Many times when someone is asked, "How is life?", they answer, "I'm struggling." Behind this seemingly casual answer lies real distress. Life is hard. Work is hard. The burden of home and family is heavy.
Even in Jewish life there can be a feeling of difficulty. As the well-known expression goes, "It's hard to be a Jew.".
A person who lives with such a feeling feels doubly difficult when the month of Elul arrives and the High Holy Days approach. The terror of the Day of Judgment paralyzes him and extinguishes every spark of joy within him. He walks with a feeling of heaviness, as if a difficult and threatening task has been imposed on him.
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Bring back the joy
The feeling of difficulty is not derived from objective reality. Humans can face the most difficult challenges with vigor and joy, and they can sink into despondency in the face of anything that requires any effort from them. When a person loses the joy of doing, even a small task seems like a great mountain to him.
The loss of joy in Jewish life brings severe consequences. Such a person does not feel the good taste of the Torah and its commandments. He does not have the feeling of "taste and see that the Lord is good." He feels as if a system of commandments and prohibitions has been imposed on him, and he has no choice but to obey them, so as not to be punished. His observance of the commandments becomes technical and dry. Prayer becomes a burden from which one is glad to be free. There is no point in being diligent in the commandments.
This phenomenon does not only affect older people, who have been observing Torah and mitzvot for many years. It is also found among teenagers. The spark that would breathe life into Jewish life has not been ignited in them. They have been told that they 'need' to do this and that, and they walk around with a feeling of unhappiness - there is a vibrant and interesting world around them, while they are imprisoned within a system of rules and regulations to which they are not connected within their souls. From here, the road to dropping out, with all its consequences, is short.
But how do you ignite the spark? How do you make Jewish life experiential, exciting, and exciting? How do you make a person feel a real, living, and contemporary connection with the Creator of the world? How do you achieve the ability to pour out your heart to our Father in Heaven, to embrace Him, to feel His presence?
Hasidism provides a solution to this challenge. Studying Hasidism awakens the soul within us. It has a special power to breathe life and inner joy into us. A person begins to study Hasidism and suddenly his soul awakens. Something within him begins to live, to blossom. New energies are drawn into him.
Refreshing meaning
Chassidism also gives refreshing meaning to the spiritual work of the month of Elul and the High Holy Days. Alongside awe, it emphasizes love, the 'king in the field,' the closeness of the Creator to us. And even in awe, Chassidism teaches man to feel a deeper and more internal awe – a fear of shame, a fear of the sublime. Awe of the greatness of the Creator and not of the severity of His punishment.
The Hasidic approach elevates man instead of shrinking him. That is why the 18th of Elul – on which the Baal Shem Tov and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Ladi, the author of the Tanya, were born – is called the "Kh"i of Elul, because this day revived Elul and illuminated it with a deeper and more inner light.
