HKB"H Has Provided Us With Everything We Need For A Healthy Life

5 Adar Aleph 5782

One year ago, at the beginning of the vaccination campaign, the following was published by Times of Israel.  One year later, with all that we now know for a certainty, has anyone seen any retractions?

Top rabbis rule on the need to vaccinate

...a compilation of leading rabbinic voices outlining the halachic imperative to take the coronavirus vaccine. The list is far from exhaustive and does not include scores of other leaders who have vaccinated and who agree that taking the vaccine is a halachic obligation. The list below includes statements by the following rabbis:

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, R’ David Lau. Sephardic Chief Rabbi, R’ Yitzhak Yosef. Former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. Chief Rabbi of England, R’ Ephraim Mirvis. The Orthodox Union and Rabbincal Council of America. R’ Chaim Kanievsky. Rabbi Gershon Edelstein. Rabbi Asher Weiss. Rabbi Hershel Schachter. Rabbi Mordechai Willig. Chief Rabbi of Tzfat. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu. Rabbi Avraham Rubinstein, mayor of Bnei Brak. Rabbi Meir Mazuz, head of Yeshivat Kisei Rahamim.

In addition to all the rabbis above, the follow rabbis (among many others unlisted) publicly vaccinated: The Chief Rabbi of Turkey, Rabbi Isak Haleva. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe. The Erlauer Rebbe. The Boyaner Rebbe. The Gerer Rebbe. The Belzer Rebbe. Rabbi Shalom Cohen, senior Sephardi Haredi Rabbi. Rabbi David HaCohen, head of the Hebron yeshiva.

Remember this?  Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu went a step further...

The following prayer, to be recited upon receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, has been composed by Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of the city of Tzfat (Safed) in northern Israel:

“We thank you, our God, and God of our ancestors, God of all flesh, the Creator of cures, that You have endowed humankind with knowledge and imbued humanity with the understanding to find and to invent an inoculation to this pandemic. May it be Your will that this vaccine will prevent the spread of the pandemic and save the lives of millions throughout the world.”

Has anyone seen a public retraction now that we know the misnamed "vaccine" is neither "safe" nor "effective"?  If so, I'd be happy to know about it and publish it here.

BOMBSHELL: FEBRUARY 1, 2022
(h/t Unknown commenter)

~ ~ ~

Over Shabbat, I learned the following from the book Ramchal on the Parsha, Sefer Shemot published by Targum Press:

Serving Hashem properly brings kedusha to things that sustain and give us life - the food a person eats becomes blessed.  The blessing implies not only being satisfied with a small amount, but that the food he eats contains the required nutrients to make him healthy and strong.  The majority of illness results from food which does not properly sustain a person's health - the result of food not being blessed properly.  When food is not blessed, kedusha is unable to attach itself, thereby leaving room for tum'ah to set in, resulting in weakness and illness.

When the food is blessed, kedusha penetrates and serves not only to strengthen the person and prevent illness, but also cures illness which may have already taken hold.  This is the meaning behind:  "He shall bless your bread and water and I will remove the sickness from among you."  The sickness which has already taken hold of the person will be removed when he ingests food which is blessed.

The specific "service of Hashem" which brings blessing upon food is Birkas Hamazon when recited properly.  One who does not recite Birkas Hamazon at all or even when he does recite it, it is without joy and a satisfied heart, will not bring blessing to the food he has eaten.  Improper recitation of Birkas Hamazon prevents the blessing of the "One Who Sustains all" from resting on this food; the food turns bitter bringing all sorts of illness of unknown causes.  This is alluded to in the pasuk "and he will encounter numerous bad sufferings, and he will say on that day: is it not because Hashem is not within me this suffering has found me"  (Devarim 31:17).  In the end he will realize and acknowledge that the suffering he is enduring is the result of his preventing Hashem's bracha from resting on the food he has eaten.  Blessing Hashem below awakens Hashem's blessing from above.

~ ~ ~

COVID: Vitamin D deficiency pre-infection may lead to severe corona case

There is a clear connection between a deficiency of vitamin D and COVID-19 mortality and severity, according to researchers from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University.

May all the cholim have a speedy refuah shleimah. 

