PLEASE USE A NAME WHEN COMMENTING

31 January 2019

Rabbi Winston – Parshas Mishpatim

Parashas Mishpatim

And one who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. 
(Shemos 21:7) 

OF THE MANY mitzvos found in this week’s parsha, one of them is to not curse one’s parents. The mitzvah to honor one’s father and mother is not only included in the Ten Commandments, it is on the side of the mitzvos considered to be between God and man. Honoring and fearing one’s parents is considered to be the preparation for honoring and fearing God.
Yet it is true that it is a lot easier to fulfill this central mitzvah when parents make themselves worthy of our honor and fear. Nevertheless, that is not a prerequisite, which is good,  because children do not yet possess the ability to appreciate their parents for who they are and what they have become. It can be decades, or take the starting of their own families, before children reach that level of understanding.
Parents have their own mitzvah to be good examples for their children. If ever the principle, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” applied, it is while raising children. A lesson many parents learn only too late is just how damaging to their children the things they did or didn’t do were while raising them. 
“By the time they grow up, they’ll forget all about it,” many a not-so-good parent has said. Maybe consciously, but not unconsciously, where it counts the most. By the time their children have grown up, their bad parenting will have already become part-and-parcel of their children’s approach to life, for better or for worse, and usually the latter.
As I have said in the past, raising children “properly” is 75 percent help from Heaven, and 25 percent help from Heaven. That’s right, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT Heavenly help. You basically have to be a prophet to know how best to respond to your child’s nuances, which constantly change and develop form year-to-year. 
What is good for them?
What is bad for them?
What is good for them in the short run, but not in the long run? 
What is bad for them in the short run, and but ultimately the best thing for them? 
Without prophecy, how can anyone know any of these answers with certainty?
And there is another complication to an already complicated situation. How many parents are no longer children themselves once the kids start coming? How many parents ever really grow up, at least in time to give their children the benefit of that growth? In so many situations, it’s kids raising kids, and not always clear which kid is raising which kid. 
To raise a responsible child, you have to already be a responsible adult. I don’t only mean that you go to work every day and earn a living to support your family, or make sure they’re all eating right. All that is important, VERY important, but not the overall important trait to have in life. It’s something bigger than all of that.
In fact, it’s called the “Big Picture.” It’s a pretty common term that is used in many ways, and it always means the same thing. It says that the short term goals of anything are only meaningful within the context of the long term goal, which means you have to know what that is. When it comes to the really important things in life, like raising children, there is no such thing as “just winging it.” 
I heard a story recently about a rabbi whose son had to make his own Kiddush on a Friday night, because he was late coming home from shul. He was late from shul because he dovened at a different shul than his father did. He had to doven at the other shul because he was late getting to shul in the first place. 
“Don’t you think it bothered me that my son could not be included in my Kiddush like the rest of my family (which was quite large), or that he did not doven in my shul with me as he usually does?” he later asked his guest, to whom he told this story. 
“Of course it bothered me!” he said, answering his own question.
“And do you know what I told him?” 
By this time, the guest in whom the rabbi was confiding felt rather uncomfortable. “Why was he being made privy to some personal family information?” he wondered to himself.
The answer was even MORE unexpected.
“Nothing,” he told his guest. “I told him NOTHING.”
As the guest absorbed the surprise answer, the rabbi honed in on his point.
“And do you know WHY I told him NOTHING?” 
The guest shook his head back and forth.
“Because, if I told him SOMETHING, then my son would have had to show me that my comments didn’t affect him, which he would have done by behaving the exact same way next week. By saying NOTHING instead, I left my son room to not make a big deal out of it, and fix the problem next week.”
I don’t know if such advice is acceptable to everyone, or would work with most children. I don’t even know if it even worked with the rabbi’s son. I just know that this rabbi was a father who was in touch with the BIGGER picture in life, and in raising children. His long term clarity instructed him how to react in the short term reality and probably helped his progeny to grow up as responsible adults. 
It’s what every GOOD parent lives to do.
It’s what EVERY child needs in order to become one.

DRUDGE on the WEATHER



Brutal Blast of Midwest Cold Gets Worse!
Strains Natural Gas System...
Hell freezes over...
Snowplows idled...
No mail delivery...
Residents Urged To Help Protect Feral Cats...
Train tracks set on fire to keep running...
What happened to 'Global Warming? 


CHICAGO ON BLAST!
MIDWEST FEELS LIKE -75°
CHILL MAP

EXTREME WEATHER – EUROPE's SNOW CRISIS

Europe's Snow Crisis

Severe weather on the continent has led to the number of weather-related deaths in parts of Europe this year reach at least 26. Days of heavy snowfall have led to avalanches and treacherous conditions, bringing parts of Europe to a standstill. Two employees at the Morillon ski resort were killed by explosives they were using to spark an avalanche to keep the slopes safe for skiers. Their deaths came as three German skiers died and a fourth was reported missing following a snow slip near the Austrian ski resort of Lech.


Coldest Temperatures of Your Lifetime Descend on the U.S (EMERGENCY WARNING)

What is considered as the coldest temperatures to blanket half of the US in five generations is intensifying. Temperatures will reach -47F as ground temperatures over the next three days with wind chill down to -70F in parts of the Great Lakes, Midwest Pains states and N.E USA, additionally S.E USA will be at all time record cold as well and the power grid will be at all time draw for home heating. This is an indicator of the Grand Solar Minimum intensifying. Good Luck and make preparations for power outages in this historic cold.


"Fatal Cold" Incoming -- Your Food is Under Attack -- Major Shortages

The powers that be seek to make profane all that we ingest, and that agenda is in overdrive as we enter the Grand Solar Minimum. As we experience record cold temperatures this week, Christian puts together the pieces, stressing the importance of growing your own food in order to stay healthy and thrive in the future.


Castiglione Messer Marino (Chieti) submerged in the snow

COPYRIGHT (Contact licensing@localteam.it for usage/license info or visit https://www.localteam.it)


Subzero temperatures, heavy snow and a fierce Siberian wind brought Britain to a halt this week. What was behind the brutal weather?



How snow and freezing conditions have hit Wales, Scotland and England | ITV News

A red "danger to life" weather warning has been issued - the second within 24 hours - in the South West and Wales as the region braces for up to 50cm of snow. Britons across the UK have been urged not to travel unless "absolutely necessary" as the Beast from the East meets Storm Emma rolling in from the west


Coldest Ever in USA continues New Records and Forecasts (783)

Blizzard Update and forecasts for what is considered the coldest temperatures to blanket half of the US in generations is intensifying then bottoming out over the next 45 hours. Temperatures will reach -47F as ground temperatures over the next three days with wind chill down to -70F in parts of the Great Lakes, Midwest Pains states and N.E USA, additionally S.E USA will be at all time record cold as well and the power grid will be at all time draw for home heating. This is an indicator of the Grand Solar Minimum intensifying. Good Luck and make preparations for power outages in this historic cold.


Niagara Falls becomes a 'winter wonderland' - BBC News


HOW DOES ONE RECKON THIS WITH WHAT IS OTHERWISE FORCASTED FOR A MINI-ICE-AGE ON EARTH FOR SEVERAL YEARS.

AUSTRALIA: Roads Melt / Animals Drop Dead

Extreme weather fluctuations occurring, last week:
Roads melt and animals drop dead as Australia suffers through its 'most significant' heatwave for 80 YEARS and temperatures top 120F
Australia is baking amid record-breaking heatwave with temperatures soaring as high as 120F in some towns. Town of Noona, in New South Wales, saw an overnight minimum temperature of 96.6F - an Australian record. Central Sydney saw fifth consecutive day above 86F for first time in eight years, while Canberra also baked. Roads melted and animals dropped dead as fire crews fought more than 60 blazes across New South Wales (dailymail) (no link).

Roads melted across Australia as temperatures soared
into the 100s for the fifth consecutive day amid
a record-breaking heatwave that has broken records


30 January 2019

Prepare Your Children For the Outside World

As a follow-up to my posting on the Shul Desecration and the Abomination on the “so-called Cultural Scene in Israel” and about how to raise Jewish children on the right path, I present the following:

Rav Avigdor Miller on Raising Children

Q:  How do we help our children prepare themselves to stand strong against all the negative influences of the outside world?

A:
Well, that's a very good question. One thing I can tell you is, no libraries. Don't go into libraries anymore. And don't bring your children into the libraries. Once upon a time a library was a nice place, by the way. But today it's no good. No good at all! Libraries are dirt today. They are garbage.

Now, once upon a time, the streets in America were kosher streets. The gentile streets; yes. They weren't holy, but they were kosher. You could walk in the streets. Once upon a time a gay man was put into jail. I remember. Gays were put in jail. A vagabond, someone who didn't work and just wandered the streets, was arrested. If a man was a vagabond, just hanging around on the streets, the policeman would yell at him, "What are you doing?!" If he was just hanging around, he would be arrested. Nowadays, they would arrest the policeman for yelling at him.

And so, the world is crazy today. The literature is filthy. Filthy, disgusting ideas. Terrible attitudes and ideas. And you'll find it all in the library. If you let your children go to the library, you're a rotzei'ach, a murderer. I'm sorry to tell you that, but what can I do. To put that filth into their minds is to destroy them.

And I want to tell you that I'm very much worried. "Will Hashem continue to keep quiet about America?" I'm very worried. America is becoming so wicked today, I don't know what to expect. I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I'm worried. Hashem will not continue to keep quiet. How can He?!

And I want to tell you something else. You might not like this, but I'll tell you anyhow. The best countries in the world today are the Arabian countries. Yes, many of the Arabian countries. I have a booklet - a guidebook for gays. I have it at home. It tells you how to travel. So it tells you that when you come to an Arabian country, stay out! It's dangerous for your life to go there. But when you come to Israel, it says here's a place you can go in Israel. And here's another place you can go. It gives addresses. Israel has good places where you can go; that's what it says in that book.

The Knesset, that holy group of tzadikim, passed a law that promotes this type of activity, this behavior that Hashem says is a to'eivah, an abomination. They made it very clear that in Israel, what they call the Jewish State, there's nothing wrong at all with being a proud gay. And in America as well, the streets are filled with filth.

Now, what did Hakodosh Boruch Hu do? He gave the Arabian countries oil. You know, there are so many Arabian countries that are soaking in wealth. There are millionaires and multi-millionaires in the Arabian countries. Billionaires! All because of oil. Now, why did Hashem give them oil? It's a reward, I think. I think it's a reward for their attitudes of morality. I'm not saying they're tzadikim. No, no. Not at all. They are murderers. Vicious, blood-thirsty people. And they deserve a big mapalah - a big downfall. But because there is so much morality there, and they're not hefker like in Eretz Yisroel and in America, so Hashem is rewarding them.

Now, Hakodosh Boruch Hu despises the movies. No movies! And there are no filthy movies allowed in the good Arabian countries. No movies. And you'll notice that in Williamsburg there are no movies either. Unless maybe in the Latin section, there are no movies in Williamsburg. Because Jews, good Jews, don't go to the movies. In Boro Park, it's hard to find a movie theatre. But in the Arabian countries there are no movies at all. Movies are a sakanah, a danger.

And not only that - even the newspapers are a sakanah. And therefore, if you want to protect your children, make sure to separate them from all the rish'us, all the wickedness, of the world. As much as possible, separate them from the stupidity of the outside world. Don't let it come into your home. Internet, computers, radios. Keep them out as much as possible.

Fill your house with simchah, with simchah shel mitzvah. Make your home a place of the happiness of mitzvos. Purim should be a great day of happiness and excitement. Chamishah Asar b'Shvat you should celebrate. Chanukah should be made into a big simchah. You should take all the opportunities that you can and make them happy occasions. Shabbos, of course. And every Yom Tov. They should be made into happy occasions. Always fill your home with simchah shel mitzvah so that the children should see that the home of Hashem is a place of happiness - a place of fulfillment. To be a frum Jew is an opportunity for good times. Always make celebrations in the home. The melavah malkah, if possible, is a very fine opportunity to make children happy. And once they see that the home is a home of simchah, they won't look in other places.

The truth is that there is no simchah like a frum environment. It's a real simchah for the neshamah. And children can be taught after a while to feel that that the real happiness of life - the true happiness - is only in a frum environment. And they begin to realize that the outside word smells bad. It really smells bad out there and you have to teach them them that. Wicked people smell bad. You see wicked people and they really smell bad. You see women undressed in the street and they smell terrible. That's all. That's what you have to teach them. That wicked people smell wicked.

And after a while they will gain the proper attitude. They look down at all the wicked people and all the wicked attitudes and ideas of the wicked world. They despise them. And once they despise them, they're not going to try to imitate them.

TAPE # E-194 (June 1999)

PS: Rabbi Mizrachi speaks very highly about Rav Miller zt”l, and my husband was a talmid of the Rav for umpteen years, until the Rav's passing.

Reclamation Continues

The correct response to Arab Terror
Redemption Continues: Jews Returning to Jerusalem Homes
By Dovid Mark @ IsraelRising

It is a little known fact that most of today’s Muslim quarter was actually Jewish until the Arab riots and pogroms of the 1920s and 1930s pushed the indigenous Jews out and into the present Jewish quarter. In 1948 the Jewish quarter was wiped out by the Jordanian Legions.

It wasn’t until 1967, when Israel liberated its ancient capital that all of these pieces of property were opened up for resettling. The challenge was that Israel did not have the means to figure who was a squatter and who was a legitimate owner.

To deal with the confusion it made a rule – residents have 3 generations and if they are in a property that was not theirs – the 4th generation must leave.

Now, with help of research, dedicated lawyers, and grassroots activists we are seeing Jews returning to these houses and properties.

The results have been miraculous. Large swaths of area in the “Muslim Quarter” are now Jewish as they were 70 to 90 years ago. These areas are renovated for the benefit of all the residents, Jews and Arabs alike.


One such area, the Northern Jewish Quarter was the home of Rav Eliyashuv, and Rav Diskin among others and was the heart of the Jewish presence in the Old City.

After decades of being occupied, it is now bustling with Jewish activity boasting a direct view of the Temple Mount.

In a sense, the city, which never had delineated quarters until the British is returning back to its pre British situation, where all are free to live in peace. IsraelUnwired



Jews were forcibly removed from this home more than 75 years ago. Now Jewish families are returning due to a court ruling. Indigenous rights upheld...thank G-D!

___________________________

THE NORTHERN JEWISH QUARTER

Jews Return to Jerusalem Property Stolen by Arabs
By Gavriel Dan

Another Jewish family moving into a new home in Jerusalem shouldn’t make such a stir, after all Jews return all the time to Jerusalem, but this family is not just moving anywhere, they are returning to a property on As Saraya Street redeemed from Arab squatters in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Mezuza at the property near As Saraya street.
 (Courtesy Ben Packer)
As Saraya Street just passed the Northern Jewish Quarter used to be a bustling Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem’s Old City, yet due to countless Arab pogroms directed against the Jews in Jerusalem between the 1920s and 1940s culminating in the Jewish expulsion from the Old City in 1948, the Jewish presence was decimated.

Jews Return Against All Odds

Despite this, Jews have been returning beyond the confines of the “Jewish Quarter” having moved back in over time to the Northern Jewish Quarter on al-Khalidiya street and other areas of Jewish significance.

The house off of As Saraya is significant due to its location within a courtyard far off of the main area. It is a massive old property once housing a number of Jews.

Today, after months of renovations, a large Jewish family has moved into the upstairs apartment, locking the property into Jewish hands.

According to sources a family of 9 just moved in and a young couple will join them in the courtyard in the next couple of weeks. One Arab family remains in the courtyard for now. They have been given time to evacuate before they will be evicted as well. One of the Jewish Families would be considered “ultra-orthodox” and the other “religious Zionist” – this mixture is very common in the area and throughout the Old City of Jerusalem.

“Seven months ago, I was blessed to be one of the first Jews to enter this Jewish-owned property in the Old City of Jerusalem for the first time since the late 1930’s,” says Rabbi Ben Packer of the Jerusalem Heritage House, who was instrumental in helping to renovate the property. “After months of extensive and logistically difficult renovations, a large Jewish family has moved in. G-d willing, another will join on the bottom floor in the next few weeks. That’s some serious success and a serious strengthening of the Jewish Presence!”

With the law stipulating that current squatters must be traceable to being property residents between 1948 and 1967, more and more properties are becoming eligible to be handed back to their original Jewish owners or the owners’ families. IsraelUnwired

To help out visit: Hebrew Wisdom and contact david@israelrising.com

29 January 2019

Jerusalem Synagogue Desecration

Kiryat Yovel Synagogue Desecrated
Vandals hit synagogue in Jerusalem's Kiryat Yovel neighborhood, damaging Torah scrolls. “This morning we were notified regarding a shocking case of synagogue desecration and the destruction of Torah scrolls in Kiryat Yovel,” said Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.
[this is true "Jewish Terror"]
“This terrible incident reminds us of the dark times for the Jewish people. We cannot allow such crimes to happen today. I have just spoken to the Jerusalem District police commander and I am certain that the Israel Police will soon get their hands on the criminals.” arutzsheva.
























________________

We need to understand where this anti-Jewish anti-religious attacks stem from.
Israeli Culture? Or Satanic Exibitionism

We read about the disgraceful exibitionism at the Netanya “McDonalds” Synagogue (Satan Strikes Synagogue), slathered with awful satanic symbols. How does this even exist in Israel? It does exist in Israel, where children do NOT LEARN about their Jewish heritage in school, and that we are a Holy Nation. This past Shabbat the Parsha included the reading of the Ten Commandments, by which ALL Jews are to learn about in order to live by them. The children grow up into adulthood disdaining anything to do with religion.

What do Israeli children learn, however.

They learn exhibitionism at the Clipa Theatre in Tel Aviv. And we know what Tel Aviv is known for around the world.  The present offering is called “A Midsummers Nights’s Dream in Space,” which displays on stage satanic images.

It is no wonder that Minister Miri Regev, is fighting the scourge of so-called “culture” in Israel.

It is no wonder that a Synagogue is defaced with such images and Torah texts are burned in Netanya. There is a dangerous cult functioning in Netanya, and maybe in Herzylia too. Wherever one finds rampant anti-Religious activities and mindsets, one finds cruelty and evil. Satan Strikes Synagogue

And in support of this unhealthy and aberrant behavior, the Jerusalem Post has featured this evil by publicizing a half page devoted to the Clipa Theater's satanic production, with a ghastly picture also. Are the publishers and writers and proofreaders so naive as to think this is “culture”? JPost.com

Another grotesque distorted “Film” is "‘THE GOLEM’ BRINGS A LEGEND BACK TO LIFE”. (It’s full of . . . bloody killings, jump scares and creepy atmosphere, much like their 2015 Jeruzalem, the zombies-in-the-Holy-City flick.)  In this Israeli film, I quote from the Jerusalem Post, the heroine(?) "She breaks conventions in a number of other ways, mostly by her devotion to learning Kabbalah, which she does in secret. . .  [she] pleads with the rabbi to use Kabbalah secrets to create a golem to defend them. He won’t listen, so she does it herself . . . When he [the Golem] finally surfaces, he is a cute-looking kid, the same age as the son Hanna lost . . . [this child] when he is ticked off, his pupils become completely dilated and with just a nasty look or two, he wreaks havoc on anyone who threatens or upsets Hanna  . . . the child-demon is presented as someone who is just as likely to murder Jews . . . These scenes and the cinematography throughout seem to have been inspired by the work of Hieronymus Bosch, the Dutch Renaissance painter known for macabre and nightmarish visions JPost.com.

This does not bring the original work to life, it distorts it into a macabre plot, using a female and a child; there seems to be a covert possible ’subplot’. Portraying a “child” in this manner is devilish and perverted.

Do the Israelis understand how evil and distorted this is? Its not just a “scary flick".  I believe most Israelis are really naive and ignorant about what certain elements in their society are doing that destroys any semblance of decency. Beside infecting the younger generations with alien thoughts and behaviors. Yes, this is the real nature of “Alien,” not from outer space but from inside warped ideologies being taught and imbibed by their children.

This type of cult behaviour needs to be eradicated, but I believe it will take Mashiach to accomplish its elimination. There is much goodness that permeates Eretz Yisrael, with all the decent respectful Israelis being psychologically bombarded by this evil in the negative and twisted media.

_____________________________________

*imbibe = absorb or assimilate (ideas or knowledge)
*contemptuous = disrespectful, insulting, insolent 


To see more photos of the Shul Desecration visit arutzsheva. Vandalism is too soft a term.

28 January 2019

The Germ Theory of Disease

Pasteur vs Béchamp: The Germ Theory Debate
by Kate Raines thevaccinereaction
Published February 6, 2018 | Medicine, History

Story Highlights:

Louis Pasteur’s “germ theory of disease” remains the basis of Western medicine, considering that disease is caused by specific microorganisms that invade the body from outside.
Antoine Béchamp believed instead that illness stems from an unhealthy system that triggered changes in minute particles of the body that lead to disease.

Western medicine has fully embraced germ theory and its dependence on drugs to treat symptoms, effectively minimizing the importance of nutritious food, fresh air, hygiene and sanitation.

