Over by Pesach – confirmation

My friend sent me the video of the Rav saying the war with Iran will be over by Pesach.

It’s too big for me to post up here, but it’s from this one of the Rav’s informal Whatsapp groups: https://chat.whatsapp.com/CTSO5yoHiWTJs443liHiQi*

The Rav is talking on Shushan Purim about how the 70 sons of Haman converted, and now are running all the best, most successful yeshivas in Bnei Brak.

Then, he also mentions about how Yehuda gave a ‘sha-agat aryeh’, a ‘roar of the lion’ in Egypt, when he was about to take it down, that made all the ‘heroes’ teeth fall out and turned their faces back 180 degrees.

(This is already reminding me of the Matrix…)

And lastly, just before he went in, the Rav mentions casually that: ‘the war will be over by Pesach’.

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Take that however you want, but we have seen the Rav consistently ‘predict’ events accurately, including all those killed by so-called ‘friendly fire’ during the war in Gaza; that it would last for a long time – much longer than anyone else even had a clue about – and that it would only end when the Rav’s sefer Torah was completed.

And it did.

To the exact day.

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So BH, there is a month of this, maximum, to go.

Just to keep things real over here, I’ve been feeling pretty stressed the last few days, even with my hitbodedut and few other things to try to take down the stress vibe.

The planes are flying constantly overhead, and that no longer gives me the warm, fuzzy feeling I once had that these planes are protecting me and bombing the baddies.

Hamavin yavin.

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Also, my daughter and her family moved in again the last few days, as their panel house was literally shaking with each ‘boom’ and she has a small baby.

BH, she’s hoping to go back home today, but this stuff is so disruptive, in a billion large and small ways.

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Like, my fortnightly hike in nature got cancelled…

Then the night away up North we booked instead just got cancelled because the hotel has closed down because of ‘the matzav’…

I’m trying to do my research, but all last week the NLI was closed…

Bottom line: there is no-where to run away too, except into Tikkun Haklali and towards Hashem.

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All this also made me ponder again, what the ‘reward’ will be for the Jews in Israel, who have been going through so much difficulty, so acutely, for years and years already.

For sure, Hashem’s measure of good is 500 times the ‘bad’, so there must be something truly fantastic awaiting all the people who have been dealing with this war for 2 1/2 years, already.

And also, by the same token, the people who have been dealing out all this death, destruction and suffering across the world, for decades, there HAS to be an accounting for their actions, at some point.

Hopefully soon.

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Lastly, I came across this interesting video last week:

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I don’t know if he’s right, although he is making some cogent arguments.

What I do know, tho, is that Edom has to fall, before Yaakov can rise.

And God likes to hit the baddies in the areas that really hurt them, i.e. their false gods.

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NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM = ‘A new order of the ages’.

You can read more about it’s designer, freemason-evangelist Charles Thomson, HERE, but this is a pertinent snippet from Wiki:

When he provided his official explanation of the meaning of this dollar bill motto and symbolism, he wrote:

The pyramid signifies Strength and Duration: The Eye over it & the Motto allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favour of the American cause.

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‘America’ decided they replaced the Jews as the ‘chosen people’, dontcha know?

I guess we are about to find out if they were really right about that… or not.

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The crazy world

BH, yesterday was pretty quiet here in Jerusalem.

Most other places, it was apparently not.

My SIL in the penthouse up the coast sent me video of ‘cluster bombs’, or something, passing her mirpeset.

My daughter from the Shomron showed me video of a few rockets, and craters, in yishuvim where real stuff apparently really did hit the ground.

There was also a kol koreh put out by three mekubalim in Bnei Brak yesterday, that the decree on Bnei Brak is to have 54 azekot (sirens), and there are only six to go until the amount is fulfilled, so the residents should not be scared, and should just count another six.

I don’t know who the mekubalim are who are saying this, but if they are genuine, there is absolutely no reason why what they wrote couldn’t be true.

However ‘strange’ is may sound, all this is being orchestrated and guided by Hashem, for spiritual purposes and reasons and judgements.

