A New Month - A New Opportunity

30 Nisan 5785
Rosh Chodesh Aleph
15 Days of the Omer 

Via Rav Yaron Reuven's Facebook page...

~ CHODESH TOV UMEVORACH ~

Another Missed Opportunity

29 Nisan 5785
Erev Rosh Chodesh
14 Days of the Omer

"In Nisan you were redeemed and in Nisan you will be redeemed."

Coming near to the end of Nisan 5785, Edom appears to be no closer to its end.  The kings of the West are still calling all the shots and we seem to be no closer to freedom from their wicked schemes.

Despite how it appears, we will never stop hoping and praying for the end of this terrible, dark galut and the realization of the promise of a future in this lifetime!

~ ~ ~

...Going through life without contemplating the workings of the world, without looking below the surface, is oftentimes an easy and comfortable route.  But HaRav Yerucham Levovitz, the Mirrer Mashgiach, zt"l, explains that living life without contemplation is a serious mistake.  Indeed, we are obligated to look at all occurrences in our lives as osos and mofsim, nothing less than "signs and wonders," and never as products of a natural system or random events.

Rav Yerucham taught this idea almost one hundred years ago.  As an example, he cited the ongoing world interest in Eretz Yisrael.  It is not a natural occurrence that global scrutiny is centered so firmly on one tiny area of the map.  All of the world's countries, with all of their widely diverse needs and concerns, are disproportionally preoccupied with this one small country.  This is not a natural or random reality.  It is an example of Hashem's hashgachah - because Hashem "caused, causes and always will cause everything that happens."

(The End Illuminated, Chapter 2 : The Torah Perspective on Current Events by Rabbi Yisroel Moshe Sorotzkin.)

Respecting the Ultimate Power

27 Nisan 5785

Erev Shabbat Kodesh

Parashat Shemini - Mevorchim

12 Days of the Omer

Sometimes, since we can't see G-d and we often fail to meditate on His greatness and His awesomeness as revealed through His creations (volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, comets and meteors), we need reminding that He is not One to be trifled with or to be underestimated, not even to mention rebelled against!

Like Nadav and Avihu in this week's Torah portion and like Uzzah in the haftarah, even when a person has good intentions, it won't save him if he has overstepped the bounds set by the Creator of all.  

By way of a very simplistic example, I am reminded of the time my baby sister stuck a pair of tweezers into an electrical plug and it zapped her before tripping the breaker.  She got away with a scare and a burned finger, but the experience left her with a very healthy regard for electricity after that.  However, when the proper respect is given to such power and it is utilized as intended by way of proper electrical wires and plugs, it greatly improves our standard of life.  

HKB"H's power is not something we can harness and use, but He uses it to sustain the world and everyone in it.  We should always be conscious of that fact on a daily basis and bring ourselves to have a very great awe of it and respect for it.  It should be for life and not for death.  It is the will of our Creator that we live and not die.

~  SHABBAT SHALOM ~

For Your Name's Sake!!

26 Nisan 5785
11 Days of the Omer

(Source:  Daniel - Messages From Heaven)

(Tehillim 79.6 - 10)...

Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not know You and upon the kingdoms that did not call out in Your name.  For they devoured Jacob and made his dwelling desolate.  Do not remember for us the early iniquities; may Your mercies quickly come before us for we have become very poor.

Help us, O God of our salvation, on account of the glory of Your name, and save us and atone for our sins for Your name's sake.  Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let it be known among the nations before our eyes the revenge of the spilt blood of Your servants.

(Yirmiyahu 10.25)...

Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not know You and upon the families that have not called in Your name, for they have devoured Jacob and consumed him and destroyed him, and have wasted his dwelling.

(Yirmiyahu 25.30-36)...

Hashem roars from on high and sends out His voice from His Holy Abode; He is roaring over His Lodging,... The commotion reaches the end of the world, for Hashem is contending with the nations, He is passing judgment on all flesh; He has delivered the wicked to the sword - the word of Hashem.

Thus said Hashem, Master of Legions: Behold, evil is going out from nation to nation, and a great storm will be aroused from the edges of the earth. The slain of Hashem on that day will cover from one end of the land to the other; they will not be eulogized nor gathered nor buried; they will remain like dung on the face of the earth.

...Flight will be foreclosed from the shepherds, and escape from the leaders of the flock.

 Is Italy's Supervolcano a
Ticking Time Bomb for the World?

A Catholic saint predicted 900 years ago that there would be a total of 112 popes until the End of Days.  Francis was the 112th pope.  He also predicted the destruction of Rome at the same time.  Is this perhaps a Bila'am-esque "prophecy"?  

