EMUNAH
FAITH
A
1)One's belief in God must come through faith and not because of
miracles.
2)You can achieve faith by being humble.
3)When you see something out of the ordinary, don't say that it's
coincidence; rather, believe that it is Divine Providence.
4)There are things which bring great harm to the world and it is hard
to understand why they were created. You should know that they most
certainly have some aspect of good.
5)Finding the words of an apostate pleasing will bring a person to
thoughts of idolatry, even if these words are not heretical in and of
themselves.
6)A person's faith endears him to God much like a wife [is endeared] by
her husband.
7)Without first preparing his heart, a man cannot achieve faith.
8)When a person loses something it shows that he's fallen from his
faith.
9)One who has lost his faith should visit Jewish graves and tell of the
kindness which God has performed for him.
10)Faith is dependent upon a person's mouth. [Speaking about faith not
only increases it - it is faith!]
11)Torah study breaks all heresy.
12)Belief in God brings blessing.
13)Overeating leads to a fall from faith.
14)Gazing at the sky when it is clear and bright will bring you to
faith in the Rabbis.
15)Should you find that you have doubts about God, remain silent. By
virtue of this silence, your very thoughts will provide you with an
answer to your question.
16)Remaining silent when you are insulted will earn you the answers to
your questions and you'll merit a spirit of understanding.
17)When a person's adversaries are wise, rich and mighty, you should
know that this is because he's more than once fallen from faith.
18)Faith is considered like charity.
19)Belief in God makes one wise.
20)It is first necessary to have faith in God, and only then will you
be worthy of understanding Him with your intellect.
21)The unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, comes about through
the soul of the Jewish People.
22)A person's sins bring him to entertain heresy.
23)When a person falls from his belief in God, he should cry.
24)Faith comes by remaining silent [in the face of criticism].
25)A person's jealousy causes him to fall from his belief in God.
26)When a person has no faith, it is an indication that he belittles
the words of the Torah.
27)A person who is always cleaning his hands is purifying his heart.
28)When a man falls from faith, he should know that he is being judged
Above.
29)A person will experience an emission, promiscuous thoughts or
thoughts of idolatry because he has fallen from his belief in
God.
30)Faith comes through giving charity.
31)By means of faith one can come to understand God intellectually.
32)Through faith, one can come to trust in God.
33)Because of faith, God will forgive you for all your sins.
34)There are times when God sends a person suffering and punishment but
He does not weaken him. This is only intended [to increase his]
faith.
35)Swearing falsely causes a person to fall from faith.
36)A man who has no faith does not accept rebuke.
37)The person who does not believe in the words of the Tzaddik will in
the end have no benefit from them, though he will see that they've
come to be.
38)A man who has no faith certainly despises God's statutes.
39)Mashiach will come suddenly and, because of their joy, the Jews will
fear.
40)When Mashiach comes, the ministers of above and below will be
weakened. But now, whenever there is an ascent by any minister, the
Jews are weakened.
41)In the World to Come, whoever is "younger" than his neighbor will
ascend to a higher level.
42)Jerusalem was only destroyed because the Jews desecrated the
Sabbath, neglected reciting the Sh'ma - both morning and evening -
and left the young school children unattended. They felt no
embarrassment one for another, despised Torah scholars, and there
were no longer any men of faith in the city.
43)Jerusalem will only be redeemed through charity.
44)War is the beginning of redemption.
45)A person who raises pigs delays the redemption.
46)Jerusalem will not be rebuilt until there is peace amongst the
Jewish People.
47)This, that the Jews wander in exile from nation to nation, is a sign
that Mashiach will come.
48)When the nations overly insult us, it is a sign of Mashiach's
imminence.
49)The House of God will not be built until haughtiness ceases to
exist.
50)Through the spirit of oneness that will exist amongst Jews, Mashiach
will come.
51)Mashiach will come in a year of blessing.
52)The Mashiach won't come till all the souls have left their
storehouse in the "body" [of Primordial Man]. When a person marries
his daughter to a Torah scholar, or uses his possessions and engages
in business to benefit a Torah scholar, he will merit being
resurrected from the aead.
54)The breath of a liar gives rise to the evil inclination. When the
Mashiach comes, falsehood will not exist and so there will be no
evil inclination in the world.
55)A man of truth can recognize in another if he is speaking falsely or
not.
56)The majority [of wise men] will not agree to something false.
57)The Holy One despises the man who speaks one way with his lips and
another in his heart.