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In the meantime, I found out what happened to my neighbour across the hall:

Her husband (who is a grandpa and older than me…) got called up for miluim just before Purim.

He got allowed back for a little break over Shabbat.

Crazy times, we live in.

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My SIL is planning to make a break for it again, as soon as they re-open the airport, she hopes some time next week.

I get it.

If you didn’t believe this was going to be over soon, and / or leading to a much better outcome – why would you stick around?

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In the meantime, my daughter was showing me the last ‘trend’ on Instagram.

It’s short video of people saying:

Me: Trying to save the world by drinking through paper straws / cycling everywhere to reduce my carbon footprint / recycling my trash / trying to interest someone in my firm’s products…

Against a background of bombs being dropped, cities being blown up etc, with the headline:

“World leaders:”

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So, let’s continue with ‘carry on with emuna‘, as the crazy world continues getting crazier.

Here’s what we are planning, BH, on Sunday, March 22, 2026:

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It’s totally for free, at 8pm Israel time on a Sunday, so everyone can join easily from wherever they might be in the world.

And the point is to just bring some good people together, around some uplifting Breslov Torah and music, based on making the most of Pesach.

Even under fire.

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It’s on Zoom, there will be ‘break out’ rooms for women and men, separately, and also an optional ‘coffee time’ at the end, where anyone who wants to can get to know other participants a little better.

And spaces are limited to 100 people, max, so go grab your spot!

In the meantime, pass the strawberry mousse, Roger…

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The war will be over by Pesach

That’s what I’m hearing on the ‘Rav’ grapevine, but I haven’t confirmed it yet.

But I’m putting this up here now, to counteract so much of the yeoush and horrible headlines that if we took seriously, we’d all just jump off a bridge now, and c’est tout.

God is running the world.

Each day is a gift.

And personally, when I see so many people re-running ‘stories’ from 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, about horrible ‘end of the world’ scenarios, at this point I am just going to switch off.

Breslov is about sweetening the judgements, never giving up hope, and understanding that by the True Tzaddikim like Rabbenu and Rav Berland, anything is possible, and things are NEVER as black as they are painted.

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I went to the mall this evening, to pick something up.

It was kinda depressing, with half the shops shut and five people wandering around. 

What was more depressing, by far, was the ‘yeoush’ vibe seeping out all over the place. I realised after I got home, that if you don’t have the Rav encouraging you, you don’t think this war will be over soon, you don’t believe that everything can turn around in the blink of an eye, and the bad can’t last for ever – well.

That’s a really difficult place to be hanging out in.

I’d also be walking around super-depressed, stressed and very pessimistic about the future.

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As it is, I am really trying not to be.

The Rav seems to be in quite a good mood at the moment, and was pretty happy over Purim, from what you could tell.

The Rav has been a consistently accurate bellwether and guide about what is really going on.

For decades, already.

So – there is everything to play for, and if he really said the war will be over by Pesach, then it WILL be over by Pesach.

And that’s only a month away, so don’t lose hope, even if the kids are stuck under your feet for the next few weeks and things sounds like they are going crazy.

Most of this is just smoke and mirrors.

If we maintain our emuna, stick to what is going on inside our dalet amot, and do our best to see the world, and current events, with a good eye- that will make all the difference, not the least, to us and our own experience of the next few weeks.

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Courage, dear reader.

Something is going to turn all this around very, very soon.

I don’t know what, but I know it’s coming.

And if you take a quiet moment to connect back to your soul, you will probably also start to feel that way, too.

 

 

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Making our own reality

Well, another year, another Shushan Purim.

Even before ‘WAR WITH IRAN’, we decided to make an effort this year to really ‘do’ Purim properly.

I got some crepe paper and turned the living room into a kinda Persian palace. I got some material, and made some kinda ‘Bigsan and Teresh’ costumes. My husband found some hats, to complete the look.

I bought the brisket, made the desserts – mostly, all before ‘WAR WITH IRAN’.

That just left the mishloach manot.

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If you’ve been with me for a while, you probably already know that the thing I hate most about Purim, is the mishloach manot.

