THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEAKING ABOUT THE REDEMPTION

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEAKING ABOUT THE REDEMPTION

We have to put God back into reality. We have to create an emotional connection as well as a physical one. This will recreate the reality of a Bais HaMikdosh, and be the merit to finally receive the physical one as well. [Rabbi Pinchas Winston Shlit”a]

The Talmud states:

Rava said: When they bring a person for judgment, they will say to him, “Did you deal faithfully in business? Did you set aside fixed times for Torah study? Did you try to have children? Did you anticipate the redemption?” (Shabbos 31a)

Assuredly, this does not mean ignoring the concept of geulah, even for the sake of other mitzvos, like the all-important mitzvah of learning Torah. On the contrary, the learning of Torah should only make one anticipate geulah that much more, the same way it should enhance one’s love of Eretz Yisroel, and yearning to live there.


Furthermore, Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian, zt”l, wrote in the name of Rav Elchanan Wasserman, zt”l, the following:

I heard in London from the holy Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman, quoting the Chofetz Chaim, that Chazal say the war of Gog and Magog will be threefold. After the First World War, the Chofetz Chaim said that this was the first battle of Gog and Magog, and in about twenty-five years (1942) there would be a second world war, which would make the first one seem insignificant, and then there would be a third battle ... Rav Elchanan concluded that one must suffer the pangs of Moshiach, but the wise man will quietly prepare himself during that time—perhaps he will be worthy of seeing the comforting of Tzion and Yerushalayim. (Leiv Eliyahu, Shemos, page 172)

There are many other sources to this effect, all of which serve to strengthen the point. As well, there are the numerous stories of pre-World War II Torah giants (such as the Chofetz Chaim), and how they lived with the daily reality of an imminent redemption. The following, perhaps, sums up what is lacking from our generation, which, ironically, lives so close to the Final Redemption:

If I could find more colleagues who felt the same . . . we would go out into the fields and demand with prayer and supplication and not return home until the Jewish people received eternal salvation and redemption through the coming of Moshiach Ben Dovid. (Divrei Chaim of Sanz, Beis Shlomo)

And, in the words of the great Chofetz Chaim himself:

Several times a day we request redemption, but requesting is not enough. We must DEMAND redemption, just as a worker demands his salary. For, the halachah is that if he does not, his employer need not pay him that day. (Commentary on the Siddur, section 168)

Finally, the Vilna Gaon put the concept of redemption in these terms, as told by his student:

The purpose of redemption is the true redemption and sanctification of G–D’s Name. According to the words of our prophets and the explanation of our teacher (Vilna Gaon), the goal of our work is the war against Armelius, carried out through the ingathering of the exiles and settling of the Land for the sake of the true redemption and sanctification of G–D’s Name … We don’t need to reach the appointed time (moed), but rather, the moed will come to us—after “Your servants have cherished her stones and favor her dust” (Tehillim 102:14-15) . . . The arrival of the Redeemer depends upon the building of Tzion. (Kol HaTor, Chapter 4:1-3)

The prohibition of calculating the arrival date of Moshiach has been interpreted differently by many rabbis, to name a few:

Ramban (1194-1270): The prohibition of the Talmud only applied to earlier generations; now that we are on the eve of redemption, there is no prohibition (Sefer HaGeulah, Ma’amer 4).

Zohar (1380): It is not G–D’s will that the date of Moshiach’s arrival be revealed to man, but when the date draws near, even children will be able to make the calculation (Bereishis 118a).

Abarbanel (1437-1508): It is forbidden to make the calculation based upon astrology; however, it is permissible to calculate a date based upon Tanach (Maayeni HaYeshuah 1:2).

Vilna Gaon (1720-1797): From here [what I have just written] you can calculate the time of the Final Redemption if, G–D forbid, we do not merit [to bring it earlier]; however, I have imposed an oath, in the name of the G–D of Israel, on the reader of this that he should not reveal it. (Biur HaGR”A, Safra D’Tzniusa, Chapter Five)

Malbim (1809-1879): The situation is like that of a father and son traveling a long distance. As they start out, the son begins to ask when they will arrive, and of course, the father does not answer. However, as they near the town, the son asks the same question, and this time the father readily answers that it is only a short while before they reach their destination. So too it is with us: now that the time is clearly approaching, we cannot help but notice and interpret the signs all around us that tell of the impending geulah … As the time of the keitz grows nearer, the doubts will become smaller, and at the keitz, all doubts will be removed … As the time grows closer, the uncertainty recedes in the wake of the increasingly “abounding wisdom” (Introduction to Daniel).

