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.
