- Chassidic Tales
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- Moshe Ben-Chaim
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- Reader: I am trying to locate a traditional chassidic tale
called 'the black wolf'. It has to do with holy people living
incognito among us.
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- Mesora: The concept of a
"Holy" person in chassidus is a problem with Judaism, as
some chassidim actually believe that their "rebbes" never
sin. A statement which is against God's word in the Torah that all men
sin, "ki ein tzaddik baaretz she-yaaseh tov v'lo yechta",
"as there is no righteous man in the earth who does good and does
not sin". Even Moses - the most perfect man sinned. If Moses
sinned, then certainly everybody else.
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- This statement that holy people live among us implies that there are
two groups of people, holy people, and us. This is also
against Judaism and Torah, as the Torah does not claim that there are
certain people more entitled to spirituality than others.
Additionally, Holy - or as I would phrase it, righteous people - will
become known through their acts of continual Torah study. Their wisdom
will also be found out, as they will speak out to defend Torah. The
idea that "holy people walk among us" implies that they are
here, but we don't know it. It is a false idea. There are many
chassidic tales, many are completely false, especially those about
people doing miracles.
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- If the Talmud records such fantastic stories, they must be
interpreted as metaphors. Unfortunately, people today take them
literally, even though the greatest minds teach us that we shouldn't.
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- See our articles on understanding medrashim: What
are Midrashim
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