The Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem-Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), is considered the most phenomenal Jewish spiritual leader and thinker of the modern era. Hundreds of volumes of published works, thousands of messengers around the world carrying the light of his teachings, hundreds of thousands of followers, millions of supporters and admirers for whom he was and remains the Rebbe – Teacher, Mentor, Leader and role model. The man through whose efforts the conscience of a generation was stirred and the spiritual awakening of the Jews began.

The Rebbe was born on 11 Nisan 5662 (April 18, 1902) in the city of Nikolayev. His father Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Schneerson was one of the most famous rabbis in Russia at that time. A scholar with profound knowledge of the Talmud, Jewish law, and Hasidic thought, he became an implacable opponent of the new values imposed by the Bolsheviks. His wife Hana, the daughter of Rabbi Meir-Shloimo Yanovsky of Nikolayev, was a like-minded and loyal friend of her husband.
The boy, the first child in the family, was named in honor of his great-grandfather, Rabbi Menachem-Mendel, the Third Lubavitcher Rebbe, widely known in Jewish circles for his halachic work “Tzemach Tzedek”. Rabbi Rashab, a famous relative of the father’s Lubavitcher Rebbe, provided the child’s parents with a series of instructions. For example, the mother performed ritual hand washing “netilat yadayim” before each feeding of the infant.

When Menachem-Mendel was five years old, his parents were forced to remove him from the cheder because of his extraordinary academic success and to hire teachers to give him individual lessons. The cheder teacher was convinced that “this child was born to be great”.

Menachem-Mendel had two brothers, Dov-Ber and Yisroel-Aryeh-Leib. Dov-Ber’s fate was tragic. From childhood he had serious health problems and spent most of his time in hospitals. When Rabbi Levi Yitzhak was arrested and exiled to Kazakhstan, where Dov-Ber could not receive the necessary medical care, and the road was too difficult for him, it was decided that he would stay in Dnepropetrovsk. During the war he shared the fate of millions of Jews – he was shot by the Nazis. As for Yisroel-Arieh-Leib, he was destined to become a scientist, a mathematician. Soon after the revolution, he left for Palestine, and then moved to England and lived there until the end of his life.

In the numerous memoirs about the Rebbe’s childhood, one detail draws attention to itself – the lack of information about childhood games. The boy did not play, he studied. Many are proud to have known him, but no one would dare to call himself his friend. Apparently, he had no friends: for children he was too smart, for adults – small. The father realized early on that his son would not be able to be a mere “yeshiva bocher,” a yeshiva student. The boy was nine years old when he sent his research in Jewish jurisdiction to the children’s newspaper “Ah”, which was then published in Lubavitchi. The prodigy’s essay was published.

He was interested not only in Torah, but also in secular sciences. His father allowed him to study science in his spare time, which took him 18 hours a day. Nevertheless, little Menachem-Mendel graduated from the local high school within six months, receiving a gold medal and a state certificate.
In 1923, a young man traveled to Rostov for what was probably the most important meeting of his life. He went to meet Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. In 1927 he left Russia together with the Rebbe’s family, and in 1929 he married the Rebbe’s daughter Chaya-Muse in Warsaw. From Warsaw, the newlyweds moved to Berlin.

The next period of the Rebbe’s life seems to be the least covered by biographers. First, it is his studies at the University of Berlin – until 1933. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, the student Schneerson was forced to leave the University of Heidelberg, where he studied mathematics and philosophy at the same time. His then former fellow student, later the famous Rabbi Yosef-Dov Soloveitchik recalls: “This was not an ordinary student. I immediately paid attention to him. A young man with a beard was reading some small book in Hebrew all the time during lectures. I soon learned that this student was the son-in-law of the Lubavitcher Rebbe”.

In 1933, the couple moved from Germany to France, to Paris. He continued his studies at the Sorbonne, at the Faculty of Shipbuilding, where he received his diploma.

In 1941, the Schneerson couple managed to escape from occupied France to the United States, by which time Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak had already settled there.

In America, Rabbi Menachem-Mendel expected to pursue his profession, shipbuilding. For a time he worked at a military base and participated in the design of ships and submarines. The Rebbe’s secretary tells us that until the end of his life, the Rebbe received the payments due him for his innovations in shipbuilding. But the famous father-in-law insisted that his son-in-law head two of the largest Lubavitcher organizations – Merkaz Leinyanei Hinuch, the headquarters of HaBaDa’s educational institutions, the charitable organization Mahane Israel and the publishing house Kegot.

