People make teshuva in a moment.

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

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

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

==

R’ Ber Hager[1] – this was on a bus.

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

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

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

==

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

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

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

==

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

He said, I live in Bnei Brak.

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

For 20 years, we sat together by him.

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

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

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

This was a journey on an autobus.

==

The Rebbe said:

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

==

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

He said, we need to pray with everyone.

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

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

==

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

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

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

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

The Rebbe said:

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

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

==

And we used to sing!

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

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

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

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

==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==

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

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

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

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

==

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

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

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

==

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

And not Yud Alef, and no other party!

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

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

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

==

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

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

==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==

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

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

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

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

==

So, [I asked mother]:

What was going on, that you made aliya?!

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

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

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

==

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

People used to poke fun at it.

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

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

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

==

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

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

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

==

He said I will bring 500 from Lodz.

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

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

He wanted to transform the aretz.

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

==

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

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

==

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

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

Why do you need a passport?

I want to go to Uman.

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

This is a true story.

But, who is your Rav?

My Rav is Eliezer Berland.

Come, show us where he lives. Come!

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

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

I want to go to Uman.

==

So, the chilonim will wake up in a second.

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

In one second….

==

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

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

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

==

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

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

==

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

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

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

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

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

==

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

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

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

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

They also want Sifrei Torah. Everyone does.

====

FOOTNOTES:

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

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

[3] SIACH SARFEI KODESH 1, 680:

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

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

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

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

==

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

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

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

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

Ich vill ir zalt zine oyus gamisht mit der velt.

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

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

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

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

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

 

[4] Chayei Moharan, 289.

[5] Devarim 16:14.

====

Read Part I HERE.

Part II

(Read Part I HERE.)

I would say that about 97% of ‘the story’ that we’ve all been told about how Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch took over from the BESHT; and then how Shneur Zalman of Liadi basically rose to the top of chassidut as the ‘cream of the crop’ comes from….Chabad.

And no other independently-verifiable source.

The problem is, that each time I tried to take a ‘Chabad story’ at face value, and to track down real-life people, with real names, real dates, real information, a real footprint in the real world – I failed miserably.

Over time, I came to the conclusion that for some bizarre reason, Chabad appears to have been lying about just about everything.

==

Over in the hallowed halls of secular Jewish researchers, this fact has apparently been known for many decades.

But for me, naive as I still was 6-7 years ago, all this came as a massive shock.

At this stage, I believe all these ‘lies’ about Jewish history are directly connected to the Sabbatean-Frankist-Mason take over of our Jewish community, over the last 350+ years.

That began with the false messiah Shabtai Tzvi, aka the big Torah commentator from Vilna, the SHACH, who apparently went mad after the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-9, that hit places like Vilna particularly hard.

But the cover-up and takeover has continued, right down to our days, our time.

==

In the second part of this post about the BESHT’s real successor, R YECHIEL MICHEL of ZLOTCHOV, we are going to learn what was apparently the real basis of the ‘war’ between the chassidim and the mitnaggdim.

And no – you won’t find any mention of the Vilna Gaon facing off against Shneur Zalman.

That never happened.

==

The following information was gleaned from Mor Altshuler’s PhD thesis on the Maggid of Zlotchov, and if you have a few free hours, I highly, highly recommend you read the long version ,available for free as a PDF, HERE.

For everyone else, I will try to sum it up succintly – and of course, that means oversimplification. That’s how it works.

==

The BESHT dies in 1760 – apparently from a the hole in his heart caused by the whole disputation with Jacob Frank’s band of ‘Sabbatean believers’ that occurred in 1758, and ended with tens of thousands of Jews in Poland publically converting to Catholicism.

Many of these Jews had the best yichus money could buy…. To say it was a shonda on a massive scale to their (secret-Sabbatean) relatives who stayed in the Jewish fold is the genealogical understatement of the millenia.

And these Frankists didn’t just disappear and go low-profile – they literally became the most well-known bankers, financiers, jurists, philosophers, writers, artists….

Everyone knew who they were, and where they’d come from.

==

So the BESHT passes away as a result of this terrible blow to the Jewish people in 1760.

And then according to Chabad, the BESHT designates Dov Ber Friedman, the Maggid of Mezeritch, as his successor.

Back in the ‘real world’ – there is simply no firm trace of the Maggid of Mezeritch, at least in terms of who his ancestors were. He just materialises out of nothing and nowhere, and his descendents are also shrouded in a dense fog of mystery.

There was almost certainly a follower of the BESHT called ‘Dov Ber’. More than that, I can’t say.

==

In the meantime, the Chabad fairytale continues that Dov Ber basically favors the young Shneur Zalman to take chassidut forward when he passes away in 1772 – and the rest is (Chabad made-up) history.

But that’s not what really happened.

==

This is a direct quote from Mor Altshuler herself:

“Amongst other things, there is reason to doubt all the historical events that HABAD literature presents as central to the history of Hasidism.”

==

The BESHT was actually surrounded by many different senior disciples that you almost never hear anything about these days, as the ‘fairytale’ has mostly scrubbed everyone else out of the picture.

