Rabbi Weissman — Moles and Mosrim Part 8 (Part 1)

The previous parts are available on Dangerous Docs and on my site beginning with part one here.  We did the hard work of bringing this information to the community, which the fake, sold-out Jewish media failed to do and continues to ignore.  Now the ball is in your court.  What are you going to do?

Moles and Mosrim in Brooklyn – Part Eight

On February 23, 2022 the Boro Park Jewish Community Council (BPJCC) staff and consultant David Rubel presented a “Partner Engagement Plan”, as part of their contractual arrangement with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). It is available here. Since they tend to couch their true intentions in buzzwords, euphemisms, and mumbo-jumbo, we will translate from Forked Tongue to plain English. 

The BPJCC, who had been awarded more than a million dollars in grants to serve as government moles in the Orthodox Jewish community, planned to “engage” with more than two dozen prominent Jewish organizations, institutions, rabbis, politicians, and businesses to do the government's bidding while pretending to be serving the people. The plan was to collaborate with them to gather intelligence on the community, “target” various populations with government-approved Covid propaganda, and, most of all, convince their trusting constituents to take the accursed Covid shots. 

Those being “engaged” were referred to as “stakeholders”, a vague corporate term that essentially refers to those who have a vested interest. The vested interest of those engaged by the BPJCC is not difficult to surmise: financial rewards and the good graces of those in the halls of power.

Conspicuously absent from the list of stakeholders, despite being strongly affected by the decisions being made on their behalf, was the general public. They were instead referred to as “targeted populations”.
Each stakeholder was assigned a “Potential role in the activity”, an “Engagement strategy”, a “Follow-up strategy” for sharing data and lessons learned, a “Priority Population Targeted”, and a level of priority for their activities. We will comment on some items of particular interest.

We must also note that merely being on this list is not evidence that the “stakeholder” in question actually collaborated with the BPJCC. We do know for certain that many of them pushed the Covid agenda – they did so loudly and proudly – but it is quite possible that some of them quietly demurred. The Partner Engagement Plan is just that – a plan.
The first listed stakeholder was Ami Magazine. Although Ami was the only media company mentioned in this document, the BPJCC explicitly mentioned Mishpacha, Wellsprings, and the Flatbush Jewish Journal as potential strategic partners, as discussed in parts 3 and 6 of this series. 

The "engagement strategy" for Ami was to "Provide a culturally sensitive and well-respected outlet for the community to gain information as to where to access public health resources. Partner with a writer from our community to put together sensitive public health articles that will speak to this community."
In plain English: Leverage the community's trust in Ami as a “kosher” magazine to spread tailored propaganda (described by the BPJCC as “correct public health information”). This government propaganda would come under the guise of general content from a regular contributor to Ami, who would serve as a covert missionary.

Notice how they always frame their devious, malicious activities as if they are providing a service to the community. If you take their words at face value, the Orthodox Jews in New York simply needed help "to gain information as to where to access public health resources". Really? They had no idea? And they needed an extremely well-funded, covert, deeply insidious government campaign to supply them with this information? 
On a certain level, though, it's an impressive feat to get paid not only by those producing propaganda but those receiving it. 

The next stakeholder was Bikur Cholim Chesed Organization Guardians of the Sick. They provide disabled people and home-bound seniors with meals. The BPJCC envisioned them delivering those meals with a side of Covid propaganda. Considering the carnage caused by the Covid shots, one wonders if this vulnerable population needs guardians from the guardians.
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel, was the first individual mentioned. His potential role was to “provide backing to the BPJCC's CDG [Covid Disparities Grant] health initiative so that the community can trust in and accept our mission and leadership.” The plan was for Zwiebel to join their advisory committee, and “also send letters to the schools and synagogues endorsing this program”. 

Why was this endorsement assumed? On what was it to be based?
If you still believe that “rabbinic endorsements” are the product of rabbis delving into the Torah and a pressing issue without being swayed by outside pressure or a conflict of interest, and arriving at an independent, informed, sincere conclusion, which is then communicated in a way that truly informs and teaches the public, it's high time you woke up and smelled the sewage. It stinks.

The follow-up strategy was for Zwiebel to “attend in-person and virtual monthly meetings and discuss how Agudath Israel will help encourage the community to better take care of their health”. 
Quitting smoking, eating a healthy diet, exercising, and getting enough sleep were not what they had in mind. Abstaining from unnecessary, dangerous pharmaceutical products was most definitely not what they had in mind.
The next two individual “stakeholders” were Senator Simcha Felder and Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein. In the words of the BPJCC, “The community trusts the senator and therefore is more receptive to anything that has his endorsement. Having senator Felder endorse our program to the community will help us a lot”. Eichenstein was to play a similar role. 

Both politicians had already been pushing the shots. One example from Felder can be found here. Eichenstein had already collaborated with Hatzalah; see this nauseating bit of propaganda, in which the accursed shots were equated with the splitting of the sea.

JOWMA was on the list, of course. BPJCC would “utilize the existing content from JOWMA” (all of which has since been removed from the JOWMA website, as it aged like fine vinegar). “We will also partner with them for their Podcast and help publicize it. Included in all health messaging will be the JOWMA hotline so that community members can speak to a trained professional at any time regarding their health concerns.” Trained professional medical propagandists, that is.
The next “stakeholder” is another example of how deeply insidious this operation was. “Yad Efraim provides kosher food to families of patients in the hospital...Initial meeting with Yad Efraim on how to use their data to encourage community members to be more COVID-19 mindful so they don't end up where they need to utilize the Yad Efraim's services.”

That sounds almost like a Mafia threat. Better take your Covid shots. You wouldn't want to wind up in the hospital needing Yad Efraim to deliver food to you, would you?

In previous parts, mainly part three, we discussed the plan to infiltrate the yeshivos with Covid and vaccine propaganda in the guise of a science curriculum. This was to begin at stakeholder Bnos Jerusalem of Belz with a trial run. “Upon positive feedback, we will have further meetings to discuss developing a full curriculum and implementing it within this school. We will also discuss if they can refer and endorse the curriculum to other schools.” 
We noted that this curriculum would be promoted to other schools via the Yeshiva Principals Association. You might have wondered what this association is. Probably an initiative to unite yeshivos in support of improvements to their yeshiva curriculum, right?

Wrong. As described in a 2017 article about a “Yeshiva Education Expo” organized by the Yeshiva Principals Association, they work “to unite yeshivos in support of improvements to secular curriculum”.

Guess who was the executive director of the Yeshiva Principals Association?

(continued 8.5 Final)

Rabbi Weissman: Moles and Mosrim Part 7

There will be one more part to this series.  Honestly, I'm disgusted and want to be done with it already.  I hope the community rises up in outrage and revolts against all those who betrayed them.  Otherwise, there's little point in all this except to document the meekness and impotence of our generation.

Moles and Mosrim in Brooklyn – Part Seven

In January of 2022 the Boro Park Jewish Community Council (BPJCC), which had been approved for more than a million dollars in government grant money to promote the Covid agenda in heavily Orthodox zip codes, submitted a "Community Health Needs Assessment". This was followed with a "Partner Engagement Plan" on February 23 and a "Health Equity Action Plan" on March 7. These materials were all prepared by BPJCC staff and consultant David Rubel.

We examined snippets of these documents in previous parts of this series. It's time to see them in their entirety. You – the subjects of their intelligence-gathering, covert research, tailored propaganda, and relentless efforts to manipulate you into taking the accursed Covid shots – deserve to know it all.

The assessment and action plan have been combined and uploaded here. (The Partner Engagement Plan will be shared in the next and final part.) Take the time to study them. The Judenrat who prepared it sure took their time studying you.

The Community Health Needs Assessment provided a wealth of data about the "targeted" zip codes in Brooklyn, with an emphasis on the Orthodox Jewish population. The BPJCC had spent the previous weeks gathering intelligence about the community in order to tailor its upcoming propaganda campaign.

