The Avodah Plan

MyLife Essay Contest

The 1960’s brought a burst of discovery and discussion about the importance of self-esteem for one’s health and success¹. Since then, there is no mistaking how centrally important it is that we view ourselves in a positive and healthy way, and positivity in education has become a priority in America, and in Western countries. Many have understood that building positive self-esteem is through praising, being flexible and showing unbounded love, and so America’s society and education style has become one of positivity and flexibility. In 2011, the Tiger Mother book came out – Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua – criticizing the American model as being the ‘feel-good’ model. Tiger Mom claims that the Chinese system produces more productive and impressive people, more in quality and in quantity, than the American system, because of the American distraction and obsession with ‘Self-esteem’. The Chinese system she refers to is based primarily on discipline, hard work and high standards. Her book made a splash, and evoked loud reactions and strong opinions from Americans. I have come to see that much has been written to support the ‘American’ way, the praising, being flexible, and showing love, and much has been written to challenge it and re-vamp it.

For the sakes of psychological wellbeing and general life competence, I ask: What is the most important rule for teaching our children, and for conducting our lives? The proven importance of self-esteem and freedom, and conversely, of productivity and achievement, all seems to pose a dilemma. Is there a golden rule, for education, and for life, that might provide the kindness and freeness of the Western approach, and the discipline and ambition of the East?

Here’s your answer. Chassidus says: Work. Work hard. Try. Try hard. Fight, and fight hard. Don’t worry about the successes, and don’t worry about the failures. Those are important, but not as important as work. Work is your goal, and work is your success. In Chassidus, it is called Avodah. I invite you to be impressed, moved and thrilled by the remarkable Avodah Plan.
For the purpose of pinpointing the revolutionary aspects of Chassidus, I should have been born into a non-Chabad, or non-Chassidic setting, and come to discover and adopt Chassidus as a philosophy and life-style, to then compare my life with and without Chassidus. I don’t have that option, so I will use history instead. Life for Jews in Poland, Russia, Lithuania and surrounding areas in the 1700’s was a difficult time, like many periods in Jewish History. There were external threats and strains, namely, anti-Semitism and persecution. One of the famous internal, social issues that had developed was the rift between the Torah Scholars and the uneducated Jews. The Jewish community believed that Torah Study was the most important aspect of living a Torah-life, and that Torah-knowledge was the only noteworthy achievement of Torah-study. This is false. Chassidus, as introduced by the Baal Shem Tov in the 1700’s, brought a number of short and amazing teachings to the table, which negated this model, the Torah-Scholar model, in multiple ways. Chassidus taught the power of prayer. Chassidus taught of Hashem’s great love for all of His children. One of the themes introduced with these teachings was Hashem’s love for Effort. The Baal Shem Tov taught that Hashem wants the actual person – his heart, his mind, his body, his soul – Hashem wants effort and devotion.
The Devotion Model demanded something different from the people than the Torah-Scholar Model. Suddenly, Mr. Torah Scholar could only take pride in his Torah knowledge if he actually worked hard for it; if it came with serious effort, or serious devotion. And Mr. Simple, he could be proud of the two chapters of Tehillim he said, a project involving an hour or two of slow reading, and persevering hope and faith, none of which were easy to maintain. And even more, these two Jews could now respect each other, and be awed by the effort and the devotion they each employed in their respective fields. How amazing it must have been, how novel and refreshing, to be taught of the importance of devotion at that time in Jewish History. Following a similar theme, the Alter Rebbe introduced the Avoda Plan fifty (or so) years later.

The Alter Rebbe, Reb Shneur Zalmen, was the student of the Baal Shem Tov’s student, the Maggid of Mezritch. In his book the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe speaks to the average Jew, and lays out the method to being a Benoni. The Benoni Jew has a full Nefesh Habehamis in him, an ‘animal soul’, concerned only for its survival and pleasure. The Nefesh Habehamis becomes the Yetzer Hara, the voice suggesting and recommending sin, desiring immoral and unholy pursuits. But the Benoni remains in full control of himself, in the three tools where a soul can be expressed: thought, speech, and deed. He uses thought, speech and deed for the expression of his Nefesh Elokis, his ‘G-dly soul’, the soul that yearns for Hashem, and for holiness. In summary, there are two souls in each of us, and the Benoni (something we can all be) overcomes the Nefesh Habehamis, allowing the Nefesh Elokis to reign.

