Tag: Hasidism
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Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Shelomo [of Karlin] as none other accepted as his own the Baal Shem’s doctrine that before praying [a person] should prepare to die, because the intention of prayer demands the staking of one’s entire self. For him prayer was a stupendous venture to which one must give one’s self up so completely that thought…
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Shabbat shalom
It is significant that [the Maggid of Mezritch’s] favorite simile is that of the father adjusting himself to his little son who is eager to learn. He regards the world as God’s self-adjustment to his little son: Man, whom he rears with tender care to enable him to grow up to his Father. Martin Buber,…
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Shabbat shalom
Whenever this union [of heavenly light and earthly fire, of spirit and nature] appears incarnate in human form, this person testifies – with the testimony of life – for the divine unity of spirit and nature, reveals this unity anew to the world of man which again and again becomes estranged from it, and evokes…
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Shabbat shalom
There are various versions of how the Baal Shem won [Rabbi Jacob Joseph of Polnoye] over, but they all have two traits in common: he does not reveal himself directly, but manifests himself through his particular manner of concealment, and he tells him stories (he always likes to tell stories) which stir the hearer just…
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Shabbat shalom
[Hasidism] had nothing to do with pantheism which destroys or stunts the greatest of all values: the reciprocal relationship between the human and the divine, the reality of the I and the You which does not cease at the rim of eternity. Hasidism did, however, make manifest the reflection of the divine, the sparks of…
Matters of Interpretation 