We all have those moments in life: a demanding boss, difficult people, situations that spin out of control. Learning how to effectively deal with trying circumstances goes a long way towards a happy, successful life.If I am easygoing by nature, the secret to handling these situations is straightforward: follow my temperament. But what if that isn't my natural bent? What if I allow things to get to me? Or what if, over and over again, I just seem to lose it? This Shmuz offers a perspective on lif...
Mar 09, 2019•44 min
For almost 2,000 years, the Jewish people have been driven from land to land across the globe. Exiled from our home with the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash, we have been forced from continent to continent and country to country - tortured, oppressed, and banished. For a short while, we find haven in one country, only to be kicked out again and chased to the next place in a never-ending series of tragedies. This reality brings many questions: Why is the Jewish people so oppressed? Why is it th...
Mar 09, 2019•53 min
Am I worthy to ask for even more than what I have been given? Why should HASHEM grant my requests? This Shmuz deals with our relationship with HASHEM, and helps us focus on some basic issues of davening and bitachon. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donatio...
Mar 09, 2019•41 min
The illusion of reality See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
Mar 09, 2019•43 min
"Dip the apple in the honey, have a good sweet new year." We teach our children that touching song, and that is what we all wish for: a good sweet year with bracha and hatzlacha in all that we do. But that often isn't the case. If we look back on previous years we see many things that were sweet, but also things that weren't. Some parts of our lives are downright bitter and we wish they'd never occurred. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously ...
Mar 09, 2019•37 min
The difference in value between a perfect diamond and an almost-perfect diamond can be a king's ransom. With the same cut, clarity, and color, a flawless ten-carat diamond might be worth two hundred dollars, while a diamond with a tiny flaw can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's right. The flawed diamond is worth more. Why? Because a completely flawless diamond is a fake. Real diamonds have imperfections. They may be small and almost unnoticeable, but they are flaws all the same. ...
Mar 09, 2019•45 min
This Shmuz deals with a basic concept in our becoming effective human beings: developing the trait of appreciation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
Mar 09, 2019•39 min
While we may be aware of the influence that our thoughts and attitudes have on the way that we act, we rarely focus on the effect that we have on others. After all, who am I? Am I so important that I can really change other people? Do my actions really sway them? While this may be true for our relationship with most people, for each of us there are a few individuals on whom we have a profound influence. This Shmuz focuses on the concept that to the whole world you may be one person, but to one p...
Mar 09, 2019•44 min
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
Mar 09, 2019•38 min
Since the time that we were young children, we were taught, "We want Moshiach now!" This concept is not the exclusive domain of fringe elements of Jewry; rather, it is a basic tenet of our religion. The Rambam counts it as one of the Thirteen Main Principles, and if one denies it, he is considered a heretic with no portion in the World to Come. And so, we daven for Moshiach. We sing songs about Moshiach. We wait for Moshiach. But do we understand why? Do we understand what it is that we're waiti...
Mar 09, 2019•44 min
This Shmuz deals with the attitude and approach that we should have in these trying times. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
Mar 09, 2019•46 min
This Shmuz deals with the attitude and approach that we should have in light of recent events. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
Mar 09, 2019•45 min
For those of us paying bills and trying to make ends meet, dealing with the uncertainty in the marketplace today has become a major issue. This Shmuz deals with the attitude and approach with which to view current events. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a do...
Mar 09, 2019•50 min
He's got money." "They come from a well-to-do family." "He's a man of means." It is often difficult to sense the influence that society has upon our way of thinking until certain events transpire and bring them to light. The recent financial meltdown is one of those events. It's a chance to see how much we have adopted from outside influences. One of the negative values that we have picked up from the society we live in is rating people by their financial success, where money becomes the sole me...
Mar 09, 2019•43 min
The adult is mature; the child is immature. The hallmark of the immature is to shirk responsibility; the characteristic of the mature is to take responsibility. While we understand that so much of being an effective human being is based on being responsible, the message that comes to us from society at large is "I'm not responsible," and "It's not my fault." It's almost counter-cultural to be responsible. This Shmuz focuses us on the role that responsibility plays in all of our relationships and...
Mar 09, 2019•39 min
We are commanded to love G-d. We are commanded to fear G-d. Yet we really don't know that much about G-d. We are certainly aware that HASHEM created the world and all that it contains, but how do we move beyond that to actually fearing and loving HASHEM? First, we must become aware of HASHEM's presence and His involvement in our lives, concepts that, while noble, may seem so far removed from our world that they don't seem attainable. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Thi...
Mar 09, 2019•1 hr 5 min
I know that middos make the man. I understand that my character traits define every relationship that I am involved in. And I wish I were more generous, humble, and caring. But what can I do about it? I am who I am. This Shmuz focuses on how it is that our gedolim changed their very nature and demonstrates the Torah's system for developing our middos. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead...
