Hey Ref!

What exactly is peace of mind?

For there to be an absence of peace, in the most literal sense of the word, there needs to be war.

What is this war?

Inside every person's mind and heart, there is a raging war between the body and the soul. They are polar opposites, they want polar opposites and they are attracted toward polar opposites.

The soul comes from Divine breath. The body comes from the earth.

The soul wants to give. The body wants to take.

The soul is attracted to everything above it. The body is attracted to everything beneath it. (Everything!)

The soul loves others. The body loves Botox.

The soul wants to work. The body wants a massage.

The soul wants to serve G-d. The body wants G-d to serve him.

The soul wants purpose. The body wants pleasure.

The soul yearns to hear wisdom. The body yearns to hear compliments.

The soul sees other souls. The body sees other bodies.

The soul wants to always wake up, up. The body wants to always lie down, down.

The soul wants to pray. The body wants to prey.

The soul wants to fix, quick. The body wants a quick fix.

The soul wants the body's understanding. The body wants the soul's surrender.

They occupy and fight for control over the same individual.

And our minds are left to referee the match.

Every referee needs training or they start taking sides. Torah provides that training and here is what it says:

The soul must be a teacher, and the body must be a student. They have to gain from each other.

Without the teacher, the student is aimless; an unproductive gold-mine of unrealized potential and energy.

Without the student, the teacher can't effect her environment and remains full of useless good intentions and ideas.

The sooner the body recognizes that the soul is not out to destroy him and deprive him of all enjoyment, the better off he will be. His joy won't be marred by a mysterious emptiness and he won't be constantly enraged by his juvenile misunderstanding of her care for him. And he will find peace.

Thus, "May the L-rd lift His countenance to you and grant you peace." 

Good Shabbos!

Rabbi Friedman