ON BEING NORMAL

 In Sichos HaRan #51, Rabbeinu says, "Hefkerus (complete abandon) is not necessary. It's possible to serve Hashem with restraint."

Recently I heard the following interpretation of this statement, "You're allowed to be normal." And then I had the following thought. While for some people "being normal" is indeed a permission (Oh, baruch Hashem! Otherwise, I just can't imagine how I could be a Breslover!"), there are others for whom it feels more like a heavy requirement that they can't always meet.

But Rabbeinu is the tzaddik emes and so should be able to accommodate all kinds of people! So I think (and this is confirmed by my experience) that his message is actually twofold. Some of his chassidim indeed hear from him a permission, "You're allowed to be normal." But for others, this translates into a reassurance, "You don't have to be 100% normal if you can't manage it. Just be sincere and don't let go of your attachment to me, and then I'll fill in whatever it is that you're lacking."

As for myself, I feel that I need both parts of this message equally. Moreover, it gives me a lot of chizuk that sometimes I can rely on this and sometimes on that. So I feel really lucky to be a follower of the tzaddik emes.