Heartfelt Wishes From an Old Friend

 

Happy New Year from Dr Zelenko.mp4 from Z-Stack® on Vimeo.

Welcome to 2023

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday approved a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice in The Hague to give an opinion regarding the legal consequences of the Israeli "occupation" of the territories of Judea and Samaria that were liberated from Jordan in the Six Day War in 1967. 

The resolution was passed by a majority of 87 to 26, with all the Arab countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel supporting the measure, as well as Russia and China.

Do we really need to read more?
But if you wish https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/365211

Redemption Is Getting Closer . . .

 , , , the Geulah

JERUSALEM (JNS) – Israel’s population increased by 2.2% in 2022 to a total of 9,656,000, according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday.

Of the country’s residents, 7,106,000 are Jews (73.6%), 2,037,000 are Arabs (21.1%) and 513,000 are of other denominations.

The population increase dwarfed the 1.8% growth in 2021, with the difference being attributed in part to a larger number of immigrants in the past 12 months.

Approximately 73,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel during 2022, compared to 25,000 last year, 80% of them coming from Russia and Ukraine.

THE INGATHERING CONTINUES:Jewish Agency data for the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2022, shows that 37,364 immigrants arrived from Russia; 14,680 from Ukraine; 3,500 from North America, with assistance from Nefesh B’Nefesh; 2,049 from France; 1,993 from Belarus; 1,498 from Ethiopia as part of Operation Tzur Israel; 985 from Argentina; 526 from Great Britain; 426 from South Africa; and 356 from Brazil. Final totals for 2022 will be available after the year concludes.

“It was a dramatic year that emphasized the value of mutual responsibility among the Jewish people, and during which the Jewish Agency helped strengthen the resilience of Jewish communities, empowered weaker populations in Israel, brought tens of thousands of olim, saved lives from all over Ukraine and brought them to a safe harbor in Israel,” said Jewish Agency chairman IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog.

Overall in 2022, approximately 204,000 persons were added to the Israeli population, including 178,000 infants (74.8% born to Jewish mothers, 23.8% to Arab mothers), while some 52,000 persons died and approximately 4,000 Israelis left the country for at least 12 months

https://vinnews.com/2022/12/29/2022-israels-population-rises-2-2-to-over-9-5-million/

JEWS Evicted From Their Homes in Israel Erev Shabbat!

 Whoever is responsible for this on Erev Shabbat should be equally treated ASAP! Blot him out!

Ramat Migron declared closed military zone, families evicted, hours after govt. sworn-in

Security forces raid Binyamin outpost, tell families they will be arrested they do not leave their homes within minutes.

Security forces raided the community of Ramat Migron in the Binyamin region Thursday night and declared the outpost a closed military zone on the orders of Judea and Samaria Division commander Brig. Gen. Avi Blot.

In addition, the policemen knocked on the houses of the families in the outpost and threatened the residents that if they did not vacate their homes within minutes, they would be arrested and taken to the police station.

The police raid this evening follows a series of raids that took place last week on the nearby outpost of Oz Zion, during which police officers broke into the homes of the families and forcibly evicted the women and children from the community.

Three families currently live in each community, along with a core of youths who are involved in the development of the area and raise flocks of sheep for the purpose of maintaining the surrounding areas.

Read more here https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/365159

Rabbi Winston – Vayigash – Asarah b’Teves

 

SOME TIME AGO during the first Persian Gulf War, a major American magazine interviewed Saddam Hussein. Curious, I read the article and was surprised to read a few things. First, I was really surprised to read that Hussein believed he was the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar. I mean, where did he get that idea from? 

Second, I was amazed that the Iraqis observe Asarah b’Teves as well. The “only” difference is that while we’re fasting and saying Selichos, they are celebrating what we are mourning.

I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised. I just sort of thought that everyone has since done teshuvah, and that Nebuchadnezzar’s war against the Jews is today considered a blemish on Babylonian history by modern day Iraqis. Silly, isn’t it, especially since Hussein dreamed of leading the Arab world against Israel today. Clearly nothing has changed over the thousands of years since the original Asarah b’Teves. 

Some Israelis recently found this out as well after trying to cover the soccer games in Dubai. They looked at themselves, being completely secular, as reporters from just another country. They expected to be treated as equals, but were not. At least one reporter had to leave early afraid for his life. 

True, Dubai is an Arab country. The surprising thing is how many Jews travel there, especially Israelis, because it is a popular destination point for many other people around the world. So why shouldn’t it also be for Jews as well, especially since there is a Chabad House there and you can get good kosher food, albeit for a price?

