Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor | | | Trust Can Lower Your Anxiety "Bitochon" is the awareness that the Creator is running the world and all that happens is for your ultimate benefit. The more bitochon you have, the less anxiety you will experience. When you have an internalized awareness that all that He does is for your good, you will find yourself experiencing greater degrees of inner peace and serenity. Love Yehuda Lave I returned August 15 to Jerusalem after a 16 day absence from Israel. I visited over 100 synagogues, graves and holy spots throughout Czech and Vienna, along with castles and tourist spots. My friend the Cabalist, says like the Bal Shem Tov, I was gathering up the holy sparks of Jewishness that has been trapped there and bringing the spiritual energy back to Jerusalem. I hope I have accomplished that goal, but I know for sure that I brought back lots of pictures. There are too many to share at one time so I am trying something new and sharing them day by day as experienced with a 16 day delay. I will repeat this introduction each day. I have been studying Jewish history and Israel in my time in Jerusalem, but the history of the Jewish people in modern times from 1492 to 1945 was in central Europe where the majority of the Jewish people lived. It is worth studying and knowing about and by sharing it with you my friends, I hope I am expanding your knowledge as well. | | Crafty Person
I met a magical fairy yesterday who said she would grant me one wish. "I wish to live forever," I said. "Sorry," said the fairy, "I'm not allowed to grant that particular wish." "Fine," I said, "then I want to die the day after Congress is filled with honest, hard-working, bipartisan men and women who act only in the people's best interests!" "You crafty bastard," replied the fairy. | | Vienna Jewish sites and Evening Walk | | You open Your hand and satisfy all living things with will (Psalms 145:16). This verse is usually understood to mean that God provides for all living things, satisfying their wills and desires. Another interpretation is that God provides all living things with will; i.e. with desire, so that all living things should have desire. When we say the Grace After Meals, we thank God for the food He provides for us; we do not give thanks for being hungry. However, if we talk with people who suffer with any of the diseases which cause loss of appetite, we will discover that we must be grateful for the sensation of hunger as well as for the means provided for us to satisfy that hunger. This concept applies to wants of all sorts. An ancient Chinese curse goes, "May all of your wishes come true." Why is this a curse? Pause a moment and reflect. What would we do if all of our desires were fulfilled? Since sensation of needs cause actions, without any sensation we would have no motivation to act. Satisfaction of all our needs would essentially mean an end to life itself. Many people are very depressed and have no appetite at all. Other patients have diseases that affect their digestive systems, so that they cannot even tolerate the sight of food (let alone crave it). We must remember, then, that when we feel the pangs of hunger and thirst, we should appreciate them.
Today I shall ...
... try to be aware that feeling hunger or having other needs is a Divine blessing for which I should be grateful.
| | John McCain Announces His Conversion to Judaism 11/29/12 From Senator Joe Lieberman's retirement party, 11/29/12. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikipedia.
Full story here: https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/2694... | | McCain's last wishes revealed in farewell letter released Monday Sen. John McCain's farewell letter was read by his former campaign manger, Rick Davis, on Monday, just two days after his death at age 81. Nancy Cordes, CBS News chief Congressional correspondent, joins CBSN to discuss the Arizona senator's last wishes. | | RABBI SACKS CALLS CORBYN 'ANTISEMITE' FOLLOWING 'ZIONIST' COMMENTS Sacks said Corbyn's speech had been divisive and hateful, and undermined the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.BY JEREMY SHARON AUGUST 28, 2018 Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has labeled UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite who has backed "racists, terrorists and dealers of hate," in a fierce condemnation of the embattled politician.
Sacks, a former chief rabbi of the UK and a highly prominent Jewish leader, made his uncharacteristically strident comments to the New Statesman in reference to a speech Corbyn gave in 2013, when he said that "Zionists" in Britain did not understand English irony.
Referencing a speech given by the Palestinian Authority's diplomatic representative in the UK, Manuel Hassassian, Corbyn said it had been "dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion, who then came up and berated him afterwards for what he said."
"There are two problems," Corbyn continued. "One is they don't want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don't understand English irony either… So they need two lessons which we can perhaps help them with."
In an interview published on Tuesday, Sacks said Corbyn's speech had been divisive and hateful, and undermined the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.
"We can only judge Jeremy Corbyn by his words and his actions," Sacks told the New Statement. "He has given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove from Israel from the map."
"When he implies that, however long they have lived here, Jews are not fully British, he is using the language of classic pre-war European antisemitism," Sacks continued. "He has legitimized the public expression of hate, and where he leads, others will follow. Now, within living memory of the Holocaust, and while Jews are being murdered elsewhere in Europe for being Jews, we have an antisemite as the leader of the Labour Party and her majesty's opposition. That is why Jews feel so threatened by Mr. Corbyn and those who support him."
Sacks said that Jews had contributed to British national life for three and a half centuries, and that "Mr. Corbyn's embrace of hate defiles our politics and demeans the country we love."
Following the revelation of Corbyn's speech by the Daily Mail, the Labour leader insisted he had not used the word Zionist as a reference for all Jews, but in its narrow political definition.
"I described those pro-Israel activists as Zionists, in the accurate political sense and not as a euphemism for Jewish people – and that is made clear in the rest of my speech that day," said Corbyn. "I am now more careful with how I might use the term 'Zionist,' because a once self-identifying political term has been increasingly hijacked by antisemites as code for Jews."
| | | All beginnings are difficult (Rashi, Exodus 19:5).
We are creatures of habit. Learning something new may take effort, but once we make something a part of our routine, it becomes not only effortless, but automatic. For example, when we learned to walk, it required conscious effort, as we can see when we observe children taking their first steps. Later on in life, walking takes no thought at all. The same holds true for many other behaviors. Whenever we begin something new, we are, by definition, initiating some new type of behavior. The body naturally tends to return to the old, effortless pattern. If the new behavior holds promises of significant gain (such as a new job, new business, or new learning), which we anticipate will be profitable, this anticipation of reward overcomes the resistance to change, and we make the adjustment to the new. When we see no tangible gain, such as in spiritual advancement, the ease of routine is likely to draw us back to well-established habits. Let's face it. If we were offered a significant promotion at work which would necessitate arising half an hour earlier than usual, we would certainly set the alarm clock and get up promptly. If, however, we resolve to devote that half-hour to bettering ourselves, we would have trouble getting up. We must value our spiritual goals so much that we will be willing to make the changes in our routine that are necessary to achieve them.
Today I shall ...
... try to overcome any resistance to spiritual growth that requires changing well-established routines.
| | See you tomorrow Love Yehuda Lave | | | |
