​You know something? I was thinking about the discussion yesterday about the tight situations that many are finding themselves in.
​
On the thread - a point was brought up in regard to taking on Shabbos 10 minutes earlier as a zechus for Klal Yisroel - all the Cholim & the hardship in many areas.

Hashem does want something of us! 

That much is quite clear!

As Nashim Tzidkanios - we know that it was in our zechus that Klal Yisroel was redeemed in Mitzrayim and now again - it will be us - the Nashim Tzidkanios that "get it" who will enable the Geula Shelaima to take place.

Personally, when it comes to doing something - there isn't one size fits all. 

Not everyone and their circumstances has the ability to take on Shabbos earlier. 

Not everyone and their circumstances has the ability to cut their Shaitels..

Not everyone and their circumstances has the ability to dispose of technology...

Not everyone and their circumstances has the ability to ....

But everyone does have the ability to do SOMETHING!

AND THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING OF ALL!

Iyov was punished harshly because he kept silent. 

Silence is the worst.

Hashem is shouting for our attention. We have to give it to Him. Each individual in whichever capacity they are capable, in whichever level they up to, in whichever area they are comfortable. 

Look through the 613 Mitzvohs or the Al Cheit which we say on Yom Kippur for ideas of where even the tiniest improvement can be done.

Another thing that I always find effective - when something is written - it is more concrete.

Therefore, I attached this shared excel spreadsheet where we can write down the ideas which we have and really stick to what we say. 

Of course - no names should be posted - unless you'd like to....

I'm no holier than thou girl or anything of the like. 

I just can't watch things and know that we have the power to effect change - and not do something about it. 

So I am.

And hoping that so are you.

Hakodosh Boruch Hu reminds us by showing what comes on other people and we are expected to look and become afraid; it’s one of the fundamental ways of learning yiras Hashem.

Pompous Pompeii

Learning Spiritual Lessons from Events

In Slabodka, there were not even one hundred young men under the age of twenty that put on tefillin.

When they saw what’s happening, did they say, “Maybe we have to stop our headlong dive into Marxism, into atheism. Maybe the rabbonim are right and it’s time to come back to Hashem, to begin putting on tefillin again.”

Did they think such thoughts?

Don’t think it can’t happen again.

Who said America is forever?! You have to be afraid!

We’re here, enjoying all luxuries, with plenty to eat.

We have liberty, we have safety, we have equality, everything we have.

​But someday I’m afraid we’ll look back on America and say the same thing because we’re not afraid of Hashem; we’re not learning the lesson from Mitzrayim, from Kush and Seva.

​Oh no! Instead of learning the lesson, the Jews are trying their best to break down America.

Jewish congressmen like Solarz are helping Communist regimes all over; Cuba, Nicaragua. And Jews are voting for Solarz and Koch. Jews are keeping them in power. Of course Koch gives them in return some benefits.

And for that benefit, the askanim, the shtadlanim, sell away our votes – whole kehillos of frum Jews, whole congregations vote for these people who are breaking down everything we have!

Look what’s happening to America! The whole youth is being demoralized!

The public schools are hammering away in the minds of the children, telling them how bad America is, how wicked the establishment is!

Finally the gentiles in the Midwest will get so disgusted and they’ll make a revolution!

They’ll try to fight to save America but I’m worried it’ll be a little late. 

America will already be shorn of its greatness – it’ll be surrounded by Communist
enemies.

Chas v’shalom it’ll turn into a fascist country and who knows what kind of gas chambers can be here?

​They can make better ones in America than the Germans did.

You Don't Need to be an Exalted Tzaddik (though that never hurts if you can manage it!)

...the best teshuva is the teshuva you do over a piece of watermelon; when you recognize that all happiness and enjoyment is from Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

A man says something to his poor wife and hurts her heart by saying a mean word, it’s a terrible sin.

The poor woman is working all day long with children, she’s worn out to the bone, and he comes home and says something mean; it’s like a knife in the heart! 

​That’s what you have to think about when you hear about this man who was taken out of his house by the police.

Learning Practical Lessons from Unpleasant Events

Fulfilling Your Fabulous Fear of God in a Few Minutes

Yet Again, We See that Hollywood Does Not Reflect Real Life

The Moroccan Beginnings

Basic Jewish Law: The Best Protection

Active Appeasement of Entities? Controversial–Not Recommended

Let's Go Back in Time to BEFORE We Knew that Every War Ended in a Miraculous Victory

The Demon Draft

What Won the War?

A Disclaimer for Any Brainwashed Jew-Haters Reading This

The Bitter Ends

The Importance of being Tamim with Hashem & the Power of a Mezuzah

Being Tamim with Hashem is the Best!

Postscript

2 Lessons: Derech Eretz Kadmah l'Torah & The Erev Rav Psyche

The Egyptian Demand for Safe Spaces!