A friend of mine once traveled to Germany and took a tour of a concentration camp. He wasn’t religious yet, but he felt an obligation to “visit” one and see what it was like. He joined a tour that included some gentiles as well. Later that night after the sobering tour, he and some of the others went to a pub and had a bit too much to drink. People got drunk, and as the Gemora warns, when “wine” goes in, secrets go out.”

To my friend’s shock, one of the young men with whom he was drinking blurted out, “It’s too bad Hitler didn’t finish the job!” 

Stunned, he just sat there somewhat inebriated but sober enough to know what he heard. As he contemplated what to do next, the Jewish star he had been wearing inside his shirt popped out in plain view. Talk about Divine Providence! Realizing at that point that no one had realized he was Jewish, but that everyone now knew that he was, he stood up, took his beer stein, and hit the guy across the face with it. A brawl ensued, but he was able to crawl out of the bar without a scratch. He had learned that night that as hard as he had tried to blend in with the gentile world, it was like trying to get oil to combine with water.

That is a lesson of Asarah b’Teves. It doesn’t just commemorate the breach in the walls that led to the destruction of the First Temple. It reminds us that a Jew is a Jew is a Jew, no matter how much a Jew may try to prove otherwise. 

And many do try and prove otherwise. But though they do a good job of convincing themselves, they never really convince the gentiles. Just because anti-Semitism is an ancient hatred doesn’t mean it isn’t a current problem, and will remain so until G–d eliminates the yetzer hara once and for all. 

WE HAVE FINALLY reached the climax of the Yosef story—again. This is the parsha with the big reveal when Yosef, to stave off a threat of war, took off his “mask” and told his brothers who had really been giving them the runaround.

 

Can’t you just see it? 

Yosef: Guess what guys, it’s me, Yosef, your long-lost brother!

Brothers: (Big collective gasp, followed by along stunned silence.)

Yosef: Hey, it’s okay! Everything is just fine! There’s no evil viceroy. Just me masquerading as one. You can all relax now because it’s really just one big, happy family reunion!

Brothers: (More stunned silence while they process all that just happened, and the 180 degree turn from jitters to joy.)

Yosef, realizing that it is too much for them to take in: So we’re good now, right? 

And if you were the one in Yosef’s brothers’ sandals, how would you have reacted? If it was me, probably my relief would have evolved into anger, as I began to consider all that my brother had just put me through to take his revenge. That is probably how it would have looked to me at the time. 

Sure, we the readers thousands of years later, can afford to justify Yosef’s actions and smooth over his brothers’ and father’s reaction. We’re taking in the story from thousands of years and miles away, told to us briefly and devoid of much emotion. But had we been there in the heat of the moment, what would we have thought then? How would we have reacted then?

We are led to believe that Yosef’s brothers just took the whole thing in stride, at least once they recovered from the shock, or perhaps because of the shock. No one seems to have said what we might have expected them to say, 

“What? Are you kidding? Are you out of your mind? Do you know what you caused us, and our father, over the last 22 years, and especially the last year with all your shenanigans? Yes, we acted similarly to you, but when did two wrongs make a right? In fact, we came here to right our wrong, only to find out that you were doing the same to us, and in an even scarier manner! 

What’s the matter with you?! If you had just told us who you were in the beginning, we would have apologized profusely and avoided all the subterfuge and suffering!”

And they would have had a point. So why didn’t they?

MAKING A GOOD impression is usually a good thing if you want to be remembered. The more we are impressed by something, the longer it stays with us, which can be a bad thing if you’d rather forget about it. Last week I heard about something that so disturbed me that it left an impression on me that is preventing me from forgetting about it.

Yosef could have simply made up with his brothers from the start and everything would have been easily fixed…and then forgotten over the generations. But regarding the story we read over the last few parshios, we still take it to heart….

The miraculous military victory of the Chashmonaim over the Greeks would have saved the day, and then got lost among all the miraculous military victories over history. But oil burning for seven extra days? That leaves a lasting impression throughout the generations that we still feel to this day. 

Had it just been between Yosef and his brothers, then they would have had a real complaint against him and reason to resent him. But they came to realize the historical significance of what had happened between them, and understood that Yosef was making sure it left a lasting impression on all of Jewish history. As we say in Hallel, “The stone the builders despised became the cornerstone.” That has been true about many Jewish leaders, and about the Jewish people among the nations of the world. 

You can drive down the same street for years and barely ever notice what’s on both sides of it. But get a flat tire and have to change it on that street, and all of a sudden you will notice and remember things from that point onward. Every time you drive by the spot your brain will tell you, “That’s where we had to change the flat…” The more precarious the situation, the greater an impression it will make on you. 

When I was teenager, my family drove down from Toronto to Vermont via Montreal. Just outside Montreal, we hit a major snow storm…and got a flat tire. Ever try and change a tire on a busy highway in a blizzard? Even worse, the spare tire was in the back under all the luggage. We had to remove everything in the snow to get to the tire. 

Fortunately, we were traveling with friends who helped us and amazingly we got the job done. But what an experience. I can see it clear as day some 50 years later. Clearly it left quite the impression on me. We all have stories like this that make the same point.

Ain Od Milvado, Part 32

THIS IS WHY G–d told us, “You have been shown, in order to know that G–d, He is G–d; there is none else besides Him (Devarim 4:35). What is the emphasis on being shown, as if it makes a difference what we see or not? If G–d says believe in Me, you have to believe in Him either way.

It’s the same idea. The Sinai Experience was not just to give us Torah, but to impress us. No one else has claimed to have had a similar national experience because you can’t make up the claim if it can’t be verified, at least to the first couple of generations after it occurred. No one would buy it.

But built into Creation is the idea of a roshem—impression. When things happen, they not only impact history, they imprint it, creating a spiritual pattern that can repeat itself in physical history. The Avos understood this and used it to their spiritual advantage, and G–d uses it to ours. Ain od Milvado is not just a national concept. It is a national experience imprinted on our hearts.

The Pri Tzaddik says that this is why Moshe Rabbeinu insisted on bringing the tablets down, even though he had planned to break them. He knew that there was a huge difference between being told what they lost than actually seeing what they could have had, and lost. The vision of the tablets left an inedible mark on the “heart” of the nation that keeps us Jewish to this day. 

It may sound too mystical for some, but that is why we tend to hook into something we can’t quite explain each time that we light the Menorah. It feels as if we’re plugging into something powerful and transcendent beyond our own personal experiences. 

For Saddam Hussein, his dreams of Nebuchadnezzar grandeur were just wishful thinking that did him in in the end. For the Jewish people, Asarah b’Teves is a roshem that becomes activated on the day itself, which is why the Jewish people are still here today.  And so is the story of Yosef and his brothers, helping us to better understand what we’ve been trying to rectify to finish off history, and bring redemption.

Reb Neuberger – Vayigash and Speaking to Angels

SPEAKING TO ANGELS

In next week’s Parsha, Yaakov Avinu gives the famous bracha, “Hamalach ha goail … May the angel who redeems me from all evil bless the lads, and may my name be declared upon them and the names of my forefathers Avraham and Yitzchak and may they proliferate abundantly like fish within the land.”

We say this bracha before we go to sleep. At night, when we suspend our power to protect ourselves, we entrust ourselves to the malachim. And we say further: “In the Name of Hashem, G-d of Israel, may Michael be at my right, Gavriel at my left, Uriel before me … Raphael behind me, and above my head the Shechina of Hashem….”  

Please note the position of these malachim: 

The mighty angel Michael is at our right, which indicates that our power comes from Hashem and not from “the strength and might of my hand.” (Dvarim 8:17) The angel Gavriel, whose name means “strength,” is on our weaker side (the left). Uriel, whose name indicates “light,” goes in front and lights our way. Raphael, whose name indicates “healing,” stands behind us. I think that “healing” is behind us because we don’t want to be unhealthy in the first place, so healing is something that we request only as a secondary desire, because we hope not to need it. But, being human, we all require healing, so we hope this angel will in fact always follow us and provide healing when we need it. Altogether, Hashem constantly sends malachim to protect those who follow His Torah. 

When our children were young, I would stand on the street every morning and watch the school bus disappear around the corner. I would ask the malachim to accompany them, not just that day but forever on their journey through life. 

As I mentioned last week, I had an experience on January 10, 1966 which was the biggest turning point in my life. My wife and I were young married college students adrift in a stormy sea without Hashem to navigate our boat. The waves were rising; the ship was about to sink. Then I suddenly realized that Hashem had to exist. Unless we know that Hashem exists, we cannot exist. 

As a result of this thought, our lives were saved. The turnaround was so dramatic that I feel as if an angel came to our house on that night with light from another world. Is it irresponsible to believe that there are malachim in our lives?

What kind of question is that? 

Every night at bedtime we speak to them. 

Every Friday night we welcome them into our home. Are we serious or not? 

I take this very seriously. I try to understand that I am literally speaking to the malachim. I depend on them to protect our family through the trials of life. I believe that, if we are serious about speaking directly to the malachim, they will stay with us and protect us. 

I mentioned last week that miracles occurred to us in future years around the anniversary of January 10, 1966, which (I later learned) was the 18^th Day of the Month of Teves. The month of Teves is now beginning. I want to describe some miracles which occurred during these momentous days: 

• Our lives were saved several times in miraculous ways at this season. 
• Children and grandchildren were born at this season. 
• A close colleague survived both a fire and a robbery at this season. 
• Another close colleague survived a major car crash. 
• We ourselves survived the disastrous car crash I described last week. 
• Both my father and my father-in-law entered the World of Truth at this season. 

Do you think it is a miracle to enter the World of Truth? 

The way we grew up, it is a miracle that our parents had Jewish burial. I give credit to the legendary Rabbi Elchonen Zohn Shlita”h, head of the Chevra Kadisha of Queens and founder of the National Association for Chevrai Kadisha. Rabbi Zohn guided us and enabled us to prepare a plan which instantly set in motion the procedure for ensuring Jewish burial according to halacha. We are talking here about eternity. If we do not make the proper transition from this world to the Next, then we endanger our eternal life. 

I will end with the story of my mother’s first yahrzeit. It was not easy to convince my family of the necessity of Jewish burial, but Hashem and Rabbi Zohn helped me. A year after my mother’s death, I visited her grave. As I left the cemetery, I asked Hashem whether I could get some kind of report how she was doing in the Next World. The next morning, our daughter Miriam told me that she had had a dream that night in which mother appeared to her with a shining face. She was at peace in her eternal home! 

Hashem answered my prayer and gave me a report!

Ha malach ha goail! May the angel who redeems us from all evil bless us with heavenly protection and the speedy answer to our prayers. May Hashem wipe away all our tears, heal our pain and quickly bring Moshiach ben Dovid and the Geula Shelemah!

(Left to right) The Author, Rabbi Elchonen Zohn, Rabbi Osher Jungreis

My father’s burial in the snow

GLOSSARY

Chevra (pl. chevrai) kedusha: Jewish burial society

Halacha: Jewish LaW

Malach: Angel (pl. malachim)

Teves: A month in the Jewish calendar 

Yahrzeit: Anniversary of a person’s death

 

Rebbetzen Tziporah - Zos Chanukah

Dear friends,

The last day of Chanukah is like all finales – both a dramatic farewell and a realization that the time has come for readjusting to life the way it’s meant to be lived, without the high drama. You can keep the light, but the brilliance of the menorah and the holiday feeling will fade, as they should, leaving only the light to inspire you in Ordinary Life. The truth is that you choose the way your Ordinary life feels, just as much as you choose how to let the exceptional moments touch you.

Every so often, it’s good to think about the menorah in the Bais Hamikdash even though today your menorah is back home on the bookshelf.  When you look at your menorah, if you were to see it as it was back in the Temple, it would have 7 branches. 

Today we have a ninth light, the shamash, the one that is used to light the others. In a certain sense, the shamash is like the kohein gadol, whose job it was (among others) to light the original 7 lights of the menorah. Was he just sort of living for others? Not really – the person he became was the person that he wanted to be.

My family had a Chanukah party - It was a full house.

                                              

When I came to Israel in 1966, it was just me. I am an only child. My parents married late (even by today’s standards) and soon after their marriage the war broke out and my father joined the American army and served for the next 5 years. I was born the year after my father came home, and at the time my mother was 46. I had no plans to stay in Israel beyond the school year. 

As an only child, I wanted to loosen some of the bonds, but also couldn’t imagine living outside the nest. In the course of the year, things changed. Some were subtle, such as the way I fell head over heels in love with Israel. Others were overt and surprising, like my parents agreeing to the shidduch my teacher suggested for me. The combination of both led to my first husband, Dovid Heller, and I returning to Israel a month after our wedding. We were very sure that we would stay for two years and no longer. Until we didn’t. 

One year led to the next. The babies came one after another, and my parents adapted to the role of long-distance grand-parenting. The first one, Rachel, was their dreamed of princess. The next and next and next were surprises, unknown people, more than they could have imagined. After my father’s passing, my mother came more often and eventually made Aliya. 

Hashem’s design was that our next-door neighbor asked me if I knew someone who would sublet their apartment. It was too small for their growing family – just a living room, kitchen, and one bedroom. I did. My mother lived right next door for many years. One of the great surprises was that she had little need to escape into the orderly quietude of her apartment. She loved the noise, the constant “happening”, and also enjoyed hosting the crew Wednesday afternoon for a civilized lunch. Napkins. 

Matching everything. No getting up from the table. A bit different than the somewhat unsophisticated, loud, and unpredictable (and arguably a bit barbaric) scene next door. She loved it.

The kids grew, and she lived to see some of the weddings. There is no way she could have predicted having the kind of family that no longer can fit into our living room when we make a party. When I think about her role, (she was involved, but the differences in age and culture made her a mixture of an actor and the audience), it was very much like that of the Kohein Gadol.

It’s not so bad to be the one who lights the candles. It didn’t bring a great deal of recognition on a daily basis, however, when you step back you see the picture that you can’t see when you are in the picture.

SEVEN AND EIGHT

With Chanukah still in the air, the number eight is very much with you. The Talmud tells about a rather unusual combination of seven and eight.  It says that there will be seven shepherds and eight princes. The context is a description of history’s outcome. 

The seven shepherds put Dovid in the center, with the tzaddikim who lived before the Great Flood, namely Adam, Shett, and Metushelach, on his right, and on his left, Avraham, Yaakov, and Moshe. You may be wondering, why Adam, Shett, and Metushelach? What do we really know about them? We know that Adam contained all of what later can be described as human potential. Shett was the one of his three sons who wasn’t destroyed by his own tragic choices. Metushelach was a tsaddik who was so great that Hashem postponed the Flood until the seven days of mourning after his death had passed. 

The meaning of his name, Rav Hirsch explains, is that it is a contraction of two words: mettu (they died) and shelach (send away). He lived as a hermit, looking in disgust at the world around him. After the great flood, the restoration of human potential returned slowly, with Avraham being the first to shift the way things were going from being more and more distant to drawing closer and closer to Hashem. 

The process was completed by Yaakov, who turned a family into a nation, and Moshe who gave the nation the Torah by which the nation can live. What happened to Yitzchak? He is not mentioned because when the end of the story comes closer, he leaves the group to plead for the rest of us and to save us from gehennom. The eight princes of Adam (humankind) are Yishai, Shaul, Shmuel, Amos, Tzefania, and Tzidkiyahu followed by Eliahu and Moshiach. Some of the eight are prophets and other leaders.

 

What is relevant to us is that Dovid was in the center of the shepherds. His trait is called Malchut, which means kingship. His regality wasn’t self-directed. It was always towards bringing the Jewish people closer to being aware of Hashem’s rule. For that reason, in Tehillim, he is compared to the sun, which gives warmth light, and energy.

 

You may very reasonably wonder why I am telling you this. The reason is that a person whose trait is Malchut, to quote the Zohar, has nothing of himself, no ego involvement. He is focused on those who he affects.

 

This takes you back to the kohein, and to my mother, and to what you may be in your life as a woman.

 

Love, Tziporah

Rabbi Kahana – ISRAEL IS FOR REAL

 

BS”D Parashat Va’yi’gash 5783

by Rabbi Nachman Kahana | Dec 28, 2022

Israel Is for Real

 

Tehilim (Psalms) 22;28-29:

כח) יִזְכְּרוּ וְיָשֻׁבוּ אֶל ה’ כָּל אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְפָנֶיךָ כָּל מִשְׁפְּחוֹת גּוֹיִם:

כט) כִּי לַה’ הַמְּלוּכָה וּמֹשֵׁל בַּגּוֹיִם:

28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations shall worship before Him.

29 For dominion belongs to HaShem, and He rules over the nations.

 

Paro’s Dreams

There are two biblical episodes of formidable gentile rulers whose dreams were interpreted by a Jew.

The first one is in last week’s parasha, Miketz, when the Egyptian Paro (Pharaoh) experienced two consecutive dreams.

In the first dream, he was standing on/by the Nile, when out of the river emerged seven healthy, fat cows, followed by seven sickly and gaunt ones which devoured the seven healthy cows. Another dream followed. Seven ears of healthy wheat were growing on a single stalk, followed by seven other ears of thin and scorched wheat which devoured the seven full ears.

After 12 years of imprisonment, Yosef is brought before Paro to interpret the dreams. He informs Paro that despite the differences, both dreams share the same interpretation. HaShem has begun seven years of agricultural prosperity that will be followed by seven years of devastating famine.

The apparent object of the dreams in Egyptian history was to inform Paro that he would be the savior of the nation through his wisdom in choosing a talented assistant. Together with their agricultural knowledge and managerial skills, Paro and Yosef would save the nation and millions of people even from foreign lands.

Right or wrong? Wrong!

The actual purpose of the dreams was to serve as a message from HaShem to Yosef that now had begun the first of three exiles that the Jewish nation would have to undergo: descending to Egypt, experiencing hundreds of years of servitude that would eventually result in the miraculous exodus, receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai, and returning home as the masters of the Holy Land.

 

Nevuchadnezzer’s Dream

Chapter two of the Book of Daniel relates that Nevuchadnezzer, King of Babylon and the destroyer of the first Holy Temple, had a dream, the details of which he could not recall on awakening.

