THE PRODUCT LIST
PART 1
RUCHNIUS IDEAS
· The Sefiras HaOmer Chart
· The Chag Log -- Your Spiritual Diary
· Life-At-A-Glance - The 25 Year Diary
· Talking Numerically-Significant-Minute Clock
· Gashmius Reports Magazine
· The Don't Wants Club
· The Conduit
DAVENING IDEAS
· The Geulah Siddur
· Removable Sticky Arrows
· The Prayer Pacer
· The Talking Brachos-For-Kavannah Machine
· The Birchas HaMazon Booklets
· The Krias Sh'mah al HaMitah Booklet
DIVEIKUS IDEAS
· The Ribone Phone
· The Shechinah Phone
· My Partnership Agreement With Hashem
· The Talking Diveikus Machine
· Diveikus Cards
· Letter From G-d
· Inspiring Quote From The Baal Shem Tov
· The "What A Wonderful World" Video with Louis Armstrong
· The To-You Turner
· The Yichudim Simulator
· Shabbos Meal Prayer
· The Geulah Club
· The Geulah Bracelets
· The Connector
· The Director
· Free Help on How to Get Closer to Hashem
· The Simulator
· Yeshivah Gedolahs Sing
· The Sleep Log
EMUNAH IDEAS
· The Prognosticator
· The Hashem's Protection System and Hashgachah System Integrity Alerting Machine
· The Heavenly Wake Up Service
· The Heavenly Fall Asleep Service
· The Heavenly Insect-Prevention Service
· The 40-Day Yisurim Log
· Free Help for Trouble With Emunah
· The Gratitude Book
SELF-HELP IDEAS
· The Ablator
· The Liberator
· The Excitement!!! Popper
· Mussar Songs
· The Identity Finder
· Your Personal-Weather Report
· The Frustration Tolerator
· How To Stop Feeling Sad
· The "It's Okay To Be Insignificant" Plaque.
· The Work-On-Feeling-Okay Plaque
· The “Liberate Yourself By Saying No” Sign
· The Happy "No" Picture
LEARNING IDEAS
· Gemora Messages
· Video Shiurim From Our Gedolim
· Watch and Learn
· Eat-and-Learn Restaurants
· Read and Learn
· Call and Learn
· Fly and Learn
· Ride and Learn
· Portable Torah Facts
· The Talking Brachos-In-Learning Machine
· Wait-and-Learn
· Applause While Learning
· The Torah Pocket-Library
· The Thinking-In-Learning-Room Picture
· The Punishments Book
· The Kavanah Headband
· The Portable Arba Minim Buyer's Guide
· Free Help for Problems with Learning
· Complete Eyen Mishpat, Plus
· Succah-Builder's Guide, Concise
· Difference Between Inside and Outside Sixth
· The Handy Havdalah Chart
· The Parshios Chart
TZADDIKIM IDEAS
· The Arba Ammos Trainer
· The Reconfirmation-Of-The-Oath Plaque
· The Zap Images Bookmarklet
ANTI-yetzer hora IDEAS
· The Mental Anti-yetzer hora Light Saber
· The Mental Anti-yetzer hora Flamethrower
· The Mental Anti-yetzer hora Machete Knife
· The Slicer
· The Scalpel
· The Anti-Smoking Campaign
· The Anti-Overeating Campaign
· The Talking Silver Cigarette Case
· The Torah Diet
· The Maoz Tzur (Rock Of Ages) Battle Song
· The “You have to get more organized and take better care of yourself” Plaque
· Portable Torah Facts
· The Amalek Revealer
· The Disconnector
MISCELLANEOUS IDEAS
· The Megillas Esther Holder
· The Soap-Remnant Remaker
· Free Help with Hiccups
(Donations collected through my friend, Burt West's PayPal account.)
(Donations collected through my friend, Burt West's PayPal account.)
