Chasidut к Авот 4:20

The Mishnah says (Avot 4:20), "One who learns as a child is compared to what? To ink written on new parchment. And one who learns as an elder is compared to what? To ink written on scraped parchment." And so is it in all matters - whether in the study of simple understanding or whether in Chassidut and self-improvement. For there are many people who know what service and self-improvement are, yearn for it and even force themselves to do it. Nevertheless they spend all of their years coercing and necessarily forcing themselves and are constantly 'hopping between two lines': Such a person will occasionally force himself to work for half an hour or an hour, but then falls right back to being like he was before. And then he forces himself, falls again and forces himself once more. And he spends his years in this way, without making even one step forward. He will not elevate himself from his state, because he spends his choicest abilities and his best years hopping and falling. [But] you are not like this, precious young men! If you begin from your childhood and work on this from your youth, Chasidut will become your flesh and blood. Even if you fall, you will not retreat; and even if you will sometimes stagnate, you will not sink into the swamp. And you will not need to spend all of your time trying not to fall and just rasing yourselves up from the dirt and the mud. Your main work will only be to elevate yourselves. Even your falls and the times of your acting small will be like those of a mountain climber. He too sometimes get tired and occasionally injures his foot. But even then, he does not [truly] fall or go down. He rests and continues to climb; bandages his foot a little and continues the trek. You will always ascend and always reveal the greatness that is within you. And truly, Jewish young man, you are able to bring out inclinations and improvements from inside yourself which you never imagined, and that you yourself will still not understand. For example, you can bring out a positive and strong will that is even stronger than you - to which your entire self will be subjugated, and which you will be forced to follow against your will without any excuses or equivocations. You will feel inside yourself as if the spirit of God that severs mountains and breaks down boulders is suddenly encountering you and lifting you up to this or that service. It will sever all the impediments and break down all the hindrances. God is the Lord and you are His servant, so you are compelled to serve Him.

It is not that we are saying here that it will be impossible for someone who does not begin the work of Chassidut in his youth and does not accustom his spirit to it from his childhood - such that it should rise from the reed mats and shake off the piles of dirt that cover it - to come to it afterwards in any way. God forbid to say such a thing! The gates of Heaven are always open to every Jew, if he girds his loins and is willing to subjugate his abilities to 'work and to carry.' And does the mishnah (Avot 4:20) that says, "And one who learns as an elder is compared to ink written on scraped parchment," lock the gate in front of penitents who want to repent to Torah in their old age, God forbid? The difference however is the amount of work [required]. As the old man who wants to study Torah and to work at Chassidut must work ten times - a hundred times - as much, or even more, than the child that studies early. (Editor's note from the printed edition: In the Eight Chapters of the Rambam, may his memory be blessed, it says that even someone whose nature is inclined towards shortcomings in his learning is also able to reverse them and better them. It is just that he must add work to the work.) And since - on account of our many sins - not every person is able to dedicate himself with all of his abilities even for easy holy work, and all the more so for the heaviest and hardest work; therefore if you do not rise early and sanctify yourselves now in your youth, young men, it is clear and certain that you will not attain it, God forbid. And it is not just your souls that will mourn about you and cry about your destruction, it is also the souls of all Israel - the prophets and the tzaddikim, from beginning to end. And even the Master of spirits and the Father of all souls will, as it were, be saddened by your negligence and angered by your laziness. For the darkening of your souls is a darkening and threat to all of the worlds; and their light is a light to them all. Moreover, we can say that even one who devotes himself completely to the work of Chassidut in his older years - even if he attains it by much hard work - will nevertheless be forever lacking those periods of time that passed before he began his work. This is besides the first chassidim who lived during the days of the Baal Shem Tov and the Rebbe, Rabbi Baruch (of Medzhybuz), etc., may the memory of the tzaddikim and holy people be for a blessing for life in the world to come. As they were holy beyond our comprehension also from before; and they were - more generally - above time and nature. [So] they attained what they attained even though they only began to work at Chassidut in their later years.