Our Greatest Potential

Rabbi Yochanan said: “Just as the olive yields oil for light only when it is pounded, so are a Jew’s greatest potentials realized only under the pressure of adversity.” ~ Talmud Menachos 53b

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Even Worse

A person who listens to loshon horah is worse than the one who recites it. ~ Talmud Pesachim 118a

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His Special Jacket

R’ Simcha Zissel Ziv of Kelm developed a strategy to never lose his temper.  He had a special jacket that he had set aside to wear when he was angry.  He said, “When I feel anger coming on, I know that I have to get my special jacket.  But, by the time I do, I am no longer angry.”  ~ Alan Morinis

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Welcoming the Additional Soul Before Shabbos

The best way to welcome the neshama yeseirah (the additional soul we each get on shabbos) is by sanctifying one’s thoughts and concentrating on attaining deveikus (closeness) to Hashem. The neshama yeseirah derives its highest exultation from our fervent kavanah (concentration during prayer), and from the Torah insights on the parashah we tell each other. ~ Reishis Chochma as quoted by R’ Dovid Meisels

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Doctors

 

The Torah gave a doctor permission to heal – but who gave him the right to give up hope? ~ R’ Yehoshua Leib Diskin zt”l

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Strigencies

Instead of adding a stringency to the law, it would be better to add fear [of God] to one’s deeds.  ~ The Kotzker Rebbe zt”l

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When You Love Someone

When you love someone, don’t love him according to your preferences and desires, but according to his preferences and desires. ~ Rabbeinu Yonah of Gerondi zt”l

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You Live There for a Reason

Divine Providence leads EVERYONE to his place of residence for the purpose of strengthening Yiddishkeit and disseminating Torah. When you plow and you sow – things will grow.  ~ R’ Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson zt”

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Benefit of the Doubt

If at all feasible, you should give people the benefit of the doubt.  If you relate an incident, not giving the benefit of the doubt in circumstances which obligate you to do so, you would be guilty of speaking loshon hora, and of failing to perform the commandment of b’tzedek tishpot amisecho – “Judge your neighbor with righteousness.” ~ Guard Your Tongue

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A Mother’s Womb – Brilliant!

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other:
“Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”
The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”
The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”
The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”
The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”
The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”
The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”
Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”
To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”

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