To View Online, Click Here. To Subscribe to this Newsletter, Click Here.
Let Me Go:
Thought Tools
The Worst of Times
June 16, 2010
4th day of Tamuz, 5770
Volume III Issue #24
Forward to a Friend
How to
Overcome Life's
Challenges and
Escape Your
Own Egypt
Note: Each week a number of you contact us to say,
“Where is my Thought Tool?” Since Thought Tools
started in January 2008, we have never missed a week.
While you can always read the latest 3 issues from our home page,
you can increase the likelihood of Thought Tools arriving in your
mailbox by adding [email protected] to your
safe sender list as well as white listing the following:
icpbounce.com, icontact.com and app.icontact.com
Three Jewish lads somehow survived the death camps that claimed all their
family members. They had spent a large part of their young lives witnessing
unimaginable horrors and enduring nightmarish tortures.
Soon after gazing at the Statue of Liberty their lives began to change. William
Konar opened a little drug store that grew into the giant CVS chain. Nathan
Shapell began building small homes for returning World War II veterans,
eventually heading Shapell Industries. Fred Kort sold bubble makers and baby
bouncers and emerged as one of America’s biggest toy tycoons.
Events far less momentous than the Holocaust can fill us with gloom. Life’s
challenges can easily overwhelm us with despondency that flows from a sense
that the pain will never end.
Some business professionals facing the bleakness of bankruptcy sink into
despair. Others rebound, succeeding spectacularly in subsequent years.
Every young mother has “those days”. While trying to cater to the boundless
appetite of her newborn, her toddler is preparing for a career as a trapeze artist.
Meanwhile, mom is lonely and exhausted, and a shower is just a long-ago
memory. On days like this she can’t remember what good times feel like and
suspects they’ll never return.
Only $9.95
also available by download
Learn More
BEST DEAL!
Get Let Me Go and five more
audio CDs for only $42.95
(save $16.75)
Learn More
Are you going to be in
Southern California on
June 17th-18th?
Created with www.PDFonFly.com
One week later, mom is singing while baking a birthday cake. Her husband is
home from that long business trip, her children are behaving angelically and the
sun is shining in her life.
Whether you are a weary mother, a survivor of one of the world’s cataclysms, a
patient facing a frightening medical condition, or perhaps the head of an
international oil company dealing with an unparalleled disaster, it is easy to fall
into a dangerous mental state believing that good times will never return. It is
dangerous because the dark sense of hopelessness that pervades your soul
makes it hard, sometimes impossible, to collaborate in your own deliverance.
Join Rabbi Lapin at the
BIG CONFERENCE
Wealth Building: The
Solution for the Recession
_________________
Ask the Rabbi
If you haven’t already done so, make a commitment to read the Bible’s Book of
Judges. Steal some time away from television, allow yourself fifteen minutes for
extra bedtime reading, or get up fifteen minutes earlier each morning for a
quarter-hour with the Book of Judges.
You will make fascinating discoveries that will impact your life. For instance, the
book seems to be a veritable catalog of calamities. It takes you on a tragic tour
through Jewish history from defeat to disaster and from catastrophe to
communal collapse, with brave judges like Deborah and Samson stepping in to
save their people.
Does the Book of Judges really describe a period of non-stop problems?
Hardly. In fact, the book spans over 350 years many of which were peaceful
and productive. In both chapters 17 and 21 we read:
“…there was no king in Israel;
each man will do that which was right in his eyes.”
Ancient Jewish wisdom views this comment as words of praise. Although there
was no strong central authority, people nonetheless carefully thought through
their actions and tried to conduct themselves with propriety and honor. And
there were numerous peaceful stretches of time. Yet reading Judges, one could
easily be misled into thinking that only terrible times afflicted Israel.
Rabbi,
Someone told me that
biblically, adultery for a
man is defined as
sleeping with another's
man's wife, therefore
making it perfectly okay
for a married man to
sleep with many women
as long as they are single.
Is this true and does
Jewish wisdom have
anything to say about it?
Esther M.
We grow most and learn best from tough times. Since Judges is intended to
bear a moral message for mankind, it focuses on the challenges. We wouldn’t
learn much from a book, each of whose chapters opens with something like this:
See Rabbi Lapin's Answer
“It was another glorious day in ancient Israel with everyone behaving well and
God smiling upon His people.”
Ask a Question
While enduring tough times, keep your spirits up by reminding yourself that God
discourages us from surrendering to depression and hopelessness. Recognize
that He is in control and keep an image alive of another world and time where
things go well.
There are horrible times when we cannot extricate ourselves from terrible
circumstances; we can only try to control our attitude. Other times, however, we
have the ability to change our condition. It is for those times that I recorded my
audio CD, Let Me Go: How to Overcome Life’s Challenges and Escape Your
Own Egypt. We all face struggles, whether in our personal or business lives, and
this CD supplies tools for meeting the challenge head-on so that you can indeed
say, “It was another glorious day.”
Susan's Musings
To post comments and feedback, forward to a friend or print, go to
www.susanlapin.com. You can also reach me at
The American Alliance of
Jews and Christians
(AAJC) is an educational
organization working to
advance our nation toward
the traditional JudeoChristian values that are
the foundation of America
and the blueprint for her
greatness.
Learn More
Created with www.PDFonFly.com
[email protected].
This week's musing - Outrage
“…it seems everybody is eager to pounce on my story
now that something bad has happened.”
We spent a fair amount of time in the car last week, which
included listening to more radio news than usual. At the time,
newscasters were fixated on Abby Sunderland, the 16 year old
sailor quoted above. She had encountered a violent but not
uncommon Indian Ocean storm. Her sloop had been dismasted
and her emergency beacons had been activated, but it was still
unclear exactly what else had happened.
Listen to your rabbi on
radio 560AM in the
Bay Area or online at
www.ksfo.com
Sundays 1-4 PST
As I listened to the broadcasters purporting to be concerned for
her safety...
To read the rest of Susan's Musings click here
____________________________________________
To see Rabbi Daniel Lapin's television show, click on the blue button
TCT Television Network
-----------------------------------------------You are welcome to reproduce this Thought Tool in your publication or on your website provided
the following information is included:
Thought Tools by
Rabbi Daniel Lapin
www.RabbiDanielLapin.com
----------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent from Rabbi Daniel Lapin to [email protected]. It was sent from: American
Alliance of Jews & Christians, POB 58, Mercer Island, WA 98040. You can modify/update your subscription via
the link below.
Email Marketing by
To be removed click here
Created with www.PDFonFly.com