We all know, making resolutions is a lot easier than carrying them out. How do we overcome this difficulty?

“I am G-d your G-d who took you out of Egypt, widen your mouth and I will fill it.” In Hebrew the word for Passover (Exodus) is Pesach – “the mouth that speaks a lot”. All the commandments of the Passover night Seder, are related to the mouth. Drinking the four cups, eating the Matzah and the bitter herbs, and recounting the story of Exodus. If that’s not enough, the name of the month in Hebrew is Nissan, which is the numerical value of 170, two times the word mouth- Peh in Hebrew!

The two portions of the Torah that follow Passover, deal with the rules of kosher – the esophagus, and the week after that, the rules of not speaking gossip – the windpipe. Together with the Passover itself there is a sequence in the number of three, which in Jewish law makes it significant, all related to the mouth. Inside the mouth, lies the answer to slavery and freedom.

Chassidic philosophy explains, the spiritual slavery which constricts, restricts and constrains the person, all starts with not acknowledging a very important reality.

The key aspect which differentiates a human being from any other creature is that we are not our bodies. We are not by birth, slaves to the drives and emotions of our natural tendencies. Other creations and creatures are not aware of themselves in third person. A tree and a house, animals and flies, all operate and are forced by their natural characteristics, while humans are endowed with a G-dly ability to choose and decide their own destiny, due to the fact that G-d blew a soul into our nostrils, to conscientiously through acquiring knowledge, choose the right and proper choices.

Once we make the effort, which is what is takes, to pursue knowledge, and we learn about the good the bad and the ugly, this awareness becomes the many possible choices available to choose from.

However, conclusions of the mind before they can influence a spark and trigger the emotions in order to get the person moving in the right direction, must past through the bottle neck of the neck and herein lies the problem and the solution.

The neck is narrower than the head above, and the body below. The neck contains within it the windpipe, the esophagus and the arteries of life.

According to Chassidus it is the constant self-indulgent pursuits of life itself, like living to eat tasty and pleasurable delights, speaking words that serve the self especially when at the expense of others and just plain living just to enjoy oneself, narcissism and hedonism, that create the barrier and thick dark separation that holds back any chance of spiritual wisdom from reaching and exciting the emotions.

The more a person immerses himself in the flesh, the coarser and less likely it is for the refined and yet powerful intellect is, to affect and move the emotions. Conversely, the more a person uses their lives and particularly their mouths and all that’s in it (eating, speaking and living) for a higher spiritual end, the easier, the greater and more powerful the flow will becomes from the conclusions of the wisdom to below.

Someone once wrote to Rabbi Schneerson for a solution to the problem and difficulty of carrying through with ones resolutions. The Rebbe, Rabbi Schneerson told him to write on paper his resolutions and read it out loud, once before the bed prayers and once before the morning prayers.

Another solution is, in the words of our sages, – “voice arouses ……” to read out loud. When we are doing our daily prayers, and learning our daily Torah studies, to speak out loud the invigorating and strengthening words that we are reading. To enunciate the words clearly. This alone can and will connect to some degree, the thoughts of our mind with the wind in our bodies to assist with the feeling of the heart.