Hasiduth: The Rebbi, Spiritual Master

The Mishna recommends choosing a spiritual master, a rebbi, and acquiring a companion in the pathway to God

 “Make a master for yourself”.  Avoth 1:6

Rebbi Abraham in his book The Satisfaction of the Servant points out that progress in the spiritual path requires the direction of a guide.

 “What you need to know and put into practice is that the stage that leads successfully to the real meeting has as its precondition the walking on the way under the direction of a guide who has himself achieved the meeting”

The Torah explicitly says regarding the disciple and the master:

“ Yehoshu’a,  servant of Moshe, one of his young men”  

“The master of the prophet Samuel was Eli the Cohen and that of Elisha, Elijah and that of Baruk ben Neriah, Jeremiah. The prophets were called Benei ha nebiym, sons of the prophets, for this very reason: the prophets were their guide.  This tradition was passed on to others who followed it in the form of sheikh and khadim, masters and disciples,  as it is written:

 “They received of your own commandments”  Deut 33.3  

Rebbi Abraham warned that one who goes on a spiritual path without a guide will have difficulty in achieving the goal and will meet with obstacles.

“The one who advances without a guide… creates obstruction for himself in his stages. I mean to say that he will tend to deviate from the correct path and think he meets when he does not meet, as the false prophets did before him.”

However Rebbi Abraham affirmed that if a disciple is capable, and properly follows the instruction of a guide who is truly initiated, he will certainly himself reach the goal:

“But he who is qualified and advances under the direction of a guide who has achieved the “meeting” will himself achieve the meeting”

Rebbi Abraham gives an example from the biblical book of Samuel where the guidance of a true spiritual master, the spiritual influence of his blessing, and the prophetic practices have awakened the hearts of the aspirants.

Consider what the scriptures tell us regarding the prophetic realization achieved by the prophets under the direction of Samuel standing over them, supervising them. The messengers of Saul, present, but without a prior intention to realize the meeting, meet, because their qualification, preparation and the moment of submission, they showed to the prophet Samuel.  Even the one who sent them (I mean Saul) returned to the meeting after he had abandoned it.  Scriptures say on this subject:

“And he sent messengers to seize  David  and they saw the  band of the prophets practicing, with  Samuel standing, guiding them, and the spirit of God was upon Saul’s messengers and even they  prophesied….Then Saul went himself and the spirit of God was also upon him until he arrived … Then he took of his cloth and he, too,  prophesized”      

We learn from Rebbi Abraham that the condition of the spiritual realization of qualified seekers is the guidance of a spiritual guide.

The qualifications of this guide are:

a)  To practice the outward and inward Torah path, the common path and the intimate path.

b)  To have been the disciple of another master, going back to Moshe (Peace to him)

c)  To have arrived himself at the meeting.

a) To practice the outward and inward Torah path.   The common path is the observance of the explicit Torah commandments, the intimate path or special path is “a way of life attuned to the objectives and the secret of the commandments, the implied goal of the Torah and the actualization of the inward states of the prophets and the friends of God."

b)  To have been the disciple of another master, going back to Moshe, our master and his disciple Yehoshu’a as is written: Yehoshu’a, the servant of Moshe, one of his young men. Bamidbar 11.28 Regarding the requirement of having been the disciple of another master, this is what the transmitters of the tradition (mishnah) have said, “Make a master for yourself” and they have taught the chain of the tradition: “Moshe received Torah from Sinai and transmitted to Yehoshu’a and Yehoshu’a to the elders and the elders to the prophets and the prophets to the men of the great assembly” etc 

c)  To have achieved the Meeting. Our father Ya’aqob achieved meeting “and he met the place  (wa-ifg’a ba-maqom) and tarried there all the night, etc… and he dreamed, and behold the Lord stood beside him, and said: I am the lord. King David, Prince of the Hasids met as we see in the book of Psalms:  after having been absorbed in his contemplation “How great are you friends, O God, how great they number! How to count them? They are more numerous than grains of sand” he entered a kind of prophetic trance because his individuality was extinguished in God when achieving the meeting. When he awoke, the effect of that meeting still remained and he was able to contemplate the divine unity in every thing and every moment:” I awoke and I am still with you.” So in the same way, the spiritual guide must have experienced the annulment of his individuality and enjoy the persistence of the contemplation of God’s unity in every thing and every moment.  

 The teaching of a living master is absolutely indispensable for one who desires to fight the war against the yesser, his ego and his drive. This is because Hasiduth is not knowledge acquired from book, nor a mental construction.  It is the work of interior transformation, the cleansing of the heart and its circumcision.

You will make me a sanctuary and I will dwell in you.  Shemoth

Solomon exclaimed: Behold heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you; how much less the house which I have built! 2 Chronicles 6: 18.  The answer to the question of Solomon is already contained in the commandment to build the sanctuary: You will make me a sanctuary but I will dwell in you…in your heart.

Making the heart a dwelling place for God is the work made through the spiritual influence of the true Rebbi who communicates his spiritual energy to his disciple. The rebbi will guide his disciple and give him spiritual tools with which to practice.  Through this practices the disciple will go from “rampart to rampart” - through the different pathways to make the heart an habitation for God.  The Rebbi will advise and rectify, encourage and slow down because the walking on the path which makes one realize the meeting consists of advancing through all stages and going through all the steps. This is because all of the different stages of the way are dependant each upon the other. For example, humility is connected with patience, contentment with asceticism and so on. The rebbi will help the disciple to find his center (nequda ha-penimith) and to let grow and self-actualize this center. After having walked all the pathways and climbed through all the stages of this big war, the truth will appear: Only through true complete surrender may one build the sanctuary of the heart. The Rebbi will guide the disciple through the process to reach the meeting: physical retreat in the desert and spiritual retreat through the delectation of the names of God.