Rabbi Sholom DovBer; Translated by Rabbi Eliezer Danzinger Schneerson

The First Will of Rabbi Shalom DovBer of Lubavitch In His abundant mercy and kindness, may the Almighty lengthen my days and years, granting me both spiritual and material good. Since no one knows when his appointed time will come, I have decided to arran...

With regard to all that I have written above with respect to the education and training of our son in the service of G‑d, I request and caution you to supervise him with a watchful eye, and to educate him in the goodly and proper path. This wi...

Regarding our son, I request that you watch over him in all areas, both material and spiritual. Nowadays especially, one must be very vigilant. It is of primary importance that he be guarded from the close company of youth who have shaken off the fe...

Born on the 20th day of Cheshvan, in the year 5621 (1860), the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, R. Shalom DovBer married just shy of his fifteenth birthday.He married his cousin Rebbitzin Shterna Sara after the close of Shabbat, 11 Elul 5635 (1875). Five years af...

An excerptPublished [first] in Chachmei Yisrael Baal Shem Tov (N.Y., 1924), p.30. from Rabbi Shalom DovBer’s will composed a few days prior to his passing . . . I request our friends, Anash, to bolster Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim as they have done until now....

This requires clarification, however. Have not our Sages asserted, [Beitzah 16a.] “A person’s sustenance is allotted on Rosh Hashanah”? For on Rosh Hashanah, as is known, all created beings are judged and their verdicts rendered. Accordingly, we recite in...

Now in a similar fashion, we can explain sanctity in positive precepts, as it applies to the aforementioned four [manifestations of desire, viz., in the] areas of thought, speech, eating and body (which, in general, comprise the three garments of thought,...

Another fundamental Torah principle is the curtailment of self-gratification in permissible matters, and certainly in forbidden ones. From this [abstention] we can anticipate two extraordinary results: Firstly, excessive physical pleasure coarsens a perso...

Our Rabbis taught:Berachot 17a. Cited in Reishit Chochmah, op. cit.; also in Shelah [“Shaar HaOtiot, Ot Daled,” under the entry of Derech Eretz.] Greater is the assurance made by the Holy One, blessed be He, to women, than to men; for it says,Isa. 32 [v. ...

This remarkable document is, in great measure, a treatise on education and child-rearing.