The Story of Obama and Israel

Barack Obama ran for president as a pro-Israel candidate -- but his record tells a different story.

HT: Israel Matzav

Conspiracy Theory: Obama had Breitbart killed

Andrew Breitbart's untimely death has sparked wild conspiracy theories that the publisher was murdered on the President's orders.

The Conservative blogger, who published the infamous tweets that brought down former Representative Anthony Weiner, died on Thursday after he suddenly collapsed on a sidewalk near his Los Angeles home.

Within hours of his death, the internet was awash with methods and motives invented by conspiracy theorists explaining how and why Obama had the author killed.

The theories are fueled by Breitbart's announcement at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington last month that he had a college video of Obama that that would blow the lid off his presidency.

'[We] are going to vet [Obama] from his college days to show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008,' Breitbart told the CPAC, reports Yahoo News.

'The rest of us slept while they plotted, and they plotted, and they plotted.' he added.

Read more: Daily Mail

Ahmadinejad and Haman: Revenge of a Bird

By: Rabbi YY Jacobson

A fascinating Midrash compares Haman to a foolish bird attempting to take revenge on an ocean which destroyed its nest. What this seemingly simple fable tells about the secret behind Anti-Semitism, the inner conflict within the Jewish psyche and the meaning of Jewish history. A journey into the heart of what it means to be a Jew.

The Frog

A lonely frog, desperate for any form of company, telephoned the Psychic Hotline to find out what the future has in store for him.

His Personal Psychic Advisor advises him, "You are going to meet a beautiful young girl who will want to know everything about you."

The frog is thrilled and says, "This is great! Where will I meet her, at work? At a party?"

"No," says the psychic, "in a biology class."

The Bird and the Sea

As our imagination is once again consumed by threats coming from Iran and its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, let us pay heed to a Midrash about the Purim story which also occurred in Iran, in ancient Persia.

There is a fascinating Midrash [1] describing the plot of Haman, the villain of the Purim story:

“What is an apt parable for Haman the Evil One? To what can he be compared? To a bird which made its nest on the shore of the sea, and then the sea came and swept away the nest. The bird said: I will not budge from here until the sea becomes dry land, and the dry land becomes the sea. What did the bird do? It took some water from the sea in its mouth and dropped it on dry land, and took dirt from the land and dropped it into the sea. Its friend came and stood alongside. He said to the bird: You ill-fated, hapless one! How do you ever hope to succeed?

“Similarly, G-d said to Haman the Evil One: Fool of fools! I myself planned to destroy the Jewish people and was, as it were, unsuccessful, as it is written [2] ‘He intended to destroy them [and would have] were it not that Moses, His chosen one, stood before Him in the breach to return His wrath from destroying,’ and you, Haman, think you will be able to decimate and annihilate them?! I swear by your life, that your head will be in place of theirs; they will be saved and you will be hanged.”

At first glance, the Midrash is saying that the annihilation of the Jews is as impossible and ludicrous as the draining of the ocean, beak-full by beak-full, by a bird. The bird is so blinded by its anger at the sea for destroying its nest, that it does not realize the absurdity of its quest.

Yet the Midrash is perplexing.

1) The role of a metaphor in Midrashic and Talmudic literature is to explain and clarify a difficult concept. What is the concept being clarified via this metaphor of a bird attempting to drain an ocean? What component of the Haman story begs for enlightenment to be understood only via this metaphor?

2) In the Midrashic fable, the sea first sweeps away the bird’s nest, arousing its quest for revenge. What is the paralleled meaning of this sequence of events? What did the Jewish people – compared to the sea – do to Haman – compared to the bird -- pre-empting his desire to destroy them? Is the Midrash suggesting that we, the Jews, were guilty of his hatred [3]?

3) The bird was quite foolish in its strategy to dry an ocean drop by drop. It is a ludicrous proposition. Haman -- the viceroy of the greatest empire of the time, who had the full cooperation of the mightiest man in the world, King Achashveirosh – had a well-thought-out plan, and it came dangerously close to fruition. Why then is he compared to the bird trying to drain the ocean, defined as the “fool of fools?”

4) The Midrash relates that “G-d said to Haman the Evil One: Fool of fools! I myself planned to destroy the Jewish people and was unsuccessful.” How can G-d be “unsuccessful?” Who can possibly stop G-d from executing His plans?

Why the Jews?