And a terrible idea began to enter their minds: “Who knows what these depraved people are going to do to these sheep! They certainly don't worship them. Oh no! Could it be that it’s true what we’ve heard that the Hebrews do horrible things; they didn't do it in public, but secretly we hear that they eat sheep! The Hebrews are preparing for a sheep massacre!” 

During these four days, the land of Egypt was in an uproar.

There were meetings about what to do, how to deal with the Hebrews. The fact that they didn’t make a massacre was a mofes in itself.

The Egyptians didn't make massacres by the way; they were civilized people but this was going too far already!

​“To slaughter our god in front of our eyes?! And to do it with such brazenness?!”

The Value of Mishchu: It Protects Us from Getting Lost

It’s like the person who buys a lulav, and he’s traveling on the bus.

He went to Crown Heights to purchase a lulav and now he’s riding the bus back to Flatbush, a bus full of gentiles.

What does he do? He wraps it in paper so that people should think it’s a curtain rod.

He doesn’t have a backbone so he’s hiding it. He wants to fit in better with the Italians. 

I once got on a bus with a lulav and esrog – I used to ride the bus to go to shul. 

​As soon as I got on the bus, all the Jews on the bus looked for a crack in the floor where they could hide from embarrassment.

I didn’t hide my arba minim like a curtain rod, you understand. It was killing them! And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed every minute of it.

That was one of the most important lessons of mishchu ["pull"—as in the verse: "Pull and acquire for yourselves sheep."]

It means you should grow some backbone.

“Everybody get busy and do some pulling on your own; your job is to do it not secretly.”

And that’s why when this command came from Hakodosh Boruch Hu it was a very unwelcome kind of mitzvah.

It was a mitzvah that required readiness for martyrdom; it was actual mesiras nefesh.

It’s like the Orthodox Jew who wears a big beard.

A beard is a flag.

You know, if you walk down the street waving an American flag, then you’re going to be the target of all the bums, of all the beatniks, of all the liberals.

Whereas if you carry the American flag inside, beneath your lapel, you might be a big patriot, but you’re not suffering for it.

A Jewish patriot is willing to suffer for it – it happened to me more than once.

Three times people spat in my face.

I was walking once up the subway stairs and a woman looks at me and spits directly into my face.

In those days people didn’t wear beards.

Today, meshugaim also wear beards, but in those days it was different....Stones have been thrown at me.

Once I was bruised! All because of the beard.

Now, you think I would sell that? I wouldn’t sell any one of these incidents!

It could be that if you offered me a very big sum I might weaken, but for a mere five hundred dollars I wouldn’t sell it because that’s what it means to be a proud eved Hashem.​

That’s the lesson of mishchu; it means that if you're interested in being redeemed from Egypt, if you don't want to be destroyed when the destroyer passes over the land, you'll have to be willing to stick your neck out for Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

​And all the people who keep their necks inside their collars and try to hide, those who are only interested in their own protection, the end will be that they will go lost.

The Struggle to Maintain a Torah-Based Identity

It’s like the shomer Shabbos Jew who walks out of his house on a Sunday morning and he's happy; it's so peaceful and quiet.

The factories are closed, the streets are quiet and he enjoys the peace.

Sunday is a part of his life; it could be he gets up a little later for davening; other things too.

That's a good thing about going to Eretz Yisroel; the first thing you notice in Eretz Yisroel is that there's no Sunday.

But if you walk on the street in Flatbush or even in Williamsburg on a Sunday so you appreciate it; it’s a nice quiet holiday.
 
***

It’s like the man who says, “I don't have, let’s say, a Christmas tree in my house. Never!”

But as he passes by the stores and he hears the holiday music coming out of the stores; they play it in order entice the customers in order to buy gifts for the season; so the carols are coming out of the stores and it's hard not to have some sentiment about it; you become sentimental about the season.

​So even though you certainly are a religious Jew; you don’t subscribe to that at all, but a certain sentiment you have.

***
But that's also idolatry; if you have some respect for the gilulim of the ovdei avodah zarah, the abominations that they worship, the ideals and attitudes that they live with, that’s already a mistake.

“I don't subscribe to it,” you’ll say, “but there's a certain beauty, a certain poetry in it.”

​Ooh, once you say that, you're hooked – you’re in trouble.

Authentically Kosher Jewish Humor

That’s the way of the Torah when it speaks about idols; it degrades them.

It calls them elilim from the word al – the nothing gods.

Or gilulim, like gelalim, manure.

Manure gods!

Because that's exactly what it is; bowing down to an idol is like bowing down to a full chamber pot of feces. 

How to Live Forever

​You know, when you have to fight back against the public so you gain a certain hardiness.

And you need that to survive because there’s a lot of propaganda; the poor Jew is kicked around and scorned.

And if an Orthodox Jew maintains his principles in the face of all of that, that's one of the greatest achievements of life; that’s why we’re going to have a kiyum [existence] – that’s why the Am Yisroel will survive. 

Everyone else, every nation, every country will go lost one day, but the Am Yisroel, the ones who have backbone, will remain forever and walk on their ruins.

The Mystery of the Segulah that Seemed Not to Work