Friday, February 7, 2014
Four Worlds
compiled from Song of the Soul based on Rabbi Chaim Moshe Luzatto's "Kalach Pitchei Chochma" Click for PDF - To Read the FREE online book Click Here
Sunday, December 29, 2013
RAMCHAL - THE GREAT REDEMPTION
Ramchal by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
"The Great Redemption"
(4 Parts) EXILE, THE VISITATION, THE REMEMBRANCE, AND THE RECTIFIED WORLD
Prologue (Part 1)
At bottom, each nation is a product of its dreams and realizations. And while we Jews have certainly come upon a world of realizations in the course of our 2,000 year long exile, we've forgotten some of our dreams.
Perhaps the greatest of them, though, is the dream of the coming of the Moshiach ("Messiah") at long last and our being redeemed. But how will that happen, and what will be going on in the Celestial background to bring it about? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto discussed all that in an early work entitled Ma'amar HaGeulah ("A Discourse on The Redemption"). It's a rather short and fairly unknown work that was composed sometime before 1730, and only came to light in 1889 through the research of Rabbi Shmuel Luria. What is manages to do, though, is explain the cosmic backdrop behind the exile we're in now, the first low stirrings of the Messianic Era, the eventual redemption itself, and much more. It will serve as the source of this series.
We'll start off the series itself with a quick preliminary overview of classical Jewish ideas of exile and redemption, we'll then offer the "end of the story" as Ramchal depicts it at the very beginning and thus come to see what we're all to look forward to, then we'll go back to the beginning to enjoy a full step by step laying-out of the process.
Friday, December 6, 2013
One Action Over a Thousand Sighs - for the Shabbos Table
In Vayigash we read about the reunion of Joseph and Benjamin: "And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck."
Our Sages tell us that each brother wept over the destruction that would occur in the other brother's portion of Israel. Joseph wept over the destruction of the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem, in Benjamin's portion, and Benjamin wept over the Sanctuary in Shilo, in Joseph's portion.
Symbolically, every Jew can build a "personal" Holy Temple in his heart, a place where the Divine Presence dwells. A Jew who conducts himself according to Torah causes G-d's Presence to dwell within him, thereby building a "Sanctuary." Doing the opposite prevents the Divine Presence from entering.
Our Sages tell us that each brother wept over the destruction that would occur in the other brother's portion of Israel. Joseph wept over the destruction of the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem, in Benjamin's portion, and Benjamin wept over the Sanctuary in Shilo, in Joseph's portion.
Symbolically, every Jew can build a "personal" Holy Temple in his heart, a place where the Divine Presence dwells. A Jew who conducts himself according to Torah causes G-d's Presence to dwell within him, thereby building a "Sanctuary." Doing the opposite prevents the Divine Presence from entering.
The destruction of the Temple is cause for grief. When Joseph prophetically saw that the two Holy Temples would be destroyed he burst into tears. When Benjamin saw that the Sanctuary would be destroyed, he was also overcome.
So too it is with a Jew's inner Temple: When a person sees his friend's Temple being destroyed by his actions, it is painful to witness.
He cries, for he is taking part in his friend's sorrow.
Yet we find something very strange. Joseph wept over the destruction that would occur in Benjamin's portion, but not over the destruction in his own territory.
Similarly, Benjamin wept over the destruction of the Sanctuary in Joseph's portion, but did not grieve over the two Temples in Jerusalem. Why didn't each one weep over his own misfortune?
A similar reaction occurs when we witness the destruction of a fellow Jew's personal Holy Temple.
A Jew weeps when he sees his brother destroying his inner Sanctuary, yet he does not weep when he destroys his own. Why is that?
The answer is that crying cannot rebuild. Crying lessens the pain, but cannot fix what was destroyed.
When a person destroys his own inner Temple, no amount of weeping can ever rebuild it. Instead, he should perform actual deeds, for "one positive action is worth a thousand sighs." Only mitzvot can reconstruct the ruined Sanctuary.
When a person sees another Jew's Temple lying in ruins it makes him sad.
But he cannot help the other individual, as rectifying the situation is not in his hands.
He may empathize and offer practical suggestions, but the other person has to do the actual work; only he can correct his misdeeds.
Joseph and Benjamin realized that lamenting their own sorrows would yield no practical benefit.
Each brother would have to exert his own efforts to rebuild, by observing mitzvot and performing acts of goodness.
Let each of us rebuild the Sanctuary in our hearts, and together we will merit the rebuilding of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, that will never be destroyed.
(Adapted from the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; Material on this page reprinted from www.LchaimWeekly.org - LYO / NYC)
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Rav Meir Kahane wanted the Geula
and he did his utmost to bring it about.
