Zorem-ing with God

‘Zorem’ in Hebrew means ‘to flow’.

And right now, I am doing my very best to stp thinking things need to be a certain way, that I need to have things how I want them, and how I think ‘they should be’, and to just zorem with God’s decisions.

It’s really hard.

My neighbor downstairs told me yesterday she’s persuaded my landlords to cut down the massive tree at the back of the house…. Which gives us a lot of shade in the Summer.

But my neighbor likes sun…. Lots and lots of sun…. And she’s ‘friends’ with the landlord, so the landlord – who doesn’t listen to us, when we tell them repeatedly that our aircon is busted and needs fixing, or our heating is broken – is apparently listening to her, to cut down the massive tree.

==

She told me all this just as I was coming back to the house from a frustrating couple of hours driving around Jerusalem.

I volunteered to get a kid from Netivot from his school in Jerusalem one day a week. His parents fled here from Netivot post-October 7th. Then lived in a hotel for a month. Then moved to a ‘donated’ apartment. Then moved again a month later to a different ‘donated’ apartment.

They are all over the place.

==

So, I’m on the way to pick up the kid from his school, when the mother calls me all apologetically, and explains that she forgot to tell me they just moved house again the day before, and now they live in Sha’arei Chesed.

Ok, fine, no problem. I’ll come to the street, call you, and you can guide me from there.

I hung up, spent another half an hour in the traffic jams that just seem to be getting worse and worse all over the country and got to the school.

After standing by the gate for five minutes, and not seeing the kid, I asked one of his classmates to go and call him.

Uh, he didn’t come to school today!

What?!?

==

I called the mother.

Oh Rivka!! I’m so embarassed!! I totally forgot he didn’t go to school today!! What a busha!!!

==

I got back in the car, spent another 45 minutes in annoying Jerusalem traffic jams – and tried very hard to defuse my feeling of resentment.

She’s cracking up… It’s a very hard situation…. At the end of the day, you spent the same time you were going to spend anyway, so no harm done. Forgive her, and move on.

And on the other side of the equation:

That is the last time I am picking up her kid!!! This is ridiculous!!! My time is precious!!!

==

So, I get home from that to meet my neighbor on the steps of my house, all smiles, as she managed to get her way, apparently, to ‘convince’ the landlord to chop down the massive tree in the back.

And the garden is looking gorgeous!!! She purred at me. You don’t mind if I move the rosemary around, do you? It’s getting swamped in the geranium….

She likes the rosemary.

And she likes hinting to me that I should spend a few more hours of my precious time weeding what has now become ‘her garden’.

==

I stomped into the house, sat down on the couch, and felt like crying.

Then, I felt like moving.

I spent an hour seeing that’s also not really going to work out…. And then I felt like crying again.

==

God, I have no place in the world that’s really ‘mine’.

It’s a familiar, and very painful, refrain.

==

So then, the kid who is not working this week decided I need the internet!!!, so she shlepped off to my husband’s office to get the cable, and voila, another decision I’d made for my own peace of mind, health and happiness got overturned.

Truthfully, she really did need it. She doesn’t have a smartphone and suddenly had a hirhur to get her jewellery business up and running, after months of procrastinating.

So, I got sucked into ‘just checking my emails’ – and voila, two hours disappeared down the tubes as I gorged on a ‘Schneersons are secular commies in disguise’ site my friend sent me to check out.

==

Uh, is it ok we are just having fishfingers and broccoli for supper? I asked my husband as he stepped through the door.

Wonderful! He said. He’s so good to me. (And he doesn’t like fishfingers so much, I’m starting to realise.)

==

But in the meantime…. That feeling of angry frustration was still wrankling around.

I put up the posts from the Rav, then went to bed not feeling so happy.

This morning, I woke up with a headache.

I came down – and I see that the kid left the wifi plugged in all night, even though I have asked and begged a million times, that she remembers to take it out when she’s done.

The anger flared up for a moment.

I can’t believe these selfish, thoughtless, self-centred people!!!! One tiny little request and even that is too much for them!!!

==

I pressed pause on the self-righteous anger fit, and realised I needed to sit and recite the Rav’s prayers on overcoming anger, pronto.

You can download them HERE, with the English translation and the Hebrew together, and they work like magic.

==

When God wants to send a person a lot of wealth and bounty, He first tests them with the test of anger.

If a person fails that test…. All the parnassa they were meant to have goes elsewhere.

But in this mad, crazy, infuriating world of ours, passing that test is becoming increasingly hard.

==

Another thing that happens when we get angry is that ‘demons control us’ – and then we become susceptible to all sorts of terrible illnesses and afflictions.

Again, not something that anyone wants.

==

Tov.

So I sat for half an hour on my couch, said the prayers, and now I’m feeling much calmer again.

I will ask the kid nicely to please remember about the wifi, and I’m sure she’ll be suitably sorry that she happened to forget yesterday night.

I will text the woman with the son from Netivot today, and tell her no problem, these things happen. I am happy to continue picking him up – after Pesach is out the way.

(There’s a limit, after all.)

And, I will work very, very hard on accepting God’s plan for the garden, and to try and uproot the festering grudge against my neighbor that is trying to bed down in my heart.

This is all bizayon. It’s all scrubbing my sins off, in the most gentle way possible – as long as I can accept what’s happening with love.

That’s a big if.

==

Let’s end with a quote from the Rav’s booklet on prayers to overcome anger:

A person comes to the Tzaddik to acquire patience.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov explains in Likutey Moharan Lesson 155 how a person merits to acquire patience:

BY ACCEPTING BIZAYON….

Rabbenu warns that one angry outburst destroys 100 opportunities to make a living.

There is nothing to get angry about!

Know, that everything is from Hashem.

==

That says it all.

Whether it’s my two-faced neighbor, my thoughtless kid, ‘Kaplan Force’ closing down all the roads in Jerusalem with their mini-riots by the PM’s house, WAZE turning off ten minutes from your destination and refusing to work again, aircons not working, Pesach cleaning that just isn’t getting done, wives who keep making you fishfingers for supper….

It’s all just from God.

And the more I can accept that ‘this is how God wants things, right now’ – the happier, healthier and calmer I’ll be.

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The War Against Amalek – Part 3 – The awesome Midrash about the Jewish ‘pope’

So, no mitzvah is written in the Torah.

(Continuing the Rav’s shiur…. Read Part I and Part 2).

It’s just written “You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”[1] And, “Let no man leave his place on the seventh day.”[2]

This is what is written, because the Pesikta [Rebbe] says that the non-Jews shouldn’t copy the Torah.

==

When they founded America – in 1620 they founded America.

This is after the Spanish Armada, the Indians destroyed Virginia – all the settlements [of the Europeans] – they destroyed them.

It was in America.

So, they destroyed Virginia, and they already didn’t find anything.[3] They got to Cape Cod – they arrived in 1620, the governor was Bedford.

This is the street ‘Bedford’ in Williamsburg, and in every place: ‘Bedford Avenue’. He was the governor.

==

He said here, we are going according to the Torah. There is no christianity, everything is a lie!

He said there is no ‘Xmas day’, he wasn’t born, and didn’t exist, and was never created. It’s all lies! He said there is no xmas day! On xmas day, we are working!

He said that Shabbat [i.e. Saturday] was a day of prayer, on Sunday we play football – not on Shabbat!

For five days we work, and that’s enough! On Shabbat, it’s just prayers, and sitting with the family, we sit in the churches and we sing. They put together special prayers.

This is how it was, between 1620 – 1670.

==

Everyone want to go according to the Torah, there is nothing else.

All the non-Jews, everyone, they want to go according to the Torah. So, in the Torah no mitzvah is written down from the 613 mitzvoth, just a few mitzvoth are written down.

The rest is just hints… Because they were… The non-Jews wanted to copy the whole of the Torah from the Jews.

==

There was Shimon HaPakoli, he changed this [the Sabbath day of the Christians], from Shabbat to Sunday.

Because, they were keeping Shabbat?! So the non-Jews said that they were also keeping Shabbat, what’s the difference?!

So, there was Shimon HaPekoli. He was a Tanna, and he become a Pope.

When he was the Pope, he moved it from Shabbat to Sunday. They called him Shimon HaPakoli. We need to read all the history about him.

==

The following is a footnoted section, where the editors of the Shivivei Or went to ‘read all the history’ they could find about this character mentioned by the Rav, above.

IN THE TREASURY OF MIDRASHIM, IT’S FOUND THE LEGEND OF SHIMON KAIFA, ON PAGE 557 (TRANSLATION)

And it was after these things, an argument developed between the notzrim and the Jews, because when a notzri saw a Jew, he would kill him. And the suffering continued strongly for 30 years.

And the notzrim gathered in their thousands, and their tens of thousands, and they prevent Israel from aliyah le’regel (ascending to the Temple on the Festival Days). And it was a great suffering for Israel, like the day when the Golden Calf was made. And they didn’t know what to do.

==

But, their [notzri] belief was strengthened, and 12 men went out with 12 malkiot and they prophesized in the camp their prophecy. And Israel erred after them.

And these were anshei shem (men of reknown), and they strengthened the belief in Yeshu, because they said that they were his messengers. And many of the Children of Israel failed, and went after them.

And the Sages saw this evil thing, and it was very evil in their eyes, and they said to one another oy lanu, woe to us, that we have sinned! That in in our days there is such an evil as this, in Israel! Which we and our forefathers have never heard of! And it caused them to suffer very much.

And they sat and they cried, and they lifted their eyes to the heavens, and they said, please Hashem, God of the heavens, give us advice, what to do! Because we don’t know what to do! And our eyes are turned to You, because innocent blood is being spilled within the nation of Israel on account of ‘oto ha-ish’ (that man).