After the death of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson, in 1950, the question of his successor naturally arose. The Hasidim faced a choice between two of the Rebbe’s sons-in-law. Rabi Shmarya Gurarii, the husband of the eldest daughter, was the head of the Lubavitcher yeshiva. He had spent all his years by his father-in-law’s side and was prepared to be his successor. Rabi Menachem-Mendel, on the other hand, was not eager to assume such great responsibility. Moreover, he represented a new generation: a graduate of the Sorbonne, a scholar who spoke several European languages. The Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak did not leave any clear instructions on this matter. It is true that on several occasions he hinted that he would prefer a younger son-in-law as his successor.

The future Rebbe was categorically opposed to the offer to take his father-in-law’s place. He even once told the Hasidim who were annoying him that he would have to leave in an unknown direction to get rid of the “absurd proposals. But one thing he could not refuse the Jews – advice and support. Both to him and to his elder son-in-law the Hasidim flocked with questions and requests. This became a good test for the applicants, although, as already noted, one of them was not. After the Rebbe’s next council, Rabbi Shmarya declared that he himself wanted to become the brother-in-law’s chassid and asked him to take over the Rebbe’s duties. But even this was not enough for the Rebbe. Anyway, on the first anniversary of the Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak’s departure from this world, his younger brother-in-law actually became the new Rebbe.

During his leadership, Rabbi Menachem-Mendel Schneerson succeeded in bringing more people closer to Jewishness than all the religious leaders of the current generation combined. His methods were completely innovative, previously unseen in Jewish organizations. The Rebbe used seemingly every opportunity, technology, the press, and public influence to accomplish what he accomplished. A decimated, seemingly dying Hasidic movement has been transformed into a powerful force whose influence is felt by millions of people. The Rebbe built an unprecedented network of HaBaDa branches throughout the world. Thousands of his followers have traveled to all corners of the earth, and as one of Israel’s greatest rabbis put it, “Wherever you go, you will find two things – Coca-Cola and HaBaD. And even where there is no Coca-Cola, there is HaBaD.

Many people have always wondered why the Rebbe does not move to live in Israel. This question was obvious due to the fact that the Rebbe’s love for the country of Israel and his constant interest in the events taking place there were well known.

The Rebbe himself was asked this question many times. He once answered: “I know that some people say that it is easy to talk about the unity of Jerusalem while sitting on Eastern Parkway. But every Jew has an inheritance in the Land of Israel. As Rabbi Yehuda A-Levi said, “I am in the west, but my heart is in the east.” All of our faith is connected to the Land of Israel. Another question is why not everyone goes there to live. But this question has nothing to do with the first one, because more than once or twice Israelis come to us, Diaspora Jews, and ask us to help solve some issues with this senator or influence this government official to have a better attitude toward the State of Israel.” “If a Hasid comes to us and asks for permission to go to Israel, and yet he holds no position in education or is not an active rabbi, we say to him, ‘Go,’ and bless him with a wish for a good arrangement. But the problem begins when the people who want to go are the ones who have the Jewish communities of the Diaspora on their shoulders, and it is obvious that with their departure everything will fall apart. Then we say to him: “Take the example of the captain of a ship in a stormy sea. He can’t, he has no right to leave the ship until all the passengers have left” ….

The Rebbe was a consistent opponent of the transfer of territories “in exchange for peace”. During negotiations on the eve of the signing of the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, Menachem Begin, then Prime Minister of the Jewish state, was granted an audience with the Rebbe. The Rebbe told him: “A Jew must state unequivocally and clearly the rights of the Jewish people to the Holy Land, that this right is based on the G-dly Torah, in which the nations of the world also believe.”

After the treaty was signed, the Rebbe did not hide his disappointment: “How many times can we repeat the same mistakes? I have no doubt about the need to find a peaceful solution, but I am also certain that the path of concession is not the path of peace.

The Rebbe pushed for Israel to have maximum benefits for large families. “A country that shells out tens of thousands of dollars per returnee cannot help but support programs to increase the birthrate of Israel’s residents.”

If one were to try to describe the Rebbe’s main message to the world in a few words, it would probably be the responsibility of the Jewish people for every Jew. No matter who he is or what spiritual state he is in. There is no one about whom it can be said that he is “zero,” “farfallein,” “missing.” We have no right to leave any person out. This is precisely why the Rebbe built the HaBaDa empire, sending his emissaries even to places where there were only a few Jews.

We are proud that the Rebbe spent his childhood and youth in our city, Yekaterinoslav – Dnepropetrovsk, where his father was a rabbi. Many times the Rebbe very warmly called Dnepropetrovsk “My City”.