An Introduction to Learning Chassidus - Part 1

00:00 So we’re talking about Chassidus. We said that first we would discuss the order of things—the style of Chassidus, the way the maamarim of our Rebbeim are presented. We’ll get into this a bit, both the style and the content, and what is worth learning. We’ll start at the beginning and go in an orderly way. That’s the plan. Okay? So here’s the order. First, we began with the Baal Shem Tov. I’ll be brief. When Chassidus was first revealed, the Baal Shem Tov did not intend to write it down. At first, Chassidus was passed on by word of mouth, from one person to another. The teachings were not written down; they were meant to be passed from one person to the next—the Baal Shem Tov to his students, and then those students to their students. The Maggid of Mezritch followed the same approach: they taught orally, in Yiddish. As it says in Igeres Hakodesh, section 25, the Alter Rebbe writes that the Baal Shem Tov would teach in Yiddish, and he did not write down his teachings. The reason was that Chassidus is the inner dimension of Torah; it is a matter of life. So it needs to be received in a living way, from a rebbe to a chossid, a teacher to a student, a mashpia to someone receiving guidance—not through writing. That’s why, when the Alter Rebbe came to write the Tanya, throughout its introductions he seems almost to be justifying himself, explaining that this really cannot be put into writing. He explains the problem with any book. The Alter Rebbe has to explain that he has no choice and must write it down, because his students had become so numerous that there was no time to receive everyone in yechidus. And so he

02:34 had to write it, “for those who know and recognize me,” as the Alter Rebbe writes. But at the beginning, writing was not the idea. The point was specifically to teach orally. There is a saying the Rebbe quotes in a sicha in the name of the great students of the Baal Shem Tov: Hakadosh Boruch Hu said to Moshe Rabbeinu, “Write this as a remembrance in the book, and place it in Yehoshua’s ears.” A book is not enough; it has to be placed in Yehoshua’s ears. You need to hear Chassidus from the Rebbe, not just read it in books. In any case, as we said, although the Baal Shem Tov did not write, one of his students, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, wrote down most of his teachings, and a few other students wrote some down as well. But what we have comes mainly from Rabbi Yaakov Yosef. The well-known book Kesser Shem Tov, containing teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, is drawn mostly from the book of his student Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye. He was a great tzaddik, one of the Baal Shem Tov’s leading students. He did not formally write a book of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings. He wrote a commentary on the Torah, and in it he often says, “I heard from my teacher.” Kesser Shem Tov was compiled from all those passages. Not only from him; there are others. A few other students of the Baal Shem Tov wrote down a little here and there. Some of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings appear in Rabbi Nachum of Chernobyl’s book Me’or Einayim. And similarly there is Tzavaas Harivash, also compiled by students of the Baal Shem Tov, who gathered some of his teachings. So, essentially, what we have today from the Baal Shem Tov is Tzavaas Harivash and Kesser Shem Tov. As we said, the teachings of

04:27 the Baal Shem Tov were given very briefly, as concise points. They mainly concern serving Hashem—practical instruction and guidance in serving Hashem. There is a little Kabbalah here and there, but you certainly do not find the Chabad approach—Chochmah, Binah and Daas, detailed explanation and sustained discussion—in the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings. His teachings are mainly guidance and instruction in serving Hashem. They awaken faith, trust, focus, and awareness of Hashem’s oneness, but everything is expressed very briefly, through explanations of verses and practical guidance. That’s the Baal Shem Tov. Then come the teachings of the Maggid. With the Maggid, there was already more contemplation, more depth revealed. With the Baal Shem Tov, the emphasis was more on avodah, on the service of the heart. With the Maggid, there was already more service of the mind. It is known that the Rebbe cites the Frierdiker Rebbe’s explanation of why the Alter Rebbe was not meant to meet the Baal Shem Tov. The Alter Rebbe wanted to meet him in person, but saw him only once, when he was a three-year-old child. Until the age of fifteen, he could still have met the Baal Shem Tov, but from Heaven it was arranged that he would not study with him. The Alter Rebbe had to be connected specifically to the Maggid, whose approach already placed greater emphasis on the service of the mind. And you can see it in the Maggid’s teachings: greater depth, more explanation, loftier subjects, and more discussion of the secrets of Torah. It is also known that the Rebbe Rashab writes that before saying a maamar, the Maggid of Mezritch would begin by saying, “Listen to the secrets of Torah”—as if to say that secrets of Torah were about to be revealed. And that is plainly apparent in the Maggid’s teachings.

