Moses Ḥayim Luzzatto of Padua (1707-1746) and Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812) were innovative and highly influential Jewish theologians whose thought drew heavily on the teachings of Isaac Luria and other kabbalists. Neither was a stranger to controversy: Luzzatto was eventually hounded out of Italy by his coreligionists for his idiosyncratic messianic beliefs, while Shneur Zalman, as founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch sect, was one of the leading figures of Ḥasidism just as its conflict with the Misnagdm (rabbinic opponents of the movement) was heating up.
Tali Loewenthal places both rabbis in their respective historical contexts and explains their different ideas of man’s struggle for moral and spiritual perfection. (Video, 32 minutes.)
Read more on Chabad,org: http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/3521399/jewish/Competing-Ideals-of-Ascent-and-Struggle.htm