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| Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Schneersohn |
Introduction
R. Chaim Tzvi Schneerson (1834-1882) was a fourth-generation
descendent of R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad movement
(Gartner 1968:33).[1]
He was known as the נין
של בעל התניא, or great-grandson of the Baal haTanya.[2] Born
in Lubavitch, Belarus in 1834, he emigrated to Palestine with his family in 1840
and was ordained as a rabbi at his Bar Mitzvah. Later, he taught himself English
and became an important emissary and fund-raiser for Collel Chabad, which was founded
in 1788 by R. Shneur Zalman, and is to this day the oldest continuously
operating charity in Israel.
During one of his fundraising trips outside of the Holy Land, R. Schneersohn became convinced that the Jews would be redeemed - not by messianic forces(!) - but instead by a series of natural and human events eventually culminating in the fulfilment of the Jewish eschatological dream of the final redemption.
