In the shiur yesterday, the Rav asked that every girl and woman 7+ should try to say a whole book of tehillim a day.

***UPDATES BELOW***

For non-Hebrew speakers, that’s an even bigger ask – see if you can team up with some friends and divide the book between you.

Also, the Rav said every boy and man 7+ should learn 10 pages of Gemara a day.

There is a very uneasy feeling in the holy city right now.

Please, spend less time on pointless news and fake news, and more time praying.

Every word of prayer counts.

The situation feels extremely serious.

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UPDATE:

They just translated the Rav’s shiur from the day after the attack HERE.

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UPDATE 2:

I was in the middle of the update, above, when sirens went off again and I left the computer to just ‘bind myself to God’ and the true tzaddikim, and to start saying a Tikkun HaKlali.

What else can I do?

I live in an old rented house with no mamad, but the truth is, even if I had a mamad – only God decides if a person lives or dies.

The day before Yom Kippur, I literally nearly choked to death on a crisp.

God doesn’t need rockets, if your time is up, God forbid.

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Anyway, so those rockets apparently landed more in the Gush, plus one hit the mosque in Abu Ghosh, and another hit the judenrein Bethlehem.

So maybe, that’s a small sign that maybe this horrible din is starting to sweeten, a little, as more and more people start saying tehillim and Tikkun HaKlalis, and wasting less time on pointless political discussions and ‘news’ that is just sucking us all dry of our energy and keeping us far away from God.

And far away from really solving our problems, via prayer, teshuva and learning Torah – and acts of kindness and charity.

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Here is the bit of the Rav’s words I wanted to highlight:

Rabbeinu warns in [Likutey Moharan] Lesson 260, that every year numerous souls need to go for the sanctification of God’s Name — and this is the greatest unification, of the Ten Martyrs. 

The unification of the Holy One Blessed is He and His Shechinah (Divine Presence), about which we say, “God of Vengeance Hashem, God of Vengeance appear” — that everything happens because of the sale of Yosef….

[T]he greatest unification is made through those who are killed for the sanctification of God’s Name.

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Rabbi Natan of Breslov prayed about this in [Likutey Tefilot] Prayer 47, that at the conclusion of 120 years, everyone should merit to go for the sanctification of God’s Name.  This is the true unification, that only through this unification is it possible to come to the Land of Israel, because the souls ascend on high through self-sacrifice; they return to the Shechinah. 

They are included in the Shechinah, in Keter of Keter [the highest point in the highest of the Ten Sefirot]; for all those souls who now ascended in a whirlwind to Heaven, in a chariot of fire and horses of fire, they are all included in Keter of Keter.

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These are not just dry words, at least, not to me.

I was talking to my kid about this yesterday, as she sat weeping to see yet more people dead, injured and kidnapped.

There is a spiritual tikkun going on here, and whenever we forget that, we can get pulled away from Hashem, and away from our emuna, God forbid, that God is doing everything, everything is for our higher good – even when it hurts – and everything is just a message, a hint, about what WE OURSELVES need to be working on.

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I have been planning to translate more of the Rav’s stuff, but I am currently feeling very tired.

The heaviness here is coming in waves of ‘palpable’, there is a ton of din in the air, and so much still needs sweetening.

But I will carry on updating, BH, to the best of my ability.

And please keep praying… that’s the only way this really turns around as quickly and painlessly as possible.

I woke up today to the loud sounds of war planes overhead.

It was before dawn, there were lots and lots and lots of them.

A few minutes later, the ‘Allahu Akhbar’ chants started up from the mosques close to where I live.

They’d turned up the volume, and there was a definite ‘edge’ to the chant that made me feel pretty scared.

The last time I felt scared like that was a couple of years ago, the same morning when the arabs started rioting in Lod for a week while our police and army went strangely ‘AWOL’ and let it all happen.

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Two  years ago, I remembered the Breslov teaching that harsh decrees can’t be enacted as long as a person is doing hitbodedut – so I started talking to God.

I don’t know what happened, but the ‘balagan’ in my neighborhood disappeared – and I started to feel much happier and ‘safer’.

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So today, I decided to do the same again.

A long hitbodedut, including seven Tikkun Haklalis.

By the end, I am feeling happier and calmer again.

