If you’ve been with me for a while you’ll already know that the Rav’s ‘throw-away’ comments are anything but.

I started unpicking this short piece, below, that I first put up HERE, and I learned a lot of v. interesting stuff, which I will share with you now.

First, the core text from the Rav:

Yesterday we went to the Synagogue of the REMA.

Now, it was clarified that all the family Berland, all those who are called ‘Berland’, they are connected to the REMA, because the grandfather Strulovitz, Moshe ben Chaim, he was the grandson of the REMA.

So there is in Strulovitz, there, Moshe ben Chaim. Moshe ben Chaim, [back] until the REMA.

==

I had a cousin who was called Shmuel Strolovitz.

His father was called Moshe Chaim, and he had a bank. He used to live in Vienna, and once i went to visit him, and he gave me $100. He could have given me much more, he had a whole bank. But he gave me $100, and for this I went to him, but afterwards I jumped for joy.

He exploited people[1], so he needed to run away. He travelled to Brazil for seven years. In any case, they were also connected to the REMA, by way of R’ Avraham of Buczacz, the Eshel Avraham.

He had a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, and the family Strolovitz were his grandchildren.

==

Translated and excerpted from Shivivei Or 429.

==

You should know, that while I often don’t understand exactly why the Rav wants these bits of ‘Jewish history’ explored and aired out, I consider it a privilege to take the Rav’s words seriously, and to try and tease out what is concealed beneath them. That’s how I’ve got to so many of the things that have been hidden from us all, for so long.

Simply, by taking the Rav’s words seriously, and as a starting point, and keeping an open mind.

==

So, I was tootling around, trying to find ‘Strulovitzs’ in the REMA’s family tree… And not getting very far.

I decided to just search for ‘Moshe Chaim Strulovitz’ instead, and see what popped up. Whaddya know? I got to a load of articles with headlines like the below, from 2020:

Rabbi Chaim Moshe Strulovics, 73, Lakewood, N.J.

Philanthropist known for kindness and positivity

This particular puff-piece is from Chabad.org. Of course. Let’s quote the rest of it:

The passing of Rabbi Chaim Moshe Strulovics on April 1 as a result of COVID-19 has shocked residents of Lakewood, N.J., where he was a beloved community leader and generous benefactor.

From his humble roots in Hungary, deeply established in Chassidic tradition, Strulovics maintained a close relationship with many Chassidic courts over his lifetime, and personally contributed millions to people and causes across the spectrum of the Jewish community.

As a young man, he received rabbinical ordination and lived in Belgium for several years after his marriage before relocating to Vienna to try his hand at the family’s real estate business.

As his business grew, Strulovics relocated to Lakewood, N.J., becoming a widely known member of the community, eventually founding the Daas Kedoshim-Butshatch synagogue. He was known for his generosity and kindness, and the positive lens through which he viewed the world.

==

Gives such a warm feeling in the heart, doesn’t it? Such a shame, that such a big tzaddik like this, died from ‘Covid’.

But when we start to scratch the surface, a whole bunch of the ‘white-washing’ falls away, really fast.

Even with all the censorship, it wasn’t long that I started turning up a whole bunch of other stories about this big tzaddik, that the Rav hinted to when he said this:

He exploited people[2], so he needed to run away. He travelled to Brazil for seven years.

==

First up, let’s quote a little from a piece in the Jewish Standard, from August 2010:

Austrian Rabbi Moshe Chaim Strulovics fled to Lakewood in 1998 after being charged with a massive $20 million fraud. He was caught and extradited back to Austria last year, and eventually pleaded guilty to masterminding the fraudulent scheme. Thanks in large part to the intervention of prominent rabbis, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison and was granted release after 10 months served. He was promptly returned to Lakewood and greeted as a hero.

==

The VINN site covered the story like this:

Vienna – Satmar Rabbi Instrumental in Successful Release Of Charedi From Austrian Jail – VINnews

Snippet:

The previously iron clad indictment would of seen Strulovitz face a ten year jail sentence.

The sentence was commuted to 30 months in jail of which 20 have been served and the rest served either in investigative detention or rendition.

Mr. Strulovitz a major supporter of Satmar institutions received emotional support from The Satmar rebbe, of Williamsburg Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum Shlita. Mr. Strulovitz was also a strong confidant of the previous Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbauum Zt’l Author Of Beirach Mosha.

Rabbi Tetilbaum expended major efforts and explored different ways to release Strulovitz, including by hiring top lawyers. Nevertheless, everyone feared that the Strulovitz would be sentenced to may years in prison.

Several months ago, Rav Yaakov Ber Teitelbaum, the son of the rebbe and rav of the Sighet beis midrash in Boro Park, and the Horodenka rebbe from Manchester, flew over to assist in the court case.

==

Suddenly, the big ‘ba’al chesed’ turned into a major crook, who had some big Chassidic rebbes running interference for him with the courts in Austria.

For some reason, at this stage of the research, any connection with the Baal Shem Tov disappeared, and instead, I started thinking about Al Capone and Bugsy Malone.

==

What did the guy actually do? I started to wonder. How big was the fraud? Who was involved?

I got the answer on a German-language court news site, that you’ll have to machine translate to read, and even then it’s a bit clunky.

Bottom line:

“According to the now-finished case, Strulovics stole around 5 million euros. He drove people into personal bankruptcy. He left mothers with their children on the street. He sat for ten years on the run within the Jewish community in New Jersey (USA), and eluded Austrian Justice…He has cheated and been enriched.”

==

Before we go on, what’s your own view of all this?

