Alone But Not Alone

Alone But Not Alone

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In the darkness of the early morning, fighting trouble and its fears, I know I am not alone. Although as frightening as life may be at times, I fight for D'vakus, clinging to the Rabboina Shel Olam. In times like these, when nothing makes sense at all, I know that Genius of all Geniuses has orchestrated the scenario.

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That feeling in the pit of my stomach is only a test of Truth and Action. I will find the strength to carry on.

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Life has gotten a little rocky for me in the last few days. There is a reason and a purpose and my only job is to cling to One I truly love, Hashem. I will make it through this storm also and I will do it with courage I have never experienced before.

Our Ultimate Destiny

There are big shots and then there are the wee ones. This world is just a preparatory stage for the Olam Haba, the world to come.

For those of us with no stature in society, with a deep hunger for Torah, we see the True Treasure every day. I love the Modeh Ani. I look out the window at the pink sky, and thank God for another opportunity to work on my character. My desire to prove anything about myself is based solely on my knowledge of how the decision will impact Hashem. Without a glimmer of audacity and assumption, I know I know very little and deserve even less.

This world and all its enticements looks to me like a Styrofoam display cake in a bakery or a wax sample meal on at a restaurant. Underneath it all you know that meal you actually get is not so perfect and that you've somehow been had. With Torah, every taste is delectable and makes you want more and more.

One thing I have learned is that when I stand before the Beis Din Shamala, there are going to be things I thought I had in the bag, and then the details will show me how I was absolutely clueless.

Thanksgiving 2008

The sun has just set and it was a beautiful vision. Although every day for me is a beauty, today was exceptional.

I have been praying for a grandchild since my daughter was 2 1/2 when the doctor told me because of medication my daughter would never have a child. I never mentioned it to her, but it was there in my heart, this silent prayer to the One I love the most, Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu.

There were a few troubles and traumas along the way even after her marriage over five years ago. I fought the want for jealousy at the grandmothers all around. I prayed and I prayed.

This Thanksgiving, tears are in my eyes, I spent the day with my daughter, my son (in law, but my son) and my grandson.

There are no words to describe how much I love the Rabbona shel olam. There are no words to tell Him thank you, believe me I've tried.

I love you Hashem, I am so grateful for everything, especially the Torah that you have given me.

Thank you for my own baby girl, and her son...my grandson.

What is valuable?

What is the value of something? It depends. There was a happy man of the country who knew the value of a good milk producing cow, but nothing of diamonds and sapphires.

One day the king was passing by his barn when a tree fell upon the king's carriage and the happy farmer saved the king with a rope and a cow.

As a reward for the effort the king took the farmer to his treasury and told him to take whatever he wanted. He immediately spied a few wooden stools, a pile of sacks, brooms and wooden boxes. The king said, but you don't understand, I'm offering you great riches.

The man said, what are riches? I think I'm rich already, but I can always use these supplies, thank you very much. He picked up his valuables and he walked out of the treasury.

What are riches? Hmmm.

Thoughts of A Simple Jew

http://www.simplejew.blogspot.com/

Man's intellect can be likened to a heat-seeking missile. Once he has made up his mind, his brain locks on the target and nothing can divert its course.How many of us, however, stop mid-trajectory to ask Hashem to validate our choice of targets, and to show us whether there is a flaw in our logic? A Simple Jew

Derech Hashem/The Way Of God II

I have spent the last two days in Derech Hashem I. Fundamentals / 3. Man. This is my second trip through the book although I have been studying R' Moshe Chaim Luzzatto via Rabbi Kalatsky, Rabbi Tatz and many other shuirim for five years, eleven months.

This particular portion I'm delving into because I want it in my heart much deeper than I have it now.

It starts out with "man is the creature created for the purpose of cleaving to Hashem. Only man is placed between perfection and deficiency, with the power to earn perfection."

I speaks about free will and how that is only a test of the level of compunction a person has attained. We live in a society where guilt is a "bad thing." Why? Because we live in a "let it rip" society. We have become desensitized to the fact that we are not just here on a joy ride, that this is a time of action.

RamChal: If man were compelled towards perfection, then he would not really be the master of it. Rather He who compelled him would be the one responsible, and God's purpose would not be fulfilled.

This speaks volumes to me these days, whereas the many years of previous learning weren't a pointed as these facts are at this time for me. And yes, I call what I learn from Talmud, Torah...facts -' a piece of information presented as having objective reality.' And yes, I know the difference between subjective reality and objective reality. You can eat an orange, but you can't truly describe the pleasure or perhaps displeasure of that particular orange as no two oranges are ever identical. Kinda like an expert of great pottery who knows not only the aesthetics of a piece, but the provenance of that object.

RamChal: It was necessary that man be given free will, and be balanced between good and evil, and not be compelled towards either. He has the power of choice, and able to choose either side, knowingly and willingly, and possess whichever one he wishes.

