Monday, August 24
Elul 4
THE TRUTH WITHIN
Ask yourself: To what extent do you see religion as oppressive? To what extent is the religion in your life man-made or self-made? Have you gone to the source? Have you had the experience of hearing the truth resonate in your heart? Did you embrace it or reject it?
Exercise for the day:
Commit to regularly attend a Torah class that will help you in at least one area of your life (which you identified yesterday) where you have not made been able to make meaningful progress on your own.
I understand the concept of religion as freeing, rather than oppressing. I do not see it as imposed by any other human. My problem comes in when my yetzer hara plays up my desires that will keep me from realizing the freedom of constantly doing HaShem's will and makes me feel like "I" want something else and if a I submit to HaShem's will I am forfeiting something more enjoyable!
Isn't it amazing that I can "know" something very clearly and yet am so able to convince myself of the total opposite.
That is where the idea of Torah classes comes in to play. It helps me visualize and clarify the beauty of the path I know is the better one for me and to strengthen my desire to follow it and to reinforce my resolve not to be swayed from it.
Again, I am having a bit of a hard time relating the exercise to my chosen area for improvement. True to the influences of "my land", my father's home", and "my birthplace", I am beginning to doubt whether I chose a "good" area. I am beginning to doubt whether I am doing this "right". But I am travelling here on a journey, and I will continue along as I originally set forth. Every area of my life is important and impacts on myself and others around me. And, every area that needs improvement can be used in the service of HaShem and to improve my service of HaShem. This is what I must keep in mind.
As to how to find Torah classes that relate to my area, I will have to keep my eyes and ears open; I will have to relate the classes I do find to my area. And, most importantly, I will have to turn to HaShem to help me out.
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The Ethics of the Fathers teach, "No one is free except the one who is immersed in Torah study," in effect identifying the practice of religion—the study and observance of Torah—with freedom.
Yet many people don't think of religion as freeing. They think of it as limiting, dogmatic, oppressive.
This is because the religion they have been exposed to is an invention of human beings. The religion they know is not the religion of G-d; it is not the religion of the Torah.
If your experience of religion is not freeing, then you have fallen into a man-made trap.
Freedom is Divine; it cannot be human. As soon as it's human, then there's someone who's in control of it, someone who wants to sell it to you and own it. That is when religion becomes another form of slavery; it becomes oppressive because it has lost its Divine nature.
That's why the Torah was given—so that there would be a permanent record, a source that everyone could refer to. As a result, Judaism has remained a religion of uncommon strength, one that over and over again has defied being hijacked by people.
The Talmud teaches that every one of us is taught the Torah before we are born. Its meaning is ingrained in our psyches, and upon birth we're made to consciously forget. But the truth resonates. So when we hear it, we know. Great masters or teachers can't give us anything we don't already possess; they can help us in one thing only—to open our own pathway to the truth within.
Ask yourself: To what extent do you see religion as oppressive? To what extent is the religion in your life man-made or self-made? Have you gone to the source? Have you had the experience of hearing the truth resonate in your heart? Did you embrace it or reject it?
Exercise for the day:
Commit to regularly attend a Torah class that will help you in at least one area of your life (which you identified yesterday) where you have not made been able to make meaningful progress on your own.
