#aveira

"Yes," said Hashem, "but the Egyptians worshiped idols willingly and the Jews were forced to do so."

Now, if you realize it, it says absolutely NOWHERE that the Egyptians forced the Jews to worship idols. They made them work, but religion was never the issue. So why does the Medrash say that the Jews were "forced" to worship idols?

The answer is that the Jews were tortured and persecuted and killed and beaten. And when someone is in that much pain, we can't judge them. We don't know what we would do if we were in that position. And Hashem judged them then to be not responsible for their idol worship because their lives were just too excruciating to be able to resist temptation.

So listen, Hashem does punish. But maybe you don't deserve such a punishment like you might worry. Or at least, maybe not before you get a chance to show Hashem how you can really serve Him when the mess that you're going through is over. And it can end.

Or maybe - no, not maybe, this is for sure - Hashem only expects you to do the best that you can right now. He knows you and your abilities, but He also knows what you are going through, and he wants only that you be whatever you can be now.

And believe me, when you do one little Mitzvah, when you make one little Brachah, and despite everything you are going through you muster the Ruchniyus, and the strength and the Simcha within you to thank Hashem for a little candy bar by saying shehakol, that it means more to Him than everything in the world.

Hashem is there, in Shamayim, surrounded by His heavenly hosts, His angels, His serafim, millions and millions of them, singing praises to Him. It's the most awesome sight in all of existence. Too awesome for us to comprehend. And it never ends. It continues forever.

But suddenly, Hashem hold His hand up (kavyochel, of course), and shouts "Shaaa! Quiet! My Yid'leh is making a brachah!"

No matter what, you should always know that every little Mitzvah you do mean so so much to Hashem. Much more than the biggest Mitzvos of the biggest people.

Sonya Benson <3

CC list and CAS video can be found here [xx]

Casual 20′s Ensemble / 3 Recolors

An Everyday 20′s Outfit consisting of three wonderful pieces by Simtographies, SimLaughLove and Starlord, recolored to make up 6 matching sets. The patterns used on the shirts are by William Morris and I put a pleat texture on the skirts. Hope you enjoy! And thank you to all cc creators, you rock!

You need the meshes, get them here:

Shirt by Simtographies (last file in adult folder)

Skirt by SimLaughLove

Shoes by Starlord

My Download

The gorgeous hair is a Newsea Retexture by Aveira

The skin used on the model is by S-Club

Thank you for the poses: Helgatisha and Catsblob

quick lookbook

Second: Besides that, proactively trying to get rid of these thoughts just makes them stronger. You can't get rid of thoughts by thinking about them. Try this:

For the next 30 seconds, try very hard not to think of a pink elephant.

See what I mean?

The same thing applies to these kind of thoughts. The more you try not to think of them, the more they entrench themselves in your mind.

But the good news is: Don't worry so much about this. Yes, we need to stay away from things that trigger bad thoughts and images, and people profoundly underestimate the damage such exposure does (listen to this shiur about it), but the Torah was given to human beings, not angels, and nobody is perfect. Unless we were brought up in an enclave like Monroe or New Square or perhaps in certain extremely rare families, we’ve been exposed to tons of stuff that has a negative effect on us. When I was in 11th grade, which was before any of you – and perhaps even some of your parents - were born, my rebbi related to us the following fact of life that he heard back then from his son’s Rosh Yeshiva:

Your children will be exposed to more Tumah going to the corner grocery to buy a drink than your grandparents were all their lives in Europe. It is not possible anymore to rely only on sheltering our children. We must also teach them to resist the Tumah.

And this was back then. There is a certain Adam Gadol who told someone I know that when he was a boy he was a fan of the Yankees, and even when he grew up and became a big Rosh yeshiva, he found it very hard to eradicate the feeling of happiness he had when he heard that the Yankees won the world series. (But eventually he succeeded.)

Olive Sullivan <3

CC list and CAS video can be found here [xx]