When Saying Shema

Here's a really good answer to a question asked to R' Avigdor Miller zt"l.

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QUESTION:

When saying S'hma Yisroel, what should you think about?

ANSWER:

First thing is, Kavana P'shuta, you have to know the translation of the words and think the translation. But I will give you a good suggestion. Every day you can put in another Peirush in that. S'hma Yisroel Hashem Elokainu Hashem Echod, Echod means He is One. What does One mean? That if you will travel to the North Pole, there Hashem is too. If you travel to the South Pole, He is there too, and in between by the way. Not only is He there, he is in between too. You go all the way to the West, or to the East, wherever you go, you will find Hashem. So if you travel to Tokyo, and you are all by yourself in a hotel, and you have a lot of money to spend, and a lot of leisure, know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is looking at you. You have to behave. You behave. If you go all the way to Hungary, in a hotel in the mountains, you have a lot of money. Behave, because Hakadosh Baruh Hu is looking at you. If you are in the North Pole all by yourself. Behave, Hashem is looking at you. And if temptations come, then you have to behave like He is on the spot, which He is. So every day think at least this thought. Mizrach, Maariv, Tzafon, Darom, Maaloh, Umatah, He is One everywhere. Now you do this for homework one day, the next day think like this.

Hashem Echod, Hashem is One, there is only one interest in our lives. We have a lot of interests, but He is the One interest. So when I go to work, it's only of Hashem that I am thinking. When I get married, only for Hashem. When I am raising children, only for Hashem. When I eat, only for Hashem. Even when I Daven, I am davening for Hashem, remember that to, it's a good idea, by the way. And so, Echod means, in all the things I do in this world, He is the only interest I have.

The next day, think Hashem Echod it means, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in this world, Ata Hu B'olam Hazeh, V'ata Hu B'olam Haba. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in both worlds. So beware of Him in this world, and fulfill His mitzvos, because in the next world we will be together with Him too. You can not take a dive off the Empire State building and get rid of Him. No. "Im Esak Shamayim Sham Ata" (Tehillim) if I will go up to the Heavens, Dovid said, there You are. If I will go down to the depths of the sea, there You are. Everyday you can add another kavana if you want, in Echod.

Another Peirush you can say in Echod means. You are the only One that exists, nobody else exists, it's all imagination. NOBODY EXISTS in this world. Nothing exists, no sun. Hakadosh Baruch Hu imagined the sun, and it came into being. If He would withdraw His imagination, there wouldn't be any sun. When you look at the sun, or the moon, you are not seeing anything. You are seeing only the D'var Hashem, B'dvar Hashem Shamayim Nasu, its only His word that you see. When He said "Yehi", let it be, U'vruach Piv Kol Tzvam, L'olam Devarcha Nitzav Bashamayim, Your word is standing in the Heavens. That's all you see, the word of Hashem. There are no trees, no people, no houses, nothing. There is only Hashem. He is the only One that has real being, like the Rambam says in the beginning of Hilchos of Yesodai Hatorah. Hashem Elokim Emes, He is the only true being. Hu Levado Emes, He is the only One that is true. All the rest in the world is not real, it's only imagination. That's a meaning of Echod.

So I gave you a few things to think about. When you finish with them see me for further homework.

The Three Weeks

We are about to start the Three Weeks-the time between Yud Zayin Tammuz and Tisha B'av. It is interesting that this time starts and ends with a fast day-a day we do not eat food at all. Why?

I'm coming up with this answer on my own so I can't quote any source but I think a big part of it is that when we refrain from eating it gets our brains working and we can try to THINK a little bit. Instead of focusing on food (which we do a lot on a regular day, breakfast, snack, drink, snack, lunch, drink, snack, drink, supper, snack, drink, midnight snack?!), we can focus on other things, things that really matter. When we think, we we can ask ourselves some important questions and hopefully come up with some answers.

What happened during this time that we make so many changes in the way we act? We stop listening to music and we don't make weddings because these things bring us joy and now's a time to focus on what we are missing so we can try to bring it back!

This is the time when the bais hamikdosh, Hashem's house was destroyed. It was a place where we were able to achieve total clarity and connection to Him. We don't even begin to understand what we are missing!