He summoned his advisors and ordered them to remind him of the details of the dream and its interpretation. They responded that their expertise was limited to the interpretation of dreams but not to knowing their details. The king was unimpressed and repeated his threat to “reveal, interpret or die”.

Daniel prayed to HaShem for salvation and, that night, the dream and its meaning were revealed to him. In the morning, he came before the King and said as follows:

In your Majesty’s dream, you saw an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. Its head was of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. Then, suddenly, a rock struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay. The iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken “like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer”. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace, but the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:31-35).

The King was spellbound by the words of Daniel, the Jew, who continued:

The statue represents a series of kingdoms, each less glorious than its predecessor, as indicated by the decreasing value of the metals. Daniel identified Nebuchadnezzar as the head of gold, stating that HaShem had given him much power (Daniel 2:37-38).

The subsequent kingdoms to arise would be incrementally inferior to Babylon. However, Daniel did not detail who the following kingdoms would be.

Over time, our biblical commentators filled in the omitted details. After Nevuchadnezzer, King of Babylon, would come Persia and Medes, followed by the bronze stomach of Greece, then Rome (the iron thigh), with the fifth mixture of iron and clay representing the Christian and Islamic nations. At that time, the Jewish nation – the rock – will smash them all to bits, paving the way for the final earthly international kingdom of the Jews in Eretz Yisrael.

Conclusion:

The major thrust of Paro’s dreams dealt with the initial formulation of individual Jews into nationhood. The major thrust of Nevuchadnezzer’s dream dealt with the climax of world history when the Jewish nation will outlive all of its arrogant, evil, atheistic enemies, who in the words of Daniel “will be reduced like chaff on a threshing floor”.

Now when the major emperors of history focus on the extraordinary Jewish nation, the compelling conclusion is that the world’s raison d’être – the reason for which the Creator brought this world into being – is because of the holy Jewish nation.

And indeed,

28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, 

and all the families of the nations shall worship before Him.

29 For dominion belongs to HaShem, and He rules over the nations.

 

The Cyclone Bomb

Last week I wrote:

 “What was I thinking of at that moment (when Argentina won the Mondial?). I was pondering the earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, landslides, tsunamis and other preternatural calamities that, in the words of the Gemara, would be occurring in every country that has stadiums and arenas while our Holy Temple remains destroyed.

In the U’ne’tana Tokef liturgy of Yom Kippur, we are faced with the frightening question about who will die and who will live, who by fire and who by water.  I wonder who will suffer the agony of earthquakes, the displacement of millions of people from their homes and the unleased energies inherent in our planet?

The reasons for unnatural meteorological and geological occurrences in our time are: 1- Homosexuality, 2- The destroyed and desolate Temple Mount at a time when there is an abundance of theaters and arenas around the world (e.g., Qatar spent 250 billion dollars on hosting the Mondial).”

However, I never expected it to happen so fast.

Across the United States, a “cyclone bomb” storm has downed power lines, littered highways with piles of cars in deadly accidents and led to mass flight cancelations. The storm was nearly unprecedented in its scope, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning. Temperatures plummeted below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said. The storm pummeling large swaths of the United States and Canada is what forecasters call a “Cyclone Bomb”.

A front of cold air moved down from the Arctic, sending temperatures plunging. 

Temperatures dropped by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius) in just a few hours. Wind chill temperatures reached dangerous lows far below zero, enough to cause frostbite within minutes. In parts of the Plains, the wind chill could dip to minus 70 degrees.

Why only the U.S., when so many other nations have their stadiums and arenas?

The U.S. government is the major obstacle preventing Israel’s return to our long-lost biblical lands. The U.S. policy of “evenhandedness” between the Arab murderers and the Jewish State prohibits us from building and expanding in our Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, including limiting building even in our new-ancient capitol of Yerushalayim.

Summary:

1) It is a fundamental postulate brought in many Jewish sources that the world was created and is maintained for the HaShem-Jewish nation relationship.

2) The future of humanity is dependent on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of this relationship.

3) The great moments in human history have all been concerned in one way or another with the Jewish nation or with individual Jews.

4) The overriding responsibility of the Jews in this generation – for our welfare and for the welfare of humanity – is NATION BUILDING and the restoration of a holy Jewish nation in Eretz Yisrael based on the Torah.

