One Small Step... One Giant Leap

Art - The Garden of Melancholia: Mike Worrall

from the writings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

There was once a tzaddik who became very depressed and melancholy. This depression caused the tzaddik great difficulty, and it became worse and worse. He fell into lassitude and heaviness, where it was literally impossible for him to move.

He wanted to make himself happy and uplift himself, but it was impossible for him to do anything. Whenever he found something that would make him happy, the Evil One would find sadness in it. Therefore it was impossible for him to do anything to make himself happy, since in everything he found sadness.

He pondered G-d's kindness that "He did not make me a heathen" and realized that this could be a source of great joy, without any sadness.

{The main thing is to make a small beginning. G-d said "Open for Me like the eye of a needle, and I will open for you like the gates of the Temple" [Shir HaShirim Rabbah 5:3]. Thus, no matter how low a person is, if he makes even a single motion to serve G-d, it is something very great on high, and it can bring him back completely. [Likutey Halakhoth, Tefillin 5:43]  The main thing is to make the first move. If one begins even a little bit, one can go very high}

When a person tries to find joy in something that he himself did, it is possible to find sadness in every joy. No matter what he does, he can find shortcomings, and he will not be able to uplift himself and be happy. But in the fact that "He did not make me a heathen" there is no sadness. This is from G-d, G-d made him the way He did, and had pity on him, not making him a heathen. Since this was G-d's deed, there are no shortcomings in it, and hence there is no defect in this rejoicing. No matter what, there is an unimaginable difference between him and an idolator.

The tzaddik began to make himself happy with this. He rejoiced and uplifted himself little by little, continuing more and more, until he came to such a level of joy that he was on the same level of joy that Moses experienced when he went on high to receive the Torah. Through this uplifting and joy, he was able to fly many miles into the supernal universes.

He saw himself, and he was very far from the place where he had been originally. This bothered him very much. He felt that when he descended, he would be very far away from his original place. When it was discovered that he had disappeared, people would consider it a great wonder. The tzaddik did not want such publicity since he always wanted to "walk modestly with G-d". [Micah 6:8]

The joy came to an end, since joy has a limit. Therefore, joy begins automatically and ends automatically. When joy begins to end, it ends little by little. The tzaddik therefore descended little by little, coming down from the place to which he had flown during his time of joy. He eventually returned to the place from which he had ascended. He was very surprised, since he was in exactly the same place where he had been at first.

He realized that he had returned to the exact same place where he had been at first. Looking at himself, he realized that he had not moved at all, or if he had moved, it had been at most by a hairsbreadth. The hair on the head is the gate to the intellect. In Hebrew, the word sa'ar (hair) and sha'ar (gate) are the same. Therefore, if a person improves himself by a hairsbreadth, it can bring him back completely. Similarly, if a person strays from G-d by a hairsbreadth, it can do much damage [Likutey Halakhoth, Choshen Mishpat, Nezikin 4:3]

He had moved so little, that no one other than G-d could measure it. The tzaddik was very surprised at this. Here he had flown so far, through so many universes, and at the same time, he had not moved at all. This showed him how precious in G-d's eyes is even the slightest motion.

When a person moves himself even a hairsbreadth in this world, it can be considered more than thousands of miles, and even thousands of universes. This can be understood when we realize that the physical world is no more than the central point in the midst of the spheres. This is known to masters of astronomy. Compared to the supernal universes, the entire physical universe is no more than a dot.

When lines extend from a single point...

When lines extend from a central point, the closer they are to the point, the closer they are to one another. The further they extend from the point, the further such lines get from each other. Therefore, when the lines are very far from the point, they are also very far from each other. This is true, even though near the central point, they are extremely close to each other.

If one imagined lines drawn from the earth to the upper spheres (the orbits of the planets around the earth: a relativistic geocentric view of the universe) one would see that even if one moved a hairsbreadth, the movement would be reflected as a motion of thousands of miles in the upper spheres. It would be in the same ratio as the spheres are higher than the earth. The spheres must be very huge, since there are stars without number, and each star is at least as large as our planet.

