Did you know a whole section of the Sidna Ali cliffs by Herzliya collapsed yesterday morning?

The authorities are warning more of the cliffs could collapse from Palmachim in the South, by Rishon, up to Hadera, near Caesaria.

I can’t help but wonder, what activity is going on, underground, man-made or directly from Hashem, that is causing huge sections of cliffs to ‘collapse’ overnight…

Earthquakes? Tunnelling underground? Some combination of the two?

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In the meantime, it looks like the Rav has ‘sweetened’ this current segment of ‘war with Iran’, at least at the moment.

If you’ve been with me for a while, and / or following the Rav’s activities for a while, you’ll notice that whenever the Rav is either seriously ill / hospitalised / imprisoned / persecuted, in some major way, it corresponds exactly with some huge crisis developing for Am Yisrael.

At some point, I want to do a list, with dates and events, to show that in ‘real time’.

But this time around, we had 50 days of chemo, then a failed attempt to get into Uman, followed by 2 weeks of ‘exile’ and another failed attempt (apparently)… all in the 2 weeks leading up to ‘WAR WITH IRAN’.

(Again…)

That suddenly disappeared in that strange way that left a ‘hole’ in the never-ending news cycle, as the planned propaganda event failed to materialise, and the MSM had to scramble to find some different ‘news’ to churn out instead.

(If you’ve been critically watching the news cycle for a while, you will understand exactly what I’m talking about.)

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That left us all ‘hanging’ the last few days…

Because…erm…there was meant to be another WAR WITH IRAN, wasn’t there?!

Or did I imagine all that?

And now, we are just back to the same old tired headlines about Iran having it’s enriched, bomb-grade plutonium in a ‘week’.

Again.

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The real war is 100% spiritual.

And the people who let the headlines dictate their mood and life, and who let WAR WITH IRAN ruin their shabbos, are sadly losing it badly.

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How do we win the war, tachlis?

Torah learning, real teshuva, good deeds, emuna in Hashem, emunat Tzaddikim.

Which bring us up to Purim, and the set of mitzvot associated with that.

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Each person is meant to give the half shekel, or Machazit haShekel,  for Purim.

We give this on Taanit Esther – the “fast of Esther,” before the Mincha prayer, to charity.

I highly, highly recommend that you consider giving your “half shekel” to either Shuvu Banim directly, HERE, or, to the Rav’s Kollel Chatzot, HERE.

This is a handwritten note (PDF). from the Rosh Kollel of the Kollel Chatzot in the Old City, describing some of the importance of the Machazit haShekel, and stressing that it’s meant to be given to righteous Torah scholars:

Click to download.

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There are people in that kollel who literally learn Torah every waking hour, and sleep on the benches there…

Honestly, I don’t know where you’d find sincere Torah learners of that calibre and commitment any other place.

It’s a good spiritual investment for a whole bunch of reasons.

And a great way to ‘fight the spiritual war’, in a meaningful way that really will make a difference.

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In the meantime, stuff is definitely happening ‘underground’, in a whole bunch of hidden ways.

God is calling to each person, to stop wasting their time endlessly surfing pointless headlines / speculating on ‘End Times’ / worrying about WAR WITH IRAN / pointing fingers at everyone else, and what ‘everyone else’ is doing wrong – and to knuckle down on fighting the real war.

Happening inside every single one of us.

Between our ‘yetzer hara’ and our ‘yetzer tov’.

That’s the only battle that counts.

And that’s the only place we really make a difference.

Especially, to ourselves.

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PS: The Kollel Chatzot has now recieved the status required for a charity to be ‘tax deductible’ in Israel.

Tachlis, that means your charity donations there can also be partially deducted from your tax bill.

That shouldn’t matter… but really, is does.

That’s the reality, isn’t it?

So, go HERE to give the half shekel – and feel happy about the olam haba and olam hazeh, together.