Avraham HaMalach and Avraham Kalisker. Chesed Le’Avraham [Chassidic discourses]

One of the early classic works of Chassidism. Contains independent original interpretations, along with materials from other disciples of the Baal Shem Tov. The author R. Avraham the Malach, was the son of R. Dov Baer, Maggid of Mezhritch and grandfather of R. Israel of Ruzhin. Upon his father’s instructions, he served as mentor to his colleague R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Intensely ascetic to the point of avoiding all food, he died at the early age of thirty five. The manuscript of this text disappeared soon after the arrest of the Rhiziner, and in his approbation here (written a month before his death), the Ruzhiner effusively thanks his Chassid, R. Chaim of Berdichev “who intensively searched for these writings and now having brought them to me, has enlivened my soul”.