Emuna Daily

It is known just how important it is to honor parents. Honoring them is compared to honoring Hashem. To disgrace them is a grave sin….Therefore, dear children of Bnei Yisrael, honor Hashem, and be careful to honor your father and mother. Listen to everything they say….

Each mitzvah has its mazal. People spend a lot of money to have the merit to open up the aron kodesh or to be a sandak, and the like, but these aren’t mitzvos from the Torah or mitzvos of the rabbanan. They are chibuv mitzvah (a gesture, showing love for the mitzvos). Ashreihem Yisrael (they are fortunate)! However, each time one obeys his father or his mother he is doing a mitzvah from the Torah! But the fools transgress and they are punished.” ~ The Pele Yoetz

Before surgery, doctors tell patients not to eat anything, so the body will be clean for the operation. Pesach can be compared to a great surgery, because our bad will be extracted, and in its place we will be imbued with holiness. For that, we clean our homes from chametz before Pesach. ~ Rebbe Ahron Leib of Premishlan zt”l as quoted by R’ Elimelech Biderman

Ruminating about the past will get you nowhere. So go ahead and learn from the past whatever you can, and then put it behind you.  Remember, there is nothing you can do to change it, but you can use its lessons to improve your future.  ~ R’ Dr. Avraham J. Twerski zt”l

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