TOMER DEVORAH

One man's nightmare is another man's dream

2012-01-29T15:10:00.000+02:00

5 Shevat 5772

Gideon Levy, writing for Haaretz, editorializes about the recent results of the Israeli Democracy Institute poll showing that 80% of Israelis believe in G-d and 70% believe that Jews are The Chosen People. He means to be sarcastic and negative in his assessment, but it comes across to me as good news. His "us & them" mindset reminds me of the Erev Rav and their universal hatred of real Jews and Judaism.

God rules all in 2012 Israel, even the state
Israel: Not what you thought, not what the world thought, not what Israelis imagine themselves to think. Israeli society isn't secular, it isn't liberal and it isn't enlightened.

By Gideon Levy

God exists. Eighty percent of Israeli Jews can't be wrong. And it is precisely for that reason we must say: God protect us from the results of the poll (conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute's Guttman Center for Surveys and the Avi Chai Foundation ). While it is conceivably possible to deal with that burning, wholesale belief in the divine, what do we do with the "You chose us" part? Seventy percent of respondents said they also believed Jews are the Chosen People - and that frightening parameter is only on the rise.

...Even the religious character of the state, which is much less secular than we tend to think - no buses or El Al flights during Shabbat, no civil marriage, no unkosher hotels, a mezuzah on the doorjamb of nearly every home and a rising number of people who kiss it each time they enter or exit - all this can be explained by the survey data.

... From now on, it can no longer be claimed that the secular majority has acquiesced to the religious minority; there is no secular majority, only a negligible minority.

...We should admit the truth, which is that we are an almost religious society and a state that is almost based on religious law. There's no need to keep counting the number of people wearing kippot, headscarves or shtreimels. Bareheaded people are in the same camp: They accept the character of their state, where the religion is the state and the state is the religion, all mixed together. There's no need to keep being shocked by religious extremism - being religious, whether moderate or extreme, is all the same, and it's the majority here.

...From Bnei Brak to Mea She'arim, these Haredim are, to a large extent, us, just with different dress and languages - more extreme versions of the same belief.

...Perhaps it was inevitable. A state that arose on a certain territory and conquered another territory and has remained there nearly forever, all on the basis of Bible stories; a population that never decided whether it was a nation or a religion; and a state that purports to be a "Jewish state," even if no one has any idea what that means. All these cannot exist with no foundation - a chosen people that believes in its God. That is Israel, circa 2012. God have mercy on us.

Halevai!

CHODESH TOV!

2012-01-24T17:53:00.000+02:00

1 Shevat 5772
Rosh Chodesh

Tomorrow is Yom Kippur Katan

2012-01-23T16:28:00.002+02:00

28 Tevet 5772

YOM KIPPUR KATAN

...The very end of a month, when the moon is barely visible, is an appropriate time to remind ourselves of what we are to be doing with our lives. We can gaze upwards and see almost none of the moon, knowing that a mere two weeks later, the moon will be full. Similarly, we can gaze within ourselves and see not even a tiny spark of inspiration or desire to strive for greatness. At the same time, we should know that we have the ability within us to shine brightly. Right before we begin a new month, we should inspire ourselves to improve, regardless of the method we employ to do. For this reason, specifically the day before Rosh Chodesh is set aside for a day of self improvement and introspection, thus earning it the name Yom Kippur Katan.

See also Jewish Virtual Library

March time frame

2012-01-22T21:14:00.000+02:00

28 Tevet 5772

The March time frame comes up again in a new report from Debkafile:

Panetta: USS Enterprise carrier group to transit Hormuz in March

Three weeks after Tehran threatened action against any US aircraft carrier entering the Strait of Hormuz, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta disclosed Sunday, Jan. 22, that the USS Enterprise Carrier Strike Group is heading for the Persian Gulf and would steam through the strategic strait in March. This was a direct message to Tehran that the US would continue to deploy ships there.

...debkafile's Washington sources note that Panetta was the first high-ranking administration official to give Tehran an ultimatum: Accept the American offer to negotiate terms for halting your nuclear weapon program, or face up to America's mighty fleet of American aircraft carriers.

"Our view is that the carriers, because of their presence, because of the power they represent, are a very important part of our ability to maintain power projection both in the Pacific and in the Middle East," said the defense secretary.

His statement gave Iran a time frame for responding to the US ultimatum, just over a month. If by March, Tehran has not accepted the offer to negotiate, President Barack Obama will order the Enterprise to sail through the Strait of Hormuz.

"Hilltops"

2012-01-22T18:25:00.001+02:00

28 Tevet 5772

Mishpacha Magazine ran an article on the "Hilltop Youth" in its January 11, 2012 issue. I feel a very close kinship to these young people and their ideals. Lest anyone forget, what is recognized today as "Israel Proper" was settled the same way as these hilltops a hundred years ago. No one can say that Tel Aviv or Haifa is more Jewish than Judea and Samaria.

Bunker Hill
Aharon Granevich-Granot

Five years ago, Meir Brettler was banned for six months from his home on a windswept Samarian hilltop — joining a list of 20 others thrown out of their communities in Judea and Samaria by administrative orders. At the time, it didn’t stop him from sneaking back into the Yishuv HaDaat farm (population three families at the time) for his second child’s bris. Today the Brettlers still live on that lonely hilltop, and Meir still infuriates Israel’s intelligence network.

Brettler, 25, would never fit into Lakewood, but he looks just like the other “hilltop youth” whom he mentors: a massive knit kippah covering his head, a large beard, wild peyos, and tzitzis fluttering in the wind. And he has no qualms about doing things that the Israeli government and security forces feel will inflame the Middle East — as long as those actions help him achieve the goals that he believes in.

“We are the front line,” he says. “There are two million dunams of land here, and we will settle them....

Read the rest here.

Snow storm hits Japan

2012-01-19T22:08:00.004+02:00

25 Tevet 5772

Heavy snow on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido

An unusually powerful storm hit the city of Iwamizawa on Monday, leaving behind mounds of snow nearly two metres deep. Scientists say they can't confirm exactly how much snow fell because their measuring instruments were damaged in the blizzard. But the island's meteorological agency said this is the most snow Iwamizawa has been hit with since records began in 1946.

...the sheer weight of the snow caused the collapse of a wooden roof. The falling structure knocked over several stoves, setting the building ablaze. On Tuesday, many bus and train services remained suspended due to snow on the tracks and roadways.

"Venahafoch hu" in the month of Tevet!

2012-01-19T22:00:00.002+02:00

25 Tevet 5772

"Venahafoch hu" is a term we usually hear at Purim time in the month of Adar. (Maybe it's coming early this year.) It refers to something meant for evil that Hashem flips upside down so that good triumphs - like when the evil Haman was hanged on the very gallows he had built for righteous Mordechai.

Here is a heartwarming description of just such an end arising out of the horrible events in Beit Shemesh which occurred over the past months and culminated in nationwide attention in recent days.

It Was Never in Our Hands to Begin With
Rabbi Moshe Grylak Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Incredible as this may sound, the wave of anti-chareidi hysteria that has recently swept over Eretz Yisrael has actually brought some positive results. Once again we see that Divine Providence is ultimately in control of events, channeling them to serve a higher purpose.

The following story will testify to the sublime truth that the Ramchal teaches us in Daas Tevunos: “The will of HaKadosh Baruch Hu is done in any case.” People bring about events as they like, and He puts the events to work to bring about His goals.

Before I tell you about the positive effects of the prolonged uproar over Beit Shemesh, let us note that in our Torah reading, we’ve just completed Sefer Bereishis, ending with the story of Yosef and his brothers. Yosef sums up the whole decades-long ordeal in one sentence: “You calculated to do me evil; G-d calculated it for good.” Events that you see only as the cause of pain, suffering, and anguish were in fact paving the way for something much bigger.

Likewise, the Beit Shemesh story -- with all its scandalous episodes of gender-segregated buses and the rest of the ingredients that the secular media brewed into a toxic mix that they call by the catchword, “exclusion of women.”

It turns out that by drawing so much attention to the chareidim and their intense feelings regarding modesty, the media has stirred up the curiosity of Jewish souls hungry for more knowledge of authentic Torah perspectives. A rebbetzin who is seasoned in kiruv work reports that in the wake of the recent flood of slander against Judaism, which included unabashed mockery of Jewish modesty and family purity, she and her colleagues have received a corresponding flood of inquiries from secular women seeking a deeper understanding of these matters. The media, however evil their intentions, actually sowed the seeds for a Jewish revival that we couldn’t foresee.

You in the media, you in the world of political intrigue, calculated to do evil. You schemed to incite more hatred of Judaism among the public (and we chareidim are still suffering from your schemes, and must ask ourselves why we had to be punished in this way), but we must also discern the ray of light that has shot forth, at an unexpected angle, from the unholy mess you created, and we should take comfort in it. You could not suppress the holiness that was meant to find expression precisely now, for it was present in the seeking hearts of Jews, and the results may surprise you as more families bring a new level of kedushah into their lives. We can only hope that there will be so many families seeking this new path that those who lit the fires of hatred will regret what they did when they see things turning out so differently than they planned.

Read the rest of it here. Shabbat shalom~

New interesting webbot predictions

2012-01-19T21:15:00.002+02:00

25 Tevet 5772

I haven't written about web bots in awhile. Actually, I haven't even looked into web bots in awhile. It's creator, Clif High, admits that they are only right about 50% of the time, but they did call 9/11 correctly sixty days in advance of the event (so they say), so it's interesting to see what they are saying now.

I've already indicated that I think Purim would be a logical time for Iran (Persia), the site of the Purim story, to figure prominently. If Achmadinejad really is a reincarnation of Haman, he might pick the same date again for an extermination of the Jews. It also happens to be on a full moon and I've recounted my dream about the full moon and missiles from Iran on this blog a few times.

With that in mind, you'll understand my keen interest when I encountered the following information on the web bot site.

Your destiny arrives in March. Are you ready?

As modelspace is progressed into 2012, the [secrets revealed] meta data layer jumps up to dominance in the first 3/three months of the year to reach its initial peak of activity on March 2, 2012, though the meta data layer persists through 2013. During this period of [secrets revealed], we note that [energy (unleashing/unconstrained)] is forming rapidly in many different entities and it moves into position as the dominating meta data archetype by March 9, 2012.

From March 2 through 9 inclusive represents the peak of the building tension language. The movement of modelspace after this point no longer provides dominant building tension.

...IF, and it is one of the huge big IF's, but IF we were able to associate building tension language with the [entrenched powers], and there is some small justification for thinking that we may so do, then it would seem reasonable to say that the [entrenched powers] have their point of destruction within the plateau period of March 2 through 9. Note that without regard to whether the [entrenched elite] are able to start their global thermonuclear war and exterminate most of humanity, the [entrenched elite] are no longer dominating powers after March 10, 2012, though as with all entrenched despots it may take us a while to actually remove them all from the planetary social body.

"Secrets revealed" is really interesting, considering that Esther's name means "hidden" and she keeps her identity secret until she reveals herself to Achashverosh at the second banquet. March 9 is 15 Adar - Shushan Purim. If WW3 starts, it will definitely mean the end of the "entrenched powers" - those identified (including by the autistics) as the NWO.

This isn't supposed to be taken as anything more than pure speculation. Some people like it and others don't. If you are one of the latter, all I can tell you is don't read. I'm not linking to the web bot site because it prominently features language which would offend most of my readers. If you want to read more about the web bots, google it, or search this site. You'll find a lot of failed predictions as well.

Shabbat shalom~

Rav Fish (Sod Hachashmal) on Gog uMagog

2012-01-19T17:00:00.000+02:00

24 Tevet 5772

...The Vilna Gaon on the Mechilta (Shmos 14:20) and the Midrash Talpiyos (Gog) say, that the Gog U'Magog war shall begin three hours before "Hanetz Hachama" (crack of dawn) on Hoshana Rabba, and shall last three hours only. This is why we say " הוֹשַׁעְנָא שָׁלֹש שָׁעוֹת " If we connect this to what the Zohar quoted above said that the war will be in the 73rd year of the century, it comes out that the war shall take place on Hoshana Rabba of 5773.

The date 773 equals "crack of dawn on Hoshana Rabba":
.תשע"ג בְּגִימַטְרִיָּא הָנֵץ הֹשַׁעְנָא רַבָּא

It is written (Zechariah 14:16 and on), that the Gog U'magog war shall take place on Succos, and for that reason, the Goyim that shall survive the war will come to Yerushalayim every Succos, on the war's anniversary. (See Radak and Metzudas David.) The "Tur" (Orach Chaim 500) writes that Techias Hameisim shall be in Nissan and the victory over Gog U'magog, in Tishrei. This is why the Haftara in Nissan is "the dry bones" and in Tishrei "on the day Gog comes". The Midrash (Tehillim 888) says "you shield my head on the day of weapons, Rabbi Yossi Bar Bon said this is Gog's weapon".

It is written (Zechariah 14:2) that during the Gog U'Magog war there will be an earthquake on Har Hazeisim (Mt. of olives) in Yerushalayim, and there shall be the victory upon Gog U'Magog. Based on what we explained, that this will be on Hoshana Rabba, we understand the "Sefer Chassidim" which says: "Rav Hai Gaon used to go to Yerushalayim from Bavel every year on Succos, and surrounded Har Hazeisim seven times every Hoshana Rabba. Many of the special Tefilos we recite on Hoshana Rabba are concerning the Geula, such as: .תִּתְּנֵנוּ לְשֵׁם וְלִתְהִלָּה וְכוּ'. קוֹל מְבַשֵּׂר מְבַשֵּׂר וְאוֹמֵר

The Arizal writes (Likutei Torah, Sh'mos) the words Gog U'Magog equal seventy, compared to the seventy nations. Gog U'Magog shall control all of the seventy nations, and they will all gather against Yisrael. When Am Yisroel will be redeemed, it shall be "Hoshana Rabba" (a great salvation). The verse (Tehillim 27:5) "he shall hide me in the Succah on the bad day" is the same letters as "Arava day" (refers to Hoshana Rabba): "כִּי יִצְפְּנֵנִי בְּסֻכֹּה בְּיוֹם רָעָה", אוֹתִיּוֹת יוֹם עֲרָבָה

Rabbi Eliyahu Buchbut Shlit"a commented that the U.S. war against El Kaida in Afghanistan,began on Hoshana Rabba. This war is not over yet, and is still on low flame. This might be the slow beginning of the major war, which shall develop between the Moslem countries in general, and the Christians, as we will discuss is the Gog U'Magog war.

The timing of the year 773, when Hashem's name will be greater forever, appears in the first and last letters of the holy words of Kaddish, describing that:
הָר"ת וְס"ת שֶׁל יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָּא יִתְבָּרַךְ עִם הַמִּלִּים וְהַכּוֹלֵל, בְּגִימַטְרִיָּא תשע"ג.

The Midrash (Yalkut Yeshaya 499) says, the year Melech Hamoshiach is revealed, the kings of all the nations will tease each other, and the Persian king will destroy the whole world. All the nations shall shout and be frightened and suffer pangs as labor pangs, and Yisroel shall be frightened and will ask: "where shall we go?" Moshiach will then tell them:הִגִּיעַ זְמַן גְּאֻלַּתְכֶם
(the time has come for redemption). The Gemara (Yuma 10A) says the Gog U'Magog war is between Persia and Rome, there's a Machlokes who shall win.

Rabbi Zion Siboni Shlit"a said that Achmadinijad's name is the sum of the Hebrew letters of Islam, same as the letters Sama'el: אחמדיניג'אד בגימטריא אסלם, אותיות סמא"ל , to show that he leads all of the Moslems who are Yishmael, toward the Gog U'Magog war. Reb Yonasan ben Uziel translated (Eichah 4:21, 22) that Persia shall cause all the trouble to Edom (Rome) in the end of the days. The words Gog U'magog war including the letters, equal "Yishmaelim, Edomim": .מִלְחֶמֶת גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג עִם הָאוֹתִיּוֹת בְּגִימַטְרִיָּא יִשְׁמָעֵאלִים אֱדוֹמִים

The Zohar (Mishpatim 119B) interprets the verse that Boaz said to Ruth (Ruth 3:13) "I shall redeem you, lay until the morning" to mean the Keitz of the future redemption, as the morning refers to the Geula. The Zohar Chadash (Ruth 107A) also quotes this verse and says it refers to the Geula Be'ita when Am Yisroel did not merit it but the time has come. The "S'fas Emes" (Shavous, 5658) says similarly, "if he won't want to redeem you, lay till the morning, this is the Geula Be'ita". In addition, the words of this verse including the letters, equal 773:
."חַי הוי"ה שִׁכְבִי עַד הַבֹּקֶר" עם האותיות בגימטריא תשע"ג

The Midrash (Rus Rabba 7:1) says that Ruth laid for six hours, this suggests what we explained, that Boaz hinted about the six hours of the sixth millennium which shall be followed by the Geula. That is why Boaz told her to lay for six hours, till the Geula's morning light is revealed.

[Rabbi Glazerson wrote that even the "Goyim" had a feeling that the year of 2012 will be the end of the world according to the Astrology.]

Rav Fish (Sod Hachashmal) on Sefer Daniel

2012-01-19T16:48:00.001+02:00

24 Tevet 5772

...The sefer "Nehora D'Yosef" writes (article 84) that 1335 years past since Rashbi passed away in 3959 until the Arizal was born in 5294. This number is mentioned in the verse in sefer Daniel (12:12) in reference to "Keitz Hayamin" (the end of the days).

The Navi Daniel saw a vision about the Geula's time. (Daniel 7:25): " עִדָּן וְעִדָּנִין וּפְלַג עִדָּן ". It seems that the meaning is Mincha time as explained above. עִדָּן refers to the fifth millennium, "וְעִדָּנִין" refers to two periods of time in the sixth millennium, the night and until midday,"וּפְלַג עִדָּן" refers to the half hour following midday. The Keitz written in sefer Daniel (12:7) also refers to this time: "וַיִּשָּׁבַע בְּחֵי הָעוֹלָם כִּי לְמוֹעֵד מוֹעֲדִים וָחֵצִי וּכְכַלּוֹת נַפֵּץ יַד עַם קֹדֶשׁ תִּכְלֶינָה כָל אֵלֶּה."

מוֹעֵד refers to the fifth millennium, מוֹעֲדִים refers to two periods of time in the sixth millennium,the night and until midday, וָחֵצִי refers to the half hour following midday.We learn in sefer Daniel (12:11) that forty five years before the Keitz, events that have a connection to the place of Beis Hamikdosh, will occur:
"וּמֵעֵת הוּסַר הַתָּמִיד וְלָתֵת שִׁקּוּץ שֹׁמֵם יָמִים אֶלֶף מָאתַיִם וְתִשְׁעִים: אַשְׁרֵי הַמְחַכֶּה וְיַגִּיעַ לְיָמִים אֶלֶ ף
שְׁלשׁ מֵאוֹת שְׁלשִׁים וַחֲמִשָּׁה: וְאַתָּה לֵךְ לַקֵּץ וְתָנוּחַ וְתַעֲמֹד לְגֹרָלְךָ לְקֵץ הַיָּמִין".

According to what we explained, that the Keitz is 5772, 45 years earlier is the year 5727 when the six day war took place in Eretz Yisroel. During this time Am Yisroel saw great miracles and returned to pray at the Kosel Ma'aravi, and changes in reference to the "Mekom Hamikdosh" took place. Calculating 1290 years earlier, according to the Navi Daniel mentioned, we reach the period when the "Shikkutz Shomem" (mosque) was built on "Mekom Hamikdosh". I heard the verse (Daniel 9:27) uses the plural term, " שִׁקּוּצִים מְשֹׁמֵם ", this suggests the two "Shikkutzim" located on "Mekom Hamikdosh". And the word שִׁקּוּצִים equals the two names of them, .אֶל אַקְצָא וְעוֹמַאר

Rabbi Mandel Zatza"l, from Bnei Braq (quoted by his grandson), said after the six day war: "we now must wait 45 years until Moshiach comes, according to the verses in sefer Daniel". Rabbi Mandel also said tens of years ago, that before Moshiach comes a "Kushi" will be president of U.S. Rabbi Zion Siboni Shlit"a interprets the verse quoted above from sefer Daniel, to mean that the calculation is 1290 and another 1335 years from the destruction of the first Beis Hamikdosh, which took place in 3338, since Daniel lived before the period of the second Beis Hamikdosh.

According to this calculation, we reach the year of 5963. During the Egyptian exile Hashem reduced 190 years (the exile lasted 210 years instead of 400 years), like the sum of the word קץ , (Keitz, the end), and so shall be in the days to come. Here again we reach the year of 5773.

Where are we now in the geulah process?

2012-01-19T13:09:00.005+02:00

24 Tevet 5772

This week's Torah Tidbits features the following excerpted article:

The Exodus – Road Map of the Final Redemption
Guest article by Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher - Dean of Students, Diaspora Yeshiva

...The prophet Micha said (7:15), "As in the days of your leaving Egypt, I shall show them marvelous things." His words imply that the Exodus is the precedent for the final Redemption, as the Midrash expounds: "Just as in Egypt, I shall redeem you in the future from subjugation to Edom and shall perform miracles for you, as it says, 'As in the days of your leaving Egypt, I shall display miracles' (Tanchuma, Toldot 17)."

Indeed, gradual, phased redemption is found already in Egypt, as in the four redemption expressions with which G-d addresses Moshe: "Therefore tell the Israelites that I am the L-rd. I will (1) remove you from the suffering of Egypt, and I will (2) save you from your enslavement. I will (3) redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great punishments, and I will (4) take you to Me as a people. I will be for you a G-d" (Sh'mot 6:6-7).

This refers to four stages of redemption. The first stage constituted a lightening of their hardship, although they continued to be slaves to Par'o. The second stage constituted the total cessation of their enslavement (with the plague of hail, during which Par'o began to admire Israel - Netziv). Even so, Israel were not yet free, but under the control of the Egyptian regime. With the plague of the Firtborns came the third stage, in which Israel were redeemed totally, with an outstretched arm and with great punishments, and they left slavery for freedom. Yet they were still mired in the forty-nine levels of impurity like idol worshipers. Finally came the fourth stage, in which they were taken to be Hashem's people, and Hashem became their G-d.

I quoted this so as to introduce the concept of "phased redemption." I would just add another part to the first phase that I think is hidden at the beginning and I'll explain why.

Because, before things started getting better, it first got a lot worse when Paro issued the decree that we had to gather our own straw to make the bricks. This would correspond to the words "...tell the Israelites that I am the L-rd" in the same way that "I am the L-rd your G-d..." is the first of the aseret hadribrot.

And according to Rabbi Fish in Sod Hachashmal, this part of the first phase would correspond to the Shoah, where things got a whole lot worse before it would get better...

The Zohar (Mishpatim 119B and Acharey 68A) says the Moshiach's birth pangs are like a woman who lowers her head between her knees. It seems that the seventy years of Moshiach's birth pangs began in 5701, between the sefiroth of Netzach and Hod, which are the sod (secret representing) the two legs. Rosh Hashanah of Year 5701 is when her cries of the Moshiach's birth pangs began.

...If Moshiach's birth pangs lasted 70 years, and the birth itself another 2 years, it comes out that the end of 5772 is the coming of Moshiach. As all know, the main agony of the Holocaust and their final solution began in 5701. I heard the name of Rabbi Tzvi Meir Zilberberg shlit"a in the name of Reb Elchonon Wasserman of blessed memory, that the Moshiach's birth pangs began in 5701. The Steipler Gaon also said that during the Holocaust we went through most of the suffering of the pangs of Moshiach. The "Ra'ved" said in sefer "Imrei Bina" that during the year of 5701 and the following four years will be a great disaster for all of Israel .

Then, "(1) remove you from the suffering of Egypt" would correspond to renewed Jewish rule in the Land of Israel starting in 5708 (1948), although we were still sort of "slaves" to the nations since it was they who gave us permission to come back to the Land of Israel.

Phase (2) is described as "the total cessation of their enslavement (with the plague of hail, during which Par'o began to admire Israel - Netziv). Even so, Israel were not yet free, but under the control of the Egyptian regime."

I'm speculating that this phase began in 5727 (1967) when the whole world stood in admiration after the Six Days War and all of the Holy Land was returned to our possession. All of the nations stood by while we were attacked by all of the neighboring countries and we came out victorious with G-d's help. But, to this day they dictate "peace" terms to us.

Phase (3) is described as being redeemed "with an outstretched arm and with great punishments."

I'm speculating that this phase began in 5765 with the Asian tsunami that took more than a quarter of a million lives. From there, we had the expulsion of Gush Katif, Hurricanes Katrina and Ike, the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, New Zealand and Japan, right along through the many disasters of 5771 - earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis and nuclear meltdowns. Not to mention revolutions and economic collapse!

If so, then the turning point to Phase (4) will probably occur after World War 3 (in 5772/5773) with the immediate emergence of Mashiach Tzidkeinu - "in which they were taken to be Hashem's people, and Hashem became their G-d."

So lift up your heads and hearts. Give praise and thanks to Hashem. Our servitude is almost finished. The debt is almost paid. Redemption is on the horizon!

Thank you, Rivka David!

2012-01-19T11:00:00.001+02:00

24 Tevet 5772

Beautiful video. Beautiful song!

(Recommended to double-click it to see it full-screen.)

Baiting Barack

2012-01-18T20:40:00.001+02:00

24 Tevet 5772

I love it! If you're sitting in the middle between two enemies, you gotta love it when one of them gets the better of the other.

Iran promises to return US drone - as a pink toy

It may not have been quite what Barack Obama meant when he called on Iran to return a US drone that crashed in the Islamic Republic.

Rather than giving back the multi-million dollar piece of spyware, which has been gleefully paraded for the world's cameras, an Iranian toy maker has promised to send the White House a pink plastic toy replica of the downed drone.

Yeranen Yaakov reported today on his blog:

Milkman Predicts: US Will Strike Iran While Israel Stands By Smiling (The "Milkman" being a well-known Israeli kabbalist.)

Despite what's being reported about Barack Obama being reluctant to use the "military option" with Iran, Hashem has His ways of pulling people in the direction He chooses. And Achmadinejad's taunts and Islamic messianic fervor are just part of His toolbox.

War with Iran: A Conflict Obama Hopes to Avoid May Be Imposed on Him

"Electronic Armageddon"

2012-01-18T18:20:00.000+02:00

24 Tevet 5772

Videos dealing with the subject of EMP attack:

"Electronic Armageddon"

"33 minutes"

To my readers...

2012-01-18T15:43:00.002+02:00

23 Tevet 5772

Note that there are a few new posts today and I'm going to open up comments and see how it goes.

EMP coming your way?

2012-01-18T15:00:00.002+02:00

23 Tevet 5772

The last message from Daniel includes some details which were also mentioned before in earlier messages of the autistic children.

HKB”H will slaughter the eigel hazahav before our eyes. Whoever loves his cell phone will see that it doesn’t work, it’s just a hunk of plastic. And whoever loves his car will see that it isn’t able to move. Whoever is happy about the money he has in the bank will see that it disappeared. And whoever is waiting for his pension will discover that it was deleted. Whoever needs to go to the doctor will discover that the office is closed. And whoever loves his money will discover that it’s worthless. Whoever is thirsty will see that there’s no water in the faucet. And whoever will go to the grocery will find that the grocery is empty.

This perfectly describes what would happen in the event of an attack which results in an electromagnetic pulse - a weapon uniquely capable of "slaughtering the eigel hazahav."

And whoever trusts in HKB”H will have everything: food, bed, Temple, eternity. And whoever doesn’t trust in HKB”H won’t have anything.

We should be preparing ourselves now - mentally, emotionally and spiritually - to deal with this event.

The Message of the Day

2012-01-18T11:35:00.001+02:00

23 Tevet 5772

A cruise ship - the ultimate symbol of self-indulgence which epitomizes the world of gashmiut. The symbology is readily recognizable and carries over into other applications, as seen in the following video...

Economic Collapse - Why it won't be stopped

Could it be that the Costa Concordia did not sink, but only turned over, in order to clearly and graphically demonstrate the current stage of the world's situation? It hasn't sunk, but it cannot function. It's dead in the water!

Daniel's Last Message - Part 2

2012-01-17T18:16:00.001+02:00

23 Tevet 5772

“We’re Finished”
A message from Daniel
26 Kislev 5772

Continuing…

A few hundred years ago, the Haskalah Movement arose and the beginning of the great descent of Am Yisrael. The first things that the Jews threw out were family purity and Shabbat. And since then, Am Yisrael is descending more and more and more in these things, until this generation in which holiness, which is the basis of our connection to HKB”H, has almost disappeared. If there is a rabbi or simple Jew who goes in some way against these two things, they have no possibility of succeeding at all and their end will be very bitter.

These two things are the basis of all of Judaism. And if you ask me: “What about Torah learning?” Of course, Torah learning is also basic and there are other things that hold tight to Judaism, but, without holiness, there’s no Torah and without Torah, there’s no holiness, so it’s all one thing.

Today, we are learning Torah without holiness. The yeshivas are full of Jews, young men learning Torah, even at a high technical level, but for the majority, there is no holiness. We have a knowledge-weakness in the treatment of issues of holiness, in the Chareidi yeshivas as well as the schools. When they call all kinds of things forbidden, instead of removing the offenders, the administration usually deals with it with great forgiveness, whether out of a desire to protect the name of the institution or out of economic considerations.

What else can I tell you? You know, this is a confused generation, so attached to the eigel hazahav; so attached to the lie of the world and unable to leave this ease; very difficult for them to leave. I can only say this to you – standing before us is the fulfillment of the prophecies; a most difficult war, a real war. The root of the struggle is spiritual; between Christians, Muslims, Jews and Atheists, of such we shouldn’t know. And everyone is against everyone. And at the end, there will be great destruction in this world. The majority of the world will be destroyed, but the real Am Yisrael, the true Jews who are really close to HKB”H, who really have true souls who stood at Har Sinai and said “We will do and we will hear,” these will come to the truth, will receive our righteous Mashiach and will sacrifice again offerings in the Temple, with G-d’s help.

But, we will go through gehinom until then. HKB”H will slaughter the eigel hazahav before our eyes. Whoever loves his cell phone will see that it doesn’t work, it’s just a hunk of plastic. And whoever loves his car will see that it isn’t able to move. Whoever is happy about the money he has in the bank will see that it disappeared. And whoever is waiting for his pension will discover that it was deleted. Whoever needs to go to the doctor will discover that the office is closed. And whoever loves his money will discover that it’s worthless. Whoever is thirsty will see that there’s no water in the faucet. And whoever will go to the grocery will find that the grocery is empty. Whoever relies on the army to protect them will hear how the missiles explode all around. And whoever trusts in HKB”H will have everything: food, bed, Temple, eternity. And whoever doesn’t trust in HKB”H won’t have anything.

The world is moving toward war. The crazy people – those who are reincarnations of all kinds of evildoers from all the eras – are trying to rule over the world and to be, G-d forbid, like in the place of HKB”H. It’s foolishness even to think that it’s possible to do a thing like that. But, they are so full of the feeling of their own powers that they can’t accept this under any circumstances that they are totally people that HKB”H created. So, they’re dragging the whole world to the end with massive destruction, with tremendous suffering to all the world’s population. Jews and gentiles with a bit of comprehension feel clearly that there’s going to be a disaster in the world, in the economy as well as in the war. The majority of the world will be destroyed and a majority of the world’s population will be killed. Among the Jews, those who stood at Har Sinai will remain.

