"Dear Jew, you are precious to G-d!"

26 Iyyar 5782
41 Days of the Omer
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Bamidbar - Mevorchim 

Dear Jew, you are precious to G-d! – Rabbi Meir Kahane

Hashem spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai ..., saying: Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel according to their families, according to their fathers' household, by numbers of the names, every male according to their head count. (Num. 1:1-2).

Tanchuma, Bamidbar, 20, teaches: A man had glass vessels, and he would take them to the market, set them out and gather them back up without ever counting them. Because they were of glass, he did not keep track of them.  He had other merchandise, fine pearls, which he would count before taking to the market, before setting them out, and before gathering them back up.  Because they were pearls, he loved them.  In the same way, so to speak, G-d said, “I did not count the nations, since they have no importance for Me, as it says, 'all the nations are as nothing before Him, they are accounted before Him as things of naught and vanity' (Isaiah 40:17).  Yet, you, Israel, 'are borne by Me from birth, carried by Me from the womb' (Isaiah 46:3).  Therefore, I count you constantly.” Thus it says, “Make a tally of the male firstborn among the children of Israel” (Num. 3:40)

Israel are G-d's “reIshit”, first and foremost among all the nations, and superior to them all.  Israel are also G-d's firstborn, as it says, “You must say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the L-rd says: Israel is My son, My firstborn'” (Ex. 4:22).  The word for firstborn, bechor, is close to the terms bachur and nivchar, connoting selection, because the firstborn is the one G-d selects, and then “the birthright – bechora – is legally his” (Deut. 21:17), the bechira, i.e. selection. It is probable that the word bechira, selection, which includes examination and thought about what and whom to choose, is close to the word bakar, a root meaning to examine, clarify and choose, as in the verse, “No distinction must be made – lo yivaker – between better and worse” (Lev. 27:33).  Israel are G-d's chosen people, His treasure, His children, majestic and royal.  As R. Shimon said (Shabbat 128a), “All of Israel are the children of kings.”  And R. Ashi said in Zevachim 19a: Huna bar Natan told me, “I was once standing before [the non-Jewish] King Izgadar, and my sash was too high and he lowered it, saying: 'The Torah calls you "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation"' (Ex. 19:6).

My father and teacher [Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Kahane ztz”l] once pointed out to me that, unfortunately, a large segment of the nation, and perhaps a majority, acknowledge their Jewishness only because of the hatred of the non-Jews who do not allow them to assimilate and disappear.  For this, a Jew who keeps Torah and mitzvot is obligated to recite the blessing “She lo assani goy” (“Who didn't make me a non-Jew”) which [also] can be translated “That not the non-Jew made me [be a Jew]”.  Rather, I myself, chose to be part of the Jewish People because of G-d's Torah.  Israel endures forever!  And why?  What do they have that the nations of the world lack?  Is their skin different?  Is there no wisdom among the nations?  Surely, our sages explicitly said (Eicha Rabbah, 2:13), “If a person says, 'There is wisdom among the nations', believe him.”  Rather, there is only one difference between Israel and the nations. There is only one logical, rational reason for a person to be proud of his being a Jew: The Torah.  As our sages said (Torat Kohanim, Bechukotai, 8:11): “What remains to them that has not become vile and loathsome?  Were not all the fine gifts that were given to them taken away?  If not for the Torah that remained with them, they would be no different from the nations at all.”  This is the secret of Israel's uniqueness and exclusiveness. Only this Torah hallows, exalts and sets Israel apart from all the nations. All the rest, nationalism and national pride, are nothing but a meaningless farce.

Yet, since G-d chose Israel to be His holy people and to fulfill His Torah, they were granted extraordinary love and a special status, and they became the mate and partner, so to speak, of Him Whose word brought the world into being.  The Jew called up to the Torah blesses loudly and with joyous devotion, the One “Who chose us from all the nations and gave us His Torah.”  Regarding our sages' utterance (Bava Metzia 85b) that the Second Temple was destroyed because Israel “did not recite the blessing over the Torah before studying Torah,” a great rabbi once commented that they did not make sure to say “Who chose us from all the nations,” which is the content of the blessing recited before reading from the Torah.  So great is Israel's selection from among all the nations!

