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10/14/2026

Duties of the heart

Let’s take a step back. Are we really expected to catch sight of G-d on our own, as we suggested? Indeed we are, and we’ll find that common sense as well as Torah and the Oral Tradition itself oblige us to.

Isn’t it just logical to assume that we should? After all, G-d granted us the unique intellectual capacity to delve into things, so we’d have a right to, wouldn’t we? Couldn’t it be said that if we don’t that we’d be less than human? After all, what sets us apart from animals if not our minds?

But the sensitive soul is somehow or another not satisfied with that answer. After all, G-d gave us many capacities, and a lot of them could be used for untoward purposes. How are we to be sure that the idea of analyzing the world around us to reassure ourselves of G-d’s presence isn’t out and out hubris? So Ibn Pakudah assures us that the Torah itself commends us to do it.

Keep in mind that many others of us wouldn’t even question the notion and would gladly go about doing it without recourse to Torah or Tradition. The point to be made is this: that those souls in search of spiritual excellence would be sensitive to the fact that it’s not only our minds that set us apart from all other created beings. Our souls do, too. And they’d wonder if their immortal souls would somehow be detrimentally affected by the sort of open inquiry being suggested. But Ibn Pakudah’s point is that we needn’t worry. Both Torah and Tradition assert that it’s indeed good for our spiritual well being to delve into these things; that G-d Himself has asked us to.

We’re thus told to “Lift (our) eyes on high and see Who created these” (Isaiah 40:26), and to “observe (G-d’s) heavens, the work of (His) fingers; the moon and the stars that (He) established” (Psalms 8:4). “Hear, you deaf” we’re warned, “look to see, you blind” (Isaiah 42:18) all the G-dly wonders about us. And we’re told that “the path of the righteous is a like a gleam of sunlight that shines brighter and brighter to the peak of day,” while “the path of the wicked is like darkness, and they do not know what they stumble over” (Proverbs 4:18-19), so it would we’d be wise to keep our eyes wide open.

And the Oral Tradition indicates that “a person who can determine the course of the seasons and the constellations but doesn’t, is said to ‘not notice G-d’s deeds, and to not look on the work of His hands’ (Isaiah 5:12)” (Shabbat 75a); and it reveals that “if the Torah hadn’t been given to Israel, we could have learned modesty from the cat, fidelity from the dove, manners from the rooster, and honesty from the ant” (Eruvin 100b) thanks to our analytical prowess.

Hence we find that we’re indeed expected to reflect on things all around us to catch sight of G­d’s presence.

10/14/2026

Duties of the Heart

We’ll do what we can in this second gate to catch sight of G-d’s presence in our midst and thus confirm His existence. But we’ll see something else too along the way — just how good He is to us.

Now while no one can ignore the pain and sorrow many people suffer, the often overlooked underlying goodness of it all can’t be denied either — once we’re made aware of it. And that will be our task here.

The truth be known, many of us will be hard pressed to accept the points Ibn Pakudah will make below — simply because we’re so mired in the very symptoms he lays out, and thus find it difficult seeing how very right he is. In many ways we’re like inveterate alcoholics who like our wh***ey too much to own up to how much havoc it’s wreaking in our lives. For as we’ll find, it’s i ronically very often our own inability to recognize all the good G-d has granted us that causes us our pain and sorrow.

Perhaps, then, it would do us well to especially ponder the ideas presented below and take them to heart. Because if we’re ever to achieve spiritual excellence as we’d like to, we’d need to own up to a number of things that elude us, no matter how unpleasant hearing them said outright may be for now. Because in the end we’ll recognize the truth and genuinely be the people we’d like to be.

So why in fact don’t we realize how good G-d is to us, and why do so many of us scoff at the very idea? For three reasons, as Ibn Pakudah sees it.

First, because we’re virtually absorbed in the material side of the world and look to it for succor. So we tend to be bedazzled by the magic of this and that thing and quickly lose interest in everything G-d has already granted us, complain about the things we don’t have and oftentimes don’t need, and think life is bad.

Second, because we all grow up with a plethora of G-d-given favors — large and small, apparent and inapparent — which we then grow used to and come to accept as a “given”. And by the time we realize all we have, we’re already too preoccupied to appreciate it, and have grown slack in our gratitude. In a way we can all be said to be like spoiled brats that way.

And third, because we simply don’t understand the nature of suffering, and think well-being and comfort is due us. In truth, life itself is a gift— a veritable usually several decades long favor granted us by G-d in love, and based upon nothing we did to deserve it. The other point to be made is that we oftentimes suffer for reasons beyond our ken; yet we think we’re wiser yet than G-d, and that we should decide how we’re to live life.

So we’re encouraged to appreciate all we have, life included. And to thank G-d for it all. We’ll explore the multitude of favors we enjoy in more depth in later chapters.

10/13/2026

thank you Citra Community Church for your financial support this month again.
Your help is deeply appreciated.

