Category Archives: Daily Dose Of Emuna

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There once was a man who became fatally ill. The doctors lost all hope, yet the man sent for his Rav to advise him of a cure. The Rav advised that he take seven chickens and boil them for seven days to the point where it condenses the liquid to fit into a spoon… As he poured the liquid into the spoon and was about to drink, a spider fell into it rendering it unfit to drink. His family was horror-struck and anticipated his death to come shortly after. Yet, he began to recover and in a few weeks was completely healed.

When he was asked how he recovered he said, “When I realized that I couldn’t drink the liquid and that all means of healing were taken from me, I turned to Hashem and cried from the depths of my heart to send me a complete healing. It is the true Healer Who healed me.” When we remove all faith placed with people, cures and solutions to ease our difficulties and in its place rely purely and simply on Hashem Yitborach, we merit His goodness.

Elevated emuna translates into action; our thoughts, speech and actions are profoundly affected by our emuna. Bitachon is the bridge between that which we know and that which we feel and eventually impacts that which we do. When we remove all faith in ‘natural means’ we essentially unclog the pipeline of Divine goodness and enable it to flow freely into our lives.

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The more our souls are revealed to us the more hakarat hatov, appreciation we feel compelled to express. The less we feel our souls presence, the more inclined we are to feel entitled to the many gifts of life.

The person who has a weakened connection to his soul will often shun away from expressing gratitude. He may come up with ways to reduce his need to ask for favors from others thus avoiding his sense of indebtedness. He may also downplay the significance of the kindness extended to him therefore exempting himself from feeling a sense of appreciation. Yet another hidden method that he may implore is to use money to release himself from feeling obliged to the other.

What a shame that we run away from prime opportunities to celebrate the priceless middah, character trait of humility whenever an occasion arises. Conveying gratitude to another and undoubtedly to Hashem moves us to become more caring and less self-centered individuals.

The teaching of ‘Soneh matanot yichyeh (He who spurns gifts will live)” taught in the Gemara Masechet Chullin (44b) causes many to misinterpret the idea of receiving. We certainly should limit our dependence on others and attempt to carry our own weight in order to also strive to be on the ‘giving’ and not ‘receiving’ side of life. However, if Hashem sends us His emissaries to bestow upon us His kindness, we should not refuse their benevolence because we wish to free ourselves of obligation to express gratitude towards them.

We cannot live in this world without a certain amount of dependency on others; this would break down the social fabric and cause intense separation between us. By design Hashem created such a world to develop our ability to appreciate and love one another and Him of course, by uttering the two simple powerful words, “Thank you.”

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There is a well-known statement attributed to R’ Yisrael Salanter ztk’l.

He once said: “When I was young, I wanted to change the world. Then I realized that I could not change the world. And so I thought, maybe I will change my nation. Then I realized that I could not change my nation. And so I thought, maybe I will change my village. Then I realized that I could not change my village. And so I thought, maybe I will change my family. Then I realized that I could not change my family. And so I thought, maybe I will change myself. Then I realized, if I would change myself, this would change my family. And if I would change my family, this would change my village. And if I would change my village, this would change my nation. And if I would change my nation, I would change the world.”

Torah study is a personalized experience in that it ‘talks’ to every individual differently so that we each hear the wisdom that our soul needs to receive. Torah wisdom conveys to us a custom-made message. Therefore, we are required to elevate our minds and hearts to internalize our specific calling. No two people learn the same Torah just as we learn a ‘different’ Torah at various stages in our lives depending on the message we need to ‘hear’.

We must be prepared to change ourselves rather than erroneously expect that others do. Torah is our physician who gives us each a ‘prescription’ for our individual ‘ailments.’ Change begins with us. Accusations, blame, complaints, denial and excuses are, as R’ Rietti calls them, the ‘ABCDE’s’ of running away from our individual responsibility. We are responsible to change ourselves, not others.

As we learn from R’ Salanter, this is the only way to change the world.

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The Ba’al Shem Tov HaKadosh ztk’l teaches that if only we were able to attach our souls to the words that we utter during tefillah, we would be enveloped with a great light of holiness that shines from one universe to the next. However we are distracted by extraneous thoughts.

Each time a thought invades our minds during tefillah we should attempt to connect to Hashem through it. For instance, a fearful thought should be elevated back to its source, Hashem, by relating it to yirat Shamayim, fear of heaven. When a thought connected to a teiva, desire comes to mind bind it to the love of Hashem. Essentially this is the process of releasing sparks of holiness from their husks, outer shells of impurity. It is likened to redeeming a prisoner from their captives.

Oy, if we only knew the power of our tefillah, the privilege to stand before the King of Kings and speak to Him. Hashem ‘listens’ to every thought, emotion and word; everything is taken into account. Tefillah is a priceless gift therefore we should use it to request that Hashem always keep the gates open so we may pour our hearts out to Him at any time. The intimate connection we build by speaking to Hashem breaks down all barriers. It is the result of emotional words spoken from a burning heart who craves a relationship with Borei Olam.

Focusing on the words of our tefillah enables us to forget ourselves (our bodies) and bond to the Shechinah through our soul. At that moment in time we are completely alone with Hashem with no disturbances; a genuine soul-union with our Creator.

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Rebbe Nachman ztk’l speaks of the importance of joining Tehillim with teshuva. There is a well-known kabbalistic teaching of the fifty gates of return of which forty-nine we have full access to. However, the fiftieth gate is personally governed by Hashem and is accessible only through special permission.  The forty-nine gates parallel to the forty-nine letters in the Hebrew names of the twelve tribes.

The Jewish people are granted special privilege to the forty-nine gates of return by virtue of their inner awakening to return to Hashem; however many cannot attain this level on their own. Recitation of Tehillim awakens the G-dly soul making us worthy of return and enabling access to these main gates.

Tehillim grants access to the letter of the tribes attached to each of these gates thus allowing us to truly return to Hashem. Dovid HaMelech is called the ‘Sweet Singer of Israel’ because the words of Tehillim have the power to awaken teshuva through Divine inspiration.

It was specifically in Mitzrayim where the tribes passed through the forty-nine gates of teshuva that made them worthy of the exodus and redemption.