Exile And Redemption Cannot Co-Exist

14 Menachem Av 5785
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Va'etchanan 
Shabbat Nachamu / TU b'Av

Which is worse?  Remaining in the Exile while the gates to Eretz Yisrael stand wide open or dragging the Exile into the Land with you?  No Israeli Jew may feel superior to his brother in chutz la'aretz because it is debatably much worse, I think, to make aliyah to Eretz Yisrael and impose upon it all the errors, sins and and anti-Torah excesses of the Western world.  The State of Israel is a monument - not to Judaism - but to Judeo-Chr*stianity, the Hellenism of our time.  And just like we were in exile under the Greeks while living on our Holy Land, so too, today!  And it is a self-imposed Exile!!  

HKB"H is doing everything to make us so sick of the perverseness and the injustice of that system that we will be willing to give it up and turn back to His Torah and Mitzvot which lie abandoned everywhere this current regime rules.

...Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the Lord, my God, commanded me, to do so in the midst of the land to which you are coming to possess.  And you shall keep them and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, "Only this great nation is a wise and understanding people."

For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is at all times that we call upon Him?  And which great nation is it that has just statutes and ordinances, as this entire Torah, which I set before you this day?  ...And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, so that you should do them in the land to which you are crossing, to possess.

...When you are distressed, and all these things happen upon you in the end of days, then you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him.  And you shall know this day and consider it in your heart, that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth below; there is none else.  And you shall observe His statutes and His commandments, which I command you this day, that it may be well with you and your children after you, and that you may prolong your days upon the earth which the Lord your God gives you forever.     (Devarim 4.5-8, 14, 30, 39-40)

All of the horror and pain can be ended, right now, today! if we would just believe Hashem and do what He bid us to do and stop looking everywhere else for another alternative.  There is no other alternative to obedience to the Torah.

SHABBAT SHALOM - HAPPY TU B'AV

The Final Test and the End of the Erev Rav

13 Menachem Av 5785

(Part 1: The Obligation to Fight the Erev Rav)

(Part 2: How to Fight the Erev Rav) 

(Part 3: Is Hakarat HaTov Due to the Erev Rav?) 

(Part 4: Why Does HKB"H Give Success to the Erev Rav?)   

Excerpted from the book The End of Days by Rabbi Shmuel Raber

THE WAR ON THE EREV RAV HAS COMMENCED!!

Why Does HKB"H Give Success to the Erev Rav?

12 Menachem Av 5785 

(Part 1: The Obligation to Fight the Erev Rav)

(Part 2: How to Fight the Erev Rav) 

(Part 3: Is Hakarat HaTov Due to the Erev Rav?) 

Excerpted from the book The End of Days by Rabbi Shmuel Raber

Is Hakarat HaTov Due to the Erev Rav?

11 Menachem Av 5785

(Part 1: The Obligation to Fight the Erev Rav)

(Part 2: How to Fight the Erev Rav) 

Excerpted from the book The End of Days by Rabbi Shmuel Raber

How To Fight The Erev Rav

10 Menachem Av 5785

(Part 1: The Obligation to Fight the Erev Rav)

While our Sages tell us that this is the bitterest enemy of all, it is the most vulnerable and least defended front of this multi-front war...

"The last governments in Israel are from the Erev Rav."  (Yehudit's Vision)

"Before the arrival of Moshiach, most of the rabbis will be from the Erev Rav,...."  (Divrei Chaim, Parashas Vayakhel)

The joining of Eisav and Yishmael is the result of Armelius, the ministering angel of the Erev Rav, who are able to destroy the Jewish people and the entire world, may God have mercy.  The main drive of the Erev Rav is to unify Eisav and Yishmael and to separate the two moshiachs.  Therefore, our main work and battle is to break and to remove the strength of the Erev Rav… from the Jewish people.  The Erev Rav is our greatest enemy…[and] works only through deception and in roundabout ways.  Hence, the war against the Erev Rav is the most difficult and bitterest of all.  We must strengthen ourselves for this war, and anyone who does not participate in the battle against the Erev Rav becomes, de facto, a partner with…the Erev Rav, and is better off having not been born. (Kol HaTor, Ch. 2:2:2)  [See more.]  

