Siddur HaRav (Baal HaTanya), with Kabbalistic and Chassidic Commentary – Part I, Weekday Prayers – Kopust, 1816 – ...

Siddur HaRav (Baal HaTanya), with Kabbalistic and Chassidic Commentary – Part I, Weekday Prayers – Kopust, 1816 – First Edition of Maamarei HaSiddur (Siddur im Dach) – Incomplete Copy

Year-round prayers according to the text of the Arizal, with a commentary based on the kavanot of the Arizal, Part I – weekday prayers, by Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Liadi – the Baal HaTanya. [Kopust]: R. Yisrael Yoffe, prominent disciple of the Baal HaTanya, [1816]. First edition of Maamarei HaSiddur – discourses pertaining to the siddur (Siddur im Dach).
The text of the prayers, the laws and two Chassidic discourses were written by the Baal HaTanya. This is the first edition of the prayer commentaries, delivered by the Baal HaTanya on Friday nights to his sons and foremost disciples, and recorded by his son Rebbe Dov Ber, the Mitteler Rebbe of Lubavitch. This siddur is known amongst Chabad Chassidim as Siddur im Dach.
Glosses on leaf 27 of the second sequence.
Incomplete copy. 4-104; 54 leaves. Lacking first 5 leaves (replaced in photocopy). 19.5 cm. Fair condition. Stains, including dampstains and dark stains. Wear. Open tears, including many tears affecting text, repaired with paper (with photocopy and handwritten replacement of missing text). Worming affecting text, repaired in part with paper (many leaves restored). Leaves trimmed with damage to headings. Some leaves may have been supplied from other copies. New leather binding.
Stefansky Chassidut, no. 409.

PLEASE NOTE: Item descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to Hebrew text.

Siddur HaRav
The siddur compiled by the Alter Rebbe, Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Liadi – the Baal HaTanya, was printed in his lifetime in several editions, in Shklow and Kopust (Kopys). His brother, R. Yehuda Leib (Maharil) of Janowitz, author of She'erit Yehuda, describes the work involved in arranging the siddur: "Apart from perfecting the text, to conform with the Kavanot of the Arizal, he also perfected the grammar". Rebbe Shalom Dov Ber of Lubavitch wrote about it: "It is well known that he devoted 20 years to preparing the prayer text, producing a new version every year, until the twentieth version came out purified, refined and cleansed". The Baal HaTanya himself commended his siddur, "I corrected the siddur, making it identical to the siddur of Anshei Knesset HaGedola…". According to traditions handed down to his descendants, in order to ascertain the correct version of the text, the Baal HaTanya studied and critically examined 60 (according to some – 32) different versions of prayer books, including 8 versions of the Siddur HaAri.
The Baal HaTanya included in his siddur many instructions and laws pertaining to the prayers. These laws often differ from the laws recorded in his Shulchan Aruch. In his siddur, he tends to rule based on Rishonim and Kabbalists, whilst in his Shulchan Aruch, he follows the opinions of Acharonim, predominantly that of the Magen Avraham. Wherever the rulings in the siddur are in conflict with those in his Shulchan Aruch, Chabad chassidim abide to the rulings in the siddur, since it was composed after the Shulchan Aruch (as his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, testifies in his novellae on Tractate Shabbat).
The Baal HaTanya also included in his siddur two Chassidic essays composed especially for the siddur. The first (p. 8a) is titled HaKol Kol Yaakov (this essay was reprinted in the Shklow 1806 edition of the Tanya, at the end of the book), and the second (p. 95a), He'ara LeTikun Chatzot.
As mentioned, the siddur was published in several editions during the lifetime of the Baal HaTanya. With each edition, he improved and further corrected the text and laws. However, the editions printed in his lifetime are not extant. R. Avraham David Lawat relates, in his preface to Shaar HaKollel (Vilna, 1896), that he succeeded in obtaining the Shklow 1803 edition, and two subsequent editions printed in Kopust in the Baal HaTanya's lifetime (the Shklow and Kopust editions mentioned by R. Lawat were lost with time; only one copy, lacking title page, was discovered in recent years).
After the Baal HaTanya's passing in 1813, his siddur was printed in two volumes, in Kopust 1816. The prayer rite of the Kopust edition is mostly based on the last edition printed in Baal HaTanya's lifetime, apart from some sections which were left according to earlier editions, mostly in terms of vocalization. Since then, the siddur was printed in over two hundred editions.