RECEIVING FEAR AND LOVE THROUGH THE TZADDIK

Torah 17 begins with the words, "It is impossible to receive fear and love (of Hashem) except through the tzaddikim of the generation." Of course, there could be a number of ways to understand this statement, so here is my own, based on my personal experience.

For me, it's an important distinction that Rabbeinu doesn't say, "It's impossible to have fear and love except through being attached to tzaddikim." Because I've seen enough people in the Litvish world who really do have these fear and love, and I don't think that, as a Breslover, I'm required to believe that they're necessarily faking it. So if a person grew up in a good frum family and in a good frum neighborhood, I suppose they can receive these qualities with their mother's milk, or in some other similarly easy and natural way.

But what about someone who, like me, grew up in Moscow, Russia, in a lower-class neighborhood with practically no Jews around but with plenty of Anti-Semitism? My experience shows that, even if they merit to do teshuvah, it can only be pretty superficial. Their only fear of Hashem is going to be, as I recently heard it expressed, "a fear of what Hashem can do to me". And as for love, there is simply nothing to talk about.

Such a person would need to receive these fear and love from someone, and I'm practically sure that this "someone" can only be Rabbeinu. There might be other great tzaddikim in our generation, but I've never encountered them.

So again, it does seem possible to have fear and love of Hashem even without attachment to tzaddikim. But if, for some reason, you don't have them, then probably Rabbeinu is your only hope.