ABSTRACT
Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, often called ‘The Lubavitcher Rebbe’ or just ‘The Rebbe’, was the seventh and last leader of the Hasidic Chabad movement. The founder of this Hasidic dynasty was Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady, 1 also known as the Alter Rebbe (1745–1813), who belonged to the representatives of the so-called third generation of tzadiks. 2 He differed from the rest of the Hasidic tzadiks predominantly by the emphasis he laid on the intellect, from which the name of the whole movement – Chabad – stems. It is an acronym of the Hebrew words ch ochmah (wisdom), b inah (understanding) and d a'at (knowledge), which represent, according to the Kabbalah, the highest capacities of a human soul that correspond to the intellect in the widest sense of the word. The teachings of Rabbi Shneur are summarized in a five-volume work, Likutei amarim (‘A Collection of Statements’), which is also known by the title Tanya. Even though during the Alter Rebbe's lifetime the dispute between Hasids 3 and their opponents (the so-called Mitnagdim) was culminating, this work received recognition even from some rabbis who otherwise tended to criticize the Hasids. Today the book forms the central text of the Lubavitcher movement. As has been mentioned, the Chabad movement is sometimes used as a synonym for Lubavitcher Hasids. This name is derived from the Belorussian town of Lubavitch, where Shneur's eldest son, Rabbi Dov Ber Shneuri, moved after he assumed leadership of the Hasids (see Rubinstein and Lior, 2007: 553–555; Freeman, n.d.).
