Happiness - The Medicine of The Future

"It is a great mitzvah to always be happy," but have you ever wondered some of the reasons why? In Likkutei Moharan II:24, Rebbe Nachman teaches us that all the sicknesses that come upon a person, only come because of a lack of happiness. The lesson goes on to explain that there are ten different types of melody which are all an aspect of happiness. All these ten melodies are found within the ten different pulses in the body, which give life to the melodies through their pulsating. Now when there is a breakdown of happiness which is the life force behind these ten pulses, then the sickness comes as a result of the weakening of the pulses. For all the different illnesses are included within these ten pulses; and similarly, all the different melodies are included in these ten melodies. Therefore, according to the breakdown of the happiness and the melody, so will be the sickness that comes. All the medical experts have explained this subject at length; that all illnesses come as a result of sadness and depression, and that happiness is a great healing and cure. The Rebbe adds that in the future, happiness will increase very much, and through happiness, all the sicknesses will be cured.

We see from this lesson some of the great benefits of happiness, now we just have to learn how to always be happy. It appears to me with Hashems help, that the Rebbe is hinting to us a secret to being happy when he says that 'in the future' happiness will increase very much. What is it about the future which will allow happiness to increase very much?

Two things come to mind when the future is mentioned; one, is what we say in the Aleinu prayer to end each of our three daily prayers which comes from the prophet Zecharia 14:9, "Hashem will be the king over all the land; on that day Hashem will be One and His Name will be One." The commentators explain that this is referring to the Day of Judgment that will take place in Messianic times, when there will be no more idolatry and falsehood in the world. On a deeper level it is also referring to the new level of consciousness that we will attain at that time in which both Hashem (G-d's aspect of mercy) and His Name – Elokim (G-d's aspect of judgment) will be one. That is, we will gain a clear understanding in future times that everything is from Hashem and all that happens to us is really His loving kindness (this is also hinted to in the numerical value of the word echad (one) which is 13 and ahava (love) which is also 13). With this explanation of what will be in 'the future', we now have a tool to help us maintain a state of constant and increased happiness. If we know that everything we encounter in life, whether good or seemingly bad is really all Hashems' loving kindness, then we can certainly be happy all the time.

The second thing that comes to mind when one mentions the future is Olam Haba, The World to Come. Now what exactly is true about The World to Come which can help us achieve this state of happiness. For this we can look in the Likkutei Moharan, at the beginning of lesson 4, "When a person knows that all that happens to him is for his good, this is an aspect of The World to Come." Well there you have it; the Rebbe describes The World to Come with knowing that all that happens to a person is for his good.

So now if we put these two 'future' examples together, we can say that the real secret to happiness which is also the cure for all illnesses is the knowledge that everything is from Hashem and everything is for our good. The best way to express this is by thanking Hashem for everything in life, both good and bad with the knowledge that even if you can't understand why this is happening, it is still from Hashem and it is therefore good for you. Eventually the words will penetrate into your heart, and G-d willing you will merit seeing the true hidden good which is in everything that is happening to you.

This also goes well with what the prophet Yeshayahu (Isaiah) says, that in the future when Moshiach comes, there will be no death or sickness anymore. It makes sense that when we all gain the knowledge of the future, then we will all be happy, as it says in Tehillim, "Then our mouths will be filled with laughter", and this will be the end to all sickness and death in the world.

May we merit to make 'the future' now; and may Hashem bless us all with true happiness and a complete healing both physically and mentally for all of Am Yisrael, amen.

