One of outstanding teachinigs of Chabad is that the "head rules over the heart". One implications is that one's desires cannot force one to submit to them because a person's mind has dominion over his feelings. This general principle has several other applications, among them that elevated feelings in prayer, must proceed from religious contemplation. In practice, this means that a simple "awakening (of feeling) from below" can only serve as the beginning of a process. Whereas some other chassidic groups would seize upon a feeling in prayer and attempt to enalrge and fan it through gestures, nigunim and specific behaviors, Chabad recommended that this feeling become a point of departure for contemplation and go up from the heart to the mind (kabbalistically from Z'A to Chabad), be enlarged through contemplation of various topics (Unity of G-d, the plight of the soul etc), and then be taken back down to the heart, now not merely as a flame, but as a bonfire of emotion, called Ahava Rabba, or Great Love. This is well described in many places in Chabad literature, for example in the Rebbe Rashab's RS'V (Vayelech Ish mibeis Levi..) and in Tanya Ch.33 and surrounding chapters. Ch. 31 of Tanya described how one overcomes sadness to awaken joy in prayer.
But what does one do when this is not enough, when it does not work.
In the winter of 1902-1903, when he ws 42 years-old, Rabbi Shalom Dov-Ber Schneersohn, the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe1 (known by the acronym RaSHaB), was suffering from "nemichas haruach", a low spirit. He travelled to Vienna to consult the renowned physican Dr. SIgmund Freud, and according to Chabad sources, they had a medical and theological discussion. For those who have little acquaintance with Rebbe Rashab, I quote the following description (which I think does not do justice to this remarkable thinker and doer):
The fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn ("Rashab"), was born in the White Russian town of Lubavitch in 1860. After the passing of his father, Rabbi Shmuel (in 1882), he assumed the leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch.
Famed for his phenomenal mind and analytical treatment of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Sholom DovBer wrote and delivered some 2,000 maamarim (discourses of Chassidic teaching) over the 38 years of his leadership. In 1897, he established the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah, the first institution of Jewish learning to combine the study of the "body" of Torah (Talmudic and legal studies) with its mystical "soul" (the teachings of Chassidism); it was this unique yeshivah that produced the army of learned, inspired and devoted Chassidim who, in the decades to come, would literally give their lives to keep Judaism alive under Soviet rule.
Here is a transcript of a part of the discussion between Rashab and Freud":
| "Rebbe : The discipline of Chassidut requires that "the head explains to the heart what the person should want, and that the heart implement in the person's life that which the head understands." |
| Freud : "How do you do this? Are not the head and heart two continents completely separated? Does not a great sea divide them?" |
| Rebbe : "The task is to build a bridge that will span these two continents, or at least to connect them with telephone lines and electric wires so that the light of the mind, the light of the brain, should reach the heart as well." |
| The RaSHaB added: "I must point out that for Chassidim, from birth, the matter of the mind, and the matter of the heart, is fit for study and for avodah ." |
| After a further unspecified exchange between Freud and the Rebbe, his son recalls that Freud made the following 'diagnosis:' "The head grasps what the heart is unable to contain, and the heart cannot tolerate." (quoted in M. M. Schneerson, 1997, dairy entry of 24 May 1932).16 The word Freud used, in German/Yiddish was fartroght, to carry or to bear (German: fertragen, to endure), or to hold or contain. So the diagnosis can also be translated as: "The head grasps what the heart cannot carry/bear,". or, 'The head grasps that which the heart cannot contain/endure." |
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The RaSHaB's son, the 6th Rebbe, has himself offered another perspective on Freud conclusion. "The head comprehends what the heart cannot bear to hear, and the heart cannot assimilate what your mind comprehends." According the file below, Freud told Rashab that: "The head grasps what the heart cannot contain but the heart does not contain that which the head grasps". Freud's prescription was, that since Rebbe Rashab was pursued by the thoughts that he has not accomplished enough, his chassidim should study his writings and addresses and let him know about this... so that they awaken a feeling of elevation in him. So, Freud, leshitoso, thought that the heart, read the subconscious determined what a person thinks or believes. This view was destined to revolutionize how we now perceive man and society. Rebbe Rashab, while not denying that "the heart" was powerful, defended the primacy of the conscious mind. The meeting between these two great personlities brings into relief the all-important relationship between the heart and the mind and should offer us an opportunity to seriously reflect upon a subject crucial to religious and spiritual life. What happened right before the meeting with Freud. Whether Freud was influenced by Rebbe Rashab.. |
Here is a file from Reshimos
Here is a video that mentions it and some comments on the subject
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