The Long Shorter Way

Discourses on Chasidic Thought

Over the course of several years, Rabbi Steinsaltz delivered a series of lectures on Hasidic thought to a select group of students in Jerusalem. These discourses, based on Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi’s classic Hasidic work, the Tanya, have been faithfully and artfully translated and edited to form The Long Shorter Way (Jason Aronson, 1988), a major interpretation and exploration of Hasidism.

Like the Tanya itself, The Long Shorter Way focuses on the profound dilemma of the beinoni, the intermediate person who, neither purely wicked nor purely good, must struggle with evil and temptation throughout his or her life.

Each of The Long Shorter Way’s fifty-three characters corresponds to a chapter in the Tanya. Within each chapter, Rabbi Steinsaltz elucidates the complex nature of man as he strives to attain unity with the Divine One.

The book compels the reader to deep personal inspection. One does not merely read this book; one must absorb it, internalize it, and make it part of one’s very being.

The Long Shorter Way is a mature guide to becoming a fully realized human being.