Over the years, Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz held
farbrengens – gatherings held for the purpose of spiritual
elevation – that marked special occasions in the calendar.
Such gatherings were opportunities to eat together, drink
lehayim together, sing together, and talk about serving God.
In this book, we find a collection of ideas that Rabbi
Steinsaltz discussed at these gatherings with his students
and others who came to be elevated by the experience.
Through the texts presented here, the reader is invited to
participate vicariously in a hasidic gathering with Rabbi
Steinsaltz: to encounter his teachings in a direct and personal
manner and to allow them to resonate, influencing
one’s inner life and daily conduct.
Employing a style at once lucid, evocative, and graceful,
Rabbi Steinsaltz accurately depicts hasidic masters who are
both celebrated and commemorated, bringing to the fore
their struggles and achievements and, more importantly,
their life lessons. Through the lens of these teachings, he
strips away layers of indifference and reawakens the hasidic
demand for a life of truth, devotion, and attachment to
the Divine.
Among the farbrengens collected here, a subtle and often
narrow path emerges – one along which the contemporary
Jew may ascend, eschewing complacency with what has
been attained, continually striving for spiritual growth
and ascent.
