Editing Baruch Shimon Schneerson (section)

== Life History ==
Rabbi Baruch Shimon Schneerson was born in Krakow on the 25th of Menachem Av 5673 (1913) to Rabbi Yosef Moshe Schneerson (who was a descendant of the Tzemach Tzedek and was married to a descendant of the Mitteler Rebbe). At his bris, he was named "Baruch" after Yisrael Baruch Posner, the father of the Alter Rebbe, and "Shimon" after his grandfather (his mother's father). At the age of thirteen, he traveled to receive a blessing from the Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, who drew him close and allowed him to be called up for maftir in the large synagogue, something that was very unusual for him.

In his youth, he studied in various yeshivas: Radomishla under Rabbi Chaim Engel, the "Keser Torah" yeshiva of the Radomsk Chassidim, and under the Gaon Rabbi Shaul Ze'ev Ettinger. In 5691 (1931), he arrived at "Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin" and was one of the distinguished students of Rabbi Meir Shapira. While studying at Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, he became known as a Torah genius and great masmid (diligent student) and was appointed by Rabbi Shapira to examine new students on the two hundred pages they were required to be tested on, each in the tractates they had studied.

During World War II, he wandered to Russia, where he lived in an abandoned hut and engaged in Torah study. When he tried to cross the border from Lvov to Vilna, he was caught and imprisoned for about a year, after which he was exiled to the Ural Mountains in Siberia, where he suffered greatly from hunger while doing hard physical labor in the Siberian cold. One day he became ill with typhus and was certain his end was near. Suddenly, he saw his Rebbe in a dream saying to him, "Hold onto my gartel (belt) and you will be saved," and indeed he was saved. When he completed his exile in Siberia, he moved to Bukhara and continued to study Torah, despite the difficult conditions that prevailed there as well. While in Bukhara, he met Rabbi Dov Berish Widenfeld, the Av Beis Din of Tcheibin, who knew him from Lublin, and there he decided to take him as a son-in-law for his daughter. At the end of the war, he returned to Krakow and found his Torah novellae and those of his grandfather (the "Baruch Ta'am") which he had hidden before fleeing.

In the summer of 5707 (1947), he immigrated to Eretz Yisrael without having the permits from the British government and was forced to hide from the British police. After the British left the country, he was able to continue studying in peace, which he did under his father-in-law.

In 5712 (1952), he was crowned as the head of Tomchei Tmimim Yeshiva in Lod and held the position for about four years. Afterward, at the request of his father-in-law, he moved to serve as the head of the Tcheibin Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He held this position for nearly fifty years, during which he taught Torah to thousands of students. Simultaneously, he also served as a member of the Council of Torah Sages.

In 5759 (1999), he became ill and suffered for two years. During a certain period, he strengthened somewhat and continued to deliver shiurim (lessons) in the yeshiva, but in the middle of 5761 (2001), the illness worsened, and on Shabbos Parshas Shelach, on the 25th of Sivan 5761 (2001), he passed away and is honorably laid to rest on Har Hamenuchot, close to his father-in-law.