I’ll elevate it

In the haftorah for parshas Zahor, we read the following exchange between Shmuel the prophet and king Shaul:

13. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “May you be blessed of the Lord; I have fulfilled the word of the Lord.”
14. And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears? And the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
15. And Saul said, “They brought them from the Amalekites, for the people had pity on the best of the sheep, and the oxen, in order to sacrifice to the Lord your G-d: and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
16. And Samuel said to Saul, “Desist, and I shall tell you what the Lord spoke to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

17. And Samuel said, “Even if you are small in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you as king over Israel.
18. And the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and you shall utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and you shall wage war against them until they destroy them.’
19. Now, why did you not hearken to the voice of the Lord, but you flew upon the spoil, and you did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord?”
20. And Saul said to Samuel, “Yes, I did hearken to the voice of the Lord. I did go on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and I brought Agag, the king of Amalek alive, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21. And the people took from the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the ban, to sacrifice to your G-d in Gilgal.”
22. And Samuel said, “Has the Lord [as much] desire in burnt offerings and peace-offerings, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than a peace-offering; to hearken [is better] than the fat of rams.
23. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Since you rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you from being a king.”

There is a concept called “chassidish yetzer horah”, or “a yetzer horah that wears a kapoteh” — a yetzer horah that uses chassidish excuses. For example, when a chossid tells himself that something is wrong for him: some action, some pursuit, some environment, the yetzer horah then answers: “You are right. It’s not such a great thing; it’s not ideal. But we were sent into this world to elevate it — you will interact with this phenomenon which on the surface is wrong for you and will mekarev it to Hashem.”

This can range from going to a baseball game (which every chossid knows is pure evil, but perhaps he tells himself that he will somehow “elevate it”) to being in a relationship (of any kind) that is clearly wrong for one reason or another for a chossid, but he excuses it by telling himself that he will bring the other person in the relationship closer to Hashem, influence the person (even though deep in his heart he knows it’s hardly possible in this situation).

It can also include doing something that the Rebbe clearly said is wrong for a Jew or a chossid. The same excuse is applied: perhaps this situation can be “sacrificed to your G-d in Gilgal”.

Well, yes, it is true that we were sent into this world to elevate it. But we have to do it according to Hashem’s Will and according to the instructions of Moshe Rabbeinu of our generation. We must be very careful when trying to determine whether what we are doing is really appropriate, and whether we are really making a sacrifice that Hashem commanded or are just using this as an excuse to have a barbecue. “To obey is better than a peace-offering; to hearken is better than the fat of rams.”

[Part 2 here]