Mar 09, 2019•48 min
Lehman brothers fell. The market is down. Real estate is down. Many people have lost their jobs. About the only thing that is up these days is sales of anti-depressants. Putting some perspective on the events that we are living through, this Shmuz focuses on some of cycles of life and what our attitude towards them should be. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service ...
Mar 09, 2019•1 hr 10 min
Faith is a sort of vague, hopeful idealism. I have faith that your check won't bounce. I don't know, but I hope. Knowledge is far more concrete. I know that fire burns and that heavy objects fall. And while both faith and knowledge seem commendable, when it comes to relating to HASHEM, both fall short of what a human is capable of. We have the capacity to experience HASHEM. Not only to have faith that He is present, not only to know it with absolute certainty, but to actually experience HASHEM. ...
Mar 09, 2019•48 min
The Chofetz Chaim network consist of high schools, batei medrashim, kollels, kiruv centers, shuls, and rabbonim and teachers across the country from communities as diverse as Milwaukee, Rochester, Los Angeles, the Five Towns, Miami, Cherry Hill, Manalapan, and Yerushalayim - an empire of thousands of talmidim following in the mesorah given to them by their Rebbe. This Shmuz is both a personal tribute and a recognition of the great gaon, Reb Alter Hencoch Hanoch Lebowitz. See acast.com/privacy fo...
Mar 09, 2019•54 min
We all have bitachon. We all know that HASHEM determines our fate and all the events that will befall us. The problem is that this concept remains so far removed that while we know it on one level, in our day to day lives, it's non-existent. So while we say we trust in HASHEM, we live our lives in contradiction to this. This Shmuz focuses on making our beliefs real and taking our bitachon from the potential to the actual See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has...
Mar 09, 2019•48 min
If we could imagine the most kindly, giving, loving person and the take each of those traits and multiply them by 10,000, we still wouldn't begin to illustrate the tremendous loving kindness that HASHEM has towards Creation. That being said, the only question is: why don't I feel it? Why isn't this something that is obvious to me? This Shmuz focuses us on our relationship to HASHEM and what it takes to realize that HASHEM really cares. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. T...
Mar 09, 2019•41 min
On the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran Radio on Oct. 20, 2006, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared: "[America] should understand that the message from the peoples of the region . . . is manifested in a single slogan: "Death to America!"While America's foreign policy is set on appeasement and understanding, Iran is within months of attaining nuclear arms capacity, and so the threats are no longer mere slogans. The West seems to be ignoring the reality that we are not witnessi...
Mar 09, 2019•53 min
Tisha B'Av- What we can do to bring the Geulah See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
Mar 09, 2019•52 min
I know exactly what it is that I need! I need to marry that woman; get that job; my child has to get into that class - and HASHEM just won't listen! I have tried to teach HASHEM. I have tried to speak to him. I even daven. But nothing helps. For some strange reason, HASHEM won't give me what I need. 85% of our Emunah problems come from just such thinking: assuming that I know exactly what it is that I need and then having questions on HASHEM when He doesn't deliver it. Part of being a mature, th...
Mar 09, 2019•44 min
The Chovos Ha'Levovos explains that one of the most powerful driving forces in our serving HASHEM should be a sense of appreciation. We should be filled with a powerful feeling that I am the recipient of much good; that I am constantly benefiting from all that HASHEM has bestowed upon me. The sense that I am constantly receiving should fill me with a recognition that nothing that I could do would ever pay back for what HASHEM has given me. Yet, often that isn't the sense that we feel-it seems fa...
Mar 09, 2019•38 min
1. To fear HASHEM 2. To go in all of His ways.3. To love HASHEM.4. To serve Him with all of you heart and your soul. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
Mar 09, 2019•59 min
Sir Winston Churchill is quoted as saying: Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. The reality is that all of us have moments of truth: short lived burst of inspiration and clarity when we truly get it- when we fundamentally understand why we are here and what we are capable of. One of the great secrets of life is to capture those moments and use them to catapult our growth. This Shmuz introduces us to those often mis...
Mar 09, 2019•49 min
Whether we are aware of it or not whether we admit it or not-- We all speak Lashon Harah. And herein lies one of the great mysteries: The Rambam defines Lashon Harah as words that hurt words that damage. Yet, we are nice people. We arent malicious or mean spirited, and we certainly wouldnt do something to intentionally hurt another person. Yet, we regularly speak, words that hurt words that damage the question is why? This Shmuz focuses us on the fact that one of the biggest causes of Lashon Har...
Mar 09, 2019•45 min
Chanukah - The Power given to Man See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate
Mar 09, 2019•49 min
