AZR compiled an anthology of Hasidic aphorisms, "from the pious of Israel and from the pious of the nations of the world." It is precisely in this collection that all his "souls" merge: the Chabad of his childhood (see "Lyady and Chabad"), the Tolstoy he absorbed in his youth (see "In Russia"), and his doctrine of labor and joy. "Shoshan Hasidim" / "Haftarah" · Project Ben-Yehuda · public domain
A Labor: Tolstoy in Hasidic garb
The chapter "Labor and Love" consists, explicitly, of aphorisms "from L. N. Tolstoy's Circle of Reading," which AZR wove into the Hasidic collection. This is the essence of his religion of labor:
"Release from labor — sin and crime… There can be no true religious feeling or pure morality in the hearts of those who do not live by the toil of their own hands… True and pure joy is the rest that follows labor." AZR (from Tolstoy), "Labor and Love," "Shoshan Hasidim"; Project Ben-Yehuda.
And also the principle of unity: "We must seek not what divides us from our fellows, but what binds us together." Thus AZR openly connects Tolstoy with the Hasidic collection (see "Gordon," "AZR and the Labor Movement").
B Against sadness (R. Aharon of Karlin)
The chapter "Sadness and Bitterness" (from the teaching of R. Aharon of Karlin) formulates the Hasidic ethos against melancholy — which was his own as well:
"Sadness is the nethermost pit"
"Sadness is the nethermost pit, Heaven preserve us!… A Jew who does not rejoice in being a Jew is an ingrate toward Heaven." Ibid., "Sadness and Bitterness."
Sadness, according to the anthology, is rooted in self-absorption ("I deserve, and I lack… me and only me"). This is the root of the "Hasidic joy" that AZR admired in Gordon (see "Gordon and the Joy of Labor") and that he recalled from his childhood in Lyady ("the Hasidim do not love sadness"; see "Lyady and Chabad").
C Hasidic aphorisms: AZR's ethics in miniature
In the aphorisms he chose ("From the World of Joy") his entire teaching echoes — ethics, light, unity, and nonviolence:
"Wisdom without goodness of heart is fraud and betrayal."
"Wherever a Jew enters — light enters with him."
"There are ideas in the world that bear the banner of love, and yet they lead man to division, hatred, and wars of blood."
"Beware of argument… Opinions are like nails. The more you hammer at them, the deeper they sink in."
"Only the good deeds a man does every day give everlasting life to all the days."
He opens with the story of R. Zusya of Anipoli, to whom a Hasid complaining of his troubles was sent, and Zusya replies: "Never have I known what a bad life is."
The meeting point: this anthology is the junction of all AZR's currents — Chabad (Lyady), Tolstoy (Russia), labor (Gordon), and joy and nonviolence (ethics). The choice to include "the pious of the nations of the world" alongside the pious of Israel is his doctrine itself: truth and goodness from every source (see also "AZR the Historian" — truth above all). The aphorism about "wars of blood" among the 'ideas' directly echoes "Ethics — the Sanctity of Life."