"Master of the Universe!
Grant us the perfect wisdom to receive the holy knowledge of His Torah
and to obtain understanding, may our heart cling to Your mitzvot, help us for
the honor of Your Name."
Baruch
HaShem, the connection with a Rabbi can bring people great lessons from Torah,
and after receiving "Letter from Jerusalem" from my Rabbi Avraham
ben Yaakov, I read the good news that his surgery was successful and at the
moment he is doing the last stages of a course of "preventive"
chemotherapy that, while tiring and debilitating, did not have the most
terrible side effects! The latest scans and tests indicate that your body is
healthy and free of malignancy. Thank G-d! In his letter, I was able to gain
new knowledge about the true Emunah, and service of G-d, yes, even without
bodily energy, he kept praying the psalms, and his ardent desire for his return
to teach Torah was every minute, this is incredible the strength of a good man,
a servant of G-d. I learned to be even more grateful to G-d for the health and
strength He gives me to learn Torah, and to work every day, and yet, I started
thinking about doing physical exercise to take care of my health much more,
including diet, overeating variety of vegetables, fruits and vegetables, and
initially practice light exercises in the gym, we can sometimes lose the focus
of maintaining a healthier life relative to the time spent working, for
example. In addition to the physical care of the body, there is the mental care
that affects many, the depression, and the emotional side due to Bullying and
the spiritual challenges of the yetzer hara will create our own obstacles,
oppressors, enemies.
Thus,
the teachings of the great Tzaddikim of Judaism are also told by letters
describing their lives, and in the stories, incredible tales, such as was the
case of the sage, righteous, tsaddik Rabbi
Yisrael Baal Shem Tov in his great missions to teach Torah even to the lay
Jews (without study) in their time, something that was not common in their
period, in order to raise hearts to the Holy Torah. Each of us has our own
personal stories, inner battles, and external challenges in this age of modern
society that seems to pursue us daily with sensual advertisements and propaganda,
provocative styles and fashions, low-key social networking, explicit music, and
internet access no limits, can often take our focus, dedication, concentration
to the study of the Torah, what to do? The stories tell us and warned us many
years ago about everything we are going through now, and the remedy is the
Torah. Contrary to what we may think, even though most TV news spread bad news
and the evil that someone did, there are many beautiful and good things in this
world happening without reporting in the same emphasis, and there are many good
people who are doing acts of kindness.
The
Tzaddikim did the hard work in paving the way for us all, we can find the
Divine Light in the middle of the darkness.
The
same was true of the Torah teachings told in the very life of the Tzaddikim as
of Rabbi Nachman (Chayey Moharan, Sippurey Ma'asioth), Reb Noson of
Breslov (Alim LiTerufah, Through fire and water), Rebe Elimelech of
Lizhensk (Mipeninei Noam Elimelech), Rabbi Yosef Caro (Maran Habeit
Yossef) of blessed memory. The same we can say of many other righteous
Tzaddikim through the centuries, the extraordinary work of the Rabbis of our
generation, help us to understand and walk in the line to approach G-d.
Why
did stories, tales and parables matter? What can this teach us about our modern
world in this digital era? The life of those who serve HaShem there are
oppositions, obstacles, some lacking faith and detaching of Torah to live a
life to the secular world. Why does this happen?
As
is known by King Solomon: "Nothing is new under the sun."
"Give me an understanding and wise heart to judge and discern between good
and evil." It is easy to see the darkness of this world, and the prophet
said, 'All the earth is full of His glory' (Isaiah 6: 3),
darkness surrounds us and we are afraid of problems, but we must only fear G-d,
the Almighty. And the Tzaddikim had their eyes open to the Torah, not only to
this world, guarding our eyes is a mitzvah and a great lesson that the
Kabbalists tell us. Each Tzaddik, every story, every personal letter will touch
each person's heart in a different way, to their level of acceptance, purity
and holiness developed by observing the Commandments, our praise to the King of
Kings, is what we can learn with the Sages of blessed memory.
"Listen,
Israel! The Eternal is our God, the Eternal is one! And thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
possessions "(Deuteronomy 6: 4).
Dear
Torah students, read some selected texts that I have done to complete this post
with the words of the Sages Tzaddikim.
Rabbi Nachman
in Sippurey Ma’asioth about The Sophisticate and the
Simpleton, Rabbenu [Rebbe Nachman] said “A person can have bread, water,
and a sheepskin, and have a better and happier life than the most sophisticated
and wealthiest person, since the latter always tends to be miserable. In the
end, things turned out best for the Simpleton, who was always satisfied with
what he had and was constantly cheerful.” As the
translator gave his comment, this story also contains very deep
mysteries of the Torah.
Only
true God-fearing people have complete confidence in Him, asking G-d for
healing, health, means of subsistence, what we lack is not a curse, but what we
receive from Heaven with great love for our Heavenly Father.
Rabbi
Nachman in Chayey
Moharan the disciples heard from their master; “The Rebbe
spoke about the great sinners who come to see the true Tzaddik. ‘Even they
display a certain humility when they lower themselves despite themselves and
show a willingness to visit him and defer to him somewhat. This in itself
brings about a great tikkun in a certain place. Jethro came and said “For now I
know that God is great” (Exodus 18:11), ‘then the name of the Holy One
blessed-be-He was glorified and exalted above and below’ (Zohar II,
69a).
As
we know from the teachings of Rabbi Nachman, we can always make a
renewed beginning to serve G-d, where we are, and from what spiritual level we are.
Reb Noson of
Breslov said: “King Solomon has already said,
‘An undeserved curse does not reach its target’ (Proverbs 26:2). God will
change the curse to a blessing and everything will turn into good. Obstacles
only arise to intensify desire, the more exalted the goal, the more obstacles
have to be stationed in its path, this is the only way that the desire will
grow strong enough to achieve it (Likutey Moharan I, 66).
The
more Torah we study, we will choose the good.
Reb Noson de
Breslov in Through fire and water: “I saw the Hand of God
guiding me the whole way, and how He hears every prayer. My prayer was
fulfilled down to the last detail. ‘Blessed is He Who hears the prayers of all
lips…’.
As
Rebbe Nachman himself says "There is no despair at all." For
each and every rectification we need to do in our lives, never lose faith.
Rebe
Elimelech de Lizhensk in Mipeninei Noam Elimelech parachah
Bo explained “Performing a mitzvah is like
a salvation for the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, since HaKadosh Baruch Hu is
united with His Shechinah through the performance of the commandments.”
Shalom!
* Dedicated to holy memory of Rabbi Elazar Mordechai Kenig.
By: Gilson
Sasson
Journal Mitzvah
/ 5779
