“How do you fix a place, a problem, a person—anything at all?
By rejecting the bad and embracing the good.
If so, you have two possible strategies:
You could focus on all that is bad, ugly and diseased, scraping it away and chasing it out, so that eventually all that’s left is pure and healthy.
Or you could focus on whatever is still healthy and functional, embracing it, fortifying it and using it for its true purpose, so that eventually the dark crust in which it was imprisoned simply falls away.
Certainly, both strategies are necessary, and both have their time and place. But where do you begin?
It depends. When the human soul shines bright and strong, with just a few details out of place—then you can focus on discarding whatever bad remains.
But when everything is a mess, when the soul lies in a deep coma, when darkness rules in every cell—then to attack the disease head-on could prove fatal. Then you have no choice but to seek out the precious sparks of life that have survived.
Those are the most precious jewels, those hidden at the bottom of a dark mine.”
— Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
Our thirteenth installment in a twenty part series. Click here to listen: