In EmunahSpeak:
Who Do You Put in the Center of Your Picture?, we spoke, in the name of
Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb, of the three ways in which we can frame
the canvas of our life (in relation to Tefillah).
The
three choices were: making our Tefillah about us, as in ME, pushing ourselves
to the side somewhat to give Hashem some face time while we ask for the means
to serve Him better, and putting Hashem in center stage while we say gimme so that we may benefit Him
straight away.
And then
in EmunahSpeak:
Making Room for Yenem, we moved past our egocentricities
as expressed by our Tefillos and highlighted the fact that they in great part
define the lives of those so afflicted.
We pointed out that we don’t hear the voice of Hashem
because we’re too busy hearing the voice of our body. And that goes for the voice of yenem also
because we are too busy trying to hear ourselves, submerged as we are in our
own needs/wants. And because we can’t
hear anything but ourselves we are oblivious to what affects others.
The trick is to stop thinking about
yourself long enough for another person to find his way into your
thoughts.
Rabbi Shimon Kessin points out that the
Mesillas Yesharim,
in the chapter on Chassidus (saintliness), fleshes out the above solution to the IWorld that we have
created for ourselves and takes it to its logical conclusion in the context of
finding Hashem and in relating to others.
He lets us hear that you don’t go somewhere to find Hashem because
He’s not to be searched for.
You remove
yourself.
And as you remove
yourself you will find automatically that the Neshama begins to open up to feel
Hashem. But that’s not all because as
you minimize yourself, you begin to see other people for the first time.
While we struggle
with this, the Chossid (as defined by the Mesillas Yesharim) does the walk and shows
us how to really live. And it’s not that
the Chossid relates better to others. He
relates, period. Stam menchen (a.k.a. the rest of us) tend not to relate at
all because we’re too busy seeing ourselves as if
we were encompassed 24/7 by a virtual mirror.
That’s why a
Chossid is truly free. He has freed himself
from the greatest obstacle known to man.
Himself.
For the first time he sees reality for what it
is, and not himself. And everyone else?
The first time you
begin to feel Hashem outside yourself you also begin to feel other people
outside yourself because they both rely on the removal of the same obstacle:
You!
