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Emunah changed my life



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debbilcsw




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Nov 01 2018, 8:58 am
Many people ask me questions on Emunah, I wanted to tell everyone that Rav Dovid Ashear has a free Emunah daily which changed my life its free on https://powerofspeech.org/emunah-daily/
I was struggling every day with basic chores and just keeping my home afloat.
Rav Ashears books Living Emunah were like a lifeline literally. My therapist now uses it and says she saw wonders from it!
Also one of my kids had questions in Emunah in the Torah and then she met with her teacher who showed her how astonishing and great the Torah is (and that every prophesy or blessing that was foretold in the Torah was fulfilled in the exact place where the blessing was given, as written by Rabbi Tzvi Hirch Schlez in Niflaos MiToras Hashem, in English I think its https://www.amazon.com/gp/offe.....1888/ it was Rav aharon Kotlers favorite sefer my son in Lakewood told me)
I just read a really neat book on Discovering Torah Wonders (its avail online https://www.amazon.com/dp/1727880714/ also on http://www.lulu.com/shop/produ......html for cheap) when you read these seforim you will see the true power of Emunah and how great Torah is
Just keep in mind that although my daughter was able to appreciate the Torahs wonder through these books and teachers who taught it to her, most kids at risk are lacking in love and acceptance so its usually an emotional message not a textual question....
Just we need to keep taliking about how great Hashem is and Emunah and teach our kids (and ourselves!) the basics again and again!
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Cheiny




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Nov 01 2018, 11:07 am
debbilcsw wrote:
Many people ask me questions on Emunah, I wanted to tell everyone that Rav Dovid Ashear has a free Emunah daily which changed my life its free on https://powerofspeech.org/emunah-daily/
I was struggling every day with basic chores and just keeping my home afloat.
Rav Ashears books Living Emunah were like a lifeline literally. My therapist now uses it and says she saw wonders from it!
Also one of my kids had questions in Emunah in the Torah and then she met with her teacher who showed her how astonishing and great the Torah is (and that every prophesy or blessing that was foretold in the Torah was fulfilled in the exact place where the blessing was given, as written by Rabbi Tzvi Hirch Schlez in Niflaos MiToras Hashem, in English I think its https://www.amazon.com/gp/offe.....1888/ it was Rav aharon Kotlers favorite sefer my son in Lakewood told me)
I just read a really neat book on Discovering Torah Wonders (its avail online https://www.amazon.com/dp/1727880714/ also on http://www.lulu.com/shop/produ......html for cheap) when you read these seforim you will see the true power of Emunah and how great Torah is
Just keep in mind that although my daughter was able to appreciate the Torahs wonder through these books and teachers who taught it to her, most kids at risk are lacking in love and acceptance so its usually an emotional message not a textual question....
Just we need to keep taliking about how great Hashem is and Emunah and teach our kids (and ourselves!) the basics again and again!


I completely agree! His Living Emunah books changed my life, and my entire outlook on life, and on people. I also subscribe to his daily emails. It is so freeing to know that nothing is really in our hands, other than davening, having a relationship with Hashem, and choosing right from wrong. It’s not easy learning to let go, not to get angry at people who hurt you, as Hashem is the one allowing them to do so, and knowing that it’s all good for your neshama. I’ve recommended the books to many people and can’t praise them enough!
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devash1




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Nov 01 2018, 11:18 am
I just went to the website and I wasn't clear. Can you sign up for to be sent to your email every day? Or just look online. I find it actually read it when it comes to my inbox every day.
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amother
Seagreen


 

Post Thu, Nov 01 2018, 12:56 pm
Never read the books, but just wanted to say that emuna changed *me* b"h.
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amother
Seafoam


 

Post Thu, Nov 01 2018, 1:17 pm
I'm actually very confused by these type of shiurim. I just listened to most of the most recent shiur. Rav Ashear describes a man whose business was closed by the city. The man had complete emunah and didn't lose faith. Sure enough all his finances fell into place "somehow". As an example he normally buys a $250 lulov and esrog. This year he bought the same quality but for only $50. The man needed a new suckah for his family but couldn't afford it given the circumstance. Sure enough someone anonymously gave him a suckah. These stories remind me of a poster who would advocate calling the emunah hotline, which I did. I heard the story about a poor kollel man whose car wouldn't start. He went back inside and pleaded with hashem that his car should start. The man went back outside and low and behold the car started.

My point is that I don't believe in this world the ways of hashem are clear like this. I agree that if someone has emunah they will feel protected and worry less because they accept that everything that happens is for the best. This rav and the hotline emphasize that things fall into place for those that have emunah. It's as if people with true emunah don't experience suffering or pain. I will listen to more from this rav but I have a feeling they all lead the listener to believe that emunah leads to a actual good things (healthier, having more money, finding shidduchim) happening. I'm not buying it.


ETA- I just listened to the next shiur from rav Ashear. He tells a story of a woman who had a broken engagement. She was mekabel to get involved in more chessed. She single handedly raised funds to pay for another womans wedding. During the sheva brochos she was introduced to a wonderful young man who she married.
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amother
Wine


 

Post Thu, Nov 01 2018, 3:22 pm
With regards to stories like the engagement, to me the important piece is the schar that the woman will get for all the work she did which could only have happened by having a broken engagement. The second engagement is just a bonus.

I was helped a lot by studying the Shaar haBitachon from Chovot haLevavot in depth.
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amother
Babypink


 

Post Thu, Nov 01 2018, 3:55 pm
It's also a matter of perspective. If you live with emunah then you'll see yad Hashem in every situation.
I'm not so good at this but my husband is very committed to having strong emunah. He lost his job a month before my due date and I panicked. He said not to worry, Hashem will provide and exactly a week later he got an incredible job offer. While one can say it's coincidence, someone who lives with emunah sees it as a direct gift from Hashem.
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amother
Seafoam


 

Post Thu, Nov 01 2018, 4:08 pm
amother wrote:
It's also a matter of perspective. If you live with emunah then you'll see yad Hashem in every situation.
I'm not so good at this but my husband is very committed to having strong emunah. He lost his job a month before my due date and I panicked. He said not to worry, Hashem will provide and exactly a week later he got an incredible job offer. While one can say it's coincidence, someone who lives with emunah sees it as a direct gift from Hashem.


How would you explain people with full emunah and don't have jobs or money? Or can't find shidduchim? Or have health problems? Again, you're directly linking having emunah with real tangible good things happening in olam hazeh. I find this hard to believe. If we look around we see that hashem runs the world that is not understandable to us. Good people with full emunah have the same struggles as everyone else.
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amother
Cerise


 

Post Fri, Nov 02 2018, 7:51 am
Thank you just what I need now
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amother
Seafoam


 

Post Sat, Nov 03 2018, 4:27 pm
What bothers me so much about these "shiurim" is that it directly caused me to have the crisis of faith that I have to this day. For this respected rav to make a claim that having emunah directly leads to good things happening in a vending machine style way, is absurdly untrue.
Once I see that respected rabbanim claim things that aren't true, it makes me wonder what else isn't true. This is why I struggle with my faith today.
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oneofakind




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Nov 03 2018, 5:11 pm
I think Emunah is about being calm and trusting that whatever is happening is for the best. No guarantees that things are going to get better by becoming what you want. Sometimes you see those "miraculous things" but sometimes in hindsight you are able to see some emotional or spiritual benefit to whatever you went through even if it's just you developed strength of character that you never would have had if you hadn't gone through that hard time. The fact is, things can always change. Good parnasa, health, great children or sholom bayis are whatever can go bad and vice versa, if they're bad, they can get good.
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Cheiny




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Nov 03 2018, 6:34 pm
amother wrote:
I'm actually very confused by these type of shiurim. I just listened to most of the most recent shiur. Rav Ashear describes a man whose business was closed by the city. The man had complete emunah and didn't lose faith. Sure enough all his finances fell into place "somehow". As an example he normally buys a $250 lulov and esrog. This year he bought the same quality but for only $50. The man needed a new suckah for his family but couldn't afford it given the circumstance. Sure enough someone anonymously gave him a suckah. These stories remind me of a poster who would advocate calling the emunah hotline, which I did. I heard the story about a poor kollel man whose car wouldn't start. He went back inside and pleaded with hashem that his car should start. The man went back outside and low and behold the car started.

My point is that I don't believe in this world the ways of hashem are clear like this. I agree that if someone has emunah they will feel protected and worry less because they accept that everything that happens is for the best. This rav and the hotline emphasize that things fall into place for those that have emunah. It's as if people with true emunah don't experience suffering or pain. I will listen to more from this rav but I have a feeling they all lead the listener to believe that emunah leads to a actual good things (healthier, having more money, finding shidduchim) happening. I'm not buying it.


ETA- I just listened to the next shiur from rav Ashear. He tells a story of a woman who had a broken engagement. She was mekabel to get involved in more chessed. She single handedly raised funds to pay for another womans wedding. During the sheva brochos she was introduced to a wonderful young man who she married.


No, you’ve totally misconstrued the entire premise of his shiurim and books. It’s not that people with Emunah will automatically have everything good in life, and no problems. But many times when you put your entire faith in Hashem while experiencing a problem, thereby passing the nisayon succesfully, many times Hashem ends the nisayin right then and there (as it was explained to me), and even if the problems continue, people with Emunah learn how to accept everything with love and with the full knowledge and trust that whatever is happening is good for them and their neshama.
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Cheiny




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Nov 03 2018, 6:35 pm
amother wrote:
How would you explain people with full emunah and don't have jobs or money? Or can't find shidduchim? Or have health problems? Again, you're directly linking having emunah with real tangible good things happening in olam hazeh. I find this hard to believe. If we look around we see that hashem runs the world that is not understandable to us. Good people with full emunah have the same struggles as everyone else.


Of course they do, no one said otherwise, but people with Emunah will have a much easier time getting through the rough spots because of their proper attitude and outlook.
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Cheiny




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Nov 03 2018, 6:38 pm
amother wrote:
What bothers me so much about these "shiurim" is that it directly caused me to have the crisis of faith that I have to this day. For this respected rav to make a claim that having emunah directly leads to good things happening in a vending machine style way, is absurdly untrue.
Once I see that respected rabbanim claim things that aren't true, it makes me wonder what else isn't true. This is why I struggle with my faith today.


You’ve got it all wrong. He never says the comments you’ve attributed to him. What he does say is that people with Emunah live a much more calm, happy life than those without. And they always have hope that things can turn around for the better in the blink of an eye, if Hashem desires it. And I couldn’t agree more. I’d suggest you read his series of books, Living Emunah 1, 2, and 3.
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amother
Seafoam


 

Post Sat, Nov 03 2018, 9:36 pm
Cheiny wrote:
You’ve got it all wrong. He never says the comments you’ve attributed to him. What he does say is that people with Emunah live a much more calm, happy life than those without. And they always have hope that things can turn around for the better in the blink of an eye, if Hashem desires it. And I couldn’t agree more. I’d suggest you read his series of books, Living Emunah 1, 2, and 3.



I don't know why you would say that he doesn't connect having emunah to getting your problems resolved. If you listen to some of the shiurim the op linked above, in virtually every single shiur he gives a story about someone having a problem, not losing faith, and hashem reversing the situation for them. It seems like you agree with me this is untrue and harmful to say. Plz listen to a few of the shiurim above.
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amother
Seafoam


 

Post Sun, Nov 04 2018, 7:57 am
Cheiny wrote:
You’ve got it all wrong. He never says the comments you’ve attributed to him. What he does say is that people with Emunah live a much more calm, happy life than those without. And they always have hope that things can turn around for the better in the blink of an eye, if Hashem desires it. And I couldn’t agree more. I’d suggest you read his series of books, Living Emunah 1, 2, and 3.



In Rav Ashear first book (I didn't read the other 2) he has dozens of stories about how people with emunah received a quick fix to their problems. Rosh yeshiva's who needed thousands of dollars to meet payroll in a few hours and had the attitude, "why worry, Hashem will take care of it", and then randomly meet the wealthy man in the neighborhood who insists on giving 25,000 right now. Every 4 or 5 pages in this 300 page book has a very similar story. I realize you have to say it, but it's false to say that he is describing emunah to mean that it is comforting because at helps a person accept their tzoros. True, the rabbi DOES mention this. But he also is providing solace and comfort by indicating thru his book and just about all of his online stories that emunah will lead to hashem fixing the problem. Chaper 19 in his first book, on page 61 is actually titled "emunah cures illness". He immediately goes on to describe a story where a patient is diagnosed with cancer and is given a grim prognosis. The patient does not lose faith and continues to thank hashem. Shortly after the doctors exclaim that a miracle has happened and the man is completely cured of cancer. On the very next page a talmid is walking with the bal shem tov in the desert. The talmud is dehydrated and concerned he will die. The bal shem tov tells him that hashem is in charge and he need not worry. All of the sudden a man on a camel with lots of extra water happens by and saves the mans life.

The posters in this thread are taking comfort thru his books and videos because he depicts hashem like a vending machine. Put in emunah and out comes the salvation.
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amother
Rose


 

Post Sun, Nov 04 2018, 8:34 am
Rabbi Ashear has helped many people, but for me personally, I find that his shiurim don't speak to me, for exactly these reasons. That doesn't mean that you can't take comfort in emunah. The Chazon Ish holds that emunah does Not mean that if I believe hard enough then I will get whatever I am praying for, but rather that I believe and trust that whatever happens to me is the ratzon Hashem for me at that time. I find that thought much more comforting. I also like to tell myself the words of Koheles -- hakol hevel...sof davar hokol nishma. The knowledge that nothing in life truly matters, except fearing Hashem, helped me through some serious rough spots as a teenager.
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PinkFridge




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Nov 04 2018, 12:45 pm
For some people, this is great, especially in small doses. I just want to say that I've heard Rabbi Ashear himself point our that his hashgacha pratis stories aren't just happy ending/magical thinking stories. But they are in the minority.
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