“Making a Living”

“The common conception of how it works is faulty.  Some see a career as making a living.  A career doesn’t make anything.  What you receive is generated above, in a spiritual realm.  Your “business” is to set up a channel to allow all that to flow into the material world.” ~ Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman

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Eat In Order to Pray

“It is better to eat in order to pray than to pray in order to eat!” ~ R’ Shalom Ber of Lubavatich zt”l (Torah Tavlin)

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Avoda

“Our teacher the Baal Shem Tov said: Every single thing one sees or hears is an instruction for his conduct in the service of G-d. This is the idea of Avoda, service, to comprehend and discern in all things a way in which to serve G-d.” ~ The Lubavitcher Rebbe

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Photographs

“I keep many pictures of my children and grandchildren on the walls of my home.  I want to be able to constantly look at them and remember the great kindness which the Almighty has bestowed upon me!” ~ R’ Moshe Schwab zt”l from Torah Tavlin

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No Bother

“Rabbi Zeira said: When a person has a friend, the more he asks him for things and borrows from him, the more the latter detests him and repulses him.  But this is not true of God.  The more a person seeks His needs and petitions Him, the more He loves him.  It is thus written: ‘Call me, and I will answer you’ (Jeremiah 33:3)” ~ Midrash Tehillim 4:3

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Not Impossible

“If it were impossible to keep the laws of loshon hora, Hashem would never have written them in His Torah.” ~ Chofetz Chaim

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A Container

“A container is defined by its contents: A pitcher of water is water. A crate of apples is apples. A house, too, is defined by what it contains. Fill your house with books of Torah, and your house becomes a Torah. Affix charity boxes to its walls, and your house becomes a wellspring of charity. Bring those who need a warm home to your table, and your house becomes a lamp in the darkness.” – Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman

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Everything, Not “Almost” Everything

Everything is for the best – this level of emuna is not some spiritual plateau that few can obtain.  The Code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Oruch, Orach Chaim 230:5) requires each of us to believe that everything Hashem does is for the very best.  Just as every Jew has the obligation to eat kosher food, to observe the Sabbath, and to comply with any other statute in the Code of Jewish Law, he or she is required to fulfill the above statute OC 230:5 as well.” ~ The Garden of Emuna.

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The Most Real Thing in the World

The more real a thing is the less you can see it.  After you reach the level where you see all those things which are not to be seen, then you open your eyes and everything is clear to you, and it feels like you saw it all the time. To love someone is the deepest thing in the world, but you can’t prove it. You can’t put your finger on it, but it’s the most real thing in the world.

G-d is the most, utmost real thing in the world, and you can’t see Him, but after you don’t see Him, you see Him. Then you can see Him everywhere, in every flower, in every cloud, in every little stone, in every candle. When we say the Shema, G-d is One, we close our eyes, because first we don’t see G-d, we’re blind, we just believe, but then we open our eyes and it is so clear, He’s always there. ~ R’ Shlomo Carlebach zt”l

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Don’t Kill a Moment

“Every moment has two faces: It is a moment defined by the past from which it extends and by the future to which it leads.  And it is a moment for itself, with its own meaning, purpose and life. Don’t kill a moment.” – Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman

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