Scion of Scions

We hath mentioned that the found of Hasidism, the Ba’al Shem Tov, was one of many, but none quite like him, and he had many followers, but 2 stuck out for our sakes and purposes, one was closer to him and his teachings and his personality, his scribe, Ya’akov Yoseph of Polnea. 

But the other chief disciple was more influential and more responsible for establishing a phenomenon into somewhat of a movement.

He came from the important rabbinical institutions, and he to a degree revised the ways of his teacher, making the new school more into a mission of a plurality of pious men, and a bit less of a supportive group, whose mission was to support the mystical leader - not excluding the critical role of the main man, but emphasizing the role of the followers as mystical influencers partaking in the spiritual burden of the kingdom of Torah, of ha’Shem. 

He is known as the Magid of Mezritch, his name was Dov Ber, son of Avraham, of Mezritch, and the Magid indeed also had many important followers, but one of the more important ones, some argue the most important, was the founder of a particular school of Hasidism, so a movement within of movement, of sorts, the Alter Rebber, the Ba’al ha’Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founding father of Chabad. 

Seven generations later we have the messianic personality of the 20th century, Menachem Schneorson the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but even then, when one looks a bit past the posters and slogans, what we find is an enormous personality indeed, but he actually emphasized the importance of every follower, and not him as a personality, and he also consistently pointed at his part in a chain.

Therefore, he is the individual messianic personality, but it would be more accurate to think of him as the messianic scion of Chabad. 

Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge

Chabad, an acronym for: chochmah, binah, and daat - commonly translated as wisdom, understanding, and knowledge - which are Kabblistic Spheres, this is already telling us something about the movement.

It is a movement, a highly organized group, with institutions and central leadership, etc. that is rooted in the concepts in the brand name itself - a rational mysticism of sorts:

What was special about the founder, and becomes the nature of the movement and its minions, is that he was operating within a mystical context, the Hasidic phenomenon, amongst a bunch of typical mystical personalities, who typically experienced mystical things and didn’t write about it - well he was a thinker and a writer, and he wrote articles which became the book, the Tanya, which is a manual to living life as a meditative, virtuous, and pious spiritual Jew. 

So in the name itself, there is more meaning, there is meaning to the Kabbalistic Spheres themselves, but it is also a matter of the mind - focusing on G-d, transforming your mind, putting your thoughts to holiness, and from that position originate constructive spiritual things.

And within the Spheres that is the dynamic, from the mind internally, flowing through the system and outwards to the external. 

What is rational mystical? It involves a lot of thinking - cognition. The experience is less random and intuitive, but rather it is induced by focusing and conditioning the mind, by contemplating religious concepts. 

It could also be described as unity, or oneness of all things - rational mysticism perceives all things, all the chaos and randomness and conflicting ideas as one greater system, a sensible system, ordering the randomness.

And so Chabad emphasizes oneness of G-d and the spirituality of the world as something to be understood, which is a challenge… 

Observing 2 Attitudes

Then compare that to the irrational mystical nature of Breslev spirituality, where there is embracing of chaos, accepting the conflicting ideas and feelings, thriving upon the paradox, without solving the contradictions.

Indeed these two movements are two different types with Hasidism - rational vs. irrational, plurality vs. personality, institutional dynasty vs. dead Hasidim. 

The two founders actually crossed paths briefly, when Nachman returned from his Israel pilgrimage, in 1798, he visited Schneur Zalman of Liadi, but it is not clear what came out of that. Maybe they didn’t have much to do with each other.

Also, Nachman was 25 years younger! But they are more or less parallel to each other - Nachman died in 1810 and then Schneur Zalman in 1812.

He didn’t go to Israel. His 2 colleagues settled in Israel. They were the other important pupils of the Magid of Mezritch. He stayed in Eastern Europe, not far from Vilna at the time of the Gaon of Vilna, whose group opposed the Hasidim.

