Editing The Split of Chabad Chassidus (section)

== The Relationship Between Lubavitch and Its Offshoots ==
Rabbi Shmaryahu Noach Schneersohn of Babroisk-Kopust. Among the founders of the special Colel Chabad.

During the first years after the split, there was a relatively warm relationship between the founders of the branches - the sons of the Admor the Tzemach Tzedek. However, after their passing, the dispute between the different courts intensified until the period of the Admor the Rayatz.

==== Relations Between Lubavitch and Chabad Kopust ====
The relationship between Lubavitch and Kopust was accompanied by great tension from the year the branch was established, and especially after the Maharil passed away.

Among other things, there were differences of opinion between Lubavitch and Kopust on abstract matters in Chassidus, and even in customs. For example, a dispute arose between the Chassidim of Lubavitch and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Schneersohn, author of "Magen Avot" from Kopust, on the question of whether the Tzimtzum affected the letters of the Reshimu or not. The Rebbe Maharash wrote that the Tzimtzum did not affect the letters of the Reshimu, while the author of "Magen Avot" disagreed and claimed that the Tzimtzum also affected the letters of the Reshimu. (The famous Chassid, R' Dov Tomarkin - a Chassid of the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash - debated this in an exchange of letters with the Admor, author of Magen Avot of Kopust). Even in the customs of Chassidim there were slight differences - for example, the Chassidim of Kopust were careful to celebrate the holiday of redemption, 19th of Kislev, on the night of the 19th of Kislev, whereas the Chassidim of Lubavitch customarily celebrated the 19th of Kislev specifically on the night of the 20th of Kislev.

Chabad Lubavitch Chassidim were careful during the split period not to study the book "Derech Mitzvotecha" because it was first printed by Kopust and the introduction to the book was written by them. Once when the Rebbe Rashab saw a Chassid studying the book Derech Mitzvotecha, he took the book from him.

Despite the dispute, the Rebbe Maharash instructed Shmaryahu Noach Schneersohn in 5632 (1872) to be appointed as the rabbi of the Chassidim in Babroisk.

After the passing of the Rebbe Maharash, the Chassidim of Lubavitch went to Vilna to print his book "Likutei Torah" for three Parshiyot. The Chassidim of Kopust who heard about this wanted to devise a scheme to replace the discourses written there by the Rebbe Maharash with discourses by the Tzemach Tzedek based on the same verses, thereby "proving" that the Rebbe Maharash did not innovate anything but merely repeated his father's discourses. Indeed, the emissaries who came to Vilna to print the book did not notice that the pages in their possession containing the discourses of the Rebbe Maharash had been replaced with the discourses of the Tzemach Tzedek, and so they initially printed the Likutei Torah for the three Parshiyot. When they brought the book to Lubavitch and it began to circulate, the Chassidim of Kopust made a great commotion, claiming that it was an imitation of the Tzemach Tzedek's discourses, and the book's circulation was halted for several years.

It is told that once Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Schneersohn came to visit Lubavitch to prostrate himself on the grave of the Tzemach Tzedek, and afterward he came to visit the Rebbe Maharash. When they met, the Rebbe Maharash said to him: "Do you know why you didn't find the Rebbe [at the gravesite]? - Because he was with me."

On Simchat Torah 5671 (1910), the Rebbe Rashab stated that there is no innovation in the discourses of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Schneersohn, and that the Chassidus in Kopust is "without any foundation at all." In contrast, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman praised the Rebbe Rashab, saying that he was a person with great fear of Heaven.

Before Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Schneersohn, author of "Magen Avot," passed away, he sent a pidyon nefesh to the Rebbe Rashab to be read at the grave of the Tzemach Tzedek. When the Rebbe Rashab returned from the gravesite, he appeared troubled and sad. When Rebbetzin Rivka saw this, she asked him why he looked downcast, and the Rebbe Rashab answered her that as soon as he lit the candle for the merit of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman, it went out. Indeed, shortly afterward, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Schneersohn passed away.

A significant event occurred in 5672 (1912), when the Chassidim of Kopust separated from Colel Chabad following several disagreements between the Rebbe Maharash"n of Babroisk and the Rebbe Rashab, which was under the control of all the Admorim of the different branches, and opened a new Colel called "the Special Colel Chabad," indicating that it was in order to return and reunite and quiet the dispute that had arisen in the meantime. It should be noted that when the Rebbe Rayatz visited the land of Israel in 5689 (1929), three years after the last of the Kopust Admorim passed away and the split officially ended, the people of the Special Colel Chabad officially accepted the leadership of the Rebbe Rayatz over the Colel.

