The Power of Thanking HaShem

 

I went to a hardware store to make three sets of keys.

After the three sets of keys were made, I left the hardware store.

When I arrived at my destination, the third set of keys was missing.

I checked all my pockets and my knapsack and any place where I might have put them – more than once. I could not find them at my destination, so I thought that I must have left them in the hardware store.

On my way back to the hardware store, I thanked HaShem for giving me the new keys.  Then I thanked HaShemin advance for helping me find the lost keys. Less than five seconds later, the lost keys popped out of a compartment in my knapsack that I never noticed before, right before my eyes.  The lost keys were found!

Before I conclude my true short story, please allow me to point out that this was not the first time that I thanked HaShem that day; it was the 30^th or 40^th time that I thanked HaShem that day.  If it would have been the first time that day that I thanked HaShem, I do not know if the results would have been the same.

 

Last but not least, please allow me to recommend THE GARDEN OF GRATITUDE by Rabbi Shalom Arush, translated into English by Rabbi Lazer Brody.

 

One of the reasons we do not achieve our maximum mental potential is because we squander our mental energies on devarim betailim [useless words or activities].

SOURCE:Let Us Make Man (chapter 25, page 133) by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski MD, year 1987, ISBN-13:  978-0933711013 ISBN-10:  0933711018

MICROBIOGRAPHY: Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski MD is a Chassidic Rabbi and founder and Director of the Gateway Rehabilitation Center. He was born in 1930 CE and traces his ancestry to the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidic movement. He wrote more than 60 books. His web site is: www dot AbrahamTwerski dot com. His channel on YouTube is named AbrahamTwerski.

 

“Justice is what Torah refers to as justice. Compassion is what Torah designates as compassion. Non-Torah ideas of justice and compassion have played no small part in the moral decadence so prevalent in modern civilization.”

SOURCE:Let Us Make Man (chapter 19, page 93) by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski MD, year 1987

 

 

When Rabbi Nachman [of Breslov, born 1772 CE and died in 1810 CE] said that despair does not exist in reality, he meant to say that: If you feel hopeless, [then] you should have the presence of mind to recognize that this feeling can have no basis in reality. 

You should realize that the feeling of despair is a distortion of reality, a hallucination, or delusion brought about by the sitra achra[the side of evil].

SOURCE:Let Us Make Man (last page of chapter 30, page 167) by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski MD, year 1987