The Secret of the Good Point in Brief

One of the most annoying things about books with the word "secret" in their title is that you keep waiting for the secret to be revealed, and in the end you feel like you've exited through the back door of the maze empty-handed. They promised to reveal something wonderful and amazing, but you feel like you got nothing.

To avoid that mistake, we'll start by revealing the secret that Rabbi Nachman shared with us. Then we'll see, slowly, how it connects to us, to our lives. We'll examine where we block ourselves, and how we can apply these teachings in different areas of our lives.

Note: This chapter, naturally, is written in a very condensed and compressed form. Throughout the book, we will try to expand on these ideas and explain them in a more measured and deeper way.

Rabbi Nachman's secret is very simple:

In everything there is good. Even in a person who seems completely wicked to you, even if it seems to you that they are 99.9% evil and only 0.1% good - there is still good there. There is something there.

That small percentage of good you found in a person - that is their "true self." All the negative aspects are just coverings that aren't the truth. They hide who the person really is.

You choose what happens in reality. You create your reality through your choices. If you choose evil - you will increase evil, if you choose good - you yourself will increase the measure of good.

Other people have infinite good in them, and so do you. Even if you feel bad about yourself because of your behavior, there is a lot of good in you. The very choice to see the good in yourself will increase it, giving you the strength to choose to change.

If you agree to believe that you are good - you can choose good. It seems to you that you are far from goodness (but of course, you are actually right in the midst of it).

Even a little good is good! (Later we'll learn that too much good at once can extinguish the light). As long as we are not connected to the good within us - we are in a spiritual sleep.

Not only do you do good and want good - you yourself are good. You have a divine point. Deep within you, you are always connected to the eternal good that is the source that continually sustains creation, without interruption, without separation, and regardless of actions.

The reality we see around us is dynamic, and we have the ability to interpret it.

Our sages said: "Whoever finds fault - finds fault with his own blemish." They meant that when I see negative aspects in others, it's actually a reflection of my own negative aspects, and I see them so that I can fix them in myself.

If I change the way I see others, or the way I see myself, I can begin to make repairs. Eventually - they will influence each other. If I start looking at myself with a kinder and more forgiving eye - I will look at others the same way.

In short, the secret of the good point is that in everything in the universe, even in what seems to us most evil and negative, there is a good point. This good point, even if it's almost hidden from view, can grow and strengthen and add goodness without the external reality changing at all. The choice is in our hands.

"For our sages, of blessed memory, have already revealed to us that in all physical things, and in all languages of idol worshippers, one can find divinity in them. For without His divinity, they would have no life or existence at all" (Likutei Moharan, Section 33).

Everything in our world receives its vitality from Hashem. The Kabbalists explain that everything in the world has some measure of soul, even a stone. Something without any vitality simply cannot exist in the world.

Rabbi Nachman explains how far this principle extends: the revelation of Hashem's light in the world spreads and gives life to everything in creation, but there are places so low that His light is "not fit" to dwell in them - and it is precisely in these places that an even higher light dwells! A light that is beyond creation, a light that comes from the Creator's infinite mercy.

Therefore, everything in the world has a holy source. There are no mistakes in creation. "All that the Merciful One does is for good" (Tractate Berachot, 60b) - everything the Divine does is for good. We don't always understand this (and perhaps we usually don't understand it...) but everything that happens in our world and in our lives is ultimately for the purpose of good. Our deeper purpose is to reconnect, during our lifetime, as many things as possible back to their holy source. To understand as much as possible the good that is hidden even in what seems to us bad and difficult.

"Thus when there is some good point in Israel... this good is complete unity with the Blessed One... for all the good found in any place is all from Him, the Blessed One... that is, the good point that I find in myself, which is the aspect of divinity, the aspect of 'the Lord is good to all,' this is what supports me and awakens me from sleep..."

(Likutei Halachot, Laws of Morning Rising, Law 1).

Rabbi Nathan was Rabbi Nachman's close disciple. Rabbi Nachman read his student's writings, laid his hands upon them and authorized them as if they were his own. Here Rabbi Nathan reveals another very important point: "The good point that I find in myself, which is the aspect of divinity, the aspect of good" (Likutei Halachot).

We have a divine soul, says Rabbi Nathan. This is our true essence. Beyond the fact that I can find good in what I do (even if I generally think I'm a failure), beyond the fact that I can understand that my desires are good (even if I completely "mess up" in life) - Rabbi Nathan says that no matter what I think of myself, what I've done and how far I've fallen - I still have a pure divine soul that will never be defiled.

The divine soul cannot be flawed. It can only become distant. The soul sees what the body is doing (and in the concept of "body" one can also include the lower parts of the psyche), and it distances itself. "For the soul of every person always sees and perceives very lofty things, but the body knows nothing of them, therefore every person must have great compassion for the flesh of the body, to seek to purify the body, until the soul can inform it of all that it sees and perceives constantly as mentioned above" (Likutei Moharan, Section 22).

I remember when I first started studying the teaching of "Azamra" (I will sing), I didn't understand why Rabbi Nachman constantly refers to our actions, to the fact that there is no doubt we've done something good, even if it's something small - and he sees in this something that points to our goodness. I didn't understand why he doesn't refer to that infinite soul within us, the infinite point that his disciple, Rabbi Nathan, alluded to in Likutei Halachot. Indeed, Rabbi Nachman has another teaching called "Ayeh" (Where), in which he reveals that even in absolute darkness, in a place where good or holiness cannot be found, there is an infinite supreme light shining, a light produced from the Creator's infinite mercy. A light that penetrates all darkness and sustains us even in the most difficult moments. And so it is written in the teaching of Ayeh: "Even the unclean places or houses of idolatry also need to receive vitality from Him, blessed be He. But know that they receive from the aspect of the concealed statement, which is 'Bereshit' (In the beginning), a concealed statement" (Likutei Moharan Tanina, Section 12).

Gradually, I came to understand that Rabbi Nachman wants to connect everything, all our parts: action with thought, heart with mind and body. Rabbi Nachman wants the supreme good to spread and become real and tangible in our entire being.

And this is actually the secret of the good point: the secret is that you think you're adding just a drop of good, but in fact you're connecting to a deep system of good, a system of influencing good at all levels, of self-correction and world-correction. You connect to infinite mercy.

In everything in the universe, even in what seems most negative, there is a good point.

From the book "The Secret of the Good Point", by Ran Weber, writer, therapist and workshop facilitator in the spirit of Hasidism. Contact: ranweber@gmail.com