The Month of Shevat

Rabbi Alon Anava on the month of Shevat

Gog U'Magog Will Not Affect the Jews !

The following is part of a Sicha from the Lubavitcher Rebbe delivered on 14 Iyar 5740 regarding the war of Gog u Magog.

Rabbi Yochanan quotes Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai regarding Gog u Magog.  It seems like it is a terrible tragedy for the Jews, but as it says in Sanhedrin and other sources:  ''Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said:  ''When King David ran from his son Avshalom, he exclaimed  Ma raba tzorei  - How big are my problems?"  whereas on the passuk Lama ragshu goyim uleumim yehegu rik - Why do nations gather and people speak futility?'' he doesn't say ''how big are my problems?''  but the opposite.

On yehegu rik - speaking futility : Rashi and other commentaries explain that it's not tzorei - tragedy, but rik vahevel - speaking futility.  It has no meaning for the Jews.

Goyim are fighting between themselves, gathering and talking, but it's all ineffective.  Why? Because He who sits in Heaven laughs and mocks them.

Lubavitcher Rebbe painted by Robert Kremnizer

Hashem is instigating Egyptians amongst themselves and different nations between them.  Then comes the question: How should a Jew view this?

We have the decree from Torah that even though nations are gathering and talking negatively, still for the Jews it has absolutely no meaning.  But not because of our own strength, G-d forbid, but because He who sits in Heaven laughs and mocks them.

And that's why it's not affecting the Jews.  They call it tragedy? G-d forbid!  The nations come up with different ideas but it's all Hevel Larik - futility.  Why?  Because Hashem is with us.

The fact that they are gathering, Jewish people know that it's all pointless. because He who sits in Heaven laughs and mocks them.  He is not just notifying, but He is mocking and laughing at them.  As it says ''He who touches them, is touching the Apple of my Eye''.  That is what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is saying about the seventh year.  He is talking about the year of the Coming of Moshiach.

Right at the end of the seven years of wars, Moshiach comes.  Which wars?  The ones where the nations gather and speak futility.  The story of Egypt, the story of Afghanistan, another story, that fight, another fight, but in relation to Jews ''the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps''.

Why? Because Jews are connected with the Guardian of the Jews.  Then he sees in a revealed way that Hashem in Heaven laughs and mocks them.  And the war of Gog U'Magog is not affecting the Jewish people.

Gog is fighting with Magog and it says in Tanach that it will be in Jerusalem, but that has nothing to do with the Jewishness in Jerusalem, and not in the city of Jerusalem, rather it's around Jerusalem.  The Jews are standing strong because Jerusalem is a city where King David lived and the name ''Yerushalayim'' comes from the words ''yiras Hashem shleima'' which means ''complete fear of G-d''.  And Jews who are complete G-d fearing people bring it into actuality and the city of Jerusalem will stay untouched.

And the nations are Utzu Eitza - contriving a scheme - but when the Jewish people behave in a manner of ki imanu Kel - G-d is with us - then dabru davar velo yakum - their conspired plot will not be materialized.

Amona

The settlement of Amona was evacuated and destroyed yesterday Israeli time.   Seems no-one learned the lessons of Gush Katif.

Here is a link to an informative article at the Washington Post.

These videos may upset some readers.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the former residents of Amona.

The Messianic Process: Trump, The U.N. Gog & Magog

Tamar Yonah interviews Rabbi Mendel Kessin.

We are seeing so many things happen today at a quick pace. Obama, the Muslim US president – OUT, Trump, a more Judeo-Christian oriented man – IN. 

The United Nations is relabeling the Land of Israel as Islamic. Vladmir Putin has forces in Syria, PM Netanyahu is attacked on all sides inside and out of Israel, and the Jewish community of Amona is being destroyed. There is talk of the new U.S. President, Donald Trump (with his Jewish daughter and grandkids) being good for Israel, and then there is the dangerous and controversial Islamic emigration to the West. So — what do we make of all this? Is the stage being set for the Messianic age? 

Rabbi Mendel Kessin joins Tamar Yonah to talk about ‘The Messianic Process: Trump, The United Nations, and Gog and Magog’.

click here to listen

it's a Mad Mad World

Art: Mike Worrall

"A king was informed by his chief minister that there had been blight on the crops that year. They were affected so greatly that anyone eating the grain would become insane. "But" said the minister, "there is no need for us to worry. I have set aside enough grain from last year's harvest for the both of us that will last until the harvest of the following year."