Do you think it’s OK, ‘perfectly acceptable’, that guys with white beards and black hats who are the very close confidants of people like the Satmar Rebbe should be able to cheat 60 non-Jews out of their life-savings, just because they are going to give some of that stolen money to support Toyrah Institutions?

What is the Torah worth, that’s taught in institutions built on disgusting middot and massive chillul Hashems like this?

After all, Thou shalt not steal is clearly one of the Ten Commandments, and last time I checked, not even ‘big chassidic Rebbes’ could change it…

(Unless of course…. They were antinomiam Sabbateans who felt they could invert everything in the Torah, to serve evil instead of good.)

==

So, bottom line, this big tzaddik set up a whole bunch of fake shell companies, claiming to be investing in real estate, primarily, with some help from at least three other tzaddikim – and conned tens of non-Jews into putting their money into his shell-companies, before absconding, when they finally figured out they’d been defrauded.

And then, Lakewood helped to ‘hide’ him from the police for 10 years, and then, when he was finally extradited to face justice, the son of the Satmar Rebbe, and a bunch of other tzaddikim, flew over to Austria to pressure the courts to let him off very lightly.

And then, this tzaddik triumphantly returned to Lakewood, where he threw a Seudat Hoda’ah which was attended by most of the leading tzaddikim of Lakewood.

This snippet comes from the now-defunct Failed Messiah site, from February 28, 2011:

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Strulovics stole the life savings of poor non-Jewish Eastern European peasants. He spent time in an Austrian prison for that fraud and refused to testify against his haredi co-conspirators due to mesira, a halakha, Jewish law, that forbids informing on a fellow Jew. After his release, Strulovics was welcomed home to Lakewood with a gala party attended by many of the town’s leading rabbis, including Lakewood rosh Yeshiva Malkiel Kotler.

Now the Satmar rebbe, Zalman Lein Teitelbaum, has come to Lakewood for a visit, and who is sitting in a place of honor near to the rebbe? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Strulovics.

==

You can watch videos of the great event, attended by R Aharon Kotler, below:

Seudas Hodaah Chaim Moishe Strulowitz 1 of 2

Seudas Hodaah Chaim Moishe Strulowitz 2 of 2

==

The question is, why did the Rav choose to bring attention to this story now?

That’s what I am wondering.

Are we meant to be thinking about all the horrible spiritual corruption and mafia practices that are hiding behind so many corrupt ‘chassidic courts’?

Are we meant to be paying attention to how easy it is to totally whitewash criminals and lowlifes, and turn them into ‘tzaddikim’ and ‘generous philanthropists’, even in our own times?

Are we meant to understand that ‘Covid 19’ was settling scores with a whole bunch of people in the Jewish community, and that so many of the big ‘tzaddikim’ who were being struck down then perhaps were not entirely as ‘holy’ as they were being portrayed?

I don’t know. What do you think?

==

Last but not least – I went to check out this tzaddik’s genealogy, to see if he really does get us back to the REMA’s family tree, somehow.

It’s HERE on Geni, this is a screenshot:

==

His dad is ‘privated’… But I’ve been doing this so long, even though I can no longer ‘use’ Geni as they’ve made sure to white-out any trees if I log in as a individual user, that I worked my way around it.

Our tzaddik’s great-grandpa is RAV YISROAL DOV WAHRMANN.

==

And his father is: AVRAHAM DOVID WAHRMANN (whose own grandfather is the ‘Eshel Avraham’ (1771-1840), Rav  of Buczacz, who has the same name).

This is exactly as the Rav said:

He exploited people[3], so he needed to run away. He travelled to Brazil for seven years. In any case, they were also connected to the REMA, by way of R’ Avraham of Buczacz, the Eshel Avraham.

He had a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, and the family Strolovitz were his grandchildren.

==

Of course, the family tree has a whole bunch of those ‘distortions’ we see each time we go back to Sabbatean genealogy.

(Or, ‘chassidic’ genealogy, or ‘Vilna Gaon’ genealogy, or ‘tzaddik’ genealogy, generally. It’s a post for another time, but the entire Jewish leadership was made up of the same, small, group of ‘families with yichus’, many, most of whom, had become hopelessly corrupted by Sabbatian beliefs. But even from one generation to another, you could have the ‘worst Sabbatean’ father being fought by the greatest ‘anti Sabbatean’ son. And vice-versa.)

==

In the GENI version of the tree, always suspect, the Eshel Avraham, R’ Avraham David Wahrman of Buczacz (1771-1840) marries the daughter of some ‘Mordechai Weinreb’.

In real life, he married the daughter of his Rav, R Zvi Hirsh Kalo of Buczacz.

Snippet from Wikipedia HERE:

He began studying Talmud as a boy. When he was ten years old, Zvi Hirsch Karo, the author of Neta’ Sha’ashu’im, chose him as a son-in-law. At the age of twenty, he became the rabbi at Yazlovets.

In the Jewish Encyclopedia, Louis Ginzberg and A. Pelginsky dramatically recount his encounter with Hasidism:

The chief event of his life was the struggle awakened in him by the opposition between the Talmud and the Cabala. Unacquainted with the tendencies and modes of life of the Hasidim, Buczacz did not believe in the miracles of their rabbis; and his wife and friends had great difficulty in persuading him to take his sick son to a Hasidic rabbi, Levi Isaac of Berdychev. The latter, however, influenced him to take up the study of the Cabala; but in trying to reconcile these new views—so utterly antagonistic to those of the extreme Talmudists, which he himself had hitherto held—he nearly became insane. The Hasidic rabbi Levi Isaac of Berdychev helped him through this struggle and won him over, to the great joy of the Hasidim, who feared his wide Talmudic learning. Buczacz adopted the Hasidic mode of living; but in his decision of halakic questions was guided, not by kabalistic, but by purely Talmudic, principles.