58)Reason cannot tolerate a rich man's deceit. Even he finds himself
despicable.
59)Giving charity rectifies one's speech.
60)Truth protects the world from all forms of harm.
61)Flattery leads to lying.
62)A person who gives charity is rewarded with attaining the truth.
63)A person who lies will certainly despise humble people.
64)One can see from a man's servants if he is fond of falsehood or
not.
65)When there is no truth there is no kindness.
66)If you are in any way false then when God [indicates] His desire to
save you, this falsehood brings your sins out into the open so that
He should not save you.
67)For telling the truth, God will redeem you from all suffering.
68)A person should rather die than live and be considered a liar by
others.
B
1)Occasionally, a person comes to some place and experiences anguish
there. He should know that his ancestors were in this place and came
to some form of heresy, or his descendants will one day be here and
come to some form of heresy. This is the reason he is now
suffering.
2)The use of flattery leads one to heresy.
3)The Holy One, blessed be He, only performs miracles for the person
who believes in both worlds.
4)The evil decrees which the nations proclaim against us are nullified
because of our faith in God.
5)Know! Each and every grass has its own unique power to heal a
specific sickness. This is only for the person who did not guard his
faith and sexual purity, and did not keep from transgressing "Do not
despise any man" (Avot 4:3). However, one who has complete faith and
also keeps the Covenant and fulfills "Do not despise any man," his
cure is not dependent upon particular types of grasses. He is cured
by all foods and drinks in the "aspect" of "And your bread is
blessed" (Exodus 23:25). He does not have to rely upon particular
grasses to be cured.
6)The essence of the future salvation will only come about because of
faith, the quality of which is in accordance with the leaders of the
generation.
7)When one goes from one rabbi to the next, he must strengthen his
faith in the unity of God. Learning from many teachers detracts from
the belief in the Oneness. However, the rabbi who has faith in the
Oneness is able to enlighten each and every student according to his
ability; each pupil only hearing that which is necessary for him,
and no more.
8)Consolation comes because of faith in God.
9)Flies multiply in the world because there is a lack of faith.
10)The person who guards himself from transgressing the prohibition
against coveting what is not his, will be saved from anger and
haughtiness, and from the lack of faith which they bring on.
11)Because the Jews do not make His Godliness known to the peoples of
the world, they are seduced by the nations into following foreign
ideologies.
12)Corruption of faith gives rise to stern judgement. Thoughts of
idolatry awaken doubly strict judgements. That is, even the
judgements which have already been passed are reviewed to see that
they were sentenced properly - without leniency.
13)A person who causes his friend to fall from faith suffers
childlessness.
14)When a woman is heedful of the mitzvah of challah, tithing the
dough, her sons will be masters of faith.
15)Faith settles the mind.
16)Torah brings to faith, and faith brings to sanctifying the Name of
God.
17)A person who finds that he cannot sleep should think about his
belief in the resurrection of the dead.
18)Those who have only a small amount of faith have difficulty gaining
new insights into the Torah.
ACHILAH
EATING
A
1)Make certain that there is something left over from the food you eat,
so that your sustenance will receive God's blessing.
2)A man's table purifies him from all his sins.
3)A man's table earns him the World to Come as well as a livelihood [in
this world]. He is recorded for good in the uppermost worlds and is
also rewarded with added power and strength when he needs it.
4)The sin of delaying justice, distorting and corrupting judgement and
neglecting Torah study brings drought. People will eat but will not
be satiated; they will partake of their bread in measure.
5)By eating a little bit, a person's heart is drawn after food; more so
than the one who has lost hope of eating and has eaten nothing at
all.
6)Why were the Jews deserving of destruction? Because they delighted in
the feast of that wicked one, [Achashveroshl.
7)The altar removes evil decrees, atones sin, nourishes and endears.
And the table is comparable to an altar.
8)When a person eats without first washing his hands [as the law
prescribes], it is like he visited a prostitute. One who ridicules
this religious requirement is uprooted from the world.
9)A man should not drink water in public.
B
1)A person whose being reflects the image of God is elevated through
his eating of living matter. The opposite is also true.
2)Eating fish arouses the desire for marital union.
3)God is made known in the world through the Birkhat HaMazone, the
Blessing after Meals.
4)Reciting the Birkhat HaMazone brings the country's government relief
from dispute and wars.
5)When a person learns the Torah with a pure mind, because he eats with
such a degree of holiness that his sustenance is drawn from the
sustenance of the angels, his enemies are sentenced to strangulation.
