The Maharash—Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn רבי שמואל שניאורסאהן — מהר״ש
the fourth rebbe of Chabad; "lechatchila ariber"—not under the obstacle but over it
The youngest of the Tzemach Tzedek's sons. After the father's death in 1866 the brothers dispersed to different townlets and each led his own chasidim; in Lubavitch itself he remained.
"Lechatchila ariber". The phrase he is remembered by: the world says that if an obstacle cannot be leapt, crawl under it; he said one must leap it from the outset. In Chabad this is not a saying but a way of deciding: do not look for a way around before the straight road has been tried.
Intercession. He travelled to Petersburg, Paris and Berlin, meeting officials and Western Jewish figures to have expulsions annulled and the decrees of the Pale eased. A chasidic rebbe in the anterooms of European ministries was a rare thing for that time, and he did it himself, not through intermediaries.
He was ill for many years and died at forty-nine, on 13 Tishrei 1882.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The Chabad tradition of "lechatchila ariber" — the phrase he is remembered by
Documents of the period
- The correspondence and the intercession for Russian Jewry, 1870s–1880s — the journeys to Petersburg, Paris and Berlin
Scholarship
- Jewish Encyclopedia (1906): Schneersohn, Samuel — the dates and his place among the Tzemach Tzedek's sons
Basis: documents and evidence.