When The Kotzker Rebbe was five years old, he asked his father “Where is God?” to which his father answered “God is everywhere!” The young boy then corrected his father by saying “No, I think God is only where you let Him in.” This remarkable story was quoted by the late Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan in Innerspace: Introduction to Kabbalah.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk (1787 – 27 January 1859) more commonly referred to as the Kotzker Rebbe, was a Hasidic leader, known for his sharp wit and practical interpretation of Jewish law.
His thoughts and teachings penetrate modern pop spirituality. In Paper Towns, John Green writes “When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. ” And, the popular haunting lyrics sung by Leonard Cohen still echo: “There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.”
The Kotzker Rebbe appears to have had little patience for false piety. “Do not be satisfied with the speech of your lips and the thought in your heart, all the promises and good sayings in your mouth, and all the good thoughts in your heart; rather you must arise and do!” And he warns “When a man makes a reverent face before a face that is no face — that is idol worship!”
The Rebbe understood psychoanalysis “People are accustomed to look at the heavens and to wonder what happens there. It would be better if they would look within themselves, to see what happens there.” The teachings later resurfaced in Freudian theory as well as Bernard Baruch: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”
Albert Einstein coined “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” The Rebbe had said it more pragmatically “Whoever believes in miracles is an imbecile. Whoever does not is an atheist.”
There are many other spiritual lessons from which we find traces in modern literature:
• “First, a man is created in his own image, and only afterwards in the image of God.”
• “If I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you. But if I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you!”
• “Everything must be done for the sake of Heaven.”
• “All that is thought should not be said, all that is said should not be written, all that is written should not be published, and all that is published should not be read.”
• “Everyone has something to teach, even a thief. If he fails he tries again. If he finds nothing of value, he takes what he finds.”
Perhaps everyone’s favorite quote from the Kotzker Rebbe is “There is nothing more whole than a broken heart.” C. S. Lewis later expanded on this in The Four Loves “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
In a world where it is all too easy to borrow a line from an expert and tweak it to make it our own, more than ever we should pause and give credit to the giants who paved the path of thought so we could sound smart. Human beings are not perfect, and as The Rebbe used to say “Angels are God’s favorite creatures. It’s easy to see why. They are not jealous and they like to sing.”
Baruch Dayan Ha’Emet
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