Maah She'arim (Book)
The book Maah She'arim ("A Hundred Gates") is a collection of fifty discourses and fifty letters drawn from the writings of the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Tzemach Tzedek.
About the Book[edit | edit source]
The book was first printed as a supplement to the prayer book (siddur) also titled Maah She'arim, published by the rabbis Chaim Eliezer Bichovsky and Chaim Meir Hillman in the city of Berdichev in 1913, marking one hundred years since the passing (histalkus) of the Alter Rebbe.[1]
The book contains exactly one hundred pages, not counting the table of abbreviations.
In keeping with the publishing conventions of that era — whereby books were divided into separate pamphlets (kuntreisim) that could be purchased either bound together or individually — this book was not necessarily bound together with the siddur and could be acquired on its own.
A significant portion of the discourses and letters printed in the book are found in the manuscript collection of the Rebbe's library, most of them with textual variants.[2] The editors of the first edition (1913) did not cite the sources for the discourses and letters; it is likely that they were copied from manuscripts by a copyist.[3]
Several of the selections in the book were also printed in other collections of sacred letters (igros kodesh) by the Chabad Rebbes.[4]
The book is printed in Rashi script.
Editions[edit | edit source]
In 1967, the book was reprinted by Kehot Publication Society as a photographic reproduction of the 1913 edition, with additions.[5] On the occasion of this reprint, the Rebbe took the time to write annotations on the discourses and letters, which were printed at the end of the volume.[6] The annotations are primarily bibliographic in nature, indicating additional locations where a given letter or discourse had been printed, as well as textual variants between editions.[7]
The book was reprinted again that same year and in 1974 by the Kfar Chabad branch of Kehot, and in 1976 by Kehot in Brooklyn with corrections and additions.
In 2005, a new edition was published in square script, in accordance with the Rebbe's directive,[8] with a comprehensive index at the end listing the locations in the Igros Kodesh, Maamarei Admur HaZakein, Maamarei Admur HaEmtzayi, and Or HaTorah where these discourses and letters were subsequently reprinted. This edition has been reprinted several times.
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Regarding its first printing, see also the writings of R' Chaim Eliezer Bichovsky, p. 12.
- ↑ The variants were not noted in the book.
- ↑ Based on the preface to the 1967 edition.
- ↑ Including Ginzei Nistaros (Jerusalem, 1924); Mishnas Yoel (Jerusalem, 1941); and others. See also the annotations of the Rebbe printed at the end of Maah She'arim.
- ↑ Since the production of the edition concluded close to Chanukah, a letter from the Rebbe dated Zos Chanukah 1967 was printed at the end of the book.
- ↑ Spanning five pages. It should be noted that when the discourses and letters were subsequently reprinted in more widely distributed works — such as the Igros Kodesh collections — the Rebbe's annotations on those passages were omitted. It is hoped this will be corrected.
- ↑ Of note is the Rebbe's observation regarding an error that remains uncorrected: two letters of the Alter Rebbe printed at the end of the Siddur Tehillas Hashem were also printed in Maah She'arim. At the end of the second letter, the signatory appears as "Shneur Zalman, son of his father Boruch of blessed memory," with a marginal note indicating that in Maah She'arim it reads "Boruch, may he live." The Rebbe notes that in fact Maah She'arim reads the same as the Siddur, and the text should be corrected to match Ginzei Nistaros. It is hoped that the publishers of the Siddur Tehillas Hashem will correct this error.
- ↑ Sichas Shabbos Parshas Kedoshim 1989 (Sefer HaSichos 5749, vol. 2, p. 431). See also Sichas Shabbos Parshas Vaeira 1991 (Sefer HaSichos 5751, vol. 1, p. 270).