‘The Book of Chassidim’: What It Is, and How You Can See It

00:23 In the year of תכ"ח ג' - 1963, the Rebbe had asked that each Hasid should send him a card, fill out a form about all his details of his life, when and where he was born, when and when he was learning in the Lubavitch yeshivas in Tomchei Temimim, the members of his family, and his place of that he is living now, and his occupation. Several thousands of these cards, of these forms was filled out and sent to the Rebbe. The Rebbe kept them in his yechidas room for many years. In Tammuz תמ"ד, the summer of 1984, when I was already working several years in the library, the Rebbe wrote to me I should suggest what is the best way to utilize this collection of several thousands cards, forms with details of all the Hasidim. I responded that if that collection would be in the archives of the library, while we are usually always working on the set of seforim, Toldos Chabad, or other details that we are working on, we could always get details of each Hasid, and that would help for editing this seforim. The Rebbe accepted this idea, and then he sent out the whole collections of the forms of Sefer Hasidim to the library. And many, many details in the set of seforim of Toldos Chabad and other seforim that was edited here, we used the information that each Hasid wrote about himself, the time and place that he was learning in yeshiva and all other details of his life. The library

03:22 had decided several years ago to scan this whole collection and post them on the site of the library. One that wants to see details of his family member, grandfather, great uncle, and all details of their life and family, he would have to go to chabadlibrary.org/hasidim. There he would find a list, alphabetical order of the last names of all the cards, all the Hasidim that filled out cards. He would get to the card of the person that he is looking for, and he would be able to find all details of his life and family since he was born, his wife, her grandpar- and her parents, his children, when anyone, where and when he was learning in yeshiva in Tomchei Temimim, where he lived later in the year of תכ"ח ג', and when, what was his occupation. That started then, and in the coming years, Hasidim to con- continued to send these cards, so we have posted several thousands of these cards on the site of the library.