Book Marks Minnesota Shliach’s 85th Birthday

In the early days of the Rebbe’s leadership, Rabbi Asher Zeilingold joined the pioneering shluchim who set out to reach every Jew. Through hundreds of letters and personal responses, the Rebbe guided him, shaping not only his work but his life. For the past decade, Rabbi Zeilingold has devoted himself to sharing those directives, stories, and the inspiration he received from the Rebbe with a broader public.

“Rabbi Asher Zeilingold has faithfully served as a spiritual leader,” said the mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. “Rabbi Zeilingold has provided counsel, wisdom, and leadership extending well beyond the Jewish community, offering guidance on issues of moral and ethical importance that have shaped the character of our broader society.”

At the heart of Rabbi Zeilingold’s counsel has always been the Rebbe. In honor of his eighty-fifth birthday, he committed himself to preserving that legacy by writing two books of Clear Vision, one reflecting on his life as shaped by the Rebbe, and the other presenting the Rebbe’s responses, audiences, and letters exactly as he recorded them at the moment he received them.

Rabbi Zeilingold has long been a trusted source of firsthand insight into the Rebbe’s early call to expand Lubavitch outreach. As a young man, he formed a close relationship with the Rebbe’s chief secretary and carried out numerous missions on the Rebbe’s behalf.

Since his first letter to the Rebbe in 1958, he has carefully preserved a remarkable collection of guidance, stories, and personal recollections. Uniquely, he kept thousands of pages of contemporaneous notes and documents—some bearing the Rebbe’s own edits. Together, these two volumes offer a rare and intimate window into the Rebbe’s expectations of each of us, and into the quiet, enduring power of influencing others with care, faith, and purpose.

“This book is the story of how the Lubavitcher Rebbe became my Rebbe,” Rabbi Zeilingold writes, “It is the story of a leader who never ceased to surprise me with his wisdom and care. He was a guide to me in dozens of pages of correspondence and myriads of encounters. The Rebbe gave me a gift – a clear vision – and I want to share it with you – because he is not only my Rebbe, he is yours, he is ours.”

To preorder the books visit Clear Vision.