Only what you have acquired spiritually is truly yours. Therefore your main focus in life should be on acquiring positive inner traits.
A person who seeks only to increase is external possessions is lacking internal possessions, which are what really count.
Life is full of learning lessons, including the twelve commandments below. I send these lessons out to share, but of course I am always learning myself.
I am learning how to deal with people constantly. One of my biggest successes in almost 40 years of working is that if you build on a friendship, you should be able to withdraw from that friendship when the time comes. I recently found however, that some human beings are in such fear, that they would go to a stranger rather than a friend because if the friend truly loves you, he will tell you the truth, not what you want to hear, and of course the truth is harder to hear.
We learn this lesson from the bible section this week that was read on Sabbath. It is one of the most difficult sections of the bible, because it goes into the curses that the Jewish people will endure in this physical life if they don't walk in G-d's ways. It starts however, with their blessings and there are only 11 blessings versus the 33 curses. The sages want to know, how could G-d who loves his children give more curses than blessings. The answer is that a parent who loves you gives you correction. Someone who doesn't care for you can be sweet, but your parent's job who loves you is to give you correction.
My friend who I love, I tell the truth to and sometimes it hurts. Someone who doesn't love you can tell you what you want to hear and try to just make you feel better. Better stick with someone who loves you, because they will be with you in the hard times, not just the good ones.
Love Yehuda
