OyVeyNation
Let’s become the nation who (also) celebrates Geulah daily
rather than the “Oy Vey” nation who only cries about the exile
by RABBI RACHAMIM BITTON
⚠️Trigger warning ⚠️
Don’t read this if you have an issue with really facing yourself and some hard truths.
I cannot go on like this.
I cannot go on silently reading and hearing more people live their lives with this terrible mistake while they convince themselves it’s the righteous way to think and speak.
There’s a fundamental error prevalent among many of our people’s perspectives about Geulah and Tisha Be’Av.
Among those with this error are those who complain about why “Hashem is putting us through another year of exile and still hasn’t taken us out-Ad Masai”.
This obviously comes with the whole show of “Oys” and “Oy Veys”.
(Some people have even added this to their particular brand of yidishkeit. But I digress.)
In Eicha we read
מִפִּ֤י עֶלְיוֹן֙ לֹ֣א תֵצֵ֔א הָֽרָע֖וֹת וְהַטּֽוֹבBy the command of the one above, neither good nor bad come. (Lamentations 3, 38)
(For a more in depth understanding, you can look up the beautiful commentaries and explanations by Rabbi Chaim Ben Atar and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov on this verse. There are many other commentaries that follow their interpretation on this. And btw, there are many many sources for every point I’m writing in this post but I’m not including them here because my objective here is only to speak from the heart, keeping it short and simple, not to just teach another class)
“By the command of the one above, neither good nor bad come.” (Lamentations 3, 38)
The simple meaning of this verse (and this is one paradigm shift that was mistakenly omitted by many of our teachers mainly because many of them didn’t know any better) is that it’s not up to anyone else but us.
Exile, “Galut”, is not something done to us.
Each and every one of us is putting ourselves in Galut every day until we experience Geulah.
If we were ready for Geulah then we would have Geulah. Simple as that.
HaShem is not ”doing this to us”.
We are not HaShem’s victims.
That’s the same type of thinking that got us into this in the first place!
Remember the night of “crying about nothing”? Remember when we cried because we falsely claimed “Hashem is torturing us in this desert?”
Boohoo.
“Hashem is trying to give us a land we’ll never be able to conquer!”
Boohoo.
People out there who actually feel they’re justified in complaining to HaShem (or about Hashem) for not saving us from another Tisha Be’Av, let me ask you this:
Do you seriously believe you have prepared yourself for the state of consciousness we call “Geulah” and there are no other ways of purifying, elevating and optimizing yourself in greater or higher dimensions?
Do you seriously see the whole world ready for this higher state of reality and the only one “messing it up” is Hashem holding back and making us suffer another year?
If you answered yes to these questions then you just proved to yourself how far you are (how far WE are) from the state of higher consciousness we call “Geulah”.
I’m not just speaking about doing more of what you’ve done already, just a little more or a little better, that’s obviously not working if it hasn’t worked for 2000 years!
I’m speaking about exploring higher dimensions of perfecting the self, exploring newer realms of human spiritual evolution, and making the world much more than merely better than it has ever been — elevating the world to a whole different level!
And all of this starts with you and me.
It starts with recognizing that we are never the victims of our reality.
We create our reality.
We even created this Tisha Be’Av. Gulp.
Yes! I did just say that!
HaShem is already giving us Geulah and it’s presently accessible to us right here right now. The greatest Tzadikim throughout history said they were already living and experiencing it.
Here’s the secret:
We can too!
Each of us can access this in increasingly greater ways from day to day!
The only thing standing between us and the complete manifestation of Geulah
is our own thinking and feeling,
our doubts and fears,
our anger and frustration,
our hatred and jealousy,
our separateness and pride,
our limiting beliefs and victim mentality
— and most of all—
thinking that Hashem is the one responsible -“doing” all this “to us”,
instead of realizing how much Hashem is always here with us,
loving us unconditionally and supporting us throughout our personal journey of finding the Geulah within.
To summarize:
HaShem is never the one “making” us suffer.
Our reality is 100% the product of our consciousness.
HaShem is always within us presenting us with the possibility of Geulah, if we would just stop looking in the complete opposite direction.
Making the Geulah now is not about doing more of what we’ve already done.
Yes, that’s nice but it’s obviously not the only answer.
Yes, we need to perfect our fulfillment of mitzvot, Torah study, Torah observance, purity, holiness, loving all humans, loving Hashem etc,BUT… Have you ever stopped to wonder why we are still struggling with all that? Maybe there are some next-level methods of self improvement in human evolution that we ought to be exploring more than just continuing to bang our heads against the same self-created walls of our own psyche?
It is never justified to cry and complain about Hashem.
He only reflects to us what we put out.
If we want things to change out there we must change -in here.
When people complain and cry every day and every year “ad masai” ”Hashem why are you doing this to us???” “Oy Vey!!”— what do you think will be reflected back to us? Exactly! More proof to the validity and justification of that way of thinking!
But what happens when we all just stop.
And assume the inner state of already having the Geulah now.
Better yet, begin to experience yourself on the inside as the version of you who is naturally worthy of already experiencing the Geulah now.
What will happen then?
I believe things will get a million times better, we will enjoy this Geulah process a lot more and we will see more and more of this Geulah light manifesting for us every day in every aspect of our lives on a personal level and collectively as a nation.