For this commandment that I command you today… it is not in Heaven… nor is it across the sea… Rather, the matter is very close to you.” (Deuteronomy 30:11–14)
Why does the Torah need to emphasize through so many verses that the mitzvot are so close to us?
The nature of the world causes us to forget. The rush and pressures of everyday life make us forget that there is a World to Come, which is the ultimate purpose of our existence in this world.
Rebbe Nachman, in Torah 54, teaches us about remembering the World to Come - that everything we see in this world is merely a chain of the unfolding of HaShem’s Divine Presence, extending all the way down to the smallest details, including the very point of our existence at this exact moment. But how can we remember this?
Reb Avraham, the son of Reb Nachman of Tulchin, reveals in his Biur HaLikutim that forgetfulness itself is the force that awakens memory. In other words, if we never experienced forgetfulness, we would have no way of remembering.
Precisely through all the difficulties and falls that we experience, if we are wise enough to transform them into a broken heart—to cry out, ask, and plead with HaShem: “Please have mercy on us! See what we have become!”—then we can truly begin to remember the World to Come and recognize the reality of HaShem in everything that exists in this world.
This is the reality of life! We must draw strength from our falls and use them as an opportunity to turn to HaShem, to call out to Him from precisely that place, to find Him there, and to remember that there is a World to Come.
Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova
Chaim Kramer |
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