Tanya The Tanya is the main work of the Chabad approach to Hasidic mysticism, as it defines its general interpretation and method. The subsequent extensive library of the Chabad school, authored by successive leaders, builds upon the approach of the Tanya. Chabad differed from "Mainstream Hasidism" in its search for philosophical investigation and intellectual analysis of Hasidic Torah exegesis. This emphasised the mind as the route to internalising Hasidic mystical dveikus (emotional fervour), in contrast to general Hasidism's creative enthusiasm in faith. As a consequence, Chabad Hasidic writings are typically characterised by their systematic intellectual structure, while other classic texts of general Hasidic mysticism are usually more compiled or anecdotal in nature. As one of the founding figures of Hasidic mysticism, Schneur Zalman and his approach in the Tanya are venerated by other Hasidic schools, although they tend to avoid its meditative methods. In Chabad it is called "the Written Torah of Hasidus", with the many subsequent Chabad writings being relatively "Oral Torah" explanation. In it, Schneur Zalman brings the new interpretations of Jewish mysticism by the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, into philosophical articulation and definition. This intellectual form synthesises Hasidic Divine Omnipresence and Jewish soulfulness with other historical components of Rabbinic literature, embodied in the Talmud, Medieval philosophy, Ethics and Lurianic Kabbalah. The Tanya has therefore been seen in Chabad as the defining Hasidic text, and a subsequent stage of Jewish mystical evolution
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