Reply To: Question of an ignorant, closed-minded Lubavitcher

Avira,

By the gaon, they said that his neshoma literally belonged to tekufas harishonim

Nu nu. You need me to find something like this about the Alter Rebbe?
No problem, but does it make a difference?

Rav Yosef Kotkovsy (rov in Ukraine in the late 1800s) writes immense praises for the Shluchan Aruch Harav in the introduction to his sefer Darkei Hachayim, and then he writes:

“I have heard from someone trustworthy who saw a handwritten note by the Rav of Barditchov as follows: I can testify that if Rav Shneur Zalman of Liady [the Alter Rebbe] would have lived in the days of the Rif and the Rambam [rishonim…] he would have been like one of them… His golden language is literally [yes, “literally”] like the language of the Rif and Rambam.”

וכאשר שמעתי מפי מגידי אמת שראה כתיבת יד קודש של הרב הגאון האלקי מבארדיטשוב שכתבו וז”ל מעיד אני עלי שמים וארץ שאלו היו הרב הגאון אלקי ר’ שניאור זלמן מלאדי בימי הרי”ף והרמב”ם היו כאחד מהם . . לשונו הזהב הוא ממש כלשון הרי”ף והרמב”ם ז”ל.
https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=7805&st=&pgnum=13

And, talking about “neshamos”, and being that this week was Chai Elul, I guess I should bring the sicha of the Rebbe Rayatz from Chai Elul 5705 (Sefer Hasichos pg. 129) where he describes the events surrounding the birth of the Alter Rebbe:

On Chai Elul 5505 [the day the Alter Rebbe was born] the Baal Shem Tov was in a very joyous mood. After davening, he arranged a seuda for his students and said “Today a neshama chadasha [new soul] entered the world which will light up the world with nigleh and chassidus, and will have mesiras nefesh for the derech of chassidus, and succeed until bias hamoshiach.”

The Rebbe Rashab famously said: “Every neshama is sourced in the world of Atzilus, but the Alter Rebbe was a neshama d’Atzilus even as a נשמה בגוף בעולם הזה”