Amen. 1 D, thank you very much for that share. For all of us I wish the same as you said

Dov I just saw ur post and blessing too..  (Moving fast through the city as usual)..

Yes. The refuah happening here on GYE is amazing. As yidden get better, the world will follow suit automatically.

I'm big into that: "it's not that the world is sooo bad so THERFORE we yidden get affected so negatively", but rather the truth is: "because yidden have had such 'less than good' behavior (and specifically negative thinking!), that THERFORE the world looks like it does".

(This isn't a 'guilt trip' ch'v, but rather an empowerment that Hashem has blessed us with to determine the state of the world [starting with ourselves obviously]. We are all arayvim zeh l'zeh.. As anyone of us comes closer to Hashem, it affects us all wherever we are, and by extension every detail of everyone's personal 'world at large'... How much more so here on GYE where MANY of us can go through healing together with Hashem...

i certainly highly dissagree with you

Well if I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong :-)..

Thanks for sharing!

that gave me a chukle
(sorry for being so blunt, in the last post, you are entitled to your opinion)

:-)...  Blunt is like home.. Remember, I live in a ghetto in poverty..

Anyway, here is a direct quote from one of our holy seforim written in this generation.. (Taken diretly from the original yiddish)

"This indicates a fundamental lesson about our service to G-d. When a Jew encounters severe challenges, from harmful attitudes and desires, he must realize that their ultimate source lies not in the world but in himself. It is not true that he must follow the world; neither is it true that in order to live a faithful Jewish existence one must make concessions to the world. The reverse is the case. The Jew himself creates the state of the world he inhabits. If his Judaism is tempered by an inner reluctance or fear, this is mirrored in the world. But it is the nature of the world to conceal its spiritual source. So this fact, too, is concealed, and attitudes hostile to Judaism are sensed as coming from the outside, from the world at large, pulling the Jew away from his faith. But the truth is: The Jew is himself the author of these attitudes. Were he to change his own desires about judaism, from apprehension to affirmation, he would change the attitude of the world as well.

This is not all. Even where we cannot find the origin of such conflict within the Jew, because he is personally wholly free of conflict, then it is nevertheless still because of the Jew that it occurs. For in him lies the purpose of creation. As the Rabbis said: The world was created in the beginning for the sake of Israel who are called the beginning of G-d’s produce.

 The conflict occurs as a test of the Jew’s inner strength. And if he refuses to be overwhelmed by it, it will turn out to have had no reality. Because the state of the world is dependent on the state of the Jew in his Judaism."

When i used the term 'negative thinking', I didn't mean machsovos zaras about immorality at all. What I was referring to is thoughts like: "oh! This isn't going to work out".. Or "oh no!, now I'll never get that job, and my life won't be good", or "what are you crazy!?! Now we'll never get there in time!", or "the situation is really bad now", or "see! I knew I'm not so smart, I just paid too much! If I was really smart, I'd haggle like a REAL man",..or the real special one, "uh oh! If my kids keep this up, they'll never be talmidey chachamim" and "wow! Hashem is REALLY mad at me now"... Etc... You know; all the WONDERFULY NORMAL thoughts consistently spinning in the heads of SO MANY of our people! RACHMANA LITZLAN!!

THESE are the though patterns of G-d's chosen, 1st born, beloved people!?!?!  BH for GYE that the REAL loving G-d, WHO HAS ALWAYS BEEN loving and compassionate is becoming the reality for our people...

'Self fulfilling prophecies' are VERY real... Like the mother who is always at her son's throat "you're gonna be on drugs when you're older!.. I know it!! You're gonna be on drugs!!!".."Kids like you are no good!!" So when the kids grows up and can finally get 'some fresh air outside', no wonder he goes right to seek 'comfort' with drugs and other stuff.

I know a girl who sent a text to a friend of mine saying "I hate my life" (she really meant it with great emotion: she really wanted 'out' of life)... 5 minutes later she was dead.    NO, THIS IS NOT A JOKE OR EMBELLISHED STORY.. (Her reasons are for another time)

"Think good and it will be good" is not, and was never, a 'child's story'.. It is VERY real.. So all of the CONSTANT worrying to the point of anxiety, stress, fighting and depression that I've come to see SO often in SO many 'religious' jews is VERY disheartening, and I honestly believe it to be one of the MAJOR FACTORS as to why the orthodox community is dealing with the issues it is dealing with today (and obviously by extension, why the rest of the world looks like it does today)..

(Quite honestly however, I'm not sure if it could be any other way anyway. The post war generation had much to be 'concerned' about and the 'switch' from handling kids with force in europe to suddenly 'having to be emotionally available to them' after the war, happened so fast, that most of them did NOT [AND STILL HAVE NOT!!!] make the transition and went on abusing, and slowly distancing, the next generation; thereby passing on the inheritance of nervousness worry and tension)

Any jew (or any person) who is blessed to have moments of 'sound mind' and instead of acknowledging the blessings of life, instead ends up strengthening negative thoughts about him/herself, the family, their life, or any fact of life, is making a GRAVE, GRAVE mistake of lies, right in Hashem's face, and negatively affecting us all.

(Ps I'm grateful for I wife who feels comfortable enough to give me so much time for the longest post I've ever written!)

Heard recently in a shiur:  "a yid is not precious because of the Torah, rather the Torah becomes precious because of the. Yid"... 

(We make such a stink about the Torah, when Moshe himself smashed it in order to save the yidden)

A gut, gebencht yohr! Ksivo v'chasimo toivo!

;D
Amen

Even though we were 'va'yelech'- our souls left Sahmoyim and came to this world of struggle etc..

We still haven't lost 'nitzavim'-as we were all standing together perfect in heaven before Hashem..

In our essence, We are forever connected unblemished, as one....    Our job is to actualize this in this world.

When your loving father is the judge, exactly how 'harsh' can the court case be anyway!?...  It's ZERO doubt that we are much, much harder on ourselves than Hashem is. ...  What chutzpah!!! He's showing us only love all day and we insist on saying we're bad!?!  (As kids, Maybe older personalities taught us about a hard, mean G-d... Those people were mean, G-d never ever was)

It's also halacha that a 'sufek brocha l'hakel' (if there is a doubt to say a brocha, then we don't say it)..

On yom kipur,Torah obligates us to say 'boruch atah... Ha'mochel avonos yisroel..'.        So there is (and never ever was) zero doubt about it.

Yidden! He forgives us, no matter where we are in spirit.. We are blessed to be alive

Beautiful!

At least at this moment now, even with all my so many imperfections, I'm SO excited with simcha for Rosh Ha'shana! :-)

Dirshu Hashem b'hi'matzou....  Right now Hashem is a 'metziah' to us.. Zero effort is required to obtain a metziah. It 'shows up' even if you have no intention of finding it..

More importantly, He is 'korov'.. Full of love for us as well..

Torah requires us to do more than ask (bokaysh).. But rather 'dirshu'.. We can demand and demand anything from a loving G-d who is right here, right now

(Hahsem I want to be close to you, I want my life to be honest and sincere, I want to feel confident and proud as one Your children......)