At this point, let us learn 3 chapters of Tanya where the Alter Rebbe discusses Avodah. In Chapter 15 of the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe praises the ‘Oved Elokim’, the Jew who is engaged in ‘Avodah’. Translated, ‘Avodah’ means work. The Alter Rebbe advises (in this chapter, and in later chapters) that Avodah means effort in serving Hashem – the hard work, the struggle, the devotion and the sweat. The Avodah Plan = Hard Work. In order to be called an ‘Oved Elokim’, literally ‘serving Hashem’ or ‘laboring for Hashem’, there has to be real work, says the Alter Rebbe. “[The work] is the war against the Yetzer Hara, to overcome it and to remove it from the small city [one’s body]… this is truly work, arduous work, to fight it constantly, and that is the Benoni.”² The Alter Rebbe then quotes the Gemara to define the Oved Elokim as one who “reviews his learning 101 times… because, in those times the standard was to review the learning 100 times… the one extra time, additional to the normal amount that he was used to from his youth, is equal to all the other times, and is higher than them, superior in rank and in might, enabling him to be called an Oved Elokim.”³ A Jew has natural love for Hashem, continues the Alter Rebbe, but service based solely on the natural love is not more than auto-pilot sailing. We must find the deficiencies, and we know they are there, we must dive in to areas of our conduct in need of improvement, and start a war with the Yetzer Hara on those fronts, raising the bar inch by inch. The Alter Rebbe closes Chapter 15 with the statement that serving Hashem with no struggle or fight can not actually be called service.

Knowing the bitter and relentless nature of the struggle within, Alter Rebbe uses the Avodah Plan to encourage the Benoni (and of course the aspiring Benoni) not to be dejected. In Chapter 27 of the Tanya, he quotes the Zohar to illustrate the spiritual beauty in refusing and rejecting temptation: “When the spirit of unholiness is subdued here below, the glory of Hashem rises above all, more than by any praise, this ascent is greater than all else.”⁴ This applies every time we muster up the courage of effort, even fleetingly, even for a day. The Alter Rebbe makes waves telling the exasperated Jew who feels he is spiritually low and typically drawn towards sin: “The person shouldn’t be sad, and his heart shouldn’t feel terrible, even if he finds himself in this battle forever, because perhaps it was for this that he was created, and this is his work, to constantly break the spirit of unholiness.”⁵ A person deduces from the nature of their desires and struggles that they were not born to be a Tzaddik, and aims instead to be a Benoni. Flawed and struggling is nothing to be alarmed by, nothing to be ashamed of. The Alter Rebbe focusses our energy and attention to what is most important: hard work. The reason for its importance – Hashem’s satisfaction. So now, the Avodah plan boosts our morale. Thankfully, we do not have to be perfect; we must just stay in the fight, and fight with all our might.

Taking this to another level, the Alter Rebbe uses the Avodah Plan to teach humility and respect. In Chapter 30, ‘Be of humble spirit before every man’, of Pirkei Avos, is used by the Alter Rebbe as a springboard, to address Avodah in Tanya once again. The Alter Rebbe describes the level of intensity at which each of us should be battling our personal points of weakness. “For example,” he writes, “in the service of prayer with devotion, to pour out one’s soul before Hashem with all his might, literally, to the point of exhaustion, and to fight an intense war against the body and the Nefesh Habehamis in it who prevent the devotion, to beat them and grind them like dust, before Shacharis, and Maariv, each and every day.… So too with the other commandments, especially in matter of money, like the service of Tzedaka, and the like.”⁶ One will never be able to comprehend the magnitude of somebody else’s challenges and dilemmas. And, one cannot demand more from another than one demands of themselves. So then, bearing in mind how short we fall of fighting our own battles with adequate vigour and determination, there are no grounds upon which to condemn another person for failing his. With this, the Alter Rebbe dismantles the notion that the learned and observant Jew regard himself as better, or holier, than the un-learned Jew, the non-observant Jew, or anybody who seems to be failing at their spiritual challenges. The Alter Rebbe once again focusses our attention on the task at hand, namely, to work hard, emphasizing that the more learned we are, the more is expected of us in battling and defying our own negative inclinations. Here’s yet another magnificent idea resulting from the Avodah Plan.

