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You've probably wondered why it is sometimes so difficult to become a better; to be more observant or to feel more of the sweetness of the mitvot. That's what God wants, too. Why does He make it so difficult? The Rebbe tells us that the more important something is to a person's Jewishness, the more obstacles he will encounter in his path to achieving it. God does want you to have it. But He wants you to really want it.That is the function of the obstacles: to arouse your desire for the goal of holiness you're striving for to such a degree that you'll succeed.
The Rebbe likens this to dangling something interesting in front of a child him and not giving to him. The child will start to run after the person in order to get that thing. (If you don't have much experience with children, believe me: it's true!)
Reb Noson relates this teaching to the sin of the spies.
[The spies reported that the Land of Israel] is indeed flowing with milk and honey. Look at some of its fruit [that we brought back]. However, its inhabitants are fierce, the cities large and well fortified. There are even giants among them!... [Caleb responsed,] "Even so! If we go up we will certainly overcome them!" "No we cannot!" the spies retorted. "These people are much stronger than we!" (Numbers 13:27-31)
The Rebbe has taught us that our longing for a holy goal has to match the obstacles we face. This ability to continually nurture and strengthen our yearning for holiness is a product of EReTz (the Land) of Israel. This is evidenced by the similarity between the word eReTz and the word RaTzon (desire). The ratzon stems from Eretz Yisrael because Godliness is more readily felt there.
This was the spies' mistake. Although they well appreciated the holiness inherent to the Land, they felt the obstacles surrounding it were insurmountable. The land is flowing with milk and honey and does produce wonderfully large and delicious fruits (metaphors for the spiritual gains to be had by being in the Land). But the people there are fierce and aggressive, determined to keep us out. They may have treasures in their cities, but the cities are impregnable. And the giants could crush us like ants! There's no way we can succeed.
The result of such thinking was crying over nothing, a crying that was the underlying cause of the destruction of both the first and second Temple. Therefore, we must respond to all challenges and obstacles as did Caleb: We can go up, we can succeed. Even if we have to build ladders up to the sky, we can do it, if we want Eretz Yisrael, holiness, strongly enough. Amen.
Shabbat Shalom!
"Korach was such an intelligent person. How could he have made such a colossal blunder [and rebel against Moshe]?" This is the question that our Sages pose (Midrash Tanchuma; Rashi, Numbers 16:7). They answer that he misinterpreted the information that he had. Korach knew prophetically that he would have extremely great descendants. The prophet Samuel, equal in stature to Moshe and Aharon, was one of them. Korach reasoned that the merit and service of his future offspring were so great that it had be he that would prevail in the rebellion.
What was it that Korach failed to include in his equation? Korach's mistake was in thinking that God had to agree to Korach's plan because God was going to make him the ancestor of all those great tzadikkim. Korach didn't know that sometimes evil people can beget good ones. For even though the forces of evil occasionally limit the Jewish potential for expressing holiness to such a degree that few, if any, mitzvot get done, the good will out.
Rebbe Nachman writes (Likutey Moharan I, Lesson 17) that this potential good/holiness which has been the focus of these villians ultimately gets transmitted to their offspring. One such example is Haman. He was totally devoted to implementing his version of the Final Solution, which failed, thank God. The Talmud tells us that Haman's descendants learned Torah in Bnei Brak! Was Haman rewarded for that? Quite the opposite.
For who one's offspring will be, their future greatness and their genealogy, is God's tikkun, what God does Himself, to bring the world to it's ultimate state of perfection. Our role in bringing that about is to have faith in God, His Torah and His tzaddikim, and to do our best to keep the mitzvot. Who, or what, will result is God's affair. We cannot justify or reconcile our behavior based on what we think will be. God in His infinite wisdom can bring about any result He desires with, or without, our co-operation. It's better for us to co-operate. Ask Korach.
