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The city of Vitebsk held a very significant position in the history of Chasidism because in Vitebsk lived two of its greatest pillars and there developed their outlook on the world. These were the two great students of Dov-Ber of Mezeritsh, who was the interpreter and spreader of the Chasidic movement. The first was R' Menachem-Mendel from Vitebsk, the creator of the “Kollelot” [“Communal”] movement in Eretz Yisroel, and the second was–R' Shneur-Zalman ben R' Baruch, the creator of the Chabad movement in Chasidism.

The name “Kollelot” is actually a later development. Earlier, the funds that had been gathered in Lithuania and in Russia to support those who lived and studied in Eretz Yisroel, were called “Chalukah” [division]. Later, when people began to collect funds for this purpose also in other countries, such as Poland, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and others, it was natural that each country wanted a special group (a kolel) that would look after its scholars in Eretz Yisroel. Thus were created the “kollelot”, that were known as the Russian kolel, the Polish kolel, the German kolel, and so on.

In his younger years, R' Menachem-Mendel studied with the Magid of Mezeritsh, even before the latter was the Baal Shem Tov's spiritual heir, and later, after the Baal Shem Tov's death, R' Menachem-Mendel traveled to the Magid and became one of his Chasidim. He would celebrate with him and speak for hours about things both open and hidden.

In the Chasidic world there is a legend that R' Menachem-Mendel was the leader of the Chasidic movement in White Russia.

At that time, a journey from Lithuania and Belorussia to Mezeritsh was a difficult matter. One had to be in a cart for weeks

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and occasionally go on foot. The Magid's Chasidim therefore complained to him about the journey. The Magid told them:

“I have a suggestion for you. You don't have to come to me all the time. It's enough that you see R' Mendel of Vitebsk and he will help you. Go to him and give him my stick and my belt and tell him that he should put them on immediately, before your eyes.”

So a group of Chasidim quickly traveled to Vitebsk and looked for someone named R' Mendele, but they could not find him. A Jewish woman stopped them and asked whom they sought. They told her:

“Someone named R' Mendel.”

The woman responded:

“I don't know any R' Mendel. Here in Vitebsk there are many Jews called Mendel. I have a son-in-law named Mendel. He prays and learns day and night, so you could call him R' Mendel. Do you maybe mean him?”

The Chasidim immediately understood that this was the one and they went right to him, giving him the Magid's stick and asking him to don the belt. Immediately he became another man, and the Shechinah rested upon him. Since then he has been known as R' Menachem-Mendel of Vitebsk, rabbi and leader.

The Chasidic legend also tells about R' Menachem-Mendel that he liked to be dressed in nice clothing, which was certainly not the custom among the young students in White Russia at that time. He was also fastidious that his hair be combed and that he should look good. People say that because of this habit, on one Friday night he made the Baal Shem Tov wait for him for two hours and delayed his preparations for honoring Shabbos. Here is the story, according to the Chasidim: When R' Menachem-Mendel was still a young man, he learned with R' Dov-Ber of Mezeritsh. One time R' Dov-Ber saw how he sat and learned and was so happy, while his hat was off to the side and about to fall. R' Dov-Ber quietly asked:

“How many pages of Gemara have you learned today?

The young man responded:

“Six”

Said R' Dov-Ber:

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“If from six pages of Gemara your hat is so far off to the side, how many pages of Gemara would it take to make it fall off?”

R' Menachem-Mendel understood that R' Dov-Ber was scolding him for being too intense about his learning, and he began to cry. R' Dov-Ber consoled him and said that he would take him to Medzhibozh to the Baal Shem Tov. They traveled there and arrived on a Friday. R' Dov-Ber quickly went to the Baal Shem and told him about the young man whom he had brought with him and who would be coming soon. R' Menachem-Mendel, however, was busy fussing over himself, so that two hours passed before he came to the Baal Shem. The Baal Shem had the custom of welcoming in Shabbos when Friday was half over. He therefore did not receive or even say “sholem aleichem” until the next night, after he had lit his pipe.

After the Baal Shem's death, R' Menachem-Mendel traveled to the Magid with his friend R' Shneur-Zalman ben Baruch. The Magid R' Dov'Ber passed away on the 19th of Kislev in 5533 (December, 1772). Even before his death, the religious split began, when in Vilna a cherem [excommunication] was imposed on the Chasidim. The cherem was a blow for the Chasidic movement. In many places, their minyanim were dispersed. After a while they recovered from this blow and again began to hold their minyanim. This was particularly possible in White Russia. By chance, in that same year White Russia was torn from Poland and made part of Russia.

