Why Me?

by Rabbi Aron Moss

Question of the Week:

Does G-d pick on some people? I think he is picking on me because I have suffered one loss after another for much of my life. It seems that as soon as I have survived one tragedy, another one comes crashing down on me. I always bounce back but I am starting to take it personally...

Answer:

There was once a tow-truck driver who lived near a muddy old country road. Every day he would jump into his truck and drive a mile or so to a particularly sludgy bend in the road, and every day his truck would get stuck in the mud. But it was a trusty old truck, and its chunky tires and growling engine would always be able to beat the mud and climb up onto solid ground.

Most days, as he drove along he would encounter other motorists who had unknowingly ventured onto the muddy road and got stuck in the bog. Some of them had been trapped there for hours, haplessly revving their engines and watching their wheels spin aimlessly in the muck. The truck driver would appear like a savior and offer them a tow, drag them out and set them back on the road.

The truck driver's son once asked him, "Why do you always drive down this muddy road. You always get stuck in it. Why don't you take your truck somewhere smoother, where the road is clear and dry?"

"That's the whole point," said the truckie to his son. "My tow-truck has the power to get through that mud. The only reason I pass by there every day is to find others who are stuck and can't get out themselves. That's what a tow truck is for."

Some souls are like tow-trucks. They somehow have the strength to burst through the thickest and muddiest roads of life. No matter what life throws at these people, they muster the inner fortitude to get through. And so they keep getting thrown into the abyss, over and over again.

What these souls probably don't even realize is that they are helping others. When you face a tough time and beat it, you bring light into that dark place, which can shine a path for others who are stuck in their own darkness. It could even be that the only reason you had to pass through that dark roadway is to help drag other souls out of their darkness.

Sometimes we help others directly, by sharing our experiences and teaching a new way to those who can't see a way out. Or it may happen indirectly. The mere fact that you went through it and survived blazes a pathway, opens a door, and other suffering souls whom you may never meet suddenly find a way out of their quagmire and are set free.

So perhaps you are a tow-truck soul. Perhaps sometimes you are being towed. We all experience both. But if we would realize that every time we conquer our own darkness we may be helping someone who can't help themselves, we would be inspired to keep on trucking.

Ask Not Whether, But How

by Rabbi Y. Y. Jacobson

Kill the Messenger? Why were the Spies Condemned for Reporting the Facts?

The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer. -- General Montgomery

The Hole in the Roof

A rabbi stands before his congregation and reports to them that a massive hole has been found in the roof of the synagogue.

"Now I have good news and bad news for you," the Rabbi continues. "The good news is that we have the money to repair it; the bad news is that the money is in your pockets."

If We Win?

The story is told that the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, recently convened an emergency session to figure out a solution for the devastated Israeli economy.

One brilliant minister said, "Let's declare war on the U.S., and then, in the wake of the utter destruction America will bring upon us, we will receive billions of dollars for reconstruction, like Germany and Japan.

"Sounds great," responded another member of the Knesset. "One problem: What will we do if we win the war?"

Twelve Jews on a Mission

This week's portion, Shlach, tells the story of 12 men who were dispatched by Moses from the desert to go and survey the Land of Israel and its inhabitants. The purpose of their journey was to prepare the Jewish people for the subsequent conquest and settlement of the Land.[1]

Upon discharging the spies on their mission, Moses presented them with a list of questions they needed to answer. "See the Land," Moses said to them. "How is it? And the nations that dwell in it—are they strong or weak? Are they few or numerous? And how is the land in which they dwell—is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they dwell—are they open or are they fortified?"

When the 12 spies returned from their 40-day tour of Israel they presented to the people a report of their findings.

"We arrived at the Land to which you sent us," the spies said, "and indeed it flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. But the people that dwells in the land is powerful, the cities are greatly fortified and we also saw the offspring of the giant.

"We cannot ascend to that people for it is too strong for us," the spies proclaimed.

The report that the spies brought back demoralized the Jewish nation and drained it from the motivation to enter the Land. As a result, the spies were severely punished and the entire generation ultimately died in the desert, never making it into the Land. Only 39 years later, in the year 1276 B.C.E., did the children and grandchildren of this generation cross the borders of Israel and settle the Promised Land.

