Based on Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #282
You're a nut.
More specifically, you're a walnut, hard shell on the outside,
edible food on the inside. This is a good thing. In the Song of
Songs, which we read on the Shabbat of Pesach, the heroine says,
"I went down to the nut grove"
(6:11). The Midrash informs us that a Jew is like a walnut. How
so?
After a walnut has fallen in the road, landed in the mud, in is
pretty unappetizing. But an enterprising person—a tzaddik, let's
say—or someone hungry enough, will realize that he can pick up
the walnut and wash it off.
Crack open the shell and voila—something worthwhile inside.
This is one of the primary teachings of Rebbe Nachman. That Jew
over there—maybe it's you?—has a wickedly muddy shell, no doubt
about it. But take another moment to look a little deeper, to
look inside. There has to be something good and worthwhile
inside. Impossible that a Jew hasn't done some mitzvah or some
good deed.
As we clean house in preparation for Pesach, wash off your
Mitzrayim
(Egyptian) mud and that of others. Remember that inside, where
it counts, is someone worthy of redemption.
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