An Introduction to Learning Chassidus - Part 2

00:00 Speaker 1 In our class, we’ve been discussing the order in which to study Chassidus. That’s what we’re learning about at the moment. We began talking about how Chassidus developed in the books of our Rebbeim, and we’re in the middle of that discussion. We had reached the Mitteler Rebbe, so we’ll continue from where we left off. We spoke briefly about him; now we’ll go into a little more detail about his maamarim. What you see in the Mitteler Rebbe’s Chassidus, generally, is that he brought order to Chassidus. He developed the teachings of Chassidus into a complete, structured body of Torah. With the Alter Rebbe, it was more a collection of maamarim. But the one who made Chassidus into a complete, organized body of Torah, with topics treated in depth and a wealth of analogies and examples, was the Mitteler Rebbe. That’s why the Mitteler Rebbe is associated with the sefirah of Binah. He developed ideas through in-depth analysis, exploring each topic fully—the expansiveness of Binah, “the breadth of the river.” We spoke about that last week, so we won’t go over it again. I just wanted to mention a few details you can see in the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim. Generally, yeshivos don’t study many of his maamarim, and that’s a shame. What can you do? You can’t learn everything; it takes a lot of time, and it’s hard to set aside even a short study period for it. But you need to get used to the style of the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim. They have a distinctive style: many teachings of our Sages and many, many Midrashim. Like every Rebbe, he has his own particular style. There’s also a great deal of back-and-forth in his teachings. He asks a question and answers it, then asks another question and answers that. It’s a style of moving back and forth, of give-and-take. He asks, answers, and then

02:11 Speaker 1 asks again. Sometimes it’s hard to understand: it seems he’s already answered the question, so what is he asking now? It’s that kind of give-and-take, and he keeps going. Especially since it’s all at such great length, you need a lot of patience. The Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim are long; they take patience and time. But his maamarim are truly remarkable for their breadth, their explanations, and their wealth of analogies and explanations, the likes of which you don’t find elsewhere. As we said in the previous class, the Rebbe Rashab’s maamarim—which are generally what’s studied in yeshiva—are, for the most part, you could say, based on the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim. You can see it clearly. In fact, the Mitteler Rebbe often goes on at greater length and takes the discussion further. The Rebbe Rashab often doesn’t finish a topic or bring the series to its conclusion. If you want to know how it concludes, you look at the Mitteler Rebbe, and there you find the conclusion. For example, the maamar Heichaltzu. The Rebbe Rashab’s Heichaltzu of 5659 is one of his major maamarim, but it doesn’t reach its conclusion. It’s missing the ending. The Mitteler Rebbe also has a maamar Heichaltzu, on which the Rebbe Rashab’s maamar is based. In Maamarei Admur Haemtzai, the discussion continues and covers everything the Rebbe Rashab’s maamar leaves unfinished—the whole continuation about the four letters of the name Havayah. You find that in the Mitteler Rebbe. Similarly, the third-year students in yeshiva are now studying Shuvah 5665. Shuvah 5665 is based on a maamar of the Mitteler Rebbe, on the subject of circumcision. There, too, the Mitteler Rebbe continues the discussion. The Rebbe Rashab doesn’t finish the topic;

