ALERT: TROPICAL STORM MARIA – NOW CAT 5 (Like Irma) – JOSE Not Out of Picture

The Holy One, blessed be He, will strike the world with floods and earthquakes. The Creator of the world complicates the world's leaders and the nations among them. The Creator of the Universe is speaking with extreme toughness and anger.

The sea is raging and noisy, waiting for the instructions of the Creator..

ALERT UPDATE





BREAKING: Hurricane MARIA a CAT 5 / 160mph - Military Evacuates ahead of Massive Storm

Puerto Rico imposes rationing as Hurricane Maria approaches

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Maria -- on a path that would take it near many of the islands already wrecked by Hurricane Irma and then on toward Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic -- is an "extremely dangerous" storm with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. It was centered about 15 miles east-southeast of Dominica -- or 40 miles east of Martinique -- and heading west-northwest at 9 mph late Monday afternoon.CBS News

Three powerful storms are churning in the Atlantic, including Hurricane Jose, whose impact will be felt up and down the East Coast, especially New England. Meanwhile, Hurricane Maria threatens Puerto Rico.

JUST DAYS AGO

Hurricane Jose ambles off U.S. coast as new Tropical Storm Maria tracks Irma's early path

Subject to Change EITHER WAY

As Hurricane Jose ambles northward in the Atlantic far off the East Coast, an innocuous-sounding system has turned into Tropical Storm Maria in the Caribbean and could well follow Irma's destructive path toward Florida as a full-blown hurricane.

At 5 p.m. Saturday, the National Hurricane Center upgraded the one-time disturbance to Tropical Depression Maria and said it was 620 miles east-southeast of the Lesser Antilles, moving west at 20 mph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.

A hurricane watch was issued for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat, a route followed by Irma as it moved westward. USAToday

SLICHOT AT THE KOTEL

Slichos Motzei Shabbos

Thousands of mispallelim flocked to the Kosel to daven Selichos,
early Sunday morning. 
Jews of Askenazic descent began to recite 
Selichos Motzoei Shabbos or Sunday morning
– as per the various minhagim – joining their Sephardic
brethren who have been doing so since Rosh Chodesh Elul.
(Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)

Ha’Azinu: “'Listen, O Heavens’ ... I am Warning Israel, and You Shall Be Witnesses …"

Ha'azinu

...he called upon heaven and earth as witnesses...that endure forever

Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! 

And let the earth hear the words of my mouth!” 

(Devarim 32:1)

Rashi: "Listen, O heavens" that I am warning Israel and you shall be witnesses in this matter, for I have already told Israel that you will be witnesses. And so is [the clause] "And let the earth hear" [to be similarly understood].

Now why did [Moses] call upon heaven and earth to be witnesses [for warning Israel]?

Moses said: "I am [just] flesh and blood. Tomorrow I will die. If Israel says, 'We never accepted the covenant', who will come and refute them?" Therefore, he called upon heaven and earth as witnesses for Israel -- witnesses that endure forever. Furthermore, if they [Israel] act meritoriously, the witnesses will come and reward them: "The vine will give its fruit, the earth will yield its produce, and the heavens will give their dew". (Zech. 8:12)

And if [Israel] acts sinfully, the hand of the witnesses will be upon them first [to inflict punishment upon them]: "And He will close off the heaven that there will be no rain, and the soil will not give its produce" (Deut. 11:17) and then [the verse continues]: "and you will perish quickly" -- through [the attacks of] the nations.

Devarim, Ha’azinu: Chabad

Hurricanes, NIBIRU?, Electric Type Sky Events

[Nibiru seems to be in the background as “Nature Events” take center stage. Moshe Rabbeinu called the Earth and the Celestial Bodies to be Eidim (witnesses) to the Torah admonitions]

September 15, 2017: UPDATE / Hurricane Jose is being forecasted to morph into a giant structured storm, creating a tremendous wind field reminiscent of Superstorm Sandy of 2012. The track has once again shifted and more models are in agreement now on something else that could spawn a very unique scenario in the coming days in the Central Atlantic. Getting close to the upper NE by the 18th.



