2) Who To Ask?

We live in an age of Daas Torah[1] and Rebbes, where everybody unconditionally entrusts their innermost dilemmas to the sagely advice of religious leaders.

In Kotzk, however, teaching independence to a student was more valuable than teaching dependence.

The Kotzker said: “I can only tell you what not to do (This refers to solely to halachic questions). What to do, has to be asked by the individual only of himself. (All existential questions involving non-halachic, personal and practical issues, have to be grappled with by the individual him or herself.)”[2]

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[1] See Kotzk Blog 48) Contemporay Daas Torah – Protecting Or Overstepping The Boundaries?

[2] Kochav HaShachar p.16, par.5