When I speak of holiness, this holiness is in fact the basis of Judaism, of the life of the Jew. In thoughts, in dress and in behaviors, it’s how a person speaks, it’s how he walks in the street, in which way he moves his body - if in pride with raised head and walk of a “show-off” or he walks refined with head down and not trying to catch the eye of people. If it’s in attire, of women as well as men: a modest woman, her body is covered in as many layers as possible, because it’s the custom of our mothers. And if the Torah says that the hair of a woman is promiscuity, that a married woman needs to be modest, needs to appear married, she can’t put on herself a wig with the hair of another woman and think it is modest. It’s promiscuity and in Heaven, it’s much worse than desecration of Shabbat. A woman with a wig of today looks bareheaded and if she says that her husband wants this, then the two of them will go to gehinom. And if she will say that her rabbi allows it, it’s hard for me to believe that a rabbi sees the wig and rules that it’s kosher.

The foreign wig gives the woman the feeling of bareheadedness, a feeling of freedom to be like an available woman, that she’s not married and this is the big lie of the generation, the great success of the Sitra Achra. Because they permitted wigs hundreds of years ago because of a decree of the gentiles, but today, there is no decree of the gentiles that obligates the women to go with a wig and despite this, they continue to go with the wig. In the time of the Gemara that it’s written that there were here and there women with a wig, but they didn’t go out into the street with a revealed wig.

Our fathers, until recently, a generation ago, had modesty. They would walk with wide clothes and today they walk with tight pants and short coats, colorful ties, etc. and aside from that, there are women who eat in the street. This is not modest, it’s forbidden; men as well as women. There’s a speaking style that women speak on the street in a loud voice, eye-catching, going with shoes that make noise, with eye-catching jewelry.

Aside from the immodest clothing, short and narrow, etc., there are forbidden meetings between women and men. There are work places where there are men and women. There are eating places where they’re sitting really crowded and it’s forbidden.

“Kedoshim tihiyu” – this is our whole life. A man who doesn’t have holy thoughts, a speaker of not nice words, a walker with promiscuous dress, not modest, man or woman, how can he pray before HKB”H!? To stand before HKB”H!? Women say: “So, what if she doesn’t dress exactly modestly, but she prays so strongly…” It’s like saying: “So what if she eats a little pork every day, but she prays so beautifully…” It’s impossible to stand before HKB”H in promiscuity. This is chutzpah. To stand without modesty and to pray holy words before HKB”H – it’s really chutzpah, above and beyond. Every man who throws away modesty, holiness, he’s a chutspan – an insolent person – and there’s no other word for him. We’ve lost the sensation, the feelings of holiness.

Now it’s Hanukah, there are all kinds of shows and films, supposedly kosher, but, they’re not kosher. It’s all imitation of the gentiles and it’s forbidden and it’s the not-good smell from the eigel hazahav. This severe decline in holiness, in dress, and in behavior is bringing us to severe sins. Our Chareidi world is full of forbidden things, full of promiscuity, illicit relationships and terrible things. Hashem have mercy. Abba, that’s the last message by this method, by this method of communication. But, Abba, with G-d’s help, in a bit, you and I will speak regular. I hope that in the nearest future, we will get though all the wars and your Daniel will be able to speak with you like a Torah scholar, like a completely normal Jew.

Daniel's Last Message - Part 1

2012-01-16T18:31:00.001+02:00

22 Tevet 5772

As I said, this one is quite lengthy, so I'm breaking it up into two parts.

“We’re Finished”
A message from Daniel
26 Kislev 5772

Abba, Abba, it’s already a few years that we have had the merit to give messages from Heaven to Am Yisrael. I remember the first messages, Abba, that you could hardly believe that I am capable of something like this, that it’s not a dream, that it’s real. Perhaps in the beginning you weren’t sure it’s real, but during the years, you saw that what I said really came to be. And here, Abba, we’ve arrived to the last stage before the redemption - the hardest stage for Am Yisrael - and in general, for the world. We’re standing upon the opening to redemption. And at this moment, after so many years of messages, messages intended to help Am Yisrael to prepare for the redemption, we’ve arrived at the moment of the last message, this method of communication, in short FC.

Why did we suddenly receive a message from Heaven to stop the messages in general? Because, the world has changed completely. And everything that we’ve said until now is what we would also say in the future, because there’s nothing more to say in this stage. There is nothing more to say to Am Yisrael about how to prepare ourselves for the redemption. If you want to be strengthened, then simply take out the previous pages and go over them. There’s nothing new to say to you.

The world is a mess. The Jews, and in general, all the residents of the world, gentiles as well as Jews, they got used to materialism above and beyond the worst nightmares of our grandparents. They couldn’t even imagine the abundance that we enjoy from this. But, for this abundance, we’re paying a heavy price. It has almost destroyed Yiddishkeit. And there’s no more painful or heavy price than this. It has almost destroyed our connection with the truth, with HKB”H. And there’s no bigger price than this.

Am Yisrael has created a plastic Judaism. A Judaism that is suited to our false requirements from the Olam Hazeh - superficial pleasures and all the things that are the exact opposite of our holy Torah. We took our Yiddishkeit and turned it into something artificial, appropriate to every superficial and silly need of every Jew who really wants only the eigel hazahav - this world and its pleasures.

Baruch Hashem, there are other Jews who are trying to hold onto the status of true Judaism and a real closeness to HKB”H. They’re trying to learn for the sake of Heaven; to raise their children according to the Torah of Moshe, but they are few. And as much as we write and we write, and we try to bring the truth before Am Yisrael, we don’t succeed very much. Maybe here and there we’ve opened a heart a bit to the truth, Baruch Hashem. But, for the majority, the Jews are not ready to hear and not just not ready to hear us, they’re not ready and not interested in understanding the truth that’s in the Torah.

In all the world, there are gentiles, and among them also Jews, who want to rule over everything and to bring the world to a situation so bad, so cruel, so not belonging to any religion of humanity, in order that they themselves will rule over everything. That they themselves will be, G-d forbid, like in the place of HKB”H, like the generation of the Tower of Bavel. And like in that generation, Hashem allowed them to continue and have success, but in the end, He brought them down very strongly. They will disappear from the reality. And also among Jews there is such a thing – the same thing – just on a smaller scale, but a thousand times greater effect, because the center of the world is the Jew. The center of existence is the Jew and the center of the spirituality is the Jew. Even though there are little Jews in this world, what happens to them influences the whole world.

Here in Eretz Yisrael, we have a government whose majority are anti-religious. And there is among them a group of Jews with important roles who want to associate with these gentiles who desire to rule over the world and to create a new-world-order that is foreign and based upon wickedness. And in the group of these evildoers there are also secular Jews from all over the world who believe in this thing and they participate in it and they have a big part in it.

There are also secular Jews who have forgotten, in general, what it is to be a Jew. In general, in general, in general. And they also behave like gentiles and they want to behave like gentiles. But, there are among them true Jews, who in their heart and in their soul, they are true Jews. And it takes sometimes only one word to open this place and they will be able to make teshuva. But, there are among them those who come from the source of the Erev Rav and they can’t return in teshuva.

After that, we have the Modern-Orthodox Jews abroad. In Israel, we call them “national-religious.” There are among them, many who are confused between the Olam Hazeh and Olam Haba. They want both, but that’s not possible. They need to decide. The Olam Hazeh is only for the sake of preparing ourselves for the redemption and Olam Haba. If we take the Torah from one side and Olam Hazeh from the other and try to make from them one thing, it will never work, because the Olam Hazeh is falsehood and the Torah is truth. The Torah will never accept falsehood.

Also among the national-religious and the Modern Orthodox and also among their rabbis there are Erev Rav. And they can’t do teshuva – this Erev Rav – because they are not from Jewish souls. According to the law, they are Jews, but they don’t have Jewish souls and never did. They always make problems for us.

There is also the Chareidim, among whom are Ashkenazim and Sefardim, Litvak, Hassidim, etc. Also, to my great sorrow, in this holy-of-holies that once was the magnificence of the world, that once held the spiritual world, that because of them the world stood, in general, without being destroyed; also, among them has entered in a severe pollution. This pollution is the most dangerous. It comes from the Erev Rav and enters into the most Chareidi world - the world that is closest to HKB”H. Also in this Chareidi world, remain the relatively few people who still hold onto the truth.

It’s hard to believe, but also among the Chareidi Jews there are Erev Rav. And even among their leaders, there are Erev Rav. Hashem have mercy. And this Erev Rav tries to cool us off from our religion; to attract us to materialism; to draw us close to the seculars or to the government; to draw us near to the gentile world. And they do this in a way that is supposedly for the sake of Heaven. These Jews do great damage. So, we know that every true Jew will be saved, with G-d’s help, because every Jewish soul is very dear in Heaven. Hashem will pull us back by force. But, if he will be very damaged, he will have tremendous suffering until he comes to the truth.

The Erev Rav who are among us will not be saved. Even if it appears that they are being successful, they’ won't succeed. They are being exposed more and more, because they are fighting more and more openly against the holiness of Am Yisrael.

To be continued...

More Final Messages

2012-01-15T18:02:00.002+02:00

20 Tevet 5772

The last message from Daniel remains to be translated. It is very long, so I opted to post these two short ones which appeared at the very end of the final messages sheet.

Message from Areleh
Rosh Chodesh Tevet 5757
From the book “My Soul Knows Well 2,” page 129

Caution before a Disaster

Am Yisrael! The last opportunity is coming. When our warnings will cease – the end will be close - the end of your empty life. The truth will begin to be revealed little by little until those who are to survive the future events will be ready to receive the full light. Am Yisrael! Stop your foolish misdeeds. Love one another. Return to your Torah in purity. Draw near to your Creator!

********

“Like in the era of the prophets” - a message from Galia

My dear mother, the messages from the autistics and brain-damaged resemble the era of the prophets who warned and warned the People of Israel and later that from Heaven they gave to Am Yisrael a lot of time to return in teshuva for their sins and wickedness from their iniquities. The people erred to think that the words of the prophets were futile and empty and it’s not in their power to be realized.

When things happened and difficult troubles befell our people - destruction and exile - Am Yisrael understood that all the words of the prophets were truth, but it was all already too late! Because, the midat hadin had already begun to operate in the world and was unable to be withdrawn. So, the decree went into operation! It only remained to cry over Am Yisrael in Heaven and on Earth. There is some similarity to our messages – the brain-damaged. Soon, when they will see that everything happens and I wish it wouldn’t, then it only remains for us to cry and cry and to pray to our Father in Heaven to have mercy on us and to return to Hashem, in order to stop the severe Divine punishments from suddenly coming upon us.

"The Last Message for Jews Abroad"

2012-01-13T11:01:00.001+02:00

18 Tevet 5772

From Moisheleh
2nd candle of Hanukah 5772

“Sevivon, sov, sov, sov, Hanukah hu chag tov…” These are the days of Hanukah and everyone is celebrating. There are parties, and there are exhibits, there are movies, there are shows, traveling for trips, and eating a lot of donuts and potato pancakes. But, as the children ask: “Why do we celebrate Hanukah?” Then, the secular for sure don’t know. They will say “perhaps because of the tasty donut…” And the chareidi, he knows that there was a war with Antiochus, with the Hellenists, etc. But, it doesn’t so much interest him like the movies, the trips and of course, like the vacation from cheder and school at Hanukah.

We are now at the second or third candle of Hanukah and I only want to cry, because again, we are the few against the many. But, not just the many of the wide world. We are not just the few against the gentiles who are many more than us. These are also among the Jews – we have enemies, also among the Jews – there are enemies to HKB”H. And this is the biggest problem. And the Hellenists who are in Eretz Yisrael and in all the lands of the world, they damage the rest of the Jews, the fire in the heart and in the soul of every Jew – these are the Erev Rav. Indeed, according to the law, they are Jews, but as we learn, at the end, before Mashiach comes, the Erev Rav will be the most serious enemy. Because they are Jews according to the law and part of them are even “chareidim,” and these are chareidim who hate holiness and faith and trust in HKB”H and they are even sometimes rabbis and leaders of the chareidi world. And sometimes, they are Torah scholars and sometimes simple Jews, the most regular. But, there is one common denominator for everyone: They hate holiness. They hate the connection with HKB”H – the special connection of every Jew and Jew.

And since they went out of Egypt with us, they envy us, but they can’t come to faith and trust and love of Hashem, because they remained strangers. And today, if we look at chareidi society and how they celebrate Hanukah, we see clearly how a few Erev Rav have managed to weaken the Yiddishkeit of Am Yisrael. Many Jews, very many chareidi, religious, secular Jews light Hanukah menorahs on this holiday - chanukiot. They’re lighting candles for eight nights. This is seemingly a good sign, that there are more and more Jews really celebrating such an important holiday. But, if we look and observe more closely then, how that the estranged sometimes make some gesture to HKB”H, on this they do some thing like hearing the megillah at Purim, or to light Hanukah candles, nevertheless together with it – the chareidim more and more are receiving the leaders of the Hellenists.

The Jews love entertainment. There is a vacation, so entertainment is a must. But, this entertainment pertains to the eigel hazahav and the eigel hazahav pertains to the Erev Rav. Our Hanukah is full-full of foreign customs that have entered into us within the holy of holies - the trips, the movies, the shows, etc. I already hear the laughter of many Jews: “But, we have to relax…have to have a little fun… have to go some place, and see what it’s possible to do with the children, so much time without cheder, without school. You can go crazy…”

But it’s not “you can go crazy,” because in truth, we’ve already “gone crazy.” We are drunk on the degraded customs and behaviors of the gentiles. And in the near future we will have a very difficult awakening.

And because of this, we are writing these last messages. It’s already almost twenty years since we began to bring messages to the chareidi Jewish world. And now the time is finished, because in just a little bit, the world is going to change completely. And the change will be very difficult. The change will be very frightening. And the process of the change will be very, very hard on everyone.

We’ve already entered into this period and to this stage that’s before the redemption. And there’s nothing more for us to say. And every one of us who writes now these messages, tries to organize all the things that we’ve said in a few words so that it will be for you a sort of teacher of the way, to those who aren’t Torah scholars, in order that you may pass through this time in ease or at least more easily.

Again, I will remind you: Every true Jew will survive. If he is farther from the truth, Hashem will drag him the strong and hard way until he will understand the truth and will accept it. If he is closer to Hashem, he will suffer less. And if a Jew dies before this redemption period, that’s not to say that he is Erev Rav. Because, for the Erev Rav, there will be a special death so that everyone will know that they were Erev Rav and not a good Jew.

Therefore, again, we will go over all the problems that we have in Olam Hazeh. And I turn to the matter for the Jews abroad. And don’t tell me that the Satmar Rebbe, ztz”l said that it’s forbidden to come to live in the State of Israel, because I know this and I believe this. But, if the Satmar Rebbe ztz”l were here today, I believe he also would go up to the Land. Because he would see that this is the end. And not only this, I am sure that the Satmar Rebbe ztz”l, from his good place in Olam Haba, cries very much over his community and over all the communities of Am Yisrael. And especially those abroad, who use his name in order to make big sins. And use what he wrote in order to prevent, at this moment, Jews from coming to the Land.

Because, I am sure that he himself would get up and lead his community here, because the world is in a huge danger. Every European Jew and every American Jew is in a huge danger, spiritually and physically. And within a very short time, you will understand what I am saying. The spiritual danger in America and in Europe and in the Land now – it’s the same thing. The eigel hazahav has destroyed the Jews in every place in the world, and if we will continue with it, it will destroy all of Judaism. But if we add up all the dangers, the least dangerous place is Eretz Yisrael, even that still there is here a government of evildoers. Because we have a promise from HKB”H that Eretz Yisrael - not “the State of Israel” - it’s Eretz Yisrael that won’t be destroyed. Eretz Yisrael will remain. And in Eretz Yisrael, we will build the Third Temple, with G-d’s help, and in Eretz Yisrael we will receive our righteous Mashiach in the near future, with G-d’s help. But in the United States, and in Europe, and in similar places, the physical, bodily danger to Jews, the danger of anti-Semitism is growing and going. And there is not one promise from Heaven that the United States and Europe will not be destroyed.

Jews, you know the prophecies, two thirds of the world will be destroyed. One-third, including Edom, will be completely destroyed; a second third very severe, and Eretz Yisrael will not be harmed.

I ask from you a moment to think, to observe. All your parties, especially abroad, all your chesed, all your prayers, all your faith and trust in Hashem, all your Torah learning, what is it worth? Not much. Why? Because, for the majority, it’s just a decoration for your physical needs, your physicalities. For the majority, it’s not something deep. It’s simply a reason to do what you want. A famous example, in America, is that in the majority of synagogues there are so many people talking with one another until it’s almost impossible to pray. This thing is known in the United States.

There is much, much chesed, but much of this chesed is not real. It’s chesed for the sake of ensuring livelihood. It’s almost a superstition and not as faith and trust in HKB”H. The Jews abroad, very, very much want entertainment, must have the entertainment. And they don’t understand that the entertainment is goyische; it’s a waste of time. We have a small amount of time to live and we’re wasting it on entertainment. Pity! A pity on every moment!

There are the Torah scholars, the young men, who sit and learn and woe to us, woe to us. What is the Torah without a soul? What is the Torah without holiness? And this is what there is in the majority of yeshivas. And abroad it’s worse, but also in the Land. In these yeshivas are a lot of young men and they learn really wonderfully, but they are without holiness, the majority. And if there’s no holiness, there’s no Torah, because the basis, the foundation of all of Yiddishkeit, of all of Torah, is holiness. This holiness is the shield on each part of life. And a Jew who is holy, how can he walk around dressed in tight pants and short jacket and all day, he just decides which tie he will choose to wear? How can it be that a groom, a chasid, goes with a shtreimel that looks like a “clown hat” with sharp tips that makes it higher than it is? Because there is nothing for a person to do. The shtreimel that was once a symbol of a crown - of something special, spiritual - it’s the opposite of a “clown’s hat.” Indeed, prestigious, but without holiness.

In general, every matter of the sanctity of marriage is really turned into a gentile thing. All the ideas are non-Jewish ideas, at least usually. The vast majority of counselors rely much on psychology and on the gentile direction of a relationship between a married couple. And this is very sick. And it’s anti-Torah.

Psychology has also entered every matter of education in the cheders and yeshivas. Because there are severe problems, so they accuse the Torah for the problems. Because the Torah, G-d forbid, is “not modern” and it “doesn’t understand the children,” G-d forbid. But, in truth, the problem in the yeshivas and cheders is that they don’t walk according to the Torah.; that they’re trying to live a life of the gentiles. Because in the moment that we live a-life-of-the-gentiles, then we are receiving the sicknesses and the problems of the gentiles.

A large part of our children is in a very difficult situation. They are not behaving exactly like Jews, even though they dress like Jews and they’re not exactly gentiles, because nevertheless, there is some Jewish soul, usually. Woe to us, I won’t get more into things, because you can read enough all the communications that we did during twenty years.

But, what I will tell you, if you don’t return in real teshuva, and stop yearning for all the materialism that’s murdering us, murdering our Yiddishkeit, murdering our eternity, then you have to take out this evil inclination from the head and the heart and come to the truth; to enjoy and to yearn to be close to HKB”H. To feel the emotion that is impossible to describe, the feeling that’s so wonderful of a man who is close to the Master of the World, the Omnipotent. The feeling of ease, of release, of lack of heaviness of man, that can arise, up, up, easy-as-pie and come to a good place. Am Yisrael, again I will say: sit on the floor, put on sackcloth and ashes, cry to HKB”H, beg forgiveness for all the sins, cry with real tears,, because without it, without doing a hard operation and taking out the poison of the eigel hazahav that the Erev Rav put into us, without taking it out completely – you will suffer very much.

Yes, there will be a war - a very difficult and fearful war; war that many millions will go from the world. But, the true Jews will survive and will receive our righteous Mashiach. And these will enjoy the greatest pleasure that there is. And it is closeness to HKB”H. And we will continue to arise and come close to HKB”H, more and more. We, this is the basis of HKB”H in the new world for His final creation. The creation that will be a world within which really everything is absolutely good. End.

Gematriot with Moisheleh

This last message page was number 79. This gematria is “Ben David comes” or “To G-d life.” It’s both and the explanation, the meaning, it’s about both. This year, with G-d’s help, it needs to be the redemption, 5772/5773. This communication – it will be the eightieth page in the book of the volumes, which is “their savior,” that is to say, our redemption. Eighty is also, in gematria, “the trust,” because without trust in HKB”H, it’s impossible to be redeemed. And this is the most important thing - complete and absolute trust only in HKB”H; that He can do anything and that everything is for our good and this is the key to redemption. Likewise, it is in gematria: “foundation.” And it is the foundation. “The trust” – it is the foundation and the key to redemption and likewise, it is in number “all who love him,” because it’s clear that all who love Him will be saved, and them alone. I hope that all the true Jews will take this to their hearts, and merit to meet in the Holy Temple. End.

NOTE: There are two more "final messages" remaining.

"The Last Message to Am Yisrael" - Part 2

2012-01-12T12:02:00.002+02:00

17 Tevet 5772

Questions & Answers
Binyamin Golden
3rd candle of Hanukah 5772

Q. Why don’t we have the right to hear more messages?

A. Again, it was stopped because now every Jew has to search out a connection with HKB”H for himself. This coming month of Shevat, it will be twenty years that we are speaking. Twenty years since Yitzchak-Izik wrote the first message. In all this period, our job was to strengthen Am Yisrael, and slowly, slowly, during all these year - and twenty years is a lot of time - slowly, slowly, to bring them to this moment. But, Am Yisrael hears, reads, there are people who understand more and understand less. And it’s not only us in this world who are speaking about the redemption and the salvation. There are more who are trying to help Am Yisrael. But, Am Yisrael needs to want to in himself. It’s impossible to force someone to do something against his will. He needs to want to. So, if he wants – he must do the last part himself. It’s like when a child begins to walk, it’s possible to help him, but at some stage he needs so much to want to walk, until he will get up and will walk himself without any problems. Because he wants to walk. Because he wants to be independent and to arrive to places. And we, also. You need to want to be a servant of Hashem. And if we will be servants of Hashem, then we will be free men. But, you need to want to, because without this, it doesn’t go. This is the time you need to want to.

Almost each thing that’s been said until now, all that’s been said, will be possible to read. With G-d’s help, a booklet from the last messages is coming out, along with additional suitable sections. And if someone wants to receive strengthening, especially from what we have written, he will be able to lift the telephone and listen or read the booklet. Because there is nothing new or added that’s left to say. To tell you “when something will explode” or “when will be the war,” or today and this hour exactly - impossible. And it’s not important. What’s important is that everyone will return in teshuva. That’s what’s important. That everyone will arrive to HKB”H. That’s what’s important. To being to be too busy with: “which country will shoot off the first missile” – that’s not important.

Q. “Restore our judges as at first” – Ben David will not come until the false leadership ends. How can we really know who is a posek, who is a leader to the truth without bias? How can we identify?

A. We don’t know. Therefore, I say: The Jew needs to be connected to HKB”H. And to be very careful with whom he makes a connection. And even if he is careful, he doesn’t always know. The signs are – the Erev Rav do not have a Jewish heart, therefore he doesn’t have mercy on another Jew. He can indeed “make a show of it,” but a true Jew needs to know that it’s a show. Maybe not the first time, but the second or third time it will be clearer. This is a time that a Jew needs to be alone. To be alone with HKB”H. And not purposely, it’s not by chance that the idea of “hitbodedut” has returned in this generation by Rebbe Nachman, ztz”l. Because it is approximately what you need to do: to be alone with Hashem. And you don’t need to go to a forest, especially, for this. It can be done in the living room. But you need to be alone and search out the truth. And then, Hashem will help us. Alone, we can not do it. And you need every day to request from Hashem to save us from the Erev Rav.

Q. Chazal said that for a Jew there are three signs: Merciful, shy, and charitable…

A. But, that’s right, these are indeed three things which describe a true Jew. But there are Erev Rav who know to make an excellent show.

Q. Already, hundreds of years ago, in the writings of Rav Chaim Vital, ztz”l, it says that the leaders do not like to comment on or to admonish on matters of holiness and modesty. What is the reason that especially on this topic they are afraid to rebuke more than remaining deficiencies?

A. The reason is clear. Because when there is a great descent, what falls first? In Europe, they first threw out Shabbat, and family purity, and holiness. This is what the people want the most. And this is the greatest desire of the eigel hazahav. And therefore, the careful rabbis didn’t dwell on this so they wouldn’t lose their communities.

Q. What do you say about the war against modesty in the holy city of Jerusalem?

A. The war of chareidim against modesty is a thing that’s hard to understand. Every life-style of the chareidim in this generation is in trouble. The women wander around the street like prostitutes, and holiness is the last thing that interests them. And with all the Tehillim that they’re saying, and with all the daily prayers, what attracts them is the eigel hazahav. There were periods when the Jews were Jews who lived in Eretz Yisrael and they ran to the ba’al, because the ba’al attracted them. And this is the ba’al of today. The golden calf strongly attracts them, and it’s what they want. The men are dressed like several hundred years ago and the women like models from the newspaper. And worse that even the men today are immodest. Tight suits. There is almost no man who goes like once was: with wide coat, with wide trousers, covering like it should. It almost never happens. Everyone is tight on the body. Even funny, but it’s so disgusting, that it’s a conflict of emotions.

Q. What’s with the European dress that’s customary today among the public?

A. Without a beard, it’s gentile. A short coat is gentile. The Chazon Ish said, as far as I know, that a Jew needs to go with tails, a long coat. How were the Jews dressed in Europe? They were very much covered, with coats, etc. And in Arab lands, there were robes. A robe over a robe and with a shawl like the Baba Sali.

Q. It’s already written in chazal, that in the future Torah will be forgotten from Israel. But, on the other hand, we see that there is a great flowering of Torah institutions in our days, so how does that fit together?

A. But, they have forgotten the Torah. There is no Torah for the majority. For, indeed, they didn’t forget what they learned, the words, but they forgot the holiness. They forgot the basis of what it means to be a Jew. How is it possible to learn Torah without holiness? A gentile can learn Torah? Yes! He can sit and take a Gemara with translation and learn. But that’s not to say that he will understand. That’s not to say that he will make a connection. And what is this “Torah learning”? It’s that the soul will develop a relationship with the book and together they will arise, up, up, to special worlds. It’s not to sit and learn and to do tests. It’s not to sit and to learn, by heart, all kinds of details of knowledge just so that afterwards you can give it back by heart. This is just technical. And it’s not learning. It’s not the soul of a Jew. A gentile can’t understand this. He can’t really learn. He can only know to sit, to look at a page and to learn like he learns history or something else.

Q. What about the money, the economic situation?

A. The money will fall together with the war. That it has not yet fallen is interesting. The economic situation is bad and the evildoers are maintaining it, so that it won’t fall until the moment that it’s suitable for them, but HKB”H will decide.

Q. The verse says: “For the word is very near to you….” Is the mitzvah of teshuva really so easy? Also, in our days, it’s so easy?

A. Of course, it’s easy. And it’s easier when a person comes so far, then he doesn’t have to make such a big circle to get to the beginning, because he’s much closer…. But later, when his head is blocked with all the trash of Olam Hazeh, of the eigel hazahav, of the Erev Rav, all the education of the Erev Rav, then it’s very difficult. But a true Jew, only one word is enough to open his heart and his feelings. Which word? It’s a different word for everyone to simply awaken it.

Q. Binyamin once said, in the past, that the time will come that people will go out into the streets and seek “sackcloth and ashes”…

A. It’s not just that they will request “sackcloth and ashes,” they will ask for HKB”H. They won’t know what to do. They will understand that what they did in life – it was emptiness. It wasn’t completely for the sake of Heaven. It was only for the sake of our eigel hazahav, for the majority. And this will pain them very, very much. So, they will look for something, something to do. To put on tefillin, to sit on the floor, to cry. Man doesn’t know how to cleanse himself from all the falsehood. He will cry from sorrow about how he wasted so much gilgulim during all the years.

Q. So, the final tikun is actually that we will know to disregard all the eigel hazahav, all the physicality and materialism, and to “lift up the wings” to the direction of HKB”H, is this the tikun?

A. That’s the end, yes. To run away from the snake. What does physicality do for us? It gives us the feeling that we are far from HKB”H; that we don’t need to be dependent upon Him for anything. And more and more this enters into our head. Indeed, there are those who are praying, who are asking for parnasah, etc., but it’s more like a superstition and not like someone who is more connected to Hashem.

"The Last Message to Am Yisrael"

2012-01-10T18:50:00.000+02:00

16 Tevet 5772

Binyamin Golden
3rd candle of Hanukah 5772

Yes, yes, that’s right. We are ceasing for always to write messages to Am Yisrael. With G-d’s help, we are entering now into a period of time; the period that is right before the redemption - the most difficult period of all - a period in which every Jew alone will need to make a strong connection to HKB”H. A period that no one will be able to become stronger from another person, only straight from HKB”H, from the holy books, from the righteous of previous generations and from the trials that Hashem sends to us.

And it’s a situation that also we, who are called “autistics” or brain-damaged – also, we aren’t able to give strength or direction, because each Jew whose soul was at Har Sinai must arrive to this on his own. It’s a very difficult period for a part of the people and for part of the people it’s a happy situation. Because part of the people, the biggest part, lives in falsehood. And part of the people, very much smaller, tries to arrive at the truth. And the greatest happiness of the few of Am Yisrael is to live a true life. And this is what brings them the greatest pleasure.

The rest of the Jewish population in the world are living lives of falsehood in varying degrees. Some more, some less. But, a great suffering will pass through until they arrive at the truth. And therefore, it is a fearful period, a difficult period. But, also gladdening. However, there will be a huge fear. And there will be war, like we have said over and over again. You don’t need to hear it only from us. It’s written in the prophecies. And now it’s even in the headlines of almost all the newspapers. Indeed, in the headlines of the newspapers, they’re speaking about war, and alongside it they’re talking about football and theater, but there will be war. And it will be the hardest war that there wasn’t like this in all of history. And just to think about the cruel weapon that there is in almost every single country, it’s enough to make one faint from fear. But, true Jews don’t need to fear. Hashem will save us, whether we want or don’t want. And as we’ve said here, there are a lot of Erev Rav among us. Even according to many sources – a majority of the Jews in this generation are Erev Rav.

I want to say to you, that because of this, we are not able to receive strength from any person, from any Jew. Because how can we know if it’s Erev Rav or not? There are indeed several signs, but we don’t always see the signs on a person. One sign is that they don’t have the mercy of a Jew to be merciful to another Jew. They really don’t have the feeling, the feeling you have when you see a Jew suffering. They don’t have tears or a heart to have mercy on another Jew. They are cold, cold to other Jews.

Another sign is that they cool us off from the religion. They want to extinguish our fire for Hashem. But, it’s not possible, it won’t be. All the true Jews with Jewish souls, even if today they are wandering on the streets licking ice cream on the street, they won’t stoop to cruelty, to the zealotry of the Erev Rav. They will return to the truth.
It’s very true that we will see the hardest things in the near future, abroad as well as in Israel. But, outside of Israel it will be terrible. And the word “terrible” is not enough to describe the situation that is pending. The Jews abroad will feel the antisemitism strongly, very strongly; antisemitism that has not yet been in this generation, only in Germany among the Nazis sixty or seventy years ago, or with Stalin. In recent years, we have not felt antisemitism like this and now it will be very strong.

The Erev Rav and the gentiles along with a few Jews among them are trying to rule over the world; trying to be, G-d forbid, more than HKB”H. It’s a group of crazies, a group of people who have lost their humanity. Because they are so cruel and evil. And they are also here in this country, but in just a little bit, the truth will arise and we will know who pertains to what.

What is most important is that Am Yisrael will return to the truth; will return to his source. That we will return to a pure and holy way of life as in time past. That we will repair the first sin of the first man. That we will repair all the sins since then. And the biggest sin, the first that because of it everyone fell, it’s to think that we can be like HKB”H. That if we could just eat the fruit of the tree, then we would be able to rule over the world completely. But, see, many have tried and failed. And even these Jews and gentiles who are trying to rule, even over a small part of the world or of the population, will fail big time.

In every single place, we see this sin – the sin that we want to rule; to rule over a thing that only HKB”H can, but we want to be “like HKB”H.” And the snake still stands and whispers in our ear: “You can! You can rule!” If it’s in science, they have various theories how to create life, G-d forbid, how to create various bacteria in order to kill people. If in medicine, how to create all kinds of treatments for disease, that only result in people’s suffering. And it’s questionable if it helps them, but a lot of money goes into the pocket of the doctors, of the manufacturers and technicians. And they want to rule over entire countries or to rule over them partially, to rule over whole areas. And in general, over the whole world they want to rule. And with the secular Jews, as well, they have the will to rule over all that the gentiles want.

Among the national religious Jews, they want to rule over the Arabs and over the State of Israel. Thus they want. And in the chareidi world, there are askanim who want to rule over all the money that comes into the tzedaka boxes of chesed organizations, yeshivas, etc. There are askanim who want it all, the materialism, the spirituality, over all of it they want to rule. They don’t want any other chasidut to rule, only their chasidut. And if not – then it’s permitted to take several iron bars and beat whoever disturbs them. And if that doesn’t help – then it’s possible to do various other tricks in order to do evil to the other.

And in general, they want to rule also over the street. To do pizzas, and ice creams, and hamburgers, etc. But, to be, in truth, “chareidim;” everything with a “hechsher.” And this impurity will bring to businesses a lot of money, and to rule over it – this really is a government of eigel hazahav.

And thus do the Jews rule. And if someone bothers them, then again, it’s permitted to hit, demonstrate, etc. And they want our women to look like street-women, who attract the eyes of all the men. And if, G-d forbid, someone will dress modestly, will want a life of holiness, then it’s permitted to throw things at her, to pull off her head-covering. That’s permitted. Because there are rabbis who want to rule over the street. And they say it’s permitted because it’s not the street like they want, it’s another street.

Part of our leadership are false leaders who don’t pertain to the Jewish people and they want to rule over all the communities. Because it’s a lot of money, much power, etc. The situation is sad in Am Yisrael. Because the chareidim who need to be holy-of-holies, they build, every group, large and small yeshivas, synagogues, study halls, huge, beautiful, impressive, and they build very large girls’ schools. But there is one more difficult problem: They haven’t invited HKB”H to enter there. However, they did invite the officials from “independent education,” or from the Ministry of Education, to see and to sign off, so they’ll give money. What does it matter if the “Liba” program comes in!? What does it matter if they will learn a little about Ben Gurion, y”sh, or about Herzl, y”sh, or about all the liars and evildoers in the history of this State. It can’t hurt… but, look, with this money, we can build more and more girls’ schools, and computers, and art classes, all kinds of things like the seculars which are like the gentiles. And we got the psychology. “Psychology”? This will save us??? Psychology? It’s certain that psychology is part of the snake itself! And all the courses, all the “libas,” they are really the snake itself. The wise ones of the evildoers bring us this in their cunning, that this is the way to break Am Yisrael. This is the way to take the chareidim and dismantle them into little pieces, so they’ll disappear from the world. They’ll disappear inside the eigel hazahav. They’ll disappear inside ice cream shops, drowning in ice cream – and all with a smile. This will be the end of Am Yisrael – if it continues this way, G-d forbid.

But, we have to repair this sin, the first sin of Adam and Chava. And just to want to be close to Hashem and not to want to be “in place of Hashem.” Not inside our homes, and not inside our classes, and not inside our social lives. We need only to want to come close to Hashem. Not to rule over any one. Only to come close to Hashem. And that’s it, the biggest tikun: to do the will of Hashem. And, in any case, if we do the will of Hashem, all our sins will disappear and we are arriving to the inheritance.

Therefore, Am Yisrael! HKB”H loves you very, very much. You went out of Egypt within love, went out of Egypt almost without food. Indeed with much gold, but with little food. And a majority of the Jews died in Egypt. You didn’t cry about it and didn’t get angry about it. You went out of Egypt in happiness and in faith and trust in Hashem and Hashem didn’t forget it. He didn’t forget His bride who went with Him into the desert, only within love, simply love.

But from this moment, the minute immediately after we went out – already the problem of the matter of the eigel hazahav started, and until today it’s really destroying us. Therefore, Am Yisrael, the tikun is to establish anew the connection with HKB”H. Not as a whole people, at this moment, but each one, every Jew, that will arrive to HKB”H, and you will perceive, so to speak, straight to HKB”H, the few who love HKB”H and want to be His servant; want to serve Him. This is the main thing. And then, with G-d’s help, we will go out from this exile to freedom, to the complete redemption. And we will receive our righteous Mashiach really in happiness. And we will continue thus to eternity.

NOTE: I have left out all the numerous sources because they are very difficult for me to translate. I don't always understand the abbreviations or have the sources at hand to correctly render the translation. If you are interested in looking them up, please consult the original here.

With G-d's help, the rest of the messages are coming.

"Tikun Ha-Brit"

2012-01-10T10:57:00.001+02:00

15 Tevet 5772

More preparation for Shovavim. A must-see video by Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi.

We have to stop being "religious"...

2012-01-09T17:55:00.000+02:00

15 Tevet 5772

...and start being HOLY! KADOSH! "To be set apart for a sacred purpose."

"Kedoshim tihiyu ki Ani Kadosh."

All that stuff I said before about hate? It's all true. But, it is a trait that will certainly be abused and misused if the person exhibiting it is not righteous and kadosh. Ah, you knew there was a catch somewhere, eh? It's no "catch" though. This should be the normal default setting for all our lives. Righteous and kadosh! Then we would hate appropriately as well as love appropriately.

How many unrighteous and unholy things pass because the person doing it claims to be "religious" or is acting in the name of (somebody's) religion. "Religious" is from the outside in and holiness is from the inside out. "Religious" stems from Olam Hazeh, the world of sheker. Righteousness and holiness is rooted in the upper worlds and permeates and surrounds pure Truth.

"And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

"For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth."

"For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you."

It's That Time Again - Shovavim

2012-01-08T16:25:00.000+02:00

13 Tevet 5772

It is certainly not a coincidence that in recent days there has been such a focus on modesty and what constitutes modest dress and behavior. From what I see, we are far, far, far away from the ideal as exemplified by our holy mothers - Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah. Fashions change, but Hashem does not. We are held to the same standard as our holy mothers. Now, during the "shovavim" period, is as good a time as any to begin to make improvements.

Shovavim: Self Improvement
11 01 2010

Based on a Naaleh.com shiur by Mrs. Shira Smiles

Shovavim is an acronym for the parshiyot that we read during the period between Chanukah and Purim. Rav Nachman Cohen writes that this period is an auspicious time to repent for Adam's sin with the Eitz Hadaat and his subsequent errant behavior, pegimat habrit, for which mankind suffers until today. Why do we specifically repent now for the sin of Adam?

This period falls after the winter solstice when the days begin to get longer. When Adam sinned, the days began to get shorter and he thought it was because of his sin. When the days began to get longer again, he realized he was not doomed and that his repentance had been accepted. Thus this period is an eit ratzon where one can connect to Hashem.

Working on curbing one’s physical desires and avoiding inappropriate pleasures seems male focused. What is the corollary for women? The Maharal says that the primary praise of a woman is her level of tzniut. Rav Pincus writes that because Adam and Chava did not conduct themselves modestly, the snake desired Chava and devised a plot to make her sin. Therefore, in a sense, the sin of Eitz Hadaat came about through immodesty.

What is modesty? It is a call to concentrate our energies on our inner personality, our spiritual nature, which is deep and hidden within us. We must become attuned to our souls instead of getting caught up in the outer trappings of the physical world. Shovavim is not only a time to work on tzniut but a time of introspection, a time to work on our relationship with Hashem. This entails watching our behavior with the awareness that we are in the presence of Hashem. It is irrelevant what other people think. Life is about walking alone with Hashem. Elevating mitzvot to a higher level by practicing modesty in deed – not talking about the mitzvot you’ve done, is an appropriate goal to work on during Shovavim.

These levels of modesty can be applied equally to men. How do we understand that the major accolade of a woman is her tzniut? Tzniut is to protect. The more valuable something is the more protection it needs. Our soul is our most precious possession. A woman’s job is to protect her soul and the souls of her family. A mother determines her child’s Jewishness. It is within the mother’s womb, rather than in the beit midrash, that the angel teaches the fetus Torah. Whatever the mother exposes herself to has a tremendous effect on her children.

Rav Wolfson explains that during Shovavim we re-experience the parshiyot of the weeks. We ourselves go through slavery and redemption. Ultimate redemption is when we succeed in bringing the secret of Hashem into our tent. Shovavim is feeling Hashem’s presence in our home. It is a time of introspection when we try to positively create harmony and the proper environment within our homes.

Adam named all the animals because he knew their essence. He named himself Adam since Hashem formed him from earth. The Alter of Slabodka explains that we are like the earth, in which there is a constant cycle of planting and harvesting. Human life involves constant effort and growth.

The Netivot Shalom writes that the 42 days of Shovavim are a microcosm of the 42 places the Jews encamped in when they left Egypt. The Baal Shem Tov notes that we go through 42 major experiences in our lives. Shovavim reminds us that life is about moving forward, not standing still. The Torah says about the Jewish nation in the desert, “Vayisahu vayachanu, They traveled and they encamped.” Life is not only about growing and changing but about making time to integrate what we’ve gained into our lives. We also need to recognize that the encampments of life may sometimes be difficult. Moving forward despite challenges and recognizing that Hashem is leading the way, is living life with true emuna the way Hashem meant it to be.

THEY'RE HEEEEEEERE!

2012-01-07T18:00:00.002+02:00

13 Tevet 5772

Since Asara b'Tevet, everything has changed. Did you feel it?

Thousands of US troops land in Israel. Aircraft carrier coming soon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 6, 2012, 6:41 PM

Thousands of US troops began descending on Israel this week. Senior US military sources told debkafile Friday, Jan. 6 that many would be staying up to the end of the year as part of the US-IDF deployment in readiness for a military engagement with Iran and its possible escalation into a regional conflict. They will be joined by a US aircraft carrier. The warplanes on its decks will fly missions with Israeli Air Force jets. The 9,000 US servicemen gathering in Israel in the coming weeks are mostly airmen, missile interceptor teams, marines, seamen, technicians and intelligence officers.

The incoming American soldiers are officially categorized as participants in Austere Challenge 12, the biggest joint US-Israeli war game ever held.

The maneuver was originally designated Juniper Stallion 2012. However, the altered name plus the comment heard from the exercise's commander, US Third Air Force Lt. Gen. Frank Gorenc, during his visit two weeks ago, that the coming event is more a "deployment" than an "exercise," confirmed that Washington has expanded its mission. ...

Was the Temple destroyed by baseless hatred or baseless love?

2012-01-06T15:43:00.002+02:00

11 Tevet 5772

Quick note about yesterday's post re: Thousands of US troops heading for Israel: It is no coincidence that this news flew around the globe on the very day that we commemorate the beginning of Babylon's invasion and destruction of Jerusalem. However, the Holy Zohar says that Israel "will not fall into the hands of Edom." Those days are over. If they even get this far, they will be arriving to their own doom, not ours.

Also, yesterday, I heard yet again the all too familiar story about Kamtza and bar Kamtza with the focus on baseless hatred. This rabbi said that "all hatred is baseless," so I thought it worthwhile to share this opposing viewpoint which is also Torah miSinai.

B"H

Revisiting Kamtza Bar Kamtza - why was the Temple really destroyed
by Yekutiel Guzofsky

If you ask the average Jew, “What was the cause of the destruction of the Second Temple?”, he’ll likely answer based on the popular interpretation of the story of Kamtza/Bar Kamtza in Tractate Gittin 55b, that the destruction was brought upon us due to internal strife – and, in particular, a host who offended Bar Kamtza when he expelled Bar Kamtza from his banquet. In an article written in the Bnei Haneviim Journal of Av 5757, Rav David Cohen shatters this myth and the misinterpretation of the Aggadic story brought down in the Talmud.

As the story unfolds, our anonymous host requested of his servant to invite his friend Kamtza to his party. The servant mistakenly invited Bar Kamtza instead of Kamtza. When the host realized that Bar Kamtza, his enemy, was sitting at the banquet, he ordered him to leave. Bar Kamtza pleaded to be given the opportunity to stay, offering to pay for his meal, and even for the entire banquet; but the Host remained steadfast and forcibly removed him. Bar Kamtza said: “since the Rabbis did not protest, this is proof that they agree with what happened. I will go and become an informant to the authorities.” (There are sources that indicate that Bar Kamtza was already a known informant, and that this is why the Rabbis did not come to his defense and also why he was not invited to the banquet, see Chatam Sofer on Gittin, Maharal in Netzach Yisrael Chapter 5).

Without going into the full story, Bar Kamtza conspired to incite the Romans against the Jews and bring about the destruction of the Second Temple. During the deliberations, the Rabbis considered the possibility of killing Bar Kamtza before he could complete his evil plot. Rabbi Zachariah was opposed to this measure and the Gemorrah concludes the story: because of Rabbi Zachariah, the Temple was destroyed, the Heichal was burnt, and we were exiled from our land.

Rav David Cohen explains that Bar Kamtza, the treasonous Jewish informant, indeed played a central role in the events that caused the Temple’s destruction, however the Talmud does not focus on him or the host who insulted him, as we have always been taught. We have always been led to believe that over the small mistake in the confusion of the names Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, and over the harsh insult to evil Bar-Kamtza, the Temple was Destroyed. We are urged to accept the erroneous moral of this story, that we must show compassion for evil people such as Bar Kamtza the informant, and we must never insult even an evil Jew. While there are sources for this interpretation, Rashi and the Meiri clearly place the blame on Rabbi Zacharia for hesitating to kill Bar-Kamtza, and Rashi’s view clearly fits well within the text.

The common interpretation of the story contradicts the actual conclusion brought both in the Babylonian Talmud and the Midrash, which transfers the blame from Bar Kamtza the informant and the host who embarrassed him to Rav Zachariah ben Ifkulas! “Rabbi Yosef says: the humility of Zacharia ben Ifkulas burnt the sanctuary.” Rashi explains: “Humility – that he tolerated this and did not kill [Bar Kamtza].” This is also the conclusion of Meiri: “You learn from here that it is permissible to kill one who incites the government against the people.”

Thus, the Temple was destroyed due to the fact that the Jews were hesitant to kill an evil informant. It was this lack of bloodshed that brought about the destruction. Quite different, indeed, from the false interpertation of the Gemorrah that we were raised upon.

It is more than ironic that the common interpretation of the Talmudic story stands diametrically opposed to the basic reading of the text, and the basic explanation given by Rashi and the Meiri. We are urged to display hospitality and break bread with the Evil, in spite of the fact that the Rishonim learned the exact opposite lesson from the story, and concluded that it was tolerance of the evil Bar Kamtza and hesitation to kill him that triggered the destruction of the Temple.

Shabbat shalom!

The Gathering Storm

2012-01-05T16:37:00.001+02:00

10 Tevet 5772

Saudis, Gulf states on war alert for early US-Iran clash

...debkafile's Washington sources report that Saudi Arabia has warned the Obama administration that Iranian leaders mean what they say; their leaders are bent on provoking a military clash with the United States at a time and place of their choosing, rather than leaving the initiative to Washington. To this end, Iranian officials are ratcheting up their belligerence day after day.

You should read that article in full. There is talk of the US responding to Iran's warning by sending the carrier and a few destroyers back through the Strait.

PAPER: 'Thousands of US soldiers will be deployed in Israel' this Spring...

BREAKING NEWS: The Pentagon to Send US Troops to Israel. Iran is the Unspoken Target

In one of the most blacked-out stories in America right now, the US military is preparing to send thousands of US troops, along with US Naval anti-missile ships and accompanying support personnel, to Israel.

...While American troops will be stationed in Israel for an unspecified amount of time, Israeli military personnel will be added to EUCOM in Germany. EUCOM stands for United States European Command.

Also, see Tamar Yonah's blog on this.

Hate has been given a bad name

2012-01-05T12:24:00.001+02:00

10 Tevet 5772

And undeservedly so. Hate is a tool. When used appropriately, it can liberate and enlighten the world. When used indiscriminately and selfishly, it brings mayhem.

Grown men accosting a little girl would fall into the latter category, just like media pundits who degrade and demean an entire population for the sins of a few.

Hashem says: "...Jacob I have loved; But Esau I have hated." (Malachi 1) Hate is an attribute of the Holy One just like love, mercy, kindness and justice.

Love and hate, like kindness and strength; mercy and justice, are a balance. Life cannot be sustained in an imbalanced world. Just like strength untempered by kindness creates an imbalance with great potential for cruelty, so does complete love without its opposite - hate. And our sages warned us about unreserved mercy - that whoever is merciful to the cruel will become cruel to the merciful.

Western thinking sees all as black or white, good or evil. It comes from their misunderstanding of the Creator's nature. But, Jews understand that G-d is One and all exists within His Oneness. It's not that love is "good" and hate is "bad." Hate has it's place and can be a source of very great good when wielded appropriately, just as "free" love and undeserved mercy can become a source of great evil if applied inappropriately.

Rather than remove it from our spiritual arsenal, it is the responsibility of the Torah teachers to instruct us on its appropriate application.

Think upon this. If there is too much pepper on the meat, the solution is not to add an equal amount of salt to offset it. That just makes it too spicy and too salty to eat. This meat no longer serves its purpose. No one can eat it. The prudent and reasonable thing to do is to remove the excess pepper.

Re-visiting Hanukah on the 10th of Tevet

2012-01-05T01:02:00.001+02:00

10 Tevet 5772

I don't know if any of you took the time to read the Hanukah story from Book 1 and 2 Maccabees, but I did, and not for the first time. There is a very important lesson there for us in this generation, especially when we find ourselves in a similar situation - a time when we seem to be on the verge of civil war - and we're getting the worst advice possible.

We are being admonished from every direction to maintain unity - unity at all cost! And I ask you, what unity does righteousness have with unrighteousness? What unity can there be between truth and lie? "Ahavat chinam" to counter sinat chinam is a nice little slogan, but it doesn't make for a cohesive society and it doesn't address the problem of "hatred" with a basis. King Solomon taught us that there is a time for hate and David HaMelech expressed his righteous hatred thoughout Tehillim:

(5:5) "...You hate all workers of iniquity."

(11:5) "His [Hashem's] soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence."

(26:5) "... I [David] hated the congregation of the evildoers,...."

(31:7) "I [David] hated those who await worthless vanities,...."

(45:8) "You loved righteousness and you hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, anointed you with oil of joy from among your peers."

(97:10) " You who love the Lord, hate evil; ...."

(119:104) "From Your precepts I shall gain understanding; therefore, I hate all ways of falsehood."

(119:113) " I hate those who harbor iniquitous thoughts, but Your Torah I love."

(139:21-22) "Did I not hate Your enemies, O Lord? With those who rise up against You, I quarrel. I hate them with utmost hatred; they have become my enemies."

We are not Xians who are bidden to "turn the other cheek." We are Jews - Almighty G-d's representatives in this world; a kingdom of priests. We are under His absolute authority and must at all times clearly and truthfully represent His will in His world. We are not authorized to bend or break or misrepresent His will or His commandments or the terms of the covenant that was made between Him and us.

If our fellow Jew is limping along the same path as we are, heading in the right direction - TOWARDS HKB"H, then we should be willing to help in any way possible and treat them gently and kindly. But if our fellow has turned AWAY from HKB"H and is in outright rebellion against Him, it is our duty to separate ourselves from him, letting him know that he will be welcomed back immediately if he will do teshuva and turn his life around, but if he persists, he must be ostracized and I will prove to you through the Hanukah story that this is the correct action, not an all-embracing free love which condemns nothing, and no one but the righteous.

It was the anti-religious Jews who started it all...

I Mac. 1:11-15 In those days certain renegades came out from Israel and misled many, saying, "Let us go and make a covenant with the goyim around us, for since we separated from them many disasters have come upon us." This proposal pleased them, and some of the people eagerly went to the king, who authorized them to observe the ordinances of the goyim. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Goy custom, and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the goyim and sold themselves to do evil.

And they were not going to stop until we had been completely consumed and assimilated into the prevailing goyisch culture...

41-53 Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that all should give up their particular customs. All the goyim accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath. And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the towns of Judea; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane Sabbaths and festivals, to defile the sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and other unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, so that they would forget the law and change all the ordinances. He added, "And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die." In such words he wrote to his whole kingdom. He appointed inspectors over all the people and commanded the towns of Judea to offer sacrifice, town by town. Many of the people, everyone who forsook the law, joined them, and they did evil in the land; they drove Israel into hiding in every place of refuge they had.

It wasn't enough for them that they had rid themselves of G-d's law. Those who claimed to want tolerance for their lawlessness refused to extend tolerance to their brothers. who only wanted to continue to keep the covenant and obey the Lord in peace ...

54- 64 Now on the fifteenth day of Kislev, in the one hundred forty-fifth year, they erected a desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding towns of Judea, and offered incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets. The Torah Scrolls that they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire. Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone who adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king. They kept using violence against Israel, against those who were found month after month in the towns. On the twenty-fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar that was on top of the altar of burnt offering. According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, and their families and those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants from their mothers' necks. But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die. Very great wrath came upon Israel.

The "religious" Jews of that time would not fight their "brothers." So, they fled from them and went into hiding. They did not go on a campaign to right the wrongs of their "brothers." They tried to separate themselves into small enclaves just hoping to be left alone. But see how well that turned out...

I Mac 2:27-38 Then Matityahu cried out in the town with a loud voice, saying: "Let every one who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me!" Then he and his sons fled to the hills and left all that they had in the town. At that time many who were seeking righteousness and justice went down to the wilderness to live there, they, their sons, their wives, and their cattle, because troubles pressed heavily upon them. And it was reported to the king's officers, and to the troops in Jerusalem the city of David, that those who had rejected the king's command had gone down to the hiding places in the wilderness. Many pursued them, and overtook them; they encamped opposite them and prepared for battle against them on the Sabbath day. They said to them, "Enough of this! Come out and do what the king commands, and you will live." But they said, "We will not come out, nor will we do what the king commands and so profane the Sabbath day." Then the enemy quickly attacked them. But they did not answer them or hurl a stone at them or block up their hiding places, for they said, "Let us all die in our innocence; heaven and earth testify for us that you are killing us unjustly." So they attacked them on the Sabbath, and they died, with their wives and children and cattle, to the number of a thousand persons.

Finally, thankfully, the leadership came to the corrrect conclusion. They had to start fighting back.

39-41 When Matityahu and his friends learned of it, they mourned for them deeply. And all said to their neighbors: "If we all do as our kindred have done and refuse to fight with the goyim for our lives and for our ordinances, they will quickly destroy us from the earth." So they made this decision that day: "Let us fight against anyone who comes to attack us on the Sabbath day; let us not all die as our kindred died in their hiding places."

Not only did they fight back against the Gentiles, but against their Jewish brethren as well. And not only for their own right to obey the Law of G-d, but they began to "coerce" the rebellious Jews as well...

44-48 They organized an army, and struck down sinners in their anger and lawless men in their wrath; the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety. And Mattathias and his friends went about and tore down the altars; they forcibly circumcised all the uncircumcised boys that they found within the borders of Israel. They hunted down the arrogant men, and the work prospered in their hands. They rescued the law out of the hands of the Gentiles and kings, and they never let the sinner gain the upper hand.

The war went on for many years. And many were the traitors in our midst ...

1 Mac. 7:21- 25 Alcimus strove for the high priesthood, and all who were troubling their people joined him. They gained control of the land of Judah and did great damage in Israel. And Judas saw all the evil that Alcimus and those with him had done among the sons of Israel; it was more than the Gentiles had done. So Judas went out into all the surrounding parts of Judea, and took vengeance on the men who had deserted, and he prevented those in the city from going out into the country. When Alcimus saw that Judas and those with him had grown strong, and realized that he could not withstand them, he returned to the king and brought wicked charges against them.

Only one of the five brothers survived to see an end to hostilities and this is is how it is described...

I Mac. 13: 41-48 In the one hundred and seventieth year the yoke of the Gentiles was removed from Israel, and the people began to write in their documents and contracts, "In the first year of Simon the great high priest and commander and leader of the Jews." In those days Simon encamped against Gazara and surrounded it with troops. He made a siege engine, brought it up to the city, and battered and captured one tower. The men in the siege engine leaped out into the city, and a great tumult arose in the city. The men in the city, with their wives and children, went up on the wall with their clothes rent, and they cried out with a loud voice, asking Simon to make peace with them; they said, "Do not treat us according to our wicked acts but according to your mercy." So Simon reached an agreement with them and stopped fighting against them. But he expelled them from the city and cleansed the houses in which the idols were, and then entered it with hymns and praise. He cast out of it all uncleanness, and settled in it men who observed the law.

I Mac. 14:4,11-14 The land had rest all the days of Simon. ...He established peace in the land, and Israel rejoiced with great joy. Each man sat under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid. No one was left in the land to fight them, amd the kings were crushed in those days. He strengthened all the humble of his people; he sought out the law, and did away with every lawless and wicked man.

It is the Torah which unifies us and our willingness to submit ourselves in obedience to its demands. Those who flaunt the law and have no fear of Heaven are not part of us. They have removed themselves from their people. It is those who claim to be Orthodox who must put aside trivial differences and come together as one under the banner of Torah truth. But again I say, there can be no "unity" with rebels and sinners who refer to chareidi Jews as leeches and parasites and worse!

This war is being fought again...today.

IDF to supervise rabbi-soldier meetings

Yeshiva heads outraged at General Staff's decision to have army representative present at any meeting between rabbis, their students to ensure conversations do not contradict IDF values

Not at my expense
by Jacob Kirsch

...The Jewish State has come to an important crossroads in our nation's history. Our actions today, wrong or right, will determine how our society advances in the coming decades and, hopefully, centuries. But every article of news and every opinion piece I have read seems to omit a most basic truth. A truth we might not want to admit, but a truth nonetheless. We, the secular Israelis, are financing every aspect of this new fight.

We pay for it directly, by financing haredim and their large families. We enable them, by making payments every month so that they can send their 12 children to yeshivas and not hold a job. We pay the yeshivas, which in turn refuse to teach even the most basic core curriculum tenets. We pay for the legal system, which is starting to handle the problem we face. We pay for a lawyer to defend these radicals in court. Then, if convicted for calling someone a whore, or assaulting a little girl with spittle, we pay for them to sit in a jail cell until their sentence is served.

An orgy of hatred
by Amnon Levy

In recent days I’ve been quarreling with all my friends. They are good people, these friends – liberal, tolerant, moderate and sensitive to any injustice. These are people that in our complex reality were never confused between good and bad. This is why I love them, among other things. I’d like to think that we are cut from the same cloth. That’s why I’m so amazed to see how uncaring and hateful they become when a group of people known as the haredim comes up for discussion.

My liberal friends propose various steps against the haredim and religious: A cadet who cannot bear female singing will not be an officer in the IDF, said one friend. As simple as that (“as simple as that” or “at once” are words that always accompany discussions about the haredim.) A segregated bus shall be stopped! The driver and bus operators should be sent to jail. A yeshiva that will not teach the core curriculum shall be closed at once! We shall not allow primitive ignoramuses to be raised here, and at our expense no less. A neighborhood that features separate sidewalks for women shall immediately lose its municipal services! They can go ahead and choke in their own garbage.

There are more proposals that are even more terrifying. Disconnect haredi neighborhoods from electricity, water and whatnot. The same people who would quiver, and rightfully so, if such proposals were made about Gaza, forget that behind the dark clothes, odd views and challenging (and annoying) behavior lie human beings. They are different than us, but they are human beings.

I’ve been following haredi society for many years yet I don’t remember such anger. And that’s odd, because the secular fury comes at a time when secularism is winning while the haredim are on the defense. Once upon a time the haredim sought to educate us. They made pretenses of telling us where and what to eat, what to do on Shabbat, where and how to be buried, and how to get married. Some time has passed, and the seculars won most battles.

Today it’s the seculars who wish to educate the haredim. The seculars are upset by the segregated bus routes. This doesn’t upset haredi women, but it does upset the secular Tania Rosenblit. The seculars are upset that math is not being taught at yeshivas. They know better than haredi parents what’s good for their sons. The seculars are upset by the relationship between men and women in haredi society. Why can’t the haredim be like us?

I look at the holy secular anger and fail to understand it. It lacks the modesty of one who looks at another society from the outside. It has no hesitation – maybe we are wrong after all? Perhaps we failed in understanding the other?

I, for example, very much want the haredim to study the core curriculum, I will try to convince them this is needed, but I won’t enforce it upon them. Why? Because somewhere in my head I’m not certain that the core curriculum is truly important for the life meant for a haredi child. Perhaps for him math and English are less necessary than another Talmud class? In all such matters I will hesitate, because in my view when a civilized liberal looks at someone who is different, this should be done with the required modesty.

However, the seculars are furious and are unwilling to show any modesty in the way they look at the haredim. Had I been a religious Jew, I would be concerned. I would take this fury seriously and understand how I contributed to it. I would try to calm the atmosphere through some concessions.

And here I get to the heart of the matter: We need a new social covenant. The old status-quo may have secured political calm, yet caused a flare-up in secular-haredi relations. Both sides must be brave and go for a new covenant premised on a simple principle: Life in the country will be secular in every way. The haredim will let go of their need to care for our secular souls. This means buses on Shabbat, civil marriage and everything associated with a modern state.

On the other hand, the secular majority would allow the haredim to have full cultural autonomy within their neighborhoods. This means letting go of the need to education them and allowing them to live their life as they see fit. And yes, this means segregated buses in haredi population centers and tolerance to haredi education.

That’s the principle. Implementing it isn’t simple because there would be red lines, of course. If the haredim want to educate their children by beating them up, we won’t agree to. However, within the boundaries of logic, we must make every effort to accept the differences of the other.

In my arguments with my liberal friends, one of them sometimes places a hand on my shoulder and asks in a concerned voice: “Amnon, what happened to you? After all, you are secular, a devout atheist; what’s happening to you?” So here is the answer: It appears to me that being a liberal, progressive and humanist today means resisting this blatant incitement against the haredim; standing up against the bon-ton and saying: I’m not taking part in this orgy of hatred.

Make no mistake. The L-rd will raise up our righteous Mashiach and the day will come when we will be forced to fight another war with the gilgulim of the same people we fought in the past. Most of them are Erev Rav. And no amount of wishing or hopeful thinking is going to change it. Might as well start getting your thinking straight now so it won't be such a shock to you later.

...the war against the Erev Rav is the most difficult and bitterest of all. We must strengthen ourselves for this war, and anyone who does not participate in the battle against the Erev Rav becomes, de facto, a partner with the k'lipah of the Erev Rav, and was better off not being born in the first place. (Kol HaTor, Chapter 2, Section 2, Letter 'bais')

"...even if we see in them (The Erev Rav) good things like Torah and tradition and good manners and in particular they make peace with everybody and peace is the foundation of everything,...we must reject all these people even when they have good aspects in their behavior because then will be time of clarification and selection and this will be the trial and choice in those days." (Divre Simcha by Rabbi Simcha Ysachar Ber Chalberstam, zt"l)

I have no words...

2012-01-03T16:30:00.003+02:00

8 Tevet 5772

Yeshayahu- Isaiah - Chapter 59

1. Behold, the hand of the Lord is not too short to save, neither is His ear too heavy to hear.

2. But your iniquities were separating between you and between your God, and your sins have caused [Him] to hide [His] face from you that He not hear.

3. For your hands were defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, your tongue mutters injustice.

4. No one calls sincerely, and no one is judged faithfully; trusting in vanity and speaking lies, conceiving injustice and begetting wickedness.

5. They hatched vipers' eggs, and they weave spider webs; whoever eats of their eggs shall die, and what hatches, emerges a viper.

6. Their webs shall not become a garment, neither shall they cover themselves with their deeds; their deeds are works of wickedness, and there is a deed of violence in their hands.

7. Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness; robbery and ruin are in their paths.

8. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made themselves crooked paths; whoever goes on it knows no peace.

9. Therefore, justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light and behold there is darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

10. We tap a wall like blind men, and like those who have no eyes we tap; we have stumbled at midday like in the darkness of night; [we are] in dark places like the dead.

11. We all growl like bears, and like doves we moan; we hope for justice but there is none, for salvation [but] it has distanced itself from us.

12. For our transgressions against You are many, and our sins have testified against us, for our transgressions are with us, and our iniquities-we know them.

13. Rebelling and denying the Lord, and drawing away from following our God, speaking oppression and perverseness, sprouting and giving forth from the heart words of falsehood.

14. And justice has turned away backward, and righteousness stands from afar, for truth has stumbled in the street, and straightforwardness cannot come.

15. And truth is lacking, and he who turns away from evil is considered mad, and the Lord saw and was displeased for there is no justice.

16. And He saw that there was no man, and He was astounded for there was no intercessor, and His arm saved for Him, and His righteousness, that supported Him.

17. And He donned righteousness like a coat of mail, and a helmet of salvation is upon His hand, and He donned garments of vengeance as His attire, and He was clad with zeal as a cloak.

18. According to their deeds, accordingly He shall repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He shall pay recompense.

19. And from the west they shall fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, His glory, for distress shall come like a river; the spirit of the Lord is wondrous in it.

20. And a redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those who repent of transgression in Jacob, says the Lord.

21. "As for Me, this is My covenant with them," says the Lord. "My spirit, which is upon you and My words that I have placed in your mouth, shall not move from your mouth or from the mouth of your seed and from the mouth of your seed's seed," said the Lord, "from now and to eternity."

2011 ending, on to 2012

2011-12-30T10:04:00.001+02:00

2011 - The Year the Earth Went Wild

It's just missing the last big disaster of the year...

Philippine typhoon toll 1,249

The death toll in the Philippines from one of the country's worst natural disaster in two decades has risen to 1,249 with about 1,100 missing....

Typhoon Washi sent torrents of water, mud and logs cascading through riverside and coastal villages on Mindanao island in mid-December, destroying more than 10,000 houses and displacing more than 300,000 people, who are mostly in emergency shelters.

VIDEO: Typhoon Washi (SENDONG) - 2011 World's Most Deadliest Typhoon

US, Iran playing a dangerous game

2011-12-29T21:05:00.002+02:00

4 Tevet 5772

Talk about "nations provoking one another"...

Tensions between the US and Iran have all but reached a breaking point with a naval standoff moments away from occurring in the Strait of Hormuz.

Nearly a month ago, on Dec. 1st, the US Senate approved new, "tougher" sanctions on Iran. Three and a half weeks ago, on December 4th, Iran captured a US drone and promptly advertised the fact on their national TV.

Two weeks ago a member of Iran’s parliament named Parviz Sarvari told the student news agency ISNA, “Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.” At the time, many news and media outlets thought the statement was just another open-ended threat from Iran, a country known to make bold threats and outrageous statements. Needless to say, this time they were telling the truth. On Christmas eve, Iran began its military exercises in the straight of Hormuz.

Then yesterday and the day before, the US warned Iran not even to think about closing the Straits of Hormuz and Iran responded that it would be as easy as "drinking a glass of water."

Today, the ante was upped yet again, as a US aircraft carrier 'wandered' into the area of the Iranian military drill, which is only half over at this point:

Iran Says It Recorded U.S. Carrier's Movements

Iran raises anti-US threat level. Israel's C-of-S warns of potential for regional war

US Navy warns Iran: Hormuz disruption 'will not be tolerated'

"Torah Jews vs. Modern Hellenists"

2011-12-29T18:23:00.000+02:00

4 Tevet 5772

I've received a few emails questioning what I was really trying to say in my last post, so I thought I'd attempt to clarify myself for those who would not take the time to write and ask. If one or two people are confused, it's a good bet that others are, too. You know how it is when you know what you mean, but you unwittingly give a false impression to others who can't read your mind.

For the record, I was not referring to the so-called Sikrikim who are reportedly terrorizing a girls' school in Beit Shemesh, when I said "This year, we have Torah Jews and Hellenized Jews facing off against each other." I was referring to the Chareidi (separate seating on buses, modesty issues) and National Religious (refusal to hear women singers, "price tag" attacks) public at large as the "Torah Jews" coming under attack by the media, the Knesset and all others who elevate the Democratic State above the Torah.

Here are a few examples:

The media incitement against the entire Chareidi (Ultra-Orthodox) community in Israel has not gone unnoticed. For the second day in a row, an innocent Chareidi citizen of Israel was attacked and beaten simply for being Chareidi.

Yesterday, a Chareidi man was attacked on Bus #4 in Jerusalem.

This evening a 13 year old boy was attacked in the center of the country as he was coming home from Yeshiva.

The Israeli media has painted a target on the back of an entire community because of the actions of a small and violent sect that terrorizes both their own community and their neighbors. And now there are those who are using this media (and MK) incitement as an excuse to act out against the Chareidim in a violent manner.

Where are the police in all this?

How is it that hundreds of police can be sent to destroy a Jewish owned chicken coop in the Shomron because that somehow threatens Israeli democracy, but not a percent of those police can be seen near a school in Beit Shemesh putting an end to these harassments of little girls months ago, when the Sikrikim first started?

And will a Chareidi person need to be killed before the media and politicians realize they've taken it too far? (Jewish Press)

Yechimovich: Stop Airing Racist Comments About Hareidim

Labor Party Chairwoman MK Shelly Yechimovich criticized the Israeli media on Wednesday over its ongoing incitement against the hareidi-religious Jews. Her comments came in the wake of the recent overhyped media reports about the gender segregation among hareidim.

...“During the reports about last night’s demonstration in Beit Shemesh, there was a clip of one protester saying ‘the hareidim breed like cockroaches,’ she said. “I worked for many years in the media and these kinds of sayings need to be removed during editing. They are not at all appropriate for airing.”

Israel doesn't really want to end gender segregation

Are we really interested in ending gender segregation in Haredi (ultra-Orthodox ) society, or any of the similar and even graver ills that exist in that society, as well as others? Not likely. From the strident tones of the past few days, one can safely assume that the goal of most of the critics, including the religious ones, is Haredi-bashing, pure and simple.

Most social ills happen because, as the Bible puts in, "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes." And it is not at all clear that the ultra-Orthodox community is taking greater advantage than others of the lack of reverence for sovereignty.

But the Haredim are subject to different laws than everyone else - except, perhaps, the settlers. How easy it is to unite against them, especially during Hanukkah, and sing with great feeling that old holiday favorite, "Banu Hoshech Legaresh," "We have come to banish darkness."

That's rich, huh? Like the Greeks before them, the Israelis think the "light" is with them and the "darkness" of ancient custom and ritual is with the Jews. It goes on...

...The main problem for which the ultra-Orthodox can be collectively blamed, and their rabbis held responsible, is the degeneration to which they have sentenced themselves, of which segregation is only one symptom.

Those who revere the warped values of Western Civilization and its vaunted "democracy," view the Torah world as backward and "unenlightened," just like the Greeks who thought that circumcision was a mutilation of nature's perfection.

Even the Haaretz op-ed brought in the Hanukah theme.

Strange, but true

2011-12-28T12:50:00.003+02:00

2 Tevet 5772
8th candle of Hanukah

Last year at Hanukah we had the Carmel fire and Greece coming to our assistance with fire-fighting equipment. This year, we have Torah Jews and Hellenized Jews facing off against each other. It has dominated all the headlines in these last days of Hanukah 5772. If the holidays really are 'bleeding' into current reality, then look for Persia (Iran) to figure prominently at Purim time.

The Master of War

2011-12-27T16:44:00.000+02:00

1 Tevet 5772
Rosh Chodesh Bet
7th candle of Hanukah

From the Song at the Sea: "Hashem is Master of War, through His name Hashem,..."

From the brachot before Shema: "For He alone effects mighty deeds, makes new things, is Master of wars,..."

From the Al Hanisim Prayer: "And for the wars that you did for our fathers in those days at this time."

At this season when we contemplate the wars between the Chashmonayim and the Syrian-Greeks and the Chashmonayim and the Hellenistic Jews, I'm pondering what it means to say that Hashem is the Master of Wars.

It occurs to me that we enter a war at our birth and it doesn't end until we die. We war with the yetzer hara, with our baser instincts and poor character traits. We war with those who desecrate G-d's name and who pervert the faith of our fathers. Or, rather, we should, but war has been given a bad name in today's society even while evil never ceases its war against righteousness.

We were born into a war and we can't abandon it even for a minute or we bare our unprotected souls to the enemy's onslaught. When Mashiach comes, he will finish the wars for all time. Until that day comes, Hashem is directing the wars of the world, as the Master of Wars. It is HE who decides who wins and who loses and all to bring about the final destiny of His people Israel.

The Story of Hannah and Her Seven Sons

2011-12-26T15:36:00.000+02:00

30 Kislev 5772
Rosh Chodesh Aleph
6th candle of Hanukah

The tragic and inspiring story of Hannah and her seven sons from the 2nd Book of Maccabees, chapter 7:

7:1 It came to pass also, that seven brethren, together with their mother, were apprehended, and compelled by the king to eat swine's flesh against the law, for which end they were tormented with whips and scourges.

7:2 But one of them, who was the eldest, said thus: "What wouldst thou ask, or learn of us? We are ready to die rather than to transgress the laws of God, received from our fathers."

7:3 Then the king being angry commanded frying pans, and brazen caldrons to be made hot: which forthwith being heated,

7:4 He commanded to cut out the tongue of him that had spoken first: and the skin of his head being drawn off, to chop off also the extremities of his hands and feet, the rest of his brethren, and his mother, looking on.

7:5 And when he was now maimed in all parts, he commanded him, being yet alive, to be brought and to be fried in the frying pan: and while he was suffering therein long torments, the rest, together with the mother, exhorted one another to die manfully,

7:6 Saying: "The Lord God will look upon the truth, and will take pleasure in us, as Moses declared in the profession of the canticle: 'And In his servants he will take pleasure.'"

7:7 So when the first was dead after this manner, they brought the next to make him a mocking stock: and when they had pulled off the skin of his head with the hair, they asked him if he would eat, before he were punished throughout the whole body in every limb.

7:8 But he answered in his own language, and said: "I will not do it." Wherefore he also in the next place, received the torments of the first:

7:9 And when he was at the last gasp, he said thus: "Thou indeed, O most wicked man, destroyest us out of this present life: but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life."

7:10 After him the third was made a mocking stock, and when he was required, he quickly put forth his tongue, and courageously stretched out his hands:

7:11 And said with confidence: "These I have from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them: because I hope to receive them again from him."

7:12 So that the king, and they that were with him, wondered at the young man's courage, because he esteemed the torments as nothing.

7:13 And after he was thus dead, they tormented the fourth in the like manner.

7:14 And when he was now ready to die, he spoke thus: "It is better, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up again by him: for, as to thee thou shalt have no resurrection unto life."

7:15 And when they had brought the fifth, they tormented him. But he looking upon the king,

7:16 Said: "Whereas thou hast power among men, though thou art corruptible, thou dost what thou wilt: but think not that our nation is forsaken by God."

7:17 "But stay patiently a while, and thou shalt see his great power, in what manner he will torment thee and thy seed."

7:18 After him they brought the sixth, and he being ready to die, spoke thus: "Be not deceived without cause: for we suffer these things for ourselves, having sinned against our God, and things worthy of admiration are done to us: "

7:19 "But do not think that thou will escape unpunished, for that thou attempted to fight against God."

7:20 Now the mother was to be sad above measure, and worthy to be remembered by good men, who beheld seven sons slain in the space of one day, and bore it with a good courage, for the hope that she had in God:

7:21 And she bravely exhorted every one of them in her own language, being filled with wisdom: and joining a man's heart to a woman's thought,

7:22 She said to them: "I know not how you were formed in my womb: for I neither gave you breath, nor soul, nor life, neither did I frame the limbs of every one of you."

7:23 "But the Creator of the world, that formed the nativity of man, and that found out the origin of all, he will restore to you again in his mercy, both breath and life, as now you despise yourselves for the sake of his laws."

7:24 Now Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and withal despising the voice of the upbraider, when the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with an oath, that he would make him a rich and a happy man, and, if he would turn from the laws of his fathers, would take him for a friend, and furnish him with things necessary.

7:25 But when the young man was not moved with these things, the king called the mother, and counselled her to deal with the young man to save his life.

7:26 And when he had exhorted her with many words, she promised that she would counsel her son.

7:27 So bending herself towards him, mocking the cruel tyrant, she said in her own language: "My son, have pity upon me, that bore thee nine months my womb, and gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age."

7:28 "I beseech thee, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them: and consider that God made thee out of nothing, and mankind also:"

7:29 "So thou shalt not fear this tormentor, but being made a worthy partner with thy brethren, receive death, that in that mercy I may receive thee again with thy brethren."

7:30 While she was yet speaking these words, the young man said: "For whom do you stay ? I will not obey the commandment of the king, but the commandment of the law, which was given us by Moses."

7:31 "But thou that hast been the author of all mischief against the Hebrews, shalt not escape the hand of God."

7:32 "For we suffer thus for our sins."

7:33 "And though the Lord our God is angry with us a little while for our chastisement and correction: yet he will be reconciled again to his servants."

7:34 "But thou, O wicked and of all men most villainous, be not lifted up without cause with vain hopes, whilst thou art raging against his servants."

7:35 "For thou hast not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty God, who beholdeth all things."

7:36 "For my brethren, having now undergone a short pain, are under the covenant of eternal life: but thou by the judgment of God shalt receive just punishment for thy pride."

7:37 "But I, like my brethren, offer up my life and my body for the laws of our fathers: calling upon God to be speedily merciful to our nation, and that thou by torments and stripes mayst confess that he alone is God."

7:38 "But in me and in my brethren the wrath of the Almighty, which hath justly been brought upon all our nation, shall cease."

7:39 Then the king being incensed with anger, raged against him more cruelly than all the rest, taking it grievously that he was mocked.

7:40 So this man also died undefiled, wholly trusting in the Lord.

7:41 And last of all after the sons the mother also was consumed.

7:42 But now there is enough said of the sacrifices, and of the excessive cruelties.

The Hanukah Story

2011-12-20T23:13:00.002+02:00

25 Kislev 5772
1st candle of Hanukah

Read the Story of Hanukah - 1 Maccabees

Judaism and EY being sold out by the Erev Rav

2011-12-20T21:30:00.000+02:00

25 Kislev 5772
1st candle of Hanukah

The "Other Side" of Torah

A regular stream of Israeli and Diaspora rabbis, political, and community leaders are now gracing evangelical and messianic churches and television networks. They diligently sow the seeds of Christian love for the Holy Land and get to reap the benefits from inspired congregants via "offering baskets” and on-air solicitation.

But as various messianic Christian Hebraic Roots sects endeavor to implant themselves as an integral part of normative Judaism, Jewish leadership continues to be both mesmerized by the overtures and oblivious to the damage being done to the Torah, the land of Israel and its people.

...In September 2011, Lea Goldsmith, wife of the head of Itamar's local council Rabbi Moshe Goldsmith, literally sang to the messianic Christian congregants "We're home in this place" and went on to say, "If I can call anyplace outside of Israel home, it's El Shaddai…my best friends."

...At the very same time the collection basket is being passed around, and prayers for healthy donations are offered in the name of Jesus, congregants are asking some pretty loaded questions about the possibility of living in Israel. But without flinching, Jewish rabbis and activists like Jeremy Gimpel and Rabbi Goldsmithare not just inviting devout Christians to visit Israel, they are asking them to come and live in Israel. Gimpel includes these people among the "remnant" of Israel.

...Last week, David HaIvri appeared with Tommy Waller on GLC's Light of the Southwest. On the Christian program, which is dedicated to spreading the gospel of jesus, David HaIvri sits comfortably as Tommy Waller quotes from the new testament and calls on thousands of believers in jesus to make their presence felt in the hills of Samaria. The co-host of the show makes it clear that although Tommy can't verbally express his jesus agenda in Israel, the job is getting done through his actions.

Report by Jewish Israel. Read the whole excellent, if nauseating, thing here.

You just never know what a day will bring

2011-12-19T21:47:00.000+02:00

24 Kislev 5772

"In recent months, world powers were deeply immersed in the war threats hanging over the Middle East, Syrian bloodshed and Iran's nuclear weapons momentum. Monday, they woke up to a completely unforeseen scenario, an unstable Far East state armed with a nuclear bomb which could take the region in any of five directions:...."

North Korea's coming power struggle and the Mid-East nuclear race

Also, it seems the Turkish Prime Minister has been stricken with cancer at a very inopportune time. Hashem really is shaking the world!

Rescue plan for ex-pat Brits

2011-12-19T20:54:00.000+02:00

24 Kislev 5772

Evacuation plan for Brits in Spain amid warning euro collapse could leave them stranded

EMERGENCY evacuation plans for Brits living in Spain and Portugal are being drawn up amid fears of the euro collapsing.

The drastic proposals emerged as a former Security Minister warned expats could be left stranded and destitute by the break-up of the single currency.

...Brits who invested their savings in their adopted countries may not be able to withdraw cash and could even lose their homes if banks call in loans, worried ministers are warning.

The Foreign Office is preparing to bring them back from Spain and Portugal if the two countries are forced out of the euro, triggering a banking collapse

...The Tory peer – who once chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee for MI5, MI6 and other security agencies – said: “Spain is clearly a vulnerable area. If that happens, one of the things that will happen in a crash of that kind, is that the banks would close their doors. You would find that there are people there, including our own citizens, a lot of them, who couldn’t get money out to live on. So you would have a destitution problem.”

...Officials are braced for a nightmare scenario where thousands end up penniless and sleeping at airports with no means of getting home. Planes, ships and coaches could be sent, with some expats being brought out through Gibraltar.

The Foreign Office could offer small loans while piling pressure on the banks to give Brits access to their funds.

"Why are the Righteous Being Taken Away?"

2011-12-19T18:42:00.001+02:00

24 Kislev 5772

Why are the Righteous Being Taken Away?
Yitzchak Izik
12 Cheshvan 5772

Isaiah 57:1 - " The righteous man has perished, but no one takes it to heart, and men of kindness are taken away, with no one understanding that because of the evil the righteous man has been taken away."

A great Tzadik departed from this world on the yahrtzeit of Rachel Imeinu, a"h. [Jeremiah 31 - "Rachel weeping for her children...."] This Jew has made a huge self-sacrifice for the sake of the Torah. And he's only one of the many tzadikim who, in the last months, have disappeared from the world. Sometimes more than two per day; tzadikim, who, some of them are well-known like HaRav HaGaon Rav Natan Tzvi Finkle, ztz"l, and apart from this, very many lesser-known tzadikim in Olam Hazeh, but very distinguished in Heaven. This is the most fearful situation, because what will we do without tzadikim!? And the Tzadikim who are called gedolei hador - the great of the generation - the majority are much older Jews, and we tremble over their health daily. The question is asked: Why!? Why, at this moment in history, are we standing and observing daily how the magnificence of Am Yisrael is simply disappearing. [reference] What is the reason? Very simple. We are really right before the complete redemption, with G-d's help. And Am Yisrael is in a very difficult situation. If we give Am Yisrael too much musar, then Am Yisrael won't want to listen, usually.

[Tehillim 50:17 - "For you hated discipline and threw My words behind you."] And more than this, Am Yisrael is angry at those who tell them the truth, and run away instead of drawing close. Therefore, HKB"H is bringing down upon the Jews hard blows. In the last years, the blows upon Am Yisrael are big and hurt very much. Many Jews who died in a sudden manner, or in traffic accidents, lo aleynu, or in various other ways, lo aleynu, or from many difficult illnesses, lo aleynu. And we bury them and continue onward. We forget and go on, but we do not return in teshuva especially. [Isaiah 42: 25 - "And He poured out upon them the fury of His anger and the strength of battle, and it blazed upon them all around and they did not know, and it burned among them and they did not take heed."]

There are indeed some Jews who have returned in teshuva for real, but the majority continue to move away, and I'm speaking about the chareidim. They continue to move away, continue to drown within the Olam Hazeh and Eigel Hazahav. Indeed, they continue to stick hechshers on it, but it's treif, and it brings only to the end of life, so that a person will lose eternity, chas v'shalom.

But, HKB"H sees that it's not helping - so, He sends the tzadikim from us. Because without the tzadikim, we have no feeling of security at all. And the moment that they disappear from the area - then, everything is the most frightening. It's correct that in Heaven, they will pray for Am Yisrael, and it will help, but every single Jew is obligated alone to make a connection with HKB"H. And this is what will help us. And there won't be for us tzadikim to help, because they almost don't exist here. A little longer and we will really be orphans, Hashem have mercy, and like it is written, that at the end - before Mashiach - it will be a generation of orphans, orphans from rabbis, from tzadikim who direct us and give merit to the generation.

What can I say? Almost twenty years we're speaking, and there are people who are beginning to understand, but they're not the majority. They're continuing to fight Jew-against-Jew about nonsense; Jews doing against other Jews all kinds of evil acts, only from zealotry and hatred and all kinds of negative emotions. 'Machloket' - it's a name for a contest. And the situation is going to get worse. There is violence in the chareidi street and the situation is that whoever wants to raise children to Torah and mitzvot and good works, there is really almost no chance for a child to arrive at true yiddishkeit. Therefore, there must now be an end to the exile. There must be an end to the exile now! This moment! Because there is almost no hope for the future. We feel that the Shechinah is already no longer present all over the world. Many Jews are suffering in the worst way, but we're not waking up. We continue to be happy with ourselves, learning, keeping Shabbat - good Jews, but without heart. For the majority, they are without heart. Also, the yeshivas, also the Beit Yaakovs. Learning and learning, where is HKB"H on the horizon!? Where is HKB"H!? Not in the heart. Not in the heart of the majority of Jews.

Am Yisrael, what I'm saying is not new. Just one thing I want to say: Very dark clouds are on the horizon. [Zephaniah 1: 15 - "That day is a day of wrath; a day of trouble and distress; a day of ruin and desolation; a day of darkness and gloom; a day of clouds and thick darkness;..."] The dark clouds, it's war. The third world war. And this war will be the hardest. Hundreds of thousands and maybe millions will be killed. Two-thirds of the world will be destroyed. [Ezekiel 7:5,6,7 - "So said the Lord God: An evil, a singular evil, behold, it comes. An end has come; the end has come, it has awakened against you; behold, it comes. The dawn has set against you, O dweller of the land; the time has come; the day is near, confusion and not the shout of the mountains."] And Eretz Yisrael will not be destroyed, but the Jews, also in Eretz Yisrael, those who do not return in teshuva, those who continue their loitering in Olam Hazeh, they will not survive. That's not to say that there won't be anything in Eretz Yisrael, there will, but Eretz Yisrael will not be completely destroyed. I can only bless all Am Yisrael that we will return in complete teshuva and that our end will be the complete redemption, and that we will merit to this, because it will be the joy of all joys of the Olam Hazeh. But, I'm very worried that until we arrive to this, the world will be a ruined place. Really destroyed. Hashem will completely destroy all the evil, all the falsehood, and will bring us to the World-of-Truth. Without the yetzer hara. But - only with the truth.

Choose, Am Yisrael, choose. There's not much time. This war is standing before us. It's possible already to see it from afar, that it's advancing quickly toward us. A weapon - we shouldn't know of such - is in all the lands. Evil and falsehood are administering the world. There is no logic at all. The Satan leads them. The yetzer hara, the snake, rules over them. But at the end of the thing, in huge miracles, Hashem will erase them from existence. And to wait, even one minute, it's the most dangerous thing. We're obligated at this moment to change direction to the direction-of-truth, and to take out all the falsehood that you have in your lives.

"Down with Chanukah"

2011-12-18T15:54:00.000+02:00

22 Kislev 5772

DOWN WITH CHANUKAH
by Rabbi Meir Kahane
December 15, 1972

If I were a Reform rabbi; if I were a leader of the Establishment whose money and prestige have succeeded in capturing for him the leadership and voice of American Jewry; if I were one of the members of the Israeli Government’s ruling group; if I were an enlightened sophisticated, modern Jewish intellectual, I would climb the barricades and join in battle against the most dangerous of all Jewish holidays – Chanukah.

It is a measure of the total ignorance of the world Jewish community that there is no holiday that is more universally celebrated than the “Feast of Lights”, and it is an equal measure of the intellectual dishonesty and of Jewish leadership that it plays along with the lie. For if ever there was a holiday that stands for everything that the mass of world Jewry and their leadership has rejected – it is this one. If one would find an event that is truly rooted in everything that Jews of our times and their leaders have rejected and, indeed, attacked – it is this one. If there is any holiday that is more “unJewish” in the sense of our modern beliefs and practices – I do not know of it.

The Chanukah that has erupted unto the world Jewish scene in all its childishness, asininity, shallowness, ignorance and fraud – is not the Chanukah of reality. The Chanukah that came into vogue because of Jewish parents – in their vapidness – needed something to counteract Christmas; that exploded in a show of “we-can-have-lights-just-as-our-goyish-neighbors” and in an effort to reward our spoiled children with eight gifts instead of the poor Christian one; the Chanukah that the Temple, under its captive rabbi, turned into a school pageant so that the beaming parents might think that the Religious School is really successful instead of the tragic joke and waste that it really is; the Chanukah that speaks of Jewish Patrick Henrys giving-me-liberty-or death and the pictures of Maccabees as great liberal saviors who fought so that the kibbutzim might continue to be free to preach their Marx and eat their ham, that the split-level dwellers of suburbia might be allowed to violate their Sabbath in perfect freedom and the Reform and Conservative Temples continue the fight for civil rights for Blacks, Puerto Ricans and Jane Fonda, is not remotely connected with reality.

This is NOT the Chanukah of our ancestors, of the generations of Jews of Eastern Europe and Yemen and Morocco and the crusades and Spain and Babylon. It is surely not the Chanukah for which the Maccabees themselves died. Truly, could those whom we honor so munificently, return and see what Chanukah has become, they might very well begin a second Maccabean revolt. For the life that we Jews lead today was the very cause, the REAL reason for the revolt of the Jews “in those days in our times.”

What happened in that era more than 2000 years ago? What led a handful of Jews to rise up in violence against the enemy? And precisely who WAS the enemy? What were they fighting FOR and who were they fighting AGAINST?

For years, the people of Judea had been the vassals of Greece. True independence as a state had been unknown for all those decades and, yet, the Jews did not rise up in revolt. It was only when the Greek policy shifted from mere political control to one that attempted to suppress the Jewish religion that the revolt erupted in all its bloodiness. It was not mere liberty that led to the Maccabean uprising that we so passionately applaud. What we are really cheering is a brave group of Jews who fought and plunged Judea into a bloodbath for the right to observe the Sabbath, to follow the laws of kashruth, to obey the laws of the Torah. IN A WORD EVERYTHING ABOUT CHANUKAH THAT WE COMMEMORATE AND TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO COMMEMORATE ARE THINGS WE CONSIDER TO BE OUTMODED, MEDIEVAL AND CHILDISH!

At best, then, those who fought and died for Chanukah were naïve and obscurantist. Had we lived in those days we would certainly not have done what they did for everyone knows that the laws of the Torah are not really Divine but only the products of evolution and men (do not the Reform, Reconstructionist and large parts of the Conservative movements write this daily?) Surely we would not have fought for that which we violate every day of our lives! No, at best Chanukah emerges as a needless holiday if not a foolish one. Poor Hannah and her seven children; poor Mattathias and Judah; poor well meaning chaps all but hopelessly backward and utterly unnecessary sacrifices.

But there is more. Not only is Chanukah really a foolish and unnecessary holiday, it is also one that is dangerously fanatical and illiberal. The first act of rebellion, the first enemy who fell at the hands of the brave Jewish heroes whom our delightful children portray so cleverly in their Sunday and religious school pageants, was NOT a Greek. He was a Jew.

When the enemy sent its troops into the town of Modin to set up an idol and demand its worship, it was a Jew who decided to exercise his freedom of pagan worship and who approached the altar to worship Zeus (after all, what business was it of anyone what this fellow worshipped?) And it was this Jew, this apostate, this religious traitor who was struck down by the brave, glorious, courageous (are these not the words all our Sunday schools use to describe him?) Mattathias, as he shouted: “Whoever is for G-d, follow me!”

What have we here? What kind of religious intolerance and bigotry? What kind of a man is this for the anti-religious of Hashomer Hatzair, the graceful temples of suburbia, the sophisticated intellectuals, the liberal open-minded Jews and all the drones who have wearied us unto death with the concept of Judaism as a humanistic, open-minded, undogmatic, liberal, universalistic (if not Marxist) religion, to honor? What kind of nationalism is this for David-Ben-Gurion (he who rejects the Galut and speaks of the proud, free Jew of ancient Judea and Israel)?
And to crush us even more (we who know that Judaism is a faith of peace which deplores violence), what kind of Jews were these who reacted to oppression with FORCE? Surely we who so properly have deplored Jewish violence as fascistic, immoral and (above all!) UN-JEWISH, stand in horror as we contemplate Jews who declined to picket the Syrian Greeks to death and who rejected quiet diplomacy for the sword, spear and arrow (had there been bombs in those days, who can tell what they might have done?) and “descended to the level of evil,” thus rejecting the ethical and moral concepts of Judaism.

Is this the kind of a holiday we wish to propagate? Are these the kinds of men we want our moral and humanistic children to honor? Is this the kind of Judaism that we wish to observe and pass on to our children?

Where shall we find the man of courage the one voice, in the wilderness to cry out against Chanukah and the Judaism that it represents-the Judaism of our grandparents and ancestors? Where shall we find the man of honesty and integrity to attack the Judaism of Medievalism and outdated foolishness; the Judaism of bigotry that strikes down Jews who refuse to observe the law; the Judaism of violence that calls for Jewish force and might against the enemy? When shall we find the courage to proudly eat our Chinese food and violate our Sabbaths and reject all the separateness, nationalism and religious maximalism that Chanukah so ignobly represents? …Down with Chanukah! It is a regressive holiday that merely symbolizes the Judaism that always was; the Judaism that was handed down to us from Sinai; the Judaism that made our ancestors ready to give their lives for the L-rd; the Judaism that young people instinctively know is true and great and real. Such Judaism is dangerous for us and our leaders. We must do all in our power to bury it.

"Get the Settlers"

2011-12-17T18:39:00.002+02:00

22 Kislev 5772

(H/T Manhigut Yehudit)

Get the Settlers
by Moshe Feiglin

20 Kislev, 5772 (Dec. 16, '11)

(Translated from the Makor Rishon newspaper )

Editor's note: This article was written after a government attempt to destroy the Ramat Gilad neighborhood and the violence that ensued. It is wrong to throw rocks at IDF soldiers. We must do all that we can to uproot this phenomenon. But the mad witch hunt that has raged this week has nothing to do with concern for and loyalty to the IDF.

Every Friday for years, leftist demonstrators would gather near the Arab village of Bil'ain. They would routinely throw rocks at the soldiers there. One Border Policeman lost his eye as a result. Other soldiers were seriously injured. But it did not interest the media. Nobody stuck a microphone into the face of Amos Oz or any other leftist High Priest to ask how those weeds had grown up in their garden. The wife of the Border Policeman who lost his eye didn't get any air time, the general did not pontificate about hatred the likes of which he had never seen, the Chief of Staff did not give interviews, Fuad did not call upon the IDF to shoot Jewish protesters, nobody declared that the anarchists are a terror organization and the Prime Minister did not convene an emergency Knesset committee meeting. None of that at all.

Why not? Because the protesters in Bil'ain come from the same social and ideological milieu as the media. Why create a scandal against themselves? Why make people feel disgust for your own ideology?