Likutey Moharan II, #110:
I [Rebbe Noson] heard that someone asked [Rebbe Nachman] about how freewill works. He answered him simply. "Freewill is in the person's hand in a straightforward manner. If he wants, he does. If he doesn't want, he doesn't do." I wrote this down because it's necessary [to know]. Many people are confounded by this because they have so many habits and mannerisms ingrained in them from their youth. Therefore, it seems to them that they have no freewill, God forbid, and that they cannot change their ways. The truth, however, is not so. The fact is that each person has freewill at all times concerning everything. He does what he wants. Understand this well.
Balaam, evildoer that he was, was a very special person. He contained within himself such tremendous potential that he achieved a level of prophecy equal to that of Moshe! (The words MoSheH RaBeiNU have the numerical value of 613, the number of mitzvot in the Torah. This indicates that Moshe was the personification of the Torah. BaLAaM's name, as well, indicates his connection to the Torah: The beit of his name parallels the beit of Breishit, the first letter of the Torah; the lamed parallels the lamed of yisraeL the last letter of the Torah; the ayin has a numerical value of 70, relating to the 70 "faces" of the Torah; and finally, the mem, with a numerical value of 40, relates to the 40 days in which the Torah was given at Sinai.) That being the case, why was Balaam indeed such an evildoer, hell-bent on the destruction of the Jews?
The answer is simple: that is what he chose to do. Balaam did everything in his power to draw upon himself impure energy. He was not forced to play the role of antagonist against the Jewish people.
It is written, "From the mouth of God come neither evils nor good" (Lamentations 3:38). God wants to give each of us nothing but good. He sends us the undifferentiated Divine light. What happens to that light when we receive it depends on our "vessels," our ability to deal with that light. One who has been fortunate to channel his desire in life into doing that which God asks from him, namely faith in Him, observing the mitzvot etc., receives the light as good, as something that is agreeable and beneficial to him.
Sadly, one who has chosen to waste his time, squandering his desire on worthless nonsense or worse, receives the Divine light as something uncomfortable and discomforting. He sees nothing worthwhile in that which is in fact for his eternal good. Only those things which drag him further along the road of disrespect and disregard for the Torah and all that is holy seem good to him.
BUT! "There is no such thing as despair!" One always has freewill. Though one may not be able to do an immediate about face to change his ways, he can slow his descent, perhaps even stop it, and little by little turn his desire into positive action so that he may receive God's Divine light only as the pure good that He wants it be.
Shabbat Shalom!
The opening verse of parshat Masei says, "Eileh (these) are the travels of the Jewish people..." (Numbers 33:1). The author of Eser Ma'amorot comments that "these" travels are an atonement for the sin of the golden calf about which it is written, "Eileh (these) are your idols, Jewish people..." (Exodus 32:8). Thus, explains Rebbe Nachman, when one travels it is because of his lack of faith. The reason is that lack of faith is the first step towards idolatry, the first step towards making a "golden calf."
You may be asking, "What sort of "idol" does anybody make nowadays? No one worships statues and such." Even though this is not 100% true, there is still an "idol" that almost everyone is guilty of bowing down to: MONEY. (In Likutey Moharan I, 23 Rebbe Nachman writes at length about money being inclusive of every form of idol worship.) So here, when he says that one's traveling indicates a lack of faith Rebbe Nachman is refering to traveling solely for the sake of making more money than one really needs.
In another vein, Rebbe Nachman was onced asked by one of his followers, an ordinary person, whether or not to go on a certain trip that he, the follower, was not enthusiastic about making. The Rebbe replied, "When one sees that he has a journey before him he should go. He should not stubbornly refuse to make the trip.
"For if a Jew is careful not to sin, he will certainly do many good things in the course of his travels. He will pray, make blessings before he eats, etc. He just has to take particular care not to sin."
The specific examples Rebbe Nachman gave are instructive. Prayer and blessings, which are in effect "mini-prayers," are expressions of one's faith in God. These expresions of faith when made during our travels prepare the way for God's homecoming. For we are not the only travelers. God, too, as it were, has been forced to leave His home, the Beit HaMikdash (Temple), and take to the road. Due to our idolatry. (See Isaiah 28:20 and Rashi's comment from our Sages.)
