The Kuntres Pokeach Ivrim

The Kuntres Pokeach Ivrim is a guidance manual for baalei teshuvah, written by the Mitteler Rebbe in Yiddish. It was the first of the Mitteler Rebbe's seforim to be published in print. In subsequent editions, it was translated into Lashon Hakodesh by the chossid R' Shmuel Dober of Borisov, who also wrote a commentary on it. Additional chapters that were not printed during the Mitteler Rebbe's lifetime were also included.

Content of the Kuntres

The sefer deals with practical guidance for a baal teshuvah in their conduct. In his holy letter about the sefer, the Frierdiker Rebbe writes that "the subject and content of the twenty-eight chapters of the sefer Pokeach Ivrim is detailed, like a collection from various places in the sefer Derech Chaim – the third section from Shaar HaTeshuvah V'HaTefillah."

In that same letter, the Frierdiker Rebbe relates at length the story of the baal teshuvah R' Shlomo Leib, whom the chossid R' Yosef of Beshenkowitz was involved in bringing closer to Yiddishkeit, after becoming a wagon driver under special instruction from the Alter Rebbe specifically so that this would lead to R' Shlomo Leib's return to teshuvah. According to the details of the story, the Frierdiker Rebbe explains that it appears the Mitteler Rebbe wrote the Kuntres Pokeach Ivrim for him, which is also the reason for writing the kuntres in the spoken language of that time - Yiddish.

In its first editions, the sefer had 28 chapters. The Frierdiker Rebbe notes in his letter that he has in writing another 12 chapters that the Mitteler Rebbe wrote but were not printed, since by then the sefer Derech Chaim had already been printed. These chapters were first published in Kovetz HaTamim and were printed as part of two of the sefer, from the 1940 edition onwards.

Publications of the Kuntres

The kuntres was first printed in 1817, and it was the first of the Mitteler Rebbe's seforim to be published in print. It was subsequently printed about thirty more times.

In Kovetz HaTamim, the sefer's translation into Lashon Hakodesh by the chossid R' Shmuel Dober of Borisov was first published, along with his commentary, as well as the chapters of the second part of the sefer.

The kuntres was published in 1940 by Agudas Chassidei Chabad worldwide, and by Kehot Publication Society again in: 1943 (Shanghai branch), 1948 (Munich branch), 1955 (Brooklyn branch), 1973 (Kfar Chabad branch), 1976 (Brooklyn branch), 1978 (Kfar Chabad branch).

In 1991, the kuntres was included in the sefer "Maamarei Admur Ha'emtzai - Kuntreisim" published in the series of the Mitteler Rebbe's maamorim. This edition included the Frierdiker Rebbe's letter about the sefer, both parts in Yiddish, the translation of the first part into Lashon Hakodesh and its explanation by RaShDaM, as well as sources, notes and facsimiles.

In 2023, Kehot Publication Society in Brooklyn published a new edition of the kuntres (based on the 1991 edition that was printed in the sefer "Maamarei Admur Ha'emtzai - Kuntreisim", with some corrections).

About the Kuntres

In a letter to a bochur who complained that he "does not get inspired from his learning and his tefillos", the Rebbe responded that he should learn Kuntres Pokeach Ivrim "which was also translated into Lashon Hakodesh and is by the Mitteler Rebbe, son of the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch, which is surely found by the administration of Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim in Bruna, and he will see there several reasons why his body and animal soul are not moved by the learning and davening and it is in his power to fix them."