But still quite scared of what is going on, to be honest.

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The more the real details of what happened leaks out in Israel – and you still won’t see those real details anywhere in the ‘official news’, for so many reasons – the more there is cause for concern.

There is no way ‘Hamas’ did this all by themselves.

‘Hamas’ were just the puppets, but the planning and execution is State level.

So the question is: which foreign country just launched an attack on Israel and the Jews living here?

We are being told it’s ‘Iran’, or even ‘Russia’.

But I suspect the real culprit is the one country that desperately needs as many wars going as possible right now, to keep their multi trillion debt from crashing down on their heads (amongst many other things, that I don’t feel like re-hashing at this point.)

It’s the real wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The real enemy, who always dresses up as ‘Israel’s friend’.

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And then, the next question is:

Did that foreign state that just attacked the Jews in Israel, using ‘Hamas’ as their puppets, have help from within the government and the IDF to do it?

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My daughter just left to go to a few of the many, many funerals being held here.

There are a lot of young people still missing.

Many of them were murdered on the spot, at the rave they were at in Re’im – that ‘Hamas’ apparently knew all about, and made a bee-line for.

Many of the people at the rave were kidnapped and are now in Gaza, being used as human shields.

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Two days ago, my sister in law took her family out of Israel, and back to the UK.

But she’s in a tiny minority.

For every person flying out, there are 5 trying hard to fly back in from abroad, so they can come back and protect the Jews from our enemies.

The Jews here aren’t going any where.

This is my home – even though I have three passports.

And I am just praying, and praying some more, that we get through the next few weeks OK.

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Our enemies are planning another shoah here, God forbid.

‘Hamas’ and ‘Hezbollah’ are just the puppets – despicable, sub-human scum puppets though they still are.

But the real enemy is far more out of reach – hidden away, and seemingly invincible to the attempts of us mortal men to topple them.

But our prayers can reach even to them.

So dear reader, if you want to ‘help’ in this time of severe danger and hardship, get yourself a books of Tehillim – and start saying a few a day, for the good Jews of Israel, and the good people of the world, to win this fight against pure evil that is actually way, way bigger than just ‘Hamas’ or ‘Hezbollah’.

Or, get a tikkun hakali, and just start saying it as many times as you can – once, three times, seven times – whatever you can manage.

Each word creates an angel that will come and fight for the side of good.

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And if you are feeling scared for yourself and your family and your friends and your community – make every effort to identify the real tzaddikim, and to ‘join their circle’ ASAP.

We are coming down to the wire now.

The Rav has said that anyone who is part of Shuvu Banim, in any way, will be spared the worst of what is coming down the pipe.

And in the meantime…. we pray for everyone, and we all need all the prayers we can get.

I was just at the tefillot of the Rav tonight.

He spoke for 30 minutes, and at times seemed close to tears.

What I understood him to be saying about the situation was:

It’s the most serious time for Am Yisrael, they are really trying to do another shoah, mamash.

Everything that is happening is because of the government, which is full of bandits and gangsters.

Mothers and children were killed in the kibbutzim.

Up to 1,000 were killed.

150-200 kidnapped – and nobody knows when, how or if they will be released.

Hakafot – dancing – can sweeten all the judgements.

But the anti-Torah government cancelled all the hakafot.

This is going to last for at least 30 days.

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It was very sombre.

The Rav has been trying for years to ‘sweeten’ what we are now about to go through.

The more people get behind him, stop listening to the news, start saying tehillim every single day etc – the easier this will go.

But it’s going to be difficult.

And it’s not disappearing tomorrow.

Like we all wish it would.

I will update when I  have more details.

May Hashem have mercy on us.

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UPDATE:

The atrocities committed are beyond awful.

People were raped, shot and beheaded in their beds.

The one ray of light at this point is that more and more people are understanding that this CANNOT have happened just by the will of the terrorists on the Gaza side of the fence.

Think about this carefully.

And think about who was in a position to give the terrorists they kind of help they so obviously had to break the fence in multiple places, and rampage all over the South for 6+ hours before any semblance of any army showed up.

Know thy enemy.

This morning, before I wrote that last post, I was feeling pretty down.

