Hasidic Wisdom

Hasidic Wisdom: Sayings from the Jewish Sages is among the many lifelong efforts of Rabbi Simcha Raz, one of Jerusalem's leading teachers, writers, and educators. The original book in Hebrew is titled Pitgamay Hasidim. It has been a perennial best-seller in Israel for the past fifteen years and is now in its 8th edition.

The book is divided into thirty brief chapters on issues that have relevance to every human being: love and hate, faith, truth, the inner life, heaven and hell, leadership, loneliness, friendship, piety, anger, music, poverty, righteousness, prayer, charity, and repentance.

Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins has been translating various selections of the book for his sermons, lectures, and classes since he first bought the Hebrew book in the mid-1980s. After countless listeners and readers asked him for the source of the hasidic quotations, he decided to translate the entire book into English, to make it available for a more diverse audience. Enlisting the assistance of his son, Jonathan, a freelance writer and television reporter in Israel, the two men collaborated on the project to render the Hebrew into idiomatic English, and to preserve its traditional nuances.

The reader will find in this newest and most clearly focused treasure of hasidic doctrine a touching, heartwarming collection of profound revelations on spirituality, Torah, human relationships, and personal growth.