I hear what you're saying, of course it is one Jew too many. There is nothing I can say to change your mind on this, but I will explain the thinking of Rabbi Goldstein. Chabad Shulichim will never leave the diaspora until Moshiach comes. They will not leave because their mission is to collect every Jewish neshama and bring them back to yiddishkeit. THey cannot do this from Israel. Of course everyone would ideally love to be in Israel, but that is not their mission. Chabad is the front line of the army of Hashem, in a spiritual sense, having been charged with that mission from their Rebbe. When Moshiach comes, the entire world will be Israel, and Israel itself will be Yerushalayim. That is all I can say to you. THank you for your thoughts Orna, I hear you loud and clear but it will not change the situation. I see the miracle that happened here, with the jamming of the gun. One dead, not dozens.
The rise in anti-semitism is predicted as occurring right before Moshiach comes. This has been spoken about a lot by Rabbi Kessin, and others. Here is one article: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/117788/anti-semitism-part-war-gog-magog/
Regarding Orna's comment. Where's the logic? Far MORE Jews are killed by terrorism in Eretz Yisroel than in the United States, England, Australia, South Africa and all other galus counties combined. And that's not to mention the numbers of Jewish soldiers who are killed EVER SINGLE YEAR in Eretz Yisroel. By following your logic, those of us who live in Eretz Yisroel must pack up our bags and leave to chutz l'aretz as quickly as possible. We are all Am Echad regardless of where we live!
Chaviva, sorry to say but you are missing the point. From both spiritual and practical angles, the situation of Jews in Israel and outside is different, and accordingly so too should the response to terrorism be different.
Jews belong in Eretz Yisrael. [Compulsory reading "Em Habanim Smeichah"]. Terrorism against Jews in Israel should be met with Torah (tefila, tshuva, tsedaka) and tanks. It could easily be eradicated in Israel if we had real Jewish leaders who fear Hashem and not the goyim. Outside of Israel, the spiritual message is for Jews to leave the exile. Practically too there is no real way for millions of individual, scattered citizens to protect themselves.
Furthermore, we have to look at the trend. In the 1920s, it was safer to be a Jew in Europe than in Palestine. At some point in the 1930s a point of parity was reached, and in the 1940s it was infinitely safer to be Jewish in Palestine than anywhere in Europe. Those who left Europe early on, came to Eretz Hakodesh with possessions and means of a livelihood. Those who waited until the last minute turned up bedraggled and penniless, and then there were all the rest. Hashem yishmor.
Jews who leave America now will still be able to sell up and come with their possessions. Those who wait will probably turn up penniless, if they're lucky. Rav Arush said this, not me. Every exile comes to an end eventually, and it was only galut mitzrayim that the Jews left with rechuch gadol.
This is the new reality for Jews in exile, and most particularly in America, being the centre of the exile. It's hard, it's scary and uncomfortable, but now is the time to take action, and not wait until it is an unbearable nightmare.
I only now saw the video. First of all, it goes without saying that I wish Rabbi Goldstein a refua shleima after his horrendous ordeal. As for his message, just as he heroically warned his congregation to flee the scene, he should now be warning them to flee to Eretz Yisrael. We celebrate the Jews who prior to the Shoah were afraid and fled. Those who remained we mourn. I understand that most Jews in the world are far away from the Torah and do not understand what is happening, I do not understand how connected Jews fail to understand what is happening.
As for some of the other comments, I've stated this a few times on these blogs (in so many words) and will say it again. To all the people who've been privileged to settle in E"Y - and who lecture at those of us who've not been so privileged:
Instead of the lectures, why not just thank your lucky stars! Has it occurred to you that I, for one, tried in the past to settle there, but never had the support or mazal to do so? That my physical health (whatever there was of it to begin with) had been wrung dry by my FFB background so that by now i'm severely prematurely-aged, and certainly in no position to get out of my rut? That i'm living in an abnormal place which sapped my strength for more than half a century, and which is a money-pit, to the point i'll soon go broke?
