Selected Passages
Selected passages
Why did the person who spoke evil get sick on his skin? Just to tell you that yes, there is something with people, but its only their skin. Can't you see deeper than it?
Everyone wants to be holy. But how do you know when you are doing a holy act? How do you know if what you are doing is holy or not? It's very simple. If whatever you do – you would love to do for eternity – that is holy. If you want to do it just for the moment, but not so much tomorrow, that's not holy
The deepest depths of life is to know that even when you find yourself in the desert, even there, G-d can show you the way. G-d can lead you out of the desert to the Holy Land. It may take forty years, and it will probably take forty thousand mistakes on the way, but it boils down to this. When you are in the desert, how much do you cry for someone to give you a map? And this is the deepest depths, friends. There are certain things that I daven for and G-d answers me. There are certain things in my life that unless I cry like I'm in the desert - it's the only way to daven, there is no other way. Because for G-d to answer this prayer, this prayer has to come from the deepest, deepest depths.
When Mashiach is coming, G-d won't take us back to Paradise, but do you know what will happen? Suddenly we will realize Paradise was here the whole time
Gd says to Moshe to tell Ahron to kindle the light, which means to put fire into the hearts of every Jew. So Rashi says Vaya'as keyn Ahron: melamed shelo shina (Rashi Bamidbar 8:3) - "And Ahron did so, he didn't change from what he was told." That means he didn't change anything G-d told him to do. Obviously, if he would have changed G-d's words, he would not have been the high priest. What is it that he didn't change? There are thousands of answers, this is what the holy Alexanderer says (Tiferes Shmuel, Beha'aloscha "Beha'aloscha Es Haneiros"). Ahron Hakohen never changed a Jew; he just put fire into them. Do you know how holy that is? If you have a real fire of G-d inside of you, you can utilize everything you have in the service of G-d just by the way you are
How do you know how real something is? If it breaks your heart, but at the same time it makes you whole
Everybody wants to be the holy of holiest, but maybe G-d doesn't want to be the holy of holiest. Maybe G-d needs you to be less holy and serve him on that level.
Korach wanted to be the High Priest, but if he was so clever, why did he do such a stupid thing? (Bamidbar Raba 18:8) So the Ziditchover asks, why was it a stupid thing? After he felt the sweetness of serving God in such a strong way as a Levi, he thought that if he would be a Kohen, it would be even sweeter. So the Ziditchover says, the truth is, who stops you? Maybe in action you cannot be a high priest, but why not in your thoughts? In the deepest depths of your soul, you can mamesh serve G-d on the level of a high priest. And nobody knows about it, nobody stops you. Korach knew all this. Therefore, why do you make such a fuss? Maybe in action you cannot be the High Priest, but who stops you from being the High Priest in your thoughts? The thing is that nobody would know about it
It's very clear in the Ishbitser (Beis Ya'akov Bereishis - "Vayomer Ha'adam") that Adam was driven out from Paradise not because he ate the wrong food, but because he was hiding from G-d. Why were you hiding? You don't trust me enough to tell me you did wrong? If Adam would have eaten the forbidden fruit and then he would have said to G-d "I'm sorry," G-d would say "You are a human being; I never expected anything else of you." The Gemara says Ein Adam Omed Al Divrei Torah Ela Im Ken Nichshal Bahen (Gittin 43a). The deepest knowledge comes from mistakes. You don't learn until you make mistakes.
Why is the whole world always talking about the Holy Land? Because they mamesh know this is the headquarters of the world. I have a feeling that the anti-Semitism of the world is not the antiSemitism of Auschwitz. It's that suddenly the world is thinking about us again. They don't know how to think of us, but they are thinking. And it's in our hands to turn this thinking around
Why do we say Shema Yisrael twice a day? Because we are supposed to be different people. The Yidele who knew G-d last night is not the same Yidele as this morning. Why do we always say "good morning" or "good night" to each other? Because we hope that when I saw you last night and I see you today, you are not the same person