Hold On! Instant Renewal
Meshivat Nefesh #45
Starting again isn’t always so easy, but Rebbe Nachman gave advice to help me jump-start my spiritual life when it feels like it’s gotten stagnant: Refresh yourself with Torah.
The Torah links me with the infinite mind of my Creator, and so it always has endless new levels of renewal awaiting discovery. I can invest energy in trying to develop new Torah concepts if my mind is up to that; if it’s not, I can invest energy in studying the Torah that’s accessible to me with new eyes—to allow its ever-freshness to renew my spirit. The Torah can always help me find my way to instant renewal.
Infinite One,
Please help me access
the constant freshness
within Your infinite Torah.
Open my mind to new concepts
that revive my soul,
and help me to feel the newness
even within the concepts that I’ve already studied.
Because, in truth, I have barely touched them until now.
(Hilchot Netilat Yadayim Shacharit 4:16)