So, Orna, and whoever else has given similar lectures throughout these blogs (albeit ***without*** offering those of us who need it affordable, bearable, one-bedroom apts. in E"Y to bail out to) please, for once and for all, try to see the macro-picture, not just that which is based on your own life experience. And again, thank your lucky stars! Because there are many MANY of you in E"Y who have led far more cushy lives, which are not money pits, and which are far more physically comfortable than mine. No drafts, no rotten windows, no HUGE amount of shoveling (simultaneous to spinal OA, severe varicosities & much more), no worrying about finding a decent handyman when needed, no worrying about who will mow your abnormal landscape, and way more you can't begin to fathom.
Please, Orna, step outside your own mazal and visualize the bigger picture! Because others in my position might well have worded this alot more explosively, so take notice that notwithstanding my relative-discretion, the feelings you've evoked in me are TNT.
As for uniting the Jews, through whichever means, i'm too realistic to ever see that happening. Because most of humanity, however brainy some of them may be, lack the will to try to imagine the experiences of those outside themselves. M.M.
P.S. I just read the article re: R'Kessin's comments.
But i'd like to ask - if all this is prep. for Moshiach, then why are there ONLY anti-semitic incidents as "preparation"?
Why isn't there an accompanying facilitation for ALL well-meaning Jews who wish to, to move to E"Y - even those who barely have money, rather than the current status-quo where developers have been gobbling up everything and then turning around and making BILLIONS in profiteering by appealing exclusively to wealthy Jews? (Emphasis on profiteering vs. profit)... And why aren't there decent, very-affordable senior-housing made available in a central English-speaking area for those of us who need it? Better yet, why isn't stem-cell tech facilitated, accelerated, and made-affordable, rather than its current suppression - since that would eliminate the term "senior citizen" from our vocabulary, and be a form of techiyat hameisim for those of us who are still alive?
I.E. why not transport Dr.Comella and others like her to E"Y to set up true repaircare clinics? Instead, she's been persecuted by the FDA, as they (along with others of the deep-state) do to all truth-based innovative ventures.
To MM, first of all I wish you refua shleima and parnasa beshefa. (This shabbat is particularly auspicious for praying for parnasa). I am assuming that I am one of the "others" you refer to. I have written repeatedly, on this site, at Habayitah and at A7, that there is a need for an organised aliya specifically to assist Jews in all kinds of vulnerable situations. I call it #nojewleftbehind. As a nation we are wealthy and it is time we help our own. Unfortunately I am just an anonymous keyboard warrior and do have anyone's ear. As for leading a cushy life, I have had eight and a half years of poor health, undiagnosed for several years, leaving me very isolated, unable to work, with attendant financial issues, until fairly recently stuck living in a moldly, leaky, caravan, unable even to maintain a social life, or find a husband. Most shabbats I spend by myself. During all this time, with all the difficulties I repeatedly told myself to be grateful that all my woes were in Eretz Yisrael. So please, just as you do not want people to project onto you, do not project onto others. I am very well aware of the challenges people face in life from my own experience and from that of others.
But regardless of anyone's individual situation, Hashem is screaming at Jews to leave the exile and make aliya. Not just from this attack, but from the whole situation (political and security) in the US, France and the UK, the principal places of the exile. Unity yes, of course, we always need unity. But what does it mean even? To say unity and continue business as usual? Or to understand that unity means Jews returning home to be unified as a nation, in their own land? That is unity: Am Yisrael Eretz Yisrael Torat Yisrael. And unfortunately Hashem has other ways of making us united, much less pleasant.
