Israel National Radio - Rabbi B. Shafier

Davening Part II - The Love of a Father to a Son

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:37:00 +0200

The Shmuz

Davening is an amazingly powerful tool, and any of us can use it. Hashem loves us so much, it’s as though He can’t resist our prayers. Yet somehow, most of us don’t believe it. We think we’re too small to be noticed or that if we ask for too much, it’s kvetching. Nothing could be further from the truth. This Shmuz gives us a taste of just how much HASHEM loves us. With that clear in your mind, you’ll be more enthused about davening than ever before.

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Davening – Close Encounters with our Creator

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:19:00 +0200

The Shmuz

Davening by rote is nothing less than selling yourself short. HASHEM and only HASHEM has the power to provide you with whatever you want or need. So why rush through davening in one big mumble? The trick to planning your life effectively is in when you plan it. First and foremost, you have to understand yourself. With humor and apt mashalim, this first of a three-part Shmuz is just the thing to put life back into your davening.

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Bitachon Part III - The Maaser Shmuz

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:43:00 +0200

The Shmuz

The Torah tells us that when Yosef Ha Tzaddik was in prison and asked Pharaoh’s wine steward to put in a good word for him, HASHEM punished him for his lack of bitachon. Doesn’t that seem a bit extreme? He was in a terrible dungeon, far worse than the prisons of today. What was wrong about making an effort to free himself? The problem lies not in what Yosef did, but how and why he did it. And while HASHEM does not expect us to be on Yosef’s level, He does test us with challenges of our own.

This Shmuz reveals HASHEM’s three intended purposes for giving us parnossah. As long as we keep His priorities straight, we can maximize bracha in our own lives.

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Faith and Effort - Finding the Balance

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:40:00 +0200

The Shmuz

If you want to know if your bitachon is where it should be, there’s a very simple test. Do you go into a panic when you don’t know how you’re going to pay your next bill? Do you often think that you could have been more successful if only you’d done things differently? If your answer was “yes,” then you, like most of us, need to work on bitachon. But striking the balance between bitachon and hishtadlus is not so simple. What is my part and what is HASHEM’s? This Shmuz teaches how honest effort combined with trust in HASHEM is an unbeatable formula for success.

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Bitachon – Learning to Trust HASHEM

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:50:00 +0200

The Shmuz

Amazingly the Chovos Halevovos explains to us that by nature we trust. In fact, without trust we couldn’t function. If we didn’t trust, then every time we left our home we would fear death by a car crash, an earthquake, or a tornado. Every time we entered into a business transaction we would fear the economy failing or a major international catastrophe. To allow us to function as healthy human beings, HASHEM put into our nature a need to trust. However, that need to trust is typically misplaced. We trust in nature, we trust in the economy, we trust in the Air Force, the police and the emergency medical personnel—more than anything we trust that the ways things have been until now, they will continue to be. And this sense of trust remains with us until the thing we so trusted in fails us, and then we see the futility of that which we trusted in. Part one of a three-part series on Bitachon.

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Why We Want Mosiach Now

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:27:00 +0200

The Shmuz

Since the time that we were young children we were taught: We want Moshiach now! This concept is not the exclusive domain of fringe elements of Jewry; rather it is a basic tenet of our religion. The Rambam counts it as one of the 13 Main Principles, and if one denies it he is considered a heretic, with no portion in the World to Come.
And so, we daven for Moshiach. We sing songs about Moshiach. We wait for Moshiach. But do we understand why? Do we understand what it is that we wait for? This Shmuz focuses on what life will be like in the times of Moshiach, and why in fact we anxiously await his appearance.

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Chanukah - G-d Fights Our Wars

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:46:00 +0200

The Shmuz

What actually happened in the war to recapture the Bais Hamikdash? How many battles were fought? How long did they last? What was it like living in Yerushlayim at the time?
Detailing the story of Chanukah as brought in Megillas Chashmonaim, this Shmuz brings us closer to understanding the events of the time, and appreciating the miracle that unfolded. It then takes us forward in time to some modern miracles that seem to overshadow even those of the Chanukah time period.

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Chanukah: Whose Side are You on?

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:27:00 +0200

The Shmuz

Chanukah centers on the ideological battle of two cultures; the hedonistic Yevanim (Greek / Syrian culture) waged war against Torah ideals. The battle was not fought for the physical survival of the Jewish nation, but rather for its ideology and way of life.

Today, we live in very different times. We are no longer downtrodden and subjugated to oppressive regimes; we are free to choose our lifestyle. Not only does Torah learning flourish at an unprecedented level, we have also created our own insular culture. Even in exile, the Jewish nation has fashioned its own way of life. We have our own neighborhoods and schools, we have our own shopping districts and clothing styles, and we even have our own novels, music, and daily newspapers. It seems we have won the cultural war -- there are no Yevanim influences in our world -- and as such, the message of Chanukah has little to offer us. Unfortunately, this rosy picture is far from reality.

This Shmuz explores some of the inroads that "foreign ways " have found even into the finest Torah homes, and identifies the ideological battleground of our time.

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Lashon Harah - Mindless Chatter

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:21:00 +0200

The Shmuz

Whether we are aware of it or not– whether we admit it or not-- We all speak Lashon Harah. And herein lies one of the great mysteries: The Rambam defines Lashon Harah as words that hurt words that damage. Yet, we are nice people. We aren’t malicious or mean spirited, and we certainly wouldn’t do something to intentionally hurt another person. Yet, we regularly speak, “words that hurt words that damage “– the question is why?

This Shmuz focuses us on the fact that one of the biggest causes of Lashon Harah is simply not recognizing the effect of our words, and the impact that they have on other people. And therefore the solution is simple: to recognize the gravity of the words that we speak, and almost effortlessly we can remove one of the greatest obstacles to our growth and functionally be much better people.

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Cognitive Restructuring

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:15:00 +0200

The Shmuz

The last of the Ten Commandments is “You shall not covet”. Simply stated one should not be desirous of his neighbor’s property, possessions or any attribute that he may have. On the face of things this seems to be a very difficult mitzvah to observe. If my neighbor has something that is beautiful, he owns a magnificent home, he drives a beautiful car or has a fantastic job, isn't it human nature to feel jealous? How can the Torah ask me to do something that goes against the very nature of man? Granted the Torah can tell me not to take revenge, or not to take out my frustration on my neighbor, but how can the Torah expect me to control that which I feel in my heart-- something, clearly out of my control?

In this Shmuz we are introduced to a fundamental concept in personal growth: that our very emotional needs and desires are moldable. Not only can we change what we do, we can change our very attitudes and even the way that we feel about things. The primary system in this process is “cognitive restructuring”, reshaping the way that we thing about things, what we value, how we feel, and ultimately what we aspire to. This is a fundamental concept for many areas of growth in life.

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