Chaim Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Chaim Shneur Zalman Schneersohn of Liadi

Rabbi Chaim Shneur Zalman Schneersohn (1814–4 Tevet, 1879) was the third son of the Tzemach Tzedek (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the third Rebbe of Chabad) and the founder of the Chabad-Liadi chassidic dynasty.

Following the passing of his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, in 1866, a dispute arose among the Tzemach Tzedek's sons over the succession of Chabad leadership — each son drawing followers in his own community. Rabbi Chaim Shneur Zalman traveled to the town of Liadi (in present-day Belarus), where he resided for approximately a year until the local chassidim asked him to serve as their Rebbe. In this way the Chabad-Liadi branch of the movement was established.

Biography

Rabbi Chaim Shneur Zalman Schneersohn was born in Lubavitch in 1814 to the Tzemach Tzedek and his wife Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. He was born the year following the histalkus (passing) of the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad) and was named in his honor. The name "Chaim" was added in his childhood following an illness.

He married Rebbetzin Chaya, daughter of Rabbi Yeshaya HaLevi.

After his father's histalkus, Rabbi Chaim Shneur Zalman remained in Lubavitch for three years. In 1869 he relocated to Liadi, where he led the chassidic community for eleven years under the name "Chabad-Liadi." Upon his arrival in Liadi, he quoted the verse: "And the fourth generation shall return here" (Genesis 15:16) — for he was the fourth generation descended from the Alter Rebbe, who had himself lived in Liadi.

Rabbi Chaim Shneur Zalman passed away on 4 Tevet, 1879, and is buried in Liadi.

The book Beis Rebbi — a classic historical work on the Chabad Rebbes — notes a number of striking parallels between Rabbi Chaim Shneur Zalman and his great-grandfather the Alter Rebbe: he was born the year after the Alter Rebbe's passing and named for him; he resided in Liadi for eleven years, as the Alter Rebbe had; he passed away at the age of sixty-six, as did the Alter Rebbe; and his passing likewise occurred in the month of Tevet.

Successors

After his passing, the Chabad-Liadi community divided. The majority of his chassidim accepted the leadership of his son, Rabbi Yitzchak Dov Ber Schneersohn, author of the Siddur Maharid. A smaller group accepted the leadership of his son-in-law, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Siratchin — a descendant of the Rebbes of Radzimin in Poland who had become a Chabad chassid — who transferred the center of the chassidic community to his town of Siratchin. In his final years, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak moved to Warsaw, where he passed away in 1905. After the passing of the Maharid (Rabbi Yitzchak Dov Ber), the Liadi dynasty had no further successor, and most of its chassidim subsequently accepted the leadership of the Rebbe Rashab (Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Rebbe of Chabad).

Family

• Son: Rabbi Yitzchak Dov Ber Schneersohn
• Daughter: Sterna Schneersohn, first wife of the Maharash (Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn, the fourth Rebbe of Chabad)
• Daughter: Rada, who married first Rabbi Shneur Schneersohn — son of her uncle Rabbi Yaakov Schneersohn — and secondly Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Siratchin

See also

• Michtav LaRebbe (melody)