The cherem caused no little trouble. It aroused hatred, quarrels, and even denunciations on both sides–misnagdim [opponents of Chasidim] and Chasidim. At the same time, however, the cherem brought out in the Chasidim a strong will to spread their teaching. They could not forget the words of the Baal Shem Tov:

“Once,” he said, “I met on the way to Heaven the Messiah, and I asked him when he would come. He answered, ‘I will come at the time when all of your thoughts and all of your secrets, which I have revealed to you, will be known by the whole world…and your students will have believed with total faith that the people of Israel will not be rescued before your teaching has captured the world.’”

After the Magid's death, his students traveled to different countries. A group of Chasidim from White Russiao–R' Menachem-Mendel

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of Vitebsk, R' Yisroel Polotzker, and R' Avraham Kalisker–began to spread Chasidus in their areas. By mutual accord, R' Menachem-Mendel would be their rebbe, and R' Shneur-Zalman was the first to declare that he was his Chasid. R' Menachem-Mendel was very popular with the Chasidim. He was their teacher and advisor.

We can learn a lot about R' Menachem-Mendel's behavior from his letters, which were published in “Sefer P'ri Ha-Aretz,” which his students had printed after his death. In them we can see that he did not conduct himself like other tzadikim [Chasidic rabbis]. He was very modest and did not hold by miracles. In one letter he responds to one of his Chasidim who had asked him to intervene with the Blessed Holy One so that his wife would bear a son. He wrote back thus: “But in the matter of asking for children…I am embarrassed. Am I in the place of God? Yes, God's word came to the Baal Shem. He decreed it, and so it was. He was singular from of old, and his like is no more. After him, who could stand on this earth? Surely many of our great tzadikim in our generation have mouths and speak and deliver prophecies. But I am not one of them…”

R' Menachem-Mendel was the rabbi for five years, from 5532 until 5537 (1772-1777). He lived then in the shtetl of Horodok, near Vitebsk. Later on, he saw, as is told, that he could have no spiritual elevation as long as he was in exile, and he developed the idea of settling in Eretz Yisroel. It could also be, however, that R' Menachem-Mendel, who had always sought to make peace between the two directions in Jewish life–between the misnagdim and the Chasidim–could no longer bear the persecutions from the other side and decided to go to Eretz Yisroel where, since 1764, the Baal Shem's students from Ukraine had settled–R' Nachamn Horodenker and R' Mendel Promishlianer, along with a group of Chasidim from Galicia.

When his nearest comrades and friends heard this, they told him, as Ruth told Naomi, “Wherever you go–I will go.” Soon thereafter, a movement of 300 Jews was formed who decided to go up to Eretz Yisroel with him. About this mas emigration to Eretz Yisroel, the firtst in several hundred years, there are many legends in the books of the Chasidim, but one thing is for certain, that R' Menachem-Mendel of Vitebsk wanted, before he went to Eretz

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Yisroel, to make peace between the Chasidim and the misnagdim, so that the house of the Jews could again be united. To this end, he agreed with his young friend, R' Shneur-Zalman, that they should go to Vilna and there speak with the Vilna Gaon. They hoped that he would give them his permission to make peace between the two sides. But those close to the Gaon worked on him to refuse to do so. These intimates feared lest the Vilna Gaon would speak with them and then make peace with the Chasidim. Following their advice, he left Vilna for several days and only returned when R' Menachem-Mendel of Vitebsk and R' Shneur-Zalman had returned home.

Soon thereafter, R' Menachem-Mendel, together with R' Yisroel Polotzker and Avraham Kalisker, in the middle of Adar, 5537 (1777) left Russia at the head of about 300 Jews. In the same year, in the month of Elul, they arrived at Tzfat.

When R' Menachem-Mendel was prepared to go to Eretz Yisroel, it is told, the Chasidim cried to him, and pleaded, “To whom, Rabbi, are you leaving us?” R' Menachem-Mendel pointed to R' Shneur-Zalman and said, “He is worthy of taking my place!” And so it happened. R' Shneur-Zalman quickly became, after R' Menachem-Mendel's departure, the head and leader of all Chasidic groups in Lithuania and Russia.

