03 September 2025
Rebbetzen Tziporah: The Last Stop
Dear friends,
They say that all beginnings are hard, which implies that ends are easy. Travelling with my dear husband certainly is a change from the mode that I used for the vast majority of my travel experience. I am now in the waiting area of my flight from the States to Heathrow. I am over an hour early. No running down the unending carpeted corridors breathing hard and hoping against hope that Things Will Work Out Again, Like Last Time.
The most interesting adventure (and one that is more or less relevant to Elul) took place years ago. It was a Friday. My plane arrived too late (according to the flight attendant) for me to make the connecting flight to LA. I was in Dallas, where the airport is the size of a small emirate and just as Byzantine. I had realized my prediction while still on the plane, and at that point I began to speak to the world’s Master. “I don’t know if You want me to be here for Shabbos. I don’t know anyone here, but if You want me to be here there must be a reason, and I accept your decision. The people in LA who put together the Shabbaton worked hard, and I know that if somehow You want me to be there, You can do it.”
When I got off, I asked the woman behind the desk if the flight to LA had left. She told me it had not, but there is no chance that I would make it. I would have to take an internal train to the correct area and gate. I decided to try, and grabbed my wheelie and headed towards the track. In those ancient times, the trains had humans running the show. As soon as I got on, I asked the man if there was a chance that I could make a flight that is scheduled to leave in 5 minutes. “Not a chance” he replied. I was still running on the fuel that I had taken in on the plane, and I told him, “It is in G‑d’s hands.” He pressed his button. “You are so right, sister, it all depends on the L‑rd”. We edged each other on as the other passengers became more and more wary. When my stop arrived, I ran, and as you may have figured out, I made my flight.
Elul is the last stop. As it says in Koheles, in the end all of our illusions evaporate. You are headed towards the place that Hashem has in store for you, navigated by your own authorship. Nothing is forgotten.
Not one good deed.
Not one moment in which you forced yourself to experience guilt or shame. Both emotions tell you that you believe in yourself enough to have expectations.
Not one failure to live up to your resolutions, but still tried again. And again.
They are all there, changing your inner reality.
This is always true, but in Elul there is an added component. He is committed to giving you the help you need to move beyond the limitations you created. The one thing that you have to keep in mind is that it is up to you to make the decision to want to be closer to your original self. The word teshuvah literally means return, not repentance. You are, like all of us, descendants of Adam, who was given a breath of Hashem’s being as a soul.
One of the parshios that are read before Elul is Re’eh. It tells you that you should look at the act that Hashem gave you blessings and curses and wants you to choose blessings. The implication of that statement is both the blessings, and the curses have one source, Hashem. You can draw close to Him by relating to His unending goodness and its mirror within you that generates your desire to do good. You can also find Him by letting yourself decide to move beyond the curses, the limitations and self-destructive choices that we all sometimes make.
The famous acronym, I am for my Beloved and my Beloved is for me, אני לדודי ודודי לי is the most beautiful niggun. It plays inside you if and when you want to hear it.
Ketiva vechatimah tovah,
Love,
Tziporah
Elul & Yomim Noraim (4)
The Power & Structure of Selichos to Boost Your Prayers in Elul & Yomim Noraim
Your Choices Reverberate Forever - Los Angeles Weekend of Chizuk {Yeshiva Ohr Eliyahu For Girls}
The Choices You Make Today Determine Your Destiny {Los Angeles Weekend of Chizuk 2025}
The Great Merit & Responsibility of Learning in Yeshiva Today {Los Angeles Weekend of Chizuk 2025}
Eliezer Meir Saidel: Shoftim – A Jewish Venn Diagram (JP)
Last week’s parsha describes the Torah construct of government in Am Yisrael. At the head of the hierarchy is HaKadosh Baruch Hu. All the lower constructs are subservient to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
The liaison between HaKadosh Baruch Hu and all the other lower constructs is the prophet. HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not communicate directly with the entire Am Yisrael (except on Har Sinai, when Am Yisrael heard the first two commandments directly from HaKadosh Baruch Hu).
HaKadosh Baruch Hu does communicate “indirectly” with Am Yisrael, showing His pleasure/displeasure with us, by heaping abundance on us or withholding abundance/rain. The prophet is the messenger of HaKadosh Baruch Hu and authentically relates His message verbatim to Am Yisrael.
