I recently read a story about Rav Nosson, the Talmid of Rebbe Nachman. He was walking together with his students after a raging fire ravaged the town of Breslav. They passed by completely burned down houses, and in one of the houses, R' Nosson saw the owner of the house sifting through the ruins, trying to find or rescue some of his belongings. The fact that everything was burnt down didn't stop the owner from looking. R' Nosson turned to his students and said: "This is how we have to …

There was a rich man who unfortunately had his business take a turn for the worse and soon found himself barely feeding his family. He noticed his son one day looking exceptionally sad. When asked why, the son explained as follows, "father, when we had money, we had all the best food – and lots of it. Now all we have is bread. But at least give us a decent amount!"
This is us. We don't have much left to give Hashem, the Beis Hamikdash is no longer here. No korbanos, …

By "Ben-Moshe" (sober for approx. 3 years)

Your phone rings. It's your wife. "Can you stop off at Walmart to pick up some groceries?" "Sure." You take down the details, then draw a deep breath. Your delightfully clueless wife is sending you into the Gaza Strip, into Afghanistan, because Walmart on a hot and humid summer afternoon, will be full with unwanted stimuli and slippery distraction, not ben-Torah friendly, certainly not recovering ben-Torah friendly. However, you don't panic. You remind yourself that you know the drill, you have learned neat tricks, …

By "London"
I would like to share with you an amazing experience I just had. My seven year old daughter is going through a difficult time at school at the moment, both socially and academically. This morning, she had a massive tantrum that she is not going to school, refusing to eat breakfast and throwing her bag around. In the car on the way to school, she told me how sad she is that she does not have friends, etc. I was able to sympathize with her and I told her …

A man told me that he was at the airport, and he had his tallis and tefillin in his carry on. "I had to go to the men's room, so I left my carry on outside the men's room, because I didn't want to take my kedusha items in there. Then it occurred to me, that my neshama is kedusha, and if I don't take my tallis and tefillin into the bathroom, how can I take my holy neshama into an indecent place? Sure, I take my neshama into the bathroom because …

Chevrah, the beginning of the week was difficult, a lot of stress… But I feel a little better since I got an "email" from the Almighty saying:
"Hey Nura, get off My 'Throne', and that No, He absolutely does not need my help in running His show".

Posted by "Momo"

I think I have a parable for the last few principles of the GYE attitude handbook:

Our struggle is like a baseball team, it's us playing against the other team (the Yetzer Hara). Although we try to win every game, that's super rare. The key is for us to win a lot more than the amount of games we lose.

A winning streak puts us on fire (and the more days we remain clean, the more invigorated we feel). And sure, if we lose a game after a winning streak, …

Posted by “7Up” on the forum:

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and G-d appeared. Hashem told the man He had work for him to do and showed him a large rock in the path in front of his cabin.

G-d explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive …

My son went to the beach in Bat Yam yesterday on a class trip. He had a wonderful time BH, except for one minor setback. Towards the end of the day, a larger than normal wave came crashing in. As he fought to retain his balance, he noticed a huge, opaque jelly fish wash towards him. Because he was still trying to stay afloat, he was unable to avoid it. It attached itself to his leg and stomach, stinging him. Finally pulling free, he waded back to shore and went …

There was a Gerrer Chasid who lost all of his family in the Holocaust. Although he had a beard, payos and yarmulka before the war, the Nazis - Yimach Shemem Vizichrom (may their memory be obliterated) – took them away from him and he didn't reclaim them after the war. He moved to Tel Aviv and after some time, he missed his Rebbi, the Imrei Emes. He decided to visit him, and when the Imrei Emmes saw him, he recognized him and invited him into his study and asked him to tell …