Source: ThirtySix.org and Rabbi Pinchas Winston Shlit”a

Jews in Government Service

Shoftim and Current Events: Jews in Government Service

Its not too late to hear this message 

from Rabbi Nachman Kahana (thanks to Meir).

Messrs. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, and special envoy to the Middle East, David Friedman, US Ambassador to Israel, and Jason Greenblatt, special envoy for the impossible, are all observant Jews. They are criticized for removing the ubiquitous symbol of our faith - the kippah - when in public (unless the President demanded that they do so, in which case I would prefer not to accept the position).

After airing the usual mundane excuses, the real reason which applies to almost all Jews of the galut is not touched upon. It is this behavior which I wish to discuss.

The monarchy and the Bet Hamikdash

When we reach parashat Shoftim in the yearly cycle of Torah readings, I am always exhilarated by the grandeur of the Jewish state as mandated in the parasha.

The Torah requires that the nation be led by a four-branch system of government: Monarch, Sanhedrin, Kohen Gadol, and Prophet.

     1- The King is charged with administrating civil affairs, including defense and economics.

     2- The Sanhedrin, situated in the “Lishkat Hagazit” (hewn stone chamber) of the Bet Hamikdash, is charged with duties including resolving halachic problems, verifying the authenticity of kohanim to serve in the Bet Hamikdash, and determining if a particular situation warrants the King to wage war for economic or political purposes.

     3- The Kohen Gadol is charged with the functioning of the Bet Hamikdash.

     4- The prevailing prophet, who would receive messages from the spiritual world, was meant for the nation or for the other three branches of power.

This was the Jewish state for the first 410 years from King Shlomo until the reign of King Chizkiyahu, when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and exiled the Jews. After 70 years of galut, Ezra the Scribe rebuilt the Bet Hamikdash, which stood for another 420 years until it was destroyed by Rome.

During the 830-year existence of the two Batei Hamikdash, and the 400 years preceding the first Temple from the time of Yehoshua Bin Nun, we were in control of our national future - for good or for bad. A citizen felt pride in the grandeur of the monarchy and the Bet Hamikdash, which many claim should have been included as one of the wonders of the ancient world.

The Jews were known in every civilized region of the world. We were involved in the international political and spiritual issues of the time.

There was great pride in being a Jew, who 2000 years ago had been already a people with a history reaching back over 1000 years, as in the words of the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to an anti-Semitic member of Parliament, to the effect: “My ancestors had already written the Bible when yours were swinging from trees”.

But this feeling of pride, self-esteem, dignity and honor degenerated into humiliation, mortification and indignity due to the deprecating behavior of the gentiles in whose lands we were forced to live in the 2000 years of galut. There was no form of physical or mental torture and abuse that was not used against our people at the hands of European Christian Esau and the savage Muslim Yishmael. From our sense of being God's chosen people, we evolved into a psychological state of a hunted, persecuted, downtrodden minority with no hope of escaping our fate.

How can our nation view itself when civilized nations turn us into soap after murdering our people in gas chambers? When any gentile can, at will, perform the most dastardly acts to a Jew and be commended for it by his spiritual leaders?

A parable

I offer a short story to explain where we were for the most part of our galut experience:

The body of a young boy was found near the river of a small town in Lithuania on the day preceding Pesach. The small Jewish community knew that that very night there would be a pogrom from which no Jew would survive; when the local goyim would seek revenge for what they imagined was our “using” the blood of a gentile boy for making matzot. The Jews gathered in the bet knesset (synagogue), rent their clothing and recited the Vidui prayer, as one does in anticipation of death. At that moment, the shamash (personal assistant to rabbi and caretaker of a synagogue) came running into the Bet Knesset screaming, “Yiddin, Hashem has made a miracle, we are saved - it was a Jewish boy”.

Inferiority complex

To feel as a minority, is to tread on egg shells lest you arouse the anger and disdain of the goy next door, or your fellow worker in the office or the rider sitting next to you on the train.

This feeling is present even in so-called democratic nations, because we are only tolerated in those lands but never really accepted. A black is an Afro-American, an Asian is a Chinese-American, a Cuban an Hispanic-American; but a Jew is always an American Jew.

Gentiles in the lands of the galut are like matches; as long as they are in the box, there is no fire; but when one rubs them, they ignite. Even when a Jew reaches high office in a foreign land, the whispering behind his back is, “the Jew said”, or “the Jew did”.

Years ago, I was invited to speak at an OU meeting at the Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem. I was to follow the main speaker, Don Kurtzer, the then US Ambassador to Israel. Among his topics, Mr Kurtzer spoke about the US plan of land for peace. His closing remarks were, “I would like to read from the writings of the fathers”, and then began reading from Jefferson, Adams, and others.

