The Emunah Cleanse: Nullify, Clear and Purify
The Emunah Cleanse: Nullify, Clear and Purify

Pesach is approaching, and the Nation of Israel is busy cleaning. In addition to the soap, water, bleach and whatever else we may be using to cleanse our surroundings, we need to add an essential cleaning ingredient: Emunah, faith.

Our dark side is a master of confusion. It excels at filling our minds with all sorts of foreign thoughts, worries and desires that leave us exhausted, disheartened and bewildered. Our light side, on the other hand, is a master of emunah, faith.  Emunah is the ultimate cleaning substance. It works in three stages: Nullifying, clearing and purifying.

A simple example for this process is connected to the sense of smell. If there is an unpleasant odor, it must be nullified, by removing or neutralizing the source of the smell, for example. But even after the source of the problem has been nullified, the odor may remain. That’s where the second stage of the Emunah Cleanse, clearing - comes in; scrubbing, cleaning and clearing away any existing unpleasant smell. Once the smell is gone and everything is clean, the third stage, a new sense of purity, can enter the empty space where the odor used to reside.

The same emunah cleaning process can be employed in our minds. If something is bothering us, filling us with troubling thoughts, we must first nullify the source of those thoughts. To nullify the dark thought, we reaffirm our faith in the fact that G-d is running the world and that this problem or worry is in G-d’ s hands. After we have nullified the thought, it has to be cleared away. This is accomplished by believing that G-d does everything for the best. It is hard for us to see through the darkness, but we know and believe that there is tremendous potential good there, coming straight from G-d. This clears our minds of foreign thoughts – all thoughts that do not serve our mission in this world, which is to serve G-d.

Proper clearing of the thought from our minds will leave a vacuum, a clear place in our heads. That vacuum will then be filled with pure, holy, calm thoughts – the third and final stage of the Emunah Cleanse. The purity is the good smell. If life has a good smell, if it is pure, the result is joy. Pure emunah  activates the nullification and clearing out. Once our minds are clear of extraneous junk, G-d will enter.

In the superconscious, emunah is darkness, the unknown. When G-d created the world, first there was darkness and only afterwards, light. These are the two planes of time: Night and day. Night comes first. In other words, first we serve G-d in the darkness, in a state of emunah, with no tangible knowledge of how things will work out. Afterwards, through our service of nullification and clearing, the light of day - secure trust in G-d (bitachon) in which we clearly perceive that all is good and will be good – enters.

Physicists have discovered dark matter. We do not know what dark matter is – it is true superconscious – but it holds tremendous, intangible energy. This is the potent power of emunah. This power descends into our consciousness in order to clear it. After our minds are cleared, the “thread of chesed/lovingkindness”, the tangible, perceived good, can be drawn in.

Our “night shift” is connecting to the source of emunah in our souls, drawing it down in order to clear our minds. As morning approaches, and the cleaning is all finished, the secure trust in G-d can enter and we see the “thread of chesed/lovingkindness” –all the good and pure in our lives – in broad daylight. Enjoy the cleaning!