Levi Yitzchak Schneerson

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (known affectionately as Reb Levik; 18 Nissan 5638 [April 21, 1878] – 20 Menachem Av 5704 [August 8, 1944]) was the father of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. He served as the Rav of Yekaterinoslav (today Dnipro, Ukraine), was a renowned Kabbalist — a master of the Torah's mystical dimension — and stood among the most prominent rabbinic leaders in the Soviet Union. He was arrested for his work sustaining Jewish life under Communist rule, exiled to the remote steppes of Kazakhstan, and passed away in exile.

Early Life

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was born on Sunday, 18 Nissan 5638 [April 21, 1878], in the small town of Podobranka near Homel in White Russia (today Belarus). His father was the distinguished rabbi Rabbi Baruch Schneor Schneerson, and his mother was Rebbetzin Zelda Rachel Schneerson. He was named for his grandfather, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak — a grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Chabad Rebbe — who had died young.

His mother, Rebbetzin Zelda Rachel, was the daughter of the chassid Rabbi Zalman Chaikin, himself a devoted follower of both the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash, the fourth Chabad Rebbe.

In his youth, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak studied Torah under his great-uncle, Rabbi Yoel Chaikin, the Rav of Podobranka. Even as a young man his greatness was already apparent, and he received rabbinic ordination — semichah — from the leading halachic authorities of his generation, among them the Gaon Rabbi Chaim of Brisk and the Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Meizel of Lodz. He later also received a letter of appointment from Jaffa for the position of Chief Rabbi. Some accounts hold that he studied for a period at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Lubavitch — the flagship yeshiva of Chabad — though this is disputed and the Chabad Rebbes did not confirm it.

Marriage

The kiddush cup used by Reb Levi Yitzchak

When Rabbi Levi Yitzchak reached marriageable age, the Rebbe Rashab — Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneerson, the fifth Chabad Rebbe — personally proposed the match between him and Rebbetzin Chana, the daughter of the distinguished Rabbi Meir Shlomo Yanovsky, Rav of Nikolayev. The wedding was set for the Thursday following Shavuos, but when the bride fell ill, her father wished to postpone. He sent a special messenger to the Rebbe Rashab to request his consent for the delay — but the Rebbe instructed that the wedding proceed as scheduled, and he gave his blessing. The wedding took place on Friday, 11 Sivan 5660 [1900], in Nikolayev, at the home of a wealthy member of the community named Brishkovsky.

In her memoirs, Rebbetzin Chana noted the date of 11 Sivan as their anniversary on three separate occasions. Following the wedding, the Rebbe Rashab sent a letter of blessing to the groom's father — in addition to a telegram he had dispatched on the wedding day itself.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was supported by his father-in-law for ten years, through 5669 [1909], during which time he sat and immersed himself in Torah study day and night. Beginning in 5662 [1902], he also began attending public gatherings organized to coordinate communal efforts on behalf of Russian Jewry — some of them convened by the Rebbe Rashab himself. During the Russo-Japanese War, he played an important role in arranging the delivery of matzos to Jewish soldiers on the front, and he also helped gather material for the defense of Mendel Beilis in the infamous Beilis Affair, in which a Jew was falsely accused of ritual murder.

The Rabbinate of Yekaterinoslav

In 5668 [1908], the chassidic Rav of Yekaterinoslav passed away, and the city's older, non-chassidic Rav was aging and infirm. The community's leaders moved quickly to fill both positions. The misnagdim — those who opposed Chassidus — chose Rabbi Pinchas Gelman for their community, while the Rebbe Rashab urged the chassidim to appoint Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, who was then serving as Rav of Nikolayev.

Some leaders of the city's Zionist movement were wary, since in those years the Rebbe Rashab had publicly opposed the Zionist movement, and they feared that his candidate would share that opposition. The Rebbe Rashab therefore wrote, on 6 Adar I 5668, to the philanthropist Rabbi Feitel Paley, a prominent member of the Yekaterinoslav community, urging him to support Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's appointment. In that letter, he described the candidate in glowing terms:

He is a great Torah scholar and a complete God-fearing man, pure in thought and gentle in disposition, possessed of very fine and elevated character, and knowledgeable in leadership with wisdom and understanding — they could have no one better than him.

The key to the appointment turned out to lie with a man named Shmarya — the son of a chassidic family who had drifted from his roots, changed his name to Sergei Wolfovitch, and become a successful businessman and one of the leaders of the local Zionist movement. Despite his distance from Chassidus, something deep within him retained a warmth for the Rebbe and the chassidic world. After receiving the Rebbe Rashab's letter, he invited Rabbi Levi Yitzchak to his home for a conversation that lasted six uninterrupted hours. The impression left on him was profound, and at its end he resolved to fight for the appointment among his Zionist colleagues.

His efforts, which lasted nearly a year, ultimately succeeded. The Rebbe Rashab sent Rabbi Levi Yitzchak a letter of thanks.

And so, at barely thirty-one years of age, at the close of 5669, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak arrived in Yekaterinoslav to serve as its Rav — a position he would hold for thirty years, until his arrest in 5699 [1939].

Three Decades of Leadership

From the moment he arrived, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak set about strengthening Jewish life in every way he could. He convened the community's leaders and discussed with them how to support the city's Jews, both materially and spiritually, and together they resolved to bolster the Torah institutions of the city and intensify outreach to the youth.

One of his first acts was to address the state of the local mikveh — the ritual bath, an essential cornerstone of Jewish family life — which had fallen into disrepair. He gathered the community leadership and laid out the severity of the situation. When they demurred, citing a lack of funds, the young Rav was undeterred. He rose to his full height, removed the new coat he had purchased especially for his entry into office, and placed it on the table: "Here — this coat is worth a considerable sum. Let it serve as the first contribution toward building a new mikveh." The gesture made a powerful impression, and the community leaders began at once to work on constructing a new mikveh.

(For a fuller account of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's three decades in Yekaterinoslav, see the article on Dnipro.)

An Attempt to Immigrate to the Holy Land

Visa document ages, as noted in a letter by the Rebbe

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak made an attempt to move to Eretz Yisrael, not long after his brother, Rabbi Shalom Shlomo Schneerson, had emigrated there. The appropriate documents were submitted through the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and visas were approved for both Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana. The Chief Rabbinate wrote to him in Yekaterinoslav:

1 Kislev 5686 — To the distinguished and renowned Rabbi, our teacher Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, Rav and Av Beis Din of Yekaterinoslav — Please find enclosed the letter of the District Governor in response to our request for a visa on your behalf and for your household, according to which the British representative in Moscow has been asked to issue a visa for you and your family to come to Eretz Yisrael. You should now apply there directly and will receive the visa without further delay... We await the privilege of greeting you face to face in the Holy Land, soon.

For reasons that remain unknown to us today, the move never came to pass.

Arrest

The home from which Reb Levi Yitzchak was taken into custody

After the Communist Revolution, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak fought with complete self-sacrifice — mesirat nefesh — to preserve Jewish life despite the Soviet government's prohibitions. His work on behalf of Yiddishkeit was openly known, and tensions with the authorities mounted repeatedly until, finally, the decision was made to arrest him.

In the night of 9 Nissan 5699 [1939], at three o'clock in the morning, four agents of the NKVD — the Soviet secret police — arrived at his home at 13 Barikadna Street, bearing a search warrant.

When Rebbetzin Chana came to NKVD headquarters the next day to bring her husband food, she was put off with evasions — he was not there, she was told. Only after several days did she learn that he was being held in the local prison, and that she could send him food and money — but whenever she came to visit, she was turned away with the same answer: he was not there, even as the prosecutor confirmed that he was.

After some time, the authorities transferred Rabbi Levi Yitzchak to a prison in Kiev for those convicted of serious crimes. The Soviets regarded him as the one who had stepped into the role of the Rebbe Rayatz — Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, the sixth Chabad Rebbe, who had managed to leave the Soviet Union — sustaining and driving all Jewish activity that remained in Russia.

The NKVD interrogators tried every means to extract a confession that he had acted against the state, including brutal conditions and transfers from prison to prison. On one occasion he was placed in solitary confinement for thirty-two consecutive days. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak held firm throughout and admitted to nothing.

Exile

After several months of interrogation, he was sentenced to five years of exile in Kazakhstan. He made the journey by prisoner train — a month-long ordeal from the prison in Yekaterinoslav. Amid the crushing conditions, what troubled him most was the absence of water for the morning hand-washing ritual, netilas yadayim. For eleven days there was no water at all. Even the small ration of water given to the prisoners for drinking, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak — who maintained the most careful observance of even minor mitzvos even under these circumstances — relinquished in favor of performing netilas yadayim alone.

Upon arriving in Alma-Ata, the prisoners were dispersed to remote locations throughout Kazakhstan, where they were to live out their years of exile. On 19 Shevat 5700 [1940], Rabbi Levi Yitzchak arrived at his place of exile in the town of Chialy. In those first days he stayed in the home of a non-Jew who took pity on him, together with another Jewish exile.

