“Rebbe, what is a chassid? asked the chassid. The Rebbe Rashab answered the chassid’s question, “a chassid is a lamp-lighter. The lamplighter walks the streets carrying a flame at the end of a stick. He knows that the flame is not his. And he goes from lamp to lamp to set them alight.”
Asked the chassid, “what if the lamp is in a desert?”
“Then one must go and light it,” said the Rebbe. “And when one lights a lamp in the desert, the desolation of the desert becomes visible. The barren wilderness will then be ashamed before the burning lamp.”
Continued the chassid, “what if the lamp is at sea?”
“Then one must undress, dive into the sea, and go light the lamp.”
“And this is a chassid?” the chassid asked.
For a long while the Rebbe Rashab thought. Then he said, “yes, this is a chassid.”
“But Rebbe, I do not see the lamps!” Answered the Rebbe Rashab, “because you are not a lamplighter.”
“How does one become a lamplighter?” asked the chassid. The Rebbe answered, “first, you must reject the evil within yourself. Start with yourself, cleanse yourself, refine yourself, and you will see the lamp within your fellow. When a person is himself coarse, G-d forbid, he sees coarseness; when a person is himself refined, he sees the refinement in others.”
The chassid then asked, “is one to grab the other by the throat?” Replied the Rebbe, “by the throat, no; by the lapels, yes.”
Reprinted from Derher