THE PRODUCT LIST
PART 2
ARMAMENTARIUM FOR THE FAINT HEARTED
· The Ablator
· The Unwanted-Thoughts Scatterer
· The Mental Anti-yetzer hora Light Saber
· The Mental Anti-yetzer hora Flamethrower
· The Mental Anti-yetzer hora Machete Knife
· The Slicer
· The Scalpel
· The Maoz Tzur (Rock Of Ages) Battle Song
TORAH TOYS IDEAS
· Toy Yeshivah
· Play Chasunah
· Toy Beis HaKinesses
· Play Shabbos Table
· Play Lail Pesach
· Play Simchas Torah
· Play Hakafos
· Toy Eged Bus, #1 or #2
· Toy Succah
· Play Hachnosas Sefer Torah
· Toy Western Wall
· Toy Noach's Ark
· Toy Eshel Avraham
TALMUD TOYS IDEAS
· Avodas Beis HaMikdash
· Mishkan and Shevotim in Midbar
· The Mishkan and 39 Melachos
· Avodas Parah Adumah
· Bikkurim
· Succahs, Kosher and Posul
· Toy Eglah Arufah
INTERPERSONAL IDEAS
· The Chutzpah Smasher
· The Feel-Their-Distress Ball
· Brachah Cards
· Frumy Friendship Cards
· Chag Cards
· The “Leave Them The Way They Are.” Plaque
· The Find-The-Similarities Activity Book
THOUGHT IDEAS
· Thought Mail
· Thought Cleaners
· The Unwanted-Thoughts Scatterer
· The Thought Mail Scrambler
· The Interfering-Thoughts Counter
· The Thoughts Organizer
· The Eitz HaChaim Thought Guarder
TSHUVAH IDEAS
· The Point-Of-A-Needle Hole
· Removable Point-Of-A
Needle-Hole Stickers
· The Middah K'neged Middah Revealer
MIDDOS IDEAS
· The My-Own-Faults Finder
· The See-The-Good Glass
· See-Their-Good / See-Their-Bad Glass
· Bad Middos Ablatement Buttons
· Middos Refinement Buttons
· The My-Faults Book
· The Personality-Trait Blender
· The What's-Right-With-This-Picture Coloring Book
KABBALAH IDEAS
· The Kabbalah Alarm Clock
· The Identity Finder
· Megillas Esther, Revealed
MUSSAR SONGS
· Mussar Songs - home page
· Welcome To The Olum HaZeh Correctional Facility (Hashem’s Prison Planet)
· Everything That Happens
· Have A Smile For Everyone
· You Have That Fault Yourself
· Don’t Get Mad Or Hurt
· These Are Your Guides
· Make Your Enemy Your Friend
· Find A Word Nicer Than Stupid
· Everyone’s Had Better Days
· Just Don’t Get Angry
· A Nice Little Happy Day
· Give Me My Mussar With A Beat
ESSAY NUGGETS
· "I Saw An Upside Down World."
· The Down and The Up
· The Value of Low Self Esteem
· They Don't Play Basketball in Heaven
· Middah K'neged Middah
· On Yisurim
· “You have to get more organized and take better care of yourself.”
· "Good!"
· On Learning Torah L'Shmah
· On Looking For Happiness
· On The Animosity Between Father and Son
· On One's Changing Madrega
· There HAS To Be Something Wrong With Everyone
· Dealing With Adversity
· Life In This World
· How Words Of Torah Help
· “Help me. Save me. Help me. Save me.”
· How To Stop Feeling Sad
· Getting In The Mood For Tisha B'Av
(Donations collected through my friend, Burt West's PayPal account.)
(Donations collected through my friend, Burt West's PayPal account.)
"I Saw An Upside Down World."
The gemora (Pesachim 50a, Baba Basra 10b) relates that Rav Yosef, the son of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, fainted and “died” but came back to life. When his father asked him what he saw while he was “dead,” he replied, “I saw an upside down world. The ones on top [in this world] are on the bottom [in the next world] and the ones on the bottom are on the top.” His father said to him, “My son, you saw a clear world.”
You therefore need to be afraid when you feel that you are “on top” in any way, and glad when you feel you are “on the bottom.” It is probably safe to say that most of the things that are valued in this world are devalued in the World To Come and vice versa.
