Waking Up To Serve God
The first Halacha in the Shulchan Aruch, helek Orach Chaim, deals with waking up in the morning.
A man is supposed to wake up in a morning full of energy, like a lion, in order to "serve his creator".
Rav Elon told us that maybe the psak (decision) of the shulchan aruch is different then what most people think. Maybe really, the psak isn't that a person must wake up full of energy(although this is also important), but the special psak is that we must be slaves to G-d, serve our creator. What exactly is the pshat (explanation)? We have to serve our creator and nothing else!
For example, if you take one of those chabadniks who believes 100% that the Rebbe is the mashiach and wake him up at 3 am, he will automatically sing to you:"Yehi Adonenu, Moreinu Verabenu, Melekh Hamashiach, Leolam Vaed"
If you take a Beslover, and wake him up at 3 am, he will start singing for Rebbe Nachman. If he's a 'Na Nach', he will sing: Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman, Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman....
If you take a "litvak", and wake him up at 3 am, he will start telling you a whole gemara by heart. Rashi, Tosfot, all the rishonim acharonim... even the Kzo"s" (Ksot, for us sefardim)
If you take a Mizrachi (religious zionist) person and wake him up at 3 am, since he is much more"modern", he will probably start hitting you for waking him up. Just Joking... But if he is one of those very passionate in their right wing views, he will probably tell you: lets go save hevron!
If you take a Neturei Karta, and wake him up at 3 am, he will probably tell you that Israel is a state of kofrim, full of sinners, that we should destroy Israel.
They are all wrong.... They are all going against Judaism. Yes, even the religious zionist!
The psak of the shulchan arouch is that when we wake up at 3 am in at night, we have to automatically think of how to serve our creator. That should be our goal. And whether you are a chabadnik singing Yehi, a Breslover singing for Rabi Nachman, a Litvak learning only gemara, a religious zionist living in chevron or a neturei karta going against israel, the only way your ideology is credible is if it really is ONLY a tool in order to get closer to G-d, not a goal in itself.
There's a famous story of a chassid that once did a very bad sin. Then, at night, he had a dream where G-d asked him: "Why did you do this horrible sin?" The chassid said: "Well, you know, I have a yetser hara, I am not perfect... I'm sorry, but please, G-d, do me one favor" G-d asked him what that favor should be and the chassid answered: "Please don't tell the rebbe... lets keep it between us".
May we all learn to stop practicing judaism solely to serve our own "rebbe": whether this rebbe is a person, the land of Israel, a gemara or anything else. Lets try to all find out what G-d, himself, really wants out of us. As long as this will be our intention, our actions will stay justified and right. As soon as this becomes the basis of the actions of every Jew, then we can unite through this common basis even though our conclusions will still often be very different.
