The Torah teaches that challenge is G-d’s way of showing up and pushing us to growth.
(I’m going to add to the word challenge – the word chaos. It makes it more real and causes us to stretch to connect with the following.)
If we are feeling our feelings today more than ever and feelings are messy than ergo (I like that word) we are experiencing G-d more than ever in our world.
Here are some feeling ideas:
Feeling your feelings, but not getting stuck on them.
Moving through your feelings.
Knowing that we feel to feel alive but that it doesn’t therefore make them real.
Feelings are not facts.
It’s actually all very messianic.
The real challenge with all of this is that feelings are very strong and very overwhelming and overpowering. So, if we are in the middle of a bout of strong feelings how do we anchor ourselves to pull ourselves up.
One solution is to breathe. Breathing brings us back to our core, back to our soul which in Hebrew is Neshama which means to breathe. Once we are connected to our core, consciously or not, we are plugged back into our connection with Hashem and we are able to navigate through the chaos that Hashem has sent to us.
An overarching and powerful tool is to have someone we love hold our hand, give us a hug, literally or figuratively.
If we believe that someone believes in us, then even when we may temporarily stop believing in ourselves we are able to anchor in the belief of that individual and pull ourselves up.
Today is 3 Tammuz, the 29th Yurzeit of the Rebbe. The Rebbe believed in me, you and all of our generation. As I reflect on the Rebbe and my relationship with the Rebbe both before and after the Rebbe’s passing and as I watch a new generation of young people who carry the Rebbe’s message forward, I feel anchored and buoyed to navigate another day with hope and positivity.
I invite you to take a few minutes to follow this link to learn more about the Rebbe and the Rebbe’s practical advice for how to live higher.
The Rebbe was all about action, so let us also apply some of the Rebbe’s care and selfless dedication to our own interaction with family, friends and total strangers. There can be no more fitting tribute to the Rebbe than millions of good deeds, mitzvot, performed on his day.
It is a special day for prayer and you can offer a prayer at the Rebbe’s Ohel
here as well as explore other teachings and videos related to the Rebbe.
Let this holy day serve as an anchor for you and your loved ones to move forward with positivity and hope. It is what the Rebbe dreamed for. Together our collective acts of goodness and kindness will bring about the coming of Moshiach when we will be reunited with the Rebbe and all of our loved ones.
Amen.
With all my love,
Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman