Excerpts of shiur from Monday 16th June, 2025

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Now, whoever is in Uman is stuck [because of the war].

They are saying maybe on Wednesday they will open the airport, maybe by Friday, they’ll return already.

There is no need to travel via Egypt.

[People] want to travel via Egypt, this is excessive, because Hamas is waiting there, in Egypt. It’s waiting there, for a few Israelis to come. They really love Israelis…. They are missing them.

So, we advise not to travel from Cairo, to Sinai, via Sharm El Sheikh.

All the roads are blocked, Hamasniks are standing at all the intersections.

[Skipping a bunch]

==

[The Rav has been talking about King Shaul, who was killed in battle with the Philistines, who cut his head off, and how his son Yonatan was also killed.]

There was Yonatan.

[The Rav now sings a popular children’s song in Israel, called ‘Yonatan HaKatan’:]

Yonatan HaKatan halach le gan, al ha etz who tipes, efrochim hipes. (Little Yonatan went to gan, climbed up a tree, looking for chicks.)

He was looking for chicks. Did you one time look for chicks? Search for baby chicks?…

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[The Rav now turns to his great-grandchild, Nachman Tzuker]

When you were born, the same day that you were born, I bent over here, the aircon was exactly [overhead], I said the Tikkun HaKlali – 11th of Tammuz, I remember it still today.

Five in the morning you were born.

They said, now, Nachman was born– boom! A disc in my back moved, from all the light, from all the holiness, and this was on the 11th of Tammuz.

Already during the kinnot (of Tisha B’av) I already had terrible pains. And your father went ahead of me [to America], and then I arrived on the 1st of Elul. The 1st of Elul, it was a Friday. Here, let’s bring the pink calendar.

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You were born the 11th of Tammuz, you were born 5760 (2000).

Then, Tisha B’Av was on Thursday, the 11th of Tammuz was on Friday. Yes, it was on Friday morning, five in the morning, one of my discs got dislocated, and by Tisha B’av, I really had [pains].

I went to the doctor, so that he’d give me permission to not go to America, to New York. He said no, you can travel. He disappointed me.

==

And then your father [R Nachman Tzuker’s father] went ahead of me, and when I came off the plane it was Tuesday, when I alighted, or Monday.

Your father was already waiting for me in the airport [in America], and with difficulty, I got into the car. I couldn’t bend down to get into the car that was going to take me to the apartment of Heshi Mendel. His daughter vacated her apartment, she left with her seven children, vacated the apartment.

Heshi Mendel – this was at 10th Avenue, he was at 11th Avenue, this was 52nd Street.

==

So, we arrived on Monday in the morning, we got to New York.

And we went to the doctor. The doctor said that I should go for a walk, I went for a walk until 7th Avenue, 9th Avenue – everything was Arabs, there. Suddenly, I saw two Jews. I was walking with Raphael Ben Harush, and with another person. Together, we were three.

And they mamash wanted to slaughter us, because it was in honor of the new year….

They wanted to prepare simanim, in honor of Rosh Hashana, they wanted to slaughter us.

We left 9th Avenue in peace – everywhere, there were Arabs. We were between 10th and 11th, in an apartment on 72nd [street]. In the last apartment on 10th Avenue, it was already the border of 11th Avenue. And Heshy Mendel lived a little further up, on 11th Avenue, no. 4, he lived.

==

So, I came down from the plane.

At that time, there was someone, Teitelbaum – he was the grandson of Mandelbaum. There is Mandelbaum Gate[1] – he was exactly his grandson. They were all the family of Satmar, Satmar is Teitelbaum. (‘Teitelbaum’ means date tree. Everyone needs to bring some dates, to the next shiur, bring dates.)

At that time, he was called Teitelbaum, he was a Jew aged 91 years old.

==

I was in Beit Yisrael – it’s all Jewish hospitals, the managers, Har Sinai.

I was there on Shavuot (5772 – 2012), on Matan Torah, I was at Har Sinai.

And then we went, and it was Beit Yisrael [hospital]. And we came there, and they did x-rays. That’s when I knew what it meant to stab at the fifth rib.[2] There are exactly five lower ribs, to stab at the fifth.

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[The story ends, with the Rav leaving the doctors, to go and visit the above-named Teitelbaum, who pressed on his back a few times, and all the pain left as though it had never existed.]

