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The year we beat ‘sinat chinam’

It’s the middle of Tisha B’Av here in Israel….

And strange to say, I am starting to feel upbeat.

I’m hearing more and more stories of ‘pushback’ against all the sinat chinam – more and more people on all sides of the argument, the divide, who are standing up and saying:

We are not going to let the mentally-ill haters in our midst turn brother against brother, this time around.

The choice is very simple:

To continue ‘hating’ our fellow Jew – or not.

Even though we strongly disagree with them.

Even though, they say and do things that hurt and pain us so much.

The choice is still very simple:

To continue hating our fellow Jew – or to understand that God is the Cause of all Causes, and if God is sending me these mentally-ill haters to deal with – it must be because I have a test that I myself need to pass.

And this Tisha B’Av, that test is finally kicking sinat chinam into touch.

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Two short videos that really spoke to me, both in Hebrew, about Tisha B’av:

This first one is drawing the parallel between the ‘untouchable’ Eretz Yisrael under King Tzidkiyahu – that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzer – and how similar it all is to what is going on today, God forbid.

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And this one actually made me cry when I watched it:

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I went and read Lamentations afterwards, and the words of the Prophet really spoke to me.

God, it’s enough!

It’s time to turn Your anger against our oppressors, with full force!

Once we do our bit, and finally uproot this awful sin of sinat chinam…. that’s what happens next.

 

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“The Geula is no longer being held up”

For years, I’ve been writing here on the blog how the Rav – and others, but especially the Rav – has been continually ‘sweetening’ things.

***UPDATE***

I got an email from someone that basically said:

Who cares about rav Berland getting to uman for Rosh Hashona ?

==

The answer is, Rav Berland cares about that, and he’s said that if he doesn’t get to Uman this year, there will be a shoah that even he can’t get sweetened.

The Rav doesn’t say these things stam… part of having emunat Tzaddikim is that we accept that there are people in the world that know way more than we do about what is really going on.

So, if he says he needs to get to Uman this year, and if he’s asking people to say another TK to help make that happen – to avoid another shoah, God forbid – that’s good enough for me.

At the bottom of this post, I have put the video and translated comments from a few weeks back, where this was clearly explained.

Back to the original post now:

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If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ll have seen many examples of this happening ‘in real time’.

Wars that just disappear for no obvious reason….’tension’ that melts away on a million different fronts….lockdowns and forced-masking and green passport apartheid that all stop once the Rav gets out of prison….

But the last few weeks, it’s been feeling to me like ‘this can’t carry on like this for much longer’.

Maybe it’s the heatwave, maybe it’s the ongoing chaos all around the Knesset and in Kaplan, maybe it’s just years and years and years of being on the frontlines trying to battle for good and ‘truth in journalism’ – but the last few weeks, I’ve been feeling like I need a rest.

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Perhaps you’ve been seeing some signs of that on the blog.

I’ve been deliberately ignoring a lot of what is happening here in Israel, not because I’m in denial, but because it’s becoming so obvious now that there is a ‘war against Torah’ and against religious Jews going on here, a lot more people are waking up and noticing it.

It’s got to the point where I don’t need to keep pointing it out any more, like I have been for years, and particularly, where that ‘war against Torah’ got sharpened into a ‘war’ against the Rav and his community.

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For years and years, people just couldn’t believe the fantastic-sounding claim that the security apparatus in the ‘democratic’ State of Israel would be targeting the Rav and framing him for crimes he never committed, with the full help of the corrupt media, and about four million ‘useful idiots’ who believe everything they read online.

Now….

Things are starting to change.

Now, the truth is coming out more and more, about who has been after the Rav for years, and why they have been doing it.

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And guess what?

Coming after the Rav was only the beginning.

Don’t forget, this whole saga started back 10 years ago, when Lapid first got into government and immediately went into action trying to dismantle one yeshiva, one Talmud Torah, one ‘child benefit’ after another.

What’s going on right now is Part II of that same story – but now, the end is finally coming into sight.

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I got sent the following video.

It’s one of the Rav’s leading talmidim, R Shlomo Elmaliach, describing how he was at R’ Chaim Dovid Stern recently, and R’ Stern told him that the geulah is no longer being ‘held up’, so that more people could wake up and make teshuva, before the curtain comes down.

R Elmaliach then said that after he heard this from R’ Stern, the Rav’s grandson told him that two weeks’ earlier, Rav Berland had also said effectively the same thing – that there is no more ‘disturbing Hashem’ and His plans to bring the geulah any more.

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If I’m honest, I have mixed feelings about all this.

No-one knows how much of this process has been ‘sweetened’ already  – although for sure, a huge amount has been sweetened by the mesirut nefesh of the Rav and the other tzaddkim, over the last few years.

But for sure, we are still going to experience some difficult times ahead.

Even if we are ‘safe’ in the Tzaddik’s circle (as per Rabbenu’s story of the Cripple) – even if we’re saying our Tikkun Haklalis every day, trying to work on our bad middot, trying to move to Israel if we can, or at least to yearn to be here, trying to follow Rabbenu’s teachings and instructions, trying to work on our arrogance, trying to identify and stick close to the real Tzaddikim in the world….

It’s still kind of scary.

When the focus is on the ‘soul’, as it should be, there are no guarantees that ‘the body’ makes it through this process of geulah.

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The point is what happens to the soul.

And some times, people are so sunk in the tumah that the very process of making real teshuva itself means the soul can no longer stand to be in the world.

Look at the story of Eliezer ben Dordaya, who chased after every prostitute in the world – and then finally made sincere teshuva, and kind of died immediately from a broken heart.

From a ‘this world’ perspective – it’s a sad story.

From a ‘soul’ perspective – he got ‘the world to come’ in a moment!

Result!

But he had to die at the pinnacle of his teshuva process to do that, maybe otherwise because the yetzer hara would have pulled him back into the tumah, otherwise.

It could be, something not so different is going to play out here.

Who knows.

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Anyway, here’s the video, in Hebrew:

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But one thing is clear:

Things are not going to continue ‘quasi-normal’ for much longer.

The earthquakes are picking up again – and also, forecast to start hitting some unusual locations, like this one:

Rare M5 range due in Ukraine Romania region.

The Rav really needs to get to Uman Rosh Hashana this year, for the ‘best case’ scenario to play out.

I hope that happens.

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PS: You can help that to happen.

Consider taking it upon yourself to say a Tikkun Haklali a day, in the merit of the Rav getting to Uman.

It’s the short cut to joining ‘the Tzaddik’s circle’, wherever you happen to live.

And going forward, the value of doing that is going to start to become more and more obvious.

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UPDATE: ORIGINAL COMMENTS ABOUT NEEDING TO GET TO UMAN THIS YEAR

(From HERE)

I got sent the link to this video yesterday, but after Molly’s comments about the Tikkun HaKlalis, I thought I should also put it up here, for wider consumption.

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It’s in Hebrew, but these are the main points:

The narrator says: Everyone should know the current situation of the Rav, who said to a Talmid visiting Uman:

  1. Pray for me that I shouldn’t go back to prison
  2. Pray for me that I shouldn’t need to go back to hospital
  3. Pray for me that I should get to Uman for Rosh Hashana, may good be upon us.

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The narrator then says: everyone was asking what the Rav actually intended with these words.

He explained the Rav is in and out of hospital all the time, and that we already know how important it is for him to get to Uman. That leaves the matter of ‘going to prison’.

Three months’ ago, the Rav talked about going back to prison again – and at that time, there were new court proceedings happening again, that can’t be publicised, but the Rav said what can I do? I’m obligated to go back to prison.

At that time, he said the only thing that can ‘cancel’ this is if people went immediately to Heveron to pray – and Baruch Hashem, we merited to do this, and it got cancelled, and the Tzaddik stayed with us.

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The narrator then explains that the rashaim aren’t staying quiet for a moment, and are constantly seeking out new ways to come after the Rav.

If the Rav says we need to pray to avoid him being sent back to prison – he means it literally.

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Next, the narrator returns to the subject of the Rav’s fragile state of health.

Two weeks before the video was put out, Rav Succot explained that the Rav told him on Shabbat morning – in front of tens of other people – that the doctors were giving him just one more month to live [God forbid a trillion times.]