For example, one of the BESHT’s leading disciples was Yaakov Yosef of Polonnye.

Another was (apparently….) R Pinchas Shapira of Koretz (more on him in a moment).

And yet another was R YECHIEL MICHEL OF ZLOTCHOV.

And it’s this latter who was actually surrounded by a very wide circle of disciples – apparently that included Shneur Zalman of Liadi – and who was involved in some very deep mystical attempts to ‘bring the geula’.

==

The chassidic doctrine of the ‘Tzaddik of the generation’ also begins in earnest with R Yechiel Michel’s circle – the BESHT never referred to himself in these terms.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

==

First, let’s introduce you to some of R YECHIEL MICHEL’s leading disciples.

They are people you rarely hear anything about in any other chassidut chronicles, but who do crop up in the Breslov writings about Rebbe Nachman’s life, from this time period.

I.e. – we have Rabbenu’s guarantee that they are actually real people.

==

One of the reasons this information has remained hidden for 200+ years is because like many of the ‘mystical groups’ operating within the Jewish community at that point in time, including the Sabbateans, and what spun-off as the Frankist-masons, secrecy was a very big deal.

And it was enforced with oaths, and other mechanisms, to keep the group, and its activities and beliefs, away from unfriendly prying eyes, both in the Jewish and the non-Jewish world.

==

So from direct sources collated by Mor Altshuler in her PhD thesis, R YECHIEL MICHEL’s disciples include:

R MESHULLAM FEIBUSH HELLER

THE SON OF ZUSHIA OF ANNIPOLI

R AVRAHAM CHAIM OF ZLOTCHOV

(Apparently, he is the Rebbe of ELEAZAR ZEV of BUCHETCH, whose daughter seems to have married the great-grandson of Yechiel Michel. This appearts to be the ancestor of Rav Berland.)

R ZE’EV WOLF OF ZHITOMIR

R ZEVI HASID – who is actually the brother of R MENACHEM MENDEL of PREMISHLAN, who is buried in the old graveyard of Tiberius, next to Rabbenu’s grandpa, R NACHMAN HORODENKA.

==

Then, there are other sources from the mitnagdim world who identify others of this group from the outside.

The main anti-chassidic work is called ‘Breaking of Sinners’, by one DAVID MAKOV.

He lists the following, as being disciples of YECHIEL MICHEL:

R YAAKOV YITZHAK HOROWITZ, AKA THE SEER OF LUBLIN

(He provided one of the two haskamot Rabbenu chose to have printed in the Likutey Moharan. The other haskama is from Ephraim Zalman Margoliot of Brody.)

R ISAIAH / YESHAYA DUNAYEVTSKY

R MORDECHAI OF NESKHIV (mentioned in Rav Natan’s Chaya Moharan, etc)

R LEVI YITZHAK of BERDICHEV (mentioned in Chaya Moharan, buried in Berdichev’s Jewish cemetery).

MAGGID R ISRAEL OF KOZIENICE

R ZUSYA OF ANNIPOLI (brother of the NOAM ELIMELECH – both mentioned in Chaya Moharan)

R SHMUEL ben CHAIM HAIKA of AMDUR

(Chabad sources claim ‘AMDUR’ chassidut got absorbed into CHABAD.)

==

‘Breaking of Sinners’ then identifies other disciples that play are more tangential or uncertain role in YECHIEL MICHEL’s circle of disciples.

That includes:

SHNEUR ZALMAN of LIADI (mentioned in Chaya Moharan)

R ELIMELECH of LIZHENSK (mentioned in Chaya Moharan)

R MENACHEM NAHUM of CHERNOBYL and his son:

R MORDECHAI of CHERNOBYL.

==

As mentioned in the previous post, once the BESHT and R YECHIEL MICHEL had passed away, there were key people within chassidut who were trying to publicise that the BESHT had accepted much of the Sabbatean teachings of HESHEL TZOREF of VILNA.

Mor Altshuler explains these people included:

MENACHEM NAHUM of CHERNOBYL

YESHAYA DUNAYEVTSY

R SHABTAI, of VAD RASHKOV

==

At this point, that is a big red flag that suggests these people themselves may have had ‘Sabbatean’ leanings, but it’s not definitive.

For sure, the BESHT, and Rabbenu after him, was also busy trying to ‘raise the sparks’ out of the Sabbatean teachings, to sweeten this whole, horrible klippah.

For example, the BESHT’s second wife was a great-granddaughter of none other than Shabtai Tzvi / SHACH.

And perhaps in Part III, we’ll try to take a closer look as AVRAHAM GERSHON KITOVER of BRODY, the BESHT’s brother-in-law, who also descends directly from the SHACH / Shabtai Tzvi.

Meanwhile,  it seems that YECHIEL MICHEL and his group were also busy trying to do the birur with the Sabbatean teachings, particularly the emphasis on making aliya to Eretz Israel.

Read on.

==

OK, the date is leil Shavuot, 1777 – the same time that MENACHEM MENDEL of VITEBSK and a small group of messianic-minded Chassidim make aliya to Eretz Yisrael.

