夏加尔出生Moishe西格尔在立陶宛的犹太家庭利奥兹诺，靠近城市维捷布斯克（白俄罗斯，然后部分俄罗斯帝国于1887年）在他出生的时候，维捷布斯克的人口是约66000，有一半的人口是犹太人。一个风景如画的城市教堂和犹太教堂的，它被称为“俄罗斯托莱多 ”，前者的国际化城市后，西班牙帝国。随着城市建大多是木头，一点它在二战期间幸存年的占领和破坏。

夏加尔是长子九个孩子。姓氏，Shagal，是名称的一个变种西格尔，这在一个犹太社区通常由承担Levitic家庭。他的父亲，Khatskl（Zachar）Shagal，被一个商人鲱鱼采用的，和他的母亲，飞鸽-ITE，从他们的畅销食品。他的父亲奋力拼搏，背着沉重的桶，但只赚取每月（横跨俄罗斯帝国的职工平均工资是每月13卢布）20卢布。夏加尔以后会包括鱼图案“出来为他父亲的尊重”，写传记作家夏加尔，雅各巴力Teshuva。夏加尔写下这些早年：

日复一日，冬天和夏天，早上六点钟，父亲起身去了会堂。在那里，他说，他的一些死去的人或其他常用的祈祷。在他的回归，他准备好茶炊，喝了一些茶，上班去了。地狱般的工作，一个厨房奴隶的工作。为什么试图掩盖它？怎么讲呢？无字都不会减轻我父亲的很多......总有大量的黄油和奶酪我们的餐桌上的。黄油面包，像一个永恒象征，从来不在外面我幼稚的手中。

一个镇的犹太居民收入的主要来源是从服装的制造是在整个俄罗斯销售。他们还提出了家具和各种农具。从18世纪末到第一次世界大战，俄罗斯政府只限于犹太人的内生活结算的苍白，其中包括现代化的乌克兰，白俄罗斯，波兰，立陶宛，拉脱维亚，几乎完全对应的领土波兰立陶宛语联合体最近俄罗斯帝国接管。这引起了犹太市场村（创建shtetls）今天整个的东欧，用自己的市场，学校，医院和其他社区机构。

大多数已知的关于夏加尔的早期生活都来自他的自传，我的生活。在书中，他描述了重大影响的哈西德派犹太教的文化对他的人生作为一个艺术家。维捷布斯克本身也一直认为文化可以追溯到从获得了它的教义1730年代的中心卡巴拉。夏加尔学者苏珊·古德曼Tumarkin描述的链接和他的艺术的来源，他早期的家：夏加尔的艺术，可以理解为应对长期以来标志着俄国犹太人的历史的情况。虽然他们是谁在频繁的敌对社会作出了更广泛的社会做出了重要贡献，犹太人被视为局外人的文化创新...夏加尔自己出生在宗教生活悠久的家庭; 他的父母是细心的哈西德派犹太人谁发现了他们的信仰定义和组织祈祷生命精神上的满足。
 

在俄罗斯，在那个时候，犹太儿童不允许参加普通俄罗斯学校或大学。他们在全市范围内运动是也受到限制。因此，夏加尔在当地犹太宗教学校，在那里他学习接受了他的小学教育希伯来文和圣经。在13岁时，他的母亲试图吸收他在俄罗斯的高中，他回忆说，“但是在那所学校，他们不拿犹太人，没有片刻的犹豫，我勇敢的母亲走过来的教授。” 她给校长50卢布让他参加，他接受了。

