Unlimited Love

The fundamental of all fundamentals that a person must know in order to serve Hashem properly is that Hashem loves him. Hashem’s love is both unlimited and unconditional. As soon as a person becomes aware of and internalizes this fundamental, he relieves himself from all sorts of confusion. People are bewildered, with all sorts of questions about emuna, because they simply don’t know that Hashem loves them.
 
Knowing that Hashem loves you is the cornerstone of emuna. And, as Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches, emuna is prayer. Consequently, a person can’t really pray until he realizes that Hashem loves him always – even in times of hurricanes and even when the missiles are exploding all around.
 
Hashem wants to give a person everything, even the spiritual levels of a Moses or a King David. So why don’t people attain more than they do? They don’t ask. And, they don’t ask because they don’t believe that Hashem will grant their request. They don’t believe that Hashem will grant their request because they don’t believe that Hashem really loves them – unlimited and unconditional love.
 
There were great tzaddikim who received tremendous gifts in a short amount of time. Moses received the whole Torah in forty days and nights. Don’t forget though that years of personal prayer preceded his ascent on Mount Sinai. There were other great tzaddikim who cried and begged Hashem for years to help them understand their learning, and all of a sudden, Hashem opened up their minds in wisdom and understanding. This is called shefa Eloki, or Divine abundance. Accordingly, Rebbe Nachman of Breslev says (Likutei Moharan I:21), that one cannot attain Divine abundance without praying at length and with strong intent. Furthermore, any person who doesn’t pray at length and with strong intent will not feel that Hashem loves him.
 
In war, people are afraid. During hurricanes and natural disasters, people tremble. Yet, if they knew that Hashem loves them, they wouldn’t be afraid.
 
Take for example, a little boy: do you know how many mighty angels protect him? The kippa on his head creates one angel; his peyot (sidecurls) create another angel. His tzitzit create a third giant angel. We must teach our children azamra, to rejoice in every mitzva and to be happy with every mitzva they do, for the mitzvot will protect them. But, in order to teach them, parents must first feel that Hashem loves them and is happy with every mitzva they do.
 
If we strengthen ourselves with the knowledge that Hashem loves us, and thereby strengthen ourselves in prayer and in emuna, we can avoid wars and calamities and virtually invoke the geula – the full redemption of our people – through Divine compassion and loving kindness without tribulations, and not through wars of Gog and Magog. Our people have already paid the full price of Gog and Magog with the six million Jewish martyrs that died in the Holocaust – we don’t need any more of Gog and Magog.
 
Don’t think that the concept of Hashem’s unlimited love for us is a figment of my imagination. Every evening during the Maariv prayer, we say, “And Your love will never leave us forever.”
 
The problem is that when a person has a tough exterior of materialism, his heart can’t absorb the light of spirituality. The body and its lusts are barriers in the way of Divine light. Look at Israel today; last week, I was in Haifa, where no bombs are flying. For people there, it’s business as usual. But, in the south of Israel, where the GRADS missiles are falling day and night, people are open to hear about emuna, prayer, and teshuva. The missiles have pierced their tough exterior. They’re becoming more spiritual. In that respect, the missiles have performed a service for the south of Israel. But why wait for them to fall? If a person arouses himself to teshuva and to prayer on his own accord, then Hashem doesn’t have to send missiles!
 
People ask me, what do they do if they’re suffering, and they don’t feel that Hashem loves them? In that case, they should strengthen themselves in joy and look for all their good points while rejoicing in each mitzva that they are able to perform, taking nothing for granted. This prevents stern judgments. People suffer stern judgments because they’re not happy with the mitzvot they are able to perform.
 
The vast majority of people look for happiness in the material world. But, let’s ask ourselves: what on earth is there to be happy about in this world? The only thing that truly generates happiness in this world is getting close to Hashem. Mitzvot bring us closer to Hashem, so that’s why we must rejoice about every mitzva we do – that’s azamra! Moses brought us the Torah from Sinai, but Rebbe Nachman brought us the way to observe the Torah.
 
We must believe that the Geula will arrive any second. Peace in the world depends on personal holiness and prayer. With enhanced prayer and personal holiness, we’ll surely see Mashiach speedily and in our days, amen!