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The Exalted Rebbe הצדיק הנשגב

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The Exalted Rebbe הצדיק הנשגב THE EXALTED REBBE הצדיק הנשגב YESHUA IN LIGHT OF THE CHASSIDIC CONCEPTS OF DEVEKUT AND TZADDIKISM הקדמה לרעיון הדבקות בחסידות ויחסו למשיחיות ישוע THE EXALTED REBBE AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CONCEPT OF DEVEKUT AND TZADDIKISM IN CHASIDIC THOUGHT TOBY JANICKI Jewish critics of Messianic Judaism and the New Testament will often raise the argument that the Hebrew Scriptures do not set a precedent for the concept of an intercessor who stands between God and man. In other words, the idea that we need Messiah Yeshua to be the one to lead us to the Father and intercede on our behalf is not biblical. These critics state that we can approach God on our own faith and merit with no need for anyone to be a go-between. In their minds such an idea is idolatrous and completely foreign to Judaism. However, the talmudic sages of Israel developed the idea of the need for an intercessor in the con- cept of the tzaddik (“righteous one”). They, along with the later Chasidic movement, found proof for the need for an intermediary in the Torah and the rest of the Scriptures. By examining the tzaddik within Judaism we can not only defend our faith in the Master but we can also better understand His role from a Torah perspective. THE TZADDIK A true .(צדק ,is derived from the Hebrew word for “righteousness” (tzedek (צדיק) The word tzaddik tzaddik is a sinless person. Tzaddik has the sense of “one whose conduct is found to be beyond re- proach by the divine Judge.”1 According to the New Testament, there is no such person, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”2 the only exception being Yeshua of Nazareth, who was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”3 From apostolic reckoning and the perspective of Messianic faith, Yeshua is the only true tzaddik. However, Chasidic Judaism (which operates without the benefit of the New Testament Scriptures) supposes that there might be several such individuals who have completely subjugated their evil inclinations and live their lives as pure vessels for HaSh- em.4 In Chasidic thought, the tzaddik is a miracle-worker. He is an intermediary between man and God. When he suffers, his suffering atones for the sins of his generation. He is a prophet and visionary who can give answers directly from heaven. He is a shepherd for his followers, and he cares for each individual Jew. He is a priest of sorts in that his prayers do not go unanswered: “The effective prayer of a righteous man (tzaddik) can accomplish much.”5 The tzaddik is therefore seen as an intercessor. The tzaddik is the foundation of the world.6 He “draws everything to him, for the true Tzaddik is the foundation of the world and everything derives from him. All the other Tzaddikim are only branches of the true Tzaddik.”7 The tzaddik is treated as a king in that his word is absolute and must be obeyed without hesitation or question. He draws disciples around him which form a spiritual type of royal court, and his children often follow in the tzaddik path, thereby establishing dynastic houses of tzaddikim. Attachment to such a tzaddik elevates one’s spiritual status and is the only means for attachment to HaShem Himself. The way to reach HaShem is through connection and devotion to a tzaddik. A Chasid is the disciple of a tzaddik. However, the concept of attachment to a tzaddik did not begin with the Chasidic movement. Instead, it is a concept which reaches all the way back to the Talmudic era, and perhaps even to the Apostolic Era.8 2 ATTACHMENT TO HASHEM -Devekut is a He .(דבקות) Tzaddikism begins with a Torah command: the commandment of devekut which means “to ,(דבק) brew word that means “attachment,” and it comes from the root word davak cling, cleave, keep close.” Yet the concept of devekut is not so much a physical action as it is a state of being. The commandment is found in the book of Deuteronomy: You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling [davak] to Him, and you shall swear by His name. (Deuteronomy 10:20) The sages saw that Deuteronomy 10:20 commands us to “cling,” “hold fast,” and “bind ourselves” to HaShem.9 The Torah even says that it was devekut that preserved the Israelites in the wilderness.10 While on the surface it seems plausible that this command can be carried out, there is a problem with clinging to HaShem. Deuteronomy 4:24 says, “The LORD your God is a consuming fire.” To the rabbis, the idea of literally clinging to the Holy One did not seem feasible. Human beings are unholy. Just seeing God means death.11 Literally approaching and laying hold of HaShem is impossible. Therefore, the sages reasoned, the commandment of clinging to HaShem can only be fulfilled by clinging to a worthy representative of HaShem. They reinterpreted the commandment to mean that one must cling to a worthy sage or to his disciples, and this clinging would in turn be counted as