Hasidic bib­li­cal com­men­taries fall into sev­er­al cat­e­gories: short tex­tu­al analy­ses, long dis­cur­sive inter­pre­ta­tions, pithy obser­va­tions only tan­gen­tial­ly relat­ed to the text; and lengthy con­vo­lut­ed ser­mons only record­ed by trust­wor­thy mem­o­riz­ers after the con­clu­sion of the Sab­bath. Each rebbe had his dis­tinct style. Some were folksy, some were learned, and some were mys­tics. Some were total­ly orig­i­nal, some built upon ear­li­er rebbes, and some stayed with the text. 

Rab­bi Leshem has read wide­ly and deeply. How­ev­er there is a dif­fer­ence between know­ing a genre and suc­cess­ful­ly dupli­cat­ing it. Ear­li­er antholo­gies of Hasidic works wise­ly pre­sent­ed in trans­la­tion the writ­ings of the Hasidic mas­ters. The last great Hasidic writer and thinker was Rab­bi Men­achem Mendel Schneer­son (d. 1994) who cre­at­ed his own unique style. Arebbe can inspire, teach, chas­tise, encour­age, and arouse his adher­ents. We must bear in mind that all the great Hasidic com­men­ta­tors were writ­ing pri­mar­i­ly for their own hasidim. 

Redemp­tions con­tains sev­er­al short essays on each Bib­li­cal por­tion and on the hol­i­days. The writ­ing style is chop­py, peri­patet­ic, and often sim­plis­tic. Themes aren’t ful­ly devel­oped, con­cepts are not explained (e.g. the sefirot) and there is no glos­sary or bib­li­og­ra­phy. As the author him­self notes, it is not real­ly even hasidic since so many stan­dard, clas­sic, and mod­ern com­men­taries are quot­ed. The style is almost antho­log­i­cal— this one says this and that one says that. 

To be fair, there are many nuggets of insight­ful com­ments (e.g. the sec­ond essay in Noach and the first in Met­zo­ra). In gen­er­al the hol­i­day essays (espe­cial­ly Yom HaShoah) are bet­ter than the week­ly portion. 

Rab­bi Leshem may have absorbed Hasidic teach­ings on the Torah but errs in some areas of Hasidic prac­tice. The Seu­dah shel Mashiach takes place on the eighth day of Passover not the sev­enth, and was estab­lished by the Ba’al Shem Tov to con­nect to the mes­sian­ic themes of the day’s Haf­tarah, not the rea­son he cites. 

It is a Hasidic tra­di­tion on the Sab­bath to share a gut vort (lit. a bon mot) which is a brief bril­liant or very sharp com­ment on the week­ly Torah por­tion. Redemp­tions can serve that pur­pose since the read­er will find there­in exam­ples of Hasidic wit and inspiration.