Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Menachem Mendel Schneerson ( – June 12, 1994; AM 11 Nissan 5662 – 3 Tammuz 5754), known to adherents of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply the Rebbe, was an American Orthodox rabbi and the most recent Rebbe of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.Matt Flegenheimer
"Thousands Descend on Queens on 20th Anniversary of Grand Rebbe’s Death"
, ''The New York Times''

As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and transformed it into one of the most influential movements in religious Jewry, with an international network of over 5,000 educational and social centers. The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled, and synagogues.Editorial, 07/08/14
"Rebbe to the city and Rebbe to the world"
. ''The New York Observer''.

Schneerson's published teachings fill more than 400 volumes, and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought, as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional Torah scholarship. Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Vice President of the Orthodox Union
"The Contributions of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to Torah Scholarship"
. Jewish Action Magazine He is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach.Susan Handelman
The Lubavitcher Rebbe Died 20 Years Ago Today. Who Was He?
, Tablet Magazine During his lifetime, many of his adherents believed that he was the Messiah. His own attitude to the subject, and whether he openly encouraged this, is hotly debated among academics. During Schneerson's lifetime, the messianic controversy and other issues elicited fierce criticism from many quarters in the Orthodox world, especially earning him the enmity of Elazar Shach.

In 1978, the U.S. Congress asked President Jimmy Carter to designate Schneerson's birthday as the national Education Day in the U.S. It has been since commemorated as Education and Sharing Day. In 1994, Schneerson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his "outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity". Schneerson's resting place attracts Jews for prayer.Sarah Maslin Nir
Jews Make a Pilgrimage to a Grand Rebbe's Grave
. September 13, 2013, ''The New York Times''.Menachem Butler
Visiting the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Grave in Queens, N.Y.
''Tablet Magazine'', July 2, 2014.

Biography

Early life and education

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born on April 5, 1902 ( OS) (11 Nisan, 5662), in the Black Sea port of Nikolaev in the Russian Empire (now Mykolaiv in Ukraine).Joseph Telushkin, '' Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History''. HarperCollins, 2014. Page 455 His father was rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, a renowned Talmudic scholar and authority on Kabbalah and Jewish law. His mother was Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (). He was named after the third Chabad rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the ''Tzemach Tzedek'', from whom he was a direct patrilineal descendant.

In 1907, when Schneerson was five years old, the family moved to Yekatrinoslav (today, Dnipro), where Levi Yitzchak was appointed Chief Rabbi of the city. He served until 1939, when he was exiled by the Soviets to Kazakhstan. Schneerson had two younger brothers: Dov Ber Schneerson, who was murdered in 1944 by Nazi collaborators, and Yisroel Aryeh Leib Schneerson, who died in 1952 while completing doctoral studies at Liverpool University.

During his youth, he received a private education and was tutored by Zalman Vilenkin from 1909 through 1913. When Schneerson was 11 years old, Vilenkin informed his father that he had nothing more to teach his son. At that point, Levi Yitzchak began teaching his son Talmud and rabbinic literature, as well as Kabbalah. Schneerson proved gifted in both Talmudic and Kabbalistic study and also took exams as an external student of the local Soviet school.Adin Steinsaltz, ''My Rebbe''. Maggid Books, page 24 He was considered an '' illui'' and genius, and by the time he was 17, he had mastered the entire Talmud, some 5,422 pages, as well as all its early commentaries.

Throughout his childhood, Schneerson was involved in the affairs of his father's office. He was also said to have acted as an interpreter between the Jewish community and the Russian authorities on a number of occasions. Levi Yitzchak's courage and principles guided his son for the rest of his life. Many years later, when he once reminisced about his youth, Schneerson said, "I have the education of the first-born son of the rabbi of Yekaterinoslav. When it comes to saving lives, I speak up whatever others may say."

