Hasidim have a custom of gathering with their rebbe on Shabbos to eat together, drink vodka, sing nigunim (chants without words) and talk about the Torah. Once on Shabbos, so many students came to Rabbi Moshe from Kobrin for a tish (special meal) that many of them simply could not fit at the table. They crowded throughout the house, wanting to taste at least a little of the food from the festive table, to see the rebbe and hear from him at least a word about the Torah.
In the crowd, Reb Moshe drew attention to one young man standing in the corner. He called his servant and asked:
“Who is this young man standing over there?”
Hearing the name, he remarked in bewilderment:
- I don’t remember something like that...
“No, rabbi, you can’t help but remember him,” the servant was surprised. “This is a very pious young man, and he often comes to your table.” You have talked to him more than once.
The servant began to tell the rebbe about the young Hasid and his parents.
Finally, Rabbi Moshe called the young man and said:
“Just now I was trying to remember who you are, and it was very difficult for me to do it.” Now I understand what's going on. You see, the essence of a person is in his thoughts. Whatever you focus your thoughts on is what you become. No matter how much I looked at you, your thoughts always wandered back and forth. At first you wanted this, then that. There was no end to your desires. I saw nothing but your insatiable hunger, and it was not clear to me who you were: a man with a mouth, or a mouth pretending to be a man.
The young Hasid was so embarrassed that from that day on he tried to think only about the sublime all the time.
Commentary by Rami Shapiro You are what you think about. What are you thinking about at the moment? Thoughts are of two main types - such is our dual nature. Every person is born with two motives: the yetzer ha-tov and the yetzer ha-ra. The first impulse draws you to love, to go beyond yourself and merge with the world. The second is accompanied by fear and forces you to withdraw from the world and withdraw into yourself. These two impulses give rise to two main types of thoughts: those based on fear and those based on love. If your thought comes from love, you take care of both yourself and others. If fear is at the source of your thoughts, you think only about yourself. When a person thinks only about himself, he is consumed by hunger - he lacks security, reliability, self-confidence. And since the separate self cannot satisfy his needs, such hunger is insatiable. The man eats, eats, eats - and cannot get enough. The rabbis teach that heaven and hell are two identical feasts, where the tables are laden with the most exquisite dishes. People sit around these tables with two-meter forks and spoons that are too long to eat on their own. Therefore, in hell people suffer from hunger, but in heaven everyone feeds the one sitting opposite them, and everyone is full. The task of each of us is not to satisfy our own hunger, but to feed another person. This is the only way we can all be satisfied.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru