In the eyes of people, forgetfulness is a great deficiency. But in my eyes, forgetfulness has a great virtue, since if there was no forgetfulness, it wouldn’t be possible to do anything in avodas Hashem. If a person remembered all of his sins, he wouldn’t be able to lift himself up to serve [Hashem] in any way. Also, all the things that a person goes through would confuse him a lot. However, now, through forgetfulness, the past is forgotten.
[And regarding Rebbe Nachman, his path was that everything that happened and occurred he would completely cut off (from his memory), and he wouldn’t go back over it in his mind at all. And he wouldn’t get confused by the past at all.]
The Struggle to Remember
In this sichah, Rebbe Nachman reveals how to transform a negative trait into a positive avodah. He shows us how to use the power of forgetfulness in order to come closer to Hashem.
On a simple level, forgetfulness can be a big problem. Spiritually, if we forget to think about Hashem, we fall away from serving Him. If we lose touch with our fear of Heaven, the yetzer hara can entice us to sin, G-d forbid. Similarly, when we’re unable to remember the Torah that we study, we feel as if our learning has little value and we don’t commit ourselves to our studies as much as we should. Not only that, but forgetfulness also makes it hard to understand the Torah. Even if we’re able to grasp each stage of the Gemarra by itself, if we struggle to remember them all at once, we can’t comprehend the connection from one thing to another, and we’re unable to understand the overall meaning.
Also, when we forget to concentrate on the words of the tefillos and brachos that we say every day, we’re unable to enter deeply into the avodah of davening. The same is true regarding practical, material matters: if we can’t retain information in our memory it is very hard for us to be successful at school, work, and taking care of our families, etc.
Thus, our forgetfulness causes many of us to despair. We feel like our Torah and tefillah are worthless due to all of their holes of forgetfulness. We see it as if we’re making money, but without a bank account to put it in, the money gets lost and we come away empty handed at the end of every day.
The Climax of the Torah: Breaking the Luchos
However, in this sichah, Rebbe Nachman reveals that forgetfulness can actually be a very good thing that is absolutely essential to our lives. To truly understand his advice, it is necessary to go back to the source of forgetfulness in the world. The very last thing that is mentioned at the end of the Torah is the virtue of forgetfulness. The Torah finishes off by describing the greatness of Moshe Rabbeinu – that he spoke to Hashem face to face, and all of the wonders and miracles that he performed in Egypt. The very last verse says, “And the powerful hand and all the awesome acts that Moshe performed in the eyes of all Yisroel.”
Rashi comments that the “powerful hand” refers to the Luchos of the Ten Commandments that Moshe received with his two hands, while the phrase “in the eyes of all Yisroel” hints to when Moshe broke the Luchos before the entire nation and Hashem approved of his actions. Many commentators raise the question: Why does the Torah end with such a message? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to finish off on a positive note?
However, in truth, the breaking of the Luchos was indeed one of the greatest acts that Moshe performed in his lifetime. It was a crucial tikkun for the Jewish people of all generations. When the Jews received the Torah at Har Sinai, we were purified from the stench of the Sin of the Tree of Knowledge. In other words, we merited to sanctify our minds to think only thoughts of kedushah and avodas Hashem. Thus, the verse says that the Ten Commandments were “charus al haluchos” – engraved on the Luchos, on which the Sages expound, “Don’t read charus, rather cheirus” – freedom, since the Torah freed our minds from constriction and enabled us to focus on kedushah. Through this, we were able to easily remember everything that we learned.
Nonetheless, shortly afterwards, the Erev Rav were able to entice the Jewish people to commit the grievous sin of the Golden Calf. This sin renewed the claim of the prosecuting angels in Heaven who questioned Hashem’s decision to create human beings. It was a time of great judgment and the existence of the Jewish people was hanging in the balance.
However, through the power of Moshe Rabbeinu everything was fixed and we were saved from destruction. The beginning of the tikkun was the breaking of the Luchos. The Sages explain that when the Luchos were broken, forgetfulness came into the world. On the one hand, this is what makes it difficult for us to remember things that we learn. On the other hand, however, it also gave us the ability to forget about the Sin of the Golden Calf and start over. Without this, it wouldn’t have been possible to do teshuvah and correct the mistake. If we had remained attached to the past, we wouldn’t have been able to pick ourselves up, ask for Hashem’s forgiveness, and then, in turn, Hashem wouldn’t have been able to reveal His immense compassion by forgetting about our sin and returning the Shechinah to dwell with us in the Mishkan.