The current discourse, delivered by R. Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, on Shabbat Parashat Acharei, 5679 (1919), analyzes the biblican verse which forbids any human being from being present in the sanctuary when the High Priest entered to seek atonement.
On the second day of Rosh Hashanah in the year 5659 (1898), Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, delivered a Chasidic discourse that marked the beginning of a series of teachings. During the High Holidays, Rabbi Shalom DovBer delivered two additional discourses, each expanding on themes introduced in the first.
The present Chasidic discourse speaks of the great transformation that a person can bring about by way of his interactions with the physical; how mortal man can unleash tremendous divine energy through a seemingly simple and mundane activity such as eating, drinking, and business dealings, so that these can be carried out truly for the sake of heaven.
The Simple Servant is part of the classic, legendary treatise known to Chasidim as hemshech Samach-Vov. This series of sixty-one discourses, delivered from the beginning of 5666 through the winter of 5668 (1905-1907), was revolutionary in its wealth of topics and profundity.
The Tract on Prayer is, in the words of Rabbi Sholom Dov Ber's son and successor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Shneersohn, "a definitive guide to finding a balm and remedy for the maladies of the soul, and to developing one's faculties and abilities through genuine service."
Written in 1903 by the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneersohn, of blessed memory, in response to the challenges of secularism and non-Jewish ideologies that faced Russian Jewry at that time, this is a book that looks deeply into the oldest battle man against his own evil inclination.
