In The Desert

Bamidbar, the name of this week's parsha as well as the name of the entire 4th book of the Torah, means "in the desert". However, the name Bamidbar itself does not seem to bring to light any unique qualities of the Parsha at all. At this point, the Jewish people have been situated in the desert for a considerable period of time: throughout the whole book of Vayikra and part of the book of Shemos. So what is added now by stressing that the Jewish people were "in the desert"?

The answer to this question lies in the fact that "we always read Parshas Bamidbar before Shavuot" [Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim]. Before we experience the giving of the Torah once again - for spiritually the Torah is given anew every Shavuot - it is necessary to recall and take to heart the fact that the Torah was not given in a civilized environment, but in a desert.

The lesson here is twofold:

1. A desert is a place of utter desolation where "no man can live". Thus the Torah was given there to indicate that it should be embraced without any preconceptions or ulterior motives. When a person lives in a civilized place and he encounters a new idea or suggestions, he will first evaluate it to determine whether it is acceptable according to societal norms. With Torah, however, this would be a mistake; the correct approach to accepting the Torah is "we will do, and (later) we will understand" (Shemos 24:7). Therefore the Torah was given in a desert, where nobody lives, to indicate that one needs to be truly "open-minded" - i.e. not influenced by one's environment - to appreciate its values.

2. The Torah was given in a desert to teach that sharing the Torah with those who currently find themselves in a spiritual desert is fundamental to Torah Judaism. It is not the case that the Torah can "also" reach those who are found in a spiritual wasteland; to the contrary, this is a central theme of the giving of the Torah: To transform every spiritual desert into a "civilized environment".

Based on Sichas Shabbos Parshas Bamidbar of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (5732 and 5734)

Seven Stars on the North and 60 days

I have updated this post as some new information has been passed on to me from Dov bar Leib, which is actually very exciting:

The seven stars on the North side, as mentioned below, ARE the Pleiades - they are actually known as the Seven Sisters in Greek mythology because it is composed primarily of seven bright stars in a very large nebula which can be seen as a Messier object called M45 by Astronomers. The key point being that the Pleiades highlights 7 stars.....

.. when a star on the East side will swallow seven stars on the North side, and a flame of black fire will be hanging in the firmament 60 days..... [Zohar]

[The star on the East side would be the Sun itself]........ It is hard to keep up with the plethora of gods and goddesses from Greek mythology, but one thing that sticks out with regards to the Seven Sisters is that they are the nursemaids to Dionysus, the god of drunkenness and the grape harvest. The Sin of the Spies was during the grape harvest in Eretz Yisrael, but the spies were dispatched on the last day of Sivan, not at its molad, which is this coming solar eclipse in the Ring of Fire. [Source: Dov bar Leib]

May 20 [Yom Yerushalayim] will see the alignment of the earth, moon, sun and the Pleiades - as well as an Annular Solar Eclipse  [see video]

You can read more about this eventful date, and the Mayan Messiah Theory at: Venus Transit and the Star of Moshiach

60 days after this brings us to erev Rosh Chodesh Av - July 19.

July 20 is when Obama's Presidency reaches it's three-and-a-half-year mark: which could refer to Sefer Daniel [where President Obama is hinted to] - see ''time and times and a half of time'' for more on this.

And as Devash just blogged: Sixty days after Shavuot, the London Olympics will begin.

It's just speculation on my part ...... we'll have to wait and see.

Ubuntu Philosophy

An anthropologist suggested the following game to a group of children in a tribe in Africa: He placed a basket full of fresh fruits under a tree. He then said that whoever reached the basket first in a race would be the winner of all the fruits. As he gave the signal to begin the race, the whole group held hands, ran bonded together and then sat and enjoyed the prize together.

When he asked why they had done such thing, when he had offered the possibility to one to be the ultimate winner. They replied: " UBUNTU"-- how could one of us be happy [feel happiness] while the rest are in despair, unhappy?

Ubuntu in the Xhosa culture means: "I am, because we are."

Greece: Bank Run

Greek Depositors Withdrew $898 Million From Banks Monday 

ATHENS—Greek depositors withdrew €700 million ($898 million) from local banks Monday, the country's president said, as he warned that the situation facing Greece's lenders was very difficult.

In a transcript of remarks by President Karolos Papoulias to Greek political leaders that was released Tuesday, Mr. Papoulias said that withdrawals plus buy orders received by Greek banks for German bunds totalled some 800 million.

