In this week's parashah, Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu (3:5) המקום כי רגליך מעל נעליך של הוא קודש אדמת עליו עומד אתה אשר, "Take your shoes off your feet, because the place upon which you stand, is holy land." The Chofetz Chaim (al HaTorah) explains, "In every place, and at every time, it is possible to serve Hashem. Only, we must ensure that our sins don't separate us from Hashem. As it states, מבדילים עוונתיכם כי, 'Your sins separate you from Hashem.' Hashem told Moshe מעל נעליך של רגליך, you must remove the division between you and Hashem." The Chofetz Chaim writes that we can reach very high levels, even the levels of the early tzaddikim, but we must first remove the bad that separates us from Hashem.
This is the avodah of Shovavim: to remove the bad, the tumah, and the aveiros so that we can be pure before Hashem.
The Dubna Magid's Mashal
The Dubna Magid zt'l tells the following mashal:
A poor person, disgusted with his humiliating, torn, and worn clothing, saved up enough money to buy material and went to the tailor to make a suit.
When it was ready, the poor man put on the suit, thrilled that he finally had respectable clothing, but it didn't fit him. It was too small. He turned angrily to the tailor, "I told you to make the suit to my size! This is too small for me."
The tailor replied, "The suit fits you fine, but you first have to remove your old clothing before you can put on the new one."
The nimshal is that we can attain very high spiritual levels, but first נעליך של, we have to remove the impure garments that are on us. We do so with Torah study, saying Tehillim, and most importantly, we cleanse ourselves through teshuvah.
Hashem's Name and Teshuvah
Moshe asked Hashem (3:13-14) "If Bnei Yisrael ask for Your name, what should I tell them?"
Hashem replied, ה"אהי אשר ה"אהי.
The Yid HaKadosh (ויצא ,מזהב נחמד) zt'l explains that Moshe's question was regarding the Yidden who fell to very low levels until they forgot Hashem's name. How can they do teshuvah?
Hashem answered ה"אהי. A Yid should say, "I will become better." Be prepared to improve your ways.
Hashem replies, "If you improve your ways, ה"אהי אשר, I will be with you."
During Shovavim, making a kabbalah to become better is the first step. We add to that Torah study and Tehillim and become cleansed from our aveiros.
