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>>23705137
https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1235
Shneur Zalman of Liady
byImmanuel Etkes
Translated from Hebrew by Jeffrey Green
(ca. 1745–1812), Hasidic leader and founder of Ḥabad
Hasidism, the branch promulgated by the Lubavitch movment. Shneur Zalman was born in Liozno (Liazna, Belarus); when he was about 20, he was attracted to Hasidism. He joined the bet midrash of Dov Ber, the Magid
of Mezritsh, for a number of years, studied Kabbalah
with him, and regarded him as his master. After the Magid’s death, Shneur Zalman became an associate of Menaḥem Mendel of Vitebsk, a senior colleague and teacher.
The process of Shneur Zalman’s acceptance as a Hasidic leader was a lengthy one, connected to the wave of Hasidic immigration to the Land of Israel in 1777. Menaḥem Mendel of Vitebsk and Avraham of Kalisk led immigrants there and at the same time sought to continue guiding the Hasidim who had remained in Belorussia. To fill the gap in leadership they had left behind, they appointed Shneur Zalman and two other men as substitutes. This arrangement proved unsatisfactory, and many Hasidim began to travel to foreign tsadikim, to the dismay of the emigrant leaders. Against this background, the leadership authority of Shneur Zalman gradually expanded, though he became the sole leader of the Hasidim of Belorussia only after the death of Menaḥem Mendel in 1788.
Shneur Zalman began to function as a leader while the expansion of Hasidism was at its height. Like other tsadikim of his generation, he wrestled with the question of the correct way to transmit the Hasidic manner of serving God to the growing general public of new adherents. He believed that it was not the tsadik
’s task to serve as a bridge between the Hasid and God; rather, the tsadik had to be content with his role as a guide, and the responsibility for ascent in the worship of God was incumbent upon each individual Hasid. Shneur Zalman also rejected the view that a tsadik was endowed with supernatural powers, and that he was responsible for fulfilling the earthly needs of his Hasidim. This position was not acceptable, however, to the masses of Hasidim, who expected that he would follow the path taken by many other tsadikim. The pressure that the Hasidim imposed upon Shneur Zalman and his aspiration to draw them closer to him led him to take a compromise position: he would not promise to fulfill the earthly needs of his Hasidim, but was willing to listen and give advice in these areas.
The patterns of leadership that Shneur Zalman developed were suitable to this conception of his role. Two principal focuses of his activity were his court, which was in the town in which he lived, and the periphery, which included scores of distant Hasidic minyanim (prayer communities). The central activity of the court was the sermon that Shneur Zalman delivered to his Hasidim, intended to guide them in the service of God. In addition to the sermon, a framework of individual meetings with the rebbe
was created, known as yekhides (Heb., yeḥidut)—being alone with the rebbe. In the course of such a meeting, each Hasid could pour out his troubles before Shneur Zalman and receive his instruction and blessing.
During the 1790s, the stream of Hasidim flowing to Shneur Zalman’s court increased into the thousands, leading him to institute special regulations to organize and regulate the visits of devotees to his court. Preference was given to new Hasidim, who had not yet met with him, over veteran Hasidim, who were permitted to visit just once a year (aside from four holidays, when all Hasidim were permitted to gather there). Underlying these regulations was Shneur Zalman’s belief that in order to guide a new Hasid in a way that suited the individual’s personality, he had to hold a long conversation with him. It is not clear to what degree these regulations were enforced, but the fact of their publication indicates the expansion of Ḥabad Hasidism and the pains taken by Shneur Zalman as a Hasidic leader.
Another focus was the Hasidic communities, which were dispersed mainly in Belorussia but also in other parts of the Pale of Settlement. Shneur Zalman closely supervised the activities of these congregations, both by means of local leaders and through emissaries. In that way, he sought to make certain that the Hasidim did indeed follow his instructions in their daily life with respect to the worship of God. He also dispensed punishments, the most severe of which was denying a Hasid the right to visit his court.
In 1797, a conflict broke out between Shneur Zalman and Avraham of Kalisk. Avraham leveled harsh accusations against his former colleague and attacked him for revealing secrets of the Kabbalah in Shneur Zalman’s book the Tanya—secrets that by nature were not supposed to be revealed—and for deviating from the path of the founders of Hasidism, who endowed their followers with simple, innocent faith. Avraham also attacked the organizational patterns instituted by Shneur Zalman and challenged his authority as a leader. Shneur Zalman rejected these accusations and threatened to stop raising money for those who lived in the Land of Israel. In response, Avraham instituted an alternative mechanism for raising money. When he realized, however, that he was powerless to impose his authority over Shneur Zalman, Avraham severed relations with him completely, in 1806. Both leaders sought to influence public opinion among the Hasidim, and Shneur Zalman emerged victorious from this struggle—which contributed to a sharpened self-awareness on the part of his Hasidim as constituting a special community, proud of their leader and his path.
Shneur Zalman was involved in the controversy between Hasidim and Misnagdim from the start. In winter 1772, he went to Vilna with Menaḥem Mendel of Vitebsk to convince the Vilna Gaon
that rumors describing the Hasidim as a heretical sect were groundless. The Gaon, whose negative opinion of the Hasidim had already been formed, refused to receive them. Soon afterward, Shneur Zalman took part in a debate held in Shklov, in the course of which the Hasidim were accused of showing contempt for Torah
scholars and of wild behavior that led to profanation of the name of God. Following this debate, the leaders of Shklov reported to the Vilna Gaon and reinforced his opinion of the nature of Hasidism. The Gaon’s proclamation that Hasidim were heretics led the Jewish community of Vilna to launch an organized and systematic campaign against Hasidism during Passover 1772.
Shneur Zalman nonetheless helped determine that the Hasidic response to persecution at the hands of the Misnagdim would be one of maximal restraint. In this spirit, he scrupulously honored the Vilna Gaon, both during the latter’s life and after his death. He did not hesitate to attribute responsibility for the persecution of Hasidim to the Vilna Gaon, but believed that the Gaon had been misled by false witnesses and that he had acted in good faith.
In October 1798, Shneur Zalman was arrested and interrogated as a result of being denounced to the Russian authorities as a threat to the state. The informer argued that Hasidism was a new religion, forbidden by law; that its leaders encouraged young people to steal money from their parents; and that Shneur Zalman was sending large sums of money out of the country without authorization. Shneur Zalman managed to refute the accusations against him, and at the end of November was released from prison in Saint Petersburg. The day of his release, 19 Kislev, is celebrated by Ḥabad Hasidim to this day. In 1801, Shneur Zalman was arrested and imprisoned again, this time following a denunciation by Avigdor ben Ḥayim, the deposed rabbi of Pinsk. Shneur Zalman was released from prison after about a month, but he remained in Saint Petersburg until the middle of the summer. After he left Saint Petersburg he transferred his court to the town of Liady.
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