The Measure of Piety
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Question
Rabbi, I am approaching Judaism and have read about the measure of piety. My question is: is it necessary to be a Hasid of a specific Rebbe to attain the measure of piety?
Answer
Shalom Rav,
There is a severe distortion in calling movements that do not fully observe the Torah and commandments, and certainly movements that do not believe in the Creator, blessed be He, and in the Torah of Israel, as if it was given from heaven, as streams in Judaism. These are simply Jews who, unfortunately, have stopped observing Judaism.
Personally, every Jew is part of the people of Israel, but a Jew who does not behave according to the Torah cannot have his way of life called Jewish just because he was born to a Jewish mother.
Streams in Judaism can only be called those who observe the entire Torah and strive to adhere to the tradition that we have preserved accurately for 3500 years with all their might.
However, it can certainly be said that despite our efforts to achieve full perfection in observing the Torah and commandments and in the correct understanding of the Torah, part of the exile is that several paths have been created in the service of God, and in each path, they strive with all their might to reach the perfect truth, and until we merit the return of prophecy to the people of Israel in the days of the Messiah, we will not be able to achieve absolute perfection in this matter. And it is said about this: 'Each river flows in its own channel,' meaning each river flows in its own way. And each community maintains its customs as their ancestors did. The sages said that in the days before the coming of the Messiah 'truth will be absent,' meaning in herds, and therefore in our days there are different groups, and each one maintains the tradition of his community as he received from his ancestors, but the unifying factor among all who fully observe the Torah and commandments is much greater than the dividing, and we all observe the 613 commandments in the same way, and we have all accepted upon ourselves all the words of the Talmud in full.