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44 | A New Light
A Person’s Will Purifies Him
In light of what I have explained—that the essence of a person’s
freedom of choice lies in his will—I will now present an important
resultant principle, which is that Hashem judges a person in
accordance with his will and not in accordance with his deeds. This
principle is derived from the fact that the conditions of a person’s
life come from Hashem, his drives come from Hashem, and all
of his deeds come from Hashem. Therefore, a person cannot be
judged for these factors, because they are not under his control.
The only element that is truly under his control and not dependent
on any other factor is his will. A person can literally change his will
at any moment. Therefore, heaven’s principal question to a person
is, “Why didn’t you want…?”—because wanting is something
that is up to him. Who can stop him? Therefore, the essence of
heaven’s judgment concerns a person’s will.
A proof for this contention may be found in our sages’ ruling
that “if a man tells a woman, ‘Marry me on condition that I am
righteous,’ then even if he is completely wicked, she is married to
him, because it is possible that he had a thought of repentance”
(Kiddushin 49b).
A Wicked Person Who Is Righteous
Let us think about what the Gemara is telling us. Imagine a truly
evil person, someone who has spent his life robbing and stealing,
raiding and killing, and who is terrorizing an entire city. Now he
approaches a modest and pious maiden, the daughter of the city
rabbi, and asks her to marry him. When she replies that she only
wants to marry a righteous husband, he tells her, “No problem!
Marry me on condition that I am righteous.” If she does so, the
halachah states that she is indeed married, because it is possible that
he had a thought of repentance.
If we were to look at such a situation with our own eyes, what
would we say? How can this man claim to be righteous? He is
completely wicked. He doesn’t have the faintest idea of what it
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entreaties, requests and pleas that He have compassion
on us and give us merit, and bring us close to Him in
His vast compassion, so that we will be privileged to
fulfill everything that is discussed in each teaching. May
we pour our speech forth before Hashem, may He be
blessed, regarding everything that is discussed there,
asking Him that we may be privileged to apply these
[directives], realize and reach them completely.
The entire will of the righteous is that we desire to realize all of
their elevated teachings, because the principal factor is not learning
these teachings but translating them into deed. If in actuality you
cannot apply what is written there, then want and yearn until you
merit to attain it. Our prayers to be able to implement Rabbi
Nachman’s teachings are so elevated that Rabbi Nachman said that
they cause great delight in heaven, a delight that had never before
arisen before Hashem.
This is very problematical: why do these prayers result in such
great delights? The person reciting them did not actually do
anything. He only wanted and yearned. This proves clearly that a
person’s will and yearning constitute the essential factor that heaven
desires. Even if in actuality he is still very far from what he wants,
his prayers on these teachings, which express his desires, create the
essence of delights in heaven that had never before arisen.
When Rabbi Nachman told his students how to turn his teachings
into prayers, he used the example of the fifth teaching in Likutei
Moharan. This is a very elevated teaching in which Rabbi Nachman
tells that a person can know whether or not a judgment has been
decreed in heaven, and he discusses other extremely awesome levels
of awareness. His students told him, “We do not need to pray for
this now, because we are very far from this level.” When they
looked at this accomplishment and saw how far it is beyond them,
they abandoned their will to attain it! Rabbi Nachman told them,
“Read the teaching to me.” They read: “‘Every person must say:
The entire world was created only for me’ (Sanhedrin 37a). Thus,
since the world was created for me, I must constantly concern
myself with and focus on the rectification of the world, and on