Emuna Beams

An Interview with ”Magnificent Mom”: Taekwondo Grand Master Sunny Levi

She's incredible. One of less than ten women in the entire USA who is a 7th degree blackbelt and Taekwondo Grand Master. The only Jewish woman in the world with that distinction and a mother of six as well. She was a Pan Am Games gold medalist and a US Olympic hopeful who became poster girl for United Airlines, Coca Cola and McDonalds. Her agent wanted to strangle her when she gave up a million-dollar Hollywood contract to pursue an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle. Meet this amazing superwoman, Sunny Levi:

350 Pairs of Shoes

Here's a brief but especially important lesson in marital peace, designed predominantly for the man of the family. A couple came to me for marital counseling. The husband complained that his wife was a spendthrift who owns 350 pairs of shoes...

3 Illuminating Words

Many people are skeptical when I tell them that three words are capable of illuminating the soul. An illuminated soul leads to inner peace. Hard to believe?
Do believe that a diabetic individual sees a dramatic improvement in health by getting off of junk food and sugar? Are you aware that a few minutes of exercise every day also enhances good health? Both are obvious, right?
The same principle applies to the soul. By focusing on three simple words, which constitute one concept, we dramatically enhance emotional and spiritual health.

The Miser and the Macaw

Here's a poignant parable about relationships, when unthinking husbands starve their wives emotionally and wake up when it's too late...

Fitness Past Forty: Decade by Decade

Welcome to the functional fitness "Brodie meets Brody" series. Here, world-class exercise physiologist, strength and cycling coach Menachem Brodie (NSCA-CSCS, USAC-PBT) teams up with Senior Fitness Trainer, Health Coach and Nutritionist Rabbi Lazer Brody (CHC, CPT, CHN). Today, they show how both women and men can stay fit at forty and beyond, decade by decade.

Focusing on Our Goal

There's one major difference between people who succeed and people who don't. The ones who succeed are totally focused on their goal. The ones who don't are not. Any marksman knows that you can't hit a target if it's out of focus. Today, we're going to learn what it means to focus on our goal and how to focus.

Opening Our Eyes

Few people are able to understand what they see. To paraphrase the old saying, they're in a big area with oak and pine trees all around them but they don't see that it's a forest.
Divine Direction is the Creator's active determination of every detail and occurrence in the world. The more we enhance our emuna in Divine Direction, the more we improve our spiritual eyesight. This lets us see the Creator personally directing our lives. Few things are more rewarding.
There are five main ploys in enhancing our emuna in Divine Direction. These ploys are:
Realizing that We Don't Run the World – Hashem does
Learning to be Happy with Our Lot in Life
Appreciating Life's Countless blessings
Remembering the Many Salvations we have seen in our lifetime.
Looking for the Divine wisdom in every creation
Let's examine them, one by one.

Cry Today, Laugh Tomorrow

Our sages tell of a wise old man who sits at a crossroads and warns travelers, "There's a road whose beginning is rocky and its end is smooth, and there's a second road whose beginning is smooth and the end is rocky." The wise man is relating a fact of life that applies both to material and spiritual endeavors, as we learn in the following thought-provoking parable.

Lower Body Flexibility Warmup

Lower-body flexibility is critical for functional fitness and for athletic success. Warming up the lower body properly improves performance and heightens chances of victories. What's more, it saves injuries. Hamstring tightness causes tight and weak glutes. Therefore, the body compensates and hip flexors become even tighter, especially with men. When the body compensates, posture and power go out the window and in comes such ailments as lower back pain. Don't go there! Do a proper warmup before every workout. Even if you're not an athlete, do these four hamstring-glute stretches that we demonstrate in the vid:
1. Hug Yourself while bending forward at the waist and gently rocking from side to side.
2. Touch your toes and/or go as low as you can until you can palm the floor.
3. Do the Pilates alternate single-leg impulse stretch.
4. Do the alternate one-leg kneeling stretch.
Enjoy and be healthy!

Against All Odds

Moshe, a sergeant in the Israeli Navy, had beads of sweat on his forehead; tears glistened in his eyes. "The newspapers don't write about the miracles and the Divine Direction that we all saw when that missile hit us. I ran to my bunk on the deck right below the landing pad. It was charcoal; my metal bunk was completely melted down and all my possessions were ashes. If I hadn't been detained in the chapel and in the dining room for Shabbat meal, I'd have been charcoaled too. I haven't stopped thanking Hashem since..."
Israel's turbulent history transcends all logic, military and otherwise. It's beyond nature to the extent that experts in military history and strategy understand everything but Jewish history. That's exactly the subject of our lesson today. Hashem's personal Divine Direction is constantly defying nature and logic.

Moshiach, Emuna and Love of Hashem

In this clip from the holy Western Wall in Jerusalem, we learn the true meaning of emuna and how to expedite Moshiach's arrival. Do we really love Hashem? The more one loves someone, the more one thinks about them. Let's ask ourselves how often we think about Hashem. Once a week? Once a day? Once an hour? More frequently? That's likely the first and most important question of self-assessment.

Diamonds and Distress

Packed up for their very first outing in their brand new SUV, the family left city limits. As they entered the highway, a speeding truck swerved into their lane and collided with them. Fortunately, the cars airbags functioned perfectly and the whole family wore seat and shoulder belts. The car was a total loss, but the family emerged unscathed. That is, all except their 7-year-old son. He was unconscious with a concussion, and maybe even a fractured skull.
What could possibly be good about the above situation? The family saved up years for the new car. They had not yet clocked two hundred miles on it. Yet now, it's a total wreck. What's more, their little boy is now in the hospital and the situation is critical...