Pipeline Torah Gem #920 2026-04-05: In All your Ways
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Vaughn Seward
Apr 12, 2026, 4:26:14 PMApr 12
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In All your Ways
Related to the principle of "rung" is the importance given to the words from the Book of Proverbs, "In all thy ways know Him" (Prov. 3:6). These words can be considered almost as a motto for the entire hasidic movement. Hasidism taught that there is no area of life in which God cannot be served, that there is no final division between the holy and the profane. There is a holy and there is a profane, of course, but their independence must never be considered conclusive. It is the task of man to overcome this division, to raise up all of life to God, to interpenetrate the profane with the holy, to hallow the everyday, to know and serve God in all of our ways. It follows from this that every man, regardless of his station, his learning or his trade, can serve God. He can serve God because all of life-buying merchandise, speaking with one's neighbor, eating and drinking—all become opportunities to hallow: to buy in such a fashion, to speak in such a fashion, to eat in such a fashion that this buying and speaking and eating—seemingly profane acts become holy acts, because they are hallowed acts. And only man can hallow. A disciple approached a zaddik and asked him what was the best way he could serve God. He expected to be told, prayer or Torah. But, instead, the zaddik told him that he could serve God best with whatever he was doing at the moment.
Adapted from The Zaddik, by Samual H. Dresner, 1960, page 168.
Archives: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/torahtidbits
_________________
Yiddish Corner
A MISE MASHINE OYF DIR!
A violent/terrible (or unnatural) death to you!
NEM ARAYN A MISE MESHINE!
Take in an unnatural death!
There's an old story about a German officer who was boasting to a Jew about all the foreign cities that had been taken by the German army. The Jew asked whether they had yet taken A MISE MESHINE, and the bragging German said not yet, but he was sure that they would soon be taking that like all the others!
ES IZ BASHIPT FUN A BEYZ OYG.
He's throwing him a bad eye. He's hexing him. He's trying to spoil things for him.
[From The Taste of Yiddish by Lillian Mermin Feinsilver]
Related to the principle of "rung" is the importance given to the words from the Book of Proverbs, "In all thy ways know Him" (Prov. 3:6). These words can be considered almost as a motto for the entire hasidic movement. Hasidism taught that there is no area of life in which God cannot be served, that there is no final division between the holy and the profane. There is a holy and there is a profane, of course, but their independence must never be considered conclusive. It is the task of man to overcome this division, to raise up all of life to God, to interpenetrate the profane with the holy, to hallow the everyday, to know and serve God in all of our ways. It follows from this that every man, regardless of his station, his learning or his trade, can serve God. He can serve God because all of life-buying merchandise, speaking with one's neighbor, eating and drinking—all become opportunities to hallow: to buy in such a fashion, to speak in such a fashion, to eat in such a fashion that this buying and speaking and eating—seemingly profane acts become holy acts, because they are hallowed acts. And only man can hallow. A disciple approached a zaddik and asked him what was the best way he could serve God. He expected to be told, prayer or Torah. But, instead, the zaddik told him that he could serve God best with whatever he was doing at the moment.
Adapted from The Zaddik, by Samual H. Dresner, 1960, page 168.
Archives: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/torahtidbits
_________________
Yiddish Corner
A MISE MASHINE OYF DIR!
A violent/terrible (or unnatural) death to you!
NEM ARAYN A MISE MESHINE!
Take in an unnatural death!
There's an old story about a German officer who was boasting to a Jew about all the foreign cities that had been taken by the German army. The Jew asked whether they had yet taken A MISE MESHINE, and the bragging German said not yet, but he was sure that they would soon be taking that like all the others!
ES IZ BASHIPT FUN A BEYZ OYG.
He's throwing him a bad eye. He's hexing him. He's trying to spoil things for him.
[From The Taste of Yiddish by Lillian Mermin Feinsilver]
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