Komarno - Make A Rabbi for Yourself

Notser Hesed on Avot

R.Y.I. of Komarno

Make for yourself a teacher - Even if she is not worthy of being your teacher, make her your teacher, and she will become worthy.

Notser Hesed on Avot

R.Y.I. of Komarno

You should know, sister, that a truly righteous person (tzaddik), one who engages in Torah for its own sake, becomes a seat for the Divine Presence (Shekhinah), and most certainly there is a moment when it is true that the entire world was created just for her. This happens in those moments when she brings God pleasure in a way that no one ever has before, for no righteous person is exactly like the other… In such a moment she experiences the entire world being created only for her,

her holy consciousness is greatly expanded, and she can facilitate the flow of all good to the entire world and annul all decrees of evil.

This is a description of a very high rung, not accessible to simple people. Do not stupidly try to walk this path - arrogance is actually idolatry, it is the foreign and other god.

...Rather for a person who is an accomplished tzaddik, who is trusted as a tzaddik, it is the role of her students to help expand her mind. It is their responsibility to help her step out from Nothing into Being and channel a flow of light and life. This is what the students of Rabbi Shimeon bar Yohai did for him as is described in the Zohar. They praised him extensively in his presence to encourage him to step out into being, and channel a flow to them.

This was always my own practice in the presence of my master and teacher, my uncle, our holy rabbi Tsvi (Hirsch of Ziditchov). Whenever he revealed to me wondrous secrets, or gave me some of his own writings to read, I would praise him extensively. I would say how even in Gan Eden all would be amazed at his capacity to offer such novel teachings. And through this his consciousness expanded (Bamidbar 11:25) “and the spirit which was upon him, he put” even on this lowly one.

Do not behave like the idiots of this world, who when coming before a tzaddik bring forth only their smallest self and shrink the tzaddik to their own size as well. All they desire of the tzaddik is that she speak humbly of small things, and thus they remain in the darkness...