No Bad Can Come From It

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Emuna Daily

None ever became poor from giving charity, nothing bad or injurious is caused by Tzedakah, as it is written: “The Lord will be kind and compassionate to you and multiply you” (Deuteronomy 13:18) ~Mishna Torah 10:2

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The Sound of Torah

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Emuna Daily

“I am like the mill owner who hears the noise of his mill grinding and is happy and relaxed because he knows that the mill is working properly and work is getting done.  Similarly, the sound of Torah learning, no matter how loud and noisy, is exactly what puts me at ease and enables me to rest.” ~ The Netziv

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On the Last Day of Pesach

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Emuna Daily

“On Acharon Shel Pesach, the radiance of the light of Moshiach is shining openly!” ~ The Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l

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R’ Natan of Bresolv’s Complete Trust 

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Emuna Daily

Once, on the last market day before Pesach, Rebbe Natan still did not have any money to buy his household needs for the festival. Before he could even say his morning prayers, his wife, Dishel, pressed him for money, causing him great anguish. “Oy! Did she learn a chapter of bitterness with me,” he said. Still, when he began his prayers, he strengthened himself with faith and trust in G-d, and put all his energy into his prayers, as if nothing at all was wrong. 

Reb Nachman of Tulchin, who was there at the time, said, “After Rebbe Natan finished his prayers I saw a tremendous change on his face. He looked as if all of his needs were fulfilled.” Later that day some of Rebbe Natan’s followers from 
nearby Rairid, came to Breslov for the market. They brought Rebbe Natan a sizeable sum of money, sufficient to cover all of his needs for Pesach. Reb Nachman of Tulchin was with Rebbe Natan when they gave him the money. He said he saw no change whatsoever on Rebbe Natan’s face when he received it. This was because of his complete trust in G-d. (Aveneha Barzel p. 76 #64).” ~ “Through Fire and Water” by Rabbi Chaim Kramer

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Transformation

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Emuna Daily

“Before the experience of Mount Sinai, the coarse material of which the world is made could not be elevated. It could be used as a medium, an aid in achieving enlightenment, but it itself could not be enlightened. Jacob used sticks for meditation. Isaac dug wells. But neither the sticks nor the wells became imbued with G-dliness. 

All that changed at Mount Sinai. When you take a piece of leather and write upon it a Torah scroll, you have transformed the material into spiritual. And the same with flour used for matzah for Passover night, and branches used to cover a succah, and even the earnings which you tithe for good causes.  And so you may do in every aspect of your life.” ~ R’ Tzvi Freeman

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Bargain

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Emuna Daily

“Just as one goes early to the market to take advantage of bargains, so too, should one rush out to seize every opportunity to perform mitzvos!” ~ R’ Aharon Hagadol of Karlin zt”l from Torah Tavlin

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Here the Son Asks

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Emuna Daily

Before the Ma Nishtana in many Haggados, the words “kan haben shoel” (“Here the son asks”) is found.  There is a profound message in these words.  “Here” – the night of the seder – is an auspicious time for every Jewish “son” to “ask” his father in Heaven for all his needs, requests and Hashem’s blessings in abundance. ~ R’ Aharon Perlow zt”l of Stolin a/k/a the Beis Aharon

Please daven today for Dovid Yonasan ben Chaya Miril (David/Dovid Blum), a young man with a young family who is having a serious surgery today.  Please have him in mind today in your tefillos, say Tehillim, learn and do mitzvos bizchus his r’fuah sh’leimah.

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De Fir Kashas – Ma Nishtana in Yiddish

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Emuna Daily

Tatta, ich vil d’fraigen de fir kashes (Father, I will ask the four questions.)

Question 1

Alla nacht fun a ganz yar (All of the rest of the year)

Essen mir chametz u’matzah, (I eat leavened products and matzah,)

Uhbar d’nacht fun Pesach, essen mir matzah. (But on the night of Pesach, I eat matzah.)

 Question 2

Alla nacht fun a ganz yar (All of the rest of the year)

Essen mir allilay grinsin, (I eat all types of vegetables,)

Uhbar d’nacht fun Pesach, essen mir bitterer grinsin. (But on the night of Pesach, I eat marror.)

 Question 3

Alla nacht fun a ganz yar (All of the rest of the year)

Tinkin mir nor ain mol, (I don’t even dip once,)

Uhbar d’nacht fun Pesach, tinkin mir tzvai mol. (But on the night of Pesach, I dip twice.)

[Karpas in saltzvasser, un marror in charoses. (Karpas in saltwater, and marror in charoses.)]

 Question 4

Alla nacht fun a ganz yar (All of the rest of the year)

Essen mir sie zitzindik un sie ungeshpart, (I eat while sitting straight or leaning,)

Uhbar d’nacht fun Pesach, essen mir sie ungeshpart. (But on the night of Pesach, I eat while leaning.)

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Rav Achai Gaon – Gevalt!

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Emuna Daily

I posted this a few years ago, but in case you missed it, it is one of my favorite stories, especially right before Pesach.

In the time of the Yeshuos Yaakov, there was a Yid in Lemberg who was so hungry you couldn’t even call it fasting.  ‘Fasting’ means that sometimes you eat and sometimes you don’t.  But he never ate.  Nebach, once a year he got to eat: the Yehsuos Yaakov got the community together on Pesach every year to give food, so this man and his family would have something to eat.

One year, in the middle of the Seder this poor Yiddele came running to the Yeshuos Yaakov.  They didn’t have caterers back then; they would take one big pot, throw everything in, and cook it.  One of the poor man’s children just threw something into the pot, and he was pretty sure it was chametz.

Everybody knows that with chametz even b’elef, even if it’s only one part in a thousand, there’s no way out.  The whole pot is chametz.  Okay now, open your hearts.  There’s one opinion, the helige Rav Achai Gaon, that although chametz isn’t batel b’shishim, it is batelb’meiah.  With other treifeh things, if there’s sixty parts of other stuff in the pot it’s all kosher; and Rav Achai Gaon says, although that’s not true with chametz, if there are a hundred other parts, it’s all right.

We don’t hold this way, because only Rav Achai says it, but now the Yeshuos Yaakov is thinking, ‘It’s Seder night.  Gevalt, if the pot is chametz, he’ll have nothing to eat, and he has eleven children.’  He thinks, ‘Reb Achai Gaon can carry this; he has broad shoulders.’  He says to the Yid, ‘Go home; it’s a hundred percent kosher.’  That night Rav Achai came to the Yeshuos Yaakov in a dream and said, ‘Thank you so much, because I want you to know, I only wrote that decision of mine for the sake of this one Yid.’

It’s awesome.  A thousand years beforehand, Rav Achai saw with ruach hakodesh, with holy foresight he saw one Yid in Lemberg.  Now you know what kind of sages we’ve had.  So whenever I say Amar Abayei, that Abayei said this or that, it has to be clear to me that when he said it, he was thinking of me.  When the Torah’s being left uncared for in a dark alley, it has to be clear to us that Rashi, Tosafos, R’ Akiva Eiger, they were all thinking of us.  ~ R’ Shlomo Carlebach zt”l from The Carlebach Haggadah

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Questions and Answers

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Emuna Daily

“To the believer there are no questions; to the skeptic there are no answers.”

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