Organizations that ostensibly serve the community, including Hamaspik services for people with significant physical and mental disabilities, Masbia Food Pantry Agudath Yisroel Community Services and Workforce Development, Tomchei Shabbos, Boro Park Y, Ezra Medical Center, Maimonides Medical Center, and Council of Peoples Organizations (COPO) serving the South Asian immigrant communities were all listed as "resources and assets".

In other words, these "assets" could be leveraged to spread government-sponsored Covid propaganda.

The BPJCC held a series of discussions with "stakeholders and focus groups" to gather information on why people were resistant to taking the Covid shots, and formulate a strategy on how to overcome this resistance. For example, when people expressed concerns about myocarditis and effects on fertility, the BPJCC internally referred to these most reasonable concerns as "misconceptions about basic COVID-19 public health information" (page 8).

This was described as "targeting vaccination-resistant populations with myth-busting information", their very first "community health priority". The government's official position, slavishly adopted by the BPJCC, was that those who harbored any concerns about Covid shots or vaccines might as well believe in fairies, and were a menace to the health of others. They were to be targeted and have their unacceptable beliefs busted.

This warlike language appears throughout the materials. Despite their heavy reliance on euphemisms to kosher up their malicious activities, the contempt they have for concerned citizens who don't blindly trust the establishment is barely concealed.

Naturally, none of this was shared in their "listening sessions" with community members. The purpose of these sessions was to pretend to care about participants while coldly gathering intelligence. The only interest the BPJCC had in hearing people's concerns was to convince them that they were unfounded and to take the shots anyway.

And if those concerns turned out to be warranted? Tough.

The BPJCC also collaborated extensively with JOWMA, the shady, Orthodox-in-name-only front group that had spent years insinuating vaccine propaganda and messages that are antithetical to the Torah into the Orthodox world. As the BPJCC described it, "JOWMA has been at the forefront of promoting the COVID-19 vaccine in Orthodox Jewish communities in the tri-state area. JOWMA offered that the BPJCC can use its expertise with culturally sensitive messaging as the CDG [Covid Disparities Grant] projects gets going."

Expertise with culturally sensitive messaging. Goebbels would have been proud.

The March 7 Community Covid-19 Health Equity Action Plan outlined a detailed strategy to flood Orthodox Jewry with tailored propaganda. The BPJCC planned to enlist "highly regarded religious and community leaders" and "work with these leaders to counter the misinformation", by which they meant any information that might cause "resistance" to the Covid shots.

The first of five long-term "outcomes" was to "increase vaccine confidence and acceptance in the Haredi Jewish community" and provide them with "a greater objective understanding" of "why getting vaccinated is the only effective strategy for lowering the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths".

Objective indeed.

The third was the ubiquitous goal to "build trust". As we noted previously, people who are honest and transparent do not fret about "building trust". They don't think of it at all. Why would they? After all, there is no better strategy for getting people to trust you than by telling the truth consistently. You know, actually being trustworthy.

The snakes pushing the Covid shots and related items worry a great deal about building trust. It consumes them. This is why they intensively research their "targets" – so they can learn which buttons to push and how best to push them, to use guile and deception to build artificial relationships, to lure people into trusting them, and then to manipulate them.

If some of their targets suffer horrific injuries or death, tough on them. The main thing is that everyone else continues to trust.

These snakes are the ultimate con artists, with unfathomable money and resources devoted to "building trust" and controlling their targets. The Boro Park Jewish Community Council's action plan stated this goal in more benign terms: "By building a trusting relationship based on tangible benefit, clients will be more receptive to hearing about how they can help minimize the spread of COVID-19 including getting vaccinated."

In other words, we will provide services to the community for the express purpose of tricking them into trusting us, and then getting them to take Covid shots.

Anyone who refuses to see the ugly reality staring them in the face is a reckless fool, and it is difficult to feel sorry for such people at this point. How much clearer can it be?

