The old struggle between Hasidism and Rabbinism had long been fought out, and the Tzaddiks rested on their laurels as teachers and miracle-workers.  The Tzaddik dynasties were now firmly entrenched.  In White Russia the sceptre lay in the hands of the Shneorsohn dynasty, the successors of the “Old Rabbi,” Shneor Zalman, the progenitor of the Northern Hasidim. [1] The son of the “Old Rabbi,” Baer, nicknamed “the Middle Rabbi” (1813-1828), and the latter’s son-in-law Mendel Lubavicher [2] (1828-1866) succeeded one another on the hasidic “throne” during this period, with a change in their place of residence.  Under Rabbi Zalman the townlets of Lozno and Ladi served as “capitals”; under his successors, they were Ladi and Lubavichi.  The three localities are all situated on the border-line of the governments of Vitebsk and Moghilev, in which the Hasidim of the Habad persuasion [3] formed either a majority, as was the case in the former government, or a substantial minority, as was the case in the latter.

[Footnote 1:  See Vol.  I, p. 372.]

[Footnote 2:  From the townlet Lubavichi.  See later in the text.]

[Footnote 3:  Compare Vol.  I, p. 234, n. 2.]

Rabbi Baer, the son and successor of the “Old Rabbi,” did not inherit the creative genius of his father.  He published many books, made up mostly of his Sabbath discourses, but they lack originality.  His method is that of the talmudic pilpul, [1] transplanted upon the soil of Cabala and Hasidism, or it consists in expatiating upon the ideas contained in the Tanyo. [2] The last years of Rabbi Baer were darkened by the White Russian catastrophes, the expulsion from the villages in 1823, and the ominous turn in the ritual murder trial of Velizh.  On his death-bed he spoke to those around him about the burning topic of the day, the conscription ukase of 1827.

[Footnote 1:  i.e., Dialectics.  Comp.  Vol.  I, p. 122.]

[Footnote 2:  The title of the philosophic treatise of Rabbi Shneor Zalman.  See Vol.  I, p. 372, n. 1.]

His successor Rabbi Mendel Lubavicher proved an energetic organizer of the hasidic masses.  He was highly esteemed not only as a learned Talmudist—­he wrote rabbinical novellae and response—­and as a preacher of Hasidism, but also as a man of great practical wisdom, whose advice was sought by thousands of people in family matters no less than in communal and commercial affairs.  This did not present him from being a decided opponent of the new enlightenment.  In the course of Lilienthal’s educational propaganda in 1843, Rabbi Mendel was summoned by the Government to participate in the deliberations of the Rabbinical Committee at St. Petersburg.  There he found himself in a tragic situation.  He was compelled to give his sanction to the Crown schools, although he firmly believed that they were subversive of Judaism, not only because they were originated by Russian officials, but also because they were intended to impart secular