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Man leaves the world with open hands, as if to say, 'I take nothing with me.' Midrash Ecclesiastes R. 5:14 |
Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, (1878-1944), was a Chabad Hasidic rabbi in Yekatrinoslav, Ukraine. He was the father of the seventh and last Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Schneerson was born on the 18th day of Nissan, 5638 (1878) in the town of Podrovnah (near Gomel) to Rabbi Baruch Schneur and Zelda Rachel Schneerson. His great-great grandfather was the third Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn of Lubavitch.
In 1900, Levi Yitzchak married Chana Yanovski, whose father, Rabbi Meir Shlomo, was the Rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Nikolaiev. In 1902, their eldest son, Menachem Mendel was born. He was later to become the Rebbe of Lubavitch.
Schneerson lived in Nikolaiev until 1909, when he was appointed to serve as the Rabbi of Yekatrinoslav. In 1939 he was arrested by the communist regime for his fearless stance against the Party's efforts to eradicate Jewish learning and practice in the Soviet Union. After more than a year of torture and interrogations in Stalin's prisons, he was sentenced to exile to a remote village Chiali in Kazakhstan. Shortly before his death, Levi Yitzchak was able to move to Almaty, where he was warmly welcomed by the small Lubavitcher community. There he died in 1944. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was buried at a cemetery in Alamty. Very close to the cemetery a Chabad Lubavitch synagogue has been built, and is named in his honour.
Schneerson was a distinguished Kabbalist. Some of his writings have been published under the name Likkutei Levi Yitschok. Most of it, however, was burned or confiscated by the Soviet authorities, and has yet to be returned to the Chabad movement.
Levi Itzhak Schneerson
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