Chasidic Perspectives: A Festival Anthology

To hear or read a discourse from the Lubavitcher Rebbe is to undertake an adventure. Challenged and encouraged to move to a higher level, we are transported to new locations.

Time and again a discourse will be set in motion by a seemingly simple tension, a practical provision to be developed and solved. Once in motion, however, the discussion leads us into fresh perspectives, carefully constructed answers and new questions, until we climb rung by rung to the most elevated of vantage points. From here, as we survey the ground beneath us in its widest of contexts, the initial question is not only resolved but also reveals the starting point of a major spiritual search.

These talks are addressed with relentless clarity to the contemporary Jewish condition. Their implicit starting-point is the darkness of a world in which spiritually, moral conviction, and the divine purpose of creation seem almost beyond reach. Their tacit faith is that through a gradual and supportive process, we can be led from the present moment of confusion to the timeless lucidity of Torah.