How to Find Yourself in the Vast Sea of Chabad Books | Preparing for Yud-Tes Kislev

00:00 One of the wonderful things we’ve seen, especially in recent years, is the dissemination of Chassidus on a scale without parallel in history. In the last generation, books of Chassidus by all our Rebbeim have been published, especially the Chabad Rebbeim, from the Alter Rebbe to the Rebbe, the leader of our generation. Dozens and dozens, even hundreds of books. The Chabad bookshelf simply keeps growing from year to year. There is an enormous treasury of Chabad books. I remember that when I was a child, the entire Chabad bookshelf was maybe two or three shelves. That was it. There were two or three books from each Rebbe, perhaps a little more. But where were all these books? They weren’t available; they hadn’t been printed at all. Then suddenly, mainly from the 1970s, and even more so from the 1980s—the 5740s onward—the dissemination of Chassidus began on an unprecedented scale. What is the story behind that? And what do we do? Many of us stand in front of a bookshelf full of Chabad books, see so many books from each Rebbe, and simply get lost. Which book should I pick up? Where do I start? What do I go on to? Suddenly you find that the Alter Rebbe wrote not only the Tanya. There are dozens and dozens of volumes of the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim, and the same is true of the Mitteler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek. Rebbe after Rebbe, there are dozens and hundreds of volumes of Chassidus. What should I study? Where do I begin? How do I continue? We’ll try to address that in this class and in the classes to come, especially now, as we enter Kislev, the chassidic month, the month of Chassidus. We’re soon approaching the great day of Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, and before that there are quite a few

02:27 special celebrations connected with Chassidus. So over the coming weeks, we’ll really try to bring a little order to the Chabad bookshelf. First, let’s ask: as we said, what exactly happened in the last generation that caused the number of Chassidus books to grow so dramatically? Around now, we celebrate the first special day of Kislev: Rosh Chodesh Kislev, which falls this week. What happened on Rosh Chodesh Kislev? It is the day the Rebbe recovered his strength after the heart attack he suffered in 5738, on Shemini Atzeres in 1977, during Shemini Atzeres–Simchas Torah. In ’77, in the middle of hakafos, the Rebbe suffered a very serious heart attack that was truly life-threatening. The doctors gave the gravest assessments, but through open miracles entirely beyond the natural order, the situation gradually turned around for the better. On Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the Rebbe returned home. From that year on, the day became one of great celebration and joy among chassidim. So let’s go back to that point in time, 5738. Some months earlier, at the farbrengen of 19 Kislev 5737—about eleven months before the events we’re discussing—in 1976, the Rebbe spoke about the dissemination of Chassidus books. Toward the end of the farbrengen, the Rebbe said that one of the things he was involved in was disseminating Chassidus books. And, as an aside—but an important one—it’s worth knowing a little of the history. When the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in America in the middle of World War II, one of the first things he did was establish a publishing institution. A few months later, his son-in-law, the Rebbe, also arrived. Both had been saved from that valley of tears, from the terrible war in Europe. Soon afterward, one of the first institutions the Frierdiker Rebbe

05:11 founded together with the Rebbe was Kehot, the publishing house for Chassidus books. That was no coincidence. It happened at precisely that time, and from then on, the dissemination of Chassidus in America began. But as we said, it happened gradually: one book and then another, not yet on such a broad and extensive scale. So let’s return to the farbrengen of 19 Kislev 5737. Toward the end, when it was already late into the early hours of the morning, the Rebbe began speaking about the need to work on spreading the wellsprings of Chassidus. We all know, the Rebbe said, that the entire celebration of 19 Kislev is directly connected to the promise our teacher the Baal Shem Tov received from Moshiach: “When your wellsprings spread outward.” As is well known, during the Baal Shem Tov’s ascent of the soul on Rosh Hashanah 5507, he received a message from Moshiach: when the wellsprings of Chassidus spread and become known throughout the world, Moshiach will come. The Alter Rebbe, who was the student of the Baal Shem Tov’s student, took this with utmost seriousness. After the passing of the Maggid of Mezritch, and following the events that led to it, the Alter Rebbe assumed the leadership of Chassidus in Russia, White Russia, and the surrounding areas, and began sharing his teachings, the teachings of Chabad. At first, of course, this was through speaking. There were books, but gradually more came, and before long many Jews gathered around the Alter Rebbe, thirsty for Hashem’s Torah, thirsty for the words of the living G-d. The Alter Rebbe would deliver maamarim, and little by little his wonderful teachings began to spread throughout the world. At first the maamarim were shorter; gradually they grew longer. And here, too,