Schneerson went on to receive separate rabbinical ordinations from the Rogatchover Gaon, Joseph Rosen, and Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, author of ''Sridei Aish''.

Marriage and family life

In 1923, Schneerson visited the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, for the first time. He met the rabbi's middle daughter Chaya Mushka—they were distant cousins. Sometime later, they became engaged but were not married until 1928 in Warsaw, Poland. Taking great pride in his son-in-law's outstanding scholarship, Yosef Yitzchak asked him to engage in learned conversation with the great Torah scholars that were present at the wedding, such as Meir Shapiro and Menachem Ziemba. Menachem Mendel and Chaya Mushka were married for 60 years and were childless.Dara Horn, June 13, 201
"Rebbe of Rebbe's"
. ''Book Review 'Rebbe' by Joseph Telushkin and 'My Rebbe' by Adin Steinsaltz'', The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 28, 2014.

Menachem Mendel and Yosef Yitzchak were both descendants of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, known as the ''Tzemach Tzedek'', the third Rebbe of Chabad. Schneerson later commented that the day of his marriage bound the community to him and him to the community.Eli Rubin
"High Holidays in Riga: Self and Community"
/ref>

In 1947, Schneerson traveled to Paris to take his mother, Chana Schneerson, back to New York City with him.'' Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History''. HarperCollins, 2014. Page 475 Schneerson would visit her every day and twice each Friday and prepare her tea. In 1964, Chana Schneerson died.

On February 10, 1988, Schneerson's wife Chaya died.''The New York Times'
"Chaya Schneerson"
, February 11, 1988 A year after the death of his wife, when the traditional year of Jewish mourning had passed, Schneerson moved into his study above the central Lubavitch synagogue on Eastern Parkway.

Berlin

After his wedding to Chaya Mushka in 1928, Schneerson and his wife moved to Berlin in the Weimar Republic (now part of Germany), where he was assigned specific communal tasks by his father-in-law, who also requested that he write scholarly annotations to the ''responsa'' and various Hasidic discourses of the earlier Rebbes of Chabad-Lubavitch. Schneerson studied mathematics, physics, and philosophy at the University of Berlin."The Early Years Volume II (1931–1938)" Jewish Educational Media, 2006 (UPC 74780 00058) He would later recall that he enjoyed Erwin Schrödinger's lectures. His father-in-law took great pride in his son-in-law's scholarly attainments and paid for all the tuition expenses and helped facilitate his studies throughout.

During his stay in Berlin, his father-in-law encouraged him to become more of a public figure, but Schneerson described himself as an introvert, and was known to have pleaded with acquaintances not to make a fuss over the fact that he was the son-in-law of Yosef Yitzchak.

While in Berlin, Schneerson met Joseph B. Soloveitchik and the two formed a friendship that remained between them years later when they emigrated to America.
He wrote hundreds of pages of his own original Torah discourses, and conducted a serious interchange of ''halachic'' correspondence with many of Eastern Europe's leading rabbinic figures, including the Rogachover Gaon. In 1933, he also met with Chaim Elazar Shapiro, as well as with Talmudist Shimon Shkop. During this time, he kept a diary in which he would carefully document his private conversations with his father-in-law, as well as his kabbalistic correspondence with his father, Levi Yitzchak.

Paris

In 1933, after the Nazis took over Germany, the Schneersons left Berlin and moved to Paris, where Menachem Mendel (known as "RaMash" before accepting the leadership of Chabad)continued his religious and communal activities on behalf of his father-in-law.

While in Paris, he took a two-year course in engineering at a vocational college.

During that time, Yosef Yitzchak recommended that Professor Alexander Vasilyevitch Barchenko consult with Schneerson regarding various religious and mystical matters, and prominent rabbis, such as Yerachmiel Binyaminson and Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, turned to Schneerson with their rabbinic and kabbalistic queries.

On June 11, 1940, three days before Paris fell to the Nazis, the Schneersons fled to Vichy and later to Nice

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