It was 1957 and time for a revolution. Chabad was known for the past two centuries as a path of spiritual union with the divine. The Rebbe was now driving that same spirit and outlook into social activism.
At one point, the Rebbe sobbed profusely as he spoke to his chassidim:
Your soul, the divine breath inside you, cries in complaint, “Give me a break! It’s enough already! How long can you expect me to endure? All I want is just a little respite so I can experience a moment of oneness with the divine!”
But the answer is “No!”
G‑d, in all His essence and being, pounds on the door and says, “No!”
“Because right here behind this door stands a Jewish child that knows nothing about Jewishness. Absolutely nothing!”
“You need to play with this child for half an hour. Then you’ll need to take the child for a walk, give the child some treats. Do whatever you can until you will be able to learn with this child, ‘kametz, alef, ah!’”
This is what Jeremiah told his protege, Baruch, when he made the same complaint: The Holy Temple lies in ruins, the Jewish people are in exile, and in the middle of it all you can only think of your own spiritual status—achieving divine spirit and prophecy?! (Jeremiah 45:4-5.)
The moment of spiritual ecstasy you desire is no more than a faint glimmer of the divine. G‑d Himself, where all light begins, awaits you in the alef-bet of that child.
Why does G-d say no? There is a very good reason. In all these thousands of years we have depended on ego, personal knowledge, revelations which we took to be for us to strengthen ourselves, get more powerful and all that, and it does, but we miss a couple very important aspects: first, we are not in our bodies, it is the other way around, and secondly, our focus is backwards, at the body when it should be upwards, toward Hashem.
He says that He is the Lord, and there is nothing else. (The usual translation of “none” else tricks our minds, our egos, so what is the difference between none and nothing? No difference.) So, everything is G-d, as He says “I AM” ; I AM what I will be already. Our ego is fantasizing, imagining we know actuality, not realizing our so-called ‘knowledge’ has no actuality. Let go of all pride, and open up to the Creator. And don’t cry about not being allowed to do whatever you want. Silence your mind and listen to Him.