In previous years, we wasted a lot of time, money and energy trying to deliver ‘themed’ mishloach manot to 5,000 people we didn’t really like or have anything much in common with.

Baruch Hashem, we stopped doing that a long time ago.

About 10 years ago already, I realised that doing two mishloach manot nicely was worth way, way more than 3,000 purim baggies stuffed with a chocolate bar and hamentashen that no-one really eats.

Then about 5 year ago, during Covid, I realised the wisdom in just giving mishloach manot to people I could walk to.

Which basically took me down to giving to my neighbours.

And that’s what I’ve been doing, ever since.

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This year, though, the mishloach manot were giving me a bit of trouble.

First, because the super-expensive three items I got from the health food store looked totally nisht and gornisht, stuck in the middle of the huge wicker basket I’d picked up a month back from Max Stock.

Why, o why did I get such a big wicker basket?! I started beating myself up about it.

I’ve already spent a small fortune on my three ‘quality’ items, to fill this up is going to cost me a ton more.

And for who, exactly?

Because this year, I had no idea where these two mishloach manot were even going.

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After having a whole ‘beat myself up party’ for half an hour, which ran along the lines of why couldn’t you just do like everyone else, and send cheap chocolate bars and big, space-filling bags of bamba?! – I had an epiphany.

First, I padded the bottom with some cut-up napkins.

Then, I went to the cupboard and pulled out – what else? – two bags of bamba, and two boxes of craisins.

The wicker basket now looked presentable, and I didn’t have to spend another 200 shekels to get it that way.

For the first time, I realised I was taking a more ‘balanced’ approach to the mishloach manot, not totally ‘over there’ in cheap, ready-made mode, and not totally ‘over here’ in poncey hand-crafted artisanal items, either.

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But I still had the next challenge: who to give it to.

I live in an old, small building.

The elderly neighbours on the top floor moved out, because they couldn’t cope with the running up and down the stairs stuff to the bomb shelter in the middle of the night.

Next floor down, one apartment is doing shiputz, and they haven’t moved back in yet.

Next floor down, I was planning to give to the neighbours across the hall – but they seemed to have ‘skipped out’ on Shushan Purim, and gone somewhere else to get away from it.

The neighbour downstairs also seemed to have got fed up with running up the outdoor stairs, in the middle of the night, with their two young kids, to get to the bomb shelter, so they also weren’t home.

Hmm.

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I delivered one to the American guy upstairs who I never spoke to before.

He asked me how come you don’t come to the bomb shelter, we never see you?

I told him, I stay home and say tehillim instead.

– You could do both together, in the bomb shelter.

How to explain, that my worldview and his worldview on these things are very different?

How to get out of this conversation without throwing in the ‘grenade’ that being in the bomb shelter in Bet Shemesh didn’t exactly help all the poor people who were killed there?

I’m lazy… I told him. I’d rather stay in my bed.

–My son is in pikud oref, he told me. He’d be very angry that you’re not going to the bomb shelter.

Well, I guess it’s a good thing your son doesn’t live in the building, then…

I smiled, waved, backed away.

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Later on, that neighbour put a children’s book under my door as a present, as a ‘thank you’ for noticing him, I guess.

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But I still had one mishloach manot to deliver.

I went to the nice woman I see twice a year in shul, when our paths cross. She wasn’t home.

I tried another neighbour. She wasn’t home.

Then, I decided to take it over to my old downstairs neighbour in the place we left last year.

I heard she’d gone back for her annual there month visit to the US, but she usually made sure to be back for Purim and Pesach.

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I walked through the sad, half-over-grown garden that used to be my pride and joy.

The place looked deserted.

I knocked on the door anyway – no-one there.

That’s when I noticed a weird ‘kamaya’ stuck to the front door, presumably by my secular-but-superstitious landlords, with a whole bunch of hebrew writing, kabbalistic patterns and weird formulae, one of which was in the shape of a bird’s body, and that had an eagle’s head drawn above it.

‘Kamaya for Protection in Jerusalem’, it said.

The thing totally gave me the creeps.

