NUTRITION AND AVODAS HASHEM

I once read the following piece of advice from a nutritionist:

"If you're used to eating heavy comfort foods, this is what you're going to be craving, and it's going to be very hard for you to stop eating them. So my advice is, "Add!" Besides those comfort foods that you like, your every meal should contain a hefty portion of leafy greens. Then it will be easier for you to gradually shift the balance and get used to eating healthy."

Now, I have yet to incorporate this recommendation into my diet (not only am I fond of heavy comfort foods, but I also hate leafy greens...) Yet it recently occurred to me that this is also very powerful advice for avodas Hashem. Sometimes a person just cannot find it in themselves to stop doing something wrong, even though they clearly see that it's beneath them. But they can always ADD! For example, both Rabbeinu and Reb Noson stress in several places that if a person is learning Torah on a regular basis, then, even if they're steeped in sins, the Torah itself will purify them so that eventually they will be able to stop doing wrong.

But avodas Hashem is very different from nutrition. As far as healthy eating is concerned, there are not so many things that a person can add to improve their diet. So if you, too, hate those leafy greens, then you are going to have a problem. Yet in serving Hashem, there are so many things we can add to our daily routine: doing more chesed, giving more tzedakah, improving our mitzvah performance, listening compassionately to our friends... They might not have the same cleansing power as learning Torah, but they certainly do make a person much better.

So, if you see something good that you can add to your day and to your life, go for it! Even if you cannot yet stop whatever it is that you're doing wrong. Because chances are that this good will eventually purify you to the point where you will be able to stop.