07:34 something wonderful happened. We all know that at a certain point the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned. Why was he imprisoned? On the natural level, it was also because some people looked unfavorably on the dissemination of Chassidus on the large scale the Alter Rebbe had begun. That was what led, on the natural level, to his arrest. As the Alter Rebbe himself later related, during his imprisonment he experienced a revelation of our teacher the Baal Shem Tov and our teacher the Maggid, who was his Rebbe. They told him that an accusation had arisen in Heaven. They explained the spiritual root of his imprisonment: there had been a great accusation in Heaven against his spreading the secrets of Torah, the inner dimension of Torah, the teachings of Chassidus. This dissemination would bring Moshiach, and the Satan began to stand in opposition, trying to prevent it with all sorts of claims that the world was not yet ready, and so on. The Alter Rebbe asked them what he should do—should he continue or stop? They told him: on the contrary, continue, and with even greater strength. They promised him that the chassidim would prevail and that he would succeed in spreading Chassidus. They gave him many blessings. Then came the great miracle of 19 Kislev, the great celebration known as the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, when the Alter Rebbe was freed. He then began spreading Chassidus with much greater strength, breadth, and explanation. It’s a wonderful thing, and you can see it today when you look at the books. As we said, now that the Alter Rebbe’s teachings and maamarim from those years have been printed, you can see something remarkable: from the earliest years, when the Alter Rebbe was younger, we have very few maamarim, and even those are extremely short. Some maamarim are five or six lines long; there are maamarim of

09:42 One page, a page and a half. Very short maamarim—stirring, sharp, deeply profound and wonderful, but extremely short. So much so that the book containing most of the maamarim the Alter Rebbe said before his imprisonment is called Sefer Hamaamarim Haketarim, the Book of Short Maamarim. After he was released from prison, suddenly you begin to see that for some years there are two full books, whole volumes of maamarim he said during that year. The quantity is simply incomparable to the earlier years—at least fifteen years, no less—represented by just one or two books. In the years that followed, there are at least two volumes of Chassidus, of maamarim he said, for each year. And that is besides other things—letters, and so on. So what do we see here? The remarkable way the Alter Rebbe devoted his life to spreading the teachings of Chassidus, explaining them, delving into them and expanding on them. Then, Rebbe after Rebbe would devote himself to this work. Let’s return to the farbrengen of 19 Kislev. The Rebbe explains that this day, 19 Kislev, marks the beginning of the fulfillment of the Baal Shem Tov’s promise. It was on 19 Kislev that this turning point, this revolution, took place: the Alter Rebbe began revealing the teachings of Chassidus—but orally. When it came to the written word, chassidim did write down the Alter Rebbe’s teachings. There are dozens and hundreds of manuscript volumes of the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim, and then those of the Rebbeim who followed him: the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe. There is a vast amount of Chassidus in manuscript, but nearly all of it remained in the book collection, in the library of the Rebbe’s family, and was not printed. For whatever reason, the Rebbeim preserved their writings but had not yet published them. A few particular books did appear here and there. It is known, for example, that the Mitteler Rebbe would print—he printed some

12:05 of his writings, a relatively small portion, but he did print some of them. And here and there they printed a kuntres, a booklet, or a book, but only in very limited quantities. We do not know exactly why, but in practice that was the situation. And here the Rebbe says: The time has come. We are approaching the coming of Moshiach. The time has come to prepare the world for the complete Geulah, so the wellsprings of wisdom must go out into the world. There is no more time to wait, and we must begin printing books of Chassidus of every kind. At that farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke in particular about a special work written by the Rebbe Rashab, what is called a hemshech: a series of maamarim delivered over four years while the Rebbe Rashab was in Lubavitch. During his final years in Lubavitch, the Rebbe Rashab delivered and also wrote a long hemshech, a body of maamarim that bring together some of the deepest and most wonderful subjects in Chassidus. Chassidim call this a hemshech. A hemshech means that one subject is developed across many maamarim. That is one point. This is, in fact, the longest hemshech: over four years, the Rebbe Rashab delivered connected maamarim week after week, Shabbos after Shabbos, revealing the breadth of Chassidus in an extraordinary way. The Rebbe said then that this work contains “wonders from Your Torah,” the wonders of the Geulah, the deepest and most wondrous secrets—all presented so expansively, with examples, analogies and illustrations in a way that has no equal. This work was still in manuscript. The Rebbe recounted at length how it had once been entrusted to him for safekeeping. The Frierdiker Rebbe was going on a trip and wanted someone to look after it, so he gave it to him. The Rebbe thus had this work in his care—the Rebbe Rashab’s handwritten manuscript of the entire series of maamarim—and now he wanted to print it. It was remarkable how the Rebbe spoke with a great deal of—one might say, a great deal of—if it is permissible to use