In other words, the mad witch hunt raging now in Israel has nothing to do with honesty. The hands holding the microphones are truly not clean, and those who have rushed to condemn the rock throwing at IDF soldiers played into the media's hands and fanned the flames. We are experiencing untamed political incitement under the guise of patriotism. I am willing to bet that the settlers have a much higher percentage of sons in the army than Israel's broadcasters and they surely are as concerned for their welfare as are the talking heads.

It would be easy to stop the "price tag operations" if we would really want to face the truth: The youth of Judea, Samaria and Gaza have grown up into a reality in which the state and the army persecute them and destroy their homes. In other words, the state and the army have effectively turned themselves into the enemy. These youths have grown up into a reality in which they have no human rights; a reality in which Peace Now, the State's Attorney and the High Court urge the IDF and the police to attack them; a reality in which the media insult and abuse them and the rabbis condemn them; a reality that pushes them far into a corner where they can try to defend themselves. This is the reality of our 14 year olds. What is Israeli society so surprised about?

We must keep in mind that the rock attack on the soldiers took place on the backdrop of the bulldozers on their way to destroy Ramat Gilad, a neighborhood built on private Jewish property, authorized by former PM Sharon as part of a master plan to build 185 housing units there. The agricultural lands in the neighborhood have been worked for 29 years. No Arab has ever challenged Jewish ownership of the lands. According to the Ottoman law, which still applies today in Judea and Samaria, everything about the neighborhood is strictly kosher. Nevertheless, new bylaws have been put into place, relevant only to Jews to make the neighborhood "illegal". Barak wasted no time and sent in the bulldozers.

It is a crime to throw rocks at soldiers. But it is even worse to destroy Jewish homes in the Land of Israel, to drive families out of their homes and to decimate synagogues. A small time criminal works against the law. But a big-time criminal works within the law. Usually, he wears a uniform. The government can quickly enact the legislation necessary to legalize the outposts and to restore the political commissars of the "justice system" to their natural size. If no major crimes will be perpetrated in the name of the law, there won't be any small crimes either, and peace and truth will reign once more.

Hysterical Erev Rav - The End Must Be Near

2011-12-16T13:30:00.001+02:00

20 Kislev 5772

You know the words of chazal that say the yetzer hara will go crazy and fight all out to survive right at the end when he knows his time is almost up? OMG! The Erev Rav regime (anyone in any position of political authority in Israel) has really gone crazy over the past few days.

They already can't stand that there is a Jew anywhere in the land who refuses to bend to their will - whether it be by monetary incentive or threat of jail or persecution - but, someone dared to touch their sacred cow (IDF) which is anyway at least half gentile. Now, the insane rhetoric has gone through the roof. Someone even went so far as to call for 'shoot to kill' orders - something they won't even do for Arab murderers!!

I wonder if it is any coincidence that right when the US President has his way in the passage of a law which essentially abolishes American constitutional civil rights, we now have calls from the Israeli government to treat the residents of Judea and Samaria as "terrorists."

In any case, it's just another sign that on the soul level, they know their time is very, very short. Like the yetzer hara, the Erev Rav will try to inflict as much damage as possible in the closing moments of their rule.

Shabbat shalom~

"Before the Explosion"

2011-12-16T09:58:00.001+02:00

20 Kislev 5772

Before the Explosion
Binyamin Golden
3 Kislev 5772

Woe to Am Yisrael! There are no zealots. There are almost no zealots already. And how is it possible to continue the generations without zealots for Hashem!? There are almost no Jewish radicals - extremists - in closeness to Hashem and in service of Hashem. There are almost none. Only a few are ready to sacrifice themselves for the truth. And this is very scary, because the chareidi street is breached, and dangerous, and hostile to everything that pertains to the truth. There are groups of hooligans, of thugs, who control most of the knowledge of the community and they work on behalf of so-called ‘tzadikim,’ big politicos who supposedly want the good of Am Yisrael. This situation is not new in the history of the Jews. There were thugs who because of them the Temple was destroyed in the end. And today, it’s also this way. Only that we don’t have a Temple. But the great communities of Jews, ‘so-called mitzvah observant’ – these thugs with their leadership are destroyers. And in the near future, the situation will worsen very much. The hooligans will control more together with their managers, and a person who really wants truth and wants to come closer to Hashem, he will be like ‘the weird one,’ and ‘the not pertaining to Yiddishkeit.’ [Isaiah 59:15 – “…he who turns away from evil is considered mad.”] But Hashem will take care of all these, who are in deed, souls of the Erev Rav.

In the nearest future, World War 3 will officially begin. And in the nearer future, there will be a fall in the world of materialism, unlike anything that ever was in history and this, together with the hardest world war that was not once because of the advanced and dangerous and lethal weapon of today, both these factors - will destroy and demolish very much of the world, including the Jewish communities and there will remain a relatively small amount of Jews to receive our righteous Mashiach.

But, we, the Jews who really want truth, we know that this was foretold in many prophecies. And very many great and righteous ones from previous generations wrote clearly, that in this generation – the majority of the Jews would be from the Erev Rav. But this will destroy most of the communities, because if the situation continues thus, that the hooligans rule – then the next generation will be less similar to true Jews, and the generation after this, already won’t be Jews at all. Therefore, the whole world is now going through a birur – a clarification. And the Jews who want to be true Jews, whose souls were at Har Sinai – they will be saved. The rest will disappear [Even Shleimah for the GR”A, 11] .

Do not fear! Jews pursue truth, don’t fear! Hashem is with you! And with G-d’s help, those who are ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the truth, for the sake of the next generation, who will be “erliche yidden,” Jews like those who will pass through the vast difficulty which stands before us in the near future. And whoever is more assured in HKB”H, whoever is ready to live on Kiddush Hashem, it doesn’t matter what the friends around us say, whoever really loves HKB”H, he will survive, with G-d’s help, and will get through this relatively easily.

Yes, the Zionists will fall. And whoever goes against HKB”H will fall – and especially the Zionists. And with great sorrow, there are many Jews who are not Zionists or at least, not officially Zionists, who will fall. In every Jewish community, if it’s secular, reform, religious or chareidi, currently – whoever leads the communities, usually, they lead it like goyim, and not in the way of truth. And this is also written in the prophecies and words of the chachamim, great tzadikim from previous generations. Yes, the majority are not true. They don’t lead the communities in truth. There is thievery, there are deals between the chareidim and the seculars, and everything on the back of the simple Jew. Exactly like they are leading the state, thus they manage the communities, and in all the world, it’s like this.

They’ve forgotten what it is to be a true Jew, how a real Jew appears. So connected to the golden calf. To travel, to fly several times a year, surely for the sake of mitzvot, for all kinds of reasons, but they also travel to make Pesach in Switzerland, and perhaps to do a bit of skiing and they say, “And what’s wrong with skiing!? Really! I asked my posek and he said that skiing – this exercise is good and without any problem halachicly. Why not!?”

And these poskim. Yes, the adjudicators of Jewish law. All the administration of all the communities, the administration of the State – the State of Israel, the administration of the United States, of Russia, of all the European lands, of the UN, etc, - it’s all the same thing: on the basis of money and power, but not on the basis of Yiddishkeit. Here and there, there are a few Jews, courageous, who with all their strength, with all their resources, are not ready to abandon the true connection with HKB”H. And today, they besmirch them and laugh at them. But, in the near future, they will be, how do they say on the street? On top of the world!

I really want to talk about the tzadikim who have gone away from This World. The Jews continue to celebrate. They cry in the first minute, and are sorry that this tzadik or another is niftar. They’re a bit in shock, when in one day four tzadikim disappeared from the world. But, many of them simply decide: “Nu, They fell for our sakes. They went “al kiddush Hashem,” in order that we the Jews will not suffer. They take from us the difficult tikun, and now we can continue our regular lives in happiness.” To my sorrow, this is the approach of a majority of people, a majority of the Jews. [Jeremiah 2:29 – “Why should you strive with Me? All of you have rebelled against Me, says the Lord.“] Because the majority don’t feel like orphans. And it’s like there are orphans whose father has died, lo aleynu, and also their mother has died, lo aleynu, but they have many uncles and aunts who take them to the amusement park and buy them presents, and give them everything they want and they simply enjoy life. And about their mother and their father – they don’t think at all. [Orphans are we and we have no father. Lamentations 5:3]

This is how we are. We try to derive pleasure from the material world. It’s not everybody, but it’s the majority. And when we hear that the tzadikim, that they are the messengers to be our shepherds in This World, that they’re disappearing, we also don’t pay so much attention aside from the same day. Because we have other entertainments and everything with a “hechsher” and even the hechsherim are the best. It’s impossible to be sad. It’s forbidden to be sad. It will lead to depression! We want happiness, we want to celebrate, and want to continue the party. But whether they want to or not – the party will finish in the near future and instead of a party, they will eat dust. And instead of all the materialism that was theirs, and instead of all the luxury and all their toys – they will have fire. And they will suffer very much and disappear. And if there is among them a true Jewish neshama – Hashem will bring him to the truth. In the end, he will receive the truth, and He will save him. But, after much suffering.

So, Am Yisrael, if you don’t want to suffer, it’s worthwhile to throw away all the ice cream and chocolates, in order that at the end, you won’t have to eat dust. [Zephaniah 1:17 – “And their blood shall be shed like dust, and their flesh like dung.”] And those who are Erev Rav, they can’t change or do teshuva, because their souls are not Jewish. Their souls can’t tolerate the Torah and mitzvoth. They dilute the Torah and mitzvoth. And even though many of them appear righteous, they draw Am Yisrael in the direction of spiritual danger, instead of pulling Am Yisrael back to the truth.

I’ll tell you once more. In the near future, the world stands to fall from every direction – economically, at the same time will be a descent so hard that there will be people without money and even for food from moment to moment. The money will simply evaporate inside the computers. There could be a rich man, who will be left only with his credit card and a few dollars in his pocket and he won’t have even enough money for the grocery. It will be in Europe and in America and other places and in Israel it will be difficult. In the beginning it won’t be felt to such an extent, but hard enough, and even very hard. And whoever is very connected to the golden calf and doesn’t trust in HKB”H and doesn’t really believe that He is Omnipotent and that He gives everything to us and that there is not a thing that we receive that is not from Him, because everything He gives to us. Whoever in his heart doesn’t really believe in this – then he can simply die from shock. But those who believe and trust know that Hashem gives us everything. And also when there is no money, and we don’t see food, He can also give us manna, and He can give us “Miriam’s well” to drink, and we have nothing from which to fear at all.

Aside from this, a little more and the war will begin. Really a little more. And this war about modesty – it’s the introductory part. The first of the world war. And now will come war supposedly because of Israel, or about Israel, but most of the war will be outside of Israel. And it will be the hardest war. More I can’t tell. Only to remind you that two thirds of the world will be destroyed, but not Eretz Yisrael. [Zechariah 13, Joel 3, Ovadiah] It will be the scariest, and most of the population of the world will disappear and Hashem will help us merit to receive our righteous Mashiach, all of us, and that all the true Jews will do complete teshuva and that we will pass through the coming period with ease and with mercy.

So Close

2011-12-16T00:30:00.002+02:00

20 Kislev 5772

Turkish military on war preparedness after Syrian Scud Ds moved to border

War tensions around Syria rose alarmingly Thursday night, Dec. 15, when Turkey's top military council convened "to review the armed forces' preparedness for war" in response to the deployment of 21 Syrian missiles, five of them Scud D with chemical warheads, on their border,....

U.S. to leave Iraqi airspace clear for strategic Israeli route to Iran

The U.S. military’s fast-approaching Dec. 31 exit from Iraq, which has no way to defend its airspace, puts Israel in a better place strategically to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iraq has yet to assemble a force of jet fighters, and since the shortest route for Israeli strike fighters to Iran is through Iraqi airspace, observers conclude that the U.S. exit makes the Jewish state’s mission planning a lot easier.

Merry Xmas, Bibi!

2011-12-15T15:47:00.002+02:00

19 Kislev 5772

There are actually some people who think that Bibi Netanyahu is the incarnation of Mashiach ben Yosef, G-d forbid! There are a lot of duplicitous losers in the Erev Rav regime, but some are better at it than others. The best become Prime Minister. But, Mashiach? No way!!

Take for example, Netanyahu's political machinations with the vote to expell Jews from their homes in Gush Katif:

Netanyahu: Gush Katif One Expulsion Too Many

... His support for the expulsion plan, known as the 2005 Disengagement, was critical until the Sharon government had enough backers, allowing Netanyahu to vote against the program after its execution was assured.

Or what about what he's doing today? The right-wing elected Netanyahu to build Israel and got a Leftist Defense Minister who knows only how to uproot Jews, but not the enemies of Israel.

Ketzaleh: PM-in-effect Barak Continues to Demolish

National Union Chairman MK Yaakov Katz responded to the Mitzpe Yitzhar home and goat pen demolition. “The PM-in-effect, Ehud Barak continues to trample the Judea and Samaria Settlement Movement. PM Netanyahu, elected by the Zionist nationalist majority must stop this policy, demonstrate leadership and fulfill the wishes of his voters. The outposts have legal resolutions, and the PM should act according to them.

Don't hold your breath Ketzaleh. Bibi is carrying out the will of his masters. In fact, a case could easily be made that Bibi Netanyahu is the American (Western) choice for Israel's Prime Minister, to ensure that American (Western) policy (peace process, settlement freezes, expulsions, etc) is carried out in the halls of Israel's government. There have been hints that he was "groomed for leadership" while still a student.

Brief Bio

Benjamin Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv... He spent his high school years in the US, ... Returning to Israel in 1967, Mr. Netanyahu enlisted in the IDF and served in an elite commando unit, ....

Mr. Netanyahu received a B.Sc. degree in architecture and a M.Sc. in business management from MIT. He also studied political science at MIT and Harvard University. Between 1976 and 1982 Mr. Netanyahu worked in the private sector, first with the Boston Consulting Group, an international business consultancy, and then in a senior management position at Rim Industries Ltd. In 1979 and 1984 Mr. Netanyahu initiated two international conferences that emphasized the need to fight terrorist organizations and regimes that provide them support.

...In 1982 Mr. Netanyahu assumed the position of deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. In 1984 he was appointed Israel's ambassador to the UN,....

Returning to Israel in 1988, Mr. Netanyahu was elected to the Knesset on the Likud party list and was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. During the Gulf War he served as Israel's principal representative in the international arena. In 1991, he was a senior member of the Israeli delegation to the Madrid peace conference and as such, participated in the first strategic cooperation program between Israel and the US. [This was the beginning of "Oslo."]

In 1993 Mr. Netanyahu was elected Likud party chairman and served as head of opposition until his election to Prime Minister of Israel in 1996....During his term as Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu implemented policy that combined fighting terror with advancement of the peace process.

In the economic realm, Mr. Netanyahu led the liberalization of foreign currency regulations, accelerated privatization of government-owned companies and reduced budget deficit.

...After the completion of his term as Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu served as a business consultant to Israeli high-tech companies and was a popular speaker on the global lecture circuit.In 2002 Mr. Netanyahu returned to politics, first as Minister of Foreign Affairs and then, in the course of 2003, as Minister of Finance. He initiated policies that encouraged growth by reducing the public sector and strengthened the private sector. ...These steps, praised by the US administration, credit rating companies and the IMF, ....

Under Netanyahu's influence, the Americanization, or Hellenization, if you prefer, of Israel, has accelerated.

Super-rich Israelis no longer ashamed to flaunt their wealthSuper-rich Israelis no longer ashamed to flaunt their wealth

...Those who are super-rich are no longer squeamish about displaying their wealth. One tycoon is building a 60,000-square-foot estate in the ancient city of Caesarea, along the coast between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Plans are underway for a special terminal at Ben-Gurion airport to handle the bustling traffic in private planes and helicopters. The national motor vehicle department said recently that it had to draft new regulations to allow for the import of Rolls-Royces, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins.

"Before, people in Israel were ashamed to be rich," said luxury real estate broker Meir Menahem, sipping a latte at his oceanfront office. "Even if you had money, you lived simply. Today, people are not ashamed. If they are making money, they want to live better."

His firm, Neot Shiran, is helping the super-rich find new places to spend their money by promoting exclusive residential communities along the Mediterranean Sea north of Tel Aviv, where former kibbutz-owned farmlands are being transformed into the Hamptons of Israel.

...If you're looking for that Malibu ranch atmosphere and need space for tennis courts and stables, there's sprawlingBnei Zion, where all you can see from the roads are intercoms and driveways. Land is zoned agricultural, so it won't cost as much to fill the pool or water the putting green.

But Herzliya Pituach, nestled on the seaside bluffs of the north Tel Aviv district, remains the standard-bearer for those seeking the ultimate address. This year the sale of a $36-million home, next door to the U.S. ambassador's house, broke Israel's record for a residential transaction.

It's a high-end, all-cash market that didn't exist when Menahem started in the mid-1990s. Back then, a 2,000-square-foot house was considered big and sales topping $1 million were rare.

Israel began shifting from its socialist roots in the 1980s and 1990s. Deregulation, privatization and tax cuts — which peaked when current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu served as finance minister a decade ago — opened opportunities for a handful of the nation's richest families and recently immigrated Russian oligarchs to take over former state-run businesses. Today, Israel's economy is one of the most concentrated in the world, with about a dozen tycoons controlling a large portion of the country's banks, manufacturers, real estate firms, food producers, media outlets and retailers.

State-owned "corporations were sold off to very wealthy families and this provided opportunities to accumulate a lot of wealth," Hebrew University professor Michael Shalev said.

Binyamin Netanyahu periodically appears before his handlers to report on his progress, like on this occasion in the summer of 2010:

Netanyahu Assures CFR of His Cooperation

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu assured the New York-based Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) on Thursday that he is willing to further the council’s agenda for the Middle East by supporting an Israeli retreat from Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu further claimed that all core issues could be discussed in direct negotiations, and that if it were up to him, a peace deal between Israel and the American-backed Palestinian Authority could be signed by the end of 2011.

“If it’s up to me, we’ll have an agreement,” he said.

These are not the actions or the words of a Mashiach ben Yosef. This is a picture of the leader of the Erev Rav Regime.

Excerpted from Sod HaChashmal:

...The Zohar (Mishpatim 120A) speaks about the "erev rav" before the Moshiach will come. It connects the verse "Binyamin is a wolf that devours," to the "erev rav" that will control Am Yisrael before the Moshiach comes and says they will be like bad wolves that will eat the plenty of the Torah scholars who are like sheep. All this will only happen "in the morning will eat til," similar to another verse, "til Shiloh (Moshiach) will come." The rest of the verse, "and in evening will share the loot," according to the Zohar, refers to the Geula, that shall be at Mincha time when Hashem will share the loot of the "erev rav" between Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben David. Rabbi Yosef Sheinberger, shlit"a, added that the Zohar implies that the head of the "erev rav" at the time when Moshiach comes will be named Binyamin. This was also the name of the establisher of these days' "erev rav," Binyamin Zev [Herzl], exactly like the verse says.

Only someone with the soul of the Erev Rav, those who want to "mix" us with the gentiles, deny Judaism's unique Truth and destroy our connection to our Holy Torah, would make the following address as the leader of the Jewish nation, on behalf of the Jewish people...

Daniel's Kislev Message

2011-12-14T16:56:00.004+02:00

19 Kislev 5772

Please note that I am not a professional translator. This is accurate to the best of my limited knowledge and ability. Also, I am not familiar with many of the sources cited, the meanings of abbreviations, etc. When I come to one like that, I will refer you back to the original.

World War 3
Daniel
Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5772

World War 3 - they’re talking about it everywhere today. In all the newspapers, headlines are blaring: “War, War,” and with all this, we, the Jews, still continue life as usual. The seculars continue with their tiyulim even though the economic situation is difficult, and the chareidim continue with their wars. Every day fighting against each other, and recently even in a very violent way. What more can I say?

I sit and I think about it. I think about Jews with peyote and beards, who lay tefillin every day, and pray three times a day, usually; who keep mitzvot, more or less, and raise families of many children. On one hand, they sacrifice much for their Yiddishkeit, very much. On the other hand, they run after the golden calf. [I Kings 18:21 – “Until when are you hopping between two ideas?”]

What is the difference between us and the generation before the destruction of the First Temple? What is the difference between us and the generation before the destruction of the Second Temple that had within them talmidei chachamim and they learned much Torah? [See reference original.]

In the First Temple, the sins were clear, because it was bloodshed, incest and idolatry. In the Second Temple, it was different, because they learned Torah and kept mitzvot and overall, on the surface, the majority was righteous. But, it did not prevent the destruction of the Temple. And also, with us, we see that we learn and learn; there are supposedly ‘righteous,’ tzadikim who learn day and night, who don’t work, only learn; their women work so their husbands can learn. And with all this, we also have the disadvantages and the sins of the two generations who were before the destruction of the Temples.

And we, also, are standing before a great disaster. But, it’s a disaster not only for us, but for the whole world. It’s correct that we don’t need to pay attention to newspapers, but when all the newspapers in the world are shouting ‘War!’ shouting ‘End of the World!’ shouting ‘World War Three!’ then, as is seen, this is also a message from Heaven. [Joel 2:11: “And the Lord gave forth His voice before His army, for His camp is great, for he who performs His word is mighty, for the day of the Lord is great and very awesome…”]

And the chareidi Jews, the so-called ‘tzadikim,’ will tell us that it is forbidden to hear the radio or read a newspaper, but for many of these Jews, there is a close connection davka with all these things, and they have no problem with it, and only when there is in the news things that they don’t want to hear, then they remember that it is forbidden to hear.

And they think: “Ha, nonsense! It’s forbidden for me to hear… Who wants war now!? Because every one knows that war now will destroy very much of the world, and will kill a large part of the population of the world. No one wants this. So, it’s preferable simply to decide that this is a goyische thing, not pertaining to us, it’s purposeless…the world continues as usual and Hashem will protect us.” I just want to remind you that this was the same attitude as before the destruction of the First Temple, and also before the destruction of the Second Temple, and also before the European Holocaust. [Jeremiah 7:4 – “Do not rely on false words, saying: The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are they.” For the whole matter, see verses 2-15]

But, yes, it will befall us and it’s even written in the prophets [Joel 2, Zephaniah 3, Zechariah 13 and many others]. And I know that then will begin the various interpretations about what, in truth, was said in the prophecies. And I will tell you that truthfully there will be war. Huge - really. And like it stands today, few Jews will survive. And in the world, also yes, few people, relatively, will come out of it alive.

You need to understand, and this is a fact, that not every Jew has a Jewish soul. A majority of Jews, according to very many sources from the righteous of previous generations, are from the Erev Rav [ See sources in sheet volume 73] and they will disappear from the world.

Who are the Erev Rav? They are Jews according to law. But, their soul is not the soul of a Jew. [See source in original.] How is it possible to know them? Whoever cools Jews off to Judaism. Cools and chills them [“That which happened to you on the way…” End of Ki-Tetze] They extinguish the fire that is inside every true Jew, the fire with which they do the mitzvot. And this makes Judaism into a Judaism without life, without a soul. [ Isaiah 29:13 – “…a command of people, which has been taught.”]. Because the Erev Rav cannot tolerate holiness. The Erev Rav cannot tolerate the close connection of a true Jew to HKB”H.

The Erev Rav, since they went out from Egypt, they only want to disturb the connection of Am Yisrael to the Master of the World. And in this generation, they are rejoicing, and so many Jews are falling into this thing, are falling into the will of the Erev Rav, that many of them are ‘thinking’ people, quote-unquote. [Jeremiah 50:6 – “My people were lost sheep, their shepherds caused them to stray, to the mountains they led them astray….”] That inside, deep within their plan, it is to strip the true Jew of his true Judaism. And the Erev Rav dress in chareidism, because he is the so-called ‘righteous Jew,’ and instead of directing to truth, he strips the Jew from the truth. [Lamentations 2:14 - “Your prophets have seen false and senseless visions for you, and they have not exposed your iniquity to straighten out your backsliding, but have prophesied for you false and misleading oracles.”] And the truth is – ‘ayn od milevado’ – there is nothing besides Him. In order to live in this war that in just a little bit will open, in order to survive, you need a close connection with HKB”H. [Tehillim 142: 6 – “I cried out to You, O Lord; I said, "You are my refuge, my lot in the land of the living."] Not with anyone else in the world. Because no one else will be able to direct us to this Every Jew needs to connect his own personal connection to HKB”H, and this connection will save him.

I sit and cry, cry and cry, when I see the Jews occupied with nonsense, with nonsense, with the golden calf. [Isaiah 2:8 – “And his land is full of idols; to the work of his hands he prostrates himself, to that which his fingers made.”] Yes, they pray, but it’s still far from Yiddishkeit, because the golden calf culture brings about a lack of holiness every place, results in a superficial performance of mitzvot in Am Yisrael, for chareidim, and this is the poison that separates us from the truth.

Am Yisrael, I ask you, I beg of you, now, on the eve of the great war, return to the truth! Return to holiness, take out from your lives all the things that pertain to This World, except for the things that you really need to exist. Pray truly to Hashem. Understand! We are all of us in very great danger, in danger of death, in danger of losing everything, in This World as well as the World-to-Come, G-d forbid. This is the time to sit, to pray crying, to search within ourselves - where has the golden calf entered in, where has the Erev Rav damaged us, and to take out the falsehood, and to return to the truth.

What else can I tell you, Am Yisrael? I don’t have any more words. The time is finished, the time is finished. Everyone knows it, also the gentiles and also the Jews need to know. The gentiles understand, but the Jews are thickheaded, they’ve clogged themselves up. They want until the end, until the last moment, to suck all the pleasures from This World. [Isaiah 22: 12 – “And the Lord God of Hosts called on that day, for weeping, and for lamenting and for baldness, and for girding with sackcloth. And behold, joy and happiness, slaying cattle and slaughtering sheep, eating meat and drinking wine; "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die."]

If Mashiach would reveal himself at this moment, he would come to help the residents of the most chareidi Judaism, so to speak, which is Meah Shearim, Geula, Rabbi Akiva St in Bnei Brak, and I fear that he would give a shout that would incinerate whatever was standing in these three places, and not a thing would remain, except for the truly righteous, who are very few. Because these are places that it’s impossible to think of as places of holiness. There is no holiness there. And the few that there are hardly see him, because these streets, in these areas, are full of violence, immorality, baseless hatred and lack of connection to HKB”H.

Am Yisrael, this is the end! I don’t have any more to tell. Start making an accounting before the end, a spiritual accounting. To sit, to go over your lives, to see where you have strayed from the path. To make repentance with tears and regret, to ask forgiveness from HKB”H, to promise and to fulfill, that from this moment we are returning to Him, also in dress, also in prayer, also in kindness, also in holiness and in everything that pertains to a real Jew who received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. [Joel 2:12 – “And even now, says the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with lamentation. And rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God,….”] or disappear from reality, lo aleynu. [See sheet volume 37, headline ‘Master Plan to Save Us’]

The Torah, today, is wearing sackcloth and ashes, because for the majority, they don’t learn for the sake of Heaven. The Torah is dressed in sackcloth and ashes, because the laws (halachot), that came straight from Heaven to the Jews, they are already distorted. The Jews twist them, and the judges rule according to the golden calf, according to the will of the community. [The face of the generation, etc, …] It’s hard to believe how it’s possible to give a hechsher to a fashion wig when the Torah says “hair on a woman is nakedness.” How is it possible to give a hechsher to chickens when the shochet needs to shecht hundreds of chickens in an hour, and no telling how many unkosher ones chareidi Am Yisrael eats. Because when the matter of hechsherim will be a business with huge profits, then there will always be big question marks as to the extent that the supervision can be truly according to the law. It’s difficult to believe, how Jewish women can walk in the street with immodest, short and narrow dress, if the Torah says, “a small amount on a woman is nakedness.” It’s hard to believe, how Jews don’t keep family purity as necessary. How Jews, so-called ‘tzadikim,’ quote-unquote, know to use words and strong-arm [tactics] against women and girls who want to return to the modest dress of Sarah Imeinu, a”h.

The Torah is dressed in sackcloth and ashes, because Am Yisrael is distanced from her. Supposedly, they are ‘close,’ but they are very far from the truth. The Holy Torah is dressed in sackcloth and ashes because she sees that Hashem will not allow this to continue. For many years Hashem has tried to return His people, and it didn’t help. [Jeremiah 7:25 – “Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt until this day, I sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them day [after day] with every fresh morn. Yet they hearkened not to Me nor did they incline their ear, but stiffened their necks;…”] So, therefore, a huge part of the goyim, and the Jews who have souls of the Erev Rav, will disappear from the world. And the true Jews will receive our righteous Mashiach.

The Torah is dressed in sackcloth and ashes and cries. If we would dress in sackcloth and ashes, sit and cry, together with the Torah, together with the Shekhina, with a broken heart, and be sorry about the distancing, the distancing that we allowed the Erev Rav to distance us from the Torah, from HKB”H, and we would be sorry for it, there would be hope that the future will pass more easily. But since a few people do this, and baruch Hashem, there are people that are doing this, but since they are few, so the hope that we will pass through it easily – is also very small.

I have nothing more to say. The end is getting close - the end before the new world. [“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,…” - Isaiah 65:17] If a person stubbornly holds to falsehood and screams that the lie is truth, that the lie is Torah, then he will not be able to live in the new world which is all truth.

Hashem Holds the Future in His Hands

2011-12-14T09:39:00.002+02:00

18 Kislev 5772

As Rabbi Mizrachi likes to say, people can't predict the weather, but the prophets of G-d foretold current events over two thousand years ago.

Hurricane Predictors Admit They Can’t Predict — Quitting Because It Doesn’t Work

It has begun

2011-12-13T21:50:00.002+02:00

18 Kislev 5772

‘Mother of all bank runs’ has already begun in eurozone

Uncertainty over the future of the eurozone runs high, despite last week’s high-on-hot-air agreement on moving towards greater fiscal union. And that uncertainty is driving European banks into a severe liquidity crunch that could cause the region’s entire banking system to collapse, analysts fear.

Latvian bank fights off run by depositors after rumors of potential collapse

BANK RUN: Latvia’s largest bank scrambled Monday to head off a run among depositors who were gripped by rumors of the bank’s imminent ruin.

THE FUEL: Weekend rumors that Swedbank was facing legal and liquidity problems in Estonia and Sweden sent thousands of Latvians to bank machines Sunday. Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis told journalists that the rumors were spread maliciously, the Baltic News Service reported.

Another "Weather Bomb" on the Way?

2011-12-13T15:40:00.000+02:00

17 Kislev 5772

Reported last Friday...

(H/T Global Disaster Watch)

'Weather bomb' winds scour Scotland - Winds in the Scottish Highlands were clocked at 165 mph Thursday as an UNUSUAL STORM battered much of northern Britain. The worst effects were felt in Scotland. The winds brought trees down, stripped Aberdeen of its Christmas decorations and left 60,000 people without power. The Met Office issued its FIRST-EVER "red alert" Wednesday. Such warnings are HIGHLY UNUSUAL. Meteorologists said the wind was caused by an "explosive deepening," a sharp drop in atmospheric pressure within a span of 24 hours that is also known as a "weather bomb". Police advised everyone to get off the roads in central Scotland, but many drivers ignored the advice. Overturned trucks were scattered along highways and all travel was disrupted - with ferry services canceled, Edinburgh Airport closed and train speed limits reduced. About 75 percent of the schools in Scotland were closed.The wind also caused problems in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Wind speeds were measured as high as 81 mph in Wales and Northwest England. Ferries from Northern Ireland were canceled or delayed and cross-Channel services to France were disrupted.

Looks like they may be in line for a reprisal of last week's weather...

