23 Adar 5780
I have a mixed bag to share today. Each one could be made into a blog post, but then they'd be lost in the crowd. We'll call this the good, the bad, the ugly and the sublime.
THE GOOD
Churches Close in Israel: Ecumenical Patriarchate orders churches to halt services until end-March
Link to Rabbi Pinchas Winston's Webinar from yesterday: Coronavirus and Moshiach
THE BAD
VIDEO: The Dollar Is Done
THE UGLY
VIDEO: Peter Schiff - The Real Crash Is Here
THE SUBLIME
Israel's Answer to Italians Singing From Their Balconies During Lockdown
We all want Moshiach Now ... if you're a Jew in the diaspora you'd better be begging Hashem for Moshiach right this minute with mercy. Americans are panic buying guns, the looting has begun and Jews/Israel are being blamed for the coronavirus and the economic crash is here. This is not scaremongering but facts that you can google for yourselves. To ignore them is sheer folly.
ReplyDeleteOne doesn't need ruach hakodesh, a little knowledge of history suffices to see what is just around the corner.
And yes, officially, you can still make aliya.
I hope the Goel Tzedek ben Yosef arises soon. The current state of Israel is not prepared to handle a wave of refugees from Western countries.
DeleteDidn't R Shalom Arush say awhile back that he heard from Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Zev Leibowitz that Jews would be targeted and attacked?
The day is here friends.
Source: https://www.breslev.co.il/articles/society/current_affairs/america_tomorrow.aspx?id=24281&language=english
I too hope that this is really it and we will have the geula berachamim pronto pronto. However, from our long and difficult history all we know is that we don't know. Surely the Shoah, completely unprecedented in its magnitude and deliberately excruciating cruelty was Gog uMagog, yet here we still are 75 years later. Yes, events are momentous and unprecedented in a different way, but it is not unprecedented to have unprecedented events and still no geula. On the other hand we know all about the persecution of Jews at times of economic and social upheaval, when the thin veneer of civilisation dissipates. People are fighting over toilet paper and looting whilst their stomachs and wallets are full. Wait until they are hungry and broke.
DeleteAs for our state of readiness to handle the refugees, we'll deal, let them come. The founding of the state of Israel was completely impractical and was carried out by Jews who were willing to dream and to act in accordance with those dreams and not with the conventional wisdom of the time. Israel is the most innovative country in the world, Be"D we'll find solutions.
That video is BEAUTIFUL!
ReplyDeleteMay Hashem Elokenu , seal heal and bring His Salvation to His people Israel who called upon His Holy Name and accept upon them the yoke of His Eternal Law, the Holy Torah. Also everyone from every nation who wants to abandon his idolatrous abominable style of life and to be connected with the G-d of Israel, I'm praying for them. As for the enemies of G-d, the haters of the Torah and the rabbis, the promoters of the homo-cult , the destroyers of the humanity and the world, the lovers of every abomination, and the proud transgressors even of the seven Laws of Noach, why to pray ? May Hashem deal with them as HE WISH , but soon to liberate us and all His creation , from them. On top of that, I'm praising Hashem, Elokenu, G-d of Israel because I see His tremendous Powers, and how He destroys ALL the idols of this corrupted civilization.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful video and great comments!Am Yisrael Chai!
ReplyDeleteBlessed be G-D, Hashem, the Guardian of Israel!
I dont think you can still apply to make aliyah. Only Israeli citizens can enter Israel, and the Nefesh B Nefesh web site says that all Jewish Agency offices are now closed and they are not processing applications and have cancelled all interviews. If you already posses an aliyah Visa you can still get in to Israel and go straight to quarantine.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbn.org.il/corona-virus-emergency-contact-information/updated-information/
The sad truth is that the vast majority of affiliated Jews are not really interested in aliya (I know that there are some exceptions, so don't jump down my throat if you are that exception, you too know that the majority are not interested beyond lip service, if that), and the intermarried, unaffiliated, even less.
DeleteAnyone who is interested should persevere. This article is from a few days ago.
"Those who are deciding to make aliyah at this time or are working through the process are also going to continue to be assisted."
"The Jewish Agency announced that it set up a special Global Situation Room to deal with the emergency 24/7 to support new immigrants and Jewish communities around the world,..."
