Saturday, October 28, 2006

Can You See the Real Me?

Along with preparing physically for the trip, I am preparing spiritually as well. To keep myself on track and to give myself a paced framework, so that I don't try to do everything at once and have a religious melt down of some sort, I decided to follow the steps outlined in "A Day in the Life of a Breslover Chasid," by Rav Yitzchok Breiter ztl. He gives 27 chronological activities that a Breslover should be doing daily. I figure since I have 12 months, I can do two or three a month, adding something new or fine tuning something I'm already doing, and have them all under some sort of control by next R.H..
So I'm almost done with the first month, which was: 1. Binding yourself to the Tzaddik; and 2. Davening Mariv. Now number two wasn't an issue since Mariv is the service that I seem to have the most connection with and am best able to hold my focus through. Number one, however, required more effort. Not that it was difficult to say the four lines or so that comprise the oath, but the psychic weight of responsibility that came with it was another matter. What a way to instill Yirat Shemayim. In "The Palm Tree of Devorah," Rav Moshe Cordovero states that as our life originates with Hashem and it is constantly sustained and renewed by him, any action we perform we are in essence compelling Hashem to perform also, so when we sin we are forcing Hashem to sin along with us, since he is supplying the life energy that we are using improperly. Now knowing this should be enough to keep us in the best of behavior, but the truth is that understanding something intellectually isn't always the same as carrying it into physical practice. But by physically speaking the words "I hereby bind myself in my every thought, word, and action all through the day to the true Tzaddikim....," I have not only externalized my thought but have given my word as to a course of action, and tied that action to the merits of the Tzaddikim. So if I blow it, I'm now impacting way more than just myself and my own soul.

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