The tortures of his imprisonment, the hardships of the journey, the harshness of the place, and the profound isolation all severely undermined his health. His condition improved somewhat when Rebbetzin Chana eventually made her way to Chialy to be at his side.

Even in Chialy, he continued to strengthen Jewish life as best he could — seeing to it that Jewish souls who passed away in exile received proper Jewish burial, and organizing prayer with a minyan, the quorum of ten required for communal prayer.

Passing

The tziyun of Reb Levi Yitzchak before renovation

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak spent more than four years in exile in Chialy. After Pesach of 5704 [1944], weakened and exhausted, he traveled to Alma-Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, where he continued to be active in sustaining Jewish life and even served as Rav in the local synagogue.

After a short time, a malignant illness that had long been present in him erupted fully, and his condition deteriorated day by day. On Wednesday, 20 Menachem Av 5704, his soul ascended to Heaven. The funeral was held the following day, attended by a small gathering — fear of the Soviet authorities kept people away. A matzevah, a gravestone, was erected over his resting place with an intentionally brief inscription, and in later years it was replaced in a special effort organized by the Rebbe.

The Rebbe explained that 20 Menachem Av is the day designated in the Temple calendar for the wood-offering (korban eitzim) brought by the family of "Bnei Pechas Moav ben Yehuda" — a gift that fueled the fires of the Mizbeach, the altar, enabling the Jewish people's atonement, and that was brought with great joy, as on a Yom Tov, despite the difficulty of finding halachically valid wood at that time of year. This kind of avodah — of joyful service that enables others — perfectly reflects the life of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak himself, who despite his immense stature in both the revealed dimensions of Torah (nigleh) and its inner, Kabbalistic dimension (pnimiyus haTorah), devoted himself completely to spreading Torah and strengthening Yiddishkeit even among the simplest Jews, and always with joy.

There is yet another dimension to this date: 20 Menachem Av falls forty days before Rosh Hashana — just as Rosh Chodesh Elul falls forty days before Yom Kippur (which is also called "Rosh Hashana" in the book of Yechezkel). The forty-day period beginning on 20 Menachem Av thus constitutes a time of preparation and teshuvah — turning and return — parallel to the forty days of Elul and the Yamim Noraim.

Restoration of the Matzevah

Throughout the years following his father's passing, the Rebbe paid close attention to the condition of the tziyun — the gravesite — and directed funds and precise instructions for its upkeep and renewal.

In 5732 [1972], after Rabbi Mordechai Menasha Gorelik brought the Rebbe photographs of the site during a private audience (yechidus), the Rebbe asked him to consult with his family about restoring the matzevah and gave detailed instructions for the renovation. The primary work was carried out by Rabbi Gorelik's brother, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Gorelik of Melbourne. Those involved reported that several wondrous occurrences took place in the course of this mission.

The original matzevah had been built by a man named Reb Gavriel Uchanow — a fact discovered only later, when his grandson learned that his grandfather had built the gravestone of the Rebbe's father.

The Ohel

Rabbi Dovid Nachshon at the construction of the ohel in Alma-Ata

In 5749 [1989], Rabbi Dovid Nachshon and Reb Avi Taub built an ohel — a covering structure, as is customary over the graves of tzaddikim — around the matzevah. Preparations took considerable time, with several visits to the site before the ohel was completed in the month of Elul 5749.

A few days after completing the ohel, the two men came to 770 Eastern Parkway — the Rebbe's headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn — and were about to leave for the airport when they received an urgent call from the Rebbe's secretariat: the Rebbe wished them to deliver the key in person. They were brought into the Rebbe's private study. The Rebbe held the key firmly in his hand, looked for a moment at the keychain on which Rabbi Nachshon had written a note identifying it as the key to the ohel in Alma-Ata, and asked: "What is this?" Rabbi Nachshon replied: "It is the key to the ohel in Alma-Ata." The Rebbe looked upward and said with great feeling: "This is the key to the ohel." He then blessed the two of them:

Fortunate is their portion, great is their reward, immense is their merit — for having stirred the Jews of Russia and worked with them, and for having occupied themselves with the ohalim of the Rebbes, the tzaddikim and holy ones. And may we not need to come to this — through "Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust."

The outer wall of the ohel after renovation

In recent years, the Chabad shluchim — emissaries — in the city have renovated the tziyun and its surrounding area, giving the site a renewed and dignified appearance befitting this sacred place.