The king shook his head. "No," he said. "I will not allow myself any privileges other than those shared by my subjects.  "We shall eat of the same grain," the king continued, "and we shall both go insane together with the rest of the population. But here is what we shall do. You and I will mark our foreheads with an indelible imprint, so that when we go insane, I will look at you and you will look at me and we will know we are insane."

[Rebbe Nachman of Breslov]

4 Shevat: Yahrzeit Baba Sali

Rabbi Yisrael Abuchatzeirah - The Baba Sali

Born: Tafillalt, Morocco,1890

Died: 4 Shevat, Israel, 1984

Rabbi Yisrael Abuchatzeirah was of a well-known rabbinical dynasty. His grandfather was the famous tzaddik, Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzeirah. He had great skill in Talmudic interpretation and many of his halachic decisions were accepted and took root among his followers. He was regarded as someone who possessed the Ruach Hakodesh or "Divine Spirit".

Although still very young, people flocked to R' Yisrael for blessings for their parnassa (income), family, and health. Consequently he became known as "Baba Sali," (our praying father) because of the prayers that he would invoke on behalf of those who sought out his guidance.

One day, young Yisrael's father told him, "My child, you have a great power to bless people which you cannot measure. Your words can bring great help to men. From now on, you must use this power to say good things about others and to bless them."

Young Yisrael gave his word. Soon it became known that the blessings of this young child brought miraculous results. He became famous as Baba Sali. A master of the Kabbalah and a great Torah Sage, he took over his father's position as head of the yeshiva and Rabbi of the community. Although he regularly gave many lectures in Torah and kabbalah, he did not permit his students to write them down because he wanted his scholarship to remain unknown. Nevertheless, his fame as a holy man and a righteous Tzaddik continued to draw Jews to him from all over. Even Arabs came to receive his blessings and the coins he gave for charity.

At 19 he was inducted as the Rosh Hayeshiva, after his father's death. After an extended one year trip to Eretz Yisrael he returned, and was compelled to take the position of Rav of the community after the murder of his brother by an Arab. He gave daily lectures, served as a judge in the beit din (rabbinical court), and set the tone for the kehilla. The community appreciated that nothing escaped his holy, penetrating eyes. From throughout Morocco, people converged on his home for his blessings, his counsel, and his encouragement.

In 1964 when Baba Sali noted that much of Moroccan Jewry had emigrated to Eretz Yisrael, he followed them to fulfill his dream of settling there. Baba Sali chose Yavne as his home because many of his followers had settled there.

In 1970 he moved to Netivot where he was steadily visited by Chassidim, Ashkenazim and Sephardim who sought his unique counsel. He stressed emunah (faith), humility, ahavat Yisrael (love of fellow Jews) and kiyum hamitzvot (fulfillment of mitzvot). His phenomenal memory allowed him to access information at will, whether it dealt with law, Talmud, Kabbalah,etc.

He was very humble and did not want to attract attention, however, his prophetic powers and his miraculous prayers soon became renowned. Thousands of Jews from all over the world would come to seek his advice and blessings for children, health, and livelihood. Baba Sali was very close to other great Torah scholars, especially the Lubavitcher Rebbe, whom he referred to as "the Great Eagle in the Heavens." He strongly encouraged the Rebbe's Mitzvah campaigns, especially urging young girls to light candles for Shabbat and Yom Tov.

*****************************************

Young and old, men and women, observant and secular, Sephardim and Ashkenazim of every stripe, all streamed to the door of the great kabbalist and tsaddik, Baba Sali, in Netivot, seeking his blessing and help. Everyone, without exception, held him in the highest esteem.

Once a man from Holon, Eliyahu, was scheduled to have his legs amputated. His spinal cord had been damaged by a bullet in the Yom Kippur War. He had already spent much time in the hospital, and so was reconciled to his fate. The procedure was to take place on Friday.

That Thursday, an elderly woman acquaintance suggested that he receive a blessing from Baba Sali before the operation. She said that she knew of someone who had been paralyzed, yet was healed through Baba Sali's blessing. Although Eli was not at all observant, he decided to try it anyway, in desperation. Maybe, maybe....