Just think about how much we need moshiach! Focus on it for a few minutes. Imagine, there will be a clarity of understanding like never before. Children who left the path of Torah will want to come back! Those who are missing that important love and appreciation for yiddishkeit will finally get that amazing feeling in their hearts that this is the most beautiful and precious gift they ever could have gotten-the Torah and the life that goes along with it! We will get answers to our questions in a way we have never heard before-with a new level of understanding!

Instead of anti-semitism, the non-Jews will respect us and look at us in awe. They will want to do anything they can to help us - the Chosen People!

There is so much pain in this world. Rejection. Arguments. Confusion. Stress. Anger. Loss. Sickness. Poverty. Imagine when it will all be GONE!

And it will be replaced with all the beauty and happiness we've been hoping for! Sunshine. Light. Love. Joy. Acceptance. Excitement. Clarity. True happiness!!

What can YOU do to make this day we are waiting for come closer?

You can smile at people as you pass them in the streets. You can be friendly to the cashier when you pay for your purchases. You can hold the door open for someone as they walk through with their packages. You can help your parents take care of your siblings. You can be pleasant to your neighbors and coworkers. Call your friend to say hello and let her know you've been thinking of her... there's so many things you can do to make the world a happier place-just open your eyes!!

You have extra time on your hands? There are so many organizations who need volunteers to help them out. Make the call - offer your help. The reward for this cannot be imagined!

We are all waiting for this day to arrive! Each of you have the power to make this day come closer!! Search deep within your hearts and find a way you personally can do something to bring moshiach one step closer...because we really need this day to come!

Saved!

My friend sent this unbelievable story to me and I wanted to share it with all of you.

People tend to be skeptical when it comes to this but it happened to MY family so I know it's true. My mother isn't the type at all to have weird thoughts or whatever...I'm telling you, if you'd know my mother, you'd know she's not this "spiritual" person. She was even embarrassed to repeat this story because she realizes how hard it is to believe...but when you read this story you will see the hashgacha so clearly!

The story began when my family went to Eretz Yisrael in the year 2001 for Yom Kippur and Sukkos. My older brother, who was learning in Yeshiva there was able to arrange through an acquaintance for us to daven in R’ Elyashiv’s minyan on Yom Kippur. It was a very uplifting experience for us to daven with the Gadol Hador on the holiest day of the year, and to have our tefilos go up to the Kisei Hakovod together with R’ Elyashiv’s.

11 Months Later, Erev Rosh Hashanah:

One night, my nephew, Menachem, a one year old, was not acting himself. His hand was red and swollen and he was very lethargic. His parents assumed it was because he fell off a chair that day and figured he had injured his hand in the process. He was running a fever too but his parents thought it was because he was teething. In any case, they called the doctor. The doctor said that it wasn’t urgent and that they can wait until the morning to take care of it. My mother, having a Bubby’s intuition, begged my brother to go to the emergency room right away. They listened and after my nephew was examined they were told that he had a very dangerous inflammation called necrotizing fasciitis. The doctors told them that had they waited overnight, it could have spread to the heart and been fatal, chas v’shalom. Even if hadn’t spread to the heart at that point, he would have been at a severe risk of losing his hand chas v'shalom. Menachem had a few emergency surgeries to remove the infection and puss that had accumulated in his hand.

During that time period, my mother, Menachem’s grandmother, had a dream. In the dream, my mother saw R’ Elyashiv (the face wasn’t R’ Elyashiv, but in the dream she knew it was) looking very upset and he told her that one of her sons is using a shaver that has a razor in it and he will be punished for it. Immediately the next morning, my mother approached all her sons about it including Menachem’s father and asked them if they are using a shaver with a razor in it. Menachem’s father said that he had recently bought a new shaver in a Jewish frum store and they reassured him that they had removed the razor. My mother begged him to please check again and sure enough the razor was still inside the shaver! He took care of it immediately.

Unbelievably, the Doctors had been saying that Menachem would need to be hospitalized for at least another 2-3 weeks. Suddenly, right after he took care of his shaver, the doctor walked in and said that Menachem is fine and he was to be discharged that very same day!

Boruch Hashem Menachem fully recovered and is a smart, active nine-year-old today. Aside for the scars on his hand, he doesn’t remembering anything from his near brush with death.
In the zechus of the Tzaddik, our Menachem was saved!

