The Secret of Drawing Close to the Tzaddik: Transforming from One Extreme to the Other
Lesson No. 71 | Yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing) of the holy Rebbe, Monday night, the eve of the 18th of Tishrei 5757 Continuation of Lesson No. 70 on the Yahrtzeit of the holy Rebbe.
A person comes to the tzaddik not to receive honor or greatness, but for one single purpose: to undergo a root transformation and to go from one extreme to the other. Whoever refuses to undergo this process may ultimately sell the tzaddik for his own desires and become an opponent. Yet, specifically through this opposition, the tzaddik merits to receive new, higher levels of spiritual intellect (mochin).
A person wants to be a tzaddik, wants to be holy—and that is all well and good. However, the Hisbodedus (secluded prayer) that truly works, as Rebbe Nachman says in Torah 52, is the one that brings a person to a state of "going from one extreme to the other." By nature, a person is full of pride and a desire for honor, always thinking he is the smartest of all. Now, his mission is to leave this state and reach the exact opposite extreme.
We do not come to the tzaddik to become wealthier, smarter, more understanding, more scholarly, or even more righteous in the conventional sense. Our sole purpose in coming to the tzaddik is one: to go from one extreme to the other. Coming to Rebbe Nachman means undergoing a fundamental transformation. It means never degrading any Jew—not a friend, not a brother, and not a sister. On the contrary, you must understand that you are now in spiritual "intensive care," and this treatment requires you to guard your eyes, pray for the holiness of the covenant, and break free from materialism.
The Root of Blemishes and the Need for Purification
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalms 51:7).
Following the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, the nature of birth in the world became mixed with materialism and impurity. A person is born into this world and must dedicate one hundred and twenty years to purify himself and wash away these blemishes. From this reality stem all of a person's sins and flaws, from which he suffers all the days of his life.
Therefore, as brought down in Torah 11, even when a person knows he is righteous, he must remember the root of his descent into the world and ask the true tzaddikim to pray for him. Those arrogant individuals who do not ask the tzaddikim to pray for them actually hinder the love of Hashem.
The Selling of Joseph in Every Generation
Our entire spiritual work is to reveal the aspect of "I am Joseph." Reb Noson explains (in Likutey Halachos, Choshen Mishpat) that a person, due to a drop of jealousy, hatred, or greed, is willing to sell the tzaddik for twenty pieces of silver. For a drop of honor or a petty desire, a person is willing to rid himself of the tzaddik and erase him from the world.
All the troubles and holocausts that the Jewish people endure are an aspect of tikkun (rectification) for the selling of Joseph. When Jews were taken on death trains, crammed into cattle cars, and beaten mercilessly—this is exactly what Joseph the Tzaddik went through. The Arabs who transported him beat him cruelly, and when Jews were thrown into death pits and covered with earth, it was a reenactment of Joseph being thrown into the pit.
Every single action done to Joseph, we are forced to endure anew in every generation, because the selling of Joseph is not merely a historical event that occurred thousands of years ago—it happens every single day. Every time a person prefers a desire or honor over the truth of the tzaddik, he is essentially selling Joseph all over again.
The Danger of Questions and Becoming an Opponent
All that the tzaddik demands of us is simply to go from one extreme to the other. However, since a person is born with desires and blemishes, it is difficult for him to grasp the light of the tzaddik. As explained in Torah 62 and Torah 63, the mind of the tzaddik is hidden and concealed, and a person begins to fill up with questions, wonderments, and doubts about his conduct.
A person comes to the tzaddik seeking honor and importance, while the tzaddik is the exact opposite of all these concepts of honor. When a person is not truly willing to go from one extreme to the other, but comes only seeking his own benefit, it is sealed in Heaven that he will become an opponent.
The closer he once was, the more likely he is to become a bizarre and severe opponent, one who will find no rest for his soul and will engage day and night only in speaking against the tzaddik.
The Secret of Opposition: The Spiritual Intellect the Tzaddik Receives
Yet here lies a tremendous secret: all of this opposition is a great design from Hashem, and everything is done for the benefit of the tzaddik. When people speak badly about an ordinary person, he shrinks and his heart breaks. But for the tzaddik, there is no greater vitality and delight than this. Through these humiliations, the tzaddik receives all the spiritual intellect (mochin), Torah teachings, and the highest spiritual attainments.
When a Torah scholar begins to oppose the tzaddik, a wondrous spiritual process occurs. All the Torah that this person learned over decades—Gemara, Halachah, commentaries—cannot bear to remain with a person of strife. That opponent simply "vomits" out all of his Torah, and the tzaddik receives infinite spiritual intellect all at once.
The tzaddik takes all the Torah that the opponent lost and makes wondrous combinations from it. What the opponent learned in an entire year, the tzaddik absorbs in a single second. Through this, the heart of the tzaddik expands with immense joy, in the aspect of "You have put joy in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine abound" (Psalms 4:8).
This is the secret of the Geulah (Redemption) brought down in the holy Zohar (Parashas Emor), on the verse, "And moreover she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother" (Bereishis 20:12). Whoever merits to receive the "Mochin d'Abba" (supernal intellect of the Father) — those supernal states of consciousness that arrive specifically through the fact that people dispute him and he remains silent, not opening his mouth — he is the one who will bring the complete Geulah (Redemption).
Part 2 of 4 — Lesson No. 71