These are the words the Rav himself said to R’ Eliyahu Succot.

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Next, the narrator talks about Uman, Rosh Hashana.

The Rav told another one of this senior students that the persecutors are doing everything they can to keep him out of Uman, on Rosh Hashana, in every way possible.

But, the Rav said if he doesn’t get to Uman this Rosh Hashana, there will be no ‘sweetening’ of the judgements, etc, and chas v’shalom, there will be a Shoah.

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The narrator then explains the huge importance of saying Tikkun Haklalis – as many as possible – for the Rav to get to Uman this Rosh Hashana, to continue to be with us, and to avoid going back to prison.

And of course – to sweeten all the harsh judgements hanging over every single one of us, and if you have no idea that there are ‘harsh judgements’ going on, then congratulations, the meds are working.

The narrator explains some of the ‘hints’ the Rav has been making about this.

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Next (at the 4.15 min mark) the narrator explains they are trying to get 100,000 Tikkun Haklalis said for the Rav – minimum.

You can sign up to have your TKs counted on the Breslov line, by dialling #50.

The narrator then reminds us that the Rav has said in the past, that whoever prays for me, at that same moment, I’m praying for them.

It’s a really good deal, b’kitzur.

The Rav also told people to continue to pray for him separately, and to not stop, because he’s very ill.

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There’s more to say, but that’s what I have time to translate for now.

I’m trying to do three TKs a day at the moment, even one a day is a good start – and I know some people who are doing 8 a day! (Good for you, girl, you know who you are…)

And may we just hear good news.

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Standing on the edge

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Fixing sinat chinam

On the one hand, it’s soooo heavy in Israel at the moment.

Here in the Holy Land, you really feel the Jewish calendar, and the Three Weeks is in full swing.

The ‘heaviness’ is palpable here during the Three Weeks, and I am really missing the music, and the ability to ‘dance and clap away’ the harsh judgements.

The weather is hot, the mood is weird and subdued in a lot of places in Israel – and a big part of that is because day-to-day life here is being paralysed by all the protests.

There is meant to be another strike going on here today, with places like Shufersal, the BIG shopping malls and even banks closing down.

(Honestly? Shufersal closing is probably the best news I’ve heard for a while, even if it’s temporary. If Shufersal existed when Dante was writing, he would have created a circle of hell just in its honor. But I digress.)

The point is, though – ‘normal life’ has been totally abnormal here since January.

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No-one knows where the protests will pop up next, which roads will get closed down, what’s really going on.

And that starts to wear your patience away, to be honest.

Because it’s been going on for 8 months…

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We had guests for Shabbat who were held up in traffic for hours because of the big ‘walk to Jerusalem’ that concluded on Friday afternoon.

Yesterday, it took my daughter hour and hours to get back down from the Ari’s hiloula in Tsfat yesterday, because of ‘the protests’.

And let’s not even talk about how expensive things are getting at the supermarket….

These are day-to-day things that can wear a person down, even when they aren’t worrying about ‘WHO dictatorships’, (planned….) wars with Hezbollah, civil war in Israel.

Life is heavy at the moment!

That’s the reality.

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At the same time…..

We have to take that ‘reality’, and work hard within ourselves to deal with the feelings of yeoush that can flood up, and to deal with the anger, and the frustration, and the upset, and bring it all back to God.

But in a real way.

For me personally, that means I have to acknowledge what I’m really feeling, what’s really bothering me – I have to remove the carpet, and examine everything that’s been shoved underneath it – and then, I have to clean it up.

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At the moment, I am feeling quite tired, and quite apathetic, and quite sad about the state of the world.

This is what is ‘coming up’ today.

And my job once I’ve finished typing this up, is to spend an hour really talking to God about all this, and discussing why I’m feeling like this, and what’s really underneath it, and what the correct response is.

What do I need to make teshuva about, tachlis?

What can I actually change, tachlis?

How much of this is coming from bad middot, false expectations, an arrogant sense of entitlement, like God ‘owes me stuff’?

(Let me spoil the cliffhanger: usually, it’s 100% bad middot, arrogance, false expectations and arrogance…)

And then, once I’ve bottomed that out, I usually start feeling so much better again.

BUT IT’S A PROCESS, TO KEEP PUTTING GOD BACK IN THE PICTURE, AND TO EXERCISE THE ‘EMUNA’ MUSCLE.

And that process happens over and over and over again, most days at the moment.

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And in the meantime….

My patience for people, even the people I really love and appreciate a lot in my immediate family, is pretty low at the moment.

It’s hard dealing with the ‘heavy vibe’ that’s been laying over the country for months (actually, years….)

It’s hard to keep finding the motivation to get up and do something positive, instead of letting the worry and the yeoush take over.

It’s hard!

That’s the reality of life at the moment.

But at the same time…

It’s totally possible.

Once I knuckle down and face up to the bad middot that are causing the sense of despair and dissatisfaction in the first place.

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There is not going to be a civil war in Israel, even though that’s what the Evils – especially the CIA Evils – want to happen here.

Yes, there are yucky people on all sides of the debate, there are ‘useful idiots’ being manipulated in a million different ways, but underneath all that, my view is that the spell the media was casting over the population has broken.

Not for everyone, but for enough people that ‘civil war’ is just not going to happen here.

(Read THIS for a plausible reason for why the Evils want a civil war right now.)

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This was the escalator at one of the train stations in Tel Aviv yesterday.

Pro-Reform useful idiots were going up it, while ‘Anti-Reform’ useful idiots were coming down.

Watch what starts to happen in the middle, after a few seconds (clip from HERE):

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This is how we fix the sin of sinat chinam, that caused the destruction of the Second Temple and this most bitter exile.

We can disagree – strongly disagree! – but still respect the people on the other side, and still understand that when all is said and done, we are one family.

(Even, sadly, including the psychos….)

But our job is to ignore the psychos who are trying to ‘whip up’ hatred and violence between us, and to not give them our koach, and let them manipulate us into hating our fellow Jew.

That’s maybe the whole reason all this machkloket is currently going on, who knows?

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And the place that most needs to happen, as always, is with our own immediate family.

And make no mistake – it’s hard.

But it’s definitely doable.

And as long as don’t give up in the middle, and fall into a big, debilitating ‘pity party’ about how difficult everything is, with God’s help, we WILL reach the finishing line, eventually.

The finishing line approaches closer with every step forward we take.

So, if you need a ‘rest’, sit down for a bit, fall down for a bit, lie down for a bit – but know that you can and will stand back up again soon, once you’ve got your breath back.

Because the whole point is to continue the journey, not to ‘cross the finishing line’.

And now… I need to go and talk to God about a few things that are bothering me.

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Free choice, and fixing the sin of ‘sinat chinam’

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Solutions, not problems

Going forward, I think things are going to get a little scary.

And, I think that ‘scary’ is starting to surface in the subconscious of even the most resolute ‘think good, and it will be good’ kind of people.

Because at some point, the dinner party ends, and you have to go outside to see what all the fuss is about…

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I can see that happening in a whole bunch of ways, already.

I see upbeat, ‘spiritual’ people who are now smoking like chimneys and looking pretty haggard – while still telling me that ‘anyone with emuna knows this is going to be a fantastic process unfolding’.

Well, yes it is.

(At least, if you believe in God, really do have emuna that ‘everything is for the best’ – even when that’s painful and horrible, and are working on your own bad middot and staying close to the True Tzaddikim….)

But even for those kinds of people – it’s still going to be pretty scary.

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So, I am trying to make a conscious decision here on the blog, to talk about SOLUTIONS, and not just problems.

We’ll start to flesh the whole ‘demons running the world’ thing out in more posts, BH.

But before we continue with that, let me bring you some possible solutions, for how we deal with all these demonic forces.

(Taken from THIS blog post, I wrote a few weeks back:)

I want to leave you with a few pertinent snippets from One in a Generation Volume II.

Snippet 1, is a quote from Rav Berland himself, from January 21, 2015:

If someone would see how many demons and spirits [there are in every square meter of the world], even a little, then immediately his soul would leave him.

Therefore, Hashem gave us the ability not to see.

And now is the time when all of the demons and spirits are coming out of the bottle and are bursting forth. All of the terrorists are demons and spirits. All of Hamas and all of Al-Qaida and all of ISIS, they are demons and spirits.

[When a person is reciting the Shema,] he needs to have the proper intention, he needs to have proper attention when saying Hashem Aechad [God is one]. AecHaD also stand for: Al-Qaida, Hamas and Da-ash (the Arabic name for ISIS). A person needs to have the correct intention that Hashem Aechad, God is One.

If a person has the intention that God is One, then he will excise all of Al-Qaida, all of Hamas, and all of Da-ash (ISIS), [those] who decapitate others, and kill children and babies.”

“WE HAVE ARRIVED AT THE END OF DAYS”

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And this is from Volume I:

RAV YEHUDA SEGAL INTERCEDES

Rav Yehuda Zerachia Halevi Segal, zt” l, was a head kabbalist of the previous generation, and a man who was known to have ruach hakodesh. After Rav Levi Yitzchak’s passing, Rav Berland found himself at the center of a storm of hatred, evil speech, and controversy that had been created by his self-styled opponents in the Breslov Meah Shearim shul.

Rav Segal decided to intercede, to try to end the machlokes. On one occasion on 4 Kislev, 5752 (November 11, 1991), he wrote a letter to Rav Yaakov Meir Shecter, the official head of the community in the Breslov shul, where he emphasized how important it was to have peaceful relations within the Breslov community, and that the rectification of the world (tikkun olam) depended on this.

Rav Segal wrote:

“The very high level of piousness and avodas Hashem of the gaon and tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland, shlita, is well known to me. It’s forbidden to harm an angel of God…and Rabbeinu Hakadosh (Rebbe Nachman) is extremely upset about recent events…The honor of Rabbeinu Hakadosh forces me to intercede and protest about what is going on.”

Rav Yehuda Segal once told Rav Michael Goll, one of the Rav’s students and the Rosh Yeshivah of Meginei Eretz, the following:

“You should know, wherever I go, the demonic forces run 200 meters away from me. But wherever Rav Berland goes, the demonic forces run many thousands of meters away from him. That is the enormous power of his holiness!”

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In the next few posts, BH, I’ll have some  more tachlis solutions, real stuff real people can do, to keep out of the grip of the evil forces in the world.

Most of it revolves around the same old stuff I always talk about, i.e. working on bad middot, avoiding drugs and other addictive substances, and staying far away from the most potent sources of tumah.

But I have new info to ‘flesh out’ more of these ideas, specifically how it all connects to demonic entitites.

But the main piece of advice before we get into that, the main solution, is STAY CLOSE TO THE TRUE TZADDIKIM.

And in particular, to Rebbe Nachman and Rav Berland.

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It’s struck me more than once that this quote from the late R Yehuda Segal is maybe at least part of why the Rav puts such an emphasis on living in Jerusalem.

Let’s pull it out again:

“You should know, wherever I go, the demonic forces run 200 meters away from me. But wherever Rav Berland goes, the demonic forces run many thousands of meters away from him. That is the enormous power of his holiness!”

This reassures me every time I think about what might be going on here – which honestly scares me.

Even though I work on my emuna etc, the thought of these ‘forces of evil’ manifest really still scares me.

But then, I remember that they are actually just working for God – that’s the emuna solution.

And then, I remember Rabbenu’s tale about the people who are in the circle of the True Tzaddik being protected from the harm these demons cause.

And then, I remember this quote from R Segal:

Wherever Rav Berland goes, the demonic forces run many thousands of meters away from him.

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Go back and re-read this article:

Rebbe Nachman on Deep State and Demons

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Here’s a pertinent snippet – but really, go back and read it all:

Demons look like human beings, but really aren’t.

They have zero real emuna and faith in Hashem (the ‘chicken feet’ = atheists), and they are organized as crime families and syndicates. You’ll find demons in the middle of abortions…. And in the middle of hurting children and other people… And in locations where men are lured to be ‘entrapped’ with harlots…. And demons love ‘devices’ and can listen in on people’s conversations, fly all over the world and appear to be totally untouchable. The last thing to tell you about demons is probably the most important.

In Rebbe Nachman’s tale, he explains that the human beings who are with the Jewish Sage who stands up to the King Demon, and who are within his ‘circle’, are safe from the harm demons can do.

Rebbe Nachman tells us:

“The demons approached, but they could not come near [the humans] because of the circle [that the wise man had made] around them. [The King Demon] sent other messengers, but they also failed.”

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This isn’t just a ‘nice story’, a fairy tale, from Rebbe Nachman.

It’s literally advice on how you protect yourself, going forward.

Get in the Tzaddik’s circle, pronto, and take yourself away from demon-infested ‘civilisation’ (especially social media…)

OK, you don’t live in Israel, you don’t live in Jerusalem – I get it.

But you can STILL get in the Tzaddik’s circle, by learning his teachings, following his ‘advice’ on how to live life, binding yourself to the True Tzaddikim, helping the Tzaddik anyway you can, spiritually and materially.

That’s how a person really gets in the circle, in any case.

Rebbe Nachman makes this clear again and again and again, that it’s not actually the ‘personal contact’ that’s important – it’s the inner dimension.

Which means, you do an hour of hitbodedut a day (try to…) you read your 3 Tikkun Haklalis a day (try to….) if the Rav says go to Hevron to pray – you try to do that, or join the livestream from wherever you live.

If he says smash your iPhone, you try to do that…

If he says ‘avoid lashon hara’ – you try to do that…

The list goes on and on.

And that ‘inner dimension’ is what really counts, here.

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Yesterday, someone sent me an article about how tons of secular Israelis are rushing to leave the country, and to go and live in Greece, before Israel turns into ‘a dictatorship’.

These people always wanted a ‘Greek Israel’, and now that the religious Jews here are multiplying, I guess they have decided to cut their losses to have an ‘Israeli Greece’ instead.

But the Shechina is HERE, in the Holy Land.

And it’s part of the birur process, that these anti-Torah, anti-God people are now leaving in droves, to a place where they can have the Greek, atheist lifestyle in the sun they always dreamed of.

They are kicking themselves out of the protective circle that is Eretz Yisrael.

And as the months go by, more and more ‘secular lefties’ are joining them.

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Good things are happening, under the surface, if you look below all the ‘anarchy’, chaos and orchestrated ‘street violence’.

(BTW, it’s getting harder and harder to spot the differences between Leftists setting the Ayalon on fire (with fireworks…), Palestinians setting Silwan on fire (with fireworks…) and French rioters setting Paris on fire (with fireworks…)

BH, let’s not fall into the trap of thinking behaving like animals is going to solve our problems.

Let’s keep our camp holy and pure, stuck to Hashem and His Torah, and using prayer and teshuva, instead of demonically-inspired violence, to wage our battles.

On that note, that’s enough for today.

Fast well, if you’re doing that.

In the next post, we’re going to take a closer look at how ‘demonic forces’ exploit a person’s bad middot to literally take them over.

TBC

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Anger and the Covid shot nanotech

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‘Scared’ vs ‘prepared’

Since Shabbat, I haven’t been feeling too hot.

I highly recommend you go back and read THIS post, from December 2021, when I first started writing about ‘Acute Radiation Syndrome’.

This next snippet kinda covers what I’ve been experiencing the last few days:

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Here are the main symptoms to look out for, listed:

  • Headaches / migraines
  • Dizziness
  • Vertigo
  • Disrupted sleep – i.e. waking up for no obvious reason; and / or finding it hard to get to sleep, for no obvious reason
  • Fatigue
  • Nausea
  • Heart palpitations
  • Memory loss / head fog
  • Tinnitus – a buzzing or ringing in the ears
  • Skin rashes
  • Muscle and joint pain – for no obvious reason
  • Leg and foot pain
  • Tingling
  • Irritability
  • Numbness
  • Nosebleeds
  • Low-level anxiety and feeling ‘stressed-out’ for no reason

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I’ve had about seven of the things on this list, for the last few days – coinciding with all the ‘magnetic rain’ and chem trail spraying going on all over Israel.

 

If you go to the WayBack Machine link here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20170811082213/http://www.nuclmed.gr/magazine/eng/jan13/60.pdf

You can download a short, fairly easy to read PDF explaining the difference between ‘Acute’ and ‘Chronic’ Radiation Syndrome.