The first step is to understand the situation and what the call of the hour is. The second is to think about how to make it happen. It needs support from the Israeli government, Jewish organisations and some wealthy individuals. Two Jewish gazillionaires just gave over 100 million dollars to help rebuild Notre Dame. I felt sick when I read that as I thought that money could be used to help people make aliya. On an individual level, Rav Brody said to open an aliya account and every week put in one dollar and pray to Hashem for the money you need. My point is to decide that that is what you want and make a plan, start, do something however small and beg Hashem to make it happen. I don't know cheshbonot shamaim and which prayers are answered, but I do know that a person doesn't stop praying for something that they consider essential to them regardless of the number of years or of how impossible their situation seems.
And if I spend my time writing long-winded comments on these blogs it is only because I am seriously concerned about the situation of the Jews in the world, and from reading various blogposts and comments my impression is that many Jews are simply in a reverie.
If you give me your name, I will, bli neder, put a note at the kotel for you, next time I'm there, hopefully this rosh hodesh.
Not everyone has the zchut or the mission to live in Israel before the Mashich. Everyone has their own trial in life, and everyone has a different trial and different level of suffering which their soul is built for. There is no blanket cure. There are people who cannot move to Israel for so many reasons, and it is pointless to keep telling them to move there. It is also scare mongering to suggest that there will be another Holocaust G-d forbid, we have already had this and it will not happen again. This has been foretold by no less than the Chafetz Chaim Lubavitcher Rebbe and more. Many people rely heavily on their income to feed their enormouse families from the American government and they could never consider moving to Israel where they will have no employment and no way of even putting a roof over their heads. As long as Jews give money for the Notre Dame and going to the moon the dreams of flying all Jews to Israel are just that - dreams. Sarah in the US
Amen v Amen...
ReplyDeleteB”H The Rebbe’s Shluchim are all courageous, infused with the teachings of the Rebbe. Refuah Shleima to Rabbi Goldberg.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying, of course it is one Jew too many. There is nothing I can say to change your mind on this, but I will explain the thinking of Rabbi Goldstein. Chabad Shulichim will never leave the diaspora until Moshiach comes. They will not leave because their mission is to collect every Jewish neshama and bring them back to yiddishkeit. THey cannot do this from Israel. Of course everyone would ideally love to be in Israel, but that is not their mission. Chabad is the front line of the army of Hashem, in a spiritual sense, having been charged with that mission from their Rebbe. When Moshiach comes, the entire world will be Israel, and Israel itself will be Yerushalayim. That is all I can say to you. THank you for your thoughts Orna, I hear you loud and clear but it will not change the situation. I see the miracle that happened here, with the jamming of the gun. One dead, not dozens.
ReplyDeleteThe rise in anti-semitism is predicted as occurring right before Moshiach comes. This has been spoken about a lot by Rabbi Kessin, and others. Here is one article: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/117788/anti-semitism-part-war-gog-magog/
ReplyDeleteRegarding Orna's comment. Where's the logic? Far MORE Jews are killed by terrorism in Eretz Yisroel than in the United States, England, Australia, South Africa and all other galus counties combined. And that's not to mention the numbers of Jewish soldiers who are killed EVER SINGLE YEAR in Eretz Yisroel.
ReplyDeleteBy following your logic, those of us who live in Eretz Yisroel must pack up our bags and leave to chutz l'aretz as quickly as possible.
We are all Am Echad regardless of where we live!
Agree Chaviva - toda raba
ReplyDeleteRecommended reading : Poway and the Power of Chabad
ReplyDeleteChaviva, sorry to say but you are missing the point. From both spiritual and practical angles, the situation of Jews in Israel and outside is different, and accordingly so too should the response to terrorism be different.
ReplyDeleteJews belong in Eretz Yisrael. [Compulsory reading "Em Habanim Smeichah"]. Terrorism against Jews in Israel should be met with Torah (tefila, tshuva, tsedaka) and tanks. It could easily be eradicated in Israel if we had real Jewish leaders who fear Hashem and not the goyim. Outside of Israel, the spiritual message is for Jews to leave the exile. Practically too there is no real way for millions of individual, scattered citizens to protect themselves.
