The Rabbi Says: # 7 in our series

Learn From Your Experience

The essence of wisdom is to have a complete grasp of reality. A wise person knows the probable consequences of a particular course of action. Therefore, someone with experience in a particular is regarded as “wise” because he has personal knowledge of which actions produce which outcomes. Internalize the knowledge you have obtained from your experience; this will earn you the title, “a wise person.”

Next time you find yourself in a painful or uncomfortable situation, tell yourself, “With this experience I am gaining more wisdom.” If your mind ever takes you back to past painful events, view them as your personal “University of Wisdom.”

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(see Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv – Chochmah Umussar, vol.1, pp.63-4)