CHASSIDIC PEARLS BY RABBI LAZER BRODY PARSHAS BO

"Sanctify to Me each firstborn . . ." (Shemot 13:2). To this day, even after the destruction of our Holy Temple, we are required to sanctify not only our firstborn sons, but our firstborn cattle as well. The connection between the firstborn and his sanctification carries an underlying message that stresses the importance of a good beginning. Rebbe Nachman of Breslev writes, "The beginning is the main thing, for all beginnings are difficult… a person's functioning goes according to the power and enthusiasm that he invested at the beginning… therefore, a person must always make a new beginning, for the old beginning might not have been as good as it should have been, and everything goes according to the beginning" (Likutei Moharan I, 62:5). Some people, rationalizing and/or apologizing for a lack in their service to Hashem, walk around with a long face, depressed and discouraged. They say: "What do you want from me? Was I born the son or daughter of a Rebbe or a Rosh Yeshiva? I never had the chance to learn Torah or Halacha properly, and you can't teach an old dog new tricks." Any student of Breslov thought must vehemently disagree. Rebbe Nachman gives a bright ray of hope and encouragement to anyone that didn't enjoy an ideal beginning in life or in any particular endeavor when he says, "A person must always make a new beginning!" The outcome of this simple but monumental teaching is that there is no reason for despair – ever! At any given time, a person can draw the line and say that the past is no longer a concern – "From this moment on, I declare a new beginning!" Rebbe Nachman practiced exactly what he preached. Reb Natan writes (Shivchei HaRan, 6), that Rebbe Nachman was accustomed to constantly begin anew. "Whenever he fell from his particular level, he did not give up. He would simply say, 'I will begin to devote myself to Hashem and this is the very first time.' This happened time and again and each time he would start all over again. He would often begin anew many times in a single day. For even in the course of a day there were many times when he would fall away from his high level of devotion. But each time he would start again, no matter how many times it happened, even within a single day." The mitzvah of teshuva, returning to Hashem, is Hashem's written guarantee that a new beginning is not only effective, but it's even better than the old beginning. This law of spirituality also applies to the physical world; a welded piece of metal is stronger than the original piece of metal, a new growth of a tree is more vital than the old growth, and so forth.