Tag Archives: Maimonides

Can you RUN to do a Mitzva?

It’s difficult to run to do mitzvot when your back and knees hurt.

It’s much easier to study Torah in a Yeshiva or Beit Midrash than it is in a hospital.

One must be alive and breathing to do good deeds for others.

Despite the skepticism of some in the traditional Jewish community towards healthy nutrition and fitness for a variety of reasons (which I covered in my last blog post), Judaism has always stressed taking care of one’s health and body. Our holy souls should not be housed in defiled vessels.

Continue reading Can you RUN to do a Mitzva?

For Happiness, Empty One Pocket

Rabbi Simcha Bunim, may the memory of  the righteous be for a blessing, had a famous oral teaching:

Everyone must have two pockets, with a note in each pocket, so that he or she can reach into the one or the other, depending on the need. When feeling lowly and depressed, discouraged or disconsolate, one should reach into the right pocket, and, there, find the words: “For my sake was the world created.”

But when feeling high and mighty one should reach into the left pocket, and find the words: “I am but dust and ashes.”*

Continue reading For Happiness, Empty One Pocket