The Secret of Seven

25 Nisan 5785

10 Days of the Omer

I don't have this all figured out, but it must be significant.  I'll throw out my various ideas and maybe any interested readers can help make sense of it in the comments.

~ ~ ~

Seven is the number of completion.  [See Seven: The Power of Numbers by Rabbi Eliyahu Safran -  "...no number has the power and significance of the number seven."]

This year is 77 years of the State of Israel.

Seventy-seven also brings to mind seven sevens (7x7) - 49 days of the Omer - on the 50th day we receive the Torah, or - 49 years of shmittah cycles - on the 50th year we celebrate the Yovel Year.

"Every 70 years Eisav comes to push Ya'aqov down." 

Some scholars point out that Jewish history seems to move in cycles of oppression and redemption, often around significant timeframes, including 70 years. Examples: The fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the rise of anti-Jewish persecutions roughly every few generations, and modern events like the establishment of Israel in 1948 after roughly 70 years of Zionist activity.  (ChatGPT)

In the 70th year of the State - May 14, 2018 - the US made a show of moving their embassy to Jerusalem.  From then until now their intrusive and malicious meddling in our internal affairs has only grown and become more and more open.

The final 7 years which brings completion - "the WEEK Ben David comes" (Sanhedrin 97a) ...

Year 1  (5/2018 - 5/2019):  And I shall bring rain upon one city,  And upon another city I shall not bring rain.

Year 2  (5/2019 - 5/2020):  In the second year, the arrows of hunger are sent forth.

Year 3  (5/2020 - 5/2021):  In the third year, a great famine and men, women, children, pious men, and men of great action die and Torah is forgotten from those who learn it. [This was at the height of the Covid pandemic.]

Year 4  (5/2021 - 5/2022):  In the fourth, there will be plenty but not great plenty.

Year 5  (5/2022 - 5/2023):  In the fifth, great satiation and they eat and drink and rejoice and Torah returns to those that learn it.

[In March 2020, the WHO officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. In May 2023, the WHO declared an end to the public health emergency of international concern. (Wikipedia)]

Year 6  (5/2023 - 5/2024):  In the sixth sounds (or voices).

Year 7  (5/2024 - 5/2025):  In the seventh year, wars.

At the departure of the seventh, the son of David comes.

Think about it, a final period of seven years - "the WEEK in which Ben David comes" - during the WEEKS of counting the Omer leading up to the Feast of WEEKS.

And recall that it was during this same time period that two messianic wars have already been fought - one which saw the return of Eretz Yisrael (1948) to the Jews followed by one which saw the return of Holy Yerushalayim and all the other holy cities (1967) to Jewish ownership.  They are destined to be followed by a third which will see the return of the Holy Temple Mount for the rebuilding of the Holy Temple when Ben David comes motzaei shvi'it - in Sivan?

~ ~ ~

Another interesting set of sevens...

🔹 The Seven Hills of Rome:

These are the original hills on which ancient Rome was founded. They are all on the east side of the Tiber River:

Aventine Hill, Caelian Hill, Capitoline Hill, Esquiline Hill, Palatine Hill, Quirinal Hill, Viminal Hill

These hills are mostly associated with ancient Roman history and mythology, not Christian pilgrimage.

🔹 The Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome:

These were designated as major pilgrimage sites in the 16th century, largely due to the influence of Saint Philip Neri, who promoted a spiritual pilgrimage route. They are 

St. Peter's Basilica, St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Mary Major, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, Holy Cross in Jerusalem, St. Sebastian Outside the Walls, 

Only a couple of the pilgrim churches are located on or near the traditional Seven Hills:

St. John Lateran — Caelian Hill and  St. Mary Major — Esquiline Hill [where Pope Francis will be interred]  (Source:  ChatGPT)

As if Eisav was trying to capture and benefit from the power of Seven! 

Most interestingly, the fallen pope, the ultimate symbol of universal Roman/Edomite influence, will be buried on the seventh day which so happens to be Parashat Shemini ("It was on the eighth day...").  It discusses the beginning of the priestly service of the Cohanim after a full seven days of observing Moshe Rabbeinu carry it out.

Is this a hint to the superiority (and victory) of Ya'aqov over Eisav?  Ya'aqov as Yisrael can rise to the level of eight - above nature - while Eisav remains restricted to seven - the fullness of nature.

