Great Throughts Treasury

"Everything depends on a person's work and effort, nothing else. With work and effort, everyone can reach great levels."

"Everyone should set himself a daily program of Torah study. This applies even to people who are far from holiness and sin regularly. So great is the power of the Torah that it can free them from their sins. If even the worst sinner would take on himself to study a fixed amount every day, he would be able to escape the evil trap. The power of the Torah is so great that it can accomplish everything."

"Everyone speaks of "this world" and the "world to come". As for the "world to come", we believe in it. Maybe "this world" also does exist somewhere! But the world in which we find ourselves here would appear to be Gehinnom, because everyone is constantly in great pain and we find no "this world" at all!"

"Everything you see in the world - everything that exists - is there for the sake of free will, in order to test people. The entire world and all that it contains were created to give man free will."

"For a Tzaddik, death is just like going from one room to another."

"For the main offspring of the Tzaddikim are their good deeds, and thus all mitzvot, good deeds and acts of devotion are like giving birth. How many shrieks and cries a woman emits when giving birth! How many pangs she endures before the baby is born, especially when it is her firstborn, which is particularly hard."

"Faith will make you grow, flourish and succeed in your devotions, because no obstacle will have the power to disturb you or throw you into depression and apathy. Regardless of what happens, you will continue doing what you have to do joyfully and with enthusiasm, paying no attention whatever to any disturbances and distractions."

"For the root of the entire creation is glory. Whatever God has created, He has done so only for His glory. "Everything that is called by My Name. I have created for My glory..." (Isaiah 43:7). It follows that His glory is the root of the entire creation. And although everything is a unity, there are nevertheless gradations within creation. Each individual portion of creation contains its own unique glory, which is the root of that portion. Each of the ten utterances with which the world was created has its own unique glory, which is its root, because glory is the root of everything. Each utterance is a garment expressing God's glory, for "the whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isaiah 6:3)."

"God alone has eternal life because He lives to eternity. Yet a person who is merged with his root - namely with God - also lives to eternity. Being merged in God's oneness he lives eternally, like God. Likewise, only God has perfection, and besides Him all are lacking. Yet one who is merged with God has complete perfection."

"God does us a great kindness by allowing us to use human terms when addressing Him in prayer and by answering our requests. If it were not for His kindness, it would be completely inappropriate to address Him with names, descriptions and praises consisting of mere words and letters. The fact that we are able to do so is all due to God's kindness. The realization that, although God is exalted beyond all human titles and praises, He permits us to address Him in human terms in order to bind ourselves to Him, should be sufficient to inspire us to pray with fervor and passion. This is a sign of His great love and tender mercy. We should therefore at least be sincere when we address Him this way, since it is only through His love and mercy that we are able to do so at all."

"God knows our innermost thoughts. We may have distracting thoughts, yet God knows that in the depths of our hearts, our thoughts are focused only on God. When you pray, your innermost thoughts are always directed toward God. God searches all hearts and He sees this innermost desire. He sees through the disguise and accepts the prayer in love."

"God shows us great kindness by governing the world with individual providence and through the laws of nature. When people are good, God deals with them providentially, in a way that goes beyond nature. However if God were to oversee the life of an undeserving person in accordance with His providence, no good could ever reach him. Nevertheless out of kindness, God leaves this person to the laws of nature, and as a result, through the law of averages, things may then go well for him."

"God takes pride in every individual Jew, even the most minor, even the sinners of Israel, as long as they go by the name of Israel. There is a unique pride that God takes in every single Jew and even in each of his limbs and every single movement he makes. Sometimes a lowly Jew makes a slight movement with his side-curl and God takes great pride in this too! One should therefore never despair of God's help regardless of any wrong he may have done, because God's love for him will never cease and he can always return to God."

"Godliness becomes concealed as a result of sin. When a person commits a sin and then repeats it, the sin becomes permissible in his eyes, and this is what causes the first concealment. The more the person sins, the deeper he falls into the "concealment within the concealment". Yet even in the "concealment within the concealment" Godliness is present, because without His life-force nothing in the world could exist."

"For the sake of one small pleasure lasting a mere quarter of an hour, a person can lose the whole of this world together with the world to come!"

"For the root of the power of the spirit of folly lies in sadness and depression. Therefore the only way to receive a holy spirit of prophecy is through joy - the joy created by the hand of the player. Thus, "It was when the musician played that the hand of God was upon him" (II Kings 3:15) ; "and he will play with his hand and it will be good for you". The player who has the power of the hand can sift out the good spirit from the bad and thereby subdue the evil spirit."

"Giving the charity tithe saves a person from his enemies. God shields him with His hand and saves him."

"For when a person grows old in his sins, it is very hard to seek him out as he has already forgotten and no longer recognizes the voice of the Torah and the mitzvot. We must therefore beg God to hurry and bring us back to Him before we completely forget the call of the Torah and mitzvot. This was King David's prayer: "Search out Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your mitzvot.""

"God's way is to call a person the moment He sees him straying from the path of good sense, asking him to turn back. He calls each person in the way most suited to him. To some He beckons with a hint. To others the summons is literally a cry. Some people kick, and He must strike them in order to call them. For "the Torah cries out before them: 'Fools! How long will you love foolishness?'" (Proverbs 1:22, Zohar Shemini 36a). The Torah is God's voice calling and begging those who sin to return to Him."

"God's glory is like light. The larger an object standing in front of a source of light, the greater the shadow it casts. When you set up a thin rod in front of the sun, it throws only a small shadow. A larger object throws a bigger shadow, while a great structure throws an even larger shadow. The shadow is caused by the obstruction of the light. The same is true of God's glory. When something material stands in front of something spiritual, it casts a shadow. The denser the material, the more shadow it casts."

"How precious is the sigh of a Jew! The very sigh brings fulfillment of his needs. For the world was created through the breath, which is the life spirit". And through the breath of His mouth all their hosts" (Psalms 33:6). The renewal of the world will also be through the breath: "You send Your spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth" (Psalms 104:30). The breath is also man's vitality since his life depends on breathing. "And He breathed in his nostrils the spirit of life" (Genesis 2:7). The essential vitality of all things thus depends on the breath. Whenever something is lacking, the main lack is in that thing's vitality, which is the life-spirit keeping it alive. A sigh is a long breath - the long breath of patience. Therefore when a person is patient and sighs over what he lacks, he draws life spirit to that which is lacking, because the main lack is the absence of the life spirit."

"He, who draws those far away closer to Torah, is given the ability to Bless."

"God's greatness is unfathomable: that is why Teshuvah has such power. No matter how far you may have fallen - be it to the lowest depths - never despair, because you can always return to God. With just a little effort you can turn even your worst sins into merits. No matter where in the world you fall, you can easily come back to God. This is because of His unfathomable greatness. Nothing is beyond His power. Just never give up! Keep crying out, praying and pleading to God at all times."

"Having a sense of humor is good on three conditions: 1. You do not insult others. 2. You are not vulgar. 3. You do not present yourself in a good light to the detriment of others."

"Having a broken heart and being depressed are two quite different things. Depression is rooted in the unholy "other side" and God hates it. But being brokenhearted and contrite over one's sins and shortcomings is very dear and precious to God. It would be very good to be brokenhearted all day. But this could easily throw most people into gloom and depression. You should therefore set aside some time each day for heartbreak. Seclude yourself with God for a given time and break your heart with regret over your sins. Then be happy for the rest of the day."

"God's glory cries out from all things, for "The whole earth is filled with His glory" (Isaiah 6:3). Even the stories of the nations cry out with God's glory: "Let the nations tell of His glory!" (Psalms 96:3). His glory is reflected even in their tales and stories. God's glory cries out, calling and signaling you to draw closer. For God wants you with all His love and kindness."

