Mother and daughter; father and son; brother and sister; husband and wife; friend and friend; teacher and pupil. To the varied array of human relationships, the phenomenon and experience of Chassidism has added one more: the bond between the rebbe and the chassid.
What is the nature of this bond? There is fierce love in it, and
unquestioning loyalty. There is passion, devotion, admiration, appreciation, awe, mentorship, care, concern, sacrifice. Almost every human emotion is there, in heightened form. (Chassidim even quip that had King Solomon been a chassid, he needn't have resorted, in his Song of Songs, to the example of romantic love as a metaphor for the relationship between G-d and Israel -- he could have used the model of the love between rebbe and chassid.) But can it be described?
Meeting: Three Yechidut Stories
The Ladder
The Needy and the Needed
Playing at Rebbe-Chassid
Seriously
A Surgical Procedure
The Miracle Worker
The Ache in My Heart
One On One
The Girl Who Had to be Jewish
The Blow
"Success in Writing"
"The Rebbe Said"
The Miracle Chassid
My Rebbe the Rebel
Windows
The Head
The Emissaries