not if we tell him that we are all in disneyland

hey we all suffer

or we would have never been here

Some thoughts on Parshas Noach:
There is an extremely powerful lesson we learn from Noach's job in building the teivah. The Rishonim are seemingly troubled by Hashem's command to Noach to build one.  The Ramban asks that if one were to calculate the various species of animals and birds it would be impossible for even 10 teivahs to hold them. The Ramban says that it was clearly a miracle that occurred. Which begs the question. If Hashem was going to make a miracle anyways why was it necessary for Noach to build such a big teivah.  Says the Ramban, Hashem wanted to teach us that we have to do what we are capable of doing. You do your share and Hashem will take care of the rest.
So Lesson Number 1:  while you may seemingly be up against impossible odds, don't despair Hashem can accomplish for you even the impossible. So the next time you think to yourself how can I survive by never masturbating or looking at porn again. Remind yourself Hashem can help you accomplish the seemingly impossible task you just need to do your job which is staying sober today.
But it gets better I heard from someone who pointed out that Rashi is also troubled by the question. Hashem had many ways to save Noach why a teivah. Answers Rashi so that people can see Noach working on the teivah for 120 years, ask him what he's doing, learn that Hashem will be destroying the world, "and maybe they'll repent." Now we know and Hashem knew that nobody in fact did teshuva.  Seemingly, the whole 120 years down the tubes. A complete waste.
Lesson number two:  Its not your job to achieve results its your job to put in the effort. You may NEVER accomplish your desired goal but the Torah is teaching us that its irrelevant since your task is the work you put in. Hashem is in charge of results.  Presumably that is why it took Noach 120 years. This is the ideal lifespan of a person (you should live to 120). Even if your whole life was an apparent failure all 120 years. You got to do what you to to do.  So if you're are trying and putting in the effort and you fall remember Noach he seems to have fell too. 120 wasted years. But in reality someone puts in the effort their are no failures. Since those 120 "wasted" years made him the progenitor of all mankind.
Thank you Hashem for giving us a Torah to guide us through lofe.

More thoughts on Parshas Noach

Reb Shamshon Rafael Hirsch says that the personalities of all future mankind were inherent in Noach's three sons. Cham comes from a lashon of heat because Cham represents "raw 'hot' sensuality."  RSRH explains further that if we look at Noach's prophecy regarding Cham which he explains are from "the deepest and farthest reaching prophecies which ever a human eye was allowed to see of the future" we find an emphasis on Cham's status as an eved. Thus, we find Cham referred to as eved avodim, i.e., the epitome of avdus. And again in the next possuk Noach refers to Cham's status as an eved.
Explains Reb Hirsch  that "Sensuality, uncontrolled licentiousness, is the bait by which one is led by strings into slavery.  He who at all times is master of himself, who can easily control giving satisfaction to the urges of his senses, he cannot be bribed or enticed for his gold cannot become golden chains; he can go under, die - but he cannot become enslaved." 
I often think that if only had this particular tayvah I would be free and all my problems would be solved. But the Torah is teaching us that not only will I not be free but this is the thing that will enslave me, and not just simple slavery but eved avodim the epitome of slavery.

I like! Very true!

beautiful!
thanks very much

"...Sheh'lo assahny ahved.  You are making beautiful choices and giving us all priceless chizuk.  This smells like freedom to me. 

1daat wrote on 03 Nov 2011 01:29:


sniff, sniff

YEP!

I have a rebbi who says that if you ask people how they know whether there is a God, they answer what do you mean it says in the possuk שאו מרום עניכם וראו מי ברא אלה.  He says the problem is that they know the possuk but they actually never took the time to look up and see this.  This past weekend I thought about this a lot during our October blizzard after someone mentioned the problem with such an early snowstorm is that the leaves are still on the trees and the extra weight from the snow that they hold weighs down the trees.  Driving around and looking at the destruction the storm caused far worse than Irene confirmed this fact.  But it also made me realize that it was obvious that the World had a creator and that was why He created the season of Fall in which the leaves fell from the trees, to avoid this huge destruction.  I had never really thought about it before.  It pays to look up every so often.  Thank you Hashem for your wonderful world.

We don't like the season of Fall around here......

Gevura ShebYesod wrote on 03 Nov 2011 16:03:


It's a ירידה לצורך עליה

Gevura ShebYesod wrote on 03 Nov 2011 16:03:

Ayein Sham www.guardyoureyes.org/forum/index.php?topic=3635.msg114420#msg114420

Thanks UAJ! Another good reminder.  The older I get, the more I'm amazed that anyone can possible believe in random evolution.  This INCREDIBLY complex world by accident!?  How can so many people believe in something that so clearly makes no sense?!

I think i know the answer, but it's still amazing.

A thought on parshas lech lecha/vayera

When Avraham tells Lot they need to separate he gives him a choice. You go one way and I'll go the other. Lot chooses Sodom. In this week's parsha we find that he is criticized for that decision. One could ask but didn't Avraham give him a choice?  I once heard a pshat that if you examine the possukim closely you see that Sodom was never a choice. Avraham tells Lot if you go left, I will go right and if you go right I will go left. Targum Onkeles translates left and right as North and South. Anyone who knows Eretz Yisroel knows that for left to be north you need to be facing toward Yam Hemelech.  What does Lot do when presented with those two options he chooses neither instead he lifts his face up, that is to the East, he sees Kikar Hayerden and chooses Sodom, something never offered by Avrohom.
Often times we are faced with a decision and we close our eyes to what's really the proper options available to us. Instead we pick something that should not have been a choice in the first place.  And then when things go wrong we wonder how did we get in this mess in the first place.
One of the beauties of GYE and having a chevra to talk to is that it gives you the chance to see if your thinking is misguided and what you perceive are your options are really that.
It is a confusing and scary world and times we live in, Thank You Hashem for this small place of refuge and for helping me stay sober another day.

Thanks for that great insight! 

The following is an excerpt from Rabbi Leff's Sfas Emes email.


I had a thought based on this Sfas Emes. Which is that this message was given davka on the mokom hamilah because when dealing with unbridled lust symbolized by the orlah we get this feeling that if we don't satisfy our desires we will die and life is not worth lifting. In reality, however, the opposite is true. It's when we remove that desire (by not succumbing to it) that we open up ourselves to Hashem's presence and real life.

On other fronts I'm in middle of a monotonous project at work that in the past would have driven me to browse and ultimately to browse for stuff I would later regret. The thought certainly crossed my mind today but just having access to the chevra and the site to come home to made browsing not even an option. So thank you Hashem (and His local emissaries Guard and everyone else here. )