The Alter Rebbe’s achievement with the Avodah Plan is twofold: it revitalizes Yiddishkeit, and it secures a healthy approach to life and success. The primary advantage of the Alter Rebbe’s Avoda Plan is the relevance and the palpability it brings to Torah Observance, by demanding effort. The Avodah Plan says, if you’re not feeling it, the fight, the adrenalin, in your muscles, in your bones, then you haven’t even begun serving Hashem. Avodah is a spiritual fitness session, where devoted prayer, generous tzedaka, speech control, diet control, ten-extra-minutes of learning, and the rest of Torah observance, are your push-ups, chin-ups, squats, running and cycling. It is well known that challenge is enjoyable, especially when followed by triumph. And then when we work hard, Yiddishkeit is alive in us, happening, relevant, palpable. Avodah is not a boring workload, Avodah is an experience! Avodah is an invitation to be in a serious relationship with Hashem, a relationship that can be described as lively, emotional, intense, challenging, rewarding, real. And because Avodah demands so much vigour, it’s a method likely to bring about actual change and growth. I am indebted to the Alter Rebbe for the revelation of the Avodah Plan; because, it makes Yiddishkeit a journey of meaningful work, a journey that stimulates my deepest reservoirs of strength and vitality. I now focus my energy on the most important part of Yiddishkeit, which is hard work, and I enjoy it, understanding its holiness, its titanic role.

To add, the Alter Rebbe’s Avodah Plan is a very healthy way for Yiddishkeit to be taught and experienced, because it instils principles and habits in participants that breed productivity and happiness. According to the Avodah plan, it’s all about effort. When a person knows that effort is expected of them, they receive a delicate message of two parts: (1) The importance of presence and effort; the crime and tragedy of idleness and apathy. This is a message of expectation and discipline. (2) The value of each person as a person, regardless of their potential to achieve, or of their successes or failures. This is a message of acceptance and love. Both of these messages exist in the Avodah Plan, in a blend that’s empowering. The Alter Rebbe, by teaching us that Yiddishkeit is about effort and work, instils in us healthy disciplinary habits, and also a healthy acceptance of our plain and undeveloped selves, within the messages of the Avodah plan.

The words ‘One must try’ can be read with a variety of expressions and tones. To the lazy or haughty person, ‘One must try’ is a message of expectation and discipline. We hope to raise the lazy person to a place of productivity, by stressing the value of sincere effort. To the exhausted and self-doubting person, ‘One must try’ is a message of acceptance and love. We hope to raise the self-doubting person to a place of contentment and positive self-esteem, by stressing the value of sincere effort. So the ideology of the Avodah Plan actually talks to our core beings, and nourishes our psyche with a beautiful and positive message. And so, in essence, just learning the Avodah plan is healthy for us as human beings. Even when we haven’t touched real Avodah for days or months, we know what is expected of us (if we are lucky enough to learn Tanya). And our knowledge that effort is what’s expected of us (serious effort) gives us the ability to view ourselves and our lives in a positive and wholesome way.

Following the same logic, I observe that this idea can even benefit the world at large. Although this is not the essence of the Alter Rebbe’s intentions⁷, the core idea of the Avodah Plan can permeate teaching, child-rearing, counselling and self-helping with meaning and direction. The Effort Model, an application of the Alter Rebbe’s Avodah Plan, combines positivity and strictness, flexibility and ambition, kindness and expectation, by zooming in boldly on effort. It is the brilliant merging of educational and ideological goals and values from the East and West. For self-esteem, from the West, the Effort Model confirms, ‘You are a person. You have intrinsic value, and there is nothing you must achieve or become.’ For work-ethic, from the East, the Effort Model encourages, ‘All resources, and especially human capabilities, are treasures, overflowing with fantastic promise. The first expectation is effort. The first step towards success is sincere effort. Time should not be wasted.’⁸ My original question, my endeavour to reconcile the Chinese system of education with the American, has been answered. So precise, and so all-encompassing, Chassidus’s answer is stunningly simple. ‘Try hard, and keep at it. Sincere effort is what counts.’ Say it to yourself. I believe it will center you and motivate you. Say it to your children, to your friends. The message is profound.

