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hi there everyone! ive been following the coffee room for a few months, its really awesome. thank you mods for all your hard work! ok, so i have a dilemma. now that its elul, ive started thinking about the way i act, and i realized i have a lot to work on. so, to all the torah knowledgeable people out there- does the torah ever say which one of these traits should be worked on first?
happiness
anger management
pationce
honoring parents
thank you in advance!
gaava- it takes care of most of the rest.
1. WELCOME! Its always nice to have another new member!
2. I don’t know you at all, but you know yourself. Which middah is the one you have the most trouble with and pops up in your life pretty often? That’s the middah you should work on.
Or you could take the opposite approach and start with the middah that igves you the LEAST trouble. Once you start to really work on it, you will see results very quickly, which will build your confidence and give you chizuk to keep going and progress to other middos which you find more difficult. As opposed to if you start with the hardest one, you may find yourself saying, “I can’t do this, it’s just too hard!”
According to the iggeres haramban, midas anavah
How about self-honesty? It leads to realizing where we fall short.
the last one
“thank you in advance”
Actually it’s a middah tova – to be makir tova and always acknowledge and thank for any favor or benefit received.
In my humblekite, I’d suppose anger management is a biggie, I would think that’s worth a start.
I think working on having and showing hakoras hatov, to Hashem, parents, siblings…..is an important middah to work on
Mitzva gedola lihyot besimcha tamid. You can’t work on anything unless your happy. If you’re happy you won’t be angry. If you’re happy you’ll want to be better to your parents. If you’re happy you’ll have patience.
Good luck!! Rooting for you:)
I was at a shiru recently given by Rabbi Resiman and he mentioned taht the midda that is mentioned most often in Mishlei is Daas. He said that means doing what we know is inherently right and using our seichel in srving hashem
well i guess the chazon ish tells us what the root to all bad middos is… he states in the sefer emuna ubitachon ????? ????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ????
Is she the one who introduced you to the CR? Send her regards from me, and that I’d wish she’d be in the CR more often…
Happiness is a great middah! I actually need to work on that too. Are you reading a book or hearing a shuir online about working on it? If so, can you recommend something for me?
interjec….-i am just wondering what is the source that its a mitzva gedola liheyot besimca?
theartofmoi
I would tell you to make a thorough list of what needs work. Whateved is a mitzvah doraysoh that’s what needs to be worked on first. Its very nice to be happy but if you aren’t being mekayem kibbud av vaeim then you are going against one of the aseres hadibros! So I would say first get your mitzvos straight then I think automatically the middos will improve. You can’t have kibbud av vaeim unless you do it joyfully its not kavod to do as they please witb a frown and “attitude” so automatically doing mitzvos properly fix our middos. However once you are being mekayem the mitzvod properly you can certainly then try to improve the individual middos even more. I will give you a big secret that I usually charge a lot for. Kidding but really it’d an important insight, there’s one midda that many people today are weak in and that is what ruins their relationship with themselves, their parents and friends and ultimately Hashem. That is the midda of appreciation. If you can learn to truly appreciate what Hashem gives you (and we are all being given gifts constantly at every moment) and appreciate the people in your life and really FEEL that hakaras hatov you will become truly great as a Jew and be someone that others will love admire and respect.
Chani91
Mizmor lesoda we say ivdu es Hashem besimcha! Its from Tehillim!
wiy-ur right boutthe fact that we say it but do u know what it means? it means serve Hashem with happiness whilst serving and doing mitzvos that should be done besimcha in fact ?”? waspunished due to not serving Hashem with happiness it says ??? ??? ?? ???? ?? ?’ ????? ????? ??? but who said one has to have constant hapiness?
wiy-ur right boutthe fact that we say it but do u know what it means? it means serve Hashem with happiness whilst serving and doing mitzvos that should be done besimcha in fact ?”? waspunished due to not serving Hashem with happiness it says ??? ??? ?? ???? ?? ?’ ????? ????? ??? but who said one has to have constant hapiness?
That line though is from rabi nachman.
Wiy: (to clarify, i dont think im disagreeing with you) I think it was you who said in a different thread that Torah teaches us how to have the best life possible. So using what (I think) you said, the purpose of the Torah is to make your life better. All the mitzvos help improve our lives but if a person is unhappy then working on kibbud av will just make them resentful. Working on appreciation will bring a person to more happiness which will automatically lead a person to fulfill the de’oraysahs more properly. In other words having proper middos helps a person to better fulfill the mitzvos.
WIY, as always I feel you are the most talented and authentic voice of emes in this room, and i actually loved what you just wrote so much I copy and pasted it and am taking it home to glue in my personal middos avoidah journal! now please go and take the time to answer my question which i just posted re; power struggles. I need your help! thanks in advance
Wow, i feel for her, I hope her life gets better and the mods decide to let her back.
WIY: I totally agree with you, but for most people, they need something like that will actually be doable in a month, just cuz like its one of the 10 commandments dosen’t mean that it’s something doable for everyone. Cuz, like dosent the Torah say that you can always improve??? So then I’d havta commit my life to the 10 commandments, no? So I think it’s also OK to focus on what is really needed to be worked on…..
If you want to work on apprciation and middos more, the books: Gifts for teens and More Gifts for Teens are very very helpful and inspiring, though it seems the books are meant for a more feminine audience, but I really recommend them! If you flip through the chapters at your local judaica store, you’ll see what different things it helps you with, I remember a few from my book: The gift of Appreciation, The gift of Happiness,The gift of Everything is for the best, The gift of Friendship, The gift of Shabbos, The gift of Yom Tov, The Gift of a good (and early) morning (getting up on time/early, very helpful chapter) this is just a few.
You can work on anger management and patience at the same time. Two for the price of one!
Ya, Im OBBSESSED WITH HER!!!! Ok, music for teens these days is at an all time low, so they turn to goyishe music. But Nechama Cohen’s album is EXACTLY what teens are looking for! Its personal and most songs you will feel were written just for you!
Thays a good quote, I havent bpught an album yet, but Ive lostened to 5 different preveiws and 5 different websites and downloaded all her movies from youtube and half them on repeat.
i SO agree!
Just a point – kibud av v’em is not a middah, it’s a mitzvah. Middos are personality traits or attitudes, like anger, happiness, etc. Doing the mitzvos helps us perfect our middos if we do them properly, but working on your middos can be a completely separate project for you.
Anger is the outward expression of many of these bad middos. when you outwardly express your anger this makes you even more angry. controlling that feeling puts you in a better place to do introspection. But someone did mention the iggeres haramban. I think that is a great idea.
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