Podcasts about bitachon

The sukkah represents the hashgacha and protection Hashem has for us. We pray every day ופרוש עלינו סוכת שלומיך , we want to be enveloped by Hashem's protection on all sides. While sitting in the sukkah we are supposed to remember how Hashem enveloped our ancestors in the desert with His loving Clouds of Glory. With those clouds, Hashem took care of all of their needs down to the last detail - He paved the roads for them, protected them from the harmful animals, cleaned and pressed their clothing while they were still wearing them, protected them from the hot sun and the cold nights, from the winds and from the elements. When we sit in our sukkot , we should remind ourselves that today, as well, Hashem protects and takes care of all of our needs. According to Rabbi Akiva, we're supposed to remember that Hashem housed each Jewish family in their own structure in the desert as well. Rav Chaim Shmulevitz explained, this shows us how Hashem not only cared for us as a nation, but as individuals as well. Each family was provided with exactly what they needed to be able to construct their own home. For us as well, every person is provided with everything he needs, directly from Hashem. He takes care of us and gives us everything we have. In today's times, He does it from behind the scenes. We don't have miraculous clouds surrounding us, but if we open our eyes and notice, we'll see Hashem guiding us every day of our lives. What might appear to be a wrong turn or a wrong number is Hashem's way of leading us to the places we need to be. Recently, a man stayed in the hospital over Shabbat to be with his wife who was a patient at NYU. His son came along as well. During the day, the father told his son to go visit a friend of his who was also a patient there in room 1425. The son accidentally went to room 1525 instead. In that room was a Jew who had been in the hospital with Corona since March 30, for over 5 months. He had been intubated for a long time and miraculously survived his very long battle. Since it was Shabbat there were no other visitors so the son stayed there for a while talking to him. When he went back upstairs he told his father he mistakenly went to the wrong room, but he was happy he went because the man appreciated the visit very much. That evening, the father decided to pay that man a visit. While he was there, he told him a short devar Torah to give him chizuk . He quoted a pasuk in Tehilim , "ויספרו מעשיו ברינה", which means we tell over the doings of Hashem with joy. The man asked, "The word סיפור usually connotes a new story, but when it comes to Hashem, nothing is new to Him. He knows everything." The man answered, "It's referring to informing individuals about the great deeds that Hashem had done for them. Many times people have no idea about the miracles Hashem did for them and it is incumbent upon others to inform them so they could appreciate them and rejoice in Hashem's salvation." He went on to tell this patient how fortunate he was to be alive, that he had no idea about all the miracles Hashem did for him during the time he was intubated and more. The patient appreciated it and got a lot of chizuk from it. The next day, an administrator from the hospital who happens to be a religious woman went to visit that patient. She was involved in his case and periodically went to check up on him. While she was there, he told her this devar Torah that he had heard the day before about appreciating all Hashem did for him. She was very impressed. That same day, she called one of the doctors in charge of the rehabilitation center at Rusk asking if this patient could be admitted. She told him it would do wonders for him and would enable him to finally leave the hospital. The problem was, to qualify for that rehabilitation center, the patient had to be at a certain level mentally and when the doctor heard who the patient was, he said absolutely not - someone who had been totally out of touch for months and is not fully aware of what's going on could not be admitted. The woman then told the doctor, "You are mistaken. I can assure you his mental capabilities are very strong now." And she proceeded to tell that doctor, who was an unaffiliated Jew, the devar Torah which he just told her. The doctor was impressed, he went down to meet the patient and allowed him to come to the rehabilitation center. Baruch Hashem, in just a couple of weeks there, he improved a great deal and is just about ready to finally come home. It turned out that devar Torah was the catalyst to get him the help that he needed. It is only because the son "accidentally" went to the wrong room that all of this started. A simple hashgacha pratit story, seeing how Hashem guides us from behind the scenes all the time. Chag Same'ach and Shabbat Shalom .

The Midrash in Bereshit Raba tells us when Hashem divided the Lower Waters from the Upper Waters, the Lower Waters began to cry. They said, “Woe unto us that we are not zocheh to be close to our Creator.” Hashem told them that because they had such a yearning to be close to Him, they were going to be used for two special mitzvot in the future, both performed on the mizbe'ach. The nisuch hamayim on Sukkot and the salt used for every korban. The question was asked, who got the better deal, the Upper Waters or the Lower Waters? We say every day in the tefila in Yotzer Ohr that Hashem has angels standing in the heights of the universe who proclaim loudly, in unison, words of the Living G-d. They are all beloved, pure, powerful and holy. They all carry out the will of Hashem with awe and reverence. They open their mouths with holiness, purity, song and music and they bless, praise and glorify the great Name of Hashem. Then they accept upon themselves the yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom from one another and they give consent to each other and then they say with awe, Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Hashem tzivakot, melo chol ha'aretz kevodo. And then the Ofanim and Chayot HaKodesh angels soar with a thunderous sound in response to the Serafim angels and they give praise by saying, Baruch kevod Hashem mimekomo. Imagine that scene in Shamayim with tens of thousands of angels. And yet, every one of those angels would give up what they do to have the merit to come down to this world for one moment to do one easy mitzvah. Because they know how much one mitzvah down here accomplishes in Heaven. Much more than they could ever accomplish. In fact, when a Jew opens his mouth down here to praise Hashem, there is an angel in Shamayim who silences all of the other angels, because one word of praise from us is worth more to Hashem than all of the praises of all of the angels combined. It is true that they are closer to Hashem now, but by us doing mitzvot in this world, we can become closer to Hashem for all eternity. And so, for sure, the Lower Waters got the better end of the deal, as they were able to be used in the performance of mitzvot here in this world. The value of even one good deed in this world is beyond our comprehension. Rav Yosef Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch, wrote a sefer called Maggid Yesharim, which is a compilation of everything he learned from the angel who used to come and visit him. He wrote there that on one Simchat Torah, he was so sick he couldn't get out of his bed and he missed the hakafot. The next morning, the Malach came to him and said “the Atika d'Atikin, The Ancient of the Ancient, which is a reference to Hashem, found a zechut for you. And in the merit of that zechut, He is allowing you to keep your neshama.” The zechut was that one time a Jew was taken into custody by a foreign government and they were causing him a lot of distress. Maran, Rav Yosef Karo, was able to intercede by writing a letter which saved that man. And for that act, Hashem was saving him. He wrote, he woke up that morning completely healthy as if nothing happened, although just hours before he was deathly ill. Every deed we do is so precious. And if a person is going through a difficulty and it is so hard for him to be happy, but yet he continues doing the mitzvot, those mitzvot become infinitely greater and the zechuyot that they produce are endless. We should value every opportunity we have to do any mitzvah in this world.

We know that Hashem runs the world at large and our lives individually. We know that everything Hashem does is the absolute best for us. But somehow these concepts don't always register when we need them to. There are times when a person works very hard to achieve a certain goal; he makes all the necessary hishtadlut and hopes for the outcome he is anticipating. But if he doesn't get it, he becomes very disappointed. At those moments, it's very hard to truly take to heart that Hashem was controlling everything and did bring about the best possible outcome. It requires the person to pause and think about what is really happening, to bring the emunah that he already has to the forefront. If someone can do that, besides for the endless rewards he will receive for it, it will also help him to become much calmer and feel soothed. A woman who has had her share of difficulties told me the following story. Besides her battle with cancer which, baruch Hashem, she is doing very well with, she encountered a very big issue last year with her son in his yeshiva. Apparently, the rabbi that he had was not the best fit for him and over the course of the year the boy went down in many areas. The woman was doing her best to encourage him and help him stay afloat, but it was not a simple task. He needed various therapists and specialists to help him with all the problems he encountered. Although the rabbi was very good, his personality just did not fit with this boy's personality. Starting already from the second half of the year, the woman was addressing the issue of who the boy's rebbe would be the following year. After discussing it with people who knew, it was determined there was one rebbe that would be the perfect fit for him and hopefully be able to bring him back to the way he used to be. There were a couple of other rebbeim who would potentially be good for him and there were some that she was told to make sure to avoid. They were also great rebbes , just not for her son's personality. So she spent the second half of the year, as well as the summer, making meetings with all the different heads of the yeshiva, describing what she and her son went through and what was necessary to be done to correct it. She gave it 110% effort, not wanting to settle for anything but the best for her child. A week before yeshiva started, she asked what class her son was going to be in. She was told she would not be allowed to know that information until the first day of school. That day she had to be in Sloan-Kettering for a procedure and wouldn't be able to bring her son to the yeshiva. When the procedure ended that day, she immediately called the yeshiva to see who her son's rebbe was. They refused to tell her. When she finally got home that evening and her son arrived, she asked him which class he was in. She was shocked to find out that the one rebbe that she was told wouldn't be good for him was the one that he got. She was beside herself. How could this possibly have happened? She thought. She literally did everything in her power to avoid it. She called the school to try to switch the class but it wasn't an option. Her mind began racing with all the flashbacks of all the difficulties of the previous year and she became very nervous about what the future held. But then, she stopped herself. She took a breath and reached deep down and pulled out all the emunah she had gained over the years. She said to herself, This doesn't make any sense, but it doesn't have to. Hashem is the One who decided which class my son should be in. No people have any say other than Him. This is the class my son needs to be in, and therefore, I'm going to accept it with happiness. That night, she felt so calm, with a feeling she thought she could never have after what she had gone through the previous year. Baruch Hashem, it has been a month into the year now and her son is doing wonderfully with this rabbi. The woman's ability to pause and take a step back and recognize that only Hashem made that decision is truly inspiring. That is real emunah. It is a wondrous avodat Hashem and it also brings the person so much peace of mind.

When Yonah was thrown overboard in the middle of the ocean, he began to drown and felt that death was imminent. The pasuk says, Hashem miraculously brought a large fish to that exact spot where Yonah was and the fish swallowed him. And then, miraculously, Yonah remained completely intact, breathing normally inside the fish. Chazal tell us, it was so comfortable for Yonah there that he didn't even feel any distress. Hashem, on the other hand, wanted Yonah to pray and, when he didn't pray, Hashem caused that fish to spit Yonah back into one of the deepest parts of the ocean. Once again Yonah felt like he was going to die and, once again, Hashem sent a large fish to swallow him, but this time it was very cramped for Yonah inside that fish and Yonah understood, Hashem wanted his prayers. Yonah then prayed from the depths of his heart. And then, Hashem completely saved him by bringing him to dry land. When a person begins to experience hardship, one of the messages he is supposed to be taking is that Hashem wants his prayers. If the situation gets worse, he needs to increase his efforts in tefila. Hashem wants a person's prayers because He knows how much the prayers benefit the person spiritually. There is endless reward for every heartfelt tefila and, as an additional bonus, Hashem will also give the person the answer to his tefila . The main reward for tefila is in the Next World, but prayers give us benefits here too. The more heartfelt a tefila is, the more value it has. Hashem has infinite ways of helping people, ways in which we would never dream. But first, we have to produce the tefilot that warrant those great salvations. Those are the tefilot with emotion and tears. Rabbi Binyamin Pruzansky told a story about Rabbi and Mrs. Adler who worked in summer camps in the Catskills. Their son Binyamin, who was learning in a yeshiva in Chicago, was making a siyum on a masechet that he worked hard all year long to finish. It was scheduled to take place during the two days off that they had in between the two halves of camp, and so they made arrangements to be there for him. When that day finally arrived, Rabbi and Mrs. Adler drove for two hours to Laguardia Airport and made their way through security up to the gate to board the flight. But when they gave in their boarding passes, it was discovered that Rabbi Adler's last name was not written on it. Instead, it has his first name and his wife's first name. And they would not allow him to board with it. This was their only chance to make the siyum in time and so Rabbi Adler ran back to the ticket counter and bought a new ticket with his correct name. He ran back just as the boarding was closing, but for some inexplicable reason, they told him this boarding pass had a problem as well. Nothing the rabbi said would change their mind to let him on. As the doors were closing, he told his wife to go ahead, but she delayed and then it was too late, the doors had closed. They were so distraught. It was so important to their son for them to be there for him and now they were going to miss the siyum . Overwhelmed by the stress, Mrs. Adler began to cry. As the tears rolled down her face, she used the opportunity to pray to Hashem. She said, “Hashem, please make this work out. I just want to be there for my son.” As they walked back, they made a wrong turn out of the gate and then Mrs. Adler's phone rang. It was her son Binyamin asking what time they would arrive. Mrs. Adler didn't want her son to hear her crying, so she handed the phone to her husband. Just then, her husband spotted Rav Elya Brudney, the Rosh Yeshiva of Mir and asked him to give their son a beracha on the occasion of his siyum . The Rabbi took the phone and gave him a heartfelt beracha and then asked the Adlers why they looked so distraught. They told him what had just happened. He said he is also going to Chicago and his flight got canceled and there are no other flights, so an askan arranged for him to take a private jet there. The Rabbi asked the askan if he could bring along this couple and he said yes. Just like that their problem was solved. One heartfelt tefila to Hashem and they were on a private jet, headed to their son's siyum . Prayer is amazing. We need to use its power as much as we can.

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Shuva – the Shabbat of teshuva. We know we don't repent for our sins on Shabbat, so why is it called the Shabbat of Repentance? The Yesod v'Shoresh HaAvodah brings the Chazal which says, whoever keeps Shabbat according to halacha will be forgiven for all his sins. At this time, we all need forgiveness. Our avonot have been piling up over the course of the year. If we will keep this Shabbat with all of its details, abstaining from melacha and business talk, sanctify the day with Torah study and enjoy the Shabbat the way it is meant to be enjoyed - that will be our zechut and that will give us mechila. During these days, teshuva is the mitzvah at hand. We need to think about what we did wrong and sincerely repent. As we know, in Hashem's infinite mercy, He cleanses us from our sins through different forms of yissurin. Every little inconvenience we experience in this world helps us remove the blemishes from our souls. It's called kapara. The best way to remove those blemishes without yissurin is by doing teshuva. But there are certain averot that require more than teshuva for the sins to get erased. Yissurin come and finish off the job. We know yissurin help us immensely, we would much rather experience the temporary hardships in this world, rather than the eternal ones in the Next World. But we would also prefer to be cleansed without having to experience any pain at all. Rabbenu Yonah, in the fourth chapter of Sha'areh Teshuva gives us wondrous advice on how to avoid yissurin in this world and still get full atonement. Everyone wishes they could just end all the hardships they are experiencing, and this advice will help. First, he writes, giving tzedaka saves from yissurin and if a person can't afford tzedaka, getting others to give will accomplish even more. Acts of kindness also take away yissurin. If someone invests his own time and energy into helping other people, that will take away from the suffering he was supposed to have. Whether he spends his time visiting a sick patient or helping someone organize an event for charity, or helping others with shidduchim and the like, every moment invested in chesed wards off yissurin. Torah study also takes the place of yissurin. Look at how kind Hashem is! Not only is learning Torah enjoyable, not only do we get rewarded for it, it even takes the place of suffering a person was supposed to get. Then Rabbenu Yonah writes further, if a person is already experiencing different types of hardship, but instead of complaining about it, he says, “Hashem I know this is best for me, I accept what you are doing to me with love.” That is a segula to prevent, in his words, “היסורין הרבים הראויים לבוא עליו - the abundant of afflictions that should have befallen him.” And he quotes a pasuk in Tehilim to prove it. This is an amazing segula. If someone, let's say, has been out of a job and suffering tremendously from it, it might very well be possible for his own good that he needs to be out of a job for a few more months, but if he'll say, “Hashem, thank You for putting me through this. It must be I needed this to cleanse myself. And in Your infinite kindness, You're allowing me to purify myself in this world.” Those words, with sincerity, can remove the necessity for the additional months of being jobless. Those words are so powerful, they take the place of the potential suffering that should have come. Then Hashem will open his eyes to find a job to work at. The same is true for all yissurin. Accepting them with happiness stops the remainders from coming. The main thing is, we want to be the pure children of Hashem we are supposed to be. If we could make teshuva, keep Shabbat properly, do additional good deeds and be satisfied with the way Hashem deals with us, we'll become purified and we will be able to enjoy this world and the Next. Shabbat Shalom.