Again, I brought a huge amount of info, including some possible ‘solutions’ and coping strategies, in THIS POST.

Go and take a look, as this post is just touching on a few things briefly, like this:

Here’s the description of the first symptoms of ARS.

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I think I’ve been having these ‘first symptoms’ of radiation poisoning the last few days, again.

Some of the people in my house have also been experiencing some ‘weird’ things going on, the last couple of weeks, too, that fit the description of ARS.

The question I’m wondering about is: how many other people out there are also experiencing at least some of the symptoms on this list?

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Unless you just fell off the moon and landed on planet earth, by now, it should be obvious that our own governments and military are literally trying to kill us.

That’s just how it is, that’s the reality we live in.

Maybe, this was always the reality we lived in, just nobody realised it with quite so much clarity before our day and age.

Point is – there are a lot of things going on that can easily cause a lot of us to feel very scared and anxious about the future.

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Yesterday morning, I had another bout of that ‘anxiety’ myself, so I spent half an hour dancing and clapping, while talking to God about what was scaring me – and it really, really helped.

This is my go-to playlist of Rabbenu dance songs, half an hour long:

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If you didn’t try it already, it’s highly recommended.

Point is, there IS a lot of stuff coming down the pipe, and fear is one very common reaction to that.

But if we get stuck in the fear, that is really, really unhelpful and damaging, on so many levels.

====

In that OTHER POST, I listed a whole bunch of things that may be useful, when it comes to trying to deal with the fall out (pun intended….) of ARS.

For example, I dusted off my salt lamp again the last week, which made a noticeable difference to my ‘felt stress’.

I’ve stuck tons of lentils on my fingers.

I’ve upped my intake of fermented food and drinks.

I’ve got my Epsom Salts ready for another bath…

It’s probably all helping, as these things go.

But the biggest ‘help’ is the knowledge that:

a) God is running the world, and whatever is going on, it’s going to have a positive ending, even if that ‘positive ending’ doesn’t fit my expectation of what a ‘positive ending’ should look like.

And

b) I’m sitting in the circle of the Tzaddik HaDor – the only person who the demons are actually scared of.

====

So, I’m trying to stay ‘aware’ of what’s going on, as much as that is useful, without overwhelming me, my family – or you, dear reader – with too much unmitigated ‘fear porn’, and pointless speculation about ‘what is coming next’.

The Rav told us clearly, he needs to get to Uman this Rosh Hashana to avoid something very horrible happening to humanity.

He’s asked us to say a Tikkun Haklali every day, with that in mind.

That’s our ‘job’ right now, that’s our ‘mission’, plus whatever other ongoing daily teshuva, prayer and spiritual work we need to be doing anyway.

====

‘Scared’ means we get ill, anxious, stressed and very pessimistic about the future, so we stop living life in the here and now.

It’s totally what the yetzer wants.

‘Prepared’ means we acknowledge our fears, anxieties and worries, we don’t run away from them – but then we take it all back to God, we take whatever ‘practical’ actions we can to try to mitigate things (especially, on the teshuva, prayer and emuna front) – but then, we get on with our lives and carry on doing the things that bring us joy.

Yesterday, I stuck another six plants in the patch of earth that’s called ‘the garden’ next to the house I rent in Jerusalem.

Sitting out there, watching them grow – it makes me so happy.

Even if the sky is whited-out from GO nanoparticles and the rain gives everyone asthma….

====

So, don’t be ‘scared’ about what is coming next, but do use your anxiety and fear to spark off some real teshuva and heartfelt prayer.

Follow Rabbenu’s advice to ‘dance and clap’ to sweeten the harsh judgements.

And join, or remain inside, the Tzaddik’s ‘circle’.

Otherwise -move forward, and live your life as happily as you can.

We aren’t in control here.

But that’s always been the case.

And eventually, all this turns around for the best.

The key is not to give ourselves heart attacks and strokes from over-worrying before we get to that stage.

====

You might also like this article:

The interview that says it all

 

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Aliyah and teshuva

I was thinking a lot, about this whole discussion about ‘aliyah’.

And I did a fair bit of hitbodedut on this, before sitting down to write, because while this subject is frequently so polarising, I wanted to find a way of addressing it that would bring us more ‘together’, and more understanding where ‘the other’ is coming from.

First, I was pondering on this comment from a reader on the bottom of this last post:

G-d took us out of Mitzrayim, He will also take us out of our current galus no matter where we live. We can be with Hakadosh Baruch Hu anywhere. Putting fear in Jews by claiming that there won’t be enough planes to take us home is IMO fear-mongering and a lack of bitachon. G-d is limitless. He can take us home by any way He so choses. Our job is to pray and do teshuva.

====

On the one hand, as someone who with God’s help made the very difficult transition to living in Israel, I do believe that living in Israel is ‘the ideal’ for a Jew.

And I also believe that just like God ‘held a mountain’ over the heads of the Jewish people to get them to accept the Torah, there is an element of that going on here, too, with the whole idea of being ‘scared into’  leaving the comfort zone and making aliya.

I know for myself, my aliya wasn’t motivated by lofty ideas of ‘doing the right thing, religiously’.

I loved coming to Israel for holidays, I loved the kosher food, being surrounded by Jews, the whole ‘vibe’ of being here (on holiday….)

But the real reason we made aliya is because I started having a series of repeated, terrifying dreams that there was going to be a terrorist attack in London, and that I was going to get ‘stuck’ there, somehow.

====

I woke up from that repeated dream in a cold sweat, and I told my husband:

We have to sell our house and move to Israel…

We’d been talking about aliya, on and off, for about 2-3 years before that point, ever since the Twin Towers came down, and we understood the world really was changing, and that London no longer felt like ‘home’.

But, the intifada was happening in Israel back then…. London was filling up with Israelis running away from the terrorism, and telling us we had to be crazy to try and go and live there – especially as we didn’t even speak the language.

Somehow or other, we still managed to get here, despite all the odds, and even more incredibly, to stay here, despite all the odds, and all the very many difficulties.

====

I often ponder, in what merit a person seems to get to Israel, and in many cases, it seems to me that it’s connected to giving a lot of charity.

That’s just what I’ve seen from my own experiences, that the people who give their 10% as mandated by the Torah are often the ones who manage to get here, somehow, even if they are still stuffed-full of bad middot.

But that’s not a cast-iron rule.

We have family members who don’t fit that profile, don’t keep anything, much, don’t believe in God – and they still had the privilege of moving to Israel a couple of years ago.

And I also know very impressive people, spiritually, in chul, who give a ton, and try to serve God with so much mesirus nefesh and yearning – and still, they haven’t managed to get to Israel.

Yet.

====

Which brings me around to the point of this post.

If we learned one thing from the whole ‘pandemic’ episode we’ve all just lived through, it’s that the real test here is not ‘the thing itself’, but how we react to it.

In terms of moving to Israel, I think that each person has to go through the process of trying to figure that out for themselves, and of really engaging with the idea, at least.

It may well be that at the end of that process, you’ll understand that culturally, you can’t do it.

Financially, you can’t do it.

Practically, you have elderly relatives to look after, still.

Or a grandchild that you are the only link to ‘yiddishkeit’ for, in a bewildering sea of confusion and atheism.

Or plain and simple, you really just can’t face the fact of leaving your comfort zone – your shops, your home, your community, your family, your friends, your TV shows – and going somewhere else.

Again, living in Israel is a Jewish ideal, but it’s just not possible for everyone.

But the point is – to be real about what the real problem is, and to not look for excuses.

====

I know quite a few people where half the couple wants to make aliya, and half don’t.

Personally, I don’t think anyone should ever split up over a question of ‘making aliya’.

Keeping your marriage strong and stable and loving and accepting is the epitome of how we fix the world, wherever we happen to live in the world.

I can tell you for a fact, that all those people who really are ‘yearning’ to get here, but really can’t, have the same merit as those who live here, because each and every day, they have to work on the same emuna that God is in charge, that they can’t get things how they want them, that everything is for the good, even when it’s sometimes so difficult and painful.

Ditto, people who are going through difficulties that bring them to that same ’emuna’ mindset, where they understand that God is all there is, and they are putting their main efforts into prayer and teshuva.

