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30 April 2023

Rinat Lustig, LCSW

 

Listen to Dr. Zelenko talk about the Z-Care Promise™ and hear from his widow Rinat as she explains how this revolutionary program is part of Zev’s legacy. Are you wondering what all the excitement about Z-Care is about?  If you are a subscriber for Z-Stack® Kids Z-Stack®, Z-Flu™, Z-Shield™, and Z-DTox™ and you become ill while taking our products as directed, you will receive a free telemedicine session with a medical doctor. 
 
That is the Z-Care Promise ™, and Zelenko Labs is proud to fulfill Zev’s vision for a new approach to health care.  Watch the video, remember to take your Z-Stack®, and listen to the first video featuring Dr. Zelenko’s wife, Rinat.

Rinat Zelenko, The wife of Dr. Zelenko, also known as Rinat Lustig, LCSW. Shares her beliefs about the Z-Care™ Promise.

The Z-Care™ Promise with Rinat from Z-Stack® on Vimeo.


Hello President Trump

Hello President Trump from Z-Stack® on Vimeo.

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Shalom Pollack: Elites

 

It felt like a historic moment.
How true that is, time will tell but it certainly was hugely uplifting and exciting standing with multitudes of Israelis that poured into Jerusalem to declare that this is a Jewish country before and above anything else.
Marveling at the beauty of the sea of blue and white flags with the ancient Jewish symbol in the middle, I reminded myself that Left demonstrations (for which the Jewish aspect of Israel is a growing threat) were also accompanied by the same flag.
But there are differences
Sprinkled amongst the Israeli flags in the Left demonstrations are always the multicolored LGTB flags. (Before it was deemed bad PR, the earlier Left demonstrations were laced with the enemy of Israel - the PLO flag.) What really is the message? How does this define Israel, their Jewish state?

I stopped short at the site of a table upon which was standing a Torah scroll. The public was offered to share one letter in the Torah thus uniting Jews in holiness.
I watched in awe as many stopped to kiss the scroll.

This best defined the DNA/identity of the hundreds of thousands that congregated on the streets of Jerusalem. (the mainstream anti-religious media reported tens of thousands - yes, perhaps on one corner)
I pondered, LGTB flags on one side and a Torah scroll on the other. Each is the symbol of and is sacred for the respective camps.
Which one represents the (Jewish) state of Israel?
This is the struggle today.
This is the giant crossroads that the state of Israel and its people can no longer avoid.
What does the blue and white flag with the star of David stand for?

There are Leftists leaders who have long urged the changing of the flag and the national anthem to accommodate the sensitivities of its Arab citizens. (I am not sure how accommodated these citizens would feel with the LGTB flag).

Who were the people I saw yesterday?
Actually, the "same old crowd".
These are the same people who brought their (large) families to demonstrate (and suffer the criminal hands of the "judicial" system and violent, corrupt police) against Oslo, against the expulsions of thousands of Jewish families from Gush Katif/North Shomron. The same ones greeted Natan Sharansky at the airport when he was released from Soviet antisemitism and captivity and later greeted Jonathan Pollard upon his arrival home from American antisemitism and captivity.
This is the same section of Israeli society that guards the land of Israel against Arab theft and encroachment and pays the price in Arab terror and Israeli injustice.
They are the same who lead in the donation of kidneys and every other volunteering endeavor you can imagine. And the list goes on.

So who did I see last night?
I saw the Israel that I had in mind when I left NY for my homeland.

"By the rivers of Babylon, we remembered Zion. ''
What Zion were our forefathers longing for?
Which symbol better represents the dream of the historic and miraculous return to Zion?
The Torah so lovingly caressed or the LGTB flag (and the PLO flag).

What does the blue and white flag mean for both camps?

In these historic times and at the current crossroads at which we are standing the answers are becoming clear.
Very clear.
Last night I saw the true elite .
Last night I saw the only possible future of the Jewish people.

tour guide and author
"Jews, Israelis and Arabs"

29 April 2023

Sometimes Our Enemies Say The Emes!