***Excerpts from the Rav’s shiurim updated below – scroll down.***

After I wrote it, I started to feel a bit happier, but still not great.

Then, one of my Breslov friends sent me this:

“They” really didn’t want us dancing….

But today is still Isru Chag and we can still sweeten dinim!

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And that’s when the penny dropped, that what the yetzer is really after is all the sadness and depression yesterday’s horrible stuff is causing.

So then, I called ‘Southern Command’ – my friend S. who lives on a moshav in the South and who got really taken out by the events of Simchat Torah.

And I told her:

Yalla! We need to get out of bed, get out of our apathy, get out of our fear and anxiety and yeoush – and we need to start dancing!

With our kids!

And we need to start saying Tikkun Haklalis, and telling our kids, friends and neighbors to say tikkun haklalis.

And to re-attach ourselves to our prayers, and to God, and to shout from the rooftops:

THERE IS NO DESPAIR IN THE WORLD!!!!

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God is still with us!

God didn’t go anywhere!

Yes, some very bad stuff happened yesterday, but right now, our job as the real ‘home front command’ is to stand back up, connect to God, connect to our prayers and our emuna – and to encourage ourselves and the people around us that:

AIN YEOUSH BE OLAM KLAL!!!

And that all this can and will turn around in a miraculous way.

As long as we don’t get depressed, and as long as we don’t stop praying and believing and doing our best to live our emuna.

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Our soldiers need us!

The Jewish people need us, to keep dancing and praying and believing.

So yalla!

Start dancing.

Keep saying your tikkun haklalis.

Encourage others to join you and to stand strong.

That’s is the best and fastest ‘response’ to this – and turn off the lying news, too.

It’s working for the same people who arranged what happened yesterday.

And it’s trying to bring us all down, and to pull us away from God, and into fear and yeoush.

That is the real war being fought here.

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UPDATE:

These snippets are from Shiurim from the  Shivivei Or Newsletter, 326, given September 1st and 5th, 2023.

Bear in mind that at least some of the sections of the Gaza Fence were bulldozed down by the terrorists.

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Shiur after the evening prayers, Elul 15th 2023, Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech.

“Sulfur and salt, a burning of all the land.”[1]

It’s written in the parsha that [after the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash] all of the land of Israel will be turned into sulfur.

And any Arab who tries to plough his field will encounter a mound of sulfur, and it will explode.[2]

Because sulfur explodes on the spot, like matches that ‘combust’ immediately.

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And all the Arabs that try to ‘plough’ the land – seven years, they were all killed. They were all murdered.

Innocent people….pure holy souls that went up to Shemayim.

Until Serach bat Asher came, and began to dance.

And via her dancing, then everyone merited to have the complete redemption, may it be speedily in our days, Amen.

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Second shiur, emphasising the importance of the women dancing again:

Shiur after the evening prayers, Elul 19th, 2023, Parshat Nitzavim-Veyelech.

“And the sister of Aharon,the Prophetess Miriam, took the drum in her hand, and all the women went out after her, with drums and with dancing.”[3]

Because Miriam just danced.

Pharoah said to her every day, I am going to kill you! I’m going to hang you! Every day. You are a criminal! You are transgressing dinah de’malchut dinah (the law of the land).

I’ve also got a daughter whose a criminal (Bitya bat Pharoah). I said every Jewish boy, should be drowned. Every Jewish boy – they should drown him! And she saw some Jewish boy , and she took him out of the Nile.

She had seven girls (maidservants), and they said to her: “If you take him out of the Nile, they will annihilate you! You should know that this is the end of you!”

And then, Rashi says holchot – they went.

[Rashi says: Our Sages said the word ‘holchot’ here is the language of death (Sotah 12b). Like it says in Bereishit 25:32, hinei, anochi holech la moot – behold, I am going to die…. They were going to die because they protested against her.]

The Angel Gavriel came and beat them to the ground, in the merit that the Prophetess Miriam merited just to dance all day and all night.

She merited to enter Gan Eden with her body.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Devarim 29:22

[2] Yalkut Shimoni, Yirmiyahu, Chapter 9: “The Cuthites who were there, what did they do? They sewed here, and it burned. They sewed there, and it burned.” Then, there is an example given of a Cuthite who was ploughing a field in the valley, and it burst into flames.

