Rabbi Mendy Herson's Blog

Think about your deepest wish. I don’t mean an ice cream sundae or new shoes; I mean something really close to your heart, a deep-seated desire that strikes at your very core.

Develop this idea, so that you’re imagining it in detail. Focus on it, emblazoning its image on the backdrop of your mind.

You know that this very important mental image is just a wish.

Now, how would you feel about someone who made it a reality? Can you imagine a deeper sense of gratitude?

According to Chassidic thought, ‘Divine Dreaming’ is what gives rise to our entire existence. G-d ‘craves’ something, and its ‘mental image’ is burned into the ‘Divine mind’. That’s why G-d created the world. Just to serve this ‘craving’.

[G-d obviously doesn’t have a ‘craving’ as we understand the sensation. ‘Craving’ is a Rabbinic metaphor for ‘deep-seated desire beyond our (human) understanding’. So read Craving as: Deep-Seated, Beyond-The Human-Ken Desire].

What is so monumental, so powerfully important, that it could grant G-d ‘Divine Satisfaction’?

You.

And me.

And our struggles to live the purpose of our Creation.

That’s what’s so valuable.

When G-d created the world, it was in pursuit of a ‘deep-seated dream’; and it is us.

You see, we all struggle. I try to avoid generalizations, but I believe it’s safe to say that morally-conscious people all struggle to maintain their Higher vision and balance. Maintaining a healthy perspective and balancing our values/priorities isn’t easy.

For some of us, it’s too many distractions. For some, it’s the existential distress that comes with having too few distractions. But, for all of us, a meaningful life has its price; it takes a struggle.

And that struggle is what G-d finds so precious.

In the Torah’s Creation-narrative, we find G-d’s creative process metaphorically depicted as Divine Speech: “Let there be Light”, etc.

So G-d spoke the world into being. But, thought usually comes before speech, so what was G-d thinking?

Our Sages say that G-d was conjuring a very deep-seated wish: That deep ‘Mental Image’ was you and I finding the strength to do the right thing.

Sometimes it’s “How do I deal with that annoying situation?” Sometimes it’s “I know I have that family responsibility, but I’m just too tired”.

Sometimes it will involve finding the moral strength to light Shabbat candles or lay Tefillin.

So, at any given moment, recognize that you have something productive to do. Remember that G-d contemplated this very moment.

And make His dream come true.

Emotions are a funny thing.

They express your personality. They’re the bridge – or the barrier – between people. They’re an important internal indicator: When I emote, I know that something matters to me.

But emotions can get away from you. Like when you ‘fly off the handle’ or behave ‘over the top’.

Emotion is your psyche’s fire. And, like fire, we need to treat it carefully. Like fire, emotions have great function; but, like fire, we can’t let them get out of hand.

Emotion is a huge part of our lives. It touches on our temper, our food impulses, our loves and hates. Emotion even impacts our understanding - unless I’m ‘emotionally-available’ to internalize and accept hear your words, I probably won’t be able to appreciate their logic (i.e. if I don’t like you, your opinion is probably wrong).

Sometimes, it can feel like emotion controls life.

But it doesn’t have to. And it shouldn’t.

Intellect is the more sedate and controlled side of the human psyche. Logic is cool, calm and somewhat detached.

It’s soothing water to help you control your emotional fire.

A man once sat on a subway in NYC, while a mother with three young children sat next to him. The kids were unruly and really got under this fellow’s skin. As his anger-quotient rose, the mother noticed his discomfort. Apologizing for her children’s behavior, she explained that they were on the way home from the hospital. The children’s father had just passed away and they were a bit overwhelmed with the confusion in their lives.

This subway traveler was totally transformed. Ashamed of his snap to judgment, his anger was immediately replaced by empathy and concern.

Why? What made his anger disappear? What changed?

His perspective. With new information, with a new understanding, he revised his mental ‘framing’ of the situation, and his emotions immediately followed suit.

Too often we feel that our emotions ‘run away with us’. They don’t have to.

The Torah is G-d’s ‘manufacturer’s manual’ for the world, including the human psyche. Torah thought lays out a sketch of ‘the way we work’, and it tells us that we can harness our emotions.

Much of Torah life, the Mitzvot and their mindset, relates to this goal of corralling human nature and bringing it into line with a purposeful life. Each Mitzvah is its own exercise, bringing us closer to our better selves.

Check out the program.

It works.