So when you're unsure about your travel plans, do as Rebbe Noson did and pray:
"God, have pity on me. Be with me constantly, when I'm home and when I travel. Teach me, guide me with Your truth, to know whether or not to travel; and if I should go, when and how; by what route and for how long? As the Jews in the desert 'encamped and traveled by the word of God,' so, may it be with me."
Gut Shabbos!
"These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel...after he had defeated Sichon...and Og" (Deuteronomy 1:1; 1:4). Rashi (v.1) tells us that the words were words of reproof. However, rather than openly referring to the various wrongdoings of the Jewish people, Moses merely hinted to them. The reason? K'vodan (literally, their honor) of the Jewish people.
Moses was addressing the Jewish people at the end of their 40-year sojourn in the desert, on the eve of their entry into the Promised Land. It was a little more than a month before his own demise. What message did this great leader, the teacher of all Jewry until today, want to instill in God's people as he prepared to leave them?
Moses knew that the Land of Israel was the spiritual soil from which all the latent holiness of every Jew would blossom. He knew also, that the Jews would face two-fold opposition in their attempts to plant themselves in the land. One source of opposition was the 31 Canaanite kings who ruled the land. They represented a seductive spectrum of desires run amok and misguided ways of thinking and living.
The other source was the history of Jewish sin in the desert. The Jews were painfully aware of the tremendous rebellions they had perpetrated against God. They felt that as result of those crimes they were unworthy of His love, unworthy of His land. It was only right, they reasoned, that God would reject their mitzvot, their attempts at drawing themselves nearer to Him.
Enter Moses. His message to the Jews was: DON'T BE AFRAID! Sichon and Og were tremendous giants who lived at the border of the Promised Land in their role as protectors of the Canaanite kings. The source of their strength was the angels who had fathered them. They were angels who had protested the creation of man. Because they were angels they were unable to grasp that man, by overcoming his physical nature, was in fact stronger than the angels. By defeating Sichon and Og in battle, Moses showed the Jews that one who keeps the Torah CAN overcome the Canaanite kings, and all they represent, as well.
In regard to the Jews' feeling of being distant from God Moses reminded them that m'lo kol ha'aretz k'vodo (the entire world is filled with His honor). Even though you have sinned the worst sins, again and again, know: GOD IS WITH YOU, NEAR YOU AND BY YOU! He still loves you. God has not rejected you! The proof is, that He is leading your children into the Holy Land despite what you have done. God will never reject as long as you make the effort to draw yourself nearer to Him. That's why Moses merely hinted to the Jews' mis-doings because of k'vodan/k'vodo, their honor, God's honor, presence and love that still graced them.
Rebbe Nachman summed up these messages when he taught us: THE WHOLE WORLD IS A VERY, VERY NARROW BRIDGE. [In order to pass over safely] THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS: DO NOT MAKE YOURSELF AFRAID!
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
"Va'Etchanan" - I [Moses] pleaded to God at that time. (Deuteronomy 3:23)
The term "Va'Etchanan" denotes that Moses pleaded with God to give him an unearned gift. Even though the righteous possess many merits of their own, they always plead with God to provide an answer to their prayers from His Treasury of Unearned Gifts. (Rashi, loc. cit.)
It was the time ordained for Moses' death. Denied entry into the Holy Land, he persisted in pleading and begging that God annul His oath and allow him to enter the Land. Although Moses was a truly righteous man, rather than enumerating his many good deeds and his untiring self-sacrifice for the Jewish Nation, he pleaded with God to grant him an unearned gift from His Treasury. Moses thus opened his prayer with the word "Va'Etchanan" - indicating that he was seeking salvation from God's Treasury of Unearned Gifts. Based on this one word, "Va'Etchanan" Rebbe Nachman explains how Moses' plea to enter the Holy Land includes the concept of connecting to the tzaddik.
Rebbe Nachman taught:
The verse states (Deuteronomy 30:20), "For it is your life and the length of your days," telling us that the Torah is our very life. Whoever distances himself from Torah distances himself from life (Zohar I, 92a).