This is all the more certainly true when one considers the supernal universe, compared to which, even the highest astronomical spheres are like nothing. Therefore, the distance between these extending lines in the supernal world is without measure. A movement of less than a hairsbreadth, so small that only G-d can estimate it, can consist of a passage through thousands of universes and thousands of miles in the supernal worlds. How much more so is this true when one travels a mile or more to serve G-d.

Feldman's Firey Friday Night

by Henry Benjamin 

A planned Shabbat dinner for twenty ended with unexpected guests for Rabbi Pinchus Feldman and his family…members of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs Fire Brigades.

The remains of the kitchen

As the family was preparing to welcome special guests from London, a smell of smoke pervaded their Penkivil St home in Bondi…followed by billowing black smoke as an an inferno engulfed their special Pesach kitchen.

When the fire was put out, Rabbi Feldman was amazed to discover that in the charred remains of the special kitchen, the haggadas and siddurs on the bookshelved had escaped unscathed.

Rabbi Feldman told J-Wire: “It seems my granddaughter had wandered into the kitchen and had played with knobs setting the stove alight. It was covered in polythene and paper as the kitchen is in use only at Pesach. The family was in a state of panic for a few miunutes as Rosie could not be found but we found her unharmed in another part of the house. I cannot explain why the Haggadat were not damaged…I will have to leave that to others. We were waiting for our special guests Rabbi Rappaport and his family from London. They are in Australia is here for their son’s wedding in Melbourne this week. We smelled smoke and thought it might have been the food burning but suddenly there was this huge billowing cloud of black smoke. My daughter Chana closed the door to the back of the house. The fire brigade told us that her actions delayed the fire spreading by about five minutes…just enough time for them to get it under control. Otherwise, it would have engulfed the whole house. If the brigade had taken ten minutes longer, the house would have been gone.”

It will be some time before Rabbi Feldman and his family can move back into their home. Rabbi Feldman said: “The only serious damage was in that room but the rest of house had heavy smoke penetration. But it is just amazing that in that room everything was destroyed…except the Haggadahs and the siddurim…simply amazing.”

Rabbi Feldman with the Haggadahs

The Rappaports had their Shabbat dinner with their host, the Central Synagogue’s Rabbi Levi Wolff while the Feldmans relocated to family homes nearby. No-one was injured in the blaze.

In the meantime, they expect to have their kitchen replaced and functional in time for Pesach… but the Haggadahs are ready for action.

Mikeitz: At the End (of Days)

The word Mikeitz means "At the end" as in the saying "the end of days" [Daniel 12:13]

In Aramaic the word "days" is almost identical to its Hebrew equivalent, but the last letter switches from a mem to a nun    ימים = ימין

The Zohar notes that this Aramaic word  ימין is identical to the Hebrew word  ימין , meaning "right" and on this basis, the Zohar concludes: There are two 'ends', one on the spiritual 'right' and one on the spiritual 'left'.

In Jewish mysticism, "left" represents the side of evil.  So, the 'end of the spiritual left' refers to the day when evil will cease to exist, with the end of exile, i.e. "the end of days" (קץ הימים).

"Right", on the other hand, represents goodness and holiness.  Thus we refer to the "end of the right" to indicate that there is no dilution of values in the realms of holiness, so the end is as good as the beginning.  The term קץ הימים ("end of the spiritual right") is thus an allusion to the final redemption, when good will triumph over evil, and we will see how good is found consistently throughout the entire world.

We are thus left with the question: Which "end" does the word Mikeitz refer to - the "end of the left" or the "end of the right"?

In fact, both could be argued:

a) At the beginning of our Parsha, Yosef is released from jail.  This was the end of Yosef's exile, i.e. the "end of the left".

b) On the other hand, we then read how Yosef suddenly rose to power and became ruler over Egypt - his redemption, represented by "the end of the right".

How could the two opposite concepts of exile and redemption be alluded to by the same expression?