04:03 Speaker 1 he stops in the middle of the discussion. Even though it’s six long, expansive maamarim, in practice he doesn’t finish the subject; he stops midway. In the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamar, he does finish it. That’s something you see with the Mitteler Rebbe. The breadth and expansiveness of his Chassidus really stand out. In 5752, the Rebbe spoke about Geulah and Moshiach, and about the need to prepare for the Geulah. The Rebbe spoke about the preparation for Geulah involving the Kenite, Kenizzite, and Kadmonite nations. The Rebbe would often bring this up—sorry, I mean, the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim discuss the Kenite, Kenizzite, and Kadmonite nations. He explains that there are the seven nations, corresponding to the seven negative middos, which must be refined in the present time. Then there are the three intellectual faculties, Chochmah, Binah, and Daas, which will come to the fore in the future. So in his sichos in 5752, the Rebbe said that since we are already in an atmosphere of Moshiach, having entered the period of the days of Moshiach, there must be a beginning of this refinement of the intellectual faculties. The Rebbe said that this is especially evident in the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim. The Rebbe then said that in yeshiva in particular, there should be students discussing Torah in depth and learning together with friends, and that Chassidus should be studied expansively—especially the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamarim, where you see this intellectual avodah. That was in 5752; the Rebbe spoke about it in one of the sichos. From this we understand the special regard for the Mitteler Rebbe’s teachings. In practice, among the Mitteler Rebbe’s works studied in yeshiva, there is the book Derech Chaim. Derech Chaim is a book about avodah—specifically, a book about teshuvah. It’s a book

06:15 Speaker 1 about teshuvah that the Mitteler Rebbe wrote. As is well known, and as it says in Hayom Yom, the Mitteler Rebbe wrote books for every type of chossid: books of intellectual Chassidus, books of avodah, and books of different kinds. So, Derech Chaim. There are two books on teshuvah: Shaar Hateshuvah and Derech Chaim. In yeshivos, the custom has always been to study Derech Chaim, especially during Elul. There are also letters from the Rebbe about studying Derech Chaim, particularly its opening chapters. The Rebbe would instruct—or suggest—that people study the beginning of Derech Chaim: the introduction and the first eleven chapters. Sometimes it says the first twelve chapters. Those first eleven chapters speak very powerfully, very sharply, and in great detail about the avodah of teshuvah. And chapter 70 is one of the sharpest and most avodah-focused pieces in Chassidus, if one can put it that way. So it’s customary to study this in yeshivos. Then there are books that the Mitteler Rebbe himself printed. There are books for almost every festival. If someone wants to look at a maamar of the Mitteler Rebbe, one recommendation I’d give is Shaar Haemunah. It’s a very, very interesting book and not so hard to understand. In Shaar Haemunah, he speaks about the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Torah, the coming of Moshiach, and the foundations of faith. That’s the Mitteler Rebbe’s Shaar Haemunah. Many maamarim about Pesach by later Rebbeim are based on Shaar Haemunah. There’s also Shaar Hayichud. Shaar Hayichud is a more difficult book, a work of intellectual Chassidus. It discusses the order of spiritual worlds. It says in Hayom

08:21 Speaker 1 That’s the ABCs of Chassidus. But the truth is that now that we have the Rebbe Rashab’s hemshechim, most of the subjects found in Shaar Hayichud are there, in the Rebbe Rashab’s style, which the bochurim are more accustomed to learning. For Chanukah and Purim there is Shaarei Orah. The Rebbe often told people to learn Shaarei Orah. It contains maamarim on Chanukah and Purim. There is Ateres Rosh on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—the book Ateres Rosh. That’s the main thing. Beyond that, there are always maamarim here and there. There is a book called Maamarei Admur Haemtza’i: Kuntreisim, which contains several kuntreisim by the Mitteler Rebbe, with very interesting maamarim. Some of those kuntreisim are particularly interesting and not so difficult. There is the well-known kuntres Pokeach Ivrim, a guide to teshuvah, offering guidance for a baal teshuvah. It isn’t relevant to everyone, but it’s very, very interesting and worth learning. I would just say that if someone is going to learn Pokeach Ivrim, afterward they should consult a mashpia about what to do and what not to do, because not everything written there applies to our generation. There are many instructions there about fasts and self-denial, outlooks, and all sorts of things that aren’t so applicable to us today. But it is a guide for a baal teshuvah. Then there is a kuntres on prayer, Inyan Tefillah, which explains the order of prayer. It is written in Yiddish. For those who understand Yiddish, it is a very, very interesting and very comprehensive maamar on the avodah of prayer. And there are other interesting kuntreisim there.

