Tanya (Judaism)
Its formal title is Likkutei Amarim (ליקוטי אמרים, Hebrew, "collection of statements") but is more commonly known by its first word (tanya), which in Aramaic means "it has been taught".
The Tanya is composed of five sections that define Hasidic mystical psychology and theology as a handbook for daily spiritual life in Jewish observance.
In it, Zalman brings the new interpretations of Jewish mysticism by the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, into philosophical articulation and definition.
The third generation great students of Dov Ber of Mezeritch, who spread out across Eastern Europe, became the leaders of Hasidism in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Russia.
The intellectual ("Chabad") approach of Schneur Zalman, continued by successive Lubavitch Rebbes, emphasised the mind as the route to the inner heart.
This enabled Schneur Zalman to take Hasidus to Lithuanian Jews from nearby White Russia, and aroused the opposition of their early leaders.
Therefore, in Chabad, the Baal Shem Tov and Schneur Zalman, who share the same birthday, are called the "two great luminaries" (after Genesis 1:16, according to the Midrashic account, before the moon was diminished), representing heart and mind.
[2] The founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, brought the Kabbalistic idea of Omnipresent Divine immanence in Creation into daily Jewish worship of the common folk.
The unlettered Jewish folk were cherished and encouraged in their sincere simplicity, while the elite scholars sought to emulate their negation of ego through study of Hasidic exegetical thought.
Typically, he wrote one of the most personal mystical accounts in Judaism, his "Tract on Ecstasy", that instructs the Chabad follower in the levels of contemplation.
Chabad writings of each generation of its dynasty, develop this intellectual explanation of Hasidic mystical ideas, into successively greater and more accessible reach.
In recent times the last two Rebbes expressed the spiritual warmth of Chabad in terms of daily reality, language and relevance, in the Yiddish translations and memoires of Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and especially the Likkutei Sichos of Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
It can connect the different disciplines of mysticism (Kabbalah) and Jewish philosophy (Hakira), by relating to a higher, essential unity in Divinity, that harmonises diverse ideas.
It is the ability of Hasidic thought to bring the abstract, esoteric systems of Kabbalah into conscious perception and mystical faith, by relating them to man's inner psychological awareness.
The last two added sections give more complicated and in-depth Hasidic exposition of Kabbalistic concepts, the author uniting abstract ideas with the importance of everyday service and an emotion that must accompany it.
These discourses are similar to the exegetical commentaries of Schneur Zalman in his other works, though here they sometimes take the form of letters to his followers, with more direct advice.
Most of the work's first part, "The Book of the Average Man", the beinoni, serves as a fundamental and basic guide to the spiritual service of God.
Unlike other early Hasidic works, this book is not a collection of sermons or stories, but rather a systematic exposition of Shneur Zalman's philosophy.
The Tanya seeks to demonstrate to the "average" Jewish man or woman that knowledge of God is there for the taking, that spiritual growth to ever higher levels is real and imminent, if one is willing to engage in the struggle.