It is here that we discover, once again, the untold layers of depth contained in the tales of Torah literature. A simple fable in the Midrash captures the secret behind Anti-Semitism, the inner conflict within the Jewish psyche and the ultimate meaning of the long Jewish story. In this Midrashic metaphor, we are invited on a journey into the heart of what it means to be a Jew [4].

What was it that really perturbed Haman about the Jewish people? What was it about the Jews that struck such a deep cord in so many Haman’s throughout the ages, including during our very own times? “Why the Jews?” is one of the oldest mysteries of civilization. Are we really that different?

The Midrash, in its own inimitable way, gives us a perspective. Like that little desperate bird trying to take revenge for a nest which the sea swept away, Haman felt that as long as the Jews were alive, the nest he attempted to build would be washed away.

One millennium before Haman was born, at the foot of a lone mountain, the Jewish people received a gift which transformed their destiny and changed the landscape of human civilization. It was an experience which imbued Jewish life with the nobility of transcendence, the majesty of Divine ethics and the grandeur of holiness. The gift of the Torah inculcated Jewish life with great moral and spiritual responsibility, but it simultaneously bestowed upon the Jewish heart, the Jewish home, the Jewish family and the Jewish community a piece of heaven, a glow of eternity.

But what is heaven for one person may spell hell for another; piano lessons for a 4-year-old Mozart is a paradise, while for another child the lessons may be a living purgatory. Heaven for the Jews was hell for the Haman’s of the world. If G-d exists, then the moral law prevails, and there must be limits to power and self-aggrandizement. If G-d exists the barbarian must vanquish himself. Haman felt that two diametrically opposing and mutually exclusive powers were competing for the heart of humanity. If his “nest” was to take root, the Jews must be obliterated [5].

2300 years later this notion was captured by a contemporary Haman, Adolf Hitler. He remarked that “The Jews have inflicted two wounds on the world: Circumcision for the body and conscience for the soul. I come to free mankind from their shackles."

But Haman, the avid student of history [6], knew that this was no simple task. He had seen many powerful and seemingly permanent “nests” washed away by the Jewish “sea.” He knew what had happened to Pharaoh, Sisera, Goliath, Sancheirav and Nevuchadnezzar; how they each attempted to “drain the sea,” to eradicate the Jew once and for all and how they each ended up eradicated and forgotten themselves. Like that poor frog which ends up having its moment of glory in a biology class, all of these cultures and civilizations today appear only in history classes…

Yet the Jew still remained. Not only in Wikipedia, but in real life as well. What was the secret of this “sea?”

It is here where Haman invented an ingenious strategy. Haman believed that he had the “final solution” which had eluded all of his predecessors; he knew how to solve the “Jewish problem,” this time for real. And that was by taking beak-full after beak-full of water, and dumping it on dry land.

Haman’s Final Solution

The key to this puzzle lies in reflecting on another Talmudic metaphor concerning “sea” vs. “dry land.”

The Talmud relates the following story [7]:

The Evil [Roman] Empire had prohibited Torah study. Pappus the son of Yehuda came and found Rabbi Akiva making large public gatherings and teaching Torah. Pappus said to him: Akiva! Aren’t you afraid of the authorities? And Rabbi Akiva replied: I will give you a parable.

A fox is walking along a river. He sees the fish frantically scurrying from one place to another.

He says to them: From whom are you running?

-- From the nets and traps of the fishermen.

Why don’t you come up to the dry land, and we will live happily together, just as our forefathers did!

The fish replied: Is it really you whom they call the cleverest of animals? You are not clever, rather a fool! If we are afraid in the place of our vitality, how much more so in the place of our death!

Rabbi Akiva concluded: If the life is tough as we are sitting and studying Torah, about which it is written “It is our life and the length of our days,” how much worse it will be if we cease to study Torah.

The Torah – Rabbi Akiva is saying -- is to the Jew what the sea is to the fish. It is his necessary habitat, the source of his vitality, it is where he can live, breathe, thrive and be most creative. Like a fish washed up ashore, the Jewish soul deprived of Torah, will struggle to find real endurable meaning on “dry land,” in an environment unsuitable for his spiritual DNA to flourish and express itself fully. He, like the fish, will flip and flop, experiment with different ideologies and lifestyles, desperately attempting to find solace for his aching soul. He may become a Darwinist, a Marxist, a Bundist, a Buddhist, a Global Warmist, or what have you, failing to realize that by his essential nature he must remain in his water.

