Accepting our Failures

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“As Hashem knows what’s best for us, we should accept our failures lovingly and with emuna, just as we accept our successes.” ~ The Garden of Emuna

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It’s Not How Much You Have…

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“It’s not how much or how little you have that makes you great or small, but how much or how little you are with what you have.” – R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch zt”l

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Levi

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“Just like a blind or lame man should not be called up to read a section of the Torah dealing with blind or lame people, like the halacha states, similarly, only a Levi can be called to read the story of the Golden Calf, for only the Levi’im were completely innocent of that sin.” ~ Sefer Siach Sarfei Kodesh as quoted in Torah Tavlin

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The Seudah

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“A person who truly knows what he is doing, can accomplish more through his Purim seudah than during Neilah on Yom Kipper!” ~ R’ Yisrael Salanter zt”l as quoted in Torah Tavlin

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Mini Yom Kippur

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“Purim is also a special day of teshuva, a miniature Yom Kippur. Yom Kippurim, the name of Yom Kippur in Hebrew, means ‘A day like Purim.’ Just as teshuva, prayer, and charity invoke Divine compassion and atonement on Yom Kippur, they act the same way here on Purim. Yet, Purim is more difficult than Yom Kippur. It’s easy to do teshuva when you’re fasting. It’s a lot more challenging to do teshuva when your table is laden with delicacies and when you’re drinking wine. In that respect, we should take advantage of the Fast of Esther to do complete teshuva, just like on Yom Kippur, so we can enter Purim day with pure and unblemished souls. – Rav Shalom Arush

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Drinking Wine on Purim

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“Our joy on Purim is not the joy of going crazy. King David said (Psalm 2:11) that we should ‘Be joyful with trembling,’ in other words, we should rejoice while maintaining the awe of Hashem on our foreheads. Especially on Purim, we don’t budge from yirat shamayim, the awe of Hashem. Rebbe Natan of Breslev cites the Zohar and tells us that the forbidden fruit of which Adam partook was the fruit of the vine. By drinking wine in holiness, we literally rectify Adam’s sin and bring a spirit of holiness and salvation to the world. ~ Rav Shalom Arush

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Your Spiritual Career

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“If you’re serious about something, it has a fixed time. If you’re earnest about getting something done and the phone rings, you ignore it. The spiritual side of your life is not a hobby nor a luxury — it is your purpose of existence. When you are learning Torah, or meditating or in prayer, nothing else exists. Your spiritual career should have at least equal priority to your worldly career.” ~ Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman

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Seek it like Silver

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Emuna Daily

The Midrash says that for each moment in which a person refrains from speaking the forbidden, he merits a hidden light that no angel can fathom.

“Scripture states: ‘If you will seek it like silver and hunt for it like hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Hashem, and knowledge of God you will find‘ (Mishlei 2:4-5).

One must strive to attain spiritual goals in the way that he would seek the greatest valuables that this world has to offer. This is the intent of the statement, ‘Do not distance yourself from a quality that is without limit.’  (R’ Yochanan ben Dehavai)   Avoiding forbidden speech brings infinite merit; if we will only pursue this quality, and not tell ourselves that it is out of our reach, then we will have achieved that which no angel can fathom.” ~ The Chofetz Chaim

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The Instructions Came First

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“People think that G-d first made a world and then gave us instructions to follow, so we don’t mess it up. The truth is, the instructions came first, and the world was designed as the venue to carry them out.  Therefore, to say that anything in the world could be an opposition to carrying out its Creator’s will is an absurdity. There can be no opponents to the purpose of creation — only meaningful challenges.” ~ Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman

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Each of us are Unique

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Emuna Daily

“Just as people’s faces don’t resemble each other, so too their thought processes don’t resemble each other.” (Bamidbar Rabbah 21:2)

“The Beis Yisrael, Rabbi Yisrael Alter of Ger, commented on the above Aggadic teaching, saying that one should accept differences in thought as readily as he accepts differences in appearance.”  (Chofetz Chaim – A Lesson a Day)

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