How great is our duty to be happy and thank G-d every single moment for our having been born as part of the chosen people, supreme and holy!  Our sages established that each day before morning prayers we must say, “Happy are we! How good is our destiny, how pleasant is our lot, how beautiful our heritage!”  How disgraceful it is that a Jew is ashamed of taking pride in his role and in his exalted spiritual level, fearful of what the nations will say, trying to belittle the importance and definition of Israel as a chosen, supreme people!  Consider the blight of exile and servitude.  Observe how it has made the alien culture rule over us and harmed our healthy spirits.  What healthy nation would not want to be chosen, treasured and unique?  It was in response to this that King David said, “In You did our fathers trust; they trusted, and You did deliver them.  Unto You did they trust, and were not ashamed” (Ps. 22:5-6).  Faith and trust in G-d must be without shame.  What times these are, when belief and trust have turned into something “illogical” that a Jew is ashamed to talk about openly.  Likewise, the concept of chosenness has become a source of mockery and scorn.  Under the sway of the alien culture, it has become a negative, racist concept and many good people have been ashamed to take pride in it; hence the separation between Israel and the nations has been blurred.  Listen, my friend, and cast off all your shame regarding the superior status given you.  Rejoice in your exalted inheritance!  The way the Hellenists and assimilationists fear the nations' reaction is just part of what compels them to deny Israel's selection.  Infinitely worse is the influence of the alien culture which has so penetrated their bones that the idea that there really is a nation chosen from all the rest and spiritually superior appears to them an abomination.  Surely they are hostages of the nonsensical concept of equality, which brings everything – goodness and evil, wisdom and folly, the genius and the simpleton – to one standing.  Nothing brings greater ruin than this foolishness, and regarding this alien culture it says, “Do not bring any offensive idol into your house, since then you may become just like it.  Shun it totally and consider it absolutely offensive, since it is taboo” (Deut. 7:26); and, “Let nothing that has been declared taboo there remain in your hands” (Ibid., 13:18).  A thick wall divides Israel from the nations, a Divine partition which separates between the sacred and the profane, between Israel and the nations. 

Indeed, holiness and separateness descended upon us from Heaven as a beloved pair, bound to one another by Divine decree.

Our sages said (Tanchuma, Kedoshim 5): G-d said to Israel, “I am not like mortal man.  With mortal man, non-royalty are forbidden to have the same name as the king.”  As proof, when a person wishes to get his fellow man into trouble, he can call him by the emperor's name, and that man's life will be forfeit.  Israel, however, were called by G-d's name.  Every lovely name G-d had, He called Israel by it.  He called Himself Elokim and He called Israel Elokim, as it says, “I said that you are elohim [G-d-like beings]” (Ps. 82:6). G-d was called chacham, wise, as it says, “He is wise of heart and mighty in strength” (Job 9:4), and He called Israel chacham, as in, “This great nation is certainly a wise and understanding people” (Deut. 4:6). He was called dodi, “my beloved”, as it says, “My beloved is white and ruddy” (Song of Songs 5:10), and He called Israel His beloved, as it says, “Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved” (Ibid., v. 1). G-d was called bachur, “select”, as it says, “select as the cedars” (Ibid., v. 15), and He called Israel select, as it says, “The L-rd your G-d selected you” (Deut. 7:6). He was called chassid, “saintly”, as it says, “I am saintly, says the L-rd” (Jer. 3:12) and He called Israel saints, as it says, “Gather My saints together unto Me” (Ps. 50:5).  He was called holy, as it says, “Holy, holy, holy is the L-rd of hosts.!” (Isaiah 6:3); and, “For the L-rd our G-d is holy” (Ps. 99:9), and He called Israel holy, as it says, “You must be holy” (Lev. 19:2).

