Ancient Solitude
That’s why the old nevi’im, the prophets of old, used to go out in the wilderness. Even the gedolei acharonim, the Baal Shem Tov, went into a forest for weeks to be away from people. Rav Yoizel Novardoker had a hut hidden in the forest. He had two huts. One that his wife knew about. He was unlisted. Nobody else knew how to get him. But there was another hut that even his wife didn’t know about. Only his talmid, Rav Yoel Boronsik, knew about that second hut, the second one. He had two degrees of hisbodedus because that makes a man great.
Now you’ll tell me, my wife won’t let. Maybe your mother won’t let. And anyhow, if we would go out to the forest like the Baal Shem Tov so we’d just lie down and fall asleep. Like I was once talking to a big rosh yeshivah in Europe. I said to him, “The Gra used to close his shutters by day and be alone in his room.”
So he said, “If we would do that, we would fall asleep.”
