Finding a Lost Object

This really works, because I just did it yesterday and this morning I found the thing I had been looking for.

Say this short prayer [to Hashem] - you can say it in Hebrew or in English

אמר רבי בנימין, הכל בחזקת סומין, עד שהקדוש ברוך הוא מאיר את עיניהם. מן הכא, "ויפקח אלוקים את עיניה ותרא באר מים, ותלך ותמלא את החמת". ן אלקא דמאיר ענני, אלקא דמאיר ענני, אלקא דמאיר ענני. ן בזכות הצדקה שאני נודב לכבוד התנא רבי מאיר בעל הנס, זכותו יגן עלינו, אמצא את אבידתי.ן 

To translate: Rabbi Binyamin said: All are in the presumed status of blind people, until The Holy One, Blessed Be He, enlightens their eyes. {Bereishit 21:19}, "And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink." {The concept is that the well was always there, but Hagar did not see it. Only after praying did G-d open her eyes and she saw what was already there.}

Then give a small amount of tzedaka [charity] to the Meir Baal HaNess charity: click here to donate

If you’re facing a specific hardship: 

Say three times: “Eloka D’Meir Aneini” [God of Meir, answer me]

Then donate some charity to the poor of Israel. 

For more information on Rabbi Meir Ba'al HaNess click here

Causing Others to Suffer has Consequences

Art Gabriele Scholl

''Yaakov was no longer able to see." [Vayechi 48:10]

Chazal tell us various reasons why Yitzchok became blind. but why did Yaakov become blind?

Rav Shlomo Zalman Zelaznik Ztz"l. the Rosh Yeshiva of Eitz Chaim. explained with the principle that if someone suffers on your account, you are punished, even if you have done nothing wrong. In Yaakov's case we find two people whose eyes suffered on account of him. The first was Yitzchok. who Chazal say became blind so that Yaakov would be able to fool him and take the blessings. The second is Leah. whose eyes were swollen because she was destined to marry Eisav. while Rochel was supposed to marry Yaakov.

 "Either of these two occurrences," says Rav Zelaznik, "were enough cause to warrant Yaakov losing his eyesight despite his complete innocence of any wrongdoing. If such is the Midas HaDin when we are completely innocent of any wrongdoing, certainly, if we actually play a part in the suffering of another person, we are in huge trouble."

Source: Revach.net

The Essence of Tisha B'Av

This is a couple of years old, but the message is clear.

Tisha B'Av, what is the mourning all about?  Rabbi Mendel Kessin

The Privilege of Hearing Criticism

Excerpt from an essay on Parshas Matos by Rabbi Y. Y. Jacobson

To read the full essay click here

Rabbi Yitzchak Meir (Reb Itche Meir) Alter of Gur (1799-1866), a small town not far from Warsaw (known today as Gora Kalwaria), was the brother-in-law and foremost student of the intensely brilliant Kotzker Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgenstern (1787-1859). He was known as the “Chidushei HaRim,” after the title of his Talmudic and Chassidic works. Following the passing of his own master, he founded a Chassidic dynasty, becoming (in 1860) the first Rebbe of Ger. He became an influential figure on the landscape of Polish Jewry and a greatly respected spiritual leader. Reb Itche Meir suffered greatly in his life, seeing 12 of his 13 children pass before him.

Since some of his grandchildren had been left as young orphans, he ended up raising his grandson, the young Yehuda Aryeh Leib (1847-1905), who would eventually succeed his grandfather as the second Gerrer Rebbe while still a young man of age 22. The Sefas Emes, as he is known, became one of the most influential spiritual leaders of Polish Jewry. His brilliant five-part Chassidic homilies on the Torah that gave him his name, and his many volumes of commentary on the Talmud, have transformed him into one of the great Talmudic and Chassidic giants of the 19th century.

When he was still just a boy, he would often stay up late in the night studying Torah. At times, he stayed up almost the entire night immersed in Torah study with a learning partner.

