12. If a person is active, there’s time for everything. In former times, a person felt that he was stationed in his own space. Even if in fact people were obligated to relocate from place to place, wherever they were their minds were settled. Nowadays, even if a person is located in one place, he’s still constantly on the move. As the Gemara says, “Living in cities is difficult.”1 It is there that one appreciates the value of provincial towns.
Once, when a czarist decree required that a certain new highway should pass through Lubavitch, the Tzemach Tzedek said: “In my local domain,2 I’m the master.” And indeed, the work could not be completed because the stones were sinking in the ground. The route then had to be changed, as can be seen by the detour that the highway follows, a few kilometers from Lubavitch. In fact when a certain contractor had asked the Tzemach Tzedek whether he should accept the governmental concession to build that highway, he was told that he should not undertake it within a radius of a few kilometers of Lubavitch. His concern was that no city should emerge there.
13. R. Chaim Avraham, the Alter Rebbe’s son, once visited [his elder brother], the Mitteler Rebbe, on Pesach, to wish him Gut Yom-Tov. On that occasion R. Chaim Avraham related that the Alter Rebbe had said: “On Pesach, one should not offer a guest food or drink, but the guest may partake on his own initiative.” If a guest3 chooses not to eat, one should not make him feel uncomfortable because of the hiddurim4 that he has undertaken.
In Lubavitch, the Rebbeim always made a point of wishing their relatives Gut Yom-Tov. Every Yom-Tov the Tzemach Tzedek used to approach each relative to wish him Gut Yom-Tov, except for Rosh HaShanah, when in shul he would wish each of them, Leshanah tovah [tikasev veseichaseim]!5 In his frail old age he would remain seated, and they would each approach him to give him the above blessing. Once, when one of them – not a particularly positive individual – did not appear when expected, the Tzemach Tzedek wanted to know what had happened.
14. My father once said that the Alter Rebbe drew the light of the intellect all the way down, not only into singing, but even into dancing.
That comment was made after three chassidim had danced somewhat wildly following the Reading of the Torah on the morning of Shemini Atzeres. (In fact, the dancing was more intense that year throughout the whole of the Simchas Torah season.) My father went on to say: “Even though a fiery dance expresses heartfelt exuberance, wild and unbridled exuberance is not what is desired.6 The Alter Rebbe drew the light of the intellect all the way down, even into dancing, in the course of his self-sacrificing efforts on behalf of the cause of Chassidus, and in particular for the sake of his chassidim.”
My father concluded with the following thought: “All of that is relevant only if a chassid actively exerts himself in his avodah. A shaliach, i.e., an agent, is [halachically] as one with the person who empowers him.7 In this vein, the Sages observe that [in the Torah] an angel is actually called by G‑d’s Name when he serves as His agent. How much more does this apply to souls, for [when fulfilling G‑d’s Will] they attain this [identification] to an even higher degree.
“In the teachings of Chassidus, that last statement raises a query. After all, since the souls are part of the etzem, the Essence of Elokus, what can be higher than that? The answer given is that the superiority of souls over angels is rooted in the desired goal of Atzmus, which can be fulfilled by souls, whereas Atzmus, as it were, cannot. Souls only, and not angels, can fulfill that purpose.8
“Chassidus also discusses the lofty concept of shlichus from another angle, when discussing the phrase, ‘I, and not a shaliach.’9 A shaliach relates only to the level of Atzilus, the spiritual World in which ‘He and His causations are one.’10 That, however, applies only during the time that the shaliach is actively engaged in fulfilling his mission. Chassidim are the agents of the Rebbe – the Alter Rebbe. When a chassid is active, every dimension of his being is bound to him: he walks like a chassid, he eats like a chassid, and sleeps like a chassid.”
All of the above is true with regard to the chassidim of earlier days, who willingly accepted guidance from their mentors. If, however, a chassid is his own educator, the above does not apply.
Rashbatz11 used to express this by a Russian phrase that means, “I’m a tailor myself!” That phrase recalled his parable: A Russian peasant finds tefillin and promptly decides to sell them. He takes hold of their straps, the retzuos, and drags the expertly-sewn batim on the ground as he looks around for a customer. The first Jew he meets asks him, horrified: “How on earth did you come by those?”
The peasant, eager to give the impression that he himself is a master craftsman, declares: “Ya sam sapozhnik! – I’m a tailor myself!”
And that was how Rashbatz used to convey his message about self-educated and self-defined chassidim...
