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THEMES of Featured Chasidic Masters Articles
"Let us search our paths and analyze them….”
When a
person transgresses once, he is confronted with the test of another sin so that
he may be aroused to repent, whereby the first sin will be atoned. But the evil
inclination tries to overpower the person to continue to sin until
he is fully entrapped.
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Rabbi Akiva's life was the culmination of Adam, the first man, and our forefather, Jacob.
Jacob physically resembled Adam because his task was to rectify the sin of Adam, and in particular the sin of lust and illicit relationships. That aspect of Adam's misdeed lived on in Esau and this was what Jacob had to oppose and rectify, although it wasn't until the arrival of Rabbi Akiva several generations later that this was fully rectified.
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A person who is willing to sacrifice can certainly become a throne for the Divine Presence with the trait of loving- kindness.
The Baal Shem Tov teaches that
in the Diaspora, special help is available to a person seeking Divine
inspiration, despite the fact that the Shechinah does not dwell in exile.
Even if a person is not entirely worthy, heaven is
still not so particular with him as in the Land of Israel.
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The Noahide commandments are eminently sensible…except the law forbidding eating a limb severed from a living animal.
Noah's strength was fending off the temptations of his times. Shem miShmuel says that Noah had to work hard to escape the vices of his generation and not act like a limb "severed" from G‑d. When he succeeded, G‑d
established his achievement as a mitzvah – not eating a severed limb, a commandment for all times.
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