Speaking of Epihanal Moments

BS"D

Wow. I had a great breakthrough a few months ago.

I was having real problems reconciling my hasidic spiritual life with the structure of my everyday world. I needed the structure of my life to be in alignment with my spiritual path. In Brooklyn, this would be easy, I'd just immerse myself in community, and that would take care of it. In Eugene, it's not so easy. And if you're a maggid working in liberal communities, it's even harder.

It can be done though. Reb (Yitzhak H.H.) gave me the breakthrough I needed. We were discussing what a good daily schedule would look like for me. I recalled reading an anecdote in Reb Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum's book on the Holy Baal Shem Tov, about the Besct's daily schedule and decided to apply it. I told Reb, "I need to daven and study and teach." And then we laid out a schedule to that end, including saving most of the morning to daven and study. I really have to give him credit. Most people would have looked at that schedule and told me to go out and get a job. Seriously. But Reb looked at my schedule and made sure I included time to eat, and daven maariv, and have social time. Such a great moment of validation. Since then I've been implementing "the schedule" piece by piece (and contrary to it's ominous sounding name, the schedule actually has huge amounts of flexibility in it--anarchist, remember?) So far it's working out great. My daily meditations are coming back online. The cycles of my cycles of my cycles are all turning in the way that they should, or getting there.

So that was the breakthrough: The structure of my life and my spiritual path need to be in alignment. Sounds simple, eh? Try it!