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist-turned-microbiologist, who proved the existence of microbes in air. His pioneering studies laid the foundation for the modern-day understanding of diseases, their etiology as well as vaccine development.”1

How that quotation is interpreted—whether as high praise or condemnation—depends on the perspective. Pasteur was not the only scientist who delved into the origins of disease. While he focused on the influence of invading microbes, or what has come to be known as the “germ theory,” his rival Antoine Béchamp, one of the period’s preeminent scientists, was promoting a different theory. Béchamp’s theory, referred to as the “microzymian” theory of disease, has since become known as the “cellular,”2 or “host”3 theory.4

By all accounts, Béchamp was a highly respected scientist whose teachings were accepted as fact by many of Pasteur’s contemporaries.5 So how is it that relatively few people today have even heard the name of Antoine Béchamp and that it is Louis Pasteur’s scientific conclusions that form much of the basis of contemporary medical thinking about infectious disease?

Origins of Germ Theory
The germ theory of disease holds that “specific microscopic organisms are the cause of specific diseases,” a statement that is so pervasive today that it seems self-evident. Historically, however, variations of the germ theory had been around for hundreds of years but had never taken hold. It was not until Pasteur’s work became publicized in the 19th century that it gained widespread acceptance. Reducing the idea of disease to a simple interaction between specific microorganisms and a host, the germ theory minimized the role of environmental factors on illness, conveniently dismissing social responsibility for disease, especially among the poor.

The work of Pasteur and his associates led directly to the acceptance of vaccines by “leading medical scientists—those longing for a sound and simple explanation for the inexplicable.”6

Host (Cellular) Theory Philosophy
Béchamp’s view was that disease-causing germs were essentially altered microzymas… a term he gave to minute particles he considered to be the common stuff of all living things capable of adapting to changing conditions in the body.7 Quoted as saying, “The microzyma is at the beginning and end of all organization. It is the fundamental anatomical element whereby the cellules, the tissues, the organs, the whole of an organism are constituted,”8 Béchamp maintained that disease developed in the presence of an unhealthy environment caused by an unbalanced state in the body. He held that disease could not take hold without a preexisting weakness.9

As summarized and greatly simplified by author Walene James10—and ridiculed by Mark Crislip11 in Science-Based Medicine—Béchamp’s basic message was that:
  • Disease arises from micro-organisms within the cells of the body.
  • These intracellular microorganisms normally function to build and assist in the metabolic processes of the body.
  • The function of these organisms changes to assist in the catabolic (disintegration) processes of the host organism when that organism dies or is injured, which may be chemical as well as mechanical.
  • Microrganisms change their shapes and colours to reflect the medium.
  • Every disease is associated with a particular condition.
  • Microorganisms become “pathogenic” as the health of the host organism. deteriorates. Hence, the condition of the host organism is the primary causal agent.
  • Disease is built by unhealthy conditions.
  • To prevent disease we have to create health.
Among those who rejected germ theory, instead championing the influence of diet, climate, ventilation, hygiene and sanitation in causing disease were Florence Nightingale and Rudolf Virchow.

Rudolf Virchow, an early opponent of the germ theory of disease, believed that germs do not cause disease but instead gravitate to the diseased area as scavengers, to feed on and clean up the dead tissue caused by the pathogenic process. Virchow stated in his later years, “If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat—diseased tissues—rather than causing disease.”12

Western Medicine Rules
Western medicine fiercely protects the germ theory of disease, scorning and dismissing Béchamp’s ideas out of hand. There is no doubt that much of what Béchamp was able to determine has been supplanted now by scientific resources unavailable to him at his time, but that can also be said of Pasteur’s theories. Such a narrow view of disease misses the gist of Béchamp’s teachings: the importance of supporting a strong internal defense system to ward off disease and attain true health rather than relying on drugs and vaccines as a sledgehammer to treat symptoms and attempt to destroy germs.

Many disease-causing microbes are normally present in the body and do not cause disease as a matter of course but are kept at bay in people who have healthy immune systems. Other infectious microbes can spread from person to person via water, air, insect bites or exposure to infected body fluids and have the potential to cause serious complications in an immune compromised host.

*footnotes were omitted from online page
________________________________
Comments:

They are both partially right. Diseases can be caused by micro-organisms but they can be defeated by the host immune system. The black plague in medieval times killed many people but 2/3 of Europe lived. Polio for most people expresses as cold type symptoms. Some people are NEVER SICK, my wife and my self included. She said she used to have several colds a year, now none for about 10—she went off dairy and wheat, the 2 most allergy causing foods in human diet. Lots of D3, 5-10,000 IU’s daily is most important, and other micro nutrients are also. Read my blog—drchiptravis.com

Speaking from my experience as a former US Army physician, director of the Orthomolecular Medical Society established by Dr Linus Pauling, and over 40 years of holistic medical practice,I wholeheartedly agree with the microzyme version and not with the germ hypothesis that has been advocated by the followers of Pasteur and the pharmaceutical industry.

Man discovering those submicroscopic species naturally became curious and the more it looked the more was found only to enhance his curiosity.Theories were invented as a natural consequences of.So the two opposing theories between Pasteur and Béchamp.Money was pumped into Pasteur’s concept by mainly Rockefeller(as far as i know) seeing the good yield for rewarding in this investment.Thus this is still standing for our great peril.Science deliberately ignoring the role of microbes,viruses, fungi etc.Their role and purpose in creation.If these were not, we would not be here either.They are doing nature’s recycling of old ,sick dying matter into a new source of food for the next generation of emerging life in biology.I observe this wisdom as I watch a malnourished, sickling plant for instance, becoming very quickly a host for insects and fungi as that plant has no vitality to resist,or immunity to diseases.This is life, biology.Same should apply to animals and humans too.It is said that we are carrying more germs by number than cells in our bodies.They not harming us until there is vigorous life in us. We became malnourished than sick and these little hosts become to turn against us , fulfilling their role in creation to start to decompose the cells,ending life cycle in death.

L. Pasteur was a genius and saved many lives. He proved to science of his time that Spontaneous Generation did not exist but was caused by faulty experiments, proof that Germs and viruses can live with out oxygen.much more than finding the cure for why some wines were ruined and others were not saving millions of $$ for the wine and beer industry.

That’s the official white-washed version James. The truth is that Pasteur knowingly committed scientific fraud by falsifying the results of his experiments to make the results fit his theories.

As the article points out, he was also a plagiarist and he did horrible things to living rabbits. He is in my eyes neither a genius nor a hero, but an overly ambitious and ruthless opportunist who cleverly beat a path to fame and fortune.

His deeply flawed germ theory is what today’s criminal multi-billion dollar vaccine industry is founded on and which is a tool used to further the psychopathic elites global depopulation agenda under the guise of disease prevention.

I read the book Bechamp or Pasteur?: A Lost Chapter in the History of Biology by Hume many years ago, and then did more indepth research on Pasteur. He was a MONSTER. He stole the work of the greater scientist, Bechamp, did everything after that to destroy Bechamp’s career and reputation, and then misunderstood and misinterpreted his work. He reportedly admitted at the end of his life that he was wrong, that germs react to their internal environment, wherein the key to susceptibility lies. The terrain, not the germ. Another scientist, Dr. Rosenow, of what became the Mayo Clinic was able to take harmless bacteria and change them into pathogenic organisms by changing their environment–food and temperature–and then back again, the scientific equivalent of changing dogs into cats and then back again. The germ theory was all wrong, the the consequences have been too horrendous to think about.