The Down and The Up
Life is full of ups and downs. We usually think of the downs coming after the ups, as in “Everything that goes up must come down.” The Baal Shem Tov taught that many times the opposite is true - namely, it’s the downs that come before the ups. That is, when Hashem wants to bring someone to a higher madrega (level), He will first lower the person before He brings him up. The Baal Shem Tov compared it to throwing something - the farther up you want to throw it, the lower down you must first lower your hand. So when you’re in a down, try to predict and anticipate which “up” is going to come afterwards. It will make the down phase that much easier to accept lovingly and gladly.
The Value of Low Self Esteem
(When this essay is completed (see opening paragraph above), it will explain more fully the following ideas:)
Mussar seforim teach us that gaavah (conceit, arrogance) is the worst character trait, and its offspring, chutzpah (impudence, forwardness) is a close second. They say we must avoid gaavah at all costs, even sometimes to the point of making ourselves lowly. (See Rabbeinu Bechaya, Vayikra 1:1, s.v. Shlomo -- brought in both Hebrew and English in our product idea, The My-Faults Book.)
The problem with high self esteem is that it can easily and unwittingly lead a person into gaavah. Having low self esteem makes that more unlikely to happen.
Hashem says that He and someone with gaavah cannot exist in the same world together. Yet, He is very close to someone with a broken spirit. Having low self esteem and recognizing and remembering your faults, makes you have a broken spirit, and therefore makes Hashem want to be close to you.
Middah K'neged Middah
Middah k'neged middah is commonly translated as measure-for-measure. It is the basic way that Hashem runs the world. It means that Hashem treats you exactly like you treat Him and other people. Most of the time, He uses other people to make you be treated the way you have treated either Him, them or someone else, but sometimes He won’t use people as His messengers, such as when He visits you with a disease or some tragedy or disaster, chas v'shalom.
The purpose of middah k'neged middah is to get you to realize what you’re doing wrong and then to correct it. The problem is that the consequence usually occurs way after you’ve already forgotten that you did the thing that caused it. At first glance, this may seem unfair, chas v'shalom, for how, you might think, can you realize what the punishment is for to be able to correct the cause. However, we are taught that if the punishment came immediately after the cause, that would negate your free choice. This way, you have to constantly be examining your actions for fear that they might cause some negative reaction somewhere down the line.
In addition, it's not too hard to figure out what the cause was when you put your mind to it.
On Yisurim (troubles)
There are 4 steps in yisurim:
1.You do a bad action or think a bad thought,
2.Hashem send you a yisurim,
3.You recognize the connection between steps 1 and 2,
4.You do teshuvah.
"Good!"
The gemora says that in the World To Come we will be able to sincerely thank Hashem not only for the “good” that happened to us in This World but also for the “bad,” for we will see that even the bad was really good and for our good. It’s only in This World that we see the bad as bad. Therefore, if, when something “bad” happens to you, you continually say, “Good!” (meaning, I’m glad it’s happening to me), even though you don’t first believe it, after a while you will get to see the good that was hidden in the event.
Another point is that when you see someone who was mean to you or whom you don’t like suffering, you truly think, “Good, he deserves what he’s getting. Maybe he'll change.” So it is with yourself. If you were objective and could remember all your actions, when something “bad” happened to you, you would truly be able to say, “Good! I deserve what I’m getting. Maybe I'll change.”
On Learning Torah L'Shmah
You can probably remember how badly it makes you feel when people neglect you or pay no attention to you. Well, the Torah, k’viyochol, is the same way. The Torah likes it when you pay attention to it and spend time learning it. That’s what “learning l’shmah” means - learning it for ITS sake - because it likes to be learned. Otherwise, when it’s not being learned, it feels neglected - and you know how bad that feels.
So be nice to the Torah.
Even if you’d rather be doing something else, learn it - for ITS sake - so that it will feel that people care about it. Even if you have to force yourself, or the subject matter is difficult, or you can’t seem to understand it, or it hurts your brain to try to figure out what it’s saying, or you keep thinking of all these other things you should be doing instead - learn it anyway - for ITS sake - l’shmah.
Because it likes to be learned.
ESSAYS NUGGETS