Iron dome and Pidyon Nefesh: some clarifications
Remember this picture, that we all thought was a fake meme?
Well, I just learnt from R Weissman’s post on THIS BLOG that it’s actually being passed off as real.
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Here’s the snippet:
The source:
https://www.facebook.com/share/ZKvPTiLbDVx4kuex/?
https://www.facebook.com/share/2Gz5CgzeNq9JLNeD/?
Here the photographer shows the raw footage:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/wMFCYxEJ6MSyRCen/?
People mentioned the issues in the comments. The image is a year old from Magen v”Chetz.”
Do a google search for “photo of iron dome interception”. You get tons of results not showing Iron Dome intercepting anything, plus this isolated photo that’s been going around lately as more people start to challenge the Iron Dome psy-op.
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Also, if you view this image big on a computer screen, and not just small on a phone, you can clearly see that this is a composite image – there is a clear ‘seam’ down the middle of the shot.
Here’s that picture again, with a red arrow showing where the ‘join’ was made:
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According to R Weissman, this is the only photographic proof of ‘Iron Dome’ blowing up an enemy missile.
(I don’t know if there is a ‘seam’ because this is taken from video of ‘before’ and ‘after’ and spliced together?)
So, let’s put the challenge out there:
Can anyone send me any links to any photographs or video of ‘Iron Dome’ actually exploding an enemy missile, in real time?
I’m not talking about the endless videos online of ‘Iron Dome’ missiles chasing their own tails in the sky, before exploding all by themselves.
I am talking about a real impact with an ‘Iron Dome’ missile, and enemy missiles.
At this point, that really shouldn’t be so hard to find…. if the ‘Iron Dome’ is really what we’re told it is.
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Seperately, I got this ‘first hand’ account yesterday of a reader who watched ‘Iron Dome’ in action, in the North:
Its noisy in the North, but so far it feels like just noise.
I was at Rashbi last night and got a good view of the Iron Dome battery going up from Zfat.
It must have been about 20 launches.They really feel like big fireworks going up into the sky and exploding with a loud bang without hitting anything.
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So, let’s pin this down, shall we?
After a year of non-stop ‘Iron Dome’, someone please send me clear footage of ‘Iron Dome’ exploding an enemy rocket in the air.
And once we have that footage, we can start to figure out a bit more of what is really going on here, and who is actually firing all these rockets at Eretz Yisrael.
(Ahem.)
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Now, let’s move to more ‘fake news’, this time of the spiritual kind.
One of the reasons I keep checking back on the Shirat Devorah blog is because she is simply the best source of finding spiritually corrupt ideas and information anywhere in the geula blogosphere.
As I keep telling you, the people who are publically ‘anti’ Rav Berland are never coming from a good place, spiritually.
And that rule plays out again and again – especially, places like the Shirat Devorah blog, which puts up videos from ‘whoever’, does zero due-diligence on whether ‘whoever’ is actually saying things that are inline with authentic Jewish belief and teachings, but always claims it’s all the most ‘kosher’ stuff it could possibly could be.
Until it’s proven otherwise.
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So, yesterday she posted up a video by Ephraim Palvanov, who we’ve flagged many times as saying a lot of stuff that is totally at odds with authentic, orthodox Jewish belief, that was called this:
If you want to believe that a BT high school science teacher living in Toronto who believes strongly in ‘evolution’ has real spiritual chiddushim about who Moshiach is, and about the process of ‘Bringing Moshiach Today’ – that’s totally up to you.
We are all attracted to the ‘rabbis’ who just mirror our internal dimension, for good and for bad.
If that’s all it was, I wouldn’t be talking about it.
But it’s the comments that ‘Shirat Devorah’ herself made on the end of that post that need addressing publically.
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Here are those comments, screenshotted:
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The sentence that really irked me was this one:
Also anyone telling you to give large amounts of money to a certain person in order to get a cure for your illness…. that is also a scam. I don’t care how great that person may appear to be.
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The Shirat Devorah blog is ‘anti’ Rav Berland.
Six years ago, literally a day before Rosh Hashana began, she posted up a whole, disgraceful screed that was so full of lashon hara about the Rav, I nearly threw up from reading it.
I was so upset by what she wrote, that was the first time I took my blog down.
Because I didn’t want to get pulled in to a massive machloket, and removing my blog, for about two months, was about the only way I could think about managing that.
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As the pendulum swung back towards more people supporting the Rav publically, and understanding that he was persecuted by some of the most corrupt, evil elements in the Jewish world, that post got magically removed.
But the ‘snipes’ against the Rav onthe Shirat Devorah blog are continuing, just in a more subtle way.
And this whole comment, above, is just the latest example.
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It’s a free world.
You carry on reading who you want, believing what you want, listening to what you want.
But make no mistake, there is no such thing as ‘unbiased information’.
Every single person in the whole world has their own innate biases, and those biases color what they are drawn to, what they share, how they write, and how they think.
Whether or not they themselves are even aware of that.
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I’m sure Shirat Devorah has influenced a lot of people against Rav Berland – and also, degraded the ideas of doing a pidyon nefesh, and believing in the real Tzaddikim, with so much of the stuff she’s shared on her blog from others, and also written herself.
If Rav Berland is not a scammer, and is actually the Tzaddik HaDor – or at the very least, a huge, genuine Tzaddik – then she’s in a lot of trouble, spiritually, unless she actually makes some real teshuva.
Halavai, she should at least treat him with as much respect as she does DJT….
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The point is:
The internet is awash with ‘fake news’ of all stripes, and it’s all playing to our own internal biases, and inner ‘world of lies’.
Turn it all off, and go spend some time begging Hashem to show you what is really true, and what really isn’t.
There is no other way of figuring this stuff out.
And the costs of refusing to dismantle our own ‘world of lies’ is only going to get higher, from this point on.
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Snippet from THIS POST:
Over the last three years, Rav Stern has spoken out about Rav Berland on many different occasions. When he was giving a pep talk at the Chut Shel Chesed Yeshiva to the students of Rav Shalom Arush, Rav Stern gave over the following serious warning:
“Woe to whoever speaks ill of Rav Berland, for they will be punished severely.
All those who dare to speak ill of this tzaddik should fear for their lives, for they will all, without exception, receive severe punishments from Above. I knew him 40 years ago, and the way he learned with the Steipler was unmatched by any other.
He is entirely holy.”
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UPDATE:
I had a comment over email about whether ‘pidyon nefesh’ is something only Breslov hold by, and that’s why other people, even ‘frum’ people, even ‘chassidic’ people, may consider it to be a ‘scam’.
The short answer is that even though Likutey Moharan and Rebbe Nachman speak of pidyon nefesh a great deal – it’s actually rooted in known kabbalistic ideas going back at least to the ARIZAL.
Even ‘CHABAD’ were doing pidyon nefesh, with money, at the time of the Alter Rebbe, Shneur Zalman.
Who should take the pidyon nefesh money for Chabad is the source of the big dispute that blew up between MORDECHAI OF CHERNOBYL and the MITTELER REBBE, who according to Chabad’s own sources (and now part of ‘hidden history’) were disputing over who was going to lead Chabad after the Alter Rebbe’s death.
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Long story short: 200 years ago, all the chassidic masters were doing pidyon nefesh, with money.
If you read Tzaddik (the English translation of Chayeh Moharan), you’ll see pidyon nefesh mentioned on many different occasions, both with people coming to Rebbe Nachman, and also with pidyonot being done by other tzaddikim at that time.
With money.
Often, lots of money.
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Is the practise open to corruption and abuse by religious fakers?
Totally.
And there are a ton of fakers on all sides of the equation today, which is why begging Hashem to show us who and what is true and real, spiritually, is not a ‘nice thing to consider’ – it’s an absolute necessity.
