A'maize'ing

Once you get into the habit of relying on past thought, life gets a lot easier. Don't worry, I'm sure at some point I'll give y'all some original shtuff, but right now I'm too wiped for that sort of thing. Instead, here's a farbrengen with Rabbi Chayim Friedman, originally published on October 25, 2007, as Inspiring Thoughts (No, Really).

Tonight we had a Farbrengen with Rabbi Chayim Friedman. I didn't arrive on time, and I left early. What an idiot. Rabbi F. is an amazing Mashpia. Here's the little that I caught: What is society's main problem? So there's a famous story. First of all, while the following makes sense, please know that #1. I have the rights to any self-improvement engendered, and #2. Don't blame me when things go wrong. Now that we've dealt with the disclaimers, here comes, in relatively serious fashion, the story.

The Rebbe Maharash had a Chassid who came to Yechidus (Private meeting) once a year from Peterburg. Whenever he came he would wear a Chassidic coat, but the rest of the year he wore a fashionable suit. After several years the Chassid said to himself, "Who am I fooling? The Rebbe knows I dress like a modern guy the whole year, and I fake for one day, I might as well stop the bluff and show him the truth." So the Chassid comes in, and the Rebbe asks him where his long Chassidic coat is, and he says, "In the dry-cleaners." Just kidding, they didn't have dry-cleaning in the 19th century. The Chassid explains his wardrobe change. And the Rebbe says, "I had it all wrong. I thought that you were truthful the one day a year, in your long black Chassidic coat, in Lubavitch, and that the rest of the year you were faking it. But now I see that you think that the 'Peterburg you' is the real you, and the 'Lubavitch you' is the fake.

History does not record what happened in the next year's Yechidus.

Point is, we all have this problem on some level. The problem is that we see ourselves as faking. OK, so this isn't so bad. We do fake. The problem is that we mix up the real and the fake. People are too scared to realize that what they think they're faking is actually the real them. They don't believe that they have the capability to live up their (supposed) bluff. So what do they do? They give up hope. But, my dear friends, you got the power (cue the gospel choir). If you only believe in yourself, the real self, you can do it. Who are the people who succeed? Those you believe in themselves. All right, and some of them are crackpots. Don't blame me.

Obviously I'm talking to myself just as much, and even more, than I'm talking to you. Only thing is that I dislike using the word "I" too much. In fact, at all.