Each time, 3 more soldiers are killed – more comments from the Rav
Continuing on where the last excerpt left off.
You can read that HERE.
Shiur to the Mithabrim (‘Associates’) 28th Kislev, 5785, 29th December 2024, Chanukah.
[Skipping a section where the Rav is describing how the women in Temple times used to fly down to Jerusalem to pray shacharit, before returning to send their children off to school with sandwiches.]
So, from Zippori they used to fly in the air, from so much desire [to pray in Jerusalem].
A person needs to be waiting [for the next opportunity] to pray. It’s written that when R’ Yehudah HaLevi said I am waiting for mincha. All day, I just want to pray mincha, to pray to Hashem.
The greatest enjoyment is prayer.
There is no greater enjoyment than this – it’s greater than soccer, greater than anything. You speak to Hashem, Who created you, you thank [Him] for another day that you got given, and another day, and that they are firing rockets, and no rocket gets here, no rockets are falling.
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And they are firing more rockets, and yet more rockets.
And Biden thinks that it’s forbidden for you to blow up a house [where terrorists are hiding]. If you come to fight in Gaza, or in Lebanon, you first need to announce it: I am coming at such-and-such hour, at such-and-such minute, so evacuate!
And of course, [after this announcement is made beforehand] the place gets filled up with terrorists, and with artillery, and with snipers [who are aiming at Israel’s soldiers].
And each time, another three soldiers are killed.
Because Biden doesn’t let, without announcing beforehand, in an elegant way, nicely, with derech eretz – he teaches derech eretz.
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In another 20 days, he’ll be gone, already.
Not even one more soldier will die.
But in the meantime, he doesn’t let, and so, he’s not sending weapons. All the weapons [for Israel] are finished. This has continued 14 months.
The Yom Kippur [War] was seven days, even the Six Days [War] was six days. And there was the Lebanon War, which was a day or two.
Within two days, all the weapons will be finished here, because every day it’s a billion dollars [that is being spent on weapons].
If they don’t send from America, so then they will destroy us within…
So we need to do what he says. But in 20 days, on the 20th of Tevet, Sunday, he’s already out of here.
He said now I am lighting a hanukah candle. He really cried, he said I want a hanukah candle.
Excerpted and translated from Shivivei Or 391.
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Ad kan, from the Rav.
I don’t know about you, but the last few weeks life has gone totally nuts.
Mostly, in my dalet amot, on board the ‘Shuvu’ ark, it’s all good stuff. Lots and lots and lots of really good stuff happening, but still happening so fast, and so non-stop, and so stressfully, that I have been spun off my axis the last two weeks, in particular.
Also, I suspect they are zapping us at night.
The days when I stick a row of whole lentils on a finger ‘Sujok-style’, to protect the body’s vagus nerve from absorbing ‘stuff’ that we may be getting bombarded with, energetically – those are the days I sleep, so much better.
Truthfully, I forgot about the lentils until yesterday, but then I stuck them on both me and my husband, and we both slept way better.
And life is still super-stressful, at the moment.
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In my own dalet amot, I am so ready for the ‘worm to turn’ already.
I am so sick of pointless discussions about ‘gematria of the end’ and all the rest – the more I research stuff from Shabtai Tzvi onwards, the more I see it’s the same pattern that’s played out repeatedly, over and over again.
To sum it up, there were rabbis and leaders who thought the ‘end’ was a fixed time, and would come at a fixed time, regardless of the Jews making teshuva.
Rebbe Nachman never held by that view – and neither did R Eliezer, in the Gemara, in the argument with R Yehoshua.
And it seems, neither does R Eliezer Berland, in our days, and if you want to know ‘where did geula go?! Where did ‘moshiach’ go?!’ The Rav has been answering that question, consistently, since day one of this horrible war, that until more people smash their smartphones, and more people dress tzniusly, and more people really, really make sincere teshuva from the heart – moshiach is not coming.
And geula will only be in another 200 years.
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Why?
Because it seems that Rebbe Nachman, and Rav Eliezer (of the Gemara) and Rav Eliezer Berland have won the heavenly argument, that geula should be a function of real teshuva, and not just a function of ‘time’.
And so, this slow burn of awful suffering – until and unless the person suffering makes real teshuva – is just going to continue to spread, until people finally get it.
That this is NOT about more gematriot, ‘signs and wonders’, prophecies (which I now like to spell G-U-E-S-S-E-S), or any of that stuff, which so many of us, including me, have wasted so much time pondering and worrying about.
It all boils down to us getting real with God, and with ourselves, and with our yiddishkeit, and with our middot.
