I went into a bit of a tailspin, the last couple of days.
That happens, doesn’t it? Even when we’re trying out best to have emuna, and trying out best to pray, and trying out best to keep ‘seeing the good’, there are moments, hours and days when we still feel down about what’s going on.
That’s what happened to me, on Friday.
Sunday, I drove up North with my husband, to the kever of Rava and Abbaye, near Tsfat.
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The kever is situated in one of the most picturesque parts of Israel, up a hill overlooking forest and green. It was gorgeous.
Inside, after a couple of minutes, I started to relax and to feel a little stronger, spiritually, again. Like it’s going to be OK after all. Somehow.
After 10 minutes, I was shocked when a friend from America walked in with her family.
I was doing hitbodedut, so I went outside for a bit, where God had arranged a nice fire for me to sit by.
Literally.
Someone had gone to the trouble of piling 4-5 logs on some embers – and then left.
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So, I did what I do best, and ‘fanned the flames’ until I got a good fire going, that I could sit next to.
After a few minutes, the friend from America came out, and we had a chat. She was there looking for some clarity about whether to stay in Israel, or go back to America.
While we were talking, she started crying a little bit, so I gave her some tissues.
A few hours later, she texted me that her father had died unexpectedly back in America – at exactly the time we were at the grave of Rava and Abbaye, when she started crying ‘for no obvious reason’.
Baruch Dayan HaEmet.
I guess God made the decision for her.
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In the meantime, she showed me a picture of the Rav being loaded into an ambulance barely 4 hours after having major surgery, to send him back to prison.
Because they are trying to kill him.
In case you hadn’t realised that.
My friend said to me:
A lot of things must need sweetening again. That’s why he’s choosing to go back to prison like this.
When she put it like that, I started to cheer up.
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That picture of the Rav showed that the ambulance was totally full of an impossible light – his aura was in full view again:
Ah, Rav.
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Part of the reason I got so down the last few days is that I’m sick to the back teeth of hearing about all these ‘false messiahs’ and false leaders, and false ‘prophets’, who really don’t know anything (at best…) and could well be actively misleading the public.
They are all over the place, with their ‘predictions’ and ‘warnings’ and red herrings, that are just pulling so many of us away from the real work to be done to get geula, which basically boils down to prayer and sincere teshuva for all our millions of bad middot.
But then I realised something yesterday:
The truth is starting to come out.
And all these ‘false messiahs’ are starting to be exposed for what they are, in big and small ways.
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Yesterday, I had a big urge to walk down to the Rav’s shul, on Ido HaNavi Street, and just go and be there a bit. I was doing hitbodedut as I walked, and by the time I got to the Beit HaRav, I was in tears.
My heart has been so full of sadness recently.
And some of that poured out, and down my face.
Ah Rav.
I miss your comforting ‘presence’ so much.
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When I told this to my husband, he told me:
The Rav didn’t go anywhere we can’t reach him. The Tzaddik is hai v’kayam.
When he put it that way, I started to cheer up.
Then, my husband asked me if I’d seen the latest ‘announcement’ about the Rav from the autistics on the hebrew Shuvubanim.org page.
I hadn’t, so I went to look. Here’s a little what it says, freely translated (Hebrew original first, for those who can read it for themselves:)
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“ועם ישראל אין זמן, משיח כבר פה, והוא פועל לעזור לכל היהודים. הוא פה בירושלים עיר הבירה, הוא שוכב חולה בבית חולים והרשעים לא נותנים לו מנוחה, מנסים לגמור אותו, חו”ש.”
Am Yisrael, there is no time. Moshiach is already here, and he’s working to help all the Jews. He’s here in Jerusalem, the capital city, he’s lying sick in the hospital, and the reshaim (evildoers) aren’t giving him any rest. They are trying to finish him, chas ‘v’ halilah.
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בכלל עצרו את הרב ברלנד בלי שום הוכחות שהוא עשה משהו מנוגד לחוק, ולא לקחו אותו בעדינות, אלא התנפלו עליו, אפילו שהוא לא התנגד. בשחרית כשהוא התפלל, הם תפסו אותו וזרקו אותו לרצפה, אפילו שהוא יהודי מבוגר בן 84. יהודי שסובל מנמק ברגל, עם בעיות בלב, עם כליה אחת, שלא התנגד להם, אבל הם קיבלו הוראות, לעשות כאילו שהוא מתנגד, להעניש אותו, ואולי גם חשבו שזה יהרוג אותו.”
Generally speaking, they arrested the Rav Berland without any evidence that he’d done something against the law, and they didn’t take him gently, rather, they attacked him, even though he didn’t resist [being arrested].
At shacharit, when he was praying, they grabbe him and threw him to the floor, even though he was an elderly Jew aged 84 years old. A Jew who suffers from necrosis in the legs, and heart problems, with one kidney, who didn’t try to resist them.
But they received instructions, to make it seem as though he ‘resisted’, in order to punish him, and perhaps they also thought that this would kill him. [God forbid a billion times!]
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“ומאז מעבירים אותו מבית סוהר לבית סוהר, והוא חולה מאוד וסובל מאוד. הוא הצדיק של הדור וזה מרגיז את הרשעים, כי הם לא מצליחים להרוג אותו. כמה שניסו בביה”ח להרוג אותו – לא הצליח להם. שלחו אותו מיד לבית הסוהר אחרי ניתוח של ארבע שעות. ברוך השם, הרופא בבית הסוהר אמר, שהוא לא יכול לקחת אחריות על בן אדם שהוא במצב גופני מאוד קשה, החזירו אותו לבית החולים.”
And since then, they’ve been shuffling him from prison to prison, and he’s very unwell, and is suffering greatly.
He is the Tzaddik of the generation, and this upsets the reshaim, because they aren’t managing to kill him. As much as they tried in the hospital to kill him – it’s just not working for them. They sent him immediately back to the prison, after a four hour operation.
Baruch Hashem, the doctor in the prison said that he couldn’t take responsibility for a person in such a difficult physical state, so they had to take him back to hospital.
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“בבית החולים גם מענישים אותו, אבל הוא לא מפחד, כי הוא יודע מי הוא, הוא יודע שהשם איתו, והוא יודע שרשעים לא משנה מה הם עושים, הם לא יכולים לפגוע בו.”
In the hospital they are also punishing him, but he isn’t scared, because he knows who he is. He knows that Hashem is with him. And he knows that the reshaim, no matter what they try to do, they can’t really hurt him.
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“עם ישראל, כדי שהמשיח יוכל להילחם נגד הרשעות, הוא חייב את התפילות שלנו, זה נותן לו כוח להילחם נגד הרשעות. ואנחנו צריכים להתפלל עם דמעות, עם לב שבור, שתהיה לו רפואה שלמה, כדי שיוכל לחזור לבית הכנסת שלו, בשביל לחזור לקהילה שלו, שיחזור לעם ישראל.”
“הקהילה “שובו בנים” מחכה לו מאוד עם געגועים חזקים ועם הרגשה של יתומים, כי הוא התקווה שלנו, שהשם שלח לנו עם ישראל, וזה צריך לתת לכול יהודי את הכוח להתפלל עוד יותר חזק – שתהיה רפואה שלמה לאליעזר בן עטיא.”
Am Yisrael! In order for the Moshiach to be able to fight against the evildoers, he needs our prayers!
This gives him the strength to fight against the reshaim. And we need to be praying with tears, with a broken heart, that he will have a full recovery, in order for him to return to his shul, and to return to his kehilla, and to return to Am Yisrael.
The ‘Shuvu Banim’ kehilla is waiting for him, with great yearning, and with the feeling that they are orphans. For he is our hope, that Hashem sent to Am Yisrael.
And this should give every Jew the strength to pray with even more strength – that there should be a complete healing for Eliezer ben Ettia.