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[Skipping some about how Yoav murdered Avner because he was the goal ha-dam for his brother Asael, who Avner killed by stabbing him at the fifth rib, when Asael was trying to pursue him. Avner could have killed Yoav in the few seconds when he still had his strength, after Yoav had murdered him, but chose not to.]

==

Now, there is a nuke.

Now, they are making a nuke. We said that within two weeks, they could have 15 bombs. So, if they give us one bomb as a present to Shuvu Banim, I will make peace between them and Trump.

Trump said, if you want peace with me – make peace with the Jews!

So, they should give [us] one of the 15 bombs, this is less than terumah (i.e. 10%], this is only 7%.

==

Translated from Shivivei Or 414.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mandelbaum Gate is in Jerusalem, and used to be the location of the checkpoint between Israel and Jordan. Today, it houses the Chut Shel Chesed Yeshiva.

[2] The Rav is referring to the highly-skilled ability Avner, the army commander of King Shaul, had in combat, where he could accurately stab an opponent at the place of the fifth rib, guaranteeing death.

==

I still don’t have internet access, BH back this week.

I hope.

I wrote most of this article last week, but was waiting for the right moment to put it up here on the blog.

BH, after transliterating that prayer from the Rav to sleep well yesterday, I had the best night’s sleep I had in a longgggg time….

Both my kids moved back home now, and are doing their best to manage the every-day stresses with emuna and staying productive.

I haven’t checked the little bit of news I engage with yet, so I have no idea ‘what the story’ is meant to be today, but at least in my world, I am planning on having more of a ‘stay-cation’ today, baking something yummy, doing some pilates at home, practising my guitar….

Life is too short, way too short, to stay stuck in fearful ‘stress mode’ all day long.

==

So, this what I wrote last week, when I suddenly remembered about the Pidyon Kollel, and how in the past, it has worked like a charm, spiritually, to help get Am Yisrael out of wars and intifadas.

And then this AM, someone sent me another piece of info from Likutei Halachot, that is another piece of the puzzle, which I’ll put up below the piece.

Read on.

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I thought I’d put up some more stuff from the OIAG books where the Rav talked about how doing a ‘communal pidyon’ could sweeten things like intifadas and wars – in the past.

I say ‘in the past’, because the courts in Israel have forbidden the Rav from talking about money in any way, shape or form.

But, we see this worked before, and there is no reason at all why it shouldn’t still be working now – he’s still the one in a generation, the concept of doing pidyonot to cancel harsh decrees is still sound. Tachlis, nothing has changed except the Rav is now forbidden by court order from spelling any of this stuff out, or talking about doing pidyonot, or directly taking any money, which now goes straight to the Shuvu Banim organisations.

Or to put it another way – the test of faith has gone up a level.

==

Anyway, this stuff has been in print for a few years, it’s not new, but it’s more relevant than ever:

This is from page 148 of OIAG Vol. 2, and it’s talking about the start of the so-called ‘Stabbing Intifada’:

A little before Purim 5755, Rav Berland issued a call for every member of Am Yisrael to contribute a sum of money, however small, toward a communal “pidyon hakollel” that would sweeten the harsh decrees of the so-called Third Intifada that the Rav could see looming on the horizon.

The goal was to raise $600,000 — a dollar for each of the root souls of the nation of Israel — and to sweeten the judgments that way.

At that time, he sent out a message saying: “We are in a new intifada, and it’s a terrible intifada that will spread around the globe. It’s impossible to stop it [by natural means].”

Unfortunately, even though the request to participate in the “pidyon hakollel” was repeated many times, with announcements appearing in many of the Breslov yeshivos encouraging people to donate, and many people took the Rav’s plea to heart, most of these people were not wealthy, and barely a sixth of the total required was raised.

Then the Festival of Sukkos 5776 arrived, and with it came the beginning of the prophesized upswing in Arab violence.

When the shootings, stabbings and other attacks began in earnest in Eretz Yisrael, everyone saw that the prophecy of the Rav had indeed materialized. The Third Intifada, foreseen by the Rav and which he’d hoped to avoid and sweeten, had begun.

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It’s important to note that even with Shuvu Banim ten years ago, people were not taking a lot of what the Rav was saying seriously.

So, when the Rav asked for the pidyon hakollel to be raised, $600,000, to prevent the ‘stabbing intifada’ from beginning – many people didn’t heed the call. That’s human nature. What happened next is – the intifada began exactly as predicted, and very quickly, a lot of people woke up.

Here’s what happened next:

At this time, the Rav publicized an important message that whoever would donate 98 shekels a month for a pidyon would be saved, in that merit, along with his whole family, from the terrorist attacks.

The Rav promised this himself, in the following words where he said:

“As long as the intifada continues, everyone is obligated to give, every Jew in every place of the world. Even non-Jews should give 98 shekels — which is $26, or €25, every month, for as long as this continues.

In every place in the world there are terror attacks. Whoever wants to be saved from this new intifada that is spreading over the entire globe, needs to give. Everyone who gives the pidyon will be saved from all attacks, and from all stumbling blocks, and from all types of sin.”

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Ad kan, from OIAG – written and published back in 2017.

Here is a brief explanation of how these pidyonot work, spiritually, to sweeten harsh judgements, found a little further down the page:

WHY PIDYON NEFESH WORKS TO REMOVE HARSH JUDGMENTS 

The language that Chazal use to describe “money” is damim, which literally means “blood” or “bloods” in Hebrew. When there are harsh decrees hanging over Am Yisrael, they can only be sweetened by immense amounts of mesirus nefesh, or self-sacrifice from the Jewish people, which often entails the spilling of blood.

But there is another way of sweetening the decrees.

Instead of spilling real blood, God forbid, it’s also possible to fulfill the requirement to “spill blood” by the self-sacrifice required in giving money, or damim. If you give whatever amount you’re able to give, with mesirus nefesh, then you fulfill the verse that states, “Charity saves from death¹.”

A pidyon nefesh where each person gives a fixed amount is called pidyon hakollel, or “communal redemption,” and this sweetens all of the judgments that are currently hanging over the nation of Israel, which means we won’t see any more blood spilled in our country.

==

Again, this stuff is ‘old’ – it was said by the Rav a decade ago, before the courts here banned him from speaking about money or raising pidyonot.

Today, there is not going to be a direct call to raise $600k as a pidyon kollel, to get the rockets, or whatever they really are, to stop.

Today – each person has to do some hitbodedut, and ask God to show them what is true, and what is not.

And then, if their heart moves them to try to participate in this, they should hop over to the RavBerland.com site, and go HERE.

Pick something that talks to you – and give something, with the intention of it being a pidyon kollel, for Am Yisrael.

==

Me personally, I am a huge believer in intention being the main thing, with this tzedaka.

Not everyone holds that way, and that’s OK. This is what I believe, based on my own experiences and my own hitbodedut.

Right now, we can’t do pidyonot the way we used to in the past, because of the court orders. So, we have to garner our clues wherever we find them. When the Rav says giving to such and such a place is akin to giving tzedaka straight into my hands – me personally, I take that at face value.

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Now, this is what someone just sent me over email, I think from one of the Hebrew language Shuvu Banim whatsapp groups:

Hebrew first:

*ליקוטי הלכות הלכות השכמת הבוקר הלכה א’.*

*מבאר שהגאולה אחרונה תלויה בזה שיקומו בחצות ורבי נתן מפרט שני סוגי אנשים- ״הכשרים״, ״והיראים״. כלומר הכשרים זה אלו שקמים חצות בשביל לערוך תיקון חצות ללמוד ולהתפלל.*

*״והיראים״ דהיינו סוג אחר, שקמים חצות בגלל יראה שיראים מהטילים אז קמים בגלל האזעקות בכדי לקום למקלטים.*

*ובזה אפשר להבין אולי טיפה מה שהרב מתכוון שהרב אומר כבר תקופה את זמן חצות, וכבר כמה ימים איך שחמינאי מנסה להעיר את כולם בחצות, ועכשיו גם טראמפ ולכן גם קרא למבצע שלו ״חצות״*

*שבמבט ראשון זה נשמע שהרב עושה בדיחה אבל על פי המבואר כאן מובן שזה ממש הכוונה של הטילים והמלחמה, שכולם יקומו חצות אף אם זה רק מחמת יראה שבזה תלויה הגאולה האחרונה!!*

*הפלא ופלא ודו״ק*

*נכתב ע”י תלמידי הרב שליט”א בניו יורק.*

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And the machine translation of what this says:

*Likutey Halakhot, Laws of Awakening in the Morning, Law 1.**

It explains that the final redemption depends on the fact that people will rise at midnight, and Rabbi Nathan details two types of individuals – the “righteous” and the “fearful.”

That is, the righteous are those who rise at midnight to conduct a midnight rectification, to study and pray.**

The “fearful” refers to a different type, who get up at midnight out of fear of the missiles, waking up due to the alarms to go to the shelters.**

From this, one may understand a bit of what the Rabbi means when he has been mentioning the time of chatzot – midnight – for quite a while, and for several days how Khamenei tries to wake everyone up at midnight, and now even Trump, who also named his operation “Midnight.”*

*At first glance, it sounds like the Rabbi is making a joke, but according to what is explained here, it is clear that this is really connected to the missiles and the war, that everyone should rise at midnight, even if it is only out of fear, as the final redemption depends on it!!*

*Wonder of wonders and to be understood well.**

Written by students of the Rabbi Shlit”a in New York.*

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Here’s the screenshot of the Likutey Halachot this is taking about:

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Remember that email I quoted last week, from a reader who started giving some money regularly to the Rav’s Kollel Chatzot?

Here’s a snippet:

I also have been sending the Kollel Chatzot their allotments and I see that has also brought about an amazing sense of peace in my entire body and especially my mind.

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The Shuvu Banim Kollel Chatzot gets up every single night, to recite the Tikkun Chatzot, as well as other prayers and Torah study.

I’ve been sending them something every month for a couple of years, already, partially because I want the zchut of someone including me and my family in their Tikkun Chatzot prayers.

Dafka, compared to most of the people I know, we’ve been sleeping pretty well, the last few days of bombardments….

Join the dots yourself.

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So, go HERE to pay some money to Shuvu Banim, with the intention of doing a pidyon kollel, so this whole horrible war will hopefully screech to an end.

And / or go HERE to give some money to the Kollel Chatzot of Shuvu Banim, so at least while it’s still going on, you can get a good night’s sleep.

And may we just hear good news.

==

PS: Here’s what Shimshon sent me, from the Noam Elimelech:

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FOOTNOTES:

1. Mishlei 11:4.

I’d love to tell you what the Rav is saying about all this.

But right now, at least, he’s keeping his cards very close to his chest.

Maybe, that’s because Rav Berland has been preparing us for what is happening right now, for at least 20 years, and probably, way, way longer.

For at least two decades, and probably three or even four, the Rav has been talking about Iran and it’s ‘nuke’; he’s been explaining that terrorists and nazis are created from our own sins; and that if we really want all the destruction to stop – we have to knuckle down, get with God and make some real teshuva.

So right now…. the Rav has gone curiously quiet, at least, in the public comments that I’m getting via Shivivei Or.

(If he does say more, I will of course try to translate it and post it up here.)

==

So, these are my own thoughts on ‘the matzav’.

First, I’m finally starting to understand the dictum that a Jew who lives in Eretz Yisrael is on a much higher level, spiritually, than a Jew who does not – even if the Jew in Israel is apparently ‘anti’ Torah, at least, externally.

Listening to all these booms etc all night long is really scary (especially, if you haven’t got God in the picture) – and is forcing a lot of people to come face-to-face with their deepest fears about death, injury and dying.

Anyone who is still here after all this, regardless of how they currently look, act and dress, is on a way, way higher spiritual level than someone who hasn’t gone through the experiences we’ve been having here in Israel, over the last couple of years.

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Connected to this idea, is the concept that our suffering pays down our sins.

There has been some tremendous emotional suffering going on here the last 10 days.

A lot of people aren’t sleeping, a lot of people are experiencing panic and anxiety, there are thousands of citizens stuffing themselves down into the underground train stations in Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan – it’s kind of like a ‘Blitz’ replay, on a smaller scale.

Yesterday, I was talking to a guy from Ramat Gan who told me that he now developing PTSD from being in his mamad – because he can hear every sound magnified in there, up on the 8th floor, and he’s sure every rocket / missile / whatever-it-really-is has his name on it.

And then, he turns on the TV to obsessively check ‘details’ for the next three hours….

Long story short, he is a total wreck, emotionally, and is suffering a lot.

There are a lot of people like him in Israel right now, they are suffering, mamash.

And that suffering is useful for a few different reasons. First, it’s paying down the person’s sins, their ‘spiritual cheshbon’ in shemayim. And secondly – it’s opening a lot of people up to the idea of ‘God’ as something real to engage with.

There is a tsunami of deep teshuva building in Eretz Yisrael, and as soon as enough sins are paid off with all this suffering, and more people gravitate towards God as the answer – we reach the tipping point, here.

==

Again, here in Jerusalem, apart from the fact the cacky State is keeping the holy sites like the Kotel barred to people who want to pray – it’s mostly business as usual.

Still sirens, still booms in the distance, still a sense of low-level anxiety, but we’ve been in a state of ‘war’ for almost two years here, and most people, even with their anxiety, are still just trying to continue with ‘regular life’ – however that’s possible.

My husband is still going to daven with the Rav, and is now off to learn in Meah Shearim for a few hours, as they shut down access to the Shuvu Yeshiva that stands right by the Temple Plaza, in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

And you know what?

Crazy as it sounds – this strange Jewish ability to keep going even when there is madness all around, is why the Evils will actually never beat us.

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Jews have been through much worse than what is currently going on right now, and somehow continued.

And whatever is going on right now – we aren’t going anywhere.

We are God’s chosen people.

Still.

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So to sum up: lots of anxiety, stress and suffering going on here.

But still, so much being so radically sweetened all the time.

And there is a massive wave of sincere teshuva building in this country, that will sweep all the evil away – at least here.

At some point.

==

Now, let’s talk about Jews in chul.

Before we do that, here’s a clip of the US President practising the art of ‘projection’ to a tee:

WATCH: President Trump speaks following US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites

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If you don’t know what ‘projection’ is, or why it’s a key trait of pretend-perfect narcissists who like to promote the fantasy that everything they ever do is only ever ‘good’ and ‘saintly’, and all their ‘bad’ is just everyone else’s problem – take a second and read THIS.

Without going into details – my BS-o-meter dinged off a million per cent watching this.

It dinged off even more than that time when Trump apparently had his ear shot off at a rally….

(Remember that farcical bit of propaganda BS? Remember all the dissing I got, for daring to suggest that the ‘moshiach’ of Edom, the tov she be Edom, was actually being paid by the Swamp to act as their puppet on the world stage, and plunge the world into more chaos?)

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The projection is part of it – and if you follow that principle and then re-listen to Trump’s speech, you’ll figure out a lot more than most people, about what is really going on, here.

But beyond that – we are being sold a whole crock of lies, on so many levels.

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So, what does all this mean for Jews in chul?

Before I attempt to answer that question, let me just tell you how the Nazis solved their massive economic problems, rampant inflation and national bankruptcy:

They started a world war.

And guess what?

It worked like a charm to pull the German economy out of depression, rally all the people around a leader who promised to Make Germany Great Again (MGGA) – and who was also hailed as an almost supernatural ‘messianic’ figure in Germany.

History has a worrying habit of repeating itself.

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Two weeks ago, I heard a lecture by a Jewish professor, an expert in antisemitism, who lives in New York, and who was visibly shaken by the rising tide of anti-semitism she is seeing in the USA.

This is a crisis, she kept repeating.

I never thought I would see what we are currently seeing here in the US – and it’s not just on college campuses anymore. It’s spreading all over, into the mainstream American street.

==

I literally thought she was going to cry.

Meanwhile, I spoke to my brother in the UK, and he told me that Britain just passed two evil bills to:

a) Legalise euthanasia – or as my brother put it, turn the NHS into the National Murder Service, which can now legally bump people off if they have a cold.

and

b) Legalise abortion to the end of the ninth month.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Call me crazy, but Sharia Law sounds a billion times more ethical than this travesty of ‘human rights’ being enshrined in satanic Western laws.

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Long story short – the Jews of Britain are starting to panic about what is going on there.

My brother told me there are a bunch of people talking about making aliya, but many are caught in the bind where their spouse doesn’t want to move. But the writing is starting to appear clearly on the wall, even in places like Golders Green, even in the middle of this current war.

All over the world, Jew and non-Jew alike is seeing that their country appears to be irremediably ‘broken’, and they are thinking that things have to be better, different, somehow, somewhere else.

My brother told me that most people under 30 are talking about leaving the UK now – including the non-Jews.

Big changes are upon us all, wherever we happen to live.

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But here’s the takeaway message from this post:

There is nowhere to run away to, except to God.

So many people with mamad PTSD are now waking up to that reality here in the Holy Land.

But it holds true for every single person, Jew and non-Jew alike, wherever they happen to live right now.

If ‘running to God’ is your strategy, then somehow, things will figure out and it will all come good.

If ‘running to God’ is not part of your plan – then even if you call yourself an ‘FFB’, or a ‘baal-teshuva’ – even if you move from chul to Eretz Yisrael – you are still going to find yourself in a very painful place, with a lot of suffering, God forbid.

==

Why?

Because suffering pays down the sins.

And we all have more sins than we can possibly count or really acknowledge.

(Especially, guys who are ogling stuff online all the time, even just those ads that keep popping-up next to all the ‘Toyrah’ being read online…. as if, they are just reading Toyrah online, but let’s pretend that’s the case.)

No-one gets into geula, whatever that actually means, without paying down the sins, one way or another.

Wherever they happen to live, and however ‘frum’ they think they are.

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So to sum up:

I personally believe we are approaching some sort of ‘tipping point’ in this current process of global insanity.

After all the suffering we’re going through here in Israel, on so many levels, so many people are being ‘refined’ here, and so much of the dross is falling away, leaving the pintele yid shining out again.

Where that is not the case – those people will probably move out of here, as soon as the airport reopens.

As soon as the sins of Eretz Yisrael are paid down by what’s going on here, plus all the teshuva that is starting to stir in the hearts of so many, secretly – the ‘suffering’ has accomplished its job, and God will start to fight for His people and His land again – mamash.

Here in Israel.

Outside of Israel – if Yaakov goes ‘up’, Esav is bound to go ‘down’

God forbid….

I’m not going to speculate on what could happen, it’s clear that no-one gets into the next stage of geula without going through a serious ‘refinement’ process, whatever that actually means.

And the takeaway point:

The only place to run, is to Hashem.

Wherever we happen to live.

==

PS: Read this:

The Coward’s Bargain — Society’s Child — Sott.net

 

It’s business as usual in Jerusalem.

Mostly.

For the people who aren’t lugging their phones all over the place, and scrolling the fake news.

If you want some insight into the rockets etc going on here, I highly recommend the kipaduu Telegram channel – she is putting up a lot of the videos from the social media networks, that challenge the official narrative.

CW is also bringing a lot of good videos, but I wish he’d tone down the rhetoric, as personally, it’s hard to keep reading rants day after day, even if the information is very helpful.

But mostly…. I am continuing to ignore what’s going on, as much as possible.

==

Yesterday, I sat with my grown-up daughter and made some Fimo beads and other stuff.

It was a lot of fun.

I also did some pilates at home, watered my plants, started translating a bunch of stuff from the Rav, took a breath, appreciated how beautiful life really is, still, in the middle of the madness unfolding.

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I also came across this video, that someone shot of the stars at night with a Full Spectrum Sony A7 (whatever that means….).

The point is, the stars are still there, and shining, just we can’t see it because of all the man-made ‘enlightenment’:

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Hiding behind all this is God.

God is the One keeping Jews in Israel, in Israel – for our own good, however we’re meant to be experiencing what is going on here, right now.

We can’t run away from God, after all, even though many people are tempted.

My daughter showed me an ad doing the rounds on social media, of some guy with a skidoo in Ashdod offering to take people across the sea to Paphos for 25,000 shekels – if they weigh less than 75 kg, and are happy to be sat on a skidoo for 12 hours, as it skims over shark-infested waters.

Personally, I’d rather take my chances here.

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Whatever reality we are building, or have built, for ourselves, that’s what we are now experiencing.

If a person spent the last few years working on their emuna that ein od milvado, God is running the show, every last little bit of it – that is now paying some massive dividends for them.

If they spent the last few years building up the Tikkun Haklali routine, so they can knock off one, or three, or seven TKs a day – that is now paying out for them, big time.

It’s hard to describe how much peace of mind you get, when you say three Tikkun Haklalis a day, or do some hitbodedut and connect back to God in a real way, or get down to the Rav’s prayers on Ido HaNavi, every single night, starting around 8ish.

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There is no way on earth, otherwise, that you can come through what we are experiencing here in Israel currently, calmly and peacefully.

Even for me, I am still having some very deep panic and fear welling up occasionally, usually at night, in my dreams.

The only way I can cope with all this, really, is to keep returning to the routine of hitbodedut, TKs, praying with the Rav, working on the emuna that God is behind all this, and it’s all for my good, somehow.

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I want to send you something that a reader shared with me, with their permission, about another way of acquiring some ‘peace of mind’ in today’s crazy world:

I have been paying strict attention to what the Rav says and he is truly amazing !! Like 93 !! I also have been sending the Kollel Chatzot their allotments and I see that has also brought about an amazing sense of peace in my entire body and especially my mind.

I almost at times feel like my mission down here is finished and Hashem is giving me extra time to pay all my debts, almost have all credit cards paid off!! And then He can come and get me if He needs me for something else. There is an amazing sense of peace knowing truly who the Rav is, and knowing what comes next in our spiritual progression. 

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As I keep mentioning, the pidyonot paid to the institutions of the True Tzaddikim are the short cuts to peace of mind.

If someone can’t or won’t say a bunch of TKs, do hitbodedut, recite a few of the Rav’s prayers, work on their emuna, go to the ma’ariv prayers etc – this is still an option that’s open to them, and that works on some very deep levels.

You can do that for the Rav’s Kollel Chatzot HERE.

Or if you prefer to ‘deal direct’, more, go to the RavBerland.com site HERE.

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We are all making our own reality now, mamash.

That reality can either consist of panic, fake news, false prophets and a lot of anger, fear and pointless speculation about what is going on.

Or, it can consist of TKs, hitbodedut, prayers, pidyonot, teshuva and an increasing sense that God is running the show, only God, and the best hishtadlus in the world is just to get with God, and to get real.

And to get with the True Tzaddikim, like Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, and Rav Eliezer Berland, and to follow their spiritual advice, and their spiritual path.

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Right now, the holy sites in Israel have been closed down ‘because of the war’.

The Kotel and the Old City are barred to anyone who is not a resident of the Old City.

I know R Meir Baal HaNess was also closed, I haven’t been elsewhere, but I’m guessing they are doing this with other sites, too, or trying to.

Hashem is forcing us to turn inwards, into the only real ‘safe space’ that is available to us, inside, where we can talk to God, and know He is with us in all this, and ein od milvado.

If we do that for an hour a day – or at least, five minutes! – then everything that is going on becomes way more manageable, our perspective shifts into a much healthier frame of mind, the fear goes down, and the emuna goes up.

That’s the whole point.

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Bottom line: who is really firing all these rockets at Israel, via proxies and puppets, is Hashem.

The ‘stick’ will still be punished, in due course, but we can’t lose sight of Who is wielding the ‘stick’, i.e. Hashem.

Ditto, Who is keeping the Jews in Israel: Hashem.

Who is shutting down ‘regular life’ here, to get us all to turn inward and to get real: Hashem.

Who is destroying the materialistic world of lies before our eyes: Hashem.

Who is whipping-up anti-semitism all over the world, especially in places like the USA, so that complacent Jews remember that there is more to life than stockmarkets, holidays and expensive wigs: Hashem.

Hashem is doing all this, and it’s all for our ultimate good.

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If a person does their best to remember that, then even in the middle of the madness, it’s still business as usual.

Every day, I have to deal with my fallen fears, my bad middot, and put God back in the picture of my ‘real life’.

And now is no different.

Just now, my ‘reality’ includes sirens, rocket attacks from the ‘Iranians’ (ahem) and a house full of grown children, etc.

Business as usual.

The stars are still shining, the world is still turning.

And the birth pangs of the beautiful world we are all yearning to see builtare getting more intense.

The Mamad

I currently have both my kids, and their families, staying with me, as my building has a convenient mamad.

As I’ve already written about HERE, I’m not really a believer in mamads, per se, and I’m definitely not a believer in following instructions to stay in my mamad for three hours a pop, and then also allowing my phone to scare for the 21 hours before there is even a siren.

Call me crazy.

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So, yesterday AM I had a whole big discussion with my son in law, who told me the neighbours (who aren’t frum) want to know why we are risking our lives by not running off to the mamad in a panic, in the middle of the night, ensuring that everyone will have PTSD from sirens for a very long time to come.

Rivka, you need to do your hishtadlut, he told me. (He’s a very sweet person). Meanwhile, my daughter told me she made her peace with us getting toasted in the apartment whilst reciting a Tikkun HaKlali.

That’s the way you’d want to go, right Ima?

It’s kinda funny, all this.

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Anyway, back to the discussion with the SIL.

I told him: I’m doing three Tikkun Haklalis, and I’m accepting that whatever God decides, that what He decides.

(Or at least, I’m trying to).

