Toras HaChassidus: Difference between revisions
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...When a person conducts himself like an animal, he is in fact worse than an animal. For an animal lacks the intellect to desire and choose something superior to its bodily cravings and desires. But a person who possesses the intellect to desire and choose something superior — such as good character traits and refined understanding — yet chooses bodily pleasures instead, is more base and corrupt than, lehavdil, the animal. | ...When a person conducts himself like an animal, he is in fact worse than an animal. For an animal lacks the intellect to desire and choose something superior to its bodily cravings and desires. But a person who possesses the intellect to desire and choose something superior — such as good character traits and refined understanding — yet chooses bodily pleasures instead, is more base and corrupt than, lehavdil, the animal. | ||
And the wisdom of subduing the physical — achieved by teaching the repulsiveness, loathsomeness, and disgust of bodily pleasures and desires, and the severity of the punishment of Gehinnom and the like that a person brings upon himself by following bodily cravings — that is the wisdom of Mussar. | And the wisdom of subduing the physical — achieved by teaching the repulsiveness, loathsomeness, and disgust of bodily pleasures and desires, and the severity of the punishment of Gehinnom and the like that a person brings upon himself by following bodily cravings — that is the wisdom of Mussar. | ||
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Those accustomed to other approaches find it difficult to understand how one can engage two such seemingly opposite poles of personality — the cold intellect and the warm heart — and expect each to influence the other. | Those accustomed to other approaches find it difficult to understand how one can engage two such seemingly opposite poles of personality — the cold intellect and the warm heart — and expect each to influence the other. | ||
In the year 5655 (1895), a group of Jewish intellectuals met with [[the Rebbe Rashab]] (Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneersohn, the fifth Chabad Rebbe). One of the questions they posed to the Rebbe was: | In the year 5655 (1895), a group of Jewish intellectuals met with [[the Rebbe Rashab]] (Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneersohn, the fifth Chabad Rebbe). One of the questions they posed to the Rebbe was: | ||