Yiddishe Mamme

People walk around sad because they don't know what to do with their future. You have this minute right now. What are you going to do with it? The difference between sadness and joy is very simple. Sadness always tells you: 'Oy vey! What are you doing to do in ten minutes? What will you do ten years from now?' If you are really filled with joy for one minute, then you will know what to do the next minute also. What is G-d giving you? He is giving you this minute. He hasn't given tomorrow. Of course I don't know what to do tomorrow, because I didn't receive it yet. Sadness is very much concerned with what I don't have, and I really don't have tomorrow yet. The truth is, I am always standing before nothingness, because I am nonexistent yet for the next minute. I'm not there yet. Time isn't there. The world isn't there! The world is here...right now! -- Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, zt"l

The main thing is simple faith and stubbornness, so as not to be broken when one is depressed. With the same breath that G'd reveals Himself to you, you should live with Him in his distress of His children, who live with needless hatred and in all the different evil ways which disturb G'd's connection with us. Then G'd brings upon us an awakening of His pain, so that we can participate in His pain and so that there will be a place for Him in the world of asiyah, our world, from which the life force of all the worlds stems. When G'd does not have a part in this world below, we have no nurturing powers from above, and all the springs are stopped up. And as G'd has mercy on his creatures, He causes us to have pain and suffering, so that we will cry to Him and arouse His mercy on His nation, and redeem us soon.Rather than crying out from the depth of our hearts that there should be an end to all our troubles and that we should remain silent about all our pain and su...

By: Chaviv Danesh The period of time between the first day of Elul until Yom Kippur is 40 days. The number 40 occurs in Judaism quiet often. If we look closely we will see that every time the number 40 is used it is in connection with a transformation of one sort or another. Let’s look at some examples: The flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights. The Midrash along with many other sources state that the world became radically different after the flood. From the nature of the people to the land everything changed. In a sense the world was reborn and given a second chance for their misdeeds. The Jewish people were in the desert for 40 years. The time the Jewish people spent in the desert was a punishment for the spies who searched the land for 40 days and for the people believed their bad report. Therefore, here the 40 years were 40 years to compensate for the mistake they made and get them spiritually clean of that sin so that they can enter the land. Here again we see the number 40 transfor...