A Massive Hurricane is spawning and headed straight for East Coast!
September 16, 2017: A strange scenario, according to current forecast models are showing a very unusual, almost a head on collision of two hurricanes off of the East Coast of the US on September 25, 2017. Hurricane Maria, forecasted to be a Major Category Hurricane is coming very close the the East Coast, but almost miraculously is grabbed by Hurricane Jose! Of course, all of this is subject to change but this is what the models are showing now.



JOSE, MARIA and LEE
Hurricane Jose ambles off U.S. coast as new Tropical Storm Maria tracks Irma's early path (see video at) USAToday. The National Hurricane center is eyeing three storms in the Atlantic - Hurricane Jose, Tropical Storm Maria, and Tropical Storm Lee. A hurricane watch was issued for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat, a route followed by Irma as it moved westward.



SHOCKING! Lightning Coming off SUN 
Another SIGN of PX?



Ultra Violet Sunlight Strength - UVA-B & UVC 
"Daily Data Values" in the Human Domain
Relevant data you should probably have heard of by now, it's global...The numbers you see in this video being measured is "Electromagnetic Radiation". TEAM UV monitors these values everyday keeping a watchful eye on the protective shields of our atmosphere. If they ever begin to fail....we will know and so will you

Melanie Phillips on Anti–Semitism

Melanie Phillips on Britain’s Alarming Anti-Semitism Problem

While the number of anti-Semites is small, the amount of anti-Semitism diffused throughout British society is high.

In 2002, on the BBC TV show Question Time, I was accused of dual loyalty in front of a jeering studio audience. My crime had been to defend Israel against demonization and double standards by both the audience and other members of the panel.

At that time I had visited Israel only twice in my life, two years previously. No matter. A British Jew defending Israel was – and is – immediately accused in some quarters of incipient treachery toward Britain, just as throughout history anti-Semites have accused Diaspora Jews of dual loyalty or treachery merely because they are Jews.

I thought of my own experience when I read the report on anti-Semitism in the UK published this week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

There is currently much disquiet over the Labour Party’s conspicuous failure to address significant anti-Semitism within its ranks. But there has long been far wider concern among many British Jews about the anti-Semitic discourse, harassment and physical attacks which have become sickeningly commonplace in Britain over the past few years.

The report’s author, Daniel Staetsky, describes a situation which is complex.

Only around 5% of the population is out-and-out anti-Semites holding multiple anti-Jewish attitudes. Nevertheless, about 30% subscribe to some kind of anti-Semitic views. The key is Staetsky’s distinction between anti-Semites and anti-Semitism. For while the number of anti-Semites is very small, the amount of anti-Semitism diffused throughout British society is much greater.

That’s because, while people may not feel personal hostility toward Jews, they may believe certain things which are in themselves anti-Semitic. As Staetsky says: “Anti-Semitic ideas are not as marginal in Great Britain as some measures of anti-Semitism suggest, and they can be held with and without open dislike of Jews.”

As a result, the probability for a British Jew of encountering “potentially offensive or, at the very least, uncomfortable” views is about one in three. That’s high.

Staetsky states, however, that 70% of British people hold a “favorable” attitude toward Jews. He reaches that optimistic figure, though, only by reducing respondents’ options to categorize their attitudes. When offered more options, the scenario for British Jews becomes less rosy: only around 39% have “somewhat” or “very” favorable opinions of Jews, more than 5% are classed as “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable and nearly 56% are classed as neither favorable nor unfavorable or as “didn’t know.”

Two groups are shown to be principally responsible for problematic attitudes: Muslims and the Left.

While “significant proportions of Muslims reject all such prejudice,” anti-Semitism and anti-Israel attitudes are two to four times higher among Muslims than in the general population.
And contrary to the claim by those on the Left that they can’t be anti-Semitic because they are opposed to racism and fascism, the report says levels of anti-Semitism on the Left are “indistinguishable” from in the rest of the population.

When it comes to Israel, however, the Left is worse. Even those who are “slightly left-of-center” or “fairly left-wing” are more anti-Israel than the general population, while the more left-wing people are the more they hate Israel.

