From: murray.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: L'Chaim 8 of 8
Date: 14 Aug 92 12:17:20 GMT
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

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L'CHAIM                       ISSUE # 228                   PART 8 OF 8
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                            THOUGHTS THAT COUNT
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Lest you corrupt yourselves and make a graven image (Deut. 4:16)
 
   Why did  Moses have to remind  the Jewish people not  to make graven
images, considering the  fact that they had  just spent forty  years in
the desert  and had seen all  sorts of open miracles  and wonders? Were
they not  already on such a  high spiritual level that  making a graven
image would be unthinkable? From this we learn that  an individual must
never  think that  his worship  of G-d  is perfect  and   he is  beyond
temptation. One  must be ever on  guard, even against  those sins which
appear to have no attraction whatsoever. (Sifrei Musar)
 
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Hear O Israel, the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One (Deut. 6:4)
 
   Our  Rabbis said: "Hear--in every language." One can accept the yoke
of heaven  in any language, not just in the Hebrew tongue. Likewise, in
every object that a person sees and every sound which  reaches his ears
he must strive to see that "the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One."  We can
find G-d's greatness and absolute unity reflected in every single thing
which occurs in the world. (Sefat Emet)
 
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And these words  which I command  you this day  shall be in  your heart
(Deut. 6:6)
 
   "These words" of  Torah should be always at the  ready; all one must
do is open  up one's  heart for a  second and they  will enter.  (Rabbi
Menachem Mendel of Kotzk)
 
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                        A THOUGHT ABOUT MOSHIACH
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   On the  eve of Tisha B'Av  each year Reb Avraham  of Chechanov would
have to buy a new copy of Kinos--Lamentations. For every  year, as soon
as the  mournful service was over, he  would stow away his  copy in the
place where old  and battered sacred books were  lodged until they were
buried.  And  each time  he did  this  he would  say:  "I am  sure that
Moshiach will come  this year, and then we won't  have any further need
for books of Lamentations." (A Treasury of Chasidic Tales)
 
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 Published by Lubavitch Youth Organization
 770 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn NY 11213  (718) 953-1000, 778-6000
 Rabbi Dovid Raskin - Chairman
 Rabbi Shmuel Butman - Director
 Rabbi Kasriel Kastel - Program Director
 Rabbi Shlomo Friedman - Administrator
 Yehudis Cohen - Editor
 Esther Altmann, Mordechai Staiman - Copy Editors
 Rabbi B. Bell, Basha Majerczyk - Contributing Editor
 Rabbi Nissen Mangel - Chairman
 Editorial Committee
 Rabbi Zalman I. Posner - Consultant
 All contents (c) 1991 by L.Y.O. ISSN 1050-0480
 Permission  is granted for  BBS distribution, provided  no changes are
 made
 and that it be complete with all credits to L.Y.O. and L'Chaim BBS
 
 The name of this publication is an acronym for L'zecher Chaya Mushka
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 * Origin: L'Chaim BBS - KESHERnet NYC node2 (718-756-7201) (1:278/610)
 Rabbi Reuven Blau