1 Adar II 5776 Rosh Chodesh Erev Shabbat Kodesh Prophet Tzefaniah spoke in the name of God in the synagogues during the reign of King Yoshiyahu (640–609 B.C.E). His words have yet to be fulfilled. ...I will totally destroy everything from off the face of the earth, says the Lord. I will totally destroy man and beast; I will totally destroy the fowl of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from the face of the earth, says the Lord.* And I will stretch out My hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal, the name of the idolatrous priests with the ancillary priests, and those who prostrate themselves on the roofs to the host of the heavens, and those who prostrate themselves who swear by the Lord and swear by their king, and those who turn away from following the Lord, and those who did not seek the Lord nor inquire after Him. Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near. For the Lord has prepared a slaughter;.... And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and I will visit upon the men who are settled on their lees, who say in their heart, "The Lord shall do neither good nor harm." The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens greatly, the sound of the day of the Lord, wherein the mighty man cries bitterly. 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; a day of shofar and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like the blind, for they have sinned against the Lord. And their blood shall be shed like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath. And with the fire of His passion the entire land shall be consumed; for an end, yea, a sudden end, He shall make of all the inhabitants of the land.
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Gather yourselves together! Yea, gather together, O nation that has no desire, before the decree is born, as chaff that passes..the sun; before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you; before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth who executed His judgment; Seek righteousness, seek humility! Perhaps you will be concealed on the day of the Lord's wrath.
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...Therefore, wait for Me, says the Lord, for the day that I will rise up to meet [with you]. For it is My judgment to assemble nations, to gather kingdoms, to pour out My fury upon them; yea, all the kindling of My wrath, for with the fire of My jealousy all the earth shall be consumed. For then I will convert the peoples to a pure language that all of them call in the name of the Lord, to worship Him of one accord. On that day you shall not be ashamed of all your deeds [with] which you rebelled against Me, for then I will remove from your midst those who rejoice in your pride, and you shall no longer continue to be haughty on My holy mount. And I will leave over in your midst a humble and poor people, and they shall take shelter in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall neither commit injustice nor speak lies; neither shall deceitful speech be found in their mouth, for they shall graze and lie down, with no one to cause them to shudder. Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Rejoice and jubilate wholeheartedly, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has removed your afflictions; He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst-you shall no longer fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, "Have no fear! O Zion, let your hands not be slack. The Lord your God is in your midst-a Mighty One Who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will be silent in His love. He will jubilate over you with song." _______________________________ * I don't know if it is relevant, but these "I wills" reminded me of the "I wills" alluded to in the Pesachseder - (What is the significance of the four cups of wine? G‑d uses four expressions of redemption in describing our Exodus from Egypt and our birth as a nation: 1. "I will take you out…"; 2. "I will save you…"; 3. "I will redeem you…"; 4. "I will take you as a nation…")
30 Adar I 5776 We know it by another name... And this is just a sign of things to come. Take it as a warning. "El Nino has dramatically pounded Louisiana residents with one inch of rain approximately every hour over the past fourteen hours, creating an apocalyptic scene. Unimaginably, rain predictions for the next 12 hours are the same and a triple weather threat has not even reached the state, yet. Forced evacuations have been ordered. The National Guard has been deployed. New Orleans residents brace for Hurricane Katrina-type struggles, where ten more inches of rain are expected along with a slow-moving storm.
In addition to heavy rain, high winds have already pushed water onshore, causing coastal flooding, with wind gusts Wednesday averaging 45 mph in New Orleans and 33 mph in Baton Rouge."
29 Adar I 5776 It's about taking ALL of Holy Jerusalem - what's called the "Old City". VP Joe Biden has arrived in Israel and the terror war has increased. Expect it to get very bad in the coming days as they orchestrate and use the terror to psychologically coerce Israelis into an agreement to hand over Jerusalem. Biden in Jerusalem sparks more Palestinian terror That's where we are in the greater scheme of things. Prepare for it. Hashem, have mercy on your children!
