Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi רבי שניאור זלמן מלאדי
founder of Chabad, author of the Tanya and the «Shulchan Aruch HaRav»
Rabbi Shneur Zalman was born in Liozna in 5505 and at twenty went not to Vilna but to Mezritch, «to learn how to pray». The Maggid entrusted him with composing a new code of law, the «Shulchan Aruch HaRav».
His central book is «Likkutei Amarim», known as the Tanya. It answers an ordinary person's question: if I struggle with bad thoughts, am I therefore wicked? No. There is the tzaddik, in whom evil is gone, and the «beinoni», in whom evil remains but does not rule. To be a beinoni is attainable by anyone. Hence the name of the movement: Chabad — wisdom, understanding, knowledge — feeling must grow out of thought.
He was twice imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress on the denunciations of opponents; the day of his release, the 19th of Kislev, is still celebrated by Chabad Hasidim. When Napoleon entered Russia he backed the tsar, holding that a French victory would bring Jews equality and wealth but pull them from Torah. He fled before the army and died on the road in 5573.