I often wonder why we’re commanded to pray outloud. Wouldn’t it be a more honest, and more accurate reflection of how I’m really feeling if G-d would just read my mind? So many times I can’t even express what I really mean, but I’m sure that G-d knows what I’m thinking, even when the words come out wrong. When Rebbe Nachman talks about meditation (hitbodedut) he means going out to the field, to the woods, to the beach, and talking to G-d outloud. This kind of meditation doesn’t sound much like the eastern idea of meditating where the goal is focus and relaxation...or does it. “Hitbodedut” aims to help us get things “off our chest.” Any psychologist will tell you (for $100 an hour) that everyone needs a sounding board, someone to listen to you without judging, a place you can unload your frustrations, your anxieties, your fears. Rebbe Nachman knew that G-d wants to be seen in that way -- as a listener. G-d wants to have a conversation with us, for our power (as humans) is in our speech.
In Parshat Korach, Moshe and Aaron fall on their faces when G-d tells them that Korach and his followers are about to be annihilated. “O G-d, G-d of the “spirit of all flesh” (haruchot), when one man sins, will you really punish all of those assembled here?” Rashi comments that the hebrew word “haruchot” really refers to G-d’s ability to know man’s thoughts. Why then was Moshe praying to G-d out loud if he knew G-d already understood? Turning to Rebbe Nachman again, I found him quoting a Psalm where King David explains that it is our mouth that speaks wisdom. Humans are the most amazing species because of that, but if we fail to recognize it, we are not better than the monkeys. G-d knows what we are feeling on the deepest level, but we’re seldom aware of our own feelings on such a deep level. If we can become aware of what we’re “thinking” on that level, we’ll be able to touch that spark of G-d within us and sense how Hashem is responding to us. But until we can understand what G-d is saying to us through this “hardwired” connection of our soul, how can we connect? Ask your friend.
We all need to speak with our friends. Not just for the sake of our relationship with them, but for the sake of our relationship with G-d. Each of us has a strength unique to us, a strength that our friends are drawn to and strengthened by. Rebbe Nachman explains that we each count on each other to wake us up to the reality of our selves. We have a slim chance of bringing out the best in ourselves by our self. We need to be unlocked by the keys our friends hold. That’s where our power of speech, our potential for incredibly articulate communication, comes in to play.
The world was created to function through the relationships between its organisms. Relationships are defined by, and can only exist because of difference. Korach went to his grave grappling with that point. “It’s as clear as day,“ Moshe said to him. “Aaron is as distinct in his priesthood as morning is distinct from evening. Don’t tell me that morning is better than evening, it’s a completely separate entity.“ Korach didn’t want to beleive that anything we did could set us apart from our fellow Jews since at our core we were all connected to G-d. According to Korach, Aaron and Moshe should not have been the leaders, for we all had a soul that was intensely holy and immortaly connected to our creator. He never saw that the differences that set Moshe and Aaron apart were necessary so that they could be in relationship, so that they could teach, and help us grow, and help us heal.
Sometimes, it takes what seems like super-human strength to be different. Someone, though, somewhere is waiting to find you, and they need to find the uniqueness of you to find the long-sought uniqueness of their own soul.