You’re invited to a party. Do you ever have a problem figuring out when to stay and when to leave?

A friend confidentially consults with you about a personal matter. Do you know how far to pry and when to pull back?

You are concerned about a friend’s behavior. Do you know when it’s appropriate to intervene, and when you need to butt out?

You hear about a needy situation, but you too are in need? Do you take care of yourself or the other?

You hear a secret about someone. Should you act on it or not?

You’re dating someone you like. How fast should you open up and how much should you keep concealed?

You are married to someone you love and trust. Do you share every detail of your inner life?

For years your voice has been suppressed in a dysfunctional silencing home. Now that you have broken the silence, how much – and to whom – should you be speaking?

You love someone deeply. Do you drown them in your love, giving endlessly, or do you stop at some point, and at what point?

You get deeply inspired and are ready to do anything in that regard. When do you follow your instincts and when do you pause and reflect?

All these quandaries are rooted in the bigger question of defining healthy boundaries: What part of life should remain confidential and hidden, and what part should be revealed? When do we enter another person’s private life, and when do we stay out? When do we allow others into our inner sanctums and when do we not? When do we close the door and when do we open it? And when we do open and close, how much do we open up and how much do we keep closed?

These are not small questions. They touch upon issues of intimacy, trust, vulnerability, identity, self-confidence, fear, security and insecurity.

A striking contrast between the name of this week’s Torah portion and last week’s provides us with a formula to answer these and many other pressing questions.

Compare the names of these two Torah chapters: Last week’s portion began, “when you will go out.” This week’s portion opens, “when you will enter.” Go out vs. enter: There are times and situations when we must “go out,” and there are times and situations when we must enter.

The difference between the two is not semantic. Entering and leaving – going in and going out – carries the secret of all success. Knowing the difference teaches us profound lessons in distinguishing between the two worlds – your inner life and your outer life. Some call it having “healthy boundaries:” A healthy individual is one who has a crystal clear distinction between the parameters of his/her own identity and another’s identity; where his identity ends and another’s begins. He has a strong sense of self coupled with a profound compassion of others. He knows when to take care of his own needs and when to care for another’s.

Many of us often err by leaning too much to one extreme or the other: As caretakers of others we can compromise ourselves; or sometimes we get too self-consumed and neglect to help others. The secure individual is one who has an internal compass, deep focus and an intimate space within, while at the same time knowing when – and having the courage to – give time for another.

This balance is necessary across the board. Efficient leadership, for instance, requires knowing how much to do and rely on yourself and how much to delegate and outsource. Self confidence is dependent on an equilibrium between self-reliance (“if I am not for myself who will be for me?”) and relying on others (“if I am only for myself who am I?”). Wholesome love is possible when there is a balance between closeness and space. It’s not love if the relationship annihilates the identity of either of the partners. True love is when two distinct individuals come together as one, while maintaining their unique individuality. If their closeness is at the expense of their identities, or they remain cautiously apart in fear of losing themselves, they are not in a relationship.

The wise sage put it thus: “When you are close when you should be distant, you will be distant when you should be close.” A healthy relationship is one where there is a delicate balance between intimacy and distance. The mystics call it the symmetry between love (chesed) and discipline (gevurah).

Not to neglect the economy. Investors will tell you that the key to all good decisions is to know when to get in and when to get out, when to buy and when to sell. Often the move has to be made in a split-second: Facilitated by program trading, millions of stocks are bought and then immediately sold within nano-seconds. Not this advice helps anyone much (if it did, we wouldn’t be in our current mess). Except, of course, for Goldman Sachs and some others who have somewhat sensed when to stay and when to leave.

So how do we decide what belongs within and what remains outside? When should we enter and when should we leave? How do we determine when we should be “in” and when we should stay “out?”

Tells us the Torah: When waging war “go out;” when entering the Promised Land “go in.”

The world we live in is made up of an outside and an inside – form and function, body and soul, a package and the treasure it contains. Accordingly, we must have two set of very separate tools: the ones we use to protect ourselves and survive in a hostile world. The resources we access to tame the elements and wage the inevitable battles of life. And the ones we use to experience love and intimacy within.