Another goal was to infiltrate yeshivos. "A COVID-19 prevention curriculum will be introduced. Students in grades five to eight will have a stronger knowledge foundation of the science underlying contagious diseases including COVID-19." This was framed as "helping local nonpublic yeshiva schools".

The strategy for implementing this was described as follows: "BPJCC will bring together a group of yeshiva school principals and teachers to strategize on improving classroom instruction on how the science of infectious disease, contagion prevention and vaccines."

Conspicuously absent were the religious parents who chose private education for their children specifically to avoid foreign curriculums and agenda-driven "science". They were not to be consulted about this covert act of benevolence, this improvement of classroom instruction. Parents were an obstacle to be sidestepped. They were to be kept in the dark while the government and its Judenrat inside the community collaborated on indoctrinating the children.

The action plan contained many other interesting items, but most of these were covered in previous articles. The reader is encouraged to review the material in its original form. Let it sink in how your leaders betrayed you, how your trust was violated, how organizations across the spectrum collaborated to sell you out. They created programs and offered you services not because they care about you, but as a carefully planned ruse to win your trust and get you to take accursed shots. Everything about them was fake.

The action plan concluded with a "special consideration", which sums it up best: "Our challenge is how to best communicate with a community that has shown deep resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine."

"Communicate" is a fine euphemism for what they were really doing. Since communication should be a two-way street, perhaps the Orthodox community should communicate a strong message to the BPJCC, the DOHMH, and all the many other missionaries, prostitutes, moles, and mosrim within and without:

Your services are no longer required. Your assistance is no longer needed. Your presence is no longer welcome. If you ever go near our children or our communities again you will see what deep resistance really is. And, one way or another, you will pay for what you did.

In the next and final part we will share their Partner Engagement Plan with the lengthy list of "stakeholders". After all, as the saying goes, know thy enemy.

To be continued.

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Rabbi Weissman — Yeshiva University and MatchMaking

Yeshiva University is teaming up with a premier matchmaking service to help its students find love. YU's Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) had previously partnered with matchmaking website Saw You At Sinai. However, in light of recent changes to student demographics and new understandings of Orthodoxy, a bold new vision was needed.

Enter Saw You At Sodom. 

“We recognized that many of our students' needs were not being met,” said Billy Ya'al, Executive Director of Yeshiva University's new shidduch service. “YU's partnership with Saw You At Sodom reflects our commitment to equity and diversity.”

But this will be much more than a matchmaking service. The Center for the Jewish Future will be offering a series of workshops to tackle the challenges of finding a partner in today's complex Orthodox world. Leading rabbis and professionals will explore a wide range of topics, including the following:

• Should gay people be allowed and encouraged to sit on the other side of the mechitza so they can pray without distractions, like everyone else? Is the old model outdated? A halachic discussion.

• Is it appropriate to ask out your chavrusa directly, or should you find a shadchan to suggest it? Can shteiging and shtupping go together? A panel discussion.

• What if a Rebbe/student relationship becomes a different kind of relationship? Are we ready?

• Gavra or Cheftza: How do you know if there is serious potential or if it's just for fun? Dating coaches weigh in.

“It's about time,” said Andrew Lamosya, President of the Student Pride Club. “We deserve the same opportunity to love and be loved, and a partnership with Saw You At Sodom will help right the injustice of matchmaking discrimination on campus.”

We also spoke to several single LGBTQ+ students who wished to remain anonymous for shidduch purposes. 

“It's so hard to meet a good man,” said one gay student. “There just aren't enough good guys out there. And they all have lists.”

Many students agreed, but were unsure what could be done. “It's God's fault,” said one who identified as Orthodox rainbow. “But we're working to create a larger dating pool for ourselves and our children. With the right education and messaging, the next generation will have it much easier.”

None of YU's Roshei Yeshiva were available for comment. However, YU's Office of the President released a statement that all Yeshiva faculty were committed to helping students love their neighbors and be loved – however their bodies and souls desire.