The prophet is selected by HaKadosh Baruch Hu, not by democratic election and is not self- appointed. The Torah gives a system of checks and balances how Am Yisrael can ascertain if he/she (prophecy is given both to men and women – Miriam, Devorah, Chulda, etc.) is a true prophet or not. If the prophet incites Am Yisrael to worship idols or if something he/she says does not come to pass, then he/she is a false prophet and is put to death.
The next construct is the Kohanim and the Levi’im. They are the “civil servants” of HaKadosh Baruch Hu in this world. Unlike the other Twelve Tribes, they have no inheritance in Eretz Yisrael. Their inheritance is to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the Beit HaMikdash, the Kohanim offering Korbanot and the Levi’im opening and guarding the gates, singing Shira, baking the Menachot, preparing the Ketoret, etc.
Each Kohen/Levi worked a total of two weeks a year in the Beit HaMikdash and also on the festivals, when all the shifts worked at the same time and all together in the Mikdash. The remainder of the year these Kohanim and Levi’im taught Torah and gave halachic rulings.
The Kohanim and Levi’im lived spread out all over Eretz Yisrael, in the Levite cities. They did not possess farming land to grow their own food, instead their sustenance was provided by Am Yisrael via the Trumot and Ma’asrot.
The Levite cities were interspersed throughout Eretz Yisrael to provide easy access for Am Yisrael to give these tithes. Another function of the Kohanim and Levi’im was to foster peace within Am Yisrael (they are students of Aharon) and to rehabilitate sinners (like accidental murderers).
The next construct of government are the judges and the policemen. If the Kohanim/Levi’im were teaching Torah and giving halachic rulings, why do you also need judges? Rabbeinu Bachyei (Devarim 16:18) says that the reason that the pasuk of appointing judges and police immediately follows the previous parsha of the festivals is to teach us that even though Am Yisrael go to Jerusalem on Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot and can ask the Kohanim and Levi’im any halachic question that they need, there is an additional mitzvah to appoint judges and policemen in every city in Eretz Yisrael, that are not Kohanim/Levi’im, but rather Talmidei Chachamim, to provide an “on the spot” halachic authority for matters requiring an urgent halachic ruling that cannot wait to travel to the city of the Levi’im for an answer.
The judges give the ruling and the policemen enforce it. The job of the policemen is to make sure that the people are abiding by the rulings given by the judges and punish anyone who does not. The job of the policemen is also to make sure that regulations are being upheld, that weights and measures are accurate etc.
Although the Torah gives one judge the authority to make a ruling, it is a Rabbinic decree that a court of a minimum of three judges is required to give a ruling in monetary disputes. If it is a capital case, a court of a minimum of twenty-three judges is required to adjudicate. This is called a “small” Sanhedrin and the judges sit at the gates of the city.
The “large” Sanhedrin, comprising seventy-one judges, was situated in the Beit HaMikdash (in Lishkat Hagazit) and their primary purpose was to give halachic rulings pertaining to the Kohanim and their service/lineage etc. All the courts had an odd number of judges so that in every case there would be a majority ruling.
The next construct is the king. The king is also a “civil servant” of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the head of the other “civil servants” and his function is to ensure the smooth running of the entire nation and its infrastructure – to build roads, to wage wars, to ensure law and order, to ensure smooth running of the Beit HaMikdash (access roads for pilgrims, sufficient Mikvahs, availability of raw materials etc.), national building projects (like Shlomo building the Mikdash).
The king is not democratically elected or self-appointed, he is appointed by HaKadosh Baruch Hu and is answerable to the prophet, who is liaison with HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The king cannot perform any major undertaking without the authorization of HaKadosh Baruch Hu (via the prophet).
The above structure is in fact comprised of three circles, crowns – the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of monarchy. There was only one person who could have filled all three roles simultaneously and that was Moshe Rabbeinu.
Moshe was both a prophet and a king, but not a Kohen. If, however, he would not have repeatedly objected to accepting the role of savior of Am Yisrael, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded him to, he would have also been a Kohen. Since he objected, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave the role of Kohen to Aharon. The question is how Moshe could have been a king if he was not from the Tribe of Yehuda?
