[Schneersohn, Shemariah Noah.] Kuntres Me-admo"r Shelit"a Mi-Bobroisk: Teshuvoth Nitzchiyoth Va-amitiyoth al Kuntres Admo"r Shelit"a de-Libavitz [rejoinder of the Rebbe of Bobroisk to the Rebbe of Lubavitch]

This diminutive pamphlet over a financial dispute between two first cousins and their followers concerning the equitable distribution of funds from Kollel Chabad in Eretz Israel. The fathers of Rabbis Shalom Dov Baer ("Rashab") Schneersohn of Lubavitch (1866-1920) and Shemariah Noah Schneersohn of Bobroisk (1845?-1926) were brothers, sons of R. Menachem Mendel Schneersohn of Lubavitch, author "Tzemach Tzedek." This "Kuntres" was in turn responded to by an "Igereth" [Epistle] of the Rebbe of Lubavitch printed the following year 1908 in Jerusalem (Haberman, Sha'arei Chabad 1.) And so the dispute between Bobroisk and Lubavitch raged back and forth for several years before it was finally resolved. (See Kestenbaum & Company Sale 33, Lot 34 for a later rejoinder of the Rebbe of Bobroisk printed in Poltava 1913.) At one point, Rabbi Kook of Jaffa was consulted as to how best settle the dispute. He opined that there should be three "addresses" for Kollel Chabad in Eretz Israel. Each "addressee" would represent one of the three factions in Chabad: Bobroisk, Ladi and Lubavitch. (In Ladi lived yet a third cousin, R. Isaac Dov Schneersohn [1826-1910], known as "Maharid," he too was a grandson of the "Tzemach Tzedek.") See R. A.Y. Hakohen Kook, Igroth Re'iyah, Vol. I, pp. 34-36 (Letter of 3 Marcheshvan 1906). One of the touchstones of the controversy was the sanctity of Jerusalem over that of Hebron (see Igroth Re'iyah, ibid.). The Rebbe of Lubavitch was interested in augmenting the Chabad community in Hebron (which was the original Chabad settlement in the Holy Land, founded by the Mittler Rebbe, Rabbi Dov Baer Shneuri in 1819), while the Rebbe of Bobroisk adduced proofs as to the elevated status of Jerusalem (see Kuntres, pp.15-23). Another factor in the Rebbe of Lubavitch's thinking was that in Jerusalem the Chassidim would be prone to the blandishments of modern cosmopolitan society, whereas in the relative isolation of provincial Hebron they would have a better chance at preserving their lifestyle (Kuntres, pp. 16, 18). Ideologically, R. Shalom Dov Baer Schneersohn was famous for his opposition to the nascent Zionist movement. Pursuant to his dream of a spiritual renascence in Hebron, in 1912 R. Shalom Dov Baer dispatched the famous "Mashpi'a" R. Zalman Havlin to establish in Hebron a Chabad Yeshivah "Torath Emeth." R. Shemariah Noah, on the other hand, found unrealistic the notion of running away from modernity: "He [=Rashab] suggests lightly that all the observant flee Jerusalem on account of some bibliotheques [libraries] found there - but where can one be certain that libraries will not open?" (p. 18). "There [in Hebron] too there are small bibliotheques of secular books" (p. 19). The Rebbe of Bobroisk files a specific complaint against the son of the Rebbe of Lubavitch, R. Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (p.24). R. Shemariah Noah upholds the honor of his devotee R. Chaim Eliezer Bichovsky, who it seems, especially incurred the wrath of the Rebbe of Lubavitch (p.25). On p.13, the Rebbe of Bobroisk suggests that one of the "nichbadei ana"sh" [respected chassidim], R. Isaiah Berlin, known for his impartiality, act as an arbiter. This Isaiah Berlin of Riga [1841-1908] is the namesake of Anglo-Jewish philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin [1909-1997]. A lumber magnate, Berlin was married to Chava Schneersohn, a great-granddaughter of the "Mitteler Rebbe," R. Dov Baer Schneersohn. Michael Ignatieff, Sir Isaiah's biographer, incorrectly writes that she was a daughter of the "Tzemach Tzedek." See M. Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin: A Life [1998], pp. 15-18; see also S.E. Heilprin, Sepher ha-Tze'etza'im (1980).