Surrender to God

You shall not desecrate My Holy Name.  [Emor 22:32]

Rashi: [It teaches us:] Surrender your life [and do not transgress God’s commandments], and [thus] sanctify My Name.

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In Chassidic thought it is explained that a person who actually surrenders his life to G-d is superior to one who merely wishes to do so.  This is because the desire to surrender to G-d stems from the Godly Soul [nefesh haElokis]*, and so long as the person has not surrendered himself in actuality then his Animal Soul [nefesh haBehamis]** has not been affected by this desire.

Furthermore, the Animal Soul's inherent desire is to live. Therefore, if the person actually surrenders his life, the Animal Soul has consented to an act which is the very opposite of its nature.

Since the Godly Soul and Animal Soul are coupled together, the act of surrendering one's life also teaches the Godly Soul how to go beyond its own nature, as it learns from the Animal Soul's total sacrifice.

[Sefer Hamaámorim Melukat: Lubavitcher Rebbe]

*also known as the yetzer tov - good inclination
** also known as the yetzer hara - evil inclination

Many Jews Prepare to Leave France for Israel

by Ben Shapiro

According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, over 5,000 Jews from throughout France attended a fair in the heart of Paris about immigrating to Israel. The fair was attended by the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, former member of Knesset, Soviet expatriate and dissident Natan Sharansky. 

“I cannot recall having seen such a massive number of people interested in aliyah [immigration] since the days when lines of people stretched out of the Israeli embassy in Moscow,” said Sharansky. 

The fair took place the same day as the election that rousted Nicholas Sarkozy, a reliable anti-Iran voice in Europe, from power, replacing him with the far less reliable Francois Hollande, a socialist with heavy ties to anti-Israel populations. 

The French Jewish community is comprised of approximately 500,000 people. Immigration from France to Israel has increased significantly over the past several years, largely due to upticks in perceived anti-Semitic feeling in the country.

Source: Breitbart
HT: Dov bar Leib

Jewish Spiritual Healing

As a follow-up to yesterday's blog about psychic healing, here is an article from the website Jewish Healing which has a great deal of information for all who want to learn more.

The main difference between Jewish healing and and the rest of medicine

by: Ya'akov Gerlitz, Dipl.Ac and C.H

The main distinguishing feature of Jewish healing is that it is an "open" medical system. An open medical system is one where the body is viewed from the perspective that it continually receives vitality and life from outside of itself. All medical systems reject this notion. That is, all except one, Jewish Healing. According to Judaism, healing is a function of Divine Will. It does not matter whether the healing comes through the medium of an aspirin, homeopathic remedy or the blessing of a Rebbe. The final fact remains that all healing comes from Hashem.

This is good news. According to many vitalistic medical systems, when a person's vitality runs critically low there is no way to revive it. There comes a point where even the best acupuncturist and herbalist has to say that the qi is so deficient that it cannot be tonified. Homeopathy teaches that there comes a point where the disease becomes so complicated and deep seated, with the vital principle and organs so damaged that there is no hope of a cure (Western medicine is not a vitalistic medical system, thus it has not opinion on the matter).

Of course, we know from Jewish law that a doctor is not allowed to give a negative prognostication. A doctor's right to heal is limited to healing, not predicting the future. As it says in the Torah, "that even if a sword is on one's neck he must pray to Hashem to save him." When my mother, zt"l, was sick with cancer and the situation turned from bad to worse, I spoke to a Rabbi to discuss a variety of issues, and he told me that we have to continually pray and hope that Hashem would perform a wonder and that she would recover. This is a Jew's task; to pray to Hashem.

All healing comes from Hashem. In the act of Jewish healing our job is to connect a person to the Divine source of all life. When I perform acupuncture I don't just try to harmonize the body and correct any imbalances, I also try to connect the person to Hashem's Divine Will.

As the Ramchal says, "to the extent that a person is connected to Hashem, there is wellbeing." This does not mean that people who are sick are bad people. That is not the intention of this, but rather that at its core all sickness is a distancing of Divinity within a person. It should be mentioned here that these rules do not apply to a Tzaddik. They are in another category, different spiritually from us mere mortals. In short, Tzaddikim take upon themselves the suffering of the generation and its rectification. This can manifest itself in many ways, one of them being the suffering of physical ills and pains. This subject is long and complicated, but suffice it to say we are discussing the general population.

Many of the techniques we use in Jewish healing are designed to bring in a new influx of Divine "light" into the individual being treated. This is also one of the purposes of Jewish prayer. It is this light that sustains and vivifies creation. When we pray for a person we are beseeching Hashem to send more of His light into the person needing the healing. This light not only heals the person, but also has a positive effect on creation as a whole (see other paper for an elaboration on this).

Being that Hashem is Merciful, Compassionate and Kind (not only is He the epitome of these attributes, He created them), there is nothing Hashem would rather want for a sick person but to heal him and bestow upon him goodness. The issue usually lies with the person himself. Many times it is we who do not accept the blessings that Hashem is sending us. Jewish healing has techniques that help resolve these (usually subconscious) self destructive issues and thus promote health and healing.

