If at every moment you can choose the path that you want to pursue, as the Talmud states, Hashem will help you towards the path of your choosing, then you have to ensure that you’re in alignment & on a path of positivity! We shouldn’t ever look at ourselves as fully bad or fully good, cuz that can color how we approach the future & more often than not, in a negative way. If we realize that at any given moment we have the power for bad or the power for good, then we can begin to be present, let go of the weight of our past decisions & choose good, choose positivity in the very moment that we find ourselves in.
Teshuva (return) is powerful, the idea that at the moment a person comes to the realization that they want to align with the light of the Infinite, with a full heart to forge a new path, it’s in that heartfelt sincerity that we’re born anew in a sense, & our past transgressions between created & Creator are washed away. If only all relationships were as easy. If the ones that we navigate with others coming to a state of peace, in which all past tribulations & misunderstandings were completely stricken from the record of the memories & impact between ourselves & others, the layers of disconnect & discontent would vanish, & we would realize that they’re all manifestations of misunderstandings in our state of exile.It’s believed that before birth we make an oath, “Be tzadik, don’t be rasha. This seems superfluous; if we swears to be righteous, why swear to not be wicked? The Alter Rebbe explains it’s because not everyone can reach the level of tzadik, so it’s imperative to swear that we don’t fall into wickedness. A person makes an oath to overcome their impulse to evil, & this is the constant struggle we experience, caught between 2 choices.
This state of being is the name of the Alter Rebbe’s texts titled, The Book of the Inbetweeners. The lesson is: if we all have the power to personify that which unites or that which divides, then always choosing the path of the righteous & not of the other side (Sitra Achra) is the key to revelation. In this parsha, we read a cautionary tale of the path of the Sitra Achra.
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Much love & Shabbat Shalom!
– Erez // @erezsafar
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