Chassidic Thought

The Torah commands us to judge everyone fairly. Even if a person is seemingly evil, we can always find some good quality if we look hard enough. Likewise, we must search for the good points within ourselves. Our good points are like musical notes. When they come together, they create beautiful melodies.

The heart has a spiritual self-cleaning mechanism that is capable of cleansing it from all forms of impurity. Rebbe Nachman teaches us how to activate it.
 

The closest distance between two points is a straight line. In spirituality, straightness means simplicity and honest innocence. The two traits, which are really one, makes a person beautiful. They also create the closest distance between the person and the Creator.

Don't ever be down on yourself. With emuna and teshuva, there's always hope. Every soul has the potential of being a priceless jewel in the Almighty's crown. This is our concluding lesson on Rebbe Nachman's famous teaching of how to navigate life's ups and downs.

Life is like a ferris wheel. Don't boast when you're on top of the world, because you'll soon go down. But, don't be upset when you hit rock bottom, for you'll soon go up. Rebbe Nachman shows us the awesome secrets embedded in the ability to serve Hashem during good times and the opposite.

This week, we learn how the true spiritual leaders attain their greatness. Despite their prodigious wisdom, they are extremely humble. How do we know? Ask the geese in the desert…

One cannot possibly attain Divine honor if he or she has a contaminated soul. The cure for a contaminated soul is penitence, or teshuva. The evil inclination gets its vitality from the spiritually-contaminated blood in the left side of the heart. A special type of teshuva, which we learn in today's lesson, can rid the heart of such blood and starve the evil inclination. This is a key to attaining humility, spiritual health and Divine honor.

There are two types of honor: man-granted honor and Divine granted honor. Everyone questions whether a person is worthy of the honor he or she receives from other people, but no one questions Divine granted honor. Rebbe Nachman teaches that the only way to attain Divine honor is through teshuva, or penitence. Not only that – a person is not yet a person until he repents. The key to repentence is silence, worth its weight in gold...

If a person wants advice that he or she can depend on, they need a connection to a tzaddik. The tzaddik connects a person to truth. Truth connects a person to emuna and emuna brings Geula. But that's not simple. There's heavy opposition, and that's the Scorpio...

Rebbe Nachman teaches that one cannot possibly obtain emuna until he or she commits to search for the truth. That means putting aside personal agendas and objectively looking for the intrinsic good and what is genuinely upright.

Rebbe Nachman teaches that a people are capable of uplifting themselves from the pits of depression with no outside help. What's more, they can even taste paradise. We learn today how to bask in the light of the World to Come already in this world. This is a level of happiness that no one can attain by material means. It's attainable too.

The more we elevate Divine glory, the more lights of glory illuminate the earth. Rebbe Nachman teaches the act of bringing others closer to Hashem elevates Divine glory. People who gain enhanced proximity to Hashem therefore brighten the world. We conclude Torah 14 by learning that Chanukah is that very same aspect. Chanukah candles are lights of glory that illuminate the world.