After his passing in 1994, a journal, Reshimot, kept by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M.Schneerson, of blessed memory, was discovered in his office. The Reshimot span the period from 5688 to 5710 (1928-1950). In these hundreds of pages, written with extreme concision, in a small, crowded yet meticulous hand, are novel insights and collections of sources in all areas of the Torah, esoteric and exoteric: the legal and non-legal passages of the Talmud, ethics and homiletics, customs and practices, stories, lessons in the service of the Creator, and more. The Rebbe recorded these novel insight even throughout the tumultuous years of WWII, as he was fleeing the Nazis from France to Vichy to Portugal to the United States; he survived with the journal intact.
Surprisingly, the Reshimot contain many ideas and concepts which were barely hinted at during his four decades of leadership, and represent a new layer of depth in the Rebbe`s scholarship and world view. A team of scholars at the Kehot Publication Society labored on deciphering and annotating these entries. Here they appear both in the original and in expanded form, with connecting words and phrases supplied by the editors. There are also copious notes and references. These have been published in several volumes.
The detailed procedure accompanying the kindling of the Menorah in the Bet Hamikdash, according to the rulings of Maimonides and other contemporaries, is analyzed and systematically presented by the Rebbe in this landmark study.
Further elucidation by the Rebbe translates the halachic aspects of the Menorah and its kindling into tangible lessons in daily life. Reshimat Hamenorah, written in 1939, is published from the Rebbe`s recently discovered journal of Torah notes and innovation
View Larger