And it kind of reinforced just how the kabbalah can be abused and misused, by people casting ‘kabbalistic spells’ to try to keep their expensive property safe, instead of making the real teshuva required to return to God, and pray to Him for help, instead.

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So, my mishloach manot mission was a bust.

And I had to get back and get on with doing the seuda.

My kids live out of Jerusalem, but they both wanted to come to us for Shushan Purim after they did their own thing.

One SIL was hung over, one was preoccupied trying to arrange a new work project.

Both grandsons were snotty.

One daughter was throwing up…

Everyone was coughing.

My husband also had a work thing that he was preoccupied with.

We had 4, or 4 sirens, punctuating the afternoon.

But despite all this, I actually enjoyed myself more than usual.

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Why?

Because I let everything go.

I did my bit, to fulfill all the Purim mitzvot.

The siren at 5.55am woke me up early enough to do an hour of hitbodedut before the megillah reading.

I fit in three TKs when most of my guests disappeared off down to the bomb shelter (where that same neighbour complained about them bringing a ‘sick baby’ into an enclosed space. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.)

Shortly after the meal, a ton of my daughters’ friends descended on the house, as has become a tradition from when she lived with us.

It was kinda mad.

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As I busied myself cleaning up, I realised how we make our own reality, mamash.

We either take the lemons and make lemonade, or we get so sour and bitter that life takes on that flavour in all directions.

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In the end, the mishloach manot found a home.

I’d forgotten to give one to my in-laws this year, with all the balagan.

My carefully-prepared, shavei wicker basket found the perfect home, when my daughter delivered on the way back to her yishuv.

Hashem had the whole day planned, to perfection.

Now, the trick is to keep remembering that as we head into Pesach.

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Purim: New music, new comedy

Purim SAMEACH!

I know, I know. We’re all working on it.

In the meantime, new music from Nissim Black:

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And new comedy from Bardak.

Enjoy!

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Dancing through the bombs

Yesterday, I was at the Rav for evening prayers.

We try to go at least three times a week, and when there is ‘stuff’ going on, we try to go even more.

So, I was set in the little covered section right at the front, trying to do some hitbodedut, actually feeling safer than I’ve been feeling the last few days, with the madness going on here.

Without getting into details – go to the kipaadu telegram, if you want more of those – I am way more scared of US bombers than I am of Iranian ‘rockets’.

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Just to keep this real, even though I have emuna, or trying to, that this is all just 100% Hashem, and Hashem’s decisions about who lives and otherwise, lo alenu, it’s still can be frightening in the moment.

Shabbat morning, when it all kicked off, I didn’t run off to the bomb shelter we have in the building.

I don’t go there.

Instead, I grabbed a Tikkun Haklali, and I started reading that instead. It helps to calm me down every single time, that there is really no-where to run to, except to Hashem, and into a Tikkun Haklali.

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If you remember 2 weeks ago, the Rav started talking again about how even just having a TK in your pocket or bag can save you from getting ‘blown up’, God forbid.

It’s part of trying to have emunat tzaddikim, that I take the Rav’s words seriously and do my best to hold by them, with God’s help.

So, I was saying my TK Shabbat morning – but still noticing I was kinda v stressed inside.

After siren 3, 4 and 5 – each time, I’m saying a TK, but each time I’m noticing I’m still v. stressed inside – that’s when the penny fell that I was having a ‘flashback’ to October 7th.

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That same day, there were multiple sirens on a chag, and I had no idea what was going on.

My husband was out, I was trying to get to the Rav – we had no idea what was going on.

Clearly, I had some left-over PTSD from that, that popped up again Shabbat morning, and made me feel drowsy, paralysed and ‘scared’ for a few hours, until I realised what was going on, and things ‘felt’ much better again.

The October 7 PTSD got processed out the system on Shabbat, leaving me with just the latest round of sirens etc to deal with.

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So, doing my TKs now, paid the Machazit HaShekel for me and all my kids, SILs and grandchildren, trying to have emuna that Ein Od Milvado.

But still, can be quite stressful in the moment.

