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I cannot battle on all fronts at the same time. is fine with him remaining as he is and continuing to sleep away his that surrounds us, everything that comes in contact with
Therefore, I do my part in the work that is most life. Therefore, it leaves him alone. Why waste a bullet on him if he us, can bring us to a new recognition of the Creator….
important for me right now, and I know that this is already one of the walking dead? It makes no difference how this But if, for a single moment, a person turns his mind and
is what You want from me at present. person defines himself spiritually. If he does not possess the work heart away from his Creator, he immediately experiences
of the will, he is said to be defeated, and he is in the pocket of the vain yearnings and desires, and he falls captive to the
Please, I beg of You, help me so that I will not evil inclination! delusions of this world.
be disoriented by all of my imperfections and I will On the other hand, when a person holds a weapon—the weapon
not abandon this work, but I will continue until of the work of the will—it makes no difference what he undergoes, The Central Goal
I see tangible results. Then I will be able to move it makes no difference his spiritual level, it makes no difference how
onto another area, another issue that requires many times he has failed and fallen, nothing makes any difference— Thus, the two central points on which we must invest the work
rectification. And in the meantime, I take pleasure he always vanquishes! of the will are holiness and faith, upon which all of a person’s
in every day that I bond with You as I plead to rectification depends. Therefore, the essential message of my book,
You in my desire to do Your will. This is the most And this is stated explicitly in the holy Zohar (Tikunei Zohar 29a): My Covenant of Peace, is to inspire people to engage in the daily
important thing. It is my purpose. If I did not “By what sign may we know that a person has been victorious? half hour of work on holiness: i.e., on guarding one’s eyes and on
have so many issues to work on and rectify, my The Holy One, blessed be He, answers: Look at those who hold nullifying the desire for licentiousness. The same applies to faith. A
life would be disconnected from You. Therefore, I weapons in their hands, and you will know who has conquered in person who wants to truly advance in a profound way must learn
judgment.” A person who grasps a weapon in his hand is the victor.
thank You so much that I have so much to repair. In our case, the weapon is prayer, and when a person constantly my book, In the Garden of Faith, and transform its ideas into
Help me rejoice in my work, and may I not be grasps this weapon, it makes no difference what he undergoes—he daily prayers and daily work on the trait of faith. And he must also
learn His Gates in Thanksgiving. That is because thanksgiving
demoralized by the fact that it takes so long. is the victor! constitutes the perfection of faith. And he must spend half an hour
on thanks—which, practically speaking, is a half hour on the work
In addition, you must know that when a person succeeds in dealing Nothing else can help at all. This is the rule of creation: of the will on faith (as I have explained at length elsewhere).
with one issue profoundly, that affects his entire life, because in when you pray, you receive; when you want something, you
the depth of the service of Hashem all issues are connected to are led. Therefore, a person who wants to fulfil his role in this world
each other. When a person has faith, that gives him joy, eradicates perfectly and rise upon the most perfect and truest highway to his
his anger, improves relations with others, enhances harmony in his rectification and goal must spend half an hour every day on the
home, and so forth. In the same way, rectifying the “covenant” work of the will on faith and thanksgiving, and another half hour
affects a person’s entire life, because it is the universal rectification, on holiness. And that is in addition to his daily personal accounting,
as its name implies. As Rabbi Natan says in the introduction to which he may by no means compromise. A person who cannot
Sefer Hamidot, he heard directly from Rabbi Nachman of devote two half hour periods should spend at least half an hour on
Breslov regarding the topic of working on one’s traits: “All traits one of these two topics, which are the ABC of life. Only a person
are neighbors. Therefore, one trait can help another that is its who does this every day can be called someone who does teshuvah
neighbor…” (see his lengthy explanation there). Therefore, when a (“repentance”). He works to change himself every day and to do
person changes for the better in one area, he is not ignoring other teshuvah on these central issues with his work of the will.
issues, because improvement of one factor affects the totality of his
service of Hashem.
The Pennies Add Up
Thus, every point that a person works on has the power
to completely sweeten the judgments affecting him. He no Sometimes a person has a few burning issues in his life. At such