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30 June 2021

Remember, When you Were Told “Be Careful What You Volunteer For”?

Well, read this:

Five people from across the U.S., including a 12-year-old girl who was part of the Pfizer clinical trial, joined the conference at the federal courthouse in Milwaukee. They described their reactions to the COVID vaccines, including neurological, cardiac and gastrointestinal issues, debilitating health problems and hospitalizations.


Among them was Maddie de Garay from Ohio who volunteered for the Pfizer vaccine trial when she was 12. On Jan. 20, Maddie received her second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine as a participant in the clinical trial for 12- to 15-year-olds and is now in a wheelchair.


“Why is she not back to normal? She was totally fine before this,” said Stephanie de Garay, Maddie’s mother. She volunteered for the Pfizer vaccine trial “to help everyone else and they’re not helping here. Before Maddie got her final dose of the vaccine she was healthy, got straight As, had lots of friends and had a life.”


Upon receiving the second shot, Maddie immediately felt pain at the injection site and over the next 24-hours developed severe abdominal and chest pain, de Garay said at the press event.


Maddie told her mother it felt like her heart was being ripped out through her neck, and she had painful electrical shocks down her neck and spine that forced her to walk hunched over.


Maddie’s parents took her to the emergency room as instructed by the vaccine trial nurse administrator. Her labs were taken, she was checked for appendicitis, given an IV with medicine and sent home. The diagnosis in the discharge summary read “adverse effect of vaccine initial encounter.”


Maddie’s condition continued to worsen. Over the next two and a half months her abdominal, muscle and nerve pain became unbearable, her mother said.


She developed gastroparesis, nausea and vomiting, erratic blood pressure, memory loss, brain fog, headaches, dizziness, fainting, seizures, verbal and motor tics, menstrual cycle issues, lost feeling from the waist down, lost bowel and bladder control and had an nasogastric tube placed because she lost her ability to eat.


At one point doctors tried to admit Maddie to a mental hospital, claiming she had a neurological condition caused by anxiety, her mother explained. That’s when they found others experiencing similar adverse reactions who connected them to medical professionals researching adverse reactions to vaccines.


Maddie’s mother said her daughter — who was sitting next to her during the event in a wheelchair — has been to the emergency room nine times, was hospitalized three times and has spent two months in the hospital.

“All we want is for Maddie to be seen, heard and believed because she has not been. And we want her to get the care that she desperately needs, so she can go back to normal,” said de Garay.


Another participant in the news conference was Cheryl Reuttgers. She was in phase one of Oregon’s vaccine roll-out. Four days after receiving her first dose of Moderna she experienced severe neurological complications, which led to a diagnosis of “vaccine-induced-autoimmune-neuropathy” and multiple sclerosis.


“These vaccine injuries are real, but people don’t know. People need to understand that these reactions exist and they need to be researched,” Cheryl said.


Cheryl said she is pro-vaccine, pro-science and pro-informed consent and has called on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to acknowledge neurological injuries being caused by COVID vaccines.


Candace Hayden from Michigan received her first dose of Moderna’s COVID vaccine on March 2 and a second dose on March 30. On April 18, Hayden started experiencing neurological symptoms and was partially paralyzed from her chest down.


She said:

“My medical team at the hospital refused to associate my condition with the vaccine, and I continually asked them to report to VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System], but I don’t think that they did. It defies my imagination that we can find each other but the medical community refuses to draw the lines and recognize that people are suffering similar adverse side-effects.


“The head of my medical team told me that I should get used to being handi-cap. We are asking to be seen. We are asking to be heard. And we’re asking to be believed.”


Kristi Dobbs is a 39-year-old dental hygienist from Missouri who received the Pfizer COVID vaccine in January. Immediately after being vaccinated Dobbs experienced paresthesia, heart palpitations and menstrual issues. Dobbs reported her symptoms to V-safe, the CDC, FDA, Pfizer, two research institutes and several universities.


“To date, the medical community remains baffled and unable to restore my health,” Dobbs said. “I hope that our conditions will be researched and studied.”


Dobbs added she would give anything to return to Jan. 17 before she was vaccinated.


Brianne Dressen is a preschool teacher from Utah, who received AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine during a clinical trial in November 2020. She has since experienced extensive adverse effects from the vaccine that resulted in a medical bill of more than $250,000.