The key is never to confuse the two. That which belongs outside – wars, battles, conflicts – should always remain outside. Never bring the anxieties of the workplace into your home and your inner space. And that which belongs within – love, intimacy, subtlety, sublimity – should remain protected within.

This doesn’t mean that we should not attempt to bring love to our outer lives. Obviously, we must be sensitive souls in every situation, even in an unfriendly environment. But, at the same time we must always remember that your intimate life is not your external life and vice versa. Your home and the street are not the same. Many of our inner feelings are meant to be just that – internal, intimate experiences. Not every private thing has to be worn on our sleeves (about a drunkard, they say, “whatever is on his lung is on his tongue”).

Modern life, sadly, has blurred the boundaries between our inner and outer lives. Things that are supposed to remain outside have entered into our inner sanctums, and things that are supposed to remain within are often inappropriately exposed and exploited.

An obscene example of these blurred boundaries is the dysfunctional life. Abuse of any sort is like an infection, which must be exposed, subdued and vanquished. When the infection is concealed, and everyone who experienced it is driven into a conspiracy of silence, it begins to fester until it becomes a monster. By the time its consequences explode and life has become unbearable, the situation is often completely out of control. All because of what? Because of instead of “going out” – revealing the crime – to wage war against it, the abusers chose to “go in” and keep it all a secret. That secret is in many ways worse than the crime – invalidating the pain and the dignity of the person who was hurt; closing off the possibility to seek help. “The silence,” they say, “was worse than the rape.”

Then there is the other end of the spectrum – when the battles we wage “outside” intrude our homes and souls. Do children really need to hear the gossip, politics and conflicts of their parents’ lives? Won’t they have enough to deal with when they have to enter the harsh world? Protect their innocent minds and hearts as long as you can.

And what about us adults? Do we have to bring into our pure hearths – the troubles of our outer lives? Why not reserve some of our inner space for more sublime experiences?

In every situation we should always avoid confrontation. But in those instances when we encounter adversary and there is no choice but to wage war – then at least do so “outside” of your inner self. Don’t let your enemies contaminate your soul.

Your “inside” should be reserved for entering the “promised land” – the internal life of your heart, soul, love and intimacy.

Some things ought to always remain within. Not because they are “secrets,” but because they are fundamentally internal experiences that cannot be contained by the tangible senses.

Our deepest and most powerful experiences happen in silence. Not to be confused with the silence of the weak or the fearful, the profound silence of the intimate is louder than sound, stronger than force. It is the essence of the Divine experienced not through the senses but in silence. G-d was not in the wind, earthquake, or fire that Elijah saw on Mt. Horeb, but in the still, subtle voice (Kings 1 19:11-12).

The still, subtle voice – that is where we should enter. Everything else can remain outside your door.

Hope in Times of Uncertainty

As we enter the new lunar month of Elul – the month of love and compassion – it is a bit difficult for some to feel beauty and hope.

No doubt, there is much beauty in the world. Humans continue to demonstrate noble acts of gallantry. In many little corners of the globe unsung heroes shine and illuminate their environments.

But collectively we are living in uncertain times. The political climate in the USA has never been so polarized. Individually, with all of our blessings, we also all face many struggles. We are all afraid of an uncertain future.

On the global front, a deep cloud hangs over all of us. Between Covid-19 and the racial and political unrest, no one knows when and where the next crisis will strike. With the growing upheavals, we are all left wondering what tomorrow will bring.

Add to the equation the personal and emotional anxieties that people grapple with daily, the psychological forces that drain us, and we have, shall we say, quite a “bundle” (a “pekel” as the good Yiddish expression goes) to deal with. Much, much baggage weighs us down.

The compassionate power of Elul seems very distant.

But what else is new? Elul was never an easy process. The source of this month’s history and power goes back over 3000 years ago, and tells the entire story:

Moses climbs Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. After 40 days Moses returns, only to find that the Jewish people defied G-d by building the Golden Calf. Moses breaks the tablets and returns to Sinai to pray that G-d pardon the people for their grave betrayal. He spends another 40 days on Sinai and his efforts are unsuccessful. But Moses does not give up. Determined, he climbs the mountain for a third time and pleads another 40 days. This time Moses is successful. He elicits not merely Divine forgiveness, but a newfound depth, a more intense dimension in the relationship between G-d and the people.

