Simcha Bunim once told his students:
“The other day a man came to me with a complaint that after forty days of fasting he was still not worthy of seeing Elijah ha-Navi (Elijah the Prophet), although this is exactly what the holy books promised him. And then I told him this story:
The Baal Shem Tov, blessed be his memory, once set out on a long journey. And, as you know, he possessed the power of Kfitsas haderek - that is, he knew how to compress space and overcome enormous distances in the blink of an eye. And yet, to hide this ability, he rode in an ordinary horse-drawn carriage.
During the journey that my story is about, his horses began to talk among themselves: “Ordinary horses are fed in every village, and we rush past the villages without stopping. Maybe we are not horses, but people, and we’ll start eating in a tavern somewhere in an inn.”
After racing past many inns without stopping, the horses reasoned: “Aha, so we’re not even people. We are angels, for they require neither food nor drink on their journey.”
In the end, Besht arrived where he was going. The horses were taken to the stable and a sack of oats was placed in front of each one. And they pounced on the food, as any starving stallion would do.
“So,” I told the visitor, “you have the same case. You fast and imagine yourself as an angel worthy of meeting Elijah the prophet. But at the end of the fast, you pounce on food like those horses.”
- Do you understand? - finished Simcha Bunim. -Which of us is better than this man?
Commentary by Rami Shapiro Spiritual pride is the greatest obstacle on the path of a Hasid. By practicing this or that spiritual exercise, we imagine that we are approaching holiness. This is pride. The quality of spiritual practice depends on the quality of your intention (kavvana). There is only one true intention: to perform an action for the sake of the action itself (the Jews call this li-shma). Engaging in spiritual practice in order to get something in return is idolatry.
The man in the story of Simcha Bunim fasted in order to see Elijah the prophet. He was driven by pride. In his egoism, he was no smarter than Besht’s horses, who believed that it was not their spirit that helped them move, but their extraordinary strength. What does all this have to do with you? Remember when you were possessed by spiritual pride? When have you proudly made the remark that you are an adept of such and such a teaching, a disciple of such and such a guru, or perhaps even a teacher of some esoteric discipline? How long has it been since you last offered prayers at the temple of spiritual achievement and personal strength? Remember such moments, acknowledge them and repent of them. And then go have a snack.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru