The kabbalists explain that there are three ways to connect and draw Light from righteous souls who have left this world: visiting their resting place, reading from their words of wisdom, or reading stories about them. With each story read we not only draw from the Light that these righteous souls revealed, but also the gift of the lesson taught by that kabbalist.
Once a student travelled to the house of Rav Zev Wolf HaCohen of Zitomir, in the dead of winter, for help in overcoming negative thoughts. For hours he banged on the doors and windows of the house while the snow kept falling, but Rav Zev Wolf didn't get up, apparently too engrossed in his midnight study.
Finally, shaking and shivering, he was let in.
"Thoughts," Rav Zev Wolf said to the student, "are like your home. Like a palace of a king. Not just anyone can enter and seek an audience with royalty. And if it is your home, then you alone have the power to decide who enters."
Negative thoughts will always be there. They’re one of the Opponent’s greatest weapons. But we don’t have to entertain them. We don’t have to let them in. We don’t have to feed them. Like the Rav always says when negative thoughts come knocking on your door, “The restaurant is closed.”
What can help us in our fight against these thoughts is remembering that we are truly royalty. Our mind is not just our home but our palace! As the great Kabbalist Rav Shlomo of Karlin reminds us, “The only mistake we ever make is forgetting we are children of the Creator, the King of Kings.”
We have the greatest Light within. Every single one of us. Do not let the Opponent trick you into thinking otherwise.
May the merit of Rav Zev Wolf HaCohen of Zitomir give us the strength to bar negative thoughts from entering our internal Temple and remind us of the great Light that is our soul.