This story shows you that you never know how your actions can have an affect on someone else-and how mitzvos really do protect us. Although we may not understand the reasons why we do certain mitzvos, they are important to follow through all the way, with every little halacha! You see that my friend's brother's mitzvah had an affect on his own son's health and on his life!! Another lesson to take from this story is that our gedolim are protecting us and watching out for us all the time! Wow!!

What is Real Beauty

This is sent from a web site called Guard your eyes. Although it was posted once before, I think it is important to read now that the summer is here and there are so many temptations to look at things we shouldn't.

Sometimes when we're out there in the big world surrounded by all the temptations wherever we seem to look, we cry out in our hearts "Dear Hashem , where are you? I can't see you, I can't feel you! All I see is a beauty of a different kind, wherever I look!"...

But then the answer comes to our hearts from Hashem, "My son, does there exist any beauty besides me? I am in the beauty you see as well!" For Hashem is indeed everywhere, and He - and only He - is the source of all beauty. The beauty that we see and crave here on this world is truly only a mere shadow of a manifestation of Hashem's beauty. We need to train our minds to realize that there are no two types of beauty. There is only one source of beauty in the world.

But, Hashem has decreed that in order to merit perceiving His true beauty, we must first learn to turn our eyes away from the physical beauty that is only His creation, and instead turn our hearts to Him - to the SOURCE. In His great wisdom, Hashem determined that only one who is ready to give up the physical manifestations of Hashem's beauty should be worthy of experiencing the true beauty of Hashem's - in a much more sublime way.

If you take a look at a precious little 3yr. old, who just got his upsherin, think about how lit up his face is!! Why? Because he was just carried out of yeshiva wrapped up in a tallis, feeling the sweetness of Hashem's torah enveloping him! Are you getting that warm feeling!!

Every small mitzvah that we do, lights up our neshama and that light radiates from our faces!

Now lets take look at a 3yr. non-Jewish little boy coming out of public school, does his face light up???

I think you can now understand the true meaning of beauty,and the concept that real beauty is only from Hashem!!

May you be zoche to look into Hashem's magnificent world and find his signature of true beauty!

When we see beautiful things we must remember this beauty is from Hashem!!

Stunned by Science

My friend, Ruchiccio, shared this with me and I'm posting it here with her permission.

Here is an amazing lesson in niflaos haborei that she learned while playing a computer game! (Not that these games are in any way encouraged, you should only play with complete consent and guidance from your local orthodox rabbi - kidding!! but you can take a lesson from everything.)

Lugaru is an action game where you play the role of Turner, a rabbit. A traitor in your camp gets Turner's whole family killed out. To avenge their deaths, he sets out to find those killers and bring them to justice.

I just finished Lugaru, which means that I was finished with all the levels. However, I discovered another treasure trove of CHALLENGE levels! I zipped through levels 1-10 really fast. But level 11 was a killer of a level. I must have tried about 30 times. I never even made it close to the end!

Tonight I decided to try an experiment:
I brought a blood pressure machine (a sphygmomanometer, if you want to get technical) to my computer desk. I attached the cuff to my arm and checked my blood pressure. We'll give this baseline rate a value of "X". I then played 12 minutes of heavy Lugaru in Level 11 and rechecked my blood pressure. It jumped to about 2x for the systolic (the top number) and the diastolic (bottom number) remained the same as before. I was clearly able to see the effects of stress on my heart processes! After 20 more minutes of playing, I checked it a third time and it was back to normal.

It's amazing the way Hashem makes our bodies adapt to stress so easily and proficiently. When you need more energy to fight (even though this was virtual fighting, it still is fighting!), your body accommodates by increasing blood pressure, heart rate, dilating the pupils, releasing more carbon dioxide etc etc. These are just some of the many changes that happen during a stress response - manifestations of the sympathetic nervous system.

What's even MORE amazing is that Hashem fashioned us with a parasympathetic nervous system which brings us back to normal after the stressful incident passes. Imagine what would happen if we never returned to "normal" mode!

Just had to share this bit of Niflaos Haborei and science!

Oh, and I managed to overcome Level 11 - WOOOHOOO!!!!

