Continuing the Rav’s shiur from last week.

(You can read Part I HERE.)

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When he got to Yaffo, [the English who were ruling the Holy Land] said to [Rabbi Shmuel Horowitz]:

You are not going to descend [from the boat] here! You are not getting off here!

[R Horowitz asked them]?

What did I do?! What did I do?!

[The English replied]:

You are the most evil evildoer! You spread slanders about us! You said that there were pogroms here [i.e. In Israel]!

There were the pogroms of 1929 [in Hebron]. They chopped the hands and feet off, they burned them in fire.

You spread slanders about in the whole world! You said….

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In Russia, they asked [R Horowitz]:

Why did you come?

He said:

What do you mean, ‘why did I come’! They are killing Jews! They are slaughtering Jews! [in Eretz Yisrael].

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Like today, 500 Jews, 500 Jews, slaughtered.

There is no government, there is nothing. Everything is shtuyot (stupidity), there is no government at all.

It’s like in 1929.

It’s another 100 years, [but the situation is still like] it’s 1929.

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[The Rav returns to the story of R Horowitz]:

So, they were slaughtering Jews, so I ran away.

So, where are you going to run away to? To Russia! Here, they love Jews! Here, they look after the Jews. There is nowhere like Russia. Here, it’s Gan Eden! You are the only ones who protect the Jews!

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Immediately, [the Russians] publicised this in all the newspapers in the world.

Where’s the only place that protects the Jews? Only in Russia!

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Now, he gets to Yaffo, it’s the night of Lag Bomer, and he wants to get off.

[They say to him]:

Don’t come down! Here, you don’t get off! What do you mean, ‘come down?’ What ‘I’m getting off’?! You meshuga, you evildoer! What did you say about us?!

Is it permitted to say lashon hara?!?!?!?!?….

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[Skipping a discussion about Parshat Bechukotai, and how was is possible for Yaakov Avinu to ‘steal’ anything.]

Rejoining the shiur on page 42:

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This was the argument between Moshe and Bilaam.

Bilaam…

Moshe claimed: I am Bilaam. You [i.e. Hashem] are also talking with Bilaam, what, you think that I’m crazy?… That I’m confused? You speak with Bilaam – and You speak with me! So, there’s just another ‘Bilaam’.

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Bilaam claimed: I am Moshe…I knows “the sayings of God, and knows the knowledge of the Supreme One, who sees the vision of Shaddai, while fallen and with uncovered eyes.[1]

“I shall see him, but now now. I shall look at him, but it is not near. A star has issued from Jacob and a scepter-bearer has risen from Israel, and he shall pierce the nobles of Moab and undermine the children of Seth.”

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Nothing will remain.

What does Balak want? It’s written: “You shall not distress Moab and you shall not provoke war with them.”[2]

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Don’t make war, Bibi doesn’t agree to do a war, Biden doesn’t agree to do a war.

Biden says:

No, we don’t fight with Moab!

This was across all the media, on all the channels, this was in the White House. They said:

No, we don’t fight! We don’t let you fight with Rafiach, with the Arabs…

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Rafiach is bigger than the whole of Tel Aviv.

Rafiach – every alleyway, they are waiting with a ‘warm welcome’… There are a million alleyways there, and in every alley people who ‘love Jews’ are waiting there, people who ‘love’ the soldiers, and want to give them a ‘warm welcome’….

Every day, five people are being killed there. They tread on mines, and they fire RPGs at them.

So Biden said:

With Moab, we don’t fight. I don’t agree. I don’t agree. I don’t let you. Don’t go out against Moav.

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So, what does he want? Why is he hiring Bilaam?

Bilaam told him: You should know, that no trace of Moab will remain.

“A star has issued from Jacob and a scepter-bearer has risen from Israel, and he shall pierce the nobles of Moab and undermine the children of Seth.”

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[Bilaam says to Balak]

And who is going to do this? Your grandson!

[Balak replied] Hashem should have mercy!! My own grandson?! I am going to let my own grandson destroy Moab?!

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You don’t read the Gemara. This is ‘excellent’. Don’t read the Gemara.

[But] it’s written in Sanhedrin, it’s written in Sotah, it’s written in Nazir, that David Hamelech is the grandson of Balak.

He’s the grandchild of Ruth, and Ruth is the daughter of Balak, the daughter of Eglon – Eglon, the son of Balak.

So Bilaam said to him:

Your own grandson!! ‘Bone of my bone’.

[Balak replies] I see that my grandson is going to destroy Moab, and I won’t let this happen.

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And so, he asks Bilaam: What should we do?

[Bilaam says]:

Take a barrel, cut up a thousand snakes, and put their heads in the barrel. Put this in the kodesh kodeshim, the even shtiyah (foundation stone).

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The Beit HaMikdash didn’t exist yet, so they put it on the even shtiyah.

And so David said, “Moav is my wash-basin, upon Edom I will cast my shoe, Philistine, will you shout triumphantly over me?”[3]

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What does is mean, ‘Moav is my wash-basin’?

The Zohar says in [WHAT?] page 2:

This was straight away revealed to David.

Ruth was the daughter of Eglon, (he was the king of Moab, the son of Balak), so she knew where this barrel was concealed, with the thousand snakes, with the thousand heads.

A thousand snakes were in this barrel, so that the Beit HaMikdash would be destroyed as soon as it was built.

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So Bilaam said to Balak:

Conceal the barrel there, in the kodesh kodeshim.

And Ruth revealed this to David, and David uncovered it. This was uncovered by David – this barrel. ‘Moav is my wash-basin’.

All this is written in the Zohar Page 2.

(It’s permitted to learn Zohar, even in Shuvu Banim….)

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Balak 24:16-17.

[2] Devarim 2:9.

[3] Tehillim 60:10.

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Ad kan, from the Rav.

As usual, it’s packed full of hints and allusion to some very deep things.

Those ‘snakes’ are still running the show here, and trying to turn the rest of us into ‘snakes’ too, with all their dark-side sorcery.

And the source of these snakes’ power is so close to home – the kodesh kodeshim!

The centre of Jerusalem, the heart of the world.

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I just wanted to add one more thought here:

The side of evil wants us to think that there is nothing we can really do, and to change all this, and that they hold all the cards in their hands.

It’s not true.

This is a spiritual war.

Every single person who stops giving their time, energy and attention to the ‘snakes’ – that’s already doing massive things to tip the balance against them.

And then, if that person also then starts to follow the words and advice of the True Tzaddikim like Rebbe Nachman and Rav Berland – they say the 7 TKS a day, or whatever they can manage, they do some hitbodedut, they do some minimal work, even, on overcoming their own bad middot, arrogance, and lack of emuna, they make some tiny effort to guard their eyes more, to maybe go pray at a kever tzaddik – and especially by Rabbenu in Uman….

All this is how we win this spiritual war, and finally eradicate the thousand ‘head snakes’ that have taken over our beloved home and our wonderful communities.

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There is no despair in the world!

But there is a heck of a lot of spiritual work to do.

So yalla!

Pick your own personal battle in this spiritual war, and start to fight it with everything you’ve got.

There is no time to waste.