The City of Diamonds

BS"D

There was a very poor man who was told that somewhere on a far off island there existed a city of diamonds.
Seeing that he had no other choice, he packed up a few of his belongings, said goodbye to his wife and kids and set off on the journey.
After a long and difficult journey, he finally discovered the island with the city of diamonds. After collapsing on the diamond covered shore, he grabbed a handful of diamonds and stuffed them into his pocket. Before collecting more diamonds, he realized that he had not eaten in many days, so he staggered into a restaurant and ordered a large filling meal. When the bill came, he reached into his pocket, placed a diamond on the table and told the waiter to keep the change. The waiter started to laugh and said, "Surely you must be joking, over here these stones are of no value, here our currency is potatoes. In spud we trust!"
The poor man was in shock and didn't know what to do. The manager of the restaurant had him wash dishes to work off his bill. He worked hard and was offered a permanent job as a dishwasher which he accepted. It was not long before he moved up to becoming a waiter and because of his hard work and diligence, he eventually became the assistant manager. At this point he was earning a good amount of potatoes every month and he was feeling very good about his turn in fortune. Soon the old manager confided in the poor man that he wanted to retire and leave the restaurant over in his hands. The poor man gladly accepted and continued to grow more and more successful until he owned many other restaurants and businesses and he soon became the wealthiest man on the island.
After many years, he remembered his poor wife and kids and how much they all must be suffering and missing him, so he hired a giant ship, packed up all his millions of potatoes and set sail for the long journey home. Upon his arrival home, he greeted his wife with a big smile and open arms and said, here I am and we are rich, I have millions of potatoes in the boat. Now by this time, all his potatoes had gone rotten and turned into a stinky putrid mush. His wife clobbered him over the head with her purse and shouted at him, "You fool, you were supposed to get the DIAMONDS, what good are all these lousy rotten potatoes."
The poor man sunk into despair and he cried and cried over his terrible misfortune. Meanwhile, the wife being a true woman of valor started sifting through the rotten potatoes with the hope to salvage a few good potatoes to boil in a stew. In the corner of the boat she found a sack with her husbands' old clothes and she decided to take them to wash. In the pocket she felt a few lumps and to her surprise and great excitement, she discovered a pocketful of diamonds. They were able to live happily ever after...

Before our soul enters into this world, we are very clear on our mission: To gather as many diamonds (Torah and Mitzvot) as possible. When we get here however, we are constantly mislead and persuaded by the world into believing that the real currency is dollars or shekels or gold or whatever other toys and gadgets they make us desire.
How sorry we will be after we return home from our long journey here in this world only to discover that all our money and physical possessions are worth nothing more than rotten putrid potatoes and have no value at all in the spiritual world. How fortunate we will be if we have even a few diamonds to take with us back home...

The Baal Hasulam Foresaw the Holocaust

Rav Yehuda Leib Ashlag, The Baal Hasulam

The great and holy Tzaddik and Mekubal, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ashlag of blessed memory foresaw the coming of World War II 20 years in advance. He was then only in his 30's, and he began an effort to alert all the leading Rabbis and Roshei Yeshivot in Poland of the impending decree. He warned them that there was a very severe decree already signed in the Heavens against the Jewish people, and that a huge portion of the Jewish people were going to be erased from the world, G-d forbid. He told them that just like the Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto zt"l) had averted terrible decrees in his time by setting up all day long Zohar learning, so too the same had to be done in order to avert this terrible decree that was on the horizon.
He called for every Rav and Rosh Yeshiva in Poland to begin telling their congregations to start learning the Holy Zohar, however, they did not pay attention to his words. As we know, soon after this World War II began, and 6-7 million Jews were eventually killed.
As the war was being fought, there was a fear that it would spread to the Holy Land and that the evil Hitler, may his name be erased, would also succeed in anihilating all the Jews living there. Rav Ashlag was then busily involved in translating the Zohar into Lashon Hakodesh (Hebrew) so that every Jew would be able to learn and understand it. He believed firmly in the promise of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai, that with this book of the Zohar, we will be redeemed from our exile. He said that on the same day that the first volume was printed (of his translation and commentary to the Zohar known as 'The Sulam'), that wicked man had a big downfall and the war was on it's way to being over. This prevented him from succeeding in reaching the Holy Land.
Dear Rabbis and Roshei Yeshivot, we are now calling out to you!
We are begging you to arouse yourselves and your communities to begin learning the Holy Zohar. You are the leaders of Am Yisrael, and the responsibility of the nation rests upon you.

