Forever Young

Translated by Aaron Yoseph
 
 
Likutei Moharan II, Torah 81 in the speaks a lot about Pidyonot and nullifying dinim. People think that to do this you have to think certain holy names and know lots of Kabbalah. The Rebbe reveals that the best way to do this is simply by performing mitzvot with joy. We need this so much. Things don’t go the way we want and we get down. By us – we have dark days, dark nights, problems of shalom bayit, parnasah; a person thinks he’s going to die because no-one took notice of him in shul. We see so many people depressed, stressed, and worried non-stop, so we come to think that this is how we live nowadays. Everyone worries night and day about parnasah, so I’ll do the same. This is the minhag. But there is something else, a life of Emunah, which makes every day, no matter if it went to plan or not.
 
This is possible for everyone. Not just for people who have five servants to take care of everything for them, or people who are just naturally cheerful and optimistic. Normal everyday people who work on themselves can come back to live a good life, a life of joy. The Rebbe reveals here the power of such joy.
 
When Reb Nosson was on the way to Eretz Yisroel, the Turkish sailors found a bottle of rum and got merry. They started to dance, and schlepped Reb Nosson into the circle. He said afterwards that he was dancing and knew what he was dancing for, unlike them, who had nothing to really rejoice about. We need to feel how great Hashem is, how great the mitzvot are, and the great delight Hashem has from our mitzvot. When we understand this, we can achieve truly rejoicing with the mitzvot.
 
In Kiddush Lavana, the blessing of the new moon, we say, “I can’t touch you,” –we’re saying to the moon “I can’t touch your dance. I can’t dance like you.” The moon dances a dance of Emunah – moving thousands of kilometers. Nowadays we know that all the atoms are dancing, and inside the atoms themselves, there is dancing. The only ones not dancing are us. “I’m bitter. I can’t move.” This is the din of this world – that a person can’t move himself, even though he knows about Hashem. His knowledge and appreciation of Hashem and His mitzvot doesn’t penetrate to his body. It doesn’t enliven him, to make him put his whole being into davening, to have chiyut, enthusiasm and vitality. When we want to help a young man get into serving Hashem we sit him down to learn Torah. Then when he gets married we dance with him. Why? We’re giving him a message. “Until now you were able to sit and learn to your hearts content. Now that you’re getting married you may not have so much time to learn. You’ll have other responsibilities. What’s the eitza? Dance.”
 
A large part of our hitbodedut every day is about this – “Ribono Shel Olam, I’m not happy.” When a person looks at himself he sees that he’s not just ‘not happy,’ but that he’s anxious most of the day, close to being depressed, and sometimes on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We have to speak out to Hashem. Take a walk late at night, at midnight, thank Hashem for what you have. Make a new start.
 
This way we get to live a life of a Jew, like Sara our matriarch, all her days were good. What did she have? Money? Children? At the end of her life, yes, but for most of her life, no. But with Emunah, they were all equally good in her eyes. So too for us – we can believe that all our days are equally good. Even if things aren’t in order as we think they should be. This keeps us eternally young…
 
When a person forgets whatever he’s going through and rejoices with his mitzvot. His Tefillin, Tzitzit. These are the main mitzvot, plus the six constant mitzvot. Everyone does them – but so what? Does that take away from their value? Everyone else may be asleep and not know their value, but you can learn, that’s why you’re learning Likutei Moharan. This is our avodah – another mitzvah – do it with joy and vitality. Learn one mishnah, or eighteen chapters, whatever you can. Rejoice with it. Get vitality from it. One line of gemorah, or seven pages. If you have ten million dollars in the bank, isn’t that enough? Every mitzvah we do is definitely worth at least ten million, so you’re sorted. When we want things to be different to how they are, we shoot ourselves in the foot.
 
We’re very far from the way of the Baal Shem Tov. We don’t rejoice with our mitzvot. “It’s not the minhag anymore. I see my Rabbi sitting at the front of shul and he’s looks very serious. It seems we’re not meant to rejoice with the mitzvot.” But we can be joyous, and this is the derech that the Baal Shem Tov and his students brought into the world. To prepare ourselves before each mitzvah with joy, and then rejoice during the mitzvah and afterwards. We can always be busy with one mitzvah or another, whether in thought, word or action, so we always have what to rejoice with. We need to start to live – like Chayei Sara. True life – someone who lives with Emunah lives a good and sweet life. If everything’s going wrong, do hitbodedut and move on. We’re not allowed to fall into depression or despair. This world is a place of tests. A person is sent into dangerous places, like a Commando.
 
“100 years – like twenty.” When someone reaches one hundred, it’s as if they’ve left this world. But living with Emunah means that we’re always young and fresh.