Menachem Mendel Schneersohn

This article covers the third Rebbe of the Chabad dynasty. For other personalities with a similar name, see: Schneersohn .

Menachem Mendel Schneersohn

Menachem Mendel Schneersohn ( Hebrew מנחם מנדל שניאורסון; born on September 9th ^jul. / September 20,  1789 ^greg. in Ljosna ; died on March 17th ^jul. / March 29,  1866 ^greg. in Lubavitch), also known as Zemach Zedek (צמח צדק, "Scion of Justice") was an Orthodox rabbi and the third Rebbe - spiritual leader - of the Chabad movement, a Hasidic group within Orthodox Judaism .

Life

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn was born in 1789 in Ljosna, Belarus, to his parents Shalom Shachna and Devora Lea, a daughter of Rabbi Schneor Salman von Ljadi . When he was three years old, his mother died and his grandfather, R. Schneor Salman, became his foster father. In 1803 he married his cousin Chaya Moussia (a daughter of Rabbi Dowber von Lubavitch). After the death of his father-in-law / uncle, he took over the leadership of the Chabad movement the day before Shavuot 5591 (May 5, 1831). He died on Nisan 13, 5626 (March 29, 1866) in Lubavitch, leaving seven sons and two daughters. His youngest son, Shmuel, followed him as Rebbe von Lubavitch, while four other sons founded their own Hasidic centers, which existed to varying degrees until the Holocaust (1941–1945).

After his responsen work Zemach Zedek , Schneersohn is also called Zemach Zedek . His first name Menachem (מנחם) corresponds to the numerical value of Zemach (צמח), his first name Mendel (מנדל) corresponds to the numerical value of Zedek (צדק) (see Gematria ).

Services

Schneersohn founded the aid organization Chevras Techias HaMejsim , which supported Jewish child soldiers who were recruited by the tsarist army for years of military service and were often encouraged to convert to Christianity .

He founded yeshivot in Dubrovno and Kalisk, where around 600 students studied together.

He collected important manuscripts from his grandfather, Schneor Salman von Ljadi, and published them under the names Likute Tora , Tora Or (both Hasidic commentaries on the weekly sections of the Torah) and Siddur in the roof (commentary on Siddur ).

Works

• Zemach Zedek - Responses and Commentaries on the Talmud , 6 vol.
• Derech Mitzvotecha (“The Way of Your Commandments”) - Reasons for the Mitzvot (commandments of the Torah ) according to Hasidic philosophy
• Or Ha-Tora (“Light of the Torah”) - 42-volume work with commentaries on the Torah and the Jewish holidays
• Biure Sohar - Explanations of the Kabbalistic Book of Zohar
• Sefer Ha-Chakira - Derech Emunah ( "Book of Research - the path of faith") - a philosophical work, similar to the More Nevuchim of Maimonides
• Sefer Ha-Likutim - a kind of Hasidic encyclopedia with alphabetical entries, compiled from his works