Ok, I want to talk about this from an energetic POV for a sec. Personal energy, spiritual energy, if you will.

1/x thread.

@PopChassid talks about her rebbe energy and I think he’s right. https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1174138559139328000

Giving a big talk (even one you do a lot) can be both energizing & also you’re giving a lot over—giving to & drawing from the crowd. Lots of spiritual leaders (including shalichei tzibbur/people leading prayer) need to rest and refuel after something like that.

But she (and yes, others as well) keeps going. But 4 hours of being “on” in interpersonal ways after the big talk or whatever is... a lot. To be so long in exchange with so many people and holding their feelings (incl suffering & pain), even for these brief moments, just a lot.

She clearly is not drawing up from her personal well of personal battery storage, if you will—she’d be destroyed doing this night after night if she were. She clearly knows how to tap into a source that is bigger than her, to draw energy from it, to let that flow through her.

To be, in the language of my tradition, a wellspring, not a cistern.

And that’s profound, especially in a secular leader.

She talks about her Christian faith sometimes, and I wonder if this might be proof, evidence of serious, grounded spiritual practice. I mean, I never thought it was just empty rhetoric—her policies to me read like someone who actually understands what the Bible teaches.

But this—and I know she’s also a teacher, which obviously is a whole other universe of knowing how to hold space in this way, and she’s done versions of it for the Senate runs and etc etc—nonetheless feels like evidence of some other kind of work, and it’s big stuff.

NB: some spiritual leaders derive their energy from sucking it out of the people they follow. When you’re around someone shiny and charismatic, pay attention to how you feel afterwards. Brimming full? Kinda depleted even if you’re sure you felt inspired in the moment? Hmmm.

I always advise being wary of charismatic spiritual leaders, especially at first. If they’re the real deal you can figure it out eventually, without dropping your guard before it’s maybe advisable.

To clarify: when I say “Rebbe energy” I don’t mean “charismatic dude selling in part his personality,” I mean the real thing—someone who believes what they’re saying, believes it it higher truth, also genuinely sees God in each person. & most of all where her energy draws from.