The Doctor’s Prescription

Translated by Aaron Yoseph
 
 
The Baal Shem Tov wanted that we should live with Emuna. When we live with Emuna, then every mitzvah is different, every bit of Torah learning is different. We know that Hashem is with us in everything we do. Hashem gets great delight from everything we do. Without Emuna, why should we pick ourselves up? What for? Emuna shows us the truth, that Hashem is with us, and that He is full of love and kindness. He’ll help you. All the exile that we go through, it’s all due to a lack of Emuna.
 
When we lose touch with Emuna, we need to bring ourselves back to he truth. We know the truth – we know that Hashem created the world and is here with us. “I can’t see the real truth – the joy that Hashem gets from every mitzvah that I do – because I wouldn’t be able to take it. So Hashem made it that I can’t see the real truth – but I know what the truth is, and I can still believe in it.”
 
When we get up in the morning, we need to prepare ourselves for praying – some people prepare with a page of Gemara, some with Chassidic books. The main thing is to prepare ourselves with Emuna. There are even prayers for this – the prayer of the Shl”a, for example.
 
We need to remind ourselves, “There’s Someone here who created everything and can change everything – I need to speak to Him.”
 
A person feels that he’s very far away. Rebbe Nachman warns us to be careful of the advice of this world. Everyone has advice in this world, even advice about how to serve Hashem. We have to be careful to take our advice from the true Tzaddikim.
 
The advice of the Rebbe is very simple. The Rebbe said to be happy. We don’t need to understand why. It’s an good piece of advice – the best. There is a way to understand it, but there’s also a way of just accepting it and doing it. Just like you get a prescription from the doctor, and you go and get the pills from the pharmacy and take them with some water. You don’t ask the doctor to explain how the medicine will work, and you don’t really need to know. The main thing is that it works!
 
The Rebbe said to learn Shulchan Aruch, to learn a page of Gemara, to pray word by word. When we keep the advice, we can reconnect to the truth and to Emuna. Then we start to see the miracles within nature.
 
Elul is a time when the light of Tsitsit shines. The light of Emuna. Rosh Hashanah is the time when Emuna is lifted up. Rosh Hashanah is the start. We bring Emuna into a place where there wasn’t any before. Hashem comes to judge us. The King is coming. To Judge with Tzedek. It’s all chessed and mercy. Hashem will give us Emuna. The Tzaddikim are inscribed immediately for life – what’s “life”? Emuna.
 
On Rosh Hashanah we build our Eretz Yisroel. Eretz Yisroel means living with holiness. The only way to live in Eretz Yisroel is with Emuna. There’s no place for worrying. We don’t need to make calculations. We don’t need to worry about everything going on in the news. And even what’s going on with us in our lives – there’s no need for cheshbonos. If we start to worry, we never stop.
 
We need to come to Eretz Yisroel and Emuna and prayer. On Rosh Hashanah we build up our Emuna afresh. We crown Hashem. The main thing to merit on Rosh Hashanah is Emuna. To think, “What have I been thinking about all day? Why am I worrying? I need to think thoughts of Emuna and Bitachon.” When we stop worrying, we can focus on learning and serving Hashem.
 
Hashem should help us to make good use of Elul, and be by the Rebbe on Rosh Hashanah, to know what we’re living for. That we should pray for Emuna, and live with truth and Emuna. These forty days are the days that fix the world, tikkun HaBris. We can fix everything in these days. L’Shana Tova Tikasevu!