Citing a conversation he had with Greek Central Bank Governor George Provopoulos, Mr. Papoulias said "that the strength of banks is very weak right now."

Source: WSJ

Greece and Europe: Back on the Brink

Europe is back on the economic brink.

With a leaderless Greece approaching another milestone in its struggle with debt, European stock markets closed yesterday's session at a 4-and-a-half year lows.  Source: ABC

Following news that Greece has failed to form a government, the Greek stock market is crashing.

It went from being up modestly to down 4.5% in a matter of seconds......Greek banks are getting totally crushed.  Source: Business Insider

A Lesson for Ahmadinejad from King Titus

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on May 12 said that Israel poses little threat to the Islamic Republic and compared it to a pesky insect.

“Israel is nothing more than a mosquito which cannot see the broad horizon of the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said while speaking in northeastern Iran’s Khorassan province, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.  [ Before Nuclear Talks, Iranian President Compares Israel to Mosquito ]

Our Sages tell us: When Titus was traveling back to Rome on a ship with the Jewish captives and the vessels of the Holy Temple, a storm at sea threatened to drown him. He said: "It seems that the G‑d of these people only has power over water. When Pharaoh came, He drowned him in water. When Sisera came, He drowned him in water. Now He is about to drown me in water. If He wants to show His strength, let Him come onto dry land and fight with me there!" 

A Divine voice came forth and said to him: "Wicked one, the son of a wicked one, descendant of Esau the wicked, I have an insignificant creature in My world called a gnat. Come ashore and do battle with it!" Titus went ashore and a gnat [mosquito] came and entered his nostril, and pecked at his brain for seven years. 

One day, Titus was walking past a blacksmith's shop. The gnat heard the noise of the sledgehammer and became silent. Titus said: "There is a remedy!" Every day they brought a blacksmith and he hammered in Titus' presence. To a gentile blacksmith he would give a handsome stipend, but to a Jew he would say: "It is sufficient that you see your enemy suffering!"

For thirty days they brought smiths to hammer in Titus' presence. Then the gnat adjusted to the noise of the hammer, and continued pecking at Titus' brain even when the hammers were struck.

Rabbi Pinchas ben Arova said: "I was with the great men of Rome at the time when Titus died. They examined his brain and what they found in it was the size of a small bird!"

As Titus lay dying, he instructed his servants: "Burn me and scatter my ashes over the seven seas so that the G‑d of the Jews cannot find me and bring me to judgment."  [See: Death of Titus]

The Path of the Just

The Mesillat Yesharim [The Path of the Just] is probably the most popular musar [instruction] work in Jewish literature.

Authored by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, also known as the RaMCHaL after his initials, Mesillat Yesharim is studied in all Yeshivos and is considered the finest such work ever written. Indeed, Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, founder of the Musar movement which stressed the study of such books on piety, said, "All the classical works of Musar demonstrate that man must fear God. The Mesilas Yesharim tells us how."

"I have been given permission (from upstairs) to ask and understand in any and all matters of the holy Torah even the most difficult passages in the Zohar.."  [RamChaL]

 More and more, however, people are also realizing that Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the past several centuries. Both his depth of thought and systematic mind are evident in all his works, which are literally filled with important basic insights. Over two hundred years ago, Rabbi Eliahu, the famed Vilna Gaon, declared that Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto had the most profound understanding of Judaism that any mortal human could attain. He furthermore stated that if Luzzatto were alive in his generation, he would go by foot from Vilna to Italy to sit at his feet and learn from him.

A new point-by-point summary of the book can be found at Daf Yomi Review

Then read the entire book in english at: Shechem

No Shortage of Onions

"If you ask "What will we eat in the seventh year?" [Behar 25:20]

The year 5719 [1958-1959] was a shemittah year.  With the encouragement of the great Chazon Ish [R' Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz], a special committee was formed in order to assist shemittah-observant Jews.  Despite their endeavours, however, there was a noticeable shortage of onions.

One mornin, an ownerless cargo ship sailed into the Jaffa seaport.  Amazingly, the ship was fully stocked - with onions!

After a thorough investigation, it turned out that the ship was an Egyptian carrier that had been on its way to Egypt.  The captain had made a navigational error, and had mistakenly sailed the ship into Jaffa.  When he realized that they were nearing the coast of Israel, he and his crew abandoned the ship in a panic.

That year, there were plenty of onions for the shemittah-observing farmers - "The strong warriors who do His bidding, to obey the voice of His word" [Tehillim 103:20]

Source: Rabbi Yisrael Bronstein