The Middle East Conflict - Part 3: Protecting Yourself from Calamity through Shmiras Halashon

Rabbi Mendel Kessin

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Part 3

Just in case you need confirmation that this is indeed Part 3 of the Holocaust [Gog u Magog] -

Israel's United Nations ambassador displayed a yellow star on his chest Monday as he addressed the Security Council, provocatively pledging to wear the badge until members of the body condemn Hamas "atrocities." 

"Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years. Some of you have forgotten why this body was established," envoy Gilad Erdan said, as he denounced the Security Council for "staying silent" over the unprecedented deadly attacks by Hamas Palestinian militants against Israel on October 7. 

The deeply divided 15-member council has not adopted a single resolution on the three-week-long war between Israel and Hamas. 

"So, I will remind you. From this day on, each time you look at me you will remember what staying silent in the face of evil means," the ambassador said.

"Just like my grandparents, and the grandparents of millions of Jews, from now on my team and I will wear yellow stars," he said, standing up to affix one on the breast of his suit inscribed with the words "Never Again," in reference to the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis.

Now What?

 Rabbi Alon Anava - conclusion to previous video which can be found here

Moshiach #17 - 1948-1967-2024

 Ari Goldwag 

What is the common thread that runs through the years 1948, 1967 and 2024, as well as the years 2005 (Gush Katif) and 1492 (Expulsion from Spain)? 

What is the concept of the Sod Ha'ibur - the Secret of the Leap Year, or, more literally, the Secret of the Pregnancy? 

What can we observe about the 19 year cycle of the Jewish calendar, which contains 7 leap year? 

What is special about the 8th year of that cycle? 

What is the 9 month 'birthing' process that begins every leap year - in Av of the year before? 

What starts to be revealed in the end of Tishrei of a leap year? 

What is behind the concept of the 70 day period from 25th of Adar until the 6th of Sivan? 

How does this explain the 70 days from 28th of Iyar (Yom Yerushalayim) and the 9th of Av? 

What did the Chofetz Chaim predict about where in the world would remain safe during World War II? 

What is the unique power of Moshiach ben Yosef in destroying the Persians (Iran) and facing off with the nations of the world? 

Find out all this and more in this 17th edition of the Moshiach Podcast.

Golda Meir "I'm a Palestinian!"

 

Thoughts and Notes on Rabbi Anava's Lecture

Note: I have added a few of my own bit and pieces here, but basically all of this information was part of Rabbi Anava's lecture.  

Rabbi Anava is polarising, people either love him or hate him. [Judging by the number of views and reading the comments under the video at You Tube, he is adored by thousands]  He can say scary things, and that is why I stopped putting his videos on the blog quite a while ago.  However, in hindsight, I can see he was right, even if I didn't want to hear it then. 

Rabbi Anava's words are always from his heart.  He is obviously angry about the situation and all the lies we're being fed from various sources.  I did listen to the entire lecture, bit by bit, and I found it extremely helpful in many ways.   

One of the more interesting points he made was when he quoted the words of Esther haMalka from Megillat Esther... and showed how she was talking about the End of Days, in coded language, and the gematriot of the words Haman haRa haZeh... this evil Haman.... and the ultimate plan for the State of Israel at the end of time.  It's very scary... but it rings true.  I have not heard it spoken of so clearly before, and I think he's right.  I'm not giving you any more information, you'll have to listen to find out what I'm talking about. However it involves the Pope and the English monarchy. Rest assured, Rabbi Anava brings it all back to G-d.  

None of the conspiracies he talks about have any relevance when Hashem strikes back, and that is going to happen, no doubt about that.  Just as the evil ones have a "plan" for the State of Israel, so Hashem has a "plan" for them.   

In the last hour of the shiur he talks a lot about sinat chinam and ahavat chinam, and the baseless hatred that exists amongst us all.  Jealousy, bitterness... whatever form it takes, we all have it at times and it is directed at someone we may not even know.  Rabbi Anava had some very helpful advice for how to handle this, and remove any baseless hatred from your life.  Rabbi Kessin also spoke about this topic in his latest shiur..   Now Rabbi Kessin and Rabbi Anava are totally different personalities in so many ways... and yet they were both talking about the very same thing in relation to current events. 

After listening to Rabbi Anava,  I came to the conclusion that it is midda kneged midda.... Jews have baseless hatred towards each other, and Hashem has sent baseless hatred towards the Jews [worldwide anti-semitism] because Hashem has HAD ENOUGH of our behaviour and we are being chastened by the stick.  We are the generation with the face of a dog.... we are blaming the stick for our pain.... but the real force behind the stick is not Hamas, or Iran, or the jihadists in every country..... it is Hashem Himself.   

The Baal Shem Tov famously said "not a leaf falls from a tree without  Hashem's Will".  

