Insights

In our practical day-to-day lives we don’t attach any importance to how food satisfies our hunger, or how water slakes our thirst; the main thing is that it does. The same is true in spiritual terms. When the soul is hungry and thirsty for the “bread and water” of Torah and Mitzvot, the main thing is to satisfy it. Only afterwards, when the soul is a little stronger and healthier, can it properly grasp how Torah and Mitzvot help — much easier and quicker than before — even though it has but a limited human intellect.

One who insists that he first wishes to be healed, and only then will he dedicate some of his free time to understand the need for Torah and Mitzvot, and only after understanding it will he begin to do it, can be compared to a patient who refuses to take his medicine until he finishes studying medicine and is able to understand how these pills will help heal his illness. Common sense tells us the contrary: If he takes the medicine, that itself will make it easier for him to understand and to study the areas of medical knowledge in which he is interested.

There are special diets, rest regimens, and medicines administered in hospitals, for each patient according to his needs. It is obvious that such a regimen not helpful for healthy people, and can even be extremely harmful. For example, some medications are poisonous, and can only be taken in precise quantities for specific ailments.

There’s no need to warn a healthy person not to behave this way. However it is necessary to warn someone who is not completely healthy, or who has recently recovered from an illness during which he became accustomed to such regimens, that he should not continue in this manner after his recovery.

Similarly, doctors, who see the benefits of these modes of behavior in their life-saving work, must be reminded that they are beneficial only for sick people, and can be harmful for anyone else.

Just as doctors must provide remedies for their patients, they must also instruct them to stop taking them once they are healed. It is only then that the doctor has fulfilled his obligation to his patients, both for the present and for the future.

The doctors, too, despite their constant involvement in setting up these diets and administering these remedies, must not fool themselves into thinking that they should act the same way. They must always remember that their activities are only for the ill, whom they were given the permission and ability to be able to heal, while the doctors themselves must behave like other healthy people.

There is a correlation for all this in spiritual healing as well:

Despite the fact that it has recently become necessary to accept certain compromises for the sake of rescuing Jewish souls3, we must always remember that this is no more than a temporary necessity, since at this point in time these students are not yet ready to accept Judaism in its entirety. The ultimate goal, however, is to reach a point where the students will become completely “healthy,” and there will no longer be a need for these methods. Only when the educators explain this idea to their students have they truly fulfilled their present and future obligations.

According to your letter, you are involved with ensuring the spiritual and emotional health of your students, who are compared to children. Since G-d rewards us “measure for measure,” it is obvious what a great effect that would have on the health of your actual children.5

Furthermore, the Rambam writes6 that the soul can be healthy or ill, much like the body. Regarding physical cures there are two possibilities: A patient can sometimes be healed only with a bitter medicine, while at other times a sweet remedy can effect the cure. The difference can be quite drastic, especially when the treatment continues for some time.

This is the basic difference between the path of Mussar and that of Chassidut. Mussar is rebuke; it emphasizes the negative, and how it should be avoided. Chassidut, on the other hand, highlights the spiritual sublimity of the soul, and reveals within it its positive potential.

Therefore, you should set aside a time for the study of Chassidut. I am hopeful that you anyway peruse these subjects occasionally, but that is not the same as truly establishing a fixed time. The Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch, explains7 that the main thing is not merely the fixing of hours of study, but rather to use the time to truly fix the concepts within one’s soul. Such a dedication will obviously also be expressed in your influence upon your students. The Torah’s ways are “ways of pleasantness,” and “nothing can stand in the way of will…”

You should not be put off by the regular hardships that accompany such an undertaking (a new beginning of Torah-true education), recognizing the statement of our Sages9 that “all beginnings are difficult.” On the contrary, your challenges should arouse within you additional strength, and should reveal your hidden talents. One of the modern medical discoveries has been that in order to enable the body to withstand harsh diseases, it is injected with a vaccine that contains a mild form of the virus or disease, since that stimulates the body to produce antibodies to fight against it.

