After a month….

I finally got the internet back. It’s a very mixed blessing, or maybe, we should say it’s a very mixed ‘curse’.

While I am sorting myself out a bit and catching up on stuff, here’s some more comments from the Rav, from this week’s Shivivei Or.

Also, the Rav is stressing that anyone who needs to return to Israel should go via Jordan, and NOT via Egypt.

He says there is a new route now, from Athens airport direct to Aqaba airport in Jordan, then five minutes drive from there to cross the border at Eilat and get back to Israel.

I will be back with some more thoughts soon, in the meantime, enjoy.

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Excerpt of a shiur given by the Rav, 27th Sivan, 5775, to ANSH from Bnei Brak, students of the Rav Selma

A person needs to take his children, and to sing with them at melave malka, to pray together with them ma’ariv. He doesn’t do it.

There was a need to rectify ma’ariv. Avraham rectified shacharit, (the morning prayers), Yitzhak rectified minchah (the afternoon prayers) and Yaakov ma’ariv (the evening prayers). Ma’ariv is a revelation of the geula.

We are now in galut, the galut of the zionists.

Now, they said that every yeshiva that [continues] to study during the time of the sirens, they will close it.

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Meir Porush cried out in the yeshivas, they learn! They don’t care about sirens, rockets, that a rocket could fall, that a drone could fall. This doesn’t interest anybody!

They also don’t hear the news, they have no idea that there is a rocket, already. They didn’t hear the siren.

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Now Kisch announced, Kisch, Kisch. You need to say [kish-kush][1]

Kisch Kisch readable, he’s called ‘Kisch’, he’s the Minister of Education, he said that he’s going to close all the yeshivas, whoever learns during the time a siren [goes off], he’s going to put an end to them. He’s not going to give them any money, not going to give them any grants.

But for the Arabs – it’s permitted. The Arabs speak against the State, and even more so, they say that…Hamas is a ‘boobi’ (doll).

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Now, the Left is blaming Bibi, that he…

They said what are you saying? Now, there was such [a war in Iran]! They said, yes, one time he succeeded, but he’s to blame for everything. He destroyed the State, here, he’s done enough damage for a billion years. He did everything, the disaster on Simchat Torah!

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Who did the disaster was […] and […]

Yes – they did the disaster, they hid themselves.

They took and dismantled the guns. They day before, they took the weapons away from the kibbutzim. The day before, they took the weapons out of the kibbutzim – they said, why do you need guns? Someone will fire on some Arab by mistake.

They took all the guns out, away.

In Kerem Shalom, the hevrei came from Alon Moreh, at that time they had no guns, so they saved Kerem Shalom. Kissufim was left with one person with 15 bullets, so the terrorists didn’t know that he only had 15. They thought that there are 100 [bullets] here, a million bullets.

He took 15 [terrorists] down, sent them to gehinnom, of course, and then immediately everyone ran away.

Mefalsim – they killed everyone[2], and in Kfar Aza they killed everyone. A hundred killed, a hundred kidnapped. In Nir Yitzhak, in Nir Oz, everyone there was slaughtered with no end.

They entered the youth block.

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The youth block – there you drink champagne all night.[3]

They drank champagne, champagne, champagne all night long. When the terrorists arrived, everyone was drunk, already. Only Shuvu Banim didn’t drink, so they managed to escape.

There were a few there from Shuvu Banim, they already travelled [to the party] before sunset, they didn’t want to desecrate the Shabbat, so they didn’t ‘drink champagne’, so they managed to run away.

They got to Tze’elim, and all the intersections, everything was full of terrorists. They managed to overtake all the terrorists, and to get to Tze’elim. They were hevrei, already, they didn’t drink.

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We met in the Tziyun of Abaye and Rava one person who said I ran 30 kms [on Simchat Torah].

I ran from the Re’im Forest[4] until Kibbutz Re’im[5]. This is 30 km. We were 30 people, and only six got there. We ran for 30 km, from Re’im Forest until Kibbutz Re’im, and the terrorists were running after us, and firing on us.

There is no end of stories.

Whoever stayed alive, they have no end of stories.

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[Skipping a bunch. The Rav starts to speak about how the olive leaf in the mouth of the dove that returned to Noah’s Ark is representative of the soul of the moshiach].

The olive leaf, this is melech hamoshiach.

What is this, “Behold! An olive leaf it had plucked with its bill!”[6] Like a fresh olive tree.

It’s written in chapter 42 verse 9-10:[7]

“Behold, the man who did not make God his stronghold, but he trusted in the abundance of his wealth, he drew strength from his treachery. But I am like an olive tree that is ever fresh, in the House of God. I trust in the kindness of God forever and ever.”