In 1813 he succeeded his late father-in-law as rabbi of Buchach, and remained in office until his death.

==

The Eshel Avraham is also meant to be the Rav’s ancestor.

The over-lap with the Rav’s own experiences, of being first a halachist learning with the Steipler, and only later discovering Breslov, are notable.

==

Of course, even this version of events can’t be taken for granted.

On the official site for Galician Jewry HERE, it says this:

Name: 

Avraham David of Buczacz

Born in: 

Nadvirna

Date of birth: 

1770

Date of death: 

1840

Community: 

Nadvirna

Buchach

Died in: 

Buchach

Profession and occupation: 

Rabbi.

Additional information: 

The famous rabbi of Buczacz, Hasidic leader, the author of the book Daat Kdoshim.

He was a pupil of the preacher (magid meisharim) of Nadworna and its Hasidic rebbe Rabbi Tsvi Hirsh Filip. He spent his early years in Nadworna, his native town (Shmuel Hübner, “Di rabonim un admorim in nedverne,” Sefer Nadworna, 24 [Heb.], 123 [Yid.]).

 

==

That same site also has an entry for the Nadvorna Rebbe, Tsvi Hirsh Filip:

Tzvi Hirsh Filip of Nadworna

Name: 

Tzvi Hirsh

Last name: 

Filip of Nadworna

Date of birth: 

1737

Date of death: 

1802

Father’s name: 

Shalom Zelig

Children

[?] A daughter of r. Tzvi Hirsh Filip from Nadworna 1850

David Arie Leib Filip 1775 to 1849

Community: 

Nadvirna

Additional information: 

From approximately 1786, the preacher (magid meisharim) and Hasidic Rebbe in Nadworna. Rabbi Tsvi Hirsh was the author of several books including Tsemah Hashem Le-tsvi, Siftei kdoshim, and Mili De-Avot (Wunder, 4:40; Shmuel Hübner, “Di rabonim un admorim in nedverne,” Sefer Nadworna, 23-4 [Heb.], 122 [Yid.]). He was an important figure in the Hasidic movement, among his pupils were Rabbi Mendel of Kosov, the founder of the famous Kosov Dynasty and also the famous Rabbi Avraham David from Buczacz (ibid., 23-4 [Heb.], 122 [Yid.]).

Rabbi Tsvi Hirsh was succeeded in Nadworna by his son Rabbi David Arie Leib Filip (ca. 1775-1849) (Wunder, 4:38) and by his son in law, Rabbi Yitshak from Radzivil, a son of the Magid of Zlochev (Wunder, 4:40).

==

Tov.

That’s enough for today.

I still don’t know how they get back to the REMA… Or why that’s been so hidden and obscured. Or how the Rav himself fits into this family tree, exactly.

But when that information is meant to come out, it probably will.

==

PS: Last thing, I found this interesting information about the Eshel Avraham on the GalEinai site, HERE.

Snippet:

The Eshel Avraham was born in the year 5531 (1770), one year before the passing of the Magid of Mezritch. He passed away on the 29th of Tishrei, 5601 (1840), in his 70th year.

There were many tzaddikim, including the Eshel Avraham, who, according to their understanding of the Zohar, thought that in the year 5600 the Mashiach would come and redeem the people of Israel. When 5600 passed and Mashiach did not come, the Eshel Avraham was so disappointed that he did not live for more than an additional month, the month of the holidays of Tishrei.

==

The Vilna Gaon’s followers also held that 1840 was the year that the Moshiach would come.

When that didn’t happen, many of the GRA’s followers and their family members in Eretz Yisrael became so disheartened, they converted to xtianity.

We covered one of them recently, in this post:

==

PPS: I tracked down more about our tzaddik’s father:

https://matzav.com/reb-chaim-moshe-strulovics-zl/:

Snippet:

Born in the city of Kashau, he was a son of Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchok Strulovics. Rav Refoel Blum, the Rebbe of Kashau, served as sandek at his bris.

His father, who lived in Hungary before the Second World War, learned b’chavrusah with Rav Y. T. Dushinsky, the Nitra Rov and others.

In his youth, Reb Chaim Moshe studied at the yeshivos of Nitra, Dushinsky and Satmar and received semicha.

==

We have covered ‘Rav Y.T. Dushinsky’ before on the blog.

R’ Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky was ‘parachuted in’ from Chul, to become the head of the Eidah Hareidit in Jerusalem.

Think about how strange that is, for a moment. Until you remember, he comes from very good yichus, connected straight into the core Sabbatean families who were funding the Old Yishuv, including the GRA’s perushim, from Europe.

He died in 1948, and you can read some of his ‘anti-zionism’ comments on the Internet Archive, HERE.

Like, this one:

When in mid November of 1947, it became evident that through zionist and Communist pressure the United Nations would vote for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Rav Dushinsky appealed, in the name of 60,000 Jewish Orthodox residents, to the United Nations by cable and a memorandum following, that Jerusalem should not be included in the Jewish state and should be given international status.

CLICK HERE to read the contents of his cable and memorandum to the United Nations in November, 1947.

I found some pretty interesting stuff yesterday, about the Frankists.

You know, the Frankist-Sabbateans who everyone likes to pretend disappeared 200 years ago.

As if. Halavai, if only.