My turn came to speak. I said, “Mr. Ambassador. I strongly envy you, because you know who you are - the US Ambassador to the State of Israel. My problem is that I, too, am an ambassador but don’t know whom I represent. There is a discussion in the Talmud as to whether a kohen is Hashem’s ambassador to the Jewish people; or the Jewish people’s ambassador to Hashem. I ended my remarks by saying, “Mr. Ambassador, I too would like to read from the writings of the fathers, and proceeded to read from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) and ended by pointing out that these are our fathers, not Jefferson or Adams.

When I came to Israel, I threw off my minority cloak and quickly and consciously felt for the first time that I was a part of the majority in my homeland. I would speak our holy language as best as I could. I would serve in our army and become as Israeli as best as I could in order to remove the 2000-year-old scars of being a harassed minority.

The cure for the minority burden

Messrs. Kushner, Friedman and Greenblatt are observant Jews who cannot escape the deeply imbedded, uneasy feeling, that among gentiles it is better not to appear overly Jewish.

In my youth in Flatbush we lived in a predominately Italian and Irish neighborhood. At the end of the street, there was a candy store which served as the gathering place for the local rowdies. Often, I was harassed by the teenagers who would start with words like “dirty Jew” and quickly go into shoving and hitting. Never once did I take off my kippah, even when I knew that it would cost me. One day, I alighted from the bus across from the candy store and saw my brother Meir and several of his friends from the Betar organization. They were the three Bieber brothers who were very powerful young men who worked as roofers. I saw Ralph Bieber pick up one of the goyim who had been my constant bully. Ralph held him in the air and then threw him down with a crash. From that time on, I went to the store unharassed.

As long as a Jew remains in the galut, he will have to wear the skin of a minority whether he lives in Flatbush or walks the great halls of the White House.

To be cured of the minority albatross, one must come home and breathe the air of a free Jew in Hashem’s holy land.

The consequences for Jews living in the USA

I once again want to warn my brothers and sisters in the US of a pending disaster, which will bring home the feeling of what it means to be a minority Jew. President Trump is proceeding on a path that will lead to a dramatic increase in the size of the military; the selective service law will return.

Following is part of a message I once sent:

In the near future, we shall see the return of the United States Selective Service Law (draft), to fill the ranks of the military and of the internal security services which are now being set into place. So, instead of young Jewish men coming to study in yeshivot with names such as Hakotel, Netiv Aryeh and Kerem Be’Yavne, and young Jewish women coming to the seminaries of Har Nof, or being accompanied by their parents under the chuppa, the dedicated Yiddishe tattes and mamas will be accompanying their children to the Port Authority Bus Terminal for their children’s trips to camps with names such as Fort Knox, Pendleton, Quantico, Lejeune, and Paris Island.

I recall a poem we learned in high school. It described two soldiers in the First World War who were shooting at each other. One was in the German army and the other in the Russian army - both were Jews. The stanzas revert from the thoughts of one soldier to the other. The German Jew asks Hashem why he has to serve the Kaiser, and the Russian Jew asks Hashem why he has to serve the Czar.

Both take careful aim and mortally wound each other. With their waning strength, they both crawl out to meet the man who is taking away his life. When they are very close, one says, "Sh’ma Yisrael". The other says, "Hashem Elokaynu". And then gripping each other's arms both call out, "Hashem Echad".

So tonight, go into your son’s bedroom and look at him sleeping so peacefully.

Don’t forget to pull up the blankets. You wouldn’t want him to catch cold.

Both Sides . . .

This sums it up!

So, in my estimation, when ‘people’ excoriate the President for his remark about “both sides” they don’t really know what’s happening in America. 
Yaakov Kirschen does.

Parshas Shoftim – I Knew Such a Person

I KNEW SUCH A PERSON

By Roy S. Neuberger

“Tzedek, tzedek tirdof … righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue…” (Dvarim 16:20)

Why is the word “tzedek” repeated? There are many opinions (see Sanhedrin 28a), but the common denominator is that Hashem expects an extra level of righteousness on the part of Am Yisroel. He expects all His children to be righteous, but the Children of Israel are expected to be righteous to a degree of meticulousness at which every action and even thought is scrutinized and analyzed and b’ezras Hashem perfected. Put simply, the survival of the world depends on our observance of “tzedek, tzedek.” And that is the particular avoda of this season of the year. 

I remember reading that the Chofetz Chaim would speak to himself in this vein: “Yisroel Meir … you have to do better on this inyan.” The madreiga was never high enough. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch zt”l defines “righteousness” as “the highest goal, to be striven for purely for itself, to which all other considerations have to be subordinated. The concept …. [which pertains to] all private and public matters [that they be carried out] in accordance with G-d’s Torah is to be kept in the mind of the whole nation. To pursue this goal unceasingly with all devotion is Israel’s one task.” (Parshas Shoftim)

“Israel’s one task!” These are mighty words! 

