Likutei Moharan 65:1/ליקוטי מוהר"ן ס״ה:א׳

1“Vayomer Boaz el Ruth (And Boaz Said to Ruth): ‘Hear me well, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field, and do not pass on from here…. Keep your eyes on the field that they are reaping, and follow them. I have enjoined the young men not to touch you. Should you become thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from that which the young men have drawn.’” (Ruth 2:8-9)

2Know, there is a field where very beautiful and pleasing trees and plants grow. It is impossible to describe the precious beauty of this field and its produce. Happy is the eye that has seen it. These trees and plants are the holy souls that grow [in this field].

3But there are also very many naked souls wandering about outside the field. They are waiting and hoping for rectification, so that they might re-enter and resume their position. Even a great soul, on which many [other] souls depend, when it goes outside [the field], sometimes has difficulty returning there.

4All of them are asking and hoping for the Master of the Field, who can involve himself in the necessities of their rectification. <For in certain cases> a soul is rectified through someone’s death, or through someone’s mitzvah or act of worship.

5Anyone who would muster up his courage and undertake to be the Master of the Field must be deliberate and firm, a warrior and wise, and a very great tzaddik. He has to be on an exceptionally great spiritual level. There is an individual who can complete the task only with his own death, yet even for this he needs to be great <and on an exceptional spiritual level>. For there are very many great individuals who even with their death would be of no help. Only a person who is great and on an exceptionally great level can complete what is necessary in his lifetime. This is because he has to go through tremendous suffering and hardship. Yet by virtue of his greatness and exalted level he is able to overcome everything. <He is not intimidated by [the suffering and hardship],> but tends to the field’s <every need>.

6When [the Master of the Field] succeeds in rectifying the souls and bringing them in, it is very good and fitting <for them> to pray. For then prayer is perfected.

7The Master of the Field also looks after the trees and labors constantly at watering and cultivating them and at tending to the other needs of the field. He keeps the trees at the proper distance from one another so that one should not overshadow the other. For sometimes it is necessary to act very distant toward an extremely close follower so that he should not overshadow his friend.