[3] According to Meir Perels of Prague, the Maharal was the great-great-grandson of Judah Leib the Elder who was said to have descended paternally from Hai Gaon and therefore also from the Davidic dynasty; however, several modern historians such as Otto Muneles and Shlomo Engard have questioned this claim.

[4] Shneur Zalman was a prominent (and the youngest) disciple of Dov Ber of Mezeritch, the "Great Maggid", who was in turn the successor of the founder of Hasidic Judaism, Yisrael ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov.

By the time he was eight years old, he wrote an all-inclusive commentary on the Torah based on the works of Rashi, Nahmanides and Abraham ibn Ezra.

[6] At the age of 12, he delivered a discourse concerning the complicated laws of Kiddush Hachodesh, to which the people of the town granted him the title "Rav".

During these years, Shneur Zalman was introduced to mathematics, geometry, and astronomy by two learned brothers, refugees from Bohemia, who had settled in Liozna.

[citation needed] According to the Chabad Hasidic tradition, Shneur Zalman's father, Baruch, was a laborer who preferred to earn a living as a gardener rather than accept a post as a community rabbi or as a preacher (magid).

[12] His accession was disputed by one of his father's prime students, Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye, however the majority of Shneur Zalman's followers stayed with Schneuri, and moved to Lubavichi.

[citation needed] When Schneur Zalman died, many of his followers flocked to one of his top students, Aharon HaLevi of Strashelye.

In his work entitled Kuntres Hispa'alus ("Tract on Ecstasy"), Dovber Shneuri argues that only through ridding oneself of what he considered disingenuous emotions could one attain the ultimate level in Chassidic worship (that is, bittul).

[16] He was also active in canvassing financial support for the Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel, then under the control of the Ottoman Empire.

He chose the name "Chabad" for this philosophy—the Hebrew acronym for the intellectual attributes (sefirot) Chochma ("wisdom"), Bina ("understanding"), and Da'at ("knowledge”).

This intellectual basis differentiates Chabad from other forms of Hasidism - in this context referred to as "Chagas"[18]—the "emotional" attributes (sefirot) of Chesed ("kindness"), Gevurah ("power"), and Tiferes ("beauty").

[20]Some argue that Shneur Zalman's opposition stemmed from Napoleon's attempts to arouse a messianic view of himself in Jews, opening the gates of the ghettos and emancipating their residents as he conquered.

[19] Yisroel Hopsztajn of Kozienice, another Hasidic leader, also considered Napoleon a menace to the Jewish people,[22] but believed that after victory over Russia, Messiah will arrive.

In 1798 he was arrested on suspicion of treason and brought to St. Petersburg where he was held in the Petropavlovski fortress for 53 days, at which time he was subjected to an examination by a secret commission.

In Chabad tradition, his imprisonment is interpreted as a reflection of accusations in Heaven that he was revealing his new dimensions of mystical teachings too widely.

The young Schneur Zalman replied with a famous Hasidic parable:[24] A king had an only son who became ill and all the attending doctors were at a loss of how to heal him.

Chabad commentary asks about this the question of why a new Heavenly accusation would have arisen against Shneur Zalman himself, and result in his incarceration in St. Petersburg.

Therefore, his subsequent exoneration by the Tzarist authorities is interpreted in Chabad as a new Heavenly agreement to begin the fullest dissemination of Hasidic thought without its prior limitations.

Chabad tradition tells that in prison, Schneur Zalman was visited by the deceased Baal Shem Tov and Maggid of Mezeritch, who told him the reason for his imprisonment.

In 1800 Rav Shneur Zalman was again arrested and transported to St. Petersburg, this time along with his son Moshe who served as interpreter, as his father spoke no Russian or French.

Since this Hirsch ben David was untraceable, some were led to believe that there was no such person as Hirsh and the authorities were attempting to stir up internecine fighting among the Jews.

In 1812, fleeing the French Invasion, he left Mogilev, intending to go to Poltava, but died on the way in the small village of Pena, Kursk Oblast.

A top follower of Shneur Zalman, Aharon HaLevi Horowitz, established a rival Chabad school in Strashelye, which did not last after his death.

In 1940, under the leadership of the previous Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, New York in the United States.

Under the leadership of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Chabad established branches all over the world staffed by its own Lubavitch-trained and ordained rabbis with their wives and children.

The Tanya deals with Jewish spirituality and psychology from a Kabbalistic point of view and philosophically expounds on such themes as the oneness of God, Tzimtzum, the Sefirot, simcha, bitachon (confidence), and many other mystical concepts.

Shneur Zalman is well known for the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, a collection of authoritative codes of Jewish laws and customs commissioned by Dovber of Mezeritch and composed at the legendary age of twenty-one.

Shneur Zalman is also one of three halachic authorities on whom Shlomo Ganzfried based his Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh (Concise version of Jewish law).

One particular melody, commonly referred to as The Alter Rebbe's Niggun or Dalet Bovos, is reserved by Chabad Hassidim for ushering a groom and bride to their wedding canopy and other select occasions.