Marking the 32nd yahrtzeit of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, Kehot Publication Society, the publishing house of Chabad-Lubavitch, today announced the launch of a new book series under the title “Igros Kodesh - The English Letters,” a project being prepared by the editorial team of Sichos in English (SIE.) For the first time, the voluminous archive of the Rebbe’s English correspondence will be published, in a project expected to span decades and see over 10,000 letters published in 50 volumes.

The inaugural volume, available for purchase after the Tishrei holiday season, contains 217 letters from the pivotal years of 1949–1951. Uniquely, they are all original, untranslated, English texts. Written to everyday postwar Americans—including communal leaders, businessmen, students, and housewives—they provide a glimpse into a highly personal dimension of the leadership of the Rebbe. At once highly principled and highly individualized, the Rebbe’s words are unpretentious and direct. In these pages he meets people where they are, but shows how they can transcend the limitations of their current predicaments.

The qualitative and quantitative scope of the Rebbe’s correspondence is massive. More than 30 Hebrew volumes of his letters have been published since the late 1980s, and there are more to come. Of course, this material has long been used by scholars to enhance our understanding of the Rebbe’s biography, as well as his conceptual approach to a wide range of philosophical, social, and religious questions. But the last few years have seen an increasing recognition that these letters represent a unique genre in their own right, and that their personal nature makes them a rich source of psychological insight.

More than 50,000 people will visit the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, this week, to mark the Rebbe's 32nd yartzeit.
More than 50,000 people will visit the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, this week, to mark the Rebbe's 32nd yartzeit.

Meital Merary, a researcher at Bar-Ilan University, has recently published a groundbreaking study unearthing a consistent cognitive-behavioral model from within the Rebbe’s correspondence. Her paper, which appeared in May in the academic journal Reshit, insightfully places the Rebbe’s approach within the larger context of Chassidic thought and history. The few surviving texts penned by the Baal Shem Tov himself, she notes, were also personal letters. In the Chassidic movement generally, and in Chabad in particular, “the letter quickly became a central medium for spiritual leadership.”

From very early on, Chassidic spiritual teachings addressed the issue of machshavot zarot (literally, “foreign thoughts”), which often distract people, especially during prayer. In the Rebbe’s letters, however, Merary detects a “unique” and “original” definition of machshavot zarot: “Thoughts that do not align with an individual’s mental and spiritual stature, and with their mission in the world.” From this perspective, the Rebbe’s letters are seen to apply and develop older Chabad conceptual models to address a range of psychological issues that his correspondents raise: anxieties, religious or otherwise, about not being “good” enough or “pure” enough, compulsive thought loops, professional distractions, and doubts about personal choices or religious beliefs.

Drawing on a wide array of examples drawn from across the published corpus of the Rebbe’s letters, Merary insightfully excavates six steps by which he guides individuals out of paralyzing despondency and back toward a baseline of active joy. I paraphrase:

  1. Separate your inner, trusting, self from intrusive thoughts. (You aren’t defined by what you are thinking.)
  2. Divert your attention away from such thoughts. (You can choose not to think thoughts as they appear.)
  3. Immerse your mind in positive alternatives, especially Torah and Chassidut. (You can replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts.)
  4. Identify the habits or situations that tend to trigger, or give rise to, these distracting thoughts, and take care to avoid them. (You are not a prisoner of your circumstances.)
  5. Focus on purposeful action and on fulfilling your individual mission in life. (Move from positive thoughts to positive activities.)
  6. At every step, choose to direct your cognitive, emotional, and behavioral work toward active joy. (Joy and optimism imbues your thoughts and activities with greater energy and greater success.)
A look inside 'The English Letters.' Letters include descriptive titles, marginal subject headings, and editorial footnotes with biographical and historical context.
A look inside 'The English Letters.' Letters include descriptive titles, marginal subject headings, and editorial footnotes with biographical and historical context.

This study builds on earlier work by scholars who have been attentive to the psychological and emotional dimensions of Chassidic thought, among them Jonathan Garb (whose book, Yearnings of the Soul: Psychological Thought in Modern Kabbalah, appeared in 2105) and Leore Sachs-Shmueli (whose book, Sacred Emotions: Fear of Sin in Early Hasidism, appeared in 2025). In addition to her focus on the Rebbe’s letters, however, Merary’s research stands out for its focus on the practical ways in which Chassidic teachings are applied to the real-life challenges of individual people. In both respects, her work has a parallel, or an antecedent, in Letters for Life: Guidance for Emotional Wellness from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, published in 2024 by my friend and colleague, Levi Shmotkin. “This book,” he writes in the introduction, is not an anthology of abstract hypotheses … Instead, it is a collection of practical tools, culled from the Rebbe’s counsel to regular individuals in real time, on how to actually walk through life with confidence and serenity.”

Shmotkin’s volume is addressed to a general audience, making the Rebbe’s advice accessible and applicable to English readers. Merary’s article places this advice within its historical and ideological context, and provides a robust analysis of its principal elements. The Rebbe, she concludes, “put forward an integrative approach that combines Chabad theology with practical tools … He saw in each individual the potential to be a shliach (in his words: ‘a lamplighter’) who illuminates the world with the light of Chassidut, both spiritually and practically. This perspective may explain the immense investment the Rebbe dedicated to writing detailed guidance and forging a personal connection with those who turned to him.”

It is precisely this painstaking investment in the individual that animates the forthcoming volume of The English Letters. This new collection from Kehot will offer readers the opportunity to encounter these letters themselves, untranslated and unmediated by other authorial voices.

A letter addressed in March 1950 to a certain Mr. K., who was undergoing a professional crisis, provides a fitting example (The English Letters 1949–1950, #10.13). The Rebbe exhorts him to replace negative thoughts about his perceived adversaries with positive thoughts about G‑d’s providence:

As to your writing that one man stands in your way etc. and that you are resigned to your fate etc. — one should beware from speaking in this vein. We are all believers, the children of believers, that the Almighty not only created the world but that He is unique in the universe, and that He, and He alone, determines the destiny of the world and all creatures in it. What is man, what power has man, to do evil to another, if G‑d had not decreed?

To pre-order and look inside ‘Igros Kodesh - The English Letters’, click here.