28 Adar I 5776 Hamas has re-armed and rebuilt the terror tunnels in Gaza. Hizb'allah practically has its own state in southern Lebanon. Reports say they now have 100,000 missiles pointed at us. Hostile forces in Syria are camped near the Golan border under Russian protection. Iran has a green light from the US to continue to advance their nuclear aspirations. Saudi Arabia just announced that it has nuclear weapons. EU, UN and US military forces are constantly building up in Jordan ostensibly to fight ISIS and train the Syrian rebels, but it's only a hop, skip and a jump to Jerusalem from the Jordan Valley. Internally, we've got a horde of people working at their very limit to destroy Judaism as fast as they possibly can and to erase any remnant of truth from our current reality. The number of examples is truly mind-boggling and too many to recount here. But, the one common denominator is a connection to the new one-world religion (universal Torah, universal Judaism) where all are equal and all are acceptable except the "extremists" - those who cling to the Truth. "Woe to those who say of the evil that it is good and of the good that it is evil; who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who present bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter." (Yeshayahu 5.20) Given all of that and today's news, I'd say that the dark clouds are no longer on the horizon. They are overhead. And the storm is no longer approaching. It has arrived. Yesterday, PM Netanyahu announced the cancellation of his annual trip to the US to address the AIPAC conference. Today, VP Joe Biden arrives in Israel for meetings with the Prime Minister and according to the Jewish Press and other Israeli news sources, the Wall Street Journal announced the following "late" yesterday... Obama’s Lobbing Yet Another ‘Peace Plan’ at Israel ...yet another Arab-Israeli “peace process” plan is in the works, as reported in a news story posted late Monday, March 7, in the Wall Street Journal. This one, the White House threatens, may involve a United Nations Security Council Resolution that will impose a solution, rather than the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs working out the details of how they will co-exist “side by side in peace and security.” ...In addition to a UN Security Council Resolution, other initiatives may include a presidential speech and a joint statement from the Middle East Quartet: the U.S., the U.N., the E.U and Russia. ...The concessions to be extracted from each side are likely deal-breakers for both: from Israel, an end to building for Jews beyond the 1949 Armistice Line and handing over what the Americans call eastern Jerusalem to the Palestinian Arabs; from the Arabs, recognition of Israel as a Jewish State and ending the call for a “right of return” to Israel for the descendants of Palestinian Arab “refugees.” ...According to the Journal, Obama’s plan is to create facts on the ground that will constrain the next White House occupant. It's interesting that this comes just now, just before Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet. According to the JPress article: "The timing for the launch of this new plan is not yet set in stone...." I'd be very surprised if they do not lose any time and try to accomplish something by Purim. I'll leave you with a reminder about what Moishela said regarding Purim in the year leading up to Mashiach's revelation: "Then we will come to Purim and we will beg Hashem to save us from Haman and we will have a Haman here, a Haman that we will have to be saved from and we will have to fight, fight our fears, beg Hashem to save us from this awful terrible horrific person and his armies and his police. We will have to beg very hard. Hashem will save us." There are things out there that are even scarier than Nibiru!
27 Adar I 5776 This week comes under the influence of Parshat Pekudei. The theme of this parshah is completion of the work of preparation and advancement to the next level of reality. In the parshah, the Mishkan and all its accouterments are completed and MosheRabbeinu erects it in preparation for beginning the service of Hashem. In the haftarah, we see the same with regard to Shlomo HaMelech and the first Beit HaMikdash. In both instances, the culmination of the event was the visible presence of God among them. On Wednesday, March 9, 2016 (Tuesday, March 8), there will be a solar eclipse. For the first time since Nibiru is possibly visible near the sun, all eyes will be turned toward the skies to view the eclipse. Will those watching be able to see anything heretofore hidden by the sun's bright glare? We will know shortly. Who knows, perhaps if the "Star of Mashiach" becomes visible to the world this Wednesday (Tuesday), which comes on Yom Kippur Katan before Rosh Chodesh Adar Sheini, perhaps it will signal the completion of our preparation for the messianic age - an advancement to the next level of reality. "After 40 days that the pillar will stand from the earth to the heavens in the eyes of all the world the Moshiach will be revealed." (Shemot 7a) We can always hope. Just FYI, forty days from Wednesday is 10 Nissan - the traditional date on which Bnei Yisrael demonstrated their unshakeable faith in Hashem by taking the lambs into their homes.
