Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Likutei Torah: Devarim and Shir HaShirim [Chassidic discourses]

(CHASSIDISM).

Chanina Lipa, Aryeh Leib & Joshua Heschel Shapiro, grandsons of the Rabbi of Slavuta

Zhitomir

1848

FIRST EDITIONS . Two titles within typographic borders, title to Devarim in red and black. A wide margined copy.

Vinograd, Zhitomir 42; Haberman, Sha’arei Chabad (in Alei Ayin–Schocken Festschrift), 93; Stefansky, Chassiduth 297.

R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), referred to affectionately as the “Alter Rebbe” founded the Chabad movement, a text-oriented school of Chassidism, demanding of its adherents rigorous attention to scholarly detail. According to the title, the book Likutei Torah was brought to press by two sons of R. Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (author Responsa Tzemach Tzedek): R. Judah Leib (later of Kopyst) and R. Chaim Shneur Zalman. R. Shneur Zalman’s discourses on Genesis, Exodus and the Scroll of Esther had been issued earlier (Kopyst, 1837) under the title “Torah Or.” The obvious difference in length between the two productions, Torah Or and Likutei Torah, is due to the fact that the latter has had grafted onto it a sizable amount of material from the author’s grandson, R. Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (1789-1866). His remarks are distinguished by encyclopedic knowledge and breadth, with copious references to the entire rabbinic and kabbalistic literatur