"Happy is the man who walks the path of truth without any kind of sophistication - a person who is "simple and upright, fears God and shuns evil" (Job 1:1)."

"Holy melodies are very exalted, having great power to stir the heart and draw it to God."

"However, in time to come Godly knowledge and awareness will be revealed and all will know God, "for the earth will be full of the knowledge of God. " (Isaiah 11:9). Accordingly anger will then no longer exist, "and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard with the kid, and the cow and the bear shall feed. They shall not do evil and they shall not destroy, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God. "(ibid. 6-9). At present it is impossible for them to live together because of anger. But in time to come they will be able to live together because the anger will no longer exist on account of the knowledge which will then be revealed."

"How precious when you sigh out of longing for something holy. The sigh you emit because you are far from holiness breaks the bond of impurity that was trapping you. Now you can bind yourself with the cord of holiness. But the opposite is true when you sigh with desire for something wrongful, God forbid."

"If a grain of wheat is planted in good soil, it will sprout and grow beautifully without being harmed by winds and storms. This is because there is a power that makes it grow and flourish. But if the same seed is planted in poor soil, it literally rots in the earth because there is no power making it grow. In the same way, when a person has faith, which is the growth-generating power, nothing can harm him. He is not afraid of anyone or anything in the world; he puts energy into his prayers and v isits the Tzaddik. But if a person lacks faith, he lacks the growth-generating power, and then he literally rots, like a grain of wheat planted in poor soil. This is what makes him ponderous and depressed and he literally rots!"

"Human thought has tremendous power. Thought alone can bring about many things. Even prices in the market rise because of people's thoughts and expectations. When thought is concentrated intensely, it can exert great influence. All the faculties of the mind, conscious and unconscious, down to the innermost point, must be focused without distraction on the intended result. When many people do this together, their thoughts can actually force what they are thinking to come about. The concentrated thought must spell out every step of the desired result in detail. It is not enough for the thought to be merely overall, because this is an "incomplete vessel" and may even be deceptive."

"If a dead person were allowed back into this world to pray, he would definitely pray most beautifully, with all his strength."

"If a person doesn't focus on the purpose, what is the point of his life?"

"If a person had complete faith in God and fully believed that He stands over him listening to his prayers, hearing every word that comes from his mouth, he would certainly pray properly without a trace of apathy or despondence. The main thing that prevents us from praying with enthusiasm is a lack of faith, which makes people despondent and apathetic."

"If the food a person eats is pure in accordance with the dietary laws and he eats it in a dignified manner without swallowing it hurriedly, his mental powers will be enhanced and grow while his innate folly will be subdued. However, one who eats like a glutton will be overcome with folly and lose his intelligence. The light of the Tzaddik will be concealed from him and he will be unable to learn from him how to love and fear God."

"Human fallibility being what it is, victory and truth do not always go together. Therefore, if you have to always win, you can't always be true."

"If God's only way of running the world were through providence, rewarding good deeds and punishing sin, this could lead to a total breakdown of providence. For if God were to see someone acting im?properly and dealt with him in anger, He might cast him out completely. Instead, God abandons him to nature, and when he improves his ways, He deals with him providentially. But in actual fact we are quite unable to understand what is "nature" and what is "providence", because the truth is that even the laws of nature are really God's providence. However, the human mind is unable to grasp the paradox that what appears to be the law of nature is really God's providence."

"If the world is nothing, what can you do? To know what to do in this world you need help from Heaven. But as the people of Israel, we need no further help. We already know what we must do, because the Torah teaches us what to do."

"If the world was created for me, it is therefore my constant obligation to examine and consider what is needed to repair the world and provide everyone's needs, and to pray for them."

"If there is another more natural means of redeeming yourself. In a time of crises one must prepare for battle and not rely on a miracle."

"If you could turn a person inside out, you would see that thousands upon thousands of worlds depend on every single sinew of his body."