And so it happened once, that at one such occasion, the Sefas Emes after staying up all night, fell asleep right before morning prayers and came late to the service. His grandfather, who raised him as his own child, noted the time his grandson had arrived to synagogue. After the prayers, the Gerer Rebbe, the Chidushei Harim, approached his grandson and rebuked him for sleeping in. He explained to him at length how the discipline to awake in the morning is crucial to human development; how allowing oneself to indulge in sleep numbs one’s spiritual growth and inhibits growth; how after sleeping a full night, a Jew ought to jump out of bed in the morning with passion and alacrity, with the joy of knowing that now he can approach G-d in prayer and study; how wasting one’s life in bed is a tragedy.

The Sefas Emes, who was a young boy at the time, kept quiet. He just listened to his grandfather rebuking him without offering the obvious excuse that he was up all night learning Torah. His study partner, who was up with him and knew what had happened, approached the young Yehuda Aryeh Leib and asked, "Why didn't you just tell your grandfather you were up all night studying?”

The young Sefas Emes answered his friend: "To hear criticism from my saintly Zeide is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. There was no way I was going to forfeit that privilege by offering justifications for my behavior!”

Mashiach's Arrival: How Do We Know

Rabbi Shimon Kessin, renowned speaker from NY gave this breathtaking shiur at KSY, Kehillas Shivtei Yeshurun, in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel in 2013.

You will be "blown away" by the depth of insights that Rabbi Kessen shares with us and you will totally change your perspective on what we should pray for on Tisha B'Av. 

Rabbi Kessen teaches that "the Beis HaMikdosh, the resting place of the Shechina (G-D's presence in the world) was NOT destroyed"! "Mashiach's arrival; Is it soon? How do we know?"

2020

Art: Mike Worrall

"A king was informed by his chief minister that there had been blight on the crops that year. They were affected so greatly that anyone eating the grain would become insane. "But" said the minister, "there is no need for us to worry. I have set aside enough grain from last year's harvest for the both of us that will last until the harvest of the following year."

The king shook his head. "No," he said. "I will not allow myself any privileges other than those shared by my subjects.  "We shall eat of the same grain," the king continued, "and we shall both go insane together with the rest of the population. But here is what we shall do. You and I will mark our foreheads with an indelible imprint, so that when we go insane, I will look at you and you will look at me and we will know we are insane."

[Rebbe Nachman of Breslov]

Something to Think About

Keep Your Eyes Open and See Mashiach

by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf of Cherni-Ostra’ah was a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch and Rebbe Meshulam Feivush of Zabriz. He was the Rabbi and Admo”r of Cherni-Ostra’ah in the Ukraine.

In the year 5558 (1798), about twenty years after the first great Chassidic aliyah to the Land of Israel, Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf made aliyah to Israel, settling first in Haifa and afterwards in Tiberias. After the passing of Rebbe Avraham of Kalisk, Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf was appointed to be the leader of the Chassidim. Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf’s students included Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Kosov – the father of the Vizhnitz dynasty – and Rebbe David Shlomo of Eibschitz, author of “Arvei Nachal.” He passed away on the fifth of Adar, 5583 (1823) and was laid to rest in Tiberias, in the section of the disciples of the Ba’al Shem Tov.

***

Guidance for a Simple Jew who Attained Spiritual Heights

A simple man (with no special spiritual aptitude withstood a great trial. (The type of trial he withstood is not recorded. Generally, however, ‘a great trial’ refers to a trial in maintaining sexual purity, as in the trial of Joseph). In reward, Heaven granted him a special gift: Whenever he would mention God’s Name, such as when praying or reciting a blessing, he would feel God’s majesty in his soul. As a result, whenever this man would utter pray or make a blessing, his entire body would begin to tremble and he would feel that his organs were burning up in fear.

There are stories about tzaddikim who merited lofty heights and did not want them. Rebbe Zusha of Anapoli merited to see Heaven like the Rambam and was not able to contain it. It is told of the Rebbe of Komarna that every time that he learned what one of the sages in the gemara taught, he would see that sage before him. The teaching of the Jerusalem Talmud that when a person learns Talmud, it is as if the sage who taught that particular teaching stands before him – spontaneously occurred to him. But the Rebbe of Kamarna asked God to take that spiritual height away from him, as it disturbed his study.

