(known as Ba'al ha-Tanya, "author of the Tanya"; 1745-1813). Founder of the ḥabad movement in ḥasidism. Born in Liozno, near Vitebsk (Belorussia), he soon acquired great proficiency in Talmud and Halakhah, also becoming familiar with mathematics and astronomy. Against the wishes of his father-in-law, but aided by his wife, Shneur Zalman left home in 1764 to study under Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezhirech, whose fame had spread as a Ḥasidic master of prayer. The Maggid, greatly impressed with his new disciple, appointed him tutor to his son, Abraham "the Angel," in the "revealed things," while young Abraham reciprocated by teaching Shneur Zalman the "secret things"---the Kabbalah in its Ḥasidic interpretation. Subsequently, the Maggid urged Shneur Zalman to prepare an up-to-date codification of Jewish law. Owing to a fire, only part of it was ever published---as Shulḥan Arukh ha-Rav (1814); noted for its exquisite Hebrew style and clarity, this work is acknowledged as a major halakhic achievement, even by scholars remote from Ḥasidism.
After the Maggid's death in 1772, Shneur Zalman began to attract followers in Belorussia and Lithuania, the stronghold of the Mitnaggedim. Led by Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman, the Gaon of Vilna, these "Opponents" fiercely combated such encroachment on their territory. Elijah Gaon even refused to meet Shneur Zalman and his older colleague, Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk, when they tried to discuss the possibility of reconciling the two mutually hostile camps. With Menahem Mendel's departure for Erets Israel in 1777, Shneur Zalman became the undisputed leader of Ḥasidism in northern Russia, where he established the Ḥabad movement. For the guidance of his followers, Shneur Zalman wrote a volume of "Collected Sayings" (Likkuté Amarim, 1797) which in its complete form was published as the Tanya (Shklov, 1814). The Tanya was the first work to attempt a systematic exposition of Ḥasidic doctrine, though with special emphasis on the Ḥabad ideology.
Following the Vilna Gaon's death, Shneur Zalman was accused of being a religious heretic and political danger to the state. In 1798, he was arrested and then imprisoned in St. Petersburg; all charges against him were dismissed, however, and he was released on the 19th of Kislev (5559), a day still observed by the Ḥabad Ḥasidim as a major festival celebrating the vindication of Ḥasidism. Thereafter he settled in Lyady, Belorussia, from where he fled south during Napoleon's advance on Moscow; he died in the Ukraine.
Shneur Zalman was succeeded as head of the Ḥabad movement by his son
Dov Baer (1773-1827), who moved to the Belorussian town of Lyubavich. There, despite some rival offshoots, the main leaders of Ḥabad resided for generations, each becoming known as the Lubavicher Rebbe. Dov Baer's successor,
Menahem Mendel Schneersohn (1789-1866), was both his son-in-law and his nephew. He wrote a famous volume of Responsa entitled Tsemaḥ Tsedek. In Ḥabad terminology, Shneur Zalman is known as the "Alter Rebbe" ("Old Rabbi"), Dov Baer as the "Mittler Rebbe" ("Middle Rabbi"), and Menaḥem Mendel as the "Tsemaḥ Tsedek." The fourth head of the Lubavich dynasty was Menahem Mendel's youngest son,
Samuel (1834-1882), who was followed by his son
Shalom Dov Baer (1866-1920).
Joseph Isaac (1880-1950), his son and successor, fled to the United States and established his headquarters in Brooklyn after World War II. He was succeeded by Menahem Mendel Schneersohn (1902-1994), a son-in-law of Joseph Isaac and (on his father's side) a direct descendant of the Tsemaḥ Tsedek.