A Chassid once asked the Tzemach Tzedek Rebbe for a blessing that his grandson should merit to develop a perfect memory. He explained that he wished his grandson would retain whatever he’d see and hear from the Rebbe and Chassidim, which would enable him to fear Hashem naturally and automatically. The Tzemach Tzedek was opposed to this idea. “For over fifty years now, my grandfather (the Alter Rebbe) and my father-in-law (the Mitteler Rebbe) have hoped and worked for Chassidim to fear Hashem, non-automatic, rather through effort and diligence!” … And so, we are blessed with clear and focussed knowledge of what Hashem Almighty wants from us. As the Yiddish saying goes, ‘A Jew must do – not necessarily accomplish – Hashem will accomplish.’ Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Footnotes:

1.  The topic of self-esteem had been visited throughout twentieth century, by Sigmund Freud (1949), Carl Rogers (1961), Abraham Maslow (1969), and others, but self-esteem took on a renewed measure of importance in the 1960’s and 70’s with the work of Stanley Coopersmith, and a general change of culture in America.
2.  שהיא המלחמה עם היצר הרע להתגבר עליו ולגרשו מהעיר קטנה שלא יתלבש באברי הגוף שהוא באמת עבודה ועמל גדול להלחם בו תמיד
והיינו הבינוני
3.  מי ששונה פרקו מאה פעמים ואחד… משום שבימיהם הי-ה הרגילות לשנות כל פרק מאה פעמים… זאת הפעם המאה ואחת היתירה על הרגילות
שהורגל מנעוריו שקולה כנגד כולן ועולה על גביהן ביתר שאת ויתר עז להיות נקרא עובד אלוקים
4.  כד אתכפיא ס”א לתתא דאסתלק יקרא דקב”ה לעילא על כולא יתיר משבח’ אחרא ואסתלכות’ דא יתיר מכולא וכו’
5.  ולכן אל יפול לב אדם עליו ולא ירע לבבו מאד גם אם יהי-ה כן כל ימיו במלחמה זו כי אולי לכך נברא וזאת עבודתו לאכפיא לס”א תמיד
6.  כגון בעבודת התפילה בכוונה לשפוך נפשו לפני ה’ בכל כחו ממש עד מיצוי הנפש ולהלחם עם גופו ונפש הבהמית שבו המונעים הכוונה במלחמה
עצומה לבטשם ולכתתם כעפר קודם התפילה שחרית וערבית מדי יום ביום… וכן בשאר מצוות ובפרט בדבר שבממון כמו עבודת הצדקה וכה”ג
7.  This application is additional and peripheral to the central point of Avodah. The Alter Rebbe’s intention in writing the Tanya was to guide his Chassidim to serve Hashem.
8.  The Effort Model does not replace expressing love. Being loved and feeling loved are the foundations of positive self-esteem. Our topic is how to blend the love into a practical, educational and empowering message.

Additional Self-Esteem Reading

http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/pp/overview.php?p=c2lkPTYmdGlkPTAmaWQ9MTY0http://stanleycoopersmith.wikispaces.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslowhttp://www.faqs.org/childhood/Re-So/Self-Esteem.htm

http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/pp/overview.php?p=c2lkPTYmdGlkPTAmaWQ9MTY0http://stanleycoopersmith.wikispaces.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslowhttp://www.faqs.org/childhood/Re-So/Self-Esteem.htm

http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/pp/overview.php?p=c2lkPTYmdGlkPTAmaWQ9MTY0http://stanleycoopersmith.wikispaces.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslowhttp://www.faqs.org/childhood/Re-So/Self-Esteem.htm

http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/pp/overview.php?p=c2lkPTYmdGlkPTAmaWQ9MTY0http://stanleycoopersmith.wikispaces.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslowhttp://www.faqs.org/childhood/Re-So/Self-Esteem.htm

Additional Tiger Mom Reading

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/30/battle-hymn-tiger-mother-review

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Hymn_of_the_Tiger_Mother

www.youtube.com/embed/eDdEnKPA5_s