For sure, it’s different for parents who feel responsible for small kids, and have that whole ‘guilt’ thing playing out. We’ll come on to that part shortly.

The point is – my SIL then told me that a bunch of people had just been killed in Petach Tikva, who were sitting in their mamads as instructed by the Home Front Command.

Then, I started scooting around, a little, and I learned that the Arab family in Tamra who were killed three days ago were also sitting in their mamad.

Bottom line: sitting in a mamad is absolutely no guarantee of anything at all.

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If people are sitting in their mamads and putting God in the picture, still – dayenu. The best of both worlds, amazing.

But, most of the people sitting in their mamads are not doing that.

They are glued to their phones, or to the radio, the news, the instructions from the Home Front Command, who tell them to remain in a stuffy, airless, scary, hot space with a bunch of panicked people, mamash soaking in the stress, for an hour and a half, until the ‘trouble has passed’.

(If they are serious about staying there until the ‘trouble has really passed’, they should build an apartment-sized mamad and never leave home. Seriously.)

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In the meantime, my kids have a small baby who was in a routine, but the last four days, they’ve been dutifully waking him up to take him into the mamad, as instructed.

Yesterday, the baby was really unwell. High fever, very distracted and agitated, mamash all over the place. Crying all day and all night. While the dad went to get the baby Nurofen, I asked my daughter if I could do some ponging on him, with the tuning forks, to try to figure out the emotional / spiritual side of what was bothering him.

What came up, massively, was a feeling of being ‘ungrounded’, and having a really bad reaction to all the uncertainty.

Long story short, each time they were waking him up from his good night’s sleep, with that sense of urgency and underlying panic that accompanies sirens and instructions from the Home Front Command, the little guy was picking up the vibe that something really scary is going on.

By day three, he was literally stressed out of his little mind, and was having a bad physical reaction to it all.

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What to do?

On the one hand – parental guilt and worry, that we aren’t doing what we’re meant to be doing for our kids. On the other hand – doing what we’re told we’re meant to be doing for the kid is causing the kid some obvious and immediate emotional damage, and causing him huge stress.

I don’t have an easy answer, but the point is, this is not such a black-and-white thing, to keep waking up small people with a big wave of urgency and stress.

Doing that all by itself is putting some serious stress on the immune system and the psyche.

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And, just being in the mamad is no guarantee of anything, anyway.

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On Sunday night, we were at the Rav’s evening prayers, when the sky lit up with a whole bunch of something, said to be rockets from Iran.

We were all outside in the Rav’s courtyard, reciting the ma’ariv service. The praying and singing and clapping went up levels, it was a very spiritually uplifting experience, and experience that really underlined in a very real way Ein Od Milvado.

Afterwards in his comments, the Rav said all this will be over by Thursday, and the flights will resume again.

That seems a little incredible at the moment, and to be clear, in other places, the Rav has said this is going to continue for at least a month, and we are in the war of Gog and Magog.

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It seems to me – both options are possible.

So much depends on us, and our teshuva, and our willingness to turn to God, to turn to prayer, and to understand that saying three Tikkun Haklalis a day is at least as good hishtadlus as running off to a mamad in a panic.

The rockets don’t last forever.

The matzav changes from hour to hour, and from day to day.

If you look at history, especially, what happened in WW2, it was the places that seemed the safest for Jews – like Hungary in 1944 – that ended up with the most trains to Auschwitz. Meanwhile, Eretz Yisrael was due to be conquered by Rommel imminently… Until God stepped in and stopped that from happening, miraculously.

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Wherever we live right now, there is teshuva to make, emuna to strengthen, a real relationship with God to forge.

The antisemitism in places like the UK and the USA is sky-rocketing.

So many Jews are still in their little bubbles, thinking that it’s business as usual.

It’s not. God is knocking on everyone’s door, one way or another.

Here in Israel, He’s getting our attention with demolished buildings and wars within wars within wars.

It’s impossible to ignore – that’s it’s minus, and that’s also it’s plus.

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In chul – it’s the quiet antisemitism on the street, that is already not so quiet, and already, not just on the street.

Increasingly, the knock of Jew hatred is being heard in the world, on everyone’s doors.

The question is: how are you going to respond to it?

May Hashem help us all to return sincerely to only relying on Him.

(And to stop listening to all the navi shekers out there, who think all this is just fodder for blog posts, podcasts and pushing some dead guy’s claim to come back from the dead as the Melech HaMoshiach.)