Emuna Beams

Here's how to maximize your potential. From this moment on, stop comparing yourself to anyone else on earth. Get to know your unique talents and aptitudes. They are the tools that help you reach your personal peak, your mission and goal in life. The Path to Your Peak has helped thousands of people do just that. It can help you too.

There's nothing healthier for body and soul than a new beginning, making a fresh start. The spirit influences the body. So, when the spirit declares a fresh start, the body becomes rejuvenated! By removing the focus from our setbacks and disappointments, we avoid sadness and depression. And if we messed up by committing some transgression, we simply ask forgiveness from Hashem and promise to do our best to improve. Once we've made teshuva, the past is wiped away – the transgression no longer exists! Therefore, by declaring a new start, we destroy sadness and depression, especially the depression that follows a transgression.

Rebbe Elimelech of Lizensk longed for the coming of Moshiach (Messiah), a day when truth and justice will prevail the world over. He told a parable about a baker sifting flour, which he said would be indicative of Moshiach's imminent arrival. This amazing parable helps us understand current events today.

How do two soulmates merge? What holds them together? Today's lesson provides a deep insight into the soul itself and the way it connects with its mate.

In the final chapter of Genesis, Joseph gives his brothers a lesson in emuna. This lesson is vital for every one of us to this day. There's absolutely nothing to fear...

Although the world is rife with suffering and tribulations, few are the fortunate individuals who know how to cope with indignity. King David was one of them. We now have the opportunity to learn his secret of "The Serene Soul."

In Kabbalistic teachings, we learn that a man receives his income by virtue of the illumination of his wife's soul. He must act like the sun and shine brightly on her. She is identical to the moon. Even her bodily rhythm is lunar. And like the moon, she does great things with the light she gets from the sun. Today's lesson provides a much deeper understanding of the marital relationship.

In one dramatic moment, Joseph suddenly sees the events that brought him to Egypt in a new light. He realizes that his agony of slavery and incarceration was an amazing "act one" of the same drama that catapulted him to the pinnacle of power in Egypt. He sees the Divine Hand that wrote the script. He discovers the exquisite and very intricately-detailed picture of Divine Direction. Joseph gains a rare glimpse of Hashem's engineering of events that is beyond the grasp of the wildest imagination.

"Beholden" is a synonym for "grateful". The Oxford Dictionary defines beholden as, "Owing thanks or having a duty to someone in return for help or a service." The sample sentence the dictionary uses is, "I don't like to be beholden to anybody." An attitude like that in a relationship is devastating, whether it's a relationship with the Almighty or with your spouse. Grateful people are never bitter but bitter people are never grateful.

Who do you blame when you missed your train? Don't bother looking for the seemingly guilty factor or person. This week's Torah portion shows how the apparent setbacks in our life are all for the best.

Since Abraham, the first monotheist, the war against emuna has been never-ending. There are times in history when the vast majority of Jews succumbed to political correctness and assimilation at the expense of their faith. One such time was nearly 2300 years ago, when the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV tried to Hellenize all of Judea. He nearly succeeded, but the Maccabees foiled his plan. Today's Emuna Hour scans the War of Emuna and tells the story of Chanukah. This story continues to this day.

Violence begins with anger and escalates to physical harm, even killing. Sometimes killing is justified, as in self-defense. But, when a person becomes accustomed to killing, he or she is likely to kill when it's not at all justified. Our forefather Jacob didn't want anything to do with anger and violence. His two sons Simon and Levi think otherwise...