Learn how to say thank you:
We thank You Hashem for creating us!
We thank You Hashem for giving us a sun that gives us light and warmth!
We thank You Hashem for giving us air to breathe!
We thank You Hashem for giving us water to drink!
We thank You Hashem for giving us food!
We thank You Hashem for giving us the ability to sleep every night and recuperate our strength!”
~ R’ Avigdor Miller zt”l
Rabbi Yisroel Salanter once asked his teacher, the saintly R’ Yosel Zundel of Salant, if he should study mussar. “Yes, yes,” was the reply, “study mussar and you will develop positive character traits.”
Rav Yisroel used to say that these words pierced him like an arrow…and ended up devoting his life to the study of mussar concepts…and spreading these ideals and principles to the masses.
We can learn from this that if someone is open to hearing what you have to say, even one statement can have a major influence on his entire life.
R’ Simcha Zissel Ziv zt”l
We are not physical beings living a spiritual life.
We are spiritual beings living a physical life.
The Baal HaTanya taught us that every Jew has a “chelek Elokah mima’al mamesh” – an actual spark of the Divine.
We do not “have” souls. We are souls.
It’s not that we “have” a neshamah. Every Jew is a neshamah.
~ Rebbetzin Miryam Swerdlov
“I Will Sing to Hashem” (Tehillim 13:6)
Don’t just say your Emunah – Sing your Emunah!
Don’t just say “It’s for the good” – Sing “It’s for the good!”
You are not musical? You need not be. Singing doesn’t necessarily mean to sing, rather it is a form of happy expression. When you declare your Emunah, do it with happiness, even though you don’t feel like it.
This is what will help your Emunah truly come alive.
~ R’ Dov Brezak
You should expect good things from yourself. Not perfection.
The reality is that people grow, even if they slip.
Slipping up just means that you’re a human being.
Accept that, and move forward.
Falling isn’t the problem. Not getting back up is the problem.
~ Dr. David Lieberman
It’s a tragedy that we spend so much money, we send our children to the best schools, but as much as they learn, they don’t know how much Hashem loves them.
When we lie down to say Krias Shema with our children at night, we should be asking them, “Who loves you? Daddy and Mommy, Bubby and Zaidy…”
It’s all true.
But the most important question we should be asking is, “And who loves you the most of all?”
The answer is Hashem.
Hashem loves you more.
They know you love them, because they see it with their eyes; let them fall asleep knowing that Hashem loves them more.
~ Rebbetzin Lori Palatnik
Hashem has enough angels. If Hashem wanted perfection, He wouldn’t have created us.
Hashem wants us, with our faults and human imperfections.
Our deeds seem slanted and incomplete, and sometimes we step out of line, but it is precisely due to our human nature that Hashem desires our service.
~ R’ Elimelech Biderman
Don’t waste your time saying that the good old days were different.
Of course they were different. But right now is the good old days.
I’ll tell you a secret. Someday they’ll see today as the good old days. These are the good old days, because you have in yourself all the goodness.
Life is the opportunity to bring forth what you have and make out of yourself the best you can be.
~ R’ Avigdor Miller zt”l
The purpose of prayer is not to get us out of trouble.
The purpose of trouble is to get us into prayer.
~ R’ Yitzchok Hutner zt”l
A person is obligated to say, “The world was created for me” (Talmud Sanhedrin 37a).
We are obligated to be aware of our own greatness. Feel proud that you were created in the image of God. Pride in the awareness of the greatness and elevation of your soul is not only proper, but it is actually an obligation. It is a binding duty to recognize your virtues and to live with this awareness.
~ R’ Avraham Grodzinski zt”l
