Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Truly Alive

If you have faith, you are truly alive.

When you have faith, every day is filled with good. When things go well, it is certainly good. But when you have troubles, it is also good. For you know that G-d will eventually have mercy, and the end will be good. Everything must be good, for it all comes from
G-d.

The man without faith is not really alive. Evil befalls him and he loses all hope. There is nothing to cheer or comfort him, for he has no faith. He is outside of G-d's providence, and has no good at all. But if you have faith, your life will be good and pleasant.

(Rebbe Nachman of Breslov)

1 Comments:

At October 17, 2006 at 10:16:00 AM EDT, Blogger Neil Harris said...

Your Reb Nachman quote reminds me of an email I saved from the BRI on Parsha Bo:

Based on Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #33

"[Tefillin] must be a sign on your arm and a reminder between your eyes."
(Exodus 13:9)

We all have good days— the days when you feel God's love automatically. We all have bad days—the days when you think it's the opposite of love that He is showing you.

Bad days are like "not putting on tefillin," days when you neglect to bind your actions and thoughts to the awareness that God, Who cared enough to interrupt history and take us out of Egypt to deliver us to a new and holy life, is part of your own personal history and is trying to deliver you from your own Egypt.

When you are mindful to "put on tefillin" in this manner, you start to rise above the limitations of immediate experience and emotion and cut to the chase, the bottom line of love that is the sweet core of you are experiencing.

It was one of those email I couldn't trash!!

 

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