"and this is the mystery of {the} ebb and flow {rotzoy v'shuv}, also known as gadlus and katnus ... and with every downfall one needs {to exercise} caution how to return and ascend that he should not remain {in katnus}. as i have heard from my Master that there are those who remained"

Toldos Yakov Yosef, Vayeiro, {finally have access again to the First Print} Koretz 1784 Edition, 17a


here is something universal: it matters not which culture etc. one comes from, all those who observed found, that life on our planet is always experienced on two different frequencies: darkness/light, happy/sad, life/death, masculine/feminine, yin/yang, day/night, high/low tide, and finally, the Beshtian {though the Ariz"l seems to have coined the terms} tags of Gadlus/Katnus, greatness/pettiness -or, great/small-mindedness.

an event happens in our lives, at times it could seem like the best thing just happened, while at other times this very same event seems to be doom itself. nothing externally changed, we did. we continuously do.

there is that famous story {even if it never happened it is still a great portrayal of the Beshtian spirit- so forgive me for mentioning an substantiated story} of the Besht who observes old man Cheikel the Water Carrier and realizes that while Cheikel leads a very tough financial existence, he still manages to see his life in very bright colors on a good day.

It leads the Besht to conclude that while one is totally helpless to change ones financial situation in one day, one does have the ability to view- whatever is going down on any particular day- in a positive way.

Cheikel's external existence has been decided a long time ago. {Rosh HaShoneh is when it got decided upon, in our story, but what are really the factors that play out on any Rosh Ha'shoneh. genes? brains? life-experience? deeds?}. Cheikel was to remain a hard-working water Carrier to the end of existence. but when Cheikel's in Moychin D'Gadlus, all this matters not. in Gadlus one hardly notices the heavy loads, one experiences tranquility and satisfaction just to be refreshingly alive. in Gadlus one knows that nothing else matters, as the experience of life is so great, that a coupla million more and a little lighter load would not make a dent in the experience of naked {stripped of attributes} life.


in our shtikel, the Besht accepts the fact that we sometimes view our existence as atrocious- and this is because we're in Katnus, contrary to popular belief that it is the attributes of life that make or break us- and this is totally acceptable as it is an inevitable part of life. the Besht, however, warns of the danger of getting all caught up in Katnus and the possibility of remaining there. he advises caution.

he neither mentions what the causes {of remaining in a life-long Katnus} are, nor what the cure might be.

i suggest that the danger may be in taking katnus seriously, in really buying into the idea that something is wrong. the cure: knowing that its just a passing phase, thus allowing oneself to break free with the natural turning of tides.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh {the wife of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh} in her book "The Gift from the Sea" puts this concept into beautiful words. she writes the following about love:

When you love someone, you do not love him or her in exactly the same way from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return.

We insist on permanency, on continuity, when the only continuity possible is in growth, in freedom, in the sense that dancers are free, barely touching as they pass but partners in the same pattern.

The only real security in a relationship lies neither in looking back, not forward in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting as it is now.