The Moon is on Steroids

This was how the moon looked last night in several places around the world.

Look up tonight and check out the full moon.

Rawdon, Quebec Oct 18

Australia October 18

Destroying the World: A Possible Scenario

 

In its section on the biblical Book of Isaiah and the prophecies contained therein, a Rabbi cited by the Yalkut Shimoni states: 

“In the year Moshiach comes all the nations of the world will provoke each other and threaten with war. The king of Persia (Iran) will provoke the King of Arabia (Saudi Arabia) with war. The King of Arabia goes to Edom (The Western Countries, headed by USA) for advice. Then the King of Persia destroys the world (and since that cannot be done with conventional weapons it must mean nuclear which can destroy most of the world). And all the nations of the world begin to panic and are afraid, and Israel too is afraid as to how to defend from this. G-d then says to them “Do not fear for everything that I have done is for your benefit, to destroy the evil kingdom of Edom and eradicate evil from this world so that the Messiah can come, your time of redemption is now.”

How can the King of Persia [Iran] destroy the world?

Answer: by closing the Strait of Hormuz

Sly Iran move could ‘crater’ world economy

Gog u Magog: The Strait of Hormuz

This was published in 2012 [yes I've been doing this a long time !!]

Received via email [Yosef Kaner] - free translation from the Hebrew 

Rav Yekutiel Fish posted an interesting quote from Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim from Luntschitz [who lived in the 16th and 17th centuries, more commonly known as the "Kli Yakar"] in his Kli Paz, indicating that the Milchemet [war of] Gog and Magog will be centered in an area he calls Hormuz...... 

In the sefer Kli Paz "The Vessel of Pure Gold" from the commentry Kli Yakar, who was a Rosh Rabbonim [head of the rabbis] in the land of Israel 400 years ago, ''that there will be a sacrifice in Basra'' [Isaiah 34] that should be in the war of Gog and Magog and that it should happen or occur in a place by Basra named Hormuz. And the Navi's words since the sacrifice to Hashem in Basra and the great slaughtering in the land of Edom and it will descend, animals with them and cattle with Abirim [the strong healthy bulls] since the day of vengeance is to G-d and the completion of years of fighting Zion.. And it says ''the animals will descend with them'' to tell you there are many kings in the remaining nations that will join with Edom to help him and the slaughtering to G-d in Basra - a country with a distance from Bavel - its name is Basra and it is next to Asher which is Assyria and Persia in between the boundary of the land of Edom - The Hormuz - and today it is under the rulership of Yishmael and blessed is the one who knows the truth of these things. However it will be there - the war in the end of days.

וְהֶרְאוּנִי דָּבָר מַבְהִיל בְּסֵפֶר 'כְּלִי פָּז' מִבַּעַל הַ'כְּלִי יָקָר' שֶׁהָיָה רֹאשׁ הָרַבָּנִים בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי כְּאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה (ישעי' לד) שֶׁהַ"זֶבַח לַה' בְּבָצְרָה" שֶׁיִּהְיֶה בְּמִלְחֶמֶת גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג יִתְרַחֵשׁ בְּמָקוֹם עַל יַד בַּצְרָה שֶׁשְּׁמוֹ הוּרְמוּז. וְנָבִיא אֶת דְּבָרָיו "כִּי זֶבַח לַה' בְּבָצְרָה וְטֶבַח גָּדוֹל בְּאֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם, וְיָרְדוּ רְאֵמִים עִמָּם וּפָרִים עִם אַבִּירִים וְגוֹ', כִּי יוֹם נָקָם לַה' שְׁנַת שִׁלּוּמִים לְרִיב צִיּוֹן". וְאָמַר "וְיָרְדוּ רְאֵמִים עִמָּם וְכוּ'', לְהַגִּיד שֶׁהַרְבֵּה מְלָכִים מִשַּׁאר הָאֻמּוֹת יִתְחַבְּרוּ עִם אֱדוֹם לְעָזְרָם. "כִּי זֶבַח לַה' בְּבָצְרָה", מְדִינָה יֵשׁ רָחוֹק מִבָּבֶל שְׁמָהּ בָּצְרָה, וְהִיא בֵּין גְּבוּל אֲשׁוּר וּפָרַס וּבֵין גְּבוּל אֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם, הוּרְמוּז, וְהִיא הַיּוֹם תַּחַת מֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיִּשְׁמָעֵאלִים. וּבָרוּךְ הַיּוֹדֵעַ אֲמִתָּתָם שֶׁל דְּבָרִים, אוּלַי יִהְיֶה דֶּרֶךְ שָׁם הַמִּלְחָמָה בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים"

Darach Kochav m'Yaakov

 

Photo: RBA / FB

Here's my capture and rendition of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) captured about 5 hours ago (Oct 13 @ 19:35 local time) from San Luis Reservoir, California. I did not notice the anti-tail in the single frames, otherwise I would have framed it differently 😬😅 You may need to tap on the image to see the whole thing. I could see the comet with my eyes without any trouble, and much better with binoculars. Moonlight was annoying. Without moonlight, this comet would be putting a much bigger show. I used a Canon 70-200mm lens @ 145mm, and a Sony a7s camera. No tracking. 37 x 5 secs subs, f/2.8 @ ISO 1600.

