Emuna Beams

Welcome to the functional fitness "Brodie meets Brody" series. Here, world-class exercise physiologist, strength and cycling coach Menachem Brodie (NSCA-CSCS, USAC-PBT) teams up with Senior Fitness Trainer, Health Coach and Nutritionist Rabbi Lazer Brody (CHC, CPT, CHN). Today, they show how both women and men can maintain a healthy lower back at any age. Most important, we learn how to avoid the day-to-day back injuries the come from improper lifting. What's more, we'll even learn the right way how to pick up a baby. A must-see:

The young man looked in the mirror. He didn't like what he saw. He asked himself, "How can I go to an interview looking like this? It's ridiculous to wear my best when my stubbly face looks like I'm a drunk from the gutter!" Yet, he knew that shaving during the 3 Weeks was a serious breach of Jewish faith, for it shows that the transgressor is apathetic about the destruction of the Holy Temple. He was at war with himself. He felt that his career and his future were at stake, so he decided to ask the great Rabbi Moshe Feinstein what to do...

Is there a contradiction between Divine Direction and free will? If Hashem directs everything, like we learn in the first principle of emuna, what's left for us? We find our answer in a most unlikely place. The frogs come to enlighten us.
 

Sometimes we need something to pick us up. Few things are better for a tired and aching soul than a melody.
My cherished spiritual brother, sweet singer David Dome from London, is my partner in "emunizing" melodies. We take a pleasant melody and add some soul to it with emuna lyrics and David's rendition.
Here's a taste of what we did to an old Irish ballad by the name of "Wild Mountain Thyme." Emunized, it's now "Neshama, Come Home". Enjoy it.
Lyrics by Rabbi Lazer BrodyMusic and Vocal by David DomeOh Mashiach times a comin'And the trees are sweetly bloomin'And The Voice from the mountainCalls in love and in emunaCome home NeshamaCome home....And we'll all go togetherTo hear The Voice on a mountainAnd we'll sing a song foreverCome home NeshamaCome homeI will then say a prayerBy yon high and holy mountainMy love song for my FatherFlows like waters from a fountainCome home NeshamaCome home...And we'll all go togetherTo hear The Voice on the mountainAnd we'll sing a song foreverCome home NeshamaCome home.....Come home Neshama come homeNeshama come homeHashem forever be with meFor there never is anotherAnd it's His Voice on the mountainCalling you and me dear brotherCome home , NeshamaCome home......And we'll all go togetherTo hear The Voice on the mountainAnd we'll sing a song foreverCome home NeshamaCome homeMy brotherCome homeMy sisterCome homeNeshamaCome home....

Most people yearn for a comfort-zone existence. They don't like change and they certainly don't want crises. But the Almighty knows that we're capable of much more. Maybe we lack the courage and confidence to look for a better job or strive to go higher. What does the Almighty do? He throws us a crisis...

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.

Fitness trainers have an expression: “Get it right!” Any exercise, from simple breathing to the most complex routine, must be done in the best possible form to ensure optimal performance, gain and benefit to the body. Just as doing exercise is a workout for the body, doing mitzvas is a workout for the soul, making the soul strong and healthy. In that respect, good spiritual form is important for fulfilling a mitzva, so when it comes to observing the Torah, we have to "get it right" too.

The evil inclination never rests, so we can't either. If we don't do something every day to strengthen emuna, we won't have the emotional stamina to withstand the the major challenges that face each of us today.

Here's a 90-second message to pick you up whenever you think that you're alone in the world.

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.