Holocaust Remembrance — A First Person Eulogy

Once There Lived a Man Named Aizik Kanovich

The snowflake Rosette Kanovich melted in Auschwitz-Birkenau just short of her third birthday. Her beautiful mother Sara-Maita melted a little earlier, in one of the women’s barracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The sky was bright blue. “So clear, almost as clear as the water in the yard of our house in Jonava,” thought Aizik and closed his eyes again. A few soft snowflakes fell from the blue sky. It seemed you could count them. Like family members–snowflake Sara, snowflake Rosette, snowflake Joseph, and snowflake Bernard–one, two, three, four, counted Aizik with his eyes closed.


“Get a move on. Faster, come on, the train won’t wait for you.” One could hear the echo of insistent urging.

“Aizik, Aizik, get up, we’re almost there – one more step and we’re on the train. A little more and we’re home in Paris”, whispered Moris-Moisha Zuskind, bent over his friend, holding his hands under his armpits so they wouldn’t freeze.

In his mind, Aizik was traveling to his hometown, Jonava, and his native Žvejų street. Back to December of 1920 when he stepped over the threshold of his house and proudly announced:

Well, now I have a passport. Signed by burgermeister Ramoška himself. I can go.”

“When?” Shloime asked quietly .

“Tomorrow I’ll buy bus tickets to Kaunas, then board the train to Paris."

"There I’ll wait for an American visa and–lo and behold–I’m in New York!”

Rokha (Rocha-Samuraj) and Dovid Kanovich, Solomon’s brothers Moshe-Yankel,
Aizik and Motl, sister Khava (from collections of Sergejus Kanovičius and Lisa
Abukrat-Kanovich)

Aizik let his dreams carry him away.


“And what will you do there?” insisted his elder brother.

I’ll get off the ship in New York and, and, and…” Aizik was trying to think of what he could do in the new promised land. In his mind’s eye, he could see himself walking down the gangway of a huge passenger ship through the cabin windows of which thousands of similar eyes hungry for unfulfilled dreams were looking into the bright future under the skyscrapers.

“So what will you do when you get off that ship?” asked Shloime as if he could read Aizik’s mind.

“I’ll live!” retorted Aizik.

Even Motke said nothing. That eternal mocker, who was never able to hold his tongue, called a jester by his brother Shloime who said that if Motke used his tongue for stitching rather than a needle, he could make a tailcoat even for the King of England. As for Shloime, he never liked getting into a dispute. To him this was a waste of time and G_d’s punishment for idleness. Father, the cobbler Dovid Kanovich, was quiet too. Only his wife, Rokha-Samurai, who always argued with the world and G-d himself, could not put up with the fact Aizik was about to leave and, most probably, to never return:

“America, America, what a miracle it is, miracles won’t feed a hungry man,” she said.


In the spring of 1920, Aizik found himself in Paris, the city of love and dreams. He only learned a few words of French on the train. Polish, Russian and even Lithuanian learned in the Babylon of Jonava were of no use here.

The American consulate met him frostily, but in the line he ran into Abraham who that very evening introduced him to Morris who had left Jonava a decade ago. Because both of them were from the same town or for some other reason, Aizik and Morris soon became friends. Morris had a small store over which he lived. He kindly offered Aizik a bed and, while Aizik waited for his visa, some work in the store.

“But all my French is ‘merci,’ ‘bonjour’ and ‘s’il vous plait,’” said former cobbler from Jonava Aizik Kanovich, doubting his talents as a salesman.

“Don’t worry about it,” answered Morris, “when I came here that was all my French too. Besides, if we are not in Jerusalem, we are in Tel Aviv for sure.” He laughed.

“What do you mean?” Aizik seemed puzzled.

“This is the Tel Aviv of Paris, my friend. Most Jews live here, in the 10th arrondissement. If you get lost, ask for Rue Bichat, you can be sure you’ll be shown the way. And one more thing, you won’t really need any French as most of my clients speak our language, mame-loshn.”

The American Consulate was in no hurry to help Aizik get from one city of love and dreams to the other, across the ocean. So passed his first year in Paris.

“You wanted to go to America,” said the pretty Sara-Maita in a somewhat reproaching tone.



“Well, I did,” smiled Aizik. “Je t’aime,” he said and kissed his beloved.
Aizik had already forgotten that France was only supposed to be a middle stop. Sara-Maita was now his America. America for life. Aizik has never been so happy. Not even back in Jonava when he pecked his classmate Riva on the cheek by the river and whispered that he liked her very much. Then Aizik was twelve and preparing for his bar mitzvah, and now… True love found Izik Kanovich in Paris, the city of love and dreams. That afternoon, his love bought cinnamon and flour from him, smiled and said “au revoir,” and never left his dreams.



“Dear Mom and Dad,” Aizik wrote to his native Jonava, “Sara and I have decided to marry. I ask you for your blessing. I am adding a picture of Sara. Your son, Aizik.”

Joseph was born in 1931 and Bernard one year later. Little Rosette saw the world in 1941. The family of five lived happily in their cozy French nest.

Aizik opened his eyes for a second. Before him was the face of his Paris neighbor Morris, shaggy and thin, with protruding jawbones and droopy skin.

“Aizik, Aizik,” said Morris rapidly. “Get up, let’s go. We’re going home. Wait for me, I’ll ask the soldiers for some bread and porridge and be right back.”

Aizik looked up, into the sky. A white snowflake resting on his eyelashes reminding him of his wife Sara-Maita’s dazzling white dress, not even the dress, but the intricately crocheted veil. It began to snow more heavily.

“Aizik,” said Morris very quietly upon returning. “I brought some bread, they didn’t have porridge, why you…” Morris did not finish the sentence, he took a bite of the slice of bread he had brought with him and walked off. Morris blended into the crowd of thousands of people just like him, slowly walking from the barracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau towards the train supposed to bring them back from hell to Paris, the city of dreams and love.

Aizik remained lying on the road. The snowstorm intensified. Snowflakes piled on him, covering his face with a white veil. Snow does not melt on a dead man.

When Morris got out of the train, Paris was still sleeping. His head was spinning. From distress and freedom. From some blended images in which the barracks and chimneys of Auschwitz mixed with the grace of the houses and churches of Paris, for a moment the Eiffel Tower began to look like a watchtower, the one that stood behind the barracks, and leafless hedges reminded him of barbed wire. Only the scents, the smells, would bring him back to reality; it smelled of pastries and freedom, of wine and kisses, of rain, not drenching, but warming. A few hours later, he was walking down the bustling streets of Paris. He walked past his little store.

It took a while before Morris found Joseph and Bernard. All the surviving Jews were on their way home. At least they thought this was where they were returning. In the place they used to call home, the walls awaited them and scattered family photographs… In some cases, even the furniture…

Yet this was no home, because most of those who had lived there had left their homes for good. A house without people is not a home in Paris, Jonava or Amsterdam. Some people realized they would never find their home where it used to be until all hell broke loose, and so sought their way to the Promised Land, Eretz Israel.

Thanks to the Red Cross, Morris learned that Aizik and Sara Maita’s boys were alive and living nearby.

Bernard, the younger brother, opened the door. He didn’t immediately recognize Morris who was emaciated and looked old.

“Joseph, Bernard,” said Morris, struggling to find the right words. “I have come to tell you that your father died on the way to the train. He’s gone. I’m sorry.”

“What about Mother and Rosette?” the brothers asked in one voice.

Outside it was snowing. There were many snowflakes. The snowflake Rosette Kanovich melted in Auschwitz-Birkenau just short of her third birthday. Her beautiful mother Sara-Maita melted a little earlier, in one of the women’s barracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Not a single European Jew returned home happily; none of them were able to find their home upon return.

Once upon a time, but not so long ago, there lived a man called Aizik Kanovich. He had two sons, Bernard and Joseph, a daughter Rosette and a wife Sara-Maita. When I remember and say that I remember, I do not remember numbers. I remember them. I will never forget them.

—-——

Sergey Kanovich is a Vilnius born poet and essayist, founder of the Litvak Cemetery Catalogue “Maceva”. He is also founder of the NGO Lost Shtetl and originated the idea of the Museum of Lost Shtetl, currently managing the entire project. In 2018 he was awarded the Medal of Merits for Lithuania for his work in the field of protecting Litvak heritage in the country.






27 January 2019

The Satan Strikes Synagogue in Netanya – After Rabbi Mizrahi gives a Lecture in Netanya



(Published on Jan 24, 2019: includes topics such as “sex trafficking” “evolution” all in Ivrit)


Just a couple days later:

Israel Police investigators were summoned to a synagogue in the central Israeli city of Netanya on Saturday night, following reports of graffiti sprayed on a wall at the entrance to the synagogue. arutzsheva.



Vandals burn prayer books, graffiti ‘Hail Satan’ on wall of Netanya synagogue
Vandals burned Jewish prayer books and graffitied the phrase “Hail Satan” in an attack on a Netanya synagogue on Saturday, police said in a statement. A pentagram was also discovered sprayed onto a wall. timesofisrael

"I WOULD NOT CALL IT JEWISH TERROR"

SEE UPDATE BELOW
STEINITZ DISMISSES SETTLER VIOLENCE: 'I WOULD NOT CALL IT JEWISH TERROR'
"Let's not forget the overall situation. Every day there are such incidents on the Palestinian side.”JPost

THE BLAZING HEADLINE ON SUNDAY’s JERUSALEM POST (English) PAPER EDITION read:  "Palestinian killed in clashes with settlers, IDF after hiker stabbed"

WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN:
Youth Stabbed by Palestinian, After Gang Attacked Settler Youths on Hike Shabbat Afternoon.

AND TODAY, SUNDAY, THE ONLINE ARTICLE ‘REARRANGED’ SAYS:
Palestinian Killed in Violent Altercation with Settlers over Shabbat

We can see also from these “media” headlines, what the Jerusalem Post wants you to believe about what happened in Adei Ad. “Fake”, no, but with “reverse-twisting” to brainwash its readers into mis-understanding and attributing blame on the youth. Also the incident occurred ON SHABBAT, the attack was not ‘over Shabbat’.

We can also see from this, that the “media” is slanted against the Youth (i.e. Jewish Communities in Yehuda and Shomron), whose parents were once “valued pioneers of Israel helping to settle the Land". Equating the altercation/attack with equivalency is insidious- and stealth-reporting.

WHEN IN FACT THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED:
"They surrounded me and tried to drag me into the village”. Teenager recounts how Palestinian Arabs stabbed, beat, and attempted to kidnap him near the Samaria community of Adei Ad. arutzsheva

The PALESTINIAN VERSION HEADLINE IN THE TIMES OF ISRAEL:
"IDF and Police Probe Palestinian’s Killing in West Bank Clash, Likely by Settler”. Palestinians say Adei Ad **outpost residents attacked villagers (of al-Mughayiron their land, shot Hamdi Na’asan; settlers say youth was ambushed, stabbed in the hand, and that (squad?) gave chase timesofisrael

“The community of Adei Ad relentlessly sees the repeated attacks by residents of the Arab villages in the region and they call on the security forces to respond harshly and punish all the villages of terrorism,”

THIS IS WHAT THE PALESTINIANS OF al-Mughayir ARE PLOTTING AND FIGHTING ABOUT:

"State planning to triple size of new settlement for Amona evacuees”
**Civil Administration proposal would see Adei Ad outpost included within the jurisdiction area of Amichai, thereby legalizing the hilltop community located over a kilometer away” (from Amichai), AND ALSO "nearby Palestinian village of al-Mughayir"

**The Civil Administration — the Defense Ministry body that authorizes construction in the West Bank — publicized the plan in response to a High Court of Justice petition by four Palestinian villages in the central West Bank that demanded the demolition of the Adei Ad outpost, which they argue has prevented residents from reaching their farmland. timesofisrael

HOWEVER:
**“[. . .] a Civil Administration official explained that its plan to legalize the outpost comes on the heels of a survey conducted by the Defense Ministry’s 'Blue Line Team' last year, which confirmed Adei Ad’s establishment on state land that doesn’t belong to private Palestinian owners.” timesofisrael

The map submitted by the state showing its intention
to include the Adei Ad outpost (yellow) into the jurisdiction
area of the Amichai settlement (red) on August 7, 2018

__________________________

*insidious def: proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects
*stealth def: movement that is quiet and careful in order not to be seen or heard, or secret action



#UNDERSTANDING “A JUST SOLUTION":

The "Regulation Law”: A Knesset press release explains the intricacies of the “Regulation Law” bill (introduced by Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich), which passed by a vote of 60-52, saying that “in many cases, settlements were built in agreed-upon areas, and were even encouraged or built in coordination with the state, or were built in good faith by the Israeli residents, who were unaware that this was privately-owned land. Leaving the situation as is in these settlements, or their destruction, is liable to seriously, unjustifiably harm those who have lived there for many years. Therefore, the regulation of these settlements is necessary.”

"A team of surveyors known as the State Property Delimitation Team, or the “Blue Line Team,” was established to utilize technologies that had been unavailable to Albeck to review her work.

Over the past 18 years the “Blue Line Team” has been reevaluating Albeck’s lines and redrawing their own blue lines in areas where even the slightest doubts arose. An example of the work of the Blue Liners is an incident in March 2016, when families living in 190 homes in the Binyamin region community of Eli woke up one morning to find themselves outside of the blue line of their town.

Technically speaking, their homes were no longer standing on state land, and therefore the homeowners ran the risk of having their homes demolished should an anti-Israel NGO come forward and claim the property belonged to a local Arab.

Ultimately, that’s why the bill’s passage was crucial. Jewish landowners and their families who bought homes in good faith and with government support and lived there for years based on Albeck’s findings shouldn’t become homeless and have to endure all the trauma that goes with an eviction because of new blue lines.

60 members of Knesset understood this and voted to pass the bill. Thanks to the new law a just solution has been provided for all who are involved.”

UPDATE:  The Arab who was killed during the events near the Samaria community of Adei Ad over the weekend, Hamdi Nussan, was a convicted terrorist who sat in prison for a number of terror attacks.

