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Posts by BFM:
Duties of the Heart: Final Accounting
14 Sivan 5773 - May 23rd, 2013
Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” PeakEmunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
The Creator has permitted you to use all of His advice for your physical well-being and for all the He has entrusted to you to do in this world in known ways and specific matters, namely, all the mitzvoth — those called for by the intellect, and those that are permitted.
He said to you, “Do not be fooled by all the things I have put into your hands and empowered you to make use of in this world. For they will add nothing to you essential being, nor will they distract from it; they will bring you neither delight nor suffering. They are only things that incidentally affect your body, external or internally. They are not essentials for you; their relation to you is like that of the placenta to the baby or the eggshell to the chick.
Dedicated to John Mitchell
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Duties of the Heart: Inner Life
5 Sivan 5773 - May 14th, 2013Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” PeakEmunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
The assistants and attendants are the soul’s moods and qualities, such as happiness and anxiety, joy and sorrow, remembering and forgetting, wisdom and ignorance, courage and timidity, generosity and tightfistedness, righteousness and wickedness, shame and brazenness, hope and fear, love and hate, delight and suffering, pride and humility, prominence and lowliness, and many other similar traits, which you practice in your inner life.
The Creator, may He be exalted, commanded the gatekeepers, rulers, officers, servants, advisors, assistants, and attendants to listen to you and carry out your command until a certain time, except in extraordinary matters which He made clear to them when they were brought into association with you. These matters are the meaning of Divine compulsion and the place of predetermination.
Dedicated to Dr. Jason and Jennifer Specht
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Duties of the Heart: Compulsion And Predetermination
27 Iyar 5773 - May 7th, 2013Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” PeakEmunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
I have found in the Scriptures on the subject of compulsion and predetermination, control and will, that all [these] are G-d’s in respect to all that He has created, whether mineral or vegetable, animal or rational, as it is written:
Whatever G-d willed, He did — in heaven and on earth (Tehillim 135:6); G-d puts to death and brings life; He casts down into the graves and raises up. G-d makes poor and makes rich; He brings low, He also exalts (Shmuel 1, 2:6-7); Who has spoken and it come to pass, unless G-d has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil come? (Eichah 3:37-38); I form light and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil (Yeshiyahu 45:7); Unless G-d builds the house, its builders toll in vain on it. Unless G-d watches over the city, the watchman stays on alert in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and stay up late, you who eat bread of anxious toil; for He grants sleep to His beloved (Tehillim 127:1-2).
Dedicated to Dr. Jason and Jennifer Specht
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Duties of the Heart: Torah Discussion
20 Iyar 5773 - April 30th, 2013Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” PeakEmunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
Conversation and question(s) with Shmuel Peak our teacher. Please enjoy!
Dedicated to Barry and Gloria Ellington
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Duties of the Heart: Analogously
13 Iyar 5773 - April 23rd, 2013Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” PeakEmunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
Analogously, if a person has been singled out by the Creator, May He be exalted, for special favor, he is under an obligation of increased service as an expression of gratitude for this favor.
For this reason the Early Pietists — whenever they were graced with some blessing from among the blessings of the world — would be apprehensive for two reasons: 1) that they not be deficient in fulfilling the service and expressing the gratitude they owed for this good fortune, so that it not turn into misfortune for them, as for our forefather Ya’akov said: “I am diminished from all the kindness” (Bereishit 32:11); and 2) that this not be the Creator’s reward for their service, at the expense of their reward in the World-to-Come, as explains by the Early Ones on the verse “He repays His enemies to their face [i.e., during their lifetime, so as] to destroy them [in the Hereafter]” (Devarim 7:10). This should suffice you.
Dedicated to Barry and Gloria Ellington
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Duties of the Heart: Torah Servant
25 Nisan 5773 - April 5th, 2013Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” PeakEmunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
The proper way for a servant in this world to act toward his master, who bestowed upon him even a small portion of bounties your Creator has bestowed upon you, includes serving him exclusively, in word and in deeds; faithfulness to him and dedication in his affairs, both outwardly and inwardly; and awe and fear of him, so long as he is in his service. As one of the pious ones put it: “Do not rebel against your master while he is looking at you.” Also, the servant should be lowly and humble before his master, in his external actions and in the privacy of his conscience. He should bear himself with humility before him, in his dress and in his mode of conduct. He should honor him; exalt him with his tongue and his heart; praise and thank him by day and by night; recall his beneficence in private and in public; recount his glory and praise as befits him; run to do his service with joy and good intentions, out of love for him, to find favor before him, to draw near to his will.
Dedicated to John and Gloria Culver
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel
Duties of the Heart: Torah Stimulus
16 Nisan 5773 - March 27th, 2013Biblical Faith – with Shmuel “Sam” PeakEmunah channel is here. For Info www.torahfaith.org
It is now fitting that we explain the form of stimulus [provided] by the intellect. Until the end of this gate [we will use] a question-and-answer format, as this is most suitable to a clear exposition of the topic we are investigating.
The intellectual stimulus is HaShem’s reminder to man, through his intellect, to know Him and to recognize the signs of His wisdom. It comes from HaShem to one who has made the Torah the light of his path, when he attains to the limit of his intellectual ability and the utmost clarity of his perception; when he yearns to gain the favor of the Almighty and to ascend the heights of the pious; and turns his heart away from worries and distractions of this world.
Dedicated to Professor Thomas Hays and Yonah Barrett
Program Link – Read the Torah w/Shmuel – Contact – Emunah Channel