Some thoughts
Yesterday, I got into a big discussion with one of my kids.
Most of her circle are formerly ‘dati-leumi’ atheists, or people who grew up being brainwashed ‘against’ God and ‘religion’, God forbid.
Thank God, she still believes in Hashem (and for that, we mostly have to thank Rabbenu….)
But in the meantime, she got very upset with any suggestion that the two shomer shabbat kibbutzim in the South were saved from all the atrocities and terrorists on Simchat Torah.
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Who are you to judge these things?!?!?
She was yelling at me.
Even though we both know personally the guy who was saved from the Nova party just because he decided that week to keep Shabbat.
Maybe, God just wants us to have achdut, and to not have ‘sinat chinam’ talking badly about the dead on the kibbutzim?!?!?
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At that point, I have to admit I lost my cool.
All this was going on yesterday morning, when there was a very thick atmosphere of ‘din’ hanging over Jerusalem. I hadn’t slept properly for nearly three weeks. I’d had a headache for 2 days solid. I was worrying about a ‘ground invasion’ into Gaza that could see thousands of our soldiers blown to pieces – and for nothing, tachlis.
And here, my daughter was telling me that what was going to save us all was just achdut – and not returning to God.
I.e. – totally missing the point of what is really going to get this to turn around the sweet way, with no more deaths of innocent people, God forbid.
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I was in the middle of saying tehillim when we were having that argument.
Here’s a bit of tehillim 50:
“But to the wicked, God said ”what’s the point of telling you about My laws?…Because you hate censure (mussar), and you threw My words behind you….
I will rebuke you and lay it clearly before your eyes!
Now understand this, those who forgot about God, lest I tear you asunder and there will be no-one to come and rescue you.
The person who offers Me a confession [of his sins] honors Me.
And the one who puts himself back in order – I will show him the Salvation of God.”
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God forbid, my daughter’s friends aren’t ‘wicked’.
They are just stupid, stubborn, misguided, brainwashed and caught in a massive ‘media’ klipa.
And I also realised that my daughter is doing her best to be a good mellitz for them – a good spiritual advocate, trying to ‘avert the decrees’ anyway she can.
Once we both understood what was happening yesterday, after a lot of yelling and crying, we made peace and had more respect for the other person.
Tachlis, she doesn’t want any more dead Jews – and neither do I.
But also tachlis – the way to avoid more dead Jews is for us to put God very clearly back in the picture.
And sadly, that’s still a message that a lot of people are allergic to hearing.
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What can we do?
Say more tehillim!
Rebbe Nachman says explicitly that reciting tehillim prepares people to ‘make teshuva’ – to return to God.
And not just the actually person saying them – all of Am, all of the Jewish people, all the people of the world.
Each day, I am dedicating my book of tehillim to a different cause.
Yesterday, I ‘dedicated’ to breaking the klipa of false beliefs, that are keeping so many people trapped far away from God, and getting a real solution to their problems.
Today, after another argument with my husband, I’m dedicating it to breaking the klipa of ‘lies’ that is preventing so many of us from seeing what is clearly in front of our faces.
And I’m in a good mood – because I KNOW that all these prayers of all of us, all the teshuva, all the mesirut nefesh of women cutting up their immodest clothes (and posting pictures of them doing that on Instagram….) is ALREADY turning the tide of Am Yisrael.
Regardless of what the lying news and our corrupt puppets tell us.
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Yesterday, someone told me a story she heard, about a balanit in Kiryat Sefer whose mikva got used by a survivor from Kibbutz Be’eri.
The woman told the balanit that four months earlier, her and her husband decided to start keeping the laws of family purity.
They are the only people in their whole row of houses on the kibbutz who are still alive.
Achdut for sure has it’s place.
But going forward, making real teshuva and staying close to God is what is actually going to make the difference here.
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OK, last thoughts for today.
I was pondering the Rav’s comments on ‘friendly fire’ – which he has made a lot of times, recently – and I went to see if there was anything that would shed more light on them.
I got to THIS.
Truth is the first casualty in war, so of course everything has to be very carefully considered and verified, especially when the anti-semites are all over it like a rash.
But in light of the Rav’s comments, I found it very interesting, to consider some other possibilities of how so many of these houses in the kibbutzim literally got blown to pieces.
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And the last question I have is:
What happened to the 14 merkava tanks and 17 armored personnel carriers that ‘Hamas’ is meant to have stolen from the IDF on October 7th?
(Read THIS, if you didn’t hear about that piece of information.)
How would ‘Hamas’ know how to operate these tanks and armored personnel carriers?
It’s not like hotwiring a car, and just driving it away….
And what role did these stolen tanks have to play, in destroying so many Jews on October 7th?
