From the prolific pen of the sixth leader of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Yosef Y. Schneersohn, comes this fascinating anecdotal history of the origins of Chasidism. The reader is transported back through the centuries, to a time when the oppressed and persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe were in desperate need of spiritual reawakening. The nistarim, "hidden holy men" steeped in Kabbalah, travelled incognito from village to village, teaching Torah to the masses, spreading joy and hope and a new sense of wonder among the broken-hearted. These are true tales, peopled with brilliant scholars and simple cobblers, princes and dreamers, giants of the spirit, known and unknown figures of the past. We meet the saintly forerunners of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, and the ancestors of Rabbi Schneur Zalman, founder of Chabad-Lubavitch, whose lineage is traced to the illustrious Maharal of Prague. The Memoirs are a must for students of Jewish history and mysticism, and for lovers of Chasidic lore.