10/13/2026

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10/12/2026

Psalm 9
One should praise God for saving him from the hand of the enemy who stands over and agonizes him, and for His judging each person according to his deeds: the righteous according to their righteousness, and the wicked according to their wickedness.
1For the Conductor, upon the death of Labben, a psalm by David.
2I will thank the Lord with all my heart; I will recount all Your wonders.
3I will rejoice and exult in You; I will sing to Your Name, O Most High.
4When my enemies retreat, they will stumble and perish from before You.
5You have rendered my judgement and [defended] my cause; You sat on the throne, O righteous Judge.
6You destroyed nations, doomed the wicked, erased their name for all eternity.
7O enemy, your ruins are gone forever, and the cities you have uprooted—their very remembrance is lost.
8But the Lord is enthroned forever, He established His throne for judgement.
9And He will judge the world with justice, He will render judgement to the nations with righteousness.
10The Lord will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
11Those who know Your Name put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not abandoned those who seek You.
12Sing to the Lord Who dwells in Zion, recount His deeds among the nations.
13For the Avenger of bloodshed is mindful of them; He does not forget the cry of the downtrodden.
14Be gracious to me, O Lord; behold my affliction at the hands of my enemies, You Who raises me from the gates of death,
15so that I may relate all Your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion, that I may exult in Your deliverance.
16The nations sank into the pit that they made; in the net they concealed their foot was caught.
17The Lord became known through the judgement He executed; the wicked one is snared in the work of his own hands; reflect on this always.
18The wicked will return to the grave, all the nations that forget God.
19For not for eternity will the needy be forgotten, nor will the hope of the poor perish forever.
20Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your presence.
21Set Your mastery over them, O Lord; let the nations know that they are but frail men, Selah.

10/12/2026

Psalm 1
This psalm inspires man to study Torah and avoid sin. One who follows this path is assured of success in all his deeds, whereas the plight of the wicked is the reverse.
1Fortunate is the man that has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the path of sinners, nor sat in the company of scoffers.
2Rather, his desire is in the Torah of the Lord, and in His Torah he meditates day and night.
3He shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither; and all that he does shall prosper.
4Not so the wicked; rather, they are like the chaff that the wind drives away.
5Therefore the wicked will not endure in judgement, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6For the Lord minds the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

10/11/2026

Bringing Hope Thrift Store will open at noon as weather will be better then.
18350 n us hwy 301 Citra
remember lots of clothing in sale this month just $3
shorts. $2
many other great deals.

10/11/2026

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10/11/2026

Duties of the heart:

We laid out three rather complex premises last time that needed to be proven if we’re to affirm G-d’s existence once and for all. One, that nothing creates itself. Two, that since there’s only a finite number of beginnings, there must be one instance of beginning that preceded all the others. And three, that all composites had to have been created.

But rather than relate each premise to G-d’s existence in series, we’ll cite proofs for the fact that the world had to have been created, and that it had to have been created by a Creator who is G-d. And we’ll weave each premise into the fiber of the arguments.

Ibn Pakudah describes the world as a complex composite of indispensable parts. In fact, it’s like a complete household with a roof (the sky), flooring (the earth), lighting (stars), and an array of other furnishings. Along with food, heating and cooling systems, and a plethora of wondrous things.

But not only is the world at large a composite of many parts; each item in it is a composite as well. Each and every thing contains a myriad of elements and details. Everything is a veritable universe onto itself.

Now, Ibn Pakudah points out, when we consider how independent and particular each element of each larger whole is, and the ends to which we often have to go in order to artificially combine them since they so often defy combination, we’re struck by something. How do things manage to remain intact in nature?

It occurs to us that someone had to have combined them Ibn Pakudah says. And that the only being who could have combined them against their will and nature was the one who formulated them. After all, only a thing’s inventor knows its secrets well enough to have it do things no one else can. Hence the very fact that things remain in combination oftentimes against their own natures indicates the existence of a Creator.

Also, since the world at large in all its complexity is a single composite (the complete household we spoke of before); since we’ve already proven that all composites were created (our third premise); and since it’s also true that it’s impossible for something to have created itself (our first premise), we’re forced to conclude that the world was formed and fashioned by a Creator. Since it’s clear as well that there simply can’t be an infinite number of ultimate beginnings of anything (our second premise), we must say that the world was formed and created at a particular instance by its Creator, G-d.

Startlingly enough, there are actually people who believe the world just appeared out of the blue”, if you will, without a Creator. The question to ask such individuals is whether they believe that computers, for example, appeared out of nowhere; or if works of literature write themselves. Surely not. Anyone who would say otherwise would simply be blind to their nuances and complexities. So if it’s clear that computers and works of literature, which after all are rather minor in the grand scheme of things, had to have been created– it of course stands to reason that the world in its entirety had to have been created.

10/10/2026

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Dr Nathan Bryan is a renowned nitric oxide biochemist, entrepreneur...