Hasidism and Leah
I am big on books and stories about great Hasidic Rebbes. I am a fast reader, but somehow I read books about Rebbes very slowly. Every word, every sentence in them has so much wisdom that I savour every single moment.
Sometimes I feel though that these are just fairytales, that Rabbis like that could not possibly exist. Too good. Sometimes I am jealous that those Hasidim many years ago were able to talk to Rebbes, and I can't.
Whenever I struggle with North American way of practicing Judaism, I turn to the books about Hasidic Rebbes. They make me believe that there is still hope for us.
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At some point of time I was lost and confused; the more I was thinking, the more questions I had. I started to ask for help around, but there was none. Everyone was busy. I was sad, stopped being myself and even lemon icecream did not make me happy. And then out of despair, I contacted someone, I had never contacted before.
Sure, this person replied to me: I can meet with you tomorrow, and we will talk.
But you must be busy! said I not believing what was going on.
Well, an unhappy Jewish person is a strong reason not to be so busy, I heard.
Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire... After that meetig, my life improved.. I was back to normal - smiling and dancing my way through the days. And not because the situation was resolved, but mostly because someone showed me that I was the most important person at that point of time. Not all those other things that constitute busy, but me.
Perhaps, we don't have lots of prominent Rebbes around us; perhaps we all can't join Hasidim, but some people better than others were able to learn one important lesson of all the prominent Rebbes - one tiny ordinary person is much more important than all these meetings altogether.
This is something we could just take with us and use in everyday life - work, school, friends, family. One unhappy human being is much more important than our 'busy'.