Rav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson zt"l
הרב לוי יצחק בן ברוך שניאור שניאורסון זצ"ל
Av 20 , 5705
Rav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson zt"l
Rav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson was born on the 18th of Nissan, 1878 in the town of Podobranka (near Gomel). His father was Rav Baruch Schneur and his mother was Rebbetzin Zelda Rachel Schneerson. Rav Levi Yitzchak was the bechor, eldest of four children: he had 2 brothers, Shmuel and Shalom Shlomo, and 1 sister, Rada Sima. His father, Rav Baruch Schneur, was a great-grandson of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek. He was a gaon in niglah and nistar and received semicha from the leading gedolim of his time, Rav Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk and Rav Eliyahu Chaim Meizel of Lodz.
With Rav Shalom DovBer Schneerson, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, serving as shadchan and matchmaker, on the 11th of Sivan, in Nikolayev at the age of 22, Rav Levi Yitzchak, married Rebbetzin Chana Yanovsky, daughter of Rav Meir Shlomo Yanovsky, the Rav of Nikolayev and a chassid of the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe Maharash.
Rav Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana had 3 sons: Menachem Mendel, DovBer and Yisrael Aryeh Leib. The eldest, or bechor was Rav Menachem Mendel, born on the 11th of Nissan 1902, who would one day grow up to become the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe.
After almost a decade in Nikolayev, at age 31, Rav Levi Yitzchak was called upon to serve as rav of the Ukrainian city of Yekatrinoslav (known today as Dnepropetrovsk). He served in his capacity as chief rabbi of the community for 32 years, until 1939.
On 9 Nissan 5699 (March 28, 1939), at three o’clock in the morning, four agents of the NKVD arrived at the Schneerson home on 13 Barikadna Street.
Stationing guards at all doors, they searched the house like beasts. Confiscating thousands of folios of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s written works on Kabbalah, halachah, and rabbinic correspondence. They confiscated his rabbinic ordination certificates and destroyed his seforim.
After they had ended their search, Rav Levi Yitzchak was arrested on trumped up charges by the inhuman Soviets for his activities on behalf of Judaism in the Soviet Union. After over a year of torture and interrogations in Stalin's notorious prisons, by those animals Rav Levi Yitzchak was tried in Moscow and sentenced to five years exile in Central Asia. After a year of stravation, suffering and privation, immediately after Pesach, after much effort and bribes, Rav Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana left Chi’ili and arrived in Alma Ata.
On the 20th of Av, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s condition turned critical. He was no longer able to speak, but he still continued to murmur words of Torah & Tehilim. That evening, he returned his pure soul to its Maker.
When she escaped Russia in 1947, Rebbetzin Chana managed to smuggle out the manuscripts that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak had written during his years of exile. Rav Levi Yitzchak’s son, the seventh Rebbe published his father's manuscripts in a five-volume set under the title Likutei Levi Yitzchak.