And the possuk continues, “l’ma’an … so that you shall live and possess the Land that Hashem your G-d, gives you,” about which Rabbi Hirsch says, “the possession of the Land comes into question every minute,” making constant “tzedek … righteousness” a prerequisite for our possession of the Land. 

If we would live like this, our entire existence would be different. 

There are people who live like this. I knew such a person. His name was Rabbi Aaron Mordechai ben R' Shlomo Zalman Brafman, zaicher tzaddik livracha. The news of his petira, erev Shabbos, 19 Av, hit me like a shock wave. I had seen him four days earlier, and he said, “Yisroel, I am not feeling well.” Little did I know that he was already standing at the gateway to Olam HaEmes. 

Although born in America, Rabbi Brafman was an old-world tzaddik, for whom “tzedek, tzedek tirdof” was the only way to live. He did not know how to live without constant, intensive focus on every nekuda of Torah in this world, whether it concerned some distant event or the welfare of a bochur under his care as the legendary menahel of the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway. 

Rabbi Yechiel Perr, the Rosh HaYeshiva, stated that, in almost fifty years of partnership, they never had a fight. Rabbi Brafman was a man of war and a man of peace. He battled without letup for Torah; he let nothing pass that he perceived needed correction, but everything he did he did with derech eretz, peacefully, quietly. 

Decades ago, I was davening shacharis at the Yeshiva when Rabbi Brafman stopped the shaliach tzibbur. He told the bocherim that they had to stop scraping their chairs on the floor when they pushed them under the tables prior to Shemoneh Esreh. He said, “The noise of a hundred chairs scraping the floor is deafening. You can’t hear the shaliach tzibbur! Lift up your chairs and quietly move them forward.” This nekuda changed the entire davening! He taught us derech eretz. He taught us how to “move forward quietly.”

He didn’t expect things to be good; he expected things to be perfect, yet all this was with compassion, with emotion, with exquisite sensitivity, with love. 

Things affected him in the most personal way. If he was bothered by a political event on the other side of the world, he couldn’t live in peace. I can hear him speaking now: “Yisroel, what’s going to be? What’s going to be?” He had no peace if something was amiss. 

Years ago, he had pain in his foot. I recommended a non-Jewish podiatrist in Manhattan. He visited this busy office regularly, and each time he would bring a large box of doughnuts for the entire staff. Of course, they loved him. He was their malach. Rabbi Brafman made friends for Hashem and he made friends for Am Yisroel. Every nekuda was carried out with dignity. And there was never anything in it for him. He never expected anything in return. No kovod. No credit. Only to serve the Ribono shel Olam b’tznius. 

Tzedek, tzedek tirdof! This man carried the world on his shoulders. 

The first time I ever saw Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel zt”l was when he came to speak to the bocherim at the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway, decades ago. I remember how Reb Nosson Tzvi banged away at the shtender. It was not only for emphasis; his terrible illness caused his arms to flail. He would hit the shtender with tremendous force, again and again, and every time he hit the shtender he would cry out, “You have to have a tshuka for Torah!” The arm always came down on the word “tshuka.” I had never heard that word before, but, after that, I could never forget it. 

Rabbi Aaron Mordechai ben R' Shlomo Zalman zt”l had a tshuka for life, a tshuka for Torah, a tshuka for truth, a tshuka to serve Hashem “b’chol levav’cha, b’chol nafshaka, u’v’chol m’odecha.” May he continue his fervent tefillosbefore the Kisai Hakavod and may we see him soon again, on the day of the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdosh for which he longed with all his heart, on the day that Hashem will erase tears from all faces, “and they will say on that day, ‘Behold, this is our G-d. We hoped to Him that He would save us.’” (Yeshiah 25:9)

*          *          *          *

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

© Copyright 2017 by Roy S. Neuberger

Experiencing the Awesomeness of God in Casper, Wyoming

Experiencing the Awesomeness of God in Casper, Wyoming

Totality and living totally in the moment.

Every year my family and I go on a summer road trip. This year we chose to travel to Casper, Wyoming to experience the Totality of the Great American Solar Eclipse, 2 minutes and 26 seconds when the moon totally covers the sun. The temperature drops, the birds go silent, night falls, the stars come out and you have a 360 degree panorama of sunset. It is nothing less than a physical encounter with God.

We viewed the eclipse with a gathering of both veteran and amateur astrologists. These astrologists taught my family more about the universe's planetary system in three hours than we could have otherwise learned in a lifetime.