Moreover, says Staetsky, while only 12% of the population are out-and-out Israel-bashers, close to a quarter of Britons believe, to some extent at least, that Israel is deliberately trying to wipe out the Palestinian population, and about one in five that Israel is an apartheid state.
These are huge numbers for such poisonous lies. And no fewer than 56% hold at least one anti-Israel attitude.

So as Staetsky says, the feeling among so many Jews that they encounter anti-Israel positions all the time becomes immediately comprehensible.

The true extent of anti-Semitism has been masked by claims that being anti-Israel is not the same as being anti-Jew. Staetsky, however, states: “The existence of an association between the anti-Semitic and the anti-Israel attitudes tested is unambiguous.”

Moreover, the stronger the hostility to Israel the more likely it is to be accompanied by anti-Semitic attitudes such as that “Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own purposes.” And that correlation puts left-wing Israel-bashers squarely in the anti-Semitism camp.
Staetsky makes the link solely through a statistical overlap between anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitudes. I’d go further. Anti-Israel discourse has exactly the same unique characteristics as anti-Semitism.

Both are based entirely on lies, distortions and libels, double standards, obsessive hatred and the assumption of a covert conspiracy with an almost supernatural cosmic power to do the world harm. And that’s no coincidence.

People don’t understand that the demonization of Israel isn’t merely “criticism.” Nor do they understand that anti-Semitism isn’t just an expression of dislike or hatred. Both are instead a particular form of derangement – a repudiation of reason and the replacement of truth by paranoid and malevolent lies.

Many Israel-bashers have no idea that what they are saying is profoundly anti-Semitic, because they have no idea that it is a set of deranged lies.

That’s because they never hear the truth. And that’s above all due to the failure of Israel to make its own case in an intelligent and strategic manner.

The report makes clear that far-right adherents, although among the most anti-Semitic, are of negligible importance because there are so few of them. Of far greater concern is the Left which dominates British society. And that’s what’s making Britain so uncomfortable now for so many Jews.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––
This op-ed (at Aish.com) originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post.
Melanie Phillips is a columnist for The Times (UK).

SUPREME COURT WICKEDNESS

*Supreme Court Wickedness

Students of political science worldwide are aghast last the obscenely excessive empowerment of the Israeli Supreme Court (“The Israeli Supreme Court and the Western Wall,” 16 Elul/September 7), which is unique to Israel, even among dictatorships.

Rabbi Avigdor Miller said that in the brachah of V’lamalshinim in Shmoneh Esrei where we daven for the quick end of corruption, he had in mind three things: the Israeli Supreme Court ….” (Rav Avigdor Miller: His Life and his Revolution, p. 462). “In the courts there is wickedness” (Koheles 3:16).

The heavy masonic symbolism of the strange internal and external architecture, paintings and depictions of the Supreme Court’s building in Yerushalayim is said to hint at its role as part of the vast ancient conspiracy known in the kabbalah as the klippas d”Tarmodai.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe actually identified this clip with the Masons in our generations. The covert Tarmodoyim – who are the masters of concealment – are more dangerous even than the overt Amalekim, Erev Rav and Erev  Ze’ir, and their goal is the demoralization, piecemeal weakening and gradual erasure of the Am Yisrael’s connection to Toras Yisrael and Eretz

Hashem yerachem!

* * *

Fight Taking Place Now in the Political Scene: 

The Battle to Eliminate the Evil in the Court System

Constitutional Revolution: Bennett, Shaked take on Supreme Court

Jewish Home ministers plan constitutional reforms to end Supreme Court activism and judicial supremacy, restore Knesset authority. ArutzSheva

'Constitutional law will restore faith in Supreme Court'

Education Minister Bennett says new proposal won't harm Supreme Court, slams Labor leader Gabbay for not reading plan's details. ArutzSheva

I’ll stop Bennett, Shaked ‘Counter-Revolution’ Against Courts:  Labor chairman Avi Gabbay promised on Saturday to do everything possible to prevent the passage of what Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked have called a “counter-revolution” to push back against decisions by the High Court of Justice. JPost.com

