Dvar Torah for Parshat VaEira

Based on Likutey MoHaran I, #206

'When people start to go on that evil road, God forbid, they stray and get so confused on these [other] misleading and tortuous roads that it is difficult to return.

'But it is God's way to call to the person immediately when He sees him straying...He calls to him to turn back. [God] calls to each person according to his aspect. One He calls with a hint, [one] with an actual call and one whom He tramples and strikes. That is his call....Ó
Likutey MoHaran I, #206

Few among us can say they haven't sinned. All of us, to some degree, have turned off the good highway and are trying to find our way back one. As Rebbe Nachman teaches, God is trying to help each of us. Some are in the envious condition of being able to right their course in an innocuous way–a hint suffices. Some are called–they hear Him. Some, alas, are like Pharaoh. They need to get hit. (In Hebrew, the 10 Plagues are called the eser makot, literally, the 10 blows.)

Pharaoh got all three calls. Moshe Rabbeinu and his brother Aharon HaKohein delivered God's message to Pharaoh, 'Let My people go.Ó It didn't help. Aharon HaKohein turned his staff into a snake (Exodus 7:10). It didn't help. Then Pharaoh began to get hit. The plagues commenced. It didn't help. Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his heart and stubbornly refused to free the Jews.

A Jew once came to Reb Noson and complained to him. 'I want to be a Jew, but I have no heart.Ó Reb Noson replied, 'You do have a heart, but du b'hartzikh nisht di hartz (you don't enhearten your heart)Ó! Sometimes we may feel as the Jew who came to speak to Rebbe Nachman felt: Now matter how hard I try, the temptations grow stronger and stronger. I've been struggling for years, but I still can't extricate myself from my desires and bad habits.

The Rebbe answered him, 'Well, if you're totally bad, there's no one with whom to talk.Ó

The person replied, 'But I try to fight back and be a better Jew!Ó

'It's only a very little bit...but it's enough to start!Ó

We must not delude ourselves into thinking we are heartless, that we have no more interest or enthusiasm for Jewishness. We have to enhearten our hearts. We have to make ourselves more sensitive to our condition and position so that when we get our call from God we can hear it.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

agutn chodesh!
Chodesh tov u'mevorakh!