You don’t need to be born on a high level in order to reach great heights, because everyone can attain it. You just need to understand what is wanted of us, what powers we have, to believe that it’s possible and get going. * Self-awareness in the era of Geula.
JEWISH AWARENESS IN GEULA TIMES
They used to think there are professions you have to be born to; either you had what it takes, or you didn’t. For example, leadership. Either you were a born leader or not. Or oratory ability, either you were charismatic by nature and could enthrall a crowd or not.
Over the years this has been researched extensively and now we know that these are talents that anyone can develop. Furthermore, in order to be a successful speaker you don’t need to be charismatic. There is a formula that makes for a successful speech and you need to know the formula, i.e. how to begin, when to tell a story, when to raise your voice, how to conclude, etc. When you know the formula and break it down into parts, suddenly it’s not that complicated. Of course, you need lots of heavenly assistance for success, but that does not exempt you from starting to train, practice, step by step, beginning with the smallest details.
In the world of holiness, l’havdil, people used to think that to serve Hashem with prayer, to reach levels of love and fear, to fulfill mitzvos for the sake of heaven – all apply only to extraordinary individuals. Someone born to it can serve Hashem on the highest levels and someone who was not born to it, can’t. Then came the Baal Shem Tov who revealed that even a simple Jew can serve Hashem on a high level; he too can attain awe and love and closeness to Hashem. Furthermore, Chassidus innovates that even a scholar can attain the greatness of the simple, sincere Jew who is a baal mesirus nefesh.
How is this done? It’s very simple. You need to know the formula. When you learn Chassidus you understand what is expected, you understand where to begin, how to approach t’filla, how to approach Torah study, what Ahavas Yisroel is and how to implement it.
Here too, we need lots of faith and trust that it is possible, that we can do it, that Hashem will help us rise up, level by level. At the same time, we have the job of starting to slowly move forward.
WHAT DO YOU SAY TO SOMEONE WHO SCREAMS “WATER, WATER!”
The same is true for the time we are living in, a time in which the Rebbe does not only teach us how to make the Torah our very lives in a more internal way, in that he delineates the formula for us how to succeed in avodas Hashem; it goes way beyond that. For the first time since the light of Chassidus shone in the world, each of us can start to live Geula and Moshiach. Today, it is possible to start living with Geula awareness since we have the formula. We just need to learn it well and start implementing it.
Just as the prophet complained about the person standing in the river who cries out for water and tells him, if you are really thirsty for G-dliness, drink water, so too, there are those who cry out that they want Geula, they want to live Moshiach. They need to be told – learn Chassidus, learn the sichos and maamarim of the Rebbe, especially the sichos of 5751-2 in which we learn how to live Geula.
In the area of action we need to start very slowly, conquering another and yet another area of avodas Hashem, acquiring yet another soul acquisition and being constantly in a state of progress. Some people think that slow progress is a contradiction to our great faith in our ability to succeed. But of course, this is not so. Before going out to tackle the mission we obviously need to approach it in a l’chat’chilla aribber manner, without being fazed by the world at all; to go to war upon our enemies with confidence and the clear knowledge that we will succeed. At the same time, we need to go about it in an organized, principled way, with many small, consistent actions.
The change in awareness is about us, in how we look at ourselves and our lives, and also about our perspective on the world. Living with a Geula awareness is to live with the yechida, the etzem ha’neshama, which is constantly connected with Hashem, and knows that everything that was created was created only for His honor and knows that I was created solely to serve my Maker. To seek in all that occurs that point of the yechida within, to see in every happening how it is part of the Geula process, to identify Hashem’s Will hidden within every situation. To ask ourselves how the yechida would relate to this and to start acting accordingly.
EVERYONE CAN
Let’s take an example from Ahavas Yisroel and see how a mitzva which Chassidic teachings illuminated with a new light was revolutionized by the Rebbe.
Before Chassidus, people thought that Ahavas Yisroel is only something we have for those who observe Torah and mitzvos, but we don’t need to love wicked people. The Baal Shem Tov taught that every Jew is a son of Hashem and the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya that we need to love the Jew in him; the hatred is only for the evil in him. He doesn’t just leave us with the statement of fact, but guides us in how to do this.
When a person lives his personal life in a way that his body is primary and the neshama secondary, this is also how he looks at those around him. So when he sees another Jew, he values his body over the soul and instead of emphasizing and feeling love toward him, he can feel anger over his actions.
But if it is the neshama that is primary to him and the body secondary, this is also how he will view others and so he will be able to separate between a person’s actions and himself and continue loving him even when he behaves improperly.
True, we don’t always feel this in our heart, but one of the principles of Chassidus is that the mind rules the heart by its very nature. If we are able to change our awareness, this also permeates our heart. And even if it does not yet permeate the heart, it certainly has an effect on our actions and we are able to behave in the desired manner, in a way of Ahavas Yisroel.
The Rebbe elevates us to a much higher awareness. If, in the past, we were expected to be on a level of relating to and living on the level of the neshama in order to feel that the body is secondary, today we are expected to live with the etzem ha’neshama, to attain an essential love, a love which does not require our ignoring the body in order to love someone else; we can love him with his actions!
The Rebbe, the Nasi Ha’dor, the yechida of the generation, is in such a high place, above all division, that same place where all Jewish souls are rooted and united and there is no difference between one Jew and another, not on the part of the body nor of the soul. When we connect to the Rebbe, the Rebbe lifts us up and gives us the opportunity to view the world through his eyes.
We can see how every Jew is holy, even his body, and how Hashem loves every one of His children with an essential love. How can we also start making progress in this direction, if not in feeling, then at least in behavior.
For example, when a child in school does not behave properly, the teacher is angry about what he does, but surely continues to love him despite that. The parent, on the other hand, loves him with these behaviors. The parents love him with an essential love just as he loves himself. Just as he forgives and “copes” with all his own flaws, the same is true for his son. That is what, we too, need to attain with a Geula awareness.
We need to first understand how the yechida looks at the world, what it means to reveal the etzem ha’neshama, and then to start acting accordingly, even if we haven’t yet uncovered the etzem, to start with small things and move along.
We don’t need to be born an “oved Hashem.” Each of us can attain it. We just need to understand what is wanted of us, what abilities we have, to believe it is possible, and to set out and start acting with this new awareness, taking small steps, and achieving the goal.