We live in a culture for which personal rights and free choice are sacrosanct. If, for example, a woman wants to kill the baby inside of her - that is HER RIGHT! Things are about ME and MY RIGHTS.
The Torah comes and says NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. We have NO rights!! Like - none!!!
Meaning - we have rights vis a vis EACH OTHER. But when it comes to serving Hashem - we are totally subservient to the Divine Will. Nobody asked us. על כרחך אתה נולד ועל כרחך אתה מת. We are here whether we like it or not and we will leave this whether we like it or not. We are not always satisfied with our lot in life. The body doesn't always act as we wish and the people around us can cause us quite a bit of distress. And then there is the IRS, bumper to bumper traffic and all the things we don't like about our jobs [if one is fortunate enough to have one].
So we do a switch in our minds and remember that we are SERVANTS. כי עבדי הם. Usually well dressed, with large homes [who have a servant or two of our own...] - but servants nonetheless. A servant is not asked for his opinions. A servant serves.
The BEGINNING of Teshuva is accepting upon ourselves AVDUS. Unadulterated servitude. 24/7. Until and including our dying day.
This servitude is different than serving a human master b/c our servitude is of the greatest benefit to ourselves, our souls, often our bodies as well, our eternity and all of the cosmos. Our motivation is to do the right thing b/c Hashem commanded b/c we KNOW that He lacks nothing and doesn't need us - אם צדקת מה תתן לו. But together with that we know that His concern is for us and that we are serving for our good. If it would be for our good to live hedonistic lives - He would have commanded us to be hedonists. We are told to curb our desires for our benefit.
If you internalize this then - goodbye big ego. Goodbye being offended all the time. Goodbye worrying what people think abt. me or why I didn't get Maftir. Goodbye anger and resentment.
An עבד has no time for such things. He is too busy serving.
WITH SIMCHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
