Living the Moment
Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches that that one should not look at anything other than the day at hand, and utilize each moment…
Don’t Worry about Tomorrow
“Today, if you heed His voice,” the principle of taking each day at a time is the key to serving Hashem properly and winning the war against the Yetzer Hara. With one day at a time, one can withstand any hardship. Also, when trying to overcome a temptation, bad habit, or a bodily urge, it’s much easier to succeed by taking each hour at a time and each day at a time. Once the Yetzer Hara has been repelled for a short duration, it will leave completely.
An old Arab expression says that if you load a camel’s back straw by straw, then the camel can carry five bales. But, if you drop a bale on its back all at once, you’ll break its back. In like fashion, the Yetzer Hara shows a person that he or she won’t be able to withstand such a lengthy test or tribulation; the person then falls into despair, quits, and surrenders to the Yetzer Hara before the battle even started. But, if the same person would take heart and tell himself that he certainly can beat the Yetzer Hara for one hour or one day, then he could probably withstand and overcome a much more severe test than the one at hand.
The Zohar mentions the principle of taking each hour and each day at a time in the service of Hashem and says that if the Children of Israel would have succeeded in delaying the unfortunate fiasco of the golden calf for even a few minutes, then they would have succeeded in avoiding it altogether. It says that Aaron should have tried to delay the whole thing for even a few minutes by letting the gold drop from his fingers or some other ploy. By delaying temptation for a few minutes, one can totally avoid a transgression.
Normally, a test lasts only for a few minutes, especially when it comes to bodily drives and appetites. This is especially so in the case of anger, for if one can succeed in maintaining focus for a few seconds without losing one’s temper, then the wave of anger passes by like a fleeting cloud. The same thing goes for a temptation to breach one’s holiness; by delaying an unholy act for a few minutes, one can easily maintain personal holiness all the time.
Living the Moment
The same principle applies in all aspects of Divine service such as praying with intent or learning with diligence. It’s hard to do either for a lengthy period of time, but one can do both by concentrating on the moment at hand. When we tell ourselves that now we can pray with proper intent, then the prayer doesn’t seem like a heavy weight on our shoulders. But, when we fail to concentrate on the current moment, then our minds begin to wander from past to future, sailing the four corners of the earth. When one looks at the coming four-hour Talmud-study session, he might feel a heaviness or laziness. But, by learning earnestly for a minute at a time, the hours fly by productively.
Pondering the difficulties of the past and trepidation of the future weaken and incapacitate a person. Such thoughts make meeting the slightest challenges difficult. When a person fails to deal with the current moment, he or she certainly can’t perform a necessary task with joy and success.
All the confusion and misdirection that people suffer from stems from the fact that they don’t live the moment at hand, and fail to realize that there’s nothing in the world that matters other than the current moment. Why? The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and the present transpires with the blink of an eye. Who cares what will be in another minute? Why waste the present minute? Each moment that we properly utilize accumulates to a life of success and gratification.
Today Mashiach Will Come
The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Psalms) tells a story of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levy meeting Eliahu HaNavi (Elija the Prophet). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levy asked, “When will Mashiach come?”
Eliahu HaNavi answered, “Go ask him yourself,” and showed him where to find Mashiach.
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levy approached Mashiach and asked, “When does my lord plan to come?”
Mashiach answered, “Today!”
The next day, when Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levy saw that Mashiach had not yet arrived, he returned to Eliahu HaNavi complaining that Mashiach had broken a promise to come today, for he failed to come. Eliahu HaNavi answered that Mashiach’s intent was that “today” means “Today, if you heed His voice.” For in truth, Mashiach is ready to come every single day, and the only delay is our failure to serve Hashem minute by minute according the principle of “Today, if you heed His voice,” as we’ve just explained.
This is what the princess is telling the viceroy: “If you had only come on the prescribed day, you would have taken me out of here. And because of one day, you lost.” In other words, if you would have done your task minute by minute according the principle of “Today, if you heed His voice,” then your personal savior would have come already. If the entire world would serve Hashem in this manner, then Mashiach would certainly come and we’d be redeemed this very minute.
Nevertheless, it is very difficult not to eat, especially on the last day, when the Evil Inclination is very overpowering. (In other words, the princess told him that now she would make the conditions more lenient, that from now he would not be expected to fast, for that is a very hard condition to fulfill, etc.)…
The above passage is an allusion to the principle that Rebbe Nachman teaches us, namely, that one should not fast other than the prescribed public fasts that are mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch. Former generations incorporated fasts and all types of self-punishment in their self-purification efforts; Rebbe Nachman stopped all that, and taught us that an hour of personal prayer in seclusion can rectify more than all the fasts and self-punishments combined. One can attain lofty levels of spirituality by way of personal prayer. Rebbe Nachman even said about himself that had he known in his younger years the true power of personal prayer, he wouldn’t have broken his body with continued and lengthy fasts like he did.
So now, choose a place again, and dwell there also a year, as before…
The princess sends the viceroy on an additional year’s prayer mission. His lack of success indicates a lack of prayer that must be corrected before he can redeem the princess. Hashem’s judgments are absolute justice; if a person has not yet succeeded, it’s a clear indication that he or she is not yet worthy of success. In the case of the viceroy, his failure indicates that he deserves to fail, for he has not yet attained the spiritual level of worthiness to rescue the princess. But, if he now strengthens his prayers – both in quality and in quantity – he shall certainly be worthy of future success.
We should all learn this lesson: Our delay in achieving what we want to achieve is no mistaken judgment on Hashem’s behalf; it shows that we haven’t prayed enough. Therefore, the key to success is more prayer. As soon as we fulfill the prayer quota for a certain request, we’ll see with our own eyes how obstacles fall by the wayside and we achieve what we have set out to achieve, particularly if our goal is a spiritual one.
To be continued.
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