The Tanya
December 26, 2024
Yours truly, December 18, 2024.
The Tanya.
The “one size fits all” life manual.
In 1796, the Alter Rebbe, founder of Chabad Chassidism, published the "Tanya", which was to become known as the 'written Torah of Chassidism', revolutionizing Jewish thought forever.
In 1984, the Lubavitcher Rebbe began a campaign to print an edition of Tanya in every city in the world! His directive was based on a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov that Moshiach would come when "the wellsprings" of Chassidic teachings would spread worldwide. Printing the Tanya in every location would transform that place into a source and bastion of these beautiful teachings.
The Rebbe's emissaries dispersed throughout the globe took up the Rebbe's call and traveled from town to town in their region, printing Tanyas in every stop along the way. Since the Rebbe's call, more than 7,000 editions of Tanya have been published throughout the world , from large bustling cities to small rural communities.
Four stories from my archives:
Israeli National News
Jan. 26, 2024
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/384210
A book of Tanya was printed Thursday night, Jan. 25, on the outskirts of Khan Yunis, deep in Gaza. The project, managed by Tze'irei Chabad, was carried out in cooperation with IDF soldiers, who also learned Chapter 32 of the Tanya (*)
Prior to this, the soldiers were briefed on the great advantages and merits invested in printing the Tanya, as instructed by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
(*) Introduction to Chapter 32 of the Tanya
In the original manuscript of Tanya, this chapter was absent. The author wrote it later, after deciding to go to print, and inserted it as chapter 32. The choice was obviously deliberate: In Hebrew, every number spells a word. Thirty-two spells heart. This chapter was meant to be the heart of the Tanya.
Nevertheless, the opening was adapted to follow the three chapters before. Those chapters provide advice for those who just can't get inspired-no matter how much they study, ponder and pray. The counsel is simple: You think too highly of yourself-of your "body-self." Your soul is beautiful, but that's not the self with which you identify. It is the material-pleasure oriented, impulse-driven, self-centered self. Put that body-self in its place, and your G‑dly soul will shine through.
From that rejection of materialism, the author finds a clear pathway to love."
***
The 119th edition of the Tanya was printed in 5738 (1978) in “Tehran, Persia” (today, Iran). This is what the rav of the Jewish community in Persia, Rabbi Yehuda Ezrachian, said at the time about the miracle in connection with the printing of the Tanya:
“About a year before the Revolution, two shluchim of the Rebbe came to Iran in order to print the Tanya. The community decided to print many copies of the Tanya in order to distribute them to the Jews of the community.
The Tanya was sent to be printed, but there were delays and it took a long time. In the meantime, Khomeini overthrew the Shah. When the work of the community resumed, and I was responsible for the community’s spiritual needs, I tried to get all the copies of the Tanya from the printer in order to bring them to the community’s library. There, in the large hall of the library, they were stored for the meantime, in messy piles.
At that time, a new law was announced called ‘cleansing.’ The new law stated that every Iranian citizen and all public organizations had thirty days in which to burn all documents, papers, and books they owned, containing the Shah’s royal emblem, his name, and the like.
The law stated that after thirty days, anybody who possessed anything with one of these symbols would be severely punished. And if it was determined that he purposely did not destroy these symbols, he would be executed.
We faced a difficult problem in that we had archives over one hundred years old, and most of the papers, documents, and books, had the royal crown on them, as well as the name of the Shah and his government. For example, we had many special gold coins that the kehilla produced in honor of the king’s coronation and in celebration of 2500 years since the coronation of Koresh. On one side of the coin was a menorah and on the other side was either Koresh or the royal crown.
It was very hard for us to accept the ‘cleansing’ of the entire library and the huge archive, considering its value, but we had no choice. Nevertheless, there was clearly no way we could comply with the law in such a short time.
At the end of the month, before we had finished the work, the secretary came into my office and said that two government inspectors had shown up to inspect the offices in order to see whether we had followed the cleansing law.
I was terrified. I knew that I was finished and that the entire Jewish community was in great danger. I said Vidui, Shema, and prepared myself for what I knew was coming. When the inspectors entered my office, and I was frightened to death, it occurred to me, for some reason, to take them first to the library.
The first thing they saw were piles of books that were thrown all over the place. One of the inspectors bent down and took one of these books, which was a Tanya. He asked me what it was, and I told him about the Baal HaTanya, about the Chabad movement, about Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov, and about Chassidus. I told him that this was one of the movement’s primary works.
He opened the book and asked me to explain to him what it said on the page he opened to. It was the first page of Shaar HaYichud V’HaEmuna. I translated and explained the entire page, from beginning to end. When I was done, the inspector closed it, kissed it, and said, ‘In a place with books like these, and with such a person in charge, there is no need for anything else!’
When I had recovered from this pleasant shock, I said to him before he left that we would be extremely happy if he would sign our guest book.”
https://chabadinfo.com/magazine/printing-a-tanya-in-outer-space
***
In the winter of 5740 (1980), the Rebbe said the Tanya should be printed in every city and town where Jews lived.
That winter, the American army invaded Grenada. The Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein, was part of the unit sent to the front. He asked the Rebbe for a bracha, and the Rebbe told him to print a Tanya there.
Rabbi Goldstein left for Grenada, and he hid the plates deep in his kitbag. Upon his arrival, he faced a familiar legal problem. The separation of church and state did not allow soldiers to be involved in printing religious books. He decided to take advantage of the lack of supervision due to the war, and U.S. soldiers printed the Tanya. On the binding, in the olive-green of their uniforms, is the symbol of the American Defense Department. When the Rebbe received a copy, he put on his glasses and examined this symbol.
A few days later, the gentile major general who oversaw the operation, received a thank-you letter from the Rebbe. The Rebbe wrote that many of the concepts explained in Tanya are part of the American way of life.
At this time, the chief rabbi of the IDF, Gad Navon, arrived in the U.S. and had a private audience with the Rebbe. He noticed the military edition of the Tanya on the desk and asked about it. The Rebbe smiled and said, “I also have a soldier,” and he gave Rav Navon the Tanya.
https://chabadinfo.com/magazine/printing-a-tanya-in-outer-space
***
In the early 90s, Rabbi Konikov, shliach in Satellite Beach with connections in NASA, received permission to print the Tanya on the space shuttle Columbia. The Rebbe approved this and the members of the Vaad L’Hafotzas Sichos began working on the technical details.
Rabbi Sholom Jacobson inquired of the 3M company in Minnesota, which is known for its expertise in developing micro-machinery, whether he could order a miniature printing press which could be attached to the shuttle’s circuitry (where there are severe space limitations, and every inch and ounce counts). They looked into it and concluded that it was impossible. In the end, they decided to print it primitively with a rubber stamp!
Rabbi Jacobson prepared the “plates” and the shaar blatt, which would say in Hebrew and English, “In Space, Around the Earth - by the astronauts on the space shuttle Columbia of the United States” (see picture).
The end of the story was that Rabbi Konikov’s contact in NASA, a gentile, didn’t understand what was supposed to be done, and he “printed” it when the shuttle was on the ground. So the Tanya was not printed in outer space after all.
Source: https://chabadinfo.com/magazine/printing-a-tanya-in-outer-space
***
As Rabi Raleigh of our congregation said last year at the Tanya celebration, by now there're so many printed copies of Tanya around that the world hardly needs another one. BTW, Rabbi Gordon shared there was one Tanya copy even in Antarctica now - where there're more pinquins than Jews - much more.
But, of course, he said this in jest. We do need more, my friends. As many or more, than those Bibles in every hotel room.
Phil Z.