The same is true with regard to spiritual healing, in accordance with the statement of the Rambam in his Shmoneh Perakim10 that compares spiritual treatments to physical ones. A temporary concealment, which is in truth only weak and imagined, stimulates the soul to create the needed weapons to overcome true challenges and concealments.

Just as we attempt to provide our children with the best possible physical good, we must also attempt to provide for them spiritually in the best possible manner. Just as we must worry about their physical health, we must also worry about their spiritual well-being. A Jew visited me recently, and we discussed education. He told me that statistics have shown that a bad education only harms 5percent of children.

I asked him if he vaccinated his children for measles, polio, etc. He replied: “Of course! We are parents!”

“Do you know what percentage of children who do not receive the vaccine actually contract the disease?” I asked. He happened to know the statistic – less than 3 or 4 percent. In other words, even for a possibility of 4percent, and especially in these countries where these diseases are even more rare, it is still worthwhile to vaccinate, with all of the pain, etc. that it causes. Why?

“Who cares about those minor inconveniences, as compared to what possibly could happen without vaccinating?” he responded.

I said to him: “If for a doubt of 4percent it is worth causing the child pain, enduring the child’s screaming and all the other effects of the vaccination, just to avoid the disease — even though for the most part there is not even a possibility of any life danger, but rather just severe discomfort for some time — how much more so is it worthwhile to ensure the health of the child’s soul, where the doubt is 5percent, and where the vaccine does not cause any pain. All that is required is to sign the child up for studies in a Torah-true educational facility! This action will affect his entire life!”

You are bewildered at the fact that you see no explanation for the unfortunate events that happened to your family and home. If you think about it, it will not bewilder you. Man sees only a small part of what happens around him and to him. As a result, sometimes he cannot properly evaluate the events that he witnesses.

In order to properly illustrate this idea, consider the following example:

A person happens to walk into an operating room in a medical center. He sees a man lying on the operating table. All around him are people with various types of knives in their hands, and they are cutting his flesh. The victim cries out in distress, and yet they continue their surgery. Without knowing the complete history of the patient, the observer will run out screaming: “They took a live person and they’re mutilating him. He’s crying out in pain, but he can’t save himself; he cannot free himself from these thieves and murderers!”

However, if someone explains to the visitor that the surgery is required to enable the patient to live for tens more years, and that is why they are ignoring the relatively short-lived pains, he will understand and fully agree to the treatment. He will realize that not only are the ones cutting into the person’s flesh not thieves or murderers, but rather they are doing the greatest possible favor to the patient. This, despite the fact that the surgeons cannot guarantee that the operation will be successful, nor can they know how long the patient will live afterwards even if it is successful.

The lesson is clear. In a person’s life, truly painful events are bound to occur. However, when one acknowledges and recognizes Divine Providence, i.e., that the world is not a free-for-all but rather is run in a very exact fashion, and that order includes not only the person himself, but also his family and everybody else, then a logical mind will conclude that the events taking place must fit in with that general order, even if the “Surgeon General” does not explain to him the great benefit derived from this temporary pain.

There are those who challenge whether the world does indeed have a purposeful order. Nonetheless, it is well known from physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc. (which are familiar not only to Jews, and not only to people who believe in G-d, but even to non-believers as well) that every single atom in the universe is governed very specific laws, and its every movement is governed in accordance with those laws. One’s whole environment, indeed the universe as a whole, behaves in a precise and orderly way, which of course includes all the events pertaining to an individual and his family.

Imagine that we enter a huge building with thousands of rooms. Every room is extremely organized, to the point that even a casual observer readily recognizes that everything is in its proper place. There’s just one small room that he is unsure about: Is everything here set up correctly? Surely, we would all reach the same conclusion: If all these thousands of rooms are set up in a meticulously organized fashion, surely this one little room — whose setup I cannot understand, but which is nevertheless a part of this huge building — must also be organized and suited for its purpose, even if I cannot comprehend how.