According to the latest VAERS data, there have been a total of 387,087 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 6,113 deaths and 31,240 serious injuries between Dec. 14, 2020 and June 18, 2021.


Of those 387,087 reports, 11,584 total adverse events, including 578 rated as serious and nine reported deaths occurred among 12- to 17-year-olds. VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before a causal relationship can be confirmed.


During the event, Johnson mentioned the Harvard Pilgrim study showing less than 1% of adverse events are reported to the CDC’s VAERS system.


The senator has faced backlash for holding his press event. Gov. Tony Evers said Friday Sen. Johnson was being “reckless and irresponsible” for holding the news conference and Milwaukee’s health commissioner, Kirsten Johnson, accused Johnson of raising “misleading concerns” about what she called “safe” vaccines that are saving lives.


Johnson pushed back on these comments. “Do you think that’s reckless and irresponsible?,” he said. “I think it’s called compassion. I think it’s showing concern for your fellow human beings who have stepped up.”


Johnson provided a press packet with hundreds of links to other news stories and said a flood of information would be added to his website.


__________________________________

But even if you do not volunteer, but instead listen to your religious leader who says:

Ultra-Orthodox rabbinic leadership: 12-year-olds must get vaccinated. 

Since there is a danger and concern for the loss of life, all pupils 12 years old and over who do not know for sure that they were previously infected with corona should get vaccinated.   JPOST


The loss of life or being seriously incapacitated  (like many young and adult persons) has been determined to be one side effect of BEING VACCINATED. How they can allow children beginning to develop into adults to be injected with an emergency only questionable concoction into their maturing body immune system chemistry is unfathomable.

‘We’re Here To Save Lives, We Have Advanced Technology’

 Oh, gosh, names are beginning to appear of beautiful good Jews from the NY area.
We must all thank G–D for every minute and every clean breath of air we are allowed to inhale

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Oz Jino, commander of the Israeli Home Front rescue workers who are working at the site of the Surfside tower collapse, spoke in an interview with the Walla site about the role of his workers. “We are altogether 18 soldiers and officers from the Home Front who came to the site of the collapse. We’re here to save lives or G-d forbid to remove bodies or for any other task required. We have advanced intelligence capabilities which enable us to help the Americans to focus the rescue work. Our engineers are specialists in rescue engineering and have a lot of experience of such situations.”

Jino was asked what was visible at the site and said: “I see a building whose west facade is unscathed. Whoever looks from the west would not see that anything happened. The other side is shocking- 13 floors which collapsed one onto the other into the basement. Seven floors are above ground and six floors collapsed underground. Its a complex situation, with very few pockets of air and therefore less chances of survival.

“There is a lot of heavy engineering equipment. The Americans are here with huge forces and their elite rescue teams together with local firemen. They put together an enormous logistic effort. We are integrated into the American teams, we are helping them also by sending back to Israel information using advanced technologies. Our advantage is our ability to assess the building using top-level information systems from our base in Israel.

“At this very moment our team are working on one of the apartments, there are two groups above the apartment but we have a limited time at the site, we’ll be here until midnight. We haven’t yet extricated bodies but yesterday a body was extricated and just a few minutes ago another was extricated. We believe we will see the site more clearly in the next 24 hours.”

Jino expressed optimism that people could still be saved: “it’s raining a lot here and this allows water to seep inside which could enable people to survive, but the collapse happened in a way which made less pockets of air inside. Despite the way things look we are assuming that people trapped inside could be saved and working meticulously to find them. For us as Jews the dignity of the dead is no less important than that of the living.”

https://vinnews.com/2021/06/30/head-of-israeli-delegation-to-miami-were-here-to-save-lives-we-have-advanced-technology/

Inside 8777 Collins Avenue, the Champlain Towers South



This video gives one a more crucial idea of what these apartment looked like before the tragedy; and imagine all the appliances, furniture, equipment and personal belongings that came tumbling down, layer upon layer to the ground below.  You can understand the immensity of the debris. The video was probably made for prospective tenants. The eerie part is that the ending is focused on the side of the Condo that fell (as it was demolitioned), think WTC 7, which also started to disintegrate from the top down].

What I didn’t know, however, is that 6 floors were below ground and 13 above. Therefore, those below ground may be in better shape for rescue than the rest. If only they could reach them.

