#160
For Peace Of Mind
Frequently, erroneous thoughts and illusions enter a person's mind and disturb his concentration. When you lack peace of mind, you will not be able to study Torah or pray properly. The best advice is to develop the following attitude:
"Want that which your Creator wants for you. Take pleasure in what you have, whether comparatively little or a lot."
Once you adopt this attitude, you will be able to find peace of mind and this will be therapeutic for both your body and soul. You will be able to find success - whatever the particular circumstances and challenges you find yourself in.
(see Rosh - Orchos Chayim, no. 69; Ohr Yechezkail - michtavim, no.106; Gateway to Happiness, p.76)
23 Tammuz
One who is needy and refuses to accept help, it is as though he shed innocent blood (Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 8:8).
Maimonides extols what he calls the golden path, the middle way which a person should follow in life. He states that every trait has two opposite but equally undesirable extremes. The proper degree of any trait is not necessarily the median; it may be more toward one of the two poles, but it is never the extreme.
Self-sufficiency is certainly a desirable goal, and striving for independence is commendable. Some indolent people do not even try to carry their own weight. Their parasitism may be so reprehensible to other people that the latter may react by going to the opposite extreme and refusing to accept help when they need it. They may sustain physical injury by starvation or exposure, rather than accept a helping hand.
While accounts of great tzaddikim who subjected themselves to extreme degrees of deprivation do exist, these people had reached a level of spirituality so high that this deprivation would not harm them. For the average person, Solomon's caution, "Do not attempt to be too much of a tzaddik" (Ecclesiastes 7:16), should prevail. To do so may simply be an "ego trip." Some bridges can support vehicles of any tonnage; other bridges have a limit on the tonnage, lest they collapse under excess weight.
In this trait, like so many others, people may not be the best judge of their own capacities. Their best move is to seek competent spiritual guidance.
Today I shall ...
... allow myself to accept legitimate help and be cautious of over-reacting in any extreme.
Frequently, erroneous thoughts and illusions enter a person's mind and disturb his concentration. When you lack peace of mind, you will not be able to study Torah or pray properly. The best advice is to develop the following attitude:
"Want that which your Creator wants for you. Take pleasure in what you have, whether comparatively little or a lot."
Once you adopt this attitude, you will be able to find peace of mind and this will be therapeutic for both your body and soul. You will be able to find success - whatever the particular circumstances and challenges you find yourself in.
(see Rosh - Orchos Chayim, no. 69; Ohr Yechezkail - michtavim, no.106; Gateway to Happiness, p.76)
23 Tammuz
In
1099, Crusaders captured Jerusalem. The Crusaders were a
Church-sponsored movement to "liberate the Holy Land from the infidels."
(En route, the Crusaders carried out a campaign of rape and pillage; an
estimated 40% of European Jewry was slaughtered in the process.) The
day following their conquest of Jerusalem, the Crusaders murdered all
the city's Jews, by herding them into a synagogue and setting it on
fire. Jews were barred from Jerusalem for the next century. Muslims were
also victims of the Crusaders, which historians believe planted a
deep-seeded hatred of the West.
In
1099, Crusaders captured Jerusalem. The Crusaders were a
Church-sponsored movement to "liberate the Holy Land from the infidels."
(En route, the Crusaders carried out a campaign of rape and pillage; an
estimated 40% of European Jewry was slaughtered in the process.) The
day following their conquest of Jerusalem, the Crusaders murdered all
the city's Jews, by herding them into a synagogue and setting it on
fire. Jews were barred from Jerusalem for the next century. Muslims were
also victims of the Crusaders, which historians believe planted a
deep-seeded hatred of the West.
23 Tammuz
One who is needy and refuses to accept help, it is as though he shed innocent blood (Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 8:8).
Maimonides extols what he calls the golden path, the middle way which a person should follow in life. He states that every trait has two opposite but equally undesirable extremes. The proper degree of any trait is not necessarily the median; it may be more toward one of the two poles, but it is never the extreme.
Self-sufficiency is certainly a desirable goal, and striving for independence is commendable. Some indolent people do not even try to carry their own weight. Their parasitism may be so reprehensible to other people that the latter may react by going to the opposite extreme and refusing to accept help when they need it. They may sustain physical injury by starvation or exposure, rather than accept a helping hand.
While accounts of great tzaddikim who subjected themselves to extreme degrees of deprivation do exist, these people had reached a level of spirituality so high that this deprivation would not harm them. For the average person, Solomon's caution, "Do not attempt to be too much of a tzaddik" (Ecclesiastes 7:16), should prevail. To do so may simply be an "ego trip." Some bridges can support vehicles of any tonnage; other bridges have a limit on the tonnage, lest they collapse under excess weight.
In this trait, like so many others, people may not be the best judge of their own capacities. Their best move is to seek competent spiritual guidance.
Today I shall ...
... allow myself to accept legitimate help and be cautious of over-reacting in any extreme.