Long story short, an English missionary copied and translated a 70 page description of them that was made in a book by Peter Beer, in 1826, and published that book as a separate work.

You can see it and download it HERE.

The book is called: ‘A Brief Account of the Zoharite Jews’.

Zoharite Jews = Frankists, although they didn’t call themselves that at all.

They called themselves ‘believers’, ma’aminim, and everyone who didn’t believe in Shabtai Tzvi was called a kofer, or heretic.

And the book they reverenced – pretty much the only Jewish work they reverenced, by this point – was the Zohar HaKadosh.

That’s why they called themselves ‘Zoharites’, at least sometimes.

==

It’s a quick read, quite easy to get through – and it has a few very interesting bits of information in it.

Here are the bits that caught my eye:

Page 13:

The rabbis were fearing an ‘entire subversion of Judaism’ under the Sabbateans, because so very many people, particularly leading rabbis and kabbalists, were Sabbateans.

Shabtai Tzvi was packed off to a fort in Belgrade, Bosnia – and that is where he is meant to have died on September 10, 1676. 

==

Page 16 – the aliyah of the ‘Sabbatean Missionaries’ Yehuda HaChassid to Eretz Yisrael, in 1700.

This bit is quite important, as our ‘historians’ have almost totally covered-up that so many of the oldest Jewish inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael from the 1700s were actually Sabbateans… So let’s quote a big chunk:

At the beginning of the eighteenth century,the Sabbathians had so much increased in number and influence, that the Rabbies of the East and of various principal cities in Europe, apprehending a total subversion of what they conceived to be the true faith, issued anathemas against them.

This step roused the opposite party to renewed exertions ; and in the year 1700, about one hundred and twenty Missionaries were sent out from Poland, with Rabbi Jehude Hachassid at their head, who went about Bohemia, Moravia, the whole of Germany and Holland, preaching repentance in the name of Sabbathæi Tzevi ; and
exhorting their countrymen to repair to Jerusalem, as the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.

And as these itinerants lived a most self-denying life,-abstaining from meats, fasting several days in theweek, and attending to frequent ablutions, they soon gained the name of Chasidim (Saints), and their preaching Sabbathæi Tzevi to be the Messiah, was generally received. Such success attended their exertions, that in the course of the same year, fifteen hundred Jews from various parts of Germany and Holland, had congregated at Nicolsburgh in Moravia, and emigrated into Palestine, under the guidance of Jehuda Hachassid.

But, shortly after the arrival of these adventurers in Jerusalem, they had to encounter a most active opposition and persecution from their countrymen, so that many, in order to escape further molestation from the Jews, embraced Mahometanism, and of those, who succeeded in returning to Europe, whither they were pursued by letters of anathema and a cry of heresy, the majority joined the Christian Church ; amongst whom, Rabbi Wolf Levy deserves especial mention, (formerly Chief Rabbin of Lublin, and nephew to Rabbi Jehuda Hachassid) as well as Rabbi Nathanael and R. Simcha Hachassid.

The two Rabbies, Chajim Malach, and Nehemiah Chion, who remained attached to Judaism after their return to Europe, published several works in support of the Messiahship of Sabbathæi Tzevi and his doctrines’ , which they repeatedly spread over a great part of Europe, and gained many proselytes, especially in Poland.

==

R Wolf levy became: FRANCIS LOTHARI PHILLIPI – a catholic surgeon.

(See HERE for details, page 226.)

And that whole Sabbatean ‘chassid’ family actually had the surname: SEGAL Ha-LEVY.

I have a theory, that all these ‘new sabbatian-xtians’ had their Jewish names changed or whitewashed, so their descendants and relatives could seamlessly blend back into the Jewish community and continue to lead it, and subvert it, from within.

The modus operandi was to pretend like all these Sabbateans were ‘small dudes’, nobodies, from nowhere-ville, not connected to anyone rich, influential and important.

I think that’s BS – they were all leading rabbis, part of the leadership matrix, just everyone kept changing the names of the people who ‘went xtian’ so it became hard to keep up with how all these families with ‘yichus’ were totally and utterly compromised, repeatedly, at the spiritual level.

==

I think ‘Wolf Levy’ probably had something to do with ISRAEL ISSUR BONEMS MEISELS, the Chief Rabbi of Lublin who conveniently ‘died’ in 1699 (i.e. just as Yehuda HaChassid’s convey was leaving to Israel…).

He was the son-in-law of the MAHADURA BATRA Moshe Bunems Meisels, also Chief Rabbi of Lublin – and his family tree is totally crawling with known Sabbateans, like the SHOR family, and the EISENSTADTS.

The MAHADURA BATRA was the S-I-L of R SHMUEL EDELS, the MAHARSHA – and another S-I-L of the MAHARSHA was R YITZHAK HALEVI-SEGAL SPITZKOPF, the ABD of Krakow.

The Rav wasn’t kidding when he said the Jewish cemetery of Krakow is full of non-Jews…. just, we didn’t understand what he was really saying.

==

But park that for now, because there are few more interesting things in that book from 1826:

In the year 1730, two more powerful champions arose in support of Sabbathæi Tzevi and his doctrines, in the persons of Jekuthiel, a physician of Wilna in Poland, and Moses Chajun Surgato, of Padua.