This idea is rooted in the Midrash which states that, prior to creating the world, God created the Torah. He then used the Torah as a "blueprint" for the creation of the universe and everything in it (Bereishit Rabbah 1:1). The Torah thus represents the vitality of life, meaning eternal life; the Torah existed before Creation and continually sustains the world - since all that transpires in this world can be found in some form in its "blueprint." Human life as well, though of relatively short duration, is also sustained by the Torah, as the verse tells us, "it is your life."
Based on the understanding that the Torah is the essence of life itself, Rebbe Nachman poses the following question:
How can anyone possibly separate himself from Torah for even a moment? Yet it is literally impossible to be attached to Torah continually, day and night, without a second's interruption. Even the most diligent and devoted students of Torah must stop their studies while they tend to their livelihoods and other physical needs. Nevertheless, Torah is life. Tending to one's material needs is tantamount to rejecting life. How can one separate oneself from life even for a second? And since one cannot remain attached to Torah the entire time, from where does he draw life during that time when he is distant from Torah?
Rebbe Nachman expands this concept. Man's physical needs are extensive: one must eat, sleep, tend to one's livelihood and the many other material requirements that occupy one's day. While a person - any person - is involved in the mundane occupations of life and is thus unattached to the Torah, he becomes an "ordinary person."
The concept of the ordinary person applies to everyone: dedicated Torah scholar, part-time student, full-time worker or anyone who fills his day with anything but Torah. He might even be one who denies Torah! But no matter who he or she is, the person must receive his life from the Torah, for "it is your life." Thus, everybody lives on account of the Torah.
The problem is that everyone, even the greatest tzaddik and most dedicated Torah scholar, must interrupt his studies to tend to his material needs. At that moment he is interrupting his connection to life. Certainly this is true of those who have never had the opportunity to study Torah, don't want to study it, or reject it. From where, or from what, do they draw life? There must be some type of "interface" by which an ordinary person can always be attached to Torah, even if indirectly, because without Torah a person would be cut off from life itself.
A very great tzaddik, one who is always attached to Torah, serves as this "interface" for all of humanity. This implies that the tzaddik is always, on some level, attached to Torah, even when tending to his material needs. When he is involved in his mundane affairs, the tzaddik receives his vitality from the Torah in a concealed form. When he must interrupt his Torah study, he also becomes an "ordinary person," but he remains intrinsically bound up with the Torah in a concealed manner.
In this same concealed manner, those who are distant from Torah can also receive their vitality. But as they are distant from Torah to begin with, it is very difficult for them to receive their vitality directly. The tzaddik is attached to Torah, but at the same time he may become an "ordinary person." He therefore acts as a channel: the ordinary people can receive their vitality through him, for he can "interface" both with the Torah and with them. (The whys and wherefores can be learned directly from the lesson upon which the above is based or the book The Treasury of Unearned Gifts from which this piece is taken.)
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
Arguably the most distinguishing feature of the Jewish people is their inherent holiness (kedushah). Since we are holy, it follows that all our nourishment should be holy. And since all the produce of Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel) is holy we should eat nothing but that which comes from there. However, not all of us are always in Eretz Yisroel. What can we do to draw our nourishment from the Holy Land, to invest our food with its special kedushah?
The problem is compounded by the fact that because of our holiness we must not contaminate ourselves with UN-holy food, the produce not of Eretz Yisroel. Again: what do we do to make our food befit our status?
Happily, the solution is simple: to make a b'rakha (blessing) before eating. Whenever we bless and thank God we transform the place we are located at to a piece of Eretz Yisroel. For that which makes the Holy Land inherently holy is that it proclaims God's rulership over the world. Once upon a time God wanted the Canaanite nations to live there and so He gave them The Land. When He wanted the Jews to live in Eretz Yisroel, God dispossessed the Canaanites and gave it to us, the holy Jews.