But in Israel as well the fanatical misnagdim did not leave the Chasidim in peace. They sent to Eretz Yisroel their special emissary, R' Saadiah, who there, too, created controversies. In his letters, R' Menachem-Mendel complains about the misnagdim who wanted to create conflicts even in the Holy Land. He was in close contact with the Chasidim in White Russia. As Sh. Dubnow tells in his “History of Chasidism,” R' Menachem-Mendel would “send to his Chasidim in the diaspora letters in which he would teach the ways of Chasidus and answer their questions about matters of faith and also about secular matters.”

R' Menachem-Mendel died in Tiberias on Rosh Chodesh Iyar, 5345 (1785)

It was in the city of Vitebsk that the great master, rabbi, and philosopher, decisor and organizer, R' Shneur-Zalman ben Baruch, devised the profound doctrines of Chabad (an acronym for chachmah, binah, and de'ah [wisdom, understanding, and knowledge]).

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Rabbi Shneur-Zalman

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R' Shneur-Zalman was born in 5508 (1748) in the shtetl of Liozna to a prominent family. At age 15 he married the daughter of the wealthy Vitebsker R' Yehuda-Leib Segal. He had come to an agreement with his father-in-law that he would give him a room of his own where he could nsit and learn. In that room, R' Shneur-Zalman, at an early age, began to build the great structure that he completed much later after he had been in Mezeritsh and “poured water” on the hands of the Magid, Dov-Ber.

At age 20, Shneur-Zalman remained at a crossroads. He had sought for himself a guide. The name of the Mezeritsh rabbi, R' Dov-Ber, was known to him. He had heard of his greatness in Kabbalah and he also knew of the Chasidic movement. But on the other side, he was also drawn to the Vilna Gaon. The questions before him were which way to go and who should be his teacher and guide. He finally decided to go the Magid in Mezeritsh. His father-in-law did not want him to go, so he left on foot.

At the Magid's place in Mezeritsh he met the greatest tzaddikim of that time: R' Levi-Yitzchak of Berditchev, R' Nachum of Chernobyl, R' Aharon Karliner, R' Mendel of Vitebsk, R' Elimelech of Lizensk, and others. As Sh. A. Horodetzki related in his Chasidism and its Leaders, “The Magid recognized in him what he was and what he would become. He was very close to him and made him a friend of his only son, R' Avraham, who was known in the Chasidic world as “the Angel.” R' Shneur-Zalman learned sacred texts from him, and R' Avraham learned Kabbalistic texts from R' Shneur-Zalman.”

One time–it is told–Shneur-Zalman went to the Magid and the Magid called out, “The Litvak has capitulated.” When the Magid saw that Shneur-Zalman was embarrassed, he added, “Have no fear. You have not capitulated, but the Litvak in you has capitulated, and now you have become one of us.”

R' Shneur-Zalman remained in Mezeritch for a year and a half, and then he returned home to Vitebsk, as he had promised his wife. But he did not remain home for long. He was drawn back to the Magid in Mezeritch.

But it is also noteworthy that already at a young age, Shneur-Zalman was not only interested in spiritual matters but that he also had an interest in the economic situation of the

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Jews. We can find evidence for this in what was written by the Lubavitsh rabbi, our Teacher and Rabbi R' Yosef-Yitzchak Schneerson, the sixth in the line of Chabad princes:

“Sacred honor, the Alter Rebbe (R' Shneur-Zalman), who was known as the Rabbi from Liady, the Baal ha-Tanya, who was born in a village and in his youth loved the fields, was among the first person among Jews of his time to travel through the Jewish world saying aloud that they should turn to agriculture. When he was still a young man, he intervened when many Jews were driven out of Bem [?]. They were known as the “refugees from Bem.” He urged them to settle on the soil, near the land of his father R' Baruch, z”l. Many did so and lived in that area.”

