“My father said ‘A chassid creates an environment. If he does not, he had better check his own baggage carefully, to see whether his own affairs are in order. The very fact that he fails to create an environment should make him as broken as a splinter. He must demand of himself: What am I doing in this world?’” ~ Compiled and arranged by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, from his father, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory.
My friend, R’ Menachem Mendel Rafael (Mark) Weisman explains “One is supposed to create the environment, not wonder why it’s a bad environment. We need to try and make a place for Hashem, connecting the world above with the world below.”
Prepare yourself with this meditation, and when you feel anger overcoming you, run through it in your mind:
Know that all that befalls you comes from a single source, that there is nothing outside of that oneness to be blamed for any event in the universe. There is no other force but G-d. And although this person who insulted you, or hurt you, or damaged your property — he is granted free choice and is held culpable for his decision to do wrong — That is his problem. That it had to happen to you — that is your problem. ~Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman
One of the few segments of Torah we are permitted to study on Tisha B’av is a section in the 5th chapter of Gittin. The Gemorah relays that in response to his several counts of violating the holiness of the Beis Hamikdash and explicitly challenging Hashem to a battle, Hashem plagued the Roman general Titus with a single gnat which entered through his nose and endlessly pecked at his brain for 7 years. One day Titus passed by a blacksmith at work banging away with his hammer. The Gemorah states that the noisy banging caused the gnat to stop pecking. Realizing this, Titus declared “So there’s a cure!” and for the next 30 days he had a noisy blacksmith follow him around everywhere he went banging his hammer so as to prevent the pecking.
Now, it is unclear from the Gemorah if Titus even realized that his one-of-a-kind extreme migraine was a heaven-sent punishment, but even if he did, his reaction to discovering the temporary noisy remedy is astounding, it sheds light on his overall defective perception of things. He was not at all in tune with the message Hashem was sending him, he did no introspection or teshuvah, all he focused on was his pain and his temporary relief, and he did not utilize either of those stages to read in to what was happening here and repent. After 7 years of nonstop anguish which began immediately following his blasphemous conduct, all he could say was “Aha, so I can stop this thing!”
As frum Jews and intelligent people, it behooves us to live in a state of alert, looking for and often even squinting to see the truth, to be aware of what Hashem wants from our lives and the messages that Hashem tries to send us. It is imperative that we wake up to detecting these things, and not be willing to live in denial or to constantly rationalize when faced with reality. Our connection with Hashem is the single most important thing in our lives, and we must focus on it, allowing nothing to disrupt or distract us from this most important goal. Living with this approach will undoubtedly lead to our final geulah.
Rabbi Noach E. Peled of Yeshivas Ohalei Yaakov
“The mouth is the quill of the heart” ~ Chovos HaLevovos.
In other words, the mouth expresses the contents of the heart. A mouth that spews venom can only be the outlet of a heart that produces it. ~ Chofetz Chaim
“If I say to G-d, ‘I want to build a highway between people’s hearts, because I know how to do it,’ G-d says, ‘Don’t call me, I’ll call you. But, if I say to G-d, ‘I have no idea how to do it, but I am just so desperate that there should be a highway,’ G-d says, ‘You are the one to do it.'” R’ Shlomo Carlebach
“Don’t ever forget that Hashem listens to, sees, and personally provides for the lowest and simplest creatures in the universe. It therefore goes without saying that Hashem is always ready to help one of His beloved sons or daughters, the highest order of creation.” ~ The Garden of Emuma
