Emuna Daily

Remember this rule for every brachah: When you say “Baruch Atah” (Bless are You) picture that Hashem is before you and you are speaking directly to Him. That is the translation of “Baruch Atah.” Think this every time you speak to Hashem. Don’t say any prayer by rote, chas veshalom. You are speaking directly to Hashem, Whose presence fills the world. ~  The Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah (HaAshmuros 2)

Anyone who has the potential to fall very low necessarily has the potential to rise very high. ~ R’ Shmuel Weinberg

How many times have we discovered, after the fact, that the difficult experience we just had, the job we lost, the health or financial challenge, was an amazing blessing?

We only realize it later on.

We live in a world that is an illusion, and sometimes we fall into the trap of believing it’s that which is outside of us that is worth chasing, not what’s inside of us. We think that things outside of us define us. It’s the other way around. If something is outside of me, I’ll never really get it, I’ll be chasing it forever.  What’s inside of me is there.

It’s not what you don’t have, but what you already have and haven’t even noticed.

Pay attention to what’s inside, and you’ll find so much blessing. ~ R’ Jonathan Rietti

Do not judge your neighbor before having gone through what he has gone through.  Indeed, we cannot know what he is going through, how difficult it is for him to behave properly, in order not to sin. ~ R’ Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson zt”l

What matters in life is not what we say, but what we do. ~ R’ Yosef Yitzchak Sitrul zt”l

When the Klausenberger Rebbe zt”l asked the head of a yeshiva why he threw a bachur out after he told him he is ready to change, he replied that “this bachur promised me 1000 times he will improve and he never keeps his word.”

The Rebbe held his white beard and said to him, “I am already old. During these years I promised Hashem more than 1000 times that I will improve, and I haven’t done so yet. According to what you’re saying, it’s impossible for me to change. There’s no hope. But it isn’t so. As long as a Yid lives, he still has potential to improve his ways…”

After this conversation, he allowed the bachur back into the yeshiva. This story is a reminder that one can always improve.  This is the essence of Nissan, a time that we can all start anew.

Someone who makes himself new and accepts upon himself to serve Hashem this month, it will help him all the months of the year! ~ Beis Avraham zt”l

There are no boundaries to the love parents have for their children. When we ask little children how much they love their parents, they spread their arms apart, “this much, or “Until Shamayim.”

Now, if a parent gives so much love to their first child, such limitless uncontained love, how can they love their second child, or their third or their ninth?

The answer is that a person can have infinite love, with no boundaries, for more than one child. They can do it again and again.

And if they have a special needs child? Then they find new reservoirs of love, even more, because that child will only exist within that love.

HaKadosh Barcuch Hu loves every single one of us, in a limitless way. And the special ones? The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that those special ones, the ones who are struggling and far and distant…they get a special love, because they need it most.

~ R’ Zecharia Wallerstein

Some day you will look back and understand why it all happened the way it did.

It is easy for a rabbi to establish prohibitions, but a rabbi’s real strength is to teach Torah and rule on law with an emphasis on what is permitted. ~ R’ Ovadia Yosef zt”l