Furthermore, we have to look at the trend. In the 1920s, it was safer to be a Jew in Europe than in Palestine. At some point in the 1930s a point of parity was reached, and in the 1940s it was infinitely safer to be Jewish in Palestine than anywhere in Europe. Those who left Europe early on, came to Eretz Hakodesh with possessions and means of a livelihood. Those who waited until the last minute turned up bedraggled and penniless, and then there were all the rest. Hashem yishmor.
Jews who leave America now will still be able to sell up and come with their possessions. Those who wait will probably turn up penniless, if they're lucky. Rav Arush said this, not me. Every exile comes to an end eventually, and it was only galut mitzrayim that the Jews left with rechuch gadol.
This is the new reality for Jews in exile, and most particularly in America, being the centre of the exile. It's hard, it's scary and uncomfortable, but now is the time to take action, and not wait until it is an unbearable nightmare.
Elisheva
I only now saw the video. First of all, it goes without saying that I wish Rabbi Goldstein a refua shleima after his horrendous ordeal. As for his message, just as he heroically warned his congregation to flee the scene, he should now be warning them to flee to Eretz Yisrael. We celebrate the Jews who prior to the Shoah were afraid and fled. Those who remained we mourn. I understand that most Jews in the world are far away from the Torah and do not understand what is happening, I do not understand how connected Jews fail to understand what is happening.
ReplyDeleteElisheva
Rav Alon Anava: "It's not doomsday, but wake-up day before it's too late". (In the Merit of Righteous Women... part 2).
ReplyDeleteI believe that The purpose of this current wave of anti Semitism is to unite the Jews.
ReplyDeleteWow, the rabbi is special!
ReplyDeleteAs for some of the other comments, I've stated this a few times on these blogs (in so many words) and will say it again. To all the people who've been privileged to settle in E"Y - and who lecture at those of us who've not been so privileged:
Instead of the lectures, why not just thank your lucky stars! Has it occurred to you that I, for one, tried in the past to settle there, but never had the support or mazal to do so? That my physical health (whatever there was of it to begin with) had been wrung dry by my FFB background so that by now i'm severely prematurely-aged, and certainly in no position to get out of my rut? That i'm living in an abnormal place which sapped my strength for more than half a century, and which is a money-pit, to the point i'll soon go broke?
So, Orna, and whoever else has given similar lectures throughout these blogs (albeit ***without*** offering those of us who need it affordable, bearable, one-bedroom apts. in E"Y to bail out to) please, for once and for all, try to see the macro-picture, not just that which is based on your own life experience. And again, thank your lucky stars! Because there are many MANY of you in E"Y who have led far more cushy lives, which are not money pits, and which are far more physically comfortable than mine. No drafts, no rotten windows, no HUGE amount of shoveling (simultaneous to spinal OA, severe varicosities & much more), no worrying about finding a decent handyman when needed, no worrying about who will mow your abnormal landscape, and way more you can't begin to fathom.
Please, Orna, step outside your own mazal and visualize the bigger picture! Because others in my position might well have worded this alot more explosively, so take notice that notwithstanding my relative-discretion, the feelings you've evoked in me are TNT.
As for uniting the Jews, through whichever means, i'm too realistic to ever see that happening. Because most of humanity, however brainy some of them may be, lack the will to try to imagine the experiences of those outside themselves.
M.M.
P.S. I just read the article re: R'Kessin's comments.
ReplyDeleteBut i'd like to ask - if all this is prep. for Moshiach, then why are there ONLY anti-semitic incidents as "preparation"?
