I would love to put more of the clues and hints of the Rav up, properly translated, but I just don’t have the time to do that at the moment.

So, here is a paraphrased breakdown of the main points, from the Rav’s shiurim from a week ago. My own additional thoughts are in [square brackets].

Saving Am Israel, at this point, rests on the shoulders of the Jewish women.

In particular, every effort to strengthen in tznius, and to lengthen the sleeves and hems a little bit, and to cover more of the hair, preferably so no hair is showing at all – all this mamash is saving the lives of our soldiers.

[Usually, the Rav barely talks about the tznius of the women. The last few years, 99% of the emphasis has been on the shmirat eynayim of the men. I was discussing with my husband why the switch in emphasis, and he thinks it’s because it was the merit of the holy women who got us out of Mitzrayim and broke that exile, and so it will be again.

[I will add to that it’s the guys who are going into battle here, and the Rav is probably also trying to avoid arousing a mekatreg upon our soldiers, God forbid.]

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Also, the women saying a book of tehillim every day – this is what is keeping the soldiers out of Gaza, and especially in the merit of the women who are saying three books of tehillim every day.

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The Rav mentioned a few times that the war will last a minimum of 30 days.

In another shiur, he said it will last either 30 days, or 60 days.

[30 days takes us roughly to November 8th, 60 days to December 7th.)

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The Rav is emphasising very strongly that going into Gaza would be a total disaster for us.

He is saying we’d have 1,000 soldiers killed just in the first wave.

And in another shiur, he is talking about 10,000 soldiers killed, if we go into Gaza, God forbid.

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He’s explaining that ‘Hamas’ is praying for a ground invasion in Gaza.

There are no roads, everything is ancient paths that are a meter wide, and everywhere is thousands of Hamas terrorists waiting with all sorts of rockets and grenades.

The Rav is emphasising that going into Gaza WON’T CHANGE THE SITUATION WITH THE ROCKETS AT ALL.

If we get rid of 100,000 rockets, then ‘Iran’ will just make another million to replace them.

But another solution will appear, if we keep up the tehillim and the teshuva, especially women’s modesty.

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The Rav likes to tell ‘Baal Shem Tov stories’, about topics that are particularly sensitive.

For example, he told a long ‘Baal Shem Tov’ story about people getting crushed and killed on stairs like cats and dogs, a month before the Meron atrocity occurred.

(You can read that story in OIAG 3, there’s a whole chapter devoted to it.)

Over the last few months, he’s been giving over a lot of stories about the ‘Baal Shem Tov’ and his daughter Adele and the shamash ‘Reb Tzvi’ getting kidnapped by ‘Heidamaks’ when they were on the way to Eretz Yisrael.

And how those ‘Heidamaks’ want to make the Baal Shem Tov and Adele into ‘shwarma’ and eat them….

I was finding those stories quite strange a few months ago…. but now the penny is starting to drop.

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The Rav returned to that story a week ago, and this is a translation of some of what he said:

And they [i.e. the Baal Shem Tov, Adele and Reb Tzvi] were endangered, in the hands of the bandits.

In the hands of the murderers. In the hands of the Hamas. In the hands of the Jihad.

Back then, there was also Hamas, back then, there was also ‘Jihad’.

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And also Odel’ah, and also the Baal Shem Tov, and R’ Tzvi – all of them were in the hands of the Hamas.

In the hands of the Jihad. And nobody knew [about this].

It was in the heart of the ocean.

[Previously, the Rav talked about this being on an Island between Turkey and Greece…. which points to Cyprus, and the many small islands around it.]

This is a distance of 2,000 kms from Eretz Yisrael.

Who is going to come and save them?!

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And then, the man who descended from the merkavah (literally, chariot – the Rav described is previously as a flying chariot) – put them on the boat, and he by himself oversaw the boat.

They were three, together with this person.

And they got to Istanbul.

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The Rav then segues into discussing Naftali Hirsh Katz, the ‘Semichat Hachamim’, who was a very big Sabbatean, buried in Istanbul.

When Rabbenu went to the grave of the Semichat Hachamim on his way to Eretz Yisrael, he was taken so ill he was bedridden for 24 hours, and couldn’t move.

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Point is…. I don’t think the 212 captives are still in Gaza.

The same people who ‘flew in’ just after they arranged this whole horrible thing to begin with apparently have taken those hostages on ships out of Gaza, to somewhere else.

It could be ‘Istanbul’, or it could be somewhere like Cyprus.

But what’s left of our honest security services (if such people actually exist….) should start looking for ships that left Gaza shortly after the attack on the South, if they are serious about finding our captives and trying to return them.

And in the meantime – another reason to ‘invade Gaza’ has gone.

The captives aren’t there any more.

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I will try to put some more stuff up, as I can.

What I can tell you is that things are being sweetened radically, even though the situation in Israel for many people is pretty difficult, day-to-day.

300,000 people are in the reserves….

Many thousands more got ‘evacuated’ from the South, and also some from the North (although I’m not clear if the people who moved from the North did so because they were scared, or because they were told to get out with no choice.)

In any case, still not easy times at all.

But there was a feeling this morning that something else is starting to shift….

So keep the prayers going.

And don’t feel bad that BH, our boys didn’t go into Gaza yet.

If we can keep them OUT of Gaza, it will be the best thing, at this point.