14:23 the words, fear and awe, as though he had reservations about whether he was truly doing the right thing, whether perhaps the world really was not ready. Yet he was going to do it. You could sense that, for the Rebbe, this involved a kind of risk he was taking upon himself. When he spoke about printing the work, you could strongly sense—in the atmosphere, in his words, in the substance and message—that there was a risk here: they were going to print teachings for which the world might not yet be a vessel, teachings it might not yet be worthy of receiving. But nevertheless, the Rebbe said: I am not, not, not deterred by any of the risks. I am taking the risk and am prepared to publish it and invest in printing the work. Within a few months, volume after volume appeared, until the entire hemshech had been printed. That is regarding this particular hemshech. These volumes are known among chassidim as Hemshech BeShaah Shehikdimu 5672, because those are the opening words of the verse with which the first maamar begins. From there it continues for thousands of pages, explaining subjects in Chassidus. But as I said, it did not stop there. During that period, the Rebbe began publishing books of Chassidus from all our Rebbeim: the Alter Rebbe, as we said, and every Rebbe. Every few weeks another book would come out, whether from the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe or the Tzemach Tzedek. Books from every Rebbe were appearing. The number of books simply kept growing from day to day. What lay behind this? Something stated in the first maamar the Rebbe delivered when he accepted the leadership, the well-known maamar Basi Legani. Many people know that the first maamar the Rebbe delivered upon accepting the leadership was on the verse “I have come into My garden, My sister, My bride,” a verse from Shir Hashirim. That maamar was based on the final maamar of his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe. Before Yud Shvat 5710, before the passing of the Frierdiker

16:43 Rebbe, he had a maamar printed for Yud Shvat. It later turned out that this was the very day on which he passed away. That maamar began with the verse “I have come into My garden, My sister, My bride.” It became a foundational maamar—the foundational maamar for our generation. Year after year, when Yud Shvat came around, the day of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s passing and the day the Rebbe accepted the leadership, the Rebbe would return to that maamar, adding explanations and further insights, explaining it chapter by chapter in a wonderful way. In that maamar, the Frierdiker Rebbe says remarkable things about preparing the world for the Geulah. And in that maamar we find that he discusses the attribute of netzach. Among other things, he discusses the attribute of netzach, the power of netzach in the soul. We know that the soul has ten faculties—Chassidus speaks of the ten sefiros and the ten faculties of the soul—and one of them is the attribute of netzach. Netzach, the Rebbe says, is the particular attribute that pertains to our generation, because netzach is related to the word for eternity, and netzach is also related to the word for victory. When a person faces the danger of war, the attribute of netzach is aroused to win the war. The great war we are speaking about is the war of holiness against kelipah, of good against evil, of light against darkness. This war began, in fact, at the moment of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. That is when the great war between good and evil began. It has continued and expanded, passing through many stages, generations and periods. In our period especially, we are at the end—the end of the war, the time of victory. When the time for victory arrives, everything is invested in it. He gives an analogy of a king. When a king wants to conquer a country, there is a whole process. Why does he want to conquer the country? What does he want? Is he looking for territory? For money? For treasures? It depends what the

18:52 What he wants, his reason, his goal in the war—and based on that, he decides how much to invest in it. But then there is a war fought for victory itself. The war reaches a point where the goal is not money, gold, territory, or any particular gain. The point is simply that the king should win the war. Then the power of victory awakens in the king. It is the deepest power in the soul—the power of victory. The Hebrew word for victory, nitzachon, is related to netzach, eternity. It is the most powerful and deepest force rooted in the soul, especially in the king, at his very core. So when victory itself is at stake, the king breaks through every barrier and every limit. He reveals, makes public, spends, and brings out all the treasures he has inherited through the generations. Real kings have extraordinary treasures passed down through the generations, which they keep hidden. They do not reveal them for any reason—not for the greatest celebrations, not even for the most important occasions. The king does not make those things public. But when the moment of victory arrives, he gives without limit. There are no calculations. The deepest, most extraordinary, most precious, most important things that he, his fathers, and his forefathers stored away generation after generation—he gives them without limit to win the war. The Rebbe says: This is what is happening in our generation. Because we are close to the coming of Moshiach, we see that our Rebbeim began to make the teachings of Chassidus public. The jewel in the king’s crown, the most extraordinary and deepest treasure of the Torah’s secrets, which had always been hidden and concealed from everyone’s eyes, suddenly comes out and breaks through. As we said, the Baal Shem Tov began revealing Chassidus, followed by the Maggid of Mezritch, and then the Alter Rebbe came with Chabad Chassidus. And as we said, after his imprisonment, the Alter Rebbe began spreading Chassidus much more widely, but still orally. Now comes the stage when Chassidus must also be made public in writing, in print,

