Jump to content

Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (Son of the Tzemach Tzedek)

Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Ovruch

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Ovruch (1822–1877) was the fifth son of the Tzemach Tzedek (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the third Rebbe of Chabad). He founded a chassidic court in Ovruch (in present-day Ukraine), leading in the style of the Chernobyl chassidic dynasty rather than in the Chabad manner.

Biography

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak was born in 1822 in Lubavitch to the Tzemach Tzedek and Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. He was named after Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Shrei, a grandson-in-law of Rabbi Boruch Batlan — the Rebbetzin Devorah Leah — and an uncle of the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad).

He married Rebbetzin Chana, daughter of Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael of Cherkasy and Rebbetzin Devorah Leah (daughter of the Mitteler Rebbe).

In Tishrei 1876 he fell ill, and on 18 Kislev, 1876, he passed away. He is buried in Ovruch.

Leadership

After his marriage, the Tzemach Tzedek wished for his son to settle in Lubavitch, but his father-in-law opposed this and wanted him appointed as Rebbe in Ovruch — in order to prevent descendants of Rabbi Aharon of Chernobyl, his father-in-law's brother, from taking hold of the rabbinate and leadership of the town.[1] Although this was difficult for Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, he ultimately accepted his father-in-law's proposal, and at the age of thirty-six, in 1859, he assumed the role of Rebbe in the town of Ovruch. His father the Tzemach Tzedek was not pleased with this arrangement.[2] An additional reason given for the move to Ovruch was to help support his father-in-law financially,[3] and yet another was to protect his children from a decree imposed on the Tzemach Tzedek, who had been compelled to hand over several of his grandchildren to the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) school that had been established in Lubavitch.[4]

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak conducted himself in the manner of the Chernobyl Rebbes rather than in the Chabad style. He delivered only brief toiros — short Torah teachings in the Chernobyl tradition — to his general chassidic gatherings, reserving deeper Chassidus discourses (maamarim) for select individuals. Periodically he would visit Lubavitch, where he would deliver extended maamarim to those who sought him out.

He was known as a baal mofes — a Rebbe whose prayers and blessings brought about miraculous results. The book Beis Rebbi records of him:

Yosef was the ruler — even during the lifetime of his father our teacher. He established his home in the city of Ovruch, and people traveled there to receive from him and to seek from him counsel both spiritual and material. In Volhynia they told great things of him and regarded him as a man of wonders… He would come at times to Lubavitch to drink from the well of living waters, and he would draw up and give drink to the chassidim who were bound and wrapped around him…

After his passing, his son Rabbi Nachum Dov Ber Schneersohn succeeded him as Rebbe of Ovruch. Rabbi Nachum Dov Ber passed away on 8 Tevet, 1896, after which his chassidim dispersed among the various Chernobyl dynasties.

Family

  • Son: Rabbi Mordechai Shneur Zalman, rabbi in Zhytomyr.
  • Son: Rabbi Nachum Dov Ber of Ovruch, his successor.
  • Son: Rabbi Aharon Moshe Schneersohn; married Sara Batya, daughter of his cousin Rabbi Meshulam Zusha Shapira of Tolomatch.[5] Passed away at age twenty-one on Shushan Purim 1867.
    • Son: Rabbi Nachum Zalman, rabbi in Cherkasy; married Rebbetzin Sterna Feiga, daughter of Rabbi Mordechai Dov Twersky of Hornistopil, a descendant of the Mitteler Rebbe.
      • Son: Rabbi Yisrael; married Rebbetzin Adel.[6]
      • Son: Rabbi Yosef Moshe; married Rebbetzin Nechama, daughter of Rabbi Shimon Alter Frankel-Teomim, rabbi of Podguzhe.
      • Son: R' Chaim; married Sonya.
      • Son: Rabbi Aharon Mendel (4 Tammuz 1886 – 29 Cheshvan 1960); married Chaya, daughter of his cousin Rabbi Chaim Moshe Tzvi Twersky of Rachmastrivka, son of Rabbi Mordechai Dov Twersky of Hornistopil, a descendant of the Mitteler Rebbe.
      • Son: Rabbi Meshulam Zusha; married Devorah.
      • Daughter: Devorah Leah; married Rabbi Yitzchak Schneersohn, son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman Schneersohn, a descendant of the Tzemach Tzedek.
      • Daughter: Chana; married R' Shlomo Shapira.
  • Daughter: Rebbetzin Sterna Sara, wife of the Rebbe Rashab (Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Rebbe of Chabad).
  • Daughter: Rebbetzin Sheina Bracha; married Rabbi Naftali Hertz Dolitska of Kamina.
    • Son: R' Mordechai Ben Tzion (born 1881); married Pesya, daughter of Rabbi Aharon Perlmutter.
    • Son: R' Shalom Noach (born 1888); married Hinda, daughter of Rabbi Yisrael Yaakov Hornstein.
    • Daughter: Devorah Leah (born 14 Tevet 1885); married R' Shlomo HaKohen Hornstein.
    • Daughter: Musya (5 Tevet 1887 – 16 Iyar 1953); married R' Shmuel Aba Shapira.

External Links

  1. ↑ Bloy, Bnei HaTzemach Tzedek, p. 204.
  2. ↑ Igros Kodesh of the Tzemach Tzedek (1986 ed.), vol. 2, letter 4; (2013 ed.), letters 66–67, p. 146ff.
  3. ↑ Bloy, Bnei HaTzemach Tzedek, p. 201.
  4. ↑ Sefer HaSichos 5700 [Hebrew translation], p. 149ff.
  5. ↑ A son-in-law of his grandfather Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael of Cherkasy.
  6. ↑ Of the Orbach family.
Retrieved from "https://chabadpedia.com/index.php?title=Yosef_Yitzchak_Schneersohn_(Son_of_the_Tzemach_Tzedek)&oldid=16090"