9 Kislev · Yahrzeit
Yahrzeit of Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch - the Mitteler Rebbe
9 Kislev - Yahrzeit of Rabbi DovBer bar Shneur Zalman of Lubavitch - 2nd Lubavitcher Rebbe
He was born on 9 Kislev 1773 in the Belarusian town of Liozna, the firstborn son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi - the Alter Rebbe, founder of Chabad.
He was named after his father's mentor - DovBer, the Maggid of Mezritch, who passed away a year before his birth, on 19 Kislev 1772.
He studied Torah - both its legal sections and Kabbalah - under his father's guidance.
In 1812, when Napoleon's armies invaded Russia, the Mitteler Rebbe followed the retreating Russian army together with his father.
"The festival of Rosh Hashanah found us in Troitse-Sergievo," the Mitteler Rebbe recalled. "...We suffered greatly from the cold and lack of provisions, living on coarse bread and water. ... In the villages we were met everywhere with mockery and abuse." After five months of wandering, they reached Kursk province. There, in the village of Piena near the town of Sumy, Rabbi Shneur Zalman fell ill and passed away. The Mitteler Rebbe buried his father in the nearest Jewish cemetery, in the town of Hadiach, north of Poltava.
After returning to Belarus following the war, he settled in the town of Lubavitch and succeeded his father as leader of the Chabad movement.
When, at the insistence of the Russian authorities, every Jew was required to register under a specific surname, the Mitteler Rebbe chose the surname Schneuri for his family - in honor of his father (his descendants later changed this surname to Schneerson).
The Mitteler Rebbe wrote many books developing the ideas of Chabad. In Lubavitch, which became the new center of the movement, he founded the first Chabad yeshiva, headed by his son-in-law, the grandson of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch - the Tzemach Tzedek.
The Mitteler Rebbe maintained constant contact with the Alter Rebbe's followers in the Land of Israel. In 1825, following his advice, the Chabad community relocated from Tzfat to Hevron. Through the services of intermediaries, the Mitteler Rebbe acquired a plot of land in Hevron for his family, intending to later make aliyah to the Holy Land himself.
That same year, 1825, he fell seriously ill and, on his doctors' advice, traveled for treatment to the resort town of Karlsbad.
In the summer of 1827, the Mitteler Rebbe visited his father's grave. On the way back, in the town of Nezhin, he took to his bed.
The Mitteler Rebbe of Lubavitch passed away in Nezhin on 9 Kislev 1827 - the very same day of the year on which he was born.
He was succeeded as leader of the Chabad movement by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, known as the Tzemach Tzedek.
The resting place of the Mitteler Rebbe is in Nezhin, located in the Chernihiv region on the bank of the Oster River.
The Mitteler Rebbe passed away here in 1827, after coming to visit his son, Rabbi Nachum.
The small structure built over the Mitteler Rebbe's grave was destroyed and later restored in the late 1980s.
(https://hoohma.ru/evrejskie-svyatyni-mogily-pravednikov-v-ukraine/, Toldot.ru)