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How Do We Engage in a Personal Accounting in Already at the age of six, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was able to
Hitbodedut? study the words of the sages and transform everything that he read
and learned into practical advice and pathways. He wrote Sefer
It is very simple: tell the Creator of the world in your own words Hamidot (The Alphabet Book), of which he later said, “This
everything that you have done since the hitbodedut of yesterday book made me into a Jew.” That occurred literally in his childhood.
until the hitbodedut of today. Regarding the good you have Therefore, it is worthwhile taking heed of the conclusions that he
done, give thanks. And regarding the bad you have done, ask for came to at the end of his life, when he reached the ultimate spiritual
forgiveness and express regret, and ask the Creator to help you heights available to a person who is still in his body.
not fail in these matters anymore. Such hitbodedut grants you
atonement for everything. The Creator of the world tells you: Smile All the Way…
“When you judge yourself, I will forgive your sins every day.” You
experience a personal Yom Kippur that grants you atonement for Do you want to listen? Do you want to receive a check and
all of your sins. smile all the way to the bank? You will smile even more than that!
Statistics show that almost all of those who smiled all the way to
The Case Is Closed the bank after winning the lottery afterwards wept a great deal and
cursed the moment they had won. But here you are receiving a gift
A person who does not engage in a daily hour of hitbodedut that will cause you to smile until the final day. “She laughs until the
experiences Yom Kippur once a year. But a person who does engage final day” (Proverbs 31:25). Then, on the final day, the smile will be
in a daily hour of hitbodedut experiences a Yom Kippur every day. totally authentic.
Every day he repents over everything that occurred from the Yom This advice is connected to the days of the messiah. Rabbi
Kippur of yesterday until the Yom Kippur of today. That is the
greatest gift in the world. Fortunate is the person who takes it. Nachman of Breslov said that just as today everyone puts on tefillin
Even while he is still in this world he will have the Garden of Eden, so in the days of the messiah everyone will engage in this service
because a person suffers only because of his sins. A person who (Kochavei Ohr). If you listen and receive this advice, you are already
engages in hitbodedut every day wipes the slate clean every day. living the days of the messiah!
And there is no one more foolish and thoughtless than a person The greatest difficulty about this advice is that, because it is so
who does not take this gift—who does not engage in an hour of amazing and certain, it appears to be implausible. But, as I said,
hitbodedut.
you have nothing to lose. With such assurances, this is hardly the
time to ask superfluous questions. Begin to implement this simple
What is this comparable to? To a person who is about to endure
a fateful judgment. Visualize and imagine in detail how he feels advice for just a few months, and then you will have no more
the evening before this momentous verdict: his fears, his tension, questions!
his insides churning within him. And now he is given the following Before you receive this gift, strongly resolve: “I will not lose this
proposal: devote an hour to tell everything that you did and to ask opportunity!” Say it aloud. Say it, don’t be embarrassed, right now
for forgiveness. Then, not only will you not be punished, but you as you are reading. Do not look right or left. Stop, take a deep
will not even be judged at all! Is there any sane person who would breath, and say: “I will read this advice that will change my life, and
not leap at this bargain and grasp it with both his hands? Judgment with Hashem’s help, I will take it and keep it!”
here upon the earth is nothing. It is literally child’s play compared