But that doesn’t change the fact that ‘pidyon nefesh’ is rooted in some very deep, widely-accepted kabbalistic ideas, and is NOT a ‘scam’.
Just, you need to pray a lot to be attached to real Tzaddikim, and to be able to find the real ‘One in a Generation’ that Rabbenu describes, who knows all the judgements across the 24 Heavenly Courts, in order to be able to overturn the judgement:
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Rebbe Nachman explains (Likutei Moharan 215):
“You should know that there are twenty four different pidyonot.
This is because there are twenty four Courts of Justice (in heaven), and for each court there is a corresponding pidyon appropriate specifically to that court, which is able to mitigate the judgments being handed down there.
Furthermore, there is one pidyon which encompasses all the twenty four courts, which is able to mitigate the judgment in all of them…However, even amongst the Tzaddikim, not every one of them is familiar with this particular pidyon.
In fact, there is only one Tzaddik in each generation who knows it.”
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Here is a story from inner.org, about Chabad women sending pidyon nefesh money to Rbzn Chaya Mushka:
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Here’s a snippet:
The Rebbetzin can also Give Blessings
Once, Chabad women sent a gift to the Rebbetzin and attached a pidyon nefesh (charity money given to a Rebbe with an attached request for prayer) for the Rebbe.
When the Rebbe saw that the gift was for the Rebbetzin and the pidyon nefesh for him, he wondered out loud, “Why? They should have also given her the pidyon nefesh!” The Rebbe explained: “If you think that I can give blessings, how much the more that the Rebbetzin, the daughter of the Previous Rebbe – can give blessings.
Don’t give me the pidyon nefesh, but rather give it to my wife.”
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This snippet is interesting, for a whole bunch of reasons….
But bottom line, pidyon nefesh is not something that ‘only Breslov’ does.
Although, probably, it should be.
At least, if you actually want it to work.
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This excellent article has a ton of the sources in Likutey Moharan for pidyon nefesh etc:
https://www.shuvubonim.org/pidyon.html
If a person thinks they know more about how all this stuff works, spiritually, than Rebbe Nachman and Rav Natan, then good luck to them.
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PS: This footnote explaining ‘pidyon nefesh’ is from the Chabad website, HERE:
When a chassid asks the Rebbe to pray for him, he encloses a pidyon nefesh (‘redemption of the soul’), a sum for charity for the Rebbe to distribute at his discretion.
Maamad (‘support’) is a chassid’s contribution to the Rebbe’s personal and household expenses.
Has anyone actually captured an Iron Dome rocket in flight? All I’ve been able to capture or see is the flame. What are they really?
Just some questions: Is the Iron Dome precision aimed? Or does it approximate and then change course in search of the “heat” of an incoming flying object? And if it does make contact, to stop or eliminate that object, WHY IS THE PUFF WE SEE IN THE SKY WHITE, LIKE A CLOUD? Why wouldn’t it be like igniting a fire, red/yellow/black?
If anyone could shed some light on this it would be appreciated!
בע׳׳ה
there is a risk of denying the open miracles, or focusing too much on what is a distraction from more important matters
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definitely do not rely on weapons. the beeper pager thing is probably not fully understood by tzahal-aman, israel security intelligence service, or technion/academia. makes sense to conceal an open miracle by blaming it on PETN happy nitrates vegetable byproducts low battery fluid failure, but not everyone buys it, including pro-israel rabbis.
the joke that it was a female human intelligence who devised it is probably just an israeli way of saying the holy shkhina did it as an open miracle
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Sorry, but i’m not a facebuk user, so i have not watched the above facebuk links.
Me neither… I don’t think we’re missing much.
