Guidance and Principles
(rules, some of which have been discussed earlier)
One: Read This Book with Feeling
Now that you have read all of the above, start again and read it through a second timeBnot like a person reading about someone else=s thoughts, ideas and problems, but as though you are reading about yourself.
Imagine two people who are reciting Psalms. Whereas one of them lacks nothing, the other is immersed in troubles (may the Compassionate One save us). The first one is only reading the words that King David spoke like someone reading a history text. But the suffering person cries out, AI am drowning in a deep swamp@ (Tehillim 69:3) with his own feelings, as though King David had merely put the words in his mouth so that he could express his heart=s cry. AA prayer for the poor man when he is faint@ (ibid. 102:1). The word for Afaint@ can also mean Awrapped.@ The poor person is entirely wrapped in his prayer, and his prayer is within him.
Here as well, when you for example read and reread the description of how a person grows upset as his days pass in spiritual poverty and lowliness, it shouldn=t be as though you are hearing about someone else=s worries; right now you yourself feel upset, with an unsettled feeling that had been previously concealed within you. Or when you read about how a person should remind himself of the imminent day of his death, you are not reading a narrative about some other person for whom you feel sorry; you see this as happening to you.
The same goes for all passages of inspiration that show you how you can fill your thought with enthusiasm and strength.
And so it is not possible to read a great deal of this work at once, because you cannot feel lowly, joyful, brokenhearted and elevated all at one sitting. If you do read this work at one sitting, it will be like a mere narrative. Instead, learn it little by little. Do not just read it silently, but say the words aloud. And go through this book once a month.
Two: Practice the Techniques
Take everything written in this work seriously. Put whatever you read into practice that day, or for two or three days, to anchor it firmly within yourself. Even if you do not succeed the first time, do not grow discouraged, for you are not required to do everything at once.
Three: PrayerBThe Sparks of Your Soul
When, with the help of God, you experience episodes of holy feeling, fiery passion and an outpouring of your soul so that in your great emotion words pour forth from you (examples of this were given previously), appreciate and value these words. Whenever you want to arouse yourself from your slumber, say these words. Utilize them to petition God, for they are sparks of your soul: they were quarried from your soul and came forth in this form.
Four: Focus and Passion in Prayer
When you pray, stand in one place, facing the wall or with your eyes closed. And pray aloudBnot merely to raise your voice, but with intent and with the hope that this will rouse your spirit from its sleep, so that it will emerge from its hiding place to greet its King and Maker, Who stands before it.
Be very careful to think of the meaning of the words.
This can be interpreted in various ways. For instance: ASing to Hashem from the heavens@ (Tehillim 148:1). A person might just translate the words in his mind: ASing to@ means Apraise@; AHashem@ refers to the Holy One, blessed be He; Afrom the heavens@ means the angels in heaven; and so forth. But this kind of understanding will do nothing to inspire him.
The main focus of understanding the words is that when you say ASing to Hashem,@ you see yourself right then speaking to the entire world and commanding it to sing to God. Although you are merely a being scratched out of physicality, because you are a Jew you are a prince of the world, able to proclaim and to command the entire world, angels as well as this-worldly beings, from the highest spirits to the insects and the grass, ASing to Hashem from the heavens . . . and sing to Him, all bright stars!@
Have this idea in mind in all your words of prayer. And then you will be inspired to a fiery enthusiasm.
Five: Attaining Good Traits
Whatever good thing you see, whatever spiritual attainment or positive personality trait that you hear about or you read about in some holy volume that some holy person possessed, do not despair and say, AThis is beyond my capacity.@ To the contrary, desire it and say, AWasn=t this person just a human being like me? If he had wasted his time the way I do, he also wouldn=t have attained it. So why shouldn=t I myself be able to reach that level?@
Even when you hear some explanation of a verse or of a passage in the Talmud that pleases you, feel a twinge of pain and say, AWhy didn=t I come up with that? Isn=t that person a human being like me?@
Whatever will happen, this desire is good. If you do attain what you are yearning for, then your Father in heaven will rejoice and your soul will delight within you. But even if not, this desire was still not wasted. Be aware of this principle: every idea and desireBwhether good or bad (heaven forbid)Bthat a person has does not return empty. They join together one by one and lodge within his soul one by one, until an entire structure is assembled.
