The Library

L'sheim Yichud Kudsha brich Hu uS'chintei b'dechilu urechimu, hareini muchan um'zuman l'kayem mitzvos asei shel v'ohavta l'reiyacho komocha, v'nikdashti besoch b'nei Yisroel: I love Hashem. I love hisbodedus. Boruch Hashem I am sober today and have been sober one day at a...

An alcoholic once exclaimed: "It's only human nature to drink" to which we reply, "Nature is what we were put in this world to rise above!" There is something literally miraculous in personal self-transcendence and transformation. And I don't use the word "miraculous" he...

www.guardyoureyes.org is mentioned - and warmly endorsed - in the recently published book: Working with Torah: A Guide to Employment by Rabbi Boruch Clinton (p.116, last paragraph). Click below to read the article, which is an important article for us all to read. Click ...

Although I love what Hashem is doing for me since I started using the 12 steps to allow Him to do it, I sincerely believe there are many ways that Hashem can do that for his kids. Some folks clearly need a different way than the 12 steps in order to reach what the 12 st...

It is clear from various Sefarim and in various places in Chazal that we didn't always have free will in the past.. To quote Rav Shlomo Wolbe, [zt"l]: The great [Jewish] philosophers established bechira as the cornerstone for the whole Torah.... But from this resulted a c...

Rav Wolbe Ztz"l, one of the foremost baalei mussar of our times, in his Sefer "Psychiatry and Religion" (Pg. 82) suggests cultivating a combination of religious and social fulfillment to help our youth beat this big challenge. He writes: The difficult phase of adolescence...

The Beis Ahron of Karlin writes that Torah and Mitzvos need to feel fresh and new in our eyes every day. So he asks, how can we instill this in our hearts? Answers the Beis Ahron, we can learn a Kal Ve'Chocher from the Yetzer Hara himself. The Yetzer Hara tempts a person ...

NO ONE FLOATS INTO RECOVERY ON THE WINGS OF VICTORY

I don't know about you, but my yiddishkeit went through it's first serious development between the ages of 10 and 20. That was the same age during which my sexuality and dependence on schmutz and masturbation first developed. Coincidence? I think not.To me, my yiddishkeit...

I once read an amazing few words from the Lubavitcher Rebbe in a letter to someone who was struggling with emotional stress: "Being involved with Torah will of course help your mind from these distracting thoughts. By 'being involved (osek) b'Torah, I don't necessarily me...

Someone wrote: I feel so low. I hate myself and I don't trust that Hashem loves me. GYE Responds: A Tzadik once said that Hashem loves the biggest Rasha more than we love the biggest Tzadik... The pasuk says "Hashem Tzilcha - Hashem is your shadow". He reacts to us the w...

To enjoy the greatest pleasure in life, we need to embrace the half of the glass that's full and the half that's empty. What is life's greatest pleasure? It's not an easy question. Close your eyes a minute and think about it before you read any further. What did you come...

THINGS ARE NOT NECESSARILY GOING WRONG JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT GOING MY WAY.

Someone asks: The RAMBAM asks, who is a real baal teshuva? One who is in the very same position, same circumstances, same desire, but this time he controls himself. So let's say a person starts to have a fall (really slipping) and in the middle he stops himself, what does...

Religious people, myself included, like to say that God's law is absolute, that it transcends the subjective, arbitrary and hence fleeting quality of human law. But how do you test a thing like that? I've found a way. I call it the "Canary in the Coal Mine Phenomenon" and...

HUMILITY DOESN'T MEAN THINKING ANY LESS OF YOURSELF; IT MEANS THINKING OF YOURSELF LESS.

There's a nice Chazal about the fact that appreciation of a spouse is contingent upon faithfulness in the heart: "kol hanosein eynov b'mah she'eyno shelo - ma she yeish lo, notlin mimenu - whoever puts his eyes on that which is not his, even what is his they take away fr...

Sex and love are the deepest human emotions and fixing these emotions fixes a person deeper than anything else. That's why in Kabbalah, the Seffirah of "Yesod" refers to the Brit. "Yesod" means "foundation". Guarding the Brit is the foundation of Judaism. The positive com...