Menachem Mendel Schneerson dies age 90
Mendel Schneerson dies at 90 years old after a long illness. He has been hospitalized at at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, since March 10 after suffering his second stroke in two years. In his last letter to one of his chassidim he writes his last words:
It follows that when a close person passes on, by the will of G‑d, those left here can no longer see him with their eyes or hear him with their ears; but the soul, in the World of Truth, can see and hear. And when he sees that the relatives are overly disturbed by his physical absence, it is saddened; and, conversely, when it sees that after the mourning period prescribed by the Torah a normal and fully productive life is resumed, it can happily rest in peace.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson born in Nikolaev, Russia
Menachem Mendel Schneerson is born in Nikolaev, Russia, to the famed kabbalist, talmudic scholar and Chasidic leader Rabbi Levi Yitchak and Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, who aids her husband in his scholarly pursuits. Schneerson is educated in Chabad institutions throughout his life. He has two brothers. Mother:
In 1905 when there were pogroms in Russia, my children and I, together with other mothers and children, hid in a pharmacy. As is normal during chaotic times, the children cried a lot. The pharmacist was fearful that the noise would expose him for sheltering Jews, placing his own life in danger…My then three-year-old son would walk around the room and quiet all the children. This was a remarkable scene. We could not talk because voices could be heard outside, so he silently motioned to them and gestured with his hands to keep quiet, calming each child in a different manner.