Today, I got a spam message in my email – that curiously didn’t get automatically marked as spam.

It was from ‘Chayale Kaufman’, CEO of consultwritemedia.com, boasting of what a fantastic job her company did with the ‘b/c’ campaign for Lakewood Bikur Cholim.

Whatever.

First, I was ticked off that she’s sending me spam emails – and how did she even get my email, as I am not on social media and it’s not just hanging around there on the web, easy to scoop up.

But second – I suddenly realised that nothing happens for nothing, so I went over to Chayale’s site, to see why God was letting this spam take my attention today.

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Take a look at what I found, HERE, on the page where the company is boasting about other PR campaigns they’ve been involved with:

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Recognise that guy?

Yup, it’s the ‘Moshiach of Edom’, the ‘Tuv she be Eysav” – whatever.

I clicked the link to find out who was paying for this, and what it was all about, and basically, someone shelled out a whole wodge of cash to leverage ‘votes for Trump’ from US citizens living in Israel:

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Who cares, right?

Except, this is just a more visible example of how the social media in your smartphone, the so-called ‘frum news’ on the propaganda sites – it’s all bought and paid for by people who are trying to manipulate the Jewish community, and especially, the orthodox Jewish community, 24/7.

I wonder how many other social media ‘campaigns’ are being bought and paid for by politicians of all stripes, here and in the US, to ‘persuade’ Jews of values, ideas, morals, arguments and behaviours that are anything except authentically Jewish?

Who is really on the payroll, here?

And who is really paying for all this?

That is the question.

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BTW, it seems I missed another ‘end of the world’ moment this week, because I’m off the news and the computer most of the time.

BH, when you live in the real world more, and not the ‘online world’, most of your worries start to shrink down to more manageable, enjoyable stuff like what yummy food can you make for supper today.

That sounds kind of boring – I for sure would have said a few  years back, that sounds kind of a borrrrrringgggg way to live – but at this age, this stage, this vantage point, I am understanding I can’t afford to waste any more time, mental resources and effort worrying about stuff that is:

a) Totally beyond my sphere of influence.

b) Usually, never even happens anyway.

c) Just causes me enormous amounts of stress and anxiety, for absolutely nothing worthwhile.

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We can all make some serious teshuva without following scary, and ultimately misleading, fake news headlines.

Right now, I am preoccupied with trying to deal with more of the tava’at mamon stuff that I’m suddenly noticing in myself.

That’s the real work to do down here.

And I need all my effort and inner resources just to get on top of my bad middot, without getting distracted by ‘Iran’.

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Honestly?

At this stage, none of us has any idea what is ‘real’ and what isn’t.

If the only source of information is the internet, online, and we aren’t seeing stuff with our own two eyes, we literally have no idea if something is true or false.

And even if we do have first-hand experiences, our perceptions are not necessarily accurate or objective.

So… keep focussed on what is really going to make a difference to your daily life and state of mind in the here and now, and also, to your soul in the world-to-come:

Overcoming bad middot, working on emuna more, and talking to God, and doing our best to be a little bit nicer to others, and more forgiving of ourselves.

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And now, I have a massive potato kugel to make for Shabbos.

Kind of borrrringggg, I know.

But still a much better use of my time then trying to figure out what’s going on in ‘Iran’, or not.

Because honestly?

None of us has any idea.

And it’s one thing to be watching for signs that geula might really be kicking off, from the armchair, and another thing entirely to be spending most of your time actually working on overcoming the bad middot that will enable you to see the geula process through, to the end.