“And if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those that you let remain, of them shall be thorns in your eyes and thistles in your sides and shall torment you in the land wherein you dwell.” (Numbers 33:55)
Some years ago I was arrested by the Israeli police and charged with “incitement to revolution.” The grounds? I had breached the conclusion that it was impossible to find a solution for the Arab-Jewish confrontation in the Land of Israel (both the State of Israel and the lands liberated in 1967); that the Jewish state was inevitably headed toward a situation like that in Northern Ireland; that the only possible way to avoid or to mitigate it was the emigration of Arabs. Consequently, I had sent letters to several thousand Arabs offering them an opportunity (funds and visas) to emigrate voluntarily. The fact that many Arabs replied positively and that a major Arab village in the Galilee, Gush Halev, offered to move all its inhabitants to Canada in return for a village there did not prevent the worried Israeli government from arresting me.
Four long years and one important war later, a scandal broke in Israel. It was revealed that Yisrael Koenig, a high official in the Ministry of the Interior who is in charge of the northern region of Israel, had drafted a secret memorandum in which he warned of the increasing danger of Arab growth (which would make Arabs in the Galilee a majority by 1978) as well as of increasing Arab national militancy. His solution included several measures that he hoped would lead to Arab emigration.
On August 10, 1979, thirty-six Knesset members took part in a tour of the Golan Heights. Their guide was the head of the northern military command, General Ben-Gal. At Kibbutz Ein Zivan he told the thirty-six legislators: “First priority, today, must be given to the Jewish settlement in the Galilee, because of the growing strength of the Arab residents there. Their hatred of Israel is growing. They are becoming a cancer in our body . . . . They are waiting for the moment to hit us.”
The pity is that vital years have passed since my original proposal, wasted years that saw the Yom Kippur War produce a major psychological change in Arab thinking. In the aftermath of that war and its political consequences, vast numbers of Arabs, who in 1972 were depressed and convinced that Israeli sovereignty could not be destroyed, are today just as convinced that time is on their side, that it will not be long before the Zionist state collapses. Then they—the Arabs—will hold sway over all that will be “Palestine.” The necessary corollary is, of course, that hundreds of thousands who were potential voluntary émigrés nine years ago are now determined to stay and await the day of Arab victory. But they must go.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Beat Your Chest! Father Forgive Us for Becoming Permanent Residents in a Foreign Land!
FATHER FORGIVE US (beat chest) for becoming permanent residents in a foreign land!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
One a Day - Keeps the Yetzer Hara Away!
......and brings the geula that much faster!
Sefer Hamitzvot
The Talmud tells us (Makkot 23b) that, at Sinai, G‑d transmitted 613 mitzvot toMoses—248 positive commandments (dos) and 365 negative commandments (don'ts). When counting, however, we find that there are many more than 613 biblical obligations and prohibitions. Thus we need to explain the formula by which we determine whether a particular precept is counted as part of the 613 or not.
Maimonides used 14 principles to make this determination:
Principle 1
Do not count Rabbinic Commandments in this list. E.g. lighting Chanukahcandles or reciting the Hallel.
Indeed, this seems obvious, for the Talmud says that 613 mitzvot "were given to Moses at Sinai," and rabbinic mitzvot were not instituted until later dates. But in truth, we follow rabbinic rulings because of a biblical mandate: "You shall not divert from the word they tell you, either right or left" (Deuteronomy17:11); and as such, before performing a rabbinic mitzvah, we say a blessing in which we thank G‑d for "sanctifying us with His commandments and commanding us to..." Nevertheless, the individual rabbinic precepts are not counted as part of the 613 (and, are considered "rabbinic," a classification that has certain halachic implications).
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Shabbos Getaway
THE ONLY SHABBOS GETAWAY I WANT
IS THE GEULA SHABBOS IN ERETZ YISRAEL!
The 1st Shabbos Getaway is finally here.
Sorry! I made a mistake with the price. The special group rate for this Shabbos is: $115 per night plus tax = $264.50 (2 nights)
Plus $25 for "Shul" = $289.50
We still have very few Double rooms available but they will be gone soon, so reserve ASAP.
Sorry! I made a mistake with the price. The special group rate for this Shabbos is: $115 per night plus tax = $264.50 (2 nights)
Plus $25 for "Shul" = $289.50
We still have very few Double rooms available but they will be gone soon, so reserve ASAP.
שבת פרשת חקת
June 14th-16th, 2013
at our favorite
Bring your own food.
Email me at:
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917-468-1135א געזונטן זומער
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