Sneaky Blessings

17 years ago I was a mess. I was a smoker and a beer drinker. I picked up McDonald’s double cheeseburgers every evening (I was working nights) on the way to work, and on the way home it was breakfast burritos (so-called). I had noticed my left arm ached sometimes walking from my car to the building. I had just met my wife online in a chat room concerning Judaism in Kentucky. I brought her up to Michigan when I had a heart attack, wasn’t expected to live.
While in Intensive Care I developed double pneumonia. My wife to be stayed with me every day, and asked a Rabbi to pray for me. I had been hooked up to a breathing machine for 2 weeks. Soon after the Chabad Rabbi prayed for me I was home, and it turned out there was no damage to my heart. Ever since I have been growing spiritually, got married, retired and moved to Kentucky. Everything from my youth on was coming to light as being for the best. Like pieces of a puzzle they have been hiding a beautiful landscape. Reply

I am losing my mother, a very difficult time for me and my family. It was to be my birthday celebration and she had a stroke. I surrendered to the grâce of G-d and I had so many miracles happening this week. Just today, I was going down the hospital lift (with another couple) to get some food, although not hungry at all, And when I got out the elevator the lady said to me I feel you need a hug! She huged me and prayed for me and she wanted to give me her number. This was a miracle today. I can’t even get a hug from my own sister, but G-d and our guardian angels are all there for us when we are ready to let them in.
A child dying is terrible, but we are not supposed to know all the answers. We are tested in our lives to progress spiritually, this is what I believe. We either pass the test or we fail. That’s life. Let’s humbly accept G-d's will. Reply

When you read the biographies of famous people such as Eli Wiesel, Eli Wallach Victor Frankel, Abraham J. Heschel, L. Kolberg, A. Maslow, the Rambam, former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Mier. and Mr. Rogers [to name a few] their notoriety came out of sometimes great pain and misfortunes that turned into a vision to better the world show us how to overcome tragedies and evil and connect to G-d. They discovered a blessing in disguise, a gift that they shared and that benefited mankind. Yes. I understand what the author is trying to say about blessings in disguise. No one likes abuse, pain, injustice, biases, illness, but it can give us a determination to find a cure, fight for peoples' rights and change/create laws, help us to hope, cope, hold on, and discover where G-d is and how He is helping us to move forward to create a world that is proactive and not indifferent.

Thank you, Reply

If we forget that we are strangers on Earth, and for a short time, it is not easy to rejoice in whatever G.d sends us. If we remember that condition of non-permanent residents, it is because we would be very close to Him Reply

Hidden Let’s see if after you take a walk with me through a pediatric cancer ward if your opinions are still the same. Reply

This reminds me of the concealed images in pictures that you can see only when you unfocus. If you are looking at the picture in focus, you can’t see the form within the picture.

I must say that the plane in the forest is unsettling to the mind. Did it crash? Is help around? Are people hurt and in pain? Reply

revealed blessing One must understand sneaky as ignorance of law, as having bad judgment to determine what is good and bad. As this experience tests one whom they would come to trust. Good judgment helps all including the bad as they are revealed. Once revealed, look upon it as a blessing from above, as a parent that has acquired good judgment always teaches with compassion directs toward the good. As for the bad, who then would judge the Creator as He prepares the bad to become good in generations. Reply

All is as it Should Be It's not really a limitation of reality it's the yetzer ha'ra's job to make sure I do not see or hear the good in all that happens to me. And there has to be a purpose for this as GOD created the yetzer ha'ra. That said; if I see the yetzer ha'ra I have to see the GOD that created it. If I see GOD behind all that happens then the power of the yetzer ha'ra can be turned to good.

There is a midrash that says; if the yetzer ha'ra makes you want to kill people then become a shoichet (butcher). Killing is not too good for the soul or the person being killed either but being a kosher shoichet brings a great benefit to the community and is a source for lots of brochos. Simply said; If there was no yetzer ha'ra there would be no butchers. Reply

Guardians are there. Do not abolish them. Instead, seek out a true friend. Let the old ones go. Reply

Blessings in disguise This is incredibly insightful. Thank you so much for sharing.beautifuly put wisdom.
Your advise is that everything is designed to further the refinement of the soul

Painful or difficult Every incident little or large is designed to pull us up out of the
hypnotic gravitational pull of the dimension of receiving for the self alone. Reply

sneak under the Door This is going to sound like true confessions but I do have a point. I am a woman-poor and no children nor no Husband and I have no friends-except for one who I write to-What I am about to say might make no sense at all but I feel that I remember people of my past and they are not giving me advise in my mind that makes me laugh and sing-they tell me things that make me very very angry every day I live then sometimes sometimes they send me a message that really makes sense and people therapists in my past have asked me why I don't find a way to die...I say it is because of these memories and the fact that I get a few crumbs past to me under the door every so often Reply

PARDON MY STUPIDITY, BUT... ... were the Nazis friends in disguise? Surely the Nazis "felt free to enter in all their glory." Such blessings.... Reply

blessings in disguise possibly, you have to have had them to understand. over the years, several very evil people have shown up, for long periods of time, too -- gossipy, nasty, destructive people. and yes, it took all this time to realize G-d sent them. maybe to make sure i would never lose faith, even with all the grief, to keep praying, and try harder. because of these people, i learned more about myself, and though they seemed to be 'winning' and making life miserable, in the end, G-d carries you through, and you realize they are the losers because people of substance don't have to destroy or make fun - i ended up feeling sorry for them, and feeling so grateful to G-d for Jewish values. Reply

sneaky blessings Dear Rabbi, I have a problem with this matter. I do hear some people say it is a blessing in disguise etc. To me ugly monster or vicious monster is just that. I have certain misfortune or lot, it is so because of whatever reason due to fallen nature, but the L-rd always has a good plan for me, a plan for good not for evil, to give me hope and a future. A blessing is a blessing, a curse is a curse. There is no shadow of turning. His principle is yes and amen, not yes and no. Until the day I die if certain thing in my life not great like G-d says it should I still do not accept it, to the worst I have to wait for heaven to get rid of it, but I just do not see any good in evil at all. Rabbi , how come I am so far from the Rebbe' s teaching today? Reply

Thanks for the words The words shared were very proper for my current moment. Again, thanks for sharing. Reply

That's true... But sometimes, when the guards aren't there, true ugly monsters can come in, and that's why it is very wise to keep them there, in alert, to filter the real ugly monsters; the blessings in disguise; and the blessing in disguise that must be fiercely fought till they are transformed in blessings without disguise that can come in without restrictions.
Anyway, all cases are indeed blessings to our own growth. Reply

Sneaky Blessings Rabbi Freeman,

I enjory reading your daily doses. Is the "guard" at the gate my mind and/or animal soul? Why can big ugly monsters get through the gate easier thanlesser perceived one? Reply

Sneaky Blessings Tzvi I love you with great respect and admiration of your intellect. Your truth flows like a calm but very deep body of water through my mind and comes to rest in my soul and stays as a guard of my faith that iluninates the path G-d has chosen for me. Reply

Please explain I am not clear on this - please let me have a simpler explanation Reply