Our teacher and rabbi R' Yosef-Yitzchak writes further:

“When the Alter Rebbe married the daughter of R' Yehuda-Lieb Segal in Vitebsk, he agreed to the marriage on the condition that the bride's father should give him the whole dowry, which amounted to 5,000 gold coins so he could do with them what he liked, and his father-in-law should not interfere. A year after the wedding, the Alter Rebbe, with the encouragement of his wife, Rebbetzin Sterne, gave the whole dowry to a group of Jewish families who wanted to settle on the soil and take up agriculture. The money was given in order to purchase tracts of land, cattle, farm implements and to build a mill, a spinning room for wool and flax, and to build houses for the families who would settle there…The rabbi did not want to participate in this endeavor himself, but he visited from time to time to deliver d'rashas for everyone, saying that the Jews should abandon their worthless professions on the street or in the market and occupy themselves with agriculture. He would also go to the men and encourage them to set aside time for studying Chumash, Midrash, and, for those who could. Gemara.”

Moreover, the Alter Rebbe began to interest himself in the economic situation of the Jews when he was first in Mezeritch and saw that the Chasidic movement sought to improve Jewish incomes.

“When the Alter Rebbe was first in Mezeritch, he learned about the Baal Shem's concern to improve the incomes of the Jews through agriculture by sowing corn and

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taking up poultry and cattle breeding, as well as catching fish and spinning wool and flax. Consequently, when he returned home to Vitebsk, he stopped in many towns and urged Jews to take up agriculture. He was also interested in how Jews educated their children and urged everywhere that people should see to it that young people learn Torah and that all Jews should have the spirit of Torah.”

“At that time”–R' Yosef-Yitzchak Schneerson writes–“there was a government order that people who were involved in agriculture should be exempted from the head tax. This resounded mightily in all of the Jewish communities, and many Jews who had uncertain incomes turned to agriculture…”

R' Shneur-Zalman was one of the few “lights of the exile”, from that well-known “religious-and-secular” epoch that began with R' Amram in the 10^th century and extended through Rambam and further into the 14^th century.

R' Shneur-Zalman was similar to the Rambam in many ways. Just like R' Moshe ben Maimon in his time, so he created for Jews a collection of rulings presented in a clear and simple form. Also like the Rambam, he cared for Jews who were perplexed and created for them his “Tanya” to show them the way, teaching faith with reason, like the “Guide for the Perplexed”–faith through “contemplation.”

The rabbi was a many-faceted personality who could always show a new side of himself. He was like a minyan in one body. He was an expert in. halachah, more than anyone in his time aside from the Vilna Gaon. He was one of those few who could enter “Pardes” [Paradise] and leave unharmed; he was a rabbi who strove to help every Jew; and on the other hand, he was an erudite man of great means; he was a community activist who strove to better the condition of the Jews through agriculture and healthful occupations; he was also a famous teacher who created educational sites for Jewish children; and he was a visionary for the future; he was a remarkable organizer who did all of these things with a firm hand; and he was a great seeker of peace.

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He was ten in one. But we should not stop even at ten, because he was truly much more.

Such was the father of Chabad. But what was his method? What did he intend with his philosophical-mystical teaching that he called “Chabad”?

We will try to answer this briefly. According to Chabad tradition, the rabbi began where the Baal Shem left off. In other words, the rabbi extended the string. R' Shneur-Zalman used to say about the Baal Shem that he was his grandfather and that he considered himself the Baal Shem's spiritual grandson. Also, in the generations of princes of Lubavitsch, people consider the Baal Shem, the first of the line. Therefore, according to Chabad, their doctrine was not new but only a continuation of what the Baal Shem had taught.

According to the “Tanya,” everything in the world is only the garb of the Holy One, Blessed Be He. In that garment, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is revealed to humanity. Everything in the world is truly nothing in regard to the “Divine Power” that resides in the thing. That is the power that makes it be, gives life and form, creates from a “nothing” a “there is”. When we see something and think that it is the actual thing, that it is the “there is,” that it is the absolute reality and there is nothing else, we are mistaken. We do not see, and cannot see with our flesh-and-blood eyes the divine Power that is in every thing, in every created thing, and is millions of times more powerful, greater, and higher than the thing itself. When sometimes a miracle occurs and we can see with our human eyes the Being and the Divine Power of each thing, and when we can absorb the spirituality of each thing that gushes with the Godly Power that resides within it, then will the materiality of each thing, its whole matter, become as nothing, because it will be completely nullified in relation to the life of the Divine Power of the thing, which is without limits, both higher and deeper.

