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lived a miraculous, wondrous mode of life, and who are called “the members upon the rock. “My heart, my heart, for their casualties!” path, and I directed him to learn the chapter from In the Garden
generation of knowledge”—they reached such a foolish conclusion? (siddur: Nachem). of Faith that deals with the trait of anger. I explained to him that
And the following was the manner of their thinking. (To clarify: the verse, “Anger rests in the bosom of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9),
what I write here about Hashem is not my own view, heaven forbid, Something Here Isn’t Logical means that basically anger is a lack of knowledge and a lack of
but represents the mistaken understanding of the generation of the intelligence. A person must plead with Hashem at length to give
desert). In regard to faith as well, which is our central work and goal in him an intelligent faith related to the trait of anger. And when
the realm of “doing good,” a person who does not devote time He Who graciously gives man knowledge will be kind to him and
“The Creator hates us, and so He has thought of how He might will give him complete knowledge, his anger will be completely
kill us. Having thought and thought, the Creator at last came up to personal work regarding the trait of faith every day of his life eliminated.
will not change but will continue to live with heresy, troubles and
with the following plan: ‘I will bring about ten plagues and split the worries, and he will continue to live a life filled with fears and
Sea of Reeds, I will kill millions of Egyptians and I will defeat the As a result of this discussion and the guidance that he received
Amalekites. Then I will give the children of Israel the Torah at an anxieties. He will fear that people might harm him and he will fear from In the Garden of Faith, this man started to beseech Hashem
his own shadow. He will be filled with evil thoughts about himself
awesome prophetic event, face to face with each individual. All and others—thoughts of jealousy, vengeance and envy—and he to give him proper and simple knowledge and to eradicate his trait
along the way I will give them manna, a well, clouds of glory, clean will be filled with resentments and insolence toward Hashem, with of anger. He began to pray to Hashem to give him the faith and
and laundered clothes that grow together with them, and more. I complaints and self-pity—all of which come from just one thing: a awareness that no one is doing anything to him, but that everything
will do all of that in order to bring them to the land of Israel, so that is the will of Hashem. He prayed to believe that all of those people
there the Amorites will help Me destroy them….’” This is absurd! lack of faith. who are upsetting him are only rods of Hashem who were sent to
Their ingratitude rose to the heights until their intellect was entirely A person who does not do the work will not change. Our him for his absolute good in order to arouse him and bring him
contorted. It is not enough that in one moment of being tested they forefathers, the generation of the desert, learned and learned and close to Hashem. And he asked to always be able to nullify his will
erased all of Hashem’s favors and miracles from their minds, but saw miracles (as we described), yet nevertheless they did not attain before Hashem’s will. He continued to pray in this way every day
that their ability to think was itself entirely erased! To us this even proper faith. As Rashi states in his commentary to the verse, “How for about two years, until he received the faith-based awareness
appears humorous, because if Hashem hated them He would have can I bear your burden and your strife” (Deuteronomy 1:12): “This that he had lacked, and he began to see Hashem in everything that
killed them during the ten plagues or by drowning them in the sea, teaches that they were heretics.” This is truly appalling. was happening to him, and Hashem extirpated this cursed trait of
or He would have allowed the Egyptians and Amalekites to do the anger.
work for Him. Did Hashem need to wait until they would come to As we study many verses, we tremble when we see the ingratitude
the land of Israel? of the generation of the desert (as discussed at length in my His A Tool for Life
Gates with Thanksgiving, and as everyone recognizes and
But at the moment that a person is tested, he responds in precisely knows). Here let us look at one verse from Moses’ rebuke of the
At the same time, his eyes were enlightened and he began to
this way. If some small matter does not go his way, he forgets all nation of Israel, from which we will understand the low level of attend more and more classes. The path of faith illuminated his
of the favors that Hashem has done for him, he feels that Hashem faith to which the nation of Israel had fallen. The verse states, “You entire life, and he learned that he must change in other areas as
hates him, and so forth. At the moment that a person is tested, complained in your tents and said: Because Hashem hates us, He well. After he saw results from his efforts regarding his trait of
nothing helps him, because his mind is taken away. Only a person’s took us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the anger, he knew that he must continue and utilize this wonderful
personal work stands with him at the moment of the test. Amorites to destroy us” (ibid. 27). tool in other, more difficult and complex areas. Thus, his success in
nullifying his anger helped him and gave him a powerful impetus to
Remember and Do Not Forget When I read this verse, I did not know whether to laugh or cry. Is continue onward and acquire more and more attainments in serving
what is written here logical? Can it be that when something did not Hashem, because he saw with his own eyes that his stubborn intent
Thus, if a person does not do the work of the will, he will not please these people—who experienced so many miracles in Egypt and his steadfast prayer had borne fruit. Therefore, he accepted
change. He will not attain his rectification, and he will not fulfill and at the Sea of Reeds, to whom Hashem spoke face to face, this practice as a way of life. In each session, he addressed one or
his mission—moreover, he will be in terrible danger. The who saw the presence of the Shechinah in the Tabernacle, who two topics, and dedicated a half hour of prayer to each one, or he

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