A Hasidic master was asked about the young man who spent all his days in intense and heartfelt prayer. "Shouldn't he do something?" a visitor objected. "Surely he could do some work!" "But don't you see how hard he is working? replied the rebbe. "He's drilling a hole in his heart!" Rabbi Mendel of Kotsk defined what it meant to be a hasid as "working on oneself."

Arthur Green, These Are the Words