Chasidut su Esodo 23:17

Back then, when an individual, an avreikh, would serve God in Torah and avodah, and desired to sanctify himself—yet saw that it was difficult for him, that though he desired and yearned for all of himself that all his desires and thoughts and traits would be sanctified to God yet nonetheless there was much dross in them... He would become anxious and embittered, saying “Do I not see that I am distant from God, God forbid! What will be my life’s purposes hereon in? Shall I remain banished from holiness, God forbid, stuck in filth, Heaven forfend?!” Moved by his great anxiety and bitterness, he would say “I shall travel to my Rebbe! There, on the mountain of God’s house,⁴⁷⁵R. Shapiro frames the visit to the rebbe in the image of the ancient pilgrimage to the Temple, a common rabbinic and especially hasidic motif. See, for example, Biale et al, 415. the evil inclination has no control. The Rebbe will instruct me in the holy path, and seize me by my sidelocks ⁴⁷⁶This possibly alludes to a saying of R. Nahman of Bratslav to the effect that he would do all he could to redeem his disciples, even pulling them out of Hell by their sidelocks. See Biale et al, 117. and remove me from my lowliness. I will become connected to him, and he will perforce purify me and elevate me to the One who is pure. Yet, terror will seize him, for the rebbe will recognize all the not-good things he has done; and at the same time, this is his is very desire-to show the rebbe all his blemishes so that he might purify him. And he, the rebbe—in him he puts his life’s hope, both for this world and the next. With a broken heart and with this hope, he goes to the rebbe. The path itself becomes, immediately, one of repentance, for where does he go? To ‘gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, to frequent His temple.’⁴⁷⁷Psalms 27: 4. Thus, it is to God that he is returning. Whether he feels like Israel of yesteryear, as they traveled to go up to God’s house, to ‘appear⁴⁷⁸Vocalized in Feldheim printing as lirot, to see, rather than leraot, to be seen or to appear, as per the Masoretic vocalization. before the Sovereign, the Lord’ ⁴⁷⁹Exodus 23:17. or as a soul Above, released from Hell and being led to Eden, there to derive pleasure from the glow of the Shekhinah, along with the other righteous souls—either way, as he travels, he feels supernal yearning and the joy of Eden.