20:58 so that every single person has access to studying and understanding Chassidus—each according to their own way, abilities, and understanding. And that is the wonderful thing that happened specifically after that period. As we said, this week we celebrate the great day of Rosh Chodesh Kislev. In the days leading up to it and afterward, and even more so later, the Rebbe devoted his energies to printing books of Chassidus. The Rebbe himself was involved in every detail, checking what was being printed and how, making corrections, proofreading, and encouraging the work. From this came the wonderful, vast body of Chabad Chassidus books we have today. So if we want to speak about something specific, today we will at least touch on one particular point: the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim. In addition to Tanya, with Hashem’s help, we will discuss many other things in future classes. But today, let’s begin by drawing at least one practical point from the Alter Rebbe’s books. Everyone knows Tanya. Who doesn’t? Tanya is the foundational book. As is well known, the Tzemach Tzedek said that Tanya is like the Written Torah. Just as the Torah as a whole has the Written Torah, followed by the Oral Torah, which clarifies and explains it, Tanya is, so to speak, the Chumash—the Written Torah in which the Alter Rebbe set out the foundations of Chassidus. It is a small book, full to overflowing with the deepest foundations. But we know that the Alter Rebbe himself, as we said earlier, spoke much more extensively. The breadth of the Alter Rebbe’s teachings is truly an endless expanse of books. So let’s talk about another very well-known work, though not quite as well known as Tanya, that is worth discussing: the books on the weekly parshas, Torah Or and Likkutei Torah. These are books in which it is very worthwhile to set a regular study time. Today there are also many editions

23:20 that have been prepared with vowel points, explanations, and commentary that make these books easier to understand. In other words, as we said, the Alter Rebbe delivered a great many maamarim—thousands of maamarim of Chassidus during the years of his leadership, especially after the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus on 19 Kislev. But from all of them, his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, selected several dozen maamarim, which he printed in his time. He printed two books. One he called Torah Or. It contains the maamarim on the parshas of Bereishis and Shemos, including maamarim on Chanukah and Purim, which generally fall during that part of the year. A few years later, he printed the next book, Likkutei Torah, containing maamarim on Vayikra, Bamidbar, and Devarim, as well as Shir Hashirim. That book also has maamarim on Pesach, Shavuos, the month of Elul, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkos, and Simchas Torah. Alongside Tanya, these are two foundational books by the Alter Rebbe. The Rebbe said a number of times that these books, too, are considered foundational works of Chabad Chassidus. In other words, after Tanya, these are the next foundational books for learning the basic principles of Chassidus and its teachings. As we said, these books have the Alter Rebbe’s distinctive style: many verses, teachings of our Sages, and deep subjects in the inner dimension of Torah. But as we said, today explanatory books have also been published that help us understand these maamarim. You have to get used to the style, but if a person sets aside time every week to learn at least one of these maamarim, it gives you a different life. The Rebbe would call it “di chassidishe parsha”—the Chassidic parsha. In other words, it is the parsha on another level.

25:28 You read the weekly parsha—a wonderful, unique story. But when you take the weekly parsha and read it with the Alter Rebbe’s explanation, you see a completely different picture. Avraham Avinu becomes relevant to our lives—to the life of our soul, the life of our body, and our everyday lives. Yitzchak becomes a relevant reality, and the same is true of each of the patriarchs and matriarchs, their stories, and the stories of the Torah. Every story, every mitzvah, every halachah takes on an entirely different kind of meaning. So let’s begin with at least this point. With Hashem’s help, in future classes we will take more examples of books of Chassidus that are relevant and worthwhile to study, and touch on a little of this light. Then each of us, in these days of the month of Kislev, can connect to the in-depth study of Chabad Chassidus and truly prepare ourselves. As we said, when Moshiach comes, there will be the complete Geulah, and then we will reach the wondrous revelation of “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.”