Rabbi Anava explains how Hashem is angry with people who worship a man.... and whether that man is from 2000 years ago or 50 years ago, it doesn't matter.... Hashem is angry because we should not be worshipping a man! and calling that man "Moshiach" when he is already gone from this world.  Stop calling people, whether they are dead or alive, by the term "Moshiach" and worshipping that person as if it was already a certainty.  Hashem is angry about that. Moshiach will be revealed at the right time, and not a second before.  Right now we need to be putting our faith in G-d alone, not a man, not the IDF, or anything else.   

In the end, we are all one body of people.  Just because I don't do or think exactly as you do, it doesn't make me the enemy.  Accept everyone's differences and respect them, don't hate them because they do things in a different way to you. 

Now that we have had the scorpion attack us in the month of Heshvan which is the mazal of the akrav - the scorpion - we are instantly realizing who the enemy really is, and we are being nicer to each other, because we're all in this together: all the types of Jews that exist are one.   Just take off the face of the dog and stop blaming the stick.... it is from Hashem.... and when we all turn to Hashem, and Hashem alone, He will fight our battles and bring Moshiach.  

How long will it take?  That depends on us.  

I would like to sincerely thank Rabbi Anava for making it all so clear to me. 

He mentions the fact that many people are saying masses of Tehillim, giving tzedaka, etc etc but the bottom line is, what Hashem REALLY WANTS from us is not just to say Tehillim and continue living as before. We have to change inside ourselves. We have to actually DO something about the way we behave towards others. You can't spend hours saying Tehillim and then write, speak or believe lashon hara about another  and expect Hashem to accept your prayers. 

It is our fault that Hashem is angry, and we have to fix that with concrete action on the ground. If the Israeli government followed Torah, they would understand that.  Hashem would fight this war for them. All we have to do is turn to Hashem.   

Rabbi Abba son of Kahana said, “David’s generation were all righteous, but because there were informers among them, they fell in battle...Ahab’s generation were idolaters, but because there were no informers, they went to battle and were victorious.” [Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 1:1]

Jerusalem is the city that joins all the tribes together as one. When the Jewish people come together as one, nothing can destroy Jerusalem. And only when there is love and caring between them is the destruction and our exile healed.  When a father sees his children working together with love, he is prepared to give them anything.  Yes, love for one another means also to care enough to encourage the other to do mitzvahs and learn Torah.  But first comes the love.  See Likutei Sichot, vol. 30, pg. 221.

Are You Ready to Meet G-d? What Really Happened on Oct 7? What is G-d's Message To Us

Rabbi Alon Anava [contains mild violence and is age restricted] - click on the video to watch on You Tube.

As it's over 3 hours long, I obviously haven't listened to it yet.  Will try and listen today on and off.

11 Cheshvan: Yarzheit Rachel Imeinu

Jewish Mother's Day The 11th of Cheshvan 

by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh

One of the most important days in the month of Cheshvan is the 11th, which commemorates the day of passing of our matriarch Rachel. Rachel was Jacob's most beloved wife and was the principal of his household and thus the principal of the entire house of Israel. From the first day of the year, the 1st day of Tishrei, the 11th day of Cheshvan is the 41st day. 41 is the numerical value of the Hebrew word "eim," which means "mother," thus the 11th of Cheshvan is truly the Jewish Mother's Day.

"Rachel cries for her children, she will not be comforted…"

Rachel constantly mourns over the exile of her children, the Jewish people, and the Almighty comforts her with the words: "Withhold your voice from crying and your eyes from tearing, for there is a reward for your actions… and the children will return to their border." Literally, "return to their border" refers to the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. But, more deeply, it refers to the return of our people to our natural spiritual environs: Judaism and our ancestral Jewish nature. These are the borders that truly circumscribe the uniqueness of our people. Amazingly, numerically, the value of the Hebrew word for "border" (g'vul / גבול) is exactly the same as the value of the word for "mother" (eim / אם); both equal 41.

In Hebrew, Cheshvan is written with the four letters: חשון. The borders (the first and last letters) of Cheshvan are chet - ח and nun - ן, which together spell the word chein - חן, meaning "beauty." The word chein - חן, "beauty" equals 58. The 58th day of the year is the 28th day of Cheshvan.

Rachel is described as the most beautiful woman in the Torah. The numerical value of the two middle letters, shin and vov, שו, is equal to isha -אשה , meaning "woman." Thus, the name of the month itself hints at the special and unique grace endowed to women.

King Solomon says that external beauty by itself is deceitful. If external beauty is all that a woman seeks then the name of the month becomes Marcheshvan, which means Bitter-Cheshvan. It is of such a woman King Solomon says: "And I find the woman to be more bitter than death." But, of true beauty, the beauty of a Jewish woman that emanates from within, he says: "The woman of beauty shall support honor." This true beauty is given to us, the Jewish people, by G‑d through the Torah, for "there is no truth but Torah" and "there is no honor but Torah."