Chassidic thought explains that the inner purpose of exile is that the Jews should be scattered around the world in order to "rescue" sparks of holiness which had been lost in physicality.  Thus, redemption is not the elimination of exile, but rather, it is the goal of exile.  And therefore, both concepts are hinted to by the same word.

Source: Likutei Sichos of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Gutnick Chumash

Peace and Quiet

Image: Blue Mountains, Sydney Australia

R. Shimon ben Gamliel said" "The world endures on account of three things: judgment, truth and peace." [Pirkei Avot 1:18]

Man's body is a miniature world [Tikunei Zohar 69:101a].  One of the things that preserves this world is peace.

A contentious person is always in pain.  At work he gets embroiled in arguments; at home he fights with his spouse. There is friction at his table and tension in his sleep.

A peace-loving person, in contrast, is calm and secure.  Everyone likes him; no one makes trouble for him.  He is happy to see others, and others are happy to see him.  He eats in serenity and enjoys restful sleep.

That is why peace is called שׁלום  - shalom. The word can be broken up into שׁלו "tranquil" and ם for מנוחה - "rest".

from the writings of the Ben Ish Hai

The Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus: Yud Tes Kislev

The Alter Rebbe - Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi author of The Tanya

The 18th of Kislev  marks the completion of the annual cycle of daily readings from the Tanya. The 19th and 20th of Kislev are the "Rosh HaShanah of Chassidus".

On Yud-Tes Kislev we re-commence the annual cycle of daily readings in Tanya, as divided by the Rebbe Rayatz.

It is the anniversary of the release of the Alter Rebbe - Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (Hebrew: שניאור זלמן מליאדי‎), the first Rebbe of Chabad, who was informed upon by misnagdim in Russia and arrested on trumped-up charges of supporting the Ottoman Empire.

His informers pointed to the fact that he would urge his followers to send money to the Land of Israel as "evidence" of his alleged insurrectionist aspirations (in fact, the money was sent to support poor Jews). At the time, the Land of Israel was a part of the Ottoman Empire, which was at war with Russia.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman was charged with treason, and released in the secular year 1798 on the Jewish date of Tuesday, 19 Kislev.

The 53 days of Rabbi Shneur Zalman's imprisonment are said to correspond to the 53 chapters of the first section of the Tanya.

19 Kislev is also considered to mark the day upon which Rabbi Shneur Zalman was conceived, for he was born exactly nine months later, on 18 Elul. [Shemu'os Vesippurim, Refoel Kahn, vol. 1, p. 39]

Rebbetzin Menuchah Rachel born (1798)

On the very day that Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi was liberated from prison, a granddaughter was born to him -- the daugher of his son Rabbi Dovber and his wife Rebbetzin Sheina. The girl was named Menuchah Rachel -- "Menuchah", meaning "tranquility" (Rachel was the name of a daughter of Rabbi Schneur Zalman who died in her youth).

In 1845, Rebbetzin Menuchah Rachel realized her lifelong desire to live in the Holy Land when she and her husband, Rabbi Yaakov Culi Slonim (d. 1857), led a contingent of Chassidim who settled in Hebron. Famed for her wisdom, piety and erudition, she served as the matriarch of the Chassidic community in Hebron until her passing in her 90th year in 1888.

The 19th of Kislev is also the yahrzeit of R. DovBer, the Maggid of Mezritch, who [as successor to the Baal Shem Tov] was the mentor of the second generation of the chassidic movement - from 5521 (1761) until his passing on the third day of the week of Parshas Vayeishev, Yud-Tes Kislev, 5533 (1772). His resting place is in Anipoli.

Rabbi Dov Ber was born in Volhynia in 1710, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, though other sources say his year of birth is unknown. Little is known about him before he became a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. A Hasidic legend states that, when he was five years old, his family home burst into flames. On hearing his mother weeping, he asked: "Mother, do we have to be so unhappy because we have lost a house?" She replied that she was mourning the family tree, which was destroyed, and had begun with Rabbi Yohanan, the sandal-maker and master in the Talmud. The boy replied: "And what does that matter! I shall get you a new family tree which begins with me!"

