Daily Work

Waiting Just for You 

I have spoken in a number of recent articles on Corona and parenting about the critical need for working on ourselves. Each and every person has to seclude themselves alone, in some room, garden, or porch, to meet with Hashem for at least one hour. 

In the course of one hour, tell Hashem everything you did that day from the last meeting until this meeting. Remember that Hashem is waiting for your teshuva and always wants to accept you with kindness and compassion. Ask for forgiveness for everything you may have done against His will, whether it be in regard to fulfilling mitzvot with other people, whether it be in regards to mitzvot between you and Hashem. Ask Hashem for forgiveness for each transgression, and regret it, and ask Hashem that He help you overcome it in the future. 

When you see a chronic issue that repeats itself over and over again, pray very specifically, just on that issue, for a set time every day. Pray as much as you can and speak as many words as you can in the time you have. This isn’t the time for minimizing words. Remember that Hashem wants to give you, even more than you want to receive!  He is just waiting for your prayer, which is your vessel to receive all the bounty, Divine Providence and inspiration from the Creator, Who looks forward and waits to help you be like He wants you to be.  

The Desire of the Creator 

Don’t think, “Why should Hashem want to listen to me at all...? Why would Hashem want to forgive me at all... after I’ve transgressed His will over and over…?” 

Remember well that Hashem has one single desire from you: “Please, ask Me for everything that you need. This is what I want from you! Turn to Me. Trust Me. Request from Me all of your physical needs and all of your spiritual needs. This is all that I want from you! I am ready to give to you, to help you, and to give you everything - just open your mouth and request it from Me! Also, if you make a mistake and sin, it is only because I didn’t give you the strength to overcome the Evil Inclination, and I am waiting for you to pray to Me for the strength to overpower the Evil Inclination. Then I will give you the strength to be victorious over the Evil Inclination and fulfill My will completely.” 

Even if you have never done this before, or even if you tried for some time and you stopped - it is never too late and you are always able to start fresh! Don’t forget to pray for this too. Ask G-d to grant you the strength to meet with Him daily, and to give you the words during your prayer session. 

Don’t Forget to Say Thank You 

Even with the requirement to reflect on the things in your personality that you need to work on, you can’t forget that everything is ultimately from Hashem. If you got angry, lost your patience, or otherwise messed up – that is also from Hashem, because Hashem didn’t help you. That only means that you need to increase your desire to pray harder and work harder to fix it. Sometimes, Hashem will even increase the obstacles in order to test your will, and see whether you will give up or not. Be persistent and just keep wanting, praying and trying your very best! 

Since this is true, then thanking Hashem for the suffering of the problems and your unfortunate reactions is also an important part of fixing the problem. The very best is if you can do a full one hour of personal prayer, plus say the Law of Thank You. However, we’re human and sometimes that isn’t possible. When it isn’t, then you can collapse your hour of personal prayer together with the Law of Thank You like this: 

First, do your half hour of daily spiritual accounting, reviewing what you did from your last session yesterday through today. Go into as much detail as you can over every aspect of your day. For the things that you did right, thank Hashem for helping you succeed. For the mistakes you made, feel remorse and ask Hashem for help in the future. Some people mistakenly think that they can spend the entire hour only saying thank you and praying for emuna. Personal prayer is only teshuva and doing a spiritual accounting! Whatever else you can add – fantastic. But this piece cannot be skipped, or you didn’t do hitbodedut.  

Next, you start your 30 minutes on the biggest issue in your life. First spend 15 minutes thanking Hashem for all the suffering relating to the problem. Then do 15 minutes of teshuva, praying for Hashem’s help with the problem. 

Immediately after finishing the one hour, go right into 8 times Psalm 100, A Song of Thanksgiving. 

For instance, someone asked me for advice who has major eating problems. I told him to spend 30 minutes reviewing his day. Then, to say thank you for 15 minutes for all the suffering he experiences related to his eating problems. Next, to do teshuva, and ask Hashem to help you eat properly and slowly, to chew your food, to eat only for the sake of serving Hashem and not out of lust, etc. Finally, go right into 8 times Psalm 100.