When you pray to Hashem on behalf of the Jewish people in times of distress, appeal to Hashem as our Father.
Emphasize the fact that Hashem suffers when His children suffer and make this your main concern.
This level of prayer brings salvation.
~ R’ Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev zt”l
The most challenging part of being a Jew is “Avinu.”
He’s my Father.
It’s beyond us, almost, why the King of the Universe, Creator of the Grand Canyon and the Alps, Guardian of Eretz Yisrael, Mastermind of so many details, so much precision, so much life… Why would He be busy with me? Why would it be important to Him to know every detail about me?
You have to understand, it’s a relationship. He is with us. He is saying, “I can’t build a relationship with people who understand that I’m a King, but don’t understand that I’m a Parent too. I need a nation that sticks with Me even when I hide, I need a people who don’t take off when the going gets rough, who believe that I’m not just their Power, but their Father. I need people who know it’s personal.”
“I know every one of their names…and I am with them, every day, and all day!”
Avinu! Our Father!
~ Charlie Harary
Rabbeinu b’Chayei writes, “When one has bitachon, it is like Hashem promised him.”
When he has bitachon, he can feel confident that Hashem will help him. He can view it as though Hashem told him everything will be good.
And as the Divrei Yisrael reveals to us, he can be even more confident, because emunah and bitachon are the strongest guarantees that everything will be good.
~ R’ Elimelech Biderman
Every blatt Gemara is a missile.
Every Tosfos is a rocket.
Every kapitel Tehillim is a bomb.
~ R’ Noach Isaac Oelbaum
One thing we learned over the past few weeks; the world doesn’t care about us as much as we thought, and we care about each other a lot more than we realized.
When you tell someone, “Don’t be afraid,” you are saying, “There is reason to be afraid, but be strong, and don’t let yourself fall into panic and fear.”
But when you ask someone, “Why are you afraid?” you are saying there is nothing to fear.
Dovid HaMelech says (Tehillim 27:1) “Hashem is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Hashem is my life’s strength; whom shall I dread?”
He said this as a question because there is absolutely no reason to be afraid. There is nothing to fear because we are in Hashem’s caring hands, and everything is from Him.
~ R’ Elimelech Biderman
The Gemara (Shabbos 118a) states the following:
Anyone who fulfills the obligation to eat three meals on Shabbos is spared from three misfortunes:
(1) From the pangs of Moshiach (the suffering that precedes the advent of Moshiach);
(2) from the judgment of Gehinom; and
(3) from the war of Gog and Magog (before the Final Redemption, Gog, King of Magog, will lead the nations in a cataclysmic war against the Jews in Eretz Yisrael, as described in Ezekiel 38-39).
If you haven’t been careful to have a third meal on Shabbos until now, you might want to start.
When you look at the world, and the episodes that are painful and hard for us, you should look at the outcome, and you will see a great wonder.
Many things happen to us that we don’t want, but in the end, it turns out to be good for us.
~ Chovos HaLevavos (Bechinah 5)
We must believe that everything is for the good and that everything is from Hashem.
The belief itself has the potential to turn everything around and cause the good to occur.
Sifsei Tzaddik writes, “When one believes in nature, matters generally don’t change, but when one believes in Hashem, things can change in a moment.”
~ R’ Elimelech Biderman
When Jewish lives are endangered, one does not ask the opinion of others.
~ The Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l
