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Larger than life: The life and times of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (Volume 1)

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Larger Than Life represents a first in Orthodox Jewish literature., an objective and documented account of the life of an important sage and rabbi. Most such works paint a picture of the "hero" as someone who was more than human, and could do no wrong. Deutsch, himself a former Lubavitcher Chassid, and now leader of a Chabad breakaway group paints a very human portrait of his late mentor. Deutsch focuses in on the rebbe's life and times, but in the process the reader is given a detailed account of the travails of Russian Jewry first under the detested Czars of the Romanov dynasty and then under the repressive Communist regime. We learn of the process of secularazation in Russian Jewry, with many of Russia's young Jews being drawn to the new ideologies of Communism, Socialism and Zionism. This process did not fail to affect even the great rabbinic families of Chassidic Russia, as numerous young scions of many rabbinic families, the Schneersohn family among them, were drawn to these new secular ideologies. Yet the future rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson resisted this trend, and remained a devoutly religious Jew, albeit in his very own way. As he embarked for Berlin, and Paris to pursue secular studies and Western culture in order to understand the world from both a religious and scientific point of view. OPrior to leaving Communist Russia, young Schneerson marries his distant cousin Mussya, 2nd daughter of Rabbi Joseph I. Schneersohn, 6th Lubavitcher rebbe, thus becoming a potential heir to the 200 year old Chabad dynasty. Deutsch introduces us to the rebbe's immediate family, his childhood friends, his father in laws family, as well as his neighbiors and teachers in Berlin. For the first time ever, we are able to gleam, what the rebbe's course of studies in Berlin was, and who his teachers were. we also learn the truth about the relationship of young Schneerson with the great Jewish philosopher, Dr. Abraham J. Hesche, and the future Talmudic giant, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik of Yeshiva ! University, both of whom were in Berlin at that time. Although the books needs careful editing, it is a must read for every serious student of contemporary Chassidism.

This book is a strange mixture of amateurishness and meticulous research. Unlike most other people writing about the Rebbe, Deutsch seems to have remembered that the subject was born, ate, drank, got dressed at a time and place. He goes about detailing what he could find of all these details without much irony and without necessarily any over-view or thematic lense to view it through - and the result is curiously quaint and affectionate, almost a memoir by someone who didn't know the man but went everywhere he went. It is definitely NOT a hagiography and in that is very valuable as the subject recedes further and further into legend. A useful and brave book to be applauded. When somebody writes the definitive life this book will be one of the few secondary sources of value for them to draw upon.

Shimon Deutch is obviously out to prove that the late Lubavitcher was a human being - a beleif shared by all Chasidic groups outside Lubavitch (which make up the vast majority of Hassidim) as well as many Lubavitchers. The Rebbe was a very great and holy person, he obviously was not and is not the Messiah, yet this does not denigrate his memory in any way.

The books offers no documentatiom to many of his theories. The author has a chip on his shoulder. He obviously has a bone to pick with the Chabad Establishment.

Since writing this book, the author Shaul Shimon Deitch has proclaimed himself to be a Rebbe. In his book he slanders the Lubavitcher Rebbe. It is obvious from his book that he is trying to decrease the greatness of the Rebbe in order to make it Okay for him to call himself a "Rebbe"