Emuna Daily

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

You are wherever your thoughts are.  Make sure your thoughts are where you want to be. ~ R’ Nachman of Breslov zt”l

Realize what a great miracle teshuva is: To undo the past, to wipe out what happened before, is something we cannot understand. It is a miracle that teshuva helps, and for this miracle we’re expected to be grateful to Hashem. ~ R’ Avigdor Miller zt”l

You can read essays on tefillah from today until tomorrow, but the only real way to inspire your children to pray is through davening yourself. They see which shul you choose, where you sit, how you sit.

That’s what works.

My own father was a minyan person. He took it seriously. The fact that going to shul was such a big part of our lives made it real and exciting to us kids.

Shul was a place to get enthusiastic about, and so we got enthusiastic. ~ R’ Benyamin Yudin

If you believe in Hashem when you see everything is good, that isn’t emuna. That is knowledge. Emuna is when we don’t understand, yet we believe that it’s for the good. ~ The Bnei Yissaschar zt’l