UK put on severe weather alert with forecast of TWO huge storms. Two huge storms are forecast to batter many parts of the UK this week with London and the south of England set to bear the brunt of the severe conditions from today. And Scotland looks likely to receive a second storm battering on Thursday and Friday as yet another massive destructive weather system heads in from the North Atlantic.The UK Met Office extended its severe weather warning for the capital and areas of the south of England for Monday and Tuesday as the first huge Atlantic storm looked set to crash in on Monday evening. Forecasters are warning of strong winds and torrential rain that have the potential to cause flooding and travel disruption.A second, much larger storm, is now forecast to affect the entire country from Thursday, bringing with it severe gales and worsening conditions. Current weather models predict winds well in excess of 80mph will sweep across the entire UK on Friday afternoon - winds are classified as hurricane-force from 74mph.A yellow severe warning alert issued warned the entire west coast of the UK would be affected as the monster storm sweeps in from the Atlantic. The advisory, which is valid from 6pm on December 15, currently warns: “Rapidly strengthening winds and heavy rain are likely to arrive across the west later on Thursday, heralding another potentially stormy period. The public is advised to monitor warnings for this period, noting that the alert is likely to be extended into Friday in due course.”Meteorologists say the current spate of extreme wet and windy conditions are as a result of FREAK CONDITIONS IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE over the North Atlantic Ocean. While the UK was in the icy grip of the Big Freeze this time last year, this year a shift in atmospheric conditions meant the country would be prone to more extreme weather and Atlantic storms. “In 2011, there was what was known as the 'Greenland Block' that virtually created a traffic jam in the atmosphere – the Arctic air that normally progresses from West to East was forced to plunged Southward and created the Big Freeze across much of the northern hemisphere, including the East Coast of the US and much of Europe. However this year, there is no 'Greenland Block' so these weather systems can freely pass from West to East unobstructed and gather destructive power on their way across the ocean. These storms are all part of the seasonal change and look very likely to continue.”

Iran - Up Another Notch

2011-12-13T14:50:00.000+02:00

17 Kislev 5772

Just letting you know, if you don't already...

MP: Iran to Stage Military Drill to Close Straits of Hormuz

TEHRAN (FNA)- A member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said the military was set to practice its ability to close the Persian Gulf to shipping at the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil transit channel in the world.

"Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure," Parviz Sorouri said.

Reports Claim US Troops Deploying on Jordan-Syria Border

According to reports by James Corbett of the CorbettReport as well as an exclusive report on Boiling Frogs Post, U.S.-NATO troops have begun massing on the border between Jordan and Syria.

Now, seconded by Debka...

US units exiting Iraq deployed in Jordan to forestall Syrian attack

Beautiful Israel!

2011-12-11T20:33:00.008+02:00

16 Kislev 5772

Sharing some pics I took this past yom shishi, just before Shabbat, in Midbar Yehuda - the Judean Desert - overlooking Wadi Qelt and the Jordan Valley.

In the Spirit of the Maccabees

2011-12-11T16:02:00.000+02:00

15 Kislev 5772

The war that the Greeks started almost 2200 years ago is still raging in the hearts and minds of people the world over. When the Greek Empire broke up, the Romans took up their banner and hoisted it throughout Europe and from there it was exported to the New World where it thrived and flourished. Today, it is the United States which holds high the banner of Western (Greek and Roman) culture and assumes the mission of continuing to spread its influence to the rest of the world.

But, why a "war", you may be wondering? Because now as then, Western culture stands opposed to Torah values. And despite what the so-called Modern Orthodox want you to think, you cannot put a foot in each world, the Western world and the Torah world, and hope to maintain your balance. A fence runs between them and anyone who tries to straddle it is destined to fall one way or the other. If you doubt it, just look at what appeared in today's Haaretz:

Israel is in the midst of a culture war

... What we are witnessing is w-a-r.

This fall a culture war, no less, broke out in Israel, and it is being waged on many more, and deeper, fronts than are apparent. It is not only the government, as important as that is, that hangs in the balance, but also the very character of the state. Our way of life is about to change, from cradle to grave. For this reason, it could be the most pivotal battle in the country's history since the War of Independence.

...The assault on the existing order is an all-out war, on every front; a political tsunami, a cultural flood and a social and religious earthquake, all still in their infancy. Those who call this an exaggeration are trying to lull you to sleep. The defeats and the victories up to now will determine the course of events: In the end, we will have a different country. The pretension of being an enlightened Western democracy is giving way, with terrifying speed, to a different reality - that of a benighted, racist, religious, ultranationalist, fundamentalist Middle Eastern country. That is not the kind of integration into the region we had hoped for.

The ferocious combined assault is highly effective. It targets women, Arabs, leftists, foreigners, the press, the judicial system, human rights organizations and anyone standing in the way of the cultural revolution. From the music we listen to, to the television we watch, from the buses we ride to the funerals we attend , everything is about to change. The army is changing, the courts are in turmoil, the status of women is being pelted with rocks, the Arabs are being shoved behind a fence and the labor migrants are being forced into concentration camps. Israel is barricading itself behind more and more walls and barbed-wire fences as if to say, to hell with the world.

There is no single guiding hand mixing this boiling, poisonous potion; many hands stir the revolution, but they all have something in common: the aspiration to a different Israel, one that is not Western, not open, not free and not secular. The extreme nationalist hand passes the antidemocratic, neofascist laws; the Haredi hand undermines gender equality and personal freedoms; the racist hand acts against the non-Jews; the settler hand intensifies the hold not only on the occupied territories but also deep into Israel; and another hand interferes in education, culture and the arts.

All I can say is - Halevai! And we must be getting very close to Mashiach if even the gentiles are getting into the spirit of the Maccabees:

Obama Fights Nigerian Anti-Gay Bill, Threatens To Cut Off Aid

...A couple of weeks ago the Nigerian senate passed a bill that strictly prohibits same-sex romantic liaisons. The consequences are dire and well stated: Erring individuals stand to bag a jail sentence of 10 to 14 years.

U.S President Barack Obama is threatening to cut off foreign aid to Nigeria if [it] is passed, ....

...But the overwhelming majority of Nigerians who support the anti-gay bill are adamant. Addressing the Nigerian press on Obama’s threat, Zakari Mohammed, a Nigerian lawmaker said, “We have a culture. We have religious beliefs and we have a tradition. We are black people. We are not white, and so the U.S cannot impose its culture on us. Same sex marriage is alien to our culture and we can never give it a chance. So if [Western nations] withhold their aid to us, to hell with them.”

Many Nigerians have frowned on the United States’ invasion into the country’s lawmaking process, with many arguing that Nigeria as a sovereign nation reserves the right to make its own laws without interferences from external forces.

...The country’s Minister for Information, Labaran Maku, said that Nigerians reserve the right to make their own laws without apologies to other countries. “Between Europe, America and Africa there is a huge culture gap. Some of the things that are considered fundamental rights abroad also can be very offensive to African culture and tradition and to the way we live our lives here,” he said during a press conference.

Many Nigerians share the sentiments of the information minister. “If the U.S or any other foreign country wants to strip us of aid because we still hold on tightly to our values, then so be it. We are Africans, not Americans. We do not influence other countries when they are making their laws, so it is ridiculous that they’ll attempt to influence the way we make our own laws. Africans view homosexuality as immoral. It has never been condoned in Africa, and it will certainly not be tolerated here in Nigeria,” ....

At the other end of the spectrum, we have the most perverted and shameful display of Hellenism (mixture of Western culture with Jewish values) performed in the name of Hanukah that I have ever been unfortunate enough to witness. Will anyone with a clue please help Aish HaTorah to get one, too?

Hanukkah: Rock of Ages
The Hanukkah Story in 8 hit songs.A short medley of pop music parodies through the ages.

One brave commenter said it in a nutshell: "I guess the Greeks won after all."

The power of our message and our example lies in our separateness. We are not the light in the torch of the statue of liberty, we are the light of the holy Temple menorah. Ours is not the destructive flame of lust, but the purifying flame of holiness.

It's time for you to take your stand. Which side are you on?

Lunar Eclipse over Eretz Yisrael

2011-12-10T21:10:00.001+02:00

15 Kislev 5772

Looking across Yishuv Alon and the Jordan Valley in Midbar Yehuda. The full moon came up over the mountains of Moav (Jordan) in full eclipse. It had already begun to recede when I was able to snap this photo right after Shabbat went out.

Shavua tov!

Parshat Vayishlach

2011-12-09T13:01:00.002+02:00

13 Kislev 5772

Guest Post by Geula Girl:

As long as Yaakov was in "galut," Esav could care less about him, but when Yaakov was returning with his family back to Eretz Yisrael, prepared to receive his birthright, Esav came to stop him.

Esav uses two means of attack: excessive closeness to the Jewish people, bringing them spiritual death with the fatal "kiss" of assimilation; and second, outright murder, with pogroms and violence, destroying the Jews physically. (Insights in the Torah)

When the Jewish people were scattered among the nations, Esav (xianity) used pogroms and violence, but now that we have come back to Eretz Yisrael, Esav comes to us with a kiss saying, "We are your brothers. We love you. We worship the same G-d."

Actually, Esav wished to administer a "kiss of death to Yaakov" (Breishit Rabba): He would ingratiate himself with Yaakov and his sons, and get them to leave God's ways. Then Esav and Yaakov would become a single, united nation. The proof of his intent is that he pressured Yaakov to accompany him to Seir, until Yaakov promised to come to him later (33:14). [The promise will be kept when the Messiah comes to make his reckoning with Esav.] (Insights in the Torah)

This is the stated goal of all xian "lovers of Israel" - to break down the walls and barriers between Jews and xians so that we will all be "one new man". Many religious Jews who have bonded with xians have assimilated xian ideas without even knowing it.

If you doubt that we (Yaakov) and the xians (Esav) are just repeating history think about this:

The angels returned to Yaakov saying, 'We came to your brother, to Esav. Moreover, he is heading toward you, and four hundred men are with him.' (Vayishlach 32:7)

Dr. John Hagee, the American evangelical pastor who last month announced plans for a Christian-style AIPAC, says the organization is a "canopy group" encompassing Christian supporters of Israel from across America and is coming together "with a speed and harmony I never would have believed possible."

Hagee says he attempted something similar, though on a smaller scale, 25 years ago, but to no avail. "I called 30 pastors together... At the end of the first hour, I lost 29 of them." Now, by contrast, "I called 400 [pastors] and all 400 have agreed to participate in Christians United for Israel."

The San Antonio, Texas-based Hagee specifies three primary aims for the group: one, to unite Christian supporters of Israel to speak "with one voice for a common cause"; two, to establish a "rapid response" capability that can flood Capitol Hill with e-mails, faxes and phone calls at short notice on issues of concern to Israel; and three, to organize "Night to Honor Israel" events in every major US city "so that the Jewish people can see and feel Christians expressing the love of God to them without a hidden agenda." (Evangelicals seeing the error of 'replacement theology'By DAVID HOROVITZ)

When xians come to "kiss" us, we need to act as our forefather Yaakov did.

Esav suggested to Yaakov, "Let us travel further together!" "No!" Yaakov answered. (The Midrash Says)

In the end, the Mashiach will come to judge Esav on the mountain of Seir, which side will you be on?

Shabbat shalom.

Portentous

2011-12-08T17:21:00.000+02:00

13 Kislev 5772

Lunar Eclipse on Shabbat Will Be Visible from Israel

Israelis will be treated on Shabbat to a rare astronomical event: A full eclipse of the moon as dusk falls upon Israel Saturday evening.

Jewish tradition has mixed views on the mystical and eschatological meaning of lunar eclipses. On the one hand, the Talmud (Tractate Sukkah 29a) says that lunar eclipses are a sign of Divine wrath against the Jewish people for moral failings, while solar eclipses are a bad sign for non-Jewish nations; the Jews date their calendar based on the phases of the moon, while the non-Jews base theirs on the solar year. On the other hand, Jewish tradition repeatedly says that astrological and astronomical signs do not affect the Jewish people, and that the Jews' direct relationship with G-d overcomes any “natural” effects of the movement of heavenly bodies that could affect other nations.

What if it means the whole world will turn to blood as a result of what Israel will do to Iran? What if it starts on the night after Shabbat? Makes my heart skip a beat or two.

"We've Lost Our Kedusha"

2011-12-08T15:31:00.000+02:00

12 Kislev 5772

From one month ago: "So now we are moving into a new phase. A phase that will destroy two thirds of the world. A phase that will bring tragedy and fear from every direction."

A message from Moishela, בס"ד
a handicapped child
Yud Aleph Cheshvan 5772
November 8, 2011

We’ve Lost Our Kedusha

Am Yisrael, we’re a stiff-necked people. A people that with our stubbornness have managed Be’ezras Hashem to get through most of our time in our Golus, with our stubbornness to keep our faith, our closeness to Hashem, our sacred Torah. We have fought with determination to keep ourselves holy, at least up to this generation. But since we have entered the last stage before the Geula, things have drastically changed. The main thing that we have lost is our Kedusha, and with it our true belief and trust in HaKodosh Boruch Hu, Hashem Yishmor.

Of course the fact that I’ve made such a statement will make you cry out against my words and say, “But we have never had so many yeshivas. We have never had so many Frum Yidden living kosher lives. We have never had so many Minyanim, so many thousands of Jewish children with Payos and Tznius going to Jewish schools, to Frum schools, to ultra-orthodox schools. We’re in good shape. Why are you saying such terrible things?”

And I will answer “The lie! The lie! We want to believe the lie!”

Truthfully we are only a shadow of what we once were. Our determination shows itself only in business. Our stubbornness is only when were fighting against Tznius. We have become an Am without a heart. Our heart has become like the Goyim; superficial and looking only for the delights of this world. Yes, we dress it up in Ruchnius. We dress it up in learning Torah. We dress it up in many things, but most of the Frum Yidden today are actively worshipping the Egel HaZahav, even though they dress it up in Tzitzis and a Yarmulka. I’ve said similar things many times, but today things have changed more drastically.

Today a Yid was Niftar, a Yid who was a Tzaddik. A Yid who fought with his illness of Parkinson’s, not willing to take medications so that his memory would not be affected, so that he could continue to learn Torah in the highest way. This Rav, Nosson Tzvi Finkel was a Tzaddik. He was Niftar on Rochel Imeinu’s Yahrzeit. It’s not by chance that suddenly he was taken from this world by a massive heart attack. It was not by chance that it was on Rochel Imeinu’s Yahrzeit. So many Tzaddikim have been taken from us in the last months, and certainly in the last years, Tzaddikim from every group of Yidden: Sephardim, Ashkenazim, Litvish, Chassidish, etc. But today was a special day.

Today at the funeral of Rav Finkel ZT”L, came the end of the period before the final curtain goes down on the Golus. The death of Rav Finkel brings us into a new era, to an era of much suffering, great wars and much death. We are a stiff necked people and the characteristic that we have is working now against us. We are working against Hashem. We have turned our Yiddishkeit to a lie, and we believe, for the most part, our own lies and anyone who’s trying to get back to the truth is criticized and attacked and worse. But my dear Yidden, as much as Hashem has pounded us with tragedies, still we are stiff-necked and we don’t want to listen.

So many people have died from Machalas, from illnesses. So many people died from violent accidents. So many people have died suddenly from unknown causes. So many orphans, Lo Aleinu so many widows, Lo Aleinu, so many widowers, Lo Aleinu. Still we are stiff-necked and we don’t want to listen.

So now we are moving into a new phase. A phase that will destroy two thirds of the world. A phase that will bring tragedy and fear from every direction. Those Jews who stubbornly stick to the Egel HaZahav, hold on to its tail very tightly, refusing to let go, will suffer and disappear because they’re not real Jews. They can’t be real Jews. They lost every semblance of a Jewish heart, any semblance of a Jewish Neshoma. The real Jews that were at Har Sinai yearn to go back to truth, and yearn to be what Hashem really wants us to be. Those Jews, Be’ezras Hashem, will survive!

But again, my words are similar to the other words that I have spoken already, but I just want you to know that according to the timetable we have now moved into a new situation. Rav Finkel gave up a life that would be easier on him with his illness that would be easier for him to suffer through his illness, for the sake of Torah. He was Moser Nefesh for the sake of Torah. He was Moser Nefesh to this Mirrer Yeshiva that became so famous and so great. I wonder how many of us are being Moser Nefesh for our Yiddishkeit. Not many, not many at all, But those who are Moser Nefesh, who are Moser Nefesh for the basic values of Yiddishkeit, will reap great rewards.

I only wish that all the Bochurim in Mir were as big Tzaddikim, or at least learned from their Rosh Yeshiva. But unfortunately in most of our yeshivas today HaKodosh Boruch Hu is not invited in, and the yeshiva Bochurim are taught to learn but not taught to feel Hashem. They speak the right words but don’t always act in the right way because they don’t feel, they don’t feel what it is to be a true Yid. They often don’t have the refinement and the modesty and the delicacy of being a true Yid. They’re wound up in all kinds of toys, all kinds of telephones, all kinds of Shtusim that are forbidden in most Yeshivas, but are accepted as normal the minute they walk out of Yeshiva.

And of course the streets, the Frum streets, are full of restaurants and all kinds of entertainments all kinds of so-called Frum entertainments which destroy our Jewish feelings, our Jewish hearts. And so, lately our Tzaddikim are suffering massive heart attacks because the Jewish people do not have a Jewish heart in most cases. Where are those Jewish faces? Where are the Yiddishe Punims? Almost no child today has a Yiddishe Punim. They don’t look Temimusdik. They look hard. They often have the look of the Olam Hazeh. What else can I say? I just will say this closing thought for you who are true Yidden. Look at your children. Look at your wives. Look at your husbands. Look at your mothers and your fathers. Look at the pictures of your grandparents, your great grandparents and look what is happening to you. You’re loosing your Yiddishkeit. You’re loosing your Yiddishe Punim. You’re loosing your Olam Habah. If you lose your Olam Habah, chas vesholom, you’ve lost life. Do you want to loose your eternity? Are you so stiff-necked that you’re willing to loose your eternity for Pizza, for fancy Bar Mitzvas, for lack of Tznius, for your lust? Do you want to loose eternity for things that disappear in an instant? That’s the greatest lie!

Am Yisrael it’s your choice. No one can force you. No one could take this stubborn Am and force them to do anything. Most of the Yidden are going stubbornly against Yiddishkeit, they are seemingly going towards Yiddishkeit, but its not real Yiddishkeit. They’re going towards the lie. They’re adopting it in the most terrible way. On the other hand, you have the true Yidden who with their stubbornness will save the world, because they’re trying to reestablish Yiddishkeit the way it should be.

Am Yisrael, this is all I can say. I can only give a little bit of Chizuk to those stiff-necked strong Jews who are stubbornly trying to keep their Yiddishkeit intact, because the rest of you are only going to snicker at my words. You say what is the connection between Rochel Imeinu’s Yartzeit and Harav Nosson Tzvi Finkel’s petira?

Rochel Imeinu was buried where she is in order to help Am Yisroel. Travelers, the Yidden that were looking for the truth, for Hashem they could come to her easily and Daven she should give them Chizuk. The people traveling to Eretz Yisroel, leaving Eretz Yisroel. But in our day and age, people searching for HaKodosh Boruch Hu and searching for help. Mama Rochel, we come to her as a mother, and we pour out our hearts and we beg her to go to HaKodosh Boruch Hu and save us. Because this is the time when we’re going into a different situation, a much more serious situation much closer to the end, it was only fitting that the Tzaddik would be taken on her Yarzeit which would hopefully make Am Yisroel think a little bit, Daven a little bit to Hashem to save us. Whether they actually went to Mama Rochel and begged her to speak for us, to ask Hashem for us, or whether we asked Hashem in her Zechus to save us, or whether we just lit a Lecht and stood by the Lecht and asked her to be our representative. Whichever way it goes, its a sign to Am Yisroel that its time now to change our ways, to come closer to Hakodosh Boruch Hu, and to try to look, act, and Daven and learn like true Yidden.

Q: Why did you have breathing difficulties last night?

A: Cause I knew what was going to be today, and I was very sad. Zaidy, were coming so close to a world war where thousands and thousands will be killed. Millions will be killed. People want to say that that there was a Hamtakah of the Din because this one was Niftar or that one was Niftar. It’s not true. Only as individual Yidden can make the difference, make it easier on us., But if we continue in our direction, and put all the responsibility on the shoulders of the Tzaddikim that were taken away from us, that they should, in Shomayim, make it easier on us without us changing one iota, then we’re fools, and that’s not the reason they were taken from us. They were taken from us and there are still more that are going to be taken from us, Hashem Yishmor, They were taken from us, Lo Aleinu and will be taken from us, Lo Aleinu, because we have to feel like orphans. We have to feel and know that there’s no Koach in the world except for HaKodosh Boruch Hu. Ain Od Milvado! He’s the Ribbono Shel Olam and there’s no one to depend on, only Him. That’s why they’re being taken away to make us come closer to Hashem. We’ve strayed in the worst way. The Yidden, the Frum have strayed in the worst way.

Q: Why Did Hashem take the last few Gedolim without any illness, without giving Klal Yisroel a chance to Daven for them?

A: Klal Yisroel doesn’t Daven, generally speaking with all their heart for our Gedolim, for our Tzaddikim. Unfortunately a Levaya like this, even though it brings out thousands and thousands of people, (a hundred thousand according to the newspapers,) still the vast majority aren’t crying. Their tears aren’t flowing. They go to the Levaya for many reasons. These Gedolim these Tzadikim, were taken because Am Yisroel is a stiff- necked people. They’ve strayed from the flock and there is almost not a flock left. So many have strayed, and they’re not willing to go back. And if the Gedolim are taken, the Tzaddikim are taken, hopefully Am Yisrael will realize that with all the Tzoros the real responsibility falls only on them to come back to HaKodosh Boruch Hu because only He can save us. And that’s what Am Yisrael has to get to- the realization that only He can save us!

It‘s not a question that we can ask. Its part of creation. Its part of bringing Am Yisroel and the world to perfection. We’ll understand at the end. But there’s one thing we have to understand now that each individual Yid has to decide in his heart and in his actions that he’s going to go back to true Yiddishkeit, and not continue on the path of this plastic imitation that we’ve come to revere so much.

War in the 21st Century

2011-12-07T22:35:00.001+02:00

12 Kislev 5772

AMERICAN SPY DRONE

MEET THE RUSSIAN DRONE KILLER - AVTOBAZA

NOW APPEARING IN IRAN
"...While most weapons deliveries to Iran are blocked, a jamming system like the Avtobaza is allowed because it's a passively defensive machine 'designed to jam side-looking and fire control radars on aircraft and manipulate the guidance and control systems of incoming enemy missiles.'

Possibly what NATO regulators didn't plan on was the jammer's potential as a communications link allowing UAVs to be controlled remotely."

What do they know that we don't?

2011-12-07T17:21:00.003+02:00

12 Kislev 5772

(H/T Infowars)

Infowars.com has received a document originating from Halliburton subsidiary KBR that provides details on a push to outfit FEMA and U.S. Army camps around the United States. Entitled “Project Overview and Anticipated Project Requirements,” the document describes services KBR is looking to farm out to subcontractors.
"KBR is establishing a National Quick Response Team for our current Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) work, and for anticipated future contracts.

...This is a CONTINGENCY PROJECT and it should be stressed that lead times will be short with critical requirements due to the nature of emergency responses. Subcontractors must be flexible and able to handle multiple, shifting priorities in an emergency environment.

...The personnel on site to be covered by these services will depend on the size and scope of the recovery effort, but for estimating purposes the camp will range in size from 301 to 2,000 persons for up to 30 days in length."
...KBR’s call for FEMA camp service bids arrives soon after the Senate overwhelmingly passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which permits the military to detain and interrogate supposed domestic terror suspects in violation of the Fourth Amendment and Posse Comitatus.

Section 1031 of the NDAA bill declares the whole of the United States as a “battlefield” and allows American citizens to be arrested on U.S. soil and incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay.

I strongly suggest that you read the entire article linked at Infowars.com and imagine how it might be used against The Jews. Hey! This is our history. Why expect today to be any different?

What kind of "Torah" do they learn?

2011-12-07T15:40:00.001+02:00

11 Kislev 5772

Heard prior to a public Torah shiur in Jerusalem this morning...

Jewish American #1: "How long are you here [in Israel] for?"

Jewish American #2: "Oh, I come and go."

Jewish American #1: "You are so lucky! I'm here for a year! And then I get to go back to New York."

If it hurt my feelings to hear this, how must Hashem have felt? Whatever it is they are "learning," it's not the Torah of Moshe Rabeinu.

UK Mirror: War with Iran within 2 Weeks

2011-12-05T22:49:00.001+02:00

10 Kislev 5772

UPDATE: DEBKA CONCURS

Israel and Syria brace for regional war between mid-Dec. 2011 and mid-Jan 2012
The actions and words of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in the last 72 hours indicate they are poised for a regional war, including an attack on Iran, for some time between December 2011 and January 2012.

...Neither the United States nor Russia would have concentrated two powerful fleets in the proximity of Syria and Iran unless they were certain a military conflagration was imminent. While any of the prime movers, Washington, Moscow, Tehran, Israel or Bashar Assad, may at the last moment step back from the brink of a regional war, at the moment, there is no sign of this happening.

Also, YNETNEWS: Tehran residents fear imminent strike

..."We are going to be attacked ... I sense it ... I am pulling out my money from the bank to have cash in hand in case of an attack," said government employee Hassan Vosughi. "I and all my friends have stockpiled goods at home."

Secret war against Iran's nuclear threat is build-up to allies' blitz

...Within a fortnight we may see an all-out American air strike on a dozen key targets in the Islamic republic.

It's worth reading the whole article. Makes one wonder if this is what was behind Netanyahu's 'almost-admission' as reported by Reuter's.

Netanyahu history lesson seen as message about Iran

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Cautioned by Washington about the risks of a military strike on Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Sunday about making "the right decision at the right moment," even when allies object.

In a speech at an annual memorial for Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu did not mention Iran and its nuclear programme once.

But in the context of an on-going debate with the United States over how to stop what Netanyahu and U.S. leaders believe is Iran's quest for atomic weapons, his comments on Israeli go-it-alone decision-making in the past could have relevance for the future.

"Great statesmen as well as friends of the Jews and of Zionism" warned Ben-Gurion that declaring a Jewish state in 1948 would bring an invasion of Arab armies and a "grave and difficult battle," Netanyahu said.

"He understood full well the decision carried a heavy price, but he believed not making that decision had a heavier price," Netanyahu said. "We are all here today because Ben-Gurion made the right decision at the right moment."

Fighting Antisemitism - A Losing Proposition

2011-12-05T11:25:00.000+02:00

9 Kislev 5772

People look back at the time just preceding the Shoah and shake their heads. When antisemitism grew to such terrible proportions, why didn't the Jews just leave? Why did they wait until it was too late? Well, many of them did get out, at the very first sign of trouble - the smart ones; the ones who understand what antisemitism is and where it comes from. The rest hoped it would die down with time and go back to sleep. It was just so hard to think about uprooting and moving on. After all, there were parnasa and children's educations to consider as well as a home and community into which a lifetime had been invested.

Those who do not understand the phenomenon think it is their duty to fight antisemitism. They build museums and create educational programs and lobby for political support. They think that by keeping the memory of the victims alive, by educating toward pluralism and by passing laws, antisemitism can be defeated once and for all. Are they right? Should we be fighting antisemitism?

Viewed historically, it is clear that antisemitism is a tool Hashem uses to uproot Jews from places where they should never have developed roots in the first place. It's both a reminder that the places of dispersion are not our homes - that we are merely visitors who've overstayed our welcome - and it's an antidote to assimilation. So, viewed from that perspective, fighting antisemitism would be like trying to fight G-d Almighty. In which case, it simply can't be done. Better to recognize that fact and work with the program rather than engage in a battle that is lost from the start.

When Hashem sets out on a program of using antisemitism in order to get the Jews out of their rut, it's a sign that it is already very late in the game and there isn't much time left. For the Jews of the West, 9/11 was the great shofar telling them it was now most definitely time to leave. There has been a ten year grace period in which to make arrangements and get used to the idea of moving on. If you're still entrenched with no idea whatever that you have to get up and go, the awakening of antisemitic attacks is the train's whistle blowing. Only moments remain before the train leaves for the last time - perhaps before a different train will take you where you also don't want to go, G-d forbid!

Arsonists Destroy Florida Jewish Bookstore

A raging fire set by anti-Semitic arsonists destroyed $100,000 worth of holy objects in a Florida Jewish bookstore.

A surveillance camera disclosed that just before the fire broke out, several people were seen running away from the South Florida Judaica store, which was stocked with items for sale for Hanukkah. Firefighting officials said they are sure the blaze was the result of arson, and added that the back door of the store apparently had been kicked in. ...Anti-Semitism and hate crimes in the United States occur almost daily.

If you read the news, you are well aware that this is not an isolated incident. Read the swastikas on the wall, good Jews! Return to your ancient homeland!

AMERICAN IDOL - 'TIS THE SEASON

2011-12-01T23:00:00.000+02:00

6 Kislev 5772

Does anyone besides me find it terribly ironic that we Jews celebrate our victory over Greek Hellenism at the same time of year that the Western world celebrates the continuation of Hellenism in its Roman form?

Wiki: "The Romans absorbed much of what the Greeks had originated, added their own spin and introduced it to the rest of Europe." And from there, it made its way to the New World where it still thrives today.

Greece was regarded as the pinacle of culture and civilization in its time and its legacy to Western Civilization commands respect even today. From ancient Greece came theater, democracy, art & architecture, and mythology, among other things.

Those who admired and imitated ancient Greek culture and thought were known as Hellenists. Many Jews during the time of Greek rule over Eretz Yisrael were enamoured of all things Greek and they were the ones who rushed to offer sacrifice to the Greek gods, incurring the wrath of the Maccabim as well as Hashem. Hanukah marks the victory of those who remained faithful to Hashem and Torah over the anti-Torah values of the Greeks and Hellenists.

The Maccabim may have defeated the Hellenists in Eretz Yisrael, but Hellenism remains alive and well in the modern world. Today, it is called Judeo-Christianity. Just as the ancient Hellenists in Eretz Yisrael attempted to fuse Greek culture and values with Judaism, so the modern Hellenist tries to combine Roman Christianity and its Greek foundations with Judaism.

According to Wikipedia: Promoting the concept of America as a Judeo-Christian nation became a political program in the 1920s, in response to the growth of anti-Semitism in America. The rise of Hitler in the 1930s led concerned Protestants, Catholics, and Jews to take active steps to increase understanding and tolerance.

In this effort, precursors of the National Conference of Christians and Jews created teams consisting of a priest, a rabbi, and a minister, to run programs across the country, and fashion a more pluralistic America, no longer defined as a Christian land, but "one nurtured by three ennobling traditions: Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism." "The phrase 'Judeo-Christian' entered the contemporary lexicon as the standard liberal term for the idea that Western values rest on a religious consensus that included Jews."

It would seem then that this trend was started by Jews who wanted nothing more than to assimilate; to become accepted as Jewish Americans rather than as American Jews. So, just what are some of the "Judeo-Christian" values that so many Anglo Jews hold dear to their hearts?

Democracy - where society is ruled by whatever the majority decides should be law .
Freedom - where everyone follows his own conscience, a highly unreliable indicator of what is good and worthwhile.
Pluralism - where there is no absolute right and wrong, but "you have your truth and I have my truth."
Equality - where everyone starts from the same position, despite the fact that this has never been born out by reality.
Individualism - where the individual's "rights" sre set above what is best for the community.

These "values" have nothing to do with the "Ten Commandments." the so-called basis for our "common heritage." These are not Jewish "values" at all. Not only are they not Jewish values, but they are actually the opposite of what the Torah teaches us.

