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[Rabbi Shapiro]

1) why/to whom were the chasidishe seforim writen?



For the students (Chasidim) of the Rebbes. Of course, this doesn’t mean they are irrelevant to us, but it means we have to know how to take them. It’s like, for example, a medical student observes an experienced doctor in action in order to learn from him. He sees the doctor prescribing valium to one of his patients. The student can learn a lot from how the doctor determined what medicine to give, and how he prepares the medicine and how he deals with the patient etc. but it does not mean that because the doctor prescribed valium to his patient, that the student needs to prescribe that exact same medicine to his.Same thing with the Chaisdishe seforim. There is a lot to learn from them, but they are the writings of a doctor prescribing to the particular soul needs of his people. Their medicine may be good for us or may kill us, depending on what our particular soul needs are. We are not supposed to blindly copy the behaviors of Tzadikim without knowing whether that behavior makes sense for us.

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