"Free Israel is at the forefront of a campaign smearing the religious establishment, both Haredi and Zionist of “Hadatta,” which is best translated as a religious conspiracy to force Israelis to embrace Judaism. Foreign Funds: New Report Shows Meretz, Foreign Funds, Behind ‘Religious Conspiracy’ Campaign. [Is this not the function of the “Tarmodoyim more dangerous than the Amalekim, Erev Rav and Erev  Ze’ir" as elucidated in the above article]


“Unacceptable in a Jewish State”:  [. . .] According to witnesses, the Shaliach was approached by two city inspectors demanding that he shut down his Tefillin stand. When he refused, he was fined for “creating a public obstacle.” The ticket said that the Chapad Chassid “was bothering passersby by asking them to put on Tefillin.”

**How Ironic. In Sderot, the gabby of a soul was fined for activating a Shabbos siren to make residents aware of candle-lighting time.  “The noise was heard from far away, and included Shabbos songs,” the outraged city inspector wrote in his report. “This noise caused a disturbance.”

How ironic that a city like Sderot, which lived for years with sirens warning of incoming rockets, now has the audacity to complain about sirens that welcome in the Shabbos [. . . .]

And while a tiny, but influential minority rails about any attempt to introduce Yiddishkeit in the secular public schools as “religious coercion,” they are rejected by the silent majority which is grateful for any opportunity to expose their children to their heritage, at whatever level.

It is hoped that the special atmosphere of the coming Yomim Tovim – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkos – will help awaken the pintele Yid in all the Jews of Israel.

* This is a Letter to Editor of Hamodia, from a resident of Tzfas, Israel.

** Also as read in the Shabbos edition of the Hamodia

FOREIGN FUNDS BEHIND “RELIGIOUS CONSPIRACY"

New Report Shows Meretz, Foreign Funds, Behind ‘Religious Conspiracy’ Campaign 

(from JPress news online)

THIS MUST BE CONFRONTED WITH PUBLISHED REFUTATIONS

"An in-depth, 50-page research report issued by the Hotam organization examines the connections, activities and sources of funding of the Free Israel movement, founded in 2009, which defines itself as “a grassroots movement that strives for an Israeli society that practices cultural and religious pluralism, protects civil rights, and upholds the principles of democracy and Zionism as put forth in the Declaration of Independence.

"Free Israel is at the forefront of a campaign smearing the religious establishment, both Haredi and Zionist of “Hadatta,” which is best translated as a religious conspiracy to force Israelis to embrace Judaism.


https://youtu.be/ezuPg9fa93I

"The report shows that “Free Israel” is the executive arm of the Meretz Party, with many of its members also belonging to Meretz. It is funded mostly by foreign sources and has been involved in years of slandering rabbis and persecuting the religious and ultra-Orthodox public.

"The movement, which is striving to turn the public space in Israel completely secular, is behind several recent campaigns, including the push for public transportation on Shabbat, the integration of women into IDF combat roles, and the fight against traditional marriages.

"The separation between Meretz and Free Israel is vital to the latter’s success, since NGOs affiliated with political parties are not entitled to tax exemptions for the donations they receive. Yet no less than ten members of the movement’s executive committee serve or have served in various positions in Meretz. A former Meretz MK, Nitzan Horowitz, is considered to be the thinker behind the founding of Free Israel, and the report suggests there is evidence that he continued to guide and direct it even during his tenure as MK.

"Among the members of the Free Israel committee are members of the Meretz council, the secretary-general, the chairman of the youth headquarters, members of the party administration and members of the party convention.

"Two of the founders of Free Israel, Shai Even and Miki Gitzin, served as elected council members for Meretz in Raanana and Tel Aviv. Even also served as chairman of the party’s young leadership.

"The messages broadcast by the Free Israel movement and the Meretz party are remarkably similar: following the defeat of the left in the 2015 elections, Meretz Chairperson MK Zahava Gal-On called for storming the education system as a means of reaching the government table. Almost identically, Gitzin, until recently the director general of Free Israel, praised the removal of traditional Jewish study materials from the educational curriculum and added:

  “The next step – to replace the government.”