In memory of Beverly Sasson A'H by her son Maurice The pasuk says, טוב וישר ה' על כן יורה חטאים בדרך – Hashem is good and upright and that is why he directs the sinners back on the proper path. It is only because of Hashem's unending goodness that He gives us the ability and helps us make teshuva and get rid of all of our sins. All year long whatever happens that hurts us, we say happily, "It's kappara ," and we accept it from Hashem. Kappara means the affliction is giving us atonement for our sins. In general, all of hardship and difficulty leads back to this same concept: It is Hashem in His infinite mercy giving us atonement in this world so that we don't have to get it in the Next World. But there is another way to get atonement that doesn't hurt. In fact, we even get a mitzvah for doing it. That is teshuva. Whenever a person sins, his immediate reaction should be to make teshuva and get rid of all its harmful effects. Rabbenu Yonah writes, by making teshuva right away, a person can gain so much. Besides for getting rid of the transgression, it will help the person be stronger not to do the sin again when the opportunity arises. He says, doing a sin a second time is much worse than the first because once a person sees that he is subject to falling in a certain area, it is incumbent upon him to try to prevent it from happening again. Teshuva accomplishes that. Furthermore, when a person sins and repeats the sin, Chazal tell us, the person loses feelings of guilt toward the sin and psychologically feels that it is okay to do again and that is very harmful. If we would only do teshuva immediately after we sin, it would save us from so much trouble. Nobody wants to go against Hashem, and therefore it is easy to say we are sorry and regret what we did. And even if a person feels he may repeat the sin in the future, that does not preclude him from fixing what he did in the past. If it happens again, he will deal with it then. But why not remove the negative effects that have already began to take hold? The Mabit writes, each part of teshuva is a mitzvah in its own right and can be accomplished independently of the other parts. Just admitting that we sinned is a mitzvah, just regretting what we did is a mitzvah and just accepting not to do it again is a mitzvah. Learning to do teshuva right away can save a person from parnasa problems, from health problems and from any other problems that are possible to come in this world. Chazal tells us, during these days of Aseret Yamei Teshuva, Hashem is closer than any other time of the year. The Rambam writes that now, more than ever, our teshuva is easily accepted and accomplishes so much. It's so easy to do, all it requires is a little time and thought. Let us utilize the wondrous gift that Hashem has given us and purify ourselves with our words and our hearts. And b'ezrat Hashem, we should all be sealed in the Book of Life. Amen.

One of the greatest gifts that Hashem has ever given us is the ability to make teshuva. A person who may have spent the entire year ignoring certain mitzvot and doing different averot can correct it all with a few moments of teshuva. There are things people have done that they wish they could turn the clock back on and do differently. Teshuva is exactly that. Hashem allows us to actually change the past. Whatever a person has done can get completely erased. And if a person feels bad that he sinned because of how great Hashem is and how much Hashem does for him, that's called teshuva out of love, and that transforms the sin into mitzvot. At this time specifically, during the Aseret Yemeh Teshuva , our teshuva is easily accepted. At the time we need it the most, Hashem makes it the easiest to accomplish, while a person's year is still hanging in the balance. During the trial itself, a person has the ability to erase all of his crimes and make the judgment the most favorable possible. It is very simple, all the person has to do is just admit what he did wrong, regret it, and accept to improve going forward. Nobody should feel that what he did is beyond teshuva. Hashem specifically took us to be His nation while we were on the 49 th level of tumah . The Jewish people at that time were on the lowest level possible and just seven weeks later they were as close to Hashem as possible. The Rambam writes regarding teshuva, whereas before teshuva the person was very distant from Hashem, after teshuva he is beloved, desirable, close and dear to Hashem. The Kedushat Levy writes in Parashat Shemini regarding the Chazal which says במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים אין צדיקים גמורים יכולים לעמוד that Hashem actually gets more pleasure from a sinner who made teshuva than from a completely righteous individual. The reason is because the ba'al teshuva had to fight off his strong evil inclination to stop his wrongdoings. It is so special to Hashem when we fight the yetzer hara to do His will. The Kedushat Levy writes elsewhere, if we contemplate the fact that we are so insignificant in comparison to Hashem, yet we have the ability to bring Him pleasure with our avodah , that should ignite our hearts to be filled with joy and excitement to serve Him. We can't imagine how much He enjoys every little thing we do, and therefore, we shouldn't underestimate it. Rabbi Zilberstein told a story of a man who would always come to shul about seven minutes late, no matter what time the minyan started. If it was a 7:00 minyan, he would get there at 7:07. If it was an 8:00 minyan, 8:07. One day, the rabbi asked him about it and the man said, "What's the big deal? A few minutes here, a few minutes there, the main thing is that I come." This practice continued for quite some time until one day this man walked in exactly on time. The rabbi asked him what changed. He said that Hashem taught him a very powerful lesson and he explained that the day before one of his warehouses caught fire and he was there at the time. He called the fire department and waited anxiously for them to arrive. Every minute that went by, another part of his warehouse became consumed in flames. By the time they finally got there, they were only able to salvage a very small part of it. He asked them why they took so long and one of the firemen, feeling insulted, said, "We just got delayed a few minutes. The main thing is that we got here. What's a few minutes anyway?" Those words struck him like a lightning bolt. Those were the same words he used when telling the rabbi about coming to shul late. He realized the value of every minute and accepted upon himself to be on time to shul going forward. Hashem adores everything we do in the spiritual realms. Every second is valuable. If we haven't performed the way we are capable of until now, we can easily make teshuva and erase the past and start afresh.

Trust in a Good Judgment

During the Aseret Yamei Teshuva, we add the mizmor שיר המעלות ממעמקים to our tefilla. Some add the mizmor of לדוד ה' אורי at the end of tefilla. Both of these mizmorim speak about having hope in Hashem's salvation. Specifically at this time of year, when everything is being decided, it is incumbent upon us to pray harder and believe in Hashem's ability to give us even what may seem to be very unlikely. Odds and statistics do not matter to Hashem. Doctor's predictions do not matter to Hashem. Our belief in Hashem and our tefilot are what is going to produce the salvations we are hoping for. I read two stories from Rabbi Binyamin Pruzansky on this topic. The first was about Raizy and Leah, two good friends who worked as social workers for an Israeli agency. They were both assigned to work in an old age home in Bnei Brak called Ateres Zekenim. One of the elderly women in their shared caseload was Chava, she was 83 years old but very young at heart. One day, the two were planning their day off as Chava listened in. They planned to go to Amuka and pray for a shidduch as they had been in shidduchim for quite some time. When Chava heard their plans, she asked if she could come along. She said she was never married and would love to come and pray for a shidduch for herself. The girls almost burst into laughter hearing that request. Whoever heard of an 83 year old praying for a shidduch? Nevertheless, they brought her along. Amazingly, that year Chava became a bride. A man who had lost his wife the year before was having trouble deciding which of his children to live by. They all wanted him and he didn't want to cause a fight so he chose to move into this old age home. While he was there, someone suggested a shidduch with Chava and eventually they got married and moved into their own apartment. Raizy and Leah couldn't believe that of the three of them, Chava was the one answered at Amuka that year. They asked her what her secret was. She explained, "When I asked you to come along and pray in Amuka, I knew you thought I was crazy. I knew I had nobody to depend upon besides Hashem and that is why I prayed to Him with full emunah.” A tefilla with emunah can do wonders. Even an 83 year old woman can find a shidduch. The second story was about a young man and his new wife who were traveling in the summer to visit the kallah's parents who were vacationing in New Hampshire. As they made their way down the I-84, they realized they were very low on gas. It was late at night and all the gas stations that they passed by were closed. They had another 130 miles to go until their destination with only 25 miles left of gas in their tank. They did not want to get stuck on a highway in the middle of nowhere. They knew there was one more possible gas station in the area a few miles away and they drove there hoping for the best. When they pulled up, they saw all the lights were off; it was closed as well. Now they were really stuck, there were no other options available. The young man said to his wife, he was going to pray with all of his heart for Hashem to enable them to pump gas out of a machine in this gas station that had no power. He stepped out of the car with full emunah that it did not matter to Hashem that there was no power. After his tefilla, he stuck his credit card into the machine and placed the nozzle in his gas tank, hoping for a miracle. He pressed down and, amazingly, the gas started to flow. It didn't make sense, the power was off, the screen was blank but the gas was flowing. Hashem can do anything and now more than ever we need to pray with that emunah.

The way that Hashem deals with a person is based on his deeds. Usually Hashem does not make that obvious, but when He does it gives us a lot of chizuk. A man told me someone owed him money and was not sticking to his payment plan. Recently, the man really needed the money and so he tried to contact that person who owed him and discovered the person had moved out of the country and he had no way of tracking him down. Initially he was very angry, especially since he needed the money so badly and it appeared that he would never get it back. This past week he heard a class about the power of not holding grudges and decided to forgive the man for the pain he was causing him. The very next day, he was called into his boss's office and the boss handed him a completely unexpected bonus. It was for even a little more than what that other man owed him. He thanked Hashem for giving him the money that he needed and saw very clearly how his act of forgiveness was appreciated. A woman told me, because her husband struggles so much to pay the exorbitant tuition for their five children, his rabbi gave him a leniency to use his maaser to pay for most of that tuition. Even with that, he still struggles. He has a very good job but it is still not enough to cover their expenses plus that tuition. For this year, the woman decided to try and convince her husband not to rely on the leniency and instead give maser to regular charities. This seemed like it would put them in a much more financial struggle, but with complete emunah, she kept pushing him. They found out during the summer that relatives of theirs were going to send their son to public school because the tuition of his yeshiva was way too high for them to pay. They secretly contacted that tuition committee and lowered their tuition and then they paid the whole thing by themselves. They then made a significant pledge to a different yeshiva to be paid over the course of a year. The tuition payment for their relative plus the yeshiva donation equaled up to the full maaser that they would be obligated to give that year. Heroically, they gave their maaser and did not allocate any of it towards their upcoming tuition this year. When they met with their tuition committee, shockingly they gave them a significantly lower tuition than they had been paying in previous years . Two days later, her husband got a phone call from a client giving him an unexpected job that would earn him enough to pay for half of that year's tuition. Literally a few minutes later, another client called and gave him another unexpected job which would earn him enough to pay for the rest of the tuition. Something that was always such a huge burden for them the entire year was now removed in one instant, in the zechut of their tzedakah. One final story of a rabbi who started a new shul this summer to help the people who lived in a certain neighborhood. He was able to give them a learning program in the morning and at night, and all of the congregants grew tremendously over the course of the summer. At the end of the summer, the rabbi had a lot of expenses to pay for the shul and, after trying his hardest to raise the money, he was still short $3000. He asked Hashem for help to finish paying it. Low and behold, he received a phone call from a man saying he heard about his shul and said he himself had started a shul some years back but last year they had to close down. He just asked his rabbi what to do with the leftover funds in the shul's account and the rabbi told him to give it to another shul that did similar work to his. He told this rabbi he had $3000 in the account that he wanted to give him. Hashem is involved in everything we do. When we do things l'shem Shamayim , Hashem gives us even more help.

The Shulchan Aruch writes in the laws of Rosh Hashanah that on this great day we are supposed to eat and drink and be happy. However we should not eat to complete satiation so that we don't come to a light headed state of mind, but rather, keep the fear of Hashem upon us. The Mishnah Berura writes that although Rosh Hashanah is a day of judgment, there is still a mitzvah to be happy on the holiday. The sefer Vaveh HaAmudim asked, seemingly these two emotions, fear and happiness, are contradictory. How can we be expected to have both at the same time? The Rabbi explained with a mashal. Imagine, in Yerushalayim we discovered a hidden tzaddik who is a master of every facet of Torah. Very quickly, all of Klal Yisrael begins looking to him for guidance. But not only is he a gadol b'Torah and righteous in all of his deeds, he also has ruach hakodesh and can see on a person's face every deed that he ever did, both good and bad. Not only that, he also has a special power of beracha. Whenever he gives a person a blessing, it always comes true. Every day, hundreds of people get on line to try to get one minute with this great tzaddik. For sure, if a person knows he is about to go in, he will make teshuva for all of his sins, not wanting the rabbi to see what he did. He will also come prepared with his words carefully, not wanting to waste time with unimportant things. And when he actually walks in to where the Gadol is, on one hand he is going to be afraid, knowing whose presence he is in, but at the same time he is going to be so happy, knowing that the answer to all of his problems is just one blessing away. All year long, Hashem is our loving Father and on Rosh Hashanah we begin calling Him Avinu Malkenu, Our Father and Our King. On Rosh Hashanah, Hashem sits on His Throne of Judgment and analyzes and scrutinizes every single deed that we did. When we stand before Him, everything about us is revealed. But Hashem also sits on His Throne of Mercy and wants to give us the happiest, most blessed year. So on one hand, we are afraid of whose presence we are going to be standing in, but at the same time we are so happy that the judge is also our loving Father who could help us with every problem we have. Today, before our deeds are scrutinized, we still have a chance to repent so that we could enter the King's chambers looking beautiful. On one hand, Rosh Hashanah is a very serious day, but at the same time it is such a happy day because we are so excited to be together with Hashem. Chazal tell us, during the entire Aseret Yameh Teshuva, beginning with Rosh Hashanah, Hashem is closer to us than He is during the rest of the year. It's as if He is personally coming into our homes to be with us. Let us prepare properly to greet the Melech and b'ezrat Hashem He will bless everyone with kol tuv v'tov. Amen. Tizku l'shanim rabot and Shabbat Shalom.

Shearim B'Tefillah 54 - Even the lowest of the low can come back with Bitachon and Tefillah

Hashem in His infinite kindness gives us the help that we need to fulfill our purpose in this world. In general, there are two types of motivation that would get a person to want to follow Torah and mitzvot more. One is called יראת העונש-fear of punishment, where the person is afraid of the consequences of not following. The second is called אהבה-love, where the person feels so indebted to Hashem for all the kindness that He bestows upon him, that he naturally wants to feel like he's reciprocating. If I owe my life to someone, of course I can't wait to do his will. That's how we should feel towards Hashem and that is the more pleasurable way to serve Him. If Hashem sees that gratitude is the catalyst for us to do our jobs better, then He'll give us more to be thankful for. The key is that we have to honestly feel that we owe Hashem. Our performance of mitzvot is not a payback to Him. We are the ones who benefit from it. On one occasion, a child who was deathly ill miraculously recovered. The parents went to their Rabbi, the Netivot Shalom, and asked what they should do as a payback to Hashem. Should they either donate a Sefer Torah or should they donate money to build a new shul? The Rabbi told them, “For now, don't do anything. Stay with the feeling that you owe Hashem.” Naturally, we don't want to feel indebted. We want to feel like we paid back so we don't have to feel like we owe. But when it comes to Hashem, no matter what we ever do, we'll never come close to paying Him back. And in fact, the best way to serve Him is to feel indebted. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Aurbach said, to be properly prepared to crown Hashem King on Rosh Hashanah, we first have to appreciate everything He gives us and we should start by working on having real feelings of hakarat hatov every time we say our one hundred berachot a day. That would be one hundred heartfelt statements of gratitude every single day. Someone might say, “But I had such a hard year. How could I feel hakarat hatov to Hashem when I feel like I have so little?” The Gemara in Berachot (19) brings down a conversation that the angels had with Hashem. The malachei hasharet asked Hashem, “Why do You show favoritism to the Jewish People? Doesn't it say in the Torah that You don't show favoritism?” Hashem answered them, “It also says in the Torah ואכלת ושבעת וברכת – that a person only has to say Birkat Hamazon and thank Me when he is full, but the Jewish People say it even if they only eat just a kezayit of bread. So how could I not show them favoritism?” The sefer Bayam Derech points out from here, look how much Hashem appreciates when we thank Him, even though we're not feeling satiated. Even though we might have wanted to make more money, or even though we may have wanted a bigger house or we wanted to live in a different location and we didn't get it yet. If we can thank Hashem even when we don't feel full, that causes Hashem to give us favoritism. In truth, every person has countless blessings. If someone would win millions of dollars in the lottery, he wouldn't stop thanking Hashem. Yet all the money in the world doesn't equal the blessing of being able to see with our two eyes. How do we thank Hashem every morning when we say the beracha of פוקח עורים. Let us appreciate all the little details of what Hashem blessed us with. Let us feel a true sense of hakarat hatov that will naturally cause us to want to do His will. And when Hashem sees that receiving His blessings is what gets us closer to Him, He'll keep giving more and more.

On the night of Rosh Hashanah, a person is supposed to come home from shul and sit at his table and begin the meal by eating certain foods as a good omen for the new year. It is important to follow this procedure and say the accompanying tefilot when eating each food, but it is even more important for a person to act and think the right way on this day. Even one thought of a person feeling that he wants to become better and improve in his observance of Torah and mitzvot is more powerful than all the foods and Yehi ratzons combined. The Meiri writes that one of the purposes of eating those foods and saying the Yehi ratzons is to arouse a person to want to become better. Every thought that we have on this holy day makes a very big impact on the entire upcoming year. A person should be filled with hope and emunah. A person should look at things from the right perspective. We should remove all worry and stress and focus on Hashem's rulership over the world and our lives individually. Every mitzvah we do on this day goes a long way. The Chochmat Shelomo writes in his derushim to parashat Ki Tavo that, on Rosh Hashanah, a person should be happy and say the words “Whatever Hashem does is good,” with real emunah. Those words have the power to change a harsh decree into revealed good. Everything we do on Rosh Hashanah has a major impact. A man sent the following question to Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein a few years back. He said that, for whatever reason, his wife is not happy with him and many times she does things just to get him upset. One of the things that she does is on Rosh Hashanah instead of serving him the head of a sheep, she serves him a tail. Normally, we are supposed to eat from the head as a sign that we should be at the head and not at the tail. He said that makes him so nervous because he doesn't want it to be a bad omen for him. The Rabbi told him, to be at the head means we want our true desire of doing good to lead us on the proper path, rather than getting pulled like a tail by our evil inclination. If a person is able to overcome his inclination of getting upset or yelling at his wife and rather accept what she does with love, he will not need any omens to have his good inclination lead him, because he is already practicing it. He will have already proven that he is a head and not a tail. And that is more powerful than any food or any sign. The main thing is that we shouldn't get upset or speak negatively to anybody. A person's attitude can change everything for the better. On one occasion on Rosh Hashanah, a young avrech came to the Slonimer Rebbe looking very scared. He cried to the Rebbe saying he couldn't afford to buy a head. He only had enough to buy a fish tail. Now he was worried that would be a negative omen for him for a bad year. The Rabbi told him, everything goes after a person's attitude and his tefilot . He told him to pick up the tail and say “This should be the tail-end of all of our troubles and suffering and, going forward, we should only have peace and tranquility.” Nothing should bother us on this great and awesome day. We should utilize every moment we can for Torah, for mitzvot and for ma'asim tovim . And we should be happy and calm, trusting in the great mercy of Hashem

Hashem Strengthens Your Heart

People who go through periods of difficulty in their lives hope and pray every day for those difficulties to end. They imagine how great it would be to get the salvation they are so eagerly anticipating and they can't wait for that day to come. It does happen sometimes that instead of getting a salvation another major difficulty arises. The person may then think to himself, it is bad enough I have one difficulty, now I have to deal with another? But if the person would look at this from a different perspective, perhaps it would be able to change their situation for the better. The person should think, maybe by overcoming this new difficulty, it'll give me the zechut I need to get the salvation for the first one. Maybe this is Hashem's way of helping me get my salvation that I want so badly. So instead of fighting the circumstance, the person should view it as a calling to elevate himself, an opportunity to overcome with emunah and get the zechuyot that he needs. A rabbi told me, when he started out as the rabbi of a shul some 40 years ago, he got a strange request from a new congregant. The man said he was in need of $2000 and had no way of obtaining it and it was critical that he get it right away. The rabbi asked him what he needed the money for. The man said he just discovered his wife was expecting and they did not want to continue on with the pregnancy. They were not ready for children and they surely couldn't afford the expenses that came along with them. The rabbi said, “At least let us find another family to raise the child.” The man said the cost to go through with it was at least $10,000, which he definitely didn't have. Forty years ago, $10,000 was an extremely high number. The rabbi himself had no idea where he would get that kind of money from, but he told the man, heroically, “If you want the $2000, I'm not the man to help you, but if you want the $10,000, I'll get it for you.” The man discussed it with his wife and they agreed. The rabbi went searching for a donor for this money. He found a man learning in kollel for eighteen years who was still not blessed with children. He told him, if he paid for the expenses, this child would be his. Although this kollel man and his wife did not really have $10,000, they agreed to pay $1000 a month for the next 10 months. Finally, the day of the delivery came and a beautiful, healthy baby was born. The mother who delivered the baby said she wanted to keep her child. She and her husband told the rabbi, the deal was off. They also said they could not afford to pay back that $10,000. The rabbi did not know what to answer them. He tried convincing them that they couldn't really back out at this point, but they wouldn't hear of it. What would the rabbi tell the kollel man and his wife, who sacrificed, paying $10,000 and gave so much anticipating finally having their own baby? He prayed to Hashem for the right words and he went there and broke the news to them. He then said, “In Shamayim , this baby is considered yours. You will get all the credit for bringing the baby into the world.” He also told them, the zechut of accepting the ratzon Hashem is enormous. He then encouraged them to take in a foster child from the organization called Ohel as an additional zechut . Although this news was devastating to that couple. They listened to the rabbi and, amazingly, four months after that, after nineteen long years of marriage, this couple received the wonderful news that they were expecting. Baruch Hashem, later that year they welcomed twins into the world. What seemed like a devastating blow was actually their opportunity to lift themselves up and earn endless zechuyot and, eventually, get that salvation they were always hoping for. Everything that happens is for our best, even what appears to be something way too hard to handle.

As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, one of the things we need to keep in mind is that whatever was last year does not have to be this year. On Rosh Hashanah, everything gets reset. There is a new determination on what will take place in every person's life this year. It is incumbent upon us during these days to pray harder and to become better spiritually. People who have been struggling with parnasa should realize Hashem is going to allocate for them this year and entirely new parnasa and now is the time to pray for it. It doesn't really matter what job the person has, Hashem could bless a person in any position that he is in. A man who worked as a salesman for over thirty years told me the following story about himself. Hashem blessed him to be a top salesman in every company in which he worked. He told me how it all began in the most unlikely way. He asked for a salesman job in a certain company and they said they would give him a chance. This company did millions of dollars of business with their major accounts, but they gave him their worst six accounts to try and sell. The man was being paid partly on commission and so it didn't seem that he had a chance of earning any real money there. Nonetheless, he accepted the job and prayed to Hashem for help. He scheduled his first meeting ever with a buyer in a different city. In the previous year, this company gave them a total of just $12,000 worth of business. The man booked the flight there on the arranged day of the meeting, but to his dismay, it was snowing that day and the flight got delayed. He called the buyer to apologize, saying that he would be late and asked if they could schedule the meeting for later in the day. The buyer agreed, but the flight kept getting delayed more and more and the man saw it looked like he was going to miss the meeting. He searched and found a flight that was scheduled to leave soon that was going to land an hour drive away from where he needed to be, so he took that flight, rented a car there, and drove to the meeting. By the time he finally arrived, it was 6:00 pm and the buyer had just gone home for the day. The man explained to the receptionist he traveled the whole day to get there and he asked if he could possibly speak to a different buyer. The receptionist checked and then told him the boss of the company would happily see him. He went into the meeting very prepared with what to say about each product that he was going to try and sell. He also brought a suitcase full of samples. He rehearsed his lines and was ready to give it his best shot. When he went in, the boss asked him for a catalog. This man assumed when the boss saw something that he liked, he would ask him to see the sample, but the boss proceeded to thumb through the entire five page catalog fairly quickly and then closed it. The man did not get a chance to even show him one sample. He asked the boss if perhaps, maybe he liked even one item that he could show him? The boss said, “I want everything here. I want to make a big order, but I need much better prices. Let me talk to your boss.” The young salesman did not want to look bad to his own boss, as if he couldn't get the job done on his own. This boss told him not to worry, he would take care of everything. And so, he gave him the phone number of his boss. This boss called his boss and complimented the salesman with many wonderful adjectives. He then asked him for better prices on every item. The salesman's boss said he would think about it and get back to him. The next day, the salesman's boss asked all the other salesmen to try to sell those close out items for a better price that this man was offering and none of them were able to, so he let the new salesman process the order. A couple of days later, an order came in for $2.5 million. The young salesman's boss was extremely impressed. The previous salesman was only able to sell them $12,000 for the entire year before, and now in one sale, this new salesman got $2.5 million. The salesman was then given bigger accounts in this company and became very successful there. He told me, he didn't even need to open his mouth to make that first life changing sale, Hashem did the whole thing for him from beginning to end. It all began with the delayed flight which enabled him to meet directly with the head of that company. Hashem can bless a person no matter what job he has. Let us all pray hard for a year of blessing and prosperity.

In the beginning of parashat Vayelech . Moshe tells the people, today I am 120 years old, לא אוכל עוד לצאת ולבוא– I am no longer able to go out and come in. On the surface level, it sounds like Moshe was saying due to his old age he could no longer lead the people. However, Rashi writes, we know from a pasuk at the end of parashat V'zot Haberacha that Moshe remained strong and vibrant up until his last breath on this earth. Therefore, the interpretation of this pasuk is that Moshe was telling them he was no longer able to be their leader only because Hashem told him his time was up. Everybody has their time and they must take advantage of it while it is there. Some times are more optimal than others. The Midrash Raba gives a mashal to explain how it was possible that Moshe Rabbenu was not answered to be allowed to go into Eretz Yisrael. The parable is of a king who had a beloved friend who he appointed to be the chief officer over his palace. One day, this officer was seen outside the gate of the palace and was being denied entry. Nobody could believe it because just the day before he was in charge of everything that went on in that palace. And now, he wasn't even allowed in! The guard explained it was because his time was up. The king appointed a new chief and this man was reduced to just a commoner. Similarly by Moshe Rabbenu. Anything he said Hashem listened to right away. He said קומה ה' – Rise Hashem, he said שובה ה' – Return Hashem. He said to Hashem to open the mouth of the earth and swallow Korach, and so on, and Hashem acquiesced to all of his requests on the spot. But then, when Moshe wanted to go into Eretz Yisrael, Hashem denied him, and the reason was because his time of always being answered immediately was up. Moshe had his time and then it was taken away. The key in all situations in life is to be aware of the opportunities we are being given and capitalize upon them. We are now in the most spiritual time of the entire year. The month of Elul is auspicious for spirituality. Everything we do counts more. Our prayers are more readily accepted. What may take dozens of tefilot to accomplish during the rest of the year can be accomplished now with much fewer. Our learning is worth more, our mitzvot are worth more. A man was once walking with a great rabbi. It was Erev Rosh Hashanah in the morning and he turned to the rabbi and asked for some final words of inspiration before Rosh Hashanah. The rabbi said in a raised voice, “Elul stands for אני לדודי ודודי לי , there is an outpouring of love from Hashem in Elul.” The man was wondering why the rabbi would speak about Elul when the month was practically over and Rosh Hashanah was at their doorstep. The rabbi then repeated, “ אני לדודי ודודי לי . ” He said, “There are still a few hours left of this precious month. Go now and use them wisely.” With those words, the man started to cry. It was then that he realized the value of every moment in Elul. We still have one week left of Elul. Tonight is the final Shabbat of the year. Let us take advantage and keep it the way it is supposed to be kept. This year on Rosh Hashanah there is no shofar on the first day because it will be Shabbat. The shofar is what arouses the mercy of Hashem during judgment. If we treat Shabbat the way it is supposed to be treated, then Shabbat will advocate on our behalf and arouse Hashem's mercy instead of the shofar . This Shabbat is extremely important. If we haven't kept it until now the way we are supposed to, we can still fix it. We should accept upon ourselves to do our utmost to honor Shabbat, not to speak mundane speech, to adhere to all the halachot and learn extra Torah. This opportunity is still here. Let us grab it while we have it. Shabbat Shalom

Whenever a person has any kind of a need, his immediate reaction should be to ask Hashem for help. If it is good for him to have that need taken care of, it will be Hashem who is going to do it. After we ask Hashem to help, only then should we make the necessary hishtadlut , knowing that will just be one potential means that Hashem will use to camouflage Himself. Sometimes Hashem makes it very obvious that He is the One who helps us. My friend who lives in Israel told me he needed a certain document and began looking through his files for it. As he was having trouble locating it, he decided to empty out the entire filing cabinet and went through each paper and envelope one at a time. When he opened one of the envelopes, he was surprised when he saw 2500 shekels inside. He must have put that money there a long time ago and completely forgotten about it. Literally one second after he found that money, his wife walked into the room and said, “I just got off the phone with the fresh fruit and vegetable supplier. He said we have an outstanding, unpaid bill of 2500 shekels remaining from the previous bill that needed to be paid immediately or we would not be able to make another order.” The timing of the rabbi finding the money to pay that bill was truly amazing. The rabbi added, he never ended up needing that document he was looking for. Hashem just made him believe that he needed it so he would discover that money. Another man who has an organization called the Mitzvah Man told me he received a call from someone saying, “We are opening our new shul but we don't even have the funds to buy chairs. We have 200 congregants and can't open until we get chairs. Do you by any chance have access to chairs? We will take whatever you can get a hold of. We really need them.Even used would be good. We just want to open our shul.” The Mitzvah Man replied saying he wished he could help them, but in fact, he did not have any access to chairs and didn't know of anyone else that would. Two days later, the Mitzvah Man received a phone call from a complete stranger saying, “Hi, I heard you like to help people out. We just opened a new shul in Passaic, New Jersey, and we ordered 250 new shul chairs, but they came in wrong. The donor of the chairs, who is very wealthy, said, ‘Don't return the chairs, give them to a shul who needs them and I'll order new chairs for our shul.'” Those chairs were beautiful, costing $250 each. The Mitzvah Man called that other shul and told them the good news. They were in shock, asking him how he pulled that off. He replied, “I had nothing to do with this. They are a gift to you directly from Hashem. He just used me to be the middle-man to give them to you.” Whether it is money to pay a bill, chairs to fill a shul, or any other need we may have, it is Hashem who takes care of them. We must always ask for His help and only afterward do the necessary regular hishtadlut .

