The Good Point Part I
Chapter
9 from "In All Your Ways" Translated and Adapted by Rabbi Eliezer
Shore
From
Leket Amarim, a collection of talks by contemporary Breslov teacher, Rabbi
Yaakov Meir Schechter, shlita, of Jerusalem
"I rule over the entire world,"
says God, "yet who rules over Me? The tzaddik!" For a tzaddik
decrees, and God fulfills.'
As the verse says: "Israel, His dominion" (Psalms 114:2).
Likutey Moharan 1:34
"Every
single Jew has within him an aspect of this tzaddik," taught Rabbi
Nachman, "as the verse says, 'Your people are all tzaddikim' (Isaiah
60:21). Everyone has some good point that his friend does not share, and it is
precisely with that attribute that he can inspire his friend's heart."
The
Talmud tells the story of Abba Umanah. Every day a heavenly voice would greet
Abba Umanah, a doctor, with "Shalom aleichem." However, his
contemporary, the great Amora, Abaye, only received such a greeting once a
week, on the eve of Shabbos. "This is because you don't do what Abba
Umanah does," Abaye was told. Abba Umanah had several noteworthy traits.
He would separate the men and the women before treating them, and give the
women a special robe that allowed them to remain modest during the procedure.
If a person couldn't afford the treatment, he wouldn't charge them, and he
never took money from a Torah scholar.
These were virtues unique to Abba Umanah that even Abaye did not share.
In
Sefer HaMidos it states that every tzaddik has a particular form of
worship that another tzaddik, even greater than him, cannot achieve on his own.
So, even though Abaye's greatness was incomparable, as was the greatness of all
the Tannaim and Amoraim, when the special point of Abba Umanah shone with all
its might, there was none like him in the whole world. For this reason, he
merited a heavenly greeting each day. When a person's good point is revealed,
he can reach levels of greatness unattainable to anyone else.
This
same truth applies to each of us. If a person could realize his special
potential, no other being in the entire universe could equal him in that area;
it is here that he is considered a tzaddik in relation to his friend.
Furthermore, embedded in this point is his pure love of God.
The
Arizal writes that from the beginning of creation to its end, no two days, or
even two hours, ever will be alike. One minute is different from the next! A
person, born one minute will be completely different from someone born a moment
later, and each one enters the world for his own special purpose. This idea in
hinted at in the incense offering of the Beis HaMikdash. The chelb'na (galbanum),
which gave off a repugnant smell, brought about supernal rectifications that
even the levonah (frankincense), with its sweet smell, could not. Each
one served its one unique function.
How
can a person discover his own special point? If one's heart is drawn to a
certain mitzvah more than to another. If a certain style of Torah study is more
appealing. If one recognizes within oneself some special ability or sensitivity
that others do not share. These signs are not accidental; they are clear
indications as to where that special point might lie, and to the area in which
one can best serve the Almighty.
However,
one cannot simply depend upon Heaven to make this point shine; one must also
work on it from below. Through prayer and Torah study a person comes to
recognize his own unique potential. Then one must work hard on it, giving it
time and attention, developing and guarding it.
A
Lamb From the Flock
The
Torah relates King David's words when, as a young man, he rose to challenge
Goliath, the Philistine:
"And
David said to Saul, 'Your servant was a shepherd to his father, and a lion and
a bear came and carried away a lamb from the flock. And I went out after them,
and beat them, and delivered it from their mouths, and they rose against me,
and I grabbed them by the beard and struck them until they died. Your servant
struck both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be
like one of them, because he cursed the hosts of the Living God'" (I
Samuel 17:34-36).
The
Vilna Gaon points out that in this verse, the word "lamb" is written
differently than it is read. We read it as seh - a lamb, but tradition tells
us to write it as zeh - this. The Gaon cites a
Midrash to explain this difference. After David delivered the lamb from the
lion and the bear, he slaughtered it and made a garment from its fleece, so
that he should always remember the occasion when God saved him from the beasts.
When he said to Saul, "And they took a lamb from the flock," he
showed him the garment that he was then wearing. "The lion and bear took
this from the flock" (I Samuel 17:34). There is no such a thing as
coincidence. King David's greatness lay in his total faith in God, and in his
conviction that God directed his every move.
When David saw the attack on the flock, which Chazal tell us actually consisted
of four lions and three bears, and how he miraculously managed to kill them
all, he reflected on this wondrous achievement
God was obviously showing him something. "Am I so important that I could
kill all these wild animals?" David asked himself. "Perhaps one day
something will happen to Israel, and I will deliver them, as well."
David
meditated upon this incident and realized that it had not occurred simply by
chance. God was revealing to him his great strength and the extent of his
courage. He also realized that this potential must be used for the sake of God
and for the benefit of His holy nation, Israel. So he made a sheepskin garment
from that very lamb, and wore it constantly in order to remember God's message.
Instead of allowing the incident to remain a mere testimony to his skill as a
shepherd, he waited for the moment when he could use his strength for the sake
of God's honor. God brought him Goliath, the Philistine, who cursed the troops
of Israel. And David, with his pure faith, avenged God's desecrated honor with
a courage and holy glory such as never had been seen before.