If Hashem Were To Go On Strike

Here's a really great poem to help you realize how much Hashem does for us!!
Taken from a tape, The Iron Butterfly, by Suki and Ding

It’s just a good thing that Hashem above has never gone on strike,
Because He wasn’t treated for or for the things he didn’t like.
And if He had just once sat down and said, “That’s it, I’m through,
I’ve had enough of those on earth so this is what I’ll do:

I’ll give my orders to the sun, cut off your heat supply,
And to the clouds, give no more rain and run those oceans dry.”
And just to make it tough and to put the pressure on,
He’d cut off all the oxygen ‘til every breath is gone.

Do you know that Hashem would be justified if fairness were the game,
For no one has been more abused or treated with disdain.
And yet Hashem has carried on supplying you and me,
With all the favors in His world and everything for free.

No more would flowers bud in spring and food just wouldn’t grow,
And summer turn to winter, Hashem can do it all, you know.
He could make the daytime pitch black so we’d see our way no more,
There’s just so much Hashem can do to even up the score!

Men say they want a better deal and so on strike they go,
But what a deal we’ve given Hashem to whom everything we owe?
We don’t care who we hurt or harm to gain the things we like,
But what a mess we’d all be in if Hashem were to go on strike!!

Please let me know what you think about this and how this can help you enhance your appreciation for what you do have!

Every action that you do makes a difference

Butterfly Effect The Butterfly Effect
so watch this short inspirational idea and let us know what you think!!! then we will add more if you explain why you think this is imp. to share!!

No Tefillah is EVER Wasted!!

This was posted before but the story is so powerful and inspires me every time I read it that I'm letting you all read it again...and gain from it! Enjoy!

by Rabbi Aryeh Z. Ginzberg

This is one of the coolest stories that I've heard in a long time! YOU can be the one to make a difference! Just know that each of your tefillos are sooo precious to Hashem.

The call came from one of my old ba’alei battim, whose son was serving in the Israeli army. Several years earlier, his son had gone to learn in Eretz Yisrael after high school, like many of our children do, and had fallen in love with Eretz Yisrael. He joined a hesder yeshiva and promptly entered into the army.

Quickly advancing in the army ranks, after just three years, he became an officer in charge of a large group of men. Last summer, exactly one year ago, he was assigned to lead a group of solders to evacuate one of the settlements in Gush Katif. He begged to be released from that assignment, as he was totally opposed to the government’s decision to remove the settlers from their homes, but was ordered to do so anyway. On the morning of the evacuation, he entered into a small moshav and went directly to the shul, where everyone had gathered, including the rabbi of the moshav.

After davening and crying together, both the rav and the soldier spoke about the need to exit peacefully, so brother would not have to fight against brother. With tears, everyone exited the rear of the shul onto the buses, waiting to escort them from the only home that many of them had ever known. The rav and the officer exited together at the end of the line.
Before the soldier got onto the bus, he stopped in his tracts, reached back into his knapsack, and withdrew his personal siddur from it, opened it up and wrote in that day’s date. He then got down on his knees, and with his bare hands started digging a hole in the ground. After a few minutes, he kissed the siddur, placed it into the ground, covered it up with the dirt, and then stood up.

The rav was watching him, and asked him why he was burying his siddur in the ground. He explained that he was confident that one day Jews will return to Gush Katif and to this moshav. He didn’t know when – maybe in ten years, or twenty or fifty – but one day maybe a Jew will find his siddur and realize that Jews were here and left their hearts behind. With that being said, the soldier and rabbi embraced and then together, arm in arm, got onto the bus and left.

Eleven Months Later

The story continues some eleven months later. This soldier, now an officer in the Engineers Corps, received an order to enter Gaza with his men under the cover of darkness and set up a headquarters from which the soldiers would be sent for missions deep into Gaza.

He entered Gaza, proceeded to the designated spot, and set up the headquarters tent. When it began to get light, he looked around, and all he saw was total destruction. Mountains of debris and devastation abounded; he had no idea exactly where he was. All of a sudden – he doesn’t know what compelled him to do so – he dropped to his knees and began to dig furiously at the dirt with his hands. After several moments, he felt something. As he reached in further, he pulled out his own siddur, the very siddur that he had buried just eleven months earlier.

He was in shock. After several moments, his entire body began to shake uncontrollably. He cried out loud, “Hashem, why? What are you trying to tell me? What is the message that I am to get from coming back to the very spot where I buried my siddur only eleven months ago and finding it again?”

