Hasidism teaches, furthermore, that the worldly delights with which we try so hard to assuage our spiritual hunger themselves contain a spark of holiness, for they echo the holy love we once knew before separation. The Baal Shem Tov (c. 1700-1760), founder of Hasidism, taught that our attraction to these delights is precisely what makes it possible for us to love God. If these worldly desires had not been etched into our bodies, we could never develop the sensitivity needed for spiritual being. Thus the obstacles to what the Hasidim call devekut, adhering to God, can serve as the very cement that adheres us to God.
— Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Jewish with Feeling by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Joel Segel