The ba'aleh musar teach us that the service of the heart is very precious to Hashem. Chazal tell us, רחמנא ליבא בעי – Hashem wants our hearts. Regarding emunah, it is one thing to speak it, but it is infinitely greater to feel it in the heart. The pasuk says about Avraham Avinu, ומצאת את לבבו נאמן לפניך – Hashem found his heart to be filled with emunah. The heart is very private, only Hashem knows what is in our hearts and that is what makes that service so special. When a person truly believes in Hashem in his heart, it is a tremendous zechut which brings about an abundance of blessing. I heard a story of a man who lived in Petach Tikvah in Israel and worked every night from 6:00 in the evening until 6:00 in the morning. He had that job for close to ten years. He was a manager in a freight company and directed all the containers that came in to be delivered to their proper destinations. It was an extremely difficult job because of the hours it entailed. The expenses where he lived were getting too high, so he relocated his family to another city that had the same type of apartment he was living in for half the price. But then, he had to travel an hour and a half each way to work. That meant even less time seeing his family. By the time he would get home in the morning, his wife and children had to leave. It was a very difficult situation. He went to his rabbi for advice on what to do. His rabbi told him he had to leave his current job and find something else with normal hours in the city that he lived in. He told the rabbi he had that job for almost ten years, and he needed the salary he was getting. He felt it would be too difficult to get it in a new job. His rabbi tried to convince him otherwise, but the man wouldn't budge. By the end of that year, he couldn't take it anymore, so he decided to move back to Petach Tikvah and pay the higher rent for the apartment. But, just a month after he moved back, he was fired from his job. Now he was really stuck, he had a high rent and no salary. Because he was there for so long, they gave him severance, but much less than he thought. They gave him for only three months. During that time, besides looking for a new job, he started working hard on his emunah, and so did his wife. With just two weeks before his severance pay would end, he did not have a job, but his emunah was stronger than it ever was. His rabbi met him to discuss some options and the rabbi couldn't believe the emunah this man wasportraying. He was not worried, he felt secure in the hands of Hashem, and it was apparent in his speech and in his demeanor. The rabbi's wife met with his wife and saw the same thing in her. They must have really believed it in their hearts as well because the next day, this man received a phone call from somebody who heard about him from his last job and asked to meet him for a new job. The hours of the new job would be just 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, a normal day's work. When he went to the interview, his boss asked him what he would expect to get paid for the job he was being asked to do. The man mentioned a salary thousands of shekels higher than his previous salary. He explained it was just to cover his family's basic needs. The boss really liked him and said that the salary would be much higher than most employees who had already been working there for years. Nonetheless, he granted it to him and the man started working there just a few days later. When this man relied on his job too much, he ended up getting fired. When he was able to rely on Hashem, he got his dream job with the salary that he wanted. Nothing can compare with true emunah in the heart.

Hope to Hashem

Hashem tests us all the time. There is no light flashing the words “TEST” when they come. And as a matter of fact, Hashem makes them appear to come so naturally so that it doesn't even seem to us like Hashem sent them. Hashem is able to make it look like a person is a victim of circumstance or a victim of other people's free will. In reality, however, it is always a set-up just to give this person the opportunity to elevate himself by overcoming it. The difficulty of these tests is that by listening to the evil inclination, the person gets immediate gratification, whereas if he does what is right, he has to give up the instant gratification and wait until later to be paid for his sacrifice. That's all an illusion. When a person takes forbidden pleasure, he will eventually lose it at another time. Yet, when a person holds back from doing what is wrong, he will definitely be paid for all eternity, and sometimes Hashem will give him a bonus in this world as well. A man told that his friend who works as an air conditioner installer and repairman once received an urgent phone call to repair an air conditioner. It was late at night and he couldn't see so well and he accidentally mixed up some cables and caused the compressor to blow. That would be a major expense to fix. His initial reaction was to just tell the homeowner that he needed a new compressor. Nobody would ever know that he was the cause of the problem. But then he strengthened himself and instead told the homeowner the truth and apologized for his blunder. He told him he would get a new compressor and have it installed the next day. After he left that house, he spoke to his partner and told him what happened. The partner said just a few minutes before someone told him he had a spare air conditioner engine sitting dismantled on his window and asked if he had any need for it. When this man heard that, he immediately went to pick it up and then went back and installed it on the spot. Less than an hour later, the man's air conditioner was working perfectly, and he didn't have to pay anything out of pocket to fix it. It was so clear to him at that point that the entire episode was just a test for him. He passed the test and then Hashem gave him the compressor for free. Another man said he was sitting one night in his home trying to figure out all the debts that he had coming due. He owed a lot of money to various places and did not have close to enough to cover it. He remembered that a friend of his owed him a large sum of money and the due date for that debt had long passed. Perhaps Hashem set it up that way so that he could get the money now and pay everything he owed. He called his friend and had a pleasant conversation with him. Then he reminded him of the debt and said he really needed the money now, and hoped he could pay right away. The friend, in no uncertain terms, let him know that he had no intention of paying at that time. The conversation ended uncomfortably. How could his friend act this way, he thought. In his time of need he was there for him and now, when he was in need, he was turning his back on him? The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. But then he decided to take the emunah approach instead. He said to himself, Hashem runs the world. It is not a coincidence that his friend owed him this money that he needed so badly and was refusing to pay it. If Hashem wanted him to have the money, he thought, He could easily give it to him from another source or make this friend have a change of heart and pay him. He made a determined decision, he would not bear a grudge against his friend. He would still be his friend, just like before. That night, when he prayed Arbit, he asked Hashem to help him not have any negative feelings towards this friend and to help him pay back all of his debts. Later on the same night, the friend called him back saying he was bringing the money over right away. It was an amazing turn of events. It didn't make sense, but it didn't have to. Hashem tested him and he passed, and afterward Hashem sent him the money. We don't always see immediate benefits for overcoming our tests; that's also part of the test. We must always remember, everything that happens is planned by Hashem and if we respond the way He wants us to, we will be rewarded for all eternity.

We all know that Hashem could help us at any moment. We all know that one of the greatest ways to access Hashem's help is through tefila . But, do we really believe in our heart of hearts that our prayers work? Do we believe that tefila is the best option we have in all situations? The strength of our tefilot depends on our belief in their effectiveness. Rabbi Ari Ben Shushan told that he and his siblings all started out their marriages childless, for around four years. They all got married about the same time and it was very strange that they were all going through the exact same difficulty. He lived in Israel at that time and one of his brothers told him he had to go to Rav Chaim Kanievsky z”l and get advice on what they needed to do to break that decree. Rabbi Ari went and watched as all the people who met Rav Chaim before him all get the same blessing, “ Beracha v'hatzlacha .” His brother had demanded of him to try to get more than that. He really wanted counsel besides for the blessing. Rabbi Ari wrote up the entire situation on paper and Rav Chaim's gabai read it to him. When he finished, Rav Chaim said, “ Beracha v'hatzlacha .” Rabbi Ari then asked the gabai to please ask Rav Chaim if there was a kabbala they could take upon themselves to help them break the decree. The gabai asked Rav Chaim and Rav Chaim laughed, saying, “Kabbala? They need tefila .” With that, Rabbi Ari left and called his siblings to tell them the message. They all knew about tefila. They have been praying heartfelt tefilot on a daily basis and that's why the Rabbi's advice was not what they were expecting. Rabbi Ari told them, “Rav Chaim knows something that we don't. We need to redouble our efforts in tefila .” With that, they all viewed tefila from a brand-new perspective. Baruch Hashem, that year Rabbi Ari and three of his siblings got the wonderful news that they were all expecting a child. We all know that tefila is necessary. But when we see it perhaps in a new light, it becomes so much more special. If someone would be going through a very tough difficulty and he is making every hishtadlut possible to fix his problem, and all of a sudden a Navi would come to him and say, “Your problem will be solved when you pray with the emunah that Hashem is in front of you and is waiting to help you. Then, all of a sudden, his tefilot would take on a new dimension. He would stop focusing on all of his other hishtadlut and would pray the way he is capable of praying. We don't need a Navi to tell us this, as our Chazal have already told us. Whenever a person comes to pray, he should first think about the person who loves him most in his life and how much that person wants to please him. And then he should think that Hashem loves him more than that and wants his benefit much more than that person does. Then he should imagine that he is walking in to have a face to face conversation, kavayachol , with Hashem. Hashem is giving him complete attention and wants to hear everything that is bothering him. The same way a person would talk to his father, who told him to come over and get his help, that is how we should be talking to Hashem during tefila . When we do it the right way, we will see amazing results. This time of year is the most opportune for tefila . During the days of Elul, Rosh Hashanah, Aseret Yameh Teshuva and Yom Kippur, we need to strengthen ourselves and pray with real emunah that tefila works. And b'ezrat Hashem, we will see the answers to all our tefilot . Amen.

In the beginning of this week's Parasha, Ki Tavo, we read about the mitzvah of Bikurim where the landowners bring up a basket of their first fruits to the Bet HaMikdash. There they read a portion from the Torah thanking Hashem for all of the chasadim that He does for them. The Midrash in Bereshit says in the zechut of this mitzvah alone, Hashem created the entire world. What is so special about Bikurim? The purpose of our existence is for us to recognize Hashem in this hidden world and serve Him properly. When a landowner works his field and puts in all the necessary efforts to produce a crop, it will obviously appear that he is the one who made it happen. His mitzvah is to go to the Bet HaMikdash and declare that Hashem is the One who made everything happen and thank Him for it. That act of recognition and thanks is worth creating the entire world because it is fulfilling its purpose. The sefer Torat Chaim writes, Hashem does kindness with us every moment of the day. It's just that we don't recognize all of them. We think things are running naturally and we don't sense that with every move we make and every breath we take, we are experiencing chesed Hashem. The Rabbi continued, technically, we should be thanking Hashem at every moment, but because that's not possible, the Rabbis instituted a thank you section in the Amida which we say three times a day to include all the 'thank you's that we owe for the rest of the day. One of the areas that we are tested in this world is how we respond to challenges. Do we recognize the challenges are from Hashem for our best or do we feel like we're being picked on and complain about them? We must also realize that one of the areas we are tested in is how we respond to blessing. Do we recognize the blessings are from Hashem? Do we thank Him for them? That's a test we would much rather have, so let us do it the best possible way. The Torat Avigdor writes, one of the reasons the words "קל עליון-supreme God" are written next to the words "-גומל חסדים טובים Who grants benevolent kindnesses" in the Amida is for us to contemplate the fact that any chasadim we have are directly from Hashem and the people who seem to be the immediate cause of them are just His messengers. How can we improve in this area of thanking Hashem for everything we have? It could happen that a person was once facing adversity. For example, he had a dangerous illness. He cried and prayed to Hashem many times for salvation and, baruch Hashem, it came – the doctors declared him totally healed. Naturally, at that time, he must have felt indebted to Hashem. But after time went on, did he still feel the same thankfulness for living a regular, healthy life? That is where the test kicks in, to be appreciative of the blessing of health, without the challenge of it being threatened. If we could contemplate all the undeserved blessings that we have, we would be so humbled and we would look forward to thanking Hashem. The Gemara says in Masechet Berachot, when a king makes the first bow to Hashem in the Amida, he should remain like that for the remainder of it, never getting up until it's over. One of the reasons given for that is since Hashem blessed him with so much, he needs to be even more humbled and appreciative. The more Hashem blesses a person, the more hakarat hatov he needs to have - and we are all blessed. The Pele Yoetz writes, if that applies to physical blessings, how much more so to spiritual ones. If a person is fortunate enough to be religious, to know Hashem, to follow mitzvot, to be clear about his purpose in life... Or if someone is fortunate enough to live his daily life revolving around Hashem – praying, learning – he should be so humbled and appreciative that he is from the select group in this world that have this merit. When we become more thankful individuals, it brings more beracha. Right after Modim in the Amida, we ask Hashem for the most wonderful gifts – שלום, טובה, ברכה, חיים, חן וחסד ורחמים. How could we ask for so much? Because once we appreciate, the pipelines of blessing burst open. הודו לה' כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו-B'ezrat Hashem, we should have the praises of Hashem on our lips all the time. Shabbat Shalom.

