The publication of the Classics of Western Spirituality ™ represents a cultural event of the greatest importance. It transcends all sectarian boundaries and brings to the spiritually sensitive reader the choicest creations of the human spirit when it is touched by the encounter with God.

Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl: Upright Practices, The Light of the Eyes translated and introduced by Arthur Green preface by Samuel H. Dresner

All began with a single point-the point of supernal wisdom, hokhmah. The power of the Creator is present in all of His creations; the wisdom of God fills and takes on the garb of every thing that is.
Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl (1730-1797)

Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl (1730-1797) was rabbi of the small Jewish community of Chernobyl, near Kiev in the Ukraine. A member of the Maggid school of Miezrich, he was part of the Hasidic movement that played a key role in the history of Eastern European Jewry.

In this volume, two of Rabbi Nahum’s works are made available to the general reader for the first time in English. Upright Practices is a devotional manual of personal practices recommended by the Hasidic master for his disciples. The Light of the Eyes is a collection of homilies based on the Book of Genesis. Until now chiefly the sacred property of the Hasidim, these homilies are prime examples of the genre that, more than any other, reveals the earnestness and depth of Hasidic spirituality.