A person walks out of a professor’s office, limping on crutches. A passerby might think: Look how incompetent that professor is. This fellow went to him, paid him a lot of money, kept all of his instructions, and he’s still walking on crutches! He can’t even take a single step without them!

The truth is, however, that before the treatment this patient was completely paralyzed and unable to move his feet at all. The professor managed to lessen the paralysis, and enabled the patient to not only move his feet but even to walk with the assistance of crutches. As time passes, his condition will continue to improve. In fact, it’s possible that if he continues with the professor’s prescribed treatments he will eventually be completely healed, and not even need the crutches anymore.

The meaning of this parable:

“Just as people’s faces don’t look alike, their minds are not alike.14” Some people are born with better characteristics and some with worse. With good educators, and even more importantly, through self-education, the negative characteristics can also be weakened over time. Since people are supposed to continuously educate themselves throughout their entire lives, it is no surprise that we may find people who are presently in the middle of the process. An individual may still posses some negative qualities, but that does not reflect on the “Professor’s” instructions. On the contrary, as a result of his involvement in the “treatment,” the failings are much smaller than they would otherwise be.

Proper Use of Medications

Anybody who walks into a pharmacy worthy of its name, and sees the many remedies which can help and heal so many diseases — even very dangerous ones — is certainly very impressed.

Yet, the pharmacist must explain to his visitor — and even more importantly, to himself — that the entire collection of medications serves as no more than a preparation. For the patient to be healed, there are two central requirements:

a) A prescription from an expert doctor as to exactly which remedy to take for this particular ailment, as well as instructions about how to take it.

b) Actually taking the medicine in accordance with those instructions.

Similarly:

Every single Jew is an emissary of the King of Kings. He is given a portion of the world, which it is his job to heal and fix. At the same time, he is given all of the needed remedies and materials. However, that is no more than a prerequisite. There is still a need for an expert’s instructions, prescribing exactly which remedies should be applied today, which tomorrow, etc. Without that expert advice he may endanger rather than heal, and he may destroy rather than build.

One might argue, “the entire community is holy,16” and I am one of them. I can make my own inquiries into the Code of Jewish Law, and thus decide on my own how I must behave — both personally, and with regard to my purpose in this world. Such a person may be compared to someone who, immediately upon learning to read, buys medical books and doctor’s implements, and announces that he can now heal the ill.

Even more important is the actual work. Even someone who understands his illness and its cure very well, and has respectfully consulted expert medical advice, and has in his hands the exact prescribed medication — will not even begin the process of healing until he actually takes the medication.

Even if he has all kinds of excuses — such as that the time or place is not right, or that he does not have enough influence, etc. — that only makes a difference as far as reward and punishment are concerned, i.e. to be able to determine whether he is guilty of intentional dereliction, unintentional, or even if he is “forced” in which case he is free of responsibility. His ailment, however, remains in full strength. Since the Divine intent is that he should heal himself, it is obvious that all of his excuses are mistaken, and are no more than the Evil Inclination’s way of disturbing his service.

Deep inside the pharmacy, there is another section. It has warning signs all around: “Danger! Poison!” Why is there poison amidst all of these helpful remedies? A wise man understands that what would normally be poisonous for a healthy person, may — in exceptional cases, and in controlled quantities — be the only medication that is able to save the patient.

Continuing with our illustration of this parable17, we can find two areas that correspond to this “poison:”

Between Man and His Fellow

The Torah is a Torah of kindness; “Its ways are ways of sweetness, and all of its paths are peace.”18 Nevertheless, if, for instance, a person is invited to eat at another’s home and he is not certain about the food being kosher, he may not eat at all, even if that will cause his host public embarrassment.