There are things that happen in life that we can't seem to make any sense of. We know that Hashem is merciful, but people go through a lot of pain, and we wonder how that could possibly be mercy. When we see others who are going through difficulties and they are waiting and hoping for such a long time for salvation, we might be thinking, “Hashem could easily help them, so why doesn't He?” These are hard issues to deal with. Rabbi Yosef Mugrabi said over a mashal from a Gadol that could provide some insight. There was once an artist who used to make very large paintings. They were so big, they had to be made in pieces and only at the end would he put all those pieces together. On one occasion, his brother, who was also an artist, came to visit him. When he entered the house, he saw an easel with a painting on it. It was a picture of different pieces of furniture piled up and one of those pieces was a chair with three legs. His brother wasn't around at the time so he decided to surprise him and finish the painting. He made the fourth leg in a masterful way, it looked just perfect. But when his brother came home and saw what he did, he began yelling, “Why did you ruin my painting?” The other brother said, “What do you mean? I finished it for you. That chair was missing a leg.” To which his brother replied, “You're only looking at one small part of my painting.” He then put the whole thing together and it was clear that that chair was only supposed to have three legs. The painting was of a large scene of a marketplace with stores and people and cars. That part, with the furniture and chair, was the garbage dump. A nice, complete chair with four legs doesn't belong there. This brother thought he was doing a kindness and fixing, but he only saw a small part of that picture and he was actually ruining it. Says the Gadol, so too it is with us in this world. We might be thinking, “Why doesn't Hashem just help him now?” Or, “Why doesn't Hashem just give him what he needs, he'll be so happy?” Or, “Why doesn't He take him out of his pain?” These questions are only because we see a small part of the picture. What we think would remedy the situation would actually be hurting it. Hashem, who was, is and always will be the Baal Harachamim always acts in the most merciful way possible. When we are eventually shown the full picture, then we'll understand it. Many times, already in this world, we're able to see a small part of the blessings involved, which come about as a result of circumstances we believed to be so harsh. A woman told me she was having shalom bayit problems after many years of marriage, and she eventually separated from her husband. During that time, she was diagnosed with a life threatening illness. Her initial thoughts were, “My life is already so hard, now I need this too?” Baruch Hashem, now this woman is healed, and that illness was actually the catalyst which brought her back together with her husband. They were able to view life from a whole new vantage point after that happened, and it restored their marriage to the way it used to be. Another woman said, due to her husband struggling financially, they were forced to move to a different location. They eventually settled in there, but they weren't happy about the move. Last year, on Tisha B'Av, she was walking in her new neighborhood when she heard the faint cry of a baby. She discovered the baby was in the backseat of a boiling hot car. She was able to save that baby's life, and she took so much chizuk from that, recognizing that the move was part of Hashem's plan for her and one of its many reasons was for her to be there then to save that baby's life. We can't possibly know all of the calculations of Hashem, we're only able to see small glimpses into them, but we must trust that all of His ways are mercy, even though we can't see it. This is what emunah is all about – believing without seeing. It will lift us up and bring us so much closer to Hashem.

One of the great things we can do to prepare for Rosh Hashanah is to follow a principle which is stated in Chazal כל המעביר על מידותיו מעבירים לו על כל פשעיו -whoever overlooks and forgives when he was wronged, mida kineged mida, Hashem will overlook his misdeeds which will open the way for a year of blessings. If people are fighting or hurting one another, lo alenu, that could very well be causing blessings to be blocked. A woman told me that one year after she got married, she and her husband were blessed with a beautiful baby boy, but then four long years went by and she was not able to conceive. As they were trying to think of what they could do spiritually to improve their situation, her husband remembered how a few years before he hurt and embarrassed a salesperson and never asked for forgiveness. He was able to track this person down, although the person lived in a different country. Exactly ten months later, they were blessed with another beautiful baby boy. Those who have wronged others should be seeking forgiveness and those who have been wronged should be easy to forgive. We should also be praying for siyata d'Shamaya to be able to attain peace. Sometimes we may think that the other party would never want to reconcile with us, but it is not so. With a nice gesture and a tefila to Hashem, peace can be attained. Rabbi Shmuel Rosenberg from Israel told that his wife, who we'll call Sarah, went to purchase a cake lichvod Shabbat one Friday afternoon a few years ago at a certain bakery. The cake was 20 shekel and the woman behind the counter told her, “If you want, we'll sell you two cakes for 30 shekel.” Sarah decided to buy two and she asked the woman if she knew her brother Yaakov who lived upstairs in that same building. The woman replied she did know him and in fact, he was renting one of the two apartments that she owned in that building. Sarah said, “Great, please send the second cake to my brother and tell him that I sent it to him.” That night, Sarah's brother came over for Shabbat and, surprisingly, he did not mention a word about the cake that they sent to him. Sarah asked Yaakov at the end of the meal if he happened to receive the cake that she sent him. No, was his reply. Now Sarah felt bad and wondered if the bakery ever tried to deliver the cake that she sent. On Sunday, she went back to that bakery and asked about the cake. The woman said she sent it just a few minutes after the order was placed. Now everyone was confused. She said she sent the cake to Yaakov but Yaakov didn't receive it. Sarah called her brother afterward and he said, “Oh, I know what happened. I have a neighbor who lives in the other apartment, his name is also Yaakov. The cake must have been sent to him instead.” Yaakov then asked his neighbor if he received a cake for Shabbat from the bakery downstairs on Friday afternoon. Yes, was the reply. The other Yaakov said he received a cake that was sent to him by his sister and when he got the cake he became very emotional. For two years, he had no connection with his sister due to a fight that they had and then, all of a sudden, she sent him a cake. He felt such a good feeling from that gesture and immediately called his sister and reconciled with her. Baruch Hashem, their relationship has been restored. This was an amazing display of siyata d'Shamaya helping Yaakov and his sister make shalom. The sister was willing to make peace, all she needed was a pleasant phone call from her brother expressing a little remorse. That cake got Yaakov to make that phone call. We don't need a cake to make a phone call and reconcile our differences with others. If we'll make the first move, even though we feel like we have been wronged, then we will be considered someone who is מעביר על מידותיו and that will bring about an outpouring of love from Hashem and, b'ezrat Hashem, will open up the way for a year of blessing.

King David Trusted in This

It says in the Tanna Diveh Eliyahu (3:7), " כל המודה ביסורין ושמח בהם נותנין לו חיים בעוה"ז ובעולם שאין לו סוף– whoever admits that his pain or suffering is coming from Hashem and he's happy, realizing Hashem is doing it for his own benefit, he'll be given life in this world and in the World that lasts forever." The Gemara teaches us, yisurin – affliction – is not only referring to great hardships. Even the smallest inconveniences are also considered yisurin. Nobody likes to be inconvenienced, but once it happens, the greatest thing we could do for ourselves is recognize that it came from Hashem and accept it with happiness. One of the inconveniences of life that people try to avoid as much as possible is having to wait for something, whether it is waiting on a long line, waiting in traffic, waiting for a turn to be called in an office or waiting for someone to return a phone call. Every minute of waiting is considered yisurin and brings kapara. It fact, the Chatam Sofer writes, even if a person is sitting in a rabbi's class and he does not understand what the rabbi is saying, either because of a language barrier or because it is just over his head, and so instead of being able to enjoy and benefit from the Torah that is being spoken, he keeps looking at the clock, hoping the speech is going to end, then when it looks like the rabbi is going to finish, he starts a whole new topic, that waiting also brings kapara. When a person has to wait a long time for something but he knows that at a certain point he'll get it, it's difficult, but the fact that he knows his waiting is going to end makes it much easier to deal with. When a person is waiting and doesn't know if the waiting will ever end, it makes that waiting much harder to go through. If someone is waiting, let's say, for their turn to be called or for the traffic to pass, it is an inconvenience but it is a relatively minor inconvenience. If someone is waiting to find a job or waiting to get married, or waiting to have children or waiting for a cure for a disease to come about, that type of waiting is much more difficult and the fact that the person doesn't know if his waiting will ever end makes it exponentially greater. If someone gets kapara for waiting for a class they don't understand to end, how much kapara are they getting by having to wait to get married or by having to wait to have a child. And if the Tanna Diveh Eliyahu said for accepting any yisurin as coming from Hashem and being happy with their accomplishment brings life in both worlds, imagine what is gained by a person who is experiencing these difficult types of waiting periods and accepting them from Hashem and still managing to be happy in those situations. The tests are great but the rewards are endless. We don't want to be tested, but once the test comes, it's an opportunity to earn unimaginable eternal rewards. We hope that all those waiting for a salvation will receive it very soon, but until the salvation comes, they can utilize their opportunity and go through it with emunah and soar to great spiritual heights.

Chazal have taught us that the Gates of Tears in Shamayim are never locked. Similarly, Rav Shmuel Horowitz writes in the name of sefarim kedoshim: שערי הודאה לא ננעלו – the Gates of Thanking Hashem are also never locked. The Bnei Yissachar writes that although there are negative angels trying to block our tefilot from being accepted, a prayer that is made with gratitude can never be locked. Furthermore, Chazal have taught us in so many ways that when a person shows gratitude to Hashem, it opens up the gates for much more blessing to come down. Sometimes, a person has a need that he is constantly begging Hashem for. And that need causes him to ignore the endless chasadim that Hashem is bestowing upon him. But then, lo alenu, a bigger problem arises. For example, a health concern, and all of a sudden the other need is not so important any more. At that time, the person yearns to just go back to the way things were, even if the other need would never be fulfilled. As long as everyone would be healthy, he would be so appreciative. That person will then pray day and night for something he had always taken for granted. And then, hopefully, b'ezrat Hashem he'll be answered and health will be restored to him or his loved one. Very often, when that happens, some time after that, the person quickly forgets that he promised to be so happy and appreciative if Hashem would just restore the health and he is then back to focusing on what he doesn't have, like before. If someone ever had gone through such a scenario, it is paramount that he never forget the feelings that he had during the time of sickness and live the rest of his life with complete appreciation and gratitude for the blessing of health that he and his family are enjoying. Our greats are able to appreciate what they have, while they have it. The same way they would have, had they lost it and got it back. One time, the son of Rav Zalman Breisel came to visit his father and asked him how things were. His father replied, “You're not going to believe what happened to me today. When I woke up this morning, I couldn't find my socks. I searched and searched, but they were gone. So I had to put on my shoes without socks. It was so uncomfortable, not to mention embarrassing for me. Before going to shul, I went to the mikveh, but when I came out, my clothes were gone. Apparently, someone else took them. Now I was stuck. At first, I just didn't have socks, but then I had absolutely nothing to wear, I couldn't even leave the mikveh.” The rabbi's son couldn't believe it. He asked his father what he did next. Rabbi Breisel then smiled and said, “Baruch Hashem, none of that really happened. I woke up this morning and had socks to put on. I went to the mikveh and found my clothing exactly where I left them. I got dressed, feeling like a king, and I went to shul. But you have no idea how much kavana I had when I said the beracha malbish arumim that morning. I thought to myself, that could have easily happened to me and, potentially, I could have been without clothing today. But Hashem, in His infinite mercy, gave me clothing and allowed me to wear them and go out and enjoy the day. There are people who really don't have clothing and don't have socks to wear. There are people who don't have clothing for their children. Baruch Hashem, I have clothing and clothing for my children too.” The rabbi taught his son a golden lesson that day. Using the power of imagination, we can fully appreciate how much blessing Hashem gives us. The Gates of Gratitude are always wide open. Hashem loves when we appreciate what we have. And if we honestly think about it, we have so much to appreciate.

This week's parasha begins with the words כי תצא למלחמה על אויבך – when you go out to war against your enemy. The greatest enemy and the biggest battle that we have to face in life is the constant war we have with the yetzer hara . The yetzer hara wants to destroy us spiritually and take away our peace of mind and ruin our lives. It is up to us to fight back. If we have conviction, we will win. The issues of life come whether we like it or not. If we listen to the yetzer hara and complain and go through them with a sour face, it doesn't help anyway and, in fact, it only makes things worse. If we overcome that inclination and, instead, go through the issues with emunah, besides for the eternal rewards we will receive, the zechut of emunah can also help get rid of the issues faster. Some people have trained themselves to the point where they are able to feel calm no matter what is happening around them, knowing they are always in Hashem's hands. A man related that shortly before Pesach, he found a blockage in his bathtub and rather than calling a professional plumber, which was too expensive for him, he called his friend who was a handyman who said he could fix it. The friend released the blockage and charged him 150 shekels. Afterward, this man realized his friend made a severe error, removing an entire pipe. Now water was flowing underneath their tiles. He called some plumbers who told him the job to fix that would be a minimum of 1200 shekels. He called his friend and told him of the damage, but the friend argued back and said he wasn't obligated to pay for it. When the man saw how he wasn't getting anywhere with his friend, he decided to let it go with the emunah that one does not lose by giving in and avoiding machloket . The water was leaking into his neighbor's apartment and he knew he couldn't delay any longer. He called a highly recommended plumber, a man who worked with his grandson. When they came, they estimated the job at 1200 shekels, but after they started they realized it was a much harder job, more like 3000 shekels. This man told himself, I am so privileged to learn in kollel. I know my money is especially safeguarded by Hashem. He didn't know how he would pay for the bill at the end of the day, but he knew Hashem was in control. Those two plumbers worked the entire day and fixed all the problems. At the end of the day, they told him they were so happy to help him, and they only wanted 400 shekels for the materials that they used. The man couldn't believe it! He thanked them and he thanked Hashem for safeguarding his money as always. His attitude throughout this ordeal was truly inspiring. Another man told that after they moved into a new apartment, he and his wife were anticipating being able to host guests there. They tried to get beds for their guest bedroom, but they weren't having success. It looked like they were going to have to buy them. Before they got the beds, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law asked if they could come stay with them for Shabbat because they had a great opportunity to rent out their apartment for the weekend. He said, “Yes, of course,” with confidence that Hashem would help him do the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim . It was already Thursday at that point. On Friday at 12:00pm, he was going to go ask his neighbor to borrow a couple of mattresses when he saw a beautiful high-riser with two mattresses sitting at the entrance of the building. He assumed it belonged to a certain neighbor who usually got a hold of second hand furniture. He called that neighbor to ask about it. The neighbor told him, “If you need these mattresses, must be Hashem sent them here for you. It's my pleasure to give them to you.” He was so appreciative. He had someone help him move the beds into his guest bedroom, just in time for his brother-in-law and sister-in-law when they arrived. A few weeks later, that neighbor who gave him the high-riser told the man that the man who had given it to him asked him how he was liking it. He told him that he gave the beds away to someone else in need. That man was so impressed with his generosity to give away a high riser that he needed himself, he told him, “Have no fear, I am ordering you two brand new beds and I am sending them to you.” People who live life with emunah, knowing Hashem is in charge watching everything they do, live a happier life. They go through all circumstances calmly, and even better, they earn infinite rewards for it as well.

