Bringing Out the Best in Yourself

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.

The Most Effective Motivator 

In a study conducted in quite a few educational institutions around the world, researchers tried to determine what causes children to reach the highest academic achievements. They tried various types of incentives: marks, prizes, trips, fun days, money, sweets etc., and compared the results with those of children studying without any incentive, but with them choosing what they wish to learn.  

This was not just one study, but a series of studies done over dozens of years in different ways and places, and all of them showed unequivocally that there is no room for comparison – no incentive works. The opposite is true: the less incentives provided, the greater the achievements! And on the other hand, of course, when a child chooses for himself and of his own initiative the material to be learned or the topic of the paper – the success is unbelievably greater! 

This was measured not only in terms of achievements and marks, but regarding the entire learning experience, creativity, initiative and value. Even weak students surprised the researchers: a whole plethora of abilities surged out of the students who chose as their topic of learning something they felt connected to! 

Geula in the Middle of Scrubbing the Floor? 

Our sages tell us that just as we were redeemed in the month of Nissan, so too the future Redemption will come during the month of Nissan. And here we ask: To merit the geula (redemption) one must be worthy of it. During which month would one assume that the Jewish people are most worthy of geula? One would think that that would be the month of Tishrei. After the preparation of Elul, and after so many selichot and teshuva, and after the High Holy Days in which we do everything to be saved from a harsh judgment, and after Yom Kippur and the many mitzvot of Sukkot – it would seem that that is the time period in which we are at our best, on the highest spiritual level. And therefore, if there is a month in which we are worthy of being redeemed, it must be Tishrei, right? So why will the geula come during the month furthest away from Tishrei, in the middle of the shopping and cleaning?  

But the studies mentioned above explain it all. What’s the connection? There is a close connection! The trial on Rosh Hashanah is a strong incentive to do teshuva, but it’s an incentive, and no incentive can bring about maximum achievement. Real achievements are the results only of choice and one’s own will and personal connection – or, in one word: love! 

The Time to Bloom 

And that is the great advantage of the month of Nissan. Rebbe Nachman writes that the days of Nissan are days of teshuva just like the Ten Days of Repentance, but the difference is that in Tishrei the teshuva is from yirah – from fear, and in Nissan the teshuva is from love. That is precisely the difference between a student who learns for the sake of a mark or a prize, or to avoid punishment, and a student who learns out of choice and his own will. The choosing student, and the Jew who does teshuva from love, reach much higher levels! 

As much as the fear of judgment acts as an incentive, it also inhibits and limits. A person cannot really get out of himself the best and the most. And therefore, in Tishrei the entire world is going through a process of shutting down, in preparation for the coming winter. But in Nissan, which is the month of spring, the entire world is putting out green leaves, renewing itself and blooming. The Jew, too, gets a new desire and will to get closer to his Father in Heaven, and this comes from his own free will and choice, and not from coercion. And therefore, in this month, any good deed and any improvement in Torah and prayer act and influence and illuminate much more than at other times. 

This is the first of the months. The renewal of the renewal. It has much more siyata diShmaya (help from Heaven) and much more internal power. Now’s the time to start afresh and jump on the bandwagon! 

Also, this is the month in which all the lights that were revealed at the time of the Exodus from Egypt are revealed again. The Jewish People was released from its subjugation, from everything that limits and inhibits it. The Jewish People merited a revelation of the Shechinah and of emuna (faith). And when there is a revelation of Shechinah, one chooses Hashem out of free will and love. The light of emuna that shines in Nissan is a light that lights up the entire year with the light of emuna, as Rebbe Nachman says in a different place in his writings.  

The Climax 

This explains why we will be redeemed in Nissan. Since the teshuva of Nissan is a teshuva done out of choice and love, without any vested interest or incentive, therefore Nissan is the month in which the Jewish People is at its zenith, at the apex of preparation, and therefore it is in this month when we are most worthy of redemption! 

Now we can understand the difference between Elul and Adar. Elul is the month of submission in preparation for the day of judgement and teshuva out of yirah. But to merit teshuva from love and true flowering, we need a full month of all-out joy. And therefore, Rebbe Nachman says that Purim is the way and the preparation for Pesach.  

And each and every one of us, according to their growth and renewal in teshuva out of love and complete faith in Nissan will see their own private redemption from all their personal straits. This is a very auspicious time. It is a time in which we are capable of being surprised by our own abilities, because it is then that all the hidden emotional energies are revealed, and any person can grow and bloom and hoard enough spiritual sustenance and emuna for the entire year! 

A New Light is Dawning 

Rosh Chodesh Nissan is also the day on which Rebbe Nachman was born. This is the time to start to take in something of the holiness of the tzaddik. And any Jew – even if not affiliated with the Breslevers – can take for himself a taste from Rebbe Nachman’s Torah, a small flame from the Light of the Lights, and will see how that small flame lights up his life. 

And if there is anything that Rebbe Nachman would really want people to take from him, that is the matter of the hitbodedut, which is the personal conversation with the Creator of the World, each person in his own words. That was a general conduct that he told all his people to follow, and that he couldn’t say enough about its greatness. 

Teshuva from Love is Within Your Reach 

The main thing in hitbodedut is teshuva and a personal accounting, in which each person tells the Creator everything he has done since yesterday and repents. This connects to the topic of our article regarding the teshuva from love in the month of Nissan. 

I know that teshuva from love is an abstract concept, and one must bring it down to earth. What does it mean practically? There is no clearer and stronger teshuva from love than an hour of hitbodedut. Usually, a person comes to correct his deeds as a result of some lack, or suffering or diseases, may they not come upon us. That is teshuva from fear. But a Jew repents every single day, not only on the difficult days when he is awakened by troubles, but also on the good and beautiful days when one is in the pink and without any problems. And then, he will surely merit compete teshuva with his full will and without any forcing circumstances or incentives – and that is precisely the teshuva from love that we are talking about here. 

If you wish to understand this piece of advice and implement it, it is recommended to learn the book In Forest Fields, in which I lay out a broad guide and many encouragements to perform this holy piece of advice, about which Rebbe Nachman said that it is “a supreme degree, greater than everything else.” 

Beyond the basic obligation of every Jew to take account of his life, beyond the fact that we are talking about the positive mitzvah of doing teshuva every day, and beyond the huge improvement it makes in all areas of a person’s life – the mitzvah of hitbodedut also means a connection to Rebbe Nachman. It means a connection with the tzaddik. And this connection with a tzaddik is an extremely great thing. It is a connection with a source of taharah (purity), and with a power station of emuna and renewal that we so need in the month of Nissan, and so need so that already in this coming Nissan we will merit being redeemed with great mercy.