06:14 The Maggid did not write either, as we said. Those who wrote down his teachings were his students. The well-known book compiled from their collections of the Maggid’s teachings is called Maggid Devarav LeYaakov. It contains two works together: Or Torah and Likkutei Amarim. Those two books of the Maggid were combined into one large volume, Maggid Devarav LeYaakov. Today they have been printed again as two volumes in a new edition. Because they prepared it with the Rebbe of Kalivsk[?], it would not fit into one volume. So today Kehot again sells it as two separate volumes. One is called, I think, Likkutei Maggid Devarav LeYaakov, and the other is called Or Torah—I don’t remember exactly—but it is now in two volumes. There is a lot of similar material; for the most part it is the same, with slight differences here and there, but that’s not... In any case, what are these books? They were written down by students. The Rebbe said several times that a very large part of Maggid Devarav LeYaakov consists of teachings the Alter Rebbe received from the Maggid and passed on. But the Alter Rebbe’s name does not appear in Maggid Devarav LeYaakov. Another of the Maggid’s students collected the material and made it into a book of the Maggid’s teachings. So those are the first two generations of general Chassidus. Now I’ll come to the study of Kesser Shem Tov and Maggid Devarav LeYaakov. I think I mentioned last week that the Frierdiker Rebbe writes in his sichos that chassidim had a custom, which the Rebbeim also followed, of looking into and reading from time to time

08:10 In the past, chassidim would regularly look into Kesser Shem Tov and Maggid Devarav LeYaakov. The Rebbe also relates that it was customary for every chassidic home to have these three books: Kesser Shem Tov, Maggid Devarav LeYaakov, and Likkutei Amarim Tanya. They even say that the Rebbeim kept them in a desk drawer. I once heard that this was true of the Rebbe as well: the three books were kept in the desk where the Rebbe sat. They would regularly open them and read a teaching here and there. It was a practice to study the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid from time to time. We also saw the Rebbe’s regular practice on Rosh Hashanah and Yud Shvat, twice a year: in his maamar, the Rebbe would cite and discuss teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid. On those two occasions each year, the Rebbe would take up one of their teachings in the maamar, quote it, explain it, and build the maamar upon it, and so on. This is something a student should look into from time to time. I’m not saying to do it every day, but it is fitting to look into Kesser Shem Tov, Tzava’as Harivash, and Maggid Devarav LeYaakov from time to time. They contain very fundamental teachings that give a great deal of vitality in serving Hashem, as well as guidance and direction. Of course, this is not yet Chabad Chassidus; it is Chassidus in its general form. Afterward, as the Rebbe says, those teachings are like the Mishnah, while Chabad Chassidus is like the Gemara. Then came the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe began to reveal Chabad

10:08 Chassidus. So, as we discussed briefly, the Alter Rebbe’s teachings are basically divided into three parts. First and foremost is the Alter Rebbe’s Tanya. Tanya is a foundational work, the Written Torah of Chassidus. This book is a cornerstone. As the Rebbe said on several occasions, the entire body of Chassidus is found in Tanya. To know Tanya is to know the foundations of all Chassidus; everything is contained in it. Just as it is said that “there is nothing that is not alluded to in the Torah”—that the entire Oral Torah is contained in the Written Torah—all the explanations of Chassidus given by our Rebbeim throughout the generations are found in Tanya. Tanya is the foundation; every chapter provides a foundation for many maamarim. You can see it for yourself. Tanya is the Written Torah. Tanya has five sections and 53 chapters. The Rebbe often speaks about the parallels between Tanya and the Written Torah. In any case, Tanya is a book unlike any other. It is a body of teaching in its own right. What’s interesting—and we’ll come to Tanya—is that the Alter Rebbe wrote it concisely on the one hand, yet in a way that can be understood on the other. Relative to the broader teachings of Chassidus, Tanya is not an overly complicated book. It does not contain much discussion of Kabbalah and spiritual levels—not even as much as the maamarim do. In Tanya, you won’t see the Alter Rebbe discussing levels before the tzimtzum or the levels of the sefiros. If he does speak about such things, it is only as they directly relate to serving Hashem. There are not many intricate discussions of Kabbalah and the order of spiritual worlds. On the contrary, the whole point of Tanya is to serve as a guide to serving Hashem. So one of Tanya’s virtues is that, on the one hand, it is concise.

