QUESTION:
1) Is the concept of tikkun (repairing the soul) limited to only Bresslev and Sefardim, where this particular word is used a lot, or does it also apply to the Litvishe world and also to all branches of Chassidus? Does the Litvish yeshiva world hold that a person gets a tikkun for his soul just by learning Gemara on condition that he also learns mussar, and that we don’t need to be worried about how to get a tikkun for our souls, since learning Torah brings a person to everything? For example, does Tikkun HaKlali also apply to the world of yeshivos who are going in the Litvish way, in particular because the Litvish world didn’t approve of Rebbi Nachman and they also don’t make a big deal about repairing sins of violating Bris Kodesh?
ANSWER:
Not necessarily. There are many different ways to get a tikkun, and the root of all of them is through mesirus nefesh in general, and in particular by learning Torah with exertion. Accepting suffering with love is also a form of tikkun for the entire soul, and there are other ways of tikkun as well.
QUESTION
2) How is the Rav able to take the “middle path” between all of the many different approaches in avodas Hashem and integrate them all together? How are we able to do this? How is the Rav able to combine together the Litvish and Chassidic approaches together (and also different Chassidic approaches together), if each path is based on a certain approach that totally does not agree with the other approach? How can a person fuse together different approaches in his avodas Hashem when each approach was diametrically opposed to the other? How can a person “take from everyone”, isn’t this a problem of being mehapech tzinoros, mixing different channels of Heaven that oppose and contradict each other? For example, if the Gra would be around today, would he approve of a Litvish kolel avreich applying a concept of the Baal Shem Tov or Baal HaTanya in his avodas Hashem…?
ANSWER
I already asked my Rebbi, the Rosh Yeshiva Rav Gershon Edelstein, earlier than 15 years ago about this, especially after I received sharp critique from others because I was mostly using a lot of Chassidic approaches in the shiurim I gave. He answered me that I had already received this way of avodah from the approach of Rav Dessler, who taught in the yeshivah I learned in. You can see very well in sefer Michtav M’Eliyahu of Rav Dessler that he often combines together the approaches of mussar and Chassidus. Rav Edelstein told me to take the same approach and to continue teaching in that way. If we analyze this from a deeper perspective, it is really because the End of Days enables a spiritual light of integration, which enables an approach that encompasses together every approach in avodas Hashem. It is the secret of unifying all of the Torah together, and also the secret of unifying Klal Yisrael.
QUESTION
3) Why isn’t this going against each person’s mesorah in avodas Hashem that each person has based on his yeshiva or community that he’s part of?
ANSWER
You can see that today a person can be “generally Chassidic” without identifying himself with a particular Chassidus, and there can be many different external reasons for this, but the deeper reason is because the light of the End of Days is shining, in which everything can be integrated together. That is why Rav Dessler taught mussar and chassidus together in the yeshiva of Ponovezh which he taught in. And also from the approach of Rav Hutner [taught to me by Rav Yonasan David] I first received the ability of deep Torah thought, and it was Rav Hutner who said about himself “To the chassidim, I am too Chassidish, and to the Litvish, I am too Chassidish….”
QUESTION
2) How is the Rav able to take the “middle path” between all of the many different approaches in avodas Hashem and integrate them all together? How are we able to do this? How is the Rav able to combine together the Litvish and Chassidic approaches together (and also different Chassidic approaches together), if each path is based on a certain approach that totally does not agree with the other approach? How can a person fuse together different approaches in his avodas Hashem when each approach was diametrically opposed to the other? How can a person “take from everyone”, isn’t this a problem of being mehapech tzinoros, mixing different channels of Heaven that oppose and contradict each other? For example, if the Gra would be around today, would he approve of a Litvish kolel avreich applying a concept of the Baal Shem Tov or Baal HaTanya in his avodas Hashem…?
ANSWER
I already asked my Rebbi, the Rosh Yeshiva Rav Gershon Edelstein, earlier than 15 years ago about this, especially after I received sharp critique from others because I was mostly using a lot of Chassidic approaches in the shiurim I gave. He answered me that I had already received this way of avodah from the approach of Rav Dessler, who taught in the yeshivah I learned in. You can see very well in sefer Michtav M’Eliyahu of Rav Dessler that he often combines together the approaches of mussar and Chassidus. Rav Edelstein told me to take the same approach and to continue teaching in that way. If we analyze this from a deeper perspective, it is really because the End of Days enables a spiritual light of integration, which enables an approach that encompasses together every approach in avodas Hashem. It is the secret of unifying all of the Torah together, and also the secret of unifying Klal Yisrael.
QUESTION
3) Why isn’t this going against each person’s mesorah in avodas Hashem that each person has based on his yeshiva or community that he’s part of?
ANSWER
You can see that today a person can be “generally Chassidic” without identifying himself with a particular Chassidus, and there can be many different external reasons for this, but the deeper reason is because the light of the End of Days is shining, in which everything can be integrated together. That is why Rav Dessler taught mussar and chassidus together in the yeshiva of Ponovezh which he taught in. And also from the approach of Rav Hutner [taught to me by Rav Yonasan David] I first received the ability of deep Torah thought, and it was Rav Hutner who said about himself “To the chassidim, I am too Chassidish, and to the Litvish, I am too Chassidish….”
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