The Early Years

The rise and growth of the Chassidic movement was rapid. Under the slogan of “G-d wants your heart” (Rachmonoh liboh boey), the leaders of this genuine renaissance recaptured the happiness and bliss of the Jewish faith for the common man.

In and through it even Jewish peasants, traders, laborers and craftsmen found themselves in the warm haven of the Torah universe from which they had been excluded because of their limited scholarship. No longer forced to consider their religion a “Paradise Lost,” they eagerly absorbed the inspired message of the Torah on the emotional level upon which Chassidism projected it for them.

One of the greatest of the outstanding Chassidic personalities was Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, later famous as the Rav (teacher). This saintly man became the founder of Chabad Chassidism, a movement which developed into one of the strongest and most dynamic branches of Chassidism.

This movement, founded in Lithuania in 5533 (1773), grew far beyond the boundaries of this once mighty center of Jewish life, and gained enthusiastic adherents throughout the world.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman was a direct descendant of the MaHaRaL of Prague. His great-grandfather later lived in a village in Posen. The family moved eastward, wandering through Galicia and Poland and finally settled in Vitebsk, then a flourishing centre of Torah and Talmudic scholarship.

It was there that Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s father, Rabbi Baruch, was born and reared in the spirit and tradition of learning. Later he moved to Liozna, near the town of Lubavitch, which was to become famous as the seat of the dynasty of the Rav’s descendants.

Here Shneur Zalman was born. Here, too, he received his first instruction, and from his earliest youth he showed unusual brilliance, diligence and devotion to his studies.

In order to develop further his son’s scholarship, Rabbi Baruch took him to a renowned teacher of the time, Rabbi Issachar Ber of Kobilnik, who lived in Lubavitch. Under Rabbi Issachar Ber’s tutelage the young scholar traversed the “sea of the Talmud” in all directions and familiarized himself with Kabbalah, the esoteric side of traditional Torah wisdom.

In his spare time the eager boy further increased his knowledge through the study of science and mathematics. Before long, Rabbi Issachar Ber sent for Rabbi Baruch and told the overjoyed father of his student: “There is nothing more that I can teach your son; he has grown beyond me.”

Rabbi Baruch now took Shneur Zalman to Vitebsk. The twelve-year old boy won immediate recognition and fame as a genius, and he was accepted as an equal by the great scholars of the city.