When will the war end – comment from the Rav

Slowly, slowly, I am starting to catch up on myself a bit here.

I think possibly, a bunch of other people, at least in Israel, also got very taken out by everything that’s gone on the last few weeks.

‘Business as usual’ – but at the same time, it takes a lot to process all this stuff and to start moving back towards a position of ‘yishuv hadaat’.

So, two things to tell you in this post:

  1. They are apparently buying the staves and arranging the cover of the Rav’s Torah.

I am really hoping that’s going to happen sooner rather than later, as the Rav has consistently said that the war ends when that Torah comes into the world, properly.

==

The second, connected, thing is that one of the grandson’s of the Rav asked him yesterday why the war is dragging on, with all these terrible things going on, and when is it finally going to end.

The Rav told his grandson:

“For as long as the Kollel Chatzot in the Atika is not strengthened. This is what is going to help.”

==

If you remember a couple of weeks ago, I put this up:

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It’s a passage in Likutey Halachot, from THIS POST, that explains the following:

*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.*

====

Sure, you want a good night’s sleep – who doesn’t?

Also sure, it’s very hard to come by that ‘good night’s sleep’ at the moment, even without the rockets.

Everyone can feel the tension under the surface here, we are still in the middle of ‘Gog and MaGog’, just things are being radically, radically sweetened all the time, that’s why there is so much forwards and backwards all the time.

Me personally, I am not going to get up for Chatzot (although my husband did last week, for the first time in a while, and I was really proud of him.)

Me personally, I would rather ‘strengthen’ the Kollel Chatzot in the Old City, with a donation, than have to get up myself and do a tikkun chatzot.

That’s just me, each person should do what they see fit.

==

Point is: this war is not going to stop, until all of the ‘judgments’ get sweetened.

Point is, there are two ways judgments get sweetened, either via suffering (= ‘damim’, blood), OR, via pidyonot (= ‘damim’, money).

Point is, people either get up for chatzot – or they get up because the sirens are blaring three times a night.

And a lot of people here went out of their minds from sleep-deprivation, never mind whatever else was going on.

And the last point is: MaMaD has the same exact letters as DaMiM.

Q.E.D.

====

So, you choose what you prefer:

More suffering, God forbid, more sirens, God forbid, more never-ending war, more ‘blood’.

OR, more ‘chatzot’, more pidyonot, more supporting the Kollel Chatzot in the Old City, more ‘money’.

If you can’t afford to support the Kollel Chatzot, at least consider doing Tikkun Chatzot yourself, once a week, something.

Something to show God you are taking all this seriously, and not just relating to ‘geula’ as an armchair sport, or something to fill your otherwise totally pointless blog about…

Something.

====

You can donate to the Kollel Chatzot HERE.

Something, even just 18 shekels a month, something.

God is grabbing hold of the blanket, and shaking it really hard – wherever we happen to live.

Here there are rockets – and in chul, there are shul burnings and a general ramping-up of antisemitism. We don’t live in simple times right now, not at all.

And if you want to do something to ‘get all this to stop’ – then, you have to DO something.

Something real. Something concrete.

And not just twiddle your thumbs and sigh a lot, about all the terrible stuff going on.

May we only hear good news.

 

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The tooth

Erev Shabbat, two days before Shavuot, one of my back teeth cracked, and a large chunk of my tooth fell out.

I’ve had a bunch of really large fillings in my back teeth for 35+ years, a reminder of a family road trip across Canada that lasted a year, and meant I spent a lot of time eating Oh Henrys in the back seat of a car, watching the Canadian prairies stretch on for miles. And days.

That those fillings lasted this long is a great kindness from Hashem, but in the meantime, the day before Shavuot, one finally cracked.

I think, because I’d been feeling so much stress since Pesach, for reasons that weren’t really obvious to me, so I’d started ‘grinding’ a bit in the night again, before I caught it and went back to sleeping with a mouthful of clay powder every night.

