There are times when we fall to a point where we forget who we really are. We grow accustom to the fall, the fears, and the dejection in our lives. This becomes our norm.
When the son of the king was exchanged for the son of the slave in Rebbe Nachman’s famous story “The Exchanged Children” the result sets up a chain of events which are analogous to each of our lives. The true son of the king grows up believing he is only a son of a slave. He has no idea who he really is. His life is filled with despair and as he flees his own kingdom he begins to wonder who he really is.
Each one of us exists deep within an inner galus, which has become expressed in a national and even global construct. As the bills pile up, the spousal conflicts grow, and the political climate worsens, we wonder what we are doing here and what our purpose is.
“Why do I have such problems?”
“Is there any hope?”
Most of us grow up believing we are nothing and opt to rather live a life that exists within the meaningless noise of our current postmodern confusion, but the ambient current of the western cultural abyss will increase our inner abyss. The shadows within will tell all of us that we are nothing until we can take it no more.
The emptiness in that moment, when the world becomes surprisingly quiet despite all the noise – that moment when all seems lost, a voice inside tells you something you have always known.
“You are the child of a king.”
And then you quietly agree, “Yes. Yes I am.”
Our souls are formed within the infinite consciousness of God. We are his children. No matter how much we fail and how far we fall he is still our king and our father, even if we forget.
“I am your child.” At that moment all is possible, all is attainable for we are the “true son of the king,” longing to return to “his rightful place.”
Based on Likutey Halachot Birchat Hashachar, Halacha 3
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But if I am a king’s son why has my father forsaken me
Who says that he has?