Quick and Meaningful Post Election Inspiration from Uman

Hitting my Spotify feed, I thought I would listen to some patriotic songs to focus on Election Day, but R. Yosef had other ideas.

What showed up even before I could even get to "God Bless America" was a song with an incredibly important message from which we can all learn as we, on both sides of the political divide, move forward from this challenging week.

The song by Yosef Karduner is about the Derekh Hashem, the path of God and the way that we can imitate God’s ways.  The words are from R. Nachman of Brezlov quoting R. Chaim Moshe Luzatto.

In the coming weeks, we are going to be teaching this Ramchal in school and learn -- emotionally, politically, socially and religiously -- how we can all grow with these lenses in mind. 

The words are below and they speak for themselves. 

 ואומר רבי רבי נחמן מברסלב (ליקוטי מוהר"ן ח"ב, תורה יז'): "שדרך ה' יתברך להביט על הטובות שעושין, ואף שנמצא בהם גם מה שאינו טוב, אינו מסתכל על זה. ומכל שכן האדם, שאסור לו להביט על חברו לרעה, למצוא בו דווקא את מה שאינו טוב ולחפש פגמים בעבודת חברו. רק אדרבה, מחויב הוא להביט רק על הטוב ולחפש ולמצוא בו זכות וטוב תמיד, ועל ידי זה יהיה לו שלום עם הכל".

R. Nachman says, “It is the way of God to look at all of the good things that we do. And even if God finds something not so good, God does not focus on that. 

All the more so, it is prohibited for a person to look at others for the bad and find just that thing that is not good and find blemishes.  It is actually the opposite, we are obligated to look at the good and find the positive and good always.  And by that he will have peace with everything and everyone."

May we, as individuals and as a community of Americans and Jews all focus on finding that essence of good in others and bring  שלום עם הכל - peace to all and to everything.

The full source can be found here and the inspiring song can be found here.  

Many thanks to Goel Jasper, dear friend and teacher, who located the source for this teaching.