Learn From the Tzaddik at the Right Time

Degel Machaneh Ephraim, on the verse warning that they should not come and see how the holy is swallowed up, lest they die, explains in the name of his grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov, that a person may come to a tzaddik to study his deeds and learn from them. At a certain moment the tzaddik may be in a state of katnus, a constricted and immature state of mind. A visitor who learns from the tzaddik at such a time, without realizing it, can be harmed. As an example, he mentions someone who visited the well-known tzaddik, Moharan (understood to be Rav Nachman of Horodonka), and saw him drinking coffee wrapped in his tallis and tefillin. The man went home and began to do the same. The lesson is that one who sees that the holiness is hidden should come back at another time, when the tzaddik is in a state of gadlus, expanded consciousness, and only then learn from him.