"Aliyah Letter"

From Rabbi Nachman Kahana:

BS"D 4 Be’Mar Cheshvan 5770


Dear Friends

Today I received the following missive from a well-meaning acquaintance that expresses the feelings of other people who have written to me. He writes:

"As much as I enjoy your drashot, I am wondering if you are sending out e-mails on other themes for the parsha that do not emphasize aliya that is aimed at those comfortably ensconced in orthodox or haredi communities in the galut".

The writer feels that I put too much emphasis on the single mitzva of living in Eretz Yisrael and aim specifically at the orthodox and chareidi communities.

To this I would add a complaint, which is often hurled at me, that it is not my responsibility to "save the world!"

I request equal time.


The most important mitzva in the Torah is the saving of a Jewish life. Chazal taught that one who saves even one Jewish life is considered to have saved a world.

From the time my wife and I came on aliya nearly 50 years ago, we have merited to inspire and influence many other families to come. A modest accounting of my own family, including my brother hy"d, who came a while after us, we arrive at way over 100 children, grandchildren, great grandchildren - and the list grows weekly. In one generation, the list will include over 1000. If I add the other families we have influenced, the numbers already reach into the thousands. Had we and the others not come, we would have been doomed to the fate of those still clinging to the galut - including children and grandchildren who would have left the Torah and even married out.

I am an adherent of the religious Zionist philosophy. I came to Eretz Yisrael with the intent of being an integral part of Israeli society. I teach, daven and learn in Ivrit. I proudly served in a fighting unit in Tzahal. My sons all learned in Hesder Yeshivot and still serve in the army, as do my older grandchildren. I salute the flag and cry when recalling the thousands of Jews who gave their lives for what this flag stands for. I stand at attention reciting Tehilim when the sirens sound on memorial day for the fallen holy soldiers of Israel. I believe that the Medina is the harbinger of the Mashiach and the tool with which HaShem will reveal Himself very shortly.

But all this is my personal hashkafa (world view), which I don’t desire to impose on anyone. The reason for all my efforts is not religious Zionism - it is the saving of Jewish lives whether they be dati, chareidi or very far from the Torah.

The galut is steadily and quickly sinking in the quicksand of time. When I first began to write, many Jews had the financial capability of coming on aliya. They could have sold their homes at enormous profits and easily settled into a comfortable apartment or villa anywhere they chose. I pleaded for people to come before it was too late. They did not, and now it is very very late.

Those who have a healthy desire to live will cut their ties now without considering the financial losses. Your sons are not yet drafted into the US army; and the gates of Israel are still open, and it is still possible to withdraw money from the US. All this will change and the curtain of American Jewry will come down as it has so often in the past on other Jewish communities.

So, my good friends, aliyah is not just one more mitzva. It is the Noach’s ark of the Jewish people, the destiny of our nation and its individuals, and the stairway to heaven where we connect to our great past and even greater future.


Nachman Kahana

They never saw it coming

INDONESIAN ASTEROID:

Picture this: A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky:


This really happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia. The Earth-shaking blast received remarkably little coverage in Western press, but meteor scientists have given it their full attention. "The explosion triggered infrasound sensors of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) more than 10,000 km away," report researchers Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the Univ. of Western Ontario in an Oct. 19th press release. Their analysis of the infrasound data revealed an explosion at coordinates 4.5S, 120E (close to Bone) with a yield of about 50 kton of TNT. That's two to three times more powerful than World War II-era atomic bombs.

The asteroid that caused the blast was not known before it hit and took astronomers completely by surprise. According to statistical studies of the near-Earth asteroid population, such objects are expected to collide with Earth on average every 2 to 12 years. "Follow-on observations from other instruments or ground recovery efforts would be very valuable in further refining this unique event," say Silber and Brown.

20 MarCheshvan 5770

I am not one to play around with dates. As far as I can recollect, this is a first for this blog. I'm not saying this is for sure, we won't know until the day arrives, but there is a very strong possibility that 20 MarCheshvan will mark a turning point in this long and drawn-out geula process. It falls out this year on Shabbat Parshat Vayera, 7 Nov '09.

A second date to watch is 20 Kislev / 7 Dec. If the details as described in Sefer Eliyahu materialize this year, then we can extrapolate from that how much longer we might have to strengthen ourselves and each other to make it through these very turbulent times.

In my opinion, riots and unrest on the Temple Mount throughout the entire week of Sukkot was a very big sign of what's to come. MarCheshvan 7 it started up again. As reported, "extremists on both sides" believe that facts must be made on the ground in order to advance their side's agenda. Both Jews and Arabs are being provoked into upsetting the status quo.

JEWISH POSITION

ARAB POSITION
But, this is good, because while the "status quo" is being maintained, no progress is being made. I believe there will be war with Iran, but I don't think it will be fought over their nuclear aspirations. Rather, it will be about Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

Iran: Zionists threat to all

"Today we see that applying force in Gaza was not enough for them (Israel) so they are attacking holy Jerusalem," the Iranian leader (Achmadinejad) added.

Some people are worried that the world is preparing to try to take our nukes away in exchange for Iran giving up theirs.

Iran: World can't block our atomic program while Israel has nukes

But I think this whole thing about nukes is a smoke screen for what they are really after. Zekharya 14 describes the nations coming to "divide" our "spoils" in our midst. Well, the nations have been saying for quite some time now that the "spoils" of the Six Days War are not rightfully ours and that we have to "give them back," i.e. Yehuda, Shomron and "eastern" Jerusalem, which includes the entire Old City with the Western Wall and Temple Mount. And Zekharya goes on to say that "half" the city will go into exile---the eastern "half"?

