Rabbi Rachamim Bitton & The Lev Emunah Awakening

You gave tzedakah. You went back to your day. You may not have felt any different.

That feeling cannot show you the whole value of your mitzvah. The good you do can bring Hashem pleasure even when that part is hidden from you.

This week’s Parshat Bereshit gives us a way to see an ordinary action differently: Hashem is giving us life now, and we can use that life to do His will.

The Kedushat Levi uses a Kabbalistic remez—an inner reading, not the plain meaning of the verse—to connect the visible action with the hidden relationship.

Before one mitzvah today, pause and say: “Hashem, help me use the strength You give me to do Your will.”

Share this with someone who could use encouragement to keep doing good, even on a day when they feel little.

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Rabbi Rachamim Bitton & The Lev Emunah Awakening

Sometimes your heart is hurting, and then another thought makes the day even harder: “Why do I feel so far from Hashem?”

Perhaps you’ve been praying, working on your emunah, and hoping to feel stronger. Yet the worry, disappointment, or ache is still there.

Tehillim 34:19 speaks directly to that moment: “Hashem is close to the brokenhearted” (קָרוֹב ה׳ לְנִשְׁבְּרֵי לֵב).

David HaMelech speaks about a heart that is hurting and affirms Hashem’s closeness right there. Even when pain makes it difficult to feel connected, a feeling of distance does not mean Hashem is distant.

You can speak with Hashem before the difficulty is resolved, before you understand why it happened, and before you feel better. Bring the worry, the disappointment, or the words you’ve been holding inside into that conversation.

Even a few honest words can be tefillah: “Hashem, this hurts. Help me feel Your closeness. Give me strength for what I’m facing, and help me see the next step.”

Let those words express what you are actually going through. Speak with Hashem honestly, even when everything feels far from okay. If you need someone beside you, or practical help with the difficulty itself, reaching for support can be part of caring for the life Hashem has given you.

May Hashem give you strength, comfort, and a clearer sense of Hashem’s closeness in whatever you are carrying.

Save this for a hard day, or send it to someone who needs this reminder with a few personal words: “I thought of you.”

Rabbi Rachamim Bitton

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Rabbi Rachamim Bitton & The Lev Emunah Awakening

You may feel hurt by your child and still ask Hashem to bless, protect and guide them. That compassionate wish can coexist with your pain and with a boundary that protects your wellbeing.

The Mei HaShiloach asks why Hashem created Adam directly, yet arranged for later generations to be born through parents. He explains that Hashem established compassion in parents’ hearts so that compassion could be awakened within us.

The Zohar teaches that compassion expressed below awakens compassion Above. This is middah keneged middah—measure for measure: the compassion we express opens a corresponding channel for Hashem’s compassion to be revealed.

The precise parallel is beautiful: a parent asks Hashem to protect a child even when that child goes against the parent’s wishes. Through this compassion, the Mei HaShiloach teaches that Hashem’s compassion is awakened for Bnei Israel even when we go against Hashem's will.

Hashem’s compassion is already present. Our inner work prepares us to receive its revelation.

“Hashem, please bless and guide my child. Help me care for my own pain while wishing my child good. Through this compassion, reveal Your compassion for all Bnei Israel.”

Source: Mei HaShiloach, Volume II, Bereshit §5, citing Zohar, Emor 92a. The tefillah and boundary practice are contemporary applications, not quotations from the sefer.

Save this for a day when you need help praying through hurt.

#ParshatBereshit #MeiHaShiloach #PnimiyutHaTorah #LevEmunah

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Rabbi Rachamim Bitton & The Lev Emunah Awakening

When money worries you, the mind keeps asking: How will this work out? You may look at every visible option and feel that none is enough.

Ashrei says, “You open Your hand and satisfy every living being” (Tehillim 145:16). The options you can see are not the limits of Hashem’s power. In my class on Rosh Hashanah kingship, I shared an insight that changes how we ask: Hashem’s desire to bless you is greater than your own desire to receive that blessing. You can bring your actual need into a relationship with Hashem.

Try asking: “Hashem, please open the way for the parnassah I need. Help me recognize the right opportunity and act on it.” Then take the practical step you can take today: a work conversation, an application, a careful look at expenses, or a request for qualified help. The effort is yours to make; the brachah comes from Hashem.

What practical step is available to you today?

Rabbi Rachamim Bitton

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Rabbi Rachamim Bitton & The Lev Emunah Awakening

Someone you care about says, “When you said that, I felt sad.” You want to listen, and you also want them to understand what you meant.

Begin by giving your own feelings a little room. You might say inwardly: “I’m hurting because I want them to understand me, and I also want to understand what they’re feeling and needing.”

The Sfat Emet reads the opening of Bereshit as guidance for serving Hashem: first confusion, then true illumination, then separating that illumination from what obscures it. He encourages us not to lose heart at a confused beginning.

Here is one application to a difficult conversation: distinguish the wish for mutual understanding from the urge to prove a point. Your feelings deserve compassion. The discernment concerns the intention guiding your words.

Ask the other person whether they’re willing to share what they felt when they heard your words. You can also gently ask what mattered to them in that moment. After listening, ask whether they’re willing to hear your feelings and what you meant. Neither person has to disappear from the conversation.

“Hashem, help us hear each other with compassion.”

Source: Sfat Emet, Bereshit 5640, §4, on Bereshit 1:2–4. The conversation practice is an application of this Pnimiyut haTorah teaching, rather than wording quoted from the sefer.

Save this for a conversation where both of you want to be heard.

#ParshatBereshit #SfatEmet #PnimiyutHaTorah #LevEmunah

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Rabbi Rachamim Bitton & The Lev Emunah Awakening

Your presence can be a gift.

Shammai teaches in Pirkei Avot 1:15 to receive every person with a pleasant countenance. A warm look and one unhurried moment can tell someone: “I’m glad you’re here.”

You can bring that desire into personal tefillah: “Hashem, help me meet the person in front of me with love and respect.”

Who might feel strengthened by your welcome today?

Rabbi Rachamim Bitton

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Rabbi Rachamim Bitton & The Lev Emunah Awakening

Hashem wants you close. You are so precious to Him!

Tonight, as Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret begin, Rashi gives us the image of a king asking his children to stay one more day: ״בני, בבקשה מכם, עכבו עמי עוד יום אחד״ — “My children, please stay with Me one more day.” Parting from them is difficult for him (Vayikra 23:36).

Take one unhurried moment during the chag to bring Hashem what is in your heart. Speak with Him in your own words. After the chag, choose one daily moment to keep that closeness alive: a short prayer, a brachah said with presence, or gratitude before sleep.

May this Shabbat and chag bring simchah, stronger bitachon, brachot and yeshuot.

Rabbi Rachamim Bitton

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