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Live coverage of the solar eclipse may be viewed here at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) March 8th or 1 a.m. IST March 9th.
22 Adar I 5776 What to do about the mitzvot encumbent upon us but which circumstances beyond our control prevent us from performing? Take for example the offering of korbanot in the Beit HaMikdash...
...the Chachamim say that anyone who engages himself in the laws of the Chatat (sin) offering, it is as if he offered a Chatat; and anyone who engrosses himself in the laws of the Asham (guilt) offering, it is as if he offered an Asham. Likewise, when one engages himself in the laws of any of the korbanot, it is as if he brought those offerings (Menachot 110a).
The idea behind this is that every deed performed in the world possesses an inner soul. The soul of a mitzvah is the words of Torah that discuss that mitzvah. These ideas especially pertain to the korbanot, for the essence of the korbanot is to express our connection to Hashem. Therefore, when one cannot actually bring the offerings, the study of them is considered a substitute for their sacrifice (see also Maharal, Gevurot Hashem, chapter 8). (Source)
This is why we have a section on korbanot in our daily prayers. Every time you say it aloud with real intent and yearning for the opportunity to bring your offerings to the Holy Temple in reality, it counts as having performed the mitzvah itself. And this concept can be applied to any mitzvah which for the time being remains out of our reach.
Rabbi Alon Anava in a recent shiur entitled "Why Do We Do Mitzvot?"... "The Zohar explains that between our soul to HKB"H there's a rope. A spiritual rope. If you look at a physical rope, the rope is built from strings. The same way that this rope between our neshamah to God is built on 613 fibers corresponding to all the mitzvot. If I do all the mitzvot then my rope is powerful, strong. If I start doing one aveirah, I cut one string. Five aveirot, five strings. I don't do one mitzvah, I cut another string. Ten out of 613 is not so bad, but then you start doing more and more and more, you start cutting this rope. At some point there's no connection. Unfortunately, with some of the sins we do in this world a person with one act can cut the entire rope. These are called aveirot of karet. A person doesn't keep Shabbat, in one shot he cuts the whole rope! Karet! A person eats on Yom Kippur...the whole rope gets cut! You now have no connection. I lost my connection. Now, go fix it." Teshuvah repairs the rope. Understanding this concept in this way gives added meaning to these words... ...we are at the beginning of the greatest decline before the geulah shleimah. And it will go fast, it will go really fast. The descent - sharp, and in every sharp descent there is great speed. Therefore, I warn everyone, warn everyone, to take a deep breath, and make a very strong connection to HKB"H, because if not - this fall will frighten you and drive you crazy, and you won't even be able to breathe, or even to think how to save yourselves. Whoever prepares now - won't be afraid, they will know that they are, so to speak, in the hands of HKB"H and they won't be afraid of this sharp descent. You have, of course, been through, here and there, a sharp physical descent. I'm not speaking about an emotional aspect, I'm talking about like a roller-coaster. It' s the feeling of going up high and when you're going down - your stomach goes up in your throat... and it's a terrible fear, even when you know it's only 'like' [falling]. But, now, it's not 'like', now it's for real. When we begin to descend below, then it will really be scary if you're not ready. It's possible to stop this very-not-nice feeling, it's possible to stop the danger, if we will hold on to the spiritual rope that connects us to HKB"H. The whole time that we are holding onto this rope - it's impossible to go down and with this rope Hashem will pull us up, up and we won't go down. We will hold on to the rope, everyone will go down - and we will go up. Just hold on to the rope. But, it's not so simple to hold on to this rope, we need to believe, we need to want to be with HKB"H, not just to save ourselves, but first and foremost to be with HKB"H more than anything in the world, more than any connection in this world, only this we want, and He will pull us up with this rope. (Source: Binyamin) How strong is your rope? Is it in disrepair? Will it be strong enough to hold you when the time comes? Or is it near to breaking? There's almost no time left to fix it. Start NOW! DON'T WASTE ANOTHER MOMENT!!
