What does this mean? What area of life is it referring to? From what Rebbe Nachman says afterwards, we see that it is referring to avodas Hashem and the actions we make in this world: “And my custom is that when a day comes, I hand over all my movements, and the movements of my children and those who are dependent on me, to Hashem – that everything should be according to His will.”
This is the act of “mesiras moda’ah,” which we explained at length in the introduction. Of course, we know that it is good to give ourselves over to Hashem and rely on Him regarding our income, our health, and other material things that are beyond our power to determine. We must trust in Hashem to provide our needs. However, we learn from this sichah that it is also necessary to rely on Hashem regarding our actions as well. We shouldn’t think that we have to do everything all on our own. Rather, we should put our movements and decisions into Hashem’s hands – that everything should be according to His will.
Why does Rebbe Nachman say that this practice is “very good.” At first glance, it seems like he’s just telling us that this is a good practice for being relaxed and calm. However, we see from the continuation that the act of mesiras moda’ah in avodas Hashem has much more power than that: it determines whether we fulfill our daily obligations to Hashem or not!
Therefore, when Rebbe Nachman states that this practice is “very good,” he’s telling us that it really works in Heaven! It is truly received by Hashem. We might think that it doesn’t actually do anything to help our situation. At the end of the day, we still fell short of our goals and failed to achieve what we wanted. Thus, we must know that, just like mesiras moda’ah is effective regarding an oath, so too, it is effective regarding what we do in avodas Hashem and in life in general.
It says in halachah that if a sofer is mekadesh a klaff (sanctifies a piece of parchment to use for holy writings), it remains holy. So too, we should say, “This is what I want to do in kedushah.” Then, it’s as if we’ve done it. After we express our true intention, even if we don’t merit to fulfill it, we have, in fact, accomplished it.
This concept is mentioned in other sefarim. For example, the Chidah wrote a tefillah on this subject. But what is not mentioned in sefarim is the incredible effectiveness of this practice. It is “very good” in Hashem’s eyes. If we give ourselves over to Hashem, we can be close to Him at all times. We can be serious about our avodah, without wasting time worrying about our mistakes in the past and how we can be perfect in the future.