MENACHEM MENDEL of VITEBSK and his group are going through awful difficulties. He wrote a letter back to Brody, where YECHIEL MICHEL was then located, explaining that his group of chassidim had to move to Tiberius, because:

[The Sephardim in Tsfat were] “completely wicked, believers in Shabtai Tzvi, may his name be erased.

==

As a result of the Sabbatean takeover of Tsfat, MENACHEM MENDEL of VITEBSK decides in 1778/ 9 that he needs to organise a seperate, independent fundraising channel for his group of non-Sabbatean chassidim.

This effort involves:

R ISRAEL OF POLOTSK

R ELAZAR (ELIEZER) ZUSSMAN (who is sent to raise funds in Istanbul and Holland) and

R SOLOMON ZALMAN VILNER, who is sent to raise funds for the Chassidim in Vilna and Brody.

(I am now wondering if this could actually by ‘SHNEUR ZALMAN’ of Chabad… but we’ll park that for now.)

==

Yes – it’s that same ‘Vilna and Brody’ that shortly afterwards wrote letters trying to excommunicate the Chassidim.

As you can see, none of this makes sense if you believe the Chabad fairytale version of Chassidic history.

==

At that point in time, the main charity fundraiser for Eretz Israel in the BRODY KLOIZ is called R CHAIM SEGAL LANDAU.

He is the paternal first cousin of the virulently mitnagged NODA be YEHUDAH.

Yet, CHAIM SEGAL LANDAU tells SOLOMON VILNER that not only is he willing to forgive all of the chassidic group’s debts, to date, he is also going to pay MENACHEM MENDEL of VITEBSK  a regular stipend.

Meanwhile, the charity fundraisers for Israel in VILNA at this time are one R ELIEZER ben CHAIM SHABTELS, and his brother SHMUEL.

SHMUEL is married to CHAIM SEGAL LANDAU’s daughter.

==

SHMUEL and ELIEZER are apparently close relatives of the VILNA GAON.

I spent a good few hours trying to unpick that bit of the family tree, and that lead me straight back to the LURIE family again, who the Rav said arrived in Eretz Yisrael with crates full of golden dinarii.

It also turned up a whole bunch more fake names and false Jewish history, that needs straightening out.

We’ll keep that bit of the story for another day.

==

For now, it’s enough to know that the direct, close family members of the ‘VILNA GAON’ and the ‘NODA BE YEHUDA’ were very happily funding the Chassidic aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, in 1778-1779.

This is 18-19 years AFTER the BESHT died, and at least 6-7 years AFTER the Maggid of Mezeritch is meant to have died, too.

==

Then, starting July-Sept 1781, the mitnaged decrees against ‘the chassidim’ begin.

Mor Altshuler makes a very convincing case that these ‘chassidim’ are actually R YECHIEL MICHEL (1726-1781) and his disciples.

And no, there is no ‘Vilna Gaon’ in sight.

Or at least, not with the name ‘Eliyahu ben Shlomo’.

Read on.

==

While MENACHEM MENDEL of VITEBSK is trying to settle the Holy Land, back in YEHIEL MICHEL’s hometown BRODY, his disciples are gathered around for a super-secret ‘Tikkun Leil Shavuot’.

The disciples of YECHIEL MICHEL who attend this mystical ‘Tikkun Leil Shavuot’ are sworn to strict secrecy about what was really going on, and who was involved. Altshuler spends many pages bringing various sources from the disciples’ later works, to piece the story together.

Long story short, it appears that YECHIEL MICHEL and his followers, including MENACHEM MENDEL of VITEBSK, were trying to ‘force’ God’s hand to bring the geula.

But it backfired stupendously.

==

This small, secret group of tzaddikim were waiting for word from MENACHEM MENDEL of VITEBSK, who apparently had his own ‘mystical job’ to do, that heavenly permission had been given for the geula to begin in earnest.

It never came.

Instead, the mitnaged storm against YECHIEL MICHEL and his secret group of disciples fanned up into a raging inferno, beginning 1781.

YECHIEL MICHEL’s books were publically burnt, he was hounded out of his home in Brody and ended up in the small backwater town of Yampol – where he died soon after, on the 25th of Elul 5541, September 15th, 1781, at the age of 55.

Apparently, from a broken heart.

==

In Israel, MENACHEM MENDEL of VITEBSK also died shortly after his Rebbe, at the relatively young age of 50, similarly broken by his experiences, vicissitudes and disappointment.

==

So, what actually happened here?

And why was YECHIEL MICHEL of ZLOTCHOV and most of his disciples almost totally scrubbed out of real Jewish history?

Let’s see if we can unpick a bit more.

==

As well as the ‘failed’ attempt to re-settle Eretz Yisrael, and to try and pry it away from the established Sabbatean communities infesting it since the ‘aliyah’ of Yehuda Chassid in 1700, if not before, some other things happened in 1781, that began the persecution of YECHIEL MICHEL of ZLOTCHOV.

Firstly, YECHIEL MICHEL had created a set of what is known as ‘Hasidic Practices’, that he and his disciples had been keeping secret.

