Now You’re Really Going to Improve

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna.

A Shared Aspiration 

People differ from each other so much, but there is one thing that’s shared by everyone: There is no human being in the world who does not want to improve the quality of his life. 

There are those who want to move forward materially, such as in their finances, marriages, emotional welfare, bodily health, weight loss, workouts, devoting more time to themselves and to the family, be better parents, develop professionally. And fortunate is he who wants to improve his spiritual life – learn more, make better use of his time, concentrate more on prayers, correct his middot (character traits), become holier.  

And why is this man’s nature? Because the reality is that we are living in an imperfect world, and all of Creation wishes to cleanse itself from the bad and remain completely good. This desire exists in every human being. Human beings are the crown of Creation, and as such have been given the task of tikkun olam, improving the world, and that is why human beings aspire constantly to improve themselves and the world. 

The Winning Combination 

This is a goldmine for all the businessmen, self-improvement programs, magical solutions and courses that promise you a huge change in one realm or another – immediately, with no effort involved! We all know that the improvement that we hope for so much means work, and therefore we don’t even begin to try, and, on the other hand, we all fall for every promise of a shortcut. We are in a bind: On the one hand, we give up when faced with long and hard work, and on the other hand, the shortcut is an illusion that eventually is going to come crashing down and will bring us to the same point: it will cause us to give up. 

Where does this desire of ours for shortcuts come from? Do we have a chance of changing for the better? 

The answer is that truly there is a middle way, which is a winning integration between hard work and a shortcut: There are indeed many shortcuts, but whoever wants to make use of them must put in a lot of work. In other words, the work is not difficult; in fact, it’s very easy.  It is also definitely possible, and therefore doesn’t cause despair, and in that way, it is a kind of shortcut, but, on the other hand, if you want to get real results, you must persevere and be very consistent, for days and years.  

Rabbi Nachman has some amazing tools in his tool chest – a number of easy and very practical ideas that anyone can use and that are magical solutions for our generation. But, on the other hand, the real results are reached only when one is stubborn enough to persevere in implementing Rabbi Nachman’s suggestions long-term.  

And Rabbi Nachman’s best suggestion, the crowning glory of his teachings, is the famous “Azamra” teaching, in which Rabbeinu says something revolutionary. 

Rabbi Nachman’s “Magic Trick” 

Take a completely evil person – he is all evil, so evil that you can’t even imagine how evil he is; he walks in evil ways unfamiliar to you. Now, try to make him do teshuva.  

Without Rabbi Nachman, what do you think you should do? You, of course, think that first you should contact him, and slowly gain his trust, and be his good friend, and start to speak to his heart, study with him, convince him. And so, step by step – if he doesn’t become a bad influence on you – maybe, after years, you will be able to influence him to some degree or other, but I wouldn’t bet on that… 

It is quite depressing. There is no chance. Don’t waste your time trying.  

But then Rabbi Nachman comes and says to you: Listen, fellow Jew, this is much, much easier and simpler, and you don’t even have to speak to the evil person, and you invest almost nothing in terms of your time: 

Just search and find a good point in him, even some small mitzvah he did once, and judge him favorably. If you do this, you will turn him around completely and cause him to do teshuva! 

And it’s easy, says Rabbi Nachman because there can’t be a Jew without some good point in him. It can’t be. There is no such reality. And therefore, this plan of action is possible.  

And what happens when you find that good point? This big and lumbering rasha (evil person) really does stop being judged unfavorably and does teshuva! Simply so, without talks and without speeches. Is there anything more magical than that?   

And What About You? 

The greatest difficulty is to believe that it is so, that it works, that it’s magical – and to do it ceaselessly. To live like that, to view every person in that light – and all reality as well. And most important: to view yourself favorably! 

Because the same thing is true about yourself. How do you improve yourself? Not by self-criticism and seeing only your faults, but precisely by seeing the good in yourself. Even a small point, which is also wounded and ailing, but has in it some smidgen of good – that is enough to make all of you good and to fix yourself and go from bad to complete good!! 

Rabbi Nachman drops this bomb and says to us: “And understand!”. This idea needs understanding. Rabbi Nachman says to you, really, that the good is eternal; it is reality; it is truth – and all evil is an illusion, it is nothing; it is an unsubstantiated lie. When you see the evil – you give it power, but when you focus on the good, all evil just disappears and the good expands and changes the whole world for the better. 

But studying and understanding are not the main things, if you wish to change – and there is no one who does not wish to change – the main thing is actions: to simply do it, stubbornly, constantly, to turn it into an integral part of our way of thinking, of our worldview, of our connection with ourselves and our families and our environment. 

Tried and True 

The two greatest disciples of Rabbi Nachman, Rabbi Natan and Rabbi Naftali were conversing with each other. Rabbi Natan said to Rabbi Naftali: “Listen, Rabbi Naftali. If we would be tamim (whole) enough to take this message of Rabbeinu as our life task, we would without doubt cause the entire world to do teshuva.” 

Because, as we said, the great difficulty lies in believing that such a small and easy thing can turn the world around. One needs much temimut, a lot of emunat chachamim (believing in the sages), and a great deal of stubbornness in the battle against any bad thought, any thought of evil relating to oneself and to others – and to think good and see good. Only good. 

And that is the tikkun ha’olam, the improvement of the world. That is why Rabbi Natan goes out of his way to write that all the good in this world is dependent on and connected in its pnimiyut (innermost essence) with the idea of the good points: It is the Mashiach, and the Beit Mikdash, and the continued existence of the world and having it come to its complete tikkun. This is hinted at in Moshe Rabbeinu’s yearning so much to enter the Land of Israel, praying that he should have the merit to reach “this good mountain and the Levanon.” 

“This good mountain” – means the mountain that gathers all the good from all creatures. And from this the Temple is built. The person who gathers all this good is Mashiach himself, who with power of the holy idea of the good points will make the entire world do teshuva, and so the world will be corrected. And each and every one of us who carries this idea with himself and lives it and breathes it with temimut is a soldier in the Mashiach’s army and he is pushing away and banishing all evil from this world, maintaining the world and brings it closer to its tikkun.  

And that is our true consolation on Shabbat Nachamu: to know and believe that the tikkun is very close to us; it is within our mouths and hearts to do, if we will only be temimim and stubborn, and accept the finding of good points as the task of our lives. May Hashem enable us to do so!