Kill the Messenger?

One of the many questions raised by biblical commentators [2] concerns the reason for the spies receiving punishment. Moses gave them a detailed list of questions about the Land; he instructed them to make their own observations as to what will await the people upon their arrival.

This is exactly what the spies did. They came back with an answer to all of Moses' questions and reported what they perceived to be the reality of the situation. If Moses expected them to cover up their observations -- that the Land was inhabited by mighty men and its cities were greatly fortified -- he should have never sent them in the first place!

Why were the men faulted for relating what they had seen?

Introducing Paralysis

The answer is that if the spies had merely related to the people the reality of the situation as they saw it, everything would have been fine. But they did more than that. They used the difficulties they observed as an incentive to introduce the option of surrender and capitulation in the face of crisis.

Had the spies returned and said, "Hey guys, we have seen a mighty people and well-protected cities in the Land, so now we need to devise an effective strategy of how to go about our challenging mission," they would have fulfilled their task splendidly. The moment they responded to the obstacles by saying "We cannot do it anymore," they swayed an entire people to abandon their G-d-given destiny.

The spies are condemned in Jewish tradition for substituting the "how will we do it" with the "can we do it?"

Conquering Your Darkness

Each of us has a domain in our life that needs to be conquered, a terrain that needs to be transformed into a "holy land." Some of us need to battle fear, temptation, addiction, or shame. Since the challenges that lay in recovery's path are at times frightening, we are naturally tempted to believe that we are incapable of overcoming our darkness and we thus surrender to our demons.

Though this feeling is understandable, it is a sad mistake that must be fought tenaciously, for it robs us of the opportunity to liberate our souls and arrive at our personal "Promised Land."

The option of resignation compels us to remain stuck for the rest of our lives in a barren desert made up of shame, insecurity and weakness.

The question ought never to be, "Can I do it?" The resources to repair the hole in our personal roof are always present. Every problem can be dealt with. The only legitimate question is, "How do I do it?"[3]

To see the footnotes, click here

Amazing stories of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu zt'l

The following are excerpts from the book "Avihem shel Yisrael" on Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu of blessed memory

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu (1929-2010) was one of the greatest torah scholars and kabalists of our times. He was elected chief rabbi of Israel in 1983, a post which he originally rejected, but Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira (Baba Sali) convinced him to accept the office. He was exceedingly humble, and was beloved by a wide range of Jews. The following are some of the tens of thousands of stories told over by eyewitness accounts.

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu zt'l was very careful to guard himself from all forms of avodah zarah (idol worship). Once he was on a visit to Canada, and the mayor invited him to the museum which had all sorts of christian statues which are essentially idols of silver and gold. When they came out of the museum, Roni, the driver, saw the Rav lift his eyes to the heavens and say "Master of the world, please clean me from this tuma now". They started to drive away and suddenly the car slipped on the snow and fell into a channel. Everyone came out of the car and saw that, thank G-d, nobody was hurt. But when they returned, Roni heard the Rav say "Master of the world, thank you."

The wife of Rav Yitzchak Kaduri (the late chief sefardi kabalist) told over that one time she arrived at the home of Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, and saw him learning with a man dressed in white who had an extremely impressive appearance. Since she did not want to disturb their learning, she decided to return the next day. When she returned the next day, she told the rav that she came the day before but didn't want to disturb his learning with the man in his room. The rav asked surprisedly, "you saw him?" she answered "yes, why is the rav surprised?", "if so", he answered "you merited to see Beniyahu ben Yehoyada!" (see Shmuel II ch.23:20-22)

"Several times, the Rav came to me in dreams to tell me what to do. One time I needed to drive the Rav but did not arrive. I fell asleep and didn't wake up. Twelve minutes before I was supposed to arrive at the home of the Rav, I see the Rav in a dream, saying to me "Roni, where are you?". I jumped from the bed, and arrived at the home of the Rav at the exact time we were supposed to leave. One time, I wanted to take my daughter out of her kindergarten and to move her to a different kindergarten. The Rav was not happy about this. Because this would have hurt the first kindergarten teacher, and she was a woman with a difficult financial status. But, for me it was difficult with her, and I decided to move her to the other kindergarten. At night, the rav came to me in a dream and said to me "don't cause hurt to the kindergarten teacher. She doesn't have parnasa (money) and your daughter won't be damaged". I was shocked, and in the morning I asked the Rav what to do. He answered me, "Like I told you in the dream".

