A chasm opens up between the Torah scholars and students and the masses of the people. Each camp is full of claims, anger, and criticism towards the other camp. As a result of this disconnect, many Jews distance themselves from Jewish life. Increasing tensions arise between the groups.
This may seem like a description of the situation prevailing today, but in fact it accurately describes the situation in the Jewish world some three hundred years ago. A rift developed between the learned class and the common Jews, and as a result the masses of the people were increasingly drawn to the Gentiles around them.
Then, on the 1st of Elul, the great soul of the Baal Shem Tov descended into the world. On that day, his teacher and rabbi appeared to him and taught him all the secrets of the Torah, while he acted as a hidden righteous man and led the community of hidden righteous men. And then, when he was thirty-six, also on the 1st of Elul, he was commanded from heaven to appear and spread the system of Hasidism.
Extraction from dryness
Hasidism brought about a transformation that changed the face of the Jewish world. It united the parts of the people, and gave meaning to the service of God by ordinary people. Just as it lifted the spirits of the masses, it taught scholars to look with envy at the simplicity and innocence of the ordinary Jew, who worships his Creator with a sincere heart.
Hasidism rescued Jewish life from the intellectual dryness that had clung to it. It breathed life into it. Love of Israel, joy, pure faith, prayer with enthusiasm, study of Torah with devotion, observance of the commandments with excitement and joy, the faith of the righteous – Hasidism brought all of this on its wings, alongside an immense spiritual wealth of teachings, sayings, stories, melodies, and more.
Hasidism taught us what true love for Israel is. The ability and necessity to love a completely wicked person just as one loves a completely righteous person. All of this from a perspective that sees the very essence of Judaism, the fact that every Jew is the only son of God, a part of God from above. Just as parents love their only son, regardless of his actions.
Several decades after the Baal Shem Tov, the soul of Rabbi Shneur-Zalman of Ladi, founder of Chabad Hasidism, descended into the world, also on the day of Elul.
He developed the ideas of Hasidism into a comprehensive and coherent Torah, as he formulated its main points in the Tanya he wrote. From here began a conceptual breakthrough of Hasidism, as a profound theoretical Torah, giving new meaning to the Torah and its commandments.
The healer for the fracture
The light of Hasidism also carries with it the cure for the rift that afflicts the people today. Instead of continuing to fight – seek unity. Instead of attacking those who think differently – find the way to love them too and discover the 'diamond' hidden within them.
Chassidism provides a solution for those who feel a dryness in their life of Torah and mitzvot. When they open their soul to its light, they will discover new springs of inner vitality. Their lives will take on a new flavor and a deeper meaning.
Let us take this light and with it welcome the new year.
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