12:05 That is, it contains all the fundamentals. On the other hand, it is written in a style one can understand. You need to learn the style, but it can be understood. At the same time, as the Rebbe Rashab said, Tanya is like the Chumash: everyone can understand it, and no one understands it. In other words, the more you study Tanya and the more deeply you enter into it, the more you discover further and further depths. It is endless. The depth of Tanya is truly without limit; you can see that for yourself. That is one aspect of the Alter Rebbe’s teachings: Tanya. As for his maamarim, there are two periods: before Petersburg and after Petersburg. Before Petersburg, the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim resembled those of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid in style and approach. Perhaps they had more of the Chabad foundation, but without as much explanation. Before Petersburg, the Alter Rebbe would deliver short maamarim—maamarim that were, as the Rebbe said, revolutionary. The Alter Rebbe was a revolutionary; he brought about the revolution of Chabad Chassidus. He took the foundations of Chassidus from the Baal Shem Tov and developed them into a complete body of teaching, with topics for study and analysis, elaborations and explanations, grounded in Kabbalah and in the service of Hashem. He created a whole, exceptionally broad body of teaching. Now, what do we generally study from the Alter Rebbe’s teachings? We have Tanya, as mentioned, and we have Likkutei Torah and Torah Or. Torah Or and Likkutei Torah were selected from the maamarim the Alter Rebbe delivered over the years, mainly after Petersburg, though some are from before Petersburg. And from these came Torah

16:04 Or and Likkutei Torah, compiled by the Tzemach Tzedek. As it says in Hayom Yom, the Tzemach Tzedek worked on the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim for 32,000 hours, and from 2,000 maamarim he selected those included in Likkutei Torah and Torah Or. Those are the maamarim we have there. That is, out of all the Alter Rebbe’s teachings, Torah Or and Likkutei Torah contain the most select maamarim—the most comprehensible and the deepest in his teachings. Interestingly, the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim were not printed in his lifetime. The Alter Rebbe printed Tanya, but he did not write down or print his maamarim. The maamarim he delivered were written down by his students: the Mitteler Rebbe; Reb Yehuda Leib, the Alter Rebbe’s brother, known as the Maharil; and Reb Pinchas Reizes. They were the main ones. There were also some written down by Reb Moshe and by the Alter Rebbe’s son Chaim Avraham. These were particular chassidim charged with recording the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim. The Alter Rebbe himself did not write them down; he only delivered them, and he did not print them either. They remained manuscripts, what were called bichlach. Chassidim would write them down, copy them, and pass them on to one another. The Alter Rebbe did not want the Chassidus printed, apart from Tanya, which was the special exception we mentioned earlier. His teachings remained in manuscript and circulated among the chassidim of the time, and that was all. That was how things were in the first generation, in the Alter Rebbe’s time. When were the Alter Rebbe’s teachings printed? Only some years later, in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek. The Alter Rebbe passed away in 5573. Torah Or was printed in 5597, and Likkutei Torah in 5608. That

18:10 He says that it was only about thirty years after the Alter Rebbe’s passing that the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim were published. The Rebbe writes about this in a well-known sicha from 5752, Parshas Chayei Sarah, at the Kinus Hashluchim. There the Rebbe says something very interesting: Torah Or and Likkutei Torah are also the Written Torah of Chabad Chassidus. Not just Tanya—Torah Or and Likkutei Torah too. That’s a novel point. But that’s what the Rebbe says in that sicha: Torah Or and Likkutei Torah are the Written Torah of Chabad Chassidus. In other words, Torah Or and Likkutei Torah are also, in a sense, a foundation for the whole body of Chassidus. Among chassidim, Torah Or and Likkutei Torah were sacred books that they studied constantly, in every generation. To this day, throughout the generations, Torah Or and Likkutei Torah have been considered what the Rebbe would call them at farbrengens: “the Chassidic parsha.” The Rebbe would always say at farbrengens, “the Chassidic parsha”—Torah Or and Likkutei Torah. Just as we have to study the weekly parsha, there’s an obligation to study the Chassidic parsha. In every generation, chassidim immersed themselves in Likkutei Torah: they studied it, lived with it, reviewed it, held classes on it, and used it in their davening. There were chassidim who studied Likkutei Torah all week, and others who mainly occupied themselves with it on Shabbos. But Likkutei Torah was a foundational book for Chabad chassidim in every generation. One interesting story the Rebbe once told took place in the time of the Rebbe Rashab, sometime around the 5660s or 5670s—I don’t know the exact year. Reb Asher of Nikolayev, who printed the Tanya in Lubavitch—the Vilna Tanya, the edition whose format we still have today—

