Close to 40 years after the Rebbe asked that the Tanya be printed in every city where a Yid lives, the 8,000th edition of Tanya came rolling off the press. More than just a milestone number, it provides a window into the stories of the thousands that preceded it.
By Anash.org reporter
Close to 40 years after the Rebbe asked that the Tanya be printed in every city where a Yid lives, the 8,000th edition of Tanya came rolling off the press. More than just a milestone number, it provides a window into the stories of the thousands that preceded it.
To gain a better understanding of the mivtza which encompassed the whole globe, Anash.org paid a visit to the home of Rabbi Zalman Chanin, director of Vaad L’Hafotzas Sichos. Rabbi Chanin has a Tanya collection of epic proportions, including nearly every one of the 8,000 editions of Tanya printed since the times of the Alter Rebbe.
In honor of the milestone, Rabbi Chanin opened his collection to be photographed and showed some of the rare and landmark Tanyas that were printed in unique locations or at special times.
But first, for the background of the mivtza: The Rebbe introduced the idea of printing Tanyas around the world first in the year 5738. At that time the Rebbe said to have the Tanyas printed in each country worldwide. From then until Chanukah 5744 there were approximately 100 Tanyas were printed. On Chanukah of 5744, the Rebbe asked that the Tanya be printed in every city where there are Yidden. From Chanukah till the end of that year, there were approximately 1800 editions of Tanya printed!
Over the years the Rebbe spoke numerous times during farbrengens about different Tanyas that people brought to Rebbe. These sichos were sometimes edited and at times even printed as stand-alone ‘mugah’ sichos.
The Rebbe even requested that a Tanya be printed with images of the sharei blat of all previous editions, and personally distributed the Tanya to thousands of chassidim. On the Rebbe’s instruction, no less than eight booklets of miluim were published, containing nothing more than images of sharei blat of Tanyas!
In addition, every edition of Tanya has a full list of all previous editions in the back. With the number of editions numbering in the thousands, there are pages and pages of edition numbers and locations in each volume.
The 8,000th Tanya made a radical change in that regard. Besides listing the printings by edition number, the Tanya features an alphabetic list of all locations the Tanya was printed. This allows one to easily check if and when a Tanya was printed in any particular location around the world.
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Some of the unique Tanyas printed around the globe:
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