The fifth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneersohn, known as the Rebbe Rashab, was born in the town of Lubavitch, in White Russia, on the 20th of the month of MarCheshvan in 5621 (1860).
The Rebbe Rashab was the third child (and second son) of Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, the fourth Chabad Rebbe, known as the Rebbe Maharash, and his illustrious wife, Rebbetzin Rivkah.
For his first five years, the Rebbe Rashab’s childhood was graced by the presence of his grandfather, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek (the third Rebbe of Chabad and grandson of the Alter Rebbe), who would often test him on his learning in cheder (school) and tell him Torah stories.
On his fifth birthday, the Tzemach Tzedek called him in together with his parents, and blessed him. “The blessing from Grandfather,” the Previous Rebbe recounted hearing from his father, the Rebbe Rashab, “put me in a different place entirely. He made me a baal kishronot (a talented person).”
“My son was never a child,” the Rebbe Maharash said. “Even during his youth, he was a yarei Shamayim (had fear/awe of Heaven) and a mesudar (organized), and he toiled to conduct himself in the ways of Chassidus. With the approach of his bar mitzvah, he was already a chassid with a mesudardiker avodah (organized service of Hashem)."
Even from a young age, the Rebbe Rashab was famous for his yirat Shamayim and meticulous observance of Shulchan Aruch. In a famous story, he once explained that before his bar mitzvah, he trained his body to automatically act according to halacha. When his bar mitzvah approached, he was already fluent in Gemara, poskim (halachic authorities) and even Chassidus (he began listening to his father’s maamarim (Chassidic discourses) from eight years of age).
The Rebbe Rashab passed away in Rostov on the second day of the Jewish month of Nissan, 5680 (1920). Among his final words were: “I am going to heaven; the writings I leave for you . . . ,” a reference to the thousands of manuscripts that he penned.
He was immediately succeeded by his only son, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (the Previous Rebbe, the Rebbe Rayatz).