Excerpted from the book The End of Days by Rabbi Shmuel Raber

Before the Temple Can Be Built...

9 Av 5785

Tzom Kal

All day long you are going to hear one version or another of the admonition toward unity for the sake of rebuilding the Beit Hamikdash.  They say the tikun for sinat chinam is ahavat chinam.  It sounds nice, but going from one extreme to another has never been any solution.  The truth is that before the Temple can be built, there must first be a separation as in when Moshe Rabbeinu called "Mi l'Hashem elai!" in the midbar and again in the time of the Maccabim when Matityahu repeated that call, "Mi l'Hashem elai!"  

We must prepare ourselves because Mashiach is going to reveal himself and repeat those very words and if you intend to follow him, you will have to be prepared to separate.  This is not a call to unity, but a call for separation - the holy from the unholy.  It's a call to Jewish Jihad - a holy war for Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

Twenty years ago today, we heard the rallying call to unity - unity above all, ahavat chinam - even in the face of the most hateful actions on the part of the government, which included the current prime minister.  I recorded some of it on my website which I called Jewish Jihad...

* * *

JEWISH JIHAD (26 Aug 2005)

A Lesson in Holding Onto the Land

"Speaking at the Hassan Bek mosque in Jaffa ..., [Sheik Raad] Salah warned Israel his followers would not leave the country easily. Anyone who thinks they can get us to leave our land had better prepare a million coffins...." (Ynet)

Rabbi Kook on ceding the Land of Israel :

"The obligation of `you shall inherit the land and settle it' is that the land should be in our hands, and we should not abandon it to any other nation," Kook said. "This is a positive commandment from the Torah, clear and absolute, applying to all of Israel: that for this land, throughout its borders, we are obligated to give up our lives.  If the moment of compulsion comes, whether from non-Jews or, God forbid, from Jews - because of political errors and errors of judgment - we are all obligated to die rather than violate [this commandment].

"Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights - these will not go without war," he continued.  "Someone asked me if I want to start a civil war.  I won't get into terminology, and I won't put a name to this matter, but this is a fact: It will not go, it will not pass without a war.  Over our bodies and our limbs.  All of us.  The non-Jews will not bring it about, nor will our own political messes.  Under no circumstances in the world."  (Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook)

9 Dec 2008 update: Further on in this article we find the following:

" Rabbi Eliezer Melamed of Har Bracha, told Haaretz that the issue of Kook's speech also arose before the evacuation of Yamit, in Sinai.  "But I don't know a single rabbi who believes that Rabbi Kook's intent was that we should wage a civil war over the land of Israel...

Another rabbi, who asked to remain anonymous, said that there are people "on the fringes" who take Kook's words literally, but insisted that this is an incorrect interpretation....."

It's something we must think deeply about and review in light of our long and illustrious history, especially with Hanukah approaching.

"Another leading student of Kook's, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of Beit El, recently published a strict prohibition against violence during the evacuation, in a circular distributed throughout the settlements.  "This army is our army, and this police force is our police force," he wrote.  "They are Jews, not Britons.  They are our brothers, even if they are coming to carry out an order that should not have been given ... Don't lift a hand, don't insult, don't hate.  Even in difficult situations, we will adhere to love for all Israel...  We will not even shove a soldier. We will embrace him."

This, my friends, is the voice of the Erev Rav.  How piously he shuns "hatred" and embraces "love."  What a sham!

* * *

Throughout the Torah, we are commanded over and over again not to show mercy where justice must apply. (Example: see Devarim, chapter 13) In the name of unity and free love, the Land of God has become polluted with every kind of evil and is not even fit for Jews to live, much less to build the Beit Hamikdash!  

How can it be that the focus of this day has become to celebrate the dream of Beit Hamikdash, up to dancing and singing on Har Habayit like Mashiach already came and destroyed the Erev Rav and the land is free of all our enemies and at peace.  

We are far, far away from having or even deserving the Beit Hamikdash.  Our people are being ill-served in my opinion by being led to believe otherwise.  

