How to Ascend to the Heavens

Rabbi Anava has a very short video on how to pick yourself up after a bad day.

Above Nature

"When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to the Lord.

You may sow your field for six years, and for six years you may prune your vineyard, and gather in its produce,

But in the seventh year, the land shall have a complete rest a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field, nor shall you prune your vineyard." [Behar 25: 2-4]

One of the reasons for the Sabbatical year is to allow the land to rest for a year, to enhance its fertility. From this it follows that after six consecutive years of intensive agriculture, the land is at its least fertile point in the seven year cycle. So the Torah's promise that the land "will yield produce [sufficient] for three years" in the naturally infertile sixth year, is totally irrational and requires a person to accept an authority which is higher than his mortal understanding.

The Talmud [Sanhedrin 97a] compares the six agricultural years to the six millenia of this world, and the Sabbatical year to the seventh millennium [when the Redemption will have arrived].

Since the Jewish people suffer from a gradual regression in spiritual stature as the generations pass, a person might ask: "How could the efforts of the spiritually weak and "infertile" sixth millennium bring the true and complete redemption?

The Torah answers: It is the super-rational self-sacrifice and commitment to Judaism of the final generations of exile, that will bring the blessings of the Redemption.

Based on Likutei Sichos vol 27, Lubavitcher Rebbe

Part 2: The Significance of May 12th and May 14th 2018

In Yehezkel 38 and Zechariah 14, it talks about the last war, which is Gog from the land of Magog. There are all types of prophecy, but this clearly is the last war.  What is the logic of Gog and Magog? What does it all mean?  

In order to understand this, you have to go back to Egypt.  Evil has two phases: one is that it tries to destroy good.  Specifically it tries to destroy the Jewish people from doing the tikkun, mitzvos and teshuvah. There is no question about that.

However, there is a Phase Two.  When evil has been vanquished, they arrive for a last push. It's like a star before it dies.  It takes in all its energy and gives out a monumental cataclysmic explosion.  A nova can outshine galaxies..... and we are talking about one star in a billion stars, yet that nova will outshine the whole galaxy.  Can you imagine how much energy is in that star?    

Evil does the same thing.  Before it dies, and while it is dying, it can take it all the energies it has and then explode in a fiercesome explosion.  That is the story of Egypt.  The Krias Yam Suf [splitting of the sea]. Hashem destroyed Egypt with the ten plagues, but that wasn't enough... they had to come back after the Jews.  That is Phase Two.  

First they kept them as slaves for hundreds of years, and then when they were finally destroyed they went after them again by Krias Yam Suf.  So the splitting of the sea was really the last attempt of evil to subdue good.  That's why when the Satan is dying he tries to gather all his kitrugim [prosecutions] and find any evidence he can to destroy the Jews.  There is the famous one where the angel of the Egyptians [who was working as a helper to the Satan] says ''why do you want to save the Jews?  The Egyptians worship idols and the Jews worship idols.''  We see that the Satan made a monumental attempt to save the Egyptians.

All the people trying to topple President Trump is the result of the Satan dying. The Satan is trying to get everyone on his side to stop this man.  Why?  Because they know that Trump is going to drain the swamp.... or rather drain the sewer, which is basically Washington DC.  But that is not the only reason why they are all going crazy.  

The real reason why is because Trump is going to do something for Israel which has never been done before.

That is the concept of the resurgence of evil to try to destroy good. And that is the concept of Gog from the land of Magog.... an individual who gathers the 70 nations of the world [the gematria of Gog u Magog is 70 representing the 70 nations].... to go against the Jewish people and especially Moshiach ben Yosef.... and that is the last attempt of the Satan to again wipe out the Jewish people.

Gog and Magog is nothing more than a repeat attempt of Krias Yam Suf.

Hashem can change the form of Gog and Magog, and it is not a person.  As far as I am concerned, Gog and Magog is the United Nations, who have representatives of the entire world sitting there trying to destroy the Jewish people.  The United Nations is Gog u Magog and they are trying to destroy Israel.

Zechariah talks about not just trying to destroy Israel but specifically the Jews in Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is their major spiritual city. When President Trump wanted to declare Jerusalem the capital, 139 nations voted against it.

If the United Nations is Gog and Magog.... then we will not have a war of Gog u Magog.  You should know that a war of Gog u Magog against the Jewish people would be horrendous, as it says in the Gemorrah only one or two families of a city would survive.  That sounds like a holocaust.

