FROM "TEIKU" TO "TIKKUN: A NEW TWIST

A while back, I wrote a series of posts about getting unstuck and overcoming everything that's holding us back in life. There I explained that the difference between "teiku" (unresolved questions, whether in the Talmud or in our personal lives) and "tikkun" (the definitive answer) lies in the letter "nun" (ן"), which, as it's easy to see, is missing in "teiku" ("תיקו")  but present in "tikkun"  ("תיקון"). So the only thing we have to do is find this missing "nun", and then it will show us a way to resolve our dilemmas..

Back then,  the most important "nun" I found was related to saying Tehillim, which, as explained in Breslov sources, can bring a person to the Fiftieth Gate of Holiness (the numerical value of the letter "nun" is fifty, so that is the connection). Accessing that level can be compared to receiving a personal letter from Hashem, containing everything that a person needs to get unstuck and to really move on.

I know that it sounds too good (or too simple) to be true, but my experience shows that this really does work. After I wrote that series of posts, I experienced a major upheaval in my personal life, and its ripple effects are continuing to this day. Though it didn't seem so at first, now I see that upheaval as something really, really positive. And I'm absolutely sure that the catalyst for all this change was the work I was doing to get from "teiku" to "tikkun".

So recently I was very happy to find another "nun", which can mean another way to jumpstart our spiritual progress. In Torah 1, the very first lesson in "Likutei Moharan", Rabbeinu says that the letter "nun" signifies the quality of Malchus, which in simple terms can be explained as the ability to perceive Hashem in our ordinary lives and to submit to His authority. And Reb Noson says in the Halacha related to this Torah that the period of Counting the Omer (that we're in right now) is devoted to tikkun haMalchus - correcting and perfecting that ability.

Of course, this is easier said than done. One of the ways to achieve this tikkun, as Rabbeinu says in Torah 1, is by studying Torah "b'koach", with liveliness and enthusiasm, overcoming everything that's holding us back from this pursuit. As far as I understand, this can also apply to women, when we study the areas of Torah that we can and should study, such as practical Halacha. This study can  lead us to realize that Hashem is always right here with us, interested in everything we're doing and wanting us to do it right. So this really is tikkun haMalchus: honing our ability to relate to Hashem right  from where we find ourselves at any given moment. And, since Malchus is "nun", this work is going to help us turn "teiku" into "tikkun", resolving our life dilemmas and getting ready for receiving the Torah on Shavuos.

I know that right now this looks like a bunch of raw ideas, but I'm going to be working on developing them in the coming days and weeks (after all, the period of Sefiras HaOmer is supposed to be devoted to this tikkun), so please stay tuned.