A fresh olive tree, she brought a [leaf from a] fresh olive tree, this is the soul of David.

“I trust in the kindness of God forever and ever.”

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So, the dove, she will place a crown of gold [on the head of the melech hamoshiach].

She will place an olive leaf. What is this, ‘olive leaf’? This is the soul of the moshiach, this is Moshiach ben David. The Zohar says this explicitly, that the ‘olive leaf’ is the king moshiach, Moshiach ben David.

This is called ‘olive leaf’.

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And so Canaan [the grandson of Noach] was scared [that Noach would bring the soul of moshiach into the world.]

Because it’s written, when the Moshiach comes, there will be no more lusts. No-one will do sins, [but] Canaan only did transgressions….

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The same thing, with the tzipor (bird) that was with Balak.

After Balak came, it’s written ‘ben Tzipor’. Bring the Zohar on Balak[8]. What is this ‘ben Tzipor’?

So, there was a tzipor (bird) that was entirely made of gold and specks of silver…. This was the bird that Balak had.

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What is this, ‘ben Tzipor’?

What, he was the son of a bird?! [Like it’s written] ‘Avigail bat Nahash’ (snake). She was like a snake, which has no desires. The snake doesn’t ‘taste’ anything, this is Hashem’s curse upon it: “And dust shall you eat all the days of your life.” (Bereishit 3:14)

So, Avigail was like a snake, ‘bat Nahash’, Yishai was like a snake without sin, he didn’t have any desire for anything. It’s forbidden for a person to have a desire for anything.

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So, this was the secret of Balak.

Balak ben Tzipor, what, his dad was a bird?! He was the son of a bird?! No, he had a bird, that he used to perform sorcery with.

Each person had some rabbit, some bunny, something [that they used to perform sorcery with]. He used to ask it, should we go to war? So, the bunny would answer him, do a ‘no’ with the head, it had all different ways of giving hints.

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There was the Oracle [avoda zara].

There in Olympus, there was the Oracle. These were witches, who used to tell the future. And they knew how to organise their predictions, so that ‘we told you this would happen, we told you that would happen’ – that the answer would always have a double-meaning. A double-meaning.[9]

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So Balak. Who was this ‘Tzipor’?

This was a bird that he used to bewitch, that used to come to him before a war. The bird would come, and he would ask it, what should we do [with Am Yisrael]? Go to war?

He said ‘Am’ [the people]. The meaning of ‘Am’ is the rabble, ‘Am’ is the Erev Rav.

[The bird] said, no, it’s not an ‘Am’. This is Bnei Yisrael, you can’t, it’s impossible to win against the Jews.

It’s written in the Gemara, [Tractate] Beitza, if you start up with the Jews, in a war, it’s impossible to win against them.

It’s a miracle that they learn Torah, because otherwise, they would have conquered the whole world.

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David said, I want to conquer Rome.[10]

[Hashem told him]: It’s not possible.

One time, it’s written ‘Ir Mivtza’, one time, ‘Ir Mitzur’. Mivtza is Rome.

[David said]: I want to conquer Rome, so that they won’t destroy the Temple.

[Hashem said to him]: You can’t do it. In another little while, [Am Yisrael] are going to serve avoda zara. You are just going to die.

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Because if David had merited then [to continue to live], they wouldn’t have served avoda zara.

If he had lived for another 30 years, it’s written in the Zohar Ruth, that he was meant to have lived for another 30 years. Everything [would have been better]. And then, everyone would have made teshuva.

[But this didn’t happen because] He was simply persecuted, by Sheva ben Bichri, and by Avshalom.

He was running all of his life.

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Translated from Shivivei Or 415.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Rav actually says here ‘istra balgina’. Kish kush means ‘scribble’, in Hebrew.

[2] This is not the case, it seems the Rav is ‘sweetening’ something in this retelling.

[3] It seems the Rav is actually referring to the Nova party.

[4] Location of the Nova party, in the Gaza envelope.

[5] Close to Gedera.

[6] Parshat Noach 8:11.

[7] Tehillim, 42:9-10.

[8] Zohar Part 3, Balak 184b.

[9] I.e. it could be understood either way, depending on what actually happened, to show they had ‘predicted the future’.

[10] See Midrash Rabba, Devarim, 1:16.

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BTW, this is Kishch’s Wikipage.

Snippet:

Kisch was born and raised in Tel Aviv. His paternal grandfather was Frederick Kisch, the highest-ranking Jew ever to serve in the British Army. Through his mother, he is a descendant of Shmuel Salant, who served as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in the 19th century. Kisch held British citizenship until having to renounce it in 2015 as a condition of being allowed to take up a seat in the Knesset.^[1] He holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Click around, you’ll learn a lot.