Schneur Zalman's mission was to establish a great Hasidic movement in the ways of the teacher, the Magid of Mezritch, and write it up.

Dynasty of the Righteous

The older Rebbe died in 1812. He himself was kind of the heir of the Magid of Mezritch, while the sons of the Magid would not take such a position out of principle to avoid a bloodline type of dynasty.

But this was a new generation. After a struggle between a prime pupil and the son of, the latter succeeded - Dov Ber, named after the Magid. Since then, this Hasidic court was led by familial inheritance.   

Dov Ber the 2nd, the Mittler Rebbe, moved the headquarters to Lyubavitchi, and since then Chabad has been known also as Lubavitch Hasidism. DovBer Schneuri continued the legacy of his dad, by engaging in writing, in producing Hasidism as a written Torah, a proper system.

The third leader of Chabad was named Menachem Mendel Schneurson, after the partner of his grandfather Schneur Zalman of Lyadi - one Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. Now, he was not the son of his predecessor - but nonetheless he was in the family - he married the daughter of his predecessor, so he was the son-in-law, but he was also the first cousin - so he was also a nephew to the predecessor - his own mother was the daughter of Schneur Zalman of Lyadi, and she died when he was just 3 years old, so his grandfather (the Alter Rebbe himself) raised him like a son. He actually tried to defer the appointment, to his brother in law or to his uncle, but so it was. He married the daughter, named Chaya Mushke Schneorson. He is called the Tzemach Tzedek, which is the title of his main book, dealing with Halacha. (This phrase is also a traditional biblical messianic reference.)

Next. The Tzemach Tzedek (number 3) had 7 sons. The youngest, Shmuel, would succeed him. The oldest of those 7 sons refused appointment, and most of the middle sons had already gone out and established branches or their own courts in other towns or died early. So the fourth Chabad leader was the Maharash, Shmuel Schneurson. 

After that, the eldest son succeeded Shmuel Schneurson. His name was Shalom Dov-Ber, aka the Rashab. He was very active on a public level. He also wrote extensively of the Hasidic teachings, like his predecessors, but this was a new thing, the public aspect. In 1920 he appointed his only son as his successor - the Rayatz, Rabbi Yoseph Yitschak Shcneurson, as the 6th Rebbe of Chabad.

(They are all coined also “Admor”, which is an acronym for - adonenu morenu ve-rabenu, our master, teacher, and rabbi. This is common in other Hasidic courts.)

The Rayatz was perhaps the most active of them all. He protested against the new Soviet regime by continuing to engage in religious teaching, which led to his arrest and injury, and expulsion.

He traveled to Israel, visited important places, met with the important people. He traveled to America and even met with the President of the United States, Herbert Hoover - applauding the nation... 

Yoseph Yitschak established an organization in America for Chabad pupils.

In 1939, after rescue from Warsaw when it was conquered by the Nazis, he immigrated to the US and purchased a building in Brooklyn, on 770 Eastern Parkway. He also founded the network of Chabad schools and other institutions all around North America, as well as the Chabad village in Israel. 

The Rayatz wrote extensively, including memoirs, to collect and document the legacy of Chabad as an organization and movement. Basically, it was he who started the Chabad organizational empire, during his lifetime already.

It was managed by his 2 son-in-laws: Smaryahu Gur-Ariye, married to the elder daughter, and Menachem Mendel Schneurson, married to the younger daughter named Chaya Mushka.

Prodigy in Brooklyn

This long one was meant to show the importance within Chabad of the dynasty itself, the chain of succession - the 7th admor was exactly that, he was not a lone star, but part of a multi-generational highly-institutional and prolific movement.

Within Chabad, he is the star, but not exclusively. Within Chabad there is the highest respect and admiration also for the founder Schneur Zalman of Lyadi, and the others as a whole.

And this is not just an impression or a marketing campaign - there is thought and meaning behind it. It is an intentional and profound legacy, with the 7th Rebbe being all that he was, or is, on top of it.