What happens when we rely on ourselves instead of HaShem

The Chovot HaLevavot (Bitachon 7) writes, "A story is told about a chasid whose neighbor was a quick-scribe  (סופר מהיר), and he earned his livelihood through writing. 

Once, the chasid asked him how things were coming along. The scribe replied, 'As long as my hand is healthy, everything is well.' 

That night, his hand was injured, and he couldn't write with that hand for the rest of his life. This was his punishment for trusting in his hand instead of Hashem Yitbarach."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How the Mir Yeshiva was saved during the Six-Day War

During the Six Day War, many people took refuge in the bomb shelter basement of the Mir Yeshivah in  Jerusalem.  After the war, some bachurim went up to the roof of the yeshiva and found three bombs there. Miraculously they hadn’t detonated. Reb Chaim Shmuelevitz zt'l told the yeshiva students, "You probably think you were saved in the merit of your never-ending Torah and tefilot in the bomb shelter, but I know the real reason we merited this miracle. A mother and her five children were with us in the bomb shelter. Her husband abandoned her years ago, and since then she struggles to support her family all by herself. As bombs fell in Yerushalayim, I heard her say, 'Hashem, You know that I have all the reasons in the world to be angry with my husband. Nevertheless, I forgive him. And just as I forgive him, You should forgive and save us.' Her vitur and forgiveness is what saved us." (Torah Wellsprings, Yom Kippur 5783, Rabbi Elimelech Biderman, shlita)
Read more

The Chofetz Chaim, the businessman, and a tsunami in China: A language that only Yidden understand

There was a Yid who moved to China for business. Once, while visiting in Europe, he made a stop at the Chofetz Chaim's zt'l home. "How are our brothers in China faring?" the Chofetz Chaim asked. "There are almost no Yidden there," the merchant replied. "There are millions of goyim, but only a handful of Yidden, and they are all very weak in their Yiddishkeit." The Chofetz Chaim gave him his sefer Nidchei Yisrael and said, "I wrote this sefer specifically for the Yidden who live in such places, distant from Torah centers. When you go back to China, bring this sefer to them. It will be good for them." The Chofetz Chaim continued, "And what else is new in China?" "There was a tsunami," the man replied. "Thousands of people died." "Oy, we must do teshuvah," the Chofetz Chaim exclaimed. "Why must we do teshuvah?" the merchant asked. "As I told you, there are almost no Yidden in China, and ...
Read more

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...
Read more