Chasidut for Yoma 57:9

Hence regarding any matter that you are coming to study, if you belittle the matter and say, "The topic is easy and readily understood" - it will already be difficult for you to access its depth; and you may even sometimes err in its simple understanding. And the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said (Yoma 29a:2), "old material is more difficult than new material." This is because one thinks, "I will certainly understand this topic easily, since I already learned it." But since he does not gird his loins and exert himself towards the matter with all of his strength; and he does not come out to truly grasp the topic, to work and to delve in it - he will not understand it. But who is the Jew who does not understand that every topic in the Torah is deep; and that when he toils and delves, he will come to the 'depths of the King' - the King of the world? And who is the Jew whose spirit does not wholly tremble to go out and meet the Ein Sof and to work in His service, to think the thoughts of God and to understand the mind of God? Certainly there have been times when after studying a nice new idea that you were enthused about, a spirit of holy jealousy came over you towards the tannaim, amoraim and the other greats and tzaddikim - may their merit protect us: Were they not also born of a woman - and nevertheless they merited to reveal so much of God's Torah in this world; they brought light to the entire House of Israel; and even in the supernal yeshiva in the supernal world, God, may He be blessed, says the law in their name! And I am a small ant; what am I worth among these lions of [God's] chariot? But why do you only suffice with a spirit of jealousy, and not want to follow in their footsteps? Please note that - with all of the greatness of their souls and their righteousness, which we cannot grasp - they toiled and worked greatly; they distanced themselves from the whole world and dedicated themselves to working in Torah. And how greatly did they toil when they studied! The Gemara (Shabbat 88a) says that when Rava was analyzing a discussion, he would injure his fingers and blood would drip, yet he would not notice. And it is said about the Ari, that even when he was studying the simple understanding of the Torah, he would stive so much that much sweat would drip off from him. But you, who are a small ant in comparison to them, do not even want to exert yourself! Hence every subject in the Torah should be weighty for you. And before you begin to study it, it should be difficult and formidable in your eyes. But it should not be so formidable for you that you give up on it. And likewise when you come to a topic that is formidable even on the simple level, your spirit should not fall and say, "This is much too hard for my brain and my grasp." Because in that way, your spirit will become lax and your intellect will become soft - and you will not work. Rather you should think, "It is a formidable topic, but I also have God's spirit and reasoning inside me. I will redouble my efforts and will be able to do it with God's help, may He be blessed."

Genesis 40,10. “and there were three branches on the ‎vine.” According to one (Rabbi Eleazar hamodai) of numerous ‎allegorical explanations in Chulin 92, the vine is symbolic of ‎Jerusalem; whereas the three branches are symbolic of the ‎Temple, the King, and the High Priest, respectively. The words: ‎והיא כפורחת עלתה נצה הבשילו אשכלתיה ענבים‎, usually ‎translated as: “it had barely blossomed when out of it came its ‎blossoms and its clusters ripened into grapes,” is understood ‎allegorically by the Talmud. The reference is to the young priests ‎who will mature and offer libations in the Temple. In order to ‎explain this somewhat far fetched allegory, although the one ‎preferred by the Talmud, our author quotes Yuma 29 where the ‎rhetorical question of why Queen Esther has been compared to an ‎אילה‎, a gazelle, hind, the Talmud defining the gazelle in psalms ‎‎22,1 as ‎אילת השחר‎, Queen Esther as being like a gazelle in the ‎morning, i.e. at the end of the night, sees in Esther and her ‎experiences the last chapter belonging to the period of history ‎described in the Bible. No overt miracles in Jewish history have ‎been reported in the Bible subsequent to her period.
What did the Talmud have in mind when suggesting that ‎after Mordechai and Esther, [in whose time these ‎‎”miracles,” were already not overt, Ed.] no more miracles ‎occurred?‎
We must distinguish between two kinds of wars. Usually, ‎when we speak of “war,” we refer to an armed confrontation ‎between warring nations.
The second type of “war,” is one that originated in G’d ‎subjecting the Jewish people to attacks by external enemies, in ‎order to strengthen their faith in Him when He would save them ‎from a fate which they were powerless to escape by any other ‎means. Psalms 91,2 refers to the psalmist acknowledging such ‎miraculous escapes of the Jewish people. It is remarkable that the ‎psalmist, in referring to his trust in the Lord, does so in the ‎future tense, i.e. ‎אלוקי אבטח בו‎, “my G’d in Whom I will put my ‎trust,” instead of, as we would have expected, “in Whom I have ‎put my trust.” The psalmist acknowledges that he now ‎understands the purpose of the “war” that had befallen his ‎people as having been a test, teaching the Jewish people to put ‎their trust only in the Lord. The same theme is found in psalms ‎‎118,10 ‎כל גויים סבבוני בשם ה' כי אמילם‎, “all nations have ‎surrounded me; by the name of the Lord I will surely cut them ‎down.” The psalmist does not predict what he is about to do, but ‎refers to what G’d had in mind by allowing His people to face such ‎impossible odds, i.e. to strengthen their faith when they will be ‎saved by Him. The psalmist makes it even plainer In verse 21 of ‎the same psalm, when the words ‎אודך כי עניתני ותהי לי לישועה‎, must ‎be understood as: “I will express my thanks to You for having ‎afflicted me so that You could demonstrate how You will be my ‎salvation.”‎
When G’d “rescues” the Jewish people, this occurs in either of ‎two ways. The most easily recognizable way are overt miracles in ‎which His mastery over nature is demonstrated by His breaking ‎all the “rules” that scientists have taught us are inviolate. The ‎best known examples of this are the 10 plagues G’d visited upon ‎the Egyptians, crowned by the splitting of the sea of reeds in ‎which the Egyptian army drowned to a man, while the Israelites ‎crossed the bottom of that sea safely. Although in the song of ‎thanks by the Jewish people after the drowning of the Egyptians ‎the text is full of G’d being lauded for His performing “wonders,” ‎‎(Exodus 15,11) what are “wonders” performed by G’d in our eyes, ‎are, of course, nothing extraordinary when viewed from His ‎vantage point, seeing that He had made the rules, He is certainly ‎able to suspend them when it suits Him. The Jewish people ‎praised Him not so much for what He had done, but for having ‎found the Jewish people worthy to be saved by such spectacular ‎means, involving the undoing of what G’d had done during the ‎six days of creation.‎