clinging to the Almighty. Maimonides codifies the commandment ofdevekut this way in his Book of the Commandments: By this injunction we are commanded to mix and associate with wise men, to be always in their company, and to join with them in every possible manner of fellowship: in eating, drinking, and business affairs, to the end that we may succeed in becoming like them in respect of their actions and in acquiring true opinions from their words. (Rambam, Sefer HaMitzvot)12 In Hebrew thought, the closer a person is connected to HaShem’s agent, whether that agent be a prophet, a sage, or a rabbi, the closer the person is connected with HaShem. A prototype of this can be seen in the life of Moses, who received the commandments and mediated between HaShem and Israel: I was standing between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. (Deuteronomy 5:5)13 The more carefully Israel clung to Moses and his teaching, the better they were clinging to HaShem. .to God (צנור ”,and a tzinor (“pipeline (שביל ”,Thus a tzaddik becomes a shevil (“pathway ATTACHMENT TO THE MASTER The same model applies to the apostolic understanding of our relationship with Yeshua. The con- cept of devekut sheds light on the “oneness” passages in the Gospel of John. For example: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him. (John 14:6–7) Read with the concept of devekut in mind, these words call us to communion with the Father through means of clinging to the Master. In a way similar to the rabbinic concept explained above, the Master reveals the Father to us, and the more we know Yeshua, the more we will know HaShem. From the Torah’s perspective of clinging to HaShem, our intimate relationship and connection with Yeshua takes on the level of a mitzvah. By clinging to Him, we are fulfilling the commandment of Deuteron- omy 10:20 “to cling” to God. 3 CLINGING TO THE TZADDIK Devekut is understood as clinging to a righteous man (tzaddik) in order to cleave to God. The term tzaddik is used many times throughout the Scriptures and is even applied to several individuals in the Gospels: Joseph (the father of Yeshua), Zechariah and Elizabeth, John the Immerser, Simeon the Priest, and Joseph of Aramathea. In church literature it is recorded that James the brother of Yeshua was called James the Righteous and described as “the most just of men” (i.e., a tzaddik) by his con- temporaries.14 It is a term that is used sparingly and given only to people who lived their lives with utmost piety and dedication to the Torah. In these cases, however, the term is used in the figurative sense, not in the absolute theological sense. The New Testament does not mean to imply that these individuals were completely without sin. In rabbinic literature, the tzaddik is sinless and, in many ways, superhuman. In the Talmud, HaShem is reputed to declare, “Who rules Me? It is the righteous.”15 According to this talmudic passage, the tzaddik—much like Moses in the story of the Golden Calf—is said to have the ability to annul God’s decrees of judgment.16 The Talmud goes on to suggest that it is the righteous who are destined to res- urrect the dead.17 For Judaism to suggest that HaShem would allow the tzaddik to partner with Him in resurrecting the dead elevates the righteous to a very high level. In fact, seeing a tzaddik was to behold the “very face of the Shechinah.” 18 The tzaddik is said to be a mini-temple, a dwelling place for God’s presence here on earth: The house of study of Rabbi Eliezer was shaped like an arena, and there was in it a stone, which was reserved for him to sit on. Once Rabbi Joshua came in and began kissing the stone and saying, “This stone is like Mount Sinai, and he who sat on it is like the Ark of the Covenant.” (Song of Songs Rabbah 1:20)19 In the eighteenth century, devout Chasidic Jews traveled to visit their teachers, men they believed to be tzaddikim, at the pilgrimage festivals: Passover, Shavu’ot, and Sukkot.20 They made the pilgrim- ages to fulfill the Torah’s command that the Israelites were to go up to the Temple for those festi- vals.21 The Chasidic world believed that the tzaddik revealed God’s presence here on earth just as the Temple once had.22 The Chasidim taught that the tzaddik was able to do this through the process of bittul (“annulment”), in which he completely divested himself of his own interests so that his en- tire essence might be emptied and he might become a vessel for HaShem alone.23 The last Chabad Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, taught that through this process the tzaddik becomes “the essence and being of God placed in a body.”24 Commenting on Schneerson’s words Rabbi Avraham Pevzner believed: “The essence and being of God placed in a body” means that a supremely righteous man literally annuls his own identity so that his entire essence becomes God.25 Chasidic thought regards the righteous as HaShem’s lightning rods throughout the earth, ready to conduct His presence and draw it to the earth.
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