If someone is a Shabbat desecrator, but there is reason to believe that he might stop if he is continually reminded about it (obviously, this is talking about a case where it was already politely pointed out, with no success), there is an obligation to do so “until he screams” or even “until he hits.”19

If a person sees a group educating its members and students to not believe in G-d, His Torah, and His Mitzvot, he is obligated to strongly protest. He must inform them that even if they are saving this student’s life in this physical world, they are destroying his soul and its eternal life. It is a commandment to save lives, and thus the children must be saved from them even in normally unacceptable manners.20

There is, of course, the usual question: “I am a polite person. Even according to Jewish law, “manners precede Torah.”21 How can I scream at a person or embarrass him in public, etc.?”

The answer is: This type of behavior for a healthy person would indeed be poisonous, but under certain dangerous circumstances, it is the only way to save this person from certain death.

Between Man and His Creator

Similarly, there are some who complain against the Chassidim’s custom to spend so much time studying Chassidic philosophy and meditating on those concepts before prayers, since they consequently miss the prescribed times for reading the Shma and praying!

The reply is: Certainly, for healthy people this would be harmful. But those who are spiritually ill have no other choice. Without doing so, the prayers will be just with the lips and not with the heart, which would render them completely invalid.22

However, as in the parable, there must be extra care taken to do so only in controlled quantities, and only when prescribed by an expert doctor.

Question: Why is it that if a person transgresses a ruling that is accepted in his community, it can cause great spiritual damage, whereas the same deed for someone in a different community it may not be considered wrong at all?

Reply: When someone ingests something poisonous, the most extreme measures are needed to save him. There are, however, certain materials that are only harmful to certain areas of the body. For instance, if someone eats the peels of a potato or melon, these may not have any nutritional value, but they also pose no danger. If, however, they get stuck in the lungs, there is a real danger to life.

The same is true with regard to our spiritual well-being. There are sins that are equally forbidden for every single Jew. These are poison for the soul, and are even harmful to the body. However, there are other actions that may only be harmful for certain Jews. For instance, if an Ashkenazic Jew marries two wives he has transgressed on an “excommunicable offense,” while for a Sephardic Jew it is completely permitted.

A similar distinction exists with regard to the various prohibitions against shaving one’s beard. Shaving with a razor is forbidden explicitly by the Torah, and therefore applies equally to every single Jew. One who does so is transgressing five negative commandments each and every time, as is discussed in the Talmud, Shulchan Aruch, etc.

Shaving in other ways, however, such as with an electric shaver24 or shaving gels, is different: For Chassidim, who are connected to the students of the Ba’al Shem Tov, it is completely forbidden. It seriously harms their souls, and as a result their bodies as well. Nevertheless, the damage is not as severe as that caused by shaving with a razor.

For other Jews, however, it can be compared to analogy of the peels: They are not really fit for human consumption, and when they reach the stomach they must be expelled, but there’s no danger. If they get stuck in the lungs, however, extreme measures must be taken to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, and to avoid the harm that is caused as a result.

The Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya:26 “All of the above [personal fasts] should be replaced by charity. Although that may add up to a large sum, one need not worry about the dictum27 that ‘one should not give away to charity more than a fifth.’ After all, this is not considered giving it away. He is giving it in order to redeem his soul from fasting and suffering. Thus, it is no worse than medicine for his body or his other needs.” This expression is always in my mind. Whenever I see some aspect of physical medicine, I think of correlations in spiritual healing.

Today, some doctors came to give me an injection. I noticed that they were extremely careful: They checked and sterilized their implements. Both the doctor and his assistant dressed in whites, washed their hands two or three times, and even checked under their fingernails to make sure that there wasn’t a bit of dirt. After all that, they rinsed their fingertips in a strong solution, to eliminate any residual bacteria.

After all of those preparations, they sterilized my foot two or three times with an alcohol solution, and with other preparations that eliminate microscopic dirt as well.

When I saw how careful they were being, I asked: Why do you need to clean it so much? I just bathed my foot. They responded that nonetheless they must sterilize the area of the injection with alcohol, etc. to avoid the slightest bacteria. If not, there is a possibility that the bacteria would enter the body together with the injection. That would not only render the injection useless, it could cause all kinds of new and dangerous infections.

