Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of SIMHA, the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness. We are talking about Menuchat HaNefesh, and we started with the Elder of Kelm. His student, Rav Yerucham Levovitz, in his sefer Da’at Torah on Bereshit (page 280), explains how one can reach what he calls complete peace of mind. He says it only comes from having one goal in life. If a person has one goal and he knows what he's aiming for, he's always in one situation. A lack of Menucha comes when you flip-flop. One day I'm going this way, one going, going that way. One day, I'm at work. One day, I'm on vacation. One day I'm playing tennis. One day, I'm heaven forbid, in the emergency room. I'm in all kinds of different situations. But if a person lives his life with the fundamental of the “Know God in all your ways,” that means you're doing the same thing at all times. You're doing your mission. That's where the term mission statement comes in. When I say mission statement, I don't mean a business mission statement. Walt Disney's mission statement is, Be the happiest place on earth, which means everybody who works there knows that the focus is making sure that everybody's happy. That's their mission. So you have to have one thing to always focus on. Don't get your mind out of it. That's the one focus. A person has to have his own personal mission statement, and that's where he's going to put his focus. It might not be lifelong. It could be monthly or yearly. Rav Yerucham says, that way, you don't get broken. He says people get broken and preoccupied because they keep on switching situations. They're living in so many different situations and that's what breaks the person- bouncing around from place to place. But if a person stays in one constant position, then he's in Menucha. Of course, as always, Emuna and Bitachon help in our emotional wellness.
There's a famous explanation about when the Jewish people when they were in the desert. They had 42 different encampments, but the rabbis say they were always in the same place, even though we're constantly moving.
Why? Because they were in Hashem's arms. When a baby goes on a trip from America to Israel, he starts off in the house. Then they get into the taxi, then they get to the airport and they wait on line. Then they're at the boarding area, then they're on the plane. Then the plane lands, and they're at the Airport in Israel. Then they wait for the taxi. Then they get in the taxi, and finally get into the hotel. There are so many different places… people get very stressed and sometimes even act out of character when they go on trips because of all that change and the stressful situations.
But the baby has been in the same spot the entire time. He's in his mother's arms. Nothing changed the entire time. If a person lives life like that, with one goal, and one mission, which is What does Hashem want for me today; in one place, which is in Hashem's arms, that's going to bring a person to Menuchat HaNefesh. Easier said than done. It’s truly a very, very high level, but we have to try to get there, little by little.
The Sefer K’Tab B’Kabalah, Bereshit, (chapter 2, pasuk15) quotes a pasuk in Yeshaya (57,20)
וְהָרְשָׁעִ֖ים כַּיָּ֣ם נִגְרָ֑שׁ כִּ֤י הַשְׁקֵט֙ לֹ֣א יוּכָ֔ל וַיִּגְרְשׁ֥וּ מֵימָ֖יו רֶ֥פֶשׁ וָטִֽיט
The wicked are like the sea. They can never have tranquility. The waters are always stirring with mud and muck.
Why are the wicked always churning and moving? He says it’s because the wicked are always chasing their desires. Every day, another desire overcomes the previous desire.
On the other hand, when a person has religion and he is in control of his desires, then there's no inner churning or inner war, because all of his senses and energies are being controlled (to whatever extent). And the more a person is in control of his desires, the more at peace he is with himself.