- There are two aspects of what the unification of Hashem should mean to US. One, for us to believe that Hashem only has one desire – to bestow good on His creations, and two, that we too should have only one desire - to do His will.

- All the Mitzvos of the Torah can be summed up with the Mitzva of Emunah. Why? Because the greater our Emunah is, the easier it becomes to nullify (and unify) our will to Hashem’s will, which is the entire purpose of the holy Torah.

- Emunah is mainly the belief and trust that Hashem is only טוב ומיטיב. Although Emunah also includes other aspects like the belief in Hashem’s absolute power and infinite greatness, the real work and main focus of Emunah is to believe and trust at all times that Hashem is טוב ומיטיב. And with this belief, we will find it much easier to nullify our own will to His.

- When we say Shema twice a day, we should have in mind the following sequence:

1. הבוחר בעמו ישראל באהבה - or (in Maariv) - אוהב עמו ישראל: “Hashem loves us immensely and unconditionally.”

2. שמע ישראל: Listen Yisrael – “Yisrael” in Hebrew can be broken down into the words “ישר-אל” – meaning “straight to G-d”. In other words, the real essence of Yisrael - of a Jew, is that all we do is for G-d).

3. ה' אלוקינו: Hashem is our G-d - our personal G-d. Not just a cold and uncaring force like the universe, but rather a personal G-d who cares only about our good.

4. ה' אחד: Hashem has only one desire, i.e. He ONLY wants our good and nothing else. Therefore, we too want to unify all our desires and will to doing ONLY His will.

5. ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו וכו': Hashem is awesomely great, and if this awesome King Who has only our good in mind wants us to serve Him, what a huge honor it is for us to do that!

6. ואהבת את ה' אלוקך בכל לבבך וכו': In light of all the above (He loves us like crazy, wants only our good, and is awesomely great), loving Hashem with all we’ve got is basically a GIVEN!

I never knew what the word meant - until I sat in the classroom with my student who'd just turned 12. She sat in her place, ready to bentsh bircas hamazon, and I sat in mine, just beside her desk at the side of the classroom. Usually she sung bircas hamazon with the class, saying the words she knew correctly, and the rest incorrectly. But today, today was different. Today she was going to try and read it from the siddur - an accomplishment she was really proud of, being able to acually read Hebrew. Today, she would read it. Pointing at the first word - baruch, she moved her finger along, under the letter, and to the nekuda, working out how to blend the 2 together. Slowly, she pointed to each word, sometimes looking analyzing the nekudos for an age before decoding it. She went through the entire bircas hamazon this way. And I sat there in awe at her patience, her determination, her perseverance. I sat there and wondered,

A. This is a very good question and it is one of the deepest mysteries of the universe. I will try to answer it with explanations from Chassidus and the Ramcha"l but I hope you understand the terminology (if not, feel free to ask for clarification):

Regarding one who says: I will sin and then repent, the Torah says that he will not be given the chance to repent. As for "the sins of your past were G-d's will": That is called "hashgacha peratit" [or hanhagat hayichud in the Ramcha"l's terminology] which means that everything that happens is supposed to happen exactly like that and no different, even people's sins. This does not take away our free will even though Hashem knows exactly what we will do before we did it, as the Ramba"m says, that the human mind can't understand this contradiction. Also chaza"l say : "everything is foretold, but free will is given". This can work because "ein zeman beruchaniyut" - there is no time in the spiritual worlds. Indeed, as soon as our world was created, in the upper worlds there was already "gmar hatikun" - which means that everything was already finished and perfect (as it will indeed be in our world after 6,000 years).

But then there is also "hanhagat sechar ve'onesh" [or "hanhagat hamishpat" in the Ramchal's terminology] which follows the principle of tit-for-tat [din], i.e. you sin, you pay... just like in nature: eat poison and you die, touch fire and get burned. However, to preserve our free will, the punishment is not met immediately and that is "midat harachamim" - the attribute of mercy that "sweetens" the din (judgment). That is also called "TIME". Indeed, both hanhagot (attributes or behaviors, i.e.din and rachamim - judgment and mercy) function simultaneously in different dimensions, and yet, both are true.

Chaza"l teach us that regarding the past, we should acknowledge that it had to be like that [hashgacha peratit, everything is foretold and had to be like that]. Yet regarding the present: Free will is given, and it is in our hands to choose good or evil, i.e. hanagat sechar ve'onesh. As for the future, it simply does not exist for the servant of Hashem who is supposed to live in the immediate present alone [in terms of divine service and spirituality of course, not in terms of the physical world]. We only have the immediate present and should only deal with it, not with the past or the future. That, Chaza"l tell us, is not only the truth, but the only way to succeed in one's divine service.

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