"The Hotam report points out that local branches of Free Israel are supported by Meretz elected officials in cities such as Ra’anana, Givatayim, and Kfar Saba, and many Free Israel local leaders have often served as Meretz party activists in those places. In addition, local Free Israel branches publish messages supporting Meretz. For example, ahead of the municipal elections that were held in Givatayim in October, the local Free Israel branch, Free Givatayim, published repeated messages of support for the Meretz faction. A month before that election, in September of that year, Free Givatayim ran a support ad for Meretz on its Facebook page.

"Another statistic offered by the report, which refutes the popular and spontaneous facade that Free Israel is claiming, has to do with the generous funding it receives from the New Israel Fund. Between 2011-2015, the New Israel Fund transferred $570,732 with the annual amounts increasing each years. In fact, Free Israel receives donations from so many foreign foundations, in 2015 only 2.5% of its funding came from Israeli citizens.

"In other words, it’s what’s known in military circles as an insurgency.

"In addition, the report reviews a long list of persecutions and incitement against rabbis and the religious and ultra-Orthodox public. It reviews a series of campaigns led by Free Israel against the Chief Rabbinate. One Free Israel campaign promotes intermarriage, launched in cooperation with the New Israel Fund. As part of this campaign, a video was distributed on the Internet that legitimizes intermarriage. The campaign was conducted mainly in English and presented the topic in a manner suited to communities abroad, in order to spur them to take part in the struggle against the Chief Rabbinate on the issue of marriage in Israel.

"A Free Israel video published in February 2017 uses children to encourage non-rabbinic marriages, where the cute children also suggest this would be a great way to obtain a legal same-sex marriage status in Israel (see above video).”

Posters, Bans, Rabbis' Declarations, and Now Viral Blogging

The Controversy Has Begun: 

"Its Official” on Lazerbeams and Lies of Posters … MysticalPaths and ”Chumrah Brigade” MysticalPaths

I'm very glad this has "hit the airways". After I married I wore a wig because it was what all women in my community did. What did I know then. After a couple years, I met via email a very frum woman in BayitVegan who educated me about sheltels, their history, the terrible abandonment after WWI when many women threw off their sheitels, et al. Some time later when all this new info sunk in, I threw off my sheitel for a mitpachat (scarf or cloth covering). I was relieved and honestly I felt so much more comfortable knowing that I was abiding by Das Yehudis.

I am still in my mitpachat even though the women in my Haredi mixed area here in ERETZ YISRAEL wear wigs. How could anyone wear someone else's hair? Wearing a sheitel uplifts the feminine ego to where it does not belong. In fact after each new purchase of a new sheitel length which mostly-likely suggested by some sheitel-machers, it gets longer and longer (why everyone is wearing one, you’ll feel beautiful blah blah), next comes even shorter skirt lengths, tighter tops. We don't see this among the brave settler communities (I’m sure someone will say otherwise). Sorry to say I see it mainly among some ashkenazi religious and some new immigrants from untsnius countries (an American import as with other distortions). When I see a Sephardi woman, dressed so tsnius, I admire her. I am still formulating my wardrobe, but it is difficult because I don’t know where to shop in Israel, and how to put things together. My Mother a”h used to help me shop. Now, I need a “professional shopped” to help me here.

When all this is put forth for Yiddishe Neshomas to take in, most of the time it is met with astonishment, combative replies, and arguments. Receiving this information is challenging and deeply personal I agree, but one should look deep within and do their own honest research (and as Reb Akiva says, “ask your Rav”) not to bolster their own opinion, but to find the truth from our recent history of our Nation.  

A mitpachat stimulates modesty within a Jewish woman's neshoma. This is where she needs to be to raise erliche frum boys and girls, and being a successful homemaker. Fortunately, the Rabbonim are very sincere and bothered by all this. As far as I know, they are sensitive to and not wanting to hurt or offend women, but Its a fact who’s time has come. 

Let me add that the sheitel business does not have to suffer, just change to a more kosher product as long as women will wear them.