Dafka on some level, those people are already living in the ‘land of emuna’ – and that’s why Rav Eldedi stressed that the real work to be done here is actually just on the teshuva side of things.

Once a person understands that God is all there is, that God is doing everything, that God is providing everything, that God is arranging all the tests and difficulties – that person will be in a mindset where making aliya will probably seem much less intimidating, and more possible.

====

At that point, there still might be ‘practical factors’ that make aliya impossible, but if the teshuva has been made, sincerely, that’s really the main part of the spiritual work of ‘aliya’ done, anyway.

====

So, that’s the first half of this equation.

The second half of this equation is probably more painful, namely that many people prefer to ‘dodge’ all this spiritual teshuva, all this emuna work, and cultivate a false belief about how they can continue on, totally business as usual, until Moshiach magically appears, then whisks them all off to their villa in Israel, on a magic carpet.

We are down here to work, spiritually, to fix ourselves, spiritually.

There are no short cuts.

And usually, I hear this type of argument from externally ‘frum’ people who seem to be deeply sunk in their gashmius and their doctor appointments, and who usually strike me as having a lot of bad middot still to work on – not least, their over-weening arrogance and sense of entitlement.

====

God doesn’t owe us anything.

All the mitzvahs we do, we do them to ‘fix’ ourselves, we don’t do them to ‘bribe’ God to look the other while we continue living a life that hurts ourselves, and others.

Many people have a mistaken belief that the good deeds they do kind of ‘cancel out’ all the bad things they do.

It doesn’t work like that.

We will get rewarded for every single ‘good’ thing, every single mitzvah we do – and we will punished for every single aveira we didn’t make real teshuva about, or at least, try to.

====

In terms of how this relates to moving to Israel, if a person has gone through the process of at least exploring the idea, and come to the conclusion that they can’t do it – for whatever reason – then they are already in the spiritual position of ‘making teshuva’ for the fact they can’t come, in some way.

They’ve already acknowledged the fact that, yes, it is a mitzvah. Yes, it is something that God wants a Jew to do, ideally. But I just can’t do it….

Do you know how much humility a person develops, when they live with this reality day in, day out?

Do you know how much nachas a person like this gives to Hashem – because they stick to the truth, and they don’t tell themselves lies, just to make themselves feel better?

We probably can’t fathom the awesome spiritual level of a person like this – regardless of where they live.

====

If someone is living outside of Israel with this sort of headspace -they are actually in a very ‘good’ place, spiritually.

There are no guarantees anywhere, of course, but as we keep stressing, the point isn’t so  much ‘where a person lives’, the point is more, ‘how is a person living and believing and acting towards others’.

====

Here’s the thing:

Most of the people who live outside of Israel are not in this headspace.

In fact, they are usually a million miles away from this headspace, and of course, I’m talking about externally ‘orthodox’ Jews here, not anyone else.

If a person isn’t doing this sort of spiritual work, AND they haven’t been through the challenges of ‘coming out of the comfort zone’ to make the move to Israel – things are probably going to be pretty difficult for them, going forward.

Of course, this is also true of many people who were born and raised in Israel itself.

====

You meet so many ‘entitled’ Jews in Israel whose are still living off the merits accrued by their ancestors’ mesirus nefesh to get here.

They own half of Israel… they have all the connections, all the privileges… and they literally spend their times wishing they could get a passport to the US, UK or Switzerland.

When this whole judicial reform hoo-ha started up, there were literally thousands of ‘elite’ secular Israelis talking about how they were going to move out of Israel, if the reforms passed.

(If that’s the only reason it should pass, dayenu.)

====

Another thing I’ve noticed here, is that the people who are not on a path of emuna in Israel frequently get shown a very ugly face of Israel, to deal with.

I had a friend who moved here when she was ‘secular’, many years ago, who ended up leaving the country.

Then, she got religious abroad, and moved back – and she told me, the difference was literally night-and-day.

So that is something else to factor in to the discussion, about how easy or difficult it is to live in Eretz Yisrael.

It’s a function of a person’s own teshuva and middot, way more than any other place in the whole world.

====

So, to sum things up here.

Of course it’s a mitzva to live in Israel, and anyone who claims it doesn’t apply to them is not being honest.

At the same time, not everyone can live in Israel – this is a fact.

It takes a lot of emuna, teshuva and humility to hold on to both of these ‘facts’ together.

The people who are doing that, are doing the spiritual work required, regardless of where they live.

And the people who live in Israel without doing the spiritual work required, without seeing Hashem, without working on their own bad middot, are not in a good place, spiritually, despite their geographical location.

At the same time, anyone who thinks they can get a free ride, and pay lip-service to the ideas of developing real emuna, and a real, tangible relationship with God, and then just get the red-carpet rolled out for them when Moshiach shows up – it doesn’t work like that.

====

Sooner or later, everyone has to cross this narrow bridge, if they want to get to the other side, and into the ‘world of truth’.

Everyone will have to face themselves down, and the lies they tell themselves, and own up to the bad middot they ignore and justify all the time.

There are no shortcuts.

But moving to Israel can for sure speed that process up, and give you pinpoint coordinates on the stuff God really wants you to work on.

And if that’s the only reason to yearn to be here…. dayenu.

====

You might also like this article:

Up a level

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The journey

In my ‘perfect world’, things would be very different right now.

I’d have no wrinkles….

My clothes would all look stunning…

My kids would be married, already, to amazing billionaires who fund yeshivas and have stunningly good middot – and who follow the Rav and Rebbe Nachman. (Plus, are good looking and like talking to me…)

I’d live in a house with no cracks in the wall, that I own with no mortgage, and without that horrible, pervasive ‘weed tree’ that keeps growing everywhere.

My teeth would be white.

I’d maybe make some money writing, while still maintaining my integrity, morality and privacy.

I’d figure out how to eat chocolate every day without getting fat.

I’d never get angry…. or miserable….or worried….

(Or fat….)

Yup.

Life would be very different.

====

Here’s the thing:

No-one has life the way they want it, exactly.

Absolutely no-one.

All those things that go wrong, all that stuff that frustrates and angers us, all these ‘tests’ we have non-stop, all this stuff that worries and upsets us – this is how God designed ‘life’ to be.

I know I keep saying it, but it looks like I have to keep saying it:

The point is the JOURNEY, not the destination.

The point is, all the effort we make every single day to talk to God, to strive to overcome our bad middot, to work hard at figuring out what God really wants, and how we can at least try to give it to Him – THAT is the point.

It’s the whole point.

====

So, I could be down here until 120 – and never really fully overcome my anger issues.

I could never totally overcome my apathy and sense of despair.

I could never totally believe that God is all there is, God is good, and and everything that is occurring is just a test for me to work on something in myself.

But as long as I keep TRYING, and I keep YEARNING – that’s the whole point.

====

Us human beings, we tend to focus on the wrong things.

We have been conditioned to think ‘the end point’, the ‘achievement’, the ‘goal’ is what really matters.

That achieving the ‘end’ justifies the means.

That leaves us with a very warped view of the world, and an abiding sense of anger, frustration and disappointment, that we didn’t get there yet.

====

Pay attention:

The Rambam makes it clear that we have a halachic obligation to both anticipate the Moshiach coming every single day, and to believe in his coming.

(This is from HERE:)

Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Melachim Chapter 11:

In the future, the Messianic king will arise and renew the Davidic dynasty, restoring it to its initial sovereignty. He will build the Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel.

Then, in his days, the observance of all the statutes will return to their previous state. We will offer sacrifices, observe the Sabbatical and Jubilee years according to all their particulars as described by the Torah.

Anyone who does not believe in him or does not await his coming, denies not only the statements of the other prophets, but those of the Torah and Moses, our teacher.

The Torah testified to his coming, as Deuteronomy 30:3-5 states:

“God will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you. He will again gather you from among the nations… Even if your Diaspora is at the ends of the heavens, God will gather you up from there… and bring you to the land….”

These explicit words of the Torah include all the statements made by all the prophets.