The latter, was so distinguished for his eminent attainments in Hebrew learning and composition, that he gained over to his party, several of the most celebrated Rabbies of that time; amongst whom deserve notice, Rabbi Samuel Bassan, Chief Rabbi at Padua; and R. Samson, Chief Rabbi of Amona, who defended the Sabbathian doctrines against the attacks of their antagonists, Rabbies Moses Chagis, and Joseph Abuhf, the former Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and the latter of Venice. The following Rabbies also joined Surgato on his missionary tours, and went about preaching in the name of Sabbathæi Tzevi : R. Samuel Essinger, of Munster, R. Moses Prager, of Sklow, R. Abraham Hertz, of Lublin, and R. Moses Cohen, of Resdal.

I think MOSES CHAJUN SURGATO is a misspelling of the RAMCHAL.

I am not getting into a discussion about him, at this stage. But ‘JEKUTHIEL, a physician of Wilna in Poland’, was initially part of the RAMCHAL’s circle in Padua – and the Rav has spoken about him.

Let’s go back to THIS post on my site, snippet below:

==

This is a snippet from February 2022, now published in CONVERSATIONS II:

==

RAMCHAL AND GORDON

Each hour, [The Ramchal] he’d see angels, until this was told to the rabbis of Venice.

And Rabbi Yeshaya Bassan was his shver. R’ Yeshaya Bassan told him to lower his profile, the he should keep things censored – but he couldn’t do it. Every quarter of an hour, he saw an angel.

And there was one person, called ‘Gordon’, he was a student of the ‘Gaon’, and he was a little ruined.

And he came to Padua to learn in the university, and when he saw the Ramchal, he made teshuva. And he heard how he would converse with angels – he heard how he was speaking.

The Ramchal was shut up in a room, but each quarter of an hour, he was talking to someone, until he revealed that this was the Angel Gabriel, and the Angel Michael, and the Angel Nuriel. Every quarter of an hour, a new angel would come.

And so, he [i.e. Gordon] publicised this. This was around 5480. In 5488 (1728), this was exactly 50 years after ‘that man’ – Shabtai Tzvi – died [in 1678]. So they suspected that he was also a Sabbatean, so all the Venetian rabbis excommunicated him.

And he wrote Zohar, he wrote a whole Zohar. They took the Zohar away from him, and just left the 70 tikkunim that he wrote on ‘Bereishit – before the eyes of all Israel’. This remains.

==

[Translated from the Rav’s comments in the ‘Be’er B’Sadeh’ sefer.] Shivivei Or 309

==

We have the Rav’s testimony that YEKUTIEL GORDON was not coming from a good place, spiritually.

(BTW, Gordon seems to be part of the wider EIBSHITZ family, but good luck pinning that down in any concrete way… As usual, it’s all been totally scrubbed.)

==

In RUSSIA’S FIRST MODERN JEWS, page 27, GORDON is introduced like this:

“One can only speculate as to how Latin manuscripts reached Schick’s hand.

A number of young Lithuanian Jews traveled to Padua, Italy, to pursue a medical education and it is likely that they brought scientific writings back to Lithuania after their course of study.

One such medical student, Yekutiel Gordon of Vilna (known for his membership in the mystical-messianic circle of R Moshe Hayim Luzzatto), resided in Shklov during the 1730s and 1740s, and practised medicine there.

He may well have been the conduit through which the writings of Cardano, Viete and Euclid reached Shklov.”

==

Baruch Shick connects us to both the Vilna Gaon, and also, to the Alter Rebbe of Chabad.

Go back and read this post:

Boruch Shick of Shklov – is the Alter Rebbe’s grandson

And he has a bunch of interesting descendants, including former Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin.

==

And Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva Aharon Kotler.

==

And Amram Blau, founder of Neturei Karta.

==

Tov.

What’s really, really interesting, is that if you go to this Russian-language genealogy website, you’ll see that ‘SEGAL-HALEVIs’ keep on marrying ‘CHASSIDs’, like this:

==

But back in the carefully curated GENI world HERE, the surname ‘CHASSID’ (which links us to the Sabbatean preacher Yehuda HaChassid) has been replaced with the surname…MEISELS.

==

Fancy that!

Here’s what I said above:

I think ‘Wolf Levy’ probably had something to do with ISRAEL ISSUR BONEMS MEISELS, the Chief Rabbi of Lublin who conveniently ‘died’ in 1699 (i.e. just as Yehuda HaChassid’s convey was leaving to Israel…).

If you go HERE, you will see that yes indeed, there is a ‘R YEHUDA LEIB MEISELS CHASSID’, who is indeed an ‘uncle’ of ISRAEL ISSUR BONEMS MEISELS, the Chief Rabbi of Lublin.

Fancy that!

And, you will be shocked! shocked! to learn that this ‘R YEHUDA LEIB MEISELS CHASSID’ was actually a really important guy, in the SHACH’s family tree (who in turn, was in the REMA’s family tree), and the ABD of Przemyśl & Lviv – very big, important cities, Jewishly.

He’s meant to have died in 1694 – just as ‘Yehuda HaChassid’ was going all over Europe as a Sabbatean missionary. Isn’t that lucky? And of course, they have no idea when he was born. Of course not.

His daughter is that same ‘BLIMA CHASSID / MEISELS’ mentioned above, who links us straight into a whole bunch of Sabbateans that I have been researching for years…

==

Here’s the last bit I’m going to quote from that book on the ‘Zoharites’ (Frankists…), published in 1826.

Join me on page 43, footnote 2, where’s he’s talking about how the Zoharite/Frankists have a different name in Imperial Russia:

2. Where they are called Frankists ; or, in the language of an imperial Ukase, published respecting them, March 25. 1817, Christian Israelites. Many of them are respectable merchants, or fill places under government ; and, though members of the Christian church, they retain many of the Jewish ceremonies, and only intermarry among themselves.

