A Simchat Torah Reflection
By Avraham Aminov
his past Simcha Torah, we sat in shul and heard the conclusion of the final parsha in the Torah, Zot HaBracha, only to be immediately followed up with restarting the whole thing by immediately beginning the reading of Bereshit. We don’t take a break, we don’t hold off until mincha, we don’t even stop to say any short insights. It’s a seemingly peculiar thing, after all, we just finished a whole year’s worth of reading the Torah. Dozens of hours spent over the course of a year just hearing the Shabbat readings, not to mention all the learning and weekly shiurim spent on each parsha. One would expect at least a moment to reflect on the massive accomplishment we just finished. Rather, we start all over again and don’t look back. The classic take on this is that Torah learning is never truly finished. The Torah is a spiritual entity that we can access here in our physical world, and being a spiritual entity it’s by definition infinite. So we start all over because there’s always more to learn. I would like to point out perhaps another valuable lesson to take from this practice that Rabbi Nachman illuminated for us. Starting over. According to Rabbi Nachman, this was one of the secrets to how he was able to traverse myriads of spiritual levels throughout his lifetime. There’s much to be said on this concept, but put shortly, I think perhaps this is both one of the most overlooked practices of Rabeinu, and I dare say the most valuable spiritual tool that anyone can use in his life. One of the most fascinating observations about Rabbi Nachman’s teachings is how often discoveries made in modern psychology in improving one’s emotional and psychological well being were brought down by Rabbi Nachman two centuries ago. One of which being, you guessed it - starting over. Or as modern psychology puts it - mindfulness. Put in short, practicing mindfulness means consciously putting your thoughts and observations only on what is presently right in front of you. Even if it’s something as seemingly menial as washing your hands. You don’t engage in thinking about the past, the future, your work, your worries, anything. You only engage with the present. Essentially- starting over. There’s no past, no future, only right now. You’re brand new, and everything you’re doing is for the first time. We tap into a childlike simplicity and experience life with a novel and curious perspective. What’s interesting is that this peculiar practice has yielded surprisingly effective results in reducing anxiety, stress, and maintaining a healthy psychological perspective on life. It’s a method often perscribed by therapists as one of the most effective ways to handle an anxiety attack. Psychologists are still trying to figure out exactly why mindfulness is so effective, but as usual Rabbi Nachman already told us why 200 years ago. It’s all based on a simple spiritual truth he brought down, and they’re words to live by - “lies make people sad, truth makes people happy”. How does this explain why starting over or mindfulness works? We have to go a little deep to explain so get ready - Time is a construct that only we perceive, it’s one that doesn’t apply to God or the spiritual world. The four letter name of God that refers to Him being beyond nature (spelled Yud, Kay, Vuv, Kay), is a name famously connected to the concept that He always was, is, and always will be, or in other words, is infinite beyond time. God being the ultimate truth, and Him being beyond time, means by logic, the ultimate truth is that time does not in reality exist. Time is the glass walls of the proverbial aquarium fish tank that encases the physical universe we inhabit. But there’s a much bigger truth that exists outside those walls, not limited to the linear concept of time we experience. What does that mean for us? Essentially, that neither the past nor the future exists because it’s not happening now. To say the past happened or the future will happen isn’t true because the deeper divine reality is that time isn’t real. All that exists is right now. The past were just other moments that were “right now” but ceased to exist to make way for the “right now moment” you’re currently inhabiting. Same goes for the future, which is just the idea of a present moment you’ve yet to experience. It’s all a bit abstract, I know, but the takeaway is that the reason mindfulness or starting over works is that when you practice it, you’re engaging in only “right now”. There’s no past or future, so you stop connecting with “lies”, because time doesn’t exist and therefore the past and future on a deeper divine sense aren’t real and are therefore not true. By connecting to the present moment you connect to a reality that is actually happening and is therefore “true”. Based on Rabbi Nachman’s statement, “lies makes people sad, truth makes people happy” you’ve disconnected from lies and connected to truth and therefore are now happy. A spiritual explanation for the physical phenomenon of why mindfulness works so well. Based on Rabbi Nachman’s teachings, by starting over, you can approach every mitzvah or Torah learning session with a newness and joy that allow you to connect deeper and therefore unlock your greatest spiritual potential. According to the Arizal, he claimed his secret to his profound spiritual growth was doing Mitzvot with joy. It all seems to connect now how Rabbi Nachman grew leaps and bounds in a short time - he would start over all the time and be connected to truth and therefore be happy. “The truth makes people happy”. And if the secret to spiritual growth according to the Arizal is doing Mitzvot with happiness, then it would seem that starting over/mindfulness is the secret ingredient to achieving one’s spiritual potential. In fact, Rabbi Nachman famously said he would restart several times a day. And who wouldn’t want such an approach to life. Letting your daily Mitzvot become routine will only stunt one’s spiritual growth and overall mental well being. It’s only fitting this concept connects to Bershit as it is said that the creation of the world is happening every second. HaShem “mihadeshes” (renews) the world every instant. Rabbi Nachman saw fit to follow suit and mihadesh his own world too. Let’s let this new beginning of the Torah be for us a light of restarting our own worlds everyday and break from viewing our Mitzvot as a monotonous routine. Let us restart and be happy everyday!
