To Remain in the Desert

''You will not come to the Land...'' [Shelach 14:30]

G-d does not issue a punishment to bring revenge on the sinner.  Rather, the ''punishment'' is a form of spiritual ''medicine'' aimed at correcting the spiritual deficiency caused by a sin.

With this in mind, the ''punishment'' given to the Jewish people here is difficult to understand.  Their sin was that they did not wish to enter the Land because they desired to remain in the desert where they could serve G-d without distraction; and yet, their punishment was to receive what they wanted: to remain the desert [for forty years!]  How would this ''correct' their sin of not wanting to enter the Land?

In truth however, the sin of the spies was not that they were too spiritual, but rather they were not spiritual enough.  To be involved with the physical world and remain spiritually attuned demands the highest degree of attachment to G-d.  So when the generation showed that they were lacking this level of dedication, they were given 40 more years of unrestricted Divine worship, enabling them to reach the level where they would be ready to engage in the world.

Source: Based on Likutei Sichos Vol 33 Lubavitcher Rebbe

R' Eibeshutz's Prayer Secret

by Rabbi David Pinto Shlita

The gaon Rabbi Yehonatan Eibeshutz revealed a great secret in regards to prayer: In our prayers, we must focus on asking G-d to help us achieve integrity, as well as the merit of giving Him satisfaction.

He said the following [Ye'arot Devash Derush 5]:

The main focus of our prayers must consist of a desire to attain perfection, to become meritorious and give satisfaction to our Creator. This is in addition, of course, to our prayers concerning the exile of the Shechinah, the exile of Israel, and the disappearance of integrity in this world. Even when we ask for material possessions, our goal must not be to accumulate unnecessary riches out of desire or greed, but simply to not lack anything that could hinder our service of G-d.

In reality, because of our numerous sins, because everything is lacking, we have lost all wisdom and every sense of proper conduct. Men of treachery and violence grow in number, the righteous cannot protest, the wisdom of the poor is ridiculed, and nobody listens to their words.

Hence we must pray to Hashem for the means to study in relative ease without having to make requests of anyone. In regards to a person who does not occupy himself with Torah study, he should pray that he never resorts to theft, violence, or dishonesty in order to earn a living. He should pray not to encroach upon the boundaries of his neighbor, not to experience jealously or be involved either with disputes or ill-gotten gains, and even to encourage the weak and support the poor.

Supporting those who devote themselves to the study of Torah is essential to our life. It is the foundation of perfection and the reward for all that is truly good, that which was ours and which we lost. In fact it is the last thing that G-d has left us in His immense kindness: Hashem has nothing in His world other than four cubits of Halachah, which replace sacrifice and incense, thanks to which the Shechinah dwelled above the Holy Ark. In our time, those who genuinely study Torah merit the Shechinah in their presence and in the presence of those who support them, maintaining the pillar of Torah and participating in the construction of the Beit Hamikdash. Happy is the one who supports the Tree of Life.

It is therefore from this perspective that we should ask Hashem to grant us wealth. If this is not our intention, then the material possessions we receive will end up becoming a source of misfortune. This is because they will be controlled by evil spirits, and we will no longer be in control of them. As we read, a “sore evil” [Kohelet 5:12] will afflict him, for he seeks material wealth out of sheer desire, not to support the poor and those who study Torah. As a result, he will not be able to properly use such wealth, for evil spirits will control it.

This is why the Birkat Kohanim states, “May G-d bless you” – with material possessions. Yet what good is there in having money that was amassed to our sorrow, and which will lead us to Gehinnom, G-d forbid? Hence it adds, “and protect you” – from evil spirits. May we always be able to use our money for the good.

Eternal Values

Likewise, when we pray for long life, it should be with the intention of devoting it to the fulfillment of G-d’s will. As our Sages affirm, “One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come” [Pirkei Avoth 4:17]. Furthermore, our numerous sins and the burden of exile in our time still delay our access to wisdom, truth, and integrity. Thus if we only attain it at an advanced age, leaving this world prematurely is like not having lived, considered to be like “never having seen the day.” In fact what do we gain from our labor, and what will we have amassed by our work to bring an offering before G-d? Is it not true that “the reaper has gathered nothing”?

