WHAT IS HIGHER THAN THE CHARIOT?
In an attempt to trace the path of the tzaddik, we will offer an explanation of the Ba’al Shem Tov's superior virtue: If the Maggid was a chariot, in the aspect of the holy Patriarchs, then the holy Ba’al Shem Tov was in the aspect of Moses of whom it is said that there was no prophet like him, before or after. Moses was also completely nullified to Divinity, but it was not the nullification of a "chariot" like the Patriarchs, but something else: "And he beholds the image of God."
What does this mean? Didn't God Himself tell Moses that "no man can see Me and live"? Chasidut explains that Moses saw the world in the same way that God sees it. Moses identifies with God absolutely, and not just as a vessel in His hands but as one looking through His eyes, and speaking in His name in a way that no prophet could speak.
Therefore, the tzaddikim said that while other tzaddikim can "open channels of abundance" that were blocked by man's sins, the Ba’al Shem Tov alone could create new channels and change the root of the soul of the person standing before him. Indeed, the great tzaddikim (like the Maggid and his disciples) merited the level of being a chariot for the Almighty, as He reveals Himself "after the contraction." But the Ba’al Shem Tov was unified with the simple Infinite light (or revelation of Godliness) that is above all contraction and definition.
