It's All In The Mind?

I used to be a big believer in the mind. After all my mind was feeding me lots of grand ideas about itself. The mind, I taught, is all powerful; No matter how hard a time you are having you can control your mind, and if you have the proper frame of mind you be fine, happy and in control if yourself. After all it's your mind and you can use it as you wish.

Well, as my life moves on, I am beginning to have some doubts. No, don’t get me wrong, I still believe in the mind; the words of the Tanya that the mind is in complete control of the heart still resonate with me. However, I am beginning to feel that the mind must open the door to the heart and settle in their.

I can tell myself all day long that there is a reason for everything and I should be happy, yet it won't have any affect on me unless my heart buys into it. The mind will always remain skeptical at some level, the heart does not.

The mind is a great tool to unlock the heart; but to be in love, despite great distractions, with G-d, Torah, Chasidus, the Chasidic lifestyle, is completely in the hands of the heart.

Perhaps that is why, lately, my favorite and most meaningful prayer is "unite our heart to love and fear your name". I ask Hashem, help me. I'll get my mind involved, but please, give me a hand with my heart; "purify our hearts to serve you in truth".

Sheep

Just by looking at you I can tell that you have Yakov's personality. You are studies, you have a simple life, and your certainty not ambitious. And yet, somehow, just like Yakov, you are probably the most successful person I know.

You are self confident, you stick up for yourself and you could put up a fight when you need to. Most importantly, you have an impact on a wide range of people; from young to old, simple to smart, wealthy to poor.

Your successful because you aren't.

You are not trying to promote yourself - that would leave you frightened, overwhelmed, and limit your potential to the limitations of your personality. Instead you put yourself in the side, humbled by something awesomely greater then yourself. Along with your ego you put your fear and limitations behind you.

Everyone flocks to spend time with you because your ego does not push them away. All of the sudden you're smarter and kinder then you ever were. You don't recognize yourself because it is not yourself. You are limited. What you can achieve by letting go is not.

Sheep, the symbol of humility, was Yakov's chief possession. everything else he had - including his strength came from the limitless potential of humility.

(Leku"s Vol 15 Sicha 4)

Gilad

I hope that we hear good news very soon.
Personally there seems to be a good argument from a Halachik and practical view that trading many for one is not the way to go and forbidden.
Yet, when I saw the news this morning all I can think of is the possibility for him and his family to be able to live again.

To The Children

While learning today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe’s letter of condolences to the students of R’ Mendel of Haradok, there were two words that caught my attention. Yes, I read this letter many times but today these are the words that are ringing in my head.

“Vi’tze’eh’tzah’ay’hem Itam” and their children with them. The Alter Rebbe was addressing this letter, about staying connected through “thick ropes of a magnanimous love, and an eternal love, that will not be moved forever”, not only to the Chasidim themselves but to their children as well.

Does He Want Me To Sin?

Don’t hurt me, I hate pain, and I always did.

From a philosophical level the problem with pain is that it distracts. It doesn’t allow the person to live his life and focus on what ever he wishes to do.

Once he is in pain, however, sometimes pain could have the opposite affect. Often pain makes one more aware of oneself, more sensitive to life and to other people. Pain has the potential to lead a person to a more elevated state of being.

The Midrash teaches that some times Hashem creates a trap to lead a person to sin.

Sometimes it feels like Hashem is pushing you toward sin, lining up all the circumstances to make it difficult for you to escape a bad choice.

Sometimes it feels like he pushes an entire generation away from Judaism.

That does not mean he likes the sin. He does not like pain. But sometimes he can’t help but want to give us the opportunity to be the more sensitive person we become after experiencing the separation from him.

He hates sin; yet he desires the state that a person is in once he sinned. Lost, confused, but searching. On the way to an even greater relationship.

(Leku"s vol 5 Lech Licha sicha 1)

Water

He loves water. As soon as he created the world, in the second verse of the Torah we read, ‘and the spirit of G-d hovered over the water’. When the morals of the world collapsed and he decided to do a ‘do-over’ he once again covered the earth with water.

He is comfortable with water. Water is the source of life, when the earth is covered in water the source of the life, G-d, is present in the most powerful way.

But then, surprisingly, he said, no more floods ever again. I want to see the earth. The creation must feel independent and not overwhelmed by G-d. And let the earth be covered with the knowledge of G-d as the water cover the sea. Let the world use its mind to cover itself in the waters of wisdom.

That’s the challenge: walk on the earth but let your mind swim in the water.

(Noach, Vol 30 sicah 1)

The Construction Site

The one word that flashes through my mind every time I pass a construction site is chaos. Everything is a mess, there are things thrown all over, and it looks like everybody is doing their own thing.

I begin to wonder: where in the world is the architect, the guy who is supposed to be in charge of the big picture pulling all the pieces together to create a coherent buildin, Why is he nowhere to be found?

The truth, of course, is that the architect is very much present. When I look carefully I can see, that once in a while everybody involved in this mess refers back to a little book for direction. Yes, they're looking at the blueprint.

Where is the architect, the order, I asked? I'll be able to see him when the building is complete. Until then, if I want to discover some order I must look to those little papers that contain the meaning of it all.

_______________________

The one thought that goes through my mind when I look at the world around me is chaos. Everybody is doing their own thing, each pulling in another direction. Yet I know there is meaning to the mess, I know there is an architect who will emerge when we compleate the construction. Until then I find him in a litle book, I find him in the Torah.