Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Lilliputians inhabit the first island Gulliver visits. They all stand about six inches tall, with proportionally tiny buildings and trees and horses. The Lilliputians are ruled by an Emperor who appoints his high court officials according to their skills with rope dancing rather than their actual abilities. In other words, they're not exactly governed according to rational principles. The court of Lilliput mostly seems to spend its time plotting against one another. Gulliver, unfortunately, forms one of the primary targets of these plots. His enormous size makes him both expensive and dangerous for the Emperor to keep, so, even though he has made himself useful in Lilliput's wars against Blefuscu, Gulliver eventually has to flee the country to avoid having his eyes put out.
The Brobdingnagians
Gulliver relates that, in the past, there were battles between the monarchy, nobility, and people resulting in a number of civil wars ending in a treaty. The monarchy is based on reason. City officials are elected by ballot. The King of Brobdingnag finds English institutions and behaviour wanting in comparison with his country's. Based on Gulliver's descriptions of their behaviour, the King describes the English as "the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth".[4] Swift intended the moral relationship between the English and Brobdingnagians to be as disproportionate as the physical relationship. The King of Brobdingnag is considered to be based on Sir William Steele, a statesman and writer, whom Swift worked for early in his career.
Norman Lamm in The Religious Thought of Hasidism (Yeshiva University Press, 1999) pp. 403-404:
- Smallness is the 'minor state'...that of imperfection sadness, estrangement, mechanical performance out of habit or compulsion.
- Greatness, or the 'major state' is one of freedom, joy, love, fulfillment.
- Service of God in smallness is performed by rote, and the worshipper is burdened by his inability to leap upward...Greatness represents his breakthrough, his triumph over his emotional-intellectual-spiritual limitations, and the expression of his latent powers.
- Hasidism's originality lies...in stressing the value of persisting even during the cold...alienated period of smallness.
Norman Lamm, p. 405:
R. Yitzhak Meir of Our (Poland) - The Children of Israel were both coerced into their historic mission and they accepted it voluntarily. Essentially, their attitude was...a warm and happy response of readiness...But the Sages insisted upon a note of reluctance as well, in order to teach successive generations that one must serve the Lord not only in 'greatness'...but also in the darker moments of life when the human spirit is subdued and wear and vulnerable...when one must force himself obstinately and relentlessly to do God's will even while his own spirit is unresponsive.
(Lamm 405-)
Besht
1. ...If one studies Torah without understanding, he is in a state of smallness, for his intellect is not whole. If, however, he studies with understanding and enthusiasm, then he is in a state of greatness, for he is attached to higher levels...
2. There are times when a person is incapable of worship except in a state of smallness, i.e. he does not enter the upper worlds at all...Nevertheless, even though one worships in smallness, he can do so with great devekut - sincere and strong connection with God.
3. At times his mind can discern that there exists above him a multitude of rounded heavens, and he stands at one point on this small earth; that all the world is as nothing compared to the Creator...Yet, though he understands all this intellectually, he cannot ascend to higher worlds.
4. R. Moshe Hayim Ephraim of Sudlikov (Ukraine) - ...It is impossible to remain at the same level perpetually. Rather, one must either go up or go down. The descent is for the purpose of ascent, provided one realizes he is in a state of smallness and prays to the Lord [that he rise to greatness].
5. R. Yakov Yosef of Polnoye (Poland) - ...When the service of the Lord is done without love or awe, but by compulsion and as if it were a great inconvenience, and without pleasure--those are the days of smallness, as I heard from my teacher [The Ba'al Shem Tov]
He said to him: I am neither a scholar, nor a speculator, nor an important individual; rather, I teach and systematically arrange halakhic rulings, and the scholars instruct the students in the study hall in accordance with my opinion. I maintain that there is a difference for us between the arrival of the day of Shabbat and the departure of the day. With regard to the arrival of the day, the sooner we welcome the day by reciting kiddush the better, and we thereby express how beloved it is to us. With regard to the conclusion of the day, we delay it so that Shabbat will not appear to be like a burden to us.
(Lamm, 412)
R. Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev (Ukraine)
Whoever serves the Lord with greatness of mind suffers no fear or trepidation from any external events. Even though it may appear that he is beset by tribulations, inwardly he does not consider it tribulation, for he is firmly confident that no harm will befall him. But he who worships God with smallness of mind is gripped even inwardly with great fear from everyday troublesome events...
- What state of mind do we live in for the most part from day to day?
- Is Minor-State about survival and basic needs? But doesn't Chasidism teach we're supposed to elevate everything?
- What are the most frequent prayers we make in our lives? How are these prayers different from the ones written in our prayer books? How are they the same?