In this, our final session in this series, we will see how later writers understand the statements that we saw in the last session in the gemara Shabbat concerning zechut avot, the merit of the forefathers, and how these writers applied the concepts to our individual and collective spiritual lives. We will begin with the period of the Rishonim, with Tosafot on the gemara page, and proceed to the Radak (in his commentary to the book of Tehilim), Rabbenu Behayyei, the Maharal of Prague, and two of the leading thinkers of Chassidut: the Sefat Emet and the Shem MiShmuel.
You are welcome to read in advance any or all of the sources that I have posted here for this shiur, but it is not required.