The Power of a Holy Leader’s Will

Opening: A Question Someone might ask: a Torah school is founded years after a holy leader has passed away. How can we call it his school? Isn’t that just a sentimental thing to say? It honors his memory and gives a nice comfort, but is it something real? After all, he is not here. His hands never laid one stone on another. What connection could he have to a place that was built after he was gone? The truth is that this question goes much deeper. Every Hasidic follower asks it inside himself when he is about to act. Am I doing this on my own? Or is there another power working through me? And if there is another power, where did I get it from? First Foundation: A Holy Leader’s Will Creates Reality The Talmud teaches: “A righteous person decrees, and Hashem fulfills.” The words are exact. “Decrees” is a word of carving, of cutting, of making something real. It does not say he “asks.” It does not say he “hopes.” He decrees. Why is this so? Because the will of a righteous person is not a private will. A righteous person expresses the will of Hashem above. He is like a polished mirror, and through it shines an inner light that has no bottom. When he wants something, there are not two powers here, the will of a man and the will of Hashem. There is one will, revealed through one vessel. So what he does does not depend on his being here in body. The will he willed is still there, and still working, even after he himself has left this world. As Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya (the classic book of Hasidic thought), wrote in one of his letters: “The righteous who have passed away… on the contrary, leaving the body brings them an even greater rise.” Second Foundation: “I Have Known Him”: Knowing Gives Power So far we have explained that a holy leader’s will keeps on working. But there is a deeper new idea here. The holy leader said: “I knew that they would do this.” He did not mean that he had foreseen the future. He meant something else entirely: by the power of my knowing, I gave them the strength to do it. We can understand this through a great principle laid down by the author of the Tanya. Knowing is not watching from the side. It is an inner bond, a real connection. When a holy leader truly knows his student, he sees the soul as it was before it was born. He sees the divine strength hidden inside him that has not yet come out. And this knowing, which is a real connection, draws that strength out of hiding and into the open. That is exactly what was said here: “I knew that you were going to do this.” In other words: by knowing you, by seeing the spark inside you, I set in place the reality that the school would be built. The knowing is the mission. And the mission brings the strength along with it. It is like Moses when he laid his hands on Joshua. He did not hand him information. Rather, as Hashem told him: “Put some of your majesty upon him.” He passed into him a strength and a power he did not have before. Laying on the hands was itself the empowering. A Note: What a Hasidic Torah School Really Is Some schools take care of the head. Some take care of the heart as well. The school this holy leader wanted is one that gives a soul to every young man. “He gives them a soul, the heart of every young man.” That is what was said about this school. This is not a small detail. It is the very essence of a Hasidic Torah school: not only training the head, but building a person. It means seeing in every young man the strength hidden inside him, and bringing it out into the light. This puts into practice the love for every Jew taught by the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement. There is no such thing as a small person. There is no soul that does not deserve inner care and attention. Closing: A Circle of Delight When a follower carries out his master’s will, he is not only following an order. He is returning the will to where it came from. This brings great delight to the soul of the holy leader. And that delight does not flow only one way. It comes back and pours down on the students and on the school as blessing, as vitality, as success. So, my friend, when you stand there asking yourself whether your small deed really matters, know this: the master has already seen you. He saw the strength in you, the soul in you, what you are able to give. And his knowing has already landed inside you as vitality and power. You are not acting alone. You are acting out of his will, by the power of his knowing, as part of a great symphony that he conducted. His school was built because he knew it would be built. And his knowing is what built it.