Consider what our sages said about the greatness, holiness, supremacy and belovedness of Israel – that even though G-d is the G-d of all living creatures, He still associated His name exclusively with Israel.  As Shemot Rabbah, 29:4, teaches: “G-d said to Israel, 'I am the G-d of all creatures on earth, but I did not associate My name with any but you.  I am not called the G-d of the nations but the G-d of Israel.”  Pesikta Rabbati (10) teaches, “G-d said to Moses, 'Moses, exalt this nation as much as you possibly can, for it is as though you exalt Me.' " (Source)

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~
YOM YERUSHALAYIM SAMEACH

All Eyes on Yerushalayim

25 Iyyar 5782
40 Days of the Omer

Eyes all over the world are being focused on Yerushalayim as the day we celebrate her return to Jewish hands approaches this Yom Rishon.  Our constant hope and fervent prayer is to see the ultimate liberation - the release of Har Habayit from Muslim domination - and with it, our own ultimate liberation from this never-ending exile.  And so may it be His will!

The Foundation of the World - HAR HABAYIT

22 Iyyar 5782

37 Days of the Omer

...And it shall come to pass on that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden for all peoples; all who bear it shall be gashed, and all the nations of the earth shall gather about it. ...On that day I will make the princes of Judah as a fiery stove among wood, and as a brand of fire among sheaves.  And they shall consume on the right and on the left all the nations round about, and Jerusalem shall still stay in its place in Jerusalem.  (Zechariyah 12.3,6)

~ 

Police Ignore Court Ruling, Detain Jew Who Bowed on Temple Mount

Following the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Sunday’s ruling that it is permissible for Jews to recite the “Shema Yisrael” prayer and bow on the Temple Mount..., Israel Police on Monday morning detained for questioning a Jew who came to the Temple Mount and, according to witnesses, bowed before his father in Heaven. Two other Jews were stopped when they tried to enter the sacred compound with a tallit and tefillin.

Judge Zion Sahrai wrote in his decision on the appeal by the Honenu legal aid society regarding boys who uttered the Shema Israel on the Temple Mount that it’s not possible to say that bowing and reciting “Shema Yisrael” raises a reasonable suspicion of behavior that could lead to a violation of the public peace. The judge cited Policed Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai, who told the media that the police allow anyone who comes to pray on the mountain to hold their religious service.

“Under these circumstances, when the conduct of the appellants is made in keeping with the public announcement of the Police Commissioner and in accordance with the Preservation of Holy Places Act, they cannot be suspected of committing a criminal offense,” the judge ruled.

However, the court emphasized that the decision does not constitute an intervention in the work of the police and the matter of freedom of worship at the compound.

The Bennett government’s Secretariat was quick to issue a statement that “there is no, nor is it planned to change in the status quo on the Temple Mount.... The decision of the Magistrate’s Court deals exclusively with the matter of the conduct of the minors brought before it, and it constitutes no lateral determination as to the freedom of worship on the Temple Mount.”

Bennett’s government added that “with regard to the specific criminal case in question, the government was informed that the state would file an appeal to the district court.”

Minister for Regional Cooperation Issawi Frej (Meretz) told Reshet Bet radio Monday morning that the court’s decision to lift the police restriction on saying “Shema Yisrael” on the Temple Mount is “conduct bordering on stupidity.”

“It reminds me of the saying that one fool can burn an entire forest,” Frej said. He is right, Jerusalem is surrounded by forests that have been burned down by Arab terrorists. Hundreds of acres of forests have also been burned by the Arabs of Gaza, as well as by the Negev Bedouin. But Frej was not concerned with Arab violence. Indeed, he treated that component as a given, a part of nature, if you will. It’s the Jews who decide whether the Arabs release a fiery storm in response to their reciting a line from their prayer book.

“Everyone has their own place of worship,” Minister Frej repeated the line that’s supported, unfortunately, not only by the Arabs but by the majority of Jews in Israel and elsewhere. “The Al-Aqsa Plaza is a place of worship for Muslims and the Western Wall for Jews.”

See how he turned the Temple Mount compound into the Al-Aqsa Plaza? The whole thing is now Al-Aqsa, boys and girls. Only a couple of decades ago, the Muslims were referring to the place as Bayt al-Maqdis, Arabic for the Hebrew Beit HaMikdash, Temple Mount. But even the communist politician Issawi Frej has now adopted the Islamic bon ton, wiping away three millennia of Jewish worship on the holy mountaintop.

