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that surrounds us, everything that comes in contact with must learn in depth In the Garden of Wealth, and spend half an
us, can bring us to a new recognition of the Creator…. hour of the work of the will on everything discussed there.
But if, for a single moment, a person turns his mind and
heart away from his Creator, he immediately experiences If a person has a tendency to be depressed and sad, clearly
vain yearnings and desires, and he falls captive to the he cannot work on anything. Overall, he isn’t even alive. He is
paralyzed by his depression. He must first of all receive “oxygen.”
delusions of this world. Therefore, he must learn in depth In the Garden of Wisdom and
do the work of the will on the trait of joy.
The Central Goal
Actually, in our generation everyone—besides all other work in
Thus, the two central points on which we must invest the work serving Hashem—must work on attaining joy. He must listen to
of the will are holiness and faith, upon which all of a person’s many recordings and learn books of encouragement and work a very
rectification depends. Therefore, the essential message of my book, great deal on attaining gratitude, appreciation and thanksgiving.
My Covenant of Peace, is to inspire people to engage in the daily When a person begins to work on himself, he tends to be hard on
half hour of work on holiness: i.e., on guarding one’s eyes and on himself and experience all kinds of frustrations. Therefore, unless he
nullifying the desire for licentiousness. The same applies to faith. A engages in a great deal of work on joy, thanksgiving and fortitude,
person who wants to truly advance in a profound way must learn it will be difficult for him to remain resolute.
my book, In the Garden of Faith, and transform its ideas into
daily prayers and daily work on the trait of faith. And he must also What Next?
learn His Gates in Thanksgiving. That is because thanksgiving
constitutes the perfection of faith. And he must spend half an hour Everything stated here applies equally to men and women. Only
on thanks—which, practically speaking, is a half hour on the work when a person’s life is more or less functioning smoothly is it
of the will on faith (as I have explained at length elsewhere). possible for him to think and plan the order of the work—each
person in keeping with who he is. Men are advised to work first on
Therefore, a person who wants to fulfil his role in this world guarding their eyes and rectifying the “covenant”—because that is
perfectly and rise upon the most perfect and truest highway to his the principal rectification for every male in the world.
rectification and goal must spend half an hour every day on the
work of the will on faith and thanksgiving, and another half hour When a young man approaches me and asks me, “What is the
on holiness. And that is in addition to his daily personal accounting, first thing I should work on and pray for?” I ask him: “Are you
which he may by no means compromise. A person who cannot already guarding your eyes? Do you no longer transgress the Ten
devote two half hour periods should spend at least half an hour on Commandments every day, with its severe prohibitions of ‘Do not
one of these two topics, which are the ABC of life. Only a person commit adultery,’ ‘Do not covet,’ ‘Do not desire,’ ‘Do not turn
who does this every day can be called someone who does teshuvah after your heart and after your eyes’? Are you already obeying
(“repentance”). He works to change himself every day and to do the injunction, ‘You shall guard yourself from every evil matter’?”
teshuvah on these central issues with his work of the will. A person who transgresses such grave prohibitions must first of all
pray to Hashem to help him stop sinning. Therefore, every man
The Pennies Add Up who wants to begin to work on himself, to change and feel the taste
of sweetness in his life should learn My Covenant of Peace and
Sometimes a person has a few burning issues in his life. At such perform the work of the will as it is described there at length.