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

***UPDATES***

Here’s footage of the dam being bombed:

The moment that the Nova Kakhovka dam was blown up
pic.twitter.com/KxNMm8frTg

— Antonio Sabato Jr (@AntonioSabatoJr) June 6, 2023

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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