12:15 Speaker 2 Glosses, notes, source references—it isn’t always the same thing; it’s a mixture. There’s every kind of material there. There are maamarim he delivered, maamarim he wrote, glosses, notes—all different types. So no, it isn’t all arranged in one style. Very often you look in Or Hatorah and get confused. You don’t know where to look or how to approach it. You see a lot of source references, and you feel you can’t make heads or tails of it. So one of the things the Rebbe did in connection with Or Hatorah, after he had published almost the entire set, was that in 5737 he instructed the Temimim at 770 to compile selections from all of the Tzemach Tzedek’s teachings and arrange them alphabetically. That became Sefer Halikkutim. If you’ve seen it in yeshiva, there is a Sefer Halikkutim of the Tzemach Tzedek. It draws from all of the Tzemach Tzedek’s books, with the selections arranged alphabetically. It’s like an encyclopedia, a book of entries. It uses the Tzemach Tzedek’s own words, but it’s organized by subject. So whenever you’re looking into a subject, when you’re studying a topic and want to know what the Tzemach Tzedek says about it, it’s always worth using Sefer Halikkutim. There is a real abundance of material there: the whole range of Torah, and all the subjects and concepts in Chassidus, the mystical teachings, Kabbalah, and the inner dimension of Torah. Sefer Halikkutim was built from Or Hatorah. The book by the Tzemach Tzedek that is studied in yeshivos is Derech Mitzvosecha. All the bochurim know the Tzemach Tzedek either from Derech Mitzvosecha or from his glosses on Likkutei Torah. But the better-known work, the one studied in yeshiva classes, is Derech Mitzvosecha. And Derech Mitzvosecha is interesting, because it isn’t

14:23 Speaker 2 a typical work of the Tzemach Tzedek. He wrote Derech Mitzvosecha when he was a young man. Some of it he wrote around the time of his bar mitzvah—before it, after it, or right after his wedding; those events weren’t many years apart. The Tzemach Tzedek married at fifteen, so he wrote Derech Mitzvosecha around that period. What’s interesting about Derech Mitzvosecha is that it has a very orderly structure. He takes a mitzvah and cites Sefer Hachinuch—what the Chinuch says about the mitzvah according to the revealed dimension of Torah. Then he brings what is written in the teachings of the Arizal according to Kabbalah, and then he gives the explanation according to Chassidus. Generally, in most yeshivos, they skip the Kabbalah and study only the Chassidus section. I don’t know whether, if there’s time at the end, the teacher goes back and explains the Kabbalah, or whether they study only the Chassidus section without it. In any case, what is special about Derech Mitzvosecha, and why it is studied in yeshivos, is that it presents the fundamental subjects of Chassidus in an orderly, explained way—not at excessive length, but not too briefly either. It is known that when Reb Yoel Kahn came to the Rebbe in 5710, the Rebbe gave him guidance about what to learn. Reb Yoel Kahn relates that the Rebbe told him to study Chassidus, specifically Derech Mitzvosecha. Why Derech Mitzvosecha? It is related that the Rebbe told him that in Likkutei Torah the subjects are presented too briefly, and it can sometimes be hard to understand a topic in Chassidus. In the Rebbe Rashab’s works, on the other hand, there is already too much elaboration. A book that presents the subjects—all the fundamental topics of

16:19 Speaker 2 Chassidus—with explanations is Derech Mitzvosecha. So the Rebbe instructed Reb Yoel to make Derech Mitzvosecha the first book he studied. Usually, yeshivos study only parts of Derech Mitzvosecha. They generally study it for just one year and manage to cover only a few mitzvos. That’s a shame, because there are many mitzvos in Derech Mitzvosecha that aren’t studied in yeshivos, and they contain very interesting topics in Chassidus. The style is also very interesting. The Tzemach Tzedek wrote Derech Mitzvosecha in a distinctive style—not the style of a maamar, but more of a written work. That sometimes gives him a little more room to elaborate, and you can understand many topics in Chassidus through Derech Mitzvosecha. In any case, that is the book customarily studied in yeshiva. But as I said, there are many other books by the Tzemach Tzedek, and it’s worth looking into them sometime, especially if you’re researching topics in Chassidus. I do recommend using Sefer Halikkutim, which gives you a great deal of information on all sorts of subjects. Whenever you’re looking for something specific—an explanation of a verse, a mitzvah, or some other subject—the Tzemach Tzedek’s works are among the most comprehensive. In particular, he explains things not only according to Chassidus; sometimes he also brings material from works of derush, books of Kabbalah, halachah, and all sorts of other sources. That’s regarding the Tzemach Tzedek. Now, regarding the Rebbe Maharash: it is well known that the Rebbe Maharash began the practice of hemshechim. That is what is distinctive about his teachings. Before the Rebbe Maharash there were no hemshechim. There were maamarim on a verse, on the parsha, or on various subjects, but not in the form of a series. Hemshechim are something

18:26 Speaker 2 A new practice began with the Rebbe Maharash: he would begin a maamar at a certain point in the year. Usually it began on Pesach, though sometimes at another time, and the maamar would continue for half a year, a year, sometimes several months, and sometimes a month or two. For weeks or months on end, he would speak about one subject in Chassidus, adding another chapter each week, and then another and another, like a chain linking one idea to the next. Everything was built on the continuation of the subject. That was the idea of the hemsheichim—the continuing series of maamarim—by the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe once spoke about how the Rebbe Maharash’s approach was lechatchila ariber, going over an obstacle from the outset, and you can see that in his Chassidus too. The idea of a hemsheich is lechatchila ariber, because it isn’t limited to the weekly parsha. The Rebbeim up to the Rebbe Maharash would also speak about the parsha in their maamarim: this parsha, then that parsha. That is more confined. With the Rebbe Maharash, everything was lechatchila ariber, beyond measure and limitation. You can see it in the hemsheich as well: he takes up a subject in Chassidus and speaks about it for weeks and months. One of the better-known hemsheichim of the Rebbe Maharash—and unfortunately, we don’t study these much in yeshivos; there are almost no set study sessions for them, which is a shame. The Rebbe Maharash’s maamarim have a distinctive style. They are written in a style similar to the Tzemach Tzedek’s, but more straightforward, lighter, once you get used to it. He has a style you might call easy-flowing. You need to get to know his style, the abbreviations, and the way the Rebbe Maharash writes. But his explanations generally don’t get overly complicated. He explains things simply. He brings the ideas down

20:33 Speaker 2 in a fairly accessible way, without flourishes. There is a great deal there, a strong combination of intellectual explanation and avodah. You see that very clearly with the Rebbe Maharash. In any case, one of his better-known hemsheichim is V’Kachah 5637. V’Kachah 5637 is a very orderly, very thoroughly explained hemsheich. It really is a shame that it hasn’t become more widely studied. People don’t know it. What happened in practice was that V’Kachah was printed in the Rebbe’s early years, and then it was out of print for many years. I remember looking for V’Kachah when I was a bochur, and it simply wasn’t available. A select few of the older chassidim had copies of the hemsheich. In Montreal, the mashpia had V’Kachah. But the book wasn’t available, so it wasn’t studied that much. That was a problem. Also, a large portion of the Rebbe Maharash’s maamarim were printed in handwriting. If you’ve ever seen the old books, you’ll know that many of the Rebbe Maharash’s books—including V’Kachah and some of the other hemsheichim—were reproduced from handwritten text. So the printed book was in handwriting, and that made it hard for many people to read. As a result, not many studied it. That’s a shame too. Only in recent years, about five years ago or so, was Sefer Hamaamarim 5637 published, with V’Kachah newly typeset in clear print and with source references. So now everyone can have it. That is what it means to lavish the treasures.