The Vengence of Flooding and Destruction Continues

All text is provided by the video sponsors:

#NDNews: Natural disasters news every day. Disaster June 29. Live news live about bad weather and climate change. Earth's pain will cleanse the Planet from the humanity. In the world in a day about severe nature. Catastrophes are here and now. Global warming is not far off. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Believe it or not, this is Germany! Relentless thunderstorms and severe floods Late Monday night, Germany was hit by thunderstorms and torrential rain in the south and west of the country, leading to dozens of accidents and hundreds of firefighters overnight. In Bavaria, some villages were flooded, including Mömlingen, near Frankfurt, where the streets were completely covered with water and mud, many basements were flooded, the German news agency DPA reported on Tuesday. In Stuttgart, parts of the roof and several statues of the city opera house were blown to the ground. “I’m standing under the roof and very wet,” opera director Victor Schoner told dpa late Monday. According to him, some parts of the stage were flooded when water spilled inside along the lighting installation. When the storm hit the storm, about 250 people were present at the show, but no one was injured, according to dpa. In Stuttgart as a whole, rescue teams were called to Stuttgart on Monday and early Tuesday mornings more than 330 times, and train traffic was interrupted for several hours. The fallen trees had to be cut down and taken out by firefighters. The states of Baden-Württemberg, where Stuttgart is located, as well as Bavaria and Hessen, were particularly hard hit by flood-like rains, and dozens of traffic accidents were reported by early Tuesday morning. The number of people affected by the accidents was not immediately known. Seven accidents were reported on the A3 and A48 motorways near the city of Montabaur, in which one person was seriously injured and three people were slightly injured. -------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOW IN RUSSIA On Monday, June 28, a heavy downpour hit Moscow and the Moscow region. In particular, the metro and streets in the Russian capital were flooded. A strong wind knocked down several trees, billboards, and damaged shop windows. The roof of one of the buildings on Pravda Street was blown off. No casualties were reported, but several vehicles were damaged as a result of the incident. Also in the city traffic on the roads of Moscow is difficult. In some places, flooding has formed in the capital, and fallen trees also interfere with traffic. At the same time, due to bad weather in Moscow, the metro was flooded, in this regard, several metro stations were closed. Also in the Ramensky district of the Russian capital, a construction crane collapsed at a construction site due to strong winds and rainstorms.

UKRAINE

 

 CHINA

 
Lots of destruction Two devastating tornadoes hit China. On June 25, 2 strong tornadoes hit China, damaging houses, knocking down heavy street structures and scattering cars. During bad weather, at least 8 people disappeared. The first tornado struck Baochang County in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and destroyed many houses. The second tornado hit the Guyuan urban district in Hebei province just minutes after the first. Some residential buildings and outbuildings were swept away.

MIAMI NOTICE


The FIRST SUBSTANTIVE information, encouraging…not

The commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit said Tuesday the collapsed bedrooms from the Champlain Towers South building are under 13 to 16 feet of concrete.

“This building collapsed very, very badly, if I can use this word, because it collapsed into itself. And the bedrooms that we are looking for, because the people [slept] in the bedrooms are under four or five meters of concrete,” Col. Golan Vach, commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday.

Vach said his team is comprised of 15 people who are mostly engineers and search and rescue experts. He said his team found new spaces in the rubble to search Monday and Tuesday.

“So there is still hope,” Vach said. “Until one week, I have a solid hope that we will find someone. After one week, it’s minor.”

He said he had never seen a collapse like the one at Champlain Towers South.

“This is the most difficult site I have ever worked but I still have hope,” Vach said noting there are “major dangers and issues that we must consider when we enter rescuers into this site.”

_______________________

This is the THIRD LARGEST Building (demolition) in the entire US (Oklahoma and NY being the other two).

Over THREE MILLION Pounds Of Concrete Removed From Condo Collapse Site

Interview with Col. Zach

Why Should Ra'anana Be Deprived of All the Fun …

"Sharing the Load Used to be Fashionable
Raanana


A group of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s neighbors in Ra’anana sent a letter on Sunday to Shin Bet Chief Nadav Argaman, Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, the director-general of the Prime Minister’s office, and others, demanding that Bennett move to the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, Channel 12 News reported.

was Argaman contacted about the weekly noisy disruptive protests 

all the weeks and months around the PM Residence in Jerusalem when PM Netanyahu was there??