"The Meaning of the Mishkan"

3 Adar Aleph 5782 
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Terumah

“You shall make the planks of the mishkan / Tabernacle of acacia wood, standing erect.” (26:15)

The midrash comments: Take from those acacia trees which were already standing for this purpose. Avraham had planted these trees in Be’er Sheva. When Yaakov went to Egypt, he transplanted the trees there. Then, before he died, he told his sons that Hashem would one day command that they build a mishkan, and they should use these trees.

Were there no suitable trees in Egypt? Why did the Patriarchs go to such trouble?

R’ Yaakov Kaminetsky z”l (died 1986) explains that the Patriarchs acted thus in order to raise the spirits of their descendants who would be enslaved in Egypt. It was not enough to promise the Jews that they would be redeemed; the groves of acacia trees that Yaakov planted in Egypt were a tangible reminder to the enslaved Jews that their eventual salvation was a reality.

Similarly, R’ Kamenetsky writes, this is one reason that the authors of the siddur included the order of the korbanot / sacrifices in the daily prayers. The more we are familiar with what took place in the Bet Hamikdash, the more real the eventual rebuilding of the Bet Hamikdash will seem to us.

(Emet Le’Yaakov) [Source]

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~

Rabbi Richter: "Ode to Brooklyn" - Part 2

2 Adar Aleph 5782

 (Part 1)

From Bob Marley's "Rivers of Babylon" to
Nissim Black's "Ode to Brooklyn" - Part 2

 

"DOUBLE ADAR"

30 Shevat 5782
Rosh Chodesh 

From Rabbi Berel Wein's Weekly Blog...

The month of Adar is designated in Jewish life as the month of joy and celebration – and with this being a Leap Year, we have a double dose of those special feelings. In every nineteen-year lunar-solar calendar cycle, there are seven years in which an extra lunar month is inserted into the Jewish calendar. This extra leap month is always the month of Adar. And with the wondrous holiday of Purim occurring in the middle of Adar 2, we are certainly in for joyous times.

Purim is not a holiday in the sense that Pesach is, for example, but it sure is a holiday by any other reckoning. A people constantly threatened with persecution and annihilation needs to be reminded regularly – at least annually – of its ultimate survival and of the defeat of its oppressors and enemies. The advent of the month of Adar always signifies a time or reassurance and confidence in Judaism, the Jewish people and the Divine hand of Providence, so to speak, which hovers over us.

It is a month of renewed vitality, faith and purpose. And in Jewish life, joy is always associated with the concepts of observance of ritual and the strengthening of Jewish values and beliefs. Even though the holiday of Purim itself is restricted to only two days in the month, its spirit and joy permeate all the days of Adar.

The rabbis stated that from the day that Adar begins we are already bidden to intensify our feelings of joy, faith and optimism. A happy event suffuses the atmosphere both before and after the day on which it occurs. The whole moth of Adar is viewed as au nit, as an entirety of good tidings and happy events. The month takes on the vibrant coloration of the joyous days that fall within its allotted time.

Adar also marks the final month of winter. It therefore becomes the harbinger of the beautiful weather of spring and summer that is the climate of the Land of Israel. Though Europe and America have experienced a truly bitter winter, we here in Israel have escaped with our moderate and mild winter weather interspersed with the blessing of periodic days of life-giving rain. (And even a little bit of snow.) In this, Adar fulfills its role of looking forward optimistically to better climes and times. Adar is, so to speak, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel of winter and its inclement weather and sometimes dreary days. People are clearly affected by the climate where they live. The pervading darkness of the upper reaches of the northern hemisphere contributes to higher rates of suicide, depression, alcoholism and other negative behavior.

People do better in sunlight and warmth than in ice, snow and penetrating cold. The dramatic and continuing population shift in the United States for example to the warmer West and South is testimony to this fact. The coming of the month of Adar, above and apart from its aspects of Purim, is, by itself, a sign of hope and optimism. The sun will now shine more brightly and more often. As you can already fathom none of this brilliant journalism of mine really applies to those living south of the Equator. But since Israel is the center of the world and Israel is my home, everything written here should be considered valid.