 Yisrael Beyteinu leader Avigdor *Liberman spoke at a demonstration in Be'er Sheva 

[omitting here a lot of unimportant words…] 

And he actually used the term, “Messianic government”

To describe the ambitions of Levin and Rothman!


How’s that for this juncture in the redemption?


*an antagonistic, hateful, anti-religious leader of the anarchists

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes

Rebbetzen Tziporah: Holidays

 Dear Friends

Welcome to the tail end of the annual Israel Intensity Week. It begins with a siren and two minutes of silence ushering in Holocaust Memorial Day, followed a few days later by Memorial Day for fallen members of the Israel Defense Forces and terror victims, and capping things off with Yom Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day.

The intensity of it all shouldn’t surprise you, my fellow tribe members. Do we have an international reputation for being laid back? Obviously, the answer is loud and perhaps a bit aggressive – No.
Arguably this tendency may have begun when Hashem told Avraham to leave everything behind him and head out to the land where (to use the words of the text) Hashem said, “I will show you yourself.” 

This verse is sometimes understood as meaning “I will show you.” The word “arekka” (I will show you you) is reflective. Even though Avraham embarked on a journey that demanded absolute emunah in Hashem, it also was one that would culminate in his learning himself. Seeing his true essence and identity emerge from the continued interaction with the mission Hashem reveals here in Eretz Yisrael far more vividly than in any other place in the world was the result of his journey and of yours.

You may have heard of Effie Zuroff (I am not sure I have the name right; I heard it on the radio only once, but what he said left a deep impression on me). He just resigned from his job. He is the last Nazi hunter. The men who gave the world a whole new definition of the word evil are now in their nineties or dead. Going back a few decades, if you were to find yourself in a café somewhere in South America hobnobbing with your friends, enjoying the gemutlchkeit of your replanted German culture sans the beer, you might suddenly feel a hand on your shoulder. You would turn around and find yourself facing a man you have never met. As soon as you heard him say, “I was looking for you,” you would realize that the game is over. You would have met Effie Zuroff.

They are gone, safely in hell. People of my generation and that of my children and grandchildren have seen survivors, the eyewitnesses to the unspeakable. When we are no longer in this world (and arguably way before then), the Holocaust may end up as interesting as the Babylonian exile’s beginning, or the Inquisition. Certainly intellectually informative, but not what most of us think about when planning a milchig sheva brachos or studying for a mid-term. It will be shelved in the file called Then, which isn’t really relevant to Now.

Or is it? The horror isn’t the hero of the show, the stars of the show are the survivors, and those who didn’t survive, but knew in ways that we never will know, may Hashem preserve us, that whatever you want to be, you don’t want to be a Nazi. The sheer courage that belonged to the generation of the parents of most of my schoolmates in Bais Yaakov was not appreciated at the time. They were loved and respected, but the kind of admiration that makes you aspire to be more wasn’t always there. 

As a group, they remained foreign. They didn’t speak English as one would in Oxford. By and large, the kind of jobs that they took to support their families didn’t give them much status. Today you can look at the bravery and the determination they had, and stand in awe. The way this is done in Israel on Memorial Day is by formally standing at attention. Arguably it is a somewhat ironic attempt to dress the significance and pain of their lives in fashionable Westernized clothing.

 The silence is not. It’s something that you need to keep yourself from becoming a victim of spiritual amnesia. It gives you time to ask yourself questions about what it means to choose life, to step back and think about the giants, people like the Bobover Rebbe, who dedicated themselves to helping his people rediscover their potentials and to keep moving forward. The caring, the acceptance, and the concrete help that he gave was always impressive. 

When I learned that he was only in his forties and had already managed to lose those closest to him when he became the father of hundreds of others, astounds me. The way to memorialize both the survivors and victims is, in my opinion, to commit yourself to not letting yourself ever forget who you are, and what your mission is – never will be like that of people who aren’t Jews.

