הֶחָסִיד ר' מָרְדְּכַי האָראָדאָקעֶר סִפֵּר: פִּתְגָם הָרִאשׁוֹן שֶׁשָּׁמַעְנוּ מֵרַבֵּנוּ הַזָּקֵן כְּשֶׁבָּאנוּ לְלִיאָזנאָ הָיָה: וואָס מעֶן טאָר נִיט טאָר מעֶן נִיט, אוּן וואָס מעֶן מעֶג דאַרף מעֶן נִיט. — כְּשָׁלֹשׁ אַרְבַּע שָׁנִים עָבַדְנוּ בָּזֶה עַד שֶׁהֵבֵאנוּ אוֹפֶן זֶה בְּעִנְיָנֵי חַיֵּינוּ, וְרַק אָז נִכְנַסְנוּ לִיחִידוּת לִשְׁאוֹל דֶּרֶךְ בָּעֲבוֹדָה.

As an eminent chassid by the name of R. Mordechai of Horodok once recalled, “The first maxim we heard from the Alter Rebbe when we came to Liozna was this: ‘What is forbidden is forbidden. And what is permitted is dispensable.’1 We worked on this challenge for three or four years, until we internalized it in our own lives. Only then did we enter the Rebbe’s study for yechidus, to request his guidance in choosing a personal path in our Divine service.”2

Probing Beneath the Surface

It is easy to imagine the eagerness with which the chassidim who had studied the Alter Rebbe’s teachings looked forward to his personal guidance as they made their way to Liozna for the first time. When they finally arrived there, longing for the transformative experience of their first yechidus, it must have been quite a sobering moment when they discovered that this could take place only after prolonged avodah on their part.3

Long ago, an anonymous individual expressed this concept by means of a whimsical — and utterly ungrammatical — interpretation of a verse:4 אם בעל אשה הוא, ויצאה אשתו עמו. Translated normatively, this verse speaks of a Jewish bondman who is about to return to his home after completing his term of service: “If he has a wife [lit., ‘if he is the husband of a wife’], his wife shall leave together with him.”

Invoking a species of poetic license, the above-mentioned person decided that these words could also serve as encoded words of advice for an indolent chassid who, instead of toiling to ignite his own soul, pins all his hopes for instant spiritual elevation on his forthcoming yechidus. So, since the word אשה (“woman”) recalls the word אש (“fire”), and since the word בעל (“husband”) recalls the word בעלים (“owner”), this person read the verse as follows: אם בעל אשה הוא - “If the chassid is already the owner of his own fire, ויצאה אשתו עמו — the Rebbe’s fire will then accompany him when he leaves….”