Author: Nadav

I once heard a story about the Chasam Sofer.  He was once asked how he became the great talmid chacham (Torah scholar) that he was. He said “It’s easy. It only took five minutes.”  The listener could not believe his ears.  “Surely the Rav spent more than 5 minutes learning to became so great.”  The Chasam Sofer said, “Of course.  It is five minutes here and five minutes there.   Never do nothing.  You must always be doing something.”  If we take 5 minutes a day to accomplish a goal, that adds up to over 34 hours a year.  If you average work day is 8 hours, this is like taking almost 4 days off of work to accomplish a goal.  Wouldn’t you like to take 4 days off from work to make you dreams come true?  It is easier than you think. Read more →

When I was about 10 years old, I was shopping for clothing at the mall with my mom, and I saw a tshirt that said “Second place is the first loser.” This shirt was from a major brand that was always known for its be tough and win at all odds slogans. Even as a young child, I immediately understood what the shirt was trying to convey. Anything less that being the best was worthless.

As an adult, I realize that our society is pumped full of this type of attitude all the time. Read more →

It is an interesting phenomenon that a person can know something to be true and proper yet do the exact opposite. People who smoke will tell you that smoking is bad all while lighting another cigarette. We know we should eat healthy food, but why not have another piece of that yummy cake? Should I go to sleep on time? Of course. Do I go to sleep on time? Almost never. Why is it that what we know and what we do (or more correctly, the way we act) are so different.

The sages of Mussar (Jewish character development) have discussed this very point at length. They have found that there is a gap between our intellectual knowledge and our emotions. I know I should be on a diet, yet my body yearns for the cake. My actions are very much controlled by my emotions even though I know clearly how bad my actions are for me. Because of the power of the emotions, I barely flinch at doing what I know is wrong.  Read more →

You wake up in the middle of the night, or perhaps, you never even went to sleep. It’s on your mind. It’s on your mind. IT’S ON YOUR MIND! No matter what you do you can’t seem to shake it. You have counted all the sheep in the world, and still the only thing on your mind is that one sore point. It weighs down on you like a thousand elephants. What will be? What if I can’t? What if they won’t? What if? What if? What if?

The sleepiness nights are wearing you down, and you can feel the effect, but you Read more →

Surely at some point in your life you have dreamt about what your ideal life would look like.  You have imagined, most likely in very fine detail, the place you want to live, the job you would like to have, perhaps even the person you want to be with. In all likelihood you have spent hours of your life contemplating this perfect scenario, only to awaken to the reality that you are currently in. Why do we dream so much? Why do we wonder what could be?  I believe that for many of us, it is the world that we want, but have convinced ourselves that it can not be. For a plethora of reasons, many of which we can rattle off without having to think about it, we have given up on any hope of ever achieving even a fraction of these goals.  Although this list of reasons might be quite long, there is truly only one reason that Read more →