ז׳ תשרי ה׳תשפ״ז | September 18, 2026
Authentic Chassidus or Relatable Chassidus: Why Not Both?
“There has lately been a long string of passionate articles warning about the ways Chassidus and psychology are being merged, and about the danger of psychological ideas being dressed up and presented as Chassidus. I would like to make one observation. Maybe the challenge is not to choose between authentic Chassidus and relatable Chassidus. Maybe the challenge is to become much better at doing both.”
By Rabbi Betzalel Bassman
There has lately been a long string of passionate articles warning about the ways Chassidus and psychology are being merged, and about the danger of psychological ideas being dressed up and presented as Chassidus. I appreciate this discussion.
I am certainly no expert on where precisely the lines should be drawn: how Chassidus should be interpreted and applied to mental-health struggles, when that is appropriate, and where the respective roles of mashpi’im and mental-health professionals begin and end.
But I would like to make one observation and offer one book recommendation.
We need people reminding us to stay loyal to Chassidus, to its language, its foundations, and what the Rebbeim actually taught. There is a real danger in simply attaching the label “Chassidus” to every contemporary psychological idea.
At the same time, from the tone of some of these articles, I sometimes wonder whether the authors themselves — baruch Hashem — have not personally experienced serious mental-health struggles or been closely involved with people who have.
I think, for example, of someone who reached out to me numerous times while struggling with suicide attempts and severe emotional pain, and who found some of these very attempts to translate and apply Chassidus tremendously helpful.
That is obviously an extreme example. But on a much broader level, I hear from many people — often women, but plenty of men as well — who say that, for the first time, they are finding Chassidus relatable through some of these newer voices and down-to-earth, psychological applications of Chassidus.
It makes me think of the mashal of taking a precious stone from the king’s crown, grinding it down, and trying to get even a drop into the mouth of the sick child.
Unfortunately, I think a very large percentage of people who learn Chassidus find much of it difficult to relate to personally. I won’t venture an estimate, but I think the number is very high.
Personally, I feel torn between the desire to remain faithful to the older, traditional approach and the recognition that there is a real need for contemporary application. Again, I don’t consider myself an authority on this.
Where I increasingly find myself landing is this: Be very serious about remaining loyal to the actual concepts of Chassidus, but perhaps be fairly liberal in how we interpret, explain, illustrate, and apply those concepts in order to personalize the message.
There is a difference between changing Chassidus and taking something true in Chassidus and asking: What does this mean inside the actual life and נפש of the person sitting in front of me?
And perhaps there is some room here for the principle of אין משיבין על הדרש. Not every personal application needs to be presented as the definitive pshat in a maamar. Sometimes it can simply be a meaningful way of using a concept in Chassidus to illuminate a person’s experience and avodah.
I have spent a lot of time searching for mashpi’im who can make Chassidus more relatable and accessible without compromising its depth or authenticity.
I also continue to encourage mashpi’im to view these discussions as something of a wake-up call: Make Chassidus personal. Speak in simple language. Be relatable. Talk about real struggles. Show how the concepts affect a person’s inner life. Bring it down.
After a lot of searching, I found one book that, in my opinion, does a superb job of this: Your Awesome Self, by Mrs. Shterna Ginsburg. It was written after some twenty years of learning and teaching Chassidus and working to make it relevant to everyday life. I’m personally on my third cycle through the book.
And I don’t think this is only something for women. I think Anash men could gain tremendously from a movement learning Chassidus in this kind of אדעתיה דנפשיה manner — not merely understanding the concepts intellectually, but learning them with the question: What does this mean for me? Where is this in my life? How does this change the way I experience myself, my struggles, my relationships, my avodah, and my connection to Hashem?
I’ve encountered a growing group of men who are thirsting for exactly this kind of conversation from male mashpi’im.
The pushback I sometimes hear is: “That’s a very watered-down version of Chassidus.”
I’m not convinced they’re right. Maybe the challenge is not to choose between authentic Chassidus and relatable Chassidus. Maybe the challenge is to become much better at doing both.
COMMENTS
I asked my wife if there was a book that takes the 12 pessukim and makes them practically learning guides for life? So she told me that the book “You’re awesome self “ does exactly that.