But in anticipation of the Moshiach coming, and geula beginning, the decision was made to print these practises publically.

This was part of the effort to fulfill the Baal Shem Tov’s words in his famous epistle to his brother-in-law, Avraham Gershon Kitover of Brody, that the Moshiach would only come when the BESHT’s teachings of chassidut had been spread throughout the world.

(I know Chabad ‘stole’ this story and cast Shneur Zalman as the main character in it. As I keep telling you, most of what we were told by Chabad is half-truths, at best.)

==

So, YECHIEL MICHEL and his disciples have a ‘rule book’ of Chassidic practices, that include:

HISHTANUT – translated as the rule of ‘equanimity’.

HITBODEDUT

PERISHUT (‘austerity’)

DVEKUT

==

HISHTANUT was the basic idea that whatever God does to a person, for the seemingly good, or the seemingly bad, a person should accept what is happening with equanimity – because everything is God’s doing.

PERISHUT seems to mean living simply, without ostentation and seeking kavod, especially not for a person’s Torah learning.

And HITBODEDUT and DVEKUT we know from Rabbenu’s teachings.

==

It’s a side note, but it seems that YECHIEL MICHEL of ZLOTCHOV was the first cousin of Rabbenu’s father, SIMCHA HORODENKER.

NACHMAN HORODENKER’s wife, SIMCHA’s mother, seems to have been the sister of R YITZHAK DROHOVITCHER MAGGID, the father of YECHIEL MICHEL of ZLOTCHOV.

Again, all these people all got ‘scrubbed’ out of standard Jewish history.

==

OK, so this ‘Chassidic Rule Book’ was published in 1781 (5541) in Koretz, and was called Maggid Devarav Le’Yaakov (‘He Imparts His Words to Jacob’).

While it was later attributed to ‘Dov Ber the Maggid of Mezeritch’, he actually died nine years earlier (if he even existed as described.)

But YECHIEL MICHEL was still alive at this point.

According to Altshuler (page 332), the words ’Dov Ber’ was often added in afterwards, to ‘hide’ the real ‘Maggid’, whose works were being shared.

(When you see what happened next, and also, when you learn about the depth of the murderous opposition Breslov’s ‘true tzaddikim’ also suffered at the hands of the fake Sabbatean ‘rebbes’ trying to keep their grip on the power structure in the Jewish community, all this becomes far easier to understand.)

==

Altshuler says:

“There is no simple explanation for the opposition to Hasidism.”

Especially, because the story they told us all is mostly pure fabrication.

Meanwhile, the manifest that was sent in 5532 (1772) – 12 years after the death of the BESHT – by the Vilna community to Brody and Brisk describes the hasidim as ‘bands of the wicked’.

(At the end of this post, we’ll return to what was really going on in 1772 to spark this off….)

While the 1781 ‘ban’ against the chassidim also talks about them as a ‘The sect of subversives and agitators’, it’s actually in the informal mitnaged writings like Breaking of Sinners that you get a hint of some of the real concerns, which include:

• The strong messianic beliefs and character of the movement (a big ‘no-no’ after the Shabtai Tzvi / SHACH catastrophe); and
• A widespread belief in reincarnation.

==

Honestly?

When I was reading through Altshuler’s work, I was trying to figure out myself where ‘the Sabbateans’ were really hiding out in this story.

I’m still not totally sure.

Much as the Rav appears to be doing in our days, YECHIEL MICHEL himself seemed to have been sailing very close to the Sabbatean wind, with some of his ‘sweetening’ efforts.

==

For example, the Sabbateans had a whole set of ‘codes’ and ‘symbols’ that they were using to describe Shabtai Tzvi, and Sabbatean philosophy.

This is how Altshuler describes some of this, on page 344:

“Personifying the quality of the Red Heifer is characteristic of the Sabbatean Tradition, in which the Red Heifer is interpreted with reference to a particular individual, Shabtai Tzvi, and seen as the secret key to his messianism.”

==

If you’ve been following the current ‘obsession’ with the Red Heifer in recent days, this whole passage maybe is giving you more of a pause for thought.

==

Here’s another quote from Altshuler (p 360) that might ring some more bells for you:

“R YECHIEL MICHEL deliberately incurred public degradation, and bore it with indifference.”

And the following is a footnote on p 364, which is taken from the Shivchei HaBesht, 8b, and also appears in ‘Ways of the Just’ 5b, and also in the book ‘Precious Gleanings’, but Meshullam Feivush Heller, one of Yechiel Michel’s main students:

“Even though they demean him, he should be silent and not respond at all to the one who demeans him, lest these disparagers distract him from the service of the Creator.

And he should not be concerned that he will thereby not be appreciated among people and will be unable to attain his goal.

[Rather,] he should direct his thought on high, to the supernal world and in His service, may He be blessed, and should commune with and trust in Him that he will attain his goal.”

==

This is the root of Rabbenu’s own teachings on bizayon.

As practised by the Rav’s probable ancestor, and the real tzaddik who was trying to carry on the BESHT’s teachings, YECHIEL MICHEL of ZLOTCHOV.