To Moses’ entreaty, G-d responds with an unprecedented gift: He reveals His Thirteen Attributes of Compassion—thirteen secrets of G-d’s “personality” that carry the mysteries of life and the power to repair whatever is broken.

This third period of 40 days began on the first day of the month of Elul and concluded on Yom Kippur. Elul is therefore a potent month filled with the power of hope, love and reconciliation. The mystics tell us that the Thirteen Divine Attributes of Compassion radiate during the month of Elul, when we relive Moses’ experience.

By way of analogy, the Alter Rebbe explains, that in the month of Elul “the King is in the field.” The king had been traveling; he had left his palace and gone to a far off land outside his kingdom. And now he is on his way home. He is about to enter his palace (on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) and he stands outside in the field greeting his people. When the king is in the field every person has the opportunity, without petitioning for an audience, to greet him and ask for whatever he or she needs. The king is smiling, he is in his informal mode, and he is predisposed to grant all requests.

All year round there are many layers that conceal G-d’s presence, that shroud your own essence from yourself; there is a split between your inner self and your outer self—who you truly are and what you do, your spirit and your activities. In Elul many of these layers are stripped. You can access, if you wish, your true self, since it is part of the higher reality and the essence of all of existence called G-d.

Elul is not a simple month. It is a complex period in time when we have the power to find hope even after loss, to discover love even after betrayal and to rebuild even after we have destroyed. All people make mistakes. The question is whether we repeat them and whether we repair them. A trusting, loving relationship is built not on perfection but on accountability. In Elul we can correct our errors and reclaim our true legacy.

Elul’s message is relevant today more than ever.

As a tentative world enters the compassionate month of Elul, is there any more appropriate message? There is much to be apprehensive about. Many mistakes have been made. The future seems uncertain. But Moses – the one and only Moses – blazed a new path: The road to hope.

The month of Elul, which begins today – and the ensuing 40 days concluding with Yom Kippur – gives us the power to begin anew, to learn from the past, to dig deeper and come up with new reservoirs of clarity and strength.

Ahh, Moses. He paved new paths, tread new roads, opened new doors, pioneered new possibilities. All for whom? For… us.

Elul awakens our inner faith, hope and belief in a better future. We may not have an exact strategy, but if we assume a resigned attitude, we will lose even before we begin. Every challenge, every adversary must begin with absolute fortitude and belief in victory. Faith that we will prevail. Thus it was over 3000 years ago, and many times after that, and thus it will be.

The gusts of Elul have the power to counter the winds of uncertainty. So open your window, breath the fresh air, smell the flowers and feel the hopeful breeze waft through your life.

To help us draw strength from the power of Elul, we offer you a daily e-mail (subscribe below or subscribe by clicking this link) which will guide you along a fascinating 60 day journey of discovering hope and gaining energy to face any challenge ahead. Each daily posting contains an inspirational thought and a practical exercise for the day — excerpted from 60 Days: A Spiritual Guide to the High Holidays.

This extraordinary 60 day journey, which begins today and includes Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, embodies the energy of renewal after destruction, rebirth after loss, the energy of love and forgiveness, of empowerment and joy. There is no better time than now to embrace this 60 day journey, a journey that helps us find comfort in uncertain times, strength amidst adversity and fortitude and direction to forge ahead.

Europeans like to remind us that they work to live while Americans live to work. Indeed, August in Europe cities empty as the natives indulge in their annual summer siesta.

Europeans believe that their lifestyle of more emphasis on leisure than work is superior to the American one. It is filled with less stress, is less materialistic and less dehumanizing. With more free time Europeans feel that they can focus on nurturing their families, build their communities and cultivate their minds. Frenetic Americans on the other hand don’t have much time for such a rich life.

Jeremy Rifkin writes in “The Europeans Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future is Eclipsing the American Dream” – cited in a New York Times article by Mark Landler – that

“Americans define freedom as autonomy and mobility, which requires amassing wealth. Europeans define freedom in community – in belonging, not belongings. They put greater store on leisure and even idleness. We consider idleness to be almost sin, like sloth.”

