The Rabbi, a life at the service of humanity

Foreword : The editor want to stress that it won't be possible to draw up here an exhaustive portrait of the Rabbi for obvious reasons. The personality of the Rabbi, the spiritual dimension of his teachings, the enterprises to which he contributed, the thousands of written correspondence and the multiple stories shared with each one of us would require well beyond hundreds of books, and personal testimonies alread fill many libraries in the whole world and in many languages. We just want to present here, for the layman, a portrait in a few lines and dates, such as one would see in a dictionary. And let us invite everyone to perfect the portrait of the Rabbi and the subjects evoked in this article. The photograph represents the Rabbi as a child and as an adult.

Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson was born on April 18 (11 Nissan) 1902 in Nikolaïev in Ukraine. He is the son of Rav Levi Yits’hak and is also known in the whole world under the name of Rabbi of Loubavitch. The term of " Rabbi " evokes a very high spiritual dimension, that only one Great Master by generation may deserve to reach. This term is also an acronym for " Roch Bné Israel, Head of the Jewish People ", someone that can also be qualified as being the greatest authority of the Jewish People. Rabbi Menahem Mendel is the seventh Rabbi of the HaBaD dynasty, founded in 1797 by Rabbi Chneour Zalman of Lyadi. Giving rise to the movement of Habad Hassidim, the Pious of Wisdom-Discernment-Knowledge. This movement is based on the directives of the Bahal Chem Tov, renowned for having diffused during all his life the teachings of the inner message of the Torah, Hassidout. In 1951 in New York, Menahem Mendel will take the succession of his father-in-law Rabbi Yossef Yits’hak Schneerson, sixth Rabbi of Loubavitch, from whom he had married the daughter on November 27, 1928 in Warsaw, the rabbanit Haya Mouchka. The Rabbi was descendant from the Grand Master the Maharal of Prague, himself a direct descendant from king David.

Biography :

In 1915, when the young Menahem Mendel, the future Rabbi, was almost Bar-Mitsvah, i.e., 13 years old and ready to put the precepts of the Torah into practice, he was already considered by his Master and his close relations like a great sage and scholar, both for his exceptional gifts and his gigantic knowledge.

In 1927 in Soviet Union, Bolchevism was repressing religious institutions and the future father-in-law of Ménahem Mendel Rabbi Yossef Yits’hak was arrested for his communal activities. The death sentence was pronounced against him and was finally commuted into exile. Thus, during the summer of 1928, he had to leave Russia for Riga under the control of the authorities, a city where he will settle during six years with his family, his close relations and disciples and his future son-in-law, aged 25. Then, newly weds on November 27, 1928, Rabbi Ménahem Mendel and his wife settled some time later in Berlin where the future Rabbi will attend university. In 1933, Ménahem Mendel leaves Berlin for Paris following the rise to power of Nazism. There, he attended the Sorbonne and other establishments of higher education, then, taught a daily course at the synagogue of 17 rue des Rosiers.

In 1939 in Soviet Union, a day before of the festival of Pessah, Jewish Easter , the father of Menahem Mendel is stopped by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. He is sent in exile to Kazakhstan where he dies on August 9th (20th of Av) 1944. It is during this exile that he will write his comments on the Zohar, the esoteric wisdom, with ink manufactured by his wife.

In 1941, following the invasion of France by the Germans, Menahem Mendel leaves Paris for the free Zone, then, goes to Vichy and then Nice. In May, Menahem Mendel and his wife embark in Marseilles for Barcelona. A little later they embark in Lisbon to accost in New York on June 23rd, 1941. There, he rejoined his father-in-law who had settled there since March 1940, after having escaped the destruction of the Jews of Warsaw. In 1942, Menahem Mendel is named president of the executive committee of Ma'haney Israel, of Merkaz Leyoney Hinoukh and of the publishing house Kehot founded by his father-in-law. Then in 1943, he becomes editor in chief of the Loubavitch bookstore. He devotes his time to the edition of works from previous rabbis and adds his own references and comments. In 1947, three years after the death of his father, he departs for Paris in order to rescue his mother who succeeded in leaving Soviet Union. Then, they went back together to New York.

