Overcoming the Obstacles in Our Minds
We must have incredible emunah in these words of Rebbe Nachman, since our entire lives depend on them! Time after time, we have to face all kinds of barriers, and it seems to us that it is impossible to overcome them. Therefore, we must listen carefully to this message and engrave it on our hearts: Obstacles are only given to each person according to their strength—according to what they can withstand.
In truth, most obstacles we could easily overcome, if it not for the greatest obstacle of all, which Rebbe Nachman calls the "obstacle of the mind"—in other words, the feeling of discouragement that penetrates the depths of the heart whenever we encounter a barrier or difficulty, telling us over and over again: "You can't do it!"
These negative thoughts try to uproot us completely from kedushah. As the Zohar HaKadosh says, the realm of kedushah is like an inner point surrounded by concentric circles, one inside the other. We must always strive to come closer and be included within that inner point. However, “the klipos lead the wicked around the inner point, not allowing them to draw near to it. Nevertheless, as long as a person is still within the circles, even a great sinner still has hope of entering the realm of kedushah. But someone who has completely left the circles—such as a heretic—it is impossible for him to come close at all (Likutei Mohoran II, 45).”
The main obstacle is not the difficulty itself. Rather, it is the discouragement and despair that tries to destroy us and remove us completely from the circles surrounding the kedushah, causing us to stop yearning for Hashem altogether.
Thus, we must have mesirus nefesh to overcome our feelings of weakness and the barriers in our mind, and then we will be able to easily rise above the physical obstacles themselves. This is the main avodah: to constantly strengthen our yearning and refuse to give up on any aspect of kedushah, even if for the time being we can't actually break through the difficulties to attaining that kedushah.