The stress got so bad the week before ‘the war with Iran’ started up, I went back to my One Brain lady to try and figure out what was going on. Nothing came up….

The last time that happened – that I had mega ‘stress’ for weeks, for no obvious reason, and even the One Brain lady couldn’t shift it – a week later, October 7th happened.

This time around, a week later, it was ‘war with Iran’.

==

But back to the tooth.

Even though I know they put GO in medical anaesthetic, I still had a cracked tooth that needed dealing with. BH, God was very good to me that it didn’t really hurt, it just felt very uncomfortable.

I got through Shabbat, then called my regular dentist – they were closed for Shavuot. (They are closed a lot, it turns out…)

So then I went to the emergency dentist instead, who stuck ‘dental cement’ on it, until I could get back to my dentist.

I stick with my dentist, even though really I hate all of them, because my dentist is at least honest (as these things go), and has never tried to tell me I need a ‘root canal’ when I don’t. And maybe, just maybe, that’s part of the reason that I still haven’t had a single root canal, BH.

==

So, I get the temporary filling, phoned my dentist for an appointment, for the next week – and then, ‘war with Iran’ happens.

Both my kids and their husbands etc moved in with us for 10 days.

I had a bunch of papers to do for uni and deadlines to meet…

My PC broke, my printer stopped working – and then, the cherry on the cake, my internet also packed in.

And the dentist called me up to tell me they were closing until the war finished.

Great!

==

I did what we all tried to do, and just muddled through, saying my 3 TKs every day, doing my hitbodedut to try and raise all the ‘fallen fears’ to ‘fear of Hashem’, going to the Rav as much as possible for ma’ariv prayers.

But, it was like going back into a ‘Covid lockdown’ in many ways, just less restrictive and with sirens and bombs falling on random buildings.

==

Long story short, I definitely developed some more PTSD from the whole thing, even though God was so good to us in so many ways.

Even today, I am still more jumpy than usual, and still yearning for ‘peace and quiet’ – and I live in Jerusalem, the safest place in the country.

It’s been five and a half years of this, after all, just counting from when the ‘Covid pandemic’ button got flicked on.

==

In the meantime…

Just as the ‘war on’ button was turned on, the same people decided to turn the war ‘off’ a couple weeks ago, and in many ways, that was even more head-wrecking.

Yesterday, we’re all in the bomb shelters cowering in fear (etc…) and today, you have bills to pay, and exams to sit and it’s all business as usual!!!

Initially, the whole cynicism of this took me out, until I did some hitbodedut on it, and realised, it’s actually a kindness of Hashem, and a relief from the ‘birth pangs’ that just keep coming, and keep getting stronger.

Once I realised that, I felt much happier, and I decided to make the most of the respite, anyway I can. Carpe diem, and all that.

==

The dentist called me back last week to say now the war was over (ahem…), I could get the tooth seen to.

I had mixed feelings, putting it mildly.

I know there is GO in the anaesthesia, I was worrying what all that nanotech is going to do.

After a lot of praying, I realised a few things:

  1. I didn’t really have a choice – the tooth was cracked, and it needed to be dealt with.
  2. With all the spraying etc, I am probably full of ‘nanotech’ anyway.
  3. God is running the world, and if God decides I need to be full of nanotech right now – what can I do? I have to accept God’s will.

Easy to type, always very challenging to live up to.

==

So, last week the tooth got sorted out.

And I bought a new PC and printer.

And yesterday, the internet finally got fixed.

And ‘life is back to normal’.

Isn’t it?

==

Except, the underlying stress and worry is still underlying, and still popping up, whenever it’s quiet enough for me to notice.

Like, when I’m trying to go to bed.

I have no idea what’s going on, but what I do know, is that very evil people are still apparently running the world, with all their little ‘puppets’ that still have so many brain-dead morons fooled.

BH, more and more people are waking up, and realising every major politicians in power is totally and utterly corrupt.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be in power.

But we are living in complicated times, that just feel so overwhelming, even with all the hitbodedut, TKs, Rav prayers and visits to Rabbenu.

How people are managing who don’t have all this stuff, I have no idea.

==

Except, I kind of do.

My chiloni SIL fled Israel via Jordan two weeks ago.

I don’t know what happens next. They are too scared of ‘rockets’ to want to carry on living here… Even though they have a gorgeous apartment by the sea and otherwise, a ‘beach living’ lifestyle that is externally fantastic.

But right now… They are kind of homeless, and don’t know where they will be living next year.

==

I have no idea how many people left the last month.

The prices of tickets are so high right now, even with the airport open, it’s not an option for most people.

And most people don’t have multiple passports, either.

It sounds like a curse, but it’s actually a blessing. When you have no choice except to ‘get on and manage’, that’s what you do.

That’s what builds your inner resilience, that’s what builds your real relationship with God, when you finally have to face down the fears, and the reality that we don’t live forever, and this could mamash be your last day, each time a siren goes off.

==

Really?

We’re meant to be living like that anyway, even without the sirens.

Carpe diem, on the one hand, but on the other, it means making some sincere teshuva every single day, because we don’t know if today is our last day.

Wherever we live.

==

Bottom line: ‘normality’ is returning, but the PTSD and underlying stress is still here.

It’s kinda hard to think straight at the moment, it’s hard to write.

But at the same time, I went to the safari, I went to Ikea, I arranged to go walking with my friend for the first time in months, we got more fish for the tank….

Life goes on.

And because ‘life goes on’, the evils will never actually win.

Even though some days, it still seems they might. God forbid.

==

PS: Someone told me that the Rav was crying during the prayers last week.

There has been a lot of weird stuff at the Rav’s prayers the last two weeks – police showing up, choking ‘stink bombs’ being let off, massive arguments in the women’s section…. Dafka, this week the ‘vibe’ has been easier, but for two weeks, there was hardly any music or singing or dancing, and quite an intense ‘vibe’ going on that wasn’t very pleasant.

Stuff getting sweetened.

Clearly, still a lot of ‘sweetening’ required, and we aren’t out of the woods yet.

 

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Rockets and yeshivas – more comments from the Rav

After a month….

I finally got the internet back. It’s a very mixed blessing, or maybe, we should say it’s a very mixed ‘curse’.

While I am sorting myself out a bit and catching up on stuff, here’s some more comments from the Rav, from this week’s Shivivei Or.

Also, the Rav is stressing that anyone who needs to return to Israel should go via Jordan, and NOT via Egypt.

He says there is a new route now, from Athens airport direct to Aqaba airport in Jordan, then five minutes drive from there to cross the border at Eilat and get back to Israel.

I will be back with some more thoughts soon, in the meantime, enjoy.

==

Excerpt of a shiur given by the Rav, 27th Sivan, 5775, to ANSH from Bnei Brak, students of the Rav Selma

A person needs to take his children, and to sing with them at melave malka, to pray together with them ma’ariv. He doesn’t do it.

There was a need to rectify ma’ariv. Avraham rectified shacharit, (the morning prayers), Yitzhak rectified minchah (the afternoon prayers) and Yaakov ma’ariv (the evening prayers). Ma’ariv is a revelation of the geula.

We are now in galut, the galut of the zionists.

Now, they said that every yeshiva that [continues] to study during the time of the sirens, they will close it.

==

Meir Porush cried out in the yeshivas, they learn! They don’t care about sirens, rockets, that a rocket could fall, that a drone could fall. This doesn’t interest anybody!

They also don’t hear the news, they have no idea that there is a rocket, already. They didn’t hear the siren.

==

Now Kisch announced, Kisch, Kisch. You need to say [kish-kush][1]

Kisch Kisch readable, he’s called ‘Kisch’, he’s the Minister of Education, he said that he’s going to close all the yeshivas, whoever learns during the time a siren [goes off], he’s going to put an end to them. He’s not going to give them any money, not going to give them any grants.