The Rabbi's teach that God will help a person no matter where he is headed. If he is headed for evil, he will also be helped along that pathway. This life is a tricky path. It is all about "talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words."

RamChal: In order that God's goal be best achieved, the Highest Wisdom decreed that man should consist of two opposites.

A person has a soul, which is pure an unadulterated. He also has a physical body which is unenlightened. The body is inclined towards the material and the soul toward the spiritual.

This is a battle.

RamChal: If the soul prevails, it not only elevates itself, but elevates the body as well, and the individual thereby attains his destined perfection. If he allows the physical to prevail, then besides lowering his body, he also debases his soul.

The beauty is that even though at some point he may go too far, he still retains the ability to subjugate the physical to his soul and turn it all around, back to the desired direction.

I love Tshuvah.

Derech Hashem/The Way Of God I

Derech Hashem - RamChal - http://www.feldheim.com/

Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato

Translated by Aryeh Kaplan

Ramchal: Every Jew must believe and know that there exists a first Being, without beginning or end, Who brought all things into existence and continues to sustain them. This Being is God!

MH: This whole believe system that God is a kind of clock maker who made this clock called our world, wound it up and let it go on its own is blindness. God does not recreate the world once a year, a month or a day. He creates every nanosecond of every day new and fresh. That we see it as routine is depictive of the fact that we don't look deeply into any particular day.

Today I will have a combination of joys and frustrations that I have never experienced in the exact detail that they occur today.

Ramchal: It is further necessary to know that God's true nature cannot be understood at all by any being other than Himself.

MH: With each level I have achieved, it has been made clear to me that knowing God is a process and that I am on about mile forty-seven in a zezzazillion mile path. When I started on this path I thought I knew it all, and I still have to fight this trap of thinking.

Ramchal: The only thing we do know about Him is that He is perfect in every possible way and devoid of every conceivable deficiency.

MH: The most beautiful result of realizing this is when things get rough. I have to fight to embed this in my heart with each and every conflict, viccissitude that crops up. What I have noted though lately is that I am stronger and not so easily blow over by the yetzer hara.

Ramchal: It is also necessary to know that God's existence is imperative. It is abolutely impossible that He should cease to exist.

It is further necessary to know that God's existence does not depend on anything else at all. His existence is intrinsically imperative.

To be continued

One of my favorite sites

http://www.asimplejew.blogspot.com/

I found this picture at A Simple Jew, today. R' Yosef Caro. It appears to be his Synagogue. I don't know if A Simple Jew took this or not. Its a beautiful picture and A Simple Jew is a beautiful site where I learn a lot.

Real Reality

Chagigah 15b

Elisha ben Avuyah's (Acher, the Other)father was a very prominent man.

On the day of Acher's bris his father invited all the prominent men of Jerusalem and seated them in one room. He also invited Rabbi Eliezar and Rabbi Yehoshua and seated them in a different room.

After they ate and drank, the people in the first room began to sing, clap and dance. R' Eliezar said to R' Yehoshua, "While they are engaged in their activity let us engage in ours." They sat down and began to engage in the words of Torah.

A fire descended from Heaven and surrounded them. Acher's father came in and said, "Are you trying to burn my house down??"

They said "no, Heaven forbid! We were just sitting and reviewing the words of Torah from the Torah to the Prophets and frm the Prophets to the Writings and the words were so joyous that the fire was lapping them up.

Acher's father said, "If that is the power of Torah I will set this son aside for Torah."Unfortunately the father's desire was not for the sake of heaven, but for the power of Torah.

Acher abandoned the Torah.

Why?

I ask: When the parlor games are over, and the hotshots are wormfood, one wonders why no one can figure out that all this "ego" is for nothing.

Dixie Yid - Thoughts on life and Chassidus: Overcoming Challenges When You Have No Arms or Legs - Video#links

Dixie Yid - Thoughts on life and Chassidus: Overcoming Challenges When You Have No Arms or Legs - Video#links

Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms or legs, speaks about life's challenges and being "sameach b'chelko," happy with your portion. Definitely puts our challenges and setbacks into perspective. He throws in a little Xian sounding lingo at the end, but he only really speaks of having Bitachon in Hashem, trust in G-d. Thanks to my father for sending me this video!-

Dixie Yid

Rav Dessler Interesting Insights III

Rav Dessler/ Strive For The Truth/Feldheim
http://www.feldheim.com/


ALL FOR THE BEST (Rav Desslers section title)

There are many attitudes one can accept in this lifetime. When troubles come, we can either collapse or know that these troubles are for our own benefit. How can this be? None of us like situations of pain and discomfort. Discomfort is the perfect word, not comfortable.

Rav Dessler: All for the best is the attitude to life which was irrevocably acquired by Abraham.

MH: I love this concept of irrevocable attitude. People who think life is random cannot understand such an ability.

Rav Dessler: Abraham withstood the trial of the famine and likewise many other trials and tribulations.

MH: One thing I've learn, especially when studying Mishlei/Proverbs is the word vicissitude. Just when you think that you are finally at peace a change occurs.

