Droshos - Light of the Baal Shem Tov

What the Baal Shem Tov did for the world was like reviving the dead. There was an argument amongst Chassidim if the light of the Baal Shem Tov was only temporary or not. For example, on Pesach night, there is a great spiritual light, but after that its light goes away. In the same way we can understand  what the Baal Shem Tov did – his light came and then went away, due to the evil forces that seek to destroy holiness. The evil forces – the Sitra Achara – tries to convince people that they don’t need to do any Avodah, and that any Avodah is superficial. It tells a person to go the mikveh while not really trying to become pure from it. It makes mikveh into a superficial action without doing anything with our hearts.

Really, until the Baal Shem Tov came, there was always Chassidus, but it was all just superficial actions. The Baal Shem Tov came and revealed that Chassidus is really an Avodah. He revealed the Chassidus only has virtues if is an inner Avodah, such as by Egypt when our nation did not change our style of dress or language. He taught that we have to infuse all our actions with pnimiyus.

Hashem sent the Baal Shem Tov as a sheliach to show us a way how to infuse pnimiyus into our superficial acts of Chassidus. The Baal Shem Tov taught that as the generations continue, our superficiality grows more and more; when we learn holy sefarim, it is hard for us to draw practical lessons from them to our own lives, because we understand things based on a very superficial level. We know that when we learn Gemara, it is easier to arrive at conclusions, but when we learn the holy sefarim that explain how we serve Hashem, it is hard for us to draw conclusions.

Indeed, there were many people unfortunately who closed their Gemara all day so they could learn Mussar and Chassidus. But the Baal Shem Tov taught that the purpose of Chassidus is to infuse life into our learning and davening. He never wanted anyone to stop learning and ignore Halachos for the sake of practicing Chassidus.

In our times, it is very hard to be a true Chassid. But the problem is that people don’t want any Chassidus altogether.

We have to compromise. We definitely should not be learning Chassidus as our main part of the day, but we do need to spend some time of the day learning about Chassidus if we want to be a real Chassid. 

Some sefarim of Chassidus are easy and some are hard; sefer Meor V’Shemesh is an easy sefer, although his words are very deep. But even such a sefer does not give a person a clear path. We can’t serve Hashem based on thoughts of that week’s parsha. It would just be inspiration, but it’s not a way for us. Only the Torah can give us the way. If we only learn Torah without Chassidus, then we won’t grow, so we know that Torah isn’t everything. Yet, we still have to remember that only Torah gives us the way we need to find.

Many people are searching and striving for growth. Usually people right after they get married want to improve their holiness. But the problem is that we don’t have any guidance on how to grow. People are grabbing onto this and that high level, but without a clear way how to get to true growth, we can’t reach anything.

And what is that way?

The first step is that it must bother us that we aren’t growing. We have to really want to grow. We need to simply understand what we are missing. A person should cry as he davens Selach Lanu and Hashiveinu in Shemoneh Esrei! It should really cause pain to a person that we want to grow better in how we serve Hashem. But if one only cries by Baruch Aleinu, he only cares about his financial situation, not about his spiritual situation….

We have all types of difficulties. One problem we have is that we give up. Other people don’t give up, but they have a different problem: they don’t aspire for higher levels. Such people, if they aren’t careful to watch their eyes, aren’t bothered by it. They don’t care to work on it. The truth is that no one in our days can say that their eyes haven’t seen anything bad; the sefarim have already revealed to us that in the final generations, guarding our eyes will be almost impossible. So why did Hashem send us such a test? The answer is because it is up to us to try at least a little, and if we do that, Hashem will do the rest. The Sages say that “If a person sanctifies himself a little, he is sanctified a lot.” It’s not up to us to finish this job; if not for Hashem helping us, it’s impossible. Our entire Avodah is to serve Hashem in the best way we can, to at least try our best.

The levels described in the holy sefarim aren’t really for us. They are all a gift from Hashem that a person can receive. Even the sefarim that I was zoche to write aren’t mine – they are all a gift from Hashem. I never reached any of the levels described in the sefarim on my own… I received them as a gift from Hashem.

During Yomim Noraim, we need to daven with high aspirations. The Rambam writes that in every generation, everyone can be a tzaddik like Moshe Rabbeinu. This doesn’t mean that we should imagine that we are Moshe Rabbeinu. We should learn normally and behave normally. But we should daven to Hashem to receive the gift of these high levels. We should daven to Hashem that we be zoche to fear Him and love Him. Our Avodah is to believe that Hashem wants to lift us up to all these levels, as it is written, “A pure heart G-d created me with.”

This is not inspiration; it is a change in our whole outlook on life.