When Bennett became prime minister, the family decided to remain in Ra’anana so their four school-age children wouldn’t have to switch schools, and use the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem only for official events. The decision may be beneficial for the Bennett children but Bennett’s neighbors are far from pleased as the Bennett home has turned into a center of protests and security forces.


“The happenings around the house of the new prime minister have created an impossible situation for my clients,” the group’s lawyer wrote. “Overnight, their place of residence has turned into a fortress, a war zone, a military base, and a center of protests.”


The residents are demanding three things – that the prime minister move his primary place of residence to Rechov Balfour in Jerusalem; that the protests be stopped or at least minimized; and that the security arrangements for Bennett be less disruptive to the residents.


Did you care about the residents of Jerusalem near the Prime Minister’s Residence 

during the years long protests every motzei Shabbat

driving the neighbors into panic mode?

Certainly you can share the load"


The letter is the last step prior to an appeal to the Supreme Court.


https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/1986792/bennetts-neighbors-demand-he-move-to-jerusalem.html

29 June 2021

Meron Investigation Update

Following the announcement of the composition of the Meron state commission of inquiry on Sunday, Channel 12 News reported that HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein approved the participation of the Chareidi representative on the panel.

Rav Mordechai Karelitz, a former mayor of Bnei Brak, was appointed as one of the three members of the panel. Rav Karelitz is the son of HaGaon HaRav Nissim Karelitz, zt’l, and was very close to HaGaon HaRav Aryeh Leib Shteinman, zt’l. After HaRav Shteinman’s petira, Rav Karelitz became close to HaRav Edelstein.


According to the report, Rav Karelitz met on Friday with HaRav Edelstein and explained the composition and goals of the Meron panel and received the Rosh Yeshiva’s bracha for his appointment on the panel.


Some of the Chareidi MKs had opposed the formation of a state inquiry since it would be headed by a justice of the Supreme Court, which often renders anti-religious rulings. On the other hand, several reports said that despite their public opposition to the state inquiry, more than one Chareidi MK privately urged the formation of an inquiry for the sake of the victims’ families and to prevent future disasters.


The families of the Meron victims had requested that the state commission include representatives from the Chareidi community. Rav Karelitz fits the bill and also has extensive experience in planning and construction.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

How NOT To Solve The Negev Crisis

 

 

Naomi Kahn, Director of Regavim's International Division, spoke to i24 about why creating "new communities" the same way that Abu Talul was legalized in 2006 is a bad idea. 

In a comprehensive 2017 report, Regavim outlined a Plan for the Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev. This is what a sensible, practical, Zionist solution looks like. 
Read it here: https://bit.ly/35YWI8J



Abu Talul: A Case in Point


Abu Talul, a Bedouin town in the Negev recognized by the State of Israel 15 years ago, still looks like an illegal squatters’ camp. Why? And what's the way forward?


Naomi Kahn, Director of Regavim's International Division, explains in the video.


So what’s the solution?

A) To utilize land resources better in already-existing Bedouin communities. It’s ridiculous that sometimes two-thirds of recognized, legal settlements are empty because of land ownership claims! Israel must solve land disputes by reducing compensation packages if people don’t settle, and by initiating ownership clarification procedures in court.


B) When necessary, to create new communities where there are no ownership claims, and where sensible, reasonable, long-term planning can be made. 

Instead of rewarding illegal activity, propagating a poor quality of life, and allowing for more lawlessness and violence, the State of Israel should take responsibility, and exercise effective solutions for the regulation of Bedouin settlement in the Negev. Everyone will benefit.


Learn more in our comprehensive report from 2017: https://bit.ly/35YWI8J 

#ProtectingTheNegev

Rabbi Kessin – THE END OF TIME (Audio)

It’s very difficult to just relax and sleep at night, knowing that so many Yidden are not with us any longer, sandwiched between layers of concrete and ‘stuff’.  I retire at night thinking of what happened, and these people, and wake in the morning thinking of what happened and those Neshomos.

If I can say, at least they were sleeping and if awakened by noise perhaps thought it a dream until they no longer were able.

The many many years of this Golus have been too too long, and now we are facing what might be the end of this travail. So many of us believing Jews are aware of what this means and might mean for our coming days and months. We only hope that the other estranged Jews feel some “pachad” and come awake after learning what happened to their brothers and sisters in Miami. Hopefully they will return to G–D, and begin their path back to Hashem and our Mesorah.

