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.
