Lectures on the Tanya

In recent years Hasidic teaching has moved out of its traditional world into the Israeli public sphere, and many have found in it an answer to their existential and spiritual questions. Hasidic books began to be studied in classes and in diverse groups, and gradually became part of the Jewish-Israeli bookshelf. One of the foundational books of Hasidic teaching in general, and of Chabad Hasidism in particular, is the Tanya by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, known as the Alter Rebbe.
Rabbi Shagar, one of the great rabbis and thinkers of the last generation, engaged extensively with the Tanya and taught it regularly in various settings. As was his way, in his lectures he offered a contemporary, existential interpretation of this foundational work. The figure of the beinoni, the hero of the first part of the book, serves for him as a model of the person torn between the worlds of the holy and the everyday, who searches for the inner religious truth of his life but feels that it is out of reach.
In his lectures Rabbi Shagar gives new meaning to basic Chabad concepts such as bittul hayesh, hishtavut, kavanah, ahavat olam and “the whole earth is full of His glory”. His interpretation of the Tanya opens a window onto his own thought on fundamental topics such as the theory of the soul, faith and doubt, the human being and his relationships with others, prayer and Torah study – while comparing and contrasting it with the great Rishonim, other Hasidic thinkers, the teachings of the Mussar masters and of Rabbi Kook, and the work of Jewish thinkers and of modern and postmodern philosophers.
This book is the third in the series “Namtik Sod: New Studies in Hasidut”. It was preceded by two volumes of lectures on Likutei Moharan, dealing with the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, which were widely read and highly influential.