But for the Arabs – it’s permitted. The Arabs speak against the State, and even more so, they say that…Hamas is a ‘boobi’ (doll).

==

Now, the Left is blaming Bibi, that he…

They said what are you saying? Now, there was such [a war in Iran]! They said, yes, one time he succeeded, but he’s to blame for everything. He destroyed the State, here, he’s done enough damage for a billion years. He did everything, the disaster on Simchat Torah!

==

Who did the disaster was […] and […]

Yes – they did the disaster, they hid themselves.

They took and dismantled the guns. They day before, they took the weapons away from the kibbutzim. The day before, they took the weapons out of the kibbutzim – they said, why do you need guns? Someone will fire on some Arab by mistake.

They took all the guns out, away.

In Kerem Shalom, the hevrei came from Alon Moreh, at that time they had no guns, so they saved Kerem Shalom. Kissufim was left with one person with 15 bullets, so the terrorists didn’t know that he only had 15. They thought that there are 100 [bullets] here, a million bullets.

He took 15 [terrorists] down, sent them to gehinnom, of course, and then immediately everyone ran away.

Mefalsim – they killed everyone[2], and in Kfar Aza they killed everyone. A hundred killed, a hundred kidnapped. In Nir Yitzhak, in Nir Oz, everyone there was slaughtered with no end.

They entered the youth block.

==

The youth block – there you drink champagne all night.[3]

They drank champagne, champagne, champagne all night long. When the terrorists arrived, everyone was drunk, already. Only Shuvu Banim didn’t drink, so they managed to escape.

There were a few there from Shuvu Banim, they already travelled [to the party] before sunset, they didn’t want to desecrate the Shabbat, so they didn’t ‘drink champagne’, so they managed to run away.

They got to Tze’elim, and all the intersections, everything was full of terrorists. They managed to overtake all the terrorists, and to get to Tze’elim. They were hevrei, already, they didn’t drink.

==

We met in the Tziyun of Abaye and Rava one person who said I ran 30 kms [on Simchat Torah].

I ran from the Re’im Forest[4] until Kibbutz Re’im[5]. This is 30 km. We were 30 people, and only six got there. We ran for 30 km, from Re’im Forest until Kibbutz Re’im, and the terrorists were running after us, and firing on us.

There is no end of stories.

Whoever stayed alive, they have no end of stories.

==

[Skipping a bunch. The Rav starts to speak about how the olive leaf in the mouth of the dove that returned to Noah’s Ark is representative of the soul of the moshiach].

The olive leaf, this is melech hamoshiach.

What is this, “Behold! An olive leaf it had plucked with its bill!”[6] Like a fresh olive tree.

It’s written in chapter 42 verse 9-10:[7]

“Behold, the man who did not make God his stronghold, but he trusted in the abundance of his wealth, he drew strength from his treachery. But I am like an olive tree that is ever fresh, in the House of God. I trust in the kindness of God forever and ever.”

A fresh olive tree, she brought a [leaf from a] fresh olive tree, this is the soul of David.

“I trust in the kindness of God forever and ever.”

==

So, the dove, she will place a crown of gold [on the head of the melech hamoshiach].

She will place an olive leaf. What is this, ‘olive leaf’? This is the soul of the moshiach, this is Moshiach ben David. The Zohar says this explicitly, that the ‘olive leaf’ is the king moshiach, Moshiach ben David.

This is called ‘olive leaf’.

==

And so Canaan [the grandson of Noach] was scared [that Noach would bring the soul of moshiach into the world.]

Because it’s written, when the Moshiach comes, there will be no more lusts. No-one will do sins, [but] Canaan only did transgressions….

==

The same thing, with the tzipor (bird) that was with Balak.

After Balak came, it’s written ‘ben Tzipor’. Bring the Zohar on Balak[8]. What is this ‘ben Tzipor’?

So, there was a tzipor (bird) that was entirely made of gold and specks of silver…. This was the bird that Balak had.

==

What is this, ‘ben Tzipor’?

What, he was the son of a bird?! [Like it’s written] ‘Avigail bat Nahash’ (snake). She was like a snake, which has no desires. The snake doesn’t ‘taste’ anything, this is Hashem’s curse upon it: “And dust shall you eat all the days of your life.” (Bereishit 3:14)

So, Avigail was like a snake, ‘bat Nahash’, Yishai was like a snake without sin, he didn’t have any desire for anything. It’s forbidden for a person to have a desire for anything.

==

So, this was the secret of Balak.

Balak ben Tzipor, what, his dad was a bird?! He was the son of a bird?! No, he had a bird, that he used to perform sorcery with.

Each person had some rabbit, some bunny, something [that they used to perform sorcery with]. He used to ask it, should we go to war? So, the bunny would answer him, do a ‘no’ with the head, it had all different ways of giving hints.

==

There was the Oracle [avoda zara].

There in Olympus, there was the Oracle. These were witches, who used to tell the future. And they knew how to organise their predictions, so that ‘we told you this would happen, we told you that would happen’ – that the answer would always have a double-meaning. A double-meaning.[9]

==

So Balak. Who was this ‘Tzipor’?

This was a bird that he used to bewitch, that used to come to him before a war. The bird would come, and he would ask it, what should we do [with Am Yisrael]? Go to war?

He said ‘Am’ [the people]. The meaning of ‘Am’ is the rabble, ‘Am’ is the Erev Rav.

[The bird] said, no, it’s not an ‘Am’. This is Bnei Yisrael, you can’t, it’s impossible to win against the Jews.

It’s written in the Gemara, [Tractate] Beitza, if you start up with the Jews, in a war, it’s impossible to win against them.

It’s a miracle that they learn Torah, because otherwise, they would have conquered the whole world.

==

David said, I want to conquer Rome.[10]

[Hashem told him]: It’s not possible.

One time, it’s written ‘Ir Mivtza’, one time, ‘Ir Mitzur’. Mivtza is Rome.

[David said]: I want to conquer Rome, so that they won’t destroy the Temple.

[Hashem said to him]: You can’t do it. In another little while, [Am Yisrael] are going to serve avoda zara. You are just going to die.

==

Because if David had merited then [to continue to live], they wouldn’t have served avoda zara.

If he had lived for another 30 years, it’s written in the Zohar Ruth, that he was meant to have lived for another 30 years. Everything [would have been better]. And then, everyone would have made teshuva.

[But this didn’t happen because] He was simply persecuted, by Sheva ben Bichri, and by Avshalom.

He was running all of his life.

==

Translated from Shivivei Or 415.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Rav actually says here ‘istra balgina’. Kish kush means ‘scribble’, in Hebrew.

[2] This is not the case, it seems the Rav is ‘sweetening’ something in this retelling.

[3] It seems the Rav is actually referring to the Nova party.

[4] Location of the Nova party, in the Gaza envelope.

[5] Close to Gedera.

[6] Parshat Noach 8:11.

[7] Tehillim, 42:9-10.

[8] Zohar Part 3, Balak 184b.

[9] I.e. it could be understood either way, depending on what actually happened, to show they had ‘predicted the future’.

[10] See Midrash Rabba, Devarim, 1:16.

==

BTW, this is Kishch’s Wikipage.

Snippet:

Kisch was born and raised in Tel Aviv. His paternal grandfather was Frederick Kisch, the highest-ranking Jew ever to serve in the British Army. Through his mother, he is a descendant of Shmuel Salant, who served as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in the 19th century. Kisch held British citizenship until having to renounce it in 2015 as a condition of being allowed to take up a seat in the Knesset.[1] He holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Click around, you’ll learn a lot.

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More comments from the Rav

Continuing with the shiur from Monday 16th June, 2025

Read Part 1

==

The z…..s wanted everyone to be slaughtered.

