Torah Or, Chassidic essays on Bereshit and Shemot, Chanukah and Purim, and Likutei Torah on Shir HaShirim, by Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Liadi – the Baal HaTanya and Shulchan Aruch. 

The present lot include: 

* First edition of Torah Or. [Kopust (Kopys): Shabtai ben Simeon Slavin, 1836].

2-167, [1] ff. Lacking both title pages. 21.5 cm. Most leaves in good condition. Stains. Open tears and worming to margins, not affecting text. Lower margins trimmed in several leaves. Eight initial leaves and final two leaves in fair condition: large dark stains and wear; large open tears to margins, some repaired with adhesive tape and paper, with significant damage to text. Stamps and inscriptions. New binding (incorrect title on spine – "Likutei Torah").

* Second edition of Torah Or with first edition of Hosafot L'Sefer Torah Or (Supplements to Torah Or). [Zhitomir: R. Chanina Lipa and R. Yehoshua Heschel Shapira, grandsons of the rabbi of Slavita, 1862].  

[1], 3-30, 31-102; 2-24 ff. Lacking both title pages of "Torah Or"; title page of the supplements is bound at beginning of the volume. 23.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including dark stains. Wear. Tears and worming, with minor damage to text (tears and significant wear to margins of leaf 3 of the first sequence). Leaves trimmed, affecting headings in some places. New binding.

* First edition of Likutei Torah on Shir HaShirim. Zhitomir: R. Chanina Lipa, R. Aryeh Leib and R. Yehoshua Heschel Shapira, grandsons of the Rabbi of Slavita, 1848.

[1], 2-3, 3-48 ff. Lacking 3 final leaves. 28 cm. Fair-poor condition. Significant worming to all leaves. Stamps. New binding.

Sefer Torah Or is a fundamental work of Chassidut Cahabd. It was written from teachings heard directly from Baal HaTanya by his brother, R. Yehuda Leib of Janowiec, author of "She'erit Yehuda", and was edited by his disciple and grandson, Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch.

Sefer Torah Or was among the last Jewish books to be printed in Tsarist Russia before all Jewish printing houses were shut down by the authorities in 1836 ("the printing decree"), the result of a malicious Maskilic "informing". From then on, only two printing houses were allowed to operate, in Vilna and Zhitomir, both under strict supervision by the Tsarist government.

PLEASE NOTE: Item description was shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.