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And then yesterday afternoon, there was the Bet Shemesh bombing where a ‘rocket from Iran’ (whatever…) managed to target a purim party in a shul’s underground bunker.

Deep, deep sigh.

May the people behind that attack – and all this ‘war in Israel’ – be swiftly destroyed. I personally can’t wait.

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Amongst many other things, that attack showed people in Israel that the mamad is not saving your life, after all.

This is not a chiddush.

In the last round of bombings, most of the fatalities were occurring in ‘direct hits’ on so-called ‘safety rooms’.

I am not going to speculate as to why that’s happening, but it’s clear that God wants us to only rely on Him, and to not think that ‘safe rooms’ is that shortcut option to dealing with the fear and worry being bombed induces in all of us.

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So, I’m at the Rav.

Doing hitbodedut in the little covered area at the front. Then after the davening the Rav starts to speak, and I miss most of what he’s saying.

Except, then he says something about rockets, and I think how dancing and clapping ‘sweetens the judgements’. And then, just as he’s finished the shiur, he says hinei (“here it is”) – and everyone’s mobile phones started vibrating with the alert that rockets were on the way.

(I hate that alert, btw, and I can’t get it off my phone, which is not a smartphone.)

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I stood up, went outside – and the whole of Shuvu burst into spontaneous dancing, jumping, clapping and singing ‘Or Tzaruach’, whilst a bunch of rockets started passing overhead.

That continued for a very long time – there were an absolute ton of rockets, from around 9.08pm yesterday night.

But the ‘vibe’ was incredible.

The fear was gone.

Something massive was being sweetened, down there on Ido HaNavi, and there is nothing I can write here to really describe yesterday’s experience.

Ashrenu, that we have Rav Berland in our generation.

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This morning, I got up with some more sirens, as I switch my phone off now, to avoid the alert.

Wow, at least something woke me up today…

I did al netilat yedayim, started off with my morning brachot, my husband went off to daven.

With more sirens blaring.

What I can tell you, is that whatever is going on here, whoever is really behind it, God is going to turn it all around for the very, very best.

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On my email this morning, I had this waiting for me from a good friend, who keeps me updated on stuff from the Rav’s whatsapp group:

The Rav said Khamenei was a direct descendant of Haman and we’ll have אזני חמינאי this Purim

The Rav said Jerusalem is protected.

The Rav said anyone connected to Shuvu Banim doesn’t need to run to bomb shelter, they are protected wherever they are.

Not only in Jerusalem.

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I believe this 100%.

And if you want to ‘get connected’ to Shuvu Banim, if you aren’t already, now is your chance.

Just a few seconds before it all ‘turns over’, and we really start to see who are the bad guys, and who is leading the charge of the good guys, constantly sweetening the harsh judgements and turning rocket attacks into ‘Purim parties’….

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Last year’s ‘Purim Torah’ from the Rav

I was reading Conversations 3 on Shabbat.

I decided to open it up ‘randomly’, as of course, there is no such thing as ‘random’ in the world.

This is what I opened it up to – still so, so relevant for today.

(BTW, Conversations 3 is a really excellent book… I know I put it together so I’m biased, but really, it is.)

Enjoy!

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BEING HAPPY ON PURIM IS A MITZVA D’ORAYTA

Now, we are before Purim, which is a mitzvah d’orayta.The Chatam Sofer said in Yoreh Deah 234 that ‘to be happy on Purim’ is a mitzva d’orayta.The other mitzvoth like reading the megilla etc are de rabbanan. But essentially, ‘simcha’ – happiness – is d’orayta.

“On a day of your happiness and on your festivals, and on your new moons, you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt-offerings and over your feast and peace-offerings; and they shall be a remembrance for you before your God; I am Hashem you God.”[1]

This is said in Parshat Ba’alotecha, we say this after Tisha B’av, “you shall sound the trumpets”,which is a mitzvah on every chag.

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THERE WAS NEVER A MIRACLE LIKE PURIM

Purim was the biggest miracle of all the miracles. There never was a miracle like this! Even when Moshiach comes, there won’t be a miracle like this, that for three days they hung up the enemies of the Jews.