Psychic Healers

A few weeks ago I published an article: The Healing Powers of Rabbi Mendel Morozow

This weekend the NY Post published the article below, entitled ''A too-high price for ‘faith healing’ by Eliyahu Federman - Source: NY Post

[HT: Josh ]

Just a note: to be fair to Rabbi Morozow, a doctor [or healer] is entitled to charge for their services.  If some people think the price is too high, that doesn't necessarily mean the healer is not to be trusted - I don't know what the going rate is for a ''healing'' session generally, but I think it is somewhere around the $200 mark for one appointment [if you know, please leave a comment].  Does anyone personally know someone who has been psychically healed?

''A too-high price for ‘faith healing’ by Eliyahu Federman 

The practice of “faith healing” carries obvious dangers, such as discouraging those who need conventional medical help from seeking it. When the “healer” charges for it, the obvious worry is financial exploitation of the vulnerable and naïve. And I, for one, am more disturbed when the person charging for this “help” is a respected figure such as a rabbi.

Yet in my own Jewish community, I’m seeing a rise in rabbinical authorities charging money for psychic healing sessions.

Rabbi Mendel Morosow, for instance, in a recent interview on the Jewish news site COLlive, claimed to have healed a boy by simply “focus[ing] energy on him for a few minutes,” so that the boy “no longer need[ed] any operation.” He further claimed to have healed someone from gout — also through “focused energy.”

According to his own site, Morosow charges $300 an hour for his services.

Over the years, I’ve personally come to know at least five psychic healers in my Jewish community. I have family members who’ve paid for these “services.”

It was troubling to see Rabbi Morosow, like me a member of Chabad-Lubavitch, describe his practice as being consistent with Chabad and Judaism.

I’m sorry: Charging exorbitant hourly rates for faith-healing “services” belie Chabad values and Jewish tradition. It’s what televangelist faith healers like Peter Popoff do, not mainstream rabbis.

Yes, countless stories attest to the efficacy and care of the late Rebbe Menachem M. Schnerson’s blessings and counsel. But the Rebbe never claimed to possess psychic or supernatural healing powers. He even once crossed out the word “psychic” when a PhD student used that term to describe his powers.

And he never charged money to those who sought his advice or blessings. Indeed, he customarily gave them dollars.

And the Rebbe encouraged those with physical issues to seek medical help; often suggesting they seek the advice of several doctors to ensure the right treatment was being pursued. Maimonides, the physician and Torah scholar, embraced the need to work within nature in order to heal sickness. He scoffed at the notion that disregarding nature, by avoiding medical advice, could ever be the will of God — and prohibited using spiritual incantations to cure physical wounds.

Rabbi Morosow does recommend medical intervention in the case of a “serious health issue,” which certainly suggests any of his positive results are merely from the placebo effect. A widely cited Journal of American Medical Association study showed “therapeutic energy” healers couldn’t even detect the presence of a concealed hand from a few inches away. Bottom line: As appropriate as it may be for clergy to treat spiritual and emotional issues, physical ailments should be the sole province of medical professionals. Religious authorities who charge money for mystical treatments are tarnishing the faith.

Eliyahu Federman contributes to the Huffington Post, Algemeiner Journal and Jerusalem Post.

France election 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy booted out of office having exhausted France

Nicolas Sarkozy who rode to office five years ago promising a historic "rupture" was on Sunday night booted out of office having exhausted his nation.

Story: Telegraph

''Sons of Aaron'' and ''Kohanim''

Birkhat Kohanim by Alex Levin

The son of a Kohen's forbidden marriage may not serve in the Temple, yet he can still make a Korban, and it will be accepted.


by Chanan Morrison

Emor: Agents of Holiness

The Talmud in Nedarim 32b describes the kohanim as sheluchei didan. The kohanim act as our agents or emissaries as they perform the Temple service.

Yet this idea — that the kohanim act as agents for the Jewish people - appears to violate the legal definition of the powers of a shaliach. An agent acts on behalf of the one sending him [the principal], executing his wishes. The agent cannot do that which the principal himself is incapable of doing. So how can the kohanim perform the Temple service on our behalf, when non-kohanim are not permitted to serve in the Beit HaMikdash?

Potential vs. Actual

The parashah opens with special directives for kohanim: "God spoke to Moses: Tell the kohanim, the sons of Aaron..." [Lev. 21:1]. Yet the text appears repetitive — "the kohanim, the sons of Aaron." Do we not know that the kohanim are descended from Aaron?

These two terms — 'kohanim' and 'sons of Aaron' — indicate two different aspects of the special sanctity of kohanim. The first is an intrinsic holiness, passed down from father to son. The phrase "sons of Aaron" refers to this inherent sanctity.

The second aspect is an additional layer of holiness, one's actual functioning as a kohen. This aspect is designated by the term 'kohanim.' [The verb lechahein means 'to serve,' so the word 'kohanim' indicates their actual service.] Thus the term "sons of Aaron" refers to their inherited potential, while 'kohanim' refers to their realized state of priestly service.

