Bidspirit auction | The history of Ḥasidut embodied

The history of Ḥasidut embodied – a Tanya of the righteous Rabbi Motl Slonimer, with handwritten glosses in his holy script, including a wondrous account from the holy Rebbe of Barditchev that through the study of the plain meaning, the esoteric will one day be revealed. - Likkutei Amarim Tanya by the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi זיע”א. With Iggeret ha-Teshuvah and Iggeret ha-Kodesh, printed in Vilna 1909. Two title pages. Wide margins. With a public notice of the sale of printing rights to the Rebbe Rashab. This volume belonged to the holy gaon Rabbi Mordechai Ḥayim of Slonim זיע”א, who himself inscribed the writing upon the binding and wrote two marginal notes (folio 37b, 143b). Two giants of the spirit, the Barditchever and the author of the Tanya, were Mechutanim —not once, but twice. Two daughters of the Mitteler Rebbe married grandsons of the Kedushat Levi. The weddings in 1807 and 1808 expressed the love and esteem that existed between these two saintly figures. Yet on those occasions also emerged the differing paths of these exalted shepherds of Israel regarding the public engagement with the mysteries of Torah. [See Heikhal ha-Besht II (p. 101), a comprehensive study on this subject: “The holy Rebbe of Barditchev זי”ע and his mechutan, the holy Rebbe, author of the Tanya זיע”א, ” and an entire volume devoted to this relationship: Tzaddikim ve-Yedidim (R. A. Ch. Gourary, 2017).] Despite their differing approaches, the holy Barditchever accepted the Alter Rebbe’s responses to his claims that this was not the way of the holy Maggid of Mezeritch. Not so the holy Rebbe of Kalisk, head of the Maggid’s disciples in the Holy Land after the passing of the holy Rebbe of Vitebsk. When the sacred Likkutei Amarim – Tanya was published, the Rebbe of Kalisk wrote to the Alter Rebbe a sharp letter: ‘וכן היה מנהג רבותינו, היו נשמרים ונזהרים מאד בדבריהם שלא להשמיע לרוב החסידים ורובם ככולם כי אם בדרך מוסר ולהכניסם בברית אמונת חכמים ודיבור של תורה קב ונקי והמועט מחזיק את המרובה והברכה מצויה באותו דיבור’... A profound spiritual bond united the holy Rebbe R. Mordechai of Lechovitch with the holy Rebbe of Kalisk. The legacy of the Kalisker lived on among the successors of Lechovitch, from whom the Slonim Ḥasidut branched forth. Among its majestic figures was the holy Rebbe R. Mordechai Ḥayim of Slonim, known as R’ Motl Slonimer. Born in 1868 in Lithuania to the son-in-law of the brother of the holy author of Yesod ha-Avodah of Slonim, he ascended to the Land at the age of eight and became one of the great men of the community, renowned for his genius and wondrous diligence. When the bitter news arrived of the martyrdom of the holy Rebbe the Maharashdi of Slonim in the Holocaust, the Slonim ḥasidim turned to R’ Motl to assume the mantle of leadership. Only in 1950 did he consent, on condition that he not be called Rebbe or Admor. Before us lies a volume that embodies two hundred years of Ḥasidut—highlighting the differences among its streams alongside their mutual reverence. The Tanya of one who perhaps expressed more than any other the legacy of the holy Rebbe of Kalisk. In this book he delved and studied, but in one place he found it fitting to record a different path—strengthened by an incident from the holy Rebbe of Barditchev!