Speaking with Arutz Sheva on Sunday, a spokesman for the community of Adei Ad said that the Arab man who was killed was not a mere "demonstrator but a terrorist. A convicted terrorist who sat in Israeli jail. The 'father of four' described in the media had a past of serious offenses of shooting and placing bombs.

"We are talking about a Hamas terrorist. By the way, that entire village is a Hamas village. It's a village in which arrests are carried out by security forces almost every night," arutzsheva

Violent Robbery of Elderly Woman on Oholei Yosef Street in Ezras Torah

Who else, but by the East Jerusalem Trash
If this is accurate, this is a “warning” to all Jerusalem Residents. The Robbery was in the middle of a very Jewish Religious area. Unbelievable, the chutzpah of these brazen, bold and ruthless Pere–Adam, who stab settler youth in order to incite the Israeli IDF, Police, and Shabak!

VIOLENT ROBBERY: 
Elderly Woman Beaten And Robbed By Arabs In Her Jerusalem Home
[i saw this on yeranenyaakov and was flabbergasted]

A Jerusalem district police spokesman reported on Wednesday that an elderly woman was beaten and robbed in her home. The assailants fled the scene and police have arrested four suspects in the case.

According to the report, the robbery and assault took place on January 9, 2019, when police received a report of a violent robbery on Ohelei Yosef Street in the capital.

DO YOU KNOW WHERE THIS STREET IS?



IN EZRAS TORAH NEIGHBORHOOD


25 January 2019

Parshas Yitro – THE SAP OF REDEMPTION

THE SAP OF REDEMPTION
By Roy S. Neuberger

Is it a coincidence that this climactic Parsha, in which Am Yisroel meets Hashem at Har Sinai, should fall out during the week of T’U b’Shevat? Well that question is of course unnecessary, because there are no coincidences.

My chavrusa, Rabbi Yehuda Schiff Shlita”h, showed me a Ramban on Parshas Bo which tells us a beautiful yesod in emunah“a person has no share in the Torah of Moses our Teacher unless he believes that all our affairs and experiences are miracles …. There is [no such thing as] ‘the ordinary course of the world.’” (Ramban on Shemos 13:16) We learn from Yetzias Mitzraim that Hashem controls everything. The extraordinary miracles of Mitzraim serve to show us that the entire “everyday” conduct of nature and everything that happens in this world emanate directly from Hashem’s will.

T’U B’Shevat’s remarkable legacy is that, during the winter, when the earth is frozen, animals are hibernating and all nature appears dead, this is not the real story. The real story is that the sap hidden within the trees is starting to flow at precisely this moment. The hidden rebirth, Techias Hamaisim, the ascent from death, the salvation of the world always begins in a hidden manner. “And Rabbi Yitzchak said: Blessing is not found except in something that is hidden from the eye.” (Taanis 8b; Bava Metzia 42a) T’U b’Shevat is the day “when the sap rises in the trees…” (Bnai Yissaschar, quoted in Book of Our Heritage)




Does anyone see the sap rise? 

Only Hashem knows when the hidden explosion of salvation – the cosmic moment of our Great Redemption – is beginning, concealed from all eyes. All nature imitates Hashem, the Ultimate Hidden One. Similarly, Chazalsay about tzaddikim“Who is destined for a share in the World to Come? One who is modest and humble, who enters bowing and leaves bowing, who learns Torah constantly, but doesn’t take credit for himself.” (Sanhedrin 88b)

Everything holy is hidden. This midah is exactly opposed to the society which surrounds us, which is obsessed with publicity, pushiness and “me first.” My friends, the news is disastrous on every level. Now they are outlawing shechita in Europe. Next they will try to outlaw every other mitzvah until they try to outlaw those who perform mitzvos, G-d forbid. 

But the sap is rising in the trees and the rains are pouring down on the Kinneret. Our secret springs of brachaare pouring down from Shomayim, and this is all a prelude to the redemption we are all awaiting. As I quoted recently, “when the wicked bloom like grass and all doers of iniquity blossom, it is to destroy them till eternity…” (Tehillim 92)

The world thinks it is close to the moment when they will solve the “Jewish Problem” forever. Little do they know that, where no one can see, the sap of redemption is rising in the Tree of Life, and the day is dawning when we will hear “for a second time in the presence of all the living … ‘I am Hashem your G-d!’” (Mussaf Shabbos Kedusha)

