Shneur Zalman of Liadi (Hebrew: שניאור זלמן מליאדי; September 4, 1745 – December 15, 1812 O.S. / 18 Elul 5505 – 24 Tevet 5573), commonly known as the Alter Rebbe or Baal Hatanya, was a rabbi and the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism. He wrote many works and is best known for Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Tanya, and his Siddur Torah Ohr, compiled according to the Nusach Ari.
Zalman is a variant of Solomon and Shneur is said to derive from Senior.
He is also known as Shneur Zalman Baruchovitch, using the Russian patronymic of his father Baruch, and by a variety of other titles and acronyms including "Baal HaTanya VeHaShulchan Aruch'" ("Author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch"), "Alter Rebbe" (Yiddish for "Old Rabbi"), "Admor HaZaken" (Hebrew for "Our Old Master and Teacher"), "Rabbenu HaZaken" (Hebrew for "Our Old Rabbi"), "Rabbenu HaGadol" (Hebrew for "Our Great Rabbi")", "RaShaZ" (רש״ז for Rabbi Shneor Zalman), "GRaZ" (גר״ז for Ga'on Rabbi Zalman), and "HaRav" (The Rabbi, par excellence).
Shneur Zalman was born in 1745 in the small town of Liozna, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (present-day Belarus). He was the son of Baruch, who was a paternal descendant of the mystic and philosopher Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel. According to Meir Perels of Prague, the Maharal was the great-great-grandson of Judah Leib the Elder who was said to have descended paternally from Hai Gaon and therefore also from the Davidic dynasty; however, several modern historians such as Otto Muneles and Shlomo Engard have questioned this claim.
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 11, 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 12, he delivered a discourse concerning the complicated laws of Kiddush Hachodesh, to which the people of the town granted him the title "Rav".
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.
At age 15 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. He became an adept in Isaac Luria's system of Kabbalah, and in 1765 he became a disciple of Dov Ber of Mezeritch "the Maggid". Shneur Zalman was a prominent (and the youngest) disciple of the Maggid, who was in turn the successor of the founder of Hasidic Judaism, Yisrael ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov. After returning to his father-in-law's home in Vitebsk, he caused a great commotion due to his "conversion" to Hassidism. In 1767, at the age of 22, he was appointed Maggid of Liozna, a position he held until 1801.
According to the Chabad Hasidic tradition, Shneur Zalman's father, Baruch, was a laborer who preferred to earn a living as a gardener rather than accept a post as a community rabbi or as a preacher (magid). In this tradition, Baruch was one of the disciples of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. However, he never—or possibly on rare occasions—joined his teacher on his legendary travels. This tradition is used to justify why Hasidic records do not refer to Baruch with a rabbinic title, claiming that Baruch was averse to any public acknowledgment of his status.
In the course of the Hasidic movement's establishment, opponents (Misnagdim) arose among the local Jewish communities. Disagreements between Hasidim and their opponents included debates concerning knives used by butchers for shechita, and the phrasing of prayers, among others. In 1772 (or 1775), 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 Dov Ber Schneuri (who eventually succeeded him), Chaim Avraham, and Moshe. Shneur Zalman's daughters were named Freida, Devorah Leah and Rochel.
Dovber Schneuri (1773–1827), named after
Shneur Zalman's teacher Dovber of Mezeritch, succeeded his father as Rebbe of the Chabad movement. When his father died, Shneuri was 39 years old. At the time, he was in the city of Kremenchug. Shneuri 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, Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye, however the majority of Shneur Zalman's followers stayed with Schneuri, 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 Yeshiva in Lubavitch, which attracted gifted young scholars. His nephew/son-in-law, Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, headed the Yeshivah, and later became his successor.
Thus, while Schneuri succeeded his father as Rebbe of the Chabad movement, a senior disciple of his father, 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, 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. In his early life he was a close student of his father. After his marriage he moved to the town Ulla, Belarus in a Rabbinic position. He suffered with chronic mental illness throughout his life. A trove from the Belarusian archives in Minsk, discovered by Shaul Stampfer reveal documents concerning Moshe being kidnapped and an alleged conversion ceremony. Some scholars have taken this to mean that Moshe converted to Cristianity. Other scholars, point to the Catholic Church's investigation into both the alleged conversion and Moshe's mental state, and conclude that the Church itself rejected the conversion as fake and the documents signed by a mentally compromised individual.
During the latter portion of Dovber of Mezeritch'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 Menachem Mendel died (in 1788), Shneur Zalman was recognized as leader of the Chassidim in Lithuania.
At the time Lithuania was the center of the Misnagdim (opponents of Hasidism), and Shneur Zalman faced much opposition. As mentioned, in 1772, 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).