Lesson from Above
Hasidism is a trend built on the exaltation of the teacher, the exaltation of the Creator. And a Kabbalist, besides this, also has a critical attitude toward a teacher because a person who studies Kabbalah consists of two properties: egoism and a point in the heart directed against the ego.
The fact is that the egoistic property of the Hasid is ready to submit to the teacher, just as small animals serve a person and they feel good next to him.
I remember when I began to study Kabbalah, literally a year or two later I met my friend, who by that time had moved to America, to the Lubavitcher Rebbe: “Michael, I found a Rebbe! I found a teacher!” He said this with such enthusiasm that I became envious: “And me? I don’t have any of this. And he is so happy, overflowing; he found the whole world.”
The next day I came to my teacher Rabash and told him everything. I was young, independent and said everything as it is: “I am, of course, uncomfortable in front of you, but I don’t feel that I have found a teacher that I am so happy that it fills me and I have everything in the world. I do not have anything. I didn’t find anything, I’m always under pressure, searching. In my life I have already gotten used to this, but why are the paths so different?
He replied: “You were given a good lesson from above—the feeling that you really have nothing in your hands.”
And it will get worse and worse until the person really screams, demands with all his might, feeling: either death or a decision. There can be no other. But to reach this point, he must invest a lot. He should not wait until it manifests itself, but put pressure on it all the time.
It’s very hard. It takes a lot of nerves, many, many years. All this applies to those who have a point in the heart. And those who do not have it, they have no complaints at all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hasidism” 10/1/11
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