Shulchan Arukh HaRavשולחן ערוך הרב
Liozna · 1795
אדה״ז
Shneur Zalman of Liadi
Shneur Zalman of Liadi
Also known as The Baal HaTanya
1745 CE–1812 CE · Hasidic · Mezeritch
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi — known as the Baal HaTanya ("Author of the Tanya") or the Alter Rebbe — founded the Chabad branch of Hasidism. A child prodigy in Talmud and a leading disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch, he set out to do something unusual: to make the inner experience of kabbalah accessible through a careful, philosophical writing style.
His masterwork, the Tanya, first published in 1796, organizes Jewish inner life around the dynamics of two souls — one rooted in the divine, one rooted in the body — and reads the Lurianic doctrines (especially tzimtzum) in a way that emphasizes their experiential, psychological meaning rather than only their cosmic structure. The book has been studied continuously since.
He was also the author of the Shulchan Arukh HaRav, an authoritative re-presentation of Jewish law commissioned by the Maggid. He was imprisoned twice by Russian authorities on accusations brought by opponents, and was twice cleared. He died in 1812 while fleeing Napoleon's invasion.
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Stop 1 of 51745Born
LioznaליאזנאRussian Empire
What they did here
Born in Liozna in 1745; he was appointed Maggid (spiritual leader) of Liozna in 1767, a post he held until 1801.
About Liozna
# Liozna Nestled in the rolling hills of White Russia—then part of the expanding Russian Empire under Catherine the Great—Liozna was a modest town where forests gave way to fertile plains and winter snows lay thick for months each year. Though small and remote by European standards, Liozna became a thriving Jewish community of several hundred souls, many engaged in commerce and crafts, living under the complicated tolerance and restrictions that governed Jewish life in imperial Russia. The town's significance lay not in its size but in its reputation as a luminous center of mystical Judaism and intensive Talmudic study, drawing students and seekers from across Eastern Europe who came to learn from its most celebrated teachers. Liozna's modest wooden synagogue and study halls became a beacon for those hungry for a new synthesis of Jewish practice—one that married rigorous scholarship with spiritual inwardness—making this quiet provincial town an unexpected powerhouse of religious innovation. Visitors spoke in wonder of the intense intellectual fervor and contemplative devotion that seemed to transform the very air of the place, as if this corner of White Russia had become a spiritual vortex drawing Jewish consciousness eastward.
In Liozna at the same time
Works(4)
Tanyaתניא
Liadi · 1797
The foundational text of Chabad Hasidism, and one of the most-studied books in Jewish life. The Baal HaTanya took the Arizal's cosmic doctrines and re-read them as a psychology of the inner life, organized around the experience of two souls — one rooted in the divine, one rooted in the body — and the work of bringing them into alignment. The Tanya is also where the Baal HaTanya offers his radical reading of tzimtzum: not a literal divine withdrawal but a contraction "from our perspective" — a doctrine that has shaped Hasidic and kabbalistic thought ever since.
Torah Ohrתורה אור
Liadi · 1813
Likkutei Torahלקוטי תורה
Liadi · 1810
Influenced byמעMenachem Nachum of ChernobylDDov Berרמח״לRamchalליLevi Yitzchak of BerditchevמוMenachem Mendel of Vitebskרח״וChaim Vital→Shneur Zalman of Liadi→ShapedבעBat AyinדבDov Baer SchneuriנתNetivot HaMishpatר״ח מוולוז׳יןChaim of VolozhinאקAaron the Second of KarlinקצKetzot HaChoshenYYitzchak Twersky of SkverאהAaron of Strashelye