The tension was mounting as we counted down the seconds to experience the unimaginable. With 80% of the sun being covered by the moon, we could feel the temperatures dropping and the wind picking up. At 90% we could sense the sunlight growing weaker like a winter day in the late afternoon. With a minute to go until Totality we noticed the western horizon darkening as a giant shadow raced towards us. It was impossible to see the leading edge of the 1720 mile-an-hour moon shadow as it engulfed us.

And then all at once the crowd roared “ooh” and “aah” as the moon completely covered the sun in the most spectacular sight I have ever seen in my life.

The moon, physically invisible up until now, was perfectly positioned over the sun as white wispy streams of light poured out of the entire 360° circumference of the sun beyond the edges of the darkened moon. It seemed as if it took up the whole sky.

The stars came out, along with Venus and Saturn. We were living Totality! It was the fastest and most spectacular 2 minutes and 26 seconds of my life.

We didn't want it to end. Like the shofar blast at the end of Yom Kippur Day at the Neilah service when you just want to forever hold onto your breakthrough to God and His loving embrace.
It was a paranormal experience. Despite all my preparation for this instant, it was totally surreal. Everyone around us was in an altered state. Stunned. Euphoric. Holding onto the moment. Even the veteran eclipse chasers were overcome with awe. I felt like I was getting a glimpse of God revealing His presence on Earth.

The astrologists told us that before you go into Totality you have to have a plan. How would you make the most of the 146 seconds? What are you going to see, record, and think? Everybody had to know how to budget their time. Do we do that in life every 146 seconds? Shouldn’t we? Most of the time we don’t use our time this planned out, assuming for sure we will get another 146 seconds, hours, days or months.

I wish I could always be in this state of mind of total reality. No one was daydreaming. Smart phones were out of view.

I also made it a point of saying the Shema. I wanted to lock in this moment forever and anchor it to my relationship with God. I looked at my children and wife, Rochel. They were in their own world trying to process this.

We wanted to grab this for eternity. I will never let this moment go and will always thank God for it. But in truth God gives us Totality every second with all the blessings that fill our lives if we would just stop and consider.

Today God gave us a rare gift from on high. I hope to take it with me to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, into my Sukkah, and for the rest of my life!

I want every day to be Totality with my Creator. I want to be aware. I never want to daydream, rather to be excited by life always. I want to be striving for things that are so important and meaningful that pettiness and disappointment have no space in my mind.

The eclipse taught me that you can have the sun, moon and earth on different orbits and in a rare synchronistic moment, they create a phenomenon that seems beyond probability.

So too in our lives when we are challenged and trying to solve so many dilemmas. After much effort the moving pieces all come together in a harmonious solution that is beyond our imagination. In fact, sometimes we look back on our lives and come to realize that certain situations have resolved themselves, eclipsing the issue we were so worried about.

Isn’t that the ultimate message of the Days of Awe? At-one-moment – atonement! 

May you too reach Totality in your life.

Source: Article from Aish.com, by Rabbi Aryeh Markman

"The World Belongs to the One Whose Words Created it. . ."

"Just like I believe that G-d will help us with diplomatic issues, I believe G-d will help us deal with the LGBT issues. Human history has seen dark periods like this, and no one thought there was any chance of fighting, so they capitulated. But there were those who stood strong, did not get confused, and at the end, they won out.

"They will win today, too, because the world belongs to the One whose words created it, to the One who runs it. The world does not belong to the media who are praising Naftali (Bennett - ed.) for his courage and enlightenment.”




Source: MK Bezalel Smotrich

The Tunisian Synagogue in Acco

The Tunisian Synagogue in Acco by Rick and Grace Knelsen. 

The synagogue is literally covered in mosaics, boasting hundreds of millions of natural stones from all over Israel.

Meir Ettinger and Friends – “They abuse a person for no reason”

On August 12, Meir indicated that he foresaw arrests coming. 
“This is probably the week I will be arrested.”

TimesofIsrael reports:  Following a recent spike in administrative orders signed by the defense minister to prevent settler violence, a group of young far-right activists are beginning to deliberately disobey decrees against them, Channel 2 reported Tuesday.

Four of the youths have recently been detained for violating administrative orders, which can include detention, bans from entering the entire West Bank, bans on contacting certain individuals, or nighttime house arrest, the report said.

The Defense Ministry, under the advisement of the Shin Bet security service and Israel Police, has signed off on the practice, arguing that it has helped substantially diminish the amount of hate crimes, notably “price-tag” attacks. The latter refers to offenses ostensibly carried out in retaliation for Israeli policies that are seen as unfriendly to radical settlers.