The End of Time is Now

28 June 2021

12 Year Old Frum Girl Davening By Rubble

MOVING KIDDUSH HASHEM: Surfside Mayor Describes 12 Year Old Frum Girl Davening By Rubble


The mayor of Surfside, Florida, described a chance meeting with a 12-year-old girl at the Champlain Towers South collapse site Sunday night that “hit me the hardest.”


“Last night, when I did my late night pass at the building there was little girl. She’s about 12 years old and she was sitting by herself,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday.


Burkett said he knew the little girl from a previous encounter and understood that either her mother or father was a victim of the Surfside collapse. Burkett said he found her sitting near the rubble pile scrolling through prayers on her cell phone “all by herself.”


“She was reading a Jewish prayer to herself, sitting at the site, by where one of her parents presumably is,” the mayor said.


“And that broke my heart. And I’m going to find that girl today and I’m going to tell her that she just needs to come to me for anything she needs because that’s the face of this problem, of this disaster right here – that little girl,” Burkett said. “By herself, completely lost, sitting there, on the deck, looking at the pile of rubble imaging one of her parents is in there. That should never happen.” 

Amazing Moving Video of Miami Tragedy Area






















SCREENSHOT ABOVE of MUST SEE VIDEO AT 

https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/featured/1986630/ywn-exclusive-update-on-rescue-efforts-from-hatzalah-of-south-florida.html



The Vilna Gaon Says . . . .

From Rav Alon Anava’s Part 7 Shiur on the Erev Rav:
"Mashiach ben David Cannot Come because" of …. :
Rude and Crude  –  In Your Face 




At least 7,500 people marched ... in Jerusalem's gay-pride parade [and the obscene “Sharmuta”]
(screenshot)
Erev Rav in technicolor

TEL AVIV PRIDE PARADE. Over 100,000

Beautiful Tel Aviv, a beach city with white sand and blue waves, covered with rainbow people


“almost impossible to separate the bran from the wheat, […] *CRUSH the wheat so strong, in order to take the bran out of the wheat = the difficulties of the exile (goals) […] If you cannot do it, 
I  (Hashem)  Will Do It …. “ 
Erev Rav = bran

Amos 9:4-10:

9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, that say: 'The evil shall not overtake nor confront us.'


Erev Rav  =  ר ע - ע ר  [Erev Zeir]  
Mincha Gedola and Mincha Ketana (to weaken both Erev Rav)

_________________

*Again we have reference to CRUSH




REMEMBER NOT TO FOLLOW “LEADERS” BLINDLY . . . KORACH WAS A LEADER

NEWS FLASH – B”H Compromise for Evyatar

Compromise Reached for Evyatar.

*Bennett and Shaked [a] peaceful, […] bloodless solution


According to the approved outline, Evyatar’s residents will leave the place by the end of the week, all the homes will remain intact, and the defense ministry will establish a base for an IDF company on the grounds immediately.


Then, on Rosh Chodesh Elul, in about six weeks, a new Hesder yeshiva will be established on the site, which will employ some of the residents and provide housing to the students.


A Hesder yeshiva program combines advanced Talmudic studies with military service in the IDF, usually within a Religious Zionist framework.


Meanwhile, a directive will be issued to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to complete a land survey of the area within six months, and the land that will be cleared by the survey will be declared state land, on which a settlement will be established in coordination with the prime minister, the defense minister, the head of the Samaria regional council, and the Nahala movement.


The head of Nahala is Daniela Weiss, possibly the most authoritative voice within the settler movement, and if she is part of the plan, it is an expression of approval on the right for the Bennett government’s move.


See also: https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/bennett-determined-to-avoid-clash-with-evyatar-settlers-gantz-eager-to-inflict-damage/2021/06/28/


Source: https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/compromise-reached-on-evyatar-residents-leave-new-hesder-yeshiva-established/2021/06/28/

________________________


*Bennett/Shaked

If this is how the new PM is going to approach all matters of contention, then dare I say this is a good thing! It shows that (Hashem) under the outward appearance of a deranged coalition, there will be advances for Am Yisrael (Mirmah utachbulos, the same way that Eretz Yisrael entered this timeframe.)