For how long will this be a snare, that strengthens the hand of the notzrim over us?! And which kills so many of us while we remain few?! And because of our sin, this snare is made for the House of Israel, Your people. And You, for the sake of Your Name, give us some advice what to do, in order for us to be able to separate from this community of notzrim!

==

And it was that when they finished speaking, one old man got up from amongst the Elders, and his name was Shimon Kaifa.

And he made use of a bat kol, and he said listen up, my brothers and my people! If my words are good in your eyes, I will separate these people out from amongst the community of the Children of Israel, and they will not have a portion nor an inheritance amongst Israel!

Only if you accept upon yourselves the sin.[1]

And they all answered him and said, we accept upon ourselves the sin, but what you said, you should do!

==

So Shimon Kaifa went into the Sanctuary and he wrote the Great Name [of Hashem], and he tore his flesh.[2]

And he put the writing inside it [i.e. his torn flesh], and he went out of the Mikdash, and then he took out the parchment, and he learned the Name.

And he went to the main city of the notzrim, he cried out with a great cry, and he said, all those who believe in Yeshu, come to me, because I am his messenger!

And they said to him, give us a sign or a miracle! And he said to them, what sign do you want from me? And they said, the signs that Yeshu did in his lifetime, you also perform them for us!

And he said to them, bring me a leper! And they brought him one, and he put his hands on him and he was healed. And he said to them, bring a dead person to me! And they brought him before him, and he put his hands on him, and he lived and stood upon his feet.

And the people saw this, and they fell on the face, to the ground, and they said to him, you are truly a messenger of Yeshu, because he did these things in his lifetime!

==

And Shimon Kaifa said to them, I am the messenger of Yeshu, and he commanded me to come to you, and he made me swear to him that you will do all the things that I will command you!

And they all answered and said, everything that you command, we will do!

And Shimon Kaifa said to them, no! Know that Yeshu hated Israel and their Torah, like Isaiah prophesized, ‘Your months and your festivals My soul despises’. And also know, that he doesn’t desire Israel, as Hoshea prophesized, that ‘you are not My nation’.

And even though he has the ability to uproot them from the world in one moment, in any event he doesn’t want their destruction. Rather, he wants to leave them in order that his hanging and stoning will be remembered from generation to generation.

And most of the great torment that he suffered, all the suffering, is in order to redeem you from gehinnom. And now, he is warning you and commanding you not to do any more evil to any Jew! And if a Jew says to a notzri ‘go with me for a parsa’ – then he should go two parsot with him!

And if a Jew hits him on the cheek, he should also turn his right cheek to him! So that they [i.e. the Jews] will get their reward in this world, and in the world to come they will be judged in gehinnom.

And if you will do this, you will merit to sit with him in his courtyard.

==

And behold, he commands you to not celebrate the festival of Pesach!

Rather, to celebrate the day of his death! And instead of the festival of Shavuot, to celebrate 40 days from his stoning and his going up to the heavens afterwards!

And instead of the festival of Succot, celebrate the day of his birth! And the eighth day of his birth, celebrate the day on which he was circumcised!

And they all answered and said, everything you said, we will do! But only if you stay with us!

And he said, I will dwell amongst you, if you do for me as I was commanded to act, not to eat any food except for the bread of affliction and the water of oppression. And you need to build me a tower in the city, and I will stay there until the day of my death.

And they said, we will do as you say!

==

And they built him a tower, and the tower was a residence for him.

And they gave him bread and water every day, as a rule, until the day of his death, and he remained amongst them.

And he served the God of our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, and he wrote piyutim (religious poetry), lots of them. And he sent them to all the orders of Israel, in order that it would be a remembrance for him in each generation.

And every piyut that he made, he would send to his rabbis.

And Shimon dwelled in the tower for six years, and he died. And he commanded them to bury him in the tower, and they did this. Afterwards, they built for him a beautiful building, and this tower is still in Rome. And they call it ‘Peter’.

And this is the name of a stone that he sat on, until the day of his death.

====

FOOTNOTES FROM THE MIDRASH:

[1] As we read on, we understand that he’s referring to the ‘sin’ that he himself is forced to undertake in order to do this.

[2] He did this in order to ‘remember’ the Name, which ordinarily a person would forget as soon as they left the Temple. But by writing the Name on a piece of parchment and hiding the parchment in the cut he made on his body, he could then use Hashem’s Great Name to perform miracles outside of the Temple. This is similar to how Chazal explain Yeshu himself was able to do his ‘miracles’ – but there is a machloket over whether Yeshu used Hashem’s Name to perform his black magic, or impure names that he learned during his sojourn in Egypt.

====

FOOTNOTES FROM THE RAV’S COMMENTS, ABOVE THE MIDRASH:

[1] Shemot 35:3.

[2] Shemot 16:29.

[3] It’s not clear what the Rav is referring to here. The history of the founding of ‘America’ is perhaps not as straightforward as we are typically taught.

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The War Against Amalek – Part 2 – The Chilonim will wake up in a second

People make teshuva in a moment.

Army commanders, and everyone. Everyone wants to go to synagogue, just they are embarassed by each other. They are simply ashamed!

And now, it’s possible to bring everyone back in teshuva.

Everyone should take it upon themselves to bring fifty [people]. There are 70 men here – 50 [each]. Each person should speak, they should travel on the buses, and then it’s possible to bring people back in teshuva.

==

R’ Ber Hager[1] – this was on a bus.

We travelled on a bus. We should go back to that now. This was in the month of Cheshvan, perhaps it was the [week of the] Parshat Lech-Lecha.

I used to like to sit behind the driver. Today, they don’t let you do this anymore. Today, they already don’t allow you to travel on buses[2]. This is a scandal.

We need to do something here, some sort of revolution.

==

So, we travelled on the bus, and we got off at the Kotel [after coming back from Meron]. For L’ag B’omer.

This was Parshat Lech Lecha. And he [R Ber Hager] was sitting after the driver, and I sat down next to him, and we started to talk.

I started to tell him such chiddushim! He said, I never heard such chiddushim like these!

==

He said, Come to my home, come and eat breakfast. Where do you eat, where do you live?

He said, I live in Bnei Brak.

So, come to me, to my home! It was Friday, we sat together until noon, and from then, he didn’t leave me, already.

For 20 years, we sat together by him.

I ate by him. His wife would prepare food, and also his daughters. The mother of Yehuda Schwartz used to prepare food for me.

I used to eat three meals by him, sleep by him. The Rabbanit wasn’t by him, but Nachman [Berland, the Rav’s son] was by him. Nachman Berland.

And perhaps Tzvia [the Rav’s daughter] was also by him. For 20 years, we used to live by him. Until we moved to Jerusalem, in 5742.

This was a journey on an autobus.

==

The Rebbe said:

Ich vill ir zalt zine oyus gamisht mit der velt.[3]

==

Rabbi Natan got dressed in his coat – this was on Rosh Hashana.

He said, we need to pray with everyone.

So the next year, there was already no space. But Rabbi Natan put his coat on, and left the minyan. It was a reduced minyan – [just] 100 men. He said no! Gamisht mit der velt!

It’s possible to bring the whole world back [to God] in a second!

==

Rabbenu is the whole of the Gemara – this is Rabbenu.

It’s how to pray. Before, we sing, we sing something, some niggun. After this, we pray.

And everything, it’s written in the Megillat Amukot, in the Ba’al HaTurim. All of Likutey Moharan, it’s written in all of the commentaries, of the Ba’al HaTurim, of the Megillat Amukot.

There is no saying of the Rebbe that wasn’t mentioned already hundreds of years beforehand.

The Rebbe said:

I am saying something that is totally ‘old’, but [putting it] in a new vessel.[4]

People don’t pay attention – they don’t know this Ba’al HaTurim. If I wasn’t Breslov, I also wouldn’t have recognised it. Now, I learn, so I understand what this ‘song’ is, that we need to play niggunim before the prayers, and to also sing niggunim after the prayers.

==

And we used to sing!

In Uman, they used to sing for 45 [minutes]. And after the ma’ariv prayers of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, we used to wait for 45 minutes, until the time that he died in 5749 (1989).

He used to grasp my  hand, and all the time urge me on, that I shouldn’t stop dancing. And like this, Shuvu Banim is the only place that continues [the practices] of Rabbi Levy Yitzhak – the only place!

[In the early hours that] they used to shout, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak didn’t know what they were yelling about. Rabbi Levi Yitzhak was just [about] learning Gemara – and that’s all. He learned Gemara and Shulchan Aruch.

Whoever still remembers him, this is what he did every day. He was the only person in Uman who learned Gemara. The only one.

==

There was Rabbi Matis, and Rabbi Levi Yitzhak had 3-4 people next to him.

R’ Shimon Barski used to learn Tanach, he didn’t learn Gemara. R Shimon Barski, he had a group. And Rabbi Levi Yitzhak didn’t know who to go to – or after Yisrael Cohen.

He – Yisrael Cohen – he came, he came along with R Shimon Barski. There, they used to do this [i.e. Teach their shiurim] until chatzot (halachic midnight)

And Rabbi [Avraham ben R’] Nachman used to go to sleep [until chatzot, when he would wake up to do the tikkun chatzot prayers.] So, he didn’t know who to go to.

So then, he had a dream where he saw R Nachman Tultchiner eating. [In the dream, R Nachman Tultchiner said] If you have no idea about my son, do you think you can grasp me?!

So he decided that he was also going to go to sleep, and then to wake up for chatzot [with the habura of R Avraham ben R Nachman].

But people didn’t know about studying the Gemara at all! There was only R’ Matis and Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, this is who there was, of the people who learned [Gemara].

==

So, we need to know that now, it’s the sin of Amalek.

We will fight with the chilonim. [But the truth is that] we don’t need to fight with them – they will make teshuva, all of them, in a second!

Each person [here] should travel on a bus and sit next to someone, or ask them who are you voting for?… Come, let’s vote for the Torah! Vote for Hashem!

We are fighting on behalf of Agudah, [because] they are the only ones who will fight for Hashem, that there shouldn’t be the light rail on Shabbat. And that there shouldn’t be public transportation on Shabbat.

==

[Because if there is public transportation on Shabbat] so all the children will start to travel.

A boy hangs around the street, he doesn’t have anything to do. He’ll see the tram, and he’ll get on it. Anyway, they don’t teach him this in cheder, that Shabbat is a day of ‘holiday’. But he’ll get on the tram on Shabbat, if there will be public transportation on Shabbat. He’ll get on without a ticket, without anything.

Kids cheat the system. They get on buses on Shabbat. There is transportation, I don’t know, maybe it’s private. So, they get on the buses. There are a lot of children walking around the streets, and they don’t have what to do.

==

So, we need to know that we will fight on behalf of Agudah, and there is no question about this.

And not Yud Alef, and no other party!

And it doesn’t interest us if they are for Shuvu Banim, or against Shuvu Banim. This is not our concern!

First, we need to worry about Am Yisrael, that the city will be a chareidi city. Jerusalem, the majority are chareidi. In Jerusalem, most are chareidi.

There could easily be a chareidi mayor. And everything will be – in a second, the whole situation in Eretz Yisrael will be changed.

==

There is a story about the Imrei Emet – from the tales about all the Admorim.

The Imrei Emet wanted to bring 500 people here. Because whoever got to the aretz, he automatically became chiloni. So, [the rabbis in Europe] forbid people to come to the aretz.

==

When my mother came to the aretz, they argued with her father, why is your daughter going to the aretz?!

But in the merit of this, she stayed alive. I don’t know how…

She said here, I am not going to have any shidduchim. I want to get married, so I am going to go to the aretz.

I asked her, what was going on, that you immigrated to the aretz?

They were Satmar, everything was Satmar. In Sighet, everything was Satmar.

She said, my father didn’t have money for a dowry. We were ten girls, two boys, Chaim and Yehezkel. And I saw that here, I was never going to get married. So I said to myself, I am going to join ‘Bnei Akiva’, and I will go up to the aretz.

==

She was the only one who kept Shabbat in the whole of Haifa.

All of the kids here had already become chilonim. We were the only family who still remained religious. She fought for every single bit of religion.

They said to me if they see you in the street with a kippa, they are going to break your bones! Tov.

Up until today, they are still waiting to break my bones. But already, none of them are still alive.

==

So, [I asked mother]:

What was going on, that you made aliya?!

She made aliyah in 5696 (1935), and got married 5697 (1937). In 5698, I was already [born] – four years before the Shoah.

If she had stayed another year, they already wouldn’t have let her leave.

She’d already managed to arrange a visa – a certificate – for her father. But they told him now in a little while, the war is going to start. You can’t leave now.

==

Hitler announced all day long that he was going to kill the Jews. He proclaimed this all day long.

People used to poke fun at it.

So, when my mother [made aliya], we were the only dati family in the whole of Haifa. That’s to say, that were still a few parents who kept Shabbat, but when it come to dati children – we were the only ones.

All the children dropped everything. Whoever got to the aretz then threw everything away in a second. Because everyone has a yetzer hara.

He saw that everyone threw it away, so he also threw it away.

==

The Imrei Emet said I want to bring 500 families here.

I have the book from the Imrei Emet [which says] I will bring 500 families here.

He was here five times. The last time he already wasn’t keeping the second day of Yom Tov – Pesach. This was taf resh tzadi tet, because in tzadi het, the war started. And then he said now, I wim going to bring some families – but he got stuck there [in Europe].

==

He said I will bring 500 from Lodz.

In Lodz, everyone was a millionaire, wealthy, billionaires. I am going to transform the whole of the aretz! All that’s required is 500 families, with children, each person with ten [children]. And then there will be yeshivot here, there will be chareidim here. There will be everything here!

There were no chederim here [in Eretz Yisrael], there was nothing. There was nothing, here.

He wanted to transform the aretz.

But the war started already. This was 5699 (1939) [Shvi’i] shel Pesach.

==

In any case, we need to know that in a single second, it’s possible to transform the whole aretz.

Each person needs to, while travelling on a bus, in the super market, wherever he’s going, he will be standing next to someone….

==

There was one Breslover who was standing in a queue waiting to be seen, to do a teudat zehut, in the Misrad HaPanim (Interior Ministry) here.

He wanted to do a teudat zehut, one Breslover. And 3-4 people were standing behind him, chilonim. They said to him, why do you need to do a teudat zehut? He said, I want a passport.

Why do you need a passport?

I want to go to Uman.

Ah, to Uman?! Wow, you are going to Uman? We also want to go… You know what, we are going to pay for your ticket!

This is a true story.

But, who is your Rav?