My husband’s son, Luzzie (okay, Elazar) Gottlieb came to speak about the Israeli army when it was their time to be memorialized. He is tall, wears Chassidic clothing, and is part of the kashrut administration of no less than the Badatz of the Aida Chareidis. One look at him (and his wife and baby who came for the ride) makes you wonder whether some bizarre mistake was made in scheduling him to speak about the soldiers of Israel’s army. 

No mistake.

Years ago, (during the second Lebanese war, or maybe it was the second war in Gaza, but who’s counting), he felt a need to give what he can and do whatever he can do for the soldiers. As a chossid, his Rebbe had told him many times that that is what every Jew is meant to feel. He was learning, but wanted to do something more, something specific and direct. He and a friend headed down to a base located near the last place civilians were allowed to go. They came with two gifts. The stuff you need to make a great barbeque, and a couple of dozen or so tzitzis, to give away to any soldier who'd want to put them on and earn a bit more merit. He came back later with a couple of hundred. The demand was so real, so pure, the bond was clearly mutual. They wanted him to talk to them about what religion is about. In the course of time, his visits became a regular part of life on the base. Some of the soldiers came to his home for Shabbos. The commander of the base called him aside with a problem, the white tzitzis compromise the shelter that olive green uniforms gives his guys. 

Yes. He now has distributed several thousand olive green tzitzis. He has been doing this for over ten years. This is a man with a full-time job and large family, (in fact one of the career soldiers who saw him year after year finally asked a question that was troubling him, but because he may have felt it to be too personal, had never asked. “You come every year. How come your baby never grows”? Luzzie told him “Every year I’ve been here, it’s been, Baruch Hashem, with a new baby.” The soldier’s mouth may have closed by now….

The soldiers face what I never faced, with courage and with the knowledge that the Jews in their hometown need them and that whatever else they are, they are part of the tribe. Even those who are drafted and didn’t particularly want to spend a minimum of two years in the mixture of danger and boredom that is what serving in the army is about, know who they are. Even those who don’t put on Luzzie’s green tzitzis. They are members of the tribe.

So too the victims of terror. They know that emunah is their only answer, and it is one that the Dee family and the Paley family spoke out with eloquence that only pain can generate.  It is the Land that shows you yourself.

Yom Atzmaut is such a paradox. The overwhelming miracle of being here is astounding. Israel is alive, full of hope, Tshuvah, buildings in Beitar and Kiryat Sefer whose lobbies are basically parking lots for strollers and trikes. An estimated 70,000 bachurim are studying in the yeshivas that dot the entire country. 
There are also the victims—the ones whose education took them to want to have a Jewish state that isn’t too Jewish. The heritage of the early secular founders of the State include fear of Torah, and hatred of anything that is too different, anything that marks you as a Jew. 

Today’s progressive leftists are victims of a spiritual holocaust. The difference between them and the victims of a physical holocaust is that they are unaware of the fact that they are spiritually dying. They are your brothers just as much as Rabbi Dee or the Paleys or the thousands of bachurim or your own family. A bright spot on the horizon is that some of them have come to see the bond that holds us together. I am enclosing a speech made by the Minister of Information (doesn’t that sound like something out of Orwell’s 1984?). It was far different than anything I have ever heard from a member of the secular movement...Please read the enclosure.
 
Much love to all of your folks back in the Golah,
Tziporah 

NEARLY A MILLION! MK Simcha Rothman ... Betzalel ... Yariv Levin

Organizers estimate 600,000 at pro-government demonstration in Jerusalem
1,000 buses bring citizens to the Knesset area in support of the judicial reforms. As people poured in, estimates rose to much higher. [of course, police and the anarchists are saying 200,000] If one saw the overhead views it was a HUGE group of Torah respectful supporters of  judicial correction.


