Daily Email Form Torah Reading: Toldot 27 Cheshvan 5776 / November 9, 2015 DAILY LIFT TODAY IN JEWISH HISTORY GROWING EACH DAY ASK THE RABBI QUOTE PHOTO Print Entire Mailing #524 Maintain a Positive Focus Print Version » When you consult someone to increase your happiness, know what you want, and ask for it. It's common to ask for what one doesn't want. "I don't want to be depressed." "I don't want to be so miserable." This way you might end up speaking more about depression and misery than on mastering joy. You might need to discuss the roots and causes in order to change what can be changed. But keep your main focus on joy, happiness, and self-mastery. If this is what you really want, keep your focus on what you can do in thought and deed to create it. (From Rabbi Pliskin's "Happiness",p.120) See Rabbi Pliskin's new book "Self-Confidence" Cheshvan 27 Print Version » In 2104 BCE (1657 from Creation), as the Flood waters finally subsided, Noah, his family and the animals left the Ark. On this day, God commanded them to repopulate and resettle the earth. Cheshvan 27 Print Version » If a person has an equal number of mitzvos and sins, he is given the opportunity to repent until Yom Kippur. If he repents, he is inscribed for life; but if not, he is inscribed for death (Maimonides, Teshuvah 3:3). Why should people be condemned if, by Yom Kippur, their mitzvos still equal their sins? If the two exactly balance each other, should they not be judged with mercy? Rabbi Yisrael of Salant said that the answer is obvious. If people are given the opportunity to repent for their sins, yet still fail to do so, their negligence is a sin so terrible that it outweighs all the mitzvos. While people cannot justify their sins, they can say that the intensity of temptation was overwhelming. As one Chassidic master pleaded, "Almighty God, if You had placed the terrors of Gehinnom before people's eyes and had concealed temptation in books, I swear to You that no one would sin. But You put temptation right before people's eyes and relegated the terrors of Gehinnom to the books, where it exists as an abstraction! Is it any wonder that people sin?" Still, once the sin has been committed and the temptation assuaged, what justification can there be for not regretting that one has done wrong? Hence, said Rabbi Yisrael of Salant, the seriousness of a failure to repent. Sin may stem from an inherent weakness; neglect to rectify past wrongs constitutes an act of defiance and an attitude of unforgivable, arrogant self-righteousness which cannot be forgiven. Today I shall ... make a reckoning of things I have done, and have the courage to recognize and admit what I have done wrong. See more books by Rabbi Abraham Twerski at Artscroll.com Cheshvan 27 Print Version » What are Tzitzit? I recently visited Israel and saw the men praying with prayer shawls. What was that exactly? The Aish Rabbi Replies: The Torah says: "Speak to the children of Israel and tell them to make tzitzit fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations." (Numbers 15:37-41) Tzitzit must be attached to any four-cornered garment. However, people today generally don't wear a four-cornered garment (except for maybe the occasional poncho). So in order to fulfill the mitzvah we have a special four-cornered garment called a tallit. There are two basic types: A Tallit Godol is a large garment that looks like a cloak, and is worn when men pray in the morning. The Tallit Katan is much smaller, usually worn all day long underneath one's shirt. The tzitzit themselves consist of four strings (doubled over into eight), and then tied in a special way to all four corners of the garment. From the moment one dons the tzitzit, until the end of the day when he takes them off, he is involved in a mitzvah! In this way, the tzitzit provide an anchor to the world of spirituality while going about our daily chores. Whether in the work place or in an amusement park, one can always look at his Tzitzit and get in touch with G-d, Torah, and his mission as a Jew. Just how do the Tzitzit remind us of this? The numerical value of "tzitzit" is 600. Add to that the 5 knots and 8 strings on each corner, and you get the number 613, which is the total number of mitzvot in the Torah. (Rashi - Numbers 15:39) To learn more, read "Tzitzith" by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Cheshvan 27 Cheshvan 27 Michael Shmidt captures a quiet, beautiful morning in the northern Golan Heights, with ridges and Mount Hermon. Featured at Aish.com The Priest Uncovering Hidden Atrocities of the Holocaust 4 Reasons Why the Media is Biased against Israel One of the Greatest Jewish Philanthropists You Never Heard Of Follow us on Facebook What do you think of this email? Help us make these personalized newsletters — and our site — better. 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