The Chalal

Usually a kohen will have both potential and actual kohanic-holiness. Yet there are certain situations that allow us to distinguish between the two.

A kohen is forbidden to marry a divorced woman. Should he nonetheless marry a divorcee, his son falls under a special category. He is called a chalal, from the word chilul, 'to defile holiness.' Despite his lineage, a chalal may not serve in the Temple.

Yet if a chalal went ahead and offered a korban, his offerings are accepted after the fact [Maimonides, Hilchot Bi'at Mikdash 6:10]. This is quite surprising. In general, a chalal has the legal status of a non-kohen. If a non-kohen brought an offering, his service would be disqualified. Yet the offerings of a chalal are accepted after the fact. Why is this?

The distinction between potential and actual kohanic status, between "sons of Aaron" and 'kohanim,' allows us to understand the unusual status of a chalal. Due to the fact that he is the son of a divorcee, he has lost the realized sanctity of a functioning kohen. But he still retains the inherited sanctity of "sons of Aaron." This intrinsic sanctity cannot be revoked. Therefore, while a chalal is not allowed to serve in the Temple, after the fact his offerings are accepted.

The Sages derived this ruling from Moses' blessing of the tribe of Levi: "May God bless his strength ['cheilo'], and favor the works of his hands" [Deut. 33:11]. Even the works of those who are chulin, who have lost part of their kohanic-sanctity, are still acceptable to God [Kiddushin 66b].

[That a chalal falls under the category of "the sons of Aaron" but not 'kohanim' is seen in the Midrash Halachah quoted by Rashi. "One might think that chalalim are included? Therefore it says, 'the kohanim'" - excluding chalalim from the special laws of kohanim.]

Continue reading at: Rav Kook Torah

Can You Wait?

by Rabbi Michoel Gourarie

There is an interesting agricultural Mitzvah in this week's Torah portion called Orlah. The commandment states that when we plant a tree we are prohibited to eat its fruit for the first three years. Once this time has passed we are free to enjoy the fruit and thank G-d for the blessings He has given us.

There is a mystical explanation of the Mitzvah that provides an insight into one of the foundations of personal and spiritual growth.

The very first failing of the very first human beings was the desire for instant gratification. The first transgression recorded in the Torah is when Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit. Although this story is famous, what is not so well known is that the fruit of the forbidden tree was not intended to be eternally prohibited. Adam and Eve were created on Friday afternoon before Shabbos. They were instructed not to eat the fruit only for three hours until Shabbos. Once Friday night had arrived the fruit would have been theirs to enjoy. They lacked the self control to delay that pleasure.

The three years that we wait before eating fruit of any tree is a reminder of the three hours that Adam and Eve did not wait to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

The delicacies of the world were given to us to enjoy. But self control and discipline reminds us that there is more to life than just eating delicious fruit. Creating boundaries around our indulgence helps create a focus and consciousness that there is a bigger picture. Enjoying life's blessings is just a small part of an existence also filled with meaning, values and a higher purpose. Greed, lack of control, the need for instant gratification and hedonism are destructive and create empty lives and purposeless existence.

The delicious fruit trees are G-d's gift to us. But the commandment to wait three years before enjoying them is an even greater gift, the gift of discipline and self control.

Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess - Master of the Miracle

Yarzheit: 14 Iyar - 6 May 2012

Ohel of Rabbi Meir Ba'al HaNess

By simply saying the phrase אלהא דמאיר ענני "Eloka d'Meir aneini" three times , which means "the G-d of Meir Answer me !", a person will be saved from trouble, if they promise to give charity to the poor and needy in the memory of the soul of Rebbe Meir Baal Haness . Donations can be made at Rabbi Meir Baal HaNeis.com

The Chida says that the source for this custom is the Gemara [Avodah Zara 18a-b] where Rebbi Meir bribed a guard to release his imprisoned sister-in-law. The guard asked what happens if he's caught and Rebbi Meir told him to say ''G-d of Meir answer me'' and he would be saved, and that's what happened. From there comes the custom of donating money or oil for the neshama of Rebbi Meir, saying Eloka D'Meir Aneini, three times.

Rebbi Meir Baal HaNess said he would help those that gave to the poor of Eretz Yisroel, for the sake of his neshama.

Reb Dovid of Dinov points out a fascinating allusion: 

Mishlei 12:25 says דְּאָגָה בְלֶב-אִישׁ יַשְׁחֶנָּה - if one has worry in his heart, he should suppress it.

Mesechta Sanhedrin 100b explains this as ישיחנה לאחרים, tell it over to others. Mesechta Horios 13b says אחרים refers to Rebbi Meir. Putting it all together – if one is in a time of trouble give tzedaka for the neshama of Rebbi Meir Baal HaNess.  [Source: Tzemach Dovid]

Anytime, and especially on the yahrzeit, it is a big zechus to give tzedaka or light a candle li'luy nishmas Rebbi Meir Baal HaNess. 

There is a custom that when something is lost, a person immediately promises to give some money to the Tzedakah of Rebbe Meir Baal Haness in the merit of finding what was lost, and say the following [red text in picture below]