My Rav is Eliezer Berland.

Come, show us where he lives. Come!

So, they came here to see the house, and paid for his ticket to Uman. Three chilonim who stood behind him, without him saying anything to them. Stam, they just saw someone with payot.

What do you need a teudat zehut for? What do you have to do with this medina (State)?… And with a teudat zehut?…

I want to go to Uman.

==

So, the chilonim will wake up in a second.

This is the spark [i.e. The pintele yid] that ignites in a second! Each person has a spark, each person has a ‘Jewish spark’, every person has a share in some mitzvah.

In one second….

==

There is no end of stories about how chilonim helped so many Breslovers to travel to Uman.

I’m not going, so at least I should partner with you to pay for your ticket.

In one second, it’s possible to bring thousands and thousands of people closer [to God] here.

==

Each person can bring more than fifty, he just needs to talk in the supermarket, or in the Misrad HaPanim.

He is standing next to someone, he just asks him, who are you? What are you? What do you do? Come and visit the yeshiva, just come! Come and visit some time on Shabbat, you’ll see singing, you’ll see something, you’ll have an experience!

==

They travelled to the party [the Nova party on October 7th].

And what came out from that whole party? The work of the Satan. It’s true, ‘ve semachta be’hagecha’.[5] I understand, a positive commandment. But dance with the Sifrei Torah!

We danced with the Sifrei Torah until 12.30am [at the Kotel, on the night of Simchat Torah]. We needed to have danced until the morning, and then we would have nullified the decree!

But the soldiers said they wanted to go to sleep. They were scared that we would go back by ourselves [through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem], that they wouldn’t smash all the shops for them on the way.

In the end, they didn’t allow us to go up the stairs. We had to do a detour.

==

So, at the last second, we got permission [to hold the Shuvu Banim Simchat Torah celebrations at the Kotel.]

Because Shuvu Banim is ‘the most dangerous place’, today. We got the permission to do it at the Kotel.

With a good will, we did it, [hakafot] with 40 Sifrei Torahs. We danced.

They say there are 300 [Sifrei Torah] there [at the Kotel]. I asked, and someone told me 300. The Rav Rabinowitz said that there are 300 Sifrei Torah there. He said, I will only give you 40, so that the Reform don’t come and also ask me for them. The Reform will come, and see [that he gave Shuvu Banim and also ask for them].

They also want Sifrei Torah. Everyone does.

====

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This is Rebbi Yissachar Dov Ber Hager, the previous Admor of Savran, who was brought closer to Breslov by the Rav.

[2] The Rav could be alluding to the fact that on some bus lines in Israel, already the only way of paying for a ticket is via a smartphone application.

[3] SIACH SARFEI KODESH 1, 680:

One time, I heard from my father, zichrono le’vracha, a story about the building of the synagogue that was in Uman, that he heard from the mouth of Moharanat, zichrono le’vracha.

Because in the first year after Rabbenu’s departure, zichrono le’vracha, there weren’t more than 60 people who came to prostrate themselves on the holy kever on erev Rosh Hashana.

And also this number greatly increased the assurance in Moharanat’s heart, zichrono le’vracha, that the gathering would be ‘fixed’ for future generations, as it the minhag still today.

Because at the beginning, this didn’t enter his mind at all, that such a number would be aroused to travel to Rabbenu, zichrono le’vracha, on Rosh Hashana, after his departure, as happened during the days of his life.

==

And on Erev Rosh Hashana, Rabbi Yudel and Rabbi Shmuel, and others of the great talmidim of Rabbenu, agreed in their hearts to pray in that place, that Rabbenu used to pray in, zichrono le’vracha, himself, on his last Rosh Hashana, before his departure, which is called by the name ‘Ha Ambar’, as is brought down in the book ‘Chayei Moharan’, resh caf alef.

But Moharanat, zichrono le’vracha, insisted upon [Rabbenu’s kever in Uman], and stood against them, as he heard from the mouth of Rabbenu, zichrono le’vracha, who said one time to him, and to his friend R Naftali, zichrono le’vracha:

“I want you that you will be involved with the world.”

And in the regular language [yiddish], this was his words:

Ich vill ir zalt zine oyus gamisht mit der velt.

And he wanted this gathering, that the whole community would pray in a beit knesset that would be called ‘Shomrim LeBoker’, that would be built next to him, by one person, who wanted to, and had the determination [to do this], that Anshei Shelomenu would pray there.

And also all the people of the regular community in this beit knesset would agree to this.

[Because the machloket that was during the lifetime of Rabbenu, zichrono le’vracha, quietened down and was settled after Rabbenu’s passing, zichrono le’vracha, from the hearts of the masses, and all of the people of the city.

And this quiet continued until the beginning of the year big kaf tzaddi heh, when the person arose who arose, as was told …

And until this year, the people of the city were used to ask anshei shelomenu to be their guests, to dine with them, for the Rosh Hashana meal.]

 

[4] Chayei Moharan, 289.

[5] Devarim 16:14.

====

Read Part I HERE.

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The War Against Amalek – Part I, The Elections

The war against Amalek – Part I

This shiur from the Rav is totally awesome….

So I decided to translate almost all of it. As it’s so long, I have split it into 3-4 parts.

If you only read one of them, it should be the Midrash about ‘Shimon Kaifa’, who became the first ‘pope’ in order to split the notzrim away from the Jewish people. Mind-blowing stuff.

Enjoy!

====

Excerpts of a shiur given on Sunday, Adar Alef 9th, 5784 to the people working on behalf of ‘Shuvu Banim – Agudat Yisrael’.

(Ed. Note: This was given over before the Municipal Elections that were held in Jerusalem shorlty afterwards. The issue of stopping the light rail operating on Shabbat in Jerusalem, incuding in the haredi communities it passes through, appears to be one of the primary concerns of the Rav, when it came to encouraging others to vote ‘Gimmel’.)

==

Now, we need to know that [the elections] are pikuach nefesh.

It’s the war against Amalek, it’s a milchemet mitzvah.

We read in Beshalach who Amalek was. Every single day, we are in the war against Amalek, every single day there is a war here.

Yud-Alef is the gematria of ‘Satan’….[1]

[Skipping some]

==

…Agudah could be the Mayor [of Jerusalem]. Agudah could be the majority in the Knesset.

Because Am Yisrael is a traditional people, everyone wants Shabbat, everyone wants Succot. Even in Be’eri, one person recounted that he did Succot for his children, who were four years old – so he was saved.

He said that for 12 hours, the terrorists passed right next to him, and didn’t see him. In that same tree that he cut the branches from [to make his succah], there was a niche. He went into the niche with two children and his wife, everyone inside like that.

And the terrorists stood mamash 10 cm away from him, and they didn’t see that he was in the niche.

So, from this same tree that he cut the branches from [for his succah, he was saved,]

==

They told him, put up a ready-made succah!

He said, no! I want to show [my children] how to do a succah! Children need to know how to make a succah, what’s all this with ‘ready-made succahs’?! We need to make it.

So, he cut the branches from that same tree. He was from Kibbutz Be’eri.

==

It needs to be known that this is the war against Amalek.

The Midrash says that if Moshe had gone to war[2], if Moshe had gone out to war, so then he would have totally destroyed Amalek. And then, there wouldn’t have been any more ‘Amalek’ in the world.

Hamas is Amalek.

No matter how many [terrorists] are killed, it never ends.

Now, another [Israeli soldier] was seriously wounded, an hour ago. ‘Seriously wounded’ means he lost a hand, he lost a leg. Or in a coma for half a year.

We need to know, we are in the war against Amalek, the war against Amalek, mamash.

And today, the war is with the voting slips, instead of one person killing another.

==

Two hundred years ago, one person just used to kill the other.

They would shoot, and this one would fire on that one, and that one would fire on this onw. Now, they decided to use ballot papers. And these ballot papers are like a bomb, they are like missiles, when you vote.

And the whole of Am Yisrael wants Agudah – the whole of Am Yisrael wants Shabbat.

He doesn’t care if it’s Agudah or not Agudah. People don’t want public transportation on Shabbat, they don’t agree to this.

==

They closed Sokolov Street[3].

The person who didn’t want to let them close it, so he’s gone – [killed in] the Gulf War. He ‘moved’ from there. Because he didn’t let them close the road [on Shabbat].

He said, if they close the road, he’s going to move apartment to Sderot Chen.

I was there a few times, in Sderot Chen. There, he went to get his packet of cigarettes… So he went. He forget his cigarettes, so he left the bomb shelter to get the cigarettes.

The missile fell on his head, at the entrance to the bomb shelter.

Now, one young woman in Tsfat, she ran. So the rocket fell on here.

[If she] would have said the Tikkun HaKlali, nothing would have happened!

==

We need to know, it’s the war against Amalek.

And now, the whole of Am Yisrael wants Shabbat, and wants that there won’t be travelling on Shabbat.

Yvette Liberman made it that people would travel on Shabbat. He organised cars, coaches, from the North to the sea. The coaches were empty. Nobody came!

People want to relax on Shabbat.

==

They aren’t ‘parasites’, like us.

We get up at one, the next person wakes up at two. There, they get up at 5am, and they go to sleep at 10pm, and then wake up at five.

On Shabbat night, they play cards until 3am. I was in Ramat Elchanan, doing hitbodedut. There were gardens there, so we used to go there. And then we saw in the windows that everyone was playing cards, until 3am.

They would go to sleep at 3am, until 3pm.

At 3pm, they would wake up, eat something, some chocolate, and then sleep more until 5pm. And then, they’d go and visit a few relatives, and that’s it.

This is the ‘order of the day’ [on Shabbat] for a secular person.

==

Chilonim aren’t ‘parasites’, like we are.

We can get up whenever we want… At one, at two, at three – whenever the desire takes us. By them, there is no such thing.

I was in Beit Meir. We were there for four or five weeks, and they were opposite my window.

Already, 5am, they were with their sandwiches in one hand, and with their cup of coffee in the other hand. How he used to grasp the steering wheel, I have no idea…

And they already started to drive. They need to fill up the gas and the oil in the car; and to open the office half an hour beforehand, and to get it organised, a little.

He couldn’t [wake up at one].

I did an hour of hitbodedut, and he was already inside his car.

==

So, we need to know this the war against Amalek.

And we can enlist the whole of Am Yisrael very easily.

When we were in Musrara,[4] Yossi Cohen said I am going to stand here with a hose full of boiling water!

Yossi Cohen lived exactly opposite (i.e. Opposite the entrance to the present Beit HaRav, on Ido HaNavi Street), opposite the stairs you go up, where the mirpeset (balcony) is.

He said, I am going to stand here!

He told us his plan, that he was going to stand with the pipe of boiling water. This story occurred in 1996.

He was going to spray boiling water all over us.

==

So, I went up [to see him] with Suri Getter, and we went up with Raphael ben Harush.

And he said there is nothing to talk about! There is nothing to say! I am going to stand here with a pipe of boiling water, [spraying on] anyone who comes up here.

[We said] to him, come, let’s read tehillim together!

He started to recite the tehillim with such weeping, halavai, I should be able to do the same. A totally chiloni man – [he recited] half a book of tehillim. Gomarnu.

==

He said [Yossi Cohen] now, you can stay already. After I merited to read such tehillim, my whole heart turned around.

So, in a single second, his heart was transformed – and for every chiloni! Even for the most secular, the most ‘anti’.

Really, this is nothing! Everyone is neshamot Elokiot (Godly souls).

And every chiloni wants to vote for Agudah. And every chilonii wants to vote [for the chareidim].

==

Now, I read from R’ Aryeh Levine that Teddy [Kollek, former mayor of Jerusalem] already wanted to lay tefillin.

Yes! There’s a whole section on this[5]! The mayor said that he was already not going to travel on Shabbat. He told him, [when] he was going to the assembly.

Begin used to park his car far away.

==

[It was written in the book about R Aryeh Levine], I am speaking here with the mayor. He is not going to travel on Shabbat any more. And he is going to go to the assembly on foot.

And he said, ‘I want to put tefillin on, already. But, I’m embarassed. I don’t want people to say that I made teshuva, or say that I went crazy. People shouldn’t say that I made teshuva, that I went mad.’

He wanted to lay tefillin, and to go to the synagogue in the morning.

This Teddy, he was called the most ‘anti’.

But in a second, people wake up. People will recite tehillim with you together. They suddenly realize.

==

Ben Gurion said about the Klausenberger Rebbe, if there is another one like this, I will make teshuva!

This is what he said. He said that the Klausenberger built a settlement.[6]

The whole complaint that we don’t ‘settle the land’, and we stay closed up in our cheiders, and we don’t move, and we don’t go out into the wilderness.

So, [the Klausenberger Rebbe] was the first person who built Netanya.

I was at the laying of the foundation stone – I was there. The first year that I was at the Volozhin [yeshiva], in 5719, they laid the foundation stone. We travelled with the whole of Volozhin.

Everything was just sand dunes, there wasn’t even a single house there.

Ben Gurion said, if there is another like him, I will make teshuva! I will wear a shtreimel and make teshuva!

==

The chilonim will agree to make teshuva in a second. In a second!

It’s even faster than the dati’im (religiously observant).

The Rebbe said the Moshiach is going to have his work cut out for him with the chassidim, not with the apikorsim (heretics).

The apikorsim will make teshuva in a second, just like that.

[But] the chassidim will say, he’s my Rebbe?! He’s not my Rebbe!…

He believes in his Rebbe.

==

By the chilonim, there is no ‘Rebbe’.

If you want to make teshuva, there is Hashem. You want Shabbat, you want to be a human being, and to stop being a behema (animal). This is what they want.

So, it’s possible to bring your brothers and sisters closer in a second, and also, the cousins.

Half of Musrara will vote for Agudah.

==

Today, Gimmel will fight.

Even if they are ‘against’ Shuvu Banim, and want to destroy Shuvu Banim, and want to uproot Shuvu Banim – this doesn’t interest us!

We are voting in favor of the Torah.

====

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Just to point out that on other occasions, the Rav told some members of Shuvu Banim privately to vote for Moshe Leon’s party. The Rav is operating at a level far above petty politics.

[2] Against Amalek himself, instead of observing and leaving the battle to Joshua….

[3] A street in Bnei Brak that is on the border with the neighboring, predominantly secular, Ramat Gan.

[4] The Rav is now describing what happened when the Shuvu Banim community first moved into the Musrara neighborhood bordering Meah Shearim, 30-40 years ago.

[5] In the book about R Aryeh Levine

[6] This was the beginning of the city of Netanya.

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