Why isn't there an accompanying facilitation for ALL well-meaning Jews who wish to, to move to E"Y - even those who barely have money, rather than the current status-quo where developers have been gobbling up everything and then turning around and making BILLIONS in profiteering by appealing exclusively to wealthy Jews? (Emphasis on profiteering vs. profit)... And why aren't there decent, very-affordable senior-housing made available in a central English-speaking area for those of us who need it? Better yet, why isn't stem-cell tech facilitated, accelerated, and made-affordable, rather than its current suppression - since that would eliminate the term "senior citizen" from our vocabulary, and be a form of techiyat hameisim for those of us who are still alive?
I.E. why not transport Dr.Comella and others like her to E"Y to set up true repaircare clinics? Instead, she's been persecuted by the FDA, as they (along with others of the deep-state) do to all truth-based innovative ventures.
M.M.
To MM, first of all I wish you refua shleima and parnasa beshefa. (This shabbat is particularly auspicious for praying for parnasa). I am assuming that I am one of the "others" you refer to. I have written repeatedly, on this site, at Habayitah and at A7, that there is a need for an organised aliya specifically to assist Jews in all kinds of vulnerable situations. I call it #nojewleftbehind. As a nation we are wealthy and it is time we help our own. Unfortunately I am just an anonymous keyboard warrior and do have anyone's ear. As for leading a cushy life, I have had eight and a half years of poor health, undiagnosed for several years, leaving me very isolated, unable to work, with attendant financial issues, until fairly recently stuck living in a moldly, leaky, caravan, unable even to maintain a social life, or find a husband. Most shabbats I spend by myself. During all this time, with all the difficulties I repeatedly told myself to be grateful that all my woes were in Eretz Yisrael. So please, just as you do not want people to project onto you, do not project onto others. I am very well aware of the challenges people face in life from my own experience and from that of others.
ReplyDeleteBut regardless of anyone's individual situation, Hashem is screaming at Jews to leave the exile and make aliya. Not just from this attack, but from the whole situation (political and security) in the US, France and the UK, the principal places of the exile. Unity yes, of course, we always need unity. But what does it mean even? To say unity and continue business as usual? Or to understand that unity means Jews returning home to be unified as a nation, in their own land? That is unity: Am Yisrael Eretz Yisrael Torat Yisrael. And unfortunately Hashem has other ways of making us united, much less pleasant.
The first step is to understand the situation and what the call of the hour is. The second is to think about how to make it happen. It needs support from the Israeli government, Jewish organisations and some wealthy individuals. Two Jewish gazillionaires just gave over 100 million dollars to help rebuild Notre Dame. I felt sick when I read that as I thought that money could be used to help people make aliya.
On an individual level, Rav Brody said to open an aliya account and every week put in one dollar and pray to Hashem for the money you need. My point is to decide that that is what you want and make a plan, start, do something however small and beg Hashem to make it happen. I don't know cheshbonot shamaim and which prayers are answered, but I do know that a person doesn't stop praying for something that they consider essential to them regardless of the number of years or of how impossible their situation seems.
And if I spend my time writing long-winded comments on these blogs it is only because I am seriously concerned about the situation of the Jews in the world, and from reading various blogposts and comments my impression is that many Jews are simply in a reverie.
If you give me your name, I will, bli neder, put a note at the kotel for you, next time I'm there, hopefully this rosh hodesh.
Elisheva
Not everyone has the zchut or the mission to live in Israel before the Mashich. Everyone has their own trial in life, and everyone has a different trial and different level of suffering which their soul is built for. There is no blanket cure. There are people who cannot move to Israel for so many reasons, and it is pointless to keep telling them to move there. It is also scare mongering to suggest that there will be another Holocaust G-d forbid, we have already had this and it will not happen again. This has been foretold by no less than the Chafetz Chaim Lubavitcher Rebbe and more. Many people rely heavily on their income to feed their enormouse families from the American government and they could never consider moving to Israel where they will have no employment and no way of even putting a roof over their heads. As long as Jews give money for the Notre Dame and going to the moon the dreams of flying all Jews to Israel are just that - dreams.
ReplyDeleteSarah in the US