It would have been impossible to get permission to leave the hospital the day before the operation, so Eli snuck out. He didn't even disclose his intention to see Baba Sali to his concerned family.

Eli sat on a chair in the waiting room near the entrance to the tsaddik's room. After many hours, finally his turn came. The custom was, before anything, to approach Baba Sali on his couch and kiss his hand, but because of the advanced thrombosis of his legs and the crippling pain that accompanied it, Eli was unable even to rise to enter the room.

Following Baba Sali's instruction, Rabbanit Simi, his wife, approached Eli and asked, "Do you put on tefillin?" Do you keep Shabbat? Do you say blessings?

"No," admitted Eli, and burst into sobs.

Baba Sali seemed to be moved by Eli's suffering and his sincerity. He said to him, "If you do my will and observe the Shabbat and repent completely, then G-d, too, will listen to my will."

With great emotion, Eli promptly cried out, "I accept upon myself the obligation to observe the Shabbat in all its details. I also promise to do full tshuvah, to 'return' in repentance all the way."

At Baba Sali's directive, Eli was served tea. After he drank it, the Rabbanit suggested that being that the Rav had blessed him, he should try to get up, in order to go and and kiss the Rav's hand.

After much effort and pain, Eli managed to rise. He couldn't believe it-his legs were obeying him! Shakily, he walked over to Baba Sali and kissed his hand! By then nearly delirious with shock and joy, he began to thank Baba Sali profusely. The Rav interrupted him, saying with a smile, "Don't thank me. Just say: 'Blessed are those who sanctify His name publicly!'"

As if in a dream, Eli stumbled out the door and descended the stairs. He experimented, walking this way and that. He had to know: Was he really awake? Could this truly be happening? With each step, his legs felt better.

On his "new" legs, he went over to Yeshiva HaNegev, not too far from the home of Baba Sali. When the students realized they were seeing the results of a miracle that had just occurred, they surrounded Eli with happy dancing and singing, and words of praise and gratitude to G-d.

Rejoicing in his new-found ability to walk, Eli returned to the home of Baba Sali to say goodbye properly and to thank him again. He also expressed his fear that his legs would relapse to their previous weakness and disease. Baba Sali calmed him, saying cheerfully, "Don't worry. In the merit of your oath to 'return' and repent, and especially that you promised to observe Shabbat according to its laws, which is equal to all the commandments, G-d has done this miracle and nullified the decree against you. Now it is up to you to fulfill your words."

Leaving Baba Sali's house again, Eli telephoned his mother. "I'm all better!" he shouted, without explanation. She figured that fear of the surgery had caused him to loose touch with reality. "Are you coming home?" she asked with concern. "Or will you go straight to the hospital?"

Eli then told her what he had promised Baba Sali, the blessing that he had received from the tsaddik, and the miraculous improvement that had already occurred. As soon as he hung up, he called his doctor at Achilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and informed him of his cure. The doctor told Eli to be back at the hospital the following day, and to "stop acting crazy!"

Eli did go to the hospital the next day. The doctor was barely able to accept the evidence of his eyes. After a few days and many tests, Eli was released. The first thing he did was to return to Netivot, to thank Baba Sali again. The Rav requested of his household that a seudat hoda'ah, a meal of thanksgiving to G-d in honor of the miracle, be prepared and served. At the end of the meal, Baba Sali blessed a bottle of water and told Eli to deliver it to the hospital so that his doctor could drink l'chaim from it. "And tell him," added Baba Sali, "not to be so hasty to cut off legs."

Baba Sali's gabbai (attendant) during most of his years in Netivot, Rabbi Eliyahu Alfasi [who witnessed much of the story and heard the rest of the details from Eli of Holon], reports that he once asked Baba Sali how he performed this great miracle. The tzaddik answered him innocently, "Believe me, Eliyahu, all I did was tell him 'Stand up!'"

Midnight: The Threshold

At the dividing point of the night, I will go out into the midst of Egypt... [Bo 11:4]

Rashi comments: At the literal level [p'shat] Moshe informed Pharoah that the plague would start at midnight precisely.

