Emuna Daily

Hakadosh Baruch Hu desires more the mitzvos when one is helping his fellow man, than the mitzvos that are solely for Hashem. ~ Rosh (Pei’ah 1:1)

The Baal Shem Tov zt”l said that the reason Moshiach hasn’t yet come is because people aren’t saying the bracha of ahavah rabba at length.

The ascension of the mountain of God must take place step by step.  It is impossible to leap from the bottom to the top in one bound, nor is there any sense or profit in standing stationary on one spot in the valley, merely gazing at the mountain.  One must walk, ascend, and continue to ascend without stopping.  ~ R’ Eliyahu Lopian zt”l

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become your character &

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

What we think, we become.

Happy is the person who hears an offensive remark about himself and remains silent.  He saves himself from a hundred troubles! ~ Sanhedrin 7a

The root of the word “Teshuvah” is “shuv” to return.  What are you returning to?  You are returning to your essence, to your pristine core, to your unsullied soul.    Christianity believes in “original sin” and how people are tainted and impure.  But that is not so with Judaism.  In Judaism, we believe that each one of us is holy and pure, and when we do teshuva, we return to the purity, to the essence and holiness of who we really are.  ~ R’ Yitzchok Fingerer

We are not physical beings living a spiritual life.  We are spiritual beings living a physical life.  We do not have souls, we are souls!  ~ Mrs. Miriam Swerdlov citing the Alter Rebbe

All this talk about the good old days is the work of the yetzer hara.  He wants people to speak like this to make us suffer and worry all the more about our livelihoods.  He would like to make us feel that there is no hope at all now, heaven forbid.

This is all false.  God continuously sustains the world and people rise and fall in every age.  If you look carefully at the past, you will find that it also contained much poverty and suffering.

The opposite is true.  God now directs the world better than ever.  ~ R’ Nachman of Breslov zt”l