Dovber Schneersohn (or Dovber or Mitteler Rebbe ("Middle Rebbe" in Yiddish) ) (1773 — 1827) was an Orthodox Judaism rabbi. He was the second Rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism movement that originated in the town of Lubavitch in present-day Belarus. In 1940 the Lubavitch movement moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, New York in the United States where it trains its own rabbis and from where it then sends them out to man Chabad-Lubavitch schools, synagogues and adult and college student education centers all over the world.

Rabbi Dovber Schneersohn was the son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman the founder of Chabad, and the father of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn the third Rebbe of Chabad known as the Tzemach Tzedek. He is commonly referred to as the "Mitteler Rebbe" (Middle Rebbe), meaning he was in the "middle" between the first and second rebbes.

Rabbi Dovber Schneersohn, was the first Chabad rebbe to live in the town of Lubavich (now in present-day Belarus), the town for which this Hasidic dynasty is named. After the death of his father, he consolidated the movement by creating sharp contrasts with other forms of Hasidism. His major works are methodical tracts on the mystical aspects of prayer, some of which have been translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.

Rebbes of Lubavitch

• Chabad Lubavitch:

1. Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812)
2. Dovber Schneersohn (1773-1827)
3. Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1789-1866)
4. Shmuel Schneersohn (1834-1882)
5. Sholom Dovber Schneersohn (1860-1920)
6. Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (1880-1950)
7. Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994)

Time-line of Lubavitcher rebbes

External Links

• A translation of Shaar HaYichud - The Gate of Unity by Rabbi Dov Ber Schneersohn
• A translation of Derech Chayim -The Gate of Return by Rabbi Dov Ber Schneersohn