Recently a debate has been raging in Europe over the mounting pressure to lengthen work hours due to economic forces that are driving the need for more labor. Many Europeans see this as challenging their central way of life.

All this sounds good on paper. Arguments can be made for each cultural model. The American way seems to produce faster economic growth and superior productivity, while taking a psychological toll that is difficult to quantify. The Europeans lifestyle seems to allow for more relaxation and better focus on personal development.

But are Europeans actually less stressed out than Americans? Are their families more intact, less dysfunctional? Are they less corrupt and more refined? Are their communities stronger than those in America?

A fundamental point missing from the debate, which can illuminate the entire issue, is the historical context of the work ethic.

We who have grown up with work as a cultural norm may think that this is how it always was. That is not the case at all. Work, as we know it – jobs and careers – is a relatively recent development. For much of ancient and medieval history, work has been hard and degrading. Indeed, according to the Bible, work-labor is a curse, a punishment brought on by the sin of the eating from the Tree of Knowledge: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” Mortality is the theme of the verse, as it concludes: “Until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

The Greeks and later the Romans also saw manual labor as a curse. The Greek word for work was ponos, taken from the Latin poena, which meant sorrow. Manual labor was for slaves. It was recognized that work was necessary for the satisfaction of material needs, but philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle made it clear that the purpose for which the majority of men labored was in order that the minority, the elite, might engage in pure exercises of the mind–art, philosophy, and politics. Plato recognized the notion of a division of labor, separating them first into categories of rich and poor, and then into categories by different kinds of work, and he argued that such an arrangement could only be avoided by abolition of private property. Aristotle supported the ownership of private property and wealth. He viewed work as a corrupt waste of time that would make a citizen’s pursuit of virtue more difficult.

The Greeks believed that a person’s prudence, morality, and wisdom was directly proportional to the amount of leisure time that person had. A person who worked, when there was no need to do so, would run the risk of obliterating the distinction between slave and master. Leadership, in the Greek state and culture, was based on the work a person didn’t have to do, and any person who broke this cultural norm was acting to subvert the state itself.

It was not until the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th century, and especially Puritanism, that physical labor became culturally acceptable for all persons, even the wealthy. This change was rooted both in theological shifts as well as materialistic and economic changes. According to Max Weber, the German economic sociologist, it was French theologian John Calvin who introduced the new attitude to work, seeing it as a necessary penance for the original sin and the path to personal salvation. Selection of an occupation and pursuing it to achieve the greatest profit possible was considered by Calvinists to be a religious duty.

With time, attitudes and beliefs that supported hard work became secularized, and were woven into the norms of Western culture.

Ever since the Reformation, the Protestant work ethic evolved until it bloomed into the “career” and “profession” that is so prominent today.

It’s a fascinating study to retrace the steps that shaped the role of work in our culture. At first labor was seen as a curse. The primary occupation of a person was to pursue knowledge and virtue. As generations passed, and people became used to the “darkness,” material labor became a religious duty! To the point that it became an end in itself, with all the alienation that it creates (as Marx explains).

How is it possible that the Biblical curse of material labor was transformed into a religious responsibility?!

Central to Calvinist belief was the Elect, those persons chosen by G-d to inherit eternal life. All other people were damned and nothing could change that. While it was impossible to know for certain whether a person was one of the Elect, one could have a sense of it based on his own personal encounters with G-d. Outwardly the only evidence was in the person’s daily life and deeds, and success in one’s worldly endeavors was a sign of possible inclusion as one of the Elect. A person who was indifferent and displayed idleness was most certainly one of the damned, but a person who was active, austere, and hard-working gave evidence to himself and to others that he was one of G-d’s chosen ones

The primary error lies in the initial understanding of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. According to the concept of “original sin” man is doomed, and an irreparable rift divides matter and spirit. Thus material labor is either a curse or surrender.

In truth however, “original sin” is a myth. Created in the Divine Image and retaining a Divine personality, man was and is never doomed. Even when a dichotomy appears between matter and spirit, in truth matter contains Divine sparks that can be redeemed. The change created by the sin was only on a conscious level.

