Emuna

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.
 

Divine Providence is the Almighty's precision constant supervision and intervention over all levels of creation. This is not only on a wide general scale, but down to the tiniest detail in each of our lives in particular. Both in macro and micro, the Almighty decides the fate of the super-galaxies as well which leaf a silkworm in Japan will eat for dinner. As we shall learn, the awareness of Divine Providence takes us to the highest level of emuna.

Noahides are truth-seeking people who have exchanged former beliefs for the purest form of faith. The Seven Noahide Commandments, the first of which is emuna, are their guiding lights.
Enjoying marvelous spiritual status in this world and the next, Noahides sometimes feel alone. Some seek to convert to Judaism. Others think they must have a house of worship to attend. They need neither. I do encourage them, though, to network and to develop support groups.
As we learn in this brief and encouraging message, the goal and beauty of a Noahide is cultivating his or her own intimate personal relationship with the Almighty. Nothing is more gratifying.

If you can't honestly express your pain and shed real tears to your Father in Heaven, Who really loves you and cares about you, then who else on earth is there to cry to?

So what if the world is round? It means that if you're flying high, don't be arrogant because tomorrow you might not be on top. And, if you're down, don't be depressed because you'll soon be up again. 

This is the first of our new "Lunchbreak Series", thirty minutes of self-empowerment. Today we learn how to believe in ourselves. The principles we learn in this lesson are the difference between success and failure, happiness and depression. Enjoy this, and go forward with a smile on your face.

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:

So many people suffer from stress and anxiety because of overload. Who says that life must be that way, so seemingly cruel and unfair? What law says that you must carry the weight of the world on your shoulders? Here are two minutes of encouragement.

Life's obstacles and difficulties are not punishments from Above. They're part of the Divine GPS that's designed to guide us along a better route that we might not have initiated or even considered on our own.

Modern society is so preoccupied with body that most people don't even know that they have a soul. When people think that life is only body and the physical, they become candidates for depression. Why? For them, each day is a day closer to the cemetery. Is that all one has to look forward to in life? Thank goodness, no!
Champion athletes are highly aware of their bodies. A marathon runner feels what's going on in each muscle of his legs and feet. Yet, an overweight person who never engages in physical activity and barely gets out of the sofa is utterly out of touch with his body. By the same token, one who never engages in spiritual activity loses touch with his soul. Spiritual awareness - awareness of the soul and its Creator - is a prerequisite for happiness and inner peace.
Here's the good news: the soul is a tiny spark of the Creator. Just as the Creator is eternal, so is the soul. A person who prioritizes soul over body lives forever.

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.