Shneur Zalman of Liadi
Shneur Zalman of Liadi (Hebrew: שניאור זלמן מליאדי; September 4, 1745 – December 15, 1812 O.S. / 18 Elul 5505 – 24 Tevet 5573) was a rabbi and the founder and first Rebbe of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism. He wrote many works, and is best known for Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Tanya, and his Siddur Torah Or compiled according to the Nusach Ari.
Not to be confused with Schneour Zalman Schneersohn.
Shneur Zalman of Liadi
Alter Rebbe / Baal HaTanya
27 December 1812 (aged 67)
[OS: 15 December 1812]
Sterna Segal
Dovber Schneuri
Chaim Avraham
Moshe
Freida
Devorah Leah
Rochel
- Boruch (father)
- Rivkah (mother)
gradual (late 1700s)
December 15, 1812 OS
Names[edit]
Zalman is a Yiddish variant of Solomon and Shneur (or Shne'or) is a Yiddish composite of the two Hebrew words "shnei ohr" (שני אור "two lights").
He is also known as Shneur Zalman Baruchovitch, using the Russian patronymic of his father Baruch,[1] and by a variety of other titles and acronyms including "Baal HaTanya VeHaShulchan Aruch'" ("Author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch"), "Alter Rebbe" (Yiddish for "Old Rabbi"), "Admor HaZaken" (Hebrew for ″Our Old Master and Teacher″), "Rabbenu HaZaken" (Hebrew for "Our Old Rabbi"), "Rabbenu HaGadol" (Hebrew for "Our Great Rabbi")", "RaShaZ" (רש"ז for Rabbi Shneor Zalman), "GRaZ" (גר"ז for Ga'on Rabbi Zalman), and "HaRav" (The Rabbi, par excellence).
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Shneur Zalman was born in 1745 in the small town of Liozna, Grand Duchy of Lithuania (present-day Belarus). He was the son of Baruch,[2] who was a paternal descendant of the mystic and philosopher Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel.[3] According to Meir Perels of Prague, the Maharal was the great-great-grandson of Judah Leib the Elder who was said to have descended paternally from Hai Gaon and therefore also from the Davidic dynasty; however, several modern historians such as Otto Muneles and Shlomo Engard have questioned this claim.[4] Shneur Zalman was a prominent (and the youngest) disciple of Dov Ber of Mezeritch, the "Great Maggid", who was in turn the successor of the founder of Hasidic Judaism, Yisrael ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov.