Friday, November 20, 2020

Toldot Tikkunim


According to kabbalistic teachings, Yitzchak corrected the spiritual damage caused by Adam's sin.

Therefore, just like Adam had been led by the ingenious plot of the serpent, the correction of Adam's sin had to come through ingenious trickery: ''Your brother came ingeniously and took your blessing''.  [Toldot 27:35]

Source: Likutei Sichos Lubavitcher Rebbe


The B’nei Yissachar takes this concept one step further. A number of commentators are bothered by the fact that Yaakov had to resort to such deceit in order to receive his father’s blessings. As the legitimate inheritor of Yitzchok’s spiritual legacy, shouldn’t Yaakov have been able to receive what he deserved in a more straightforward manner? 

Citing the Zohar HaKadosh, the B’nei Yissachar explains that Yaakov represented the tikkun [refinement] of Adam and his sins. Yaakov’s arch-nemesis was his wicked twin brother Eisav, who is described by the Torah [25:27] as a “yodeah tzayid” – hunter. The Targum Onkelos renders this phrase “gevar nachshirchon,” hinting that Eisav represented the nachash – serpent. Because the serpent enticed Adam and Chava to sin through tricky, underhanded methods, Yaakov had to rectify its previous triumph by successfully taking the blessings away from Eisav using similarly devious tactics.

The Arizal teaches that Rivkah was a gilgul [reincarnation] of Chava, the first woman. One of the purposes of reincarnation is to give a soul the opportunity to rectify the sins that it committed in an earlier lifetime. In what way did Rivkah correct the sin of Chava and atone for its consequences?

After the serpent convinced Chava to eat from the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, she immediately gave some to Adam to eat. Rashi explains that she did so out of a fear that after her death, Adam would remain alive and would find another mate. As a result of his sin, Adam was cursed with death and with the pain and difficulty of sustaining himself.

Because Chava ensnared Adam in sin when he listened to her, her descendant Rivkah learned from her mistakes and rectified her sins. In contrast to Chava who caused Adam to eat something forbidden, Rivkah saved Yitzchak from eating from the food that Eisav brought him which was not properly slaughtered, and according to some opinions was dog meat [Targum Yonason ben Uziel 27:31].

Source: ShemaYisrael

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The Solution for the World's Crisis

 

Rabbi Alon Anava 

Corona, Masks, Vaccines, Lockdowns, US elections - Now what??


The U.S. Elections 2020 in the ‘Spiritual Realm’

Tamar Yonah interviews Rabbi Mendel Kessin [audio] 

What’s going on behind the scenes of the lack of a final and official result in the US Elections 2020? Why isn’t there an ‘official’ winner yet, and is there a spiritual aspect behind this ambiguity? 

Rabbi Mendel Kessin  joins Tamar Yonah and talks about what he believes is happening in the Messianic era and why it is happening. He also makes some fascinating statements about when the Moshiach (Messiah) has to come by, as well as ‘the resurrection of the dead.


Kislev: Month of Miracles


How to receive your own miracle in Kislev: a very short video from Rabbi Anava


Monday, November 16, 2020

Calculating the Year of Moshiach


This information is generally known, however I have roughly transcribed it from Rabbi Anava's video today.

Although we are not allowed to calculate the arrival of Moshiach, as we draw nearer to our destination, we are permitted to talk about such things.

When we count the years for Moshiach's arrival, we count from Adam -  the word 'Adam' is an acronym for Adam/David/Moshiach.  David is in the middle of Adam and Moshiach, making it easy to calculate a year for Moshiach's arrival. [The soul of Moshiach appears in every generation, but so far no generation has been worthy of it's revelation]

 אדם 
  דוד 
משיח

Adam was born in the year 0. 

David HaMelech was born in 2854 and became King of Israel in the year 2891.

2854 is the middle year, multiply it by two and therefore 5708 is a year for Moshiach.  Obviously we didn't see Moshiach then but we did see the birth of the State of Israel [1948 on the Gregorian calendar].

We call David "King David'' and therefore we can count from the year he became King:  2891 - multiply it by 2... and we then get 5782.  [as everyone knows we are currently in the year 5781]

That doesn't mean Moshiach can't come before then, but this is the calculation Rabbi Anava was talking about.

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Is the End of the World Near ? Torah Secret that Reveals What's Coming

Rabbi Alon Anava, new shiur

Whoever Has Not Suffered

Art Oreshnikov and Milner


From the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov - Yitro

 
"The Jewish people were not exiled until they denied G·d and the dynasty of David." [Yalkut Shimoni, I Samuel #106]

"The only difference between the world at the present and the world at the time of the Messiah is the subjugation to the [gentile] kingdoms." [Tractate Pesachim 68a]

The Baal Shem Tov taught:

The Talmud teaches, "Whoever has not suffered for forty days has received thereby his future reward. And what is considered suffering? Even if one puts his hand into his pocket to take out a golden coin and instead takes out one of lesser value." [Tractate Erkhin 16b]

However, since suffering is only in atonement for liability, how can such minor inconvenience constitute atonement?

The explanation is that since the righteous person lives with G·d, he believes in Divine providence and knows that G·d is guiding all events in his life down to the smallest minutiae, and that all his suffering is an expression of Divine justice - DINA, which is represented by the Divine Name of ADoNaI - on account of his sins.

Hence, as soon as the righteous person suffers however slightly, he immediately [searches his soul and] regrets [any misdoing], and becomes filled with anxiety and fear of G·d. He is thus immediately forgiven, since he believes [that his suffering is from G·d], and he repents and binds his mind to G·d.

Therefore, even when one is only slightly inconvenienced by having not taken out the coin he intended, since this only happened because of his sin, and he [is aware of this and] repents, this constitutes atonement.

This concept is referred to as "David" [made from the letters daleth, vav, daleth] :-  for the Infinite One, Who is referred to as Ayin/Nothingness, is represented by the [first] daleth. "Nothingness" is then conveyed via the vav to the [second] dalet, which represents the nadir of nothingness, which is expressed by a belief that everything that happens is Divine providence from G·d.

However, when a person does not believe that everything that happens is Divine providence from G·d, but rather attributes things to his own actions, this is considered having denied G·d and the aforementioned concept of "David" for he is denying the justice [providence] of the Kingdom of G·d/ADoNaI.

But G·d's Kingdom is hidden and subservient to the kelipoth/shells that cover and conceal G·d's providence from mankind. (1) 

In the future, though, with the coming of the Messiah, who will banish the spirit of impurity from the earth, G·d's providence will be revealed even in the minutest of events.

With this we can understand, "The Jewish people were not exiled until they denied G·d and the dynasty of David" and "The only difference between the world at present and the world at the time of the Messiah is the subjugation to the [gentile] kingdoms."

Understand this well (2) for everything that a person is able to comprehend about G·d is only regarding His Malkhut/Kingdom, but above that cannot be comprehended.

1) These "shells" are the "laws" of nature, the apparent cause-and-effect, and in this case, the statistical but "chance probabilities" that seem to govern whether one picks the gold coin or the copper one from one's pocket.

2) Until here is quoted from the Toldot Yaakov Yoseph, VaYishlach #8. The conclusion is that of the compiler of the Kesser Shem Tov, and its relevance to the rest of the piece is not clear.