Lovesick

I was by a Farbrengen at the Ohel on eve of the Alter Rebbe’s 200th Yartzahit where my father was saying that the lesson/message/essence of the Alter Rebbe is that we have to understand G-dliness not just believe.

I think there is more.

In the Mammar the Rebbe said fifty years earlier - on the 150th anniversary of the Alter Rebbe’s Yahrtzehit - the Rebbe qouts a Mamar from the Alter Rebbe that discusses a the “sick”. That even when a person understands the 49 gates of wisdom he feels totally distant and therefore Lovesick because he longs for the 50th gate.

Yes, the Alter Rebbe was about Chabad - wisdom understanding knowledge - but, I think, central to the Alter Rebbe was that the wisdom is not a means to an end, rather that the wisdom lead to love, to the extent that even of you have all attainable wisdom you still feel Lovesick. Because wisdom, though it’s the key to the heart - hence its centrality to Chabad thought - cannot grasp the essence.

For the essence - “I don’t want your paradise, all I want is you alone” - can be grasped only by a heart that is longing and lovesick.