Awesome.

==

OK, so much more to say as always – including how the Mir Yeshiva and Chabad chassidut appear to have been set up by exactly the same family, who all descend from the known Sabbatean, the Meir Panim.

For example.

But for now, let’s end with the story that seems to have really ignited the firestorm of opposition against YECHIEL MICHEL and his disciples.

It occurred in Koretz in 1772 – that year when the very first edicts against the ‘chassidim’ were written in Vilna, and sent around to Brody and Brisk.

==

Back in Koretz, R PINCHAS SHAPIRA of KORETZ’s son, MOSHE, held the communal position of being able to levy the meat tax on the kosher meat being slaughtered.

This ‘tax’ on the kosher meat provided a third of the Jewish kahal’s annual funding, and it was a very rich vein to mine, for the people who held the right to tax.

==

You can read the whole story in Altshuler’s PDF beginning on page 64, but the basic story is this:

Moshe Shapira operated a kosher abbatoir, and had a monopoly on the community’s kosher meat, which YECHIEL MICHEL believed he was abusing, to charge exaggerated prices for kosher meat – which hit the poorest families the hardest.

(There is literally nothing new under the sun….)

==

R Pinchas Shapira of Koretz took the side of his son, and before long, to quote Altshuler:

“The dispute, originating in matters related to kosher slaughter, developed into a wide and open conflict that implicated additional issues related to divine worship.

Pinchas of Korets took umbrage at “the Maggid’s” manner of prayer and could not tolerate “people gesturing in the manner of the Maggid” and extolling his prayer.

Pinchas’s criticisms imply opposition to the demonstrative nature of the Maggid’s prayer, hint at vulgar bodily movements, and disparage the Maggid’s pretensions to penetrate to the upper realms with his prayer.

==

Allusions to the dispute can be found as well in a tradition attributed to R. Pinchas of Korets, which tells of “a certain resentment between R. Mikhel and R. Pinchas” related to matters of prayer. Their rivalry was expressed in R. Yechiel Mikhel’s “grudge” against R. Pinchas and R. Pinchas’s reaction:

“The grudge that he bears in his heart against me because he cannot discern my prayers in the heavens is a vain grudge; for he is not alone in being unable to discern my prayers. Even the angels cannot discern them, for I have made my way directly to the Holy One, Blessed be He.”

==

Again, very long story short, Pinchas Shapira of Koretz ended up leaving town, and then shortly afterwards, the first epistles against ‘the chassidim’ appeared, in 1772 (as mentioned above).

But the ‘ban’ didn’t take at this point – because it seems obvious that most people understood that the complaint against the monopoly on kosher meat was justified.

==

A long time ago, when I was trying to figure out who the ‘real Vilna Gaon’ actually might be, I had a dream that just repeated over and over again:

Pinchas is Eliyahu.

And now, here we have a story that seems to be the real beginning of the ‘rift’ between the chassidim and the mitnagdim, except instead of ‘Eliyahu the GRA’, we have ‘Pinchas Shapira of Koretz’.

====

There is still so, so much to unpick here.

But that will do for today.

BH, there are about 200 different ‘spin offs’ from Altshuler’s information, so we’ll see where God guides this research next.

In the meantime, the Rav also came out with a stunning shiur recently, so my next project is to translate that ready for Wednesday, when I am back online again, BH.

Until then.

A few years ago, I did a deep-dive on ‘narcissists’ and so-called ‘Narcissist Personality Disorder’ (NPD).

By ‘deep dive’, I mean I read tens of books, did hours and hours and hours of praying about how to handle the ‘narcs’ in my own life, and my own ‘narcissistic tendencies’, that I was just waking up to.

And I also did a lot of soul-searching about whether ‘unfixable narcs’ can ever make teshuva.

==

I’m not talking about the people who are raised in narcissistic environments, and who have picked up ‘fleas’ from the narcs, in terms of how they interact with others.

You know, like all the ‘pretend perfection’; ‘I can do no wrong’; calling other people ‘silly’ and ‘stupid’ (like, all the time….); guilt trips, insults, manipulative mind games etc etc.

All of us sometimes trip into these bad middot, that doesn’t make a person a ‘narc’.

What makes a person a ‘narc’, is that they are never the problem, they never have any teshuva to make, nothing to apologise for. It’s always everyone else’s fault.

And most of all, and probably the real ‘clue’ that you’re dealing with a narc, is that your stomach usually turns in knots after interactions with them, and you experience tremendous discomfort all up and down your vagus nerve.

==

Why is this?

Because we interact consciously with the outer ‘shell’ of the narcissist, which is carefully controlled, and carefully presented, to appear a certain way (i.e. ‘pretend perfect’, can-do-no-wrong, always right about everything etc etc.)

But our subconscious is picking up the very strong subliminal messages that this person is dangerous. This person is nasty. This person is bad news – run away fast, now!!!

==

In the West, in particular, we were all taught to stifle these ‘warning signs’, so that people in authority could continue to abuse us, manipulate us, ‘brainwash us’ in to seeing things – everything! – their way.

