Siddur Torah Or and Shaarei Tefillah. Vilna: Widow and Brothers Romm, 1886. Part II. First Edition of the Siddur Torah Or.

Siddur Torah Or is considered to be the most accurate and reliable version of Siddur HaRav – the Baal HaTanya's Siddur. Siddur Torah Or was compiled and revised by Rabbi Avraham David Lavut, Rabbi of Nikolayev, who added his own compositions Shaarei Tefila and Netiv HaChayim.

The present volume is the first edition of the second part of Siddur Torah Or. Following the title page is the author's renowned foreword written for his work Shaarei Tefila.

[2], 5-40; 15; 21; 77 ff. Approx. 21 cm. Good condition. Dark stains and browning. Minor tears. Marginal tears and open tears to title page, not affecting text. Stamps. New binding.

See: * Levin, List of Printings of the Torah Or Siddur, I (Hebrew). * Oberlaender, HaSiddur, 60, page 329 (Hebrew).

Siddur Torah Or

The Siddur compiled by the Alter Rebbe R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi - Siddur HaRav, was printed during his lifetime in several editions, in Shklow and Kopust. From the passing of the Baal HaTanya, until 1886, the Siddur was reprinted in dozens of editions. In many of the editions, the printers were not particular to preserve the accurate text of the prayers and laws, and in some editions, they combined the text of Siddur HaRav with texts of other prevalent Siddurim.

In the 1880s, R. Avraham David Lavut, Rabbi of Nikolayev (Mykolaiv; maternal grandfather of the Lubavitcher Rebbe), began studying and researching the original text of Siddur HaRav. To that end, he searched for editions of the Siddur published in the lifetime of the Baal HaTanya. Upon finding such a Siddur, he set to work proofreading and correcting the text of Siddur HaRav, according to the accurate siddur version he found. In 1886 he printed the Siddur HaRav in Vilna under a new title – "Siddur Torah Or".

The Siddur published by R. Lavut was supplemented by two of his own compositions: "Shaarei Tefillah", focusing on the sources, versions, traditions and customs upon which the Alter Rebbe based his Siddur, and "Netiv HaChayim", which compares between contradicting rulings in "Derech HaChayim" by the Gaon of Lissa, and the Alter Rebbe's Siddur and Shulchan Aruch.