R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Tanya and Chabad

R. Shneur Zalman was born in 1745 in Liozna, a recognised Talmudist who at twenty went to Mezeritch — in his words, 'to learn how to pray'. The Maggid assigned him, though still young, to compose a new code of law, the Shulchan Aruch ha-Rav.

His central work, Likutei Amarim, is universally called the Tanya after its opening word. It appeared in Slavuta in Kislev 1796. He wrote it, he explained, because he could no longer answer in person all who came with questions about their inner life.

The Tanya is built on a sober idea. A person has two souls, divine and animal, and both are real. The tzaddik who has vanquished the animal soul is rare, all but unattainable. But there is the beinoni, the 'intermediate' — who never wins outright and never surrenders, who keeps the evil impulse out of deed, speech and deliberate thought. The beinoni is the book's hero and its standard for everyone; its subtitle is 'The Book of the Intermediates'.

The movement he founded is Chabad, after the three highest sefirot: chochmah, binah, da'at. Denounced to the authorities, he was imprisoned in 1798 in the Peter and Paul Fortress; his release on the 19th of Kislev became Chabad's festival of redemption. He died in 1812 while fleeing Napoleon's invasion.