So it is, that so many people (especially in places like NYC and London) go through life literally never understanding that most of their social interactions, most of their ‘mind set’, most of their beliefs – it’s all being shaped by the narcs in their life.

Getting free of the narcs is probably the single biggest thing anyone can do for their own mental health, happiness and ‘freedom of soul’.

(And also, physical health. Because spending too much time around ‘narc energy’ can literally make you physically sick, on so many levels.)

====

But it’s so hard to do, because the narcs don’t take kindly to losing their ‘influence’ over others, or their ‘pretend perfect’ appearance, and they will fight tooth and nail to keep everyone jumping to their tune.

Especially, the unfortunate people who happen to be their close family members, or work colleagues.

==

There is a huge amount of overlap between ‘Cluster B’ personalities, as it was fashionable to call narcs ten years ago, and ‘Erev Rav’ personality traits.

You can download Unlocking the Secret of the Erev Rav HERE, for free, which lists all this stuff out exhaustively.

But it’s almost a perfect fit.

And that’s why it’s so important for more of us to understand how these narcs operate, what they do to is – and perhaps most importantly, who they really are.

==

One of the most useful ‘quick tools’ I ever came across for cluing you into whether you are dealing with a narc is called ‘the Sinking Titanic Test’.

It goes like this:

Imagine that you are on the deck of the Titanic.

There is one lifejacket left – and two of you on board who needs it.

You, and the other person you are ‘feeling out’, mentally.

What happens next?

==

If you literally take the minute required to ‘imagine’ this scene, you’ll find that your subconscious instantly jumps at the chance to show you what your relationship with this person is actually really like, at least, from the subconscious perspective.

For example, one of the people I ‘imagined’ showed up with a machine gun and barked at me they would blow my head off, if I so much as took a step closer to him and his precious lifejacket.

(Yup…. That fit 100%).

==

Meanwhile, when I did it imagining my husband, neither of us wanted to be the one ‘left behind’ without the other one, so we both went down with the Titanic.

And that was fine with us.

==

Meanwhile, some other person came up with a million justifications for why the world really needed ‘smart people’ like him, while ‘stupid people’ like me – well, we were surplus to requirements, and the argument was over.

(Again, yup…. That fit 100%).

==

I highly, highly recommend you try this easy exercise yourself.

Run a whole bunch of people in your circle through it, and you’ll soon start to pick up the real ‘vibe’ of who that person really is, and how they really treat you, and how they really make you feel.

(Warning: if you are from the US or the UK, or other ‘Anglo’ places, where two-faced hypocrisy is the order of the day, you will probably get quite the shock from this…. But ultimately, it’s better to know who and what you are dealing with.)

And may Hashem save us from the clutches of the Erev Rav in our midst, and the ‘Erev Rav’ tendencies that so many of us still have.

Here in Israel, there was a ‘debate’ about whether we were allowed to be happy on Purim.

I was hoping to get this shiur translated and up before Purim, but in the end that didn’t happen, so I’m sticking it up now.

I still have more to translate from this particular shiur – it’s the one where the Rav talked about everyone in Kiev being murdered and then a massive war starting, hopefully, that all got sweetened.

And I am also planning to paraphrase more of the stuff from Rav Elmaliach.

In the meantime…. the bizayon against the Rav is reaching new heights again, exactly as he planned.

That’s the only way to sweeten the harsh decrees, and anyone who is even semi-conscious can understand the situation right now is still very difficult for Jews all over the world.

My mum in the UK told me they are running ‘poor Gaza’ stories as the headline news every day, that there are massive crowds of angry people still demonstrating against Jews (ahem, I meant against Israel….) every weekend in the UK.

And the Jews there are feeling pretty nervous.

So…. lots and lots to ‘sweeten’ still, and I don’t expect the bizayon against the Rav to let up any time soon.

Whoopee do.

====

Excerpt of shiur given on Wednesday March 6th, Parshat Vayakhel 5784

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.

==

And 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 [19]33 to [19]45, until erev L’ag B’omer.

==

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.

==

Now, we are waiting.

In another two weeks, Sunday night, it’s already the first of Adar Bet.

Motzae Shabbat is already the 30th of Adar (alef). Whoever eats after shekyah on motzash needs to say ya’aleh ve’yavo, so in order not to get into a situation of doubt, we need to finish the first kazayit [of bread] before shkeya.

Afterwards, you can eat vegetables, fruit and snacks.

==

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]).

==

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

(960 years from Matan Torah).

==

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.

==

Because [in Egypt], everyone was serving avoda zara, except for the three tribes that were written in Vaira – Reuven, Shimon and Levi[2].

Shimon didn’t serve avoda zara, Reuven didn’t serve avoda zara, and Levi didn’t serve avoda zara. But the rest of the nine tribes, everyone had fallen into avoda zara, together with Ephraim and Menashe,[3] this is 10 tribes.

So, everyone fell into serving avoda zara. They were there for 210 years, and slowly, slowly, they became assimilated with the goyim.

==

It’s like before the expulsion from Spain.

Everyone was already apikorsim (non-believers; heretics).

[The Jewish community in Spain before the expulsion] had been there for 781 years.

