Emuna Hour

Sometimes, two people see an identical situation. There is no change in reality. Yet one person is happy and the other person is miserable. That's the difference between looking at Hashem and looking at causes, or catalysts that trigger events.
"Looking at Hashem" means viewing life's occurrences within the framework of Divine Providence. A person who attributes success and failure, happiness and grief to catalysts – human or otherwise – will never find inner peace.
By ignoring Hashem and attributing one's fate to catalysts, events seem random, senseless and frequently cruel. That not the hand of a loving Father in Heaven, as we see in today's Emuna Hour lesson.

The holy Baal Shem Tov attempted to explain to his brilliant students the depth of the concept of Divine Providence. Despite their magnificent minds and comprehensive Torah-learning backgrounds, they just couldn't comprehend. How can Almighty personally supervise and determines every single detail of creation? OK, He makes the sun shine, but what does He care about a tiny insect or an amoeba?
The same pious scholars who knew entire tractates of Talmud by heart were baffled. The Baal Shem Tov decided to take them to his favorite classroom – nature, out in the woods. There, he could teach them all about Divine Providence. This is the lesson we learn in Today's Emuna Hour.

In one of the most dramatic episodes of the Torah, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. At this very moment, Joseph makes a monumental discovery. He suddenly sees the Divine hand of providence involved in every detail of his life. This is a lesson for each one of us, for posterity.
 

During Chanukah, we recite daily the "Al Hanisim" prayer, which offers our thanks to the Almighty. We say, "And [we thank You] for the miracles, for the redemption, for the mighty deeds, for the saving acts, and for the wonders which You have wrought for our ancestors in those days, at this time." As we learn today, this prayer alludes to the fact that Chanukah was not a lone miracle that happened 2300 years ago. Chanukah is still with us, every generation and every year.

Today's lesson teaches us something that most people never learned - how to be yourself! We learn how to live your own life and not according to anyone else's expectations. We don't have to play other people's games by their rules. Then, we're free to play our own game by our rules, what we know and believe is right. While expressing our true individuality, there's no need to compete with others. Indeed, we to compete with ourselves strive higher. That way, we cultivate our good points to the max and fulfill our personal potential in a way we never dreamed of. Let's learn how:  

Today on "Emuna Hour", we learn how to be at peace with ourselves. Even more important, we learn how to be our own therapist. It's easier than you think and it's ever so gratifying.

Our path to inner peace has three segments. The first segment is making peace with the Creator, which we learned in the previous two Emuna Hour lessons. The second segment is making peace with our fellow human, which we learn today. When we're at peace with others, we do ourselves a favor. The third segment of our path is making peace with ourselves, so stick with us!

"ATFAT" is the abbreviation of "A turn for a turn". In other words, The Almighty treats us in the same fashion that we treat others. It's like a Divine mirror which we call, "The ATFAT principle." Like the other magnificent methods that The Almighty uses to run the world, this phenomenon is evident both in the laws of physics and in the laws of metaphysics. Simply stated, you'll find ATFAT both in the material world and in the spiritual world. This is the root of Newton's third law of motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Applying this knowledge is the key practical key for staying out of trouble's way..

Confinement in a jail with an unlocked door is senseless. Yet, people confine themselves to a prison of needless inner turbulence every day. A substantial amount of our suffering in life is self-induced. Therefore, once a person realizes that certain actions induce trouble in life, and learns to refrain from those actions, the trouble disappears. No law says that you have to suffer so much! You can terminate a good portion of the anguish in your life with the ease of walking away from an unlocked jail. Let's learn how:

There are forms of Divine abundance that no money in the world can pay for. Divine abundance has a price tag, but it's spiritual. If a person prays profusely and does good deeds, he or she generates spiritual revenue that pays for a portion of the Divine abundance. Even though we must think that everything is a free gift from the Almighty, it's like a line of credit. What we use and don't pay for, we pay in the next world. What we use and do pay for, the credit remains for the next world.
Prayer generates Divine abundance. But sometimes it's not enough. Suffering, tribulation and disparagement – when accepted with emuna – are the tears that bring phenomenal treasures that we would not have attained under any other circumstance.

Why do we have so many difficulties in life? Is this how a loving Father in Heaven should treat His children? Why COVID 19, financial difficulties and all the grief? In answering these questions, we learn two important principles of spirituality: first, the distancing principle; the second, the end-of-year cleanup. Both are the tribulations we all suffer from, but with a closer look, they're a manifestation of the Creator's absolute love for each of us, as we learn in today's lesson.

Today, we begin to learn the three levels of making peace: peace with the Creator, peace with one's fellow human and peace with oneself. One cannot hope of attaining any semblance of inner peace without making peace on all these three levels.
People are surprised: "Peace with the Creator? That sounds weird!" Not at all; if folks would be honest with themselves, they'd see that they harbor all kinds of complaints against the Almighty. "Why did He make me sick?" "Why doesn't He give me enough money?" "Why did He give me such an abusive spouse/boss/neighbor/etc.?" The list is long.
We learn today that in this world, the sweetness and the sting go together, why this is so, and how it's all for the very best.