niggun. Followers customarily gather around on Jewish holidays to sing in groups, receive and give spiritual inspiration, and celebrate brotherly camaraderie. Hasidic custom venerated pilgrimage to the particular Rebbe one had allegiance to, either to gain a private audience or to attend their public gatherings (Tish/Farbrengen). The celebrations give over his Torah teachings, sometimes personal messages, and are interspersed with inspirational niggunim. There are nigunim for private meditation, often in prayer, called devekus nigunim. These are usually slower than communal nigunim, and without lyrics. The Baal Shem Tov spoke of devekus nigunim as "songs that transcend syllables and sound". Several tunes attributed to him are still used today. Some niggunim originate from non-Jewish sources. Hasidic custom, based on a practice of the Baal Shem Tov, adapted secular anthems, marches and folk songs, ascribing to them a new spiritual interpretation. Hasidic belief is that these songs, in their secular forms, are in spiritual exile. By adapting them to liturgical forms, they are raising "Sparks of Holiness", based on the Kabbalistic rectification of Isaac Luria. On Jewish festivals, such as in the intermediate days of Sukkot and during the traditional celebration of Simchat Torah, the most joyous day in the Jewish calendar, joyful niggunim are sung in the dancing in the synagogue. Deveikut and Mitzvot There is a historical debate in Rabbinic literature as to whether Torah study or Mitzvot (Jewish observances) are spiritually superior. The 613 Mitzvot themselves are able to be divided into ethical ("between man and man") and ritual ("between man and God") observances. Mystical literature, based on Kabbalah, gives its own metaphysical reasons for the mitzvot. Hasidism arose at a time when advanced Talmudic study was seen as the supreme Jewish activity, yet was out of reach of the unlettered masses. The Baal Shem Tov gave new prominence to prayer and sincere observance of the mitzvot by the artless common folk. To the Baal Shem Tov, "God desires the heart". Just as the simple prayers of the common masses could reach beyond the self-aware spirituality of scholars, so too, their mitzvot could also reach spiritual levels that the Tzadikim envyed and emulated. In the profound dimension of Hasidic philosophical interpretation of Kabbalah, the mitzvot are described as the metaphorical "limbs of the King" (God) and an embrace of the Divine essence expressed within the Will of the commandments. Hasidic tales are told of the deveikut of Rebbes and