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Chasidim of Lubawicze
The Chasidim of Lubawicze [Yiddish, Lubavitcher
Chasidim - also known as ChaBaD, from the Hebrew, Chokhma,
Bina, Dea =
Wisdom, Understanding, Cognition - the three sephiroth
comprising the
first phase of the emanation of God, the beginning of the
creation of
the world; they are also three virtues particularly valued
by this
Chasidic community] - A Lithuanian branch of Chasidism
founded by Shnuer
Zalman (1747-1813) of Lyady (Ladow) [currently in Belarus -
Ed.].
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His son and successor, Dov Ber Shnirson
(Schneersohn, 1773-1827), brought his seat from Ladow to
Lubawicze
[Lubavichi, in present-day Belarus - Ed.]. ChaBaD's
teachings were more
systematic than those of other branches of Chasidism. It
emphasized
studying the Torah, and had strong pantheistic themes. The
teachings
were also marked by a conviction that the material world
does not have a
real existence, and that everything is God: "From the
perspective of
divine substance, which supports us, we do not exist, just
as no rays of
sunshine exist within the sun itself." These principles were
presented
in the writings of Shneur Zalman Tanj (1796), which continue
to be
studied by the followers of ChaBaD even today. The work's
title is an
Aramaic phrase used in the Talmud to indicate that teachings
of the
tannaim not included in the Mishnah were being cited.
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In 1940, the tzaddik Josef Yitzhak Schneersohn
(Sznejersohn, 1902-48) made it to the Soviet Union and then
to the
United States, where ChaBaD's main center continues to be
located to
this day. There is also a large group of followers in
Israel. ChaBaD is
the largest branch of Chasidim, and the only one that
conducts
missionary work, especially among assimilated Jews, but also
in the
former Soviet Union.
The last Chasidic tzaddik of Lubawicze was the nephew of
Josef
Yitzhak, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1902-94), a graduate
of the
Sorbonne, whom his followers proclaimed to be the Messiah.
(A.C., H.W./CM)
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