Likutei Amarim [discourses]

(CHASSIDISM).

Russia

Early 19th-century

Manuscript in Hebrew, written in a small, neat hand, marginalia in another larger hand. Previous owners’ signatures. From a scholar’s library.

Ma’amarim of R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi (Alter Rebbe) and R. Dov Baer of Lubavitch (Mitteler Rebbe). According to a note on the verso of the front flyleaf (in a different hand), these Ma’amarim (Drushim) were written by “Harav Hagadol Hamefursam Moreinu R. Aaron of Ashve, who heard them from the mouth of the son of Rabbeinu Shneur Zalman of Liadi.” R. Aaron of Ashve is actually R. Aaron Halevi Horowitz of Starosselje (1766-1829), who later considered himself R. Shneur Zalman’s successor. According to C. M. Heilman in his authoritative Beth Rebbe (part I, p. 134 and part II, p. 4), when dissension between R. Aaron and R. Shneur Zalman first began, R. Aaron sold his house in Liadi and returned to his hometown of Ashve. Later when a number of Chassidim pledged their allegiance to him rather than to R. Dov Baer, he moved to Starosselje. These Ma’amarim were apparently written before the final split when R. Aaron still studied together with the Mitteler Rebbe R. Dov Baer and they shared what they heard. Some of the Ma’amarim in this manuscript were written during the Alter Rebbe’s lifetime as the word “sheyichyeh” appears after his name (see f. 39). Final leaf contains the copy of a letter written by R. Shneur Zalman to support Eretz Israel. See C. M. Heilman, Beth Rebbe (Jerusalem, 2008).