Refusing the Heavenly Maggid

Rav Chaim of Volozhin testified that he heard from the Gaon’s own mouth that heavenly maggidim often appeared to him and offered to reveal the secrets of Torah, and that he always refused. Though Heaven was willing to give him such understanding freely, he gave up all such help, seeing his own unaided effort as his most valued resource.

One maggid persisted, and the Gaon still refused him, paying no attention to his awesome appearance. He said, “I do not wish to understand Hashem’s Torah through any intermediary. My eyes are lifted to Hashem. Whatever He Himself wishes to reveal to me directly, and whatever portion of His Torah He wishes to give me through my own effort, that is my desire. I ask only for wisdom from Hashem Himself, the understanding He plants in my heart and the insight He plants in my kidneys, so that through my own toil my inner self becomes like two fountains of knowledge. Then I will know that I have found favor in His eyes. What comes through angelic forces, and not through wisdom I earned, I do not want.”

Rav Chaim also related that the Gaon once sent him to his younger brother, Rav Shlomo Zalman, who was greater than Rav Chaim in piety, sanctity and holiness, with a message from the Gaon. “Say to him in my name that he should not receive any angelic maggid who comes to him. Soon one will appear to him. Rav Yosef Karo, author of the Beis Yosef, did speak with a maggid, but that does not apply here. That was over two hundred years earlier, in a generation still worthy and prepared for such revelations, and he lived in the Holy Land, while we are outside it. In our situation it is impossible to be wholly devoted, free of ulterior motives and improper thoughts.” The Gaon rejected every revelation that came by any means other than direct Torah study.