Democracy - The Creator gave Israel 613 commandments and they are not open to a vote.
Freedom - We left off being slaves in Egypt, so we could become servants of Hashem.
Pluralism - G-d made Jew and gentile and that should be the extent of pluralism. Mankind has no right to create artifical religions and grant them equal status to the that which was revealed by the Creator.
Equality - Besides the fact that it does not exist in any reality that we know of, it also does not exist in the Torah. The Cohanim are greater than the Leviim and the Leviim are greater than the Yisraelim, the positions of King and the Cohen Gadol are restricted to those who qualify by birth only, etc.
Individualism - Judaism upholds the good of the community over the supposed rights or entitlements of the individual.

So, despite what the Hellenists promote and prefer to believe, there really is no meeting ground where "shared" values intersect. Is the whole Judeo-Christian ethic bit just another Greco-Roman myth then?

The Myth of a Judeo-Christian Tradition

...'After all, we worship the same God', the Christian always says to the Jew and the Jew never to the Christian. The Jew knows that he does not worship the Christ-God....

...Talmudic scholar Jacob Neusner: "Theologically and historically, there is no such thing as the Judeo-Christian tradition. It's a secular myth favoured by people who are not really believers themselves."

...Joshua Jehouda, a prominent French Jewish leader, observed in the late 1950s: "The current expression 'Judaeo-Christian' is an error which has altered the course of universal history by the confusion it has sown in men's minds, if by it one is meant to understand the Jewish origin of Christianity . . . If the term 'Judaeo-Christian' does point to a common origin, there is no doubt that it is a most dangerous idea. It is based on a 'contradictio in abjecto' which has set the path of history on the wrong track. It links in one breath two ideas which are completely irreconcileable, it seeks to demonstrate that there is no difference between day and night or hot and cold or black and white, and thus introduces a fatal element of confusion to a basis on which some, nevertheless, are endeavouring to construct a civilisation." (l'Antisemitisme Miroir du Monde pp. 135-6).

...The Jewish scholar Dr. Joseph Klausner in his book Jesus of Nazareth expressed the Judaic viewpoint that "there was something contrary to the world outlook of Israel" in Christ's teachings, "a new teaching so irreconcilable with the spirit of Judaism, " containing "within it the germs from which there could and must develop in course of time a non-Jewish and even anti-Jewish teaching."

...Gershon Mamlak, an award-winning Jewish Zionist intellectual, recently claimed that the "Jesus tradition" is essentially the ultimate extension of ancient Greek Hellenism and is in direct conflict to Judaism's "role as the Chosen people".

...Evidently the concept of a common Judeo-Christian tradition has more to do with post 1945 politics and a certain amount of 'public relations' than it does with historical and Biblical reality.

But, try telling that to those Jews who admire the trappings and celebration of Christmas - the ultimate Western cultural holiday.

This could be the poster for today's Hellenism. The Maccabim would have declared war on the purveyors of this atrocity. Can we do any less?

"Critical Days" Ahead

2011-12-01T11:04:00.001+02:00

5 Kislev 5772

Hear Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi on the subject
"Critical Days are Coming."

Daniel's Latest Message

2011-11-28T18:18:00.000+02:00

3 Kislev 5772

Mesirut Nefesh – What is it?
Daniel, 29 Tishrei 5772

Abba, Abba, Abba. What else is there to tell? Always, I think, what else is there to tell? How much we speak and we speak; how much the autistic children have spoken over the years. Seventeen years, eighteen years, we’re speaking and speaking about the geulah. We’ve begged and pleaded with Am Yisrael to do teshuvah, to leave the Eigel Hazahav, to throw him away in the garbage, to walk in the way of Hashem, to leave the plastic Judaism, to leave the Judaism-in-costume.

Now, to change direction, to direct the heart, the soul, the thoughts and desires to HKB”H, to the Torah, to mitzvot, to kedushah, to modesty, to family, and to take out all the gashmiut, the toys and the nonsense of this temporal world.

Now. Now, you can still change, you can still do teshuvah, but in a little bit, we will hear the redemption shofar’s call. The gates of teshuvah will be locked and it will be impossible to change oneself. The Olam Hazeh will disappear with all the evildoers and only he who lives in kedushah will be able to go out from the Mitzrayim of Olam Hazeh, and to enter into the Third Beit Hamikdash. Don’t return to the mistake of the millions of Jews who didn’t leave Mitzrayim, of those who died in the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, of those who went in the path of the Haskalah Movement before the terrible Shoah and etc. You can’t say, “I didn’t hear, I didn’t know.”

How is it possible? How is it possible to continue to write? I don’t know what more it is possible to write, but, perhaps, nevertheless, we will speak about the most important point and that is faith and trust in Hashem. Faith and trust in Hashem - without this, there’s nothing. Without this, there’s no Torah; without this, there are no mitzvot; without this, there is no future, there’s nothing for which to live.

A Jew is naturally born with faith and trust in Hashem. It’s part of his neshamah, to know that Hashem is One and His name is One, that Hashem is omnipotent, that Hashem is the Master of the World, that Hashem created us and all the worlds and He rules over everything. He knows the thoughts of every person in the world. He knows the feelings of every person in the world. He leads every Jew and also, gentile, to the directions that He designs for their sakes and for their good - to every person in the world. Something amazing! And He is omnipotent, He is the Creator, He is the Truth, and we, all of us, are His creations. We are His children.

To be a Jew with trust and faith in Hashem, this is a very, very difficult thing. When a person is born into this world, he grows up, he learns to eat, to walk, to run, to ride a bicycle, to feel this world, but he doesn’t usually learn to sense himself - the neshamah that’s inside him - the dimension that we don’t see. But, with much perception, we can feel the neshamah which is a spiritual thing, eternal. [Morning Blessings: “My G-d, the soul You placed within me is pure. You created it, You fashioned it, You breathed it into me, You safeguard it within me, and eventually You will take it from me, and restore it to me in Time to Come.”]

The Jew needs to feel this. A man who is very involved in this world doesn’t feel it. He feels Olam Hazeh, all the surrounding things that bring us superficial amusement and happiness, things tasty to eat, ice cream, chocolates, cakes, good food with all types of meat, vegetables and various types of wine.

A man who is very involved with this world, and loves it, and the pleasures of this world are his goal, is not able to feel his neshamah. And in order to feel his neshamah, he needs to reduce the importance of Olam Hazeh, and to make use of this world in order to serve Hashem and not the Eigel Hazahav. Because the Olam Hazeh is the klipah that is stuck on, something rough, and when it is taken off of this world - this klipah is removed – then, he will have the sensitivity to feel internally his eternal Jewish neshamah, to feel the direct connection of every Jewish neshamah with HKB”H. And this is the delight that is over and above everything in this world. And it brings us to true happiness. When a man reveals the truth, draws close to HKB”H, this is the peak of the enjoyment.

How do we arrive to this? First of all, to reduce this world as much as is possible, to pray, to do mitzvot, to learn Torah, to make efforts to be a Jew according to the Torah. But, the basis of all Torah learning and all the mitzvot is trust and faith in Hashem, and together it will bring us to love Hashem. And when the person comes to feel his neshamah, and he ties his neshamah to the Torah, then he can feel the Creator of the World, and this is the most wonderful feeling. And when Mashiach Tzidkeinu will come, we will feel this every day, moment to moment, but at a much higher level, and there won't be a yetzer harah to bother us, and there will be for us possibilities to ascend and ascend and ascend.

In our world today, the Jew needs mesirut nefesh to reach the height of full trust in HKB"H, and he is certain that no matter what happens to him, it's for his good. He is sure that Hashem created him for a specific purpose and for the sake of reaching this goal, HKB"H gives all kinds of trials that are very difficult for us and we need to withstand them. If we withstand them, this is called mesirut nefesh. We are ready at any price, not to leave what we know is the truth and it doesn't matter if it's because of, for example, women who go with scarves, shawls and aprons (*) and long and wide skirts, and everyone laughs at them, but they do it in mesirut nefesh. ["Because for you we are slain all day long." See Sefer Hassidim] Because they know that this is modesty. They know that the great rabbis from previously, like the Chofetz Chaim [See original for reference] the Chatam Sofer [See original for reference] HaRav Sonnenfeld and many other rabbis said that a woman needs to be modest and needs a kerchief for a head covering [See original for reference] and to wear a scarf, shawl and etc. and there are pictures and photographs that confirm this.

In Shamayim, it's clear that the truly righteous were those who were also modest, and in this world, modesty is the basis of true Judaism, and the mitzvot of modesty for women are the most important. And they are ready to receive laughter and to suffer humiliation and despite everything, and in mesirut nefesh for the sake of Heaven, not to leave it. ["In the merit of the righteous women our fathers were redeemed from Mitzrayim, and in their merit in the future we will be redeemed." Yalkut Shimoni...]

An avreich who sits in mesirut nefesh and learns day and night is investing his neshamah in learning. When other avreichim are already working and bringing more salary, etc and etc., he's not ready to leave his way of life, with his Jewish dress, with his beard and long peyot, not ready to leave the externals of a true Jew and the internals of true Torah learning, not ready to leave it and this is mesirut nefesh. It's mesirut nefesh to be a Jew, even if they laugh about righteousness, holiness and his learning. Even if Jews like him - Jews who appear like him - laugh at him, he is not ready to leave his way. This is his mesirut nefesh.

Q. Is it not too extreme? After all, chazal said that this way is suitable only for individuals [See original for reference] and additionally, how is it possible to live on an avreich's salary of 1000 sheqels?

A. Not everyone needs to sit and learn all day, it's possible also to work, but you need to learn regularly. Every Jew must live in holiness, must do the mitzvot more accurately, must make efforts to do Hashem's will all day and all night, must leave the Eigel Hazahav, even if the Eigel Hazahav is dressed in tzitzit and kippa, because it's avodah zarah. He must eat kosher, but true kosher and not in all the restaurants and pizzarias, that even if there is a hechsher, it's impossible to know how much it's truly kosher, because it's very complicated to be a mashgiach in a place like this and there is a very great danger to the kashrut. It's forbidden to us to copy the way of life of the gentiles and to put a hechsher on it, because the goyische style cancels out the hechsher.

Walk on the street, see the promiscuity of women with tight clothes, short skirts, foreign wigs and etc. See jesting among the Chareidim, see Jews eating in the street, Chareidi Jews. See behavior unsuitable for Chareidi Jews. See violence among Chareidim that is the worst sin. [See original for reference.]

Every true Jew who wants the truth, goes against the way of the Erev Rav despite that the Erev Rav currently rules; walks and appears like a true Jew; receives laughter; receives embarrassments, but maintains a strong stand and it is mesirut nefesh; fights to maintain the Jewish street clean from goyischkeit; to receive hits, this is mesirut nefesh. This is a generation that must battle over Yiddishkeit, over true Judaism and not over "k'ilu" Judaism.

And Hashem sends for the sake of this all kinds of strong neshamas that are not ready to give up. It doesn't matter what they do to them, they're not ready to give up on the Jewish way of life, the Judaism that all day the Jew is busy only with the will of Hashem and it doesn't weary him. It gives him his strength; it gives him his reason for being; it gives him all his pleasure, to do the will of Hashem, from the morning til the night and from the night until the morning, in every single step, in every way of dress, in all behavior in the street and behavior in the home, with all the mitzvot, and in the matter of faith and trust in Hashem, and above everything, love of Hashem. [See original for reference.]

Q. Are you still advising to store water and food in the house?

A. It's very worthwhile that there will be in the house water and food for two weeks, including batteries, etc. Like the Jews in Mitzrayim went out with a bit of food and it helped them last a long time, so we also will do a bit of hishtadlut and Hashem will help us. No need for more than two weeks. Except for this, we will all see amazing things, a great fear, just so we know, that what will bring us to the geulah, it will be our trust in Hashem.
__________________________

(*) Scarf: Like a scarf over the headcovering that covers the head, the nape and shoulders, the neck and throat, that which the Daughters of Israel were accustomed to clothe when they went out from the house, the scarf does not cover the face.

Shawl: Like a coat, cape, hiding the shape of the body.

Apron/Smock: Like a regular apron or smock, indicative of modesty, origin of the dress is the religion ruling of Ezra the Sopher when he ascended to the land and saw the promiscuity that was in Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Yonatan Eibshitz [Ye'arot Devash...] writes so a woman wearing an apron/smock in the public domain is protected against the Angel of Death, possessor of many eyes. Thus were clothed Jewish women until about 50 years ago.

UPDATE ON SYRIA

2011-11-27T21:26:00.000+02:00

2 Kislev 5772

By all appearances, the West is going to try to do a 'Libya' on Syria and it gets closer by the day. Preparations are well underway.

Arab sanctions find Syria's 7 neighbors on alert. Russian missiles for Assad

...the armies of Syria's seven neighbors were already scrambling into position on standby on its borders for acts of retaliation. Military suspense mounted after the Arab League vote to cut off transactions with Syria's central bank, withdraw Arab funding from projects and other painful sanctions over Bashar Assad's refusal to halt his crackdown on protest.

Debkafile's military sources report Israeli armored brigades pushed forward up to the Lebanese and Syrian borders; Ankara placed three armored brigades, its air force and navy in a state of preparedness, likewise Hizballah and the Lebanese and Jordanian armed forces, while the US and Russia are in the midst of a naval buildup opposite Syrian shores.

Military sources in the Gulf report that 150 Iranian Revolutionary Guards specialists had landed at a military airport south of Damascus on their way to Lebanon to join Hizballah which began bringing its rockets out of their hideouts.

It's ironic that just at this time, we are moving into the holiday period in which we celebrate an ancient victory over the Syrian-Greeks. If we go to war with Syria at Hanukah time, will we then be at war with Iran in time for Purim? With Geula for Pesach? Hmmmmm.

That doesn't mean, however, that we would necessarily have to wait til Pesach for Mashiach. Personally, I envision the Erev Rav regime collapsing due to a colossal failure during the imminent war with our nearest neighbors and MBY coming forward to take charge in the resulting vacuum.

Remember Yehudit's vision?

"In response to kassams and rockets on Northern Israel, [MBY] will give instructions to completely exterminate a city in Syria."

The prophets in the Tanakh bear this out as well.

(Yeshayahu 17:1) "Behold Damascus shall be removed from being a city, and it shall be depth of ruins."

(Yirmiyahu 49:24-27) "Damascus has become feeble, she has turned to flee, and trembling has seized her: distress and pangs seized her like a woman in confinement. 'How was the city of praise not fortified, the city of my joy?' Therefore, her youths shall fall in her broad places, and all her warriors shall be destroyed on that day, says the Lord of Hosts. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of the Ben-hadad."

Are we this close to the revelation of Mashiach Ben Yosef? Is war with Syria the sign? Stay tuned...

CHODESH TOV

2011-11-27T13:06:00.000+02:00

ROSH CHODESH KISLEV 5772

Getting too close for comfort

2011-11-24T12:30:00.002+02:00

27 Cheshvan 5772

Western Powers Warn Citizens, Leave Syria Now!
Westerns powers are warning their citizens to get out of Syria while they still can. The US embassy heightened an alert Wednesday.

Western and other nations are warning their citizens to leave Syria immediately, and have issued alerts not to travel there as the security situation continues to deteriorate in the face of President Bashar al-Assad's determination to defy not only the United Nations, but even his regional neighbors at the Arab League.

The U.S. Embassy in Damascus issued a heightened to alert to all American citizens who are still in the country to leave on any commercial flight that might still be available.

The message posted on the Internet, entitled, "Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens: Significant decrease in the number of commercial flights from Syria," was grim. It included a directive to Wardens that "Transmission by phone is mandatory."

Report: US & Arab States Set To Impose No Fly Zone Over Syria
Plan to cripple Assad’s military forces within 24 hours

Reports out of Kuwait suggest that Arab states are set to impose a no fly zone over Syria with US logistical support, advancing the prospect of a military assault to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad under a “humanitarian” pretext.

“Senior European sources said that Arab jet fighters, and possibly Turkish warplanes, backed by American logistic support will implement a no fly zone in Syria’s skies, after the Arab League will issue a decision, under its Charter, calling for the protection of Syrian civilians,” reports Albawaba, citing Kuwait’s al Rai daily.

...As part of a plan to cripple the country’s military forces within 24 hours, the “movement of Syrian military vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers and artillery,” would all be banned under the terms of the no fly zone.

"Shawl Women"

2011-11-23T19:54:00.000+02:00

27 Cheshvan 5772

In a message dated 8 Elul 5771, one of the autistic boys said:

"...you will see many women who will decide to sacrifice themselves for the sake of Heaven and will begin to dress themselves in much modesty. And this will annoy the Mitnagdim (those who oppose them). And then, there will be the BIG war."

Already, a week later , on 16 Elul 5771, this article appeared on Ynet:

Haredim launch war on 'Taliban women'

An internal haredi battle is taking place these days against "Taliban women", a radical sect of women wearing cloaks and observing strict modesty rules.

Ads posted in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh are announcing the establishment of a special committee against the sect's members.

"Help help, Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh are crying out," says the poster, referring to the "Taliban women" as "a new sect of cruel women making people miserable and destroying homes, risking lives and showing no mercy to little children."

Yeshiva World News has continued to report on it:

Eida Combating In House Fanaticism – AKA Taliban

‘Taliban Woman’ Causes Terror Alert In Yerushalayim

Today, they've printed the most intelligent and compassionate treatment of the issue to date:

HaRav Yitzchak Ratzabi Regarding ‘Taliban Women’

HaRav Yitzchak Ratzabi Shlita in a recent shiur addressed the ongoing controversy surrounding women who dress similar to Arab women, known in Israel as Taliban Women or Shawl Women. The rav is a prominent Torah figure in the Yemenite community in Eretz Yisrael.

The rav feels that the opposition is incorrect and the women wishing to take on additional stringencies regarding tznius should be praised, not admonished. The rav ponders how rabbonim, talmidei chachamim in Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak can be waging war against the trend, which he views in a positive light.

...While the rabbis may not be capable of instructing women to do this, but now, there are those who have decided to take this upon themselves and they are not honored or respected, but ridiculed. They call them names in the street; ‘Arabs, Taliban, Palestinians’. They are shamed and disgraced and they are embarrassed but they continue with mesirus nefesh, L’Shem Shomayim, and the matter must be probed”.

In response to questions, the rav explains why the rabbonim oppose this. He stated the rabbis feel this is not the way, that they attract more stares this way than dressing as others do, and some rabbonim feel such apparel is a chilul Hashem since the non-frum look at them and speak of how the chareidim dress. The rabbi explained his words refer to shawls and scarves, emphasizing regarding a veil, “there is nothing to talk about”.

The rav also stated there is another “very serious” matter, that the same rabbonim who publically came out against the shawls are not speaking out against the wigs. “If they were speaking out against permissiveness and immorality, and also spoke out about this (wigs), I would say their actions are L’Shem Shomayim, but it appears the evil inclination has grabbed them. The yetzer hora at times targets righteous people.”

Ron Paul - best for the US (AND Israel)

2011-11-23T12:37:00.000+02:00

26 Cheshvan 5772

Ron Paul's strength in Iowa shows it's too soon to write him off

...As other candidates – Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain – dash forward hare-like only to stumble or be run over by the next new thing, Paul is the perpetual tortoise in the race, mild-mannered, confident and unwavering in his positions (no flip-flopper he), advancing steadily toward the first real test in the Iowa caucuses six weeks from now.

As I hope was made clear in my post of three days ago, The Alliance, I do not believe that the traditional relationship between Israel and the US is healthy for either one. I have been impressed with Congressman Ron Paul's steadfast position on US non-involvement with Israel's right to it sovereignty.

Suddenly, the Israeli media is catching on to this:

Ron Paul: Why does Israel need our help?

...Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul suggested that the US should have less involvement in Israel's affairs.

GOP’s Ron Paul: None of Our Business if Israel Attacks Iran

..."I think they're quite capable of taking care of themselves," the Texas Congressman said, noting that Israel has nuclear missiles. "Why does Israel need our help? We need to get out of their way," he added.

He is absolutely right. It's time that Americans understood (and their politicians admitted) that America is in decline. Despite popular opinion, American foreign policy does not favor Israel or Israeli interests. The worst thing we can do in the eyes of the goyim is to beg them for their help. Far better that they step out of our way and that we learn to stand on our own two feet and trust only in HKB"H.

Connected to the Suffering of the Shekhina?

2011-11-21T18:48:00.000+02:00

25 Cheshvan 5772

Since posting my "How do you feel?" poll, I've received quite a few emails on the subject of spiritual sensitivity. When the subject came up again at home and also, on Lazer Beams, I took it as a sign that this is a subject whose time has come.

A full third of voters identified with a feeling of "heaviness" and "paralysis." I was frankly surprised by the number and very gratified that it justified my own feelings. I guess everyone who feels this way wonders if it isn't only in his mind. With the writer's permission, I'd like to share something I received this morning:

"...I can't tell you what a relief it was to read your blogpost and know that I am not alone. I would never admit this to my family or friends for fear of being labeled a nut-case, but I have had some strange experiences during my davening.

It wasn't always this way. It started in the months before the second intifada broke out. Suddenly, in the middle of davening, I would feel as if a fountain was welling up inside me and tears would begin to pour forth. I felt completely consumed by a feeling of abject sadness and terrible expectation of something awful about to happen. During those times, I would beg Hashem to have mercy on His children and to please bring the geula shleima. Slowly, I would get myself back under control.

While the strength of the experience has waxed and waned, it has never completely left me. Recently, though, it has gotten worse. So much worse, that I have begun to avoid davening. Sometimes, it feels like I could drown in the sorrow. Last week, I began to cry during the shema and couldn't finish it. The weird thing is, I do not have these feelings outside of prayer.

Once, a long time ago, I did mention something of it to an acquaintance who remarked that I was a channel for the Shekhina. I didn't understand that and I didn't want to entertain that thought. It seemed too presumptuous. Then, I read what the autistic man said, "For those who do trust in Hashem and are truly waiting for Mashiach….and truly weep over the Shekhina’s suffering, it will be the greatest joy."

What do you think he meant by that? Have you ever heard of this phenomenon before? ....

So I did a quick search and came up with the following from Chabad.org:

...You need to know that the moon is a reference to G‑d's immanent presence in the world, otherwise known as the Shechinah. You also need to know that the Shechina, like the moon, wanes and waxes, as G‑d's presence sometimes shines brightly in the world, and at other times is shadowed and darkened. Some souls are conceived (not on earth, but above) at the waxing of the cycle. Those souls enter the world with a strong body and glide through life happily. Other souls are conceived with the darkening of the Shechina. Rabbi Shimon tells us that these souls share in the suffering of the Shechina—and that is why she is their constant companion. Eventually, this cycle of the Shechina will resolve in an everlasting fullness as G‑d's presence will shine in ultimate intensity in this world, and these souls "shall also be renewed with her."

So far, some answers. But many puzzles remain: Why must the Shechinah suffer? And what is the point behind these souls suffering along with her?

Concerning the suffering of the Shechina, Rabbi Yitzchaak Luria, the Ari, provided a deep and enlightening teaching. He explained that everything of our world is vitalized and sustained in existence by a divine spark. The higher the spark, he said, the lower it falls. The most intense divine light, therefore, is to be found in the darkest corners of our world. The Shechinah is both the light of G‑d's presence and the mother of all souls. The function of the human soul is to rescue these fallen sparks from their darkness so they may be reconnected to the Infinite Light. The Shechinah suffers as she descends into the darkness to perform that rescue. This, the Ari says, is "the secret of the exile of the Shechinah," as the Talmud says, "When the Jewish People go into exile, the Shechina goes with them."4

I was struck by the allusion to "waxing and waning" in both the reader's email and the Chabad.org article. Surely, it's no coincidence. It also would seem that he has intuitively understood what is required of him as he says, "During those times, I would beg Hashem to have mercy on His children and to please bring the geula shleima,...."

I found this reference to the Rebbe of Lelov-Jerusalem:

...Another passage describes the Rebbe on the night the Six Day War broke out: "The beit midrash was darkened because of the blackout, all the windows covered over with strips of tape for their length and breadth. We stood trembling with fear," said one of those present. "The Rebbe entered and stood at the head of the table. His appearance aroused awe. For a long while he cried out, his voice breaking with d'vekut [devotional God-consciousness], 'Mama, Mama, Mama!'" "We palpably felt," said a hasid who was present, "how the Rebbe was pleading before his Maker like a child before its mother for the Jewish people." (Moshe Ish HaElokim, vol.1, p.247)

Every time the Rebbe finished the blessing over the moon, he called out longingly, "Have a good month, holy Shechinah!" (Moshe Ish HaElokim, vol.2, p.93)

One of the Rebbe's intimates, a hasid who was with the Rebbe once at the Western Wall [of the Temple], turned his ear to hear the Rebbe's prayer. The Rebbe whispered, "My Sister, my Beloved! The time has come to speed the redemption!" (Moshe Ish HaElokim, vol.2, p.93) This anecdote tells us that the Rebbe was relating to God, to the Shechinah, as to a female beloved, using endearments found in the Song of Songs.

I am not equipped to offer advice. Only a Rav can do that. But, I urge the writer not to abandon his prayers, however painful they may be for him. Torah.org...

R’ Moshe Hager shlita (the Vizhnitzer Rebbe in Bnei Brak, Israel) observes: Raising one’s hands to Heaven refers to prayer. This verse teaches that one’s prayer should be primarily motivated by a desire to increase G-d’s honor, the honor of “Anochi” (a reference to G-d, as in the first word of the Ten Commandments). We are taught that the Shechinah shares in our pain (see Tehilim 91:15). [One way to understand this concept is that G-d created the world as an act of kindness, and He is disappointed (so-to-speak) when our deeds force Him to punish us.] Therefore, if we pray for the Shechinah’s pain to end, any pain or suffering we are experiencing will necessarily end as well. (Sichot U’ma’amarei Kodesh p.213)

A related thought:

R’ Mordechai Schwab z”l (1911-1994; mashgiach ruchani of Mesivta Bais Shraga in Monsey, New York) writes: We read in Shir Ha’shirim (5:2), “Open your heart to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, tamati / My perfection.” A midrash comments: Read “tamati” as “te’omati” / “My twin.” Just as one twin feels the other twin’s pain, so Hashem feels our pain. (On other occasions, R’ Schwab analogized Hashem’s reaction to our suffering to the pain a surgeon would feel if he operated on his own child.)

R’ Schwab adds: R’ Yosef Karo z”l (1488-1575; author of the Shulchan Aruch) used to be visited regularly by an angel, whose teachings to R’ Karo are recorded in the work Maggid Meisharim. The angel told R’ Karo: If you knew and felt the pain that the Shechinah feels when you sin, you would be so saddened that you would be unable to enjoy the taste of food. Furthermore, if we would focus all of our prayers solely on ending the suffering of the Shechinah (so-to-speak), we would be assured of being answered, and the Final Redemption would occur. (Kovetz Sichot Ma’amar Mordechai Vol. I, p.9)

It could be that the writer is also a highly sensitive person as Miriam Adahan describes in her article the Highly Sensitive Person and should give some thought to her counsel:

...One personality type which tends to be rejected (and self-rejecting) is the "Highly Sensitive Person" (HSP). ...[one of whose traits is] * prone to a very rich inner emotional depth which few others can understand or value. ... Sadly, HSPs are often seen as defective by our society, which values toughness and equates emotional sensitivity with immaturity, stupidity or insanity. Most therapists see sensitivity as a "fatal flaw" and seek ways to dampen the emotions.... HSPs are souls destined to a life of spirituality and artistic creativity. They have the capacity to be the moral and spiritual leaders of society, ....Your job is essentially to be a SPIRITUAL WARRIOR in this world. THIS REQUIRES THAT YOU BE RESPONSIBILE AND DISCIPLINED. Focus on your spiritual skills: compassion, empathy, transcendence, inner wisdom and communion with God....

If anyone out there has anything to add to this, you are invited to share it with me in an email and mention whether it is ok to post it here for the benefit of others.

How Ironic!

2011-11-21T18:34:00.003+02:00

25 Cheshvan 5772

Headline on the 26th anniversary of the arrest of Jonathan Pollard.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming.

Hezbollah's longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further.

In recent months, CIA officials have secretly been scrambling to protect their remaining spies - foreign assets or agents working for the agency - before Hezbollah can find them.

"To Arouse Heavenly Mercy"

2011-11-21T10:21:00.002+02:00

See full-size at Dani18.com.

Re-Posting plus Q & A

2011-11-20T19:56:00.001+02:00

24 Cheshvan 5772

I am re-posting this message along with the long-promised Q & A that was to follow. Sorry for the delay. I had a lot of trouble translating it and I'm still not sure it's completely right.

Message from Binyamin at end of year 5771

28 Tishrei 5772

There will yet be very big things. And what more is there to say!? At long last, what we have been talking about for seventeen years is beginning to take place. It’s not ‘beginning,’ because the process already started some time ago. And still, with all the troubles and with all the falls, with the money as well as the bizarre and difficult things from nature, also wars in every place and riots everywhere, and seeing the sheker, that it ascends and rises more and more, being exposed more and more, in every corner, in every place. With all this, at the moment that there is a drop of calm – a majority of the people return to what was. They don’t think about teshuvah. They don’t think about drawing closer to Hashem. They’re returning to the same nonsense, to the same concepts which are just the sheker of olam hazeh, and therefore, much greater troubles are coming now and almost without a break between them. [Sanhedrin: “If you see troubles pulling like a river, etc.”] Until Hashem will repair all the true Jews. In Egypt, it took a whole year, all the plagues, with breaks between them, but for us, there won’t be a lot of time in between one and the next – like now.

Like we said once, you’ll look above and it will come from below; you’ll look right – it will come from the left. Now, it’s from the right as well as from the left, from above and also from below, and from one side and also from the other side - from every place. It’s impossible to know where to look and what to think.

For the not-intelligent people who are still planning for the future six months ahead when there will be some social gathering or in hopeful expectation of some trip that they will make abroad. So, I ask very much from them: To see the truth, that it’s impossible to know what will happen from moment to moment, and now, especially, it will be what it will be, very difficult for those who do not trust in Hashem. For those who do trust in Hashem and are truly waiting for Mashiach….and truly weep over the Shekhina’s suffering, it will be the greatest joy.

So, those who understand what I’m saying, I bless you that all of us together will receive our righteous Mashiach in mercy and happiness. And to those who don’t understand what I said, I pity you and pray to HKB”H that nevertheless, he will save you in power.

Q. How do we prepare properly for Rosh Hashana? How is it different from the other days of spiritual preparation for the service of Hashem? What is required of us during this period?

A. Again, the most important thing is that we know with certainty, with all our strength and with all our essence that “ayn od milvado” – there’s nothing besides Him. And only He is able to save us; from hunger, as well as from various plagues, from every thing. [Psalms 91:3 “For He will save you from the snare that traps from the devastating pestilence.”] Only HKB”H is able to save us, also from diseases, everything, everything. Only HKB”H is able to save us. This we need to know.

But, the second thing and most important that we not forget, is that we should cleanse ourselves – “Kedoshim tihiyu.” A person who is not holy, or at least trying to be holy, a person who doesn’t understand what it means to be holy, he can’t be a Jew. He can’t be saved. “I’m not saying he has to be perfect, but he needs to go in the right direction with holiness. And this is about his body, inside his thoughts, in his behavior, in his house, in his synagogue, in the street, in every situation and in every place. “Kedoshim tihiyu”- is the most important thing, practically speaking.

Q. And about the least important, you’re saying…

A. Of course, because we’re enjoying sitting in the restaurants and gorging ourselves. [See Ramban at the beginning of Parshat Kedoshim.] We’re going to the zoo with the family and crowding together there on chol hamoed with all kinds of ‘shkotsim’. We’re enjoying flying to vacation in America or going to kivrei tzadikim in Europe. But, who says that these flights are kosher? And who says that there is some permission to exit from the land? Going out, returning, as if there’s no regulations that say that a Jew is not able to leave Eretz Yisrael just like that. Yes. They’re looking for all kinds of reasons that maybe it will satisfy the law. But, it’s not suitable for the majority.

