From the Back Cover
Likkutei Dibburim, a cherished treasure-chest of the Chabad-chassidic heritage, is a record of talks delivered (and then rewritten for publication) by the later Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950), in Latvia, Poland and the United States, in the course of the years 1929-1950. The sheer range of this work, both in subject and atmosphere, is overwhelming, for these talks embrace (for example) childhood memories; insightful stories; the family traditions of a family of tzaddikim; recollections of Stalinist dungeons and interrogations; nostalgic glimpses of faces and sounds and townlets that conjure up the mystique of a vanished world; delicately-drawn vignettes of exalted villagers and humble giants; eloquent and sometimes impassioned passages of exhortation; fascinating chronicles of the early history of the chassidic movement, treasured heirlooms that are lovingly passed on; and, of course, creative and instructive expositions of concepts crucial to the teachings of Chassidus. But one theme links all of these subjects like a thread of gold -- the intense spiritual and personal bond with all his fellow Jews, that is of the essence of the very concept of Rebbe. The present volume, translated by Uri Kaploun from the original Hebrew and Yiddish, is the fist of the several that comprise this classic work. The final volume of the series is scheduled to include a biographical outline of the author; an alphabetized biographical index identifying all the main personages mentioned, complete with page references; a partial family tree of the author's forebears; a table of significant dates in the Chabad-Lubavitch calendar; and various other supplementary background resources.
