Technology teaches us important lessons:
From the trains we learn that every minute in life is important – A person may miss the train if he arrives even one minute late.
The telegraph teaches us that our every word is accounted for and carries a cost.
And the telephone teaches us that everything that is said here is heard there. ~ R’ Avraham Yaakov Friedman of Sadigora zt”l
Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course.
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “Tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today!
Hashem wants us to get the most out of misfortunes. He wants us to understand why they come. Therefore He gives a clue to understand them. The way the misfortune comes, that’s a clue, a hint why it comes. ~ R’ Avigdor Miller zt”l
If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you.
If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.
If a nobleman commands his servants to build for him a magnificent palace, it is possible that God willed this to happen just so that when one righteous person comes to that spot many years later, he will be able to rest in the shade of its walls and protect himself from the scorching sun. ~ Rambam
If you maliciously speak loshon hora about someone behind his back and do not want him to find out that you maligned him, in addition to violating the prohibition against speaking loshon hora, you also incur upon yourself a curse: “Cursed be the one who secretly smites his friend” (Dvorim 27:24). ~ Guard Your Tongue
One cannot gain entrance to Gan Eden by causing Gehennom for others. Simple example: Those who daven in a loud voice, so that HaShem should hear them, while disturbing other daveners. ~ R’ Nachman Kahana
Each of us is allocated from above just the amount of time we need to get our mission done. Some of that time will be for learning, teaching, helping others. Some of that time will be needed for making a living—also a divine task with purpose and meaning.
But none of us can justify our obsession with making a living by claiming that it leaves no time to learn or to teach.
This is nothing less than misappropriation of funds—spending all the allotted time on one task at the expense of your principal purpose in this world. Each of us is foremost a student and a teacher. ~ The Lubavitcher Rebbe as quoted by R’ Tzvi Freeman
A blade of grass is a miracle, it’s more complicated than a skyscraper. Imagine a skyscraper would grow in your backyard; a blade of grass makes a skyscraper into nothing, it’s so complicated. A skyscraper can’t grow. This can grow too, it gets bigger and bigger.
Miracles of miracles in one blade of grass. And that causes people, even of smaller stature, to become aware of Hashem and full of joy. — True Happiness (#685)