I believe one should be against improper untsnius bedecked women, risque hair covering, immodest clothing, and unbecoming behavior in public. I am embarrassed by this type of non-Jewish behavior. We all need to improve in our own sensitive areas, because as time flies by, each generation falls lower and lower. They are now infecting children with repulsive "educate your children about their gender". The evil is rampant. We must protect the Jewish home for future Kosher Jewish generations. 

What will Mashiach find when he finally arrives?

SEE ALSO: Geula613

AND Your Wife's Real Hair Sheitel

Rabbi Mizrachi – Parashat Nitzavim – Vayelech

After halfway he goes into when Mashiach is here plus other things
Of course, Rabbi Mizrachi will cover current events.
Plus, the Rabbi is going to Miami to give a lecture. 

The Creator of the Universe strikes the earth through the elements of nature, fire, winds, rain, floods and earthquakes, in order to tell the people of the world to repent completely! Repentance means following the Commandments, a world of truth, honesty and loving and helping others.

By the way of the winds, the rains, the floods, the earthquakes and the fire the Creator, proves to us that He is here, this is His way of proving His presence in the world.

The Creator of the world will continue to bring the infiltrators, refugees and ISIS to Europe to expel the Jews; and, the forces of nature, complications and wars will force the Jews to leave North and South America and the United States before they will suffer worse. They already ran away with the Torah scrolls from the synagogues.

The Holy One, blessed be He, will strike the world with floods and earthquakes. The Creator of the world complicates the world's leaders and the nations among them. The Creator of the Universe is speaking with extreme toughness and anger.

The sea is raging and noisy, waiting for the instructions of the Creator..

He raises more power every day to destroy the world in order to bring about the correction of the whole world. The clowns, jerks and jokers will pay with their lives. The Creator of the Universe wants the earth to be with honesty, truth, love, good deeds, observance of the laws, Torah study, prayers, the construction of the Third Temple and the Messiah leading the world, not only in Israel.

The Messiah is flesh and blood, he is in the Land of Israel, alive and exist and has a wife and children. The difference between an ordinary person and the Messiah is that Messiah sees everything beyond them all, he is a man of Hashem.

The sea, as we already said, is waiting for the instructions of the Holy One, blessed be He. When the Holy One, Blessed is He, will give an order, give confirmation, the fierce winds are causing destruction throughout the world, except for the Land of Israel.

Israel is surrounded by a cloud of fire, protected and sheltered.

When the Gentiles will expel the Jews from Europe, America and all places, they will do a great mitzvah and will be blessed by Heaven, for it is for their own good and for saving the lives of the Jews. The Gentiles are messengers of the Creator to save the Jews.

Trump was chosen to help the Holy Land and the Jews in the Land of Israel. He was elected to deport the Jews from the United States to Israel; he was chosen not to listen to the Palestinians and Hamas, and not to give them a centimeter of the Holy Land. He was chosen to listen only to the Jews living in the Land of Israel. If he does what is written here, he will be protected and preserved and blessed by Heaven.

China will become embroiled in serious complications and sever its economic and commercial ties with the world. The wealthy Jews who invest in China should fold away and depart urgently; whatever they can save, they should save, because whoever has invested a million dollars will have one dollar.

The European countries think that there is quiet from terror - terrorism has not calmed down. It's the quiet before the storm; they're going to be hit big time.

All of the women of Israel must make the separation of challah in your homes, only in your homes. It brings blessings to the house and the family in the house. 

Parshas Nitzavim Vayeilech

NOTHING BELONGS TO US

By Roy S. Neuberger

“Rav Tachlifa, the brother of Ravnai Choza’ah, taught the following Baraisa: All of a person’s income is fixed from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur ….” (Beitzah 15b)

“Rabbi Yehuda the son of Rabbi Shalom expounded: Just as a person’s sustenance (for the coming year) is apportioned for him from Rosh Hashanah, so a person’s losses (for the coming year) are apportioned for him from Rosh Hashanah….” (Bava Basra 10a)

  

Nothing in this world belongs to us.

I had additional thoughts concerning the robbery we experienced recently in Yerushalayim. 

When something is taken from us, we were not meant to have it. This is something that we know theoretically, but it is very difficult to comprehend. We have been taught in this society to accumulate material possessions and we assume that these possessions belong to us. Furthermore, the surrounding culture equates possessions with happiness, the more the better. 

But that is incorrect. “Hillel said … the more possessions, the more worry….” (Pirkei Avos Ch. 2) One of the reasons there is “more worry” is that we are under the false impression that possession of these objects is integral to us. If we lose or damage them, we feel incomplete. 

My friends, we own nothing! We do not own our own body and not even our soul! We do not own any object or even our place in this world. When we say “Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokainu, Hashem Echad,” one thing we are saying is that Hashem is the One Who Exists. Everyone and everything else is His creation, including our very existence and all our possessions. When a person experiences the trauma of a robbery, it is a reminder that we really do not possess anything. It is a reminder of the true state of the world, that Hashem rules and creates all, and that we exist only as a part of Hashem. 

As we prepare to crown Hashem King of the universe, it is appropriate to think about this. Do we really understand the majesty of a king? Do we really understand the awesomeness of a king? Great kovod is given to a king of flesh and blood, but an earthly king is only a shadow of the King of Kings. Do we have any understanding of the Ribono shel Olam? 

Dovid Hamelech was able to say, “I am a worm and not a man …” (Tehillim 22:7) How could he say that? He was the chosen of Hashem and the eternal king of Israel. He was the one who could say, “With You, I smash a troop and with my G-d I leap a wall.” (Tehillim 18:30)

Dovid Hamelech was so real! He had the courage to state that he was a nothing in himself. He knew and stated that only “with My G-d”am I anything at all. In this is his majesty. 

As we approach Aseres Ymai Teshuva it is well to remember that we are intrinsically nothing and our possessions are not our possessions. When we crown Hashem King it is well for us to remember what a King is and what we are. “Avinu, Malkeinu … Our Father, Our King, be gracious to us and answer us, though we have no worthy deeds ….” 

If you want a shock, look over Tefillas Zakkah, which we say Erev Yom Kippur. I do not understand the madreiga of someone who could write these words. The author had the courage and honesty to describe honestly the mental state of a creature of flesh and blood. I understand that mankind has such thoughts, but who has the courage to express them? And yet, if we don’t admit and express them, how can we hope to do teshuva? 

I often wonder how I can ever clean out my neshoma. If we contemplate our own weakness and inadequacy then we will realize that we have no choice but to cry out to our Father and King to save us, because we are confronted by the enormity of our need. 

This week’s Haftara offers consolation to those who are willing to contemplate their need for salvation. The Novi says, “Hashem has dressed me in the raiment of salvation, in a robe of righteousness … like a bridegroom who dons Priestly glory, like a bride who bedecks herself in her jewelry.” (Yeshiah 61:10)

Are we afraid? Are we vulnerable? Are we exposed? “Upon your walls, O Yerushalayim, I have assigned guardians, all the day and all the night, continuously…. Hashem swore … I will not give your grain any longer as food for your enemies, and alien sons shall not drink your wine ….” (Yeshiah 62:6) This is indeed security, for all our goodness and protection, indeed our very existence is totally a function of Hashem’s willing us to exist and to be protected. 

Our society is based on the false assumption that the physical universe has an independent existence. But Hillel says, “Marbe nechasim, marbe daiga … the more possessions, the more worry,” not only because physical possessions demand our time and attention, but because this view of life represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the universe. 

If we want to live, then on Rosh Hashana we have to say these words with emotion: “Instill Your awe upon all Your works, and Your dread upon all that You have created. Let all Your works revere You and all creatures prostrate themselves before You. Let them all become a single society to do Your will with a whole heart, for … dominion is Yours….”

If we understand how utterly empty we are and we cry out to our Father and King, then perhaps we will merit the salvation which can come only from Heaven and the Redemption we so desperately need. May our heartfelt tefillos be accepted in Shomayim for a gut, gebentched Yor, a kesiva v’chassima tova!

*          *          *          *

Roy Neuberger, author and public speaker, can be reached at roy@2020vision.co.il.

© Copyright 2017 by Roy S. Neuberger