Emuna Daily

Thank Hashem more, and you will find yourself with more to thank Him for.

R’ Yerucham Levovitz zt’l, the mashgiach of Yeshivas Mir, stated, “It is not good when one doesn’t know his faults. But it is even worse when one doesn’t recognize his qualities. He is like a craftsman who is unfamiliar with his tools.”

Let’s say in Madison Square Garden they erect a huge stage, and they spend millions on the scenery and the lights, and a lot of people come to look. They’re watching and waiting. And then the curtains are drawn, and they’re waiting for the main character to step out on the stage. But at that time he’s sitting somewhere in a bar, or he’s home and he’s sleeping. It’s all a waste.

This great universe is the stage where each one of us is the main actor. Don’t be confused by the thought that there are others, too. It’s for everyone individually. The entire universe: that’s your opportunity. ~ R’ Avigdor Miller zt”l

The Chassidic leader, Reb Leib Sorkes traveled great distances to spend time with the Maggid of Mezritch.  “To see him daven?” – he was asked. “No,” he replied.  “To see the Maggid tie his shoelace.”

There have been so many unbelievable stories coming out about Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer zt”l who passed away last Friday, which reveal his incredible acts of chessed, including one my aunt told me.  When my aunt was recently in the hospital with Covid-19, Rabbi Kelemer went to the cemetery to daven by her parent’s kevarim that she should have a refuah sheleima.  He never said a word.  She only found out because Rabbi Kelemer’s wife mentioned it recently to my mother.  Incredible!

But when I saw the above quote, I thought of a time when I had visited my grandmother in a nursing home/rehab facility and of course Rabbi Kelemer came to visit her as well. As he was leaving, I noticed him approach all the residents sitting around the common area and with a big smile saying, “Hi, Yehuda Kelemer, what is your name… So nice to meet you…”  After he walked away, they all smiled and looked at each other and said “what a nice man!”  He never missed an opportunity to do a mitzvah and make each person he met feel special.

While most of us won’t travel to a cemetery to daven by the kevarim of the parents of those we are davening for, we can certainly take a lesson from how Rabbi Kelemer conducted himself as he was leaving the nursing home that time.

It is not so much that we need to be taken out of exile.  That, a Moses can do.

It is that the exile must be taken out of us.  For that, each one must find Moses within. ~ R’ Tzvi Freeman

In everything you do, be mindful that God sees all we do.  There is no cheating God.

~ R’ Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l

Most people do not feel bad because they lack wisdom; they feel bad because people say they lack wisdom. ~ Chayai Hamussar

What precedes success? What precedes success in relationships, in business, in life?

Failure.

Inevitably.

Which means that failure isn’t failure, right?

Which is fascinating, because in lashon hakodesh, the language that created reality, there is no word for failure.

If there’s no word for failure in Hashem’s dictionary, that means it doesn’t exist.

He wants us to realize that the purpose of confusion is clarity, the purpose of illness is recovery, the purpose of the mistakes we make is teshuvah.

~ R’ Jonathan Rietti

Someone in a difficult situation wrote to R’ Yitzchok Hutner, “There is nothing I can do to change the situation.”

R’ Hutner replied, “We always have the ability to pray.  There is tremendous power in a chapter of Tehillim (Psalms) when it is said with a broken heart and deep feeling.”

~ Pachad Yitzchok, Igros Uksovim

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To a disciple who complained of his financial troubles: You speak of what you need, but you say nothing of what you are needed for.

~ R’ Shneur Zalman of Liadi whose yartzheit is today.