A Student's Obligation: Advice from the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto

by Kalonymus Shapira, Micha Odenheimer

Overview

The last hasidic rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto explores many facets of spiritual growth and character development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568215174
Publisher:	Aronson, Jason Inc.
Publication date:	01/28/1995
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	4.74(w) x 10.04(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

This text was translated from the original Hebrew text of Chovat Ha Talmidim by Rabbi Micha Odenheimer. He studied in Yeshivah Cush Etzion in Israel and Tifereth Yerushalaim in New York City, where he received Smichah (rabbinic ordination) from HaRav Moshe Feinstein in 1984. He had previously graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1980. Rabbi Odenheimer is a writer and teacher in Jerusalem, and has recently bneen covering news stories in Ethiopia for the Jerusalem Report and UPI. He lives with his family in Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto by Aharon Sorasky
Part I: Revealing the Soul and Training the Student in the Ways of Chasidut
Author's Introduction: A Discussion with Teachers and Parents
Chapter 1: A Call to the Student
Chapter 2: First Steps in the Student's Development
Chapter 3: Principal Ills of the Soul and Their Cures
Chapter 4: Laziness and Its Cure
Chapter 5: Some Specific Advice for the Lazy
Chapter 6: The Ill of Egotism
Chapter 7: The Ill of False Humility and Its Cure
Chapter 8: The Importance of Spiritual and Character Growth
Chapter 9: Advice for Growth and Self-Improvement
Chapter 10: To Transform Bad Character into Light
Chapter 11: Consistent Work, Consistent Searching, and Exalted Attitude
Chapter 12: Some Thoughts on Chasidism and How to Connect to Torah through it
Chapter 13: Do Not Delay
Chapter 14: Instructions and Admonishments
Part II: Three Essays for Senior Students and Young Married Scholars
Introduction
Essay 1: How to Study Chasidic Texts
Essay 2: Torah, Prayer, and Singing to God
Essay 3: The Holy Shabbat

Editorial Reviews

This remarkable book, the only of Rabbi Shapira's works to be published during his lifetime, has been required reading among a significant portion of yeshiva students and their parents ever since it was first published in Poland in 1932. It is, on the surface, a book of practical advice given by a rebbe to a serious, motivated student on how to achieve true success in life—how to learn well; how to be a truly decent, God-fearing individual; how to overcome one's weaknesses; and how to build one's strengths. But, more deeply, it is a guidebook to an extraordinary spiritual adventure, aimed at making each and every person who reads it truly aware of their own extraordinary worth and potential in the realm of the transcendent and the sublime.

Wellsprings

At last! The great chasidic education guidebook, Chovat HaTalmidim, translated into clear and accessible English. This work, by the famed chasidic master Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, has been called a gateway to the palace of Chasidism. It is filled with practical advice and concrete suggestions on developing one's spiritual potential, impoving one's character, and sensitizing oneself to the holiness present in one's own soul. Reading this book is like being in the presence of a true master, a wise and benevolent spiritual guide who has taken a personal interest in one's spiritual growth and destiny and who reaches out to touch one's soul with joy and sweetness.

Rabbi Nehemia Polen