22:41 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem, today there is an abundance of Chassidus. We just need bochurim who will invest the time and decide to study Chassidus. In any case, V’Kachah is a very thoroughly explained, orderly hemsheich. It runs for almost a full year. It begins on Pesach and ends—I don’t remember exactly—sometime after Chanukah. It explains concepts in Chassidus very clearly and beautifully. You could say that many maamarim of the Rebbe, nishmaso Eden, and likewise many maamarim of our Rebbe, the leader of our generation, are based on V’Kachah. It is one of the hemsheichim the Rebbe had a particular enthusiasm for. The Rebbe had a special enthusiasm for V’Kachah and spoke about it many times. Just to give you an idea of subjects in Chassidus grounded in V’Kachah: for example, Kuntres U’Maayan, which all the bochurim know—we’ll speak about it shortly when we get to the Rebbe Rashab—is based on V’Kachah. The Acharon Shel Pesach maamarim, all those maamarim discussing the difference between the splitting of the sea and the splitting of the river, between the revelation at the Exodus from Egypt and that of the days of Moshiach, are based on V’Kachah. Many of the Rebbe’s Sukkos maamarim, which explain the four species, the sukkah, and unity, are based on V’Kachah. The same is true of many subjects, particularly Geulah and Moshiach. Fundamental ideas in Chassidus are based on V’Kachah. So it is a very beautiful hemsheich of the Rebbe Maharash. There is another very famous hemsheich of his, Mayim Rabim. Mayim Rabim is also unique. It was printed back in the Rebbe’s time. Incidentally, something very interesting happened in connection with the Rebbe Maharash: when the Frierdiker Rebbe

24:57 Speaker 2 arrived in America, and Kehot was established in 5702, after the Rebbe also arrived in America following 28 Sivan, the first books Kehot printed were the Rebbe Maharash’s books. Nobody knows why, or what lay behind it. But it is interesting that even before the books of the Rebbe Rashab and the Tzemach Tzedek were printed, the first books the Frierdiker Rebbe sent to be printed when Kehot was founded were all the hemsheichim of the Rebbe Maharash. Mayim Rabim began in 5636 and continued almost a full year, into 5637 or so. This hemsheich is unique too. It contains a great deal of avodah—much more avodah than intellectual explanation, though that is there as well. Mayim Rabim, unlike the others, was printed in typeset letters. A new edition is supposed to be printed; I don’t think they have printed it yet. They’re working on it, or have finished working on it, or are in the middle of working on it. I know my brother here, Reb Zalman, was involved with it, so he probably knows better than I do where the book stands. But I know they’re working on it and it is supposed to come out. Mayim Rabim 5636 is simply a very interesting hemsheich. You could even call it sweet. There are passages there that read like sichos. He begins by speaking about people in business: about the need for trust and faith in Hashem, and not to be wholly absorbed in business. He explains that at length. He explains contemplation during the avodah of davening, and how to awaken love of Hashem. There are several chapters that are like Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah—almost the whole of Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah is there in the middle, in the middle

27:12 Speaker 2 The water. Along these lines, there are several chapters there in Tanya—chapters 41, 42, 43, and 44—with various explanations of how to awaken love and how to awaken awe. It is based on Likkutei Torah and Tanya. That is what is explained in the book Mayim Rabbim. In practice, as we said, it is hardly ever studied in yeshivos. But for someone who wants to get used to the Rebbe Maharash’s style, it is very engaging, and there is plenty to study. By the way, speaking of the Rebbe Maharash, I heard that when the Rebbe Maharash’s books were printed in 5667, the Rebbe was in France, and one of the books came off the press. It was Sefer Hamaamarim 5626, or one of the Rebbe Maharash’s other books. The Rebbe was in Paris then. I heard the story that on Shabbos, while the Rebbe was in France—in Paris, Shabbos is very long. Summer Shabbosos do not end until very late, eleven or eleven-thirty. Very late. The summer days are very, very long, and it is hot. So I heard that the Rebbe sat down in shul on Shabbos afternoon, around one o’clock. He sat by the window; it was sunny and hot, and there was no air conditioning. One of the Rebbe Maharash’s books had just arrived, and the Rebbe sat there from the afternoon until Minchah, some six or seven hours, and studied the entire book from beginning to end. He went through the whole Sefer Hamaamarim that afternoon, right there in shul. People saw the Rebbe sitting there, going through the entire book, from cover to cover, as they say. And of course, when the Rebbe studied, he studied. You know how the Rebbe studied. But that is the story. Among the Rebbe Maharash’s well-known maamarim, everyone knows the maamar Mi Chamocha

