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:
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Lastly, here’s a few ‘old’ articles from RavBerland.com, that seem kind of relevant to this discussion, at least, to me.
https://ravberland.com/if-you-break-your-i-phones-now-moshiach-will-come-immediately/
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
Bottom line, it IS a mitzvah to live in Eretz Yisrael.
We just had the parsha of the spies, literally.
I am not someone who pushes ‘aliya for anyone, at any time’ – I know it’s not a simple consideration.
But, I think we are getting to the stage where it really might be a case of pikuah nefesh to move to Israel.
And not because Israel is easy, or comfortable – it’s often the very opposite of all those things.
But I think a person here gets their sins atoned for with a million ‘small pebbles’ thrown at them, day in day out, instead of one big boulder.
But I agree, that the main thing is teshuva. But sometimes, real teshuva also has to lead to some massive changes in a person’s perspective, and how they live their life.
Our tzadikim have been warning us for years -YEARS- to get out of Dodge. Nobody has any valid excuse for not being here when they’ve literally had decades to make it work. They did not want to come, and it is very soon too late. The Covid port closures were a final warning.
These reports confirm what I shared on your previous post Rivky about the inner, hidden meaning of the Rav’s story about Yonatan Eybeschitz. We are in ‘moment critical’ … maybe someone who is connected more intimately with the Rav needs to start organizing a big collection of zlotys to pay off the guard.
Always with the “decrees”. They’re always invisibly “cancelled” with language that says that everything is totally fine. Then, within days or weeks, another “decree”.
After the last one, just a few weeks ago, we were all told that the decrees are over and now everything will come “sweetly”. Not just after the last one, but also the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that, and that’s just this year.
I’ve saved all the articles showing this. I can’t believe a word of this anymore.
This has gotten very old.
I understand the sentiment, but are you saying that when ‘old decrees’ are cancelled, there is nothing else happening in the world?
No more sins to atone for?
No more work to do?
Or, are you saying that because ‘nothing bad happened’, these decrees weren’t occurring in the first place, and didn’t get sweetened?
Rabbenu makes it clear, there ARE decrees, we do need to take them seriously, and we do need to do what’s required to cancel them.
Over and over again.
What’s the alternative, otherwise?
Why else are we down here, if not to keep just talking to God to keep fixing and sweetening the world, and to keep ‘fixing’ ourselves, including working on our own lack of emuna and arrogance?
Then they should say, “Wow guys, we dodged a bullet this time, but the next one is right around the corner!”
Instead, what we hear is “the decrees are all cancelled! Geula will come the sweet way any day now!”
Reading more into R’ Shmueli’s comments, he could actually be hinting that things will come the sweet way as we were told just last week after the last gazera was again cancelled. We are protected by the Shchina while the goyim destroy themselves. This is also hinted in the Zohar(?) that says “If” Israel will stay out of it, precisely this scenario will play out.
If you have emunat tzaddikim that *there is a decree*, and then that decree *doesn’t materialise*, it’s obvious we dodged the bullet.
If you don’t have emunat tzaddikim that *there is a decree* then why would you bother trying to sweeten it, in the first place?
Spiritual issues are not like shopping in Walmart, where the customer is always right.
Whatever is happening, in whatever way it’s phrased, or grasped, that is also part of the test.
Really, how would it help anyone to have all this spelled out more? Either a person has emunat tzaddikim – or they don’t.
yonasan eybshutz was a sabatean… don’t think I can learn anything positive from his stories or teachings… truth.out…
Huh, v interesting. A while ago I was reading the Tikkun Haklali in English, and usually when I get to the part about smashing little ones against the rock it makes me feel uncomfortable. But this time, while reading it from my iPhone, I got the sudden urge to smash my phone. Like the phone itself was what was being referred to. The phone is the little one.
It could make sense–we depend so heavily on these smartphones. They answer any question we have, they are where we go when we have needs to be fulfilled like ordering something real quick to be delivered, you get the idea. It’s like people are becoming accustomed to depending on them rather than on HaShem, heaven forbid.
Well just this year my husband bought me a new iPhone–like state of the art, an entire terabyte of memory, incredible camera, and very, very expensive. The other night after concluding the Tikkun Haklali in Hebrew and in English, I went outside, found a rock, and smashed my phone against it 7 times.
I was terrified.
And ashamed, and I felt incredibly guilty. And people were beginning to wonder why they couldn’t get ahold of me. On top of the feeling of dread and shame to approach my husband and confess to him what I had done—I came to realize that I’ve never felt even a smidge this much shame when approaching HaShem. Like, shame on me for fearing my husband’s wrath more than HaShem’s wrath!! But in my mind I rationalize it by remembering HaShem’s infinite mercy–something of which my husband has limited supply.
I tried my best to transfer this shame/dread I felt about approaching my husband to HaShem, and it’s working a little bit. I appealed to HaShem at night–please soften his heart and save me from the curse of divorce. What if this is the last straw in the string of weird religious things I’ve done the past 11 years of marriage?
Well, long story short, he finally asked me, what is it, why have you been avoiding your phone? I told him what happened and he shockingly wasn’t mad at all–he just wished I would have been honest with him.
All this happened going on months ago now, and I have been with a flip phone ever since, and it’s been a transition, but I have been praying and studying a lot more now that I’ve been freed from the vice grip of the iphone.
I wondered all this time if I really did do the right thing, and that R. Berland article title kind of gave me a jolt. It gave me some comfort that maybe it was right.
Breaking your iPhone is probably one of the most ‘holy’ things a person can do, in our generation…
V pleased it didn’t cause you big issues with the husband, tho!
I just realized I said the other night and then a couple months lol.. Everything tends to be “the other night” for me when I’m recalling a story. Sorry bout that. But yes, also very thankful for the outcome.