Or Torah
The book Or Torah is a compilation of the teachings of the Maggid of Mezeritch, as recorded by his disciples. It was first published in Korets in 1804 by Rabbi Avraham, the printer of Korets, from manuscripts that had been "hidden under the seal of the royal signet… of the celebrated Rabbi, the crown of Korets, our master Rabbi Yeshaya, the preacher of the holy community of Dunowitz."
The editor arranged the Maggid's teachings according to the weekly Torah portions, verses from Song of Songs, verses from Psalms, verses from other books of Tanach (the Hebrew Bible), as well as prayers and liturgical poems from the siddur (prayerbook), and teachings of the Sages.
The book was first published in the town of Korets in 1804, and has since been reprinted numerous times over the following two centuries. By direction of the Rebbe, the Otzar HaChassidim division of Kehot Publication Society published the book in 1973. In 2006, Otzar HaChassidim released a new and expanded edition under the title Or Torah HaShalem ("The Complete Or Torah"), which included:
- A reorganized arrangement of the text
- Division of discourses into numbered sections
- Division of sections into subsections
- Supplementary material
- Textual corrections and variant readings aligned with other published works of the Maggid's teachings
- Cross-references and source notes in the margins
- Notes, citations, and indices
The edition was prepared under the editorship of Rabbi Yaakov Emanuel Shochat.
A Farbrengen of the Frierdiker Rebbe edit
On the festival of Yud-Beis/Yud-Gimmel Tammuz — the anniversary of the liberation of the Frierdiker Rebbe (the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn) from Soviet imprisonment — in 1949, the Frierdiker Rebbe held a farbrengen (a Chassidic gathering for inspiration and teaching). Among his remarks that day, he spoke of the special merit of three books — Kesser Shem Tov, Or Torah, and Tanya — saying (in free translation):
It is difficult to reveal this, but it cannot be concealed — especially out of ahavas Yisrael (love of one's fellow Jew) and ahavas chinam (unconditional love), and as is customary among Chassidim, that a received teaching has effect. I therefore wish to reveal the following: My father, the holy Rebbe [the Rebbe Rashab], would look from time to time at three books: Kesser Shem Tov, Or HaTorah, and Tanya. He would customarily look into them before a yechidus (private audience with the Rebbe), before each of the three daily prayers, and before the recitation of Shema before sleep. It is necessary and proper that Chassidim should have these three books — and for known reasons, not bound together in a single volume. One may study them as much as one wishes, but they should be studied — every day, or at the very least on Shabbos, Yom Tov, and other designated times.
Sources of the Book edit
In a sicha (Chassidic discourse) delivered on the Shabbos of Parshas Vayeishev in 1963, the Rebbe quoted what the Tzemach Tzedek had written in one of his own discourses — in connection with a teaching beginning "Olas Tamid" — that: "This is the wording of the Or Torah from the Maggid of blessed memory, and there are those who say it is in the handwriting of my holy grandfather [the Alter Rebbe], though this is not certain." Based on this, the Rebbe suggested that other discourses in Or Torah may likewise originate from the Alter Rebbe's own pen.
In the introduction to the 2005 edition, the editor Rabbi Shochat discusses at length the manuscripts from which the book was printed, and offers a comparative analysis of the seven published books of the Maggid's teachings.