Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Menachem Mendel Schneerson ( born April 18, 1902 in Nikolayev, Ukraine, † June 12, 1994 in New York) was more than four decades the chief - " the Rebbe " - the Chabad movement, a Hasidic group within orthodox Judaism. Towards the end of his life he was regarded by many Chabad as the Messiah, even after his death and resurrection of the previously surviving some Jewish groups continue to believe because in him the Messiah had appeared. (see Messiah controversy ).

Biography

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was the eldest son of the Kabbalist and Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, who led from 1909 to 1937 the town Jekaterinoslaw as a Rabbi, Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson and the. He grew up together with two younger brothers. In 1923 he first met in person his second cousin, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. In 1928 he married his daughter Chaya Moussia. He then moved to Berlin, where he began a course of study. Because of the Nazi threat, he later moved to Paris. 1940, the Wehrmacht occupied Paris. With one of the last trains Schneerson escaped to Vichy. From there he went to Nice and emigrated in 1941 to New York. His sister and her husband were murdered in 1942 in the concentration camp Treblinka. Back in Paris, he assisted his father in the administrative leadership of the Lubavitcher movement. 1951, a year after the death of his father, he formally assumed the leadership of the movement.

Schneerson, who was ordained by Rabbi Yosef Rosen, the " Rogatschower Gaon " was an important representative of Hasidic Judaism and was the seventh and last time being spiritual leader of the Lubavitcher movement.

Apart from three visits a summer camp for children in the Catskill Mountains in the late 1950s, left Schneerson in 1951 not a single time New York City. Even the District Crown Heights in Brooklyn, he hardly left, except for visits to the grave of his father in Queens, New York. One year after the death of his wife in 1988, when the traditional year of Jewish mourning was over, he moved into his study above the central Lubavitch synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway.

1983 presented to the U.S. Congress on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Schneerson 's birthday as a national day of education ( Education Day, USA ) fixed and awarded him the National Scroll of Honor

Rabbi Schneerson received several times a week during the night visitors for private meetings (Hebrew Jechidut ). With the growth of the Chabad movement and increasing workload Schneerson limited this meeting an increasingly. As of April 1986, she was completely abolished, instead Schneerson received every Sunday thousands of people who received individually from him a U.S. dollar bill, the (Hebrew tzedakah ) should be donated to charity. People took advantage of this brief encounter often for asking for advice or a blessing.

1992 Schneerson suffered a stroke while praying at the tomb of his father. As a result, he remained paralyzed on the right side of the body and could no longer speak. In June 1994, Schneerson died in a New York hospital.

For his life's work and for his " exceptional and lasting contributions to global education, morality, and acts of kindness " Schneerson was posthumously with the highest civilian award of the U.S. Congress, the Congressional Gold Medal, considered.

Work and activities

Devoted special attention to Rabbi Schneerson, the study of Torah. He himself was in this area a prolific author; alone his work Likkute Sichot comprises 49 volumes. Parts of his extensive correspondence were published under the title Igrot Kodesh in so far 28 volumes; his English-language correspondence under the title Letters from the Rebbe (4 vol ) and The Letter and the Spirit.

Its always recited in the synagogue Torah 770 Eastern Parkway declarations were published under the following titles:

• Maamarim Melukat (5 vol )
• Likkute Sichot (39 Vol ) - Statements to the weekly sections of the Torah
• Sefer HaSichot (10 Vol ) - Statements to the weekly sections of the Torah
• Biurim le- Ferusch Rashi al ha - Torah (5 Vol ) - explanations of Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch
• Haggadah Shel Pesach (2 Vol ) - Explanations of the Haggadah and the Passover
• Hadranim Al ha - Shas (2 Vol ) - Observations on the Talmud

These works were all of R. Menachem M. Schneerson edited. The much larger issue of his unedited Torah interpretations, entitled Torat Menachem - Hitwaadujot work in progress. Currently, 35 volumes (treated the vintages 1951-1962, April 2008 ) in a new edition, and 43 volumes (includes vintages from 1982 to 1992 ) available in an old issue.

In Schneersohn thousands of young Chabad rabbis and their wives were trained as shluchim (Hebrew Messenger ) were sent to all parts of the world to support Jewish communities.

Schneerson initiated ten Mitzvah campaigns that Jews should be moved towards greater observance of religious commandments ( mitzvot in Hebrew ). Were stressed Special thereby laying tefillin, the firing of Shabbat Candles by Jewish women and girls, the Torah study and kashrut.

Schneerson met basically no halachic decisions. Yet in the following exceptional cases he spoke up: to use a microphone concerning the prohibition in the synagogue on Shabbat and Jewish holiday; in connection with ships owned by Jews, which are operated on the Sabbath; its position that the Halacha prohibits the abandonment of the conquered territories for supposed peace; and his decades-long effort to align the Law of Return of the State of Israel to the Halacha.