This also explains the reason for the curse of “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” The curse was actually a sort of cause and effect brought on by eating from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. When they ate from the tree, Adam and Eve altered human consciousness: They created a schism between their material and spiritual lives. Good and evil became intertwined. Work also brings exploitation. Benefit for one creates alienation for another. Labor can be both good and bad at once.

As long as body and soul are one seamless whole, the primary human preoccupation is to “serve and protect” through spiritual work. This natural order was disrupted with the sin, and because matter and spirit became disconnected, now man would have to invest a large amount of his time in physical labor, “by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” He would have to labor at work and struggle to discover the spirituality within material labor. No easy task.

In order to repair this distortion we need to recognize that the problem lies not with work in itself, not with the individual drive for success and profit, but rather with realigning and focusing our work toward the higher calling.

Whether you are European or American we are all faced with the same challenge. Whether your primary focus is on work or on leisure, we all need to permeate our activities with a higher calling. Because after all, leisure is not an end in itself just as work is not an end in itself.

Spiritual sparks abound everywhere, the mystics tell us. “G-d leads the footsteps of man.” Wherever you travel, on business or vacation, wherever you find yourself, both at work and at play, spiritual opportunities are always to be found.

Many distortions have permeated our culture. In America there may be too much emphasis on work. But the emphasis on leisure in Europe has not necessarily created a better society. Work or leisure – both do not guarantee happiness. Without soul, leisure and free time can leave a deep void that is often filled with decadence.

Yes, it sounds good to say that one works to live (instead of living to work). The question is what does one live for? And what does living mean?

Becoming a Visionary

Do you have a vision of your life in, say, 10 years? What dreams and aspirations would you like to see fulfilled? (And this is not about how much money you want to make…). Do you have an overall vision for your life, or is your life driven and defined by the needs and demands of the moment?

No enterprise or business can function without a vision statement. Can you? A life with vision is dramatically and radically different than and a life without it. The former is guided by a unifying principle; the latter, by random circumstances. Vision provides direction. Lack of vision is aimless. Can you imagine driving without seeing the road ahead, without knowing where you want to reach? Do you control the details of your life, or do the details control you? Do you ever wonder what your life would look like from a birds’ eye view? What is the bigger story of your life, rather than the frame-by-frame chapters? And what will the picture look like years from now – when you can see your life in retrospect?

The name of this week’s Torah portion, Re’eh, means “see,” or “behold.” In one word we are being told that we each have the power to be a visionary.

By no means is this a minor statement.

Usually we think of visionaries as rare beings. Governments, monarchies and institutions throughout history have been built on the premise that most people, consumed with daily survival, preoccupied with petty details, are not equipped – or for that matter interested – to be leaders, or even educated enough to choose good leaders.

Some thinkers have expressed outright disdain and condescension toward the “masses,” dismissing them, in Voltaire’s words, as “la canaille” [the rabble], a phrase used to denigrate the masses. “As for the canaille,” Voltaire told d’Alembert, “I have no concern with it; it will always remain canaille… [without] the time and the capacity to instruct themselves; they will die of hunger before they become philosophers…. We have never pretended to enlighten shoemakers and servants; that is the job of the apostles.” Diderot couldn’t have agreed more. “The general mass of mankind,” he wrote, “can neither follow nor comprehend this march of the human spirit.” Diderot believed that we must distrust the judgment of the “multitude” in matters of reason and philosophy because “its voice is that of wickedness, stupidity, inhumanity, unreason and prejudice.” “The multitude,” he concluded, is “ignorant and stupefied.”

Other, less elitist, scholars have not been quite so heartless, but still hold that the masses are not fit for leadership or choosing leaders. Take the USA’s electoral college. It is built on the basis that the general population is not able to wisely choose leaders; they therefore vote for their local Electors, who in turn are more educated and suitable to choose the right leader.

Even in our so-called modern age, in which democracy thrives, the debate still rages amongst theorists what capacity the average “Joe,” the common citizen, has when it comes to leadership, direction and looking at the bigger picture. Cynics, many of whom actually lead political campaigns, argue that with well-tuned marketing, advertising and manipulation of the media, people can be convinced to believe virtually anything.