==

Reference to Mashiach is also made in the portion of Bilaam who prophesies about two anointed kings: the first anointed king, David, who saved Israel from her oppressors; and the final anointed king who will arise from his descendants and save Israel in the end of days. That passage Numbers 24:17-18 relates:

‘I see it, but not now’ – This refers to David;

‘I perceive it, but not in the near future;” – This refers to the Messianic king;

‘A star shall go forth from Jacob‘ – This refers to David;

‘and a staff shall arise in Israel’ – This refers to the Messianic king;

‘crushing all of Moab’s princes’ – This refers to David as II Samuel 8:2 relates: ‘He smote Moab and measured them with a line;’

‘decimating all of Seth’s descendants‘ – This refers to the Messianic king about whom Zechariah 9:10 prophesies: ‘He will rule from sea to sea.’

‘Edom will be demolished’ – This refers to David as II Samuel 8:6 states ‘Edom became the servants of David;’

‘Seir will be destroyed’ – this refers to the Messianic king as Ovadiah 1:21 prophesies: ‘Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau….’

====

You’re fed-up of waiting for Moshiach to show up?

All this praying and making teshuva stuff is ‘getting old?

You’re finding it hard to carry on believing that Moshiach is actually a ‘real thing’, that is really going to happen one day?

So what.

This is the whole point.

This is the whole test.

Not to ‘make Moshiach appear’ – but to carry on serving God with patience, emuna, joy and acceptance, which includes anticipating Moshiach’s coming every day, even though he didn’t show up, and it’s getting ‘tired and old’.

This is the whole test.

====

Like you, I have no idea if Moshiach is coming now, or in another 200 years time.

Like you, I have no idea if another ‘holocaust’ is imminent, God forbid, if World War 3 is really around the corner, what the Evils are currently planning to unleash next against humanity.

But really?

It doesn’t matter.

My job isn’t to get caught up in all these predictions, and calculations and ‘conspiracies’.

My job is to knuckle down, and carry on serving Hashem, and carry on working on my emuna, and emunat Tzaddikim.

====

I’m not a Tzaddik, and I have no pretensions to having ‘ruach hakodesh’.

What I do know, is that there ARE 36 (and some say, 72) Lamed Vav Tzaddikim who DO see things that I don’t see, and who do know stuff that I don’t know, and they see and know far more about what is happening than I do.

If one of those guys tells me, drop everything and go and pray at Hevron to sweeten some decrees – who am I to argue?

Going to pray at Hevron is ALWAYS a good thing to do, regardless, so I gain every time I go and pray there.

Ditto, if a real Tzaddik tells me, say another tikkun halkali a day, for the Rav to get to Uman – who am I to argue?

It’s clearly a good thing to say another Tikkun HaKlali a day, regardless of what happens next.

Every time I make teshuva, I start keeping more mitzvot, I work on my arrogance, I build up my emuna, I say more prayers – I only win from doing all this.

====

So.

If, the process of making teshuva, and working on your bad middot, and trying to say and do more holy stuff, more spiritual stuff – if that process is getting ‘tired and old’ – you are actually in pretty big trouble, spiritually.

Because that’s the whole point of being down here.

And regardless of whether holocausts, aliens, moshiach and cyborgs are around the corner, or not, we are down here to be doing that work every single day.

Life is not Disney.

Life doesn’t go ‘how we want’ – at all!

Ever.

Even when it’s not the crazy world we currently live in.

====

Like you, I would like all the ‘pressure’ to ease up.

I would like all the worries about what will be to disappear.

I would like the WEF to disintegrate, digital IDS to vanish in a puff of smoke, inflation to be banished, peace and prosperity to be plentiful, good health and happiness to be the birthright of every single person on the planet.

Right now, it seems I can’t have what I want.

And that’s OK.

Because the focus has to really be on GIVING GOD WHAT HE WANTS.

And God wants the heart.

And emuna.

And our ongoing efforts to continue with our avodat Hashem, even though some days, it’s really hard to keep going, because we’re not getting what we want.

Because it’s not ‘the goal’ that matters.

It’s the journey.

====

 

 

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Up a level

I got sent some comments that another leading rabbi in Israel just made, about what is currently going on.

I am posting them up below, because they come from a source I trust, namely, Shuvu Banim.

You don’t have to trust that source… you are allowed to have a different opinion.

But – please don’t start spamming my blog (again…) with gratuitous, offensive comments. Start up your own blog, and go write whatever you want to write there.

These comments were made by R Shmueli Eldad.

He’s one of the rabbis who tried to blow the whistle about the xtian takeover of David’s Tomb, in the Old City of Jerusalem, back in 2014.

This is what he said, a couple of days ago:

==

The shiur ends with a phone call to the Tzaddik Eldad Shmueli. He tells us….

“Am Israel – wherever you are – In the past hour, I have spoken with a few people and it is only a matter of time that there is going to be a very big change in all the World, in all the Universe and also in all our private lives.

Everyone can see that the world is very unstable.

The Prime Ministers of the countries are not trustworthy, it is the beginning of World War 3.

The countries of NATO are buying all kinds of weapons and getting ready for this war. Much more than it is now between Russian and Ukraine. The weapons are not like the old weapons of WW2, which were like a game. Now, the weapons and bombs destroy, this is not a game.

Also, Israel itself is in a very big danger.

Inside and outside and among us… the Arabs, and Erev Rav who want to fight us spiritually. All AM Israel is in a very big danger. The Geulah of Mashiach is about to appear soon, how much time we do not know. Nobody knows. Before a woman has a baby, the birth-pangs are strongest.

==

The main danger is that we went out from kedusha, Holiness.

Make Teshuva, wake up! We do not have years or months or weeks, nobody knows the time, but do it now, make Teshuva, think about whatever you did wrong.

THINK! Start with your head, then go down to your eyes, and then your ears, nose, etc. and think about all your body parts, and turn around, make Teshuva.

If you do Teshuva then you are in a safe place, it will save you.

The safest place to be in is Eretz Israel. The safest place to be is with HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

The beginning of the WW3 every place will be in a “big mess”, Eretz Israel will have the Shechinah and be a safe place.

==

Before the Mashiach comes, the Shechinah will leave the Galut.

It is like…The king has a child who behaves badly, and the king sent his son out of the castle, the Queen went to look after the child, the prince, the Queen went to look after him because the King said to do so.

We are the child, the son of the King, we should come home from those very dark places and the King will “keep us” [i.e. look after us].

Before the Mashiach will come, the Shechinah will come back to Eretz Israel and leave the overseas.

[There will be] more anti-semitism, there will be no protection outside of Eretz Israel.”

==

Rabbi Eldad Shmueli then gave us the listeners a blessing to come home:

“Am Israel Chai – what does this mean? That we should LIVE. To have the courage against the 70 Nations, to swim against the stream, the stream is full of bad desires. Keep Shabbat, eat kosher food, watch our eyes, watch how you handle money, etc. AM Israel Chai !!! To be against all the yetzer hara. 

To come to Israel, I bless you to sell and come. Leave [everything] behind and save yourselves.

There will be much danger. There will not be enough airplanes to take a million Jews, to take everyone all at one time, so come now. Buy a ticket and come.”

====

Each person can decide for themselves what they want to do with this information.

I can tell you, that even though ‘Moshiach didn’t show up’ 20 years ago, when we decided to make aliya because we literally thought after the Disengagement from Gush Katif, that Moshiach was literally going to show up any moment – we have never regretted our move here.

Sure, I now rent instead of owning a house.

Sure, I totally lost my well-paid career, I got jolted out of my comfort zone a million percent, I went through a lot of difficulties, heartbreak and loneliness, tons of tests….

Yes, yes and yes, that was all part of the process, the teshuva process, the process of really getting ‘ready for geula’ in the ways that actually count, i.e.internally.

But what I gained still far outweighs all this.

Like:

  • A real relationship with God.
  • Much better relationships with my husband and kids.
  • More humility (not enough still, but better than it was).
  • More patience.
  • More emuna.
  • I live in Jerusalem.
  • Most of the people here still know that there are just two genders, and even self-identifying as a hamster does not make you a hamster.
  • The Kotel, and tons of kivrei tzaddikim to visit.
  • Rebbe Nachman’s teachings, Uman, and Rav Berland.

====

Trust me, I still got a really good deal.

At the same time… each person can serve God wherever they find themselves.

But it’s obvious, that there are consequences to not making aliya, just as there are consequences too making aliya.

