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152 1. “Happy is the eye” (Yiddish voyl iz dem oyg, based on the Hebrew ashrei ‘ayin) is a formulaic phrase that is often found in hagiographic books about hasidic rebbes—such as in Nathan Sternharz’s Shivhei Moharan about Nahman of Bratslav. Teachings of the Hasidim It is known unto all—the whole world knows that our master and teacher, the Rebbe of Nemirov, served God in ecstasy. Happy is the eye that was privileged to see the joy,1 the fire and fervor, the sheer ecstasy that emanated from him—as from the sun—and covered the entire world in a golden, fiery glow. What a delight that was to behold! A person could forget the long Jewish exile, the calamities, the greatest torments; one could even forget oneself when the souls of all his disciples merged into one flame together with his soul, may his memory be blessed. How joyful we were! How full of life and burning with a joy that streamed forth as from a spring! There are righteous men who are granted ecstasy on the Sabbath and on holidays; the Rebbe of Vonvolitz, of blessed memory, boasted that his soul held a spark of the ecstasy that comes after the Day of Atonement fast. Others are granted ecstasy at a festive meal, at a circumcision, or when a scribe finishes writing a Torah scroll. . . . But our Rebbe, of blessed memory, possessed divine ecstasy every day—until his final minute on the day he passed away. May his merits protect us! Now, as for his singing and dancing! His Sabbath songs and his dances were infused with God’s holy spirit. Once, as he spoke to us, we saw that his eyes shone with the very splendor of the Divine Presence. “I reveal unto you,” he once exclaimed, “that the entire world is nothing more than a song and a dance before God, blessed be He. All of us are choirboys singing His praise! Every Jew is a choirboy, every letter of the Holy Torah is a note, and every soul in every body is also a note. For every soul is a letter of the Holy Torah, and all of the souls together are the entire Holy Torah— both are one song before the King of Kings, blessed be He.” TEACHINGS OF THE HASIDIM | 153 He added that just as there are all kinds of musical notes, there are all kinds of musical instruments, and every kind of melody is joined with the instrument that can play it, and every instrument has its melody. For the instrument is the body and the melody is the soul of the instrument. Every person is a musical instrument, and a person’s life is a melody—either a happy or a sad melody. When one finishes the melody, the soul departs from the body, and the melody—the soul, that is—reunites with the great singing before the Throne of Glory. . . . “Woe unto the person,” he said, “who lives without his melody. That is a life without a soul, a grinding and a groaning—that is no life at all. . . . Every community is a separate melody, and standing before the community , the Rebbe conducts the communal melody. . . . Every person in the community knows his part of the melody, and each must sing out as necessary at the right time. If not, he ruins the melody; only the conductor must know the entire melody and make corrections, when necessary, and ask the choir to repeat it, when necessary. . . . If he hears a false note that has entered the melody, he must drive it out like a dybbuk, God save us, so that it does not spoil the melody! “Happy are you,” he said, “if you are destined to sing a joyful melody. . . .” The Rebbe, of blessed memory, spoke a lot about this matter. “Talmudic scholars, who can only study on the surface,” he said, “are like strangers who enjoy looking at the king’s palace from outside, but who cannot go in. They do not even dare to knock on the gate, for fear that no one will open it for them. . . . They can only see the walls, the windows, the chimneys , and the flags flying high above the roof of the king’s palace. Sometimes they see the smoke that rises from the chimneys, and sometimes they hear voices of the workers and servants who move around in the front chambers of the king’s palace. . . . But...

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