Haman therefore understood that what he had to do was dry up the sea; sever the relationship between the Jewish people and their Torah. His goal must be to antiquate the Torah, to teach the Jews how to become “land animals.” He must invite them, in the words of the fox, to “live together with us in peace as our forefathers did.” Once the fish was out of the water, it would be vulnerable to destruction.

And the time seemed ripe for this endeavor.

Out of the Waters

The Talmud asks [8], why was annihilation decreed on the Jews of that generation? Because they enjoyed the feast of that wicked man (Achashveirosh, the Persian king).” As the book of Esther relates in its opening chapter, the Persian monarch threw a major feast, and the Jews of Shushan, the capital of the Persian Empire, enjoyed the feast.

Note the words: The Talmud does not state that they were guilty of eating non-kosher food (if so, it would not make a difference who was serving the meal – a wicked or a righteous person, nor is death the penalty for eating non-kosher food), in fact, the Talmud relates [9] that there was a designated kosher section at the king’s feast. The issue was that “they enjoyed the feast of that wicked man.” It was not the food; it was the psychological transformation of the Jewish psyche: Their dignity and sense of inner worth did not stem from their own soul and identity; it came from being invited to the Persian “White House,” from rubbing shoulders with the Iranian celebrities and from having their photos appearing on the front pages of “The Shushan Times.” As they took their places among the Persians, Medians, Babylonians, Chaldeans and the other nationalities at the feast, they felt that they finally “made it.” After seventy years of exile, they had set themselves free from the “Jewish stereotype,” they were now a member of equal standing in the family of nations at Achashveirosh’s table [10].

Alas, the fish left the water and it was given a royal welcome! Everybody was cheering for the fish which finally made it out of its “prison,” the fish was flipping and flopping to demonstrate its excitement. But inside – it was dying…

This, then, was Haman’s strategy: Dry up the sea, take the Jews out of the water, introduce them to dry land, and they will become vulnerable to destruction.

So “G-d said to Haman: Fool of fools! I myself planned to destroy them and was not able to do so … and you, Haman, thought you would be able to decimate and annihilate them?!”

This divine response captures the essence of Jewish existence. G-d Himself, so to speak, could not destroy the Jews. Why?

Because the relationship between the Jew and Torah is innate, intrinsic and essential, and it can never be severed; only eclipsed. Unlike the fish, the Jew can never really leave the water. What occurred at Sinai was that Torah had become part of the very DNA of the Jew; he can love it, he can hate it, but he can’t ignore it. He can embrace it, he can run from it, but he cannot stop being defined by it, if sometimes only negatively.

Jewish DNA

The Anti-Semites of the world never loved secular, modern and assimilated Jews any more than religious and observant Jews. They acutely felt that the Jewishness of the Jew is embedded into his or her very essence, no matter the amount of “nose jobs” or soul-jobs he or she undergoes.

And paradoxically, this very truth has become our very source of eternal life. Since the Jewish people can never sever their relationship from Torah, our sea can never dry, and our existence can never be obliterated.

This is what G-d is telling Haman: Even I have tried… When the Jews sinned, I planned to destroy them, but I could not, because My relationship with them proved deeper than all of our “issues” with each other. It is like the relationship between parents and children: Parents sometimes harbor deep resentment toward the behavior of children who make their lives miserable. Sometimes a parent is tempted to write-off a child, to stop helping him, even to stop loving him. But they can’t… The inner bond proves far more powerful. “A kind is a kind,” a child is a child.

Haman’s strategy was brilliant, but he failed to understand “vos eiz a yid,” what is a Jew. He did not realize that Torah to the Jew is what the piano was to Mozart. The fish will never fully leave the water, and the Jews will never die.

[This essay is based on an address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe on Purim 5724 - 1964]

_________

To post a comment on this article, or to view the footnotes, please click here: TheYeshiva.net

Remote Healing

Thinking about someone can actually change their lives. Thinking positively about someone can even heal them, especially if you are trained in Remote Healing.

New York-based Dr Harvey [Tzvi] Lang discusses the subject of Remote Healing.

''....thinking about a person that you know, you actually affect that person.''




Also see: Praying for Another

Eastern Australia: Towns Evacuated

Many towns either under water or under threat.

Residents of four towns have been evacuated as floodwaters covering an area the size of France sweep across NSW.



The Warragamba Dam in western Sydney, the catchment that provides Sydney's drinking water, is quickly nearing capacity and expected to overflow.

Australia: A Land of Flooding Rains

Australia is living up to its description as a land of flooding rains, with parts of Victoria, the Northern Territory and almost three quarters of NSW affected by floods.

Read more: Brisbane Times

and News MSN

Do You See That Which You See, Do You Hear That Which You Hear

By Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis

We are in crisis, and with every day the crisis intensifies. There is a new Hitler on the world scene – Ahmadinejad, who unabashedly proclaims his plan to annihilate Israel, and he is preparing to do so. Some say that he is a few months away, and some say it will be a year or so ..... and still others say that he already has it in his hands. He has the arsenal that, in minutes, can do to an entire nation that which the gas chambers did to six million.

And what are we doing about it? “ Shockingly, NOTHING! Our world is crumbling and we are going on with “business as usual”

And should you be among those who take this threat to heart, you will quickly be assured that Ahmadinejad is a madman... not to be taken seriously.

Yes, I agree, he is a madman, and that is precisely why he should be taken seriously. We should be concerned. Madmen are mad enough to carry out their satanic plots.. Trust me– I know. I saw Hitler in action and I also saw a cruel, evil world willingly accept and participate in the barbaric extermination of our people.

Prior to Hitler’s conflagration, Hashem sounded the alarm. He sent us many wake-up calls, but we went back to sleep until the inferno consumed six million of our people. One would have imagined that we learned our lesson and would not allow this tragedy to be repeated. Hashem’s wake up calls have once again been sounded, but once again we have turned a deaf ear and shut our eyes. since Hitler’s conflagration was so recent and not something that occurred centuries ago, we would surely not fall into that trap again, but incredibly, we see it unfolding before our very eyes, We never absorbed the lesson. Tragically, we keep repeating the same mistakes and obdurately remain deaf and blind. Compulsively, we repeat the tragedies of the past. I have been speaking about this for many years, and there have been those who advise me to focus on “happier subjects” – subjects that are “entertaining”; subjects that are “light”. But I dare not remain silent, I dare not ignore the wake up calls and the catastrophe they portend, So my ensuing columns, which I ask all our readers to read with their hearts, will be devoted to this painful topic. I will limit myself to the wake up calls that we have witnessed in the last couple of years. But the wake-up calls commenced many years ago.

During the summer of 2002, a terrible tragedy occurred in a bungalow colony in New York’s Catskill Mountains, A mother had just bathed her infant and put her into her carriage for a nap. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a wild bear appeared, snatched the baby from her carriage, and made off with her. The shocking story appeared in newspapers and the media, but somehow it failed to make an impression, yet our Talmud clearly states that the generation that witnesses a wild beast snatching a baby from its cradle should sound the alarm with a shofar to awaken the people. But the shofar was not sounded and we were not awakened.

During the last few years, the number of catastrophes has multiplied to such an extent, that we have all but become immune to them. Natural disasters like tsunamis, Hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes [even in New York City], global warming, dead birds falling from the skies by the hundreds of thousands, dead fish and sardines washing up on the shores by the hundreds of thousands, wild animals..... lions, tigers, wolves, roaming the streets of Ohio, world economic crisis, devaluation of the dollar and the Euro, accompanied by crippling unemployment, high oil prices, hitherto unknown diseases, barbaric acts of terror, nuclear spill in Japan and today’s nuclear threat from Iran that threatens the very survival of our civilization, have all come to be accepted as the norm. “It is what it is,” we tell ourselves with resignation, and we go on with our lives as usual. But can all this be attributed to mere coincidence? Shouldn’t these afflictions give us pause? Shouldn’t we stop and take stock of our lives? But incredibly we remain blind deaf and dumb.

There is a story about a Hasidic rebbe who was walking with his disciples when he noticed a little boy behind a tree, crying bitterly.

“Why are you crying?” he asked.

“I’m hiding, and no one is looking for me.”

The words of the child were like a sharp knife in the heart of the rebbe. “Woe is us,” he said to his students, G-d is waiting for us to find Him, but we have failed to search for Him. Woe is us!”

Maimonides taught that, when suffering is visited upon us, we are commanded to cry out and awaken our people with the sound of the shofar, Everyone must be alerted to examine his or her life, and commit to greater adherence to Torah and mitzvos. Maimonides warned that, if we regard the tragedies that befall us simply as “the way of the world” – “natural happenings.” we will be guilty of achzarius – cruelty.