A corresponding idea in spiritual healing:

A Chassidic Farbrengen can be compared to an injection. The speakers demand of the people gathered that they better their behavior, that they set aside time for study of Chassidut, that they keep to these times, and that they learn with the intent of fulfilling that which they learn. Although these demands result from true love, they are usually received as an injection is, with a little prick.

It is important to remember that although the Farbrengen is medicine, which truly enlivens the soul and has a great benefit — for at such times, Chassidic expressions and sayings truly enter the mind and heart — there is still a need before such “injections” to clean and sterilize both the needle and the site of the injection. If one is not properly careful in this regard, some external dirt may enter the wound, and may, Heaven forbid, cause serious damage.28

Leeches are living beings that used to be applied to rid a person of tainted blood, or to quiet the “boiling” of healthy blood (lower the blood pressure). These leeches could be found only during the summer, because in the winter they would hide from the cold.

R’ Avraham the Doctor, one of the Chassidim of the Alter Rebbe, once complained that the month of Elul was already almost finished, and he had still not prepared the leeches. The Rebbe’s son, Rabbi DovBer (who would later become famous as the Mitteler Rebbe), was a young boy at the time, and he overheard R’ Avraham’s statement. He later noticed several of his father’s Chassidim conversing, and several of them burst out in laughter. “Elul is almost gone and you have still not prepared the leeches. That is why you are laughing!” he called out. He said his piece and left the room. The Chassidim recognized the Rebbe’s son’s greatness, and so they searched for meaning in his words. They were certain that he must have been repeating something he heard from his father.

Some time went by, and this story reached the Alter Rebbe himself. It was then discovered that he had never said it, but rather it was the unintended statement of R’ Avraham the Doctor. Said the Alter Rebbe: “This is the path of the Ba’al Shem Tov. Every physical thing that we see or hear, we should utilize for our service of G-d. We worked very hard in order to achieve this quality, but for our children it happens automatically.” He concluded: “One who follows in this manner of the Ba’al Shem Tov and uses everything for his service of G-d, I promise that he will draw down a “good spark” from Heaven, which will assist him and his children in their service of G-d throughout the generations.”

The Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, concluded his account: That year on Rosh HaShana the floor of the synagogue was soaked with the tears that congregants shed when contemplating the Mitteler Rebbe’s comment. And on Simchat Torah, their shoes were torn because of the great joyful dancing that resulted from the Alter Rebbe’s promise.

What does it all mean? Both remedies that leeches provide have a correlation in Divine service:

Letting Tainted Blood

Blood is warmth and life. These are characteristics that are the embodiment of holiness. After all, impurity and evil have no life or warmth of their own. They exist only to preserve man’s freedom of choice — “for G-d is testing you, to know whether you will follow His ways…”30 This is why it is possible for a person to get excited over desires that are forbidden by the Torah, and even those that are permitted but where the excitement is misplaced. Obviously, a lot of hard work is required to uproot these tendencies.

Quieting “Boiling” Blood

Even the “boiling blood” of holiness must sometimes be quieted. One could argue: Excitement in holy matters is a good thing, and its opposite — coldness — is the root of all kinds of evil! Why should we quiet that excitement? However, a person must ensure that his excitement springs from his connection to G-d, rather than from personal emotions.

Excitement that is based on personal feelings, even if it is directed within holy endeavors, can easily become a source for undesirable results. This is possible on the level of Nadav and Avihu, who “came too close to G-d, and they died,”31 or on a lower level: Someone becomes very excited and involved in the fulfillment of a specific Mitzvah, but as a result of his zeal he does it in a manner not permitted by Halacha. For instance, one might be so anxious to eat the meal honoring the festivals that he does so without first washing his hands, or does so immediately upon awakening before reciting the morning blessings. Similarly, one may become excited about prayer, and as a result pray in a synagogue that does not have the required separation between men and women, or pray using a fabricated liturgy, which is not in accordance with that established by the sages of the Great Assembly.