Each person has to weigh up those consequences, and be honest about what issues and problems they would rather be dealing with.

That’s all.

There are no ‘free rides’ happening anywhere, these days.

Israel has bombs, terrorists, rockets, rain in June, massive corruption on every level and Netanyahu….

And other countries don’t have Netanyahu….

So, do your own sums, take responsibility for your own life and decisions, and remember that as long as a person is striving to make some real teshuva, and to develop a real relationship with God, that is the WHOLE POINT of being alive in the first place, wherever you happen to live.

Regardless of what actually happens next.

====

On that score….

I just got sent an audio recording of someone who went in to see the Rav, and who is apparently saying that the Rav told him that unless he manages to get to Uman for Rosh Hashana 5784…. there is a ‘holocaust-sized’ decree looming on the horizon that will not be able to be ‘sweetened’.

That ‘fits’ with the Rav’s request from last week, that everyone should say a Tikkun Haklali between now and Rosh Hashana, in the merit of him, plus Shuvu Banim, plus at least 10,000 men getting to Uman this year.

I haven’t been able to confirm this independently, tho.

But I’m sharing it here, because everyone is a grown-up, and can come to their own conclusions about what they choose to believe and accept, and what actions they then choose to take, as a result.

Preferably, after doing some hitbodedut, because things are going to get crazier and crazier from here on it, and knowing who and what to believe and trust is only going to get more challenging.

====

Lastly, here’s a few ‘old’ articles from RavBerland.com, that seem kind of relevant to this discussion, at least, to me.

‘Tel Aviv will be destroyed’

https://ravberland.com/if-you-break-your-i-phones-now-moshiach-will-come-immediately/

====

The point is…. there IS a lot of teshuva (and prayers, and Tikkun HaKlalis….) required.

From all of us.

In a bunch of different ways.

Regardless of whether there really is another holocaust in the offing, God forbid a million times.

====

Right now, the weather in Jerusalem is super-weird again.

More rain, lightning and thunder.

Whatever else we can say, it’s not normal.

That much we know.

And not much else.

====

PS: I’m reposting this, from Rabbenu:

Rebbe Nachman spoke about the correct way to deal with harsh decrees:

He said: “[E]ach person must say that the world was only created for his sake, and [the Rebbe said] how every person must endeavor to make up the deficiencies of the world, praying on its behalf – i.e. before the decree [actually materialises].

He also said the following: “That year [1803] the Rebbe was very preoccupied with the Cantonist Decrees. He was extremely worried about the situation and said they were not an idle threat. He disagreed strongly with the people who were saying nothing would come of it in the end, for how could God do such a thing to the Jewish people?!

The Rebbe said several times that this was nonsense.

We find many occasions when harsh decrees did materialise.

The Rebbe spoke about this a great deal and said that the rumored decrees had to be taken with the utmost seriousness and not be treated lightly. We had to pray and cry out to God, and to be and beseech Him in the hope that He would hear us and annul them…. If only people had listened to his call to set the earth shaking with prayers and appeals to God, these decrees would have been nullified completely!” (Tzaddik, Conversations Relating to His Lessons, page 132)

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So, we can’t duck and ignore ‘the decrees’…. we need to pray for them to be sweetened.

But then, we need to avoid falling into despair and anxiety, too.

It’s a very narrow bridge.

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People Power

There’s something kinda interesting happening.

A lot of ordinary people are suddenly waking up, and realising that there is power in numbers.

There is power in achdut.

There is power in the ‘small guys’ hands, after all.

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In the non-Jewish, not-so-spiritual world, that ‘power’ is manifesting itself in more and more boycotts of companies, brands and products trying to push the satanic ‘woke’ agenda down everyone’s throats.

That started off, big time, with Bud Lite, and is continuing with other ‘woke’ retailers, like Target.

Screenshot from HERE:

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If you don’t know who Dylan Mulvaney is – lucky you!

Keep it that way.

But the point is, these companies are haemorraghing customers and share value at an almost terminal rate.

And now on Twitter, there is a new trending hashtag, called:

#Boycottthewoke

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If you don’t live in Israel, you maybe don’t know that some form of #Boycottthewoke has been going on here, too.

When Leftie protestors including Omer BarLev, Chairman of the Board at Angel Bakeries, showed up in Bnei Brak to picket the house of the late Gershon Edelstein (more on him another time… maybe) – that sparked off a huge boycott of Angel bread.

Especially when the secular founders of Angel doubled-down, and started releasing even more nasty statements about religious Jews.

Like this:

Yoel Spiegel, grandson of the founder of Angel and nephew of its CEO…. In a Facebook post on Friday that he has since deleted, Spiegel wrote: “There is no limit to the chutzpah of part of the ultra-Orthodox public in Israel. They eat for free … evade army service, have dark opinions and, above all, are hypocrites!…”

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Long story short…. Angel eventually had to cave in, as one bakery after another started leaving the franchise in hareidi areas.

The point is, unity and achdut against ‘the bad’ really can and does work!

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BTW, all this ‘woke’ stuff is not accidentally being pushed by these companies.

The companies themselves are being ‘pushed’ by their massive investors, including people like Vanguard and Blackrock, to push woke.

Watch this:

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And if you don’t know that Blackrock and Vanguard are just the ‘front guys’ for the usual small group of Satanic ‘elites’ trying to turn the world into hell-on-earth, watch this:

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It was put out in 2021 – I ‘m amazed it’s still up on Youtube.

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The point is, again, that you and me CAN make a difference.

We CAN stop buying publications that push ‘woke’ in our Jewish world, stop supporting institutions and individuals being paid to act as Trojan Horses in the Jewish Community, stop using the products and services of companies and organisations that are run by gross people.

And all this will make a difference.

But as believing Jews, we have an even more powerful way of affecting the world, and that is via:

OUR PRAYERS.

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People who don’t really believe in God, don’t think that He’s listening to us down here, that He wants a relationship with us, that our prayers can and do make a huge difference, and often get answered – they mock the whole idea that sincere prayer can literally change things down here in the so-called ‘real world’.

That sincere prayers by tens of thousands of people can get earthquakes to move from Israel to Turkey….can cancel out ‘intifadas’… can sweeten even the harshest decrees.

But the truth is, the real power of the Jewish people lies in our prayers, and especially our prayers combined with achdut and True Tzaddikim.

And the forces of evil know that, which is why they have been going all-out the last few years to stop Jews from congregating together to pray, and to shut down places like Meron and Uman.

You only have to look at what the ‘forces of evil’ are trying to attack and close down, to understand where our biggest efforts need to be made.

And basically, it boils down to personal holiness, achdut, prayer – and following our True Tzaddikim.

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On that score, the Rav had a few things to say the last week, which I’ve translated below.

You can see the original comments in Hebrew in the Shivivei Or Newsletter, 313:

First, here’s what the Rav had to say about the importance of praying to get to Uman this year, for Rosh Hashana 5784:

 

In the merit of Rosh Hashana 5784, each person should take it upon themselves to say a Tikkun HaKlali each day, that the Rav should get the visa [required] to go to Uman, together with all the kehilla, together with another 10,000 men.

In order that by way of this, there will be the geula shleima, and there will be the revelation of Moshiach ben David still in our days, Amen.

Then, this is a prayer he put out for people to say:

Ribonu Shel Olam, who can do anything, and from whom nothing is lacking.

Merit us to have this year for Rosh Hashana 100,000 men, and also, that the Rav should be with us.

And nullify the ‘black visa’ for ever and ever.

And by way of having 100,000 people, Hashem Echad = 1, Moshiach ben David should come in the blink of an eye, and the Third Temple should be built – a Beit HaMikdash of fire, speedily in our days, Amen netzach sela v’ed.

And each person should add one Tikkun Haklali every single day up until erev Rosh Hashana 5784.

And the verse should be fulfilled within us: “[She] covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself up.”

And in the merit of this, we should merit to see Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah at the holy kibbutz.

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And lastly, these are some insights in to why people keep thinking that ‘voting for politicians’ is going to change things, when it never does (at least, not for the better).

In a sentence: Because they just lie about everything.

Here’s what the Rav said:

If a person wants someone to vote for him, he’ll promise to give you this and that…

Look, just now [we had the elections], and they said that they would give even a billion dollars. The first thing they would do was ‘subsidize’. They said that up until the age of three, everything would be free.

