This revolutionary learning cycle is taking the Chassidic world by storm. Rabbi Avraham Katz from learnchassidus.com brilliantly divides the entire Likkutei Torah into manageable weekly portions of 2-3 maamarim (discourses) per week (on average), that are also connected with the parsha / time of year in order to complete the entire Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah in just 3 Years!
In Parshas Chayei Sarah 5752, the Lubavitcher Rebbe said: “We need to learn the entire Rambam, since it includes the entire Torah SheBaal Peh (Oral Torah), corresponding to how we learn the entire Chumash, the Torah Shebichsav (Written Torah). Similarly, we need to learn the entire Torah Or and Likutei Torah, all the maamarim contained in those sefarim, since they contain the fundamental teaching of the entirety of Chassidus, similar to the Torah Shebichsav of Chassidus.”
For most people, learning the entire weekly portion of Torah Or and Likutei Torah every week and finishing all the maamarim (with Shir HaShirim) every year is very difficult. Many Parshios and Yomim Tovim have many maamarim, making it very difficult for the average person to complete everything. Usually, most people learn a few maamarim for each Parsha and Yom Tov every year, but they don’t keep track of which ones they learned and which they need to learn, and they never actually make sure to learn every single maamar of Likutei Torah.
Several prominent mashpiim have suggested that the Rebbe’s instruction to learn the entire Torah Ohr / Likkutei Torah can still be fulfilled by learning the entire Torah Ohr / Likkutei Torah over 3 years for one who finds it too difficult to learn it in just 1 year just like for those who find it difficult to learn the entire Rambam in 1 year can learn it over 3 years.
The Rebbe said that one of the reasons for a three-year track of Rambam is because there was a custom to learn the entire Chumash in three years. Therefore, learning the entire Rambam in three years is also connected to the cycle of learning the Chumash. Similarly, mashpiim have suggested that learning the entire Likutei Torah/Torah Ohr in three years is also connected to the cycle of studying the Chumash, which fits with the idea of it being the “Chassidishe Parsha.”
This learning cycle overcomes three major obstacles when trying to learn the “Chassidisher Parsha”:
- Some parshios are much longer than others making the longer weeks more challenging to finish.
- Likkutei Torah’s lengthy discourses on Shir Hashirim and Yomim Tovim can often feel like a burden to squeeze into the weekly learning.
- The length of “Chassidisher Parsha” each week is so long that it is often difficult to properly internalize the content.
To address these challenges the system used here divides up the maamarim of each Parsha and Yom Tov into three parts so that a part of the maamarim of each Parsha is learned in the week of that Parsha, and part of the maamarim of each Yom Tov is learned in the week of that Yom Tov, for each year of the three years. The Parshios and Yomim Tovim with many maamarim were divided so that some of the maamarim are learned in their proper time each year, and the rest of the maamarim to be learned in the adjacent weeks that have less maamarim. Similarly, Shir HaShirim was divided to be learned in the weeks with fewer maamarim (mainly in the winter months).
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