MK Simcha Rothman to INN: The people demand judicial reform and that is what they'll get


MK Simcha Rothman, the chairman of the Knesset Constitution Committee, spoke to Israel National Newsat the “million-man demonstration” which was held in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, and promised that the judicial reform will be enacted in the Knesset.
He was asked why the reform is being delayed and replied, "Everyone knows why it is being delayed, but all the people here are saying that this delay is temporary in order to reach agreements."
"Everything is fine. The people demand judicial reform and that is what the people will get," added Rothman. 
Commenting on the stopping of the legislation of the reform and the feeling of victory among the left-wing protesters as a result, he said, "I can say that with God’s help, the demands of the public that were reflected in the election results are not going anywhere.”
It is possible to reach agreements in the end and we always wanted to reach agreements, but it is also impossible to erase what the people wanted to fix in the judicial system, and with God's help, this is what will happen."
"If the focus here was on substance and not on politics, certainly on the side of the opposition and some of the organizers of the [left-wing] protest, we would see agreements here."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/370656


Smotrich: They have the media and tycoons, we have the majority of the people

Finance Minister at 'Million March' says that the people demand judicial reform.

 Look how much strength we have. They have the media and tycoons who finance demonstrations. We have the majority of the people, who demand and give us full backing to fix what needs to be fixed."
 Those [left-wing protest] organizers - like Ehud Barak - don't just care about the reform, they care that the right is in power. They did not accept that we won the elections, they are not ready to accept it, they will do everything to damage us and harm the State of Israel,"
“You are patriots! You are lovers of the people of Israel! You are the beautiful people of Israel!"


Justice Minister Yariv Levin
 Justice Minister Yariv Levin spoke at the demonstration supporting judicial reform in Jerusalem:

"This evening is an evening of great outcry and great hope. Over two million citizens voted in favor of legal reform in the real referendum - the elections. We have 64 mandates to correct injustice," Levin said.



28 April 2023

UPDATE ON ISRAEL’s WINTER RAINFALL

To set the record straight:  when I wrote about a drought and then sudden deluge of rain (being a curse) a commenter objected. well here we have another Jerusalem resident saying the same. and another person even said we were not done with the rain!


As kindly related by Reb Neuberger (and what I recalled in my post):

"It has been a strange winter in the Land of Israel. 

  • There was a frightening lack of rain the first few months of the rainy season. 
  • Then around Chanukah came two weeks of heavy rain.
  • Following that, more drought, but in Mid-March about ten days of downpours. 
  • Following that, more drought, but – amazingly! – at the end of Pesach, after the “end” of the rainy season, there were several days of torrential rain
  • This year northern Israel received less than normal rainfall, but parts of the “arid” south received more than three times the average! 


Weather Report for TODAY:

Forecast: Local rains, temperatures will drop 4/24

The weather today (Friday) will be partly cloudy with temperatures dropping considerably. They will be lower than normal for the season. There is a chance of mostly light local rains in the North and Center of the country. Winds will strengthen mainly in southern Israel.

On Saturday, there may be on-and-off rains accompanied by thunderstorms. Strong winds will blow and there may be fog in the South of the country. There will be another drop in temperatures and it will be colder than usual for the season, especially in the northern mountains and inland.

Sunday will be partly cloudy to cloudy with mostly light local rains in the North of the country. Temperatures will continue to be below normal for the season.

Monday will be clear to partly cloudy with an increase in temperatures mainly in the Golan Heights and inland, but they will continue to be lower than usual for the Season.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes

Reb Neuberger: Take it Seriously!

 TAKE IT SERIOUSLY

 

Sefiras ha Omer has the elevated feel of Yom Tov and in fact is considered a type of Chol ha Moed linking Pesach and Shavuos. At the same time, it is a period of fear, stress and danger. Terrible decrees fell upon Am Yisroel during this period, especially the catastrophic death of Rabbi Akiva’s talmidim and, much later, the Crusades and the Chmielnicki uprising in Eastern Europe. Thus, it is also a period of mourning, for which reason we do not celebrate simchas during most of Sefira

It is not surprising that Sefira is serious tekufa. During these seven weeks in Biblical daysAm Yisroel traveled from Mitzraim to Har SinaiIt was our avoda at that time to rise from a slave mentality to a spiritual level at which we were capable of standing before Hashem and receiving His Torah, an event which would forever alter the entire world. This was an intensely difficult spiritual undertaking. No wonder it is a time of testing and tension. 