Each year on the yahrzeit, 20 Menachem Av, large numbers of chassidim make their way from across the world to the ohel, joining minyanim for prayer, Torah classes, and farbrengens — chassidic gatherings — organized by the local Chabad shluchim operating under Chabad-Lubavitch of Kazakhstan, led by the Chief Rabbi of Kazakhstan, Rabbi Yeshaya Elazar Cohen. Near the cemetery stands the Kazakhstan Jewish Community Center — known as "Beis Menachem Chabad Lubavitch Kazakhstan" — which houses the "Levi Yitzchak" synagogue, available to all who come to pray at the tziyun.

Likkutei Levi Yitzchak

Title page of the first volume

The new edition

Likkutei Levi Yitzchak — "The Collected Teachings of Levi Yitzchak" — is the major collection of Torah writings composed by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak during his years of exile in Chialy, written with extraordinary mesirat nefesh under conditions of deprivation and hardship.

After Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's passing, Rebbetzin Chana managed to leave the Soviet Union. Before doing so, she entrusted the precious manuscripts to faithful individuals in Moscow for safekeeping.

Over the years, a group of chassidim undertook the dangerous work of bringing the manuscripts out. In a heroic and highly perilous operation, conducted under the eyes of KGB agents, the bundle of manuscripts was transferred from the trusted Jew who had been guarding them to the Israeli embassy, which promptly dispatched them by diplomatic courier to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. Within days, they reached the Rebbe.

A select team of chassidim then set to work preparing the manuscripts for publication, with the Rebbe personally overseeing the editing and arrangement of the books.

His Two Photographs

The first photograph, taken during the exile in Chialy

The second photograph, taken at the time of his arrest

The First Photograph

When the first two volumes of Likkutei Levi Yitzchak were published in 5730 [1970], a photograph was included — taken during the exile in Chialy and smuggled out of Russia at the size of a passport photo. When the photograph was brought before the Rebbe, he wrote on the back of the page, in his own hand: Adoni avi zichrono livracha? — "My father, may his memory be a blessing?" Many have understood that question mark as expressing the Rebbe's difficulty in recognizing his father after all the suffering he had endured in exile. Others have understood it more simply — that the Rebbe was confirming the identity of the person photographed, with the question referring to the year the photo was taken.

The Second Photograph

In 5751 [1991], a delegation sent by the Rebbe to Russia — charged in part with rescuing the books and archives of the Chabad Rebbes — managed to obtain Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's interrogation file. It contained two photographs taken from different angles at the time of his arrest in 5699 [1939], as was standard Soviet procedure when receiving a prisoner. The photographs had been taken only after the interrogators forcibly removed Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's kippah.

These photographs were sent to the Rebbe on Motzaei Acharon shel Pesach — the night after the last day of Passover — and formally delivered in Elul of that year by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Aharonov and Rabbi Shlomo Kunin. Viewing the photograph, the Rebbe remarked: "Er kukkt oys nit gezunt" — "He does not look well."

Ahead of the publication of Toras Menachem — Tiferes Levi Yitzchak on Shemos, the Vaad Hanachos b'Lashon HaKodesh requested permission from the Rebbe to include this photograph alongside the first, with the commitment that an expert artist would restore the kippah to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's head. The Rebbe approved, and instructed that the date of each photograph be noted beneath it. The volume was published with both photographs appearing side by side, each captioned with when it was taken.

Commemorations

Over the years, a number of initiatives were established to honor Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's memory — some initiated by the Rebbe himself, others to which the Rebbe gave his particular encouragement and blessing:

• The Tiferes Zekeinim Levi Yitzchak network of kollels — institutions for advanced Torah study by married men
• The Levi Yitzchak Library in Crown Heights, Brooklyn — a chassidic lending library for study and research
• Congregation Levi Yitzchak Lubavitch, Hallandale, Florida
• The Keren Levi Yitzchak charitable fund, established by the Rebbe in his father's name to support authentic Jewish education
• Yarchei Kallah — an annual Torah gathering held each summer at Camp Gan Yisroel in the United States, in Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's memory

The Memories of Reb Yosef Nimotin

Reb Chaim Yosef Dovid Nimotin, son of the chassid Rabbi Shmuel Nimotin, lived in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan during World War II and was engaged in rescue work. He had the privilege of attending to and assisting Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson and Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, the Rebbe's parents.