And that’s it.
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On the one hand – yah, it’s kind of a bummer.
Especially for those of us with a tendency to duck all our own very real issues and problems, and who are waiting for Moshiach to come and solve all our problems for us.
That is not how this is going to work.
Any problem we have needs to be addressed by US, ourselves, with cheshbon hanefesh, hitbodedut, prayers, charity – and making the changes that God really is waiting for. Or at least, taking a step in the right direction and acknowledging that we have stuff to work on.
We all have a ton of stuff we all need to work on – including me.
My ‘stuff’ recently has included feelings of total overwhelm, wanting to cry, wanting to run away somewhere, wanting to stop having to deal with anyone else, or anything else.
It took a six hour hitbodedut session to START getting on top of everything I’ve been bottling up for the last few months, and believe me, there is still a lot more praying required.
Especially, about trying to remember, all the time, that God is behind everything, and to understand that there really is no yeoush in the world. Life is good, even though life is so crazy.
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Keeping this real – that’s not coming so easy at the moment, and I’ve been struggling with it.
But, I know that’s where I want to be, and I’m asking God to help me get there.
And in the meantime, I’m acknowledging that a lot of bad middot have bubbled up again, from the constant stress and tension, and that I need to deal with them, and not make them someone else’s problem.
(Including, not making them ‘Moshiach’s problem’. Moshiach doesn’t come to ‘fix’ our bad middot, he comes to help us understand what WE OURSELVES need to do, to fix our bad middot.)
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So, that’s where I’m currently holding.
Trying to keep my head above water, trying to see the good, trying not to let the feelings of ‘overwhelm’ sink me.
To keep seeing God in the picture, orchestrating everything for our good.
And to stop holding out for Moshiach to come and save us from this mess, because ‘the mess’ was created by God, in order to get us to make real teshuva.
And Moshiach simply can’t do that job on our behalf.
We aren’t xtians, we are Jews.
And our Sages make it very clear, teshuva, prayer and charity is what overcomes the evil decrees. And there are no exceptions to that rule.
I won’t be the first, for sure others will as – tell us how we can do the “lentil” thing. Yes it has been a highly charged nighttime for a couple weeks now. All bc of the backn’forth over the internet betw Israel and DC. Finally, maybe now we can all get some sound sleep. At night until maybe 4-5am the buzzing is loud, and by the am it quiets down. Please where and how do we use those lentils (green ones only?)?
Take whole red lentils, and adhesive tape for skin (not cellotape).
Then, tear a piece of tape as long as your middle finger. Stick a row of whole red lentils in the middle of the tape (roughly is fine), and then stick that tape with the lentils on the INSIDE of your middle finger, from top to bottom, so the lentils are placed roughly in the middle of the finger, vertically.
I guarantee when you take it off in the morning, most of the lentils will be cracked. continue doing the lentil-thing until most of the lentils are NOT cracking, when you peel the tape off in the morning.
do you apply the lentils bilaterally or just one hand?
Just on one hand – and it doesn’t matter which hand.
here in the US there isn’t anything called “cellotape”, could give a description of what kind of tape & should not be used [& why if you can spare some more]
Anything like micropore tape, which is paper, but you can also use plastic medical tape, which tears very easily and sticks to skin without pulling it when it comes off.
thanks for clarifying, just wondering, is the reason you’re saying not to use those types is because they stick to skin & it will be difficult to remove, or because it needs to be breathable in order for it to work?
no, doesn’t need to be breathable to work. the point is just the lentils need to be whole, and in direct contact with the skin. whatever way you find to fix them in place is fine.
Smashing the devices, in my understanding, we need to be prepared to fill up our days with Avodah, studying Torah, gmilut Chasadim. Leat leat! We can all do it, and after … If we are not prepared and get too many hours to fill up and don’t know/have things to do, that can be tricky.
33 !
” These are the 33 hostages who are expected to be released”
” The list does not indicate the conditions of the hostages or which of them are still alive.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/402440
HERE IS THAT GOOD OLD NUMBER SO HOW MUCH MORE PROOF DO YOU NEED ?
FOUND IT !!
” Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: What was Yaakov’s punishment for saying to Pharaoh “Few and troubled were the years of my life (Bereishit 47:9)?” The Midrash (Bereishit Rabba) says that Yaakov’s lifespan was shortened by 33 years.”
THERE IS ONE SOLUTION TO OUR PESKY NUMBER 33 ?
https://habayitah.blogspot.com/2025/01/eliezer-meir-saidel-anatomy-of-exile-jp.html