We have started a new plan to try and complete 1000 siyumim of the Holy Zohar every single Rosh Chodesh (The first one to be held on Rosh Chodesh Adar, G-d willing). Anyone who would like to register and take part in this effort should email thelightofthezohar@gmail.com to sign up. We have now printed the entire Zohar in 70 pocket sized volumes, so that 70 people can each take one of the volumes and with only about 4 minutes of reading a day, complete along with thousands of others, the entire Zohar Hakadosh. It is well known, that when a sefer is broken up into smaller parts and learned in a group (such as is done with Tehillim, Mishna, and Shas) each member actually receives the reward as if he had learned the entire thing. Here in this instance, since we have a goal to reach 1000 siyumim, each member will receive the reward of 70,000 siyumim of the Zohar (since each siyum will require 70 participants). With a few short minutes a day, one can gain unfathomable reward and with G-d's help, we will succeed in preventing all the terrible decrees, wars, and other tragedies that are looming on the Jewish people. May we merit the fulfillment of the promise of Rebbe Shimon, that with my sefer, the Holy Zohar, we will be redeemed from this exile with mercy.

Note: The Admor, Rav Shalom Yehuda Gross and Rav Benayahu Shmueli have both said that the Zohar can and should be read by men, women and children. To get one of the 70 volumes mailed out to you, please send your name, adress, and phone number to thelightofthezohar@gmail.com each booklet costs $5 or if you would like to get the entire 70 volume set for yourself or to start your own chain of 70 people, it will cost $120 (plus shipping). Email me for more details on how to send in your payment. This edition comes with a Lashon Hakodesh (Hebrew) translation running alongside the Aramaic, and one can also read the Zohar only in the Lashon Hakodesh if they prefer.

The Concept of Modesty

Modesty or tzniut is a very misunderstood concept in Judaism. It is not something that is necessarily defined by the clothes you wear, nor does it apply only to a woman, as we will soon explain G-d willing. When I looked up the actual word tzanua I found it to mean; decent, humble, modest and meek. I was thinking about it for some time, and it became clear to me that the whole concept of modesty only applies when you put G-d in the picture. That is, one has to be decent, humble, modest and meek in front of their Creator. Hashem then opened my eyes to find in Rebbe Nachman's writings something which I believe will help us tie all the above together for a much better understanding of the concept of modesty. Following is a translation of Sichot HaRan #136:

Rebbe Natan writes: I heard a further discussion on the lesson appearing in Likkutei Moharan 172 on the verse, "The whole world is filled with His glory (Isaiah 6:3)," from one of my companions.

The main thing is to nullify every one of your negative personality traits. You must strive to do so until you have totally obliterated your ego, rendering it into absolute nothingness before G-d. Begin with one trait and annihilate it completely. Then work on your other traits, one at a time, until they are totally nonexistent. As you annihilate all the negative parts of your own personality, G-d's glory will begin to shine through you and be revealed. It is written in Ezekiel 43:2, "And the Earth was alight with His glory." G-d's glory is like light.

The larger an object, the greater it's shadow. A thin rod casts a very small shadow, while a more substantial object casts a larger shadow. A great building will cast an even larger shadow. As more light is obstructed, a greater shadow is cast. The same is true of G-d's glory. The material obstructs the spiritual and casts a shadow. The denser the object, the deeper a shadow it will cast.

When you are bound to a negative emotion or desire, it obstructs G-d's glory and casts a shadow. G-d's light is then hidden from you. But as you nullify these emotions and desires, you also remove this shadow. And as the shadow departs, the light of G-d's glory is revealed.

When a person is worthy of annihilating the shadow completely and making it into absolute nothingness, then G-d's glory is revealed to all the earth. There is no obstructing shadow, and the light can shine through in all of its' glory.

It is written, "The whole earth is filled with His glory." 'Filled' is melo, which can also be read milo - from nothing. "From nothing is all the earth His glory." When there is nothing – nothing casting a shadow and obstructing His light – then His glory is revealed in all the earth.

Now I think we can get back to our explanation of modesty. The real idea of being modest in front of Hashem lies in making yourself bitul nullified in front of Hashem. Then we can fulfil our mission and the true purpose of creation which is to reveal G-d to the whole world.

With that being said, let us now apply this new understanding to clothing and how we dress. If we are wearing our clothes in order to reveal, accentuate, draw attention to and display our bodies, than we are doing the exact opposite of what is necessary to allow G-d's glory to shine through us. Instead of revealing Hashem through our dress, in this case we are using our clothing to in fact cast a bigger shadow which actually blocks out Hashem's light.