Rav Dessler: Abraham's heart did not fail him in spite of all his troubles because he was unshakeably convinced of the goodness of God and the infinitude of His mercies and bounties.

MH: What a beautiful legacy of potentiality. The Jewish People have an indescribable inner power passed down from this one of a kind greatness.

Rav Dessler: However numerous and grievous the hurts and persecutions that we suffer and have suffered for thousands of years, we do not give up. We know in our heart of hearts that all is for the best. .

MH: If you ever take the opportunity, look up Nachum Ish Gamzu.

The things that do occur are tests, nisoynos. According to the Sages, reality as we know it is not reality at all. Everything we go through in this foyer to the banquet hall called life, this testing ground, is for our own good. It is hard to understand in the moment, believe me I know full well. Psalm 126 speaks of this. When God returned the captivity of Zion we were as dreamers.

Jews who are lured by false promises of 'enlightenment' and enticing gentile culture will be awakened from their dream. There will be a time, due time.

Rav Dessler: The evil we experienced in the long night of exile, and which we thought at the time so real and so fearsome, will turn out to have been nothing but a bad dream. The reality, as we shall then see, is and always was nothing but goodness and love.

Micha 7:8
Do not triumph over me, O my enemy; If I have fallen, I rise up; If I sit in darkness, God is light unto me.

Rav Dessler: On this our Sages comment: "From the very falling is the rising; from the very darkness is the light. (Yalkut Shimoni, Michah, 558).

MH: If you find yourself slipping into despair, fight. Do not ever roll over and play dead. The test is how hard you are willing to fight to believe Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu.

Virtual Yeshiva

http://www.virtualyeshiva.com/

The Sitra Achra has won the election

My predictions:
1.) It will be a crime to believe the Torah, in that homosexuality is an abhorrence to God and completely immoral.
2.) Churches will be deemed the "wicked" and the tax free status will be revoked, and the churches will be told what they can and cannot teach.
3.) Statewide systems of school taxation will be modified to spread the money instead of working for your own community and the citizens thereof. There are no winners here, only destruction.
4.) Money will be distributed according to the plan of the "wisest One." Which will lead to a slave society, where no one has any hope.
5.) The welfare state will look like a "good" job and the workforce will figure out very quickly how to use the system. The end product is a lazy society just ripe for the picking. Slaves. This is what happened to the Russian people.
6.) The children will dabble in homosexuality which has it complications in the hormonal system of the human being. In other words, there is no turning back.
7.) A sense of entitlement only leads the population to the feeling that "everything" is theirs for the taking. The end product, theft the thing that caused the disasters in the only Book that will be banned by the government, the Torah.


This sounds impossible? Well it isn't, it has just begun. The Sitra Achra has won the election.

Free Will II

Your original point of free will is not up to you. It is merely your starting point. Where the point of free will exists, you are accountable.

The free will point changes with every choice made. As you act, move or decide something it changes. Every time you make a correct decision, you elevate the point.

The effect of all this is that your free will point becomes more refined, and thus more difficult. The result is that you are a wee bit stronger than before the correct decision. These wee bits add up over time. (mtzvos goreros mitzvos).

If you take piano lessons from a teacher and then become better than that teacher, you need to find a new, more challenging instructor. It is like music itself. Once you master a piece, you must go on to attempt a more difficult piece otherwise you stagnate.

The more power, the more adversities. In the gym a five pound weight may be challenging for a week but then you must upgrade the weight. Each weight is more challenging.

We must be locked in battle with our own physical self, our guf. The whole purpose of life is to refine our character from the first original point of choice. It is not about remaining stagnate at any level across a large spectrum of different choices,be they psychological or physical, or societal.

A definition of good and bad is only how the power is channelled. Let's say you have a desire for cake, if you channel the desire for weight loss, you will consider the piece. If you have a desire only for pleasure, you will consume the whole cake.

Let's say you were born a greedy person. You could channel everything to you, or you could start giving to others.

There was a story of a Torah student who became very rich. He fled the community and isolated himself in the biggest house in town.

Many years later the Rabbi stopped by for charity. Many people had been turned away and so the Rabbi was concerned about the man. He knocked at the door and the man greeted him. The Rabbi needed $1,000 for the marriage of an orphan girl. The man said "Of course, here Rabbi." and he handed the Rabbi a penny.

The Rabbi went on and said "Oh, how generous sir. Thank you." and he left. The Talmidim that were with the Rabbi said "How could you say this, you know flattery is not halachically permitted?"

The Rabbi said: "Nothing changes immediately. This man doesn't know how to give. We'll just take it slowly."

At that the man called the Rabbi back into the house and gave him another penny, over and over again. Before the Rabbi actually left, the man gave him the entire amount, bit by bit.

R' Aryeh Kaplan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAB19Jyp1BA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9gflnY8NDM

For many years I have thought about Aryeh Kaplan's genius and early death at 49. To find this live interview was like finding a diamond in the yard.