[3] Shemot, 15:20.

Things are pretty bad here in Israel right now.

Jerusalem is quiet, thank God.

Things are still being ‘sweetened’ here.

But what happened yesterday is awful beyond words.

Do you think it was just an ‘accident’, a ‘security failure’?

Please go and read THIS.

There is a news blackout on a lot of the details still.

For many reasons, I am choosing to stay away from discussing ‘details’ of what’s going on here, but if you talk to God for even just five seconds about what really happened yesterday, and who let it happen, you will get your answer.

We only have God to rely on.

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So, what can we do in this horrible situation we now found ourselves in?

Pray.

Say as many tikkun haklalis as you can.

Talk to God in your own words, as much as you can, and beg Him to finally eradicate this evil from the world – and to protect all the good Jews, all the good people.

Make teshuva.

Especially the teshuva required for pushing God out the picture, and relying on the ‘might and strength of our own hands’.

The ‘Iron Sword’ is the weapon of Esav.

And it’s being used against the Jews all the time, obviously and less obviously.

Give tzedaka.

Because tzedaka still cancels out the harsh decrees – money for blood.

And even if that tzedaka, those pidyonot, can’t ‘sweeten’ it for everyone – they can at least ‘sweeten’ things for you and your family.

And finally – get with the real Tzaddikim.

The people who told you what was going to happen, if they didn’t get to Uman for Rosh Hashana this year, to sweeten the terrible decree of war.

And that decree is still unfolding as we speak, God forbid.

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I am going to start posting some snippets here about the power of the Tikkun Haklali and the Torah to protect us.

And I have stuff from the Rav to translate too, which I hope to get on with today and post up here.

This first snippet, though is from the One in a Generation Book, Volume I, and was given over many years ago:

THE TORAH IS PROTECTING ERETZ YISRAEL

On another occasion, Rav Berland commented:

“Everyone is talking about what would happen if there was no army. Who would protect Eretz Yisrael then? But really, there’s nothing to be scared of, as it’s only the Torah that’s protecting us.”

When Israel began deploying its Iron Dome rockets across Israel in the face of regular rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, the Rav returned to the subject of what was really protecting the nation of Israel from its enemies.

“We don’t really need the Iron Dome, because all the Torah that people are learning and all the times they recite Tikkun Haklali is what’s really protecting us.

“And even if Iran does decide to try and attack us with a nuclear bomb, all the words of Torah that we’re learning here are going to fly up in the air and create so much confusion and crosscurrents that the Iranians’ rocket is going to change direction and end up falling back on those who sent it.”

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And this is another snippet, given over in 2015:

ROCKETS RAIN DOWN ON ERETZ YISRAEL

About a month after rockets started raining down on Eretz Yisrael, in the days immediately following the discovery of the three kidnapped boys’ bodies, one of his followers contacted Rav Berland to ask him if he had any words of wisdom, or chizuk, to share about the rocket attacks.

The Rav said the following:

“Tell everyone not to be afraid, and not to start running away from one city to the next.

As soon as the siren sounds, take your Tikkun Haklali out of your pocket and start to read it slowly, word by word, and if you do this, you have nothing more to worry about, and there will be miracles, with God’s help, and the rocket won’t fall anywhere near you.”

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Also, pray for our soldiers to be protected.

And for all of Am Yisrael to finally wake up, make teshuva, and return to God as ‘one man with one heart’.

Because there is No-one else to rely on to get us out of the terrible situation we are now in.

As the days go by, more and more people are going to understand the true depth of the betrayal that happened here.

And is still happening here.

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For anyone who is wondering why so many people aren’t ‘seeing’ the same things they are.

(Shmirat Eynayim friendly.)

All is good.

The old blog has gone again….

And I’m waiting for God to show me what to do next, that won’t involve lashon hara, walking around with a critical, cynical eye all the time, or getting caught up in never-ending machloket or the pointless puppet show.

Moving forward, this needs to be about emuna, bitachon, hope, trust, God and emunat tzaddikim, amongst many other good, holy things.

I am taking a bit of time off to figure things out.

BH, when the time is right, something beautiful will start to sprout here.

But in the meantime, enjoy Sukkot….

Rivka