It should also be clear to us now, that this concept applies equally to men and women. It is not anymore a question of how long or short your skirt is, how tight and stretchy it is, or how long and flowing that wig you are wearing is for women, and similarly for men, how tight and fitted your suit is, how pointy and shiny your shoes are, etc. Now we can look at modesty with a whole different approach; and that is, am I putting on my clothing to draw attention to myself, which takes away the attention from Hashem, or am I using my clothing to cover and conceal my body which will allow Hashem's glory to fully shine through me. This should be the real question we ask ourselves every morning when we stand in front of the mirror and get dressed.

May we all merit being a fitting vessel to allow G-d's light to shine through us, and may we be worthy of seeing the fulfilment of the prophecy that the whole world will be filled with G-d's glory, Amen.

Why is Hashem doing this to me?

You have to squeeze an olive to release it's fine oil

Last week's parasha ended with Moshe asking Paroh to release the Jews. Not only did Paroh refuse, but he even increased the workload and burden of the Jewish slaves. The Jews then complained to Moshe and Aharon about their increased burden, so Moshe turned to Hashem and asked, "Why have You worsened the situation of this people?"

This week's parasha opens up with the verses, "Elokim spoke to Moshe and said to him, I am Hashem. I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov as E-l Sha-ddai, but My Name of Hashem, I did not make known to them."

Rashi explains that this opening verse is a continuation of the previous parasha when Moshe asked, "Why have You worsened the situation of this people?" And Hashem's answer to that question was, "Elokim (The Name that represents G-d's aspect of judgement) spoke to Moshe and said to him, I am Hashem (The Name that represents G-d's aspect of mercy)."

Therefore, all the questions and doubts we have about Hashem, are brought about because of a concealment of the emett (truth). For from the emett is drawn out the ways of Hashem, and these ways are beyond our understanding and comprehension. Like the example of the righteous person who suffers and the wicked person who prospers.  All this (the fact that Hashem's ways are hidden from and beyond our understanding) is done for the sake of our having free choice.

This is what is meant by, "Elokim spoke," the aspect of strict judgement, "And He said to him (Moshe), I am Hashem," the aspect of mercy. That is, Hashem was making it known to Moshe that Hashem is Elokim, judgement is really mercy; both are really one. The aspect of mercy and the aspect of judgement are both one in the most truthful way, it is just that we do not have the ability to fully understand this, for the essence of Hashem's ways are beyond our understanding, just like His existence itself is beyond our understanding.

And this is what is meant by, "I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov as E-l Sha-ddai, and My Name Hashem, I did not make known to them." This is because the main revelation of G-dliness in the world came through the Avot (Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov) and it would be impossible to reveal it all in one solid dose. Truth has to be revealed level by level in this world in order to maintain an aspect of free choice. The ultimate truth of Hashem's Oneness, that Hashem (mercy) and Elokim (judgement) is one, will only be fully revealed with the coming of the Moshiach.

(Likkutei Halachot on the parasha)

Now that we have just learned this, let us try to live with this level of emuna (faith), even in situations that go beyond and against our own understanding. The homework for this week is that no matter what happens to us, we must not react with anger, worry or frustration. Rather, we should stop ourselves, take a deep breath of patience and say, "I know this is from You Hashem, and I therefore know that this is for my good – even though I do not understand it." At this point we can even go so far as to thank Hashem for the good that we know he is currently doing for us. This attitude will allow us to merit seeing things for the true good that they really are. As Rebbe Natan teaches us, "If we would all listen to the words of the true Tzaddikim and follow this path, to have constant emunah in Hashem that all is for the good, and we would give praise and thanks to Hashem for both the good and the apparent not good, as it is written, 'To Hashem I will praise, to Elokim I will praise,' then certainly we would nullify all the troubles and all the exiles completely and we would already be experiencing the full redemption!"

May Hashem bless us all to go in the ways of emuna, praise and thanksgiving, and may we all soon experience the full and final redemption of our people, Amen.