But the young activists being pursued once again by the Shin Bet with the newest batch of some 30 administrative orders argue that their rights are being trampled since they do not receive due process.

Among the four far-right activists currently in prison for violating a renewed administrative order is Moshe Shahor.

“They abuse a person for no reason,” he said of the Israeli security forces during a Channel 2 interview. “[These orders] are not for half-a-year, but for long periods. I, for example, have received administrative orders lasting for three-and-a-half years. If you think that I did something, then indict me.”

Shahor’s attorney Itamar Ben Gvir said the Shin Bet’s tactics go well beyond what is proportional and are anti-democratic. “When you make such sweeping and arbitrary orders, in the end it explodes back at you like a boomerang,” 

“As part of the efforts to thwart violent and extreme terrorist activity in recent months, administrative restrictions have been issued against key activists in order to prevent them from carrying out activities against Palestinians and security forces,” the Shin Bet told Channel 2.

The Spiritual Aspects of Tzedaka

The Spiritual Aspects of Tzedaka

This is one of the Middos that are necessary during these End of Days. The other is Talmud Torah.

The Next Solar Eclipse in 2024: A Startling Message for the World

The Next Solar Eclipse in 2024: A Startling Message for the World

The mystical meaning of the next eclipse which is only seven years away.

Amazingly enough, the “totality eclipse” which took place this past Monday across the continental United States was not the end of the story. While eclipses of this magnitude are fairly rare occurrences – scientists tell us that if you stood in one place on earth you would have to wait on average another 360 years until you again saw another total eclipse – this time round is going to be different. A sequel is due a mere seven years later, on April 8, 2024.

This proximity of time is almost beyond belief. It defies law of averages. It means that anyone who might have missed the blackout of the sun this year will have another opportunity to join the millions who shared viewing this magnificent cosmic performance on August 21 of this year.

But there’s something even more remarkable about this “double feature.”

The path of the eclipse in 2017 went from Northwest to Southeast, from Oregon to South Carolina. It reached its point of greatest duration a few miles south of Carbondale, Illinois. Totality lasted for two minutes and thirty-eight seconds. In 2024 the eclipse will wend its way in the opposite direction, from the Northeast to the southwest. There is one point however which will mark the intersection between this year’s eclipse and the one to come, the meeting of the two different paths across the United States, as if marking the center of a large X. It is precisely in the very same spot in Illinois where totality – the complete eclipse of the sun – will be repeated for the greatest length of time. That exact point where the 2017 and 2024 lines of totality cross is Cedar Lake in Jackson County, just south of Carbondale.

And here is the spooky part.

That geographic location has a name. 

It is called Little Egypt!

How it got its name has a biblical source. It seems that in the mid-19th century there was a famine in northern Illinois. Thankfully, there was a bountiful harvest in the South. So the people in the North said that they felt themselves like the children of Jacob who in a time of famine were forced to go down to Egypt to seek food for their families – and the Carbondale region which saved their lives became known to this day as Little Egypt.

If you believe, as I do, that coincidences are but God’s way of choosing to remain anonymous and that they carry great significance as divinely inspired messages, it surely bears noting the remarkable link between the story of our original exile to Egypt and the “X marks the spot” Little Egypt location of the rare dual eclipses of our decade.

There is an all-important number associated with the Torah account of the Egyptian exile. It was in a prophecy to Abraham that God informed our patriarch of the time that would first bring darkness to his descendants: "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" (Genesis 15:13).

A solar eclipse is predicated on that very number. The sun, as the Bible told us, is larger than the moon: “And God made the two great luminaries: the large luminary to rule the day and the small luminary to rule the night…” (Genesis 1:15).] To be exact we know that the sun is exactly 400 times larger than the moon. How is it possible for the moon, so much smaller, to cover the sun to our eyes in an eclipse? That is because the sun is also 400 times further from us than the moon – a relationship of distance exactly parallel to that of size!

In the mystic tradition of Kabbalah the number 400 is meant to alert us to special meaning. It is the number 40 – the days Moses spent on mount Sinai, the days of the flood, and a host of other spiritually important moments – brought to the tenth power.

The relationship between the sun and the moon and the years predicted for the Egyptian exile share the number 400 so that we be attentive to a powerful divine message. An eclipse, the Talmud teaches us, is a heavenly sign. An eclipse of the moon, the rabbis tell us, is a bad omen for the Jewish people; an eclipse of the sun is a bad sign for the non-Jewish world. I dare to suggest that an eclipse across the continental United States of America linked to Little Egypt may well serve as a warning to the darkening of the American spirit – for the very same reason the children of Israel ended up in Egypt of old to shortly begin the era of their slavery.