It was Rachel, who was first endowed with this real beauty. Rachel is described as the most beautiful woman in the Torah, "She had a beautiful face and a beautiful figure." Thus, Rachel was the embodiment of the verse: "A woman who fears G‑d, she shall be praised," praised both for her grace and true beauty.

The beauty of the Jewish woman is not just a passive agent of spirituality. The sages teach that the offspring of Esau and his grandson Amalek can be defeated only by the children of Rachel.

Who embodies the spirit of Amalek in our day and age? In Hebrew, the words "Amalek" (עמלק) and "doubt" (safek / ספק) have the same numerical value. Thus, the spirit of Amalek that continues to plague each and every Jew is doubt; doubt in our faith, doubt in our Torah, and doubt in ourselves and the moral justification of our path.

But, sometimes the spirit of Amalek becomes bolder and captures a Jew (whether he be a private individual or a political figure) to the point of driving him or her to unconscious or even conscious self-hatred. This can result in a Jew's cooperation with the enemies of our people.

Finally there are the direct spiritual offspring of Amalek: those enemies who threaten the lives of Jews and our return to the Land of Israel.

The sages say that beauty is a woman's weapon. With everything that we have said about Rachel, her role as our matriarch, as the progenitor of Jewish nature, and of her beauty, it should now be clear that our weapon for defeating Amalek is the special beauty and grace of the Jewish mother. Joseph the tzaddik (righteous one) inherited his mother Rachel's beauty and he too is described as having a beautiful face and a beautiful figure. That is why the prophet says about him that "the house of Jacob will be fire and the house of Joseph its flame and the house of Esau straw, and together they will ignite him and consume him; and there will be no remnant for the house of Esau."

True Jewish beauty and grace destroy the enemy indirectly but, beauty is no regular weapon. True grace and beauty work by attracting the sparks of holiness that are bound within the enemy. These sparks are G‑d's will that the enemy still exist. Yet, when they are redeemed by their attraction to true beauty, they escape the enemy's grasp, leaving him void of any Divine source and causing his demise. True Jewish beauty and grace destroy the enemy indirectly by leaving him void of any beauty or grace himself, making him irrelevant and powerless.

The battle against Amalek in our generation must be conducted primarily with our ability to communicate to all around us the true nature of Jewish beauty and grace. It is to this beauty of Jewish nature and character that we return during the month of Cheshvan by reconnecting with our matriarch Rachel, with our own Jewish nature, and with ourselves.

Also visit: Rachel's Tomb

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Yiddishe Mama

Rachel lost her own spiritual luxury - the privilege of being buried in the Cave of Machpeilah - in order to help her children. This represents the unparalleled quality of the "Jewish mother" who is always willing to sacifice her own needs, spiritual or physical, for the sake of helping her children.

And this is the inner reason why Jewish identity follows the maternal and not the paternal route. For even though the father possesses a greater degree of spirituality - since he has the privilege of observing more mitzvos than a woman - the quality of a Jewish mother is nevertheless greater, that she is willing to forego much of that spirituality in order to enable her to raise a family with tender loving care. And since this quality is even more quintessentially Jewish than the spirituality of the man, it is the mother that actually makes her children Jewish.

Based on Likutei Sichos of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Parshas Vayechi

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Mama Rochel understood that tending to a broken heart comes above even Kavod Hashem....

When Rochel, out of frustration, complained to Yaakov about not having children, Yaakov got angry with her. The mefarshim say, based on a medrash, that Yaakov was punished for getting angry at Rochel and telling her that she needs to daven to Hashem and not complain to him.

Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro points out that Yaakov was defending Kavod Shamayim (the honor of Heaven) and was correct that Rochel's complaints were unjustified. His mistake was that he addressed the words that she spoke and not the pain in her heart. Had he pierced the veil of her soul, he would have known that because of her anguish, the words escaped her mouth and she was not accountable for them. He should have been slower to defend Kavod Shamayim and faster to understand human suffering.

This he explains was the greatness of Rochel. After the destruction of the first Temple, when Bnei Yisroel went into Galus, all the Avos and Imahos came before Hashem with all their great zechusim but were turned away empty handed. All the heroism of the Akeida, Yaakov's Torah, and lives of pure mesiras nefesh to build Klal Yisroel, did not impress Hashem in that dark moment of history.

The only one who merited Hashem's attention was Rochel Imeinu. What was her great act that warranted this special treatment? That she gave the simanim to her sister and helped fool Yaakov. With this bravery, in her mind, she was sabotaging the history of the Jewish nation since she understood that it was her and Yaakov that were destined to build the nation. Nevertheless she chose to cast aside her own destiny and Hashem's grand plan in order to save her sister from a single embarrassing moment.

Only Rochel, who had such a deep understanding of another person's pain and how it carries more weight than the entire Jewish experience, can be Hashem's emissary to bring his children's pain before Him. Only tears from Mama Rochel can bring the Geula.