他的艺术人生的一个转折点了，当他第一次看到一个同学图。巴力Teshuva写道，对于年轻的夏加尔，看别人画“就像一个愿景，黑色和白色的启示”。夏加尔后来说，没有任何在他家的家艺术和概念是完全陌生的他。当问夏加尔同学，他学会了如何画，他的朋友回答说，“你去在图书馆找到一本书，白痴，选择你喜欢的任何图片，只是复制它。” 他很快就开始从书本复制图像，发现了这样的经验奖励他便决定他想成为一名艺术家。
他最终吐露他的母亲，“我想成为一名画家”，虽然她还不明白他的艺术或者为什么他会选择一个职业是“看起来是如此不现实”突发兴趣，古德曼写道。年轻的夏加尔解释说，“有一个在镇的地方;！如果我承认，如果我完成的过程中，我会出来一个普通的艺术家，我会这么开心” 那是1906年，他已经注意到工作室耶胡达（尤里）笔，一个现实主义艺术家谁也运行在维捷布斯克小绘画学校，其中包括未来的艺术家萨尔瓦多李西茨基和Ossip Zadkine。由于夏加尔的青春和缺乏收入，笔愿意教他免费。然而，在学校几个月后，夏加尔意识到学术肖像画不适合他的欲望。

古德曼指出，在此期间，在俄罗斯，犹太人加盟的艺术世界两个基本的选择：一个是“隐藏或否认自己的犹太根”。该夏加尔另一种选择，一个选择-是“珍惜并公开表达自己的犹太根”将其纳入自己的艺术。对于夏加尔，这也是他的意思是“自我主张和原则的表现。”

夏加尔传记作家弗朗茨·梅耶解释说，以他的艺术和早期生活之间的联系“的哈西德派的精神仍然是基础和营养为他的艺术的源泉。” 刘易斯补充说：“作为国际化的艺术家，他后来成为他的视觉意象库绝不会扩展超过了他童年的风景，白雪皑皑的街道，木房子，和无处不在的小提琴手...... 场景童年不可磨灭所以在一个人的头脑和把它们与情感收费如此激烈，它只能通过倾斜同样神秘的符号和表意文字的一种痴迷的重复放电投资......“

多年以后，在57岁而生活在美国，夏加尔证实了这一点时，他发表了一篇题为一封公开信，“我的城市维捷布斯克”：

为什么？为什么我离开你很多年前？......你以为，男孩追求的东西，寻找这样一个特殊的精妙，色彩降像从天空降落，明亮透明，如雪上我们的屋顶明星。他从哪里得到的呢？它怎么会来一个男孩喜欢他吗？我不知道为什么他不能和我们一起找到它，在城市，在他的家乡。也许男孩为艺术的缘故“疯狂”，但“疯狂”。......你以为：“我所看到的，我铭刻在了男孩的心脏，但他仍然是'飞'，他仍力图脱下，他有”风“在他的头上。” ...我没有和你住在一起，但我没有一个单一的绘画未与你的精神和反思呼吸。
 

