Temple Mount: ''Beyond Dispute''

HT: Joshua W.

From a 1924 Waqf publication:  click on images to enlarge

Enough Merit

"[Avraham] looked up and saw: And behold! three men were standing near him" [Vayeira 18:2]

Rashi explains that the three "men" were actually angels that had been sent to carry out specific missions. One angel was to inform Sarah that she was going to bear a son, another angel was sent to destroy Sodom, and yet another one was sent to heal Avraham. Each angel was to perform only one task, as an angel is never sent to carry out more than one mission at a time.

Rashi goes on to inform us that the angel that healed Avraham subsequently travelled to Sodom in order to save Lot.

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Soon after being appointed as rabbi of Brod, R'Shlomo Kluger was given the honor of being the sandak at the bris milah of one of the distinguished members of the town.

However, when he arrived at the shul where the bris was to be held, he noticed that everyone there seemed downcast and dispirited. R' Kluger approached one of his congregants and asked him what was the matter.

"The father of the infant is deathly ill." responded the man. "Being that his end is near, the family decided to delay the bris so that they could name the child after his father."

"Hurry" exclaimed R' Kluger, "bring the father here and perform the bris immediately!"

The father was brought to the shul and the bris was performed.  Amazingly, as soon as the bris concluded, the father's medical condition improved!  The father's life was, miraculously, no longer in danger. News of the miracle brought about by the new rabbi spread quickly throughout the town.

R' Kluger, however, dismissed the rumors about his "miraculous powers".  "It wasn't a miracle at all." he insisted.  "I learned to do so from the words of Rashi in Parshas Vayeira.  Rashi there explains that the angel that cured Avraham later went on to Sodom to save Lot.  But this is perplexing..." continued R' Kluger.  "Were there not enough angels available that one had to be sent to carry out two missions?"

"Rather", he answered, "Lot's zchus [merit] was not great enough to earn him an angel that could be sent specifically to save him, so the angel that was sent to cure Avraham was then sent to save Lot.

"It occurred to me," concluded R' Kluger, "that in all likelihood the father's life was being weighed at that very moment.  But I was concerned that perhaps the father would not have sufficient merit to deserve a special angel to cure him.  But since Eliyahu HaNavi, the angel of the bris, is present when the infant is circumcised, it was possible that he would bring about a recovery for the father as well."

Source: Rabbi Yisrael Bronstein

Rabbi Kessin on Current Events [New]

''We have now entered the Countdown''

R' Shlomo Carlebach - Yahrzeit 16 Cheshvan

Remembering R' Shlomo Carlebach on his 21st yahrzeit 

A Niggun is a Chassidic melody, often wordless and repeated several times, which is intended to express and stir one’s soul. Considered a path to higher consciousness and transformation of being.

The Story of the Krakow Niggun




Carlebach performing ''Krakow Niggun''

Impervious to any Opposition

Art: Alex Levin

The highest aspect of the Jewish soul - the yechidah - is so sublime that it cannot be contained within the body, and it spreads to a distance of four cubits [approx 6 feet] around a person.  The yechidah is also a level of the soul which can never become tarnished, because it is not susceptible to any negative influences.

Thus, when G-d placed the entire Land of Israel within four cubits of Yaakov to stress his future ownership of it, the Land became connected with Yaakov's yechidah, and so too, with the yechidah of every single one of his descendants.

And that is the reason why "it would be as easily conquered by his children", because the Land was associated with a level of the soul which is impervious to any opposition.

Source: Likutei Sichos Lubavitcher Rebbe

The Bluzhever Rebbe zt''l

[Click on the highlighted links for more incredible stories of this amazing man.]

Rabbi Yisrael Spira, the late Bluzhever Rebbe, was a revered rabbinic figure in Eastern Europe well before the second world war. During his internment at various concentration camps, the Rebbe was guide, father and source of inspiration to thousands.

His last stop during the war was at the Yanowka death camp, where the Bluzhever Rebbe was one of the eleven people that survived among the three thousand inmates.

In Yanowka, on the night of January 13, 1943, a kapo entered the barracks where the Rebbe slept and called for the Rebbe to come forward. Everyone thought that the Rebbe was being singled out for torture, so no one—including the Rebbe—moved. However, the kapo, himself a Jew, assured everyone that he had come only to deliver an important message to the Rebbe. The Rebbe then rose from his bed and came forward. The kapo handed the Rebbe a crumpled envelope which contained a piece of paper on which someone had hurriedly scribbled a note. The note read:

January 13,1943

My dear Rabbi Yisrael Spira,

May you enjoy a long and happy life, They have just surrounded the bristle factory in which some 800 of us have been working. We are about to be put to death.

Please, dear Rabbi, if you should be found worthy of being saved, and if you should be able to settle in the Land of Israel, then have a little marker put upon our holy soil as a remembrance for my wife and me. No matter where you will make your new home, perhaps you can have a sefer Torah written in our memory. I am enclosing fifty , American dollars which I hope the messenger with whom I am sending this note will give to you.

I must hurry, because they have already ordered us to remove our clothes.

When I get to the Next World, I will convey your greetings to your holy ancestors and will ask them to intercede on your behalf so that your days may be long and happy.

Your servant,

Aryeh ben Leah Kornblit

P.S. My sister's children are now living with a gentile family named Vasilevsky, near Gredig. Please take them away from there and place them with a Jewish family. Whatever happens, they must remain Jews. My wife, Sheva bas Chaya, was shot yesterday.

An old fifty-dollar bill fell out of the envelope.

From that day and on, the Rebbe carried this letter with him wherever he went. In 1946, at a public gathering in New York, the Rebbe read the letter to the crowd and appealed to everyone to help him fulfill Mr. Kornblit's wish. Though few among those present were well-to-do, virtually everyone responded generously. A sefer Torah was written and placed in the aron hakodesh (ark) of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. A few days prior to the sefer Torah's dedication, the Rebbe held Mr. Kornblit's letter in his hand and, with tears streaming down his cheeks, said,

"Take note of the spiritual strength God gives his people! Here is a man whose wife was already killed and who himself was about to die. Yet, he found in his heart the strength to think of others—not only his sister's children, but also those whom he would never know, and would hold his sefer Torah in their arms.

"How good is our lot, how beautiful is our heritage!"

The 50th Gate

The Kabbalah speaks of "50 gates of spiritual understanding", 49 of which can be achieved by a person as a result of his own initiative.  The final 50th gate is then granted by G-d from Above.

When Avraham had circumcised himself, he had reached the greatest degree of spiritual perfection that he could possibly achieve as a human being - the 49th gate - and he became "sick" yearning for the 50th gate.  This is alluded to by the fact that choleh חולה [the Hebrew term for "sick person"] has the numerical value [gematria] of 49.  Then "God appeared to him", revealing to him the 50th gate of spiritual understanding, which cured his spiritual sickness.

And, being that his physical sickness was a reflection of his spiritual dissatisfaction, the Divine revelation healed him physically too.

Based on Sichat Shabbos Parshas Vayeira 5750 - Lubavitcher Rebbe

The spiritual garments of the soul -

Spiritual Garments of the Soul: what are they? how do we get them? why do we need them? 

The soul requires garments to enter the highest realms of Gan Eden. Learn how your soul acquires these garments. A short video from Rabbi Alan Anava.