Last week I interviewed Gitty Normile, author of Emunah in the Parsha, for the podcast and we spoke all about building emunah from a lofty yet also tangible perspective. At the end of the episode, she shared six tips that you can do today to start building your emunah and relationship with Hashem a bit more.
What are your tips? Add them in the comments!
- Listen to daily messages about emunah. Maybe it’s a daily email like Emunah Daily, or by calling Rabbi Golombeck’s emunah and bitachon hotline. 732-719-3898 or in Israel, 079-704-0068 Gitty listens to just 30 seconds of it and keeps it on her speed dial. A super easy, low-commitment way to start, end or boost the middle of your day.
- Get a friend who also wants to grow in emunah and read something short in emunah once a week. I’m learning Building a Sanctuary in the Heart with a mentor of mine. You can find a friend, Rebbetzin, chavruta from Partners in Torah, a woman from shul, any way to connect and learn.
- Thank Hashem daily and put Hashem in your life. “That’s the thing to remember,” Gitty shares. “It might not be so natural to us. Even if we say it in our own words. I just want those words in my mouth until it becomes natural.”
- Believe Hashem is as real as your friend, your husband, your sister and talk to him nonstop. Hashem loves you, Gitty explains. He is here for us all the time and wants to hear from you. It’s not like a friend who is sick and tired of hearing our complaints. Hashem is never tired of us. It doesn’t have to be any kind of formal davening. Even as a busy mom, when you’re taking care of the kids, just keep Hashem in the picture.
- Only listen to positive messages and see the nissim (miracles) that Hashem is doing for us. Gitty shares in the episode about the night that Iran sent hundreds of ballistic missles to Israel and no Jews were hurt, all buildings remained intact, everything worked perfectly. If just one ballistic missile got through it could have destroyed a whole building, a whole city. It’s easy to brush over these events but focusing on the depth of the miracle is vital to seeing Hashem in our daily lives.
- Take pride in this accomplishment and don’t let the yetzer hara discourage you. You can do it. It’s soooo easy to get brought down by the yetzer hara — to have a misstep and believe it to be true, to not feel confident in or even see your own growth. Every step is a step and every moment of connection is a win in that you connected. It’s as simple as that.
Want to learn more from Gitty? Click here for the full episode.
