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to judgment above in heaven. Yet if there is judgment below, there How Do We Engage in a Personal Accounting in Already at the age of six, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was able to
is no judgment above. One dare not miss such a chance. Hitbodedut? study the words of the sages and transform everything that he read
and learned into practical advice and pathways. He wrote Sefer
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov made a greater promise regarding It is very simple: tell the Creator of the world in your own words Hamidot (The Alphabet Book), of which he later said, “This
hitbodedut than he did regarding any of his other innovations. He everything that you have done since the hitbodedut of yesterday book made me into a Jew.” That occurred literally in his childhood.
promised that if a person recites the Tikun Haklali at his gravesite, until the hitbodedut of today. Regarding the good you have Therefore, it is worthwhile taking heed of the conclusions that he
he will take that person out of Gehennom. But he promised that 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
a person who engages in hitbodedut will not even come to see the forgiveness and express regret, and ask the Creator to help you heights available to a person who is still in his body.
face of Gehennom. He will not be judged at all by heaven.
not fail in these matters anymore. Such hitbodedut grants you
atonement for everything. The Creator of the world tells you: Smile All the Way…
The holy Zohar highly praises a person who regularly engages in
a personal accounting, and says that he cannot go to Gehennom. “When you judge yourself, I will forgive your sins every day.” You
The Shem Mishmuel comments (Emor 5674): Whom does the experience a personal Yom Kippur that grants you atonement for Do you want to listen? Do you want to receive a check and
holy Zohar promise that he will not go to Gehennom? A righteous all of your sins. smile all the way to the bank? You will smile even more than that!
person who engages in a personal accounting, or a person who has Statistics show that almost all of those who smiled all the way to
stumbled and transgressed, and engages in a personal accounting? A The Case Is Closed the bank after winning the lottery afterwards wept a great deal and
righteous person will certainly not go to Gehennom, because he is cursed the moment they had won. But here you are receiving a gift
righteous and not only because he engages in a personal accounting. 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
Therefore, the holy Zohar must be speaking about a person who is 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
not righteous, who is still stumbling and transgressing. He too, in in a daily hour of hitbodedut experiences a Yom Kippur every day. totally authentic.
the merit of making a personal accounting, of wanting and striving Every day he repents over everything that occurred from the Yom This advice is connected to the days of the messiah. Rabbi
to get out of his situation, will not go to Gehennom! Kippur of yesterday until the Yom Kippur of today. That is the Nachman of Breslov said that just as today everyone puts on tefillin
greatest gift in the world. Fortunate is the person who takes it. so in the days of the messiah everyone will engage in this service
A Powder Keg Even while he is still in this world he will have the Garden of Eden, (Kochavei Ohr). If you listen and receive this advice, you are already
because a person suffers only because of his sins. A person who
engages in hitbodedut every day wipes the slate clean every day. living the days of the messiah!
Hitbodedut constitutes the most powerful discipline, advice and
medicine. Nevertheless, many people have told me that although And there is no one more foolish and thoughtless than a person The greatest difficulty about this advice is that, because it is so
every day they devote an hour to hitbodedut, to personal work 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,
and to a personal accounting, and they feel astonishingly enhanced, hitbodedut. you have nothing to lose. With such assurances, this is hardly the
they do not see a fundamental change in themselves. They feel that What is this comparable to? To a person who is about to endure time to ask superfluous questions. Begin to implement this simple
their desires and evil inclination still dominate them tremendously. advice for just a few months, and then you will have no more
a fateful judgment. Visualize and imagine in detail how he feels
the evening before this momentous verdict: his fears, his tension, questions!
The reason for that is precisely what we are learning about in this
book. It is true that they are engaged in the greatest practice, that his insides churning within him. And now he is given the following Before you receive this gift, strongly resolve: “I will not lose this
they attain a tremendous rectification and that they earn Rabbi 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
Nachman’s promise. But they are not implementing the principal 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
advice that changes a person fundamentally even as he is in this 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
world. They are not doing the work of the will. Moreover, not only not leap at this bargain and grasp it with both his hands? Judgment with Hashem’s help, I will take it and keep it!”
do they fail to see an essential change, but they are also in enormous here upon the earth is nothing. It is literally child’s play compared