Schneur Zalman of Liadi. Sepher Likutei Amarim [“Tanya”]

(CHASSIDISM).

(Moshe Shapiro - son of Pinchas Koritzer)

Slavuta

1796 (printing completed on the 20th Kislev)

FIRST EDITION. Title within typographical border. ff. 81-86 on blue paper. A complete copy

Vinograd, Slavuta 16; Y. Mondschein, Sepher ha-Tanya (1981), pp. 31-35 (includes facsimile of title)

THE EDITIO PRINCEPS OF THE TANYA. THE FUNDAMENTAL EXPOSITION OF CHABAD CHASSIDIC PHILOSOPHY. Composed by R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1813) - The "Alter Rebbe," as he is affectionately referred to, the Tanya is universally acknowledged as a seminal work of Jewish thought. This first edition includes Part One, “Sepher shel Benonim” (Book of Middle Class), and Part Two, “Chinuch Katan / Shaar ha-Yichud ve-ha-Emunah” (Gate of Unity and Faith). In the course of subsequent printings, three additional parts would be added, for a total of five parts. Lubavitch Chassidim refer to the Tanya as the “Torah she-bi-Kethav (Written Torah) of Chassidism”; its five parts reminiscent of the Torah itself. R. Levi Isaac of Berditchev (although also attributed to R. Meshullam Zushye of Anapolli) a contemporary of R. Schneur Zalman, is reputed to have marveled how "the author succeeded in fitting a God so vast into a book so small!" The great Talmudist of the generation, R. Elijah, the Vilna Gaon however, viewed the pantheistic philosophy espoused by the Tanya as sheer heresy. Reputedly, the book was publicly burnt in the streets of Vilna on the Eve of Passover along with the chametz. In this regard, it is not insignificant to note that nowhere in the Tanya does the author's name appear, neither on the title nor in the rabbinic endorsements. - And yet, into the next generation, the foremost disciple of the Vilna Gaon, Chaim Volozhiner, composed Nephesh Hachaim, his classic tract outlining the weltanschauung of Lithuanian Jewry, largely along parallel lines of thought to the Tanya. A Paradigmatic Work in the Development of Jewish Thought