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Date Posted: 18:59:36 06/10/12 Sun
Author: t
Subject: fb 119


#481 Solicit Advice

We can all benefit from the advice of wise and experienced people. Besides gaining from their knowledge, we can also gain from their objectivity.

Many students could gain a lot from asking advice on how to concentrate better, how to remember better, how to read faster and with greater comprehension. Many parents could gain a lot by asking for advice on how to create a peaceful, harmonious home where they bring out the best in their children.

Many teachers could gain from consulting master teachers with much experience. Many businesspeople and professionals could gain from consulting experts in their field.

Almost everyone could gain by consulting appropriate people about how to become a better person. Have the courage to ask for advice.

(From Rabbi Pliskin's book, "Courage")


See Rabbi Pliskin's new book "Life Is Now"




20 Sivan

In 1648, the rampaging Cossacks, led by Bogdan Chmielnicki (the Jewish pronunciation is Chelminitzki), massacred 6,000 Jews in Nemirov, Poland. Chmielnicki's hatred of Jews was inflamed from the time he planned a revolution against the Polish government; a Jew overheard and reported the plot, and Chmielnicki was led to prison in chains and sentenced to death for treason. But before the verdict could be carried out, the king of Poland died. Chmielnicki escaped and led the Cossacks to defeat the Polish army, attacking and murdering Jews at every opportunity. Hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed by the Cossack hordes, and approximately 500,000 Jews were murdered. Elegies ("Kinot") written by great rabbis of the time compare this tragic epoch to the destruction of the Holy Temple. This would be the most bitter time for Polish Jewry for several centuries... until 1942.



20 Sivan

For I know my transgressions, and my sins are forever before me (Psalms 51:5).


Since a person should believe that once he has repented properly, God has totally erased his sin, as the Prophet states, I have erased your sin like a fog that cleared (Isaiah 44:22), why does the Psalmist assert that his sin always remains before his eyes?

It sometimes happens that a parent wishes to do something for a child's benefit, but in spite of the parent's best intentions, the act causes the child to be harmed. Although there was certainly no hostile intent and no negligence - to the contrary, the parent was trying to help the child - the parent's pain over the incident may never disappear. Even if the child has completely forgiven the parent and knows that the parent's intentions were only for his good, the love of the parent for the child is so intense that the parent cannot make peace with what he or she has done. Furthermore, this distress may not be relieved by any logical argument.

I know of a mother who took her child for a recommended medical treatment which unfortunately resulted in an adverse reaction and very serious consequences. Although the child later recovered, there was no comforting the mother. Though she had done the right thing by any reasonable standard, she could not forgive herself for having brought distress upon her child.

King David's repentance was teshuvah me'ahavah, or repentance out of an intense love for God. David had complete trust that God had erased his sin, but like the mother in the above example, he could never be completely consoled knowing that he had offended the One Whom he so loved.


Today I shall ...
...

try to develop a relationship with God so that I would no more think of offending Him than doing harm to someone I love intensely.


See more books by Rabbi Abraham Twerski at Artscroll.com


20 Sivan

God's Time

The older I get, the more I realize the truth of the Jewish teaching that God is intimately involved in the world, moment by moment. That sounds like it keeps Him pretty busy. Yet what was God doing before creating the world?
The Aish Rabbi Replies:

This is a wonderful question. The first step is to appreciate that even the concept of "time" was created when God created the universe. It was created in such a way that one thing would happen after the next. Imagine if time was never created. One minute you'd be playing in a baby crib, the next minute you'd be going to college, the next minute you'd learn how to walk, and next you'd find a spouse and get married.

Life would be very confusing.

God created time in order that we could understand the progression of life. However, God is above time. He can see everything at once - birth, death, and everything in-between. And since "time" is also a creation, it is impossible to ask what God was doing before he created the world - because the concept of "before" did not exist.

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