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130 | A New Light
The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: My
children, open for Me an opening of repentance like
the eye of a needle, and I will open portals for you
through which carriages and wagons can pass.
Shir Hashirim Rabbah, Chapter 5
Criminal Neglect
Know that in this world there are clear principles. And there are
no mistakes, either positive or negative. All of those who blossom
beautifully are those who work. Nothing is by chance or error.
When people work in accordance with the principles, they achieve.
Nor are there mistakes in the opposite direction. All of those who
fall do not do so by chance. It is only because they do not work.
And why? Because the simple work of the will is concealed. A
descent does not occur suddenly, "out of the blue,” “just like
that.” A person falls because he has bad intentions that he neglects
to deal with. And then one day they reveal themselves. He asks
himself: “How did this happen to me? I grew up in such a good
family, and I received a good education. How did I reach such a
low level? Why has Hashem done this to me? ‘What is this that God
has done to us?’ (Numbers 11:15).” The Gemara states that all of
these questions are complete foolishness, and it quotes the verse,
“After a person’s foolishness perverts his way, his heart is angry at
Hashem” (Proverbs 19:3). This is not something that Hashem did.
This is what the person did. A person is led in the way that he
wants to go. Those who fell are those who did not work and thus
did not change. Everyone has bad impulses. But people who engage
in the work of the will deal with them. And those who stumble
do so because they have not dealt with their bad impulses. As a
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to go free! That is not the case if a person wants more
than one thing. Then his will is not truly will, because
a person’s mind cannot host that extra will. (Otiot Deliba
105)
The Secret of the Half Hour
In “One Who Is Awake at Night,” Rabbi Nachman does not
speak about “half an hour.” Rather, he writes that a person should
pray at length for a few hours—specifically at night, and specifically
in a place where he is all alone, outside of town. But over the years,
as I have worked with Jews, I have seen that this is a discipline that
is very foreign to the people of our generation. And I have seen this
in myself as well. Since I must travel for long hours every evening to
deliver talks, by the time I come home I am exhausted, and I cannot
utilize the precious nights to pray at length. Therefore, I have found
that I usually engage in my hour of a personal accounting during
the day. And, because of my responsibilities to the public, I cannot
always do this for as long as I would like. Therefore, I have had to
devote no more than half an hour of that daily hour to dealing with
areas where I need to improve and progress, so that I can devote
the remaining time to my daily personal accounting. Hashem has
helped me to see from my own experience that if a person does
the former for half an hour, as long as he does it every day, he will
experience a great transformation. He will bring about deliverance
and see great blessing—as long as he is consistent and steadfast in
doing this every day.
It is important to be cognizant that there is a world of difference
between a person who does such work for half an hour a day and
a person who does such work for a few hours every night. The
“money” with which a person can acquire immediate spiritual gains
is his yearnings and intentions. A person who truly wants to change
quickly must devote a few hours every night to engage in the work of
the will by praying for only one thing at a time. But Rabbi Nachman
of Breslov said that it is impossible to require that of people
as a whole. This is not a practice that can be universally followed.