One of the things we are supposed to be working on during these days of Elul is to ingrain in ourselves the simple emunah that Hashem created the world and is constantly controlling every aspect of it. Yes, we know this in our brains, but it has to be etched into the deep recesses of our hearts. It has to be so clear that no questions or events can ever cause us to doubt our emunah, even the slightest bit. Some people think they may have valid questions against the Torah and they rely on their faulty understanding to completely forsake it. If they would only investigate further they would find beyond the shadow of a doubt that our Torah is truth and there is nothing in this world other than Hashem. Rabbi Zamir Cohen said he received a phone call from a woman telling him that her husband is the main doctor in the town in which they live. Her parents kept Shabbat but her husband's parents came from Russia where they did not practice even one mitzvah. Although his great-grandparents were observant, the family had lost their religion because of the Communists to the point that his parents didn't even keep kosher. The woman became religious over the past months until she decided she wanted to kosher her kitchen. Her husband was vehemently opposed to the idea. After extensive conversations on the matter, her husband told her, for his entire life he delved into various areas of wisdom and he felt in his heart of hearts that he had proofs against the Torah, and therefore, did not want to have any part of it. He did tell his wife if she would find someone who could give him a satisfactory answer to his question, he would be willing to listen, and if he was satisfied with the answer, he would allow her to keep a kosher home. The woman called Rabbi Cohen and asked him if he would answer his husband's question. The Rabbi said, “With pleasure,” and he gave her his address to come with her husband. He then asked the woman to find out what the question was so he could properly prepare. When she asked her husband for the question, he said he didn't want to say it yet. He wanted the rabbi to answer on the spot. Rabbi Cohen was surprised because if someone really wanted the truth, he wouldn't be afraid to give away the question. Anyway, the rabbi told them they could come and, b'ezrat Hashem, Hashem would give him the correct answer. When they came, the man said to the rabbi, “Do you really believe the opening pasuk in the Torah that Hashem created the Heavens and the Earth?” “Of course,” the rabbi replied. The man said, “How could you believe that when science proved otherwise?” He then proceeded to quote proofs from different pieces of literature, including one that won the Nobel Prize. The rabbi asked him to please state in a couple of sentences exactly what he believes happened when the world began. The man said, “Sure. At first they believed that the world was always in existence, but then Professor George Gamow revealed eight years ago that the world came about from a bursting forth of energy which emanated from a very powerful source of light and it eventually formed the matter, which we call today the world.” Rabbi Cohen said to this man, “Have you heard of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who lived 2000 years ago who wrote the Zohar ?” The man said, “Yes.” The rabbi asked him, “If I will show you that what you just said is in the Zohar , would you believe in the Torah?” The man said, “It's impossible; this is a new discovery.” Rabbi Cohen then opened the Zohar and read the following: The Zohar asked what was the light on the First Day of Creation, being that the sun was not created until Day Four? And to that he answered: תא חזי כדבעי קב"ה למברי עלמין אפיק חד נהורא סתימא דמין ההוא נהורא נפקין ונהרין כל אינון נהורין דאתגליא תו אתפשט האי נהורא עליאה ועבד אומנא נהורא דלאן נהיר ועביד עלמא תתאה The Zohar is written in Aramaic and he translated it for that man in Hebrew and we'll translate it into English. Come and see, when Hashem wanted to create this world, he took a certain light that was closed and from that light He brought forth all other lights which became revealed. Then this light spread further and Hashem used it to create another light that was not bright and, from that, He created the Lower World. The doctor could not believe his eyes. He read it again and again until he told his wife, “You could keep a kosher kitchen. This is amazing.” We know we have the truth. Whatever science discovers is based on educated guesses anyway. We have the truth from the Source – HaKadosh Baruch Hu . The more we delve into our Torah, the more we see the truth of it and the more we see the truth of Hashem.

In this episode, I talk to Mrs, Gila Ross, educator, podcaster and world traveler. We talked about her experiences in Jewish communities all around the world l, the true meaning of Bitachon, and facing life's challenges. You can find Gila on the power Up podcast and her book is now available here: http://www.subscribepage.com/livingb. I can be reached at adeeperconversation120@gmail.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/yocheved-davidowitz/support

As we take steps to improve ourselves during this glorious month of Elul, we need to remind ourselves of the value of every single improvement we make, no matter how small it may seem. Whatever we do is very precious to Hashem and will come back to benefit us at some point in the future. A young rabbi told, his daughter was diagnosed in 2019 with a disease called SMA. It is a life-threatening disease and at that time there was no known cure. The doctor told the young rabbi that the FDA just approved a new medication called Zolgensma, but the cost of it was a staggering $2.2 million. Furthermore, it was only approved for children under the age of two and his daughter was just a month shy of her second birthday. They immediately went through their insurance to get the medication but it was denied. They hired a lawyer to fight the insurance company on their behalf, but they lost the case. With just a week before her second birthday, they were at a standstill. With the young rabbi's daughter's life on the line, he had to come up with a plan and fast. He asked the doctor if they could just pay for the medication out of pocket. The doctor said of course, but how would they get the money to do it? The rabbi told the doctor he had a very rich father…and then said his father is Hashem who could do anything. The next day, they launched a chesed campaign online. And amazingly, in just five days, they collected the full $2.2 million. Ashrechem Yisrael ! However, it was not going to be possible to actually get the money for at least another few days, but they didn't have that kind of time. When a certain wealthy man heard about the urgency of the situation, he offered to lay out the $2.2 million from his own pocket. They took the money and managed to get the medication and have it administered in the hospital on the same day, the last possible day, the day before his daughter's birthday. It was July 19, 2019. And baruch Hashem, today the girl is six years old and doing great. When they went to pay back that man who laid out the money, he refused to take it. He said it was his zechut to give it and he didn't want the money back. The rabbi was blown away at the generosity of this man. Then they had to inform the more than 20,000 donors on the chesed page that they did not need their money anymore, but most of the people said they still wanted to keep the donation anyway, and so the rabbi used the over $2 million he had and started a new chesed organization that is helping people today on a daily basis. Our people are amazing! Their desire to help others knows no bounds. When the young rabbi had a chance to reflect and contemplate all the events that had taken place, he came to a striking revelation. Eight years before this when he was not yet religious, he had a very big test on his level. His friends were going out to party on the night of Tisha B'Av and they were urging him to come along. Deep down, he knew how wrong that was and managed to fight the peer pressure and stay home instead. He said that night was the turning point in his life. From that, he got the strength to grow in religion until eventually he became a rabbi. That night of Tisha B'av when he had that test was July 19, the exact same date that he almost miraculously was able to get that medication and give it to his daughter and save her life. Everything we do for Hashem is precious to Him. He remembers everything and uses it to help us. Everyone has their own tests on their own level. The common denominator between everyone is, nothing is ever considered small by Hashem from what they do. The sacrifices we make to do His will will be used to help us both in this world and the Next.

Bitachon for the Right Things

There are various segulot found in Chazal , some which promise wealth, some marriage, some children. If a person follows exactly what he was told to do but does not see the outcome that he was told he would get, it could severely damage that person's emunah. The same applies when people go to rabbis for berachot and the rabbi tells them, If you do this, you will get married by this date, or you will have a child by this date. If it doesn't happen, the person's emunat chachamim gets damaged. The Gemara tells us that even a Tanna , Elisha ben Avuya went off the derech because his emunah in the Torah became shattered when what he saw didn't seem to match up with what it said. The Torah says for doing the mitzvah of kibud av v'em one of the rewards is long life and the same applies to the mitzvah of shiluach haken . Elisha once saw a boy who was told by his father to climb a tree and sent away the mother bird, and he fell and died. He did both mitzvot that promised long life and he died young. This caused Elisha to go off the path. The Gemara says, if he would have understood the pasuk properly, he would not have gone astray. The reward referred to in those mitzvot of long life is speaking about life in the Next World. The Rambam wrote in a letter to his son that if he ever comes across a pasuk or a Chazal that he doesn't understand, he should attribute the lack of understanding to his own shortcomings. He should leave the question on the side and, one day, he will get an answer. The Shulchan Aruch writes in siman 118 that washing netilat yadayim for bread with a lot of water is a segula which brings a person wealth. The Mishna Berura there writes, if somebody is careful to always wash with a lot of water but did not become wealthy as a result, it is because that person has other deeds which he did that are blocking the parnasa from coming. Washing with a lot of water does bring wealth, but that is assuming the person didn't do an averah that blocks the wealth. The Mizmor L'Asaf writes, the same applies the other way. If a person did an averah whose negative effect is to lose parnasa , if he has certain merits, they can prevent the parnasa from being lost for the time being. The Gemara says, someone who prays the Amida at sunrise will not get damaged that day. The Mishna Berura says something similar about a person who is סומך גאולה לתפילה . Rav Chaim Kanievsky, zatzal , said the same applies to those guarantees. They are assuming the person did not do an averah that would require him to get damaged. If somebody followed a segula of Chazal and did not get the reward he was looking for, it is not because the segula didn't work. Rather, it is because of other deeds that he did that he needs to make teshuva for first. And therefore, he should not lose faith in the promises of Chazal but improve his ways and continue doing the segulot . The Chatam Sofer in his Teshuvot in siman 158 writes, regarding the segula of being a sandak making a person wealthy, it is one hundred percent true. However, it is also possible that the person may have done sins which block that parnasa from coming. The same applies as well when a rabbi gives a beracha . The rabbi has power, but there could be other factors that are holding back the coming to fruition what the rabbi said. Every word in the Torah is emmet , every word of Chazal is emmet . We should never allow an experience to cause our emunah to waver even in the slightest bit. There is an answer to every question and if we don't know it yet, we should leave the question on the side and continue doing our avodah knowing that one day we will get the answer and the answer will be so clear to us that we won't even believe that we ever had the question in the first place.

Part of the glory of emunah is that a person is able to feel accomplished in every circumstance that he finds himself in. If the person does his best to perform in any given circumstance with the knowledge that Hashem put him there for a reason and he acts in the way that he thinks Hashem wants him to act, then he will be doing avodat Hashem in every circumstance in life. Even what appears to be the most mundane chores are in reality just more ways for us to serve Hashem, and if we view them like that we will always feel accomplished. The mefarshim tell us, when the Jewish people were working with back breaking labor in Mitzrayim , the angels in Shamayim were in agony that the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov had to suffer like that. However, after they left Mitzrayim with all the wealth of Egypt, the angels were in such joy. The Gemara says that the money that the Jewish people received was their payment for all the work that they did over the 210 years. Then Hashem commanded them to make a Mishkan in which His Presence would dwell. The cost of the materials necessary for Mishkan were astronomical, but the Jewish people were easily able to afford it because of the money they got in Mitzrayim . When it was finally complete, they saw the Aron and the Keruvim and all the other utensils and they marveled at their beauty saying, “It was worth the effort of every brick we had to produce in Mitzrayim to merit the construction of this Mishkan .” If Hashem would have told them in advance, before they went to Mitzrayim , that all the work they would do would enable them to be able to build a house for Him in which He would permanently dwell with them, it would have been a completely different experience. They would have felt that they were putting forth self-sacrifice in the service of Hashem every day and they would have done it with joy. Every brick that they had to lay would have been viewed upon as another tool in their service of Hashem and that would have given them so much chizuk . In reality, that is what was happening, but for reasons that only Hashem knows He did not inform them of that. Based on this, Rabbi Menashe Reizman gave a new explanation for the words in the Haggadah: עבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים ויוציאנו משם – we appeared to be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and Hashem took us out of that false premise, He revealed to the people that they were really working for Him all those years and He showed them all of the other tikkunim and accomplishments that they made by experiencing that bondage. This is the way it always is. Wherever we are, we are working for Hashem. He is our only boss. And in every situation we find ourselves in, there is an avodat Hashem to be done. Our job is to go through our experiences with emunah, recognizing that they were planned for us by Hashem and to always think, How would Hashem want me to act now? If we do this, we will always feel accomplished and we will earn unimaginable rewards for serving Hashem all day long, every single minute of our lives.

If someone gets treated by another individual in a negative way, naturally, he will feel ill will towards that person. Part of being an eved Hashem is going against our nature and doing what Hashem wants instead. Very often, when we dig a little deeper and find out new information, we're able to justify why the person acted the way that he did, and we no longer feel the same way that we felt before. The pasuk says in this week's parasha, Shoftim , ושפטו את העם משפט צדק . The midrash explains this pasuk as a calling for us to think of ways to judge people favorably, understanding that we do not know all the information. As we begin to prepare for the upcoming Yamim Nora'im , we are looking to get as many zechuyot as we can. The Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat that if we will go against our nature and think of excuses why someone acted the way he did, and thereby continue to love him despite what he did to us, then as a reward Hashem will judge us favorably as well. What wouldl a person not do to get a favorable judgment by Hashem for the entire year? The Gemara there tells a well-known story of a man who worked for a wealthy employer for three years. On Erev Yom Kippur he requested his wages so that he could return home to his family for the holiday. The employer said, “I'm sorry, I don't have any money.” The worker then asked to be paid with produce. The employer told him he didn't have that either. “Then give me land.” “I don't have.” “Give me cattle.” “I don't have.” “Give me linens.” “I don't have.” Although the worker saw with his own eyes produce, land, cattle and linens in his employer's possession, he did not question him. He turned around and went home with a heavy heart. After Sukkot, the employer arrived at the worker's house with his wages along with three donkeys laden with food, drink and other delicacies. After he paid the worker in full, the employer asked him, “When I told you I didn't have money, what were you thinking?” “I thought you had invested all of your cash in a business opportunity,” replied the worker. “And when I told you I didn't have cattle?” “I thought perhaps they were leased out to others.” “And when I told you I didn't have land?” “I thought perhaps you had a sharecropping arrangement with other people.” “And when I told you I didn't have produce?” “I thought perhaps you didn't tithe it yet and it was forbidden for consumption.” “And when I told you I had no linens?” “I thought you had consecrated all of your possessions to the Bet HaMikdash.” The employer then exclaimed, “That's exactly what happened! When I saw my son veering from the path of Torah, I threatened to donate all of my wealth to the Bet HaMikdash and cut him out of his inheritance. When you approached me, I had just done that. But afterward I performed hatarat nedarim and became absolved of my vow and got my wealth back.” The Sheiltot of Rav Achai Gaon tells us, the worker in this story was none other than Rabbi Akiva before he became a great sage and the employer was the Tanna Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkinus. The Imreh Yitzchak asked, how could it be that the great Rabbi Eliezer would send his worker away dejected like that on Erev Kippur and not tell him why he wasn't paying him? He at least should have given him confidence that he would get paid soon. The Imreh Yitzchak answered by asking a different question: Why did the Gemara tell us this story took place on Erev Yom Kippur? Perhaps the answer is, Rabbi Eliezer saw that Rabbi Akiva was a man with great character, but completely devoid of Torah. He also knew how much potential he had and feared his judgment on Yom Kippur. Knowing the awesome segula that if someone judges others favorably, Hashem will judge him favorably, he purposely did not tell Rabbi Akiva why he couldn't pay him. He knew he would judge him favorably and that would be a tremendous zechut for him. That's why he waited until after Sukkot to pay him, because the final seal of one's judgment is then. And Rabbi Eliezer wanted Rabbi Akiva to have that zechut all the way until then. We are not on the level to determine who will and who will not judge favorably and we don't put people in those predicaments, but if we are ever in a position that we can go out of our way and overlook something by judging others favorably, we will be gaining tremendous zechuyot and all of the benefits that come along with them Shabbat Shalom.