On this day of all days, we have plastered everywhere across the world a picture of one lone Jew, starved and barely standing, in the darkness of a tunnel in Gaza, digging his own grave while an evil Yishmaelite records it on his phone.  What is this "Jewish" government doing about it?  What are WE doing about it?  Is there truly nothing that CAN BE done???  Why would anyone think today is the day to celebrate building the Beit Hamikdash under such circumstances!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poignant Gush Katif withdrawal from Gaza documentary- Part 1 of 2 (English & Hebrew with subtitles)

Poignant Gush Katif withdrawal from Gaza documentary- Part 2 of 2 (English & Hebrew with subtitles)

We Must Examine Our Feelings, Thoughts and Deeds

7 Av 5785
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Devarim - Chazon 

From the Stone Edition Chumash Commentary on Parashat Devarim... 

...R. Hirsch explains that Devarim was Israel's introduction to the new life it would have to forge in Eretz Yisrael. Once they crossed the Jordan, the people would no longer see God's constant Presence and daily miracles, as they had in the Wilderness. They would plow, plant, and harvest. They would establish courts and a government. They would forge social relationships and means to provide for and protect the needy and helpless. They would need strong faith and self-discipline to avoid the snares and temptations of their pagan neighbors and false prophets. To stress these laws and values and exhort Israel to be strong was the function of Devarim, its laws and Moshe's appeals.

Thus, Devarim is not merely a review of the earlier four Books of the Torah, since "of the just over a hundred laws which are contained in this Book, more than seventy are completely new." Rather, in his final weeks, Moshe reviewed and taught all the laws of the Torah and the entire history of Israel - but in this Book, the Torah records the parts of his teachings that were most relevant for Israel's new life in its Land.

From the Stone Edition Chumash Commentary on Haftarah Devarim...

This Haftarah, the final one of the "three of affliction," is always read on the Shabbat that precedes Tisha b'Av. As R. Mendel Hirsch points out, the prophet does not lament because the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed; rather, he laments over the underlying causes of that destruction. And this annual lesson serves to focus the national mourning of Tishah b'Av not to the past but to the present. 

It is not enough to bemoan the great loss suffered by our people with the Destruction of our Land, our Holy City, and our Holy Temple. We must use our mourning as a way of initiating an examination of our present-day feelings, thoughts, and deeds. 

• What have we done to eliminate the attitudes and practices that thousands of years ago sent our ancestors into exile - not once, but twice?

• How have we improved our approach to the Divine Service as a way of life, a life devoted to duty rather than a substitute for it?

• Are our verbal offerings, like the animal-offerings described by the prophet, merely perfunctorily performed rituals, never internalized, never spoken from the heart, just from the lips and outward?

And, as R. Hirsch puts it...

• "Is our Jewish contemporary present already so deeply imbued with the Jewish spirit, so filled with the Jewish way of thinkingA, with knowledge of Judaism, with knowledge of the all-comprising and deep contents of the Torah that it could form a worthy environment for a Temple of God to be erected in our midst?"

• "Does not the gulf between Israel and its God yawn perhaps wider than ever?"

"Every generation in which the Temple is not rebuilt, is considered as if that generation destroyed the Temple." (Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma 1:1)

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~

Jews Are Obligated to Fight the Erev Rav

6 Av 5785

While our Sages tell us that this is the bitterest enemy of all, it is the most vulnerable and least defended front of this multi-front war...

"The last governments in Israel are from the Erev Rav."  (Yehudit's Vision)

"Before the arrival of Moshiach, most of the rabbis will be from the Erev Rav,...."  (Divrei Chaim, Parashas Vayakhel)

The joining of Eisav and Yishmael is the result of Armelius, the ministering angel of the Erev Rav, who are able to destroy the Jewish people and the entire world, may God have mercy.  The main drive of the Erev Rav is to unify Eisav and Yishmael and to separate the two moshiachs.  Therefore, our main work and battle is to break and to remove the strength of the Erev Rav… from the Jewish people.  The Erev Rav is our greatest enemy…[and] works only through deception and in roundabout ways.  Hence, the war against the Erev Rav is the most difficult and bitterest of all.  We must strengthen ourselves for this war, and anyone who does not participate in the battle against the Erev Rav becomes, de facto, a partner with…the Erev Rav, and is better off having not been born. (Kol HaTor, Ch. 2:2:2)  [See more.] 

Excerpted from the book The End of Days by Rabbi Shmuel Raber