Emuna Therapy

A Fresh Start

By Dr. Zev Ballen

Do you regret the past? Are you blaming yourself for something? My beloved Rabbi, Rabbi Shalom Arush, teaches us how to forget about the past and start again like never before! 

 

Holy Woman

A pregnant widow with six orphaned boys becomes holier and holier with each test: violence, betrayal, her husband's suicide and ultimately a fire that left her with nothing but Hashem.  

- Dr. Zev Ballen

 

The 'Science' of Parenting

Science is based on observing what might be a cause and effect relationship; then testing the reliability and validity of the supposed cause and effect relationship; and finally drawing conclusions from what was tested to determine 'the truth.'  

Behavioral science has led us to believe that when a child misbehaves if we respond to that behavior with love that it will cause the misbehavior to be reinforced and thereby repeated.

According to this way of thinking, if a child comes home with a 'bad' report card, or a mother recieves a threatening phone call from her daughter's teacher, or a child loses control of himself and hits his brother -  hugging the child at such a time will reinforce the undesirable behavior. 

A parent who believes this has been brainwashed by science.

Since behavioral scientists derive their conclusions based only on what they can observe, their advice to parents is useless. The scientists don't bother themselves with thinking about the child's soul. Since they cannot observe a child's soul, they dismiss it completely -  for research purposes a child's soul and Hashem's Wisdom are irrelevant. Since the scientists don't believe in anything except that which their fallible human eyes can percieve, their 'conclusions' are the lowest and most primitive way of knowing anything about children.

A person with emuna sets his gaze much higher than the scientists can see with their limited powers of observation. A person of Faith asks himself, "how could it be that Hashem is limited to 'A' causes 'B' 62% of the time."  The person of Faith  knows that there is nothing sacred about correlational research. He knows that anything is possible in Hashem's world; and in fact there is no correlation between A and B at all unless Hashem wants there to be. There is no set connection between one moment and the next or even between one day and another. Hashem is creating the world new every moment.

The foundation of emuna is to believe that we can always start again anew. That the One and only Cause of all things is Hashem.  A foundation principle of our belief is that 'Only He did, does and will do all things." 

The next time that your child has a 'failure'  help him start again by showering him with hugs and kisses.  When your child 'falls' is the very best time to step in and protect his honor and feelings of self-worth. Hashem will take care of the rest. 

Here is this weeks Newsletter / Parsha Sheet: Download CSC NL Week 28 Korach. I hope you enjoy it. Have a wonderful family Shabbos!

With Blessings,

Dr. Zev Ballen

Shavuos in Uman

By Dr. Zev Ballen

Rabbi Shalom Arush is in Uman at the Holy gravesite of Rebbe Nachman of Breslev for the Shavuos Holiday. Uman is not an easy trip for a Jewish person to make. Still, the hardships of the journey cannot be compared to the dangers that existed during the time of the communists reign. In those days,  relatively few people made the pilgrimage compared to the 33,000 Jews who went last Rosh Hashanah. Then, there was a real threat of imprisonment and even murder at the hands of the anti-Semitic fascists.  Almost all of the tzadikkim of that generation discouraged people from making the trip. There were those who were actually murdered in sanctifying  G-d's name as they attempted to reach the holy gravesite. Despite this warning, there were a handful of fearless Jews who with their fake passports and indestructible belief in Hashem scratched and clawed their way to Uman year after year. Two of those who went despite the grave danger were Rabbi Eliezer Berland and his main disciple Rabbi Shalom Arush. It was only due to their flawless emuna and determination that Uman was refurbished and re-opened for all of us today.

I can tell you with complete certainty that my Rabbi, Rabbi Shalom Arush, will be praying for every one of you on Shavuos. I personally witnessed the awesome power that Rav Arush's prayers can accomplish just yesterday. It only took a few seconds, but before leaving for Uman,  I saw the Rav literally bring new life to a complete stranger.  

Here is the Bamidbar/Shavuous edition of the Yeshiva's newsletter. I hope you enjoy it!  Download CSC NL Week 24 Bamidbar (2)

In the merit of Rav Arush and all the tzadikkim, may you and your loved ones taste the sweetness of our Holy Torah, this Shavuous, and savor it until the coming of the Messiah - May he come soon!

Good Shabbos and Yom Tov,

Dr. Zev Ballen

Getting Closer to Mt. Sinai

As we count the days to Shavuos, we are are preparing to become different people completely. What did the Rambam mean when he said that a Jew is not someone who G-d does miracles for, he is someone who stands by Mt. Sinai? He means that Shavuos is much higher than Passover. On Passover we witnessed awesome miracles such as G-d making water into dry land. This miracle, has it's limitations in that both water and land are already in the world - G-d just reversed their natures. On Shavuos we have the opportunity to leave ourselves and everything else. Shavuos will be so holy that we can lose our little minds that don't know what we're doing in this world. On Shavuos night we will truly become Jews. Courtesy of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.

Wishing You Blessings Always,

Dr. Zev Ballen

A Fresh Start

Do you regret the past? Are you blaming yourself for something? Reb Shalom recommends that you forget the past and start again like you never started before.

 

Holy Woman

 

A 38 week pregnant widow with six orphaned boys becomes holier and holier with each successful test that she passes:  domestic violence, marital betrayal, her husband's suicide and ultimately a fire that has left  her with nothing but Rabbi Shalom Arush and Hashem. Don't miss this one!

With Hashem's Loving Mercy, we will be broadcasting live today, Wednesday at 5:00pm Israel time from the Chut Shel Chessed Yeshiva, 13 Shmuel Hanavi Street, Jerusalem. The broadcast, as well as our lessons posted from now on - are Mac and iPod compatible. If you tune in too early to the live broadcast link, you'll be sent to the main page of the Breslev Israel website, so try to tune in on time as follows:

10:AM in NY, 7:00 AM in LA and the West Coast, 8:00 AM Denver, 9:00 AM in Mexico and Central Daylight, 3:00 PM in the UK, and 5:00 PM Israel time. If you are not able to watch the lesson live, we will, G-d willing be posting a link to it soon. If you can't see the broadcast, you might need to download a new version of Flash Media player, which you can do here. We hope you enjoy the broadcast.

Wishing you Blessings Always,

Dr. Zev Ballen