Miami Interviews: Rabbi Sholom Lipsker Shlit”a, Bal Harbour Mayor ...PLUS PLUS

 He should be well ad meah v’esrim

As the Rabbi said, this was a very close-knit philanthropic community

The Paraguay First Lady is searching for her sister who may be in the rubble



Jewish community unifies to help families harmed by collapse disaster


Gabriel Groisman, Mayor of Bal Harbour: Families begged that the Israelis come to help



FORGIVE MY IGNORANCE, BUT I hope one takes this observation of mine with the sincere compassion it is made. I would think that rescue and search should work closer to the debris found at the bottom of the building, which happens to be a higher mound. Because, I would imagine that there would be more victims found there. The first ten or so floors would I am guessing are to be found there. The upper floors would fall farther away. 

I don’t know who is managing this “search” but it may be that the Israeli Team that has extensive experience would be allowed to forward their opinion about where and how to look. It seems, from varying comments, that there is a strong feeling of “we will take care of our citizens and we know what we’re doing.” However, when  you look at the videos of the area, and the men working, they’re not close enough to the building itself. 

* * *

Here is a thinking man, a smart man, coming to an independent opinion:

Binyamina Davens for Miami Victims and Families

 

1/1/20 to . . . .

 

The “sudden” death syndrome might be that scourge of new dis–ease 
called “coincidence”
Just how many every month?

TOTAL DEATHS SINCE JANUARY 1, 2000...

 https://pharmadeathclock.com/


NEXT … Please read THIS shocking article.

27 June 2021

Shamayim Is Warning Am Yisrael . . .

The terrible tragedy that occurred in Miami, in a predominantly Jewish area, has struck at the heart of Am Yisrael AGAIN. Many of us who are awake and aware are sufficiently being “warned” that in Shamayim they mean business. The business of Our Redemption and the “correction” of life on Earth.


We will learn astonishing facts that will cloud ones brain, 

but know that decrees come from “above” but are put into action by people “below”.


With each immense tragedy more and more Jews will awaken (hopefully) to the reality of the historical timeframe we are living in. We only hope that all the Jews living in the various nations of the world, and especially in America, who are not now, but will strive to connect to their lifeline and Source of all life, Who Created our lives and the entire created Universe, begin that conversation with G–D. 


For those who have the strength, this might be helpful.


Dov Bar-Leib said...

THE THREE DAY FAST:


In recognition of those perceptive people who recognize the specific times that we are in as not being even near normal, I am publicizing the novel idea from Queen Esther's time, the 3 Day fast starting this morning. For those who might want to participate, many will be fasting the entire day of the 17th, 18th, and 19th of Tamuz to counter the insane amount of Jewish suffering that for reasons explained in this blogpost seems to be piling up over the last few weeks as we approach Rosh HaShanah 5782. The above fast is from Alot HaShachar to around Tzeit Kokhavim for 3 days straight. A 3 day consecutive fast is only meant for those with the koach to handle fasting in such a manner where each day does not end until after 8:15pm every night. I am very aware that many cannot physically handle such a strenuous regimen of fasting 3 days straight. But for those who can, we are entering as of right now the last trimester of the 9 months. This is crunch time.


However, as we have been told, once the final Geula begins there is no going back. We cannot stop the clock, it ticks on into the future and this is the world (of midda k’need midda) we live in. I believe that we must face with a humbled and contrite heart, and knowing mind, that Hashem will do what needs to be done. 


The Redemption and with it the reckoning of all nations, countries, and peoples will happen.


We have been alerted that life on Earth cannot continue in its spiral downfall, collapsing into a degradation not seen since the Dor HaFlagah, the generation of the dispersion. 


I have been watching for years for any sign and any progression that we are nearing that time, that we have been yearning for, for millennia. B”H We are nearing that period in our history that we have been Davening for and begging Hashem to bring. Now we must be strong, increase our Emuna and Bitachon, be humble in our dealings with one another, do charitable deeds (tzadaka), and be brave and increase our tsnius in all its ways.


Something that Rabbi Pinchas Winston shlit”a wrote on Parshas Barak:


We’d like to believe we know the whole picture, or at least enough of it to make sense of history, but how can we? G–D didn’t make Creation according to our understanding capabilities. He made it according to His, so-to-speak. . . . .  there will always be events, at least until Moshiach comes, that will seem mysterious and chukim-like to us. How else can we exercise our free will and capacity to have emunah and bitachon. Rabbi Winston on Parshas Chukas: Understanding Divine Logic.


