Genuine spirituality?

Rav Yaakov Hillel](Faith and Folly: The occult in Torah perspective)  cogently denounces misguided "spiritual" activities. He relates the following chassidic story. "A poor chasid traveling through the woods met an old man. The old man gave the chasid a coin and told him to use it to buy merchandise. In the weeks after returning home, the chasid found his meager business prospering. He quickly became very wealthy. He went to his Rebbe to tell him the good news and to give a generous donation to the poor. When the Rebbe heard the full story he told his chasid that he had to return all his new wealth to the old man. The Rebbe told him that the old man was someone who had special powers but they were from the evil spiritual sources. The chasid listened to his Rebbe's command. He gathered up his newfound wealth and traveled back into the woods. He found the old man as before and explained why he was giving back everything. "I'll take back everything as your Rebbe requested, but I want you to go back to your Rebbe and tell him that the source of his power is the same as mine". The distraught chasid returned to his Rebbe and told him the message. The astonished Rebbe concluded regretfully that he could no longer be a rebbe. He left town and was never heard from again."

The Bostoner Rebbe, commenting on this story, said that it is not always easy to distinguish between genuine spirituality which comes from being close to G‑d and spirituality which draws its power from negative spiritual energies. Thus spirituality is clearly important for the religious Jew – but only a spirituality developed through Torah and mitzvos is viewed as spirituality.

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