3 of Shvat - In 5597 1/9/1837 The Torah Ohr was printed by the Tzemach Tzedek

00:00 Do today the Yemei Chabad for the third day of Shevat in the year Taf Kuf Tzadik Zayin. Uh, that was the, uh, January, January nine, eighteen thirty-seven. That was when the Torah Or, the book, the Torah Or of the Alter Rebbe was first printed by the Tzemach Tzedek. That was his grandson. He was the third Lubavitch Rebbe. He printed the book of Torah Or. The Torah Or is basically the works of the Alter Rebbe. That's the talks that the Alter Rebbe gives. And, you know, people don't realize sometimes that even in the, uh, Hasidic talks that the Alter Rebbe gave, not only the Alter Rebbe, but we're talking about the Torah Or, about the Alter Rebbe, he would say like a statement like, just by the way, within it lie, lies such deep and expertise and, and, and, and knowledge of all parts of Torah. He just said it like by the way, like as he was ta-- discussing another subject and he said like this was done and we see it over and over that you can learn so much halachas or so much information about various other things which are just mentioned by the way. So this book of Torah Or was first printed in that day on the third of Shevat in Taf Kuf Tzadik Zayin in the city of Kapust. And, um, the Tzemach Tzedek in a letter he, uh-- of the third day of Shevat in that year, Taf Kuf Tzadik Zayin, writes that this book of Torah Or which

01:38 is now being printed have most of the Rebbe's talks that he gave from the years Taf Kuf Nun Vav, Taf Kuf Ayin Beis. Um, this was already the, uh-- about-- The Alter Rebbe passed away in Ayin Gimel and this was already more than twenty years after the passing of the Rebbe. So this was like twenty-four years after his passing, okay? And that time they first printed the memorium but those were said up till the end, almost the end of his life for the-- from Taf Kuf Nun Vav till Taf Kuf Ayin Beis so that would mean for the last, uh, uh, sixteen years of, fifteen years of his life. You know, they collected it in those books and that's why they published the book. Now he says that the Alter Rebbe himself looked at some of them and he actually, uh, fixed, he looked it over and he fixed them and he agreed that these should be published. He agreed. And then he says the book includes two, two parts. Now at the time the Tzemach Tzedek did not reveal that he had a lot of footnotes and a lot of-- or not footnotes, notes. They're not called footnotes over there because different places and they were part and they explain and bring down various different other places in the, uh, different memorium and different explanation. But he didn't print those. He only printed from his grandfather. That's all that he printed. Later on, unfortunately before they can finish printing the first book, they didn't

03:26 even finish the first book which was on the section of Bereshit and Shemot. That was mainly, it's almost to the end. And there was a slanderous complaint against that printing press and they closed it down. Uh, many, many Jewish printing presses were closed and amongst those ones also the one in Kapust in which they were printing the Torah Or. So then it stopped. This whole process stopped. But in the meantime it turns out that because of the delay which took another-- till the year Taf Reish Ches, that took another eleven years when they printed the second volume. The second volume was printed eleven years later and that was printed in the-- as the second volume in the city of Zhytomyr and they changed the name. They called it now the Likutei Torah. So there is two. That's the volume which talks-- which is Vayikra, mainly Vayikra, Bamidbar and Devarim and then it has Shiras Hashirim and some others and there's some more to the Torah Or. But by that time the Hasidim found out, and there's a whole story, there was a dream that, that, that the Alter Rebbe came to the Tzemach Tzedek that he should print his notes together with Likutei Torah. So it turned out that because of the, uh, fact that they had to stop the printing, in the second printing they got a lot more because not only you have the Alter Rebbe's teachings there but you also have a lot of the Tzemach Tzedek's, uh, commentary to it which

04:58 we don't have on the first section which is on the part of the Torah Or. If you go-- It's almost sim-similar to what happened. You know, Moshe Rabbeinu broke the first Luchas but afterwards it is said that when he went up again, Hashem gave him along with the second Luchas a lot more than he gave him originally. He gave him also all the Pilpul of Torah, various different things that Hashem gave him more. So it turns out sometimes when we miss out in the beginning it's actually ends up being to our benefit. So in this case, um, it turns out that they stopped printing, they ended up getting this. That's a beautiful story told about how the Tzemach Tzedek refused to put his notes in together with the Alter Rebbe but then his children also had the same dream and it happened three times so he reluctantly agreed to, to print it together. I mean, of course he didn't feel that he was worthy of, of, uh, being, uh, at the level to go ahead and have the, uh, uh, his notes put with That he gave over- Yeah ... a period of time, but they were all written when he spoke? No. So a lot of them, they were spoken. They were actually later on, uh, published. There were different people that would write down the Rebbe's words. His words, okay. And then he would look it over, and he would sort of, uh, uh, fix it and, uh, and, and check it over