Photo: Cory Poole Photography/FB

Comet Visible and It is Huge

 From the 1.30 min mark on this video

The Fallen Sukkah of David

Art by Joan Landis

by Rabbi Gedaliah Aharon Kenig zt''l - founder of Nachal Novea community in Tsfat and foremost Breslev leader of the previous generation.

Integrating the mind through perfect faith

Reprinted from Tzaddik Magazine

The sukkah is associated with King David.  It is thus called the ''Sukkah of David''.  It could have been called by another name, like the ''Sukkah of Israel'' or the ''Sukkah of Moses'', yet our sages connect sukkah to David haMelech.

The fourth evening of the holiday of Sukkot marks the yahrzeit of Rebbe Nachman of Breslev, who is referred to as the nachal novea mekor chochma - ''the flowing river, source of wisdom'' [Proverbs 18:4].  He proclaimed an astounding concept to the world:  ''There is no such thing as despair!''  Nothing in the world is beyond hope.

How can such a claim be made when everything points in the opposite direction? Everyone experiences situations textured with despair to the point that it appears the entire world has ended.  Everything seems black, with no glimmer of light.  The despair these situations engender is called the ''Fallen Sukkah of David.''

Yet Rebbe Nachman asserts: ''There is no such thing as despair!''  Although it is impossible to avoid difficult situations, the mind possesses a special power that can prevent one from falling completely during hard times.  On Sukkot we pray:  ''May the Compassionate One raise for us the ''Fallen Sukkah of David''.  Conceptually, the Sukkah of David represents a spiritually cleansed mind connected to a higher spiritual level, a place beyond our own intellectual perception of the world.

Integrating the Mind

According to the kabbalah, the sukkah represents the levels of perception beyond the conscious mind called makifim or ''external intellect''.  In contrast, pnimim or ''internal intellect''' is the knowledge we have successfully acquired.  These two levels are dynamically related: when the higher intellect enters our mind enabling us to understand it, the new insight becomes encompassed within our internal intellect.

Makifim are those levels of understanding that transcend intellectual grasp. They surround and hover above the conscious mind, radiating understanding into the internal intellect.  It is this upper level of intellect surrounding the mind that is called sukkah.  This is similar to a physical sukkah, which completely surrounds us.  During the holiday of Sukkot, we are required to enter the sukkah with our entire body, which includes the head, our intellect. Without the entire body entering the sukkah, the mitzvah of sukkah remains unfulfilled.

''David merited the crown of malchut - kingship'' [Kohelet Rabbah 7:2]

The physical universe and everything that occurs within it, is part of the lower level of the World of Action, and connected to the kabbalistic sefira of malchut.  Malchut itself possesses a type of ''intellect'' expressed as the animating intelligence contained by everything in the world.  This intelligence corresponds to King David and the lower internal intellect mentioned earlier.  The crown of King David, however, symbolizes the higher surrounding intellect, corresponding to the concept of sukkah.

When we don't understand why things are a certain way in the world, the power of faith should be exercised. Faith draws down the highest light into any situation. If you believe that there is a G-d Above Who governs the world, you won't dismiss something as meaningless just because you don't understand it. On the contrary, despire your current inability to understand, you will know everything is functioning according to a Higher Plan which is just and fair.  This faith will then illuminate your entire reality. In every situation, you now connect the upper surrounding intellect, called sukkah, to the lower internalized intellect, corresponding to your current perception of how the physical world operates.  When you believe that whatever happens is governed from Above, it is clear that it is good.

''When I dwell in darkness, G-d will be a light for me'' [Micha 7:8]

Even if I am sitting in darkness and don't understand what is happening, if I nonetheless believe that everything is just and fair because it is supervised by G-d, then this faith is a light for me.  Despite the darkness, it does not even occur to me to despair, since the same governing Power that brought me here to this situation or state of mind will do everything for my good and ultimately take me out of this darkness.

Through this expression of lower intellect, you will now attain the higher intellect, called sukkah. The merging of these two intellects is called the ''Sukkah of David'', which occurs when your perception of the way the world operates [Malchut David] is joined with the upper surrounding intellect [sukkah].  The opposite occurs when the two are separated, a division caused by thinking everything is under the jurisdiction of nature and human agency.  ''David'' is separated from sukkah - our perception of this world is separated from the upper intellect, faith in Divine governance of the world. This state is called ''The Fallen Sukkah of David''.

Thus, when Rebbe Nachman says ''There is no such thing in the world as despair'', he is drawing down the highest light into the human heart to give us the ability to understand that regardless of the difficulties we experience, there is a higher Power in charge of every detail in the world.  The process of attaining this level of understanding is called ''raising the fallen sukkah of David''.  Sukkat David is the rectified state of mind where the upper and lower intellect are united.

Turning Darkness into Light

G-d created us in order to know Him.  How is it possible for a limited physical human being to know G-d, Who is Infinite?  It is only possible to know G-d through facing the difficult challenges in life, and strengthening ourselves to get through them.

During times when it is extremely difficult to find G-d, one may fall, since it seems that G-d doesn't exist. The difficulty of the search itself brings one to a state of nothingness. By strengthening oneself during these moments, the very obstacles which prevented perception of G-d can be transformed into a vessel for Divine light.

Sometimes we undergo bitter situations where our understanding disappears completely. Even though we want to believe in G-d, we live inside a dark cloud. However much we search, we cannot find Him. This is a very dangerous situation, because we are unable to see G-d in spite of a sincere desire to find Him. What can we do?

Rebbe Nachman has advice for this dilemma as well.  Cry out ''G-d! Where are You? I don't see you but I believe You are here! Where are you?''  These cries will eventually enable you to return to your proper place, because the question of ''Where are You?'' indicates a belief in the existence of the thing for which you are searching.  You believe G-d is present, but you just don't know where.  The repeated cries of ''Where are You?'' from the depths of the heart are answered with: ''Here! Deeply inside, where You have always been.''

''The whole world is filled with His Glory''

One begins to sense G-d's direct supervision over every detail. Anything that seemed unjust or unfair is now understood as being orchestrated in a wondrous way for the good. Only by passing through darkness and obstacles can we draw closer to G-d, which is a fulfilment of the Divine will.

Sometimes during difficult times we say ''Oy! This is too much! I've had enough obstacles and darkness! I'm finished!''  This way of thinking is erroneous, since we were not created to remain on a single level.  On the contrary, we were created to continually ascend from level to level.  Difficult situations are necessary in order to progress and come closer to G-d.  The message of Rebbe Nachman is that it shouldn't even occur to a person to despair and think ''I can't go on''.  Strengthen yourself over and over again, and eventually you will make it through.

There is always a limit to difficulties because G-d doesn't leave us in difficult straits forever.  The only purpose of obstacles is to create a vessel to receive light. Material obstacles and the vessels they can create have measure and definition. However, G-d's light is unlimited.  We need only to strengthen ourselves and not give up. Sometimes one becomes so weak in the last moment and loses everything. This is a shame, since at that very moment a vessel is being completed to receive a higher light. At the end, the darkness can become so overwhelming that we think we are lost and give up completely, G-d forbid.

Constantly strengthening oneself is the secret to our existence.  There is no book in the world that can tell the entire awesome story of what the Jewish people have undergone since inception. Yet, despite everything, we continue to exist. This is only because of our patience, trust and will to strengthen ourselves anew each time, despite constant suffering.  We will continue to develop, and with the help of G-d, we will exist until the end, when the purpose for which we were created will be fulfilled. To know the unlimited light of the Infinite One.

Vessels to receive light are formed through obstacles. By overcoming the obstacles, the obstacles themselves are transformed into vessels of pleasantness.  Rebbe Nachman calls this pleasantness ''supernal delight'' which can now flow into completed vessels.  The delight that the upper intellect can experience is more pleasant than anything in this world. This is the meaning of ''May the Compassionate One raise for us the Fallen Sukkah of David.''

Rebbe Nachman is proclaiming to the entire world a message that everyone must hear.  There is no such thing as despair! There is no situation beyond hope! The Jewish people have always found themselves in difficult situations, and today is no different. Instead of losing hope, we must strengthen ourselves with perfected faith, especially during the days of Sukkot, when we bring our entire physical being into the sukkah.  We will then be worthy of being illuminated with a new light, which will reestablish the ''Fallen Sukkah of David forever''.  Amen.

Translated and adapted from a shiur given in Tsfat.

Innocent Lives and Murderous Regimes

H/t Judy

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."

The Real Depth of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkos

Rabbi Mendel Kessin, given 9 October 2024

The Missiles attack of Iran on Israel is the sign of Amalek

Translation from French to English by Dave

Oh Go-d of Israel, hit all of them!! 

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. 

Amen and amen.