29:27 Speaker 2 that is cited in Hayom Yom. It is one of the maamarim [unclear] his father, explaining the concept of Hashem’s oneness. The Rebbe Maharash speaks a great deal about Hashem’s oneness. The maamar Ha’umnam, which the bochurim study in yeshiva, is based in large part on Mi Chamocha and, more generally, on the Rebbe Maharash’s maamarim about Hashem’s oneness. So that is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the Rebbe Maharash’s maamarim and series of maamarim. Now let us turn to the Rebbe Rashab, whose soul rests in Gan Eden. The Rebbe Rashab’s maamarim are the ones generally studied; the vast majority are studied in yeshivos. The Rebbe Rashab is famously known as the Rambam of Chassidus. The Rambam of Chassidus. Why? The Rebbe spoke about this many times. Why was he called the Rambam of Chassidus? Just as the Rambam arranged all the subjects of the revealed Torah in an orderly way, law by law, the Rebbe Rashab brought order to the teachings of Chassidus. He organized them systematically, subject by subject, both in avodah and in intellectual understanding, in language that makes the ideas accessible, and also in greater depth. With the Rebbe Rashab, you see him going deeper and deeper, getting to the heart of a subject and building out an entire topic in Chassidus. Of course, it all began with the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, and the Rebbe Maharash—with each Rebbe. But the Rebbe Rashab arranged it systematically, and that is why he is called the Rambam of Chassidus. The Rebbe spoke about this many times. In the Rebbe Rashab’s teachings, this sense of order is remarkable. On the one hand, he continued his father’s approach. Just as the Rebbe Maharash delivered series of maamarim, the Rebbe Rashab also delivered them in the same way. He continued that pattern. But you can see a difference: the Rebbe Maharash’s series are more like individual discourses, not so much sustained studies of a topic. By contrast, with the Rebbe Rashab,

31:36 Speaker 2 the series are sustained studies—deep studies of Hashem’s oneness, of the order of spiritual worlds, of the higher and lower perspectives of knowledge. The entire series develops one subject. That is how it is with the Rebbe Rashab. But it is worth noting that the Rebbe Rashab’s work itself has different periods—several distinct periods. Broadly speaking, the first period runs from 5643 to 5657. Yes, that is the general division. You could divide that period further, but broadly speaking, it is the first period, up to the founding of Tomchei Temimim. There are not so many extended series then; there are short ones. In the Rebbe Rashab’s maamarim from 5643 to 5657, the series are generally short. The great majority are individual maamarim, each dealing with a subject, but not forming a series. There are a few short series, yes—series of two maamarim, sometimes three, and very few longer ones. If you look in Sefer Hamaamarim 5647, there is a series of several maamarim there—some seven or eight maamarim, an exception. There is also a series from 5660 of four maamarim. But generally, the series before Tomchei Temimim were short. Even so, there are very foundational maamarim from that period that are studied in yeshiva. From 5643, all the bochurim know Tanu Rabbanan Ner Chanukah, on Hashem’s oneness, and the maamar Ha’umnam, which explains Hashem’s oneness. And there are other foundational maamarim from the beginning of his leadership: Mah Rabu Maasecha and Le’havin Hahefresh Bein Klipas Nogah. There are several foundational maamarim as we come to 5650. Then, in Sefer Hamaamarim 5650, there are also very foundational maamarim that are studied

