The in-progress Words of the Living G-d series, anticipated to comprise 6 volumes (one for each of the five books of the Torah and one containing holiday maamarim) adapts into readily accessible English fundamental discourses—one for each weekly Torah portion—from Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi’s classic works, Torah Or and Likkutei Torah.

It is thus an unprecedented presentation of Chassidic philosophy and mysticism as explained in detail in their original source. Rabbi Schneur Zalman (1745-1812), founder of the intellectual branch of Chassidism—Chabad—is credited with bringing the deepest secrets of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah “down to earth,” so they could be read and understood by even the average person.

He broke the paradigm: it was no longer, “first perfect yourself spiritually, then you will be fit to study this”; now it was, “study this and it will help you to perfect yourself spiritually.” The worldwide spread of Chabad—appealing to people of all backgrounds, and in every conceivable culture—in the centuries since bears elegant testimony to the power of these ideas to tap the very Jewish soul. And yet, written in scholarly Hebrew, these keys to the essential core of Judaism were locked away, untranslated, for some 200 years. In this series, Rabbi Yitzchok Wagshul, a master teacher, does not merely translate the original material, he clearly explains it in friendly, articulate English for scholar and lay person alike.

No background in Jewish knowledge is required; just a willingness to think. If Rabbi Schneur Zalman were teaching today, these books are what he might well say.