On January 28th, 1950, the 10th of Chevat (Hebraic date), Rabbi Yossef Yts’hak leaves this world. This same year, in accordance with the wish of his father-in-law, he develops an educational network in North Africa under the name of " Tents of Yossef Yts’hak ".

On January 17th, 1951, Menahem Mendel Schneerson becomes the 7th Rabbi of Loubavitch and gives his first speech as a Rabbi. He immediately appeared to the general public like a Great Master in Torah and Hassidout, and starts commenting on the Torah every week, at meetings called " Farbringen ". At these meetings thousands of disciples originating from the whole world were present, and some of his speeches are diffused on television. It is under his personal impulse that the Loubavitch Movement will gain an extraordinary momentum and acquire an international dimension, from its headquarters located at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. The Rabbi will reiterate on several occasions during his speeches his wish to open centers of study all over the world. During his first years, he will open educational networks, in the Holy Land, in Australia, in Canada and will encourage all other initiatives going in that direction in the whole world. During several years, the Rabbi will grant private audiences during which, for hours, he will listen to and advise those who will have requested an interview. He would also spend hours every day reading atop the burial stone of his father-in-law the requests for blessings flowing in from all over the world to his secretariat. Consequently, the Rabbi will acquire an international dimension, and will receive Jews as well as non-Jews, be they politicians and entrepreneurs or laymen, coming to receive advice and blessings from him. On many occasions, during these meetings with personalities from several countries, he would insist that charity funds be opened so that the benevolence and justice may prevail.

In 1958, he launches the world campaign entitled " Oufaratsta – You will spread ", having for sole purpose the diffusion of the Torah and its values towards all Jewish horizons. To that end, he sends emissaries in practically all the cities of the whole world and required them to open a Beth-Habad, places of study and of mutual support. This way he encouraged Jews and Non-Jews alike to do likewise in the whole world.

In 1974 in New York, at the time of a memorable holyday called Sim' hat Torah, attended by some five hundred French Jews, he transformed the national anthem of La Marseillaise into a hassidic song, by singing it on the words of a canticle to the glory of God, typically recited during Chabat and holydays in synagogues. He then requested that campaigns intended for the diffusion of Judaism be organized as well as public classes.

In 1978, after his cardiac incident, he resumed the private audiences but in the form of the distribution of the "one dollar " each Sunday morning to hundreds of people, lasting many hours in a row, who came to ask his blessings and advice.

In 1980, the Rabbi announces that the steps of the Messiah are resounding and engages all those who aspire to hasten his venue by offering him echo by their study of the teachings and laws related to the Messianic times. Then since 1981, he organized public meetings of children and launched on these occasions the slogan "We want Machiah Now, We want the Messiah now !"

In 1983, the Rabbi launches a call so that " Bney Noah ", i.e. the descendants of Noah, fulfill their 7 Commandments. Then, it requested that one minute of silence be instituted in all schools, so as to awaken children awareness that " an eye sees and an ear hears ". He then launched a petition addressed to all the authorities of the whole world to make them become aware of the need for reinforcing education. Since then, each year, the American Senate proclaims the date of his birthday, the 11th of Nissan, Education Day.

In 1990, the Rabbi declares that the political upheavals that occurred in Europe and which put an end to the Cold War are a sign fortelling an imminent Messianic advent. He connects the fact that these changes were carried out without bloodshed to the first steps of an era of universal peace. In all his speeches concerning the descendants of Noah, the Non-Jews, the Rabbi will recall the need for making peace and to encourage acts of kindness to one another.

On March 2nd, 1992, while leaning on the burial stone of his father-in-law, he is struck by a violent cerebral hemorragy. After months of a convalescence and since then hemiplegic, he reappears in his synagogue at the autumn of 1992.

On June 12th, the 3rd of Tamouz, 1994, Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson leaves this world, bequeathing Jews and the whole humanity with the promise of the Deliverance to be seen soon and in our days.