Getting Out Of A Spiritual Straitjacket

Rebbe Nachman teaches us that when we make a choice that moves us away from the light, and then repeat it, we create a concealment, a veil between us and God.

It can be difficult to remove that veil because it’s as if we’ve created a different reality, so much so that sometimes we begin to believe in the veil more than in the deep truth it conceals.

Even when spiritual truth is occluded, we are able to still grasp that where we’re holding is not where we yearn to be. With a bit of effort, we can strive to come out of that dark place and lift the veil back once more.

What happens if we repeat those black-hole choices again and again…and again? We end up falling into “the concealment within the concealment”. The veil itself is now veiled.

At that point, God’s teachings of light and connection are so hidden from us, that we no longer are able to see the difference between light and dark. Our vision is dimmed and if we are aware of anything at all, it’s the sensation of being tied in a spiritual straitjacket.

“Nevertheless,” says the Rebbe, “there is no such thing as despair.”

“Even when a person has fallen into the concealment within the concealment, there too, God’s vitality is cloaked. For without God’s vitality, absolutely nothing in the world can exist. Even the deepest forces of impurity…the concealment within the concealment—also receive their vitality from God.”*

God is in the dark places, too. If you come to understand that there is no place where God is not, if you believe this, it is possible to find Him.

Begin to seek Him no matter how lost you feel, and shed the straitjacket. Learn God’s teachings of truth and love and cry out to Him—and you’ll have the strength to lift the veil, too.

Photo by Helder Rodrigues

*Lessson 56:5 (Abridged) Kitzur Likutey Moharan, BRI A note about the Abridged Likutey Moharan: Reb Nosson, Rebbe Nachman’s leading student, assembled the abridged LM. It is not only a good starting point for learning LM, but a great addition to your Breslov Library in its own right. Divided into brief daily sections, you can complete the inspiring essentials of Likutey Moharan in a year.