Nutrients for the Soul
What does it mean to be satisfied with your lot in life? Even when things aren't going your way, you're still happy, because you know that Hashem knows what He's doing.
Finding Your Way, Part 2
Last week, we asked a question: One asks, if Hashem is all-powerful, why can't He reign over all people right now?
The answer is that Hashem gives free choice – we wait for the day when all people of the world put aside their follies and their evil ways and willfully accept the yoke of Hashem's rule.
Barely a day goes by without me receiving a letter from Oklahoma, Idaho, Alabama, Australia, Philipines, Gibraltar or some other faraway place from people that tell me how learning about emuna has so dramatically changed their lives for the better. It's not surprising because emuna is the number-one element required for the health of the human soul.
The FDA and the USDA require food manufacturers to list the percentages of daily recommended vitamins and nutrients on the package of their foods. That way, you know that by drinking a glass of reconstituted orange juice you get such and such a percentage of your daily requirement of Vitamin C for example, or by eating a bowl of Cornflakes you get such and such a percentage of your daily need for Vitamins B6 and B12.
It's too bad that there's not a Government office that requires the media to list the percentages of daily recommended nutrients of the soul. Would that be 
embarrassing! Such an agency would end up requiring the spiritual surgeon-general’s stiff warning against TV and newspapers as dangerous to the soul just as the Health Dept warns that cigarettes are dangerous to the body. In any event, if one would have to print the daily spiritual recommended requirement of emuna, you'd find that The Garden of Emuna provides 100% of a person's daily soul requirement in emuna. When you read the book, or when you get others to read it, you're simply helping people to live happier and healthier lives. Even more, since Rebbe Nachman of Breslev said that Emuna is the agent that will hasten the Geula – the full redemption of our people – by spreading Emuna in the world, we hasten the Geula.
embarrassing! Such an agency would end up requiring the spiritual surgeon-general’s stiff warning against TV and newspapers as dangerous to the soul just as the Health Dept warns that cigarettes are dangerous to the body. In any event, if one would have to print the daily spiritual recommended requirement of emuna, you'd find that The Garden of Emuna provides 100% of a person's daily soul requirement in emuna. When you read the book, or when you get others to read it, you're simply helping people to live happier and healthier lives. Even more, since Rebbe Nachman of Breslev said that Emuna is the agent that will hasten the Geula – the full redemption of our people – by spreading Emuna in the world, we hasten the Geula. The Garden of Emuna is not a casual reading book – it's a book of life, a book to live by. With emuna, one turns this world into a world of bliss.
Hashem's greatest gratification is when His sons and daughters on earth believe in Him, and turn to Him with complete faith. Emuna is light – when Israel is called light unto the nations, it means that the job of a Jew is to spread Emuna in the world.
The core of emuna, the manifestation of emuna is when a person is satisfied with his or her lot in life. The worst transgression of Torah is when a person is not satisfied with his or her lot in life. One who is dissatisfied with life in effect is making a declaration that he or she is not pleased with the way Hashem is running the world in general or their own life in particular. Such disgruntlement leads a person to any number of lies and false paths in life. All of a sudden, they cease to progress. Even worse than a standstill, disgruntlement causes digression – rather than moving forward in life, a dissatisfied or disgruntled person recedes, as if his car was driving in reverse.
Hashem sees your path in life – Hashem knows the best path for you to take – when a person subjugates himself or herself in humility to His rule, then Hashem can lead them painlessly along their designated path of life. But, when a person is obstinate, and he or she thinks they can plan for themselves or run the world better than H can, then they're in for major difficulties. They end up wasting time and money chasing others to help them – doctors, lawyers, analysts – but to no avail.
Hashem says, "You think you know better than Me? Go right ahead".
So what do we do to avoid making mistakes in life? First, we must realize that we don't know anything and that we don't understand anything, so we have to appeal to Hashem in personal prayer to lead us down the right path".
Once we complete put aside our own inflated egos and nullify ourselves to Hashem, then we become a vessel worthy of receiving His Divine light. Hashem is then able to illuminate our souls and lead us on the path of happiness. If a person's soul is full of garbage – newspapers, TV, violence, lewdness, and arrogance – then there's certainly no room for Divine light. You wouldn't expect a royal princess to lodge in a broken down filthy hotel on Skid Row – by the same token, Hashem's Divine light can't lodge in a soul full of filth.
How do you know whether your soul is a vessel capable of containing Divine light? Easy – the barometer is when you're satisfied with your lot in life.
What does it mean to be satisfied with your lot in life? Even when things aren't going your way, you're still happy, because you know that Hashem knows what He's doing.
To be continued.
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