Adherence with his Rav (From Shabbat Page 22/8/14)

Adherence with a Rav means being adherent to the advice that he gives. For who is this Rav?  This is someone who has gone through some kind of way before you. This is someone who also received Torah from someone who was before him, and this is designed to transmit this Torah to others according to how it seems to the eye. So he transmits it to you. And when he transmits to you, you must take account, will you accept this Torah or not? If you accept it, he is called a “Rav.” If not, he is just called a teacher. Let’s say that in science there is a concept that the more that a student learns from the teacher, he must always criticize him, for maybe the teacher didn’t discover everything, for the science before us is something that we didn’t know. We investigate it with the mind, with emotion, within the instruments, and they could be new instruments, a new intelligence, or a new emotion. So from generation to generation, we see that the students rise above their teacher, and that is how they advance. That is how it is with every science: with everything, with every area in culture, in education, in all the sciences, the natural sciences, and so on. For criticism is constructive there, and the external teacher arouses criticism of himself; is he right or isn’t he? He must do this if he wants to raise students, every one of whom will be even greater than he. Even with us the spiritual teacher wants the students to be greater than he; otherwise he is not a teacher. It is like every person wants his children to grow further, to be even more successful than him. He is proud to say that his son has become great, even though he is himself a simple person. That is how it is, as it is written, “No person is envious of his child or his students.”

From the Morning Lesson, The Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Faith in the Rav, What Is the Measure”, August 15, 2014