emunah, tefillah, a little mussar, and a shmeck of geula

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

A Kesher With Hashem




A mentch has to know that the goal of this world is to be on a first name basis with Hashem because coming close to Hashem is everything and anything that is not close to Hashem is nothing.  It follows that the frenetic pace of this wonderland of godlessness which our world has become is, as per Shakespeare, much ado about nothing.

While not exactly word for word, it’s pretty much a reasonable paraphrase of what the Ramchal is telling us at the very beginning of Mesillas Yesharim.

And Rabbi Yisroel Brog informs us that coming close means nothing less than effecting a kesher (knot), and a tight one at that because the ultimate goal from all of one’s Yiddishkeit is to create a kesher with Hashem and to revel in it.

Everything you do in this life should be pointed toward this one goal.  To the degree that you are living for that kesher then you are a ben Olam Haba.

And to the degree that you are chafing at the thought of its tightness you are precariously treading in unfriendly waters because this world was created as a place suitable for creating a kesher with Hashem, and you were put here to swim, not drown.

Rabbi Brog also reminds us that this concept of kesher should be in front of our eyes at all times. 

When we’re putting on tefillin we should reflect that we’re tying a kesher with Hashem.  The visual of the binding notwithstanding, tefillin is not meant to be a metaphor because the emes is that every mitzvah should turn you on to Hashem. 

Every mitzvah should tie the knot tighter.

But it doesn’t come easy because this is a world of loose ends not knots.  You have to drive yourself to have this kesher with Hashem which, in essence actually means test drive, because Olam Haba is the place where the real kesher takes place.

We said above that this world was created as a place suitable for creating a kesher with Hashem.  And what makes it suitable is that it’s one big obstacle course that has been interposed between us and Hashem, and we have been given the job of plowing right through it.

Rabbi Brog tells us that that’s our test and that we have to look at everything we encounter along the way through the eyes of will this get me closer to Hashem or not?