A Hanukah Message

26 Kislev 5776
3rd Candle of Hanukah


Reposting Moisheleh's message given on the 2nd candle of Hanukah 5772 since it's as relevant today as it was four years ago...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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