The Gemara tells us, if a person sees that hardships have been coming his way, he should view it as a calling to improve his ways. Sometimes a person knows exactly what he needs to improve in but other times it is very hard to determine. A person is encouraged to ask Hashem to help him make the changes that need to be made. Hashem loves to help us, especially with our spiritual needs, we just need to want it enough and sincerely ask Him for His help. A rabbi related, one morning on his way to the yeshiva in which he taught, he realized he was very late. He was hoping someone would offer him a ride and, sure enough, a nice driver who saw him looking did indeed offer him a ride. Before they got to the block of the yeshiva, the rabbi asked to be let out. As he hurried to the yeshiva, he realized he forgot the bag that he had with him in the car. That bag had his most prized possession, a very large notebook with all of his own personal chiddushei Torah that he had written over the course of thirty years. It was irreplaceable, a lifetime of work with no other copy of it. There was nothing in that bag that had any identification on it. In the days that followed, the rabbi did various segulot for finding lost objects. He also hung signs and invested a lot of effort in trying to identify the driver of that car. Because he had gotten out of the car near stores, he asked the store owners to check their security cameras, perhaps they could see the license plate of that car, but none of them had a clear enough view. He continued praying and hoping for a yeshua . Then he started to do some self-introspection, thinking, maybe Hashem wanted him to improve in something. All of his tefilot from then on were concentrated towards asking Hashem to show him what he needed to rectify. Then, suddenly, it hit him. He recalled that he used to always visit his parents once a week and recently he had completely stopped. Maybe that was the mitzvah he needed to fix. He started to think further, the pasuk says, one should honor one's parents so that it should be good for him. From the positive we can infer the negative, the lack of honor can cause something good to be lost, in this instance, his chiddushei Torah. That day, he went to visit his parents. They were so happy to see him and, when he left, he told himself, from then on, he would try to honor them and visit them at least as often as he used to. The very next day, his father called him, asking if he lost his notebook with his chiddushei Torah. “Yes!” the rabbi yelled with great jubilation. His father told him, the owner of the car where he left that notebook is accustomed to visiting his own father every day. When he gave him a ride that day, he was on his way to visit his father. When he discovered the bag left in his car, he tried to identify its owner, but there were no identification marks. He brought the notebook to his father and asked him for an idea how to reach the person who left it there. The father didn't have any ideas and so, in the meantime, the notebook remained there in his house. One day, someone came to his father for a bikur cholim visit. The father showed his friend the notebook and asked him if he could figure out how to identify the owner. The guest leafed through the notebook until he discovered on one of the pages, in small letters, a family name. Because he knew the rabbi's father, he brought it to his house. That is when his father called him to tell him the good news. How amazing it was! The notebook was retrieved by the rabbi in the very place he chose to improve upon, his parents' home. Hashem enlightened him because he asked for help. Hashem is always available to help everybody, especially when it comes to our spiritual needs