Anything, any time, any place that proclaims that God created the world and can do with it as He likes is akin to Eretz Yisroel. When you take that delicious piece of fruit in your hand (the one you write with) and say the blessing carefully, you're turning the place where the fruit grew into Eretz Yisroel. Voila! the piece of fruit is now produce of the Holy Land. It's not magic. It's the realization of potential.
This can help us to better understand the resolution of a contradiction that the Talmud deals with (Berakhot 35a). One verse says, "The world, and everything in it, belongs to God" (Psalms 24:1). However, "....the land He gave to mankind" (ibid., 115:16). Is it His or ours? The Talmud responds: before the blessing [on food] the world is His. Afterwards it is ours. Rashi, in his commentary to Psalms, writes that the word ha'eretz used in Psalms 24 refers to Eretz Yisroel and all the other countries of world, as well. However, in Psalm 115 Rashi takes the same word, ha'eretz, to mean what it usually does, Eretz Yisroel.
Thus, with each b'rakha you make you proclaim again and again that God is the Creator and your location becomes more and more Eretz Yisroel-like. With that you protect yourself from contamination and are nourished with delicious holiness. Ess gezundter heit (b'teiavon)!
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
And when God shows a cheerful PaNiM (face) there is life and good in the world. And if [He shows the] opposite, the opposite, God forbid. Similarly in the case of the tzaddik. If he shows a cheerful face, it's good. And if not, not. Thus, the verse (Deuteronomy 11:26) tells us, "See! I am putting LiPhNeiKheM (before you; literally, to your face) today blessing or curse."
The tzaddik is much more successful at imitating the Creator than we ordinary folk. Nonetheless, "Your people are all tzaddikm" (Isaiah 60:21). Each of us has, to a greater or lesser degree, the ability to spread some of that Godly life and goodness that He wants so much to give us. In fact, when the Rebbe writes about God showing a "cheerful face" we know he doesn't mean it in a physical sense, because God doesn't have a physical face. So how does God indicate to us that He's smiling or not?
Through His chosen people, His ambassadors-at-large in this world. When we greet others, all others, with a cheerful countenance we give them life - literally, as the Rebbe says (Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #43) - and good. That in turn inspires them to smile and to "turn on the good," thereby giving them the opportunity to serve God by being the vehicles through which He gives even more of His good to the world.
"See what power I've put in your face," says God. "Blessing or ...." So do us all a favor and smile!
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
"...The first of what you shear from your sheep give to [the kohen]." (Deuteronomy 18:4)
Most of us, when we think sheep (if we ever do), think of Bo Peep and the ones she lost. When we think wool we think sweaters, skirts and suits. What connection can we make between this mitzvah and our non-farm lives?
On the verse, "Your hair is like that of a flock of goats" (Song of Songs 4:1, 6:5) Rashi comments: God says to the Jewish people, "Even the empty ones among you are precious to Me" and "There is much to praise even in the weak and scrawny ones among you." The "woolen hairs" that God finds by a Jew are very precious to Him. What are they and why are they so precious?
"'Where will you rest them in the hot afternoon?' - the hot afternoon of exile" (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:7:2 on Song of Songs 1:7). In the "hot afternoon" of exile, when Jews are enslaved to pay taxes to promote the interests of heathens, when Jews are enslaved and think like their gentile masters, how can they possibly rest and gather their strength to observe God's Torah and mitzvot the way they should?
It's well-nigh impossible. Each and every one of us is fighting an uphill battle and, frankly, most of us are taking a licking. Yet, each of us tries hard and succeeds, somewhat, to inch forward, to budge a little, to come a hairsbreadth closer to God, by rejecting the selfishness, the grabbing at the fleeting pleasures of this world, in favor of giving of himself to God.
"But what is it worth? How much did I really accomplish?" There are two answers (at least) to this question. First, each hairsbreadth is cumulative. One by one they add up and become a gift worthy of God's praise, endearing that scrawny little goat (you!) to the Blessed Creator (as above). The second answer is provided by the following:
The Rebbe once told a story about a melancholy tzaddik (saint) who wanted to make himself happy, but found it impossible to do so. No matter what he thought of to make himself happy, Satan (the Evil Inclination) would point out to him why in fact that thing was not a reason to be happy. Finally he find something that was unassailable: God had not made him a heathen.