And now us – 80 years ago, there was the worst disaster for Am Yisrael, of all time i.e. The Shoah. Hitler, may his name be erased ruled for 12 years, from 1933 to 1945, until erev L’ag B’omer.

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RASHBI STOPPED THE WAR

Rav Zilberman was a Boyaner chassid, so it seems. He did the lighting on the roof of the Tzion at Rashbi. The lighting on the roof in Meron only belonged to the Boyaners. The Ruzhiner appointed the Admor of Boyan and that’s the way it was from generation to generation, that they did the lighting.

That year, which was 5705 (1945) he Rav Zilberman said now we are waiting to do the lighting until the moon shines. He found an excuse. They said, what’s with the shining of the moon?! The shining of the moon will only be at 10.05pm! Only at 10pm – that’s already on the 18th!

Already on the night of the 18th… Everyone was exploding. They always Light immediately after shkeya (twilight). Ten minutes after shkeya they do the lighting. And he’s already waiting three hours! He said: I’m waiting for the moon to shine. They didn’t understand what he was saying. The moon will shine at 10.05pm.

At ten minutes to ten, the newsflash arrived that the same enemy of the Jews Hitler, may his name be erased, a gilgul of Haman, had killed himself. All of this happened on erev L’ag B’omer, in the merit of Rashbi. Therefore, we need to go to Rashbi every L’ag B’omer. He stopped the war.

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EVERY FESTIVAL WILL BE CANCELLED EXCEPT PURIM

The whole matter is that we are now standing before the greatest mitzvah. All the festivals in the future will be cancelled, apart from the days of Purim. So, there’s a kooshia what, that means there’s no Pesach?! There won’t be Rosh Hashana?! There won’t be Shavuot?! Rather, the meaning is that the light of Purim will shine.

Now, we don’t see the light of Purim, Because on Purim, the light of truth is revealed. Purim is the day when everyone is able to come close to Rabbenu, to understand the point of truth, to understand where the ‘point of truth’ actually is, the real truth.

Every judge that gives over a true judgement, it’s a though he’s a partner with Hashem, in the creation of the heavens and earth! The world only stands in the merit of those who go with the real truth, because there are many different types of ‘truth.’

But the ‘real truth’ – there is only one real truth. And this is revealed on Purim – the real truth is revealed! Shekimu v’kiblu (they fulfilled and they accepted the Torah).

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ON PURIM, THEY ACCEPTED THE TORAH ANEW

The Gemara in Tractate Shabbat says that on Purim, kiblu – that they accepted the recieving of the Torah that took place on Purim. This was a thousand years, a thousand years after Matan Torah[2]. Kimu v’kiblu.

So why did the churban occur of the first Temple? If they accepted the Torah only on Purim? Kimu v’kiblu! So why was the First Temple destroyed? Why are we in galut? Why?

After all, the acceptance of the Torah was only 960 years later, 850 years after they entered Eretz Yisrael, and another 40 in the desert, and another 70 in the galut in Babylonia.

The Purim Miracle was at the end of this 70 years. This is another 110 years, so 960 years after this – only then was Purim. So Tosfot ask, why did Hashem destroy the land? After all, they still hadn’t truly accepted the Torah?!

The mountain was held over them like a barrel. Although they cried out na’seh v’nishma (we will do and we will listen), with one eye, they were already looking at the Golden Calf.

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Excerpted from Conversations 3, the Chapter on Geula.

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BTW, if you didn’t already, you can give your Machazit HaShekel to the Rav’s Kollel Hatzot here:

https://www.matara.pro/nedarimplus/online/?mosad=7014431

Rav Berland said a person should give a minimum of 86 shekels per person, to fulfill this mitzvah.

My friend at the Kollel also reminded me of R Chaim Palagi’s segula, that whoever gives the Machazit Ha Shekel will be protected from harm all year.

Believe or don’t believe – from where I’m sitting, I am already seeing a ton of open miracles going on within Israel right now..

Baruch Hashem.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Bamidbar 10, 10.

[2] Purim occurred 960 years after Matan Torah.

[3] See Shemot 6.

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