The publishing arm of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Kehot publications, released a revised translation last month of a fundamental treatise penned at the turn of the 20th century by the Fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneerson, of righteous memory.
Entitled Tract on Prayer – or Kuntres HaTefillah in Hebrew – the discourse was first delivered by the Rebbe on Simchat Torah in 1899. In the address, the Rebbe explains that through prayer one is able to refine their character traits. He then instructs that prayer should be preceded by proper contemplation so that one can engage in Divine service with the utmost of devotion.
The current volume presents an English translation completed 16 years ago by Rabbi Eliezer Danziger – first published in 1992 – alongside the discourse's original Hebrew text. Vowel marks aid the readability of the Hebrew and comprehensive footnotes and annotations added by Rabbi Avraham D. Vaisfiche elucidate the text's deeper points.
The book represents the 18th volume of the Kehot Publication Society's "Chasidic Heritage Series," which aims to present key Chasidic works in an easy-to-understand format.
In his introduction to the work's first publication in 1921, the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, called Tract on Prayer "a definitive guide to finding a balm and remedy for the maladies of the soul, and to developing one's faculties and abilities through genuine service."
Tract on Prayer can be purchased online here.
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