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Today Is All There Is

by Yehudis Golshevsky
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BRI’s NarrowBridge.Org sends out twice weekly inspiration providing a regular dose of hope, meaning and courage. These emails include small doses of Rebbe Nachman’s wisdom, enabling us to get through the week in a more spiritual way. 

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Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught…

Rebbe Nachman said that, often, even just his daily religious obligations felt like a crushing burden. But the Rebbe found a way to bear the weight of his devotions by each morning saying to himself, “I will ignore tomorrow and all future tomorrows—today is all there is!”
(The Empty Chair, p. 40*)

 

What does this mean to me?

One of the wonderfully rare qualities found in Rebbe Nachman’s teachings is his honesty about the spiritual work that he had to do on his path to greatness. We don’t often hear of tzaddikim sharing about their personal struggles…but Rebbe Nachman opened up the inner world of the tzaddik to us so that we could learn what it means to work to come closer to G-d. Rebbe Nachman made clear that this was part of his self-sacrifice in order to help others, both in his own time and for all time.

One of the Rebbe’s pieces of advice is the focus on today; that we only have today. Thinking too much about all that lies ahead of us on the spiritual journey can be paralyzing, so we work in the arena that we can…which is only today.

 

A prayer:

Dearl G-d,
teach me to begin anew—
to renew myself
along with all of Creation,
just as You renew
the entire world
each day.
Show me how I can
break free of
the constraints of my habits,
the restraints of my insecurities,
the shackles of my unwarranted fears.
(The Gentle Weapon, p. 11**)

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*“The Empty Chair: Finding Hope and Joy – Timeless Wisdom from a Hasidic Master, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov” by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Adapted by Moshe Mykoff and The Breslov Research Institute, 1994. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, VT, www.jewishlights.com.

**“The Gentle Weapon: Prayers for Everyday and Not-So-Everyday Moments – Timeless Wisdom from the Teachings of the Hasidic Master, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov” by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Adapted by Moshe Mykoff & S.C. Mizrahi with the Breslov Research Institute, 1999.  Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, VT, www.jewishlights.com.

 

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