that his conversion and related documents were faked by the Church, but Belarusian State archives in Minsk uncovered by historian Shaul Stampfer support the conversion.
During the latter portion of Dovber’s life, his students dispersed over Europe, and after Dovber's death, Shneur Zalman became the leader of Hasidism in Lithuania, along with his senior colleague Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. When Rabbi Menachem Mendel died (in 1788), Shneur Zalman was recognized as leader of the Chassidim in Lithuania.[13]
At the time Lithuania was the center of the misnagdim (opponents of Hasidism), and Shneur Zalman faced much opposition. In 1774 he and Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk traveled to Vilna in an attempt to create a dialogue with the Vilna Gaon who led the Misnagdim and had issued a ban (cherem) against the Hasidim, but the Gaon refused to see them (see Vilna Gaon: Antagonism to Hasidism and Hasidim and Mitnagdim).
Undaunted by this antagonism, he succeeded in creating a large network of Hasidic centers. He also joined opposition to Napoleon's advance on Russia by recruiting his disciples to the Czar's army.[14] He was also active in canvassing financial support for the Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel, then under the control of the Ottoman Empire.
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