Finally, many of us would need to live more than a thousand years in order to repent of the sins of our youth, to return to Hashem, and to rectify what we have damaged in a single day of disobedience to G-d.

This is why our prayers must be aimed in the right direction: Everything must be for the truth, not for falsehood or vanity, which characterize this world of substitution and reversal, one devoid of eternal values.

Love and Positivity

''....they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of sky blue [wool] on the fringe of each corner.'' [Shelach 15:38]

The turquoise strands of the tzitzit allude to ''abandoning evil'' [negative] and serving G-d out of fear; the white strands allude to ''doing good'' [positive] and serving G-d out of love.

In the current era, the turquoise dye [techelet] is not available to us, leaving all eight strands white. This teaches us that nowadays our emphasis in serving G-d should be on love and positivity.

Source: Likutei Sichos vol 8 Lubavitcher Rebbe

R' Mendel Kessin - 21st Century #3, more on Trump and Obama

To see previous videos on this subject by Rabbi Kessin, click on the KESSIN label below.

Brexit's Shmittah Hint

The world stock market plunge on Friday June 24, as a result of Brexit, occurred exactly 7 years, 7 months, 7 weeks and 7 days after the stock market crash of September 29, 2008 [erev Rosh Hashanah 5769] when the Dow fell 777 points.  Click here to see the calculation.

All those sevens hint to the Shemitah year and the oft-repeated phrase ''Motzei Shevi''it''  - after the seventh.

Sealed with Actual Tears

The United States Postal Service [USPS] in the late 80s - early 90s, confirmed that the Lubavitcher Rebbe received more pieces of mail each week than any other person in the entire country except for the President of the United States. What's amazing about this is that the US President has a whole team of people at the White House hired to open the mail being addressed to him, while the Rebbe personally opened 'each' letter addressed to him at 770.

Someone once suggested to the Rebbe that maybe he should at least use a machine to open these enormous piles of letters [arriving at 770 in huge mail bags each week from places all throughout the world], as the machine would speed up the process. The mail poured in each week from people of all walks of life, Jews, non-Jews, religious, non-religious, dignitaries, poor people, rich people, young people, old people, etc. Opening each letter by hand was very time consuming. And the Rebbe's schedule was much more busy than a normal person- the Rebbe barely slept, never took a vacation during his time as Rebbe, never left New York City during his time as Rebbe except on about two occasions to visit two different Lubavitch children's camps Upstate, and not one second was wasted.

And as the Lubavitch movement grew, so too did the mail grow.  [First it was confirmed by the USPS in the 70s that the Rebbe received more mail than anyone in New York State except that going to the State Capitol, but by the late 80s and early 90s Lubavitch was exponentially larger than it had been in the 70s.]. Yet when asked why not use a machine, the Rebbe replied that some of the letters were sealed with the actual tears of people writing to him, and he said that he could not open a letter sealed with tears by using a machine.

This was the exceptional sensitivity of the Rebbe to every person.

Brexit has won ! [BBC]

The BBC and ITV networks are reporting that Brexit has won the vote for the UK to LEAVE the European Union.

The Nikkei has plummeted more than 1000 points and has halted trading [now re-opened] and Asian stocks are a sea of red.

''Markets around the world are Freaking Out''

Mystical Torah - No Argument

Ordinary bread [''bread from the earth''], which is the product of hard physical labor, is a metaphor for the ''revealed'' interpretations of the Torah [nigleh], found in the Talmud, which require arduous analysis, questioning etc.  On the other hand, manna [''bread from heaven''] represents the mystical teachings of the Torah [chassidut], which are of such a ''heavenly'' nature that there is no disagreement, argument etc.

Logically speaking, a person might think that is is necessary to have a firm grounding in classic texts, and achieve a certain degree of spiritual greatness before one can progress to the study of Mysticism. However, the Torah teaches here that even the wicked individuals who complained to Moshe ate manna [Beha'alotecha 11:6]

From this we can learn that it is appropriate for people from all walks to life to study the mystical teachings of the Torah -particularly as they are formulated clearly and methodically in the teachings of Chabad.

Source: Based on Likutei Sichos vol 4 Lubavitcher Rebbe