 

The tests were great. During those days, Am Yisroel was attacked by Amalek and our ancestors were guilty of numerous rebellions, which put us in terrible danger and caused grief to our Father in Heaven and to Moshe Rabbeinu. These are the days referred to by Dovid Hamelech, where he says“Do not harden your heart as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the Wilderness, when your ancestors tried Me. They tested Me, although they had seen My deed (when I freed you from slavery with earth-shaking miracles). For forty years I was angry with the generation. Then I said, ‘An errant-hearted people are they, and they do not know My ways. Therefore, I have sworn in My wrath they shall not enter My land of contentment.’” (Tehillim 95)

 

After leaving Mitzraim, when we arrived at the Yam Suf, the nation panicked, with the Egyptian army behind it and the sea in front. Not only then, but many times our ancestors panicked over the course of their Biblical journey through the Sinai Desert. That is why Moshe Rabbeinu had to say at the Yam Suf“Do not fear. Stand fast and see the salvation of Hashem that He will perform for you today.” (Shemos 14:13)

 

Now, in the year 5783, the period of Sefiras Ha Omer continues true to its character as a time of both elevation and stress. It is easy to look down our noses at our ancestors. From our vantage point, wknow that Hashem was watching over them and that Moshe Rabbeinu was leading them. It is easy to say, “How could they have panicked? What was their problem?”

 

Frankly, I doubt very much that, had we been there, we would have remained calm. G-d forbid we should be put to the test, but just how much faith in Hashem do we really have? Just last week I panicked about a personal issue that was purely theoretical. There were no Egyptians chasing after me, but I panicked. Where was my emunah and betochan


Here is a recent news item: “Israel's security establishment [has stated] that the nation is at the beginning of a new security era in which it faces the possibility of attacks from multiple arenas at the same time … ‘We operated for years under the assumption that limited confrontations could be held, but this … phenomenon … is disappearing. Today there is a noticeable phenomenon of the coalescence of arenas.’(Israel National News)


Doesn’t this sound very much like the Yam Suf, where we were surrounded on all sidesMaase avos siman l’banim … the events which our forefathers experienced are a sign for the future.” We would do well to strengthen ourselves for the coming tests. 


Listen please to the words of this week’s Haftara“For behold … I shall shake the House of Israel among all the nations as one shakes [grain] in a sieve, and no pebble shall fall to the ground. By the sword will all the sinners of My people die, those who say, ‘The evil will not approach and overtake us.’” (Amos 9:9)


I am sorry to remind us of such frightening words, but it is astounding to see how the Novi defines the word “sinners” as those who say, “the evil will not come upon us.” 

It is dangerous not to take our danger seriously. 


The Novi’s advice will enable us to survive. We will realize that our only hope is to ensconce ourselves under the wings of the TorahMy friends, Sefiras ha Omer is a time to take lifeseriously, recognizing with greater urgency each day that there is nothing in life but Hashem and His Torah. “Ain od milvado.”


The Haftara continues: “Behold – days are coming – the words of Hashem, when … I shall bring back the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild desolate cities. They will return and plant vineyards and drink their wine. They will make gardens and eat their fruit. I shall implant them upon their Land. They will not be uprooted again from upon their Land that I have given them, says Hashem, your G-d.” (Amos 9:13ff)


May we see it soon in our days!