Q. As can be seen, it’s because they don’t sense the holiness of Eretz Yisrael at all…

A. There is kedushah in all of Eretz Yisrael, especially in Yerushalayim. But, the Jews, with all their lack of modesty, with all their lack of holiness, it results in a thick layer of thick klipah that sits on the holiness of Eretz Yisrael, upon the ground, upon the land. Like the layer of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. But, underneath all this mess, under all that grime, it’s holy. The holiness remains and there is no one who can hide this. Only what? We need to return in teshuva. And every time we remove the klipah from ourselves, then the outer klipah that seals the ground of Eretz Yisrael will go down. The teshuva of every individual Jew, and of course if in groups, decides to do this. But, Hashem will bring us to fears, to situations such that our teshuva will be so high and so important – that it [the klipah] will disappear. And with all the evildoers that are disappearing – they will take with them part of the klipah.

Q. It’s told that the Chofetz Chaim ztz”l, in Days of Awe prayers, there was a reduction of saying piyutim and in the same hour, there were intensive suggestions to think how to help Am Yisrael. We are in a situation in our days that we need to think and to pray from morning to night in order to know what to do.

A. Only the gedolim are able to think about how to repair the generation. We will have to be satisfied with this, that every single Jew will fix himself. Perhaps he will help to fix his family. It’s already able to be a big accomplishment. If our tzadikim can also repair us? As far as I know, we have great tzadikim, that’s true, but, the world is so difficult that only with the personal connection every Jew has with Hashem is he able to repair.

Q. With regard to spurring livelihood, in the Zohar HaKadosh, it is brought that future events, Israel in the final exile, is to be redeemed from within the hardship and grief of poverty. Until how much do we need to try and to look for a source for the basis of work and etc.

A. Whoever suffers from poverty knows that it is not so simple to go and find a job. And when there is livelihood, there is no connection between the exertion and efforts in the job to earn wages, and in our generation especially. But, for those who work for Hashem, it’s already important. A person has to make efforts and it depends on his trust how much he needs to do.

The Alliance

2011-11-20T12:28:00.000+02:00

23 Cheshvan 5772

I've made no secret of the fact that I view the United States as the embodiment of "Rome" today and a more dangerous enemy than Iran because they come to us in the guise of "friendship" and undermine us from within.

The propaganda film embedded below should give every honest, thinking Jew pause to consider if the alliance between the Erev Rav regime and "Rome" is really "good for the Jews."

Think about it. Israel as America's enforcer, enabling it to export its empty, hedonistic, consumerist, soul-killing culture to the rest of the world; enabling it to demonize and wreak destruction on everything that opposes it (balances it).

We've been so brainwashed by the Erev Rav who will fall from power when the "Roman" exile ends, the voice of reason and truth sounds radical to our ears.

Think about it.

Crazy World Today

2011-11-17T17:03:00.000+02:00

21 Cheshvan 5772

The next financial crisis will be hellish, and it’s on its way

"There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner," says hedge fund legend Mark Mobius, "because we haven't solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis."

Israel’s Secret Iran Attack Plan

(You have got to read this one.)

Did Sarah Imeinu die of "Broken Heart Syndrome"?

2011-11-17T09:59:00.002+02:00

20 Cheshvan 5772

I learned once that Sarah Imeinu died at the moment she heard that Avraham had taken Yitzchak to be sacrificed to Hashem. The shock was too grat. Does this explain what happened to her?

Women more likely to have 'broken heart syndrome'

Females are seven to nine times more likely to suffer "broken heart syndrome," when sudden or prolonged stress like an emotional breakup or death causes overwhelming heart failure or heart attack-like symptoms, the first nationwide study of this finds.

...It happens when a big shock, even a good one like winning the lottery, triggers a rush of adrenaline and other stress hormones that cause the heart's main pumping chamber to balloon suddenly and not work right. Tests show dramatic changes in rhythm and blood substances typical of a heart attack, but no artery blockages that typically cause one. Most victims recover within weeks, but in rare cases it proves fatal.

..."It's the only cardiac condition where there's such a female preponderance," ....

Jews in NY

2011-11-16T20:25:00.000+02:00

20 Cheshvan 5772

LOOK OUT!

OWS Protesters Calling For ‘Day Of Action’ Following Loss Of Camp In Zuccotti Park

...protesters are calling for "a national day of direct action" on Thursday. ...protesters are planning three major actions Thursday starting with a "shut down" of Wall Street.

It all starts with a rally in Liberty Square starting at 7 a.m. to “put an end to Wall Street’s reign of terror.”

Then, protesters will fan out to all five boroughs of the city in what’s being called Occupy the Subway.

They plan on gathering at 16 subways stations around New York City to take their message to the trains.

Finally, they say tens of thousands of protesters will end the day in Foley Square followed by a march to the Brooklyn Bridge to mark the two month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement

...While the official movement is planning its day of action, other individuals seem to be making plans of their own.

In a video posted on YouTube after protesters were evicted from Zuccotti Park, a demonstrator in the crowd says “On the 17th, we’re going to burn New York City to the ground.”

Later in the video, he then goes on to say “No more talking. They’ve got guns, we’ve got bottles. They’ve got bricks, we’ve got rocks…in a few days you’re going to see what a Molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s.”

New York is not the only place it's getting wild out there:

D. C. - BULLET HIT WINDOW WHERE OBAMAS LIVE

Seattle - Pregnant teen, elderly woman among pepper sprayed

How do you feel?

2011-11-16T15:18:00.002+02:00

19 Cheshvan 5772

I have never felt such heaviness and dread before. I feel nearly paralyzed with it. Is it just me? Tell me how you feel.

Ominous Signs

2011-11-15T17:00:00.000+02:00

19 Cheshvan 5772

IDF to Take Offensive in Gaza If Missile Attacks Resume

'Hizbullah on Alert, Preparing for War'

Report: Iran blames Israel for deadly blast

Hashem's Blessing on Yisrael

2011-11-15T10:47:00.002+02:00

18 Cheshvan 5772

Israel National News reports:

Rain, Rain Don’t Go Away
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

...“Large quantities of rain fell on Monday along the coast even as far south as Be’er Sheva,” veteran weather forecaster Uri Batz told Arutz Sheva.

...“Six straight says of rain is rare in our climate. We are on the right path and there is more to come. I think the rainfall this winter will be at least average.”

...A week and a half ago, Jews in Israel began inserting into daily prayers the request that HaShem will “give us dew and rain for a blessing.”

...“He makes the wind blow and the rain fall” is recited from Simchat Torah, which follows the holiday of Sukkot, until the last day of Passover.

This is a clear sign that our tefillah and teshuva was accepted on Yom Kippur. May the blessings extend to bringing Mashiach Tzidkeinu quickly.

18 Marcheshvan

2011-11-14T18:55:00.000+02:00

This is Rabbi Meir David Kahane's, ztz"l, Hy"d, 21st yahrtzeit. His memory will forever be a blessing to all of his students.

********

Update on the Iran situation:

Iran will have five nukes by April 2012. Only 2-3 months left for military option

"...Jewish leaders meeting Sunday were informed that the Obama administration had intelligence data that the US and Israel have no more than a couple of months left for striking down Iran's military weapons development by force. This will not longer be viable after Iran is armed with five nuclear bombs or warheads."

Op-Ed: Are You Prepared For War With Iran? They Won’t Be The Only Ones Surprised By An IAF Strike

"Whether you support a military strike on Iran or are against it, or you simply don’t care much about it, you better be prepared for it.

...Now, if you were expecting one of the cars with speakers to roll down your block announcing the military strike will start at 9pm tonight, you’re in for a surprise. It’s not going to happen! You will be just as surprised as the Iranians will be.

And that means that the time to prepare for such an attack, is now. Does you’re family know where the closest bomb shelter is? Do you have an emergency supply of food and water saved up? Do you have a radio to stay updated and informed inside the bomb shelter?"

I wonder why he doesn't mention gas masks.

Surviving the End of Days

2011-11-13T16:14:00.000+02:00

16 Cheshvan 5772

"...I [Hashem] will be relieved of my adversaries, and I shall avenge Myself of My enemies! I will turn My hand against you, until I refine your dross as with lye and I remove all your base metal. Then I will restore your judges as at first and your counselors as at the beginning; after that you will be called 'City of Righteousness,' 'Faithful City.' Zion will be redeemed through justice and those who return to her through righteousness; but calamity awaits rebels and sinners together, and those who forsake Hashem will perish;...." Isaiah 1:24-28

"Sinners were afraid in Zion, trembling seized hypocrites. 'Which of us can live with the consuming fire? Which of us can live with the eternal conflagration?' One who walks with righteousness and speaks with truthfulness, who spurns extortionate profit and shakes off his hands from holding a bribe, who seals his ears from hearing of bloodshed* and shuts his eyes from seeing evil. He shall dwell in heights; in rocky fortresses is his stronghold; his bread will be granted, his water assured." Isaiah 33:14-16

* (Radak) He does not let unsubstantiated talk incite him to bloodshed.

"Am-reika"

2011-11-13T14:45:00.001+02:00

16 Cheshvan 5772

"An empty people" - it's a perfect description of Edom at the End of Days. The Maharal said that each world empire had some worthy attribute which allowed it to bring up another world empire in its wake. All except the the fourth empire - Edom. It brings nothing in its wake except destruction. We've seen his words vindicated in every country that the US has invaded in order to bring its form of governance, economy and culture to bear.

Two articles from today's internet news points up the truth of it as well.

New Palestinian Authority Gimmick: Occupy ‘Settler’ Buses

...The ISM, an extreme left-wing group that includes anarchists who have helped take over Israeli state land for the PA, is linking the new PR effort with the Freedom Rides of the U.S. Civil Rights against then-segregated buses in the southern United States in the 1950s and 60s.

“Palestinian Freedom Riders will attempt to board segregated settler buses heading to Jerusalem through the occupied West Bank, in an act of civil disobedience that takes its inspiration from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders,” according to the ISM.

Circus school leads Jews, Arabs to climb separation walls

“They all watch MTV and wear jeans. They look at each other as kids not as Jews and Arabs,” Israel Circus School founder says.

MTV and jeans. Equality of 'rights.' The precious and priceless Jewish neshama is being sacificed on the altar of these empty 'values.' The Master of the Universe is not going to tolerate it for very much longer. Better hurry and pick your side.

In the Shadow of Iran

2011-11-10T12:18:00.003+02:00

13 Cheshvan 5772

What can I say? It's scary, but I'm not afraid. I know Who is in control. But, Iran is very much on my mind as it probably is for all the thinking people of the world. Everyone must on some level sense that something really big is looming. I feel like the last few weeks have been the quiet before the storm. That's why I kept expecting something - something coming from the skies.

I had an unusual dream in March of 2005 - before Aza became a launching base for Hamas missiles in late 2005; before Hezbollah rained down missiles on northern Israel in 2006 and even before Achmadinejad was elected president of Iran. This is how I described it in an email to a friend in April 2005:

It was night-time and I was in a high place overlooking the coastal plain. (The way it looks from Hwy 1 at Sha'ar Haggai, except it was a completely unobstructed view). I could clearly see the city lights from Ashkelon all the way to Haifa. In the area of Tel Aviv-Herzliya, the lights formed a grid of Stars-of-David.

Something bright in the corner of my left eye caught my attention and when I looked, at first, it was a star and then it was the full Moon with wings and it was hovering. As I looked at it, a death's head (skull) spread across it's face as if it was turning from facing the west to look at me. Suddenly it shot off in the direction of the coast, moving from east to west and the words "death comes from the sky" entered my mind.

I was outside under pine trees like in the Jerusalem forest and it was night-time. A woman wearing a snood came along and told me we had to quickly get into shelters underground and I went down a ladder into a hole in the ground, but I felt that we were safe there.

Immediately upon awakening, I had a clear sense of the dream's meaning.

The high place where I am protected is Jerusalem. The connection between the stars of David and Tel Aviv-Herzliya is this---stars of David are the traditional symbol for the modern secular state of Israel and their connection to the Tel Aviv-Herzliya area is obvious. Tel Aviv represents Israeli materialism and abandonment of G-d - the secular state that wants to be like all the other nations. It is where the Defense department is located and from where Israel's wars are managed, signifying reliance on military might. Jerusalem is its opposite---Jewishness as opposed to Israeliness; spirituality and clinging to G-d.

The "flying from east to west" indicates that the danger is coming from the east. It is a missile attack---missiles will rain down from the sky. It could be from Arabs in the cities of Shomron, but my sense was that it would be Iran---Iranian missiles.

The Moon is indicating the time of the attack---the full moon.

So, what intrigues me the most about this dream is that, at that time, there was no logical reason to make an association with Iran. And while the coast from Ashkelon and south and from Haifa and north have been hit, until today, the area betwen Ashkelon and Haifa - which I saw in the dream - has not been hit by missiles.

Today's news is reporting that Israel will attack Iran's nuclear facilities with logistical support from the US either next month or soon after the first of the year 2012. We've been hearing this off and on it seems like forever. I remember when April 2006 was being touted as doomsday for Iran. But, since the IAEA report which came out late Tuesday, the Israeli government now has carte blanche to attack Iran, which it did not possess before. The world is no longer denying that Iran has intent to build and use nuclear weapons.

However, I do not believe that it will happen this way. I have every expectation of an Iranian pre-emptive strike - just like in my dream. If they become convinced that an attack is imminent, why would they wait for it? They believe G-d is on their side. They do not have to consider the political ramifications. Furthermore, if they are to be the ones who bring down Edom, as our sources indicate, they must do so from a position of strength which would not be possible in the aftermath of an Israeli or NATO coalition first-strike.

I am of the opinion, as are others, that Iran already has one or two nukes in reserve that were sold to them by North Korea. (They are the only ones who possess such weapons who are cash-strapped enough to risk it.) I think our government will be caught unawares and this failure, among others, will lead to the downfall of the Erev Rav-lead secular state. (More on that later, iy"H.)

Today, Uncle Sam may think he is going to contribute intelligence and logistical support from the sidelines, but the Creator has in mind to draw him firmly into the thick of it. ("...for I have brought Eisav's calamity upon him, the time when I will call him to account. ...Bozrah will be made desolate, a shame, a ruin and a curse; and all its towns will suffer eternal destruction." Yirmiyahu 49:8, 13)

How might that happen? As I said yesterday, it looks as if the world is being painted into a corner where East and West will end up in the ultimate showdown and Jewish sources corroborate this. (More on this later, too, G-d willing. Time is pressing.)

Bear in mind that the 15th of the month of Cheshvan is Shabbat Kodesh, but the moon will appear to be "full" for a day or two either side of that date. Also, bear in mind that the 17th of Cheshvan is the anniversary of the worldwide deluge - the Mabul -the Flood of Noah.

There are two ways to kasher utensils, either by water or by fire. G-d once purified the world in water and at the End of Days, He will purify it with fire.

[Note: I never understood why a bright star next to the moon figured into this dream until last night when I pointed out the night sky to my grandson. Could it be a further sign that I could not possibly have known about or predicted? "BRIGHT CONJUNCTION: Last night, sky watchers around the world witnessed a conjunction between Jupiter and the Moon."] Sure enough, I focused on the star (Jupiter) before gazing at the Moon because it's brightness and proximity to the Moon was so unusual.]

Sharing Thoughts

2011-11-09T11:26:00.001+02:00

12 Cheshvan 5772

I'm a captive audience. I'm forced to listen as a self-satisfied, pompous ignoramus pours forth lies and slanders against the faithful of Hashem. My heart pounds and I can feel the flame of my zealous soul flare up and begin to choke me. Ad matai!!?

I dare not grant it release to act. It's not yet time. The birur must be allowed to continue until the time of freewill is over. So I concentrate on reading the day's news. Anything to blot out the droning voice of heresy.

A story catches my eye: Bereaved Father: We've Lost Faith in the System

"Shalom Rachum, whose son Ophir was killed by terrorists after being lured to Ramallah by a female terrorist in 2001, expressed his disappointment on Tuesday over the treatment his family has received from the Israeli authorities.

...“I’ve had difficult days since she was released,” he said. “I’ve lost faith in the country and the system. I feel sad and isolated. I have other children so I cannot afford to sit and feel sorry for myself, but the recent period since she was let go has been too much to bear.”

My heart is moved to pity and compassion for this son of Israel. I can sympathize with his pain and confusion, but I know that he is swallowing a bitter spiritual medicine which will ultimately bring healing to his soul. This is precisely what he needs - to lose "faith" in the state and the system. We must put our faith and trust ONLY IN HKB"H and HIM ALONE.

So. The asteroid danger has passed...for now.

Biggest asteroid in 35 years swings close to Earth

..."'It's a fantastic opportunity to educate the public that there are things out in space that we need to be aware of,' including this latest flyby, said observatory director Ron Dantowitz.

...If an asteroid that size would hit the planet, Purdue University professor Jay Melosh calculated the consequences. The impact would carve a crater four miles across and 1,700 feet deep. And if it slammed into the ocean, it would trigger 70-foot-high tsunami waves. "

And it would appear that there will be no serious 'fallout' from the remains of Comet Elenin. All of this should make us extremely aware of Divine protection and extremely grateful. When we contemplate what could have been.... It is only Hashem's protective hand which holds back all the destructiveness of nature-just-running-its-course. We were meant to see it, be aware of it and tremble at the possibilities and then to give thanks for the warning and resolve yet again to be better people, more deserving of such Providential kindness.

Now, to Iran. Clearly, Israel and the whole world are being maneuvered into a corner. There is no way to avoid this war. This will be the ultimate showdown between East and West and Israel will be caught in the middle. The price of oil will skyrocket just as the coldest winter on record falls over Europe and America. Today's riots and public demonstrations will pale by comparison to what is coming. And make no mistake, the Jews are going to be blamed - like always - and the Jews in foreign lands will bear the brunt of it. Not only will they be suffering from the failed economy, the breakdown of societyand the ravages of nature along with their compatriots, but they will also suffer from a resurgence of blatant antisemitism the likes of which the world has not seen in 70 years.

Everyone understands at some level that Achmadinejad is a gilgul of Haman HaRasha and perhaps even Hitler, yemach shemo, also was. (Interesting how he is always short and always egotistical.) He is (and was) the fulfillment of "God will raise up a king like Haman who will want to annihilate the entire Jewish people...." And he will cause all Israel to do teshuva, i.e. the situation and resulting troubles which evolve from his being in power will force Israel to do teshuva.

This can be compared to a man who habitually overeats, despite knowing that it is a sin, since it destroys his health and will eventually put his life at risk. If he recognizes the folly of his ways and corrects himself, he can be restored to good health without any further consequence. However, if he persists, one day his health will break down in some way directly related to his increased weight. If he still refuses to abandon his sin, he will suffer a heart attack that will put the fear of G-d into him since he really does not want to die. The doctor will put him in the hospital and he will be put on a healthy diet of limited calories. In this way he is "forced" to "do teshuva."

Antisemitism is not a social phenomenon. It is a spiritual tool that Hashem employs to help Israel do teshuva for willful assimilation. Do yourself a favor. Put yourself on a diet before the heart attack hits.

Turkey just got hit with another earthquake, the Canary Islands volcano is still erupting, Alaska is awaiting an "epic" storm and literally millions are displaced, hungry and ill as a result of historic floods.

It is a mercy that the transformation from the current reality to the new reality of Days of Mashiach is taking place in a gradual process, although it is speeding up as it gets closer to the end, because if humanity had to endure it all at once, no one would be able to survive the shock.

Update on Iran

2011-11-07T17:39:00.000+02:00

11 Cheshvan 5772

How the US and Israel let Iran get a nuclear arms capability

IAEA says foreign expertise has brought Iran to threshold of nuclear capability

IAEA report on Iran set to raise Middle East tension

It's now or never.

Something's afoot, but what?

2011-11-03T11:50:00.000+02:00

6 Cheshvan 5772

With a countdown, no less!

"The first Nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System will be carried out on November 9, 2011."

In American date notation this is also expressed as 11-09-11, which some conspiracy theorists relate to ELE-NIN - Ele(ven)Nin(e). And note that it is also a variation on 9/11.

Exercise Pacific Wave 11 will take place beginning November 9, 2011:

"PacWave11 will be held on 9-10 November 2011 as a multi-scenario exercise that will allow all PTWS countries to exercise using a destructive local or regional tsunami scenario."

For still others, see Drills, Drills, and More Drills On November 9th! – ELE(vin) NIN(e)

It's also worth noting that "drills" were being run both on 9/11 and 7/7.

Keeping in mind that nothing is a coincidence, and that it is more likely the Creator Who is leaving these signs and messages rather than some secret society or government conspiracy, we should waste no further time preparing ourselves for the "plagues" which will 'outdo' what happened in Egypt, whether it be WW3 or a planetary collision with comet fragments or an asteroid.

Anything is possible.

What if it Backfires?

2011-11-03T09:45:00.000+02:00

6 Cheshvan 5772

According to a report today at Debka.com, "The sudden rush of military news Wednesday, Nov. 2, is part of an orchestrated Western performance to convince Tehran that the US, Britain and Israel are on the verge of a military operation against its nuclear installations. Directed from Washington, it is meant to warn Iran that the play could become a reality show if it refuses to give up the drive for a nuclear weapon."

Judging by the headlines featured at Drudgereport this morning, you would think an attack was imminent:

Israel test-fires missile that could hit Iran...

NETANYAHU RALLIES SUPPORT FOR ATTACK...

UK steps up plans for possible strike...

How clever they must think they are. They believe they will scare Tehran into backing down? It's much more likely that this plan will backfire and that they will instead push Tehran into making a pre-emptive strike, G-d forbid!

Scary Stuff

2011-11-02T15:50:00.000+02:00

5 Cheshvan 5772

We still don't know what will confront us when Earth begins to pass through Comet Elenin's debris trail. I never saw an estimate of the comet's size. We have no idea what size some of the pieces might be, but we know from Comet Shoemaker-Levy's break-up in 1994 that it can be catastrophic...

On top of that, we have a rather sizable asteroid traveling through the space between us and the Moon during the same week...

On November 8th a sizable asteroid will pass Earth within the moon's orbit - The asteroid, designated 2005 YU55, will pass Earth at a distance of about 325,000 kilometers, just inside the orbit of the moon. Asteroids come that close frequently, but 2005 YU55 is notable for its dimensions: 400 meters in diameter. NASA says the asteroid is the size of an aircraft carrier, but it's actually even larger. The last time an asteroid this big came this close to Earth was 1976, and it looks like it won't happen again until 2028. So astronomers are taking the rare opportunity to study a hefty asteroid without having to send a craft into deep space. Scientists will use two of the largest radio telescopes on the planet, one in California and one in Puerto Rico, to make radar images of the asteroid. Comets and asteroids preserve the building blocks of the planets. And studying them up close provides clues to how planet Earth came to be. So visitors such as 2005 YU55 are welcome — as long as they keep their distance.

If that were not enough, there is an increasing risk of an all-out missile war in the skies over Eretz Yisrael.

Keep looking UP!

It's not your imagination

2011-11-02T09:48:00.000+02:00

5 Cheshvan 5772

The storms are getting worse.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

All of Europe Teetering on the Brink

2011-11-02T08:40:00.000+02:00

5 Cheshvan 5772

Greek government in chaos with debt deal in doubt

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The Greek government teetered and stock markets around the world plummeted Tuesday after a hard-won European plan to save the Greek economy was suddenly thrown into doubt by the prospect of a public vote.

One day after Prime Minister George Papandreou stunned Europe by calling for a referendum, the ripples reached from Athens, where some of his own lawmakers rebelled against him, to Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average plunged almost 300 points.

...A Greek rejection of the second rescue package could cause bank failures in Europe and perhaps a new recession in Europe, the market for 20 percent of American exports. It could also cause Greece to leave the alliance of 17 nations that use the euro.

European leaders made no secret of their displeasure.

"This announcement surprised all of Europe," said a clearly annoyed French President Nicolas Sarkozy, ....

In New York, the stocks of major banks like Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase were hit hard. The value of the dollar rose, and bond prices jumped so dramatically that analysts said they were stunned.

..."This brings all of the concerns about Europe back to the front burner," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James. "If this ends up turning into a financial catastrophe in Europe, then no one will escape it."

World faces years of social unrest as economies falter

The international economy is on the brink of a deep new economic crisis that could cost millions of jobs around the globe and trigger mass social unrest, the world's most powerful nations were warned yesterday.

As the leaders of the G20 countries prepare for emergency talks on averting a return to worldwide recession, the United Nations' International Labour Organisation (ILO) issued a grim forecast of the social effects of the continuing economic crisis.

The UN agency warned that it could take until 2016 for global employment to return to the levels of three years ago – and that anger could erupt on the streets of Europe and other continents as a result.

If you are a Jew still living outside of Eretz Yisrael, you should think long and hard about the implications this will have for you and your family.

Any truth to the rumors?

2011-11-01T20:30:00.000+02:00

5 Cheshvan 5772

Some people think this is the real reason a deal was suddenly struck for Gilad Shalit.

What prompted frenzied rumors in Israel of an imminent attack on Iran?

More signs Israel preparing to launch attack

Analysts Believe Israel is Moving Closer to Iran Strike

Some say this could be why the PM has cancelled his appearance at the Jewish Federations GA meeting in Denver, November 6-8, 2011.

"The Prime Minister hoped to go to the GA, but unfortunately he will have to be in Israel during that week," the Jewish Federations of North America said in a statement....

Just to muddy things a bit more, that is the time period in which Earth will be transiting through Comet Elenin's debris trail. And Friday/Shabbat brings the full moon and the auspicious date - 11.11.11.

"5 X Worse than Irene"

2011-10-31T16:39:00.002+02:00

3 Cheshvan 5772

(H/T Global Disaster Watch)

The deadly snowstorm on US East Coast killed at least six people and left more than three million homes without electricity.

Snowstorm damage 'five times worse' than Tropical storm Irene - The idea of snow in October - no matter the amount - was far-fetched enough that when forecasts late last week began calling for several inches of snow, many throughout Connecticut were skeptical. Even the most panicked meteorologists, though, weren't aware of just how stunningly powerful this weekend's freak winter storm would be.

On Sunday night, the president and chief operating officer of Connecticut Light and Power, laid things out in perhaps the most eye-opening way for a state only beginning to move on from Tropical Storm Irene.

The damage from the storm was "five times worse" than that delivered by Irene. More than half of customers throughout the state remained in the dark. Early this morning, the number of outages had begun to slowly recede. CL&P, which had more than 800,000 outages earlier in the day, reported 772,155 at 12:15 a.m. -- still an astonishing 62 percent of customers. Even as the number of outages began to drop, the total early today was still higher than it was at any point following Tropical Storm Irene. At 12:15 a.m. there were 45 cities and towns throughout the state completely in the dark, including Monroe, Oxford, Seymour, Redding, New Fairfield and Washington. There were also outages for 97 percent of customers in Newtown, 92 percent in Bethel, 87 percent in Ridgefield, 75 percent in Brookfield and 55 percent in Danbury. Emergency shelters and warming centers are open throughout the state Sunday night so residents without power won't have to brave potentially record low temperatures in their homes. 45 transmission lines and 15 substations are damaged. Officials said it could take days -- or more than a week -- before all power is finally restored.

"This is THE LARGEST NUMBER OF POWER OUTAGES WE HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED," more than Tropical Storm Irene. "We are expecting extensive and long term power outage. This is a historic storm, NEVER BEFORE in anyone's recollection or anyone's review of history has such a storm hit the state so early." School closures are likely because many bus routes remained blocked and school buildings without power. Strong winds with gusts as high as 29 mph have lead to more power outages. As snow falls from tree limbs, the branches snap back, breaking power lines. Damage to 164 ATT cell phone towers will result "degraded service" beginning this afternoon. Two-thirds of the flights at Bradley International Airport were back on normal schedules. In Danbury, 64 percent of the city is without power. "I would term it a catastrophic situation." More than 200 roads are closed in the area. There were hundreds of accidents reported across the state caused by a combination of slippery snow, downed trees and poor visibility. Saturday's storm, which didn't garner significant attention from meteorologists until Thursday night, SHATTERED OCTOBER SNOWFALL RECORDS THROUGHOUT NEW ENGLAND and left more than a dozen towns either mostly or entirely without power throughout the state.

Introducing Rabbi Sholom Gold

2011-10-27T17:15:00.001+02:00

30 Tishrei 5772
Rosh Chodesh 'א Cheshvan

Check out his website - rabbisholomgold.com .

The Last of Elenin?

2011-10-26T11:27:00.000+02:00

28 Tishrei 5772

This report appeared on Spaceweather.com on Monday, 24 Oct. '11:

COMET CORPSE: "Doomsday Comet" Elenin was briefly famous for inaccurate predictions that it might hit Earth. Instead it disintegrated as it approached the sun last month. (Doomsday canceled.) Over the weekend, Italian astronomer Rolando Ligustri spotted the comet's remains. It's the elongated cloud in this Oct. 22nd photo of the star field where Elenin would have appeared if it were still intact: Another team of astronomers--Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Nick Howes--spotted the cloud on the same night. At first they were skeptical. "The cloud was extremely faint and diffuse," says Guido. "We wondered if it might be scattered moonlight or some other transient artifact." But when the team looked again on Oct. 23, the cloud was still there. A two-night blink animation shows that the cloud is moving just as the original comet would have. Note: Some readers have noticed a fast-moving streak to the to the lower right of the debris cloud. That is an unrelated asteroid, 2000 OJ8 (magnitude 14), which happened to be in the field of view at the same time as the cloud of Elenin.

More information about this discovery and continued tracking of the "comet corpse" may be found at the Remanzacco Observatory Astronomy Blog

It's interesting that they mention that the "cloud" is continuing to travel in the same path as the comet would have. This is what I read earlier on - that even if the comet disintegrated, the debris would continue along the path the comet would take. That means that during the first week in November, Earth will be passing through Elenin's debris trail. Will it make a brilliant meteor shower? Something more? Something less? Only time will tell.

Message from Binyamin at end of year 5771

2011-10-26T11:16:00.000+02:00

28 Tishrei 5772

There are a few new messages that need to be translated. I started with a short one. (Q & A to follow)

Message from Binyamin

There will yet be very big things. And what more is there to say!? At long last, what we have been talking about for seventeen years is beginning to take place. It’s not ‘beginning,’ because the process already started some time ago. And still, with all the troubles and with all the falls, with the money as well as the bizarre and difficult things from nature, also wars in every place and riots everywhere, and seeing the sheker, that it ascends and rises more and more, being exposed more and more, in every corner, in every place. With all this, at the moment that there is a drop of calm – a majority of the people return to what was. They don’t think about teshuvah. They don’t think about drawing closer to Hashem. They’re returning to the same nonsense, to the same concepts which are just the sheker of olam hazeh, and therefore, much greater troubles are coming now and almost without a break between them. [Sanhedrin: “If you see troubles pulling like a river, etc.”] Until Hashem will repair all the true Jews. In Egypt, it took a whole year, all the plagues, with breaks between them, but for us, there won’t be a lot of time in between one and the next – like now.

Like we said once, you’ll look above and it will come from below; you’ll look right – it will come from the left. Now, it’s from the right as well as from the left, from above and also from below, and from one side and also from the other side - from every place. It’s impossible to know where to look and what to think.

For the not-intelligent people who are still planning for the future six months ahead when there will be some social gathering or in hopeful expectation of some trip that they will make abroad. So, I ask very much from them: To see the truth, that it’s impossible to know what will happen from moment to moment, and now, especially, it will be what it will be, very difficult for those who do not trust in Hashem. For those who do trust in Hashem and are truly waiting for Mashiach….and truly weep over the Shekhina’s suffering, it will be the greatest joy.

So, those who understand what I’m saying, I bless you that all of us together will receive our righteous Mashiach in mercy and happiness. And to those who don’t understand what I said, I pity you and pray to HKB”H that nevertheless, he will save you in power.

(Re-posting due to problem with Blogger)