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1.30.2007

CHIZUK-----fake it till you make it

annoyed Posted - 30 March 2001 16:32


Speaking about fakers, in my school my principal got up and said "fake it till you make it" she was referring to torah things. this quote really bothers me.

How could one day you go to the movies and the next day, daven with Kavanah. How is it possible? Thanks

MODERATOR Posted - 30 March 2001 17:38


What your teacher means is that even if your heart is not yet on the level to "feel" the Mitzvos, you should do them anyway. The principle - in the words of the Mesilas Yeshorim - is "The outside influences the inside".

In other words, if you behave like a certain personality type you will eventually start feeling like that type. Someone, for example, who always acts as if he is cruel, never helping anyone, but inside still feels merciful, will, if he continues to behave in a cruel manner, in time, become cruel.

All the more so with Torah and Mitzvos, where the deep down natural real sincere desire of a Jew is to do, feel, and live the Mitzvos, and it's just the Yetzer Horah that distracts him and messes with his head and heart, synthesizing an unnatural repulsion to Torah and Mitzvos.

By doing what’s right in deed even if your heart is not with you (what your teacher called "faking it"), you will slowly bring your nature back into sync and awaken the real you inside ("till you make it").

There was once a Kotzker Chosid who was screaming "father, father" during davening. Someone complained to the Kotzker Rebbe that this Chosid was faking it since he is not on the level to actually believe that Hashem is his father.

The Kotzker Rebbe answered, "If he screams loud and long enough he will believe it."

Another thing - about the going to movies and then davening with Kavanah:

Please see my post in "Us, Evil and Proofs to the Torah" / Am I Evil / 22 May 2000 16:42. Also see the "Self Esteem" forum on these boards.

There is a very, very, very important principle that you must know. Namely, that life is a struggle, and we ALL have a Yetzer Horah and we ALL do things that are wrong, and the YETZER HORAH tries to tell us that Well if we went to a movie last night we would be faking if we daven with Kavanah today. The Yetzer Horah is LYING. He just doesn’t want you to daven with Kavanah. Life is a struggle. We win some, we lose some. A Ben Torah is NOT someone who does not have a Yetzer Horah; it is someone who tries to fight it, regardless of what happened yesterday.

The movie may affect your davening, BUT if you think that because you went to the movies last night that today Hashem wants you less to daven with Kavanah you are wrong. You have to be strong and daven with as much Kavanah as you can, and let the Yetzer Horah be confused with the seeming incongruity, not you. You know that you are human and you are not perfect and you still go to movies. Fine. That should NOT affect the Mitzvos that you do properly.

You are NOT a faker is you do Mitzvos and Aveiros both. You are a human. The faker here is the Yetzer Horah - that part of you that tells you that you are being inconsistent. THAT'S a lie. You are being a human being. He - the Yetzer is faking.

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