The teachings of Chasidut navigate between a penetrating demand for truth and self-awareness, and discussions about the virtues and attainments of great tzaddikim. So what is the Divine service of the simple Jew, and how does the contemplation of the tzaddikim's virtues benefit him?
The way of Chasidut sets a very high standard in Divine service – it envelops us in stories of wondrous tzaddikim, teaches about lofty levels and the most subtle attainments in the service of the heart. Its melodies sweep us into higher worlds. On the other hand, chasidim have said that the entire foundational book of Chasidut, the Tanya, can be summarized in one sentence – 'Don't be a fraud.' In other words, know your place – you are not a tzaddik, 'if only you were a beinoni (intermediate person),' and do not pursue matters too great and too wondrous for you.’ (A beautiful numerical allusion: the average value of the Hebrew for 'don't be a fraud' (אל תהיה רמאי) and 'if only you were a beinoni' (אל תהיה רמאי) is emet [truth]!). What is the relationship between recognizing the highest levels, which an ordinary person will never reach, and the simple, practical work required of everyone?
The Feeling of Lowliness from the Feeling of Self-nullification
The rectified person is composed of lowliness (shiflut) and self-nullification (bitul). Lowliness is a person's recognition of his own inferiority – a sober self-awareness that causes a person to know exactly what his service of God is and not to err in fantasies. Self-nullification is a Divine awareness that floods a person until he forgets himself and is aware only of God's presence.
For most of us, lowliness is an existential and tangible feeling, while self-nullification is a wondrous experience of which we only occasionally catch a glimpse. Nevertheless, lowliness alone – without recognizing the possibility of complete nullification to Godliness – leaves a person mired in his lowly and dark place, without exit and without a true direction of how to work to serve God.
Rabbi Isaac of Homil, the greatest of Chabad's intellectuals, once remarked that "I don't have Divine inspiration, but I have 'understandings' in Divine inspiration." A chasid has 'understandings' – an inner 'sense' and 'feeling' – even in levels that are above him. Thus, a chasid has a feeling of lowliness, but must also develop within himself a 'sense' of the essence of self-nullification.
Moreover, not only does the sense of self-nullification balance the realistic feeling of lowliness by presenting a wondrous dream against the murky reality, but it also deepens the feeling of lowliness. Only a person who has a true sense of self-nullification can feel the depth of his own inferiority in relation to genuine service of God.
[Here too we can be aided by an expression of Rabbi Isaac of Homil, who once came on a mission from his Rebbe to the holy Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin. He recounted how he discussed communal matters with him in the late hours of Friday, and then, at the moment Shabbat entered, he sensed the inner elevation of the Rebbe of Ruzhin, and remarked, 'He ascended above and I remained below. I have never felt such shame in my life.' Rabbi Isaac's 'sense' of the Ruzhiner tzaddik's ascent (an ascent he did not merit himself, as a personal-existential feeling) caused him a deep feeling of shame and lowliness.]
Refinement of Character Traits
The sense of self-nullification doesn't just quantitatively increase the feeling of lowliness by comparison to a greater standard that demonstrates to a person how small he is. It creates a qualitative change:
The ultimate goal of chasidic service of God is the refinement of character traits. The average person is not capable of changing his character traits from one extreme to the other, and therefore this work is not required of him. Nevertheless, one should not be content with merely controlling his traits; he must process and refine them.
The power to refine one's traits depends on illumination from the higher levels – an illumination from the Garden of Eden into our own world. The inner shame in the face of the true self-nullification that one merits to sense from afar breaks the coarseness of his traits and refines them with longing for a higher and more illuminated place. Precisely in this way it effects an inner change in his true place, without any self-deception.
May we be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chasidut (which gives a 'sense' and 'feeling' in the higher levels of self-nullification) and the ways of Chasidut (of inner work and refinement of traits from a feeling of lowliness)!
