Hayom Yom

Rabeinu Haggadol1 the Alter Rebbe, set forth a program for Chassidim of striving (avoda) with the mind and seeking truth, to critically examine one's every move to be certain it conforms strictly with truth2 and comes through avoda, effort.

This avoda does not imply - as some think, altogether erroneously - that one must pulverize mountains and shatter boulders, turn the world upside down. The absolute truth is that any avoda, any act, whatever it may be, is perfectly satisfactory when performed with true kavana, intent: A b'racha pronounced with kavana; a word of davening as it should be, with a prepared heart and an awareness of "before Whom you stand"; a passage in Chumash said with an awareness that it is the word of G-d; a verse of Tehillim; a beneficent trait of character expressed in befriending another with affection and love.

The truth of the matter is, that to achieve this calls for great and intense effort, meaning simply to study a great deal of Torah and to comprehend it - each according to his ability - and then G-d will help him be what truth demands.

A b'racha must have a hold in something,1 just as rain benefits only the plowed and sown field, and early and later heavy rains benefit the crops of field or vine. But a waste field, unplowed and unsown, will benefit from neither soft rain, nor the early or later heavy rains.