"Like!" Hashem - You're the Best! Over the past couple of months, I repeatedly found myself in situations that hit all my weakest spots.
Sometimes, you find yourself in a situation so painful and frustrating that, no matter how much you believe in Torah values and spiritual methods, you just shut down from within.
You can hardly think, you can't really move, and if you speak, you might scream.
Or cry.
And you can't get away from it while it's happening.
And it happens several times!
And it's a nisayon that you have a loooooong history of failing at.
(This can happen at work, within family or family visits, with neighbors, with school, etc.)
Anyway, that's what happened to me and I just couldn't do all the things you're supposed to do in that situation.
I couldn't even say "thank you" and praise Hashem knowing that everything is from Him and for my ultimate benefit, let alone daven (either for them or myself) or dance or give the benefit of the doubt or even think, "This is somehow for my very best" or anything else that is spiritually correct and helpful to do.
And I mean even after the situation was technically over, but still lingering in my soul.
All I could manage was a thumbs-up. Literally. When no one was looking, I managed to curl my fingers closed and stick up my thumb toward Heaven.
And you know what?
After doing that several times over a few days, I could feel the nisayon lightening up.
In fact, the situations somewhat improved.
It really did get easier and less intense. I could feel the tikkun flowing and the dinim sweetening.
But a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to manage even a thumbs-up that in that kind of situation. In that particular kind of nisayon, I still folded.
So for me on my level, this is progress: a secret little thumbs-up ("Like!") to God.
And it works because Hashem knows that I'm not bigger or better than this.
Think about it: God is totally Omnipotent, All-Powerful, the King of kings, Wholly Compassionate, All-Knowing, and the Source of Everything You Have.
He deserves everything and anything you can give Him: your heart, your thoughts, your body...even your life, if necessary al Kiddush Hashem (for the sanctification of His Name).
And yet, if all you on your pathetic level (speaking for myself) can manage is something that resembles the "Like!" icon on Facebook, then that's a merit in His Eyes.
And it gives Him nachat while also giving you rectification and blessing.
(How to Serve Hashem from a Place of Constriction explains what's going on with that kind of situation. Wish I'd known it then!)
Rebbe Nachman mentioned that spiritual effort is like a wheel in which all the spokes are all so close together that there's only a hairsbreadth's space between them.
But the farther out the spokes extend, the wider the space expands between them.
So the miniscule degree between one spoke and another at the bottom actualizes a major span the higher it goes.
And that's the truth.
So if all you can manage is the tiniest gesture of "Like!", then just do that and feel happy about it.
Sometimes, you find yourself in a situation so painful and frustrating that, no matter how much you believe in Torah values and spiritual methods, you just shut down from within.
You can hardly think, you can't really move, and if you speak, you might scream.
Or cry.
And you can't get away from it while it's happening.
And it happens several times!
And it's a nisayon that you have a loooooong history of failing at.
(This can happen at work, within family or family visits, with neighbors, with school, etc.)
Anyway, that's what happened to me and I just couldn't do all the things you're supposed to do in that situation.
I couldn't even say "thank you" and praise Hashem knowing that everything is from Him and for my ultimate benefit, let alone daven (either for them or myself) or dance or give the benefit of the doubt or even think, "This is somehow for my very best" or anything else that is spiritually correct and helpful to do.
And I mean even after the situation was technically over, but still lingering in my soul.
All I could manage was a thumbs-up. Literally. When no one was looking, I managed to curl my fingers closed and stick up my thumb toward Heaven.
And you know what?
After doing that several times over a few days, I could feel the nisayon lightening up.
In fact, the situations somewhat improved.
It really did get easier and less intense. I could feel the tikkun flowing and the dinim sweetening.
But a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to manage even a thumbs-up that in that kind of situation. In that particular kind of nisayon, I still folded.
So for me on my level, this is progress: a secret little thumbs-up ("Like!") to God.
And it works because Hashem knows that I'm not bigger or better than this.
Think about it: God is totally Omnipotent, All-Powerful, the King of kings, Wholly Compassionate, All-Knowing, and the Source of Everything You Have.
He deserves everything and anything you can give Him: your heart, your thoughts, your body...even your life, if necessary al Kiddush Hashem (for the sanctification of His Name).
And yet, if all you on your pathetic level (speaking for myself) can manage is something that resembles the "Like!" icon on Facebook, then that's a merit in His Eyes.
And it gives Him nachat while also giving you rectification and blessing.
(How to Serve Hashem from a Place of Constriction explains what's going on with that kind of situation. Wish I'd known it then!)
Rebbe Nachman mentioned that spiritual effort is like a wheel in which all the spokes are all so close together that there's only a hairsbreadth's space between them.
But the farther out the spokes extend, the wider the space expands between them.
So the miniscule degree between one spoke and another at the bottom actualizes a major span the higher it goes.
And that's the truth.
So if all you can manage is the tiniest gesture of "Like!", then just do that and feel happy about it.
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