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298 | A New Light
Chapter Seven:
Learning that Leads to Action
When a person learns Torah, he must make sure
to receive and derive “judgments of truth” from
everything that he learns—i.e., [guides to] upright
behavior—whether for himself or for others over
whom he has authority. This applies to every individual
in accordance with his degree of authority over other
people, whether they are many or few.
A person attains the ability to do this by means of his
faith in the sages. By means of that, he can receive
and derive judgments of truth and upright behavior
from everything that he learns in the Torah, so that
he and those under his influence will know how to act
regarding every matter.
Likutei Eitzot: Talmud Torah (based on Likutei Moharan I 61)
“Great Is Learning, for It Leads to Action” (Kiddushin
40b)
Now that you understand that all that you lack in order to change
is the work of the will, you must learn how to build and arouse our
will.
You must know that you arouse your will by learning the Torah
(as I will explain). The learning I am speaking of is not restricted
to the learning engaged in by masters of Torah and scholars. It is
the kind of learning that is relevant and accessible to every person
Chapter Seven: | 311
Wisdom. A person who wants to get out of debt should learn In
the Garden of Wealth and My Covenant of Peace. In addition,
My Covenant of Peace is a wonderful and essential book for
every man who wants to work on the principal matter in life: the
rectification of the covenant (sexual rectitude). A man is sent to this
world principally to withstand the test of licentiousness and attain
the rectification of the covenant. And this book is an encompassing
and complete guide to that topic.
The Prescription
A personal library of such books is like a wonderful pharmacy
that has medicine for every disease and problem. The prescription
is to take a book on the topic that you are working on and learn
a page a day or more, with a ruler and pen or pencil so that you
can mark every point that you want to review, and copy sections
that you will read every day. Then, at the beginning of your every
session on the work of the will, remind yourself of these central
points that you have summed up and delineated. For instance, if
you are working on attaining joy, when you begin your work of the
will, tell yourself:
I realize that my primary work in life is to acquire the
trait of joy, because that is the central requirement for
attaining everything good in life, in the physical and
spiritual realms. As a result of my working to attain joy,
it will be easy for me to acquire everything else that I
want. Therefore, I must remind myself over and over that
attaining joy is my essential task, and that it is forbidden
to me to be dormant and inactive. I must work every
day to learn about this topic, practice the advice that
I learn and engage in much prayer until Hashem will
have compassion on me, distance me from depression as
much as possible and help me attain joy on every level,
so that I will always be joyful.
And I also realize that my being able to experience
constant joy depends on my faith that everything is