==

The key bit to notice is that in 1826, it was clearly stated that FRANKISTS = CHRISTIAN ISRAELITES in Russia.

And we covered that ‘UKASE’ back in THIS post on Di Muma Leah, like this:

Under Alexander I’s conversion program, any Jews who converted would be granted Russian land that would be held by them and their descendants in perpetuity, as ‘Israelite Christians’ – for as long as they stayed being xtians.

Part of the reason we never hear about Alexander I’s program for ‘Israelite Christians’ in Russia is because this is exactly the same time that certain ‘rebbes’ and their acolytes started acquiring large tracts of land across Russia.

It’s always puzzled me how this was the case, given that the Russian Imperial policy was that Jews were forbidden from owning land.

The more I’ve researched this subject, the more that it appears that the main  exceptions to this rule was important contractors to the Russian government / military; and ‘Israelite Christians’ – Jews who’d agreed to be baptised, but who otherwise were permitted to live as proto ‘Jews-for-Jesus’, in these special settlements set aside by Tsar Alexander I.

==

Those land-owning ‘Rebbes’ are of course, the Rebbes of Chabad.

The Alter Rebbe’s son, Moshe, was proven to have converted to Christianity by researcher Prof. David Assaf, who found his baptismal certificates in the Russian archives.

The facts all ‘fit’ beautifully.

Here is the snippet about the Ukase itself, referred to in the book about the Zoharites:

On March 25th, 1817, Easter Sunday, the Tsar issued a ukase concerning the converted Jews of Russia, that lifted civil disabilities off baptised Jews, and decreed they should henceforth be known as ‘Israeli Christians’.

This decree was published in Russian, German and Polish, and also announced the establishment of a new ‘Society of Israeli Christians’, to ensure the material well-being of baptised Jews who now found themselves cut off from their old support networks in the Jewish community, but still barred from being accepted as true Christians by their Russian neighbors.

The formal task of the society was essentially to encourage Jews to be baptized.

Another carrot that the Tsar tried to use to encourage more Russian Jews to convert was the promise of free land grants in the Crimea, which Russia had recently conquered, and was keen to colonise.[1]

==

I’m going to stop there for today.

Some time soon, I want to take a much closer look at the Sabbatean theology regarding ‘an active messiah’ who ‘makes geula happen’, instead of sitting back and waiting for God to bring it in His own time.

Or, to put that in more modern terms: We want Moshiach NOW!!!

They’ve had us all fooled for 200+ years…

TBC.

 

One of the best books I ever read was the ‘Bad Middot Pirates’, by R Baruch Chait.

The illustrations were by Gadi Pollack, who is in a class all by himself, and that’s what initially got me into buying those books ‘for my kids’.

But really?

I was reading them for myself, just as much as I was reading them for the kids.

==

While some of the ‘Bad Middot Pirates’ like Mad Mo and Cruel Carlos were obvious, the one that really had me puzzled 15 years ago was ‘Flattery Frank’.

Even though the book is based firmly on Torah sources, and those Torah sources made a very big deal about how ‘bad’ flattery was, in my own dalet amot, I couldn’t really understand what the problem was.

After all, Flattery Frank was just being nice to people…

He was just bigging up their egos to make it easier to get along with them…

He was just making friends and influencing people…

What was the problem, tachlis?

==

Fast-forward to 2025, and ‘Flattery Frank’ suddenly popped into my head, when I was pondering on what a narc-shaped mess the Jewish world is currently in.

And especially, the English-speaking Jewish world, because while Eretz Yisrael has its fair share of psychos, most people here (who are not in politics…) don’t really buy into the idea that ‘being good’ is the same as ‘being nice’, at least, superficially.

To give one recent example, while all politicians are generally scum, I was pleasantly surprised that some of the scum in the Knesset tabled a vote to annex the West Bank while American VP Vance was here.

I have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, but the Americans were very displeased at how ‘rude’ and ‘not nice’ that behaviour was.

In the meantime, it’s probably the most ‘good’ thing that Knesset has done, for a very, very long time.

==

So, back to Flattery Frank.

The main problem with flattery is that a person gets so worried about keeping in someone else’s good books, or ‘staying friends’, or enjoying the patronage, approval and validation of others, that they start selling out their own core soul values.

Even if they feel very strongly that ‘x is really bad’, even if ‘x’ is totally outlawed by the Torah, objectively, if they are caught up in the pervasive Anglo model of etiquette, manners and keeping up appearances, they will come under huge pressure to throw their own morality and inner compass into the trash, in order to ‘be nice’.

The good news: I’ve lived in Israel for more than 20 years now, and during that process, I have grown more and more comfortable with the idea that I don’t have to be ‘nice’ to everyone.

And that being ‘nice’ is often the polar opposite of being ‘good’ – especially when you’re in a world which is governed by a narcissist-shaped herd mentality, which in turn is informed by 3 minute instagram reels and the type of superficial ‘sharing’ that manipulative psychos excel at.

Things are so bad today, that conversations generated by AI models like Grok and Chat GPT often sound more deep, introspective and ‘real’ than most human beings.

And of course, this problem is in the so-called frum Jewish world too, which has been shaped by three decades of brainwashing by Mishpacha magazine and all the internet influencers who have perfected the art of hollowing-out authentic yiddishkeit and turning it into a never-ending merry-go-round of fearmongering for big pharma, praising the Rebbe, ‘politics’, and gourmet shabbos meals that have to be shared on social media.

