You are not a duck

On becoming the eagle we were meant to be

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Mesirut Nefesh

The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 9.) teaches that the world will exist for six thousand years. The first two thousand years are called תהו (void) because there was no Torah in the world. The following two thousand years are called the years of Torah. The final two thousand years is the era of Moshiach because Moshiach will come then." The first two millennia of Torah began when Avraham Avinu was 52 years old. Why don’t the two thousand years start from the time Avraham recognized Hashem (which is at the age of 3, 40, or 48, as discussed above)? The Satmar Rebbe zt'l answered that when Avraham was 52, Nimrod threw him into the fiery furnace at Ur Kasdim because he refused to worship idols. The value of Torah is when it’s kept with mesirus nefesh. Avraham believed in Hashem earlier, but when he was 52 years old, he kept the Torah with mesirus nefesh. That’s the beginning of the two thousand years of Torah. During the Communist regime, it was difficult to find a mohel in Russia. One Russ...
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What looks like disaster can save us

Someone owned a very strong and quick horse, and the proud owner fed it well and took good care of it. But eventually the horse became old and its upkeep was costly. Nevertheless, the owner had hakaras hatov to the horse, so he continued feeding it and caring for it. One day, the horse fell into a very deep pit and couldn't get out. The owner thought it was an opportune time to put the end to his horse and began shoveling dirt into the pit to bury it. The horse looked up with pleading eyes, wondering why his owner was throwing earth over him. But the owner didn't pay attention to his horse's plea and kept tossing in earth. As the pit filled up with earth, the horse climbed on top of that earth, and slowly, slowly it was raised, until it was able to leave the pit. There are circumstances in life that seem negative, and sometimes we feel that someone is trying to bury us alive, but ultimately we grow from all those hardships, as everything is planned only for our benefit. (To...
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No driverless trucks

 A young child was observing a truck on the road. The child was too short to see the person sitting in the driver's seat, and it looked to him like the truck was riding on its own. Afraid that the “driverless” truck might crash into him, he urged his mother to get out of the truck’s way. He also asked his mother how the truck knows, on its own, when to stop and when to slow down or speed up. The mother explained that when he will be taller, he will be able to see the man sitting in the driver's seat. The nimshal is that it sometimes seems to us that the world is running on its own with no one in charge. But when we become greater and taller (in a spiritual sense) we recognize that nothing happens on its own. Everything is led by Hashem's hashgachah pratis. (Torah Wellsprings, Matot, 5782)
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