He started to dwell on this thought and it made him happier and happier. He became so happy, he was as happy as Moses was at the time he received the Tablets! The tzaddik was so uplifted that he was traveling light-years in the spiritual worlds. He was concerned that when he descended he would be so far from home that people would discover that he was a tzaddik. He did not want that.
Joy has a limit, begining and ending automatically. It ends little by little and so, too, the tzaddik descended little by little. When he landed he was exactly where he landed, no more than a hairsbreadth from where he had taken off! The distance was so slight only God could measure it!
How did the tzaddik move so far spiritually when physically he had moved almost not at all? The Rebbe reminds us of the geometric fact that two lines which start together at the same point move further and further away from one another the more they move away from the starting point. Where you are before you moved and your spiritual state then are two endpoints of one "line"; where you are after you moved and your spiritual state then are two endpoints of a different "line." In this world they're very close, but spirtually they're light-years apart!
(For the entire story see Rabbi Nachman's Stories pp. 447-451 or www.breslov.org/stories.html, "The Melancholy Saint".)
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
"...there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
"No male article shall be on a woman, and a man shall not wear women's clothing. Whoever does such things is loathsome to God your Lord." (Deuteronomy 22:5)
Even though this verse contains two distinct mitzvot, the former addressed to women and the latter to men, both mitzvot contain advice for each gender.
Each of us is a microcosm and thus we contain within ourselves both male and female characteristics. Among "male" traits are those which move a person to be aggressive and war-like, to claim for himself that which he has earned, "conquered". "Female" characteristics include the ability to admit weakness and to be submissive. We are all aware, however, that there are times and places in which a person has to "borrow" traits from the other gender in order to properly respond to a situation at hand.
Reb Noson gives the following as an example: When a person stands in prayer before God he must be careful to present himself as powerless, totally dependent on God's good graces. One cannot claim that he deserves that which he is asking for; that is wearing a "male article" at a time when one needs to acknowledge that he would be impotent, were it not for God's constant help.
On the other hand there are times when the opposite has to be avoided, when "a man shall not wear women's clothing." There are situations where a Jew has to take a stand to prevent or uproot evil, whether within himself, in his family or in his community. (Of course, before you "shoot your gun" make sure you know what you're doing!)
Interestingly enough, the outcome of either of these offenses "is loathsome to God." Rashi comments on each mitzvah that its transgression leads to lewdness, which, our Sages tell us (Sanhedrin 93a) is an anathema to Hashem. In our context that means that the conceit which doesn't allow one to submit himself to God's will will also push him to "conquer" others whom he shouldn't (even if only in his mind).
So, too, if a person doesn't stand up to the evil urges within himself when he really ought to, then his drives will continue to abuse his submissiveness and push him to thoughts, words and actions that God finds loathsome.
In this month of Elul, when we are preparing for Rosh HaShanah, let us follow the advice of our holy works and take extra care to preserve and improve our kedushah (holiness, sexual purity). Make sure you "dress right" for every occasion!
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
What do you do if someone is after you, if someone one wants, God forbid, to kill you? How can you save yourself?
For most of us reading this, such a situation is, thank God, never going to happen. On second thought, maybe, just maybe, it's already happening.
Most people tend to consider their spiritual challenges as being limited to the spiritual arena. Not that we are challenged only in our spiritual endeavors, like davening (praying), trying to perform a mitzvah or overcoming a temptation. We're challenged in our mundane affairs as well: will we "let slip" a piece of lashon hara (gossip), or take the extra change the cashier mistakenly gave us? No. It's not the challenges that we limit. It is their results. We consider the effects of the success or, God forbid, failure as being limited merely to the challenge at hand.
This is not the case. The effect of (not) overcoming the yetzer hara (evil inclination) affects one's entire being: one's perception of what he already knows as well as his ability to accept and retain more Torah information is what we want to focus on in particular.
There are two things that Rebbe Nachman calls "clothing": the mitzvot that one does (Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #23) and the Torah-ideas that one currently possesses along with those within his intellectual "grasp" (ibid. and Likutey Moharan I, 21:16). We know that a person's choice and care of clothing says a great deal about him. And we also know that clothing can be used to disguise and remake a person's identity.
We are now a mere two weeks from Rosh HaShanah, Judgement Day. Each and every one of us will be on trial. The prosecutor is a "dream-team" (nightmare!) attorney: Satan himself. And he wants the death sentence, spiritual and physical. What can you do to protect yourself?
Well, let's face it: if you're like the rest of us you're guilty. But that's only you as you are now. If you assume a new identity, well, that new person isn't so bad. In fact, s/he's probably a very good person. One goes about acquring this new identity, this new "clothing" by sanctifying himself in thought and deed. One has to take care not to lie; one has to nurture his fear of God and his faith in the Torah sages; and one to be careful not to look at things that arouse immoral desire. For example, by nurturing one's fear of God one has not only performed a mitzvah (Leviticus 19:14), but has also engendered within himself a spirit and idea of holiness that he did not have previously. He has changed his "clothes" and become another person.
This is, "Might and grandeur are her garment, and she laughs to the very end" (Proverbs 31:25). By the means of the garment, which is a garment of might and grandeur, a garment of strength and beauty, "she laughs to the very end." He has no fear of him at all.The main time for this is the month of Elul. This is a time of comprehension. And this is, "L'vushah Va'tischak L'yom Æcharon (her garment, she laughs to the very end)," the first letters of which are ELUL (Likutey Moharan, ibid.)
May God help us to be strong, to sanctify ourselves and to be so busy doing mitzvot that not even our yetzer hara will recognize us! Amen.
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
"Cursed is the one who moves the boundary of his neighbor..." (Deuteronomy 27:17)."This is the concept of earning a living faithfully. Someone who doesn not earn his living with faith, and is filled with a craving for money so that he steals from his friend...(Likutey Moharan I, 29:9).
We read the portion of Ki Tavo in Elul, the last month of the Jewish year. This is the time of the year for "fixing" things we did wrong over the course of the year in order to be prepared for the High Holidays. Among the many crimes (aka sins) that are committed by almost every person is theft. God implanted within us a strong desire for money (Chagiga 11b) and sooner or later we succumb.
Of course most of us aren't muggers or bank robbers or even shoplifters. However, how many of us can say that we never took an overly long coffee break or lunch hour? Or rationalized not paying a debt or an old loan? And how about overcharging customers and undercutting the competion? "But, I've got to make a living." So does the other guy. His dollar is just as important as yours.
So, of course you're filled with regret and want to repent. But how in the world can you ever hope to make restitution? Who can recall how much and from whom he stole? And what can you do to keep from doing it again? The Rebbe advises us:
"This is the primary rectification of earning a living: to keep in mind that the sole purpose of every step [you] take and every word [you] speak while earning a living is o be able to give charity from [your] earnings" (Likutey Moharan, ibid.).
Certainly this is only the beginning. One has to follow up by making sure his business practices - as employer or employee, as provider or customer - meet the standards of halakha. And of course one has to give charity. Here a note of caution is in order.
We all know that Jews are very generous, the biggest givers of charity. Our sages point out, however, that we are a strange folk: sometimes we give to build the Temple and sometimes to make a golden calf! So, please. Pray hard that you should give your money only to worthy and worthwhile causes.
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
"[The Torah] is not in heaven... nor is it on the other side of the ocean [that you should] say, 'Who will... get it for us?' ... It is in your mouth and heart, so that you can keep it" (Deuteronomy 30:12-14).Rashi comments: For were it in heaven or across the sea, you would have to climb to the sky and cross the ocean to get it.
It is indeed one more thing to be thankful for, that we do not have to go to extraordinary lengths to study Torah. Even in Rebbe Nachman's time there were already many seforim (holy books) being printed and bought (Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #18; more on this below). However, to actually learn the Torah and put it into practice - that's a daunting challenge! How can we ever hope to accomplish it?
"It is in your mouth and heart, so that you can keep it." Reb Noson explains that the Torah itself is giving us the solution: talk to Hashem about your desire to learn His Torah, about how much you want to understand it better and remember it more clearly, especially when you need to apply it. God doesn't hold us responsible for what we can't do. He doesn't test us beyond our abilities. He's not out to "catch" us at wrongdoing. But Hashem does expect us to turn to Him and ask for help.
Maybe you need to be more proficient in Hebrew - ask God for help. Perhaps your schedule is too crowded and you can't find time to learn - ask Him to give you the strength to unsubscribe from mailing lists and to stop wasting time playing Doom and Quake. Maybe you can't get hold of the seforim you need. Express to Him how much you're willing to sacrifice whatever you need to, to know Him, to know His Torah. For the moment you're truly ready to sacrifice yourself for the Torah, it's yours.
But there's a catch to buying seforim. As the Rebbe commented, "People are unaware of this. All the books in the world won't help if you don't learn" (ibid.). Which would be a shame. For the Rebbe also told us that the power of Torah is so great that even the worst habitual sinners would break free from their evil if they would just maintain daily Torah-study sessions, "be what may, come what may" (ibid. #19).
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!
In many places throughout Likutey MoHaran Rebbe Nachman teaches us that the face is indicitive one of one's inner intelligence. Intelligence doesn't mean mere IQ. Intelligence means fear of God, which is what the "fool" of Psalms lacks (Psalms 92:7). About a person who has such intelligence it is written, "A person's wisdom makes his face shine" (Ecclesiastes 8:1).
This light is off anytime we're spiritually asleep, unconscious, as it were. Interestingly, this is also the situation we find ourselves in at the start of Rosh HaShanah. This state of unconsciousness parallels the deep sleep that God placed upon Adam on the sixth day, the day Adam was created (Genesis 2:21). That day was the very first Rosh HaShanah. How do we wake ourselves up? How do we turn on the light of fear?
The call of the shofar is what stirs us: the simplicity of the tekiah (the long, straight blast), the brokeness of the shevarim (the three short blasts) and the shattered crying of the teruah (the nine very short blasts) each has its lesson, its message that can pierce our stone hearts and bring us to the realization of God's love and patience, of His strength and claims upon us. The three notes parallel the Patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchok and Ya'akov (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), respectively.
However, what happens this year, when the first day of Rosh HaShanah, the more holy of the two, falls on Shabbat and we DON'T blow the shofar? Certainly when our Sages legislated that we not blow the shofar on Shabbat-Rosh HaShanah they did not leave us without any means to "regain consciousness." What do we do?
Rebbe Nachman writes (Likutey MoHaran I, 57) that the eating, the oneg (delight), of Shabbat can bring one to the aspect of, "A person's wisdom makes his face shine." For the eating of Shabbat is 100% pure holiness. One of the simpler meanings of this statement is that the eating of Shabbat affords us the ability to more clearly recognize that God is in total control of everything that happens in the world at large and in our (very) personal lives as well. And not only that. It also produces within us the "heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 35:26) that allows us to accept His loving authority.
Like the three notes of the shofar, the three meals of Shabbat also parallel the Patriarchs. Thus with our eating of Shabbat we can accomplish the same consciousness-raising as we would with hearing the shofar. This is true not only on Shabbat-Rosh HaShanah, but every Shabbat the whole year long! So listen well to what the wine and challah have to say (that's a different lesson!).
To you and yours and to kol Beit Yisrael (the entire Jewish people) a gut gebenshet yor (a good, blessed year). May we all be inscribed in the book of the tzadikim (righteous). May we all be worthy of seeing the ultimate redemption, with the coming of the Mashiach and the building of the Holy Temple, speedily, in our days. AMEN!
Agutn Shabbos! Shabbat Shalom!