Chagall was born Moishe Seagal in the Lithuania Jewish family and Aozinuo, near the city of Vitebsk (Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire in 1887) at the time of his birth, about 66000 of the population is Vitebsk, half of the population is jewish. A picturesque city churches and synagogues, it is known as the "Russian Toledo", the former international city, the Spanish empire. As the city was built mostly of wood, a little bit of its occupation and destruction during the Second World War survived.
Chagall is the eldest of nine children. The family name, Shagal, is a variant of the name Seagal, which in a Jewish community is usually undertaken by the Levitic family. His father, Khatskl (Zachar) Shagal, was a businessman with herring, and his mother, Fei -ITE, from their selling food. His father fought hard, carrying a heavy barrel, but earned only 20 dollars a month (the average wage of workers across the Russian Empire was $13 a month). Chagall will include fish pattern "came to his father's respect," wrote a biography of the writer Chagall, Jacob Baal Teshuva. Write down these early chagall:
Day after day, winter and summer, at six o'clock in the morning, my father went to the synagogue. There, he said, some of his dead or other commonly used prayers. On his return, he prepared the samovar, drank some tea and went to work. Hellish work, the work of a kitchen slave. Why try to cover it up? How do you say it? No words will not lessen my father a lot...... there are a lot of butter and cheese on our table. Butter bread, like a symbol of eternity, never in my childish hands.
The main source of income for a town of Jewish residents is from the manufacture of clothing that is sold throughout russia. They also made furniture and a variety of tools. From eighteenth Century to the end of the first World War, the Russian government is limited to the Jews living in the settlement of the pale, including the modernization of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, almost completely corresponding to the territory of Poland Lithuania Language Association recently the Russian Empire took over Ross. This caused the Jewish Market Village (to create shtetls) today throughout Eastern Europe, with its own markets, schools, hospitals and other community agencies.
Early life about Chagall most known from his autobiography, my life. In the book, he describes the significant influence of the Hasidic Jewish culture as an artist of his life. The Vitebsk itself has been that culture can be traced back to the center of Kabbala from its teachings in 1730s. The source of Chagall scholar Susan Goodman Tumarkin described the link and his art, his early home: Chagall's art, can be understood as to long marks Jewish history. Although they are in frequent hostile society who made a broader society made important contributions, the Jews are regarded as cultural innovation... Outsider Chagall himself was born in a family of religious life; his parents are careful of Hasidic Jews who found their faith and prayer life Organization definition of spiritual satisfaction.In Russia, at that time, Jewish children were not allowed to attend ordinary Russian schools or universities. Their movement in the city is also restricted. Therefore, Chagall in the local Jewish religious school, he received his primary school education to learn Hebrew and Bible there. At the age of 13, his mother tried to absorb his high school in Russia, he recalls, "but at that school, they didn't take the Jews, without a moment of hesitation, my brave mother came over to the professor." She gave the headmaster 50 roubles to let him in.
A turning point in his artistic life, when he first saw a classmate figure. Baal Teshuva wrote for the young Chagall painting, watching others "like a black and white vision, enlightenment". Chagall later said no in his family's home and art concept is completely strange to him. When asked his classmates, he learned how to draw, his friend said, "you go to find a book in the library, idiot, choose any picture you love, just copy it." He soon began to copy the images from books, and found that he was rewarded by the experience.
He finally confided to his mother, "I want to become a painter, although she did not understand his art or why he would choose an occupation is" seemed so impractical "sudden interest, Goodman wrote. The young Chagall explained, "there is a place in town;! If I admit that if I finish the process, I will be out of an ordinary artist, I could be so happy. "It was 1906, he had noticed the studio Yehuda (Yuri), a realist artist who also runs in Vitebsk small painting school, including future artists Salvador Ricci F Ki and Ossip Zadkine. Because of Chagall's youth and lack of income, willing to teach him free pen. However, in the school a few months later, Chagall realized his desire for academic portrait.Goodman pointed out that during this period, in Russia, Jews joined the art world of the two basic choices: one is to hide or deny their Jewish roots". The Chagall another choice, a choice is "cherish and openly express their Jewish roots" incorporated in his own art. For Chagall, this is his meaning is "self assertion and principle of performance."
Chagall biographer Franz Meyer explained, in between his art and early life relation "the Hasidic spirit is still the basis and source of nutrition for his art." Lewis added: "as an international artist, he later became his visual image library never extended beyond his childhood scenery, Snow gleams white. streets, wooden house, and the ubiquitous violin... So indelible in childhood scenes... One head and put them with the emotional toll is so intense, it is only through tilt an obsession with the same mysterious symbols and ideographic repetitive firing of investment......"
Many years later, at the age of 57 while living in the United States, Chagall confirmed this point, he published an article entitled "an open letter, my city vitebsk":
Why? Why did I leave you many years ago? You think that boys are looking for something that looks like a special delicacy, the colors fall from the sky, bright and transparent, like snow on our roof stars. Where did he get it? How does it come to a boy like him? I don't know why he can't find it with us in the city, in his hometown. Maybe boys are crazy for art, but "crazy"". "What do you think:" what I saw, I was engraved on the boy's heart, but he was still 'flying', he still tried to take off, he had "wind" on his head." I don't live with you, but I don't have a single painting without breathing with your spirit and reflection.