The soul of men, teaches Chabad, has two foundations, one animal and the other heavenly. And in people there is also a demon from whom come all our desires for pleasure, for this world, for evil qualities but people also have within them the Divine Power that calls them to behave properly, to mercy, to love, to justice and righteousness, to mutual assistance.

The Godly aspect of the human soul has three

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foundations: Chochmah, Binah, Da'as [literally Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge]. “Chochmah” is Chesed [kindness], “Binah” is Din [religious law] (which always has to be carried out–“The Law should be upheld even if the heavens fall”), and Da'as means an understanding of both, a uniting of the other two in order to create a single path. “Know the Lord your God” means to create from Chesed” and from “Din” –a single path of fairness and righteousness.

According to Chabad, “contemplation is above deeds”. This means that understanding something through reason is higher than simple enthusiasm. Reason outranks feeling. Therefore “the mind must rule over the heart.” People should serve the Master of the Universe “from the depths of contemplation” and not “from the depths of emotion” alone, which means neither from love nor from fear. The love or fear that a person has as a result of recognizing His ways, and therefore seeing His ways through the Torah is higher than the love or fear that comes from the heart, a higher recognition of the Holy One, Blessed Be He. One must uphold all the laws of the Shulchan Aruch, because they reflect the will of the Creator.

According to Kabbalah, there are four worlds that derive from the Ein Sof: “the world of Atzilus [Emanation],” “the world of Beriah [Creation],” “the world of Yetzirah [Formation],” and “the world of Assiyah [Action].” The world of Atzilus is the highest and is ruled by the greatest harmony among ideas, thoughts, concepts, and ideas. There is no conflict there, because this world is above everything. It is that which existed before all else began.

The “world of Atzilus” is entirely spiritual. It is the world where there are no conflicting ideas. The “world of Beriah” is the world of birth, the world where things and words are born. But they have no form there. It is the world of matter, the material of all things that first comes to the wider world. The “world of Yetzirah” is the world where everything takes on form, where everything receives an appearance, where everything is finished and completed; from this world, people come to the “world of Assiyah,” which is our world, actuality.

According to Chabad, a Jew should live in all those worlds. He should begin in the “world of Assiyah,” where he must earn a living, then to the “world of Yetzirah,” from there to the “world of Beriah,” and then to the “world of Atzilus,” where people are above everything.

But the Rabbi knew that this was too much to expect from everyone. The Rabbi himself could move from one “world” to another, just as a person goes from one room to another. But not everyone is worthy of having such qualities. Therefore he devised a way for

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a person who could not reach such heights–a way for the average person, for those “in-between,” who could not climb so high. He dedicated his book to them, to those “average men” and in fact called it “the book of average men.” He showed thereby that even average people can raise themselves up. They need only to desire it and to do so in stages.

The Rabbi put striving for peace in the center of all of his activities, because he saw in that the outcome of all his Chabad world outlook. Peace and unity lead to the secret of “Oneness” and to the Thirteen Attributes of God (in gematria, the word for Oneness, Echad, adds up to thirteen). Harmony means wholeness, fullness; peace [shalom] is completeness [shlimus]. When people are worthy of the completeness of creation, then will the scar of the first man's sin be healed, and that of Cain, and those of all who came after, who waged war and shed blood. But the initial unity must come from Jews, because “Who is like your people Israel, a unique nation on earth” [2 Samuel 7:23]. Jews must be a “unique nation.”

And therefore the Rabbi devoted most of the days of his life to peace, because when there will be peace among Jews, then there could be peace for the whole world–eternal peace.

Even at first, when he became a rabbi, he set out on the path of peace and suffered more than a little persecution from his opponents. His first step was to say that he would go to the Vilna Gaon to make peace between both camps–the Chasidim and the misnagdim. R' Shlomo Karliner came out sharply against him, who urged other rabbis to join the opposition. R' Shlomo said that he was sure that the misnagdim did not want peace. Therefore, he held that one should not humiliate himself before them. But the Rabbi believed differently. He said that if there was not glimmer of hope for peace, even as thin as a hair, people must still try. The result was that R' Shneur-Zalman went together with R' Mendel of Vitebsk to Vilna, to the Gaon, who would not see them. He told them to leave. Finally, the Gaon left the city and only returned when they had departed.

