*LIT is based on the curriculum authored by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi
(1745-1812) A.K.A The TANYA, Taught by Rabbi Ben Tzion Krasnianski
Director of Chabad of the Upper East Side Manhattan. The curriculum will
be structured into 250 hours of live discourses (estimated) with archived
comments and Q&A.

LIT Goals:

1. To provide for a TANYA curriculum that is coherent, ‘user-friendly’ and extensive.
   
2. To give the individual the knowledge and the motivation to nourish, cultivate,
   strengthen and to internalize the innate and inherent faith that is our birthright
   until it becomes a passionate, vibrant and joyous part of our lives, woven into the very fabric of our being.
   
3. To give the individual the tools to articulate one
   relationship with G-d.
   
4. To provide a framework for people to enjoy lifelong learning of
   the crown jewels of the Torah.
   
5. To advance the project and to get the LIT community to join-in and
   thereby broaden the conversation.

LIT Principles:

1. The Laws of Torah are fundamental! LIT, its content and actions must be in
   complete accordance with Halachah, (Jewish Law.)
2. LIT is a global public resource that must remain true to its source,
   unbiased, undiluted and unadulterated.
3. LIT must be open to any individual regardless of knowledge background,
   belief, “Affiliation” or nationality, and in the spirit of ‘Ahavat Yisroel’
   “Love your fellow like yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)

About the written Tanya text used in our project

Author: Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi
Compiler of Explanations: Rabbi Yosef Wineberg
Translators of Explanations: Rabbis Sholom and Levi Wineberg

Publisher: KEHOT

A well-lit and accessible gateway to Tanya,
and the most authoritative guide to its riches.

A linear exposition and commentary on Tanya based on a popular weekly radio series
in Yiddish. Rabbi Wineberg's commentary draws upon the teachings he received from
Chasidic scholars at the renowned academies of Lubavitch in Europe and the writings
of seven generations of Chabad Rebbes. Each of the lectures was examined and
amended by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, so that
much of the material includes the Rebbe's insights and explanatory comments.

Lessons in Tanya leads the reader through every paragraph and page, illuminating
the mystical, often elusive, Talmudic, Kabbalistic, and Scriptural verses and concepts.
It fills many gaps in what the terse Tanya text assumes to be the reader's background
knowledge.

A brief introduction to the Tanya.
(Extract from intro. to Tanya By RabbiNissan Mindel M.A. PH.D.)

The author of the Tanya made no claim to originality for his work. On the contrary,
he emphasized his dependence on his predecessors. Among the “books and sages”
which influenced his thinking, the Scriptures, Talmud and Lurianic Kabbalah must be given foremost place. The author draws abundantly from the Zohar and the Tikunei Zohar.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s interpretations and doctrines are based upon the teaching
of the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of general Chassidut, and his own “master,”
Rabbi Dov Ber of Miezrich, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s successor, and Rabbi Dov Ber’s
son Rabbi Abraham, the “angel.”

Rabbi Schneur Zalman worked on the Tanya for twenty years, elaborating its style
and form so punctiliously that it came to be regarded by his followers as the “Written
Torah” of Chabad, where every word and letter was meaningful.

To Rabbi Schneur Zalman, as to Kabbalists in general, the Torah, The Jewish Written
and Oral Law embodied in the Bible and Talmud (the latter including both the
Halachah and Aggadah), was more then a Divinely inspired guide to the summum
bonum.It constituted the essential law and order of the created universe. The
Kabbalah, in its interpretation, was nothing but inner, esoteric dimension of Torah, its
very “soul”. Without this dimension the Torah could not be fully understood.
Consequently, when he looked for the “inner,” or esoteric, meaning of Biblical and
Talmudic texts it was not for the purpose of adding homiletic poignancy to this
exposition, but rather to reveal their inner dimension. In his system the esoteric and
exoteric, the Kabbalah and Talmud, are thoroughly blended and unified, just as the
physical and metaphysical, the body and soul, emerge under his treatment as two
aspects of the same thing. The polarity of things is but external; the underlying reality
of everything is unity, reflecting the unity of the Creator. To bring out this unity of
microcosm and macrocosm, as they merge within the mystic unity of the En So (the
Infinite) – that is the ultimate aim of his system.

It has been wisely said that the proper approach to a problem is in itself half a solution.
Quite often it is the approach to the problem, and the method of treating it, that
displays the greatest degree of ingenuity and originality, and in themselves constitute
the main contribution of the thinker. This is true of R. Schneur Zalman and of the
Chabad system which he created. For, while his basic concepts have been gleaned
from various sources, his doctrines nevertheless present a complete and unified
system, and there is much refreshing originality in its presentation and consistency.

But R. Schneur Zalman did more then that. Very often he has so
modified, reinterpreted or remolded the ideas which he had
assimilated, as to give them an originality of their own.