Do Not Fall Back Asleep!

In my previous articles in this series, I explained why Emuna is not Enough and the desperate need to counter the rampant sinat chinam, baseless hatred, with  ahavat  chinam,  loving each other even without cause.  

Now, I want to start to delve deeper into what exactly we need to pray for. 

Pray Properly 

Let’s start out by explaining that we are not just praying for Mashiach to come. During this time, you must pray that the Jewish people should return to Hashem – specifically on the mitzvah of ahavat Yisrael, loving their fellow Jews, and also all the commandments relating to how we treat others.  

Who exactly do we need to pray for? For sure it’s important to pray that those Jews who are far from Torah and mitzvot should do teshuva and come closer to Hashem. But we also need to pray, as I discussed in my previous articles, that even those who learn Torah, those who are careful with mitzvot, should come to know and live the truth that the most important thing, and the purpose of all of the Torah and mitzvot, is  ahavat  Yisrael,  loving  each other – and all of our service of Hashem is just a means to arrive at this central focus! 

Because the truth is that the minute that the Jewish people will all know and understand this truth – already that moment the full redemption will come! 

So we want to pray that everyone should come to understand this. That just as you, dear reader, are reading this article, and G-d willing you are living the sweet life that is emuna in Hashem, knowing that He is the Creator, that He is our loving Father in Heaven who does everything for the good, etc. So pray for others to have the same thing! That your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers, every Jew, every man, woman, and child on this earth, should also come to learn the truth and have this wonderful Heaven on Earth! 

So if you already live in Heaven on Earth, certainly you need to pray for everyone else to also join you in Heaven on Earth. And if you don’t yet have Heaven on Earth, then pray for the Jewish people and everyone to have Heaven and Earth. And you will see with your own eyes that this is a light that never existed in the history of the world.  

Every single day, stand and beg and plead with Hashem in your own words: “Please, loving Father in Heaven, have mercy on the Jewish people! Let them come back to you in complete teshuva! And the most important teshuva is to be careful with the commandments between man and fellow man, and specifically ahavat Yisrael!” 

Rebbe Meir baal HaNess prayed for his evil neighbors to return in complete repentance, and they did! And we can pray like this, and see results too!  

Wake Up – or Face the Consequences 

Therefore, I am requesting of you – and I am even demanding of you: Everyone must pray for each other, and have ahavat chinam!  

We must finally deal with the root cause of all the tragedies and suffering of this long exile, and uproot it altogether!  

You need to know that the situation that the Jewish people find themselves in right now is very difficult, on every level. On the communal level, including the unprecedented rise in antisemitism in recent months. And on the personal level – sickness, mental illness including severe anxiety and depression, divorces and broken families, and much more. So many things pass through me, and I live the pain that the Jewish people is experiencing. 

We didn’t even get punched in the face – we got KICKED right in the face on Lag B’Omer and Shavuot. If we don’t wake up NOW, G-d forbid – it’s very simple. G-d forbid, G-d forbid what kind of a kick are we going to get next! I refuse to let everyone go back to sleep and forget the Meron tragedy! We cannot just go back to routine! 

Therefore, I am screaming to everyone: The reason for all of this is because the Jewish people hate each other! And the only advice to fix all these problems is to fix the hatred with love, and pray for the Jewish people half an hour every day to repent and start loving each other and treating each other with love and respect!  

It is critical to understand –even if all the Jews started to keep the Torah properly right now, and everyone learned Torah, etc. – Mashiach will still not come! Not until we fix the hatred! 

The Central Commandment 

Now I want to add another point to this: Ahavat Yisrael, loving our fellow Jew, is a commandment from the Torah. So while we do need to pray and ask Hashem to enable all of the Jewish people to repent and greatly improve themselves in all the various commandments between man and fellow man, we need to specifically pray that the Jewish people should properly fulfill this commandment of  ahavat  Yisrael,  loving each and every Jew. 

For simple bullet points on exactly what to pray for, read: Love Comes First. 

Pray that everyone will keep Rabbi Nachman’s express command to judge each other favorably, and find a good point even in someone who is completely evil (NOTE: you must find something that is truly good in that person. You cannot twist a sin they committed and try to say that it was good).  

I have almost one million people following my Questions and Answers sessions in Spanish. Most of them are non-Jews. And even the non-Jews have taken it upon themselves to pray half an hour every day that the Jews should return to Hashem in full teshuva! These are my students too. They do an hour of personal prayer every day and live with emuna. And the same thing with my classes in German and French, and of course English and Hebrew. And thousands upon thousands of people have joined my campaign to pray for the Jewish people for 30 minutes every day! 

Every single one of you must join me! The English department is sending me the lowest number of names of any language. It’s an embarrassment for the biggest language on earth! Even in German, I’ve received many times more names than from the English speaking world?! 

I don’t know, maybe everything is wonderful for all of you over in America, you’ve got a great life and no problems… and if this is the Geula, the Redemption, that you’re happy with – then fine. 

But if not, then by the time the next article comes out, I want thousands more names of people who have taken upon themselves to pray half an hour every day for the Jewish people.  

I want your name on the list! And for each and every name that I receive, I will pray for them!  

If you have decided to join Rabbi Arush in praying for the Jewish people for half an hour every day, you can send your name (name and your mother’s name format) to Yael Tzarum and she will forward your name to Rabbi Arush to pray for you. Reach her at:  yael@breslev.co.il.

Editor’s Note: For those who are truly unable to manage 30 minutes a day – Rabbi Arush’s specific example is mothers of young children – then you can still sign up for 15 minutes a day. Just specify that you are committing to 15 minutes in the email. And of course, something is better than nothing – do as much as you can!