Exactly like the period of time from the entry into Eretz Yisrael until the churban (destruction of the First Temple). There is was 850, here it was 781.

In those years, everyone had already assimilated. The RASHBA writes in Keter Malchut that already, everyone had assimilated. They screamed at him, why are you still keeping the Torah?!

They were already waiting to start marrying non-Jewish women.

==

Like [what was happening in Shushan], where everyone had already married non-Jewish women.

[And so it’s written:] “The City of Shushan was bewildered.” Why ‘bewildered’?[4]

This is because everyone had engaged in mixed marriages.

Like in the Shoah, where half the people had already assimilated, in the Holocaust. So Purim, this was already total assimiliation. And then suddenly, within three days, they saw such a total miracle.[5]

“For three days, do not eat and do not drink.”

==

There was R’ Avraham Elimelech of Karlin, he wanted to cancel [the decree of] the Holocaust.

He knew that there was going to be a Shoah – R’ Avraham Elimelech of Karlin. So, he came after Tisha B’Av[6]

==

Hitler said that now, he was going to annihilate the Jews.

He said for this seven years, day and night. Every speech, he said the first thing, I am going to annihilate the Jews. I will conquer Europe, and I will make a new order here. Germany is from the Aryan race.

‘Aryan’ is ‘Lion’ – ‘Aryan’ is from the language of radiance. The meaning of ‘Aryan’ is that it is the race that ‘irradiates’ the world, that it’s the ‘projector’ of the world. This is called ‘Aryan – it’s the projector of the world, it’s the ‘chosen race’, and the rest of the races are its servants.

And the Jews must be annihilated, which is the race that is ‘against’ their race.

==

There is a book [written by Hitler], Mein Kampf, that is being found by the terrorists [now in Gaza]. This book is in almost every house – Mein Kampf.

It says that the first things is to annihilate the Jews.

There are the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and they don’t know who wrote this, [about] who the Jews intend to destroy the world, and to conquer the world.

==

So, it’s written that the decree of Purim was pushed off [until the Shoah]….

==

And now, we are standing another two weeks before the greatest day of our life.

All the festivals will be cancelled, apart from Purim. So, the Chatam Sofer wrote that the simcha (on Purim) is de’orayta.

Reading the megillah is de’rabbanan. But essentially, the simcha on Purim (is de’orayta). To praise, to recognise the miracle, to thank for the miracle. We need to blow the shofars, and on trumpets.

“To blow on trumpets.”

So, the Chatam Sofer said that Hallel was de orayta, this is those who say Hallel on Pesach, and Hallel on Shavuot.

==

On Pesach, we only say half of Hallel, because [Hashem said] the work of My hands is drowned in the sea [and you are saying a song?!]

If the work of My hands is drowning in the sea, so it’s impossible to recite Hallel, because why didn’t you return them in teshuva? How is it possible, that there is such an Amram like this, and such a Moshe like this [and they didn’t bring the non-Jews back to God?]

==

Amram divorced Yocheved, so he already lost his strength.

So his daughter [Miriam] said to him, you are worse than Pharoah! All this is written in the Gemara, Tractate Sotah.

His daughter said to him, you are worse than Pharoah! What did you do to us?! Pharoah said, ‘Every son that will be born – into the River shall you throw him.”[7] [But the girls remain alive. But by divorcing, there are now also no girls.]

Everyone got divorced! The whole of Am Yisrael!

Amram insisted on getting divorced, and this was a huge disaster. Miriam was a child of five and a half. She went into the Sanhedrin, and said what is this?! How are you supporting such a thing as this?!

Her father was the head of the generation. The RAMBAM brings down in [his commentary on] Shoftim, Chapter 9, that the whole masoret (tradition) passed via Amram. The RAMBAM brings down that all the 613 mitzvoth, all the masoret – observing Shabbat, everything that is kept – everything was passed down via Amram.

The RAMBAM here, on Chapter 9, on the halachot about Kings.

==

Each person needs to study the RAMBAM, five chapters a day.

And then it’s possible to finish it within a year. Now, it was the yahrtzeit of the RAMBAM, on the 20th Tevet.

The Rebbe[8] said that halacha is according to the RAMBAM, the halacha on every thing is according to the RAMBAM. And in the future, they will pasken (decide) the halacha like the RAMBAM.

So, the RAMBAM brings down here the chain of transmission.[9]

[Skipping some]

==

The RAMBAM said: I wrote this commentary on the Mishnayot when I was travelling from sea to sea [when he moved to Eretz Yisrael], without books.

He didn’t have any books, and he already knew the whole of the SHAS. Everything was set out for him like in a drawer, like in a cabinet, like an encyclopaedia that is organised by its headings.

By 17, everything was already arranged by him.

==

The RAMBAM was born in Spain, and he had to run away from the Muslims.

He moved to Fais ? [in Morocco]. There is where he was. He got to Fais aged seven, and until 21 he was in Fais.

And after this, he decided that he was going to travel to Eretz Yisrael, and he came here. There was a famine here, and so he went to Egypt.

==

[Skipping some].