The Haftarah recounts the journey of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem during King David's reign.  The commonality between Parshah and Haftarah is the deaths of Nadav and Avihu when they brought an unbidden offering to the Mishkan and the death of Uzzah when he mistakenly touched the Ark.

"David feared Hashem on that day...."  The world today could do with a lot more "fear of Hashem."

Finally, the Omer count on Shabbat is 13 - yesod sheb'gevurah.  Yesod represents the Brit which also occurs on the eighth day.  It's the foundation of our nation - the covenant HKB"H made with our Avot and which we confirmed for ourselves at Har Sinai - the event we are actually counting up to on Shavuot.  

It's also a reminder that yet ahead of us is a renewal of this covenant when the nation has done complete teshuvah at the End of Days and accepted the leadership of Mashiach Tzidkeinu!!

Yirmiyahu 31.30-33...

Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will form a covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, a new covenant. 

Not like the covenant that I formed with their forefathers on the day I took them by the hand to take them out of the land of Egypt, that they broke My covenant, although I was a lord over them, says the Lord. 

For this is the covenant that I will form with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will place My law in their midst and I will inscribe it upon their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be My people. 

And no longer shall one teach his neighbor or shall one teach his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know Me from their smallest to their greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will no longer remember.

May it be so even this Shavuot!!  Ken, yehi ratzon!!

Potentials and Possibilities

24 Nisan 5785
9 Days of the Omer 

UPDATE!  "The Vatican has confirmed that the funeral for Pope Francis, who died yesterday at the age of 88, will be held on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. local time."

~ ~ ~

"...all the kings of the world shall assemble in the great city of Rome. And the Holy One, blessed be He, will shower fire and hail and meteoric stones upon them, until they are wiped out from the world.  And only those kings who did not go to Rome will remain in the world.  And they shall return and wage other wars.  During this time, the King Messiah will declare himself throughout the whole world. and many nations will gather around him together with many armies from all comers of the world."   [Source: Zohar - Vayera 119a]

Which world leaders will and which world leaders will not attend Pope Francis' funeral later this week? [I don't think you'll see Putin or Xi Jinping there.]

First to announce...

The looming threat hanging over Naples stretches also to Rome...

Much is being made of the fact that the Pope died on "Easter Monday".  And you must have thought Easter was only one day.  According to Wikipedia...

Easter time is the period of 50 days, spanning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. It is celebrated as a single joyful feast, called the "great Lord's Day".

This period coincides with our Pesach, Counting of the Omer and Shavuot holiday!  [Remember this when the next blog post comes out!]

I'll leave you here with one more amazing fact that a family member just passed on to me...

Joy Amidst the Sorrow

23 Nisan 5785
8 Days of the Omer 

Chesed sheb'Gevurah

While Klal Yisrael mourns the heavy loss of Rav Meir Nissim Mazuz, ztz"l during these days of shivah,  HKB"H has chosen specifically this time to remove the Chief Idolater from the world.  For this we must give thanks.  His very name "BerGOGlio" hinted at his rule being part of the days when the entire world would come against Bnei Yisrael. 

This news could actually spell the end of Christianity itself at the very close of their most auspicious holiday...

900-year-old Vatican doomsday prophecy resurfaces amid Pope Francis’ illness

According to a 900-year-old book in the Vatican, 'Judgement Day' may be upon us soon, and Pope Francis might be the last leader of the Church.

"IN ITS TIME I WILL HASTEN IT."

The Seventh Day of Passover

20 Nisan 5785 - Erev Shabbat/Shvi'i shel Pesach
5th Day Chol HaMo'ed - Day 5 of the Omer

The seventh day of Pesach marks the day when many miracles were performed for our forefathers at the Red Sea. ...It was on this very date, eighty-one years before Israel stood on the banks of the Red Sea, that Moshe was cast into the river as a result of Pharaoh's edict. ...On this same date, one year before the Exodus, Moshe left Midyan at God's command to take Israel out, for on the fifteenth of Nisan, God had appeared to him from within the bush and urged him for seven days - the period of Pesach - to accept this mission.  (The Book of Our Heritage)

******** 

"And God brought a strong east wind to blow over the sea all that night."  (Shemot 14:21) - If God wanted the sea to split, He could have ordered it to do so; with one declaration. He could have transformed it into dry land. Why did He bring "a strong east wind" (...from the desert)? God sought to imbue Israel with the belief that all of the acts of Creation are dependent upon His word. The wilderness and the inhabited places, the sea and the wind, the clouds and the fire - all are the work of His hands and subject to His direction. There is no aspect of nature independent of His control. (The Book of Our Heritage) 

~ Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach   ~