Two Ambitions of the Seeker of Hashem

In 5699 (1939) Rav Hutner wrote a note to himself on a tension in the avodah of every talmid chacham. One ambition is to take shelter within Hashem’s own precinct. The other is to live in the street and the marketplace and to sanctify Hashem’s Name through everyday dealings with others. These two desires pull in opposite directions in practice. Finding the right balance between them, he wrote, is among the most difficult tasks in serving Hashem. He himself chose a path that held both, serving his talmidim, the yeshivos and the klal while keeping his own inner life, and so he passed on a whole outlook to those who learned from him.