At the time of the Great Escape from Russia in 5706 [1946], he entrusted to Rabbi Simcha Gorodetzky the shofar that had belonged to the Rebbe's father — a family heirloom inherited from the Tzemach Tzedek — to be delivered to the Rebbe. Reb Nimotin remained in the Soviet Union until 5739 [1979], all the while carefully maintaining the tziyun of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, keeping it clean and in good repair.

After leaving Russia he settled in Crown Heights, where he was warmly received by the Rebbe in recognition of his closeness to and support of the Rebbe's father. His memories of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana were published in HaTamim, issue 54 (Beis Moshiach supplement, Sukkos 5785).

Family

• Wife: Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson
• Sons: The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson; Rabbi DovBer Schneerson; Rabbi Yisrael Aryeh Leib Schneerson
• Granddaughter: Mrs. Dalia Rotman

His Works

• Likkutei Levi Yitzchak — Kehot, 5730; new corrected edition, 5782
• Toras Levi Yitzchak — Kehot, 5731; new corrected edition, 5782
• Pninei Levi Yitzchak — edited by Rabbi Alter Eliyahu Friedman
• Toras Menachem — Tiferes Levi Yitzchak — Kehot, 5750; new 5-volume edition, 5780
• Yalkut Levi Yitzchak — edited by Rabbi Dovid Dubov, 4 volumes through 5781
• Tipa Min HaYam — edited by Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf
• Likkutei Levi Yitzchak — Reshimas Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, with collected annotations and commentary, 5779

Further Reading

• Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Gottlieb, Toldos Levi Yitzchak, three volumes, Kehot; latest revised edition with additions by Rabbi Eli Wolf.
• Avraham Shmuel Bukiet, Paar Levi Yitzchak, published by the Association of Shluchim to Eretz Yisrael.
• Menachem Ziegelbaum (ed.), HaRebbe Mokir Todah — articles and features on Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson: his mesirat nefesh, exile, ohel, miracles, and the mission in Kazakhstan today. Contributors include Rabbi Yeshaya Cohen (Chief Shliach of Kazakhstan), Menachem Ziegelbaum, Shraga Crombie, singer Benny Friedman, and others. Av 5783.
• "The United States Honors the Rabbi — It Is an Honor for Us," on the recognition of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's tziyun as a national heritage site — Kfar Chabad Weekly, issue 1871, p. 73.
• "My Master, My Father, My Teacher and Rebbe" — a photo collection from the Rebbe's farbrengens in his father's honor — Beis Moshiach Weekly, issue 1224, p. 40.
• "A Daring Operation to Rescue the Holy Books" — Beis Moshiach Weekly, issue 1224, p. 44.
• "Ten Facts About Rabbi Levi Yitzchak" — Beis Moshiach Weekly, issue 1224, p. 47.
• "Abba Shel HaMelech" [The King's Father] — a special supplement on his personality and teachings, Beis Moshiach Weekly, Erev 20 Menachem Av 5780.
• "Chacham HaRazim" — interview with Rabbi Alter Eliyahu Friedman — Kfar Chabad Weekly, issue 1870, p. 25.
• "Litos'em MiGiluyei HaGeulah" — interview with Rabbi Eliyahu Wolf — Kfar Chabad Weekly, issue 1870, p. 40.
• "HaMalach Gavriel" — on the restoration of the matzevah and the identity of the man who merited carrying it out — Kfar Chabad Weekly, issue 1919, p. 23.
• Zalman Ruderman, Chassidim Anshei Maaseh, pp. 67–84.

External Links

Biography

• Rebbetzin Chana's Memoirs — Vaad Hanachos b'Lashon HaKodesh
• Documents from the Interrogation File (PDF) — COL.org.il
• With Dedication and Resolve — biography at Chabad.org
• "Gaon Yaakov" of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak — a collection of fascinating episodes, Chabad Info

His Torah

• Rabbi Dovid Dubov, "The Surviving Torah Teachings of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak" — interview, Anash.org (English)
• "How Rabbi Levi Yitzchak's Books Were Burned" — Chabad Info

The Photographs

• Shneur Zalman Berger, "Who Brought the Rebbe the Photograph of His Father?" — Chabad Info
• Rabbi Mordechai Menasha Laufer, "'My Father, May His Memory Be a Blessing?'" — COL.org.il

Media

• "These Are the Generations of Levi Yitzchak: A Journey Through the Places He Lived and Worked" — video documentary for the 20 Menachem Av yahrzeit, COL.org.il
• "The Rebbe Speaks About His Father" — from JEM's weekly video magazine, Chabad.org