It Took Me Back3 min read
Much to my surprise, some friends and I spent most of the morning and afternoon in Shaarei Tzeddek Medical Center in Jerusalem a few days ago. To make a long story short, we went olive picking and I took a fall. Chasdei HaShem a trillion times over, I am fine!
Over the course of my stay in the hospital I saw, felt, shared, and heard many things.
But there is one observation I would like to share with you dear friends, b’siyata d’Shmaya. The most important one of all.
As they wheeled me in and confirmed my name, a nurse gently placed a hospital band on my wrist. When she was finished, I looked down at the band. There I saw my name printed in bold letters, along with some other general information.
I was struck with something so powerful, so deep, so pure. So strikingly clear. In a flash I realized that the last time one of those bands was fixed to my wrist was few moments after I was brought into this world. A tiny, pure, untainted, worry-free, newborn baby.
It took me back.
A question immediately sprung to mind: What makes me different now to how I was then? Experiences, traumas, aging, life? What does any of that even mean, anyway?
The answer came in the form of a teaching I had learned. This teaching brought a smile to my face, and I feel we must constantly remind ourselves of this message as well as endeavor to share with everyone whose paths we cross.
“When we forget the nature of our essential soul, when we divert our attention from focusing on the quality of our inner life, everything becomes confused and rife with doubt. The primary teshuva that immediately illuminates all darkness is when a person returns to himself, to the essence of his soul. Immediately, he then returns to Hashem, the Soul of souls, and proceeds onwards, higher and higher in holiness and purity.”
Oros Hateshuvah 16:10 – R’Avraham Yitzchak Ha’Kohen Kook zy”a
When we look around at our homes, our shuls, our schools – especially, we need to stop and wonder: are we forgetting the nature of our essential self? What a Jew really is? How different might our world look if we started seeing ourselves and those around us as pure, holy, connected, wholesome, shining neshamos?
We are not short, we are not tall, we are not broken, we are not old, we are not anxious, we are not frum, we are not Sefardic. We are not American, we are not English, we are not Israeli. We are a cheleik Elokah mi’maal mamash– A portion of Hashem on High – mamash. Really.
It is difficult to put into words the impact this way of thinking and living has had on myself, and the domino effect it has sparked into motion. Take out a picture of yourself when you were a baby and look at it for a few moments. Connect with what you see. Notice and feel with burning certainty the deepest truth in the world that – right now, in this very moment – you are as pure as you were then. Keep the picture out on the sideboard and whenever you feel any sort of self-doubt, take another look. With Hashem’s help, you will begin to feel this shift I am referring to.
I recently received an email advertisement for a personal development course. Titled, “The truth about our generation”, the message opined that, “We simply don’t have the tools. We need new ones, this generation is different.”
This generation sure is different. But, the way I see it, we already have the tools. You see, before he left this world, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov zy”a left us a story. It is a story about a princess who gets lost, and that Princess represents the soul; the joy, vitality, meaning, depth, quality, simplicity, emunah, passion, gratitude, peace of mind, health, and balance. Rebbe Nachman wrote this story over 200 years ago, and he wrote it as an all-encompassing guide – for us. Friends, we don’t need new tools. They are all there, ready and waiting. What we need is only to open our hearts and souls, to brush away the dust of preconceived notions that continue to prevent us from accessing everything our unbelievable generation needs.
As the winter months creep upon our world, may each and every one of us feel with clarity – a clarity as clear as the clearest night sky you’ve ever seen – that we have the warmest, brightest future ahead of us, with some of the most shining, exalted souls guiding us on our way. May the Master of the World grant you and I the ability and strength to constantly remind ourselves of who we are and the treasures we hold, so we can march forward unified, as a collective soul, with vigor and simcha and the tools we have been gifted; tools for our generation, and our generation alone.
This journey of God-consciousness, accompanied with the Princess of passion, joy, balance, health, and holy confidence, has already begun. I’m so excited for you to join us!