Sometimes a person experiences a bad trait (may the Compassionate One protect us) much worse than he is, and he is astonished at himself: AFrom where did such a lowly thing ever come to me?@ What happened was that even his slightest ideas and desires gathered together inside him. They were so fine that he never even noticed or sensed them. But once inside him, they grew ever thicker, until they appeared and manifested themselves in him in the form of a contemptible trait, an ugly clump (may the Compassionate One protect us).
And the opposite can also occur: every good thought and desire that rises up within you, even if you do not attain it, will thicken and grow, until it appears within you as a holy trait and thought.
Six: Overcoming Pointless Thoughts
If you have a bad thought, or even just a pointless thought that is bothering you as you pray or learn Torah, look up to the heavens or close your eyes, and think the words, AHashem, Hashem, God Who is compassionate and gracious@ (Shemot 34:6). Only think these words without saying them. With God=s help, it will surely pass on.
Seven: Yearn to Come Back to God
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Often, whether at home or in the street, with a broken heart bear the following in mind: AThe entire world is divinity: every grain of earth beneath my feet, the air I breathe, all of being is divine existence. So why am I so far removed from this, from the camp of God=s Presence? Why am I a separate being with my own desire and consciousness, with a coarse body and spirit (heaven forbid)? Master of the world, bring me close to You in complete goodness, as I turn to You with all my being, bring me close to You in complete goodness.@
Eight: Improve Your Character
Work conscientiously to improve your character traits. Work particularly hard to improve any trait that you recognize as especially flawed. Wage war against it. Your strategy should be to seek advice on how to improve it. Learn what is keeping you from improving, and then remove that obstacle. If you do not succeed the first time, try again. If one piece of advice does not work for you, try another approach. If you do not retreat from the field of battle but remain constant, strong and active, God will assist you, and you will be victorious.
In general, making a study of yourself will be very helpful to you. Let us look at how this works. Imagine two people who are easily angered. If they do not examine themselves well, they will find this lowly trait difficult to overcome. But if they look into it deeply and penetratingly so that they come to its root cause, they will be able to bring healing more quickly than if they had not done so.
The cause of each person=s anger may be quite different. One person may simply have be angry by nature. But the other person may not have a problem with anger per se. His problem might be an expanded ego, as a result of which everyone else appears to him to be no more important than an ape. That is why he grows so angry and curses and ridicules others. A man like this could devote his entire life to working on his anger to no avail. After all, he is responding normally to what he perceives to be reality. Even a person who doesn=t have an issue with anger could come to yell atBperhaps even strikeBa destructive or stubborn animal such as an ape or donkey. Once this person looks at himself deeply so that he comes to understand the core of his anger, and realizes that it is actually an expression of egotism, he will work on his egotism, until it is rehabilitated.
Or let us take an example who presents an egotistical personality. He might simply be an egotist. But it is also possible that he is egotistical because he has never been in the company of people greater than he is. Or, even if he does find himself in their company, he doesn=t recognize their greatness. If, for example, he has some skill in learning Torah, he thinks that he is a great scholar, superior to everyone else. The cure for this condition is simple and quite straightforward. He should keep company with people greater than himself and speak with them, and he should study books that discuss treat great and holy character traits and attainments. This will bring him to recognize his insignificance, and he will grow ashamed of his previous egotism.
Nine: Torah Learning
Do not let a single day pass without learning Torah. It is good to set aside time for learning in the morning, for the Holy One, blessed be He, loves beginnings (as the midrash teaches). If you cannot learn in the morning, do so in the evening.
Set a fixed goal of how much Talmud, Midrash, and so forth you will learn every day and every week, without fail. Grow so accustomed to this schedule and make it such a permanent part of your life that if you do not fulfill it, you will feel it to be as much of a lack as if you had not put on your tefillin (heaven forbid). With this attitude, you will find the time to spend on this. After all, if tefillin and prayer were not absolute obligations, you might imagine that you have no time for them either.
