Where am I?
It is 10:00 pm, and I am sitting in the living room of the Gittler family, the Rebbe’s shluchim to Freiburg, Germany. We have just finished a hitva’adut for the 19th of Kislev, the Chabad holiday of geula. I’m a little dizzy, since I was invited to participate, that is, to speak to the people about the meaning of the day, and about Chassidut in general and about Chabad in particular. I’m a little dizzy, since I said “L’chaim” a few times, because to give a “dry” talk is possible when it’s presented as a sermon, but not in a hitva’adut. In a hitva’adut one gets the heart, the soul to speak. Because only once you expose your own pnimiyut (inner world), will the participants allow what you say to touch their pnimiyut.
So, please forgive me if I write somewhat freely today, continuing the hitva’adut on the keyboard.
So, where am I?
That’s all I said in the hitva’adut. This is the “Ayeka” that G-d asked Adam when he was in Gan Eden. This is the Ayeka that Ba’al Hatanya explained to the senior official while he was in jail. Ayeka is the question that G-d presents to man (and woman), every man/woman, every day. Where are? Where are you in your world? Are you in the place you should be? The piercing question relates to your world in general and to your spiritual world in particular.
The answer is of no interest.
The answer is not relevant.
The important thing is the question itself: Where are you?
I am not familiar with my audience tonight, the same way I do not know most of my readers. But I am sure of one thing: whoever knows to stop in mid-track in life’s race every once in a while and ask himself truthfully, “Ayeka?” is sure to live a meaningful life.
And a meaningful life is Heaven on earth.
L’chaim v’livracha – to life and to blessing,
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Zalmen Wishedski