Emuna Hour

Are you a calm person or a time-bomb of turbulence? How would you objectively rate yourself on a scale of total turbulence at the bottom and total inner peace at the top? Today's lesson enables you to assess your position on the stairway from explosiveness to serenity.

No one strengthens character from eating chocolate ice-cream. Coping with difficulty is like spiritual resistance training that strengthens one's spirit. Therefore, when the Almighty wants to uplift a person to a higher spiritual level, He first sends them some sort of verbal abuse. Verbal abuse breaks a person's heart. Yet, in striving to overcome a broken heart, a person builds an emotionally-stronger heart. Here's a lesson in spiritual resistance training...

Metaphorically, raw gold symbolizes the soul, whose mission on earth is to refine and purify itself from its unrectified blemishes. Extreme heat is not a punishment for the raw gold, but a mode of purification. Extreme tribulations in like manner remove the blemishes from the soul.

Are the Torah's commandments logical? Do they have a basis in intellect? Today's lesson
provides some answers that are missing pieces to a very old puzzle.

Just as cholesterol clogs the arteries, transgressions clog the pathways to the heart and the heart itself. A clogged and hardened heart has no desire to pray, for it cannot feel the Divine presence. Today, we learn how to perform a spiritual stent. Powerful prayer - a silent scream - penetrates the depths of the heart and renews its spiritual health.

A "Gett" in Hebrew is a writ of divorce. That's exactly what we're about to give to all of our regrets in life. They are nothing but iron shackles that hold us down and prevent us from moving forward and climbing higher. Today's lesson is a preparation for the happiest New Year you ever had.

Today's lesson sheds light on verbal abuse in families. Why do spouses disparage one another? Children are the greatest gift the Almighty can bestow on a couple. Why do parents tear their children apart with yelling and criticism? Does a family lack an adequate income? Strife in the home is most likely the culprit. More than anything, let's see how verbal abuse damages the soul. Rebbe Nachman says that if you believe you can ruin something, believe that you can rectify it.

Today’s Emuna Hour lesson introduces us to the six main types of verbal abusers: the common fools, the scoffers, the highbrows, the archivists, the investigators and the detractors. We learn to recognize them and how to guard ourselves from them.

Today’s lesson deals with the thorny types of verbal abuse that a person suffers with no prior triggers or misdeeds. Like the sweet prickly pear, these too are sweet fruit concealed in thorns. They are able to atone for a person’s misdeeds and can uplift him or her to a higher spiritual level. They also strengthen character.

Rabbenu Bachiya then explains that Hashem runs the world in a measure-for-measure fashion. One who encounters trouble in life should immediately assess himself. He who does so sincerely will benefit Divine guidance and assistance so that he'll be able to recognize the caustic catalyst that triggered the trouble.

Although the world is rife with suffering and tribulations, few are the fortunate individuals who know how to cope with indignity. They are able to weather insult without losing their composure. This is not a matter of superficial self-control. It's apparent that their soul remains calm. Let's learn their secret...

Since Coronavirus has such a predilection for the mouth and throat, oral hygiene is a determining factor in controlling its spread. Health authorities urge us to protect ourselves and those around us by keeping our mouth cleaner and free of harmful microorganisms. They're correct, but only partially. Everything in the physical world has a root in the spiritual world. Let's rephrase the Health authorities' idea from an emuna standpoint: we can protect ourselves and those around us by keeping our mouth cleaner and free of spiritual microorganisms, the viruses of transgressions.