Thursday, May 3, 2007

A Chassidic Teaching from Rabbi Zisha

B"H

Rabbi Meshullam Zisha of Hanopol (a student of the Maggid of Mezritch) said before he departed from this world:

"In Olam Habah they will not ask me, "Zisha, why were you not Moshe ?" But they will ask me, Zisha, why were you not Zisha ?"
In other words, "Zisha, why did you not live up to your potential."

Once I came to my Rabbi's house on Erev Shabbat, and I was upset about myself, as I hadn't had the time to study the whole Torah Parasha for Shabbat, but others probably did. I told this to a friend of mine and his reply was: "Why are you concentrating on others ? Rather look at yourself. You did your best to study the Parasha and you succeeded in studying half of it. Therefore be proud of yourself."

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