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Bidding Information
Lot #    23095
Auction End Date    4/28/2009 10:02:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Likkutei Amarim (Tanya) Part III
Title (Hebrew)    ספר לקוטי אמרים חלק שלישי הנקרא בשם אגרת התשובה
Author    [Habad - First Ed.] R. Shneur Zalman of Liady
City    Shklov
Publisher    Barukh b. Elijah & Isaac b. Samuel
Publication Date    1806
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    First edition. [1], 2-20 ff., 164:98 mm., usual light age staining, nice margins, blue paper, final f. expertly repaired with three words in facsimile. A very good copy bound in modern full leather boards.
          
Paragraph 1    Part III of the Tanya was also printed in its entirety with Parts I & II by the same printers. Printed to be added to prior editions which contained part I and II only. In this version all errors indicated in the entire edition were corrected.
          
Detailed
Description		    R. Shneur Zalman of Lyady (1745–1813), founder of Habad Hasidism was, according to family traditions, born in Liozna, Belorussia, on the 18th of Elul. After his marriage in 1760 he devoted himself to Torah study. Concluding that he knew "a little about learning, but nothing about prayer" in 1764 he decided to learn about Hasidism from R. Dov Baer the Maggid of Mezhirech, leader of the hasidic movement. In Mezhirech he became one of the inner circle of the Maggid's pupils. He also studied as a friend and pupil with Abraham b. Dov Baer. Although R. Shneur Zalman was one of the youngest pupils, the Maggid had a high opinion of him, and in 1770 delegated to him the task of composing a new and up-to-date Shulhan Arukh. Shneur Zalman worked on this book for many years, but published only small parts of it. About one-third was printed posthumously (the rest had been destroyed by fire) and is known as the "Shulhan Arukh of the Rav" (1814). Though not a hasidic work, it represents - as the Maggid had intended - a great halakhic achievement. It evidences R. Shneur Zalman's superb Hebrew style, his ability to provide lucid explanation, and profundity without complexity. It became an authoritative halakhic source among the Hasidim of Lubavich. In 1774, during the early period of the opposition to Hasidism by traditional Jewry, R. Shneur Zalman and R. Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk went to Vilna in an attempt to meet with R. Elijah b. Solomon, the Gaon of Vilna, and reach some kind of understanding between the Hasidim and Mitnaggedim, but the Gaon did not agree to meet them. After R. Menahem Mendel went to Erez Israel with many of his followers, R. Shneur Zalman was left with two others as a deputy leader in Rydzyna (Reisen, Belorussia and adjoining areas). In 1788 R. Menahem Mendel formally appointed Shneur Zalman as hasidic leader of Reisen: this was really only a post facto appointment, as he already had many devoted personal pupils. It had become apparent that R. Shneur Zalman had created a distinct type of Hasidism, to become known as Habad.

R. Shneur Zalman was one of the great Jewish personalities of his age, as great a scholar in talmudic studies as in Kabbalah. He had a wide knowledge of science and mathematics, and his powers as a systematizer were enhanced by a fine style. Yet he was also a mystic, and deeply emotional; he composed hasidic melodies and was a charismatic leader. All these qualities blended in a strangely harmonious way. His work is masterly on every subject, an almost unique combination of mysticism and common sense. His other important works are Likkutei Torah (Zhitomir, 1848), Torah Or (1836), and Ma'amarei Admor ha-Zaken (1958–60).
          
Paragraph 2    מהרב הגאון המחבר [ר' שניאור זלמן מלאדי] נ"י... בשנת כי קר'וב אליך הדבר מ'אוד בפיך ו'בלבבך' לעש'ותו

בראש העמודים: אגרת התשובה. הוצאה מיוחדת מתוך "לקוטי אמרים", שקלאב תקס"ו, בסדר חדש, עם ההסכמה והפיסקה "ארור מסיג גבול" שבסוף ההקדמה.

          
Reference
Description		    Mundschein, Torat Habad p. 152-3, # 4; CD-EPI 0170973; EJ
        
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Listing Classification
Period
19th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Russia-Poland:    Checked
  
Subject
Hasidic:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Blue Paper:    Checked
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica