As I continue my formal and informal study of Chabad Hasidism into the second year, I've started to not only feel but also witness its effects upon myself and my relationships with other people and the world.
For my admiration and enthusiasm for the Tanya - a Chabad classic that can be defined as the ultimate Jewish self-help book - and its author who is also the founder of Chabad I made a historic shift last week in my prayer rite (נוסח) from the Ashkenazic rite to the Lurianic rite codifined by the author of Tanya, also changing the direction of tying the knot of tefillin according to Chabad. I've also started to learn the siddur systematically for the first time with commentaries by the founder of Chabad itself and two of its prominent contemporary rabbis. My daily experience of davening has significantly been changed since this historic shift. I feel, among others, better aligned spiritually now. My interest in Tanya has also lead me to take an interest in other works by its author, including his commentaries of the Five Books of Moses.
My relationships with other people and the world couldn't remain unaffected. Actually, I started witnessing this effect quite a long time ago, but I'm more conscious of it. Having been exposed to the depth and breath of the teachings of Chabad Hasidism, which concerns itself especially with the inner dimension of the Torah and our soul, many areas of intellectual pursuits that used to occupy me for years have completely lost their intellectual appeal for me, to say nothing of their spiritual appeal. These areas include linguistics, academic Jewish studies, Yiddishism, and Esperantism, all of which look so shallow and inessential to me now.
Unfortunately, what enthuses me now seems to interest few of my former colleagues and friends from my pre-Hasidic period. Conversely, what seems to interest them inevitably doesn't interest me in many cases. I've already noticed two dangerous tendencies of my egoic mind emerging - judgementality and desire to educate other people. Partly thanks to my practice of mindfulness and the teachings of Chabad Hasidism per se, these two negative forces of my egoic mind remain mostly as thoughts and seldom manifest themselves explicitly in speech and action. I have a few ideas about how to get rid of them or at least tame them, but it's still too early to decide how effective they are.