BY RABBI DAVOD RIBOH
RABBI OF BRESLEV CENTER MONTREAL
Our sages teach us that there are 600,000 Jewish souls. Likewise there are 600,000 letters in the Torah. In fact each Jewish soul is rooted in one of those letters.
The amazing thing is, that when the Tzaddik learns Torah in purity, he is actually stirring the soul of the jew connected to the letter being learnt causing him to repent and return to G-d, it likewise arouses righteous converts to join am Yisrael. Rabbenou hakadosh explains that these people who return to G-d reveal His honor in the world at the highest level.
In fact the Navi refers to Honor as light. Rabbenou explains that this is the light of Hanuka, G-d's honor brought about by the baal teshuva.
However, Rabbenou warns, that the baal tshuva has a way to go, as his past improper deeds have caused spiritual stains which prevent his growth. This is the source of all obstacles and confusion involved in coming closer, all the ups and downs and feelings of despair. In truth, until one has overcomed the obstacles and has purified themselves completely, the teshuva is still incomplete and thus so is Hashems honor. The question is how to overcome them? How do we clean those past spiritual stains?
The Gemara teaches that a person needs to fight against the evil inclination. If he has diˀculty in conquering him, let the person learn Torah, if that doesn't work, let him read Shema Yisrael, if that doesn't work let him remind himself of the day of death.
The question here is obvious, seemingly the last advice is the strongest, if so, against such a fierce enemy, why even bother use the first two defenses, one should immediately use the strongest weapon against such a dangerous foe.
The answer is, in fact, only the Torah will help us clean our pasts to the point where we remove all spiritual blemishes caused by our previous improper deeds. However, the journey is long, and it takes many years of learning Torah in very fixed and committed way to clean ones past. Many people give up learning when they see that they have invested time and effort but don't feel any change. The advise for such people is to remind themselves that their time in this world will eventually come to an end, and when standing in front of the heavenly court, every extra hour of Torah learning will certainly be a helpful merit for them even if they were not able to purify themselves. That realization will cause them to return to daily Torah study.
And here is the punch line: Now that they have recommited to daily learning, the Torah will end up cleansing them of all blemishes. It takes time, but it works. So the advice of reminding one's self of the day of death is to return to the Torah with renewed strength.
Rabbenou wanted very much that every jew have fixed daily quotas of Torah learning that the should complete at all costs. The benefit is tremendous, it cleans past sins, refines the individual, removes the obstacles in serving G-d, which allows the person to fully return to Him, thus revealing G-d's honor at the highest level. May we all be zoché. Amen.
(based on Torah 14, and LH beziat hapat 5)