==

That ‘big rabbis’ could get away with calling a non-stop pro-Trump political commentary a ‘Torah shiur’ for years and years, without anyone calling them out on it, kind of sums up just how superficial, dumbed-down and inauthentic our religious world has really become.

Even when it comes to important stuff like middot and raising children and shalom bayit, it’s all just ‘influencers’ trying to make a buck with their ‘trademarked method’.

Do you know who these people really are?

Do you know where they are really getting their ideas from?

Even more importantly – do you know if their ‘trademarked method’ is even working for them in their own lives, homes and families?

That last question is the most important of all, because R Shalom Arush teaches that:

The real ‘you’ is the one who shows up at home.

And from my own experiences, there are way too many ‘influencers’ and mashpi’im out there who preach fantastic theories, but whose home life and family relationships are a total, toxic mess.

==

You want to take advice on how to ‘raise children’ from someone whose own kids are off the derech, or who have cut off contact with their parent?

You want to learn about ‘how to serve God’ from a person who spends more time editing their youtube videos than they do cracking open a sefer?

You want to ‘develop spiritually’ by joining an organisation which is all about bully-boy takeover tactics, dirty political deals, and literally censoring any ‘negative information’ that might appear publically, to tarnish the carefully-crafted image that ‘these people are really good… The biggest tzaddikim…’ ?

It’s a free world. You can do whatever you want.

==

But for me at this stage, I am putting way more value on trying to be ‘good’, and sincere, and truthful, and authentic, than being ‘nice’.

Which, I can tell you now, is not going to help me ‘make friends and influence people’ in the Anglo world, probably quite the opposite. Most of the Anglos I know, even the thoughtful ones, are scared stiff of ‘being real’.

Of really feeling their own emotions, really thinking their own thoughts, really listening to what their soul is whispering to them.

In chul, most of a person’s perceived social value boils down to being nice. You don’t rock the boat. You laugh on cue at other people’s jokes. You make polite conversation that doesn’t make anyone feel uncomfortable, talk about the weather, swap tips on the cheapest place to pick up your ritalin and ozempic prescriptions (or ‘psychodelics’ and grass…)

==

What drew me to Rabbenu all those years ago, was that he was real.

He had real advice, real stories about his own real challenges and struggles, that can help every single person, no matter their level or experiences, to climb out of the muck, and start to live a more authentic, and authentically happy Jewish life.

If ‘being real’ is not a priority for you – if you prefer to medicate away your difficult and uncomfortable feelings, and prefer worrying about ‘how it looks’ to how it really is, and you are happy spending your whole life squashing your true self down so you can carry on being thought of as ‘nice’ – you don’t need Rabbenu.

Go to Chabad, where you’ll perfect the art of portraying yourself as a ‘tzaddik’, and telling wonderful made-up stories about yourself, and how amazing you are, regardless of all the yucky things you are really still doing in the world.

==

Tov, I will stop there, for now.

The world could be so, so, so much better and brighter than it currently is for most of us.

But the key to that change lies within us.

And Rebbe Nachman’s teachings have clearly set out the path for how to get there, how to leave ‘fake, narcissistic nice world’, and move into the spiritually-satisfying real space that God created just for us.

Following Rabbenu’s path sincerely probably won’t make you a ton of friends – but it will make you a whole lot happier, connected to your true self, and real.

If that’s something you actually want.

==

PS: Here’s a few things that Rebbe Nachman has to say on the subject of ‘flattery’, from Sefer HaMiddot:

2. Through flattery, one’s wife becomes a widow, one’s children become orphans, and there is no one to have mercy on them.

3. Through flattery, one comes to have a pain in his heart.

4. One who guards himself from flattery will have salvation coming his way.

5. Through flattery, one’s prayer is not heard and one is repulsive in everyone’s eyes.

SECOND BOOK:

1. Through flattery, one comes to apostasy.

Someone left a message underneath THIS post that really rubbed me up the wrong way:

I have no idea who the person is, what they’ve been through themselves, for sure they were trying to be ‘helpful’, I acknowledge all that.

At the same time, the comment put me in a bad mood after I read it, and it took an hour of hitbodedut this morning to really figure out why that was.

Here’s the response I posted up, first of, so I don’t have to repeat myself pointlessly:

For some reason, this comment really rubbed me up the wrong way.

I didn’t want to respond before I did some hitbodedut on it, to figure out why it got that reaction, but now I have got a bit more clarity.

First of all, at this stage, anyone who is inspired by ‘Rabbi Shneor Zalman’ instantly puts me on the alert, that there is something not so authentic going on.

Chabad is VERY big on appearances, nice slogans, slick PR. The real inner work on the middot it non-existant. In fact, Chabad teaches that a Jew is part of God and so ‘perfect’ in everything they do. Without getting into the philosophy here, that’s clearly hugely problematic, on so many levels.

So, that was one niggle. Another niggle was this sentence: “Thanks to a long lasting tiny humble broken hearted ‘baruch HaShem’.”

There is for sure a time and place to say ‘Baruch Hashem’, but sometimes, God is sending hard circumstances and feelings as signposts and clues, to lead us out of the company and influence of some very negative people and thought processes and situations.

Just saying ‘Baruch Hashem’ and leaving it at that can mean a person is totally missing the signposts God is sending them, for how to really serve Him joyfully, as the authentic ‘them’, and not pulled down and misled by a million, billion wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Our world is shaped by narcs.

That’s the sad reality.

And just saying ‘Baruch Hashem’ is not going to make that go away, at least in our dalet amot.

As a temporary measure to get someone out of a bad mood, it can be very helpful. But it’s one tool in the box, and quite a limited one. Not ‘the answer’.

