Horowitz, Aaron Halevi. Sha’arei Avodah [Gates of Worship]

(CHASSIDISM).

Azriel Zelig ben Yaakov

Shklov

1821

FIRST EDITION. On blue paper. On front fly and title, inscriptions of former owner, “Esriel Roth”

Vinograd, Shklov 209; Habermann, “Sha’arei Chabad” in Alei Ayin (Salman Schocken Festschrift) (1948-1952), pp. 358-9, no. 279

Important Work of Starosselje Branch of Chabad Chassidism Rabbi Aaron Halevi Horowitz was for thirty years the preeminent disciple of R. Shneur Zalman until the latter's death in 1812. A tendentious controversy then arose over the succession, with some chassidim accepting the son R. Dov Baer Shneuri as their spiritual leader, and others embracing R. Aaron Halevi as their mentor. Ideologically, the son and the disciple differed over the proper approach to “Avodah” or worship. R. Aaron encouraged an ecstatic type of worship, while R. Dov Baer (referred to later on as the “Mitteler Rebbe”) taught that worship must be focused inward and must not display outer manifestations. To answer the challenge of the Starosselje school, R. Dov Baer penned Kuntres ha-Hithpa’aluth ("Tract on Ecstasy"), a remarkable analysis of different spiritual states. Our text, Sha’arei Avodah, offers Rabbi Aaron Halevi Horowitz's Starosselje approach to divine service. See M. Rosman, Founder of Hasidism (1996) pp. 189-211; R. Elior, Torath ha-Elokuth be-dor ha-sheni shel Chasiduth Chabad (1982); R. Dov Baer Shneuri, Kuntres ha-Hithpa’aluth - 1814, printed in Ma’amrei Admo”r ha-Emtza’i (1991), pp. 37-196