The collected correspondences of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad movement have been reissued in a new comprehensive volume by the Lubavitch publishing house, Kehot Publication Society.

First published as part of the Igrot Kodesh, “Holy Epistles,” series in 1980, the initial collection featured letters by Rabbi Schneur Zalman and his successors, his son Rabbi Dovber and grandson, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch. Additional material was collected in a supplement, printed in 1981, and a second edition, printed in 1993.

Central to the current volume, the first to feature only letters from Rabbi Schneur Zalman, is the 66 page introduction surveying the major themes and historical insight into the 183 letters. The letters fill some 600 pages and span the years 1781-1811.

Themes include Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s activism on behalf of early Chasidic settlers in the Holy Land; his activism to improve the conditions of the Jewish population in the the Russian Empire; tracts on the importance of prayer; an articulation of the foundations of the Chabad Chasidic movement, and relations between the nascent Chasidic movement and the Lithuanian rabbinic establishment.

According to Rabbi Shalom Dovber Levine, editor of the Igrot Kodesh series and head librarian for the Central Chabad Lubavitch Library, the new introduction is essential for the proper understanding of the letters collected in the volume.

“When approaching source material of this nature,” Levine says, “a clear introduction and comprehensive overview is needed to properly understand the context of each letter.”

The letters in this volume are copiously annotated, and the volume also presents a collection of relevant letters from colleagues and students of Rabbi Schneur Zalman.

New editions of volumes featuring the letters of the second and third leaders of Chabad, Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch and Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, author of Tzemach Tzedek, are slated for future publication, says Kehot director Rabbi Yosef B. Friedman.

The Igrot Kodesh series, spanning seven generations of Chabad-Lubavitch leaders, now contains 57 volumes.

The new volume of letters by Rabbi Schneur Zalman will be available for purchase in July, at the Kehot website: www.kehot.com.