Not all students were satisfied with YU's partnership with Saw You At Sodom. “They should change the name of RIETS to RIGHTS,” said a rabbinical student. “I'm also tired of hearing about separating sinners from sin. It's not a sin to exist and to love. It doesn't say that in the Torah.”

One administrator commented on condition of anonymity. “Some rabbis expressed concern about the changing environment, but there won't be any serious opposition. We pay their schar in this world.”

Overall, however, there was a celebratory mood on campus. Many students were busy filling out their shidduch profiles. “Mishmar and mishkav zachor,” offered one. “The best of both worlds.”

Considering how the winds are blowing, Yeshiva University and Saw You at Sodom are a perfect shidduch. 

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*   *   *

Rabbi Michoel Green's Family Under Assault

Why Doctors Are Lying to You

Judicial Watch Uncovers HHS Records Revealing a Propaganda Campaign to Push the COVID-19 Shot

Injustice Supreme . . . Rabbi Green & Family Under Attack

 We must support him!

Rabbi Kahana — SUKKOT

 

BS”D Sukkot 5783

by Rabbi Nachman Kahana | Oct 7, 2022

AN ALLEGORY

Reb Yisrael and his sons erected their sukkah adjacent to the kitchen door of their palatial home in one of the Five Towns, as they had done for many years, in the past.

But this year was different. Reb Yisrael had just learned from his rabbi that one of the reasons for residing temporarily in a sukkah is in case one’s destiny was decided on Rosh HaShana to be expulsion into galut, the departure from the comforts of home into the sukkah could be considered to be that galut.

Reb Yisrael, his wife and children left the warm comforts of their beautiful home and entered the sukkah with the knowledge that by taking up temporary residence therein, they would be absolved of any galut-related sins.

As the family continued to reside in the sukkah, they got so used to the pleasant smell of the sechach (branches used to roof the sukkah) and the pretty pictures on the walls and the overhanging decorations, that they decided to remain there after the chag!

Even though they were able to peer into their permanent home with its luxurious amenities, electrical gadgets, and state-of-the-art under-floor heating units, thick hanging drapes, lush carpets and much more, they showed no interest in returning there.

As odd as it may seem, the family became accustomed to the crowded, cold interior of the sukkah. Their relatives and neighbors tried to point out the irrationality of what they were doing, but the very idea that this was galut did little to encourage the family to return home.

When their rabbi came to visit, it was surprising that he encouraged them to remain in the sukkah rather than to return home, because it was in the sukkah that the family felt comfortable and closely knit.

In the meantime, several strangers noticed that the previously brightly lit home was vacant, and they decided to move in as if it were indeed their own!

Reb Yisrael and his wife and children saw the strangers living in the house; but in veneration for the sukkah, they stubbornly bonded with the thin walls and dried-out sechach and refused to leave.

The whole thing was so absurd. To leave such a beautiful home for the feeble, fallible construction of the sukkah, despite the fact that their beautiful home was beckoning them to return was beyond the understanding of any rational person.

Then came the stones thrown by the local anti-Semites who wanted to rid the neighborhood of “this sukkah eye-sore”, but Reb Yisrael and his family dodged them one by one and steadfastly remained in their fragile dwelling, rationalizing these acts as irrelevant nuisances.

Then came the terrible night when one-third of the sukkah was torched by the local bullies.

Reb Yisrael and his family were aware of what was happening, but their minds had become so warped that no amount of reasoning could move them. To them the sukkah was home and their home was galut.

Eventually the sukkah came crashing down, killing Reb Yisrael and his entire family in their beloved galut!

 

If you haven’t caught on by now, let me explain:

The beautiful palatial home is Eretz Yisrael; the sukkah represents all the countries to where the Jews were and are still in exile (galut). The “rabbi” who encouraged the family to remain in the sukkah represents the religious leaders who encourage their followers to remain in the galut, including those leaders who passively do not encourage Aliyah. The story ends with the destruction of the sukkah and the death of its residents.

The Kotel in Jerusalem during Sukkot.

