SHANA TOVA

May you be blessed with chiyus (vitality) from within and health.

May your year be filled with deveikus to Hashem.

May you be zoche to achieve the geulah from within and greet moshiach.

                                            Love, aviva rus

The last Thursday of the year...

Make it count!

Chazal say: Everything goes after the end- this Thursday can fix all the Thursdays of the past year, and so on until Rosh Hashana!

Take five minutes a day to practice teshuva (rabbi Nivin)- returning to who you really are- a pure neshama- and thereby returning to your relationship with Hashem (the point of Rosh Hashana!!).

Anyone who wants the yomim noraim derashos given by Rav Schwartz (translated  and compiled in pamphlet form), please email me and i will send you the packet via email- iy"H.

KESIVA VECHASIMA TOVA!!!

Love, Aviva Rus

UPDATE: Chaburah this Monday at 12 IY'H

HI!

There were just two of us on the call on Sunday night so I did not record it, and instead we did Elul introspection.  We have not learned together in two weeks!! yikes!

I hope the next chaburah will take place this Monday at 12 (ny time)- so we can finally get to chapter ten of the sefer and tie it in with Rosh Hashana.

I highly recommend the series Rav Moshe Weinberger is teaching, Constructing the Soul, Who am I? as a supplement or as a replacement!! to all that we are learning together.

You can download it off of the  yutorah.org website.

Looking Forward!

Tonight at ten- iYH- chapter ten of Da es Atzemcha

Shavua Tov!

I read this and thought it was perfect for deep introspection in Elul...

FOCUSING ON THE DESTINATION

 

 

At times when you must let go and you ask someone to push you, you must know where you want to be pushed. You must know your destination.

 

Rabbi Mendel Futerfas, who spent many years in a Siberian gulag, tells how he learned a great lesson from a tightrope walker who was also imprisoned there.

 

The rabbi asked the tightrope walker what is the secret to his art. "What does one need to master? Balance? Stamina? Concentration?"

 

The tightrope walker's answered surprised him: "The secret is always keeping your destination in focus. You have to keep your eyes on at the other end of the rope, and that's how you get there is a straight line, without wavering. But do you know what the hardest part is?"

 

"When you get to the middle?" the rabbi ventured.

 

"No," said the tightrope walker. "It's when you make the turn. Because for a fraction of a second, you lose sight of your destination. When you don't have sight of your destination that is when you are most likely to fall."

 

Life is something like a tightrope. To navigate it successfully you must have your destination in focus. You must know where you are going. When the time comes to make a turn, and for a moment you cannot see where you are headed, you have to have your destination in your mind's eye.

 

The ultimate destination—the final goal of all human efforts throughout history—is called geulah ("redemption"), when the world will realize its purpose and reach ultimate refinement. The Jewish people have always kept their eyes on this destination; it gave them the power and freedom to forge ahead, despite all difficulties.

 

Geulah is not a destination you can see by looking in front of you, you can only see it by looking inside you.

 

Real focus is not physical, it is transcendental. Real focus is your relationship with your Divine mission.  If it is well developed, it can guide you past the moments of danger, and keep you moving with confidence even in moments of greatest fear and darkness.

 

Ask yourself: Do you have a real focus in your life?  Do you have a larger goal?  

• Exercise for the day:
  - Identify your personal mission in life. What do you believe is your calling in this world?
  - If you have difficulty with this, identify the steps you must take to discover your mission.

 

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Excerpt from 60 Days: A Spiritual Guide to the High Holidays, by Simon Jacobson. ©Copyright The Meaningful Life Center, 2014. All rights reserved.www.meaningfullife.com.