The End of Spiritual Teachers (Jeremiah's Prophecy)
"No longer will a man teach his neighbor... for they will all know Me." Ruth Kedem explains: True knowing doesn't come from holiness, but from hitting rock bottom and refusing to stop searching.
THE PROPHECY: “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
The Deep Meaning “For they shall all know Me.” This refers to an Internal, Living, and Direct Knowledge of Divinity. Not through external study. But through a revelation from within.
This knowledge is not the result of external righteousness, nor of a perfect life, nor of walking a straight path from the beginning. On the contrary.
The Qualification of the Broken Specifically, the one who passed through, tasted, tried, failed, saw the multiplicity of forms—and yet the desire to know did not extinguish within him—He is the Vessel for Knowing.
Not knowledge of information.
But knowledge of Being.
Whoever saw the Separation and did not give up the search for the One is the one approaching the Gate. Correction (Tikun) is not achieved by human perfection, but by the clarification of the Will. A person who never sinned -> Never clarified. A person who never descended into the abyss -> What does he know? What Torah is he fulfilling?
Therefore, the path to knowing is not through “Saintliness” (Tzidkut) in the human sense, but through Truth. A fierce desire to know: Who am I? Who is the Other? What is this world really?
There Are No Saints Here The Holy One, Blessed be He, alone is called “True Tzadik.” Only He operates without self-interest. Man, by virtue of being man, is a Will to Receive. He is a process. He is a struggle. Therefore, there are no “Tzadikim” in the absolute sense.
There are humans who Help the Tzadik. Meaning, they restrict themselves (Tzimtzum) to allow the Light to act through them.
Not because of their merit.
But despite them.
Because of their agreement to nullify themselves before Him out of total love.
Torah as Play (Sha’ashuim) “Unless Thy Torah had been my delights (Sha’ashuay), I should then have perished in mine affliction.” (Psalms 119:92)
“Torah as Play” is a state where the separation between Man and the Will of the Creator completely ceases. It is the moment when the Will to Receive—after being broken to the foundation, after trying to know, to hold, to control, to justify—stops asking for anything for itself.
No Redemption.
No Correction.
No Reward.
No Rank.
When the Will stops demanding -> The Light begins to Play.
What is “Play”? Play is not joy, pleasure, or comfort. Play is a state where there is No Internal Resistance.
No one is trying to be “good.”
No one is struggling with the Evil Inclination.
No one is trying to “get close.”
The whole mechanism of “I serve God” dissolves. What remains is a living movement of Light that no longer feels itself as a vessel. Just like a child playing—not because he is innocent, but because there is no calculation.
The End of the “Self” If the Torah had not become Play—meaning, if the Light did not flow through him naturally—this Nullification would have killed him (”I should have perished”). But because the Torah is no longer external to him, but is his very vitality, the Nullification becomes Life.
This state belongs to souls who tried everything and were left with one desire: To be True without reward.
Then the Light... You don’t feel it. You don’t get excited by it. You don’t talk about it. You simply Live it.
This is the Play. Not Joy -> But Freedom. Not Adhesion -> But Identity. Not Work -> But Nature.
Man ceases to be “The one walking toward God.” And becomes the place where God is “I Am That I Am.”