Peaceful vineyards

Sinai Desert at night

Yam Suf/The Red Sea

 


GLOSSARY

Ain od milvado: There is nothing but Hashem

Novi: Prophet

Tekufah: Time period 

Yam Suf: Red Sea; also called Reed Sea

Rabbi Winston: Parashas Acharei-Kedoshim – Pre-Ordained Reality and Personal Tikun

 

TRYING TO COMFORT people who have suffered a great loss is daunting, especially if the loss seems very tragic like the death of young brothers and sisters in separate terrorist attacks. This of course does not mean that the “early” and violent death of adults is any less tragic and painful. However, the cutting down of youths just starting out in life strikes an especially sad chord, for the parents who had such high hopes for them, and clearly for most of the nation as well.

Is such comfort even possible? One Gadol HaDor at the shivah for the loss of a child said nothing. He just held the father’s hand and cried together with him until he had to leave. Only “HaMakom,” was said. He knew, as does any truly sensitive individual that with respect to some losses, words make things worse, not better. 


There is another added element of pain in these cases for many. It feels so close to the final redemption, as hard as it may be to believe at this time. To lose so much so close to the end increases the hurt even more. On one hand, we know that redemption is not free, and we have paid great prices in the past. On the other hand, we’re not sure if such losses and the pain they cause are part of that, or how.


Before speaking to that, it is important to know a few things, just for perspective’s sake. They make a difference, even if they do not provide much comfort at this time.


The way a person is taken is not necessarily why they were taken. Everyone is here for personal tikun, and that is achieved by learning Torah, the performance of mitzvos, and when necessary, suffering which includes the way a person dies. We like the idea of going peacefully in our sleep after 120 years of life, but that does not necessarily help with personal tikun as much as a sudden or “unfortunate” death. 


Rebi Akiva’s death was one of the worst deaths possible, but it guaranteed him straight passage to the World to Come without passing through Gihenom (Brochos 61b). The Gemora says that no one can reach the level of the Ten Martyrs in the next world (Pesachim 50a), and Ketia bar Shalom, an unwitting convert earned the World to Come because he was executed by the Roman government (Avodah Zarah 10b). There are many more examples of the same idea.


It should also be noted that our blessing can also be our curse. The Gemora speaks of Marta bas Baysos, a wealthy and pampered woman who died because she stepped on something that might disgust anyone, but not kill them (Gittin 56a). It was a time of famine, and she had to go out looking for food for the first time, leaving her vulnerable to elements of the “outside” world:


Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai read concerning her: “The tender and delicate woman among you who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground” (Devarim 28:56). What we are experiencing today would have been considered mild compared to what used to occur in Europe 200 years ago. But we’re coming off a very peaceful and prosperous period of history, and we would have liked to transition to Yemos HaMoshiach in the same way. But just because the flight was turbulence free doesn’t mean that the landing will be too.


THEN THERE IS the matter of dying in Eretz Yisroel. People are afraid to make aliyah because they think it increases the odds of an early death. With few exceptions, no one dies before their time, regardless of where or how they live. The only issue is the meaningfulness of a person’s death, and how much it will help them in terms of the next world. 


If a person dies in Eretz Yisroel, they automatically die a Kiddush Hashem. As long as they do not reject Eretz Yisroel as a G–d-given land, or live there against their will, they automatically have this merit, even if they have yet to realize the truth of Torah and mitzvos. This is not the case for a Jew who lives in the Diaspora, even if they keep all of Torah and mitzvos


Dying in Eretz Yisroel automatically atones for a person’s sins, which is not so for a person who dies outside the land. Being buried in Eretz Yisroel helps, but it is not the same as if the person lived in Eretz Yisroel and later died there. All of this and more is in the sefer, Tuv HaAretz by Rabbi Noson Shapiro, based upon the teachings of the Arizal. Read this sefer and the only thing that will scare you is having to leave Eretz Yisroel. As Bilaam said, “May my soul die the death of the upright and let my end be like his” (Bamidbar 23:10).


