Unleash Your Neshamah!
Our neshamah gives us the capacity to cling to and love Hashem, which is an incredible capability considering that we’ve never ‘seen’ Him and cannot comprehend Him. Our neshamah makes us yearn for closeness, constantly pulling us higher. Since our neshamah is a chelek Elokai Memal mamash, an actual piece of Hashem, it gives us the ability to engage in spirituality and to contemplate G-dliness, which our earthly bodies would otherwise be incapable of doing. Unfortunately, the reality of our busy and distracting world is that one can go an entire day without remembering our neshamah, without contemplating the enormous power within us to cling to Hashem! It is for this reason that Chazal gave us the brocha of “Elokai Neshamah” – to help us unleash the superpower of our neshamah by remembering what our neshamah is, where it comes from, and what it does for us.
In “Elokai Neshamah” we remind ourselves of the faith Hashem has in us (“Rabbah Emunasecha,” Great is Your faithfulness) that we can and will complete our spiritual mission. Every morning there are people around the world who do not wake up, their mission is completed and their souls return to their Creator. Every day that we have the privilege of having our soul restored to us and we actually wake up in the morning, it means Hashem still has faith in us that we have a mission to complete and the ability to complete it. Regardless of what we did yesterday, or days or years prior, if Hashem gives us another day, it means He is giving us a fresh start and another chance!
Hashem reassures us that He has faith in us. All that’s left now is to make sure we have faith in ourselves! Saying “Elokai Neshamah” with mindful intention is our morning reminder of who we are, what we’re made of, and what we can accomplish today. Listen to the incredible words of the Sfas Emes, which he wrote in a letter to his brother (adapted from the Sefer Aish Ha’Avodah):
Know, my brother, that if it appears to a Yid that he is distant and cannot approach performing mitzvos, this perspective is without a doubt an absolute falsehood. Believe me with clarity, that even one who thinks he is the lowest of the low, has the ability to serve Hashem with simplicity by doing mitzvos. Every night the neshamah ascends to the Heavens and swears to Hashem that it will serve Hashem that (coming) day, and can renew itself with vigor to perform mitzvos. As it says in the Torah: אשר אנכי מצווך היום “As I have commanded you today.” Today is to be taken literally; every day we are commanded anew!
The way to ensure (that we will take the opportunity of the new day to serve Hashem with passion and joy) is to remind yourself of the massive reward that awaits a Yid who does a mitzvah, which no other creation is able to achieve. Hashem derives more joy and pleasure from a mitzvah of a Yid than all of the service of the Heavenly angels, and all the angels wait in anticipation for a Yid to perform a mitzvah with love because all of the spiritual worlds are dependent on it.
And if nothing else, remember this: even a Yid who thinks he is from the lowest of Jews, should fill himself with joy and gladness that he can be the cause of this pleasure for Hashem (by doing mitzvos). When a person will accustom himself to feeling this joy while doing a mitzvah, the yetzer hara is forced to flee, and can no longer hinder him from doing mitzvos, because there is no place for the yetzer hara when a Yid does a mitzvah with joy.
Believe me, my brother, that there is no easier way to strengthen oneself in service of Hashem than to do mitzvos with joy, and to daven to Hashem with heartfelt simplicity, whether it’s through the (formal) davening of the siddur, or by speaking to Hashem (in your own words) or even just by (communicating to Hashem through) thinking. The ideal and most important thing to daven for is to ask Hashem to help you commit to fulfill His Will and to avoid doing anything that is against His Will.
The primary time to do this is when one wakes up in the morning (in the brocha of “Modeh Ani” and “Elokai Neshamah”), to remind oneself that Hashem returned his neshamah for the purpose of being able to serve Him. At that moment one should commit to walk with Hashem, to serve Him with joy, and to avoid anything that is against His will, for that day.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 11.