Also:  even though Balak and Bilaam are long gone, their plan still lives on. And who knows, perhaps they have reincarnated, just as the generation of the desert and the Erev Rav have, to strengthen their old plan. And if were going to continue to be our own worst enemy, then we do Balaks and Bilaams work for them, and pay the price for it as well.  Rabbi Winston on Parshas Balak


* * *


And here is something written by Rabbi Chananya Weissman:


Balak – Hidden Salvations


The greatest miracles might be the ones we never know about.


This week's parsha describes the efforts of Moav and Midian to harm the Jewish people. According to Chazal, these historic enemies made peace just for this purpose (as rival Arab tribes did in modern times, and surely others have done throughout history). The Torah gives us a unique inside look at their plots against us, even their petty internecine squabbles.


Imagine that you were a Jew in the desert. While all this was going on, the Jews were busy gathering their daily man, studying Torah, bickering, and doing whatever else they did on a typical day in the desert. They had absolutely no idea that powerful kings and the greatest of their prophets were conspiring to destroy them, and that they were in serious danger. By the time they found out about it, it was already over. God had thwarted Balak's plans and forced Bilam to utter blessings instead of curses.


A similar thing happened not long before. In Parshas Chukas we learn that Hashem saved the Jews from an Emorite ambush on their way to Israel. The Emorites expected the Jews to pass through a narrow stream in a valley between two mountains. Their soldiers hid inside clefts in the mountains and planned to attack the Jews with projectiles from above while the Jews were sitting ducks down below. Before the Jews even reached the area, Hashem brought the two mountains together and crushed all the Emorites. The Jews only found out about the ambush after the fact, when the well brought them the dismembered body parts of their slain enemies so they could praise Hashem (see Rashi from Medrash 21:15-16).


In both cases the Jews were blissfully unaware that they were in grave danger, while Hashem was busy thwarting the plots of their enemies.


The Medrash teaches us that the nations of the world are constantly scheming against us, day and night. (Unfortunately I cannot recall the exact source, but trust me on this. If you know the Medrash, I would be grateful if you can provide the source.) How many of these schemes – which we are obviously saved from – do we ever find out about? Even what we do eventually learn is surely only a small fraction.


Jews who believe that anything has changed are fools and playing with heresy. We are constantly under threat in a never-ending proxy war against God, with us as His ambassadors. It is no coincidence that the world is obsessed with Israel, and relatively small events in Israel dominate the international headlines. It is no coincidence that Israel was chosen as the world's laboratory for monstrous medical experiments to be unleashed upon the rest of humanity, regardless of how the professional liars spin it.


The Erev Rav who govern Israel are obsessed with destroying us from within. How many times have they sold us to our enemies, in how many ways? How many attacks have they made on the Torah, on Torah education, on the sanctity of our Land? The little we know is enough to demonstrate how devoted they are, to the exclusion of nearly all else. For all the damage they have wrought, how much has Hashem saved us?


How many thousands would have been murdered in Meron, where the Jews were helplessly crowded and ambushed like with the Emorites, if not for Hashem's incredible mercy


How can it be that the Jews in America are surrounded by terrorist groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa, in places where the social fabric is being ripped apart, where police are powerless, under governors who despise them, yet have (so far) escaped widespread coordinated attacks? The stupid galus Jews continue to downplay the grave danger that they are in, while grossly exaggerating the “protection” they can expect from the authorities.


How much has Hashem saved them while they go about their daily lives as if everything is fine? The miracles that must be going on behind the scenes are worthy of Hallel every single day.


We need to recognize the dangers and appreciate the miracles, even if we aren't privy to all the details. This is, I believe, the primary lesson of Balak. By doing this, we will surely merit even greater protection and revelation of God's wonderful ways..



25 June 2021

Reb Neuberger: BALAK – Torah Is The Fence of The World


 TORAH IS THE FENCE OF THE WORLD


In this week’s Parsha, Rashi asks why Hashem saw fit to “rest His Shechina on [Bilaam] a wicked non-Jew.” He answers from Medrash Tanchuma that Hashem wanted to prevent the [non-Jewish] nations from having an excuse for their evil by saying, “if we would have had prophets [like Israel] then we would have repented.”

 

But Bilaam hated Hashem and Hashem’s Holy Nation, Am Yisroel. Rashi says that, because of Bilaam’s influence, the nations “partzu geder ha olam … breached the fence of the world,” meaning that Bilaam advised the nations of the world to abandon themselves to licentiousness and immorality.

