The following are collected words of encouragement and inspiration based on the teachings of Rebbe Nachman sent to hundreds of people over the three months of Iyar to Tammuz.
Please share:
- The vessel needed to receive all blessings is made specifically when a person is truly positive about himself so much so that he sees himself as the means to reflect Hashem's essence. This requires that a person sees his prayers as a simple conduit to be used to praise Hashem. If a person is totally broken and lacks total self-confidence, he will find it very difficult to focusing on the words of the prayers (see Likutey Moharan lesson 73).
- The key for making a vessel for prayers to be responsive is to firmly believe that you prayers do make a difference and matter very much to Hashem, no matter how low, far and blemished you may feel.
- With Pesach - the mouth of prayer is opened (Peh Sach in Hebrew = a speaking mouth). And now in the month of May as the fields are filled with life and vegetation, it is good to go out to the fields and "talk" to Hashem.
- When a person truly believes that Hashem loves Him and only wants to bestow benevolence upon him, there is no stopping the prayer that emanates from such a perspective.
- This is the way of life, after every test, when we feel so frustrated and alone in dealing with difficult situations, if we do the right thing and sincerely turn to Hashem, He sends at least a minimum amount of relief. And anyways, looking back, a person gains so much from everything that he has gone through in life.
- Being that the entire month of Iyar is within the Sefirah counting and is also a month of chessed, it is a special time for starting again in life, trying to do things on the right footage. Fortunate is the person who invests properly in the healing effects of this month properly (I'Y'A'R - Ani Hashem Rofekha = I am Hashem your Healer).
- A person should not at all get distracted and thrown off course by setbacks in life. Just simply get back up and keep going. Show determination in following the advice and guidelines of the tzaddikim.
- We have no idea what Hashem wants to make out of us. But one thing for sure is that we have to make sure that we are still "on board" when the ship set sails to bring us to our true potential and destiny according to His will.
- If prayer and hitbodedut is itself difficult to do, then a person should daven for this itself - to be able to daven and express oneself clearly to Hashem.
- Pesach Sheni is like a "second chance" to taste of the Pesach=Nachman=148. To enable people who are so far and sullied to experience once again the light of the tzaddikim, and thus make a fresh start in coming back and closer to Hashem.
- The main thing in life is to continuously call out to Hashem. Even if a person gets further and further away from Him, still He should call out to Him, since that alone is what will continuously remind him that Hashem is out there, and eventually this itself will bring him back.
- The fact that a person has advanced so much in their Judaism is reflected in feeling much further from Hashem than before. Because the light of Torah shines onto a person the Infinite Light of Hashem, a person begins to see more sharply how really far he is from Hashem. This process continues, the closer you come, the farther you feel.
- The light and energy that a person feels at the beginning of serving Hashem is a gift exposed to them above their true level. Reb Noson explains that this is sent to a person in order that they taste a little of what is actually out there, in order to give them the incentive to push and advance forward. When Heaven sees that the person is sincere and has started, they gradually take this light away so that a person can toil and earn the experience on their own.
- The merit and prayers of the tzaddikim is meant to help give us a boost to connect to and reach higher levels of compassion and progress in coming closer to Eternal and True Goodness and Joy in life. They are our lifeline!!!
- After doing something spectacular in life, such as travelling to a Tzaddik, one would expect positive changes. However in the main, things seem to go in the opposite direction, casting doubts if there was really any benefit in going to the Tzaddik. The real truth is that things have definitely changed for the better, and the initial difficulties and setbacks are just that - initial!! They prepare us for the new ascent and level attained in life.
- We are now on the last stretch and week of the Omer counting before Chag Shavuot. May this week of Malkhut give us mastery, control and connection to the faculty of speech as it is expressed in prayer - and may we truly connect to the words of prayer, shining into them the 50th Level of Holiness that is revealed on Shavuot. May this in turn lead us to having a complete vessel created by our prayers as a means for receiving all blessings and abundance through it (see more of this in Likutey Moharan lesson 73).