Regarding the larger picture, one that incorporates all of Jewish history from its beginning until the final redemption, there is the following gemora:


Once Rabban Gamliel, Rebi Elazar ben Azariah, Rebi Yehoshua, and Rebi Akiva were walking along the road, and they heard the sound of the multitudes of Rome from Puteoli at a distance of 120 mil. The other rabbis began weeping but Rebi Akiva was laughing. They asked him: “Why are you laughing?” 


Rabbi Akiva asked them: “Why are you crying?” 


They told him: “These gentiles, who bow to false G–ds and burn incense to idols, dwell securely and tranquilly, and for us, the House of the footstool of our G–d is burnt by fire, and we shouldn’t cry?” 


Rebi Akiva said to them: “That is why I am laughing. If for those who violate His will it is so, for those who perform His will, all the more so.” 


On another occasion they were ascending to Jerusalem. When they arrived at Mt. Scopus [and saw the site of the Temple], they tore their clothes [in mourning]. When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox that emerged from the Holy of Holies. They began weeping, but Rebi Akiva was laughing. They said to him: “Why are you laughing?”


Rebi Akiva asked them: “Why are you crying?” 

They answered him: “This is the place of which it is written: ‘And the non-priest who approaches shall die’ (Bamidbar 1:51), and now foxes walk in it. Should we not cry?” 


Rebi Akiva told them: “That is why I am laughing, as it is written: ‘And I will take to Me faithful witnesses to attest: Uriah HaKohen, and Zechariah ben Yeverechyahu’ (Yeshayahu 8:2). What is the connection between Uriah and Zechariah? Uriah lived during the First Temple period, and Zechariah lived during the Second Temple. Rather, the verse established that the prophecy of Zechariah is dependent on the prophecy of Uriah. In Uriah it is written: ‘Therefore, for your sake Tzion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become rubble, and the Temple Mount as the high places of a forest’ (Michah 3:12). In Zechariah it says: 


‘There shall yet be elderly men and elderly women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem’ (Zechariah 8:4). Until the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled, I was afraid that the prophecy of Zechariah would not be fulfilled. Now that the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled, it is evident that the prophecy of Zechariah remains valid!” 


They told him, “Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us.” (Makkos 24a)


How? How did Rebi Akiva comfort his colleagues with a drush that may not have been true, or would come until long after their own deaths? He did it by showing them how to transcend the moment and their immediate suffering. He showed them how current loss was the threshold to future gain, an end that, in its time, would nobly justify the means. 


SIMILARLY THE GEMORA says elsewhere:


Upon their return, they (the Romans) found Rebi Chanina ben Teradion sitting and teaching Torah. He had gathered many people, and the Sefer Torah was on his lap. They brought him and wrapped him in the Sefer Torah, surrounded him with branches and set them on fire. They placed wet wool over his heart so that he should not die quickly. His daughter cried to him, “Father, that I should see you like this!” 


He told her, “If it was only me burning, it would be difficult for me. However, I am burning together with a Sefer Torah, and the One Who will avenge the disgrace of this Sefer Torah will avenge my disgrace as well.” 


His students asked him, “Rebi, what do you see?” 


He answered them, “The parchment burns, but the letters fly up to Heaven.” (Avodah Zarah 18a)


The heroics were so amazing that even the Roman executioner converted, jumped into the fire, and went to the World to Come. But what about the people Rebi Akiva and Rebi Chanina were leaving behind? What was their comfort? 


Their comfort came from sharing the vision of their teachers. Though Amalek can’t necessarily create despair, he greatly amplifies it by making people focus on the loss as it appears in its time, cut off from the past and blind to the future. He uses people’s intellectual and emotional shock and confusion to cause hopelessness and distancing from G–d, his ultimate goal. 


He doesn’t create vulnerabilities, just takes advantage of existing ones. People who have yet to fully develop trust and faith in G–d because they haven’t needed it much until the crisis all of a sudden find themselves without the necessary spiritual “muscles” to withstand the pressure from within and without. People with bitachon and emunah can survive almost anything because they completely trust the Divine process, no matter how convoluted it may appear. People who are weak in both have difficulty surviving anything that disrupts their sense of calm. 