Prayer and Simplicity

Why Asa reaching out to Ben Hadad was a lack of bitacon on his part

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2417 The Gemara in Berachot says the reason the earlier generations merited to have miracles performed for them is because they showed great self-sacrifice to honor the Name of Hashem. Rashi writes there they were willing to even degrade their own honor in order that Hashem's Name should be honored. This means, when a person is ready to do the will of Hashem, which is how we honor Him, no matter what it entails, even if it will make him feel very uncomfortable, he merits miracles. I read a story about a girl who was a student in one of the top high schools in her community. She had been accepted there by the skin of her teeth. She was very refined and bright, but her spiritual level was not up to par with the rest of the students there. The school accepted her with the hope that she would grow over time, however, that hope was not being realized. When it came to tzniut – modesty – she pushed the boundaries. Teachers warned her, her parents warned her, but nothing was changing. There was one teacher there who always defended this girl. She told everyone how this girl had so much potential and they had just not been able to bring it out yet. Towards the second half of the year in 11 th grade, the board was thinking of sending this girl out of the school. One day, a rebbetzin was invited to speak there on the topic of tzniut . One of the things she said was, “Whoever takes it upon herself to give up something that is very precious to her for the sake of Hashem, then Hashem will fulfill what she wants in life.” After that speech, the girl who was having a hard time dressing properly went over to the teacher who always stood up for her and asked her if she started dressing with tzniut , would she get what she wanted? The teacher asked the girl what she wanted. The girl said, “I want to marry a ben Torah , but I am afraid that because of my reputation and family background, it won't happen.” The teacher told her, “If you start dressing with tzniut , you will marry a ben Torah .” After that, the girl made a dramatic transformation and completely complied with all the halachot of tzniut . She then made huge strides in her spiritual level in 12 th grade. When she finally started dating, the biggest obstacle was that her family had no money. She was not getting too many offers. And then, when a truly special shidduch fell through because her parents didn't have money, it completely broke her. She called that teacher to ask her what happened to her guarantee that she would marry a ben Torah ? The teacher asked her, “How much more money does your side need to contribute besides what you already have to offer to make this shidduch work?” “Fifty thousand dollars,” was the girl's reply. The teacher told her, “Don't worry, I'll take care of it. Tell them you have it.” The shidduch concluded successfully and the couple became engaged. Several weeks passed and the teacher only managed to get together a few thousand dollars. She was under a lot of stress, not knowing how she would get the rest. A week before the wedding, a certain respected man in the community called that teacher to ask her about a girl in her class for a shidduch . At the end of the conversation, the teacher told him about the money she needed to collect and asked him if he would contribute. He told her, just a half hour before he called her, someone brought him the will of a widow from the community who left a generous sum to benefit a poor bride. There were two conditions for the bride. Number one, she had to be very careful with the mitzvah of tzniut , and number two she had to agree to pray under the chuppah to elevate her neshama . He wasn't sure of the amount and so he went to check it more carefully. He then exclaimed, “I don't believe it! It's $40,000. You can stop collecting, you'll have the money in time for the wedding.” In this story, both the girl and the teacher portrayed great self-sacrifice to do the will of Hashem and He helped them in the most amazing way.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2416 Chazal tell us that every person is obligated to say בשבילי נברא העולם – that the world was created for him. One explanation is that it was worth it for Hashem to create the entire world for each Jew to do his own personal avodat Hashem. Hashem values the service of each person so much. There is no one else in the world that can replace what Hashem wants from each and every Jew. When someone goes to shul to pray or to learn Torah or to do any other mitzvah, he should understand how vital his avodat Hashem really is. Another explanation of בשבילי נברא העולם is that every person should feel that everything in the world that Hashem created and constantly does is all just to benefit him. And that is supposed to invoke such a deep feeling of hakarat hatov towards Hashem. Hashem does everything for us down to the smallest details and when we see it clearly, it gives us so much chizuk. A woman said, after doing renovations there were a variety of construction related items in front of their home waiting for the bulk pick up. One of them was a partially used can of white paint. One day, her energetic young son discovered the paint and had a very good time with it. The worst part of the damage was that he spilled half the can over a large area in the street. The stark contrast of white paint haphazardly spilled over black asphalt was definitely an eye sore. She knew there was no feasible way to get rid of that paint and felt bad that all their neighbors would have this unpleasant sight on the street that they shared. They realized this was from the smaller problems in life but, nonetheless, it bothered them because they were the cause of something negative to their neighbors. Hashem, in His infinite kindness, helped them even with this relatively minor issue. A few days later, they received a notice from the municipality that they were going to pave their street. This was the first time their street got paved in forty years. When the designated day arrived, they were so delighted to see a newly paved street that was fresh, clean, and completely black. Yes, Hashem helps us even with the most minute details of life. We know He is with us at every moment. But when we see it so clearly, it is very heartwarming. Another woman said she has a child with special needs. She has many challenges with this child as he requires constant, round-the-clock care. One day, she was literally at the end of her rope when she reached out for support. She spoke to a woman and shared with this woman her dream that one day her five-year-old son would stand at his bar mitzvah and deliver a speech that everyone in the crowd would be impressed with. While this dream brought a smile to her face and light to her eyes, she expressed concern whether she was being realistic or not. The woman who she was speaking to told her, it was a very important dream, and she should hold onto that vision and keep it alive. Later that same day, a friend of hers called her. They don't see each other that frequently but she mentioned she was passing by the area and wanted to come by and say hello. This particular friend has a degree in Special Ed. And so, she shared with her some of the challenges she was going through with her son. She also mentioned that her son just began attending a new school. After hearing that, her friend shared something with her that blew her mind. She said she had a student several years ago with a very similar profile to her son. He attended this very same school and made tremendous progress. Years later, her friend attended this student's bar mitzvah in which he stood up and delivered a speech that impressed everyone in the crowd. The woman couldn't believe this incredible hashgacha . The very same day she expressed her dream, Hashem came and whispered to her that this dream could indeed be a reality and that gave her so much chizuk . Hashem does everything for us down to the smallest details. It is incumbent on us to feel this way and express our hakarat hatov all the time.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2415 The pasuk says the reason that Hashem gave the Jewish People mann in the desert was למען הודיעך כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם כי על כל מוצא פי ה' יחיה האדם . Meaning, to teach us that man does not live on bread alone, but rather on everything that comes from the mouth of Hashem does man live. It seems to us that the body is able to function when a person eats bread because bread is a source of dietary fiber which helps keep the digestive system healthy and helps control blood sugar and cholesterol levels. However, Ibn Ezra explains, the pasuk is telling us man lives only because Hashem says he should have life. It is not the nutrients of the bread that give a person life, it is the word of Hashem. The mann did not have nutrients, it was more of a spiritual type of food that did not even get excreted. With the mann , Hashem showed us that He, not food, is the One who gives us life. The same applies when a person takes medication. We are required to do the normal hishtadlut of using the means that Hashem provided to heal ourselves with. But we are to believe with every fiber of our being that Hashem and only Hashem decides if and when a person becomes healed. When we are able to make a hishtadlut , we have to. But if we are not able to, then we are exempt and we can totally rely on Hashem. Sometimes a person does not even know that he needs to make a hishtadlut. It is in those instances that we clearly see that Hashem runs the world. A man told me, a month ago his nephew went with his family on a trip to Israel to celebrate his bar mitzvah. There were a total of 53 people on that trip who traveled daily on a large coach bus. One day, they were in the middle of a long journey when one of the people needed to get off the bus for a few minutes. They found a rest stop and they saw a nice kosher restaurant there and they all decided to get off the bus and take a break. The bus pulled into the big parking lot and all 53 people got off. About 10 minutes later, the bus exploded. Baruch Hashem, no one was on it, not even the driver, and no one was near it. The bus was completely destroyed and nobody knows the cause of the explosion. They were all so thankful that they were not on the bus at that time. They all saw clearly how Hashem made that person need to get off the bus specifically at that time and thereby change their plans so that no one would be on it when the explosion took place. It is true, Hashem could have also just prevented the explosion from happening in the first place, but then we would not get to see His loving hand involved in our lives. We are fortunate enough for Hashem to give us reminders that He is in full control of everything that is happening at every second of the day. Nature is just a camouflage for Hashem. It is not bread that gives people life, it is only Hashem.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2203 The pasuk says in this week's parasha Re'eh, עשר תעשר, which the Gemara explains to mean, give ten percent of your earnings to charity and you will become wealthy. Although the pasuk is speaking to a landowner giving ten percent of his crops to charity, Tosafot bring from the Sifreh that the same applies to a businessman giving ten percent of his earnings. The Tur writes in Yoreh De'ah, siman 247, it has been tried and tested, when a person gives tzedaka, he does not lose, rather the opposite happens, he gains wealth and honor from it. Furthermore, it nullifies harsh decrees and saves the person from death. The Rama is posek that giving tzedaka brings a person wealth and this is the only area in which a person is allowed to tell Hashem he is waiting to see the fruits of his labor. The Chafetz Chaim in his sefer Ahavat Chesed writes the halacha is like this Rama. As with all mitzvot, there are exact details on how to perform them and in order to reap their full rewards, they must be done correctly, and therefore, a person must learn all of the halachot of giving maaser to ensure that he is doing it correctly to reap its benefits A woman once sent a question to the Imreh Emet regarding maaser. She wrote, my husband makes a minimal parnasa and he is still careful to separate maaser. That maaser, however, comes at the expense of us being able to buy shoes and clothing for our children. Is my husband still obligated to give maaser under those circumstances? The Rebbe replied, when one gives maaser, he must give it with an open heart and when he knows that the money going to tzedaka is not really his, it's much easier to give it with joy. Strictly speaking, you are not obligated to give but there is a segula if you give with an open and happy heart, with a true desire to give, then you fulfill what it says in the pasuk ‘let your heart not feel bad when you give' and that pasuk continues and says, because of that type of giving, Hashem will bless you in all of your deeds and in every undertaking. We see from here, one of the requirements to merit the blessing is to give with a happy heart. Moreover, if we do find somebody giving maaser and not becoming wealthy, there is for sure a great reason that we are not capable of understanding at this point. But we must trust that Hashem is doing it for the absolute best of the person giving. A wealthy man who started becoming careful in giving maaser began losing his wealth at the same time. He went to Rav Eliashiv, z”l, asking how such a thing could happen. The Rabbi replied, it seems that some of your money was earned in a non-kosher way. So long as you were not giving maaser, you did not have the zechut to become cleansed from that severe sin. But now that you began giving, you have become worthy. Hashem is now giving you kapara for all the dishonesty you had in business and that is the greatest chesed He could possibly do for you. Giving tzedaka is wondrous. It benefits us in both worlds. Let us not only give, but give with a happy heart. Shabbat Shalom.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2414 Doing chesed provides great merits. The harder the chesed is to do, the greater the merit becomes. When someone helps someone else with something that he wants for himself, the merits for that are endless. In the beginning of the summer of 2018, two boys Moshe and Pinchas from the same yeshiva both got engaged. A couple of weeks into their wedding preparations, they realized they had a big problem. Both chose the same date for the wedding, Tuesday night the 13 th of Av. It was already during a time when most people went away with their families and wouldn't be able to attend. And now, even those who would be able to attend would have to choose between the two weddings. Moshe had booked first and the hall was offering a great price for that date. When he told his father about it, his father replied, “Listen Moshe, we are going to have a hard time paying for the basic wedding expenses anyway. Paying a little more to change the date is not going to make such a difference. At the same time, we have an opportunity to give up the date for your friend.” Moshe didn't feel that they should give up what was rightfully theirs. His father persisted, “A person doesn't always get these kinds of opportunities. We have a chance to give up something for the sake of another and prevent a very sticky situation.” Moshe was convinced and they changed their wedding date to the 15 th of Av instead. When Moshe told Pinchas, he was thrilled. A few weeks later, Moshe gave a sheva berachot speech for one of his friends and a well-known community leader was in the crowd. He was extremely impressed. He asked about Moshe for a shidduch for someone he knew but was told Moshe was already getting married on Tu B'Av. A week later, that community leader called Moshe's father to tell him the most amazing news. That morning, a wealthy Jew told him he is marrying off a child on Tu B'Av and asked him to find a chatan who was a talmid chacham who was getting married on the same night. There is a well-known segula to provide the means for a talmid chacham to get married on the same night as the wedding of one's child. The man said, “I immediately thought of Moshe,” and was happy to tell the father that the wealthy man would be paying for the entire wedding. When Moshe's father heard this, he began crying. He told Moshe, “You see, this only happened because we changed our date to Tu B'Av.” Giving up something that a person wants for himself is a wondrous avodah. A man said, while doing some renovations on his home, he and his wife decided to change the master bedroom furniture. Being that they were on a tight budget, they advertised to sell their current furniture. They were in a rush to sell, but several days passed without them getting even one phone call. The man's wife told him about a widow who works with her who said the beds in her home were shaky and broken. Her husband said to her, “Let's give her our beds.” His wife replied, “That's very noble but we need every last shekel now.” Her husband said, “It didn't appear that anyone was going to call for our furniture anyway. We have a great opportunity to gladden the spirits of a widow.” The next day, his wife convinced the widow that she would be doing them a favor by taking the beds. The widow told the man's wife, “Since my husband passed away, nothing has made me so happy as getting this new furniture.” They were thrilled with the mitzvah that they just did. On that very same day that they gave away the beds, someone called to buy their closet. Then another person called to buy their dresser, and so on. All their items were sold on that very same day and the money they made was exactly what they were hoping to get for selling all their furniture. They didn't even lose one shekel by giving away their beds. The ad they had placed which people seemed to have overlooked suddenly came to life the moment they gave something that they wanted away to someone else who needed it.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2413 The pasuk says, טרם יקראו ואני אענה – before we even call out to Hashem, He answers us. But we also know, Hashem loves to hear our tefilot and one of the reasons that Hashem gives us our needs through tefila is just so that we pray. The Arvei Nachal writes, in parashat Toldot derush 3, that Hashem desires to give us everything we want, even before we call out to Him. He just waits to give it to us until we pray because He also desires to hear us as well. The answers to our prayers are already waiting in Shamayim to be given to us. We just need to pray to access them. A person should utilize the gift of tefila as much as possible. We should teach children from a young age to get into the habit of praying during the course of their regular day. A fifth grade rebbe said he begins his class every morning with a story about emunah and the power of tefila . During the last week of school this year, there was an event with raffles for the entire school. Before the drawing for the huge lego set, the rebbe noticed his entire class jump up from their seats. He asked them what happened. They said there was one boy in the class who loved legos so much, they all decided to pray that he would win. A few moments later, the ticket was drawn and, amazingly, out of the entire school, the boy that they prayed for was chosen. They all got tremendous chizuk seeing the power of their prayers. A rabbi I know said he tries to make sure never to miss minyan, even when he travels. Recently, this rabbi was in a different country for a few days and the people who booked his flights made the return on a Thursday afternoon at 1:00pm. The place the Rabbi was staying had just one minyan for Shacharit at 8:00. It seemed like that would easily give him enough time to pray and make the flight, so he agreed to the schedule. Tuesday night, someone called him and said a driver would be picking him up Thursday morning at 8:00 to go to the airport. The Rabbi asked why the driver would need to come so early. That man told the Rabbi, he was leaving from a different airport than he arrived in. That airport was a three hour drive and he needed to be there two hours before the flight. The Rabbi felt very bad. What would he do about minyan ? The next morning, he asked the gabai at the minyan to make a request for the people to pray at 7:00 on Thursday instead of 8:00. There were only 12 people there and none of them wanted to wake up an hour earlier. The rabbi was stuck. He checked and saw that there were no other minyanim in any cities nearby. That entire day, he repeatedly asked Hashem to help him find a minyan . That night at Mincha , seven new people walked in saying their Grand Rebbe had just landed and needed a minyan for Mincha and Arbit and since this was the only place, they came here. The rabbi asked them what they were doing for Shacharit the next morning. They said by then they would have their own minyan. They were staying just one mile from where this rabbi was. The rabbi asked if they happened to be praying at 7:00. The person said, specifically tomorrow the Rebbe needs to pray early at 7:00 as he had somewhere to attend afterward. They offered to pick up the rabbi at 6:30 the next morning and, baruch Hashem, in the middle of nowhere, this rabbi was able to get a minyan that Hashem perfectly orchestrated just for him. A man told me last week, he and his son landed in Newark Airport at 10:00 pm after two flights with a very long stopover coming from Israel. They were exhausted and looking forward to getting home. To their dismay, they were faced with a two hour line for customs. There were nine zigzag lines moving extremely slow with each direction taking 10-15 minutes. Halfway through the line they couldn't take it anymore. The man turned to Hashem and said, “In this week's parashah V'etchanan we read how You always answer us when we call out to You. Please, Hashem, help me get out of here speedily. Within two minutes of that tefila , two new airport security personnel showed up and began directing traffic and pushing the line through. Ten minutes later, they were on the curb with their suitcases, waiting for their ride home. Tefila is wondrous. We should accustom ourselves to using it all the time.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2412 A man told me he recently took a trip with his oldest son to Israel. This man helps the organization Lev L'Achim and so, while he was there, he asked the rabbi who heads the organization to help him get in to get berachot for his son from Gedolim . The rabbi happily assisted him and he mentioned, one of the Gedolim lives right near his office. He said, “If you have some extra time, please come and see me.” That day, when this man left the Gedol's house with his son, he went to visit the rabbi. The rabbi was so happy he came. The man sat down with his son in the rabbi's office. They were only planning to be there for a short time. A few minutes later, the rabbi got a phone call and saw it was from a large donor of his. The donor was making an urgent request from the rabbi, and whoever else he could get, to say Tehillim for his daughter who was in critical condition. The man explained, his daughter was visiting New York and, while there, her head began hurting a lot. She went to a local hospital and they found bleeding in her brain. The situation was dire and they needed a lot of Heavenly help. The donor then added, he found out Mount Sinai Hospital has the perfect team to give his daughter the treatment she needs. He was trying to transfer her there from the hospital she was in, but was not having any success in getting it done. He asked the rabbi if he happened to know anybody connected to Mount Sinai who could help him. The rabbi did not know anyone himself. He turned to the man sitting in front of him and asked him if he would happen to know anyone connected to Mount Sinai. The man couldn't believe the question being asked to him. Over the past few years, this man has been involved with Mount Sinai Hospital on a daily basis. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the hospital and has the greatest connections possible. He quickly sprang into action and the transfer was approved. The other man's daughter was rushed over to that team in Mount Sinai and, baruch Hashem, they were able to save her life. Her father called the man on the Board of Directors to thank him from the bottom of his heart. He couldn't believe the royal treatment they were given there and he is forever grateful. The man told him, “Did you ever think your donation to Lev L'Achim was going to save your daughter's life?” He explained to him, “You only called Lev L'Achim for the Tehillim because you were connected to them through your donation.” And he said he himself was only in that office for a few minutes. And Hashem arranged it so that it was exactly during the time that he called. The rabbi from the organization only asked him about Mount Sinai because he happened to be in front of him at that moment. The pasuk says, וצדקה תציל ממות . Besides for the great mitzvah that giving tzedaka earns a person, it has a side benefit that if, chas v'shalom , the person is in danger, the zechut of tzedaka will save his life. The Sefer Chassidim writes, the pasuk וצדקה תציל ממות is written twice in Mishle. The first time speaks about the one who gives tzedaka , and the second one speaks of a person who is not able to give, but he gets others to give. That also gives him the side benefit of being saved from danger. All of our mitzvot are wondrous. The efforts that we invest in performing them will always come back to help us.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2411 Rabbi Menachem Reizman quoted Rashi at the end of parashat Bereshit who explained the word nechama , which we normally translate to mean consolation, as מחשבה אחרת – to think a different way. The Maharal, in his Chiddusheh Aggadot in Sanhedrin explains, the essence of being consoled is when a person looks at the very same situation that brought him pain and agony with a new understanding. And because of that understanding, he is able to feel better about what happened. When Yosef HaTzaddik was trying to console his brothers for the guilt they felt for selling him, the pasuk describes it with the words וינחם אותן . Yosef gave them a completely different understanding of what had taken place. He told them it was all the doing of Hashem for the benefit of Klal Yisrael. He needed to go through the tests in Mitzrayim and pass them so that the people would have the strength to withstand the tests they would be given in Mitzrayim during their long exile in Egypt. And indeed, Hashem testified that the Jews remained pure that entire time. Yosef did not tell them something different happened, rather he made them see what happened already in a new light. This is the idea of nichum avelim . A mourner is in great pain over losing his loved one. There is a mitzvah on his friends and family not to divert the mourner's attention from what happened, but rather to give him a new understanding of what took place. It appears that the mourner's loved one is gone forever, buried under the ground. The people are supposed to give the mourner chizuk by telling him about the great life that the departed is currently living - everything he did in this world was just the prelude for the real life that is just beginning for him. The Midrash says on the words וירא אלוקים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד – Hashem saw everything He created and behold, it was very good. “ טוב מאד ” זה מיתה - – What was “very good”? The day of death. Life is not called very good, but death is. The Sefer HaYashar writes, this world is filled with trials and tribulations. There is nobody that has complete tranquility. Even the wealthiest individuals with everything they could ever possibly want do not have tranquility in this world. There is so much worry and anguish. There are so many things that people are filled with anger over all the time. When does it become very good? When the person goes on to the Next World. There, they have complete tranquility and bliss. If someone in mourning was made to understand that their loved one was enjoying immensely, that would ease their pain somewhat. This is the idea of nechama. To look at the very same circumstance that seems to be a tragedy and see it from a new perspective. The Gemara says, in the future we will only say the beracha of hatov v'hameitiv and not Dayan HaEmet . The Tzlach explains, this does not only mean that everything in the future will be revealed good. Rather, we are also going to look then on all of the occasions that we ever said Dayan HaEmet on in this world and we are going to say on that exact same situation hatov v'hameitiv . We will then see the inherent goodness in every tragedy that ever took place. Hashem is called the Baal HaNechamot. He is the only One who can give us real nechama , because He will show us the real reasons why things were good, even the unthinkable like the Holocaust and persecution of the Jewish People throughout the generation. Even those tragedies Hashem will show us the inherent good in and we will truly be comforted. The great avodah we currently have the opportunity to perform is to use our emunah and feel nechama in every situation that life presents us with as a challenge. Nachum Ish Gamzu, the Rabbi of Rabbi Akiva was a master at this. His name is Nachum, the same lashon as מתנחם , to be comforted. He was always able to see every situation from a different vantage point and see the goodness of Hashem in it. Rabbi Akiva learned that lesson and taught his colleagues how to feel comforted even as a fox walked through the ruins of the Bet HaMikdash. We say in the Kaddish, Hashem's Name should be exalted לעילא מן כל ברכתא שירתא… ונחמתא – more than any blessing or praise or nechama that we could possibly utter in this world. What does it mean that Hashem should be praised more than any nechama ? What does nechama have to do with praising Hashem? The answer is, when Hashem shows us the good in everything that ever happened, His honor is going to be raised so high because of the praises that everyone is going to give Him then. When we get the ultimate consolation, we will have the ultimate praises. We are asking that Hashem's Name now be more exalted even then that. We can console ourselves and praise Hashem now for everything that happens before He reveals the goodness, and those would be the most valuable praises possible.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 1516 The Gemara says in Masechet Shabbat that when a person takes large strides during the week, it takes away 1/500 of his eyesight, and when he makes Kiddush on Lel Shabbat-Friday night- over a cup of wine, he gets that lost eyesight back. The Sherit Yisrael gave a homiletical explanation of that Gemara. He explained large strides to mean that the person was entrenched in his work and under the impression that he was the one who made things happen and that caused him to lose some of his vision – his vision of emunah that Hashem is in control. But on Lel Shabbat, when he stops all of his work and considers it done, and he testifies over a cup of wine that Hashem created everything, and that He is the real boss, that is teshuva and that restores his eyesight of emunah. For a person to think “כוחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה – that it is his strength and might that make him his wealth is very damaging. What's so bad about it? It says in this week's parasha, Ekev, Someone who has a lot of blessing and becomes haughty over that wealth, thinking that it was he who made it, will come to forget Hashem and stop following the Torah and mitzvot. The nature of a person is to listen to his boss because he feels that he needs him, but once he thinks that he's okay on his own, he stops listening. A man who made a lot of money on a side investment was asked what he plans to do next. He replied, “The first thing that I'm going to do is tell my boss at my regular job that I don't need him anymore and if he's not happy with the work that I do, then I'm leaving. We have to know, we need Hashem for everything and the pasuk reminds us, we have absolutely no control on whether or not we we make money, “כי הוא הנותן לך כוח לעשות חיל – it's Hashem who gives us the strength and advice to make any money we have.” We are totally helpless without Hashem, no matter what we have in the bank. A man told me his friend was telling him about a business deal he made which brought him a very large amount of money. In response, the man said, “Wow, that's great. I'm so happy for you. Baruch Hashem.” When his friend heard that, he said, “Leave Hashem out of it, I was the one who made the deal.” The man was in shock that a person could be so adamant that it's him and not Hashem. It's true that it's natural to feel, deep down, that we are the ones who accomplish but it is for that reason that the Torah goes out of its way to teach us otherwise. And when we fully understand what's really going on, it's actually absurd to think we did anything. Imagine a wealthy man goes over to his favorite nephew and tells him, “I want to give you a present. I have a $60 million building that I'm writing over to you right now. I also found you a buyer for the building so you could sell it and take the money. All you have to do is go to that person's office and have him sign the contract.” If someone would tell this person afterward, “Wow, you have the nicest uncle, look what he did for you,” and he would reply, “Leave my uncle out of this. What does he have to do with it? I was the one who went to the man's office. I got him to sign the contract. And that's why I have $60 million.” How ridiculous would he sound? He did nothing. Everything was set up beforehand. All he did was go through the motions. If we are fortunate enough to make a lucrative business deal, it's only because beforehand Hashem gave us the merchandise to sell, he gave us the idea of who to sell that merchandise to and he put it in the buyer's mind to say yes when we asked. We can't even move our fingers to make a phone call without Hashem, how could we think that we do anything? Every time we do attribute our success to Hashem, we are fulfilling the pasuk, “וזכרת את ה' אלוקיך כי הוא הנותן לך כוח לעשות חיל.” May we always think correctly and use any success we have as a vehicle to get even closer to Hashem, to feel so appreciative of His chesed and become humbled from it. Then, we will have more excitement to follow Torah and mitzvot and do the ratzon Hashem all the time. Shabbat Shalom.

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