He called his father in New York and told him the story. He requested, “Please call Rabbi Ginzberg, tell him what happened to me and ask him for an explanation.”

The call touched me to the core of my neshama. I explained to the father that I am not on the level required to even begin to understand the meaning of this incident and what Hakadosh Baruch Hu was telling His son. But I had a suggestion. “There is an adam gadol in Bnei Brak who lies in a world of kulo Torah. Maybe he can answer you.” I told him I would arrange a private visit for him on Motzaei Shabbos. He should go to Bnei Brak and tell his story to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky shlita.

I called Rav Chaim’s son, explained the matter, and arranged for him to meet Rav Chaim on Motzaei Shabbos. He was received with the utmost seriousness. Rav Chaim responded to his question immediately.

He asked him what he did to prevent the expulsion from Gaza. The soldier said, “I davened constantly, and pleaded with my superiors to ignore the government’s directives, all to no avail.”

“And after the expulsion, what did you do?” asked Rav Chaim.

The soldier responded. “What could I do? It was all over.”

Rav Chaim said, “The power of tefilla is not to be underestimated. You should have taken your siddur in hand and continued davening. Who knows what Hakadosh Baruch Hu would have done, if we still stormed Shamayim with tefillos! You instead chose to bury your siddur in the ground. For you it was over. But Hashem says, ‘It’s not over. Here is your siddur. Pour your heart out again for Eretz Yisrael and for Klal Yisrael.’”

What an inspiring and powerful response: Through continued tefilla, through inspired tefilla, anything is possible and everything is possible. Things change so quickly in Eretz Yisrael. Not in months or weeks, but in days and in hours. Our tefillos can be crucial.

This article is from http://ohr.edu/yhiy/article.php/2753

Torah is the Blueprint

Here's a really cool video!



It shows you that any person can learn Torah no matter what level they are on. The Torah speaks to all of us...just open it up and enjoy it! (I'm not sure why the aish videos don't show up in Google Reader but this one is really worth it so come to the blog to watch it!)

Custom Made

Here is a very powerful mashal.

There was once a king who had five yards of the world’s most beautiful fabric created, and then had his loyal tailor custom-tailor an exquisite suit out of it. A problem arose when one of the king’s jealous advisers suspected the tailor of using less than the five yards of fabric and stealing the remnants.

The king was extremely perplexed by the accusation that his tailor had stolen any material and insisted the tailor prove to him that all five yards had been used to make the suit. The tailor claimed that the only way he could prove it would be to take apart the suit piece by piece, which would destroy it. The king was so baffled that he agreed.

The servants bought in a fifteen-foot table, and the suit was laid out. The tailor began by cutting the cuff off the jacket sleeve and exposing the inner lining. “You see, Your majesty,” he began, “an ordinary suit has just one inner lining. A better suit has two, and a great suit has three linings. I used no less than six linings!” As he spoke, he carefully laid out each small piece of material.

Then he continued to cut the inner fabric of the sleeve. He explained how a regular suit was constructed, how a better quality suit was made, and how he had used a totally different method of construction to design this suit. “Because this suit was for Your Majesty, I wanted it to have every possible quality. In order to achieve this I used fabric in ways never before conceived.” The tailor continued painstakingly to cut each layer of the fabric he had so lovingly fashioned.

After he had taken apart the entire jacket and laid out each scrap of material on the table, he began to do the same with the vest and the pants. Slowly and meticulously, he cut each layer and carefully laid it out on the table.

The king and his entourage were all watching with rapt attention as the tailor took apart the last few inches of what had once been a pair of pants and laid it out on the table.

As the last piece of fabric was set down, the king gasped because there on the table lay exactly five yards of fabric!

There was not an inch of material missing!

The tailor had clearly shown not only how honest he was, but how well he had constructed the world’s finest erstwhile suit.

“Your majesty,” the tailor said, “now you see how everything fit. Now you understand how every piece of fabric was used. Now you appreciate all the genius that went into the creation of this most wonderful garment. How it pains me that now there is no longer any suit!

Don’t take apart Hashem’s world (like the tailor).

Remember that your difficulties are custom tailored for you! Hashem knows what is best for you and what you need at every stage in your life.