The Shmuz

Chumash in Dept - Shemos

Chumash in Dept - Toldos

1. To fear HASHEM
2. To go in all of His ways.
3. To love HASHEM.
4. To serve Him with all of you heart and your soul.

Tisha B'Av- What we can do to bring the Geulah

We all have bitachon. We all know that HASHEM determines our fate and all the events that will befall us. The problem is that this concept remains so far removed that while we know it on one level, in our day to day lives, it's non-existent. So while we say we trust in HASHEM, we live our lives in contradiction to this.

This Shmuz focuses on making our beliefs real and taking our bitachon from the potential to the actual

I know that middos make the man. I understand that my character traits define every relationship that I am involved in. And I wish I were more generous, humble, and caring. But what can I do about it? I am who I am.

This Shmuz focuses on how it is that our gedolim changed their very nature and demonstrates the Torah's system for developing our middos.

On the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran Radio on Oct. 20, 2006, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared: "[America] should understand that the message from the peoples of the region . . . is manifested in a single slogan: "Death to America!"

While America's foreign policy is set on appeasement and understanding, Iran is within months of attaining nuclear arms capacity, and so the threats are no longer mere slogans. The West seems to be ignoring the reality that we are not witnessing a war being waged by country against country, but rather a clash of civilizations that threatens to engulf the globe.

This is an essential Shmuz for putting some perspective on the volatile times we live in and making sense of a chaotic new world

I know exactly what it is that I need! I need to marry that woman; get that job; my child has to get into that class - and HASHEM just won't listen! I have tried to teach HASHEM. I have tried to speak to him. I even daven. But nothing helps. For some strange reason, HASHEM won't give me what I need.
85% of our Emunah problems come from just such thinking: assuming that I know exactly what it is that I need and then having questions on HASHEM when He doesn't deliver it. Part of being a mature, thinking person is recognizing that I am exactly that - a person made of flesh and blood, here for a few short years. I come into this world while things are in full swing. I leave before I have much of a chance to sort things out. Yet I have the arrogance to think that I truly get it, that I know what is best for me.

This Shmuz introduces us to one of the most fundamental concepts in our serving HASHEM: recognizing that HASHEM cares more about me than I do, that He knows far better than I do what I need, and will do what is best for me five years from now, ten years from now, in this world, and in the World to Come.

The illusion of reality