Wrong Decisions

 "If you want to make the wrong decision - ask everybody. "

סוד ערבות התורה/ מנוחה ולימוד/ הצבת היעד

 A shiur given in a kollel today.

Not Mine

 Of all of the many responses to the campaign to help save Chani, these are two my favorites:

1] From a very successful CFO:

"I appreciate the note. But no need to thank as the $ is not truly mine and I try not to think of it as such - HaShem runs the show."

I wasn't surprised by the idea that all belongs to Hashem. I was blown away by the fact that this idea guides his life. And if you would look at him you wouldn't know it. He doesn't "dress the part". 

2] From a very successful investment banker:

I am crying. 

מי כעמך ישראל.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

“We've got a sort of brainwashing going on in our country, Morrie sighed. Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it--and have it repeated to us--over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all of this, he has no perspective on what's really important anymore.

Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up the latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it. 'Guess what I got? Guess what I got?' GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!

You know how I interpreted that? These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.

Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have". 

Other People's Opinions Of You

“Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and others about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.”

הבדלה ברוב עם ברובע היהודי I מוצאי שבת פרשת בחוקתי תשפ''ד

Brick Walls

 “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”