An important component to being able to trust the process is understanding what the process is, and why it has to be this way. Over the course of more than three millennia of history the Jewish people have accomplished so much, survived so much, but always at a tremendous cost. Does it always have to be that way?

Perhaps not always, but certainly a lot of the time. This was part of G–d’s message to Avraham Avinu at the Bris Ben HaBesarim: 


And He said to Abram, “You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for 400 years.” (Bereishis 15:13)


Though the commentators look for reasons for what seems to be a punishment, none of the answers fully work. What could Avraham Avinu have done to warrant 400 years of oppression, and for his children that had yet to be born, let alone sin? And was this supposed to have been good news?


Ain Od Milvado, Part 48

The answer to this question, and really all questions about Jewish history, is primordial, even pre-dating Creation itself, and therefore, kabbalistic. It was the answer Moshe Rabbeinu was seeking, and denied, when he asked: 


…that the ways in which G–d conducts the world be revealed to him…as it says: “Show me Your ways” (Shemos 33:13)…Rebi Meir said: Two [requests] were granted to him, and [this last] one was not granted to him.” (Brochos 7a)


The Gemora says that Moshe Rabbeinu asked G–d the classic question of all history, about why righteous people suffer and evil people prosper, and all the other combinations as well. But that is just the cover story for all the anomalies of history that make people wonder who, if anyone, is running the world. 


Moshe wasn’t answered, but not because he was unworthy of the answer, but because he was incapable of handling it. It was information, which is really Divine light, that was on a very high and hidden level of Creation, something Kabbalah calls the Moach Stima—Closed Mind, and is the product of something called Sheviras HaKeilim, or the Breaking of the Vessels. And all of it was just to create a world that could support the existence of man, give him free will, and eternal reward for making the right moral choices. 


Everything else that makes up history is just the playing out of all of this, something most people don’t know and the few that might take for granted. Every last detail, from the smallest to the largest, from the saddest to the happiest, is the result of this pre-ordained reality that is the result of Sheviras HaKeilim, and the tohu—chaos—that followed it. 


We’re like someone dressed in gold and spilling money from our pockets obliviously walking through a poor and violent neighborhood on a sunny day. Enjoying the sunshine and relative quiet, we have no idea of the danger lurking in the shadows ready to pounce at the right moment. We’ve had a wonderfully pleasant and successful exile for about seven decades, and hope and expect it to continue though it never has in the past.


We can’t run from it, and we can’t buy our way out of it. The only thing we can do, which is always the only thing we can do, is strengthen our bitachon and emunah in G–d so that we can trust His process, not just intellectually, but emotionally. And it really helps, whenever possible, to better understand what that process is. This is also part of ain od Milvado


That was “vayidom Aharon” (Vayikra 10:3). Moshe told his brother that his sons’ death was more than just two important people dying. It was two great people dying for something much grander than the sum of their lives. It’s not a sacrifice any parent wishes on their children, but one they are proud of if it is thrust upon them. We get that from Avraham Avinu and the Akeidah, and the ability to trust the process especially when it doesn’t make sense to us. 


Bitachon and Emunah not only make it easier to deal with disappointment or worse, G–d forbid. They don’t only rectify the person and the world and make miracles more possible. They elevate a person above the everyday reality, giving a person a more G–dly perspective that results in yeshu’os of all kinds. 


At the end of the day, the only true source of comfort is G–d Himself, as we say, “HaMakom yenachem eschem besoch shaar avelay Tziyon ViYerushalayim—May the Omnipresent comfort you among the rest of the mourners of Tzion and Jerusalem.” It’s because only He knows what talks to the heart of every individual, what can truly comfort them on a personal level, which is not always the same for each person. And He wants to, if we let Him.


May we merit to reach such levels, and Moshiach Tzidkaynu and the geulah shlaimah without any further pain and suffering. 


Reb Ginsbourg – Tsav: The challenge of a depleted pocket

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