Dovber Schneuri was the second Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch Chasidic movement.
22 Facts About Dovber Schneuri
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Rabbi Dovber was the first Chabad rebbe to live in the town of Lyubavichi, the town for which this Hasidic dynasty is named.
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Dovber Schneuri is known as the Mitteler Rebbe, being the second of the first three generations of Chabad leaders.
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Rabbi Dovber Schneuri was born in Liozna, modern day Belarus, on 9 Kislev 5534.
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Dovber Schneuri's father named him after his own teacher, Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch, a disciple and successor of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement.
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Dovber Schneuri was a prodigious student, and had begun to study Talmud at the age of seven.
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Dovber Schneuri's father taught him Zohar, and transmitted to him the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov.
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In 1790 Rabbi Dovber Schneuri was appointed the Mashpia of the Hasidim who would come to visit his father.
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Dovber Schneuri then moved to the small border-town of Lubavichi, from which the movement would take its name.
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Dovber Schneuri's accession was disputed by one of his father's prime students, Rabbi Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye, however the majority of Rabbi Shneur Zalman's followers stayed with Schneuri, and moved to Lubavichi.
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Dovber Schneuri established a yeshivah in Lubavitch, which attracted gifted young scholars.
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Dovber Schneuri thus launched a campaign to urge Jews to learn trades and skilled factory work.
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Dovber Schneuri encouraged the study of agriculture, dairy farming, and the like, reminding them that once upon a time, when the Jewish people lived in their own land, they were a people of farmers, fruit growers, and herdsmen.
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Dovber Schneuri urged that boys who did not show promise of becoming Torah scholars should, after the age of 13, devote part of their time to the learning of a trade, or work in the fields, to help support the family.
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Dovber Schneuri took to the road to raise funds for this purpose, and he visited the Jewish farmers and encouraged them in their pioneer work, seeing that their spiritual needs and the education of the farmers' children should not be neglected.
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Dovber Schneuri was active in the collection and distribution of financial aid from Russia to the Jewish population in the Holy Land.
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Dovber Schneuri intended to settle in Hebron himself, believing that this was the "gate of heaven," and prayers to be particularly effective there.
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Dovber Schneuri instructed Chabad followers living in the Holy Land to move to the city for this reason.
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Dovber Schneuri died in Nizhyn on November 16 1827, on his Hebrew birthday, 9 Kislev.
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Dovber Schneuri had two sons, Menachem Nahum and Baruch, and seven daughters.
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Dovber Schneuri wrote a commentary on the Zohar, "Bi'urei HaZohar".
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Dovber Schneuri expanded on the elucidation of Chabad philosophy, so that his followers could understand and internalise its spirituality.