Advice on: Renewal

RAV BERLAND'S ADVICE ON: RENEWAL

Continuing our translation of Etzot HaNahal, a compendium of advice from Rav Eliezer Berland, based on the teachings of Likutey Moharan.

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EVERY SINGLE DAY, EVERYTHING STARTS OVER, FROM NEW.

It’s forbidden to think about how it was yesterday. “Yesterday, I didn’t learn…yesterday, I didn’t pray…yesterday, I got up late – I woke up at 1pm, I got up at 12pm…I forgot to lay my tefillin yesterday…”

Each day is a completely new creation! It’s like a new incarnation, it’s like what happened to me in a previous lifetime.

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EACH DAY, WE NEED TO SAY – “LET’S STOP POLLUTING OUR MINDS [WITH BAD THOUGHTS ABOUT WHAT WE DID OR DIDN’T DO YESTERDAY], AND LET’S START TO SERVE HASHEM!”

It’s forbidden for a person to think about yesterday. This is not the Breslov shita (way). This is not the way of Rabbenu HaKadosh!

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A PERSON NEEDS TO GATHER UP ALL HIS GOOD POINTS, EVEN IF HE FEELS LIKE A SHMATTER (RAG).

The way the yetzer hara (evil inclination) works is to tell a person, “Look, you already know that you’re like this and like that – so like this and like that [transgression] is already permitted for you.”

Nothing is ‘permitted’ to me!! A person is created in the image of God! And every day, he is created anew.

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WHY DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT’S GOING TO BE, TODAY?

And what sort of siyatta dishmeya (Divine providence) you’re going to have in your prayers? And what sort of siyatta dishmeya you’re going to get while reciting your tehillim, or learning Torah? What do you really know?

You say things like: “I can already see, it’s not worth my while doing this. I’m going to go hang out by the fast-food stands and eat falafel, or go back to bed…” But what do you know?! Why are you falling into yeoush and despair, already? The day didn’t even start yet!

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EVERY JEW WAKES UP IN THE MORNING, AND SAYS: “ELOKAI, MY GOD, THE SOUL THAT YOU GAVE TO ME IS PURE”

– And it doesn’t matter who he is, or what he is, and it doesn’t matter what his past is. He wakes up in the morning, and he gets up with a holy, immaculate soul, the purest of the pure, an angelic soul.