“The majority wants things to continue as they are,” Frej said, and he is absolutely right. “We are not allowed to play with fire,” he said, meaning Arab rage. Because once we dare provoke the Arabs’ rage, who knows what might happen, as Israel has learned in June 1967, when the rage of three Arab countries was directed at it. OK, it ended with the annihilation of three Arab armies, but that didn’t count.

Come to think of it, that’s how Israel liberated the Temple Mount, only to shed this divine gift like used rags. One wonders what else Israel could liberate in the face of the next Arab rage. Of course, it won’t happen with Islamist wannabes like Issawi Frej in government.

~ 

Hamas Threatens Israel: “We Won’t Accept This Talmudic Nonsense”

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah on Sunday threatened that the terror group will fire rockets at Israel if the Jerusalem Flag March goes ahead as planned next Sunday.

“I warn the enemy against committing such crimes and these steps,” he said in a statement.

“Our Palestinian people and their resistance in Jerusalem and the West Bank do not and will not accept the occurrence of this Talmudic Jewish nonsense. All Israeli cities will be targeted by our missiles if the flag parade passes through Sha’ar Shechem.”

Internal Security Minister Omer Barlev announced last week that this year’s march will pass through Sha’ar Shechem as it is customary, following the recommendation of Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai.

Last year, Israel Police recommended that the march avoid Sha’ar Shechem, a move that failed to prevent the outbreak of Operation Guardian of the Walls. Due to last year’s cancellation, the march is expected to draw particularly large crowds this year.

The Flags March was a source of conflict in the Cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, with Meretz MKs and several other coalition members decrying the decision to allow the march to pass through Sha’ar Shechem. Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg called the march “a provocative act for political purposes.”

However, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett insisted that the march will pass through Sha’ar Shechem because “it has always been that way.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Out of everything written here, which is all very tragic, this is the saddest comment of all:  “The majority wants things to continue as they are,” Frej said, and he is absolutely right.

Does anyone who knows HKB"H's will, as revealed to us in His Holy Torah, really think this is acceptable to Him?  And so it should not be acceptable to us.  What is that phrase, "Be the change you want to see?"  First, you have to want change!!  

Dai!!  Enough!!  There is no such thing as "status quo," this world is constantly in flux.  We are either progressing forward or sliding backwards.  That bolded paragraph tells us exactly which direction we are headed right now.  Do any of us really want to continue that trajectory?  I certainly don't!!!

It's (Unfortunately) Still Relevant

19 Iyyar 5782

Erev Shabbat Kodesh

Day 34 of the Omer

Reposting from seven years ago...

Parshat Bechukotai

by Geula Girl

Vayikra 26:3 - "If you will follow My decrees and observe My commandments and perform them; then I will provide your rains in their time, and the land will give its produce and the tree of the field will give its fruit."

Vayikra 26:14-18 - "But if you will not listen to Me and will not perform all of these commandments; If you consider My decrees loathsome, and if your being rejects My ordinances, so as not to perform all My commandments, so that you annul My covenant—then I will do the same to you; I will assign upon you panic, swelling lesions, and burning fever, which cause eyes to long and souls to suffer; you will sow your seeds in vain for your enemies will eat it. I will turn My attention against you, you will be struck down before enemies; those who hate you will subjugate you—you will flee with no one pursuing you. If despite this you do not heed Me, then I shall punish you further, seven ways for your sins."

Anti-semitism is one of the tools Hashem uses to punish us. Harav Naftali Hoffner explains it clearly in his book Our Faith, Our Strength:

COMMUNAL PUNISHMENT.  ANTISEMITISM AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

a. The real reason for anti-Semitism (which would seem to be completely unjustified) is clearly explained by the following Midrash (in connection with what happened before the exodus from Egypt): “When Yoseph died, they [i.e.the children of Israel] did away with the Brith Milah Mitzvah, claiming let's be like the Egyptians!

