How does the Siddur Torah Ohr differ from the Siddur Tehilas Hashem?

Question

The most common Chabad siddur is obviously the Siddur Tehilas Hashem (TH), which was first published in Rostov, Russia in 1918. It is used by over 300,000 Chabad families worldwide. However, it's not the only Chabad siddur on the market - before the last Lubavitcher Rebbe encouraged its use, the Siddur TH wasn't as common. Instead, the Siddur Torah Ohr (TO) was more commonly used. (Indeed, the Lubavitcher Rebbe himself used such a siddur.) Lastly, there is another siddur printed with interpretations, instructions, and discourses from the Alter Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.

I have been told that the Lubavitcher Rebbe encouraged the use of the Siddur TH based on the fact that it's "much easier to navigate" and "that you don't have to keep flipping back and forth". I was wondering what the differences are between the Siddur TO and TH, practically.

First of all, how much easier is it to navigate, really? What about the Siddur TO makes it to where you have to keeping flipping pages back and forth?

Second, are there any differences in nusach between the Siddur TH and TO? They're both Chabad, but one of them is older, which might present certain nusach variants. (Possibly. Probably not.)

Mai nafka minnah between these two siddurim?

Answer 1

As is common with most older siddurim, in Torah Or, things aren't duplicated, just printed once, e.g., the weekday Amidah. There's no separate Minhah provided, you would use the Amidah printed in Shaharit, and Ashrei, etc., printed in Shaharit. And for Ma'ariv, you would use the same Amidah.

The 4-letter name of God is printed in Torah Or, rather than the yud-yud abbreviation used in Tehillat Hashem.

Torah Or is complete for the whole year, with amidah prayers for Rosh HashShannah and Yom Kippur, and with a Haggadah for Passover, which I don't think Tehillat Hashem has. Torah Or would be better on a desert island.

There are fashions in prayer books, and Tehillat Hashem conforms to the more recent trends.

Answer 2

the siddur TH you refer to (Rostov 1918) is not the same TH used by Chabad today, the TH used today was first published in 1945, it was a copy of an older siddur called Seder Hoavoda (סדר העבודה) printed in Vilna 1911.

I'm not certain the Lubavitcher Rebbe specifically encouraged the use of TH, but it was printed by Merkoz Leinyonei Chinuc (מרכז לעניני חינוך) for children with larger letters and all the prayers in its place.

as opposed to Siddur TO was printed in 1896 (in its entirety), to save on money, the publishers would only print each prayer once, it was also reprinted multiple times to fix the mistakes that fell during the printing.

as of today, most Lubavitchers will use TH, but there are plenty of Lubavitchers who will daven from TO, either because that's the siddur the Rebbe davened from, or because they feel this is the authentic Chabad siddur and TH was only published for children, while some would only use it because of the nostalgic vibe that comes with it.

either way, the proper place for a siddur, especially with such a historic relevance, is not on a desert island, most Lubavitchers, even that don't use TO will still have one in their home!