Three days ago we
posted EmunahSpeak:
From Weak Want to Strong Need
and it’s already begging for an update.
The main thrust
of what we were saying there was that the avodah of acquiring true ratzon
(desire/will) to get close to Hashem is the root of everything. And consequently, the beginning of a
person’s avodah is to inspire his ratzon more and more. It’s to change a weak want into a strong
need.
And what’s a
strong need?
By way of
example we cited EmunahSpeak: A
Burning Need, where we said
that Most of us want to learn. How many need to? Do you want to
help others or do you need to help others? And then speaking to the very point that we
were endeavoring to make in the piece we asked: Would you like (want)
to connect Hashem or do you need to connect to Hashem?
Very nice to be
sure with the point well made, or at least we thought so at the time. The truth, however, as we subsequently
discovered, is that the defining of a strong need was a touch above our
pay grade. The best we could hope to do was to illustrate the proposition in
the context of juxtaposition by literally playing off the concept of a weak
want against a strong need.
So what else is there to say?
For that we need
a Gadol b’Torah whose knowledge of Talmud Bavli can be summed up in two words:
ba’al peh (by heart).
Not long after posting EmunahSpeak:
From Weak Want to Strong Need,
I received an email from Rabbi Yehuda Litwen.
He wrote that “The
point you made in EmunahSpeak:
From Weak Want to Strong Need
is one of the things that separates Gedolei Yisrael from the rest of Klal
Yisrael. On Purim ten years ago in the
house of the Gaon, HaRav Moshe Brown shlita, I witnessed the following episode:
“Rav Brown was
in no position at the time to make any fundamental distinctions between
Mordechai and Haman and everyone was crowded around him (and on top of him!) and
one of the chevra is on auto pilot yelling ‘Rebbe, how do you always remember
EVERYTHING?
“He responded
‘it depends….
“if you know
your life depends on it then you remember it.’”
How strong are
your needs?