20:12 that Tanya was printed in 5668 by Reb Asher of Nikolayev. Afterward, he also printed Torah Or and Likkutei Torah. This is a story the Rebbe told many times. After the new Likkutei Torah was printed—in 5668, or 5696, I don’t know which year—and Reb Asher of Nikolayev came to Lubavitch, there was tremendous joy. The Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe—there was tremendous joy that Likkutei Torah had been reprinted with corrections. Reb Asher of Nikolayev, or Reb [unclear] of Oranovitch—several chassidim were involved in it—told the chossid Reb Dovid Tzvi, known as the Radatz. He was one of the great chassidim of the time, one of the elder chassidim: the Radatz, the Radatz Chein. They told him that Reb Asher of Nikolayev had said they corrected more than two thousand errors. There were more than two thousand errors in the old Likkutei Torah that they corrected in the new printing. There was tremendous joy that Likkutei Torah had come out without errors—two thousand corrections. And then, as the Rebbe related many times, the Radatz, who was an elderly chossid—the Rebbe would always say, “The Radatz was a Torah scholar, a genius, a chossid.” The Rebbe spoke about him with extraordinary praise. That was quite unusual for the Rebbe, but it was always like that when he mentioned the Radatz. I remember once being present at a sicha when the Rebbe spoke about the Radatz, and he spoke of him in very great terms. So, the Radatz Chein—yes, someone from his family is here. In any case, the Rebbe said that when the Radatz heard this, he wasn’t so happy. His expression showed that he wasn’t pleased. They asked him, “Why? What’s the problem?” He said, “Until now, we had to toil over the printing errors in Likkutei Torah. We had to work hard. A chossid would come across something while learning. Would he immediately say it was a mistake? G-d

22:05 forbid. We would try to explain it one way, then another, until we finally concluded there was an error. In the meantime, your mind had been immersed in Chassidus for hours. Now that the printing errors have been corrected, everyone learns quickly. They finish the maamar in half an hour. It’s a shame; something essential is missing—the whole experience of chassidim studying Chassidus.” The Rebbe would always tell this story with a bit of a smile. Nevertheless, the Rebbe said that in practice, it should be printed without errors, so that the effort goes not into the errors but more into the avodah. Still, the Rebbe always liked telling that story. So, in practice, chassidim in every generation have held fast to Likkutei Torah. I remember that when I was a bochur, there was an elderly chossid at 770, a cheerful Jew named Reb Chaim Tashkenter. Reb Chaim Tashkenter had that look about him—he was a chassidisher Jew, full of liveliness. Reb Chaim Tashkenter once told me that he remembered a farbrengen in Tashkent, in Russia. They would daven at my house, and all the chassidim came. There was a powerful farbrengen that lasted all night. Peretz Mochkin—his grandson is here too—farbrenged the entire night, and the whole farbrengen came down to one phrase: “Only Likkutei Torah.” That was the farbrengen. We need Likkutei Torah; we need to study Likkutei Torah, read Likkutei Torah—only Likkutei Torah. That was the point, that was the message, that was the farbrengen. Chaim Tashkenter also told me that years later, when he came to the Rebbe for the first time, he went in for yechidus and asked the Rebbe about his study schedule. The Rebbe told him, among

23:57 other things, to study Likkutei Torah too, calling it “a chassidisher sefer.” He was truly devoted to making sure that not a day passed without studying Likkutei Torah. He told me a whole story about something that happened once. Chaim Tashkenter used to travel to collect money for Tomchei Temimim, going around Europe to various towns and cities. Once, he arrived in a town in Switzerland at night, and he didn’t have a copy of Likkutei Torah. He searched everywhere nearby but couldn’t find one. The Rebbe had told him to study Likkutei Torah—how could he go to sleep without studying it? He knew that in another town there was a Chabad chossid named Schmerling, of the Schmerling chocolate family. So he went out into the street, stopped a car, and asked the driver, “Where are you going?” The driver took him part of the way, and from there he found another way onward. He walked too. In short, he spent half the night getting from place to place, until finally, at three in the morning, he reached Schmerling’s home. He knocked on the door. The man woke up in the middle of the night. Who was there? Chaim Tashkenter was standing at the door. He asked him, “What are you doing here at three in the morning?” He answered, “What do you mean? I need Likkutei Torah. I need Likkutei Torah. The Rebbe told me to study Likkutei Torah. How can I sleep without it?” That’s a soldier. That’s an example of an elderly chossid. In any case, that’s the significance of Likkutei Torah. We’ll have Likkutei Torah. Now we know that the Rebbe—the Rebbe placed great emphasis on the matter

