ABSTRACT
The work of the Rebbe Rashab, had to do with comforting "the mourners" and with arranging the marriage of "the orphans" with their divine source. The Rashab was able to enter into such a profound meditative space in order to be in touch with the wellsprings of his spirituality. In order to understand how the Rashab accomplished this task, it is important to consider who he was, a tzaddik or "righteous person," as well as what he could do and did, that is, enter into a very high spiritual state. Yosef Yitzhak Schneersohn told the story at a farbrengen, some years after he had followed his father as Rebbe. The idea of the tzaddik as an interlocutor, acting as an active agent mediating between man and God, is a concept unique to the Hassidic movement of the eighteenth century. The tzaddik would have a following of people who would ask for worldly as well as spiritual advice.
