The Truly Good Life

Translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody 

Editor’s note: Hundreds of Rabbi Shalom Arush’s dedicated students and followers strained to hear him speak the following words of spiritual strengthening this past Rosh Hashanah in Uman, in the Kloiz before the Maariv prayers of the second night. This address, brief in quantity but prodigious in quality, have been echoing in my soul ever since.

This time of the year, we ask Hashem, “Remember us for life, the King Who desires life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life, for Your sake, O G-d, life!”

What kind of life are we talking about? What kind of life are we asking for? And what are we talking about, asking Hashem to give us life for His sake? Are we sincere about that?

Let’s ask ourselves what life is. Our sages tell at that a wicked person is considered a dead person, so the fact that someone’s heart is beating and his lungs are breathing is not the life we’re talking about. When we ask for life, it’s not just biological life where we eat and sleep – the birds, fish and animals have that, and they do their task on earth without transgressing Hashem’s will. In that respect, a human who lives a mere biological life without adhering to what Hashem wants from him is on a level below the beasts of the field. That’s not the life we’re looking for.

King Solomon tells us in the Book of Proverbs that the Torah is a tree of life for anyone who clings to it. But what does it mean to cling to the Torah? Clinging to the Torah is not just learning Torah. The Torah is not a mere intellectual exercise to help a person sharpen his intellectual acumen. The Torah is the light of Hashem; the light of the Torah is the essence of Hashem. Therefore, to truly cling to the Torah, we must cling to Hashem.

Our sages tell us that a person who stands before Hashem in prayer with complete intent and sincerity is clinging to Hashem. If you say that prayer is synonymous to clinging to Hashem, you’ll be completely accurate.

King David calls the Torah the “source of life”; that’s because the Torah’s light is Hashem’s light, and Hashem’s light is eternal life that vitalizes every living thing. So, when one clings to the Torah and to prayer, he is clinging to Hashem. He’s vibrant and alive! That’s the life we’re asking for, the life of Torah and prayer. We now have the true meaning of life – it means to cling to Hashem. That’s what it means to live and that’s the life we’re asking for when we ask Hashem, “Remember us for life”. And, when we say, “the King Who desires life,” we’re telling ourselves that Hashem wants us to cling to Him – that’s the life He wants us to lead.

We’re now left with a problem: how does a person cling to Hashem when he’s not learning Torah or praying? How does he stay spiritually alive and vibrant? People have to work for a living. They must perform necessary chores for their family like driving the children to school or going to the food store. What do they do in the meanwhile?

Fortunately, there’s a wonderful solution. Hashem illuminated my heart in showing me a third desirable way to cling to Him – desire. When we’re not in the synagogue, in the house of study or out in the field in personal prayer, we yearn for Hashem. We tell ourselves (and Hashem) how much we desire to cling to Him. The Gemara teaches us that the desire to do a mitzvah is tantamount to doing the mitzvah. It’s not up to us whether we succeed in doing a mitzvah or not – that’s up to Hashem. At this point in time, we can’t make a festival sacrifice in the Holy Temple, but we surely can desire to do so. Desire is essentially our freedom of choice. If the act of performing a mitzvah is a vessel, then the desire that motivates it is the light. As such, a mitzvah done perfunctorily or routinely is like a body without a soul – it lacks vitality. Desire is light! Longing and yearning for Hashem is a holy light the merges with Divine light. He who longs for Hashem clings to Hashem and is truly alive.

A life of clinging to Hashem gives us the right to say to Hashem, “for Your sake, give us life!” This is the life that Hashem wants us to live. He has indescribable gratification when his children cling to him. May we all merit living such a life, amen!