Rabbi Bassman’s article is both refreshing and insightful. He makes very relevant points in guiding those of us who have much to learn about both Chassidus and psychology and their intersection.
Relatable Chassidus has a name: Chagas. Try the Kedushas Levi or the Noam Elimelech or Reb Tzadok.
It seems the Rebbe worked on making Chassidus Chabad more relatable. I’ve heard mashpi’m highlight this point based on the style and tone of the Rebbe’s sichos, mamorim and particularly in his igros.
Sorry, but you’ve clearly never learned Kedushas Levi if you feel that that’s more relatable Chassidus.
For that matter, from your title, “not chabad”, it seems that you’ve never (properly) learned chassidus chabad either.
The fact that there are people that can convince themselves that the hundreds of years of literal Mesiras Nefesh of our Rabbeim and from Chassidim to bring Chassidus to the world was all worth it for THEIR understanding of Atik and Arich is shocking.
That’s the key. If the result of your study of Chassidus is mesiras nefesh, it’s divrei elokim chaim. If it’s about enhancing your relationships and “emotional wellbeing,” it’s a distortion.
But if learning Chassidus properly doesn’t have a drastic effect on your “relationships” and “emotional well-being” then you’re obviously also missing the point
So in other words, you believe that one’s relationship with others and emotional wellbeing are separate from Achdus Hashem? Sounds like two reshuyos to me. Sounds like something chassidus would call a subtle form of avodah zara — believing there is a place which is foreign to G-d. Last I learned, ein od milvado means ein od milvado — not, ein od milvado except for your emotions and relationships with others. I wonder why the lunchos had two sides? Maybe cause they’re all an expression of ein od milvado. I highly recommend you start learning some more chassidus chabad. It speaks about what true unity is.
All of olam hazeh is elokus! So we should indulge in all (permissible?) taivos since it’s all elokus…
The obvious fallacy is that while it is of course elokus, for YOU it’s a separation from elokus since you are not a tzadik and are not completely botel to elokus.
Chassidus 101.
Relatable chassidus has a name hagas????
And real chassidus chabad is not relatable????
This is absurd!
For starters Chassidus is to change your middos
That’s pretty relatable
Where is your source for such an idea ?
Where does it say that Chabad doesn’t have to relatable? 🤔
“די אלא רייכסטע השכלות פון תורת החסידות, די אלע ברייטסטע השגות פארשטאנדען פון תורת החסידות, די אלע טיפסטע עמקות פון תורת החסידות וואס נעמט ארום די ג’ מוחין חב”ד שבנפש האלקית, וואס ער איז א חלק אלק’ ממעל ממש, איז דאס אלץ לשנות טבעי’ מדותיו.”
(סה”ש תרצ”ד עמ’ 267)
(FREE TRANSLATION:
All the richest insights of the teachings of Chassidus, all the broadest intellectual comprehensions of the teachings of Chassidus, and all the deepest profundities of the teachings of Chassidus—which encompass the three intellectual faculties, Chochmah, Binah, and Daas, of the G‑dly soul, which is truly a part of G‑d Above—are all for the purpose of changing the natural character of one’s emotional traits.)
דאס איז דער יסוד און דער אויפטו פון חסידות אז א חסיד דארף טאן מיט זיך. 40 יאר האט ער געטראכט וועגן דעם אויבערשטן און וועגן תורה, און וואס מיט אים טוט זיך האט ער גארניט געטראכט און אין ליאזנע האט ער זיך
דערוואוסט אז מען דארף טראכטן וועגן זיך.
(סה”ש תרצ”ט עמ’ 381)
(FREE TRANSLATION:
This is the foundation and the accomplishment of Chassidus: that a Chassid must work on himself. For forty years, he had thought about the Eibershter and about Torah, but he had never thought about what was going on with himself. In Liozna, he discovered that one must think about oneself.)
Trachten veggen zich is very important – to make sure that the yeshus is addressed, not ch”v to make it bigger…
Much of the confusion comes from lack of understanding of the appropriate, comparing and contrasting of the three different souls that each one of us has, the animal soul, the rational soul, and the G0dly soul, and appropriate understanding of where the souls overlap and where they differ, what their needs are and what their limitations are.