Our simple Jew, who did not understand why he would be experiencing such lofty spiritual heights, came to the Rebbe of Cherni-Ostra and complained that he did not know what happened to him, but he could not bear the suffering it entailed. He entreated the Rebbe to help him to disengage from this spiritual level.

Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf said to him: “You have merited and were given something that others ask for and toil for their entire lives. All the tzaddikim serve God all their lives with an inner desire to reach this level, and you have received it as a gift. How can you forgo it? The Rebbe then proceeded to teach him how to live with this lofty level.

Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf did not agree to take this level away from the simple Jew. If he merited it, he was apparently deserving. Instead, the Rebbe gave him the tools to serve God at that level. The Ba’al Shem Tov would also take simple Jews and invest years teaching them Torah and service of God until they attained spiritual heights.

Anticipating Mashiach

Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf’s eyes were always open. (Even when he was reciting the Silent Prayer. It is also told of Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev that he would pray with open eyes – even in front of an open window facing the street – despite the law that says that if one is praying without a prayer book, he should close his eyes. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak said that even though his eyes were open in prayer, he did not see the comings and goings in the street. A tzaddik has a level of sight that is not physical. He radiates Godliness from his eyes. He sees only the Godliness in all the things taking place in front of him. In the same vein, it is also told of the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rebbe Shneor Zalman of Liadi, that before he died, he said that he did not see the beam in the ceiling at all, but rather the word of God giving it vitality).

Even when Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf was sleeping his eyes would remain open. (We can learn from this that his soul root was the mazal of fish, which coincides with his day of passing in the month of Adar).

Once, Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf was laying down with his eyes closed. His assistant, who was next to his bed, thought that he had passed away and began to wail loudly. The holy rabbi opened his eyes and asked him, “Why are you crying?”

“I thought that you had passed on to heaven,” the assistant answered.

“Do not fear,” Rebbe Ze’ev Wolf calmed him. “We are all fine. I simply closed my eyes in order to contemplate on the generation of Mashiach: Our forefathers in Egypt were sunk into the depths of the 49th gate of impurity. They could not tarry in Egypt any longer, for they had nearly sunk to the fiftieth gate of impurity, from which they would not have been able to emerge. The fiftieth gate is apikorsus (denial of Torah), may God save us. I saw that before Mashiach comes, this gate – the impurity of apikorsus – will spread throughout the world, may God save us, and even for people of our stature (even tzaddikim, disciples of the Ba’al Shem Tov) it will be difficult to be saved from it. The solution is to speak about tzaddikim. This is the only force with which they can be saved from a trace of denial of Torah.”

When the holy Ruzhiner Rebbe told this story, he concluded by saying, “It is even good to tell about me, and even to tell about my possessions, the chairs and tables.” (The Ruzhiner Rebbe conducted a wealthy court and engaged in injecting Godliness into his material possessions. This level is fitting for someone who lives at the level of “with all your might,” who infuses his physical possessions and all that surrounds him with Godliness).

Opening Eyes with Stories of Tzaddikim

To see and understand the tribulations of the exile and the approach of Mashiach, Rebbe Ze’ev wolf had to close his eyes and see the darkness. This is similar to the Covenant of the Pieces in Genesis: “And behold, a dread, a great darkness falls upon him,”[1] The famous Biblical commentator, Rashi, explains as follows: “This is an allusion to the troubles and darkness of the exiles.” The Lubavitcher Rebbe commented that in the time of ikvata d’Mishicha, when the Mashiach is approaching, we are in the throes of “double and doubly-double darkness.” This darkness is so pervasive that it can be tangibly felt, similar to the plague of darkness in Egypt. The Rebbe said, however, that in order to emerge from the exile, all that we have to do is “open our eyes” and see that Mashiach is rapidly approaching.

How can we open our eyes and see redemption? By telling stories of tzaddikim. It is written in the Tanya that there is a spark of Moses, a true tzaddik, in every Jew. The Hebrew word for “story,” sippur, is cognate to sapir, “sapphire.” By telling stories of tzaddikim, we illuminate the spark of the tzaddik inside us – the root of pure faith. We are then saved from the impure husk of denial of the Torah and we merit the resurrection of the dead.

[1] Genesis 15:12.

Source: Inner