==

But the deeper point here is how ‘fake emuna’ responses like just repeating ‘Baruch Hashem’ like a robot can often do more harm than good, long term.

If people are touting this as the best response to a bad day, they are missing the mark by a long, long way. When I wrote that post, I hadn’t yet got the clarity that my ‘bad day’ was being fuelled by a whole bunch of bullies and draining people in my environment.

It’s taken me weeks and weeks of intense hitbodedut and introspection to really dig out what’s been going on.

Now that I’ve done that, or at least, begun the process of doing that, I am starting to feel way, way better.

Why?

Because that clarity has led to a series of actions and sincere teshuva and new understandings, that have literally transformed the whole picture.

Not least, I have stopped making it a ‘mitzvah’ to act like a co-dependent doormat for any bully with a sob story who is just looking for the next ‘audience’ for their pity party and inflated expectations of what other people ‘owe them’.

==

I know that sounds harsh.

Honestly, it is quite harsh.

But, King Solomon taught there is a time to just roll over and say ‘Baruch Hashem’ while the punches continue to rain down on you – and there is also a time when you stand back up, and start to fight back.

There is a time for ‘peace’, and there is a time for ‘war’ – and at least for me, I am moving out of the ‘peace at any price’ paradigm into standing up for myself, and the basic right to be treated appropriately.

==

All this is so nuanced.

Clearly, what I just wrote above could also be twisted and abused to terrorise children, dependents and other vulnerable people.

This is exactly the path a ‘victim’ treads to become a yucky bully themselves – unless they are seriously committed to regular, brutally honest introspection, aka an hour a day of hitbodedut.

Without an hour of hitbodedut, it’s very, very hard to maintain the balance, between being bullied yourself, and becoming the next bully.

==

But to return to the main theme of this post, i.e. fake emuna, and how it’s so often wheeled out as a spiritual response to our own negative and difficult emotions.

This is a HUGE problem, especially in the fake Anglo world, where ‘appearances’ is really all that matters.

Fake emuna teaches that you push your genuine feelings down, ignore what your inner child and soul are screaming at you – and just say ‘Baruch Hashem’.

Genuine emuna, as taught by Rebbe Nachman, is where you feel your pain, in all its gory dimensions, for an hour a day in hitbodedut.

You don’t just pretend like Baruch Hashem, my friend really just hurt my feelings very badly again… Or, Baruch Hashem, every interaction I have with that sibling, even the smallest, just leaves me feeling drained and unhappy and half-bonkers…

You go into hitbodedut, and you ask God to try to figure it out.

WHY am I feeling so hurt by that friend and confused about my reactions? Is is really my problem, my yetzer, or is something else also going on, here?

==

Usually, the answer comes back that there is a ‘joint problem’, a joint issue occurring.

Because there is no such thing as a dispute where only one person is 100% right all the time, and the other one is 100% wrong.

Even with my issues with The Vaccinator, I admit I have not always acted the way I would have liked to, especially when I was much younger and didn’t understand the dynamics of what was really playing out.

If I’d known I was dealing with a narc back then, I probably could have side-stepped a lot of the problems being caused in a more gentle way.

As it was, I had periodic ‘blow ups’ where I just couldn’t take it any more, and also lashed out.

==

Point is: hitbodedut, if it’s done regularly, and with a true desire to fix what’s broken, with God’s help, encourages a person to understand how much they are contributing to their own negative circumstances and ‘bad days’.

And to deal with those bad middot honestly and compassionately.

But then, after that stage is over, it also enables a person to understand hey, even with me owning up to my part in this, there is STILL a lot of stuff on the other side of the equation that needs to be addressed.

==

This is the stage where you get to the ‘make or break’ point, where you have to try and have it out with the other person.

And their reaction to this will take you forward to the next stage of clarity, and point the direction to how best to act and react going forward.

==

You can say ‘Baruch Hashem’ for a 100 years with an unfixable narc, but at some point, you have to make a decision if being used as their doormat and emotional punch-bag is worth it.

Some people, particularly spouses, may still hang in there, especially if they have small children to raise.

Others will finally have enough, and decide the message God is giving them is that they have served their sentence, and can finally ‘get out of jail’.

It’s very, very individual, it’s very, very nuanced, and it usually plays out over years and years and years, of trying to make something that is very broken, work.

At least, work enough, that you don’t end up with killer stress levels, heart attacks, clinical depression, etc, because you are being used as a doormat and emotional punch-bag by somebody else, who can’t or won’t admit that they are doing what they are doing, to others.

==

So, this is where I’ve got to for myself, currently, to the ‘time of war’ against the bullies in my own dalet amot.

Even here, I have learned the hard way that the best way of promoting the ‘war’ is simply to fade out of the picture, and not to try and challenge these people with their bad middot and behavior.

They are narcs, after all, ‘pretend-perfect’ people who can’t do anything wrong, and who just project all their own bad middot on to everyone else.

And who like to give big speeches about ‘just having emuna’ when you’re being bullied and dragged down by them…

==

Real life is messy, it’s sometimes very uncomfortable.

It’s not full of golden ‘tzaddikim’ and ‘tzaddikesses’ who are pretend-perfect and have no bad middot.

If you don’t like that – go find something on the Chabad website that appeals to you more.

Breslov is about getting real, and dealing with your real self, warts n’ all, with Hashem’s help.

It’s a process that takes 120 years – at least.

And it encompasses way, way more than just saying ‘Baruch Hashem’ like a robot, when your heart is full of pain and your head is full of confusion.