First of all, a late welcome back.

Opening up here is definitely a good move.It helped me a ton, and it also helped me in real life as well.

If you feel like you're being boring then if you like you can say how your day went or any thought that popped into your head that day.But don't feel pressured to say anything other than "i'm clean" if you're not in the mood, i personally like those posts, it's nice to see that people are doing well.


Btw, what do you mean by narishkeiten??? where?

inastruggle wrote:














All the way down here!

Today is Erev Tisha B'Av, July 15, 2013. Today, I am clean, B"H. I do wish my boss would have more stuff for me to work on today. Either way, I am not going to let that get in the way of my sobriety.

In other news, I was at a Shalom Zachar recently, and there was a bottle of Woodford sitting on the table (among other mashkim, to be sure). And I thought to myself, is this guy one of us??? I will probably never know.

I have no doubt that the zechus of GYE and all the warriors here are bringing the Geulah closer and closer every day. In the zechus of guarding our eyes, we should all be zoche to
ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון ברחמים

Today is י' מנחם אב' התשע"ג. Today I am clean, B"H.

I have noticed an interesting ad on Matzav.com. It reads,

סכנה!
לא נכנסים לים בלי מציל!

I thought when I first read it that maybe it was an ad for GYE, or Venishmartem, or some other internet safety product. But it wasn't. It was just an ad for an Israeli "public service" organization reminding people to be aware of the risks of going to the beach and to take the appropriate precautions.

But wouldn't that make a great GYE ad?

סכנה!
לא נכנסים לאינטרנט בלי מציל!

(Guard, are you listening?)

Today is י"א מנחם אב, ה'תשע"ג. Today I am clean.

(Witty line here.)

tryingtoshteig wrote:


I'm clean. Mr. clean....

Today is ערב שבת קודש, פרשת ואתחנן.

First things first. Boruch Hashem, today is a clean day. Note to my boss: I need more work to do today! Too bad he is not a GYE member to hear this (he is not Jewish, although he is a nice guy goy). Oh well, just more reason to hang out on GYE and read everyone's recent posts (even if I don't respond to them).

A couple of thoughts on the Parsha: (credit wikisouce for the ability to paste Pesukim with nekudos)

Moshe Rabbeinu, even after he heard from G-d Himself that he was not allowed to go into Eretz Yisroel, continued to daven repeatedly for the seemingly impossible, until Hashem tells him רַב לָךְ אַל תּוֹסֶף דַּבֵּר אֵלַי עוֹד בַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה. i.e. stop with the begging because if you keep making these "demands" of Me, eventually I will כביכול be "forced" to give in to you.

What can we, who struggle with lust, take from here? When we are faced with frustration, disappointment, etc. keep on davening, KOT! Don't take no for an answer! We know what the right thing is, and we can't let anyone or anything let us give up! If we stubbornly daven for something that we KNOW is the right thing for our ruchniyus, and we don't stop from davening, and begging, and davening, and begging, and even when the answer seems to be no, we don't stop begging, then in the end we KNOW Hashem WILL answer our tefillos, כביכול He doesn't have a choice.

(I don't think that I said any chiddushim here, just pointing out the relevance to our situation.)

Now for thought #2:

We find a bit of a theme runnning thoughout this week's Parsha. Moshe Rabbeinu is speaking to the dor of people who were born in the midbar, who will be entering Eretz Yisroel shortly. He is recounting the story of Matan Torah and the Aseres Hadibros. He says (3 pesukim before the Aseres Hadibros):
לֹא אֶת אֲבֹתֵינוּ כָּרַת ד' אֶת הַבְּרִית הַזֹּאת כִּי אִתָּנוּ אֲנַחְנוּ אֵלֶּה פֹה הַיּוֹם כֻּלָּנוּ חַיִּים
It wasn't our parents who stood at Har Sinai and got the עשרת הדברות, it was us, the ones who are alive today. Umm, wasn't the דור המדבר gone already at this point? The answer is, that all yidden, regardless of what point in history they live in, and regardless of where they live, have just as much of a personal relationship with הקב"ה as the our ancestors who stood at הר סיני. The passuk of
ד' אלקינו כָּרַת עִמָּנוּ בְּרִית בְּחֹרֵב
applies not one iota less to us in the 21st century than to the דור דעה. G-d loves every single one of us as an individual, and wants to see us succeed.

Later in the Parsha, we have a Passuk that we quote in the Haggadah Shel Pesach:
כִּי יִשְׁאָלְךָ בִנְךָ מָחָר לֵאמֹר מָה הָעֵדֹת וְהַחֻקִּים וְהַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ד' אלקינו אֶתְכֶם.
When your children ask you in the future (for example, at the Pesach Seder, but lav davka) to explain these mitzvos we are doing here, then you should answer (I am skipping here)
וְאוֹתָנוּ הוֹצִיא מִשָּׁם לְמַעַן הָבִיא אֹתָנוּ לָתֶת לָנוּ אֶת הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ
This is one of the pesukkim that we quote in the Hagaddah as a source that
בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר...וְאוֹתָנוּ הוֹצִיא מִשָּׁם .
Again we see that Yetzias Mitzraim, which is the basis for our relationship with הקב"ה, was not just a historical event, but it is something that touches each of us personally.

This also relates to Tisha B'Av, based on the Gemaras that say
כל דור שלא נבנה בית המקדש בימיו כאילו נחרב בימיו
and
כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה

We all (and I am really talking to myself more than anyone else) need to take Hashem in our hearts, and establish a deep personal relationship with Him, pour out our heart to Him when things are rough, and thank Him when things go well, and we will end up with richer lives in the short run and, b'ezras Hashem, the בית המקדש in the long run shorter run.

Have a good Shabbos chevra.

I think that if I am going to post a vort on the Parsha, I should post it a little earlier on Friday afternoon, or even Friday morning, otherwise it's going to end up being a vort on last week's parsha for most people. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I saw it and liked it

thanks tonz
have a great, healthy and clean shabbos

tryingtoshteig wrote:



anyway some of us (me ) are still being maavir sedra last week's parsha...

Today is טו באב. Still clean, one day at a time.

After intense review of the relevant sugyos, I paskened for myself that vortlach on the parsha would be acceptable to post on the forum before the following Tuesday. (Disclaimer: Please ask your own shailos before paskening l'kula for yourself.)

A little Tu Beav tefila for all the bochurim out there that they should find a zivvug hagun soon, and they (and all of us) should have only simcha in their marriages without any lust-related עגמת נפש.

Today is ט"ז מנחם אב, ה'תשע"ג, July 23, 2013. Today I am clean, b'ezras Hashem.

So this morning I come into work and I find an email from my boss's boss that the cpmany's CEO will be on our floor for meetings for most of the day today, and we should be on our best behavior. (Normally he works in a different location.) So I thought, what does that mean? No foul language, no shmutz websites, etc.? We have to be EXTRA careful when the Big Boss is around.

I thought, this is right out of a dubno magid book. The nimshal is obvious: when our Big Boss, CEO, Avinu Malkeinu, is around, which is always, we have to be EXTRA careful about what we do, what we look at, etc. After all, the CEO is right there next to us!

This could be an Aseres Yemei Teshuva vort, but it could also be a ט"ז אב vort for the same price.

Gevaldige vort!! (very similar to the first סעיף in shulchan aruch, just more for our day life)

and KUTGW!!! (קאדג"וו)

I noticed that I am officially a Senior Boarder now. Guard, can I sign up for GYE Social Security benefits now?

very good mashal!

and btw, this is a real GYE benefit: next time you get on the train, tell the driver you know Chuna Feitel, who moonlights as one of the Queen's Own Guards, and you can then sit in any unoccupied seat