מַעֲנֵה רַבֵּנוּ הַזָּקֵן לִיחִידוּת: חֲסִידוּת איז שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל, שְׁמַע אִיז רָאשֵׁי תֵּיבוֹת שְׂאוּ מָרוֹם עֵינֵיכֶם, וְאוֹמֵר מָרוֹם וְלֹא שָׁמַיִם, מָרוֹם אִיז העֶכעֶר אוּן העֶכעֶר, לְהַגִּיעַ לְמַעְלָה מִן הַשֵּׂכֶל. וְזֶה גוּפָא לְהָבִינוֹ בְּשֵׂכֶל, וּכְמוֹ שֶׁאוֹמֵר וּרְאוּ מִי בָּרָא אֵלֶּה.

In response to a question at yechidus, the Alter Rebbe once gave the following response: “Chassidus is Shema Yisrael. The word Shema (שמע) is an acronym for the words, ‘Raise your eyes on high’1 (שאו מרום עיניכם) — ‘on high,’ not ‘heavenward.’ That means higher and higher, reaching beyond the intellect. Yet [we should] understand this very [non-intellectual] dimension with our minds as well — as the verse continues, “and behold Who created these.”2

A Chassid to Remember

Chassidus connects a person with the dimension of his soul that is “an actual part of G‑d Above.”3 When a person starts from this frame of reference, he is continuously seeking ways in which G‑dliness can find expression in every aspect of his life. Moreover, he not only looks for a dimension of G‑dliness that he understands; beyond that, he wants to relate to G‑d on His terms, above his own limited understanding.

On the other hand, as the Alter Rebbe concludes in the above teaching, we do not want this spiritual experience to be ethereal and otherworldly, utterly above our perception. Rather, this transcendent understanding should filter through to our day-to-day thinking processes, so that our daily lives can also align with these spiritual realizations and be enriched by them.

This ideal is encapsulated in an artless recollection that a simple old chassid once shared with the Rebbe Rayatz. His moving life-story4 revolves around one brief teaching of the Rebbe Maharash that energized this chassid from age 30 to age 90.

At his first yechidus, the Rebbe Maharash had quoted the above-cited teaching, that the word Shema (שמע) is an acronym for the three Hebrew words (שאו מרום עיניכם) that mean, “Raise your eyes on high.” Then, enigmatically, he had added three words: “Shema isYisrael.”

When that message was decoded, it told the chassid that a person who meditates on the above verse whenever he says the Shema with every fiber of his being is elevated thereby to the level of Yisrael. And the name Yisrael is reserved for a Jew who serves G‑d like a son; he has reached the stage at which his service is motivated not only by an awe of G‑d, but also by his love of Him.

After following this advice throughout his long life, the old man concluded his reminiscence of his original yechidus to the Rebbe Rayatz with these words: “One request I have yet to the Al-mighty: When the time comes for me to return to Him the soul that He has entrusted in my keeping, and I am to breathe Shema Yisrael for the very last time, I pray that He grant me a clear mind, so that then, too, I will be able to recall those words the Rebbe told me — Shema is Yisrael!”