Author: ArtScroll Staff

You’re one of the tens of thousands who’ve discovered the power of emunah, through Rabbi David Ashear’s Living Emunah series. You see Hashem in your life, bring bitachon to your challenges, view events through a “gam zu l’tovah” perspective.

But what about your children and students? When things go wrong for them — troubles with friends, self-esteem issues — do they know the emunah approach?

And speaking of your children — when was the last time you spoke to them? Not about oversleeping, messy bedrooms, and when to be home for dinner — but about serious life issues? About emunah?

If you want to have meaningful conversations with your children and at the same time help them incorporate the eternal values of emunah into their lives, we have good news for you.

The good news is called Let’s Talk Living Emunah.

Rabbi Yaakov Bijou, rebbi and director of the Emunah Program in Yeshivat Shaare Torah of Brooklyn, shares the unique beginnings of a unique book. “I give a once a week talk to 6th – 8th grade boys. I wanted to make it hands-on, to get them involved. I would read an excerpt from Living Emunah, pause in the middle of the story and ask the boys a question about their experiences, or how they would react in such a situation, or what they thought Hashem wanted. The idea was to get the children to speak about it and bring emunah into their lives.” 

“The impact was enormous,” says Mrs. C. S. Panski, who crafted the stories and questions in the new book. “More and more students were talking about emunah, reacting with emunah. We knew it was time to bring the movement beyond the yeshivah’s corridors.”

Rabbi David Sutton, who coordinated the project, adds, “The purpose of this book is to create discussion within the family or classroom on the subject of emunah. We don’t want the stories to remain in the book; we want them to become part of the child’s life.”

There are stories about Hashem’s wonders, hashgachah pratis, gratitude, and other emunah topics. The sidebars — “Let’s Talk About It,” “Think a Little Deeper,” and “It Happened to Me” — are designed to get the children thinking — and talking.

At the Shabbos table, or any time you want a meaningful and enjoyable conversation with your children, Let’s Talk Living Emunah!

Order your copy TODAY from artscroll.com

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We spoke to Rabbi Yaakov Feitman about his new book, Blueprints. Here’s what he had to say about this unusual, groundbreaking book.

“A blueprint is used by an architect to design and plan a building project. Although, of course, Hashem did not need a blueprint, the Zohar teaches us that ‘Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world.’ This means that there is absolutely nothing in the world that is not explained by the Torah. I have always been fascinated by the myriad examples of this in our history and daily lives. If something is a part of our world, we can always find direction from the Torah for how to understand and even deal with it.

“The format, of pointing out a blueprint from the Torah and its application in real life, demonstrates how a Torah Jew can interface with the world around us. On the one hand, we need not accept secular interpretations about world events or scientific discoveries. We have a document — the Torah — that precedes them all. On the other hand, we need not ignore or escape from facts, figures, or occurrences. All we need to do is to look into our Torah. Of course, we cannot always do this for ourselves. Our gedolei Yisrael have always provided us with the applications of the Divine, from which we can derive the proper understanding of virtually anything that comes our way.

“Over the years, a process has emerged that entails identifying a ‘blueprint’ and discovering what we can learn from it on a practical level for our lives. I haven’t actually looked for these topics. They always find me. An article in a newspaper, the report of a scientific discovery, and many other human-interest events shout out to me, “This is a blueprint,” which turns into an article — and grew into a book.

“I must confess that each topic is as precious to me as a child, but if I had to choose, I love learning new things about the animal world and shining the brilliant light of the Torah upon each revelation. I hope that I have helped my readers to apply the Blueprint to the world and I would love to hear from them about their own applications.”

Order your copy today at artscroll.com!