A non-literal [agadic] interpretation is that G-d told Moshe the plague would start at precisely midnight, but Moshe decided not to tell this fact over to Pharoah because he feared that the Egyptian astrologers might err in their calculations of the exact time of midnight. Then, when the plague failed to come at the time they expected, they would come to the conclusion that Moshe had spoken falsely. Therefore, Moshe told Pharoah that the plague would start at 'around midnight'.

Mizrachi comments: The Torah states that Moshe told Pharoah the plague would begin כַּחֲצֹת הַלַּיְלָה. Literally, this means 'around midnight'. However it is unthinkable that G-d should express Himself in such an uncertain manner. Therefore, Rashi understood that כַּחֲצֹת means precisely midnight. This unusual translation was achieved by rendering the word not as a noun but as a verb: ''when the night divides''.

The second agadic interpretation of Rashi solves this problem by explaining that G-d did indeed express Himself in precise terms, but Moshe chose to use a more ambiguous expression, for fear of being misjudged.

Ibn Ezra: The term כַּחֲצֹת הַלַּיְלָה could be rendered 'after midnight' i.e. in the second half of the night [as in Ruth 3:8]

Ramban: Moshe was clearly not trying to tell Pharoah the exact timing of the plague at all, for he did not mention which day the plague would occur. Rather, Moshe was hinting generally that the next plague would cause Pharoah and his servants to arise in the middle of the night.

**********************************

Perhaps we could argue that Rashi accepted the problem presented by Ramban that the warning of a precise time seems totally superfluous here, as Pharoah was in any case not informed of the date.

Furthermore, we do not find that most of the other plagues were associated with a specific time. Even in those instances when the dates were specified [e.g. before the plagues of death of cattle and hail] the time was not. So, why do we find that in this final plague, an exact time was given?

[One exception to this rule was the plague of hail. Rashi explains that Moshe drew a line on the wall and said that when the sun would reach the line, the hail would fall [Vaera 9:18]. But in that case, there was a reason for giving a time, so that those who ''feared the word of G-d'' [Vaera 9:20] would be able to put their slaves and cattle under shelter before the plague started. In our case, however, there is no practical reason to mention the time.]

Since the time appears to be of no relevance here, Rashi concluded that the reference to midnight was primarily a descriptive statement which conveyed the unique quality of the impending plague.

We are therefore left with a question: the distinctive feature of the plague of the firstborn is that it was carried out by G-d Himself, as verse 4 states: ''I will go out into the midst of Egypt''. But if we would follow the usual translation of the word כַּחֲצֹת [around midnight] then how would the verse convey the unique quality of this plague, that G-d was involved personally? Surely, one would expect G-d Himself to be of the utmost precision?

[In fact, we find that the plague of hail was enacted with extreme precision. So, it would be unreasonable to suggest that the plague which G-d enacted personally would be around a certain time, and thus less accurate than one of the previous plagues in which He was not directly ''involved''.]

Therefore, Rashi was forced to conclude that, at the literal level, כַּחֲצֹת הַלַּיְלָה must be rendered [not as 'about midnight' but] as ''precisely midnight'' i.e. even though this is an unconventional [and thus apparently non-literal translation] it is nevertheless necessary to preserve the basic implication of the text, that the plague occurred at a specific time to express G-d's personal involvement.

However, since this interpretation resorted to an unconventional translation, Rashi felt it necessary to bring also a second interpretation from agadic sources.

**************************

Midnight as an Expression of Infinitude

It was explained above that Pharoah was informed of the time of the plague of the firstborn primarily as an expression of G-d's personal involvement. This is highlighted by the comment of Rabbi Yehudah ben Basaira in the Mechilta that midnight is not a definitive moment in time, but rather, a threshold. Thus G-d's revelation at ''midnight'' expresses His true infinitude, how He can be simultaneously revealed in our world that is bound by time, and yet, remain aloof from it.

Source: Based on Likutei Sichos Vol 21 Lubavitcher Rebbe - Gutnick Chumash

Edom vs Yishmael

''This is the plan to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - in other words, ISIS.  I think it's going to be very successful....''

And so said President Trump as he signed the Executive Order an hour ago.

It calls for the Pentagon to give President Trump, within 30 days, a plan to defeat ISIS.

''and that's big stuff....''

It sure is !