- The 50th day of Shavuot is meant to bring along with it extreme levels of loving-kindness, compassion, breakthroughs and newer and deeper revelations of Torah. Commensurate to the expression of yearning and desire that a person displays before this very special day, so too does he reap the profits.
- Now that we are after Shavuot, it is a new beginning, to start anew with fresh energy and yearning to start again with prayer and Torah study, and their connection to each other. It is for this reason that King David - the master of Prayer/tehillim, passed away on Shavuot, to show the connection between true sincere prayer and receiving revelations of/from the Torah (see Likutey Moharan lesson 73).
- After reaching the climax of Shavuot - the 50th day/gate on the maximum of levels. we now start from scratch, which means setbacks, disappointments, failures etc. However, since it is after tapping into this high level of holiness of Shavuot, we have what to fall back upon and simply start again every time with hope, power and joy.
- From now until the end of the book of Bamidbar - which will coincide with Tisha B'Av - the weekly Parshahs deal with constant strife and dis-accord between the Jewish nation and Moshe, with the Jews being punished for lacking faith in Moshe. This specifically all takes place after we re-received the Torah on Shavuot and tapped into the 50th Gate of Holiness. For the main test of a Jew to maintain Torah observance and holiness at the level of the 50th Level is specifically maintaining total and complete faith in the True Tzaddikim. For this reason we are going through the Parshahs dealing with this ordeal as a reminder to us as to what is the source of our difficulties in coming close to Hashem and maintaining true happiness in life - faith in the true tzaddikim.
- While we go through all these Parashiyot dealing with the strife and conflict against Moshe Rabeinu, may we use this to remind us how much we need to have unswerving and solid faith and trust in all of the True Tzaddikim, and that this Faith and vessel to receiving all other blessings in life.
- May we be extra strong in these upcoming weeks which deal with strife and conflict in almost every Parshah, to develop a true love and respect for the True Tzaddikim, and to take seriously all of their powerful advice, encouragement and inspirational teachings.
- We need constant encouragement to hold on and keep on davening, since this is really the only thing you can really do in the meantime, until the crack in the dam slowly opens more and more and eventually the water of salvation starts gushing forth.
- The summer heat is doing a good job in making us feel "out of it". However, with the light and emunah in the tzaddik, we have what to hold on to, the strengthen and encourage ourselves to go on despite all the difficulties we face in trying to serve Hashem with joy and complete emunah!!
- Prayer is like the water dropping on the stone until it eventually makes a whole. This means that no prayer, no matter how dead and lacking enthusiasm, makes a difference in the end. It is just a matter of patience.
- There are times that a person is going through so many setbacks and obstacles that he feels he can do absolutely nothing. However the submitted attitude generated is so amazing that it lets a person simply start again with freshness and real humility.
- If we keep our eyes open we can see so many miracles in life literally every moment. But this eye "prescription" comes from the Holy Land, which means connecting as best as possible to the Holy Land.
- Thank God for Rebbe Nachman and his teachings - the depth, clarity and guidance are so profound and powerful that they penetrate every area of life for Jew and gentile alike.
- For the Jews to survive throughout all tests and tribulations unswerving faith in the tzaddikim (i.e. of the caliber like Moshe Rabeinu) is a necessity for survival and continuation.
- When a person is feeling to overwhelmed and stressed coupled with the feeling that Hashem doesn't care about a person anymore (because if He really did He wouldn't just throw them away into such misery), it is all meant to squeeze enough a person so that the right tone and pressure in words and prayer come out.
- When we feel so out of it - out of Emunah, out of Simcha and out of true Service of Hashem, it is simply a sign that the light of the Tzaddikim have been dimmed in our lives and that is the main area that we must work on. This is done by getting up at midnight to cry over the death/passing/concealment of the Tzaddikim and by going to daven by their holy grave-sites.
- It is not by coincidence that the book of BaMidbar corresponds to these months of the early summer, when people begin to be and feel slackening in all areas (which is probably why this time is also known as "vacation time). The strife and conflict found in most of the book of BaMidbar show us the main cause and reason why we are still alone, like someone walking in a "desert". What is needed by us is our reaffirmation and commitment to following Moshe Rabeinu and all other subsequent Tzaddikim- true leaders of the Jewish nation.