==== Relations Between Lubavitch and Chabad Liadi ====
Initially, there were close relations between Lubavitch and Liadi, especially during the leadership of the Rechash"z. But after the Rechash"z passed away and the Chabad Liadi branch was divided between his son-in-law and his son, relations between Liadi and Kopust improved, and in parallel, relations with Lubavitch cooled.

The Rebbe Maharash and the Rechash"z from Liadi were very fond of each other. The special closeness between them began when the Tzemach Tzedek arranged a match between the Rebbe Maharash and the daughter of the Rechash"z. The wedding was held with great splendor, and among the guests was the Chassid R' Hillel of Paritch. When R' Hillel saw the Rechash"z, he jokingly said to him, "How can you enter into a family relationship with an in-law you don't know?" When the Tzemach Tzedek heard this, he said to R' Hillel, "He also doesn't know the groom..." During the Sheva Brachot, the bride fell ill and died after three months. But even when the Rebbe Maharash married Rebbetzin Rivka, the connection between them did not stop.

Also, before the Bar Mitzvah celebration of the Rebbe Rashab, his father, the Rebbe Maharash, sent him together with his brother R' Zalman Aharon to receive a blessing from the Rechash"z in Liadi and to hear Chassidic discourses from him.

In this context, one of the natives of Liadi told that the Rechash"z of Liadi used to ascend once a year to the grave of the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch, and each time he came to the town, he would meet with the Rebbe Maharash. Before the passing of the Rechash"z, the Rebbe Maharash sent his sons, the Rebbe Rashab and R' Zalman Aharon, to hear Chassidus from him, and despite his illness and weakness, the Rechash"z sat up in his bed and delivered a discourse beginning with "He crouched, he lay down like a lion."

Another story that illustrates the closeness of Liadi to Lubavitch in the early years was told by the Chassid R' Raphael Kimin, who once came from his town of Beshenkovitch to the Rebbe Maharash regarding a matter that troubled him. The Rebbe Maharash did not address his questions but said to him, "Why isn't your father, R' Yehuda Yosef, appointed as the rabbi in Beshenkovitch?" This surprised him since there was already another rabbi in the town, and he said this to the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe Maharash told him to go consult with his brother, the Rechash"z of Liadi. R' Raphael went to the Rechash"z and spoke to him about the matter that troubled him, but the Rechash"z, like the Rebbe Maharash, did not address his words and asked the same question: "Why doesn't your father serve as the rabbi in Beshenkovitch?" R' Raphael testified that this surprised him sevenfold, both the puzzling question and the Divine inspiration shared between the brothers from Lubavitch and Liadi. Several days after he returned to his town, the previous rabbi passed away and his father took his place. Then he understood the question of the Rechash"z and the Rebbe Maharash.

The Rebbe Rayatz refused to hear a Chassidic discourse from Rabbi Shmaryahu Noach Schneersohn (who was the Admor of Bobruisk-Kopust), and agreed to listen only from the Admorim of Liadi.

==== Relations Between Lubavitch and Chabad Nezhin ====
Rebbetzin Nechama Dina Schneersohn, the wife of the Rebbe Rayatz, is the granddaughter of the founder of the branch, Rabbi Yisrael Noach Schneersohn.

The son of the Mahari"n, Rabbi Avraham Schneersohn, when he was a young man, came on one occasion from his city of Kishinev to his father, the Mahari"n, and said: "Father, I will not receive 'Shalom' from you, because this time I did not come as a son to a father, but as a Chassid before his Rebbe." His father, the Mahari"n, said to him, "This means you need advice? My advice is that you travel to your uncle, the Rebbe Maharash in Lubavitch." Rabbi Avraham indeed traveled to Lubavitch and was received for a private audience with the Rebbe Maharash. When he returned from Lubavitch to Kishinev, he passed through Nezhin, and when he reached his father, his father said to him: "Nu, did I give you good advice?..."

In one of the Jewish cemeteries in New York, there is a joint section for the Chassidim of Lubavitch and Nezhin, called the "Section of the People of Lubavitch and Nezhin."