If this is true about basic leadership, where does that leave visionaries? Few and far between. When was the last time you met a visionary – someone who was able to see the forest from the trees?

Yet, this week’s Torah chapter unequivocally tells each and every one of us: “Behold,” “see” – you have the power to step back from the details of your life, to transcend your immediate circumstances, to focus and discover the vision of your life.

“Behold” is one of the most powerful words we will ever hear. It means that you have a choice. As difficult as it may seem, you are not doomed. You need not be consumed and overwhelmed with the pedestrian concerns of the struggle to survive. Left to our own accord, we humans will usually gravitate to the easiest option, which is to our materialistic needs and immediate impulses and desires. If this means, living in the moment and not seeing the larger horizon and the long (or even short) term consequences of our behavior for the sake of instant gratification – so be it.  The greatest casualty of this myopia is, of course, ourselves.

The directive “behold” gives each of us the mandate – and the power – to be a visionary in our own right. You have the ability, should you choose to access it, to climb up and see your life in perspective.

But how? How can we rise above the multitude of forces that dominate our lives; the constant demands and expectations placed upon us; the psychological wounds and ghosts that haunt us; the fears and insecurities plaguing our psyches?!

“Behold” informs us that despite all these voices, you have within another most powerful voice. But it may have been silenced by the surrounding din; it may have gone undercover due to the anxieties we have allowed to control us. This voice is the song of your soul. And your soul contains a vision – the vision of your entire life’s mission.

“Behold” you are told. Behold the larger picture, and then allow it to inform the details of your life, rather than the other way around.

This week you are given the power to become a visionary. The first step is to believe in yourself and in your soul’s capacity. The second step is to work on it – to establish regimens in your daily schedule that allow your visionary soul to emerge, to allow it to rear its head and breathe…

No different than your daily body exercises, your soul too needs daily work. And in this material universe, you need extra effort to draw out your soul.

When you begin to exercise your soul, you will be surprised by the discovery of new tools that will help you discern and establish the vision of your own life. Armed with this vision your life will never be the same.

Behold.

“What am I truly capable of achieving” is one of the biggest questions in life. This week’s Torah portion enlightens us to impossible possibilities.

As a younger man or woman did you have a mentor – perhaps a friend, a teacher or a colleague – that motivated you to reach great heights?

If you did, feel blessed. If you didn’t, it’s hard to describe what you were missing. But all is not lost.

Moses, the quintessential leader, the ultimate mentor, demands – and in effect empowers us all – to achieve the unfathomable.

In this week’s Torah portion Moses says,

“And now, Israel what does G-d want of you? Only to be in awe of G-d, to walk in all His ways and to love Him and to serve G-d with all your heart and with all your soul; to keep the commandments of G-d, and His statutes, which I command you this day for your good?” (10:12)

Asks the Talmud: “Is awe of G-d a minor thing [that Moses says “only to be in awe of G-d”]?” And the Talmud answers: “Yes, for Moses it is a minor thing” (Talmud, Berachot 33b).

In Tanya he asks, “At first glance, the [Talmud’s] answer is incomprehensible, since the verse says “What does G-d ask of you” [not of Moses!]. “But the explanation is as follows: Each and every soul contains within it something of the quality of our teacher Moses, for he is one of the “seven shepherds” who feed vitality and G-dliness to the community of the souls of Israel…. Moses is the sum of them all, called the “shepherd of faith” (raaya meheimna) in the sense that he nourishes the community with the knowledge and recognition of G-d… So although who is the man who dares presume in his heart to approach and attain even a thousandth part of the level of the faithful shepherd, nevertheless, an infinitesimal fringe and minute particle of his great goodness and light illuminates every one in each and every generation” (Tanya ch. 42).

In other words, each one of us has within our souls a dimension where serving G-d is a relatively “easy” and “minor” thing to accomplish!

