You've been selected personally by the King to go on a very dangerous mission. As your unit reconnaissance officer, my job is to lead you to your objective. Your job is to destroy the enemy, then return home safely to the King...

 

Here starts the treacherous part of our mission. It's the middle of the night. We've donned dark, camouflaged fatigues and we've made certain that nothing rustles in our pockets. We crawl down a long, snake-like tunnel and reach a dark forest. A golden castle of breathtaking splendor stands on the crest of a hill directly in front of us. From a locked room atop the castle's spire, a princess's distressed cry for help pierces the still of the night.

 

A threatening army of painted tanks, artillery, and armored troop carriers surrounds the castle. You look at me with puzzled eyes. What's going on here? Where are we?

 

We're inside your head, hiding in the folds of your brain. The golden castle is your divine soul. The princess in distress is the "King's daughter", the divine life-spark and eternal essence of your spiritual vitality, a tiny but cogent portion of pure G-dliness within you. The nasty army which is holding the palace in siege is the Evil Inclination or Yetzer Hara, with his arsenal of negative emotions and animal urges.

 

Quietly, I brief you by pinpointing the enemy installations. Do you see that battery of 175mm Howitzers? That's lust. To your left, that company of tanks is temptation. Those ominous strike-force platoons to your right are a breach in your holy covenant – pgam haBrit, foul language, forbidden images that contaminate the eyes and the brain, and lewd thoughts. Where does this heinous dark-side force come from? How can the delicate princess withstand such an onslaught?

 

The Evil Inclination's headquarters are located in the left ventricle of the heart. From there, his reign of terror controls the body with an iron hand. The princess though, by spiritual logic and divine law, is the rightful monarch of the body. 

 

Your mission is to liberate the castle, crown the princess, and chase the Evil Inclination and his army out of the brain and back to their confines in the left side of the heart.

 

You ask me, "What are my weapons? And where are they?"

 

A powerful arsenal stands at your disposal: First of all, you have Rebbe Nachman’s teachings that destroy hopelessness and despair. Second, you have Mikva and Tikkun HaKlali. Third, you have Rav Shalom Arush’s wonderful elaborations on Rebbe Nachman’s teachings. Fourth, you have superb articles like Gila Manolson’s “Superglue Touch” and Tzvi Fishman’s “Secret of the Brit”. These and more are all available right here, at what we hope you’ll consider your home base, www.breslovworld.com, Breslev Israel’s English website.

 

Together, we’re going to win this war and bring Moshiach, amen!