I read the quote below from the Mittler (2nd) Lubavitcher Rebbe's ma'amar, Kuntrus Hahishtatchus. A kind reader from
this post on my visit to the Lubavitcher Rebbe's kever, pointed me toward
this ma'amar:
Similarly, when a person goes to the grave of a holy tzaddik, he can feel great shame and lose all sense of self concern, because he feels great embarrassment over all his deeds and thoughts which he performed until the present day, for they are all revealed before [the tzaddik]. For even in his lifetime, a tzaddik is aware of another person’s thoughts and designs, as is well known. Surely, this applies after the tzaddik’s passing, for then [his existence] is spiritual.
I understand and aspire to attain all of the different benefits the Mittler Rebbe was talking about in this ma'amar when visiting kivrei Tzadikim. But in the section from which this quote came, he was discussing one of the reasons why one's feeling of yirah, fear, is increased visiting a kever.
Although it does not reflect positively on me, I have a very difficult time believing that living Tzadikim are aware of another person's deeds, thoughts, and designs. I certainly believe that this is true with some of the Tzadikim because I have heard many stories about Tzadikim knowing things about people that they had no natural way of knowing. I also have no trouble believing that Tzadikim know about a person's actions after their petira, since they are no longer bound by this natural world. My difficulty is in accepting the truth of the Mittler Rebbe's statement that living Tzadikim (as a general matter) know a person's deeds, thoughts, and plans.
I have met with several Tzadikim over time and they were so great, l'ein erech, that it would be insulting to them even for me to acknowledge their greatness. But I clearly got the sense that they did not know much more about me besides what I told them and perhaps a little beyond that just by being very perceptive. But I clearly felt that the conversation would have gone differently if they had the kind of vision into me that the Mittler Rebbe is talking about.
Any thoughts?
Picture of Rav Aharon Teitelbaum courtesy of
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As many of you know, I am going to Uman for the first time for Rosh Hashana this year. I'm leaving on Sunday and will IY"H be traveling to five kivrei tzadikim on the way to Uman to daven.