 

Sukkot in Jerusalem

Shabbat Shalom & Chag Samai’ach!

Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5783/2022 Nachman Kahana

One Disappointment After Another . . . Buses on Shabbos!

ONE:  The government does not realize or care that decent honorable citizens are totally abhorred by the mis–treatment and torturing of Amiel ben Uliel and the subsequent inhuman conditions of his imprisonment.

This reveals an anti–Jewish and perverted legal system identical, or even more despotic, than the worst countries in the world. How this became the twisted norm of a country’s inhuman legal system is difficult to understand. A country that professes to represent Jews after thousands of years of emptiness and desert sand, could be turning into its antithesis.

TWO:  It’s not enough that the medical system has turned into a fearful place to seek restored health after illness. 

THREE:  It’s not enough that the government is so anti–Jewish, without respect for religion or the Word of G–d.

FOUR:  Shabbat (sic!) Buses to run in Haifa! Shabbat transportation to be activated in Tel Aviv! https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/2129646/transportation-minister-to-inaugurate-new-haifa-bus-line-on-shabbos.html 

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/labor-minister-michaeli-inaugurates-new-haifa-bus-route-on-shabbat/2022/10/08/

FIVE:  More “PARADES” to take place! Are not Katrina and Ian adequate S’dom Warnings? Is the Israeli Coastal cities prepared for a TSUNAMI?

SURVEY ***UPDATE IMP. VIDEO—Must Hear

 Has anyone experienced any thing concerning their person that seems unusual? 

Very sensitive video, cannot post, go here to be shocked: https://www.brighteon.com/0baeff43-2a1d-4df9-8e02-454a459ee9ae

Does anyone think or feel that their mind or emotions possibly have been altered, via a website or YouTube, with subliminal messaging? Or subliminal stimuli?

It is known that subliminal messaging began being programed into movies, to sell their snacks. Also on TV.  Similar to that done while one watches a film, when subliminal messaging urges 

the viewer to get a drink, and they suddenly feel that they need a “soda”, or popcorn.

But could this be happening via one’s iPhone, iPad, or computer?

Sample video:

 

Wikipedia:Subliminal stimuli (/sʌbˈlɪmɪnəl/; the prefix sub- literally means "below" or "less than")[1] are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception, in contrast to supraliminal stimuli (above threshold).[2] A 2012 review of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies showed that subliminal stimuli activate specific regions of the brain despite participants' unawareness.[3] Visual stimuli may be quickly flashed before an individual can process them, or flashed and then masked to interrupt processing. Audio stimuli may be played below audible volumes or masked by other stimuli.

————

[…] scientists do know that subliminal messaging works in the lab. Researchers inserted a dozen frames of a Coca-Cola can and another dozen of the word "thirsty" into an episode of the TV show "The Simpsons." Participants reported being an average of 27% thirstier after the viewing than they were before, whereas the control group was slightly less thirsty afterward, according to a 2002 study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Similarly, when given a subliminal priming of the iced tea brand Lipton Ice during a computer task, people chose the drink over another beverage — but only when they were thirsty, according to a 2006 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 

————

Scientific American:

The ability to detect electrical activity in the brain through the scalp, and to control it, will soon transform medicine and change society in profound ways. Patterns of electrical activity in the brain can reveal a person’s cognition—normal and abnormal. New methods to stimulate specific brain circuits can treat neurological and mental illnesses and control behavior. In crossing this threshold of great promise, difficult ethical quandaries confront us.

