Knowledge is power.          G-dly knowledge is super power.


“The Prophet Jeremiah says, “From G-d, doesn’t come the bad or the good.” So where does it come from?

The Bible tells us, “..I am giving you today, blessings and curses. The blessing, when you will listen….and the curse, if you do not listen….” Like eating right, brings health, and eating badly, brings the opposite.

Every time a person does a good or bad thing as defined by G-d in the Bible, the person creates either a good or bad Angel. These Angels, are waiting to be ordered by G-d to carry out the only mission they know of, whether it’s a blessing or the opposite.

Anything and everything a person experiences in life, is the result of an act that was done. Sometimes we are lucky and we can be the recipient of a good deed done by an ancestor, and sometimes, the bad behavior of an earlier predecessor finally finds its way in our life.

Maimonides writes, “It is cruel to ever think that what happens is purely random and merely the ways of the world. Everything has justice and kindness as its underlying cause.”

The Talmud tells a story of Reb Huna who had 400 barrels of wine turn to vinegar. A catastrophic financial loss. The sages came to visit him and said, “You should look into your affairs.” He said to them, “Am I suspicious in your eyes?”

Reb Huna told the sages. Of course I know a loss of any proportion and how much more so of this magnitude comes from G-d, and I already looked into my tithing and I did not find that I was amiss at giving the correct amount to Charity.

They said to him. “Is G-d suspected of having done what he did without justice?”

If you are suffering from this tremendous loss related to grapes, perhaps within the grapes something is rotten. We heard, said the sages, that at the end of the day you do not give your workers the bunches of grapes they are entitled to eat.

Reb Huna said. Not only do they steal during their work you expect me to give them more at the end of the day? The sages said. If you have any complaints against your workers take them to a court hearing, that doesn’t excuse your lack of justice by denying them their share of grapes.

Reb Huna immediately accepted their rebuke and the Talmud informs us, at that moment, the vinegar turned to wine. Two opinions. Either it was an open miracle or the price of vinegar jumped up, so financially Reb Huna didn’t lose anything.

The Talmud is teaching us a very important principle. The Angels that were created from his earlier bad choice who turned the wine to vinegar, were now disabled by the more recent good resolve and choice, which created Angels to influence circumstances, so only good, would come from that wine.

During the times of the destruction of the Temple there was terrible starvation. The great Rabbi Yochonon Ben Zakai was traveling and saw a woman picking grains out of dried manure. Rabbi Yochonan asked, who are you the daughter of? She said, Nakdimon Ben Gurion. He asked her, “Where is your father’s money?” Between the lines Rabbi Yochonan was asking. For what reason do you believe, one of the three wealthiest of the time, your father, lost all his money?

She could have easily answered. Do you know who my father is? He was one of three, together with Moses and Joshua who G-d made the sun shine on his behalf. For my father, G-d personally showed him, He loved him. She could have answered, do you even know how far he went out of his way to help people with his wealth.

She answered. “My father did not give charity as “he” could have given! Don’t you know what they say in Jerusalem; the more a person gives charity the better his money is preserved?”

She answered intentionally this way, and, this is the lesson the Talmud is teaching, nothing could or would happen without input from the individual the occurrence is happening with, something she herself acknowledged.

The Talmud shares many actual stories with positive experiences, and the good deeds, and the Angels who precipitated the blessings.

According to the Bible, if a person wants an increase in goodness, the most important and powerful way to bring that about, is by creating better stronger Angels, through the increasing of good deeds – Mitzvois - G-dly acts that create this energy.