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/In-spite-of-the-coronavirus-crisis-aliyah-does-not-stop-621059
Even if you have to go into quarantine in Israel, better that than the alternative. I honestly believe that this is the emergency time when Jews who saw Israel as their insurance policy should be acting on that. Yes, it's harder now with the corona, but the future of the exile is not looking good. Why wait?
And remember we are still in chodesh adar, nahafochu, Hashem can overcome all your obstacles. The important thing is to move forward. For years now I have been writing that everyone must have an aliya plan, passports in order, some cash aside, a bag ready to take to the airport. Just how hard would that have been to do in normal circumstances? If it is the end of the world youll be safe in Israel and you won't be mourning your possessions, and if not you can always go back later on to pack up and sell up.
Yes, I amend what I wrote earlier (I wrote that I think Aliyah is not possible any more).
ReplyDeleteIf you are someone who wants to make aliyah- dont give up! You will receive assistance from above if you put in your efforts! Come home!
A short anecdote, once I was in the centre of Jerusalem late at night and had to get the last bus (no money for a taxi) or walk for over an hour to get home. I was on a steep hill and heard the bus behind me, I don't know why but I made an effort to run to get to the bus stop even though realistically there was no way I could get there in time. And the bus stopped for me where I was. If I hadn't made an effort to run I would have been just another person walking in the street. The kind bus driver saw that I was running for the bus, couldn't realistically make it and took pity on me. Surely everyone agrees that Hashem has more rachamim than the bus driver for us, and if only we would make just a little bit of effort to show Hashem that we truly want something, Hashem would clear the path for us and pick us up where we are.
DeleteSince at least Pittsburghnacht, I have been making suggestions that nearly everyone can do, have an aliya notebook for your planning and start making lists, get your passports in order, start packing up your house, ok just clear out a drawer, have a small bag ready. Even people in dire circumstances could have done most of these things. All the responses I got were negative, can't can't can't. You can't plan your aliya on paper and get your passport in order? Really, or you don't really want to?
Even now, anyone who feels that this is the time, should do whatever they can, even with all the added restrictions. If you don't have a notebook, take a piece of paper and label it "My Aliya Plan" and list the most important things you need to do. Prepare a bag of essentials, no bag? take a plastic bag, etc, etc. The point is if it is what you really want do what you can and talk to Hashem, and stop focusing on the challenges.
Right this minute Hashem can give you a lovely house in Jerusalem and a private jet to bring you there. How do I know this? Well Hashem gave Harry and Meghan a beautiful mansion, private jets, tons of money and all for absolutely free. I think that He can do the same for his beloved Israel.
You can still make aliya.
Delete"Even under these unprecedented circumstances, immigration to the Jewish state continues."
https://www.timesofisrael.com/24-immigrants-from-us-go-straight-from-ben-gurion-airport-to-two-week-quarantine/
Well said. Really well said.
DeleteAgain and again in history, Jewish communities are suddenly forced to flee from places that they were living in sometimes for hundreds or thousands of years.
Then one day, the golus dream just ends and we have to run.
America is crumbling and the dollar god will be smashed and not recover ever again. Can't our people get it right this one time and be prepared to go?
Thank G-d, we have a place to go this time, however imperfect.
It's so nice to get a positive response to what I'm saying, after so much negativity, mainly on a different blog. I call it testing "aliya positive". What I don't understand is how so called affiliated, presumably intelligent, Jews just don't get it. Surely they must know some history. The mightiest of empires fall and every exile comes to an end. The last few years have shown that "it can't happen here" became "it can happen here" to "it is happening here". Now we have that heady cocktail of virulent antisemitism mixed with general social and economic upheaval and uncertainty. Isn't that ringing any bells for anyone?
DeleteIn the "Hare with the Amber Eyes" (a true story), there is a description of a hugely wealthy Viennese Jew in his seventies at the time of the anschluss, and he is literally in shock. His world came crashing down around him and he is unable to function to get himself out. (It was still possible albeit with deliberately horrendous bureaucracy involved. In the end his brave daughter went back to Austria to get him out.)
As to your question, can't we get it right this one time, sadly I am not optimistic, left up to us alone. Best case scenario, we have Geula Berachamim right this minute, and Hashem will miraculously bring everyone home despite ourselves.