33:47 Speaker 2 in yeshivos, such as the Rebbe Rashab’s series on Tohu and Tikkun from 5649. It covers the entire subject of Tohu and Tikkun, and there are several other foundational maamarim from those early years. And the years in the 5650s, yes? We are still talking about the 5650s before Tomchei Temimim. But in Sefer Hamaamarim 5655–5656, there are already more series. There is the Shavuos series of 5655 and the Shavuos series of 5656. There you can already begin to see the Rebbe Rashab’s distinctive approach: he takes a subject and develops it at length. You can already see that in Sefer Hamaamarim 5655–5656. In 5657 there is the well-known maamar Veyadata Hayom—the Veyadata Hayom from Moscow—which the Rebbe spoke about a great deal. Veyadata Hayom from Moscow was already studied in earlier years. What is explained there makes it one of the most foundational maamarim in Chassidus. You can already see the Rebbe Rashab’s distinctive style there, with its breadth and explanation, with a beginning and an end. Everything is explained, every question is answered; he leaves nothing hanging. In 5657 there is also the well-known series Sameach Tesamach. Sameach Tesamach is a well-known series by the Rebbe Rashab, written as though it were a single maamar. It also contains a remarkable treatment of the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah, in the Chassidus series Sameach Tesamach. But what is more commonly studied in yeshiva is the material from 5659 onward. By 5659, Tomchei Temimim was in Lubavitch, and that is when the pattern of extended series began, in a distinctive style particularly suited to Tomchei Temimim. That is why yeshivos mainly study these series, from 5659 to 5666. Over those roughly ten years—a little more—the Rebbe Rashab produced the principal series in which he arranged the subjects of Chassidus systematically. In 5659 there are four series, followed in 5660 by two series, one for Rosh Hashanah and one for Shavuos. In 5661 there is the Rosh Hashanah series. In 5662 there are two seri—there are

35:57 Speaker 2 Two series of maamarim, one beginning on Rosh Hashanah and one on Shavuos. In 5663, there are two series, beginning on Rosh Hashanah and Shavuos. In 5664, there are also two series, beginning on Rosh Hashanah and Shavuos. In 5665, there are two series, beginning on Rosh Hashanah and Shavuos. So that was the pattern then: Rosh Hashanah and Shavuos. That was the Rebbe Rashab’s practice with these series. There were also maamarim during the year that weren’t part of a series, but generally a series would begin on Rosh Hashanah and continue for several weeks or months, and then on Shavuos another series would begin and continue for several weeks or months. The foundations of Chassidus are found in those series of the Rebbe Rashab’s maamarim. Ah, someone wrote here on the side about the biography of the Rebbe Maharash. Yes, the biography of the Rebbe Maharash is a book the Rebbe compiled himself, and it’s the only biography the Rebbe personally worked on. The Rebbe himself didn’t work on any of the other biographies; those were done by Rabbi Chananya Glitzenstein, a"h. But the Rebbe himself compiled the biography of the Rebbe Maharash. It seems this was connected with the publication of all the Rebbe Maharash’s books at that time, when the Rebbe also undertook to publish his biography. Some chassidim also suggest a deeper connection: the Rebbe often said that the Frierdiker Rebbe was like the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe would always recount the words, “The youngest among us was like the Rebbe Maharash,” and he would always cry when he told it. So there was a special connection between the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe Maharash. In any case, that’s the biography of the Rebbe Maharash. Ah, back to the Rebbe Rashab, but it’s already getting late. Ah, all right, so when we get

37:51 Speaker 2 to the Rebbe Rashab, we’ll continue next week. I especially wanted to talk about the series of 5666, the series of 5672, and the maamarim after the series of 5672, from the Rebbe Rashab’s final years. With Hashem’s help, we’ll talk about that next week. We’ll also get to the Rebbe Rashab’s sichos—something distinctive that began with the Rebbe Rashab, the practice of sichos—as recorded in Sefer Hasichos Toras Sholom. So, with Hashem’s help, next week we’ll continue discussing all these things. In the meantime, may everyone have great and extraordinary success, and may we all merit genuine Chassidus, [unclear].