The answer is that the Mishna does not say that monarchy is for Yehuda and his descendants, but for David and his descendants. Prior to King David it was possible to be a king even if you were from another tribe (Yosef was a king, Moshe was a king, Shmuel was a king, Shaul was a king), but from David onwards, only David’s descendants are entitled to monarchy.
The subsequent allocation was split – Priesthood to Aharon and his descendants, Monarchy to King David and his descendants and Torah/prophecy to anyone in Am Yisrael who is worthy of it. It is a kind of a “separation of entities” of government. Instead of being concentric circles, they are intersecting circles that allow for division of power on the one hand, and also for checks and balances and symbiosis on the other.
The only concentricity that exists is with the circle of the Torah. This circle may be concentric with monarchy or priesthood. It is possible for one person to be both a king and a prophet, or a Kohen and a prophet, but it is impossible to be a Kohen and a king.
Whenever there was an illegitimate seizure of power by one circle from another, it led to disaster, like when Alexander Yannai (a Kohen from the Chashmonaim family) appointed himself king. Whenever there was a disproportionate abuse of power by one circle, it led to disaster, like the Kohanim Tzedukkim.
The three-ring model is built on each circle performing its allotted role without interfering with the functioning of the other circles, but at the same time intersecting, working in sync, with a focused, singular purpose, keeping each other in check and maintaining balance.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: What “accessory” was a king required to have in close proximity at all times?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: What is the Hebrew word in the parsha for giraffe? Zamer (Devarim 14:5).
02 September 2025
Rabbi Weissman: False Prophets......
Can you pass this simple test? Can you afford not to?
In Part 8 of our series of classes on the prophetic teachings of Rav Elchonon Wasserman we learned about the Torah’s guidance for Jews in relating to Eisav (and others) during the period of exile, which, for the most part, was faithfully followed over the last 2000 years — until recent times.
In a nutshell, we are supposed to take a non-confrontational approach, with the one exception being when they make decrees to force us to violate the Torah. Only then are we supposed to be “hard like stone and not surrender a hairsbreadth”, as Rav Wasserman writes.
But in recent times, continues Rav Wasserman, our “leaders” have taken precisely the opposite approach, shooting off their mouths against the most powerful nations and leaders in the world, as if they would be intimidated or do teshuva from this mussar. I would add that these same leaders (and the Jews who foolishly follow their lead) are quick to surrender precisely in the one area we are not supposed to give an inch — our Torah observance.
Take a look at your “Religious Zionist leaders”, and quite a few of your “Charedi leaders”, and tell me if that accusation is untrue. If they are pushing vaccines, or “begrudgingly” surrendering only some weaker Jews to the spiritual and physical meat grinder that calls itself a Jewish army, they’re giving a lot more than a hairsbreadth.
Rav Wasserman also discussed the information war, the war for people’s minds and souls, between the true prophets and false prophets in ancient times — and how we face the same situation today.
Indeed, as I noted in the class, the fact that the Jews were punished for following the false prophets underscores the fact that we are able to tell the difference, and therefore we are obligated to tell the difference.
The same is true today. “I was just following orders” is not an acceptable defense, and neither is “I'm blindly following Da’as Torah”. That will not turn poison into vitamins, nor bullets and booby traps into rose petals, nor earn a free pass before the Heavenly Court.
So I ask you: can you tell the difference between the false prophets of today and those who are telling you the truth, however uncomfortable it may be? Do you really want to tell the difference? Are you willing to be moser nefesh for the truth? Is the truth worth it? Do you think you’ll wind up better off ignoring the truth, or pretending you can’t tell the difference?
What does the Torah say about all the above? How much does that matter to you?
The class is embedded above and on Rumble here. The link to join future classes is here. We’re just getting started.
Here’s a simple test. Can you tell the false prophets, the corrupt sellouts who dine at Izevel’s table, from the simple Torah truth? (Hat tips to a reader and Mordechai Sones for the following.)
Exhibit #1: Ezer Mizion and Ezra LeMarpe whoring for the measles shots.
As with the false prophets of old, the style is uniform. Disease and death are spreading, and it’s the unvaccinated people getting sick and dying. The only solution is for everyone to vaccinate! Don’t die! Don’t cause others to die! The vaccines are proven safe!
Personally, I’m surprised Firer has the chutzpah to leverage whatever is left of his name to push the measles shots. You might recall that he was handpicked by the regime to assure the religious world that the Covid shots were safe when people were rightfully leery in the beginning, and he reportedly received some serious pushback from people who were taken by his false prophecy.
