Friday, March 15, 2013

The Mission...Possible.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this on the blog before, but one of my favorite hobbies is people watching. I like looking at people. Random people. All kinds of people. Analyzing their actions, their thoughts, their pasts, present, and future.

As I walk around the streets, I notice so many people. There are just SO many people in this incredible world that HaShem created. Everyone's walking. Quickly. Everyone seems to be in such a rush. And the ones who aren't seem to be weak. Tired. The old lady with her dog. The exhausted mother with her baby in the carriage.
And I wonder: everyone is heading somewhere. Clearly everyone is walking...so that means they're moving - but WHERE are they all going?

There're billions of people in the world. Nearly everyone, who is able to, leaves to the house at some point and walks somewhere. Everyone has that destination. That store they must go to, the errand that needs to be done, the meeting that needs to be attended, the doctor's appointment they must go to...

And why is that so? Why is it that most people don't dwell in their homes all day long? FOREVER?

Because that is the way of the world - that people are always moving. Our mind goes crazy if we're idle and tells the body: BE BUSY! If that's true for the physucal reality of the world, then shouldn't that also be the spiritual reality of this world? That our neshama should always be moving?

And just like people KNOW where they're walking to - shouldn't our neshama KNOW where its going?

And anyway, what is our neshama?

Well, I once heard an amazing quote that, since then, has become one of my all-time favorite quotes. "You DON'T have a soul. You have a body. You ARE a soul."

Our neshama is our essence. Our essence is just BEGGING to be close to HaShem. There's this magnetic pull. If you can picture your neshama in Shamayim... it would just instantly pull towards where the Shechina is.

Yet, we're in this world. And so many people, SO many of these billions of people, have no idea that they have a soul. No idea that their soul has an ultimate destination. They just live for the moment. "Go with the flow"
Or go by the motto "life is a deck of cards - you get what's handed to you."

Of those billions of people, we have around 13 million Jews in the world. How many Jews know where they're heading - spiritually?

Now how about you? Yes, you. The one reading this! Do you know where you're heading? Do you realize that every second in this world is CRUCIAL to your life mission, otherwise HaShem wouldn't keep you here?

Scary thoughts.

But no. It's only a scary thought if these were questions that nobody knows the answer to.
Thank G-d, we have a manual to guide us and allow us to access the truth. HaShem gave us the Torah - "etz chayim hee" - she (the Torah) is a tree of life. We LIVE by the Torah. It's not just a lifestyle or a history book or a book full of good advice. It's literally life. Anything antithetical to Torah is death.
That's the only way a neshama can be successful in this world: to view the Torah as LIFE and anything that is NOT Torah is DEATH.

Let's look at what HaRamchal, Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto z"l, wrote in his fundamental work of "Mesillat Yesharim" - Path of the Just. His introduction to this incredible sefer is A MUST read for every single Jew. "Chovat Ha'Adam b'olama" - man's obligation (or mission) in this world.

Bli neder, I will post it one day. It's truly life changing.

Shabbat Shalom :)

2 comments:

  1. Sefardi Gal said:
    "You DON'T have a soul.
    You have a body.
    You ARE a soul."

    RESPONSE:
    That is so awesome!
    PS: Do you still receive Torah messages from me?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Question from Sefardi Gal to Mr. Cohen:
    How do you so accurately keep track
    of the days in between my posts?

    ANSWER:
    I type the dates of your posts into MicroSoft Excel, and it gives me the EXACT number of days between your posts. The most recent differences are: 104 days, 150 days, and 5 days.

    Please forgive me for having suspected that you abandoned your fans.

    ReplyDelete