מִפִּתְגָּמֵי אַאַזְמוּ"ר: דעֶר שֵׂכֶל אוּן מִדּוֹת געֶבּוֹי פוּן אַ חָסִיד, אִיז לְפִי עֶרֶךְ זַיין עֶרְשְׁטעֶ יְחִידוּת בַּא זַיין רֶבִּי'ן. דִי עֶרְשְׁטעֶ יְחִידוּת אִיז לְפִי עֵרֶךְ מְהוּת עַצְמוֹ פוּן אַ חָסִיד, לְפִי אוֹפֶן מְהוּת עַצְמוֹ אַזאַ סֵדֶר עֲבוֹדָה גִיט אִיהם דעֶר רֶבִּי.

My revered grandfather, the Rebbe [Maharash], used to say: The intellectual and emotional constitution of a chassid mirrors his first yechidus with his Rebbe. The first yechidus reflects the chassid’s essential nature: the path in Divine service that the Rebbe gives the chassid [at that time] corresponds to this essential nature.1

A Chassid to Remember

In the letter from which the above teaching is taken, the Rebbe Rayatzcites the description given by the Rebbe Maharash of two diverse modes within the Chabad approach to Divine service: (a) a steady and measured intellectual approach, and (b) a radical and spontaneous emotional approach.2 As exemplars of these approaches, he names two famous Chabad chassidim, R. Moshe Vilenker and R. Yekusiel Liepler, and describes how their respective personalities were reflected in their first yechidus with the Alter Rebbe.

For three years R. Moshe Vilenker prepared himself for his first yechidus with the Alter Rebbe. After that encounter he was so overwhelmed by the Rebbe’s teachings that he had to appoint two chassidim to watch over him that evening, lest his absorption in them cause him to inadvertently skip words in the Evening Service and the Prayer before Retiring at Night. For this is the way of a thinker — slow, methodical, but intense.3

By contrast, as soon as R. Yekusiel Liepler learned about the path of Chassidus and the Alter Rebbe, he rushed to Liozna to meet him at yechidus. The elder chassidim at the door refused him entry, declaring that he would first have to prepare himself. However, he was not the kind of man who would take No for an answer. He promptly clambered up the wall outside the Rebbe’s private study in the attic, jumped in through the window, and cried: “Rebbe, chop off my left side!”4 Such fiery emotion was the basis of his subsequent connection with the Rebbe.5

Incidentally, R. Yekusiel’s peers later testified that this request was granted: the Alter Rebbe’s blessing indeed enabled him to climb to greater heights. However, they did not look fondly on his new spiritual attainments — because he had secured them as a gift, instead of earning them by his own toil.

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These vignettes illustrate the way in which the first yechidus of every chassid is tailored to his distinctive spiritual personality and empowers its further growth.