world would really like to have peace, but they don't know what
it is, and they don't know how to get it. Imagine you go into
a hardware store to buy ice cream. They won't have it, right?
People would like to have peace, but they are always going to
the wrong store. They talk to the wrong people about it. Peace
comes from the highest place there is, from that holy place
in heaven, where the whole world is one. There is a prayer for
peace, which we say three times a day, and it is very strong.
We pray, "Please God, Sim Shalom, You put peace into the
world. Only You can do it." Then it says Toua ubracha,
'Goodness and Blessings'. The world thinks that if I don't kill
somebody else, and the other person doesn't have immediate plans
to kill me, that means there is peace. The world is so far from
peace and goodness.
Do you know what goodness means? It means having good eyes.
Sometimes people look at you without saying anything, but
with their eyes they cut off your wings, and make you small.
Other people can look at you and not only do they make you
as tall as you are, they make you taller, bigger. That's very
special. According to hasidic teachings , having good eyes
means whenever I look at something I enable it to be more.
If someone loves me very much, when they look at me and just
think, "Oy, I wish him the strength to be more,"
then I am more at that moment, and it gives me strength to
be more after that too.
How many people sit in one wagon in the subway? A lot of
people, right? If you have a long ride, from New York City
to Brooklyn, and if you can look with good eyes at all the
people, do you know how much you can do? While other people
are reading the paper, you can create a whole world. You can
do the greatest things. That is Tova. That is Goodness. Good
eyes.
Then the prayer says Bracha, Blessings. Do you know what
a blessing is? An apple tree can only have more apples if
I bless it, "You have been a little bit connected to
your roots, so you have a hundred apples. Now I want to connect
you even stronger to your roots, so you will have millions
of apples." Blessing means to be connected to the roots.
Some people connect you to your roots, some people cut you
off. The greatest blessing is to be connected to your roots,
to the roots of your own soul.
Then the prayer says Chaim, Life. Life is even deeper than
blessing, deeper than goodness. Most people in the world have
never even tasted it for one second. We don't have vessels
yet to live all the time, but if you live one second, this
one second keeps you going for a long time. The important
thing is to have a safe to keep the one second; don't lose
it. Life itself is the greatest medicine, especially against
sadness. Sometimes we are so sad, we have nothing to make
us happy. Suddenly we remember, "Oy! Do you remember?
Once we were alive for one minute!" Life is so strong
that if you just remember it, you get it again. I can remember
that ten years ago I ate steak somewhere. It won't help me
now if I am hungry like a dog. If ten years ago 1 was alive,
and I remember it, it gives me life again, because life is
eternity.
Then we pray for something very important, Chen, meaning
grace, like charm. In Hassidus there are two kinds of charm,
Chen d'Kdusha, holy charm, and Chen d'Klipa, the charm of
the other side. Don't kid yourself; the evil side also has
a certain very magnetic charm. The difference is very simple.
With unholy charm, the second time is less magnetic. The third
time, even less. By the fourth time, you wish you could get
away from it. Holiness is very soft. First it is a little
magnetic. The second time it's stronger. Then it will grab
you. It gets stronger all the time.
Then we pray for Chesed, unreserved love. If I love someone
because of a reason, I haven't yet reached the level of real
love. If someone asks me a favor and I answer him back, "Listen,
1 just did you a favor yesterday," then it is sweet,
but it isn't sweet enough, because I still have reservations.
You pray to God all the time. Have you ever-heard God answer,
"Listen, you prayed to me yesterday. Will you please
leave me alone? Let me go, leave me in peace! Sometimes I
need a weekend off from you."
Then we pray for mercy, for Compassion. The Talmud says,
"Even if the sword is on your neck, don't refrain from
Mercy" This is usually interpreted, "Don't stop
praying, asking God for compassion." Rabbi Berish Aushpitziner
interpreted it differently, "What do you do at the last
minute if the sword is on your neck? At that moment the only
thing you can do is have compassion on somebody else. Then
you open gates in Heaven for compassion, and it can come to
you too. Have compassion, don't ask for it."
Chaim, Chen and Chesed you can have without the level of
prophecy. Mercy is on the level of prophecy. If I have compassion
on somebody who is in bad shape, then I have a vision of how
that person could be. I compare what he is to what he could
be and I say, "Oy Vey, I have to help you to get there."
This is very important for peace, because sometimes we don't
want to make peace with someone because we lost the vision
of how that person could be. The highest peace between people
is when they know how each other could be, and how they will
be. A person has to live in two worlds. We have to live in
a world where there is evil and we are fighting it, and we
have to live in a world where there is no evil, like after
the Messiah has come. The highest combination of these two
worlds is Mercy That means I see you the way you are, but
I also know how you could be on the Messiah level.
So when we pray for peace, we say, "Please God, give
us all these beautiful things. First Toua, Goodness, the real
goodness of good eyes. Bracha, Blessings, to be connected
to our roots. Chaim, Life. Life itself. Chen, holy charm.
Chesed, unreserved love, Mercy, the prophetic vision of compassion.
These are the ingredients of Peace.
You know, my friends, peace is not going to come from the
peace negotiators or the politicians. Only the common people,
schlepper and thieves are the ones who can make peace. Our
leaders are too busy talking about peace to have the time
to really do something about it. In order to make peace you
have to use your hands and feet. In one corner of the world
a parent wakes up full of anger and yells at a child. The
child goes to school full of anger and the negative vibrations
continue. In another corner of the world, a happy parent greets
a child in the morning with a loving kiss. The child goes
to school infused with love and joy and a stream of peace
flows forth. Generating the currents of peace is therefore
a task that every human being can perform all day long.
Peace begins at home.
Sadly, sadly enough, most children do not have parents who
tell them how special and beautiful they are. A girl once
told me that when she gets back home her mother serves her
breakfast by telling her how bad she was as a child. For lunch
her mother tells her how bad she is now. And for dinner, her
mother turns prophetic and tells her how bad she will be in
the future.
A husband madly in love with his wife and a wife madly in
love with her husband are both teaching their children what
love is. Children raised in love will not grow up to kill
people and make war. They will not have to negotiate peace
--they will live peace.
You know why there is no peace in the world? Because there
is no true joy in the world. Imagine. My archenemy. My whole
life I am searching for him to kill him in the most brutal
way I know how. But I can't find him. So I go along with life
with my wife and my two daughters. What can I do? Then one
day God blesses me and I marry off my elder daughter. Well
at her wedding I dance with all my energy. My joy is to seventh
heaven. I get up on the table and dance with her. Suddenly,
the door opens and in walks my arch enemy. I quickly jump
down and grab him. I say to him, "Where were you?"
I've been waiting all my life to dance with you." I grab
him and lift him up to the table and I am dancing with my
worst archenemy. My daughter's joy, my friend's joy brings
peace to the world. Not some sad politicians negotiating.
The world needs happy people to speak joyously with each other.
Then there is peace.
world would really like to have peace, but they don't know what
it is, and they don't know how to get it. Imagine you go into
a hardware store to buy ice cream. They won't have it, right?
People would like to have peace, but they are always going to
the wrong store. They talk to the wrong people about it. Peace
comes from the highest place there is, from that holy place
in heaven, where the whole world is one. There is a prayer for
peace, which we say three times a day, and it is very strong.
We pray, "Please God, Sim Shalom, You put peace into the
world. Only You can do it." Then it says Toua ubracha,
'Goodness and Blessings'. The world thinks that if I don't kill
somebody else, and the other person doesn't have immediate plans
to kill me, that means there is peace. The world is so far from
peace and goodness.
