ר׳ שלום דובער שניאורסון

ר׳ שלום דובער שניאורסון (20 Cheshvan 5621/1860–2 Nisan 5680/1920), known as the Rebbe Rashab, was the fifth rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. Born in Lyubavichi to ר׳ שמואל שניאורסון and Rivkah, he began transcribing his father’s discourses as a youth and married Shterna Sarah, granddaughter of ר׳ מנחם מנדל שניאורסון, in 1875. After his father’s death in 1882 he delivered original maamarim and guided Hasidim, though he accepted the full public mantle only in 1893. His long, analytically structured series of discourses gave Chabad thought an unprecedented systematic form; continuations beginning in 5666 and 5672 are particularly influential. In 1897 he founded Tomchei Temimim in Lyubavichi, combining advanced Talmud and halakhah with sustained Chabad study and contemplative prayer. He organized economic aid, religious provision for Jewish soldiers, and educational emissaries to distant Russian communities. Ideologically he resisted secularizing movements and political Zionism while advocating practical support for Jews in Ottoman Palestine, including purchasing land in Hebron. The First World War forced the Chabad court and yeshivah from Lyubavichi to Rostov-on-Don in 1915. There, amid revolution and civil war, he began organizing resistance to Soviet suppression of Jewish religious life. He died in Rostov in 1920 and was succeeded by his son ר׳ יוסף יצחק שניאורסון. His thousands of manuscripts were published posthumously.