הרב דובער שניאורי

Rav Dovber Schneuri (9 Kislev 5534/1773–9 Kislev 5588/1827), known as the Mitteler Rebbe, was the second Rebbe of (Lubavitch) Chabad, leading the chassidut from 5573/1812 until his passing. He was born in Liozna to Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Baal HaTanya, and his rebbetzin Sterna, and was named for his father’s rebbe, Rav Dov Ber of Mezeritch. In 5548/1788 he married Rebbetzin Sheina. Already in his father’s lifetime he served as mashpia to the younger chassidim in the study groups his father had set up. After his father’s passing he was appointed in his place and settled in the small town of Lubavitch in Russia, from which the chassidut took the name it carries to this day.

His father’s talmid and chavruta Rav Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye differed with him on the understanding of the Tanya and withdrew to establish a court of his own; the greater part of Rav Shneur Zalman’s chassidim followed Rav Dovber to Lubavitch. There he founded a yeshiva that drew gifted young lomdim, headed by his son-in-law Rav Menachem Mendel, who later succeeded him as Rebbe.

He labored for the material welfare of Russian Jewry no less than for its ruchniyut. In 5574 he set up a committee to rebuild the towns of White Russia laid waste in the Napoleonic war, and the year after worked to have land in the Kherson district set aside for Jewish settlement; thirty-nine agricultural colonies were founded there by 1815, and they stood some hundred and twenty years until the Nazis destroyed them. He pressed communities to open trade schools and to teach a boy a craft or farming. In 5575 he established a Chabad settlement in Chevron and bought a building there, today the shul called for his daughter Menucha Rachel Slonim. On 22 Tishrei 5587 he was arrested on an informer’s charge and released on 10 Kislev, a day Chabad chassidim keep as a chag hageulah.

His sefarim open out his father’s ma’amarim, expanding pieces of a few pages into dozens and at times hundreds, and they set the avodah of hitbonenut — deep, deliberate contemplation — at the center of Lubavitcher practice. Among them are Sha’ar HaYichud, called the key of Chassidut, and Shaarei Orah, its alef-beit, both written for every chassid; Kuntres HaHitpaalut, composed in 5573/1813, on inward arousal in tefillah as against outward display; Bi’urei HaZohar; Torat Chaim on Bereishit and Shemot; Ateret Rosh for the Yamim Noraim; and Shaarei Teshuvah with its continuation Derech Chaim. He was niftar on his fifty-fourth birthday in Nizhyn after a hard illness; an ohel stands over his kever, beside which his grandson Rav Yisrael Noach Schneersohn is buried.