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danger, because their cravings and evil traits still rule over them Chapter Five:
with tremendous force. Thus, they are sitting on a powder keg that
can explode at any moment.
The Business of Life
Nowhere to Run
My dear brother, until now you have read about ideas that are
A precious Jew, a student of mine, approached me and told me very pleasing, very encouraging, very true. You have heard that
very sadly, “I have come to the conclusion that from a spiritual you can transform yourself with a simple, pragmatic discipline
standpoint I am safer leaving Israel.” I asked him what this was that is called “the work of the will.” You have been introduced
all about, and he told me about a close friend of his, a Breslover to the spiritual principles—the laws of life— that have shown you
Hasid. He was someone who served God and who attracted and the sole and surest way to attain everything that you want without
encouraged young followers from overseas. Every year, he would limitation—the way to reach and attain the level of the greatest
take Jews with him to Uman, each time bringing more and more. people of the generations, the greatest lights of truth, without
Recently, that friend made aliyah to Israel, and shortly afterwards, exaggeration.
he fell prey to the enticements of licentiousness. As a result, he
abandoned Judaism entirely, without retaining the slightest vestige! Listen, dear reader. Everything that you have read here can
I told my student that presumably this person did not engage in an change your life entirely,entirely--absolutely! Or, heaven forbid, it
hour of hitbodedut and a personal accounting, and so everything can enter the archives of your mind alongside the millions of other
in his life had merely been superficial. My student responded facts stored there. Everything depends on what you will read in this
indignantly, “Definitely not, Rabbi. Not only did he engage in an chapter.
hour of hitbodedut every day, but many times he would take me
and others with him to do hitbodedut in the field!” A Billion Dollars!

At that moment, something clicked. I understood. I was receiving Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the mostnoted tzaddik of the
the most painful evidence for what I am teaching you here. From generations, who worked and achieved everything that the most
my student’s story—which came in addition to many other such eminent leaders of the generations achieved, came and paved the
stories that I have heard—I reached the shocking conclusion that way for everyone to be like him, literally, in the simple sense! He
even hitbodedut, which is the highest and greatest practice, does knew that it is not enough to have explanations, it is not enough to
not change a person. Only a persistent discipline that is serious have ideas, it is not enough to have rules, it is not enough to have
and focused on the will changes a person. I said to him: “My dear theories. Therefore, he paved a path of practical advice for
student, although your friend did an hour of hitbodedut a day, everyone. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov has given us a gift. If you
he did not do half an hour a day of the work of the will to nullify take the gift, you receive the entire basket. However, if you have
the craving of licentiousness and to guard his eyes. Therefore, he read and enjoyed what you read, but stopped there, and you have
fell. Without a half hour of the work of the will, a person has no not performed the simple activity—to stretch forth your hand and
free choice. A fall cannot be prevented. Every day without a fall is take the gift that you will receive here—then everything that you
accounted a miracle—and we do not rely on miracles.” read will affect you for just a day or two, or a week at most, and
then you will return to exactly where you were before. Your life
will remain exactly as it was before you read this book—and that
is a pity.