My Central Jersey.com
MONROE — The Chabad Jewish Center of Monroe recently oversaw the final printing of a sacred book distributed in towns throughout Middlesex County.
The Tanya was written by Rabbi Shneur Zalman, Chabad’s first spiritual leader, or Lubavitcher Rebbe, and provides teachings upon which all concepts of Chabad Chasidism are based, according to www.chabad.org.
In the 1970s, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson established a campaign to print the book in every town throughout the country, said Rabbi Eliezer Zaklikovsky, the Monroe center’s director.
A few hundred copies had been printed in New Jersey but the campaign was far from complete, Zaklikovsky said.
The center’s volunteers began the project in Monroe on March 26 and ended it two weeks ago in Woodbridge.
In Monroe, they printed the 5,532nd copy of the Tanya on registry, which in Hebrew years is the same year of the Chabad movement began, 1772.
After Monroe, Zaklikovsky traveled to another 14 Middlesex County municipalities, where the book had yet to be printed, including Jamesburg, Spotswood, Plainsboro, North Brunswick, Old Bridge, Helmetta, South River, Sayreville, South Amboy, Milltown, Middlesex, Carteret, Dunellen and, lastly, Woodbridge, Zaklikovsky said.
The printing process condensed a 516-page book into a double-sided, 11-inch by 17-inch book, took anywhere between four to 12 hours to complete, and cost about $800 per edition, Zaklikovsky said.
The center is currently searching for sponsors to pay for book bindings. In exchange for their generosity, sponsors can request to have an edition dedicated to themselves or their family. The rabbi plans to return these Tanyas to a member in each community.
To sponsor the printing of the New Jersey Tanyas, Click here.
NIce to see a shliach involved in a basic Mivtzah – that was so precious to the Rebbe