The children of Jacob were guilty of a serious crime. It was the sin of hatred between brothers. It was the crime of the sale of Joseph which led to our first exile. That is what first darkened the pages of our national history as Jews. And that is what, post Charlottesville, darkens the story of American democracy. The cover of this week’s Time magazine carries the ominous headline “Hatred Across America”. More than a century after the Civil War, Americans are at war with each other – and after a little more than half a century past the Holocaust the barbaric cries of Nazi anti-Semitism and “let’s replace the Jews” are also incredibly again heard in our land.

If an eclipse does in fact have divine meaning, this must be a wake-up call. Little Egypt speaks to contemporary America just as ancient Egypt did for us as Jews throughout the ages. Egypt with either adjective, little or ancient, has always served as a tragic lesson for the consequences of enmity between brother and brother, between human beings all created in the same image of God.

In an eclipse, the sun continues to shine even if we are temporarily blinded to the rays of its goodness. God has not deserted us, nor will He ever do so. Eclipses are not curses; they are but warnings.

If we but heed their message, we may turn the eclipses of 2017 and 2024 into the blessings for which they were divinely intended.

Source: by Rabbi Benjamin Blech, Aish.com 

Sample of the Progression in the Eclipse of 2017 UPDATE BELOW

Some links I went to did not work, and the scene did not come in, after some searching I found a very good site:

This is called “White Light"

This is called "Calcium K"

CNN has a nice video:

 

This is the TOTALITY

WSO did manage to collect some good shots of the eclipse:

Meir Ettinger – 'ולא יכלו דברו לשלום’ 12/08/2017

'ולא יכלו דברו לשלום'

'מה העניינים?', 'וואלה סבבה', 'חוזר לירושלים?', 'לא יודע עדיין'. הסתובבתי אחורה והספקתי לראות בלש מצלם...

• מאיר אטינגר 
 
• כ' אב תשע"ז - 22:02 12/08/2017

קצת לפני סוף יום העבודה, שלוש וחצי כזה, רפאל התקשר. הוא עושה התוועדות-חפלה לכבוד היום הולדת שלו בבית של ההורים. ניגונים והתחזקויות וקצת דיבורים מרבנו. מה זה בא לי ללכת, יבש כאן בעבודה, אין חיות.

בשומרון לעבוד זה סיפור אחר, כל החבר'ה ביחד צוחקים, נהנים, בארוחת צהריים דברי תורה, שיחות הר"ן התחזקויות.

מאז ההרחקה אני נזרק מאתר לאתר, אפילו לעבוד ביחד אנחנו לא יכולים. עד שאתה שומע על איזה קבלן שמחפש עובדים, אתה מגלה שאיזה חבר שיש לך איסור יצירת קשר אתו כבר עובד אצלו, וצריך לחפש עבודה אחרת.

אולי אתם לא יודעים. אז איסור יצירת קשר זה צו מנהלי שאתה מקבל, ורשומה לך רשימה של אנשים שמרגע זה אסור לך לדבר איתם או להיפגש אתם. אם תופסים אותך באותו חדר איתם, אתה תגמור בכלא.

מה זה בא לי ללכת... אבל זה קצת סיכון, עם רפאל מרשים לי לדבר, אבל בטוח שגם יצחק ונחמיה יבואו. את נחמיה בכלל לא הכרתי לפני שרשמו לי אותו בצו, אחד מתוך 29 אנשים שאסור לי לדבר איתם לחצי השנה הקרובה.

רק אתמול עצרו את דוד ביציאה מהמקווה, בלשים צילמו אותו שלשום בפתח של הכולל כשיצא לשתות קפה עם רפאל לחצי דקה, היום בבוקר הוא קיבל בבית משפט מעצר עד תום ההליכים, ולא בא לי עכשיו כלא לחצי שנה. עוד שבועיים יש בת מצווה לאחותי, ואימא שלי תהרוג אותי אם אני ייעצר.

אבל תכל'ס אי אפשר להיות ככה כל היום בבית לבד, אם אני יישאר כל הזמן לבד אני ירקב, חייבים קצת שיחת חברים, להתחזק ביחד. 

מה יש לעשות? שמתי קפוצ'ון, אמרתי כמה פרקי תהילים ונסעתי להתוועדות. מזל שהגעתי, היתה התחזקות רצינית, וגם לא מעט צחוקים, למדנו תורה כ"ב בליקוטי מוהר"ן, אבל היה מבאס בגלל דוד, מסכן מה שעובר עליו עכשיו, זרוק באיזה תא מסריח במגרש הרוסים.