Hashem split the wars of Gog u Magog into three parts.  The Chofetz Chaim says this, by the way.  Phase One was WW1 which destroyed hundreds of Jewish communities, even though it wasn't directly against the Jews, it changed Jewish life in Europe forever.  The second phase was WW2 where Hitler yemach shemo [as Gog] united a great deal of the world against the Jews, and there you had the brutality where only one or two families from a city survived.  Hashem brought the real brutality of Gog u Magog towards the Jews in WW2.  So Gog u Magog already happened twice.  

When you read the Novi, you can see that the war of Gog u Magog comes in three phases.   The final stage will not be so brutal, it will be in the form of confrontation, which is much milder.  We are already seeing that in the form of the United Nations.  It will be far less brutal as Hashem has split it into three parts.

Let's look at Phase Three.  If the United Nations is Gog and Magog, where do we see this ending?  On May 14 something is going to happen that is beyond belief.

The major claim of Gog/Magog is that Jerusalem does not belong to you, and Israel does not belong to you, and therefore they are going to conduct a war.  People don't make war just to say I want your money or your territory... today that is rare.  People have to dress it up and masquerade it as some virtue, such as ''you gotta give everything back to the Arabs''... they can't just attack you and kill you and say we want your cash.  These days Congress has to be justified with some virtuous statement.  So they say ''it belongs to the Arabs, you have to split it in half...''

On May 14, which is the 70th anniversary of the Jewish State on the English calendar....there is something happening which is beyond belief, and I don't think anybody realizes it.  We know that 250 individuals from America, congressmen, senators... are going to Jerusalem to open up the Embassy in Jerusalem.  It's incredible that there's going to be an Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem.  So if somebody is born in Jerusalem, it will no longer say that he is a citizen of Jerusalem, it will say that he is a citizen of Israel because now Jerusalem becomes Israel. That is incredible.

The second idea is that in making Jerusalem the capital, it is the stamp of approval and it legitimizes the whole area, and that Eretz Yisroel belongs to the Jews.

President Trump has said he will go the opening. Why would the President go to the opening of an Embassy? Think about that.  Presidents generally don't go to openings of an Embassy, they send the Diplomats.  Why would Trump say that he would go?  It means that Edom now realizes that the Jews are the legitimate owners of the Land of Israel.  By making the Embassy in Jerusalem, they are making a statement that Jerusalem belongs to the Jews.

It's interesting that there are many nations that are going to follow... we already have Guatemala, Czechoslovakia.... and many other nations will follow and there will be a rush, and it means that the world will recognise that Israel belongs to the Jews.  If that's the case, then there can no longer be a Gog and Magog because the argument that Jerusalem does not belong to the Jews is already over.  If all the countries are slowly going to put their embassies in Jerusalem.... then there is nothing to talk about !  That's an admission by every country that Jerusalem is the capital, so it takes away their whole claim... and if that's the case, then there's no Gog u Magog.

The King of America, Donald Trump, a Messianic figure of Edom, who represents Eisav, is now admitting to the Jewish people that Jerusalem is the capital and belongs to them.  What he has done is single-handedly stopped Gog u Magog.

The Messianic Showdown

For those who can't listen to the video....the following is my transcript of the first half of Rabbi Mendel Kessin's shiur The Significance of May 12th and May 14th 2018 

The 2,000 year old Medrash says that at the end of time .....in the [seven year] cycle in which Moshiach comes, Paras [Iran] will make war with Arav [Saudi Arabia].... and Arav will seek counsel with Edom [America].... and Paras will instigate a war with the entire world.    Israel will be conflicted.... what will they do?.... the entire world will be frightened. [This obviously refers to the fact that Iran can go nuclear.]

And then there will be a Bas Kol [a Divine Voice] that is heard throughout creation for those that are able to hear it, and it will say ''The time of your Redemption has arrived.''  Which means that this war between Persia and Israel [and the world] is the last war.   The Bas Kol continues ''All that I have done is for the sake of purifying the Jewish people''.

So we can see that this final war is between Iran and the Jewish people.

This prophecy indicates that Iran will succeed with a nuclear bomb and they will use this to make war with the Jewish people and the entire world.

However, a change seems to be happening. We must remember that even if there is a prophecy where things can be very bad, this can change because we don't know what merit Jews can achieve that has the ability to influence a Divine decree.  We see this with Yonah who went to warn Nineveh that there was a prophecy, and Nineveh was saved because they repented.