I wonder what carrots and sticks the regime is holding before him now. The only way people like him can do any semblance of teshuva is to come clean, even if that means paying the ultimate price. (It likely would; he knows too much, and the Mafia doesn’t let people walk away.) Better in this world than in the next world.
Exhibit #2: The stooges at Arutz Sheva publishing cheap government propaganda as a “news” story, but forgetting to touch it up a bit so it isn’t 100% obvious.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/414264
In recent days, the IDF has been carrying out logistical and operational preparations ahead of expanded combat operations and the large-scale mobilization of reservists.
Aren’t you excited to go back to Gaza for more? Just in time for the holidays!
As part of the preparations, troops will be provided with combat equipment, personal gear and full tactical equipment, in accordance with their missions.
I promise this is not satire.
To ensure readiness, the Technology and Logistics Directorate is working to create optimal living conditions for the troops.
I’m sure it will be just a notch below the Waldorf Astoria, even if that means cutting into the billions in war profits. They would absolutely never lie to you or fail. And if they do, and you don’t like it, you can go straight to jail or the next carefully laid death trap, your choice.
The serviceability of armored vehicles is being handled by technology and maintenance personnel in the Southern Command…
That’s right, don’t worry about being sent for a ride in ancient Puma’s with defective hatches, and then a mercenary in Gaza somehow knowing he will be able to run right up and dump an explosive down the open hatch, like they knew they would have plenty of time to loot and take selfies on October 7.
The Manpower Directorate is expanding its support for reservists and their families, working to provide as much personal assistance as possible.
That would mean:
A) Giving back all the billions in war profits
B) Raising taxes even more through the roof; or
C) Raising taxes and shafting the peasants anyway
But that promise sounds so encouraging, and they care so much about the reservists and their families, that I am confident they will choose the first option.
The IDF values its reservists, expresses appreciation for their contribution to the security of the state, and will continue to work to ensure proper service conditions and optimal distribution of burdens.
Arutz Sheva forgot to put a quote around this when they copied and pasted this crap from the government press kit. A true journalistic masterpiece.
Exhibit #3 — Ruling from Rabbi Yosef Binyamin HaLevi Wosner regarding vaccines (circa Covid era, but the principles still apply)
Translation:
B"SD
It Is Forbidden to Vaccinate
According to the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De'ah, Chapter 155:1), it is forbidden to take medicine from a non-Jewish doctor, because a non-Jewish doctor is suspected of bloodshed.
However, the Rema writes there that if the doctor fears a financial loss should he administer a deadly drug, only then is it possible to rely on the medicine he provides.
And behold, according to the law of the Supreme Court in the USA, it is not possible to sue the vaccine companies for damages, or even for death caused by the vaccine.
Therefore, according to the law of the Shulchan Aruch, it is forbidden to take vaccines.
According to the Torah, it is a complete and severe prohibition to agree, to assist, or to give a vaccine to children. Anyone who has the power to prevent this suffering is obligated to do so because of the commandment 'Do not stand by the blood of your neighbor' (Leviticus 19:16), and many merits depend on it.
Yosef Binyamin HaLevi Wosner
Rabbi, Head of the Rabbinical Court and Rosh Metivta of Zichron Meir and the holy community of Shevet HaLevi, may G-d protect him, Bnei Brak, may Hashem guard him and keep him alive.
Exhibit #4: A reminder that the great Zionist Kastner assured Hungarian Jews that running to those trains would be great for their health, and warning people not to run to the injections — injections that were clearly shrouded in lies, deceit, and outright murder in the hospitals.
Exhibit #5: Izevel’s table
Can you distinguish between the false prophets and those who speak the truth? Can you pass this simple test?
Can you afford not to?
(Don’t forget to watch the class.)
Visit chananyaweissman.com for the mother lode of articles and books.
Visit rumble.com/c/c-782463 for my Torah classes, Amalek and Erev Rav programs, and much more.
Buy my books on Amazon here or contact me directly to purchase in Israel.
Download Sefer Kibbutz Galuyos pdf here or ePUB here, or buy on Amazon here.
Download Tovim Ha-Shenayim as a PDF for free!
weissmans@protonmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)