Ten: Personal Commitment
Heed and listen, remember and guard this well. There are certain practices that you know you should engage in, such as learning Torah, praying, and certain resolutions you make in your everyday life.
You may fail. For instance, although you had to get up early, you failed to do so. Or although you resolved that for a few days you would not eat a food that you find particularly tempting (cf. Seder Hatza=ot 19), you succumbed and ate it. This failure should seem to you as though you have stumbled and committed a grave sin (heaven forbid). A person who does not view such a failure as a sin over which to grieve (heaven forbid) is frivolous. And this frivolousness means that he does not take a firm stance but blows in the wind like a hair or a feather. One moment he stands in the east, a moment later a breeze has blown him to the west. Although he resolve to attain all good traits, he cannot be sure that he will actually do so. Worse, his frivolous attitude might even lead him to transgress all the sins in the Torah (heaven forbid).
Eleven: Inspiring Literature
Learn Tanach, Mishnah, Talmud, Zohar and Midrash (particularly the latter two, since their every letter contains a heavenly fire that can destroy the Side of Evil that surrounds you and entices you). If a person is busy and cannot learn all of these topics in one day, he should divide them according to the days of the week: for instance, for four days of the week he will learn Talmud, two days Midrash, and so forth.
Learn works of piety such as the Sh=lah, Maharal=s writing, the early Hasidim, such as those of the great Maggid, Noam Elimelech, the writings of Maggid of Koznitz, Imrei Elimelech, Divrei Elimelech, Beit Aharon, and so forth. Even if you do not understand every passage, do not understand, do not stop learning, since at the very least they are setting forth on the path of holiness, the path of Hasidism. You will understand as much as you can. Beyond that, the words and holy spirit within them will cling to you and will purify you.
Learn some Kabbalah as well, for at the very least you should not be an absolute ignoramus in these matters. Shefa Tal is a good work to begin with.
Twelve: Use Your Time Well
Be extremely careful not to waste even a moment (cf. Seder Ha=emtzaim 16). You should view even ten minutes of wasted time as a grave sin (heaven preserve us). You pay for wasted time with your life. The time that you have thrown away, a part of your life, is gone forever; you will never regain it. Remind yourself of your mortality. This day and time are fading away, and you cannot bring them back. If you have wasted time, imagine that you have cut out a strip of your heart and thrown it to the dogs.
If you are in a situation where you cannot learn Torah, then engage in thoughts of Torah. Think about the proper way to live your life and the ways of Hasidism. Think about these things during public prayer when the cantor is repeating the Shmoneh EsraiBunless you are completely immersed in his words, or unless this would so distract you that you would fail to make the communal responses.
Most of all, when you are in the street, immerse your mind and heart in a Torah concept. In this way, not only will you strengthen your heart to grow more holy (which is the main goal of our group), but you will also protect yourself from evil (heaven forbid).
Thirteen: Plan Your Day
Set aside a certain amount of time for your every activity. If you are sitting down to eat, set aside a half hour or a quarter hour. If you are unable to learn Torah and decide to visit a friend, set aside a certain amount of time for that, unless you will be discussing Hasidism.
In general, see yourself as a soldier who has tasks to complete, as one hour presses on the next and one action urges on another.
Fourteen: Utilize the Sabbath Well
Do not let Friday and Saturday nights in the winter, when the Sabbath begins early, go to waste. Do not go to sleep before eleven o=clock (unless you are planning to rise at dawn). Be aware, on the one hand, of your Maker; and, on the other, of the depths.
Addendum: The Love and Fear of God
I have not discussed in any detail the subject of loving and fearing God. This is because in fact every Jewish soul already fears and loves God. The problem is that, since the soul is buried beneath a mat of straw and hidden within the body, its love and fear are also hidden. But when you follow the advice here in order to bring your soul forth, then you will see your love and fear of God appear in their purity. With God=s help, they will grow manifest.