In the end, we clarified that this is a lie. Ultimately, we understood with hindsight that this was a total lie.

They reduced the purchase tax a liitle, they took a little off this, a bit – if you buy bread, they’ll sell the bread to you for a shekel less, so in this way, [they say] they will pay you for the merit of learning [Torah].

But then, they announced that up until the age of three, there would be ‘free education’, for the children, to accompany the children.

But the State is missing 10 billion from the budget, so they called all the maonot (children’s nurseries). Lieberman [did this, because] in the nurseries, there are only the kids of the avreichim (Torah learners).

The chilonim just have one child, and 10 dogs, and 20 cats.

So, there is money for the cats already, because each person instead of having children, they raise cats.

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So, all the promises they promised – they still didn’t fulfill even a single one.

They reduced the price a little of the sweet drinks, because it got clarified that when people don’t drink sweet, fizzy pop, there are no sick people. It’s very simple – there are no people with diabetes.

So, Aryeh Deri said: I don’t want to reduce the price, the price of the sweet drinks! There are fewer sick people because of this!

In any case, they reduced the plastic plates, that it should be cheaper.

This is the only thing they did.

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There is a long way to go still, the battle is still really only beginning, and what happens with Uman this year is going to be a crucial part of all this.

But in my small corner of the world, there is a faint light starting to shine at the end of the tunnel.

Ordinary people have some ‘power’ after all.

And when we simple Jews gather together to sincerely pray from the bottom of our heart – mountains can and do move.

Remember that, next time you hear someone mocking the power of prayer to change things around for the best.

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The dam bursts

At least, that’s what just happened in the Ukraine.

***UPDATES***

Here’s footage of the dam being bombed:

A huge dam in the Kherson region was blown up – by the Russians? By the Ukrainians?

By someone.

Personally, I’m leaning towards it being the Ukrainians who blew up the dam, as that reservoir was piping drinking water to Russian-held Crimea, and if you’re going to blow up a dam and flood somewhere…. at least make sure you are flooding an area held by ‘the enemy’.

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And HERE is where you can read about Ukrainian plans to take the dam out as a last top resort to stop a Russian offensive, in a couple of interviews they gave to the Washington Post, last year.

Snippet:

As we detailed earlier, both sides accuse each other of the attack that puts tens of thousands of homes at risk and might even threaten the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

However, as Raul Ilargi Meijer writes, twice last year (here and here), Ukrainian officials discussed Kiev’s plans to blow up the dam.

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Whatever happens in the Ukraine always has an extra layer of meaningfulness.

Kherson is where Yehoshua Zeitlin, and a bunch of the other two-faced Frankist-Reformers, were hanging out.

Here’s a screenshot of Kherson from yesterday:

In Breslov, we say that Rebbe Nachman’s teachings are a nachal novea, makor chochma, that cleanses from all stains and sins.

Nachal novea translates as  ‘a flowing river.’

That dam ‘bursting’ in the Ukraine is meaningful.

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Meantime, someone I know personally just got back from Uman, where they went for Shavuot – and they said it was pretty busy, and almost business as usual.

There was still an evening curfew in place, so hundreds of men spent Shavuot night ‘locked in’ to the Tziyon, but most of them probably would have just been learning there all night, anyway.

But as Rosh Hashana 5784 starts to loom into sight again, I have to admit I don’t know what’s going to be with the kibbutz this year.

The Rav has started singing Uman songs after the prayers on Ido HaNavi Street again, which is always a sign that something big needs sweetening, in connection with the Ukraine.

And he’s also asked for everyone to say one Tikkun HaKlali a day specifically for the Uman, Rosh Hashana gathering to actually happen this year – and for the Rav to be able to get to it.

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Last year, the Rav spent Rosh Hashana in an airport hanger in Romania, with a score of followers who heard he’d got stuck there on the way to Uman.

The Rav’s persecutors paid massive amounts of money to get him ‘blacklisted’ in Ukraine – and tell me again, how these ‘full time Torah learners’ who apparently have no other source of income keep coming up with the funds to keep paying these astronomical bribes, because something in that picture doesn’t quite add up….

(Until you understand, they are working for someone, to go after the Rav like this.)

So this year…. who knows what is going to happen?

There’s certainly a lot to pray for.

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Personally, I’m missing Uman, but after the last three years of the tremendous yissurim involved in getting there, I seem to have run out of the energy to deal with anymore abusive Ukrainians holding guns and treating me like I’m a war criminal.

Last year’s experience on the train, where I thought they were going to throw me off in the middle of no-mans-land, in the middle of a war, in the middle of nowhere, kind of finished me off.

At least for now.

But, I hardly ever plan on going to Uman, I usually get ‘called’ to go, if that makes sense, and the last three years, I’ve been ‘called’ to go, even though my rational brain was pretty upset about it all.

So who knows.

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From my chats with friends and family, it seems many of us are kind of ‘holding our breath’ at the moment – and feeling exhausted, and ‘up and down’ emotionally.

How can we not?

The fear porn stories continue non-stop, and even the stories that aren’t manufactured fear porn – like this one, about Vodafone taking over the ‘smart lamp-posts’ now installed on every street corner – don’t exactly give a person a warm, fuzzy feeling about the world we live in.

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At the same time…. I AM detecting some small causes for optimism.

It’s still pretty nebulous, but it seems the ‘spell’ is starting to wear off, for more and more people.

My daughter told me that the gay parade in Jerusalem last week was pretty much a sad flop.

There seems to be more and more push-back happening on all the warped ‘trans-furry’ agendas going on, with BudLite and Target serving as a clear warning that if you go too ‘woke’, you really will go completely ‘broke’.

And try as they might to keep sparking off wars here – I mean, how many times can a person be told that ‘Iran is ten seconds away from creating a nuclear bomb’?!?!? – They’ve been telling us exactly the same thing for at least 15 years, so either they were lying before…. or they are lying now…. or both.

Point is, they keep trying to start off massive wars all over the place…. and somehow, these efforts keep just fizzling out.

There are big miracles happening all the time here, that most of us just aren’t even registering.

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But, life is still stressful.

And things ARE getting more expensive.

The restaurant I took my parents too in the UK almost doubled its prices the last few months, and I’m noticing the same thing going on in Israel, too.

Part of me is feeling a little uneasy about all this, as food inflation is never a good thing.

But part of me is trying to ignore that unease, and to just ‘adapt’ to reality without turning into a drama queen.

Most of us eat too much, and eat out too much, anyway.

Rav Berland says again and again, that most of the illnesses a person has come from eating too much bad food.

So who knows?

Maybe even the food inflation is hiding a silver lining.

Although, I do worry for the families who struggle to put even basics on the table.

There are more than a few families like that in Jerusalem, I’m just praying that God is going to carry on looking after them and their children.

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So, the dam did burst in Ukraine, in some way, and we’ll see what happens next.

BH, things will continue to turn around and sweeten, but only if more of us join our prayers with the real ‘Tzaddik HaDor’, Rav Berland.

That’s just how it is.

Let me leave you with another snippet about ‘Jewish Demon Scholars’ that turned up yesterday, when I was looking for something else, in Rebbe Nachman’s ‘Advice’:

“Those who ridicule and abuse the genuinely religious are under the influence of Torah they have learned from scholars who lack the necessary integrity. These scholars are termed ‘Jewish Demons’ (Zohar III, 253) because their Torah is fallen Torah, which lacks the power to guide men along the path of truth and goodness.

“There is nothing to be gained from such scholars. Anyone who associates with them will turn into an atheist.”

  • Rebbe Nachman’s ‘Advice’, Chapter on Controversy and Strife, no. 9.

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There’s a lot of ‘fallen Torah’ out there at the moment.

Just people spouting ‘ideas’ and ‘philosophy’ that sounds oh-so-clever – but actually does zippydee-do-dah to help you deal with your bad middot and emotional issues, and ultimately, just turns people into atheists.

BH, Rabbenu’s Torah has the exact opposite effect.

BH, so does the Rav’s.

And that’s why the ‘Jewish Demons’ continue to fight against them, with every drop of strength they have.

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The first lie they told

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