Source and more at: Daf Yomi Review

The Financial Crisis From a Torah Perspective

A shiur from Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet

What If...

Tzedaka With Intent

Question: Is it permissible to donate a sum of money to charity in the merit of which someone should become healed or for any other personal request or is it improper to do this, for the Mitzvah is not being done for the sake of Heaven, rather, for one's personal purposes?

Answer: The Gemara in Masechet Pesachim (8a) teaches us that our Sages said: "If one says, 'I am hereby donating a certain amount of money to Tzedakah in order for my son to live,' he is a completely righteous person." If so, the Gemara teaches us that there is nothing wrong with one who donates a sum of money to charity in order for his son to be healed, for ultimately, he intends to donate the money even if, G-d-forbid, his son does not recover. He is merely requesting that the merit created by him donating money to charity help his son recover; however, this is regardless of his will to donate money to charity because doing so is a great Mitzvah.

Similarly, Rashi in his commentary on this Gemara in Pesachim explains that we do not say that because one donates this sum of money in order for his son to be healed that this action is considered not for the sake of Heaven; rather, we say that he has fulfilled the Mitzvah of giving charity as his Creator has commanded him and he intends this to serve his own purposes as well, i.e. for his son to live.

Maran Harav Shlit"a proves from here that any action one performs for the sake of Heaven and in his mind he intends for this to be for his own benefit as well, for instance, one who eats on Shabbat in honor of Shabbat and in order to make the holy Shabbat enjoyable as per Hashem's command while also having in mind for his own personal enjoyment, we do not say that he is performing the Mitzvah not for the sake of Heaven; rather, since his intention includes doing so for the sake of Heaven as well, it is indeed considered that he is doing so for the sake of Heaven and his reward shall be great. Many other great Poskim write accordingly.

This concept has other far-reaching ramifications regarding the Mitzvah of Yibum (levirate marriage). This Torah commandment entails one brother marrying his deceased brother's widow if he left over no children in order to establish a name for the deceased brother. The Gemara in Masechet Yevamot (39b) tells us that Abba Shaul holds that if the brother does not intend for this to be for the sake of Heaven, rather, he wishes to marry his brother's widow because of her beauty, wealth, and the like, he may not marry his deceased brother's wife, for the Torah only permitted him to marry her when he intends to do so for the sake of Heaven. However, if this is not the case, this constitutes a severe prohibition.

It is nevertheless common that the deceased's brother claims that although his intentions are not purely for the sake of Heaven, he nonetheless intends to fulfill the Mitzvah of his Creator to establish a name for his deceased brother as well. In this scenario, is it considered that he is doing so for the sake of Heaven or not? Based on what we have discussed above we can prove that as long as some thoughts of doing so for the sake of Heaven are mixed into one's intentions, he is in fact considered to be doing so for the sake of Heaven and we sometimes suggest to the brother to perform the Mitzvah of Yibum by marrying his deceased brother's widow and establishing an everlasting name for his brother, in accordance with the opinion of Maran HaShulchan Aruch.

Summary: One may donate charity in order for a relative or the like to recover from an illness, for he intends to do so for the sake of Heaven as well, in order to fulfill Hashem's commandment. The same applies to the fulfillment of any Mitzvah which one performs for his own benefit as well. If one intends to perform a Mitzvah solely for the sake of Heaven, this is an especially unique Mitzvah, for such Mitzvot cause Hashem great satisfaction and are the most anticipated by Hashem.

Source: Halacha Yomit

Italian Bank Crisis

''The problem for Italy is that where Spain goes, there’s always the perception that Italy could follow.....” Italy Moves Into Debt-Crisis Crosshairs After Spain Bank Rescue 

The first to fall: BNI blocks bancomat, online, and any way of getting to one’s account.
See:  More on Closure of BNI, Italy

Moshiach News

One must openly publicize to all that we are currently in the period of Ikveta Dimshiha - this matter is clear as the sun. 

A must read from Yeranen Yaakov: Rav Shmuel Eliyahu on the Geula Situation - Part 1 of 2