Your Song

Wouldn’t it be cool to know the mysteries of the universe? Have you ever thought what it would be like to see into the future or see other people’s past reincarnations and know what their soul correction is here in this world? If you can do all those things you don’t need to keep reading on. But if you are new in your spiritual path it might help to read on to make your journey a bit smoother.

In the book “Courage” by Israel Isaac Besancon, he recounts how once the holy Baal Shem Tov had a student who was very close to him. On one occasion however the normally warm reception the student was used to receiving from his master was particularly cold. To his surprise however the Rabbi, who was about to embark on a journey, invited the student to join him. At the same time the Rabbi kept his distance; the vibe was quite intense for the student and he didn’t know what was going to happen.

Suddenly the Baal Shem Tov broke the silence: “Do you think that I don’t know why you came to see me?”

The student nearly fainted as a result of the fear that perhaps his teacher could read his thoughts! The Rabbi said, “You came to ask me to teach you the language of the birds, didn’t you?!” The student nodded. As they continued their journey together the Holy Baal Shem Tov taught and reviewed with his student the hidden mystery behind the language of the birds and what it meant. In close to no time the student was transported to a different spiritual reality. He could understand deep mysteries behind their different songs. He heard them saying things about the future and other secrets unknown to man just like King Solomon, who understood the language of animals.

Suddenly, as they reached the end of their journey, the Baal Shem Tov passed his hand over the face of his disciple and he immediately forgot everything he had taught him. The Rabbi then spoke: “My dear student, had I thought that you needed this knowledge to serve the Almighty, I would have taught you this a long time ago. But this isn’t the true case for you; you must serve God with the means you already possess and “be simple with your God!”  

Rabbi Arush shlita has said often that the greatest problem in our generation is sadness and being hard on oneself. Why are we sad? Because we are looking at everyone else and not valuing our own God-given talents nor focusing on the unique mission God has made for us. We want to be like others but don’t appreciate our own talents, dismissing them as not relevant.

In “Six Days to the Top” Rabbi Lazer Brody elaborates on this concept of fulfilling your potential. To truly be your best, you need to know what is in your own God-given package. Whatever our package contains, it’s our duty to embrace it and not pass it off as unimportant or less meaningful than what someone else is doing. We all have our roles to play and God wants us to use our abilities and not pretend to be someone we aren’t meant to be.

Everyone has his own unique role but it’s important that we not get them confused and compare. If a soldier occupies his mind with something irrelevant to guarding the border, he’s somewhere else and not doing his job. The job that Hashem wants him to do is protect the country.

Secondly, a must-read is the book Garden of Wisdom. This book personally helped me more than all the emuna books that have come out. In my own life I failed to see my own gifts as special and saw others as more talented and successful. I didn’t believe in myself because I was comparing myself to everyone else and not listening to what God was trying to tell me. But those evil feelings and thoughts fled after I tried to internalize the teachings in this book.

As we embark on our own spiritual journey together, let’s keep it simple. God doesn’t expect us to be different people and get rid of our love and talents for yoga, music, sports, art, or theater just because we’ve adopted the commandments of God’s Torah. He doesn’t expect you to be someone you are not. He wants you to serve him with the gifts He gave you!  Sing your own song and don’t pay attention to anyone else. It’s our job to sanctify these actions and bring them into our own unique service of God happily!