06:20 and make sure. That's why he said that a lot of them- Right ... he looked over. Look, yeah. Now, the way they're organized for the-- It's basically organized every week. You have, uh, uh, a certain section. And, you know, it's known by Hasidim, um, that just like we have every Shabbos, every Friday, Shabbos, one has to review the portion of the Torah that you read that week. The Torah Or and Likutei Torah are considered like the Hasidish Parshah. Those are the Hasidic portion, and people should review that, uh, every Shabbos that week. It's meant for every week. And the Rebbe also encouraged a lot to people to study Torah Or. It's not as easy to say that as it is to do the Parshah, which you just have to read the words and do over here, there's a lot. Number one, there's a lot of Ma'amaron. Most of the weeks there are-- there is-- there actually happens to be maybe one week or, or like, the like, where there is no Ma'amaron for that. There is no... A Ma'amaron is a Hasidic discourse where it doesn't appear. Uh, also sometimes you have to figure out, uh, why is the Ma'amaron connected to that week. You know, like there's an opening or a verse of the prophets, or there's an opening, uh, from a saying of our sages. So like in this week's Torah Or we have both in, on the portion of Vayeshev and the portion of Miketz. We have Ma'amaron which are connected to

07:49 Hanukkah, because Hanukkah season is either in the portion of Vayeshev, or it's in portion of Miketz, or in both. And therefore, he has some Hanukkah in Vayeshev and some in Miketz. And, um, you know, it's, it's, it's still a difficult subject to learn, but once you get the feel of it, we do a lot of studying of Likutei Torah and Torah Or ourselves. It took some time, but once you get used to it, I mean, you see that the Alter Rebbe not only, uh, came up with all these ideas, uh, which were like how he, uh, just sees things like on a totally different dimension than we can, but he also has such a beautiful language to explain it, to articulate it. And, uh, it's just a little-- sometimes it takes a little bit till you get used to that kind of language, what he's saying, and then, you know, then you really get to enjoy it, uh, and, and to learn it. So this, this, this has to do with the, uh, Likutei Torah and the, um, and the Torah Or, which was, like we said, printed, broken up in eleven years in between them. Uh, it's also not clear to me, I'm not sure, but it seems when you look at the Likutei Torah, it's not clear. It seems like there's a few like from, from Torah Or, which is in the Parshah of Likutei Torah, like I think Pekudei, there is some, and then there is, uh, like in the Likutei Torah,

09:13 there is like filling in. I'm not sure if they print-- they stopped the press like, like in middle of a Parshah, in middle of something, like when-- and they weren't able to finish it. But again, I'm not sure exactly. So they were able to bind it. They couldn't print it anymore. It was- So they printed... How did they-- I mean, they used to use the old linotype kind of, uh- It was the May laws, was under the, the tsar changed in that time. Yeah. So they prohibit them to, to do a lot of things. Yeah, but I'm not sure exactly where they were up to, but they were able to publish the book. But then they were able to bind it, I guess, and then they, uh... But, but I'm not sure how many pages of it, or I'm not sure how they, uh, photostatted it. Uh, I mean, they used to probably use linotype in those times, and um- Yeah ... and they make plates. The old plates, I'm not sure how they did it. The plates. They made plates. Did they make plates? I'm not sure how they printed. I think those things, individual letters. Stamping? Uh, no, I don't know. And then they put it into the presser. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Into the press. But whatever the case was. Yeah. But it's just interesting sometimes to find out exactly- With- 'cause it's-- we-- how it happened, because it's not exactly, it doesn't start exactly from Vayikra, it doesn't end exactly here. It

10:15 seems like maybe it was just in the middle and maybe they could just... They knew they were finishing, they quickly finished. I'm not sure exactly how it, how, how it worked. Okay.