- Hashem doesn't look at the bad of a person like other people think He does. We may see ourselves as negative, but that doesn't mean that Hashem also looks at us in a negative manner. Hashem's way is always to look at the person's good!
- Reb Noson writes that there are times that a person is so overwhelmed that he cannot even express what he is going through in speech before Hashem. What a person normally does then is lift up his hands towards Heaven as if to say "I cannot do or express myself any better than this". This, itself, is what then leads a person to activate the faculty of speech and then be able to properly express himself before God.
- We are seemingly getting older and the challenges are much more serious and impacting in life. Things are no longer superficial as when we were teenagers. However the weapon through all this remains the same - prayer, prayer and more prayer.
- Rebbe Nachman teaches in several places that there are levels of holiness and purity that can only be attained through strife and conflict. He gives the analogy of a broken tree lying on the ground. If the tree becomes engulfed with water, the tree is elevated from the ground. So too, he says, strife in a sense is called "turbulent waters", and when a person (likened to a tree) is engulfed by this strife it elevates him and brings him closer (Rebbe Nachman used this to express why he himself remained silent and accepted the strife and conflict against him, as it was necessary to bring him to the higher levels that he then reached in life).
- As the challenges of life get bigger and bigger, we realize more and more how we need much more Divine assistance and intervention in getting through matters. For this, Hashem has sent us Tzaddikim - more specifically the graves of Tzaddikim - to help us like a shepherd would help his flock.
- No one can honestly say that they serve Hashem properly and are living their life the way it should be. So, then, what is left for us to do if perfection and doing things right seem beyond us due to the surmounting levels of obstacles? The main devotion and key to getting things done in life is by intense yearning and longing to do the Will of Hashem according to what He actually wants. This pang is what gets things forward in life.
- During these 3 Weeks leading up to Tisha B'Av we are expected to go through relatively tighter and more constricted tests, which are meant to bring us closer in recognizing how much we need and rely on Hashem's kindness in life. The expressions and recitations of mourning are simply meant to bring out that yearning, built up from throughout the year and finally being able to come out verbally.
- The true tzaddikim - of the caliber of Moshe Rabeinu - know all the secret doors and strings attached to get a person around and bypass the attribute of strict judgement. This is the light and power of connecting to the 50th Gate of Holiness/Compassion/
Understanding. - We have so many ups and downs in life and they are so imbalanced. We have such lofty highs but then we have major crashes. What is needed is to go through the process with a passive attitude since this is the way to come to Hashem, and not to be discouraged from the experience.
A ROSH HASHANAH OFFER!!!
(noon-time recitation of the Tikkun HaKlali in Uman on the Eve or Rosh HaShanah)
Rebbe Nachman made an oath that anyone who comes to his grave-site in Uman, the Ukraine, gives a coin to charity in the Rebbe's memory, recites the 10 Psalms known as the Tikkun HaKlali, and takes upon themselves to become a better person, the Rebbe will intercede on that person's behalf to pull them out of even the lowest depth of hell.
Rebbe Nachman also stressed the paramount importance of being by him for the Rosh HaShanah holiday. This practice continues even after Rebbe Nachman's passing, as thousands of people from all over the world flock to the city of Uman to be by the Rebbe for Rosh Hashanah.
It has become a common conduct among the followers of Rebbe Nachman to combine both directives by reciting together the Tikkun HaKlali at noon-time in Uman on the Eve of Rosh HaShanah.
If you would like to be a part of this collective recitation but cannot make it to Uman, we will be able to recite the Tikkun HaKlali for you there and then, and give out your charity beforehand.
To send your Tikkun HaKlali charity for this noon-time recitation on the Eve of Rosh HaShanah, please follow this paypal link:
PLEASE ALSO MAKE SURE TO SUBMIT YOUR FULL HEBREW NAME AND MOTHER'S NAME (IF APPLICABLE).
With blessings for a good New Year sealed in the books of the True Tzaddikim for good life and peace
Sincerely
Meir Elkabas
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