25:46 of studying Likkutei Torah. With the Rebbe, this was in 5725. Even earlier, in 5707, the Rebbe had begun doing this to some extent, but by 5725 the Rebbe was speaking about it every time: whoever had studied that week’s Likkutei Torah, the Rebbe would say l’chaim together with him. The Rebbe, how shall I put it, needed strength for Likkutei Torah. So in 5725 they printed Likkutei Torah with the notes, with the Rebbe’s— with the Rebbe’s index, and there was tremendous joy. Then, in 5744, Likkutei Torah was printed again with even more notes, and the Rebbe again made a tremendous stir about it in 5744. Incidentally, the Rebbe made a great celebration of it. How could the chassidim not be happy that Likkutei Torah had been reprinted? The Rebbe held a very, very special farbrengen then. In any case, what am I trying to say with all this? What I’m trying to say is that, when we speak about bochurim in our generation, a bochur needs to have a set time to study Likkutei Torah. Now, what is in Likkutei Torah? Likkutei Torah is— you could say, if I put it— first of all, there’s the style, right? You have to get used to the style. Likkutei Torah has a distinctive style. It’s the style of the early period of Chassidus. So there are many verses, many teachings of our Sages, many concepts that aren’t explained. It was written— imagine the Alter Rebbe and his generation, the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim. Likkutei Torah wasn’t written with such an emphasis on explanation. There are more verses, more teachings of our Sages, Midrashim. It’s more condensed. The style, too, is very heartfelt, very moving. It isn’t so much a style of intellectual discussion about faith; it’s more a style of feeling.

27:28 In general, Likkutei Torah consists of maamarim about love in the heart. There is also a great deal of intellectual depth in it, but fundamentally, Likkutei Torah is a sefer written in a style of love, more of a love felt in the heart. So you have to get used to its distinctive style. But once you do, what you find in Likkutei Torah—the wonderful thing, besides what we said about its containing foundations of Chassidus—is, above all, the awakening of the heart. Among Chabad sefarim, Likkutei Torah is a sefer that stirs the heart. Its whole style is about soul-searching, the soul’s descent, contemplation during davening, and how contemplation arouses love of Hashem and awe of Hashem. Likkutei Torah is more a sefer about the service of the heart. So much so that, as is well known, after the Alter Rebbe’s passing there was a major disagreement between the Mitteler Rebbe and Rabbi Aharon of Strashelye, one of the Alter Rebbe’s greatest students. Was the Alter Rebbe’s focus the service of the mind, or was it the service of the heart? This was a famous disagreement among the students. Rabbi Aharon of Strashelye argued that, for the Alter Rebbe, it was the service of the heart, not the service of the mind. We’re already used to thinking of Chabad as Chabad—Chabad Chassidus is about the intellect—but it wasn’t so simple in the first generation. In the Alter Rebbe’s teachings, what people heard openly was more about the heart than the mind. The Mitteler Rebbe said no, the Alter Rebbe’s deeper intention was the service of the mind, and the Mitteler Rebbe developed that. But openly, when you study the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim, you encounter more of the service of the heart. The service

29:23 of the mind, with extensive discussion of the subject, isn’t something you see in the Alter Rebbe’s teachings to the same degree. But today, now that the Maamarei Admur Hazaken have been printed—the complete set of volumes—we can see the full scope of that work. We can see where the intellectual concepts came from: the Alter Rebbe would deliver very deep maamarim on intellectual subjects, and essentially, the Alter Rebbe already spoke about everything we have in Chassidus today on that side of it. In any case, apparently those were maamarim delivered only to a few people, to family and to very, very close chassidim. They weren’t so widely known. What was better known from the Alter Rebbe was more the maamarim that arouse fervor. In any case, what’s the point we’ve been discussing? We’ve spoken about the first generation, the Alter Rebbe’s generation, and what has come down to us today from it—primarily, of course, the study of Tanya and the study of Torah Or and Likkutei Torah. In 5748, the Rebbe said that one should at least try to study one maamar in Likkutei Torah on the weekly parsha. That’s what he said in 5748. Then, in 5752, the Rebbe again said to try to study the entire teaching in Likkutei Torah. So in any case, a bochur should certainly set aside some time to study the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim, Torah Or and Likkutei Torah. The Mitteler Rebbe—Rechovos Hanahar. We know that with the Mitteler Rebbe, Chassidus began to be taught in a completely different style. There’s something very interesting about the Mitteler Rebbe: you won’t find a maamar of his that isn’t based on the Alter Rebbe’s teachings. It’s one of those things that’s simply very, very interesting. The Alter Rebbe introduced Chabad Chassidus. The Alter Rebbe introduced a new form of Chassidus. He built a new world of concepts, values, explanations, things