 

My friends, please listen to this language: “They breached the fence of the world.”

 

A fence protects us. The Grand Canyon has a rim which, on the north and south sides, totals about two hundred miles. Only a few feet of that rim, in highly congested areas, has a fence. The rest is open; one misstep and you can fall five thousand feet into the chasm.

 

The Grand Canyon is dangerous.

 

The world is fenced in when its inhabitants abide by the laws of morality as spelled out in the Torah. But if that fence is breached, G-d forbid, all protection is removed. When the fence of morality was breached in the days of Noach, the entire world was destroyed by the Great Flood.

 

Right now, the nations of the world have removed the fence. I am sorry to say -- but this is simply the Truth as written in the Torah – that our protection has been removed and there is nothing standing in the way of worldwide catastrophe.

 

Nothing but Torah.

 

If we hang on to Torah, we can beg Hashem to protect us, but we should know that our contemporary world is dangerous beyond understanding.

 

This Sunday is the Seventeenth Day of the Month of Tammuz, a Fast Day which initiates the Three Weeks, the most tragic period in the Jewish Calendar. I want to tell you a story about an incident which happened to me a few weeks ago. As well as demonstrating how fasting can ameliorate our sins, it also shows clearly that Heaven fulfills the decrees of our rabbis. We have to know that clinging to the words of our rabbis is our only protection, our fence.

 

Several weeks ago, I had my tefillin checked. While they were being checked, I had to borrow a pair from a gemach. The borrowed tefillin were very big and old (of course, kosher without question) and I found them difficult to use. One day, as I put them on, I dropped the bag containing the tefillin on the ground.  The tefillin were inside the bag, but the entire bag had dropped on the floor.


Needless to say, I was shocked and terribly upset. I had a question for a rabbi: what do I do? Do I fast the way one would fast if a Sefer Torah had dropped G-d forbid? Do I give tzedakah? What do I do?

 

I wanted to ask a certain great rabbi, but I was afraid he would tell me to fast and I did not feel up to a full-day fast. I felt that I should give tzedakah, but I waited before consulting a rabbi. A few days later, I discussed this entire question with my chavrusa, Rabbi Shaul Geller. Rabbi Geller told me that, years ago, he had asked this exact question to the rabbi I was originally going to ask, and that rabbi had said to fast. Rabbi Geller had been surprised by his answer, because the Mishna Berura seems to say that giving tzedakah is sufficient in a case like this, but the rabbi had said to fast and Rabbi Geller had not asked for further clarification.

 

I spoke to Rabbi Geller on Thursday. On Shabbos afternoon, two days later, I began to feel unwell. I excused myself during the Daytime Seudah and went to bed. For the next twenty-four hours I could hardly get out of bed. I could not eat and I could not even drink water. I was so weak that I could only lie in bed and groan. Finally, on Sunday, my wife took me to a doctor. He suspected possible appendicitis, so, at 10:30 pm, we checked into the Emergency Room at Shaarei Tzedek Hospital, where we spent the next eleven hours.

 

At 4 a.m. I had a CT scan which came out negative … no appendicitis. In the course of this examination, however, I was given a certain medicine, and … all of a sudden … I was completely cured!

 

Then it hit me!

 

The rabbi had told Rabbi Geller that a fast was decreed in this case. The rabbi had not told me directly, so I had not fasted. But that was not good enough for the Heavenly Court! The Rabbi said “fast,” and I had not fasted, so the Heavenly Court decreed a fast upon me! I could not eat or even swallow water for over twenty-four hours!

 

The fast happened and it was way beyond my control.

 

My friends, our entire life is decreed from Heaven. The fence has been breached and our world is in deep trouble. We must follow the dictates of Heaven -- as explained by our great rabbis -- in order to save ourselves. We cannot control events, but we can control ourselves if we try hard enough. “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven.” (Berachos 33b) The only thing over which we have control is our fear of Heaven.

 

Those who hold fast to Torah and the words of our rabbis can hope to see the Great Redemption, with the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdosh and the coming of Moshiach ben Dovid, may we greet him soon in our days!


GLOSSARY

Chavrusa: Torah study partner

Chessed: Acts of kindness

Gemach: an organization that supplies needed items free of charge as an act of chessed

Shechina: The Presence of G-d

Seudah: Shabbos meal

Tzedaka: Charity




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