(Talmud Brachot 32b) “Rabbi Chanina says, anyone who prays long enough doesn’t go away emty-handed!”

A sure fire spiritual law says that each prayer has its power, and that each request requires a certain amount of prayer. Just as an ounce of dynamite is enough to put a hole in a laboratory table, one might need a ton of dynamite to blow a hole in a mountain. By the same token, the greater the request, the more prayer, – or spiritual dynamite is required. Remember, sufficient prayer invokes a solution to any problem.

Rabbi Arush, Foundations of Emuna, Garden of Emuna, http://www.breslev.co.il.

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny!

Please step up to the plate and contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net. The more people we have contributing, the higher this daily lift will go.  Keep them coming.

Viktor Frankl’s approach to ‘Mindfulness’ is summarised in one quote from his book, Man’s Search for Meaning:

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

‘Mindfulness’ (that is, learning to stay focused in the present moment)  is at the core of positive psychology and behavioural medicine today . There is scientific evidence that is clear that such training is effective not only in reducing harmful emotions like anger and fear, but also in strengthening the body—by lowering blood pressure and heart-rate, for example. In this regard, it’s fascinating to learn that Maimonides addressed this topic in his influential Guide of the Perplexed (volume 1, chapter 60): “If we pray with the motion of our lips and our face toward the wall, but simultaneously think of business; if we read the Torah with our tongue while our heart is occupied with the building of our house, and we do not think of what we are reading; if we perform the commandments only with our limbs; then we are like those who are engaged in digging the ground or hewing wood in the forest without reflecting on the nature of those acts, or by whom they are commanded, or what is their purpose.”

Indeed, Maimonides attributed so much importance to mindfulness for establishing a healthful lifestyle that he even provided specific advice on how his fellow Jews could cultivate this trait: “The first thing you must do is turn your thoughts away from everything while you say the Shema or other daily prayers. Do not content yourself with being pious when you read merely the first verse of Shema or the first paragraph of the Amidah prayer. When you have successfully practiced this for many years, try when reading or listening to the Torah to have all your heart and thoughts occupied with understanding what you read or hear… After some time, when you have mastered this, accustom yourself to have your mind free from all other thoughts when you read any portion of the other books of the prophets, or when you say any blessing…direct your mind exclusively to what you are doing.”

Please step up to the plate and contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny!

The more people we have contributing, the higher this daily lift will get.  Keep them coming.

Napoleon was walking past a synagogue in Paris on Tisha B’Av and saw a congregation of Jews sitting on the floor, bawling their eyes out. He inquired what are they crying about? He was told they are mourning their exile and the destruction of their temple. He said if they can pray so fervently about something that happened nearly 2000 years ago, they will surely get their land and their temple back.

The first half of the prophecy has been delivered and Eretz Yisrael is back in the hands of the Jewish people, but what about other half of the prophecy? The 2nd Beit Hamikdash was destroyed because of baseless hatred and we are taught that if the Beit Hamikdash remains unbuilt it’s because the cause of its destruction has not been cured. The question is what can we do to cure it?

Give a Jew a hug, whatever he is, whether he’s your Brother or your Sister, whether he’s Safadi or Ashkenazi, Haredi or Secular, Black or White and if you can’t physically hug him then hug him in your heart. Give him the benefit of the doubt, forgive him for his mistakes and remember Hashem created him in his own image with his own divine mission. 

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny!

The more people we have contributing, the higher this daily lift will get.  Keep them coming.

Please step up to the plate and contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.

‘Appreciate the value of wisdom’

The beginning of wisdom is to acquire wisdom; from your every aquisition acquire understanding. Caress it and it will uplift you, it will honour you when you embrace it. It will set an adornment of grace upon your head; it will bestow a crown of splendor upon you.

Proverbs chap4 v 7-9

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny!

The more people we have contributing, the higher this daily lift will get.  Keep them coming.

Please step up to the plate and contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.

When you are doing Hagbah, concentrate on this:

It’s not how you hold up the Torah, it’s how you uphold the Torah”

I try to think about that little wordplay when I see hagbah – it’s a good way of focusing on the Torah as a law book which we have to follow.

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny!

The more people we have contributing, the more powerful this daily lift will be.  Keep them coming.

Please step up to the plate and contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.

G-d intentionally caused the world to be incomplete in order that we can become G-d’s associate creators of this world. We have come into this world to build it and to be built by it. Who you are is G-d’s gift to you; who you become is your gift to G-d.

Quoted from Rabbi David Aaron (Isralight)

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny!

The more people we have contributing, the more powerful this daily lift will be.  Keep them coming.

Please step up to the plate and contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.

The agnostic says “I don’t know”

The athiest says.    ” I deny”

The yids say.            “Adonai”

Contributed by Jonny Chippeck.

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny!

The more people we have contributing, the more powerful this daily lift will be.  B’H, this week we have a different person contributing  each day (which means we can give Rav Arush a well deserved rest!).   Keep them coming.

Please step up to the plate and contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.

Emuna is the faith and knowledge that the Creator sees all, rewards and punishes. People without emuna develop weird and, warped and destructive ideologies. For example, the Nazis had strict laws about cruelty to animals yet murdered millions of human beings without remorse.

Rabbi Arush, Foundations of Emuna, Garden of Emuna, http://www.breslev.co.il.

Extracts from ‘Garden of Emuna’, contributed by Terence Livingstone.

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny! Please contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.

King David teaches us to seek Hashem’s guidance when he pleads (Psalms 25:5), ‘Lead me in your truth.’ Your truth and not mine, for only You, Hashem knows what’s best for me.

Rabbi Arush, Foundations of Emuna, Garden of Emuna, http://www.breslev.co.il.

Extracts from ‘Garden of Emuna’, contributed by Terence Livingstone.

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny! Please contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.

With emuna we roll with life’s punches knowing that difficulties, even failures are loving expressions of Divine Providence to help us attain the perfection of our individual souls.

Rabbi Arush, Foundations of Emuna, Garden of Emuna, http://www.breslev.co.il.

Extracts from ‘Garden of Emuna’, contributed by Terence Livingstone.

These daily lifts are inspired by Jonny Chippeck and dedicated to his ‘refuah shleimah’. Get well soon Jonny! Please contribute your own small nugget of Torah by sending back to me at terence@speedquote.net.