Later on the Rabbi made other attempts to achieve peace between the Chasidim and the misnagdim, but the misnagdim did not want to make peace with the Chasidim. Quite the opposite: the quarrels became sharper and led to denunciations [to civil authorities]. The first victim was R' Shneur-Zalman. He was denounced as being politically dangerous for the Russian regime, because with his collection of funds for Eretz Yisroel, he was supporting the Turks against Russia. R' Shneur-Zalman was arrested and imprisoned in isolation

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in the Petropavlovsk Fortress, from which he was released on the 13^th of Kislev in 5559. The day of his release is a holiday for the Chabad Chasidim, which they celebrate even now.

But even after R' Shneur-Zalman's release, the misnagdim did not cease their persecution of Chasidim. Their goal was to go after the head of the Chasidim, R' Shneur-Zalman. Again he was denounced, and again he was brought to Petersburg, and for a second time he was arrested. This time he was not detained for long, about two weeks, but he did not dare to leave Petersburg until the senate made a definite decision. But finally the new Russian czar, Alexander I, on his accession in 1801, freed him.

When the Rabbi left prison, he did not lose his faith in people, and he made further attempts at peace. This time the conflict was internal, between Chasidim. There was a story about R' Baruch of Medzhibozh, who was angry with the Rabbi who came into his area to collect money for the poor who had been driven out of their villages. R' Baruch held that R' Shneur-Zalman had no right to enter his “kingdom” without his permission. When the Rabbi showed him that many of these poor, exiled Jews were starving and that people had to take action for them, R' Baruch asked, “What's it to you that they're starving?” To this question, R' Shneur-Zalman had no answer.

Earlier he had made a great effort at peacemaking when a quarrel had broken out between him and the new representative of the “kollelot” in Eretz Yisroel, R' Avraham Kalisker, who had taken the place of R' Mendel of Vitebsk after the latter's death. He, R' Shneur-Zalman, had elevated R' Avraham Kalisker and treated him like a prince, and he had called on everyone to treat him with the same respect that they had shown to R. Mendel of Vitebsk, z”l. But hardly had this new prince, R. Avraham Kalisker, whose territory did not include that of R. Shneur-Zalman, taken over the reins than he attacked R' Shneur-Zalman for collecting funds for the “kollelot” without his permission.

The last attempt at making peace in the life of R' Shneur-Zalman was to make “peace” in heaven between the leader of Russia and the leader of France in the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Rabbi was certain that if Napoleon won, it would be

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a great evil for the study of Torah. Jews would have better incomes, but Torah study would decrease and it might happen, God forbid, that “Torah study would be forgotten in Israel.” He therefore called on all the tzaddikim of that generation to pray that Napoleon would lose the war.

But many tzaddikim opposed him, especially R' Yisroel Koszenitzer, who asked the Master of the World that Napoleon should triumph, so that Jews would have better incomes. But in heaven they did not know what to do, which of these elevated parties should prevail. Legend tells us that the decision remained open until Rosh Hashanah, when the shofar would be blown: whoever did all the tones of the tekiyah earlier, his side would win over the other.

But, the legend goes on, when R' Shneur-Zalman learned of this, he said nothing to anyone, but he thought to himself and early on Rosh Hashanah, while R' Yisroel Koszenitzer was preparing for shofar blowing and for his devotions, R' Shneur-Zalman called on the shofar-blower of his prayer house to blow the shofar before the morning service and thus assured that the “leader of Russia” would triumph.

And so it was. Immediately those in heaven inscribed the victory of the “leader of Russia.” And when R' Yisroel Koszenitzer later blew the shofar with great devotion, he was given to know what had already happened, that R' Shneur-Zalman had preceded him. R' Yisroel Koszenitzer wrung his hands and said,

“The Litvak has seized the shofar notes!”

But later on, R' Yisroel Koszenitzer himself also admitted that the Rabbi was right.

Later, during the war, the Rabbi had to flee from Liadi. With difficulty he reached the Kursk region, at the end of Shabbos, on the 24th of Kislev, he passed away.

The influence that R' Shneur-Zalman exercised in Vitebsk was extraordinary. Chabad shuls were there for many years, where people were proud that the founder of Chabad was like a fellow citizen; and until the Bolshevik Revolution, people in Vitebsk could feel that Chabad Chasidism had put its stamp on the city of Vitebsk and that R' Shneur-Zalman had many heirs there who passed on their inheritance to their children and to their children's children, from generation to generation.

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