Those opposed to the study of Chassidut generally have two complaints:

If it is a necessary study, why wasn’t it around until now? If so many generations could succeed without Chassidut, it must not be so important!

It is a form of study that lowers self-esteem, for it nullifies materialism and ego; this can be perceived as negative.

The response to these claims: the Rambam writes33 that healing of the spirit is the same as healing of the body. In other words, we can derive a lesson and comparison for illnesses and cures for the spirit from many of the concepts we are familiar with in physical medicine.

Generally illnesses are caused by a deficiency or malfunction in a particular part of the body. However, there is one disease in which nothing is missing in the body; but on the contrary, there is an extra bit of flesh. One might wonder, who does this bother? Nothing is missing! However, this is unfortunately an extremely harsh disease, often even worse than those caused by a defect.

The new growth harms the area in which it resides, and may often spread much further.

Just as this illness is different than all others, its cure is also unique. In every other case one strengthens the body, while here the cure is to destroy the extra growth. That is the only way to truly heal the person.

The above cures were developed only in recent generations, and the methods in which they are applied were fully developed even later. In fact, the research is still continuing.

It is self-understood that if a person refuses to use these cures because (a) medicine is intended to strengthen the body, not to destroy it! and (b) so many generations have passed that never used such treatments, so he doesn’t want to listen to these new doctors and use their new cures. He’d rather, considering himself sufficiently expert, continue in the same path that his parents used, etc. … Obviously such claims would be considered ridiculous. Of course one should only increase and strengthen healthy parts of the body. On the other hand, unwanted and superfluous growths must be destroyed!

In the past, this disease was not so prevalent and pronounced as it is now, and therefore it wasn’t researched so much. Moreover methods of cure were unknown, as such knowledge had not yet been granted by Heaven. Only recently, after this disease has unfortunately spread, did G-d ensure to first make the cure available and allow the discovery of the above-mentioned treatments.

Every physical entity has a corresponding spiritual source. The same is true of this disease and its treatment, which have shown up in recent generations. They come as a result of the corresponding spiritual issue, which has also been introduced only in recent generations.

We live in a time which is called “the heels of the heels of Moshiach” (see Talmud end of Sotah), after which will be fulfilled the verse34 “He made an end to darkness.” Thus it is specifically now that the evil of Amalek has become stronger. It is expressed in extreme ego and self-centeredness. In the past there was also haughtiness, but it was never expressed with the crassness that has come to characterize our era.

In the physical realm, this has led to the development of a corresponding entity, without any apparent reason or cause; growths and tumors that steal the vitality and life force from the body, as if the entire existence of the body is only for their sake.

G-d provided us with the cure even before the disease, and He revealed to us Chassidut, which completely destroys the diseased ego and sense of self.

It is obvious that there is one detail in which the two are not comparable: In the parable, if one overuses the treatment it can begin to destroy even healthy parts of the body. In the spiritual application, on the other hand, one can study more and more Chassidut, and still it will only destroy the haughtiness and ego. The healthy part will only be strengthened, for Torah is “strength and weakening”35 — it weakens the animal soul while strengthening the G-dly soul.

Every single positive action that strengthens Judaism has a spiritual effect that is eternal, according to the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya. It is only “down here,” in the physical realm, that actions are limited in time.37 This underscores the great merit — and responsibility — attached to every single action, even one that may seem insignificant.

For this concept as well we may find a parallel in the disease of cancer. It begins with one cell that starts growing and multiplying abnormally. If this growth is not stopped, it destroys the groups of cells of which it has become a part.

Consider: If this is the case in a negative matter, imagine how much more potently this principle applies in the positive sense. When a person decides to work on “one cell,” and to ensure that it grows and reproduces exceptionally well, this single cell may well prove to be the optimal catalyst for all of the surrounding cells. For anybody involved in this area of research there is surely no need for any further explanation.