31:19 that hadn’t existed before. You ask, where did the Alter Rebbe get it from? Of course, he received the foundations of Torah from the Maggid of Mezritch and the Baal Shem Tov, but the Alter Rebbe’s teachings are new teachings. Chabad Chassidus is a new world with new concepts. Things that seem obvious to us today—yes, a dwelling place in the lower realms, the unity of Hashem, Tohu and Tikkun—the Alter Rebbe built an entire world of Chassidus concepts that he himself introduced. They hadn’t been defined before. With all our Rebbeim, from the Alter Rebbe through our Rebbe, the leader of our generation—I’m talking about maamarim. With the Rebbe there are also the sichos, which are a revolution the Rebbe introduced, but I’m talking about maamarim. So everything from all the Rebbeim is built on the Alter Rebbe’s teachings. You’ll hardly find a new set of opening words for a maamar. Hardly ever. I can’t say one hundred percent, but 99.9 percent of the time, you won’t find a maamar by one of our Rebbeim whose opening words the Alter Rebbe hadn’t already used. In other words, all of Chabad Chassidus is, how shall I put it, one story built on top of another, on something the Alter Rebbe had already said. Another clarification, another explanation. Look at the Mitteler Rebbe’s teachings: all his maamarim are the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim. On the one hand, they really are; on the other hand, they’re incomparably different. The length, the explanation, the elaboration—it’s simply incomparable. It’s extraordinary. It isn’t merely an explanation. Sometimes the explanations make you say, how can this be? A maamar that takes up two pages in the Alter Rebbe’s teachings—and after Petersburg, that was already considered a long maamar—can run to a hundred pages with the Mitteler Rebbe, and without

33:23 An exaggeration, literally. So with the Mitteler Rebbe, you can really see this in every one of them. Now we’re around Shavuos. Look at the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim on Shavuos. There’s an entire volume, Chag HaShavuos, of the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim. They’re based on maamarim of the Alter Rebbe that are two pages, three pages at most, while with the Mitteler Rebbe they become a full hundred pages. It’s an entire world, a structure on a completely different scale. And likewise, all the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim are his father’s maamarim, with the breadth and explanation of the Mitteler Rebbe. Unfortunately, the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim aren’t studied much in yeshivos, and that’s a shame. They offer an extraordinary degree of explanation, understanding, and comprehension. And as is known, the maamarim of the Rebbe Rashab, nishmaso Eden, are based primarily on the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim. There you find a wealth of explanations, analogies, and clarifications on every subject. What often makes them difficult is the style. The style of the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim is unusual and difficult, and they’re also very long. So they aren’t studied as much. But there’s something many people may not know. At least I’ll finish with this today; it’s already late. The first Chassidus to be printed was the Chassidus of the Mitteler Rebbe. As I told you earlier, the Alter Rebbe didn’t print his maamarim; they weren’t in print. They were printed only later. What Chassidus was printed first? The Mitteler Rebbe printed his maamarim. The Alter Rebbe did not print his maamarim, but the Mitteler Rebbe did print his own maamarim, during his lifetime. The Mitteler Rebbe printed the Siddur im Dach, which contains maamarim of the Alter Rebbe written down by the Mitteler Rebbe.

35:20 That’s the siddur, with the prayers for the entire year. The Mitteler Rebbe printed the books Shaar Hateshuvah, Derech Chaim, Shaarei Orah, Shaar Haemunah, Shaar Hayichud, and Ateres Rosh. These are books the Mitteler Rebbe printed containing his maamarim. They’re based on his father, the Alter Rebbe, but with all the elaboration and clarification, all the explanation and expansion, of the Mitteler Rebbe. Okay, so we’re up to the Mitteler Rebbe, and with Hashem’s help, in the next class we’ll continue discussing this in more detail.