BH, the truth will come out soon.
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UPDATE:
Here’s a snippet from that link above, describing the fire power of these 14 ‘lost’ Merkava tanks:
Valued at $5 million (RM22 million) each, Israel possesses up to 600 Merkava 4 variant armored tanks equipped with a 120mm cannon, a heavy 12.7mm machine gun, and a 7.62mm machine gun.
It also has the capability to launch guided missiles like the LAHAT…
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With a 1,500 horsepower engine, the Merkava 4 can move at speeds of up to 65 km/h on roads….There are also videos showing abandoned Merkava tanks on the side of the highway, presumably after suffering damage.
In addition to “losing” Merkava 4 armored tanks to Palestinian fighters, the Israeli military is also reported to have lost 10 “Achzarit” armored personnel carriers, five M113 armored personnel carriers, and two “Namer” armored personnel carriers.
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Lots to think about here.
And what is preventing ‘Hamas’ from using Israel’s own ‘lost tanks’ and armored personnel carriers against our own troops, if they go into Gaza?
(Answer: only the tehillim…. continue praying!)
Rivka, do you happen to know the difference or shade of meaning between the Hebrew words מחאה micha’ah and הפגנה hafganah?
They both mean ‘protest,’ but are there shades of meaning between them?
I’m in the middle of a 3-hour video by R’ Anava where he used the first one, and I had never heard it before. At the time he couldn’t define it, but I looked it up in the dictionary, which got me far enough to ask this question.
Many thanks in advance, no matter whether you can answer this or not. And yes, I said some tehillim today, and I intend to say more. 😉
I don’t know, sorry Hava.
Maybe a reader who is more proficient in the subtleties of Hebrew can help?
I’m not proficient in Hebrew subtleties but according to Hebrew Wikipedia it seems to me that מחאה is a more all encompassing term for any kind of protest (https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%97%D7%90%D7%94) while הפגנה is the term for a political demonstration (https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%92%D7%A0%D7%94). I hope this is helpful.
Yes, Chana, it is helpful. It tells me that the hafganah (I learned this word in ulpan) is a kind of micha’ah (which I didn’t learn at all).
I guess when we are new olim, we are considered to have a hard enough time just learning the most basic Hebrew if we haven’t had real exposure. Synagogue Hebrew isn’t enough in the diaspora, and in my experience, American colleges don’t really know how to teach it.
Weird, Rivka… this past Shabbat, I also had a very unpleasant disagreement with my son; I never, ever had such an interaction with him since he was born 40 years ago. Something in the air? Strange! What was his most angry outburst? ” GO BACK TO ISRAEL!” Of course the kids started crying: “No, please, don’t go back!” I had to calm them down and assure them that I was not returning to Israel – at least not at this time (the day will come B”H, but it hasn’t arrived yet).
We also both wanted to make peace honestly, and before Shabbat was over it was back to normal; still, some mild negative feelings seem to linger, on both sides. I don’t like it!
You too?! What on earth was going on yesterday???Any idea why?
So, time to return to Tehillim. But it was not fun at all. Oy….
God has still willed that I’m stuck greatly in the impurity of heretical questions and “sophisticated” ideas and whatnot.
What is Rabbi Nachman’s advice regarding getting out of this impurity?
I think this is one of my main missions for my reincarnation.
1. Totally avoid the ‘sources’ of the heresy. For as long as you keep engaging with heretics and their ideas, you are going to struggle with this problem.
2. If you’ve already ‘engaged’ and are having difficult thoughts – only a connection to the True Tzaddikim can get you out. Basically, people get stuck in the ‘Vacated Space’ where all this heresy derives from.
I would recommend deep-diving into Rebbe Nachman’s books, especially ‘Rebbe Nachman’s Wisdom’ and ‘Tzaddik’ in English.
B”H
was going to make a comment, but the here’s the GRA instead.
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[The Gaon also] mastered the science of philosophy. He found nothing of any worth in [philosophical speculation], however, except for isolated points that had actually originated with the Torah sages. “The remainder,” he said, “lacks any logical [foundation] or moral justification and is based on foolish skepticism.”
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kol tov lkulam,
yossi
I had also foreboding feeling here in the US this shabbat. I immediately looked at news but of course…it is not there. This feeling continues though. It feels like before Yom Kippur. Let’s keep praying. HaShem is very close. Sending love to you. We are one.
“what is preventing ‘Hamas’ from using Israel’s own”?
We got everything back very quickly. That’s all I can say about it.
How do you know?
In canada, there are transponders in civilian vehicles that tell the toll highway when a vehicle signs on or off the highway. what specific system(s) are installed on israeli vehicles are none of my business. basically a physics engineering problem.