Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi has a new lecture - part of "The Talmud Series" - this one focuses on the ever-increasing signs of Moshiach, and what to expect... and he also some things to say about the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Messianic movement in his name.
Click here for video
and here for MP3
And at the Huffington Post, Rabbi Chaim Miller writes about the ongoing parade of thousands of people to the Ohel of the Lubavitcher Rebbe:
It's sad but true that religion kicks in spectacularly well when we are desperate. This week, some financial challenges that I am going through began to get the better of me and I decided to pay a trip to the graveside of my mentor, the late Rabbi of Lubavitch, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, who is buried in Queens. Now, don't get me wrong, I may sport a beard and some other traditional trappings, but the idea of going to gravesides and asking the spirit of saintly rabbis to intercede on high still irks me out. Let's just say it's not the Judaism I grew up with. So I tend to only do it when I am desperate.
I'm standing there last Monday night in a moment of intimate soul-to-soul connection with my rabbi's parted spirit, and as my outer facade finally starts to lift, unleashing that ball of repressed emotion which lurks beneath, the darkness of the night is abruptly pierced by bright lights in my face. No, it's not some sort of revelation from above, but a full television crew from Israel's Arutz Sheva.
As it turns out, someone else is also desperate: Bibi Netanyahu. Stirrings in the UN have convinced Bibi, who was close with the Rabbi Schneerson during his lifetime and consulted with him regularly, that it's time for another trip to the graveside. And if you can't go yourself, you send a representative, in this case Knesset Member Danny Danon, who comes and stands right next to me.
i dont think BB is freaking out. i think or i feel, that for us to know and read this, its by divine providence and we should all pray that at least in this second round of his premiership, he should stand by the Torah and the guidance of the holy tzaddikim. DONT BUDGE. THIS LAND DID NOT COME TO YOU VA THE LAND OFFICE,BUT FROM HASHEM. Hashem is giving him a second chance, for some reason or other that we dont know. his brother yonathan gave up his life in the entebbe incident. it could have been BB if the lot had fallen to him. May he realise this,and lets all pray that Hashem strengthens him to make the right decision this time round.
ReplyDeleteAn important clarification: We never communicate with the spirits of the deceased, even of great Rebbes and the like, nor do we daven to them and ask them to intercede on our behalf.
ReplyDeletePlease let your readership know that what we DO do is ask Hashem to allow their neshama to be a meilitz yosher for us.
Thanks and Shana Tova to all!
I'm surprised at R' Chaim Miller's discomfort with this.
ReplyDeleteIt is written clearly in the Shulchan Aruch (Rama) that it is custom to go to the resting place of our ancestors and righteous people to ask them to be "melitzei yosher" for us. (See Pri Megadim there as well). And it is brought numerous other sefarim. This is hardly a "Chabad" custom. This is an age old Jewish custom.
Mind you, even Calev went to daven in Me'aras Hamechapela when he entered EY with the Meraglim.