Because if they had fired just one bullet, they would have run away – the Arabs [from the Old City of Jerusalem, in 1948].

The Palmach was already ready to enter, via Zion Gate. At the last minute, Ben Gurion gave the command not to break through, so everyone should be slaughtered.

In the end, they didn’t kill anyone, [they just captured them]. So, he nearly went out of his mind. The plan was, that all the [chareidim] in the Rova would be slaughtered, and that everyone in Meah Shearim would be slaughtered. And then, there wouldn’t be any chareidim in the State.

He wanted to found a State without chareidim.

But how could he do it? What, he was going to murder everyone? They would say about him, that he’d killed the Jews? So he said, let the [Jordanian] Legion come and kill the Jews in the Rova!

==

This was the 19th of Iyar 5708, after L’ag B’omer.

And after this, then they would slaughter the Jews of Meah Shearim – this was the plan.

They found everything written.

And then, we’ll be free! There won’t be any chareidim in this State! The charedim are destroying everything here! There is no tram on Shabbat!

==

And now, they are cutting the maonot (kindergartens) [for the avreichim who don’t enlist in the army].

They are cutting everything. [The war] is costing them billions. They don’t understand that the kindergartens are saving Am Yisrael.

When they support a few chareidim, when they subsidize their babies, so in the merit of this Am Israel lives!

They stopped the kindergartens, they are talking about billions, hundreds of billions.

Every day, more buildings, whole buildings, are falling down for them, now. They need to find more apartment now, for hundreds of people. People without homes. Whoever merited, they weren’t there [at the site of destruction].

==

Whoever was Shuvu Banim, he wasn’t at home, at that moment.

An hour before, he left the building.

==

Now [on the Seventh of October, 2023], in Yakini[1], they killed everyone.

But whoever came for Simchat Torah [to Shuvu Banim in Jerusalem- R’ Yifat].

He lives next to the gate [in Yachini, but he came to Jerusalem to be with the Rav]. So, he was the only one who was saved. He came here with the children, now, he’s in Jerusalem. Then, I said to him come for Simchat Torah, to Jerusalem, to Shuvu Banim.

He was saved, from all of Yachini.

==

Excerpted and Translated from Shivivei Or, 414.

==

Just to reiterate, the Rav is saying if anyone has to travel out of Israel, or back in, via a neighbouring country, they should go via Jordan, and not via Egypt.

The Rav is warning that Egypt is dangerous for Israelis and full of Hamasnikim. People shouldn’t go to the Sinai, or Sharm El Sheikh – not even, to go to Uman.

==

FOOTNOTE:

[1] A yishuv in the Gaza Envelope.

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Hevel hevalim

My internet is still buggered, BH.

That’s a good thing, for so many reasons, especially right now when the ‘news’ all by itself can get your blood pressure whooshing up, and your mood plummetting.

At the same time, there are a few things that even ‘disconnected’ people like myself need the internet for, so it’s been a little challenging recently.

There are lots and lots of little ‘challenges’ going on, even without the internet stuff.

I know a lot of people are exhausted, washed-out, overwhelmed, from all the ‘excitement’ of the last few weeks.

I know I am.

Even without a war, I still had a million things to deal with, including dentist appointments (and the associated worry about GO in the anaesthesia…), leaky pipes, masses of homework to do, on top of the basic stuff like making food, shopping and cleaning.

None of which is being so well, or so much, at the moment.

So.

We are being ‘stoned’ with gravel right now – a billion different difficulties and small challenges, that add up to total overwhelm etc.

But it beats being ‘stoned’ by anything bigger.

I am doing my best to understand all this is all hevel hevelim– but also, to understand that I still need to engage with the world, live in it, deal with it.

It’s a very tricky balance.

I will post up more of the comments from the Rav from last week, I have no idea if they are still ‘relevant’ right now, as not checking the news.

BH, I’ll be back posting more next week.

If my internet gets fixed.

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