PICTURE CAPTION
The sap is flowing in the trees

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

© Copyright 2019 by Roy S. Neuberger

Rabbi Winston – A Story of Hashgocha Pratis and Parshas Yitro

A Story of Hashgocha Pratis and Parshas Yitro

LAST WEEK I learned a lesson that I think can be applied to this week’s parsha. It’s a long story, but the punchline will justify its telling.
Two week’s ago I gave my son a check, which I postdated for the following week, so I would have time to deposit the money in my account. Since he lives in Jerusalem I don’t see him often, and it was just easier to give him the postdated check a week earlier when I did see him. 
A week later, he asked if I could deposit a new check into his account for him instead, as he was too busy to get to his bank. I told him, “No problem,” because there is a service at my shul that deposits checks for people learning in Kollel. 
We don’t have a bank in Telzstone where I live. So, to save people learning from having to run to the city to do their banking, a chesed organization put a little safe on the wall, with deposit envelopes of all the different banks. Every night someone comes and picks up the envelopes and deposits them the next day, for free, in the respective banks. 
Since I barely get to the city, it has been a great service for me, b”H. Every month I have to make a deposit into my pension plan, and this is how I have been doing it. Around the 15th of each month, I just fill out the check and then the envelope, and go online the next day to make sure it was cashed. 
As it turned out, I had to deposit my son’s check and my Pension check on the same day. After waiting to the last possible moment (I’m lazy this way), I wrote the checks and filled out their respective deposit envelopes at the same time. 
For my son this was a one-time deposit in this account, because he is in the process of opening a new one. One week later, and the account number would have been different. But, in the meantime, I filled out the six-digit number he had sent me, put the check in its envelope, sealed it, and put it aside to work on my pension check.
I looked up the account information for my insurance company as I do each month, and finding it, filled out the back of the envelope. As I filled in the account number, it seemed familiar, but not just because I have used it so many times before. Instinctively, I looked at my son’s envelope, and sure enough, both numbers, from the same bank, began with the same two digits.
I found that interesting, since my insurance company has been in business a LOT longer than my son has had his account. I would have expected the numbers to be very different from each other. My son’s branch must have opened a lot later for his number to start with the same two digits.
But then I noticed that the first two numbers were not the only similar numbers. A couple of others seemed to match as well, albeit it out of order. Curious, I then wrote both six-digit account numbers on a handy scrap piece of paper, and proceeded to drew lines between each of the matching numbers to see how many actually coincided.
ALL OF THEM. Both account numbers had the exact same six digits! I was stunned. 
First of all, obviously, there are all the possible permutations generated by a six-digit number. It was already amazing that both numbers began the exact same way, given the time gap between the opening of the accounts. But ALL six digits being in both numbers? 
Then there was the incident itself. Had my son deposited the first check as he was supposed to, then this “coincidence” would NEVER have come to light. Had he asked me to deposit his check for him one week earlier or later, I probably would not have noticed the matching account numbers. It was the timing of both events, the writing and depositing of my son’s check and that of my insurance company that made the discovery possible, TOTAL Hashgochah Pratis.
I was so impressed by what happened that I immediately called my son to tell him about the “coincidence.” He, however, was only mildly amused, and cautioned me to not mix the numbers up and make the wrong deposit. His check was the larger amount.
Left to appreciate the Divine Providence on my own, I tried to figure out what it meant. Normally, such things happen to me in more meaningful ways, like turning exactly to the page of gemora I need, or seeing the same topic discussed in three areas of learning of mine on the same day. I just look at such events as G–D saying, “Just to let you know that I’m with you while you learn!”
Matching bank accounts was a tougher one to paint in Hashgochah Pratis terms. It can always be something as simple as G–D just staying in touch, resulting in excitement that makes one more aware of His Presence. That alone makes any interesting “coincidence” worth the price of admission.
I did tell the story to a couple of people over the next few days, each of whom was truly impressed, or at least acted that way for my benefit. By the time another son called me a few days later to say hello, my enthusiasm had worn away, and I had forgotten about the matter for the time being.
However, as we shmoozed a bit, I looked down in front of me and saw the scrap piece of paper with the two account numbers on it, and the lines connecting the common numbers. My excitement restored, I said to this son, “You want to hear something interesting?” and told him the story. 
He was fascinated too, and I told him that though I didn’t know what to make of it, it reminded me of a story I once heard in a shiur about Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, zt”l. 
Rav Moshe was known for his encyclopedic Torah knowledge, and was famous for being able to turn right to the page he wanted in every sefer he used. It made his students wonder if this was because he just knew everything so well, or if Heaven wanted to spare him the trouble of looking for things, since he never wasted a moment of learning time. 
One student of his became a rabbi in a distant town, and when his new shul was built, he invited his rebi, Rav Moshe Feinstein, to come to the “Chanukas HaBayis,” which he did. While in his student’s home, Rav Moshe noticed a certain sefer on the kitchen table. He became excited because he had wanted to see this particular sefer for the longest time. He had been told that a certain halachah had been decided differently than he had taught, and he wanted to see why.
Rav Moshe then proceeded to “randomly” open the very THICK and WELL-WORDED sefer for the first time and, of course, turned right to the halachic discussion he was looking for. “That was when,” the student said, “I knew for sure that Heaven helped Rav Moshe save time by having him always open the sefer he was using exactly to the place he needed!”
Well, one good story breeds another. My son, after hearing my account of Rav Moshe’s hashgochah with sefer-opening told me that his Rosh Yeshivah told him one as well. His Rosh Yeshivah had been a student of Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, zt”l, who just passed away in 2017. He had a similar account of Rav Shteinman and his miraculous sefer-opening.
Then my son added a gem of an idea that really excited me. He had heard it from his Rosh Yeshivah and it was based upon a gemora I had learned about 16 times, but never came to the same conclusion.
The Talmud states that if you put your hand into your pocket to take out three coins, and only two come out, it is called “suffering,” since you have to make an extra effort to find the missing third coin (Arachin 16b). His Rosh Yeshivah learned from this that if a person does NOT require such suffering, then Heaven will make him successful the first time. In the case of Rav Shteinman, zt”l, and Rav Moshe, zt”l, this meant always turning to the right page from the beginning. 
I thought this idea was a great corollary and “limud” from the Talmud with a great practical application. The insight really made me happy and I wondered out loud to my son, and all the other people I have since recounted this to, if it was for THIS that the whole episode first began. It has certainly caused me to enthusiastically focus many people on Divine Providence, and to praise Hashem several times for His wonderful Hashgochah Pratis! Who knows? But, it also taught me another important lesson as well about time-delayed results. 
Sometimes we can see from the beginning what something might mean in terms of Divine messages. But other times, as I learned through this story, it can take time before the original event leads to its intended final purpose. It is then that everything can make sense RETROACTIVELY. 

Now to this week’s parsha. The Torah says, and Rashi comments, as follows:

They journeyed from Refidim, and they arrived in the desert of Sinai, and they encamped in the desert, and the Jewish people encamped there opposite the mountain. (Shemos 19:2)

Why did it have to repeat and explain from where they had journeyed? Did it not already state that they were encamped in Refidim? It is known that they journeyed from there. It is to compare their journey from Refidim to their arrival in the Sinai desert. Just as their arrival in the Sinai desert was with repentance, so was their journey from Refidim with repentance. (Rashi)

Annnnnnd, therefore? 
Agreed, the information in the verse seems repetitive and requires explanation. But, what does Rashi’s answer tell us? Did it have anything to do with the receiving of Torah that was about to happen, and why connect it to Refidim? Just tell us that before they received the Torah, they did teshuvah, and we would have been satisfied.
Ahhhhh, but that is PRECISELY the point, a really IMPORTANT point, and one that could have been easily overlooked if not for this verse. And that would have been too bad, because it is a REALLY important lesson, definitely one for the ages.
On one hand, the war against Amalek should not have happened. It was the result of a lack of trust in G–D, and asking, “Is G–D among us or not?” Rashi even uses an interesting parable to make the connection and the point. If they hadn’t asked, Rashi implies, Amalek wouldn’t have attacked.
On the other hand, why WERE the Jewish people put into a situation of test like that, causing them to ask about G–D’s involvement in their lives? Like so many times in Jewish history, it almost seems like a setup, as if they were not only tested, but pushed to react as they did so that … What? So that Amalek WOULD attack? Why?
Because, the Jewish people originally were supposed to be in a foreign land for 400 years. They ended up having to leave after 210 years, 190 years earlier. That wasn’t about just cutting their “trip” short. G–D designated the 400 years for the sake of accomplishing certain spiritual goals, and leaving early meant speeding up the “program.” 
Likewise, the Jewish people left Egypt as a former slave nation. Within 50 short days, they had to become a Torah nation. That was not a lot of time to accomplish such a superhuman feat, and that also meant speeding up the “program.”
In Egypt, the history-altering event was the absurdly intensified slavery over the six months between Moshe’s first shot at redemption and his second. It was those, beyond inhumane, conditions that broke the nation, making them “kotzer ruach,” in preparation for their early release.
In the Sinai desert, it was the attack of Amalek that dramatically transformed the nation, tremendously humbling them in preparation for receiving Torah. It gave them someone to hate more than their own brothers, preparing them for reaching the level of “k’ish echad b’leiv echad—like a single person with a single heart” (Rashi, Shemos 19:2), crucial for receiving Torah.
Though this may not have been clear to the Jewish people when they had to fight Amalek, it probably became clear to them when they reached the base of Mt. Sinai. Even if it didn’t, the Torah in making this reference to Refidim is teaching us, that we should not fret too much over the bad we suffer today, the battles that entangle us now. The time will come, we are being told, when we will see how even “punishments” prepared us for higher levels of spiritual existence. 
We just have to be patient. The answers are forthcoming and will, retroactively, even turn seemingly meaningless “coincidences,” like identical numbers of bank accounts, into meaningful Heavenly direction.

Shalom Pollack: DECEMBER TOURS

Wednesday, December 18 A special "hilltop" visit, plus .. We will begin our day in the Shomron (Benjamin Region) where we will hav...