"If you believe that you can damage, then believe that you can fix."

"If you have to give a Torah discourse, choose a happy subject on which to speak. When you perform a mitzvah (good deed) with joy, it shows that your heart is whole with G-d. Joy opens the heart. Diet plays an important role in determining your moods. Advising someone well, leads to joy. Certain dances and even movements can bring one to a state of joy. Music brings joy. Faith brings joy. Joy brings out the hidden honor in a man."

"If you are a person of faith, you will find it easier to repent. True repentance must balance the sin. You have to endure pain and suffering in equal measure to the enjoyment derived from the sin. Since you believe in God, you will never be able to have complete enjoyment from any sin because any wrong you do will be with mixed feelings and in the full knowledge that it will end bitterly. You know the bitter punishment for each sin, so that if you succumb to temptation you are filled with regrets even as you sin. It is therefore much easier for you to repent because you do not have to endure unbearable pangs of repentance since the pleasure from your sin was never very great. For the non-believers, however, repentance is more of a burden. Having suffered little pain or remorse at the time of the sin, they are obliged to suffer when they repent in order to balance the pleasure of the sin."

"If you want to be a diligent student of the Torah, be careful never to speak against any fellow Jew."

"If you can control your temper, your enemies will never daunt you."

"If you want to enter God's service, remember all this very well. Strengthen yourself in every possible way and do what you can to continue with your devotions. Eventually, with God's help, you will surely succeed in entering through the gate. God is overflowing with love and very much wants your devotions. Know that every single effort you make is important. All your attempts to detach yourself even slightly from the material world and draw closer to the spiritual are added together. They will all come to your aid when you really need it, when you are under pressure or in trouble, God forbid. And know that in life a person has to pass over a very narrow bridge. The main thing is not to be afraid."

"If you want to follow the ways of Teshuvah and return to God, you need to acquire two different skills: the first is the ability to "run forward" at times of spiritual ascent; the second is the knowledge of how to "return" when you encounter a setback. These two skills correspond to how the angels in the prophetic vision were "running and returning" (Ezekiel 1:14). Whether you feel you are advancing or not, or even if you feel you are sliding backwards, always stay strong and follow King David's teaching: "If I ascend to heaven, You are there, and if I make hell my bed, behold You are there!" (Psalms 139:8). "If I ascend to heaven." If you succeed in rising to some high level, don't stay there and content yourself with what you have achieved. You must have the skill to understand and believe that you are obliged to advance even further. This is the skill of "running forward": "If I ascend to heaven, You are there!" Conversely, even if you fall in some way, never give up hope. Seek out and entreat God constantly and strengthen yourself as best you can in the place where you find yourself. God is present even in the depths of hell. Even there you can attach yourself to God: ".and if I make hell my bed, behold You are there!" This is the skill of "returning". Only through the acquisition of these two skills can you go in the ways of Teshuvah."

"If you want to return to God you must make yourself into a new creation. You can do this with a sigh! Man never stops breathing - releasing the stale air and drawing in fresh air. Our very lives depend on this. The physical air we breathe has its root above. There is the good air of the Tzaddik and the evil air of the sinner. The Tzaddik constantly draws air from the holy, the sinner draws air from impurity. Therefore, when a person wants to repent, he must make sure to stop the bad air from coming into him. The way to do this is with a sigh, which is a long, deep breath in and out. The sigh begins when you draw in extra air. This is similar to what happens just before a person dies: he draws in extra air and then the spirit leaves him. Every exhalation is the death of the moment that has passed, in preparation for the birth of the new moment. Thus when you take a deep sigh, you release yourself from the bad air of the sinner and bind yourself to the pure air of the Tzaddik in order to receive new vitality. This is Teshuvah, returning from impurity to holiness in order to gain new life. The very body is renewed, because "Sighing breaks a person's whole body" (Berachot 58b), and therefore the body is remade."