ANOTHER MISSING "NUN" (THEY KEEP COMIING!)

This is a somewhat humorous addition to my collection of "nuns" that are supposed to take a person from feeling totally stuck ('teiku") to true soul correction ("tikkun'). As I've written before, the presence of the letter "nun" is the only difference between these two Hebrew words.

This new "nun" is the first letter of the word "nudnik". A "nudnik" is a person who is boring or even annoying,  Such a person will never leave, even when repeatedly asked to do so, and will always talk, even when no one wants to listen. But for me it's closer to what Rabbeinu called "akshan gadol" ("very stubborn"), because it is necessary to be a nudnik when it comes to finding our tikkun.

I once heard it expressed like this. When a person is trying to return to Hashem and their first efforts are not successful, sometimes it will even seem to them that they hear a bas kol (a voice from Heaven) telling them, "You're not welcome! Hashem will never accept you! You'll never be able to live a true religious life!". If they hear that, they should just dig in their heels and say, "I don't care! I don't believe it! I ain't leaving!", and then continue doing all they can to get close to Hashem. Because this voice is just a test, a phantom of their imagination, and if a person overcomes it, they will get all the help they need and Hashem will certainly accept their teshuvah..

So it is when trying to get unstuck and find a real tikkun for our problems. Even if nothing goes our way and we continue feeling stuck, we should just say, "I am here, and I ain't leaving!" Then we should just keep on making every effort we can think of: talking to Hashem, saying Tehillim, reading up on our problems, discussing the situation with friends... In other words, we should be real nudniks! Because our problems are also just a test, to see if we will get discouraged easily and stop looking for a solution. And if we don't get discouraged, after a while Hashem will certainly step in and help us sort everything out!