Logically, the West will see the eruption of hostilities between Arabs and Jews to be a prime opportunity for them to come and take it over claiming that neither of us can administrate it, so they will do the job for us. And I believe that THIS will be the catalyst for war with Iran, who is positioning itself to be the defender of the faith for the entire Muslim world. They no doubt believe that a clash over Jerusalem will advance their vision of redemption just as our prophets foretold for us.

Watch this continue to unfold over the next few weeks.

"CoLLapse"

Obama Delivers

You have to admit, Obama is delivering on his promise of "change." That's all anybody is going to have left when the dollar crashes.


1. The Dark Years are Here

(Excerpt) The real unemployment in the US is 20% or 30 million. These are the real unadjusted figures calculated on the same basis as the official figures before the method of the calculation was changed in the 1990’s. Reported government figures, especially in the US, are continually manipulated in order to suit the political aims of the government. Therefore, one should not give any credence to the published figures. Most governments mislead the people most of the time.

With 20% unemployment in the US we are already approaching the levels in the 1930’s when peak total unemployment reached 25%. The 20% current level is the non-farm unemployed and is still a lot lower than the non-farm peak figure in the 1930’s which was 35% unemployed.

Since we are still in the early stages of this crisis, it is our firm opinion that non-farm unemployment levels will reach 35% at least in the US in the next few years.

But even the current figure of 30 million unemployed is a catastrophe. Adding dependants to every unemployed person there are currently 100 million people affected by unemployment in the US. In the next three months 3 million unemployed will fall out of the social security safety-net. These are the people who were laid off in the second half of 2008. Including their families this means that around 10 million people will become destitute between now and September with no social security and no savings. If we then add the 4 million that were made redundant in the first half of 2009 that will result in an additional 13 million people including families will become destitute around Christmas. This is a disaster of unimaginable consequences that will affect the whole fabric of American society.


2. A Shocking Fall
(Excerpt) ... the dollar is living on borrowed time and as we outlined in last month’s newsletter “The Dark Years Are Here”, the autumn of 2009 will see a precipitous fall of the dollar. It will be relentless and greater than anyone can imagine. There is always a day of reckoning when the law of supply and demand is out of kilter and that day is now here. The move will be unexpected by many and this will mean that everyone will run for the exit and dump their dollars thus exacerbating the fall.

Recipe for a Happy Life

Find a reason for living.

Put a smile on your face,

And a song in your heart.

Make others happy.

Get away from yourself.

Get involved with other people.

Volunteer.

Don't do the 3 c's:
-- Complain
-- Criticize
-- Condemn

(The foregoing was heard in a shiur by Aharon Romm.)

Psalm 27 says: "Hope for the Lord, be strong and He will give your heart courage, and hope for the Lord."

The first step is always ours and then Hashem meets us where we are. We make the decision to be happy, even if we don't feel it and the feeling will follow.

Good without God is just "o"

Which is probably all that these egotistical people are going to be able to say when Hashem reveals Himself to the world.

'Good Without God,’ Atheist Subway Ads Proclaim

Starting next Monday, a coalition of local groups will run a monthlong advertising campaign in a dozen Manhattan subway stations with the slogan “A Million New Yorkers Are Good Without God. Are You?” The posters also advertise the Web site BigAppleCoR.org, which provides a listing of local groups affiliated with the Coalition of Reason, the umbrella organization that coordinated the campaign.

The campaign — which is being paid for by $25,000 from an anonymous donor — follows a similar but unrelated monthlong campaign on buses by New York City Atheists in July. Jane Everhart, a spokeswoman for the New York City Atheists, said that campaign was highly successful and brought in many new members. “We are trying to raise money to do it again,” she said.

PS: I would not want to be anywhere near NYC after this comes out!

“Ayn od milvado”

My (imperfect) translation of the MESSAGE POSTED 19/10/2009---

A bit of the latest message from Binyamin Golden and Daniel
Jerusalem, Tishrei 5770. (The complete message will be put up soon)

Binyamin:…In World War 2, they gathered the Jews – men, women, children and babies. They said to them, take only what you need, and they took everyone to the train. The majority of the people did not believe that they were going to their death, that they were going on their last journey, they did not believe, how could it be? The sun is shining, there is air to breathe, various acquaintances and relatives around us, how could it be? And until the last moment when they walked into the gas chamber, they did not believe, at least the majority.

We are now in the same situation. And who doesn’t believe. There are those that don’t want to believe. Those that want to believe that the shallow material world, the world of the golden calf, will continue. They don’t want to believe that it is all lies, they don’t want to believe that Hashem will destroy it all forever… The Jews need to understand “Ayn od milvado” (There is nothing besides Him.) and if they don’t understand that, there is no hope. It isn’t possible to do partial teshuva in any case. It’s possible not to stop keeping Shabbat the way you’re supposed to or something similar, but if one believes also even a tiny drop of this world’s lies, that’s the end.

Daniel: …I just want to remind everyone that the time has come to come up to the Land. The time has come to begin to pack up our things and make a march to Eretz Yisrael. To the Jews in America, it's hard for you to comprehend what is happening to you, need to pray for them that the true Jews that are among them will understand and escape....