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“עם ישראל, העולם מבולבל ואלים ומפוחד. גם מדינת ישראל במצב הזה. הדבר היחיד שיכול להציל אותנו עם ישראל, זה שאנחנו נעשה תשובה מלאה, שאנחנו נתקרב מאוד לקב”ה. שאנחנו נתפלל על הרב שלנו (הרב אליעזר ברלנד בן עטיא), שכ”כ דואג לנו יום ולילה ומתפלל על עם ישראל בדמעות.”
“הרב שלנו שבוכה יחד איתנו על המצב האישי שלנו, של כל אחד בנפרד, ועל המצב הכללי הקשה שלנו. השלטונות יודעים שהוא מסוכן להם, שהם לא יכולים להרוג אותו ולא יכולים לעצור אותו, אבל הם בכל אופן מנסים עם כל הכוחות שלהם להעלים אותו מהעולם הזה, חו”ש.”
Am Yisrael, the world is confused, violent and scared. Also the State of Israel is in this condition. The only thing that can save us, Am Yisrael, is if we make complete teshuva, and come very close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
That we will pray with our Rav [HaRav Eliezer ben Ettia, Rav Berland], who so very much cares about us, day and night, and prays for Am Yisrael with tears.
Our Rav, who cries with us about our personal situation, about each person seperately, and also about our general hard situation. The government[s] know that he is dangerous for them, that thye can’t kill him, and they can’t stop him.
But nevertheless, they are still trying with all their strength, to remove him from this world, chas ‘v’ shalom.
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“אבל, לא לדאוג עם ישראל, הוא באמת משיח בן דוד, הוא נשלח להציל את עם ישראל, אבל עם ישראל צריכים לרצות. אם כל עם ישראל יקח על עצמו לעשות תשובה עם כל הלב, אז בעתיד הקרוב נקבל משיח בשמחה וששון, אבל לא נראה שככה זה יהיה.”
But, don’t worry Am Yisrael! He is in truth ‘Moshiach ben David’, he was sent to rescue Am Yisrael, but Am Yisrael has to want [this].
If the whole of Am Yisrael will take it upon themselves to make teshuva with all their heart, then in then in the very near future, we will receive Moshiach with happiness and rejoicing.
But it doesn’t seem as though this is what’s going to be.
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“אנחנו, כל אלה שמאמינים באמת בגדלות של הרב ברלנד ומתפללים עליו עם כל הכוח, אלה ישרדו בקלות.”
“העולם רועד, העולם בסכנה גדולה, המקום הכי בטוח בעולם זה ירושלים עיר הקודש. והיום המקום הכי קדוש – חוץ מהכותל.. – זה החומה השלישית, איפה שהרב ברלנד גר, וכשהוא יחזור הביתה נרגיש את האור הקדוש הרוחני שייצא משם ויאיר את כל ירושלים, ובסופו של דבר את כל ארץ ישראל, ואפילו מעבר לארץ ישראל, לגלות…”We, all those who truly believe in the greatness of Rav Berland, and who pray for him with all our strength, these [people] will easily survive.
The world is shaking, the world is in tremendous danger. [But] the safest place in the world is Jerusalem, the holy city. And today, the holiest place – other than the Kotel – is HaHomah HaShlishit, where Rav Berland lives.
And when he returns home, we will feel the spiritual light of kedusha that will come out from there, and which will illuminate the whole of Jerusalem.
And ultimately, [which will light up] the whole of Eretz Yisrael, and even beyond Eretz Yisrael, to the diaspora.
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“מה שאני כותב עכשיו זו אמת. אני יודע שהרבה יהודים לא רוצים להאמין בזה, אבל זו האמת. בעתיד הקרוב כל אחד, כל יהודי אמיתי, יאמין בזה, כי זו האמת…”
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What I’m writing here is the truth. I know that many Jews don’t want to believe it, but this is the truth. In the near future, each person, each real Jew, will believe this.
Because it is the truth.
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Read it for yourself, HERE.
And may God give us all the strength to finally leave all our ‘false messiahs’ and ‘false prophets’ behind, and to make the real teshuva required to get to geula, the sweet way.
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UPDATE:
There is a prayer atzeret for the Rav this evening, November 24th, 2020, in Hevron, between 8-10pm.
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