Requesting Virus Scan

The box appears on the bottom of my computer screen: “Requesting virus scan…” I had turned on the computer and opened my word processing program without waiting for the machine to warm up properly. I try to ignore the box, but the computer takes on a life of its own. The keyboard freezes and I have no choice but to wait until the security system finishes checking my hard drive for a possible virus.

 

When I saw the words, “Requesting virus scan,” I realized that I am also requesting a lot of things. But then, when the computer did what it had to do without waiting for my opinion, I thought of You, Hashem.

 

At first, You, Hashem, also make a polite request. But when we don’t pay attention, You take over, for our sake, of course. Then, You leave room for us, so we may act alone, and again the screen is in front of us, empty and white, waiting for us to fill it.

 

What will I think today? What shall I strive for today? What do I want? Where do I begin? And how will I deal with my thoughts and feelings?

 

I’m allowed to make plans, to have desires, but I must keep my system free of viruses. Most of us have some type of plan of where we’re going and how we’re going to get there. But besides our plan there is another plan, Hashem’s plan. Hashem’s plan is the real plan.

 

When the unexpected happens, when things go wrong and we’re under pressure, that’s the time to give up our plan and open ourselves up to Hashem’s plan. If Hashem causes us to get into a certain situation, then that’s where we have to be. Things were never really in our control. We have the ability to take action, to respond, to choose good, to make an effort — but we never have control. We can never determine the outcome.

 

“If Hashem will not build a house, its builders have toiled at it in vain; if Hashem will not guard a city, its watcher keeps his vigil in vain. It is futile for you who arise early, who sit late, who eat the bread of toil, so will Hashem give to one who banishes sleep from himself” (Tehillim 127, 1-2).

 

“Requesting virus scan.” Viruses are tiny entities, invisible to the naked eye, but very deadly. If a virus enters our system and we lack the proper protection, all our years of planning and building will disappear. Everything is erased.

 

For that reason we need an anti-virus program – a security program. And we must make sure that it’s updated, and constantly connected. New viruses are constantly appearing, and we don’t want them to destroy our system. 

 

Just like we need a security program for our computers, we need a security program for our spirituality, to protect ourselves from ourselves — from our desire to control the world around us.

 

“When a person goes after his intellect and his wisdom, he can fall into mistakes and many stumbling blocks, and come to terribly bad things, God forbid. Some men ruined things enormously, for example, the great and famous wicked ones, who brought the world into error, and it was all because of their wisdom and their intellect (such as their erroneous reasons that were biased by arrogance and other negative character traits)” (Likutei Moharan II, Torah 12).

 

What is the solution? “The main thing in Judaism is to go with simplicity and wholesomeness, without any cleverness. We should see to it that everything we do is for the Name of Hashem, without paying any attention to our esteem. Only if there is honor to Hashem in the matter – we should do it, and if not – we should not. Then, we will certainly never stumble” (Ibid.).

 

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov gives us a security program for our spiritual system. The system is simple: "See to it that everything we do is for the Name of Hashem, without paying any attention to our esteem.”

 

We do not need to destroy the viruses, but we must activate the program that will identify them. In other words, we must be honest with ourselves, realize that we can’t rely on our own intelligence or become so addicted to our plans that we refuse to accept Hashem’s plans.

 

If we’re real, we will get rid of the viruses. That way, at the end of our lives, we won’t find ourselves standing in front of a shattered illusion. Instead, we will have reached our goal.

 

 

 (From: www.levhadvarim.com)