Making a Difference

“Our job is to strengthen ourselves in emuna, teshuva, and personal holiness – all which go together hand-in-hand to wipe the dark-side spiritual force of Amalek off the face of the earth… Every tiny improvement in guarding our eyes, keeping our speech wholesome and dressing modestly is another nail in Amalek’s coffin. We must win this battle, soon, amen!” 
 
Rabbi Brody’s wise words above hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m typing as fast as I can. I’m reminding myself of Rabbi Nachman’s constant advice to someone who wants to move towards Hashem but feels the weight of the world, and his current life, on his shoulders: ONLY TODAY.
 
Don’t think about the future right now. Don’t start hysterically calling every relative outside Israel (like I am tempted to do) with dire predictions, don’t re-evaluate your pension plan or call your real estate agent (unless you live outside Israel….) Don’t think about how much you would have to change to become kosher, or mitzva observant, or what your friends would think …. Just think about today, and what you can do to connect with your Heavenly Father TODAY. One little thing; that’s it – if only the entire Jewish people would do this all together on the same day…
 
“Don’t Despair, despair does NOT EXIST”! Rabbi Nachman’s famous cry is both spiritual balm and practical advice. He knew there would be a day where people would simply not know where to begin. Now is that time. But we are lucky enough to have his timeless advice, and his emissaries to help us. When he said despair doesn’t exist, you can bet he meant it literally. But with so many people in despair, how can it be? It’s our collective imagination. In other words, Amalek. It’s time to get real.
 
If you, dear reader, are listening to the news and wondering how on earth you can make a difference, Rabbi Brody has just written you a prescription. He even recommends tiny doses. But how, you wonder, does a tiny improvement help? What exactly would constitute a tiny improvement? Maybe taking the cheese out of the burger? You betcha. If that’s a move for you, and for Hashem, it’s a mighty one. Each to his own… and for all.
 
Here’s an analogy to help you out. Everything in the physical world has a spiritual parallel. You could say that in this world we live in a parallel universe. It’s not science fiction. It’s the truth. For every action there is an equal spiritual reaction. Only in this world, the actions are finite. In the spiritual world, they are infinite. Back to the physical universe: if a tiny atom of uranium can level an entire city in the physical world, then imagine what a “tiny” act of spirituality is doing in the upper worlds.
 
This is no joke. Rabbi Nachman likens this world to the centre point of a circle, with a line from the center going outwards infinitely. He reminds us that a tiny movement from the centre of the circle may not be visible to the human eye, but from the ripple effect outwards to the upper atmospheres the action lands light years away from the original point. This is to teach us that even the tiniest mitzvah has massive ramifications.
 
Going back to Rabbi Brody’s advice to get on the emuna, teshuva and personal holiness train before it leaves the station: how do we get on the train, and what will earn us a ticket? What, exactly, are some of the tiny moves we could be making?
 
Let’s start with emuna. If you have emuna already, you can pass it on. Start with one CD, a book, a conversation, an article, a Facebook posting, an e-chain. Remember, even if your effort doesn’t seem to “get results”: you have just earned thousands of spiritual frequent flyer miles, for yourself and for the Jewish People. If you don’t have emuna, you can choose to be on the receiving end: Listen to your first CD, read a book, get into a conversation, read and then share the article, and forward that e-chain. By the time you have done a few of these things, you will be wanting to make Emuna a permanent part of your life. These are not major efforts, at least in the physical world. But they are creating Heavenly tsunamis, according to Rabbi Nachman. If we all join in, it could stop a Heavenly decree against the next one…
 
How about teshuva? If we are already doing teshuva, we can try upping the ante a little. Have we been putting off asking someone for forgiveness until closer to Rosh Hashana? Maybe now is a good time. Have we been doing daily teshuva? If not, maybe we can add a little to our efforts. If we are really solid in the teshuva department, perhaps we can cry for the people, or Jerusalem, or Moshiach…
 
For the teshuva neophyte: your job is easier, and even earns the most miles. I know this, because in the early days I couldn’t get it out fast enough. Now I seem to get stuck on a regular basis, and it’s not for lack of interesting material…. So really, all you need to do is, right now: stop reading. Yes, stop. Look up towards Heaven. Think about something you really should not have done, or said, or even thought. Imagine that G-d is listening, and is saddened by your actions, but is so incredibly happy that you are talking to Him, at last, that He will forgive you of anything, if you will just STAY IN TOUCH WITH HIM FROM NOW ON.
 
Those tears that are welling up right now (in my eyes, anyway) are akin to a spiritual flood, that may have just taken place of the next one here on Earth. Congratulations. You don’t realize how many lives you have just saved!
 
Personal holiness. What small thing can a person do, isn’t that a contradiction? I mean, if you ain’t holy, you must be impure, right? WRONG. Again, focus on Rabbi Nachman’s circle. An imperceptible move down here moves meteors up “there”.  A woman that decides to cover her cleavage by two more centimeters, or lower her sleeves, or raise her hipsters, even tone down the makeup: from someone with experience, I can tell you that even down here these tiny things change souls. For an already modest woman, doing up an extra button, wearing a stocking, or an extra denier – wearing less jewellery or deciding to minimize conversation with the opposite sex: these things are major, major milestones. And of course, we need to “guard our eyes” too. Imagine if all the women of Israel did this at the same time? This would be akin to a major spiritual earthquake: and we now know what that means down here…
 
For men, what small moves can you make, that don’t involve a wink and a smile? Well, it actually isn’t so modest for me to be writing this advice, which is no small move on my part since I’m very opinionated! But I asked my husband what I should write: he advises men to take upon yourselves a very small amount of time each day, say, starting with 5 minutes, that you will not look at, or think about, the opposite sex: unless it is your wife or partner, and even then: only modestly. After that, try working it up on a weekly or monthly basis. And, if you keep falling on this point, DON’T DESPAIR: Rabbi Nachman is waiting in the wings with some important advice: BEGIN AGAIN. Ahmedinejad is a joke compared to the Evil Inclination….
 
And if all the men of Israel take this on, I can’t even fathom the ramifications of this spiritual nuclear reaction….
 
Ahh. I got it all off my chest. I really just wanted to shoot some heavy artillery at our Amalekite enemy out there. I’ll be watching the results closely on the war and weather forecasts….
 
May we all merit to overcome the Amalek within each of us, Amen!