...Because of this the Almighty turned the affection which the Eyptians had for Israel into hatred as it says: ‘He turned their heart to hate His nation, to plot against His servants’”

b. Likewise in our times, in reaction to the tendency of a considerable section of our people to be ‘like the other nations’ (a process which starts with ignoring the Mitzvoth – and gradually moves toward assimilation and intermarriage with the goyim) we are faced by communal punishment (according to the measure –for- measure principle) of anti-Semitism (which impedes assimilation).

c. The purpose of communal punishment is-- to serve as a clear warning to all of us to improve our ways, before our situation deteriorates further. Note: for instance, when the Nazi regime came to power in Germany more than 60 years ago (then according to the ‘measure-for-measure’):

1. During the first month of power, they prohibited all mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews (at the time, the rate of such marriages had reached 50% in some places!!).

2. About 2 months after he seized power, on April 1st, ’33, which fell on a Shabbath, he ordered SA-guards to stand at the entrance of each Jewish-owned store, open on that Shabbath, to warn any potential customer that the store was owned by a Jew and should therefore be boycotted. –There could have been no clearer warning against the desecration of the Shabbath!!

I don’t think anyone is unaware of the increase in antisemitism around the world in the past decade. However, I think most are unaware of the increase in interfaith relations in the same time period and their correlation. It is shocking to me how many Jews believe interfaith dialogue, breaking down the walls of separation between Jew and non-Jew and building bridges between “faith communities” is the solution to anti-semitism when it is actually one of the causes. After all, they say, there is really no difference between us and them and once we show them this, peace will reign in the world.

The most disturbing part of this issue are the so-called “religious” Jews, even Rabbis, that are not only involved in this interfaith movement but leading it. They have put a new spin on things. Instead of assimilating amongst the goyim, they are trying to assimilate the goyim amongst Am Yisrael. They may be able to fool some people with their righteous claim of being “a light to the nations” but Hashem is not fooled. The goal is the same: to mingle and become one with the goyim (by making the goyim into quasi-Jews) and to destroy Judaism (by corrupting halachah or claiming it is no longer relevant at all and infusing Torah with foreign ideas and philosophies).

These xian-loving Jews disregard the halachah, the ways of our forefathers and the words of our sages regarding relations with non-Jews. They are new Jews and their Judaism is all about love and tolerance and becoming one with the goyim. They have traded our covenant with Hashem for a covenant with the goyim. We are to be “ovdei Hashem”, but they are more focused on the religious experience they get from Judaism than serving and obeying Hashem. These Jews take the exalted mission of our people to be a nation of priests who serve Hashem and have degraded it into being a nation whose purpose is to serve the goyim. Of course in reality these Jews only serve themselves. We are taught to fear Hashem, to obey Hashem and to be in awe of Hashem.

...In this week’s parsha, Bechukotai, Vayikra 26:21 - "If you behave casually with Me and refuse to heed Me, then I shall lay a further blow upon you—seven ways like your sins."

In the commentary it is written: "(קרי) Casually. The translation follows Rashi’s primary interpretation according to Sifra. It means that despite the punishments, your performance of the commandments will be haphazard and erratic; you will treat them as a matter of choice and convenience, rather than as divinely imposed obligations."

...Hashem is loving and merciful, but He is not a liar. He will punish us for our sins as he said in this week's parsha. It is just a matter of time. Do teshuva now before it is too late.

~Shabbat shalom~ 

We Hold the Solution in Our Hands

18 Iyyar 5782

L"G BaOmer 

Chai Iyyar!  The day Rabbi Akiva's students stopped dying. 

What will save us?  When will we stop dying from the plague of Arab/Muslim terrorism?  

We hold the solution in our own hands.  We just fail to implement it due to fear of what the nations will say and do.  We have a faithless leadership who do not trust in HKB"H, but we are a faithless people as well, who do not demand that they act in accordance with the instructions of Torah miSinai!

"...you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their temples, destroy their molten idols, and demolish their high places. You shall clear out the Land and settle in it, for I have given you the Land to occupy it. ...But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land from before you, then those whom you leave over will be as spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you settle. And it will be that what I had intended to do to them, I will do to you." (Bamidbar 33)

Gush Katif was the down payment on this warning:  "And it will be that what I had intended to do to them, I will do to you."