We can all use an extra dose of Adar every so often. The realistically difficult world that Jews constantly live in needs to be occasionally lightened by an additional dose of joy and optimism. People gladly bear the idea of two Adars while they would be less likely to accept a doubling of any of the other eleven months of the Jewish calendar year. The Talmud advances practical and logical reasons to explain why Adar was chosen to be the potential double month. All of these reasons are naturally valid and acceptable on their own – a late rainy season, crops not ready, etc. The rabbis prevented King Chizkiyah from doubling up Nissan instead of Adar. There is an underlying value that the month of Adar possesses that no other month in the Jewish calendar can lay claim to. This idea of the joy of survival, of the ultimate downfall of the wicked, of the better tomorrow in physical, spiritual and national terms, belongs exclusively to Adar. There is no substitute for it in the rest of the year’s calendar.

~ CHODESH TOV! ~

"And these are the ordinances..."

26 Shevat 5782
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Mishpatim - Mevorchim

From the Stone Edition Chumash Commentary:

Murder and Manslaughter

Murder incurs the death penalty, but only if it is premeditated.  ...However, if someone killed through carelessness, but unintentionally ... he is not deserving of death, though his crime must be punished.  For such an offender, the penalty is exile in specially designated cities.  

...In describing the case of an accidental homicide, the Torah says God had caused it to come to his hand.  It is a fundamental principle of the Torah that events are not haphazard.  Always there is the guiding hand of God.  "Sudden, coincidental" happenings only seem to be so.  When someone is struck by the tragedy of having unintentionally killed a fellow human being, surely a traumatic experience, he should realize that since God had caused it, it indicates that he must have committed some sin or crime that went unpunished, and that his current victim must have been guilty of a capital offense that went undetected.  By causing one person to cause the other's death, God was squaring the accounts, for God's justice is unimpeachable; it is only we who are incapable of comprehending it.

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~

Their "FRIENDSHIP" is Nothing but a PLOY

25 Shevat 5782

They are predators. Time for a review.  

THE PASTOR AND THE MINISTER

Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast - MK Matan Kahana

Eisav attaches to the Erev Rav and gets them to do the dirty work.

Religious services minister unveils government plan to reform conversion system

Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana on Wednesday [Jan. 12, 2022] unveiled his government-backed proposal to reform the state-sponsored process for converting to Judaism.

...Kahana said there are 450,000 people living in Israel who have Jewish ancestry but are not considered Jewish under Orthodox law, mostly immigrants from former Soviet Union countries. The proposed legislation, he said, “is the only way to deal with this challenge.”

...The bill was drawn up with advice from several leading rabbis in the Modern Orthodox movement,....

...As part of plans to make deep changes in state-controlled Jewish religious services, Kahana announced last week that conversions to Judaism will be headed by Rabbi Benayahu Brunner, who is affiliated with Tzohar, a group of relatively liberal Orthodox rabbis.

It is well-known that some part, if not all, of these 450,000 are associated with some form of Christianity.  They have refused to convert up to now because they have no intention of keeping mitzvot.  The ultimate goal is clearly to destroy the integrity of Klal Yisrael.  Just another part of the ongoing war against HKB"H.

"Eliminating the Rats"

 24 Shevat 5782

(PART 1)

Chaim Walder to Rabbi Efrem: 
Eliminating Jewish Rats From Our Midst
(PART 2)

"In the Seventh Year - Wars!"

22 Shevat 5782

It's been a long time coming, but it's the Master of the Universe who ultimately decides on the timing of these things.

US Orders Families Of Diplomats To "Immediately" Leave Ukraine As Biden Weighs Deploying Thousands Of Troops To Eastern Europe

NATO sends extra ships and jets, as UK pulls some embassy staff out of Ukraine and Ireland says war games off its coast are 'not welcome'

Putin is being backed into a corner.  He could use a delaying tactic and put it off for a few more months, but it also costs to keep troops and arms at the ready like this.  A decision must be made soon.  War looks inevitable.  

Russia moves troops to Belarus for major war games near Ukraine border

...[Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander] Fomin said it would take through February 9 to fully deploy weapons and personnel for the Allied Resolve 2022 drills, which are expected to take place February 10-20.