Prove it!

An oponent once aproached an hassidic man and told him, "The difference between us and you is that we think about G-d all day and you think about yourselves all day!" The hassid retorted, "Yes, of course. That is because you are certain that you exist and spend all day wondering if G-d exists. We are certain that G-d exists and spend all day wondering if we exist."

The Rambler once had a friend named Yoni, who heard that story and realized that, indeed, he had no proof that he existed. The Rambler would endeavor to convince him that his existance was an undeniable fact, but no arguments could be found to be sufficiently convincing. Can you prove that Yoni exists? You have probably never seen him, or even heard of him before now. He may just be a figment of the Rambler's overactive imagination. Proving the existance of G-d is a much easier feat, however. He is everywhere. You can't look without seeing Him. He is the one experience that everyone shares. In the words of the Chief Rabbi of Suburban Guadalajara:

Think simple: You wake up in the morning and, even before coffee, there is. Reality. Existence. Not "the things that exist" but existence itself. The flow. The infinite flow of light and energy. Of being, of existence. Of is. Think of all that flow of isingness all in a single, perfectly simple point. Get into it, commune with it, speak to it, become one with it --that is G-d.

Fixer Upper

When G-d created the world, he left it incomplete. He left some things for people to be able to come and fix up so that they could be his partners in creation. G-d wanted us to feel what he feels as the creator of the world. That's the greatest gift that one could ever receive, to feel like G-d. The mitzvot are the ways of fixing the world that G-d had in mind. Each time someone does a mitzvah, it changes the world a little bit from the way it was into the way G-d wants it to be. It places another brick toward the completion of G-d's creation. When all the work is done, the world will be perfect. This is called the time of Moshiach. Then we won't do mitzvot to fix the world. We will do mitzvot because that will be the natural order of things.

Phone Number

When you want to get in contact with someone, you ask them for their phone number. If they like you they give it to you. Now you can hook up with them whenever you want. A mitzvah is G-d's phone number. He told us how to get in touch with him. If you change a phone number because you don't like the sound of it, let's say substitute a nine for a seven, then you don't get the same person anymore. That's why the details of the mitzvot are so important.

Understanding the Enemy

Sadness is the enemy. After all, are we not here to make the world a better place? That means a place where everyone is happy.

The Torah says "I have placed before you good and life and bad and death, therefore choose life." The definition of life is something which grows. Choose to live and grow, always reaching higher. Happiness is energy. You can measure how happy someone is by how energetic they feel. Sadness is withdrawl. A sad person doesn't want to do much of anything.

Since Tanya is a guide to good living, it understandably has a chapter about how to deal with sadness. It says that sadness comes from the evil in the world. People are sad because bad things happen. But where does evil come from? Surely everything comes from G-d! The answer is that even bad comes from G-d, but what we see as bad is not really bad. If an ignorant man would walk into a room where a surgery is being performed he would think it very bad. A bunch of men in masks have restrained another man and knocked him out, then cut him open! But in fact it is very good. They are saving his life. When things appear bad to us, that is merely de to our lack of understanding. We fail to see the big picture. How this is really for the best. It is for this reason that Talmud says that we must bless G-d for the bad as well as the good.

But surely you cannot tell me that there is no bad in the world. You cannot ignore all of the suffering that people endure every day, from minor inconveniences to horrible atrocities. Even though G-d sees the good that will come from it, it does not take away the fact that it is painful. G-d can do anything. Why didn't he make it not hurt? There must be a purpose even for sadness. When a person is happy, they aren't very picky. They don't care about things as much because everything is going well for them anyways. When a person is sad, they are listing to themselves all the problems that they have, what's lacking in the world. In this frame of mind one can become consious that they are not all that they want to be themselves. It bothers them that they aren't trying harder, and so they do try harder. When things look bad, it is G-d's way of telling us that there is still more to be done, not to be complacent.The pain of sadness is the vacuum between where you are and where you will be.

Life is the story

Life is the story you write yourself.
Every action you take is another word in the book.
The words come together to form sentences.
The sentences, paragraphs.
The paragraphs, chapters.
G-d is your publisher.
He helps polish your story.
When you study Torah, He is teaching you how to write.
With Prayer, you submit your rough drafts to Him .
He sometimes makes corrections.
He always has the final say.
Life is the story you write yourself.
Make it a good one.