Extract from article in The Australian [a subscription only news outlet]
Written by Henry Ergas
"It is, in effect, not merely the loss of innocent life that counts; it is also the circumstances in which it occurs. Thus, the fact that more than a million civilians were killed by Allied bombing during the Second World War, while millions of innocent Jews were being slaughtered by the Nazis, scarcely means that the Allies were no better than their adversaries.
There are, no doubt, debates to be had about which Allied tactics were effective and which were not. But it is clear that the Nazis deliberately set out to butcher their innocent victims while the Allies, even when they incinerated entire cities, were not motivated by a desire to exterminate those cities’ populations. Their goal was to defeat the German and Japanese regimes whose very existence made peace impossible.
The Allies certainly knew that their actions were causing countless civilian deaths. But they believed, for good reason, that the moral responsibility for those deaths lay with the murderous regimes they were fighting.
And they also believed that it was not solely the people of the Allied countries who would benefit from their enemies’ defeat. Innocent German and Japanese lives would be saved too – saved from an ideology and a political domination so monstrous, so degrading even to those who might survive, that the consequences of its final victory were beyond imagining."
These are just my thoughts.... all opinions are welcome, please leave a comment and tell me what you think.
It's interesting that at the same time we have the Kochav Yaakov [Comet Atlas] there is also a "Star" [T Coronae Borealis]. We even have Rabbis with differing opinions as to which one is the actual Kochav Yaakov.
The appearance of the star has caused xtians to go into meltdown - they are calling it the Star of Jacob, and they say it is the same star that was visible at the time of the birth of Jesus.
Why do we have a Star and a Comet at the same time?
Which is the real Kochav Yaakov?
According to the majority of Jewish opinions I have seen and heard on the internet, namely Rabbi Palvanov's video,Rav Ron Chaya and It's Here, the Star of Jacob, What Next? [this video can also be found at the end of this blog post] - the Kochav Yaakov is the Comet Atlas Tsuchinshan. [Note that Rav Chaya thinks it is the Star, while the others say it is the Comet.]
I think that the other one, the Star, is there to show the xtians that when the real Moshiach arrives, it is the actual Moshiach.... even if it's not the one they thought it would be....
There is meant to be confusion before we see Moshiach.
It is said that Moshiach comes "suddenly" and also that when Moshiach is about to come, everyone will know.... two statements which seem to contradict each other but actually... they don't.... because even though we are expecting Him, the arrival will be sudden.
Exploring the significance of Lebanon and Iran in End Times prophecies and their relation to current global events. Also: who was the mysteriously long-living prophetess Serach bat Asher? Where is the Phoenix found in the Bible and what does it have to do with the Messiah? What are the spiritual and historical origins of the ancient cities of Beirut, Tyre, and Isfahan? And what is the deeper meaning behind the seven voices of God in Psalm 29?
In the Zohar that the Rav cited in his last classes, namely the Zohar at the end of Balak, it talks about the king that dies on 25th of Ellul.
Nasralla = gematria of 'melech Romi' , [the king of Rome, words of that specific Zohar]
Nasralla= 346=melech Romi, king of Rome
נסראלה. = 346 =מלך רומי
[video transcription below]
We are now one day after Rosh Hashanah, in the ten days of repentance, on the fast of Gedalia.
(The Rav reads the letter I posted- in the comments here - re the miracles of Tues evening, the Rav finds it phenomenal)
The Rav says he has a video in which Dr Gold, inventor of the iron dome, says that everything his company has done was with Go-d's help. At the start of the project Gold says, they were in contact with American scientists who told him that no way it can work because there are 100 problems in his plan. If one problem is not solved, everything falls in the water.
Dr Gold says : and in the end we managed to solve all the problems . Dr Gold said it all came from Go-d and what we managed to accomplish is absolutely abnormal.
R Ron Chaya: Hashem hates it when a person says that it comes from man and ignores Hashem. After the first attack of Iran just before Pesach a scientist wrote to the Rav and also told him after having calculated, that it's impossible i.e. miraculous, that the defense system had 100% success because there should been at least 5% failure. Said it's absolutely abnormal. Shouted it's a miracle! Now again, miracle! The miracles that we're experiencing here in Israel since a few weeks are phenomenal!
Besides, Iran daily pushes approx 2 million Arabs that live here in Israel to revolt themselves. Suppose only 1% would act, i.e. 20,000 of them, watch out they have machine guns and more but let's suppose they would only come with kitchen knives.. what would we have done ?!? But it's a fantastic miracle... We're living a daily miracle..
The 7th of October was something like the Nazis did but it was supposed to be much bigger, a concerted attack by Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Israeli Arabs etc but it didn't happen. - an extraordinary miracle.
We're experiencing miracles thanks to what ? October 7 because of its horribleness has awakened the Jewish people. Many non religious and Israelis have understood that they're being attacked because they are Jewish so now they have decided to become 'super (religious) Jews'. And a couple of months ago a study has been conducted by a non religious institute who has said that 39% of the non religious are coming closer to the Torah . Many rabbis have told the Rav that it's much more than that.