This is indicated [in the verses], "And it was on the third day, in
the morning..." (Exodus 19:16); "Then in the morning there was a
layer of dew" (Exodus 16:13); "And it was at the morning watch..."
(Exodus 14:24). (I heard this explanation from his holy lips: "And it
was on the third day", was said during the giving of the Torah and
refers to the person who learns the Torah with a pure mind. "Then in
the morning, there was a layer of dew," was said about the manna,
which is the food from which the angels draw sustenance, as our
Rabbis have taught. "And it was at the morning watch," was said at
the splitting of the Red Sea when the Egyptians were drowned, which
is an "aspect" of strangulation. Rabbi Nachman learned from one
morning and applied it to the other, thereby deducing the above
statement from the Torah.)
6)A man who cannot taste the food he eats should know that God has
removed Himself from him.
7)When Tzaddikim eat, [it is an act of great holiness,] even greater
than the bringing of sacrifices and on a higher level than even their
marital relations.
8)Fish grow plump in the merit of the sacrifices.
9)It is a known principle that a person bitten by a dog has had
Heaven's mercy removed from him. It is also a sign that he has eaten
a forbidden food.
10)The person who guards himself against eating forbidden foods is
saved from wild beasts.
11)One whose enemies have gained eminence falls into a lust for
food.
12)A person's lust for food causes him to favor one son over the
others.
13)"Lchu lachmu v'lachmi u'shetu byayin masakhti - Come, eat of my
bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled' (Proverbs 9:5).
L'chu Lachmu V'Iachmi Ushetu is an acronym for LULAV. B'yain - with
its four letters - has a numerical value (76) equivalent to the
first letters of etrog, hadas and aravah (1+5+70=76); and maSaKhTi
is the aspect of SuKkoT. By fulfilling the mitzvot of the Four
Species and sukkah, a person is rewarded with food, drink, clothing
and with a revived spirit. Through the mitzvah of sukkah he merits
clothing in the aspect of, "When I made a cloud its garment" (job
38:9). By virtue of the willow branch he gains sufficient drink,
through the myrtle branch he brings vitality to the soul; and by
taking the branch of the palm tree and the etrog of the citron tree,
both of which contain edible fruit, he merits having enough to
eat.
14) A person earns sufficient] food and drink by keeping the Torah's
statutes and laws.
15)Drinking rouses a person to sing and play instruments, while eating
does not. This is because when the Jewish People [were in the
desert, they] sang the praise of God over the well and not for the
manna [which they were given to eat].
ALMAN
WIDOWER
A
1)A person whose wife died should recite daily the chapter on the
asham, the offence offering (Leviticus 7:1-7), until he remarries.
B
1)People do not listen to one who speaks falsely. Lying also causes a
person to be widowed from a number of wives.
2)When a man's wife dies, it is like he has lost one of his bones. This
is not so when the Tzaddik's wife dies, as is written, "Achat
Meheynah Lo Nishbarah - not one of them [the bones] was broken"; an
acronym for ALMAN, a widower.
ERETZ YISRAEL
THE LAND OF ISRAEL
B
1)By settling in the land of Israel, a person gains insight into God's
providence over the world.
2)A person draws from the holiness of Eretz Yisrael in accordance with
the original insights which he finds in the Torah.
3)The yearning which a man has to come to the Holy Land brings him
great blessing in his livelihood.
4)One who provides support for many people draws a blessing from Eretz
Yisrael to the diaspora.
5)A person who yearns to be in the Holy Land arouses a yearning in his
father and mother, that is, in their souls, which then come to Eretz
Yisrael. God also comes with them, and together they look forward to
and yearn for his arrival.
6)Because of the charity given to the poor people of Eretz Yisrael, a
person prospers monetarily.
7)A person who knows of the Holy Land, who has really tasted Eretz
Yisrael, can recognize in another whether he has been with the true
Tzaddik for Rosh HaShanah. For when one merits being with the true
Tzaddik for Rosh HaShanah, wherever he focuses his attention he
transforms the air there into an aspect of the air of Eretz Yisrael.
Therefore, a person who knows the taste of the Holy Land, each
according to his own level, will of necessity feel Eretz Yisrael when
he comes together with this man who has been with the true Tzaddik
for Rosh HaShanah, through whom the air becomes an aspect of the Holy
Land.
AVEDAH
LOST OBJECTS
B
1)The same strength which enables a person to return a lost object to
its owner, enables him to win converts [for God].
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