Seder Tefiloth mikol HaShanah al-pi Nusach Ha’Ari z”l [prayers]. Prepared according to the custom of Isaac Luria (Nussach AR”I). Arranged and with an extensive commentary by R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi (The Alter Rebbe).

(CHASSIDISM)

Israel Jaffe

Kopyst

1816

First edition of Siddur with Chassidic discourses [Siddur im Da”ch]. On title, printer’s device of Israel Jaffe. Part One only (of two).

Vinograd, Kopyst 60; Mehlman 221 (JNUL copy incomplete); Habermann, Sha’arei Chabad (in Alei Ayin: S.Z. Schocken Festschrift) p. 327 no. 137.

Rare first edition of the Alter Rebbe’s Siddur. During the life-time of the Alter Rebbe, R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1813), his unique text of the prayers, based upon the rite of R. Isaac Luria, was published in a very condensed format in Shklov in 1803 (see Habermann, Sha’arei Chabad, no. 135). However, this earlier prayer-book was devoid of Chassidism per se, offering only general instructions and “pesakim” (legal decisions). Following the death of R. Shneur Zalman, his son and successor, R. Dov Ber (1773-1827), the Mitteler Rebbe, issued for the first time what has come to be known among Chabad Chassidim as the Siddur im Da”ch (Siddur with Chassidic discourses; Da”ch initials: “Divrei Elokim Chaim”) - more simply, “Der Alter Rebbe’s Siddur.” This Siddur ranks among the most important of Chassidic printed books and certainly the most significant within the Chabad literary canon.