After the Seder – 6 Ways to Get Dveikus

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

The main goal in life is to be connected to Hashem. And there are various levels of that connection.  The connection is called Dveikus.

Sometimes, however, we encounter a dry spell or we feel disconnected to Hashem.  Even Dovid HaMelech felt that way at one point.  At the Sedarim, many of us were zocheh to a Dveikus highpoint. But how can we keep it?  How can we hold on to it and perhaps even expand it?

THE DVEIKUS

What immediately follows is an understanding of Dveikus based upon the thoughts of Rav Nosson Wachtfogel zt”l.  Each person possesses vast storehouses and wellsprings of various forms of wisdom, qualities, and pursuits.  The Holy One does not skimp upon these at all.  He provides them to us – bountifully.  There are, however, blockages that must first be removed in order to access them .

The ability to achieve Dveikus is contained deep within the soul of man, like all other qualities such as wisdom and other pursuits.  Dveikus is a sense –  similar to that of seeing and hearing.  It is part of the nature of man – it is just that the blockages to achieving it must first be removed .

The essence of our service in this world is to remove the blockages.  We must develop and actualize this internal ability within us.  We must take these storehouses and wellsprings of goodness from potential to reality.

1. The Sefer B’yam Darkecha (p. 103) states that everyone knows the power of a good nigun to awaken our hearts to Dveikus. The Yom Tov Niggun of Kah Keili – especially the one that was sung in the Norvardhok Beis Yoseph Yeshivos, in this author’s opinion, is enormously effective in this regard.  The author of the aforementioned sefer recommends that everyone clearly have a few such niggunim down pat in order to utilize  them to reinspire us toward Dveikus.  (One can also recommend vHareinu bevinyano from Reb Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz)
2. Reviewing Torah study is another means of awakening Dveikus. Each repetition, whether it is a Rebbe’s shiur, a daf Gemorah or a section of Tanach introduces us to a new level of Dveikus.
3. Effort – placing effort in achieving Dveikus is an important tool in getting there. This means connecting with people who emphasize it too.
4. Learning seforim that awaken us to Dveikus is also enormously effective. Rav Elyashiv zatzal recommended Nesivos Shalom for doing this. If one is over forty, Zohar learning can be most powerful as well.
5. Purifying our bodies and souls is another key element of achieving Dveikus
6. Another key to actualizing this inherent ability of Dveikus is through honoring our ability and obligation of Tefillah and Brachos.
   1. Most people erroneously believe that Tefillah and brachos are merely the recitation of words. In the best of situations, some people perceive prayer as the presentation of our requests to Hashem.  The truth is that both are incorrect, and prayer represents something that is vastly different in its entire essence.
   2. In Shulchan Aruch in OC 98:1, the Shulchan Aruch provides us with an entire process regarding Tefillah, but they apply for Brachos as well: The steps are:
      1. To focus in his heart upon the meaning of the words that he expresses
      2. To picture the Shechina present before him

• To remove all other thoughts until his thoughts and intent are pure in his bracha

1. To think as if he were standing before a king of flesh and blood how much more so, before the King of kings who knows our innermost thoughts

This is what the righteous and men of action would do – they would divest themselves of the physical and embrace the spiritual/intellectual power to the point where they would reach the level of prophecy

The more we deal with the King – the closer we become to Him.  This is true with all forms of communication.  The back and forth brings hearts together.

The author can be reached at [email protected]