During the pre Rosh Hashanah selichot, in Eilat, the coast at the Red Sea in the south, with Rabbi Zamir Cohen, 5,000 people came to do the selichot! Secular Jews! This year's selichot at the kotel: full of people for 2-3 km from the kotel, at least 50,000 people! Including secular Jews!, who during one hour cried Answer us our father! It's phenomenal! It's the end of our enemies, the messianic times. We are there, very close.
Rambam [Maimonides]: it's a Gemara, the Torah promised that at the end of the exile the Jewish people will return to the Torah and will immediately be saved. Before the Holocaust there were no baalei teshuva. After the Holocaust in one or two generations millions had left the Torah either to communism or to atheistical Zionism, became anti Jewish. Stalin said that he didn't have to look far to find anti Torah Jews. How much we have suffered in Israel from atheistical anti Zionism, terrible! Now it's almost gone. Hertzl was an atheist- anti -Zionist, his children weren't even circumcized, not to blame because his parents did not teach him, he was a journalist who saw people scream death to the Jews! said it's not normal, he did not understand that it's because the goyim hate those who got the Torah, and reasoned it's because we have no land so he decided we need a land.
1895: first Zionist Congress in Bahl: he said if you want it won't be a legend and he created a country and said that thanks to that country we'll be a country as the others i.e. without religion. But he failed.
Now when Bibi goes to the UN he is hated, many leave the room. Although Hezbollah is an organisation that is recognized by the UN as terrorists that have killed many people and not only Jews but different nations and don't let the Lebanese people develop themselves.
Re Hamas, are we hated by the UN because we defend ourselves against their missiles?! No, it's the hate of Yisrael, the nation of Israel! Atheistical Zionism has failed. It's written in the Torah Jews are hated because they got the Torah, that is the real reason for the hatred.
Now, because the Jewish people are doing teshuva, now that the atheist-Israelis start to understand that they're being hated because they are Jewish, so Hashem shows who He is and does extraordinary miracles and the great of Israel recognize that it's thanks to Hashem - even Bibi mentions Hashem in his speeches much more often than before. And we don't even see half of the miracles.
Ramban [Nachmanides] says the biggest miracle is the exodus of Egypt, specifically that Pharaoh when he got to the Red Sea he decided to cross it. That was really stupid says the Ramban and it's a miracle that Hashem made him stupid but that he remained at the same time intelligent enough to lead his country. Well that's what happened last Tuesday evening: both the US and Israel have told Iran, watch out if you attack Israel we'll attack you.
Iran, thought that it's stronger than it really is but really the US is way stronger and I the Rav in my classes have told you: the US must attack Iran. Although everyone says it won't happen, the Talmud says two nations will last till the messianic era: Persia - Iran, and Rome - modern Rome is America.
Tosfot: Tractate Avoda Zara page b: "Paras will fall in the hands of Rome" so how can we say both will last till the messianic era? Tosfot answers: it will be just before the messianic era. And the biggest miracle is that Iran just like Pharaoh, see above, has made the mistake of attacking Israel.
Biden: we're now in total collaboration with Israel for an attack on Iran.*
R Yehoshua Eshel mi-Apta says that in the end all the nations will want to wage war with each other but they'll see that the only one who will benefit from it is Israel.
The real leader of America is Obama . Btw Barack Obama = gematria Pharaoh. It's written that all the big leaders of history will return in the last generation Nasrallah = gematria 346 = gematria melech Romi', ie king of Rome, as written in the Zohar.
The Zohar says Moshiach will come 70 days after they killed Nasrallah but.. says the Rav, it can also come earlier, now ! If we all do teshuva as now.. there is a benefit if it happens now in these days of repentance: we're all clean from our sins. There's no better time for it to happen now, when everyone wakes up, naila! , Yom kippur, could be that at the end of it we'll hear the shofar of Moshiach.
I could be wrong but we're hoping. In any case we see so many extraordinary things happening, could be that we'll do teshuva, Hashem will eradicate all our enemies and it will happen now.
On Oct. 2, 2024, an annular solar eclipse will pass over parts of the Pacific Ocean, southern Chile and southern Argentina.
During an annular solar eclipse, the moon drifts in front of the sun while it's slightly farther from Earth than during a total solar eclipse, so it doesn't completely cover the sun's disc. Instead, it leaves a distinct ring of light around the moon, which is why an annular solar eclipse is also known as a "ring of fire" solar eclipse.
At the point of greatest eclipse in the Pacific, the moon will obscure 93% of the sun's center, creating a "ring of fire" visible for 7 minutes and 25 seconds.
More info: https://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEprime/2001-2100/SE2024Oct02Aprime.html
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. [Oscar Wilde]
Text Source: Based on Likutei Sichos Vol 28 Lubavitcher Rebbe
The people criticized G-d and Moshe: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There's no bread and no water, and we're sick of this unwholesome (manna) bread." G-d sent venomous snakes upon the people, and they bit the people. Many people of Israel died. The people came to Moshe and said "We have sinned! For we have spoken against G-d and against you! Pray to G-d that He should remove the snakes from us!" Moshe prayed on behalf of the people. [Chukas 21:5-7]
Even after the people criticized Moshe heavily, resulting in a punishment of venomous snakes, we nevertheless find that Moshe did not bear a grudge and prayed for the people to be saved. "From here we learn" writes Rashi, "that if a person asks you for forgiveness you should not be cruel and refrain from forgiving."
