Emuna Daily

“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

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

“In Pirkei Avos, Rabbeinu Hakodesh teaches us a valuable precept:  ‘Calculate the cost of a mitzvah against its reward.’  Imagine that someone were to offer you a million dollars to abstain from wearing tefillin; you would surely turn it down.  If so, you should perform the mitzvah with as much joy as if you had received the million dollars!” ~ R’ Avraham Mordechai Alter zt” (Imrei Emes) from Torah Tavlin

“When God wishes to bestow good, man must be able to accept it.  It is God’s nature constantly to bestow His love upon us.  Our sages thus teach us, ‘More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to provide it with milk.’  Therefore, when man puts himself in a state where he can accept God’s good, this is His delight.” ~ R’ Levi Yitzchak of Berdichov