At first glance, it is difficult to understand why Maimonides would choose the term “cruelty” to describe those who view trials and tribulations as “natural happenings.” Such people may be unthinking, apathetic, foolish, blind or obtuse, but why accuse them of cruelty.

The answer is simple, If we regard our pain and suffering as “mere coincidence” we will feel no motivation to examine our lives, abandon our old ways and change. So yes, such an attitude is cruel, for it invites additional misfortune upon ourselves and others.

It would be the height of cruelty to dismiss that which is occurring in the world today as mere happenstance. Great Torah luminaries of past generations such as the Chofetz Chaim and Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman, told us that we are entering the final stages of history – a period in time called “Ikvesa DiMeshicha – Footsteps of the Messiah” Our Torah foretells four exiles through which our people would suffer: Egypt, Babylonia – Persian-Mede Empires, Greece and Rome – [the exile in which we presently find ourselves, for it was the Romans who exiled us when they destroyed the Second Temple].

In Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, an early Midrashic work, it is written that, before the coming of Messiah, we will have to contend with a fifth source of tribulation that will come from Yishmael – the Arabs – who will inflict terrible suffering on the world and on our people. This teaching is reaffirmed by Rabbi Chaim Vital, the illustrious disciple of the Arizal, who wrote that before the final curtain falls upon the stage of history, Yishmael will inflict torture upon our people in ways the world has never before seen. One need not have great powers of discernment to recognize the painful veracity of these predictions, Consider only the suicide bombers, the decapitations, the hijackings, the missiles, the rockets and the constant, senseless, brutal acts of terror.

We are the generation that has been destined to witness the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Hagar the matriarch of the Arab-Moslem world [Genesis 16: 11-13]. “Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you shall name him Ishmael...and he shall be a wild ass of a man; with his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and over all his brethren shall he dwell.....”

The long arm of Ishmael’s terror has indeed reached every part of the world.

There is yet another amazing prophecy in the Yalkut Shimoni – a Medieval Midrashic compilation that eerily foretells the events of today and should give us all pause. Rabbi Yitzchok said: The year in which Melech HaMashiach will be revealed, all the nations of the world will be provoking each other, The King of Persia [Iran] will provoke the King of Arabia [Saudi Arabia] The King of Arabia will go to Edom [the leader of the Christian nations – the President of the United States] to take counsel and the King of Persia [Ahmadinejad] will threaten to destroy the entire world..

“The nations of the world will be outraged and panic . They will fall on their faces and experience pains like birth pangs...... Israel too, will be outraged and in a state of panic, ask, “Where do we go?”

“But say unto them, ‘My children, do not fear, The time of your redemption has come..... And this last redemption shall be different from the first that was followed by further bondage and pain. After this last redemption , you will not experience any further pain or subjugation” [Yalkut Shemoni, Isaiah 59].

The Klausenberger Rebbe, z”tl, referring to this teaching, said, “Remember these words. They are perhaps not understood now, but in time they will be, and will be a source of strength to our people.”

to be continued....

Part 2 here

A Mysterious Guest's Purim Secret

Rav Chaim Volozhin's Purim Secret From A Mysterious Guest

One Purim an old man appeared at Rav Chaim Volozhin's Purim seuda. Rav Chaim gave him a coin for tzedaka. The old man then said that if he gives him another coin, he will tell him a Chiddush in the Megila. Rav Chaim agreed and the old man asked a question.

The Medrash says that after the gezeira of Haman, Moshe Rabbeinu told Eliyahu HaNavi to go tell Mordechai to daven on earth while they will daven in Shamayim. Eliyahu told Moshe that he already saw that the gezeira was signed and sealed in Shamayim so there was no chance of salvation. Moshe asked, was the seal made out of earth or blood. Eliyahu said it was out of earth. In that case said Moshe Rabbeinu there is still hope.

Where, asked the old man, do we see in the Megila that the seal was not from blood? Rav Chaim didn't answer and the old man continued. The Megila says that Haman plotted to destroy the Yehudim, "U'Liabdam". If you break the word U'Liabdam into two words it says "V'Lo B'Dam", the decree was not sealed in blood.

Rav Chaim was so excited about this answer that when he went to visit his Rebbi the Vilna Gaon, he repeated it to him. The Vilna Gaon also became emotional upon hearing this and told Rav Chaim that the "old man" was none other than the old man who revealed this secret over 2,000 years ago during the story of Purim. It was Eliyahu HaNavi himself.

Source: Revach L'Neshama