Shabbat Shalom

Nachman Kahana

Copyright © 5783/2022 Nachman Kahana

Urgent Message to Chabad

 Please share this video widely with every Chabad chossid, rabbi, and shliach you know:

Let’s remember the lesson of Hay Teives:

Chabad is NOT a private enterprise. It serves the kahal, and that means that EVERY single Jew must be welcomed, including the unjabbed, unmasked, and unswabbed. Chabad institutions and schools that ban unjabbed children have TOTALLY disassociated themselves from Chabad Lubavitch and our holy Rebbe. Let's correct this at ONCE.

https://rumble.com/v23263e-urgent-message-for-chabad-part-10.html

SnowPocalypse – Graphic and Intense all Over the US, Canada, Europe, Russia

Updates coming fast and furious:

Rabbi Kessin: In December, just a few days ago (the imposter in the) WH signed into law: "Biden signs into law same-sex marriage bill, 10 years after his famous Sunday show answer on the issue: President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday landmark new federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples, capping both a personal and national evolution.  https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/13/politics/white-house-same-sex-marriage-signing-ceremony/index.html"

Rabbi Kahana (in his post on Vayigash):  Across the United States, a “cyclone bomb” storm has downed power lines, littered highways with piles of cars in deadly accidents and led to mass flight cancelations. The storm was nearly unprecedented in its scope, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning. Temperatures plummeted below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said. The storm pummeling large swaths of the United States and Canada is what forecasters call a “Cyclone Bomb”.

A front of cold air moved down from the Arctic, sending temperatures plunging. 

Temperatures dropped by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius) in just a few hours. Wind chill temperatures reached dangerous lows far below zero, enough to cause frostbite within minutes. In parts of the Plains, the wind chill could dip to minus 70 degrees. 

 

Millions of people hunkered down against a deep freeze on Sunday to ride out the winter storm that has killed at least 34 people across the United States. It is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses with heaping snow drifts and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. 

 

Nearly 4 feet of snow has paralyzed Buffalo, New York, leaving many stranded and turning to their neighbors for help.

 

Shocking footage of a snow storm in Europe and Canada!

RUSSIA: For the third day Vladivostok is covered with snow. The equipment is not coping, the roads are slippery. Cars and public transport move with difficulty. Drivers are having a hard time digging out their cars. the city is trying to cope with the elements that have fallen on it. In the capital of the Primorsky Territory, snow removal works are carried out around the clock. At the moment, 321 janitors and 160 special vehicles are working on the streets of Vladivostok. According to the operational headquarters at the municipal road enterprise "Maintenance of Urban Territories" in Vladivostok, a total of about 2,000 kilometers of roads were cleared of snow and treated with reagents.

 New York weather: Drone video reveals massive scale of snow storm across NY state

 

NOT JUST BUFFALO

JAPAN

  

 Incredible scenes of chaos in the snowy USA ِand Japan! Ice Age is coming!

We Are Now in The (Eisavian) Month of Teves

Yehezkiel 24:1

1 Then the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying:

אוַיְהִי֩ דְבַר־יְהֹוָ֨ה אֵלַ֜י בַּשָּׁנָ֚ה הַתְּשִׁיעִית֙ בַּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הָֽעֲשִׂירִ֔י בֶּעָשׂ֥וֹר לַחֹ֖דֶשׁ לֵאמֹֽר:

2 "Son of man, write for yourself the name of the day, this very day; the king of Babylon has besieged Jerusalem on this very day.

בבֶּן־אָדָ֗ם כְּתָב־ (כתיב כְּתָוב) לְךָ֙ אֶת־שֵׁ֣ם הַיּ֔וֹם אֶת־עֶ֖צֶם הַיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה סָמַ֚ךְ מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל֙ אֶל־יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔ם בְּעֶ֖צֶם הַיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה:

11 Facts About the Month of Tevet 

1. Tevet Is in the Winter

The 10th month on the Jewish calendar, Tevet occurs in the wintertime. In fact, the entire winter season is sometimes called tekufat (season of) Tevet in Jewish tradition.

2. Tevet Always Has 29 Days

The two months preceding Tevet (Cheshvan and Kislev) can each have either 29 or 30 days, depending on the year. From Tevet and onward, things are simple. Tevet has 29 and Shevat has 30, establishing a pattern of alternating months that continues for the rest of the year.

3. Chanukah Bleeds into Tevet

Chanukah begins on 25 Kislev and continues for 8 days. This means that the final few days of Chanukah extend into Tevet, an otherwise dreary and ordinary month. In the event that the first day of Tevet is on Shabbat, this Shabbat is one of the few times when three Torah scrolls are removed from the ark during morning services. The Torah portion of the week (Mikeitz) is read from one scroll, the Rosh Chodesh reading is read from the second, and the Chanukah portion is read from the third. The Grace After Meals for that Shabbat (which includes additions for Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and Chanukah) is also the longest of the year. 

4. Esther Was Taken to the Palace

In the book of Esther we read that Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus’s palace “in the 10th month, which is the month of Tevet.”¹ The Talmud explains that the month of Tevet was a particularly opportune time, since the cold causes “the body to take pleasure from the body [of another].”²

5. The Siege of Jerusalem Began

Even before it got the name Tevet, when it was known simply as the tenth month, this was a significant time in Jewish history: “In the 10th month, on the 10th of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, came—he and his entire army—against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, and they built siege works around it.”³

6. The 10th Day of the Month Is a Fast Day

The book of Zechariah tells us that four fast days will become days of “joy and gladness and good festivals” in the era of Moshiach, including “the fast of the 10th,” a reference to the 10th day of Tevet (the 10th month). On this day Jewish people mourn the destruction of Jerusalem, the result of the siege which began on that day. From daybreak to nightfall no food or drink is consumed, and extra prayers are recited.

7. Two Other Tragic Events Happened As Well

Tradition tells us that the fast of 10 Tevet commemorates two other tragic events.

On 8 Tevet, at the behest of Ptolemy of Egypt, the Torah was translated into Greek, marking a sharp decline of Jewish spirituality, the Torah now perceived as just another book of wisdom in Ptolemy’s great library.

9 Tevet is the yahrtzeit of Ezra the Scribe, the spiritual leader of the Jews who returned to the Land of Israel from Babylonia and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. The death of this great leader, who left an indelible mark on Jewish life and observance, was deeply mourned.

Yet a single fast was declared for all three events, so that the month would not be full of sadness and mourning.

Ezra the Scribe [https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4166669/jewish/Ezra-the-Scribe.htm]

8. Agents Were Not Dispatched from Jerusalem

In Temple times, at the start of every Jewish month that contained a holiday, agents were dispatched from Jerusalem to notify the Jewish people in every community of when the month had begun, so that they would know when to observe the holiday. But no runners were sent out at the start of Tevet. Since the fast would one day be abolished, it was not considered binding at that time, and did not warrant special notification.⁴

9. Tevet Is Babylonian

The name “Tevet” was adopted by the Jewish people during the Babylonian exile.⁵ It is believed to connote “sinking” or “immersing.” This is possibly related to the fact that the heavy winter rainfall turns much of the Middle East into a muddy swamp at this time of year.

[Why Babylonian Names for Jewish Months? article follows]

10. The Mazal of Tevet Is the Goat

Every Jewish month is associated with the zodiac symbol which is dominant at that time. The symbol of Tevet is the gedi (goat, Capricorn).

11. 5 Tevet Is Special in Chabad

The 5th day of Tevet is marked with celebrations in Chabad, as it is the date when a U.S. federal judge ruled that the extensive library left by the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, of righteous memory, belonged to the community, recognizing the extraordinary nature of a rebbe as a communal figure.

The 24th day of Tevet is also significant in Chabad. It is the anniversary of the passing of the Alter Rebbe, the first Chabad rebbe, in 1812.

Source:  https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4223896/jewish/11-Facts-About-the-Month-of-Tevet-Every-Jew-Should-Know.htm

* * *

Why Babylonian Names for Jewish Months:

In the pre-Babylonian era, we find in the Scriptures only four months on the calendar that are identified by name:

The first month (Nissan): Aviv
The second month (Iyar): Ziv
The seventh month (Tishrei): Eitanim
The eighth month (Cheshvan): Bul

The other months were just known by their place in the calendar—e.g., third month, fourth month—starting from the first month: first by virtue of the fact that it is the month when our nation left Egypt, the month when we became a nation.

(Apparently, even the four months that had names were more often than not referred to by their numeric place on the calendar, with the names serving as secondary titles accompanying their numbers.)

The Jerusalem Talmud tells us that the modern names of the months “came up [to Israel] with [the returnees] from Babylon,” at the onset of the second Jewish commonwealth, approximately 350 BCE.

So, why did we begin to use these names? Why didn’t we stick with the biblical practice of referring to months by their number?

Nachmanides suggests that this is consistent with Jeremiah’s prophecy: “Therefore, behold days are coming, says G‑d, and it shall no longer be said [by one who wishes to pronounce an oath], ‘As G‑d lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but rather, ‘As G‑d lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the north land [Babylon] . . .’”

The original system was to count months in numeric order, starting from Nissan. Thus, any time a person mentioned a month, he was in effect recalling the exodus from Egypt: we are in, say, the sixth month—six months since the month of the Exodus. Thus, the numeric naming served as a constant reminder of our deliverance from Egypt.

After we were delivered from Babylonian captivity, however, we started using the names that we became used to using in Babylon. And now, these names served to remind us that G‑d has redeemed us from this second exile.

Source:  https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/987524/jewish/Why-Babylonian-Names-for-Jewish-Months.htm