Ten degrees. Hasidic statements

"Soul, - says Chassidic teachings - came down to earth from heaven on the long stairs. Then it was removed. Now souls must go back. Some did not budge, because as you can reach heaven without a ladder? Others jump and fall, and jump again, but eventually recede. However, there are those who know that they can not reach heaven, but still trying to again and again as long as God takes and picks them up. "

Different ways in which people should be in the pursuit samousovershenstvovatsya - this stage Chassidic teachings. Written about them, "There is no limit to fly up and man opened all the higher levels of spiritual existence. Only solves your own choice. "

Stories and aphorisms (retold by Martin Buber) belong to the teachings of Hasidism, a mystical movement that has spread among the East European Jewry in the XVIII and XIX centuries and still inspiring his followers around the world. Bizarre and at the same time consistent theory has never strayed from its basic postulates. It possessed man, helped to realize their place in the world and pointed him the way of true life. Hasidism expresses the joy of service and believes that "there is no stage of life where we could not find the holiness of the Lord - everywhere and at all times."

Foreword

Asked p. Yaakov Yitzchak of Przysucha, "Holy Jew": "Why does it say" the truth, seek the truth "(Deuteronomy 16:20)? Why is the word "truth" is repeated? "

He said: "We must follow the truth with truth, not with wickedness." This means that dishonest means in the pursuit of truth, distort it, turning it into a lie; falsehood as a means to achieve justice, truth pays lie.

What value is the most important people of our age? The above sounds like based on the experience of our contemporaries. However, it comes from the Napoleonic era and was not uttered in the midst of those events, but lived in a Polish ghetto tzaddik - "a righteous man" who was the leader of the Hasidim. And these words were addressed to the righteous souls who know that no one can cling to God, if he is not bound to His creation and that the love of God fake, if it is not met with love for people.

The book, which lies in front of you - a collection of Hasidic statements of this kind. They all revolve around the basic question: how can we give substance to our life on earth? So, dear reader, this page will not open you the great mysteries of the universe, but they will tell you about your life and in the next hour. Collected here are statements scattered hundreds of books in versions, largely modified in the speeches and writings of students who passed them over the years. I have collected, cut, highlighting the most important, and classified them according to the main themes, not because they are colorful and entertaining, but because - and this I am convinced - that in the book, compiled in this way, these statements can benefit just to the reader which is very far from the beginning of the path to true life.

Martin Buber
Jerusalem, 1947

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword.

STEP God and man
STEP PRAYER
STEP Heaven and Earth
LEVEL OF SERVICE
STEP EXERCISE
STEP TOWARDS
STEP OF LOVE
STAGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
STEP pride and humility
STEP RESCUE
NOTES.