But what exactly does that mean? The empirical fact is that even for the most G-d fearing person living a virtuous and spiritual life does not come easily. Life for most of us consists of a battle between good and evil, spirit and matter, self-indulgence and transcendence – between selfish cravings of material narcissism and commitment to a higher calling, with the former more often than not winning out.

Indeed, modern secular thought sees the human being as an evolved beast, a billion year old bacteria, whose primary drive is survival (“survival of the fittest”). From biology to psychology, from genetics to archeology – from Darwin to Freud – we have been taught that humans are driven by the irrational and emotional primitive “id,” which is all “want, want, want,” self-gratification driven by one rule – the “pleasure principle:  “I want it and I want it all now”.

Moses however saw the human being in quite a different light. While its true that every person has a selfish inclination, we also have a Divine side, which is capable of the noblest behavior. Indeed, Torah sees that the deepest part of the human being is the “yid” rather than the “id.” The essence of the soul is like the letter “yud,” a dot, a spark of the Divine.

The easier route may be the narcissistic one. But a person always has the choice to overcome his/her primitive temptations and access the transcendent soul within.

The soul is a rich resource, with layers and layers of potential. And in the soul lies a dimension that is a “spark” of Moses. At this level it is as natural to connect to G-d as it is for a fish to be in water. The challenge is to recognize and draw forth this dimension, which can lay concealed beneath the outer shell of material survival.

This is why Moses, a true leader, felt it necessary to, at least once, declare

“And now, Israel what does G-d want of you? Only to be in awe of G-d, to walk in all His ways and to love Him and to serve G-d with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Though Moses clearly understood the frailty of human nature, as he witnessed time and again in the errors of the Jewish people, yet he knew that each person has another noble dimension. By demanding – and expecting – that we can easily be “in awe of g-d and serve G-d,” this itself creates motivation in the part of the person to live up to his/her potential.

Moses understood the most basic aspect of human nature: We need someone to believe in us. This belief helps us gain the confidence to rise to the occasion. To  “remove the barriers from your heart” and its “stubbornness” (as Moses continues, 10:16), and allow our true Divine nature to emerge.

The lesson therein is quite obvious: Find someone that believes in you!

“Impossible. Absolutely impossible.” How often do we hear these discouraging words, pouring cold water on our freshly hatched ideas? Don’t you think that the first creators of the airplane or any other modern feat were told by their peers that their dreams were an impossibility? Yet, they persisted and finally prevailed. History is witness to countless stories of humans achieving the impossible.

And how else do we explain the seemingly irrational drive that we can overcome any challenge. How, for instance, are doctors utterly convinced that they can ultimately conquer every illness?! It is because we have an instinct that all is possible. This instinct stems from the Divine power of the soul that transcends mortality and all the shortcomings of human existence.

It is critical that we believe in ourselves to be able to achieve anything in this world. But we must also know that our psyches are under a constant assault of many forces reminding us time and again about our limitations, feeding our insecurities and fears.

Comes Moses and says no! You have the power to be Divine, and with ease! You only need to believe that it is possible.

In essence, one can say, that this is the ultimate battle in life: How much we believe in ourselves; how much we believe in our possibilities.

Moses dedicated his last 36 days on Earth to address all the issues that the people would face in the years and generations to come. As true shepherd, he anticipates the challenges of life and discusses them accordingly.

The last book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, in effect is Moses’ last will and testament – ensuring that the legacy of Exodus, Sinai, the travels in the wilderness, would live on forever.

Read the book carefully and you will find fascinating lessons on virtually all the issues we face till this day. In future columns we will occasionally attempt to focus on some of these powerful messages.

This week we learn about what is expected of us; what we are truly capable of. The greatest leader of all time, Moses, tells us that we have it in us to reach the highest places; we have the power to be G-dly, spiritual people, to the point where it is easily accessible to each one of us. Hence, the request and demand:

And now, Israel: What does the L-rd your G-d ask of you? Only to fear G-d.

When things sometimes seem impossible, think about Moses’ words. Think about the fact that by virtue of the “Moses” within” your soul you are within reach of achieving virtually anything you set your mind to.

So now that we know that the great Moses believes in us, the question we each much ask: Do I believe in myself?

With a leader like Moses the impossible may just be possible.