The Hasidic masters are illumined beings who, in the abandon of ecstasy, share with all thirsty souls the secret that human life can disappear into Divine Presence while still being lived on the earthly plane.

  Part 1:  Holy Ecstacy

As one enters the realm of holy ecstasy, the philosophical enterprise catches fire.  When questioned about rational proof for God’s existence, a soul master picked up the sacred Torah and exclaimed, I swear God exists.  Do you need anything else?  From someone who consciously lives and moves in God, this is a truly convincing demonstration of Divine Presence, for it is Divine Presence. Once thought and perception are ignited by the ecstatic flame of a soul on fire, as Elie Wiesel describes in the Hasidic masters, we become conscious of God’s Life living through us and can no more doubt God’s existence than we can doubt our own.

This mystery of Divine Life lived secretly through human life is revealed in the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah.  Kabbalistic wisdom is ordinarily shared only among elite circles, but the Hasidic masters are illumined beings who, in the abandon of ecstasy, share with all thirsty souls the secret that human life can disappear into Divine Presence while still being lived on the earthly plane.  While the traditional Kabbalist moves toward this secret union with the Divine through esoteric study and contemplation in solitude, the Hasidic master disappears into God’s Life by transforming ordinary daily existence into the holy dance of ecstasy, by perceiving God only.

This approach of God only, because of its intense simplicity, can be difficult to appreciate.  We may fear that the fire of ecstasy will consume our ability to think rationally.  Yet the ecstasy of Divine Life is a warm, sweet flame that irradiates our thinking process, rather than turning it to ashes.  And the soul master can communicate this ecstasy directly, as one candle is lit from another.  Wiesel reports the words of a Hasidic disciple concerning his rebbe, or spiritual guide:  No matter how hardened, how icy your soul may be, at his touch it will burst into flames.

Spiritual discipline prepares the practitioner to embrace life with holy ecstasy rather than viscerally or selfishly. 

Israel Baal Shem Tov was a holy teacher, living in Eastern Europe from about 1700 to 1760, who reawakened the Hasidic flame in Jewish tradition, the flame of ecstasy, which often remains hidden in the glowing coals of orthodox practice of Torah.  The details of his life survive only in legendary tales, but he appears to have been one of several Baal Shems, or Master of the Name, who were wandering saints, healers, and visionaries.  The Baal Shem Tov, judging from the powerful lineage of soul masters he generated, was never destined to be an obscure sage or shaman.  Although Jewish tradition has crystallized in such a way that new prophets are not allowed to appear, the Baal Shem Tov may be regarded as a holy figure comparable in stature to the biblical prophet Elijah.  Any crystallized religious tradition can be melted by the fire of ecstasy, allowing Diving Presence to flow again in all its original power.  This release of holy power, the rediscovery of the fullness of Divine Life abiding the human heart, occurred with dramatic intensity through the Baal Shem Tov, his disciples, and the lineage of soul masters that flows from him.

Elie Wiesel tells a story about the Baal Shem and his mystical intimacy with the prophet Elijah.   One day the Ball Shem promised his disciples to show them the prophet Elijah.  “Open your eyes wide,” he said.  A few days later they saw a beggar enter the House of Study and emerge clutching a book under this arm.  Shortly thereafter they watched his leaving a ceremony, taking along a silver spoon.  The third time he appeared to them disguised as a soldier on a horse, asking them to light his pipe.  “It was he,” said the Baal Shem.  “The secret is in the eyes.”  Through this living parable of the beggar soldier, the Baal Shem was not suggesting that everyone is Elijah, but that everyone can be.  If God wills to manifest Elijah – holy ecstasy of Divine Presence – through any particular being, it can be done.  This is the revolutionary stance of the Hasidic Way.

The Hasidic Way, like the Tantric Way, is ecstatic celebration of the Divine Life which lives through all lives.  This celebration rises above the limits imposed by conventional religiousness, and yet remains rooted in intense commitment to the practice of mitzvah, to the ways of holy living revealed through the Torah.  This spiritual discipline prepares the practitioner to embrace life with holy ecstasy rather than viscerally or selfishly.  Wiesel tells the story of how a certain rebbe became the disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch, who was one of the Baal Shem’s direct disciples.  This rebbe, like the Maggid before him, embraced the Hasidic Way of divine Celebration only after rigorous discipline. For years he had lived in seclusion, refusing to meet people so as not to take time away from Torah.  One day he heard a Hasid quote the Maggid’s interpretation of Umala haaretz kinvanekha, the earth is full of things that permit man to acquire partnership with God….He climbed out the nearest window and hurried to Mezeritch.  Later he told the famous Goan of Vilna:  “What I learned in Mezeritch?  One simple truth:  vehai bahem, Torah is given to man so he may celebrate life.”

A mathematical formula, a headache, the death of a loved one, a child’s game, a religious ceremony – each permits us to acquire partnership with God when experienced ecstatically, when celebrated as God’s own Life.  If the universe were fundamentally separated from the Divine, true partnership or union with God would be impossible. But since the Universe is God’s Life, our own life, our own mind, our own dream is an open door to the Divine.  All life is only Divine Life, and each moment or situation can be used to awaken partnership or union with God.  Writes Wiesel:  The Maggid interpreted the Talamudic saying Vedia me lemala mimkha as follows:  vede, know that, ma lemala, what occurs up above, mimkha, derives from you as well. Whatever the event, you are the origin; it is through you, through your will, that God manifests Himself.  God is dreaming the universe through the souls of all beings, themselves sparks of the Divine, like an endless Hasidic story, rich in spiritual meaning, mysterious in design.

See Also:
Part 2: Understanding Suffering
Part 3: Guidance from Soul Masters
Part 4: Awakening to Our Divine Nature
Part 5: Spiritual Life on an Earthly Plane