חסידות אויף תהילים 27:4

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.

Moses prefaces his remarks with the word: ‎ועתה‎, “and now,” ‎to hint that just as G’d in His capacity of Hashem has ‎imposed upon Himself restrictions in as much as He treats you as ‎if you deserved that He consults you before acting, i.e. ‎שואל‎, ‎much as a student who seeks clarification from his teacher, this ‎very characteristic of not acting high-handedly but consulting ‎higher authority first, is a characteristic that G’d expects of you ‎to be practiced unreservedly, i.e. you will prove this in the ‎manner in which you revere Him. This is also what Rashi ‎‎(Leviticus 26,12) where the Torah writes of G’d saying: ‎והתהלכתי ‏בתוככם‎, “I will be walking amongst you,” had in mind, when he ‎paraphrased Moses by saying: ‎אטייל עמכם‎, “I shall go for a walk ‎with you,” i.e. although you will feel so familiar with Me, you ‎must not forget for one moment that in spite of this I must be ‎related to with utmost reverence, ‎יראה‎.‎
A third interpretation of our verse, is one that portrays Moses ‎as making maximal demands on the Jewish people, instead of ‎minimal ones, as a superficial reading of our verse would imply.
‎ The axiom that the Creator is ‎אין סוף‎, “a Being the extent of ‎whose multifaceted attributes knows no limits,” [my ‎translation, Ed.] includes the inability of His angels to ‎fully comprehend Him also. This is already alluded to in the ‎commentary of Vayikra rabbah Leviticus 24,9 where the ‎author, in trying to explain the line:‎קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני ‏‎, ‎commonly translated as “strive to be holy for I am holy,” states ‎‎“you will never be able to be as holy as I am, as My holiness will ‎progressively appear to you as just beyond reach, the closer you ‎have come to Me.” Not only that, but as you attain greater ‎insights, you will realise how far beyond I am. At the same time, ‎the more you endeavour to become holy, the more of My holiness ‎will become part of you.‎ ‎

In this connection I have heard a brilliant interpretation of ‎the sainted Rabbi Yechiel Michel of blessed memory, concerning ‎David’s saying in psalms 27,4 where he says: ‎אחת שאלתי (תמיד) ‏מאת ה' אותה אבקש ‏‎, “there is one thing that I requested from ‎‎Hashem, on an ongoing basis.” David constantly reiterated ‎the same request, namely to attain more insights abut G’d and to ‎become a truer and more prized servant of His. In our verse ‎above, Moses expresses similar sentiments. He first alludes to G’d ‎as the ‎אין סוף‎ when he mentions His name of Hashem; he ‎hints that as such it would be impossible to get an inkling of G’d’s ‎essence, as one cannot define something or someone whom one ‎can obviously not understand. He therefore adds G’d’s other ‎name, ‎אלוקים‎, meaning that G’d’s essence is composed of many ‎parts, attributes. Since it is possible for us to understand ‎attributes, it is possible to emulate them once we have seen these ‎attributes in action. Once we comprehend these individual ‎attributes of G’d, it is not difficult to develop a sense of awe and ‎reverence for Him.‎