Likutei Moharan: Keeping Your Cool

Rabbi Silber shares a powerful insight from the Rebbe. In our quest for spiritual growth we put significant emphasis on avoiding harmful forces. We often identify these destructive forces with our proclivity to base and coarse human desires. Rebbe Nachman tells us that man has tendencies for both for evil and for good that, if not kept in check can be equally destructive. In the beis hamikdash, within the kodesh hakodashim, sat two beautiful cherubim. Atop the most spiritual of places in the whole world, they raised their wings to cool off even the fires of kedusha. A burning fire of kedusha, if not kept in check by torah values, can be the most destructive force of all. It is no wonder, says the Rebbe, that the posture of the cherubim is almost identical in appearance to the lungs on the heart. Just as the lungs are able to cool down the heart, so too can the normalizing nature of torah pave a straight, tempered path of righteousness.