In honor of the 200th Yahtrtzeit of the Alter Rebbe, I thought it would be appropriate to create a website where people can post and others can read relevant applications of the concepts presented on every page of Tanya.
For too long, and from too many, young and old alike, we hear how they do not find a voice for them in the Tanya. It doesn’t talk to OUR generation.
What a shame. The Torah shebeksav of Chassidus is so misunderstood and relegated to a great philosophy at best, and irrelevant to others.
We need to change that!
There are so many brilliant essays, commentaries and thoughts circulating out there which draw very practical applications of the lessons in Tanya. So many people who study chitas, think about the daily shiur of Tanya, do in fact apply it to their lives in so many different ways.
Well, now is the time to share your ideas with others. As the the Alter Rebbe writes in the hakdomoh of Tanya “al tehie monei bar” and share, you never know who you may touch with your personal lessons.
Yo may submit a post anonymously or with a name. as long as it is relevant and “oisgehalten” it will be published beli neder.
This is a website which will be “melukat m’pi emails and websites” so that we can draw from the broadest resources to the broadest audiences and bring the maayonois to as many people as possible.
This is a simple blog and will iy”h develop as we go on. But for now, in z’chus of this holy day let’s get it started.
Living Tanya 
Thank you to Rabbi Shemtov and everyone else involved with this important blog. I plan on visiting often and perhaps contributing from time to time. I found this morning a fascinating and very practical Tanya based class on how to react when we fell hurt and insulted. It starts at 115:30 on this link and its by Rabbi Reuven Wolf from LA. http://www.theyeshiva.net/Video/View/399/A-Day-with-the-Alter-Rebbe-1-200-Years-From-His-Passing
In the Rebbe’s Reshimos of Tanya a letter of the FR is referenced that includes the story about the Maharil, the Alter Rebbe’s brother, coming into the AR study during the time period he was writing the Tanya. The Maharil found the AR with a pen in his hand and in a state of devikus – deep meditative thought. After an hour the AR looked up and said that it’s already the third week that he is debating whether to write a word in Tanya (Chapter 41 V’ikra) with a Vov or without a Vov. The AR said that “on a vov of Beinonim one can ponder for six weeks until it becomes one with one self.”
Why did it take the Alter Rebbe six weeks to decide a vov in Tanya. Was it due to the perfect Dikduk needed in such a work? Well certainly a master in Dikduk like the AR does not need six weeks to figure out a vov. Obviously it has to do with the centrality of the Tanya, Torah Shebksav Of CHassidus, to our lives. Still one could ask why the need for six weeks on one Vov and what is this unusual expression ‘for a vov in Beinonim…’
One can say that the six weeks were needed to establish Tanya in a way that relates to every person in his generation. Furthermore what makes Tanya truly unique, thus needing such a high level of concentration in the writing of every letter, is (see Likutte Sichos vol. 26) that the Alter Rebbe wrote the Tanya tailor made to everyone learning Tanya in whatever generation it may be.
So ‘for a vov in Beinonim’ means that for the aspiring Beinonim of all generations, the AR addresses us as individuals.
Tanya is not only still relevant, like everything in Torah which is timeless, but it’s lessons are personal and Tanya addresses our particular challenges and situations. This is true whether our name is Reb Hillel of Paritch or Bob Goldberg who lives in Peoria and is learning Tanya for the first time.