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phenomenon of. But despite all that, when he faced a test, he is to ask Hashem to give him will: “Give us the heart and will to in him like fire, and control him. Even if he succeeds in overcoming
forgot everything and he again burst out, unable to control himself. fear heaven. Give us the heart and will to love Hashem. Give us the them, he remains in great danger, because one day the genie will
heart and will to emerge from all cravings. Give us the heart and come out of the bottle. That being the case, why don’t people
Seeing that he had not yet succeeded, he began to seek a solution will to truly serve You.” If a person does not devote time to this seek a fundamental solution? Why do they persist in gambling
in the area of Judaism and Torah. He sought advice from various every day, that is a sign that he does not want it. Then the days dangerously with their lives? You might be a Torah scholar, living
rabbis, who told him to learn such-and-such a book, go the mikveh, and years will pass as he remains with all of his ingratitude and all a spiritual life, so that outwardly you appear to be far from coarse
and so forth. Since he had a strong will to see a change in his life, of his cravings. and physical cravings. But in the desert the children of Israel lived
he did everything that they advised him, in the hope that this would lives no less spiritual than yours. Do not think that there are no
bring him relief. He learned statements of our sages disparaging The Essence of the Work more cravings and no more dangers. There are cravings—it is just
anger and he heard many classes on the topic of rectifying one’s that they are sleeping lightly. If you look within yourself, you will
character traits. He was surprised to see that everything that he had see that they are still in their full force and might. Don’t you have
Even a person who devotes significant time every day to personal
learned in the books of psychology had already been written in the work must know that the essence of that work is to take one topic the desire to gaze at forbidden sights? Don’t you gain pleasure
literature of the sages hundreds and thousands of years earlier. He and invest at least a half an hour of intentions and prayers on it from the many instances that you look around? Doesn’t superficial
was impressed by this ancient wisdom and learned it in depth, but every day. attractiveness—“false is grace and vain is beauty” (Proverbs 31:30)—
he still saw no tangible change in himself. still attract you? If so, know that you are in great danger, and you
I learned this fundamental principle from my own experience. I must do the work of the will.
The Discovery can testify that for many years, every day I would dedicate much
more than an hour to work on myself, to engage in a personal Make a personal accounting. Examine yourself until you know
Nothing he did helped him, and he continued to fail every test and accounting and in personal prayers—yet I did not see tangible what your true situation is. And then … get to work! You must
to grow angry and explode into rage. But he continued his search changes in myself. I did see improvements, but not anything arise to do the work of the will. Spend half an hour each day
for every scrap of knowledge on the topic of anger. He was on the essential, such as completely nullifying a craving or an evil trait—an entreating the Creator of the universe to eradicate your negative
verge of giving up, of thinking that he was beyond rectification and actual transformation. Only when, with Hashem’s help, I began to desires, to entirely extirpate all of your attraction to sensuality in all
hope, when one day he came upon a cassette recording of mine on dedicate a half hour every day to want only one thing did I of its forms. If you do not do this, the years will pass by and you
the topic of anger. In that recording, I said the following: begin to see fundamental changes in myself. Only then did I begin will not change. And if one day you find yourself in situations that
to attain achievements and change inwardly. you never dreamed that you might come to, that is only because
When you come to the heavenly court and they ask you why you never worked on yourself fundamentally. There are only two
you grew angry, you can say, “In truth, I did not want to be And I saw the same thing in my students. Although they devoted possible paths: when a person works, he changes; and when a
angry. I learned books on this topic and I followed the advice that a significant amount of time every day to personal prayers, they person does not work, he does not change.
I received, but when I faced a test I forgot everything and I again nevertheless saw almost no progress. But when they began to focus
lost my self-control. I was overwhelmed.” on one issue only and to pray for it every day, they saw changes If every member of the generation of the desert would have done
from week to week and from month to month in a way that the work of the will, focusing on emerging from sensual lust by
In heaven, they will examine your claim and tell you astonished them. They had not believed that it would be possible to praying half an hour each day for 40 years, he would have nullified
that you are indeed right. You were overwhelmed. Your achieve such fundamental changes and gain such help from heaven and entirely disconnected himself from sensual lust, and the
enticements of the daughters of Midian would not have constituted
test was so difficult that you did not have the power to with such easy work. any kind of a test for him whatsoever. Even if such a person were not
withstand the outburst of anger that took hold of you. entirely cleansed from his lusts, because he had not yet managed to
As I contemplated this more, I understood that the generation of
Therefore, you cannot be blamed for your anger. But the desert had also dedicated time to personal work and personal eradicate them, he would nevertheless not have stumbled, because
they will ask you, “Why didn’t you pray about this? prayers. Immediately after the giving of the Torah, the children “in the way that a person wishes to go, he is led.” And since this
Why didn’t you ask for help? You saw that you yourself of Israel were commanded to engage in the practice of prayer. person had stood in prayer for half an hour every day and sincerely