The Crown Jewel

The mystical secrets of Torah were always studied by the Jewish people, but during most of Jewish history they were guarded and only accessible to a scholarly elite. In later generations these teachings were disseminated to a wider extent, but even then, they were only comprehensible to the initiated; the spiritual illumination of these teachings reached the outside world through those who studied them.

In the times of the Alter Rebbe, the spiritual danger was so strong that the world needed a stronger spiritual remedy. Like the parable of the king who ground up his crown jewel in order to heal his son, the prince, the Alter Rebbe made accessible the precious stone of G-d’s crown – the Torah’s deepest secrets, for the benefit of G-d’s children.