Now, it’s going to be Ramadan.

They[10] want to obliterate everything here. They said that by Ramadan already, there won’t be a single Jew left here. It’s like on Purim, when they said that there wouldn’t be a single Jew left in the world.

And they will bring here 100,000 Arabs, to destroy.

Maybe, we’ll move to Kiryat Menachem, maybe we’ll move to Beitar. Really.

Because here already, not a single Jew will remain.

==

They said, yes, limit [the number of Arabs allowed to ascend Har Habayit on Ramadan], don’t limit.

Bibi said go up, all the Arabs can come to Jerusalem.

There are two million Arabs. Not a single Jew will remain alive.[11]

In any case, then I’’ll come and move in with you, there’s no choice.

==

It’s the story in Istanbul, when the Baal Shem Tov was in Istanbul.[12]

So they said, by six in the morning, not a single Jew will remain!

And they made a condition, that no-one could tell them [i.e. The Jews]. Whoever would tell, they would hang him. Because the moment that the Jews knew that was a decree to kill them, so they would bribe everyone, and within a second, they would nullify the decree.

So, they made a decree.

This is a true story, that we tell over on the shvii shel Pesach.

Be here on the shvii shel Pesach,and then you can hear the whole story.[13]

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In any case, the Baal Shem Tov started to sing: To do big wonders by Himself…

He got to Istanbul on the way to Eretz Yisrael.

The Rebbe said [that in order to get to Eretz Yisrael], you need to get to the ‘smallest of the small’.

Eretz Yisrael is the ‘greatest of the great’.

So, the Rebbe took off his shoes, he took off his shirt. He stayed just with his undershirt and his trousers. And like this for a whole month, he played war games in the street. He played with swords, he played that we are the French, and you are the Ishmaelites.

All this is brought down in Shivei HaRan.

And there is a book that describes exactly how the Rebbe used to hang around on the streets, until the Satan left him alone. It said travel to Eretz Yisrael! You’re already not ‘Rebbe Nachman’!

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The Baal Shem Tov travelled [to try to get to Eretz Yisrael].

The Smichat Hachamim travelled; the [Vilna] Gaon travelled, and the Iggeret HaGra was when he travelled to Eretz Yisrael.

He wrote the Iggeret HaGra to his wife with masculine language [grammar?].

[He was asked] if there was an obligation to go and pray in a beit knesset, he said lo talechi (don’t proceed), because there, everyone talks nonsense.

Today, they are already praying, but once, they didn’t know how to pray. They didn’t know aleph-bet, they just used to talk nonsense.

The whole Iggeret HaGra was [written] when he was travelling. He left from Koenigsburg, and there is his signature in Amsterdam. The signature of the CHIDA – the CHIDA is Chaim Yosef.

The CHIDA is the grandson of the Chesed L’Avraham.

[The Vilna Gaon was] Elihu ben Shlomo.

So, [they signed] one after another.

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Whoever travelled [to Eretz Yisrael] had to go via Amsterdam, and there he would be accepted, there, and they would register him.

And they would send [people] to Eretz Yisrael according to this registration list.

You are with ten children, you are with 20 children.

And each one, according to…. And the Sephardim were registered in Istanbul.

In Istanbul, everyone was a billionaire.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Bamidbar 10, 10.

[2] See Shemot 6.

[3] I.e. That the tribe of Yosef was split into that of Ephraim and Menashe, so it came to 10 tribes who were serving avoda zara.

[4] I.e. Why is it referring to the whole of the city of Shushan as being ‘bewildered’ and not just the Jewish community alone?

[5] By way of listening to the instructions of Esther who told them the following.

[6] He came to Eretz Yisrael, and said that if everyone would fast on Rosh Hashana, the decree of the Holocaust would be nullified.

[7] Shenot 1:23.

[8] See Siach Sarfey Kodesh II, 56.

[9] See Rambam, Halachot Malachim, 9:1).

[10] It’s not clear who the Rav is referring to here.

[11] Two days before the first day of Ramadan, the Rav warned publically on multiple occasions that a terrible pogrom was being planned for the Meah Shearim neighborhood for 8.30am Sunday morning. In the event, at exactly that time, the Rav was taken to hospital in a very serious, life-threatening condition. As has happened so many times before, it appears that the Tzaddik took the harsh decree upon himself.

Three days later, three of the holiest boys from the Shuvu Banim community were killed in a terrible car accident returning from visiting Kivrei Tzaddikim in the Shomron, and two of their friends were seriously injured. But the pogrom in Meah Shearim didn’t materialise, Baruch Hashem.

[12] Regular readers of the Rav’s lessons will recognise that Rav Berland frequently refers back to this story of the Baal Shem Tov in Istanbul, and updates it with new details, when there is a new harsh decree that requires ‘sweetening’.

[13] According to Rav Elmaliach’s message, the second revelation of four of the soul of Moshiach is meant to occur on the shvi shel Pesach, 5784.

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Lots and lots of hints and allusions to the Sabbateans in this shiur.

Those same people, and their descendants, are still going after the Rav.

Ha mavin yavin.

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