Hisbodedus is not a new idea that started some twenty or thirty years ago, or even a hundred years ago. It has been around for a very long time. The first sefer to mention hisbodedus is Sefer HaMaspik L’Ovdei Hashem, which was written by Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam – one of the Rishonim, who lived over a thousand years ago. There, he writes that all of our forefathers practiced hisbodedus; they were all shepherds who sought solitude out in the quiet fields as they tended to their sheep. Our Avos (forefathers) led lives of solitude, looking to be in quiet places, where they were free to reflect on their Creator. Thus, hisbodedus is not a new idea. If we think that hisbodedus is only for certain types of Jews, we will be limiting the gains from it. We have so far learned here that it is the way of our Avos, our prophets, and our earlier leaders. Let us go in their footsteps and search to get back to the ways of old, which our holy Avos took, and which Moshe Rabbeinu and Dovid HaMelech and other great tzaddikim took.
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