באמצע אבא של רפאל נכנס ואמר שהוא הגיע מהשוק וראה שוטרים מסתובבים סביב הבית עם מצלמות, סגרנו את כל הווילונות שלא יוכלו לצלם, והמשכנו ללמוד, אם הם יפרצו לבית, הלך עלינו.

וואי כבר תשע וחצי, אני חייב לעוף למעצר בית, נצא בבודדים,  בהפרשים של חמש דקות בין אחד לשני. ככה זה החיים בהרחקה. כאילו מה עשינו? ישבנו, למדנו. תכל'ס אני לפעמים בטוח שזה רוסיה כאן, הם משוגעים לגמרי, וכולם שותקים.

איך שעליתי לרכבת הקלה, ראיתי בקרון האחרון את אפרים. וואלה, לא ראיתי אותו איזה שנה, היה לו עד לא מזמן גם הרחקה מירושלים, והוא עלה לצפון, עבד שם באיזה חווה, אבל נראה לי שהוא ברשימה שלי, לא לגמרי בטוח, מסוכן מדי לדבר ברכבת הקלה, תכל'ס אני מתגעגע אליו. הוא קלט אותי, עשה לי כזה שלום עם העיניים, כנראה שאני בצו שלו.

בתחנה של התחנה המרכזית הרכבת די התרוקנה, לא עמדתי בפיתוי הלכתי אליו:

- 'מה העניינים?'

- 'וואלה סבבה'

- 'חוזר לירושלים?'

- 'לא יודע עדיין'

הסתובבתי אחורה והספקתי לראות בלש מצלם...

זהו, כנראה בשבוע הקרוב אני יעצר. ד"ש לכולם, אני אוהב את הארץ הזאת ויתגעגע אליה. אין דבר טוב לשבת בכלא בגלל אהבת הארץ. אבל הכי באסה שאם אני כבר הולך לכמה חודשים לכלא, לפחות הייתי עושה משהו רציני, משהו שיועיל לעם ישראל.

   (ENGLISH TRANALATION (Google

Just before the end of the day, three and a half, Raphael called. He makes a banquet for his birthday at the parents' house. Nigunim and reinforcements and a little talk from Rabbeinu. What does it feel like to walk, dry here at work, no animals.

Working in Shomron is another story, all the guys together laugh, enjoy, at lunch, words of Torah, the Ran's conversations strengthen.

Since the exclusion I was thrown from site to site, even working together we can not. Until you hear about a contractor looking for workers, you find that some friend you have a ban on contacting is already working for him, and you have to look for another job.

Maybe you do not know. So the prohibition of contacting you is an administrative order that you receive, and you have a list of people from whom you should not talk to them or meet with them. If they catch you in the same room with them, you'll end up in jail.

What does it feel like to go ... but it's a bit of a risk, with Raphael allowing me to talk, but it's certain that both Yitzhak and Nehemiah will come. I did not know Nechemia before they wrote it to me by order, one of the 29 people I should not talk to for the next six months.

Only yesterday they arrested David at the exit of the mikvah. Detectives filmed him the day before yesterday at the entrance to the kollel when he went out to have coffee with Raphael for half a minute. Today he received a detention court until the end of proceedings. In two weeks there is a bat mitzvah for my sister, and my mother will kill me if I stop.

But it's impossible to be like that all day at home alone, if I stay alone all the time I'll rot, have a little bit of friends talk, get stronger together.

What should be done? I put on a hoodie, said a few Psalms and went to a meeting. I was lucky to have arrived, there was a serious strengthening, and quite a few laughs, we learned Torah in the Likutei Moharan, but he would have sued David, who endangers what he is going through now, thrown in some stinking cell in the Russian Compound.

In the middle of Raphael's father he came in and said that he had come from the market and saw policemen walking around the house with cameras, we closed all the curtains so they could not take pictures, and we continued to study if they broke into the house.

Wai's already nine-thirty, I have to fly to house arrest, we'll go out alone, five minutes apart. That's how life goes. Like what we did? We sat down, we learned. Sometimes I'm sure it's Russia here, they're crazy, and they're all silent.

As I boarded the light train, I saw Ephraim in the last car. I did not see him for a year, he had until recently been removed from Jerusalem, and he went up to the north, worked there on some farm, but I think he's on my list, not quite sure, too dangerous to speak on the light train. He caught me, made me feel so good with the eyes, I guess I'm in his order.

At the central station station the train was empty, I could not resist the temptation I went to:

- 'What's up?'

- 'Walla Sababa'

- 'Return to Jerusalem?'

- 'Do not know yet'

I turned around and saw a detective taking pictures ...

This is, probably this week I will be arrested. There is nothing good to sit in jail because of love for the country, but the worst is that if I have been going to jail for a few months, at least I would have done something serious, something that would benefit the people of Israel.