HKB"H's patience is running out...

Gantz Warns: Israel Will Lose The North and South To The Arabs

As Arab violence and rampant crime grows increasingly worse over the years, Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently warned that in the future, the Jewish part of Israel will be limited to the center of the country, Yisrael Hayom reported.

In a closed Blue and White meeting last week, Gantz read a Whatsapp message which recently went viral in Israel, containing threats by anonymous Arabs to turn Israel into Palestinian territory. Gantz said that the message “isn’t far from reality” and that he believes that “in a few more years we’ll be in a situation where the Jewish state will be between Gedera and Hadera [an Israeli term for the center of the country].”

The message states: “Keep cursing; you have no chance against Allah. Slowly but surely we are taking bites out of your state. What will you do? This is Palestinian territory in actuality, and the moment one tractor comes – we will use the left-wing organizations such as ‘Peace Now’ and ‘B’Tselem,’ who will go to the country’s true ruler (the Supreme Court) to issue an injunction. We will send children and teenagers to throw stones and barricade themselves in until you scatter away like mice.”

“The Galil, with the grace of Allah, will also be ours soon. We are buying one dunam [0.2 acres] from the [Israel Land Authority] for 50,000 shekels [$14,677] while the Jew buys [one dunam] for 1,150,000 shekels [$337,577]. Already today, we are 85% of the population of the Galil and are quickly seizing control, building homes on every corner without permits. Who’s going to do anything about it? The Jews who live in the Galil all flee to the center of the country because they suffer from harassment, violence on the roads, organized gang crime, shootings, theft, and robbery.”

“The government tells you that the Galil and Negev are Jewish; I tell you that in reality, this is Palestinian territory. Any new business in the Negev is paying us a protection tax, no neighborhood will be built without paying protection.”

The statements in the above message are not an exaggeration as the north and south, especially the south, has turned into the “Wild West” in recent years.

Almost 300,000 Bedouins live in the Negev and the area is rife with lawlessness, warring tribes, drugs, illegal weapons, protection rackets and stabbings. The Bedouins smuggle billions of shekels of drugs into Israel every year from the Sinai and also earn ample income from the protection money they demand from all business in the area – located only several miles from Be’er Sheva, Israel’s eighth most populous city.

What a chillul Hashem!! Do you hear the echoes of Goliath's taunting voice in the words of these present-day Philistines?! Where is our David who not only understood the solution but had the faith to carry it out and was willing to implement it?

And David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with sword, spear and javelin, and I come to you with the Name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel which you have taunted.  This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I shall slay you, and take off your head, and I shall give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines this day, to the fowl of the air and to the beasts of the earth, and all the earth shall know that Israel has a God.  And all this assembly shall know that not with sword and javelin does the Lord save, for the battle is the Lord's, and He will deliver you into our hand." (Shmuel Alef 17)

A Return to Netanyahu-Rule Is Not A Solution

16 Iyyar 5782

31 Days of the Omer 

God save us from the "status-quo"!  It is killing us - both physically and spiritually.  We are under attack physically by the Muslims (Yishmael) occupying our land, as well as under attack spiritually by the Christians (Eisav) among us, all under the protection of the Erev Rav regime whose rule is dedicated to promoting assimilation and destruction of the Torah.  God help us!

At least there is some sense among the nation of the threat the Muslims pose to our continued existence, but to this day, few are willing to acknowledge, if they know anything at all, that Christianity may pose an even greater threat,  if for no other reason than the ignorance that abounds about it, not to mention the sheer numbers of so-called "Orthodox" Jews supporting and facilitating their work here.

The missionaries in our midst have some very good friends in our government, like Minister Matan Kahana and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, but they have proliferated and spread like a cancer across our nation under Netanyahu's watch (see Netanyahu Ally John Hagee).  He even hired one of them - self-proclaimed IDF missionary Chananya Naftali!  