How aptly those words described the role he was later to play; for the boy was destined to become the successor to the Baal Shem Tov.

Source: Chabad

Testing Times

Everything in the world - whatever it is and whatever happens - is a test, designed to give you freedom of choice. Choose wisely.

Occupy yourself with doing good, and the bad will automatically fall away.

Rely on nothing and no-one but G-d. This is true simplicity. Anything else means pursuing a complicated course of action.

Pray, pray, pray.  Whatever you need... praying is the best way to get it.

Keep in mind that the essence of your prayers is the faith you have in them that they will be answered.

Remember: things can go from the very worst to the very best .... in just the blink of an eye.

from the writings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

The Great Pretenders

Art: Mike Worrall

This world is a world of illusion.  The truth is hidden.  We are constantly bombarded by deception. People are not always who they appear to be.

There are some people who deceive everyone around them: they put on their masks to present themselves to the world, but if you follow them home, you will see them for who they really are.   It doesn't matter how many "good deeds" they do in public, if they behave like an animal in their own home, abuse their family.... manipulate their friends... they will be judged accordingly. They are the deceivers, the hypocrites, the mutton dressed up as lamb.

A time is coming when their deception will be obvious to all.

A time is coming where we will see the truth, and those who lie, cheat and steal, who abuse others less fortunate, who manipulate and terrorise, will be seen for who they really are.

The masks will fall, and the truth will be seen.

That time is coming, and it's coming very soon.

The Talmud [Bava Basra 10:] tells of what we now call a near death experience. Rav Yosef the son of Rav Yehoshua was 'dead' for a short period of time and then was resuscitated. To his father's question of what did he see, he responded: "I saw an olam hafuch (an upside down world). The elyonim ('high' people) were low and the tachtonim ('low' people) were high."

His father responded: "You saw an olam barur (a clear world)!"

Korea: Fulfilling the Prophecy ??

Flashpoint . . . smoke billows from houses on Yeonpyeong island after the North Korean artillery barrage. Photo: AFP

NORTH KOREA has burnished the leadership credentials of its 26-year-old dictator-in-waiting with a deadly artillery attack on South Korean territory, causing its neighbour to return fire and scramble F-16 fighters.
Two South Korean marines died, and at least 12 were wounded. There were reports of civilian injuries and houses were set ablaze as scores of shells fell on Yeonpyeong island.
A North Korea expert at Beijing's Central Party School, Zhang Liangui, told the Herald that Kim Jong-un was deliberately destabilising the environment in order to mobilise the military and consolidate his power.

[The following is authored by Dan S]

It is just beginning here in November 2010, the month of Kislev:  click to read North Korean Attack

Zohar Va'era

In the future the children of Yishmael will stir great wars in the world. And the children of Edom [the West] will gather against them, and make war with them, one on the sea, and one on the land, and one near Jerusalem; and each one will prevail over the other but the Holy Land will not fall to the hands of the Christian nations.

During that period of time, a nation from the "edge" of the world (note where North Korea is located geographically) will be awakened against wicked Romi. And it will make war against her for three months, and many nations will gather there, and they will fall by her hand, until all the children of Edom will gather against her from all corners of the earth. And after, G-d will awaken Himself against them, as it says, a "a sacrificial slaughter for the Lord in Batzra", and it says, "to shake the corners of the Land."

Zohar HaKadosh:

A nation will arise from one end of the world (North Korea) against the wicked Rome (Christian nations led by Obama) and will war against them for 3 months. Other nations will join in this war and will fall into the hands (of the nation from edge of the world), till all Edom will unite against this nation. Aterwards, Hashem will 'arise' against them, as it says, A gigantic massacre in the land of Edom.

Note: Immediately following this 3 month war, the evil leader of Edom (America) will spread out his rule over the entire world. Nine months into that move called the final tribulation and birthpangs of Mashiach, he will get up and destroy all the enemies of Israel and mankind.

[And thank you to Bramy for reminding me of this video below]