This principle is recorded by Rambam in his legal Code, the Mishneh Torah, in three places and there are a number of variations which need to be explained.
1) In Laws of Personal Injury, Rambam describes the method and process of forgiveness. "Once the attacker has asked forgiveness once, and then a second time, and we know that he has repented for his sin and he has abandoned the evil that he has done, then one must forgive him". However in Laws of Teshuvah these details are omitted. Instead, we are told that "When the sinner asks him for forgiveness, he should forgive him with a full heart and a willing spirit." Similarly, in Laws of Moral Conduct: "If the person returns and aks him for forgiveness, then he should forgive."
2) The person who forgives is given a different name in each of the three laws. In Laws of Moral Conduct he is called the "forgiver"; in Laws of Teshuvah a "person", and in Laws of Personal Injury he is called the "injured party".
3) One further detail is that in Laws of Teshuvah a person is told not to be "difficult to appease". Why does Rambam use this phrase, and why only in Laws of Teshuvah?
The Explanation
Forgiveness can be carried out on three levels:
1) When one person sins against another, he becomes liable to be punished for the sin that he committed. In order to be relieved of this punishment he needs to appease both G-d and the person that he sinned against. Therefore, through forgiving a person for his sin, one alleviates him from a Heavenly punishment.
2) A higher level of forgiveness is to forgive not just the act of sin but the sinner himself. i.e. even though one person may forgive another for a particular bad act (thus relieving him from being punished) there still may remain a trace of dislike for the person in general. Thus, a higher level of forgiveness is to forgive the entire person completely for his wrong, so that there remains no trace of bad feeling between them.
3) The highest level of forgiveness is an emotion that is so strong and positive that it actually uproots the sins of the past, making it as if they never occurred at all. After such a forgiveness, the sinner will be loved by the offended party to the very same degree that he was loved before the sin.
It is these three types of forgiveness which Rambam refers to in his three different laws:
1) In Laws of Personal Injury, Rambam discusses the laws of compensation for specific damages that one person causes another. Thus, when he speaks there of forgiveness for a sin, he is speaking of the forgiveness that is required to relieve the sinner from the punishment of that specific sin. Therefore, Rambam spells out the precise method of forgiveness that is required to achieve atonement ("when the attacker has asked forgiveness once, and then a second time, and we know that he has repented for his sin etc. then one must forgive him"), because only by following this precise method can we be sure that the sinner will be acquitted of this punishment.
To stress the point further, Rambam speaks in terms of an "injured party" and the "forgiving" of the injury, as we are speaking here of a specific sin and its atonement.
2) In Laws of Moral Conduct, the focus is not on the actual sin and its atonement, but rather, the character of the forgiver. And, if a person is to be of fine character, it is insufficient to forgive a person just so that he will be freed from punishment. Rather, one should forgive another person completely (i.e. the second level above). Therefore, in Laws of Moral Conduct, Rambam stresses that "When one person sins against another, he should not hide the matter and remain silent" for it would be a bad character trait to harbor resentment, keeping one's ill feelings to oneself. Therefore "it is a mitzvah for him to bring the matter into the open".
Thus, we can understand why Rambam omits here details of the process of forgiveness, for the main emphasis here is not the atonement of the sinner, but the required character traits of the victim.
To stress the point further, the person is termed here not as the "injured party" but as the "forgiver".
3) In Laws of Teshuvah, Rambam is speaking of the highest level of forgiveness which is required for a person to achieve a total "return to G-d". For this to occur, the forgiveness must be done in a manner that is so deep that one uproots the sin totally; as if it had never occurred at all. This is because total forgiveness is a crucial factor in the sinner's overall return to G-d, as Rambam writes: "Sins between man and his fellow man... are not forgiven until... the person has been asked for forgiveness..."
Thus, Rambam stresses here that "A person should be easily placated and difficult to anger, and when the sinner asks him for forgiveness, he should forgive him with a full heart and a willing spirit" (despite the fact that these details are more appropriate to Laws of Moral Conduct), because the goodwill of the victim is a crucial part of the sinner's teshuvah. Only when the victim is completely forgiving - to the extent that the sin is uprooted, as if it never existed - can we be sure that the sinner has returned to be as close to G-d as he was prior to the sin.
To stress this point further, Rambam writes "It is forbidden for a person (not an "injured party" or "forgiver") to be cruel and difficult to appease" - i.e. here we are not talking merely of the minimum forgiveness that is required to relieve the sinner from his punishment. Rather, here we are talking of the victim as a "person". And one can hope that he will not merely "forgive" his fellow who hurt him, freeing him from punishment, but that he will allow himself to be "appeased" completely, thereby helping his fellow Jew to come to a complete Teshuvah.
Update: He was murdered by terrorists Israel's intelligence agency Mossad launched an "active investigation" into the case o...
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"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
