2011 ending, on to 2012

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

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"

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

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

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

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

25 Kislev 5772
1st candle of Hanukah

Read the Story of Hanukah - 1 Maccabees

Judaism and EY being sold out by the Erev Rav

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

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

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?"

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"

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"

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

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"

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

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.

Daniel's Kislev Message

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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"

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.