President Trump is certainly going to create a showdown with Iran. Iran is very afraid of the extreme sanctions which he can issue against them which would destroy their economy.  This would lead to a rebellion, of which the Kohmeinis are very afraid.  Trump will demand a de-nuclearization, total transparency, prohibit the manufacture of missiles that carry the war-heads, and bring an end to the terrorism all over the Middle East, especially against Israel.

Either way there will be a showdown.  And this is the Messianic final war: Iran making war against Israel and the world.

This means that Hashem has changed the decree, and is getting President Trump, who represents the tov she'b Eisav - the good part of Eisav who makes teshuva at the end - to neutralize Iran.....  and now we can understand what Eisav will do [is doing] to help Israel at the end of days.

This is Messianic.  This means that Hashem has stopped the prophecy - we don't know exactly why and we don't know exactly what the Jews have done to merit this.  There could be many reasons why.  The amazing thing is that Hashem is using Eisav to achieve this.  President Trump is involved in the Messianic process and his job is to protect the Jewish people.  He is not just stopping Iran, he is stopping the war at the End of Time before the coming of Moshiach, and that is the most incredible thing.

....to be continued [if I have time!]

The Significance of May 12th and May 14th 2018

New shiur from Rabbi Mendel Kessin

In Reverse

"...and I will remember My covenant [with] Jacob, and also My covenant [with] Isaac, and also My covenant [with] Abraham I will remember." [Bechukotai 26:42]

Why are the forefathers listed in reverse order? asked R' Shmelke of Nikolsburg.

Chazal have taught us, answered the Rebbe, that "The world depends on three things - on Torah study, on the service of G-d, and on kind deeds [Pirkei Avot 1:2]

Each one of the forefathers was noted for a different character trait.

Yaakov embodied Torah study.  He was "a wholesome man abiding in tents" [Bereishis 25:27] who studied Torah in the yeshivah of Shem and Ever. 

Yitzchak, who had been bound to an altar, represented service of Hashem.

Avraham, the paradigm of hospitality, represented the trait of kindness.

The order in which the verse lists the forefathers - Yaakov, Yitzchak and Avraham - corresponds to the order utilitzed by Chazal to enumerate the three things upon which the world depends: first "Torah", then "service of G-d" and finally "kindness" [Torah, Tefilla, Tzedaka]

Source: Rabbi Yitzchak Bronstein

Lag B'Omer Wonders

Iyar 18, the 33rd Day of the Omer aka Lag b'Omer, is ALWAYS either Moon in Sagittarius or Moon in Capricorn (depending on where it falls in the 19-year Metonic cycle upon which the Hebrew calendar / Jewish Year is based). 

Sagittarius is "keshet," represented by the bow and arrow of the archer. The symbol of the bow and arrow is historically synonymous with the holiday of Lag b'Omer. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn ("Shabbtai"), the planet associated with the Jewish People for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the association of "Shabbtai" to Shabbat. 

So either way, via the bow and arrow of Sagittarius or the Saturnian "Shabbat" energy of Capricorn, Lag b'Omer is a holiday literally written in our stars as well as in our story.

Source: AstroloJew 

.....we find that this Lag B’Omer 5778 corresponds in multiple ways with the recent findings of Rabbi Glazerson’s Torah code searches, correlating it with Moshiach.

See more at Kabbalah Secrets: Auspicious Dates 

Video: Rabbi Kessin: The Secret of Lag B'Omer

Moshiach's Rainbow and Lag B'Omer 

Lag B'Omer: An Inward Focus 

The Mystical Truth Behind the Iran Deal

In order to fully understand the head scratching, inexplicable Iranian Deal – where the most powerful nations of the world – especially the US, under former President Obama – effectively released to Iran $100Billion in blocked assets – and deliberately covered their eyes to the Iranian regime of terror’s lies to give Iran a clear direct path with permission to develop nuclear weapons, we can only look at the mystical reasons for the answer. 

To understand the high level first, everybody great and everyone evil is being sent back for Hashem’s final show – as we march unstoppable to the Geula – the Final Redemption. The challenge is that most of the evil personalities are public figures – often heads of state, while the righteous leaders of the Geula are for the most part hidden – at least for now. In fact, we are already in the Geula – but what I call the “Concealed part of the Geula – and of course, we need to passionately pray and do everything possible to bring the “Revealed Geula”– and in the sweetest way possible.

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