A person should meditate that this is what the Ribbono shel Olam wants from him. He wants to be connected with you—both in the things you must do as well as the things you must not do.
The first step in rebuilding the relationship is to recognize and acknowledge what has happened. When we want to bring peace between two people, we sit them down and we ask each one: “Do you understand what happened here? Do you recognize that you’ve said or done something you shouldn’t have?”
The next step is to extricate ourselves from our negative habits. A person must arrive at a level of not wanting to do what he must not—not because it’s an aveirah, but because it will interfere with his kirvas Elokim. He will say: “I know that doing this drags me down. I want it out of my life. It won’t allow me to daven properly. I won’t be able to celebrate Shabbos with the proper mindset.” The same can apply to the company that one keeps. “I know that this person puts me in a bad place... his entire talk and comportment are unbefitting, and they are damaging to my avodas Hashem.”
Such a Yid—a Yid who understands that the entire purpose behind all the mitzvos is only to become closer to Hashem—truly laments the loss of Yerushalayim. He cries when he sees Yerushalayim in ruins. His own spiritual state is so painful to him: “Look at what spiritual potential a Yid has, and look at where I am. I don’t want to look this way. Help me, Ribbono shel Olam, to rebuild Yerushalayim.”
Let’s begin rebuilding Yerushalayim—the inner Yerushalayim, the מעלה של ירושלים within the heart of every Yid. Let’s clean out our hearts with true brokenness and with thoughts of teshuvah. Let’s take in a bit more Torah and tefillah... and other things that may sometimes be difficult, all to purify our hearts. Let us not just seek the Torah, but what lies within the Torah! The relationship with Hashem that we can all find in the Torah.