Listen to Chaim Malespin of the Aliyah Return Center, an organization dedicated to converting lone IDF soldiers, brag about Israeli government sanction of his missionary activity...

But, they swear they do not proselytize!  Make no mistake!  This klippot has to fall away and be replaced by Torah Truth!!

Pesach Sheini - The Second Chance

14 Iyyar 5782
Day 29 of the Omer

Quoting from the book Sefiros by Rabbi Yaacov Haber:

Chesed She-be-Hod
Kindness within Beauty

"Today is Pesach Sheini, the time when those people who were impure or on a distant journey were given a second chance to bring the Pesach sacrifice. Those who were outside the camp and unable to join with the rest of the Jewish people were now brought in.

...It is written in the Zohar: The Jewish people receive illumination from above on the first night of Pesach. This illumination lasts for thirty days. After the thirty days there is an announcement in Heaven. "Whoever has not received the illumination of Pesach can do so now, on the fourteenth of Iyar, for seven days and the Heavens will open up for you. After that they will close again...." 

Have a happy Pesach Sheini and don't forget to eat a piece of matzah!! 

Conflagration - The Spark That Ignites the Fire?

12 Iyyar 5782
27 Days of the Omer
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Behar (Pesach Sheini)

Either one of these could do it, but taken together, it could be more like dynamite.

Ahead of Friday funeral of Al Jazeera journalist,...

Abu Akleh, 51, was shot dead early Wednesday morning amid clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen during an IDF raid in Jenin. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of “executing” Abu Akleh.

...bu Akleh was born in East Jerusalem to a Palestinian Christian family and her funeral is slated to pass through Jaffa Gate and the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take part in the funeral for Abu Akleh, who was a well-known face in the Arab world for her decades of reporting for Al Jazeera.

The procession is expected to depart around 2 p.m. from her family’s home in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of Jerusalem and eventually culminate at the Christian Mount Zion Cemetery.

A police official told the Kan public broadcaster that every effort is being made to ensure the funeral proceeds without interruptions.

“The whole world is looking at us and at this event,” the official was quoted as saying. “The goal is to prevent as much as possible any friction.”

Concern has also been voiced about potential clashes atop the Temple Mount, the flashpoint holy site that has been the location of repeated unrest over the past month.

According to the Quds News Network, Hamas has called on its followers to barricade themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the mount and prevent any Israeli forces from entering.

Israel Police Prepare for Arab March in Lod Marking Anniversary of Anti-Jewish Pogroms

Israel Police are beefing up their forces to contend with an Arab march slated for Friday (May 13) in Lod.

The march is intended to mark the one-year anniversary of Arab pogroms against Jews that wracked that city and others with mixed populations during Operation Guardian of the Walls, the 11-day mini-war launched by Hamas against Israel.

...“On Friday, the Arabs of Lod will mark the anniversary of the “Events of Honor,” the Arab nickname for the 1947 riots,” wrote Yedidya Zuckerman in a tweet. “I find it delusional that the State of Israel allows rioters to celebrate a year of riots. It is delusional that the State of Israel, which knew how to stop buses for demonstrations against Oslo and the (2005) Disengagement (from Gaza), allows buses from Nazareth, Umm al-Fahm and from all over the country to reach Lod,” he wrote.

“In recent days, posters have been published on social media and in the Arab press, promoting the ‘V’aad Ha’Am in Lod’ (People’s Council of Lod) calling on the public to attend the event to mark the ‘anniversary of the Events of Honor,’ which are disturbances perpetrated by Arabs against Jews in the cities involved during Operation Wall Guard.”

For the believing Jew, there is no fear, however, as he/she knows who is ultimately in control.  Ayn od milevado!!

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Hashem spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: "Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them:  When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall observe a Sabbath rest for Hashem."  (Vayikra 25:1)

The commandment of the Sabbatical Year has a special relationship to Mount Sinai.  At Mount Sinai, God's majesty and power were so manifest that it was clear that the determining factors in human material success are God's will and man's worthiness.  The land's rest in the seventh year, too, teaches that the primary force in the universe is God, not the law of nature.  (Stone Edition Chumash Commentary)