HERE IS A START FOR ANYONE AND GUESS WHO IS INVOLVED ?
https://www.rafael-usa.com/programs/iron-dome/
https://www.rtx.com/raytheon/what-we-do/integrated-air-and-missile-defense/irondome#:~:text=Raytheon%20teams%20with%20Rafael%20Advanced,since%20being%20fielded%20in%202011.
https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/landwarfareintl/raytheon-and-rafael-to-expand-iron-dome-missile-production/
NOW FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL AND YOU WILL KNOW WHY ISRAEL IS USING UP ALL THE IRON DOME MISSILES
ZACHOR ?
https://ravberland.com/the-messengers-of-the-satan-did-not-allow-the-decree-to-be-stopped-r-elmeliach-and-r-arush/
Wow, thanks for the reminder. Very powerful. Hopefully, they won’t be able to stop the Rav from getting there this year.
I live in the North.
Thank G-d, no sirens where I live but we were hearing the explosions.
I know for a fact that something fell on a house in Givat Avni.
I don’t think it’s a mere fireworks show.
After the alert of a siren in a nearby town, we hear and feel the explosion about one minute after the alert.
In the sky we see the explosion and then we hear and feel the impact presumably of whatever fell about a minute later.
It is still a mystery to me, but I for now decided to relate to it as serious danger in terms of my hishtadlut of what I would do if there were to be a siren.
There is Dr. Moti Shefer who says the Iron Dome is a bluff, but it is reported that he developed a cheaper system that isn’t in use. Michael Bloom interviews him in Hebrew on YouTube if anyone has the time to listen.
For sure, stuff is falling on houses.
The question really is, if what is falling is ‘missiles from Hezbolla’ or ‘missiles from Iron Dome’.
If a rocket falls on a house and explodes within the house, it would blow the walls out.
I haven’t seen images of that – maybe they exist, I personally haven’t seen them.
The damage to roofs etc is more consistent with a spent projectile falling from a height – shrapnel – than a rocket penetrating a structure and then detonating its payload.
BH, we’ll continue to figure it out together. I also don’t know what’s the truth – and shrapnel can also be very dangerous.
But, continuing to find it strange that ‘Hezbollah’ is only attacking old houses in the North, when there are hundreds of massive skyscrapers to aim at…
any makhloket lshem shamayim related to the cedaka xabad.org.pl organization is obsolete/
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it was pidyon nefesh.
אני יוסף
HI Rivka,
One thing I think would be important for you to mention is that these Tzadikim who take the Pidyon Hanefesh never hold on to the money. They give it to the poor and are poor themselves. It is not a business for them. If people understand that, it may help to change perceptions.
Yes, it’s a very important point.
The Rav doesn’t hold any of the cash himself – in fact, that was one of the main reasons he had some difficulties with his close family members a while back.
I can’t talk about other ‘tzaddikim’…. there are some with $300 million and counting in the bank. But strangely, no-one goes after them the way they’ve persecuted the Rav…
Being young, I only have around $1000 in cash, so what is appropriate for me to give as a pidyon?
It’s the same advice for everyone: talk to God about it, and see what God tells you.
This is way more about developing a real ‘soul connection’ to your true self, and living life from that authentic ‘real’ place, than following what people online are telling you – including me.
Hi Rivka,
I just want to post here what happened this morning. My son and I are Bezrat Hashem leaving for Uman Sunday morning. I wanted to get my son’s Tfillin checked before we left. The guy brought it back but the Shel Rosh was not fitting properly so he came to our house to adjust it. On our wall in our dinining room we have 2 pictures of the Rav. One is of my Son and I meeting the Rav right before he was accepted to the Yeshiva (as this is standard practice for any bochur wanting to learn there). This person looked at the person and asked who is in the picture. At first my son said a very big Tzaddik (you know didn’t want to state out right never know how a person will react). Then the person said what is his name. My son hesitated for a second and said R’ Berland. This person said oh you mean Shuva Banim? He said yes, and I asked him how he knows of it. He said he learned in Ateret Cohanim so of course he was familiar with the Yeshiva. There was no negative reaction, no perception of shock or disgust. I can’t say how the person felt inside, but I can say this is not the first person I have met who is familiar with Shuvu Banim. Way more people know of it and the Rav then the instigators or lying media would like everyone to believe.