MIND READING

The ability to interrogate and manipulate electrical activity in the human brain promises to do for the brain what biochemistry did for the body. When you go to the doctor, a chemical analysis of your blood is used to detect your body’s health and potential disease. Forewarned that your cholesterol level is high, and you are at risk of having a stroke, you can take action to avoid suffering one. Likewise, in experimental research destined to soon enter medical practice, just a few minutes of monitoring electrical activity in your brain using EEG and other methods can reveal not only neurological illness but also mental conditions like ADHD and schizophrenia. What’s more, five minutes of monitoring electrical activity flowing through your brain, while you do nothing but let your mind wander, can reveal how your individual brain is wired.  https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/mind-reading-and-mind-control-technologies-are-coming/

Read more here:

From https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-machines-control-our-brains-20210517/

https://www.livescience.com/does-subliminal-messaging-work.html

Reb Neuberger: Sukkos – Our Invisible Protection

 

OUR INVISIBLE PROTECTION

The Chofetz Chaim said there would be three wars before Moshiach. He said that the first was the First World War. He predicted the coming of the Second World War. And then, he said, there will be a third war. Dovid ha Melech hints of this, when he says three times in Psalm 118, “Kol goyim s’vavuni … all the nations surround me.” 

But that is not all. 

The Chofetz Chaim also is reported to have said the following: “The third war will be different. In the first two wars, the Angel of Death was given freedom to harm tzaddikim as well as evil people. But not in the third war. In the war directly before the coming of Moshiach, the Angel of Death will not have power to harm those who cling to Hashem and His Torah and who reject the culture of the surrounding nations. Those who stick like glue to Hashem and His Torah will survive and go on to live in the Days of Moshiach.” (Paraphrasing Rabbi Salomon Shlita”h, who told over the words of the Chofetz Chaim)

Next week, we will sit in the protective shade of the sukkah. We will bring with us “the pri aitz hadar… the fruit of a beautiful tree … the branches of date palms, twigs of a plaited tree and brook willows ….” (Vayikra 23:40) 

It is all so insubstantial, just a flimsy hut under the sky and a gathering of plants in our hands. How can this possibly protect us against the terrible dangers that surround us? 

My friends, these twigs and branches represent the most powerful force under the heavens. Before we blow shofar we say the following: “Sound the shofar to Hashem … for Hashem is supreme, awesome, a great King over all the earth. He shall lead nations under us, and kingdoms beneath our feet ….” (Tehillim 47)

What the sukkah and the arba minim tell us is that power in this world does not belong to the sword, but rather to the invisible G-d Who created, sustains and rules the world. The invisible G-d rules the world. The invisible soul rules man. What mankind thinks is powerful is nothing. 

“This is the word of Hashem: ‘Not through [armies] and not through strength, but through My spirit,’ said Hashem, Master of Legions.” (Zecharia 4:6)

When we dwell in the sukkah, we are surrounded by kedusha. When we wave the Arba Minim in six directions we are acknowledging Hashem’s control over the entire world. 

In this highly dangerous world, there is one place which is safe. 

The sukkah. 

This insubstantial hut and these fruits and twigs which we carry in our hands, these are the guarantors of our safety. 

On the first day of Sukkos we read the following prophetic words: “Behold, G-d’s awaited day is coming, and your spoils will be divided in your midst. I shall gather all the nations to Jerusalem to wage war …. Then Hashem will go out and wage war against those nations ….” (Zecharia 14:1)

The nations have no idea whom they are toying with. In their arrogance, they are presuming to judge the King of Kings, His Holy Torah and His Holy Nation. But their palace is about to collapse. “Shimshon grasped the two central pillars upon which the building rested and he leaned on them, one with his right hand and one with his left hand … and the building collapsed on the governors and all the people inside it.” (Shoftim 16:29)

My friends, the building is about to collapse. We do not want to perish like Shimshon in the rubble of the collapsing civilization. So we must run into the sukkah and grasp the arba minim. When Hashem sees that we are fleeing to the safety of the sukkah, He will save us. 

“Achas shoalti, Mai’ais Hashem…. One thing I asked of Hashem, that shall I seek: that I dwell in the House of Hashem all the days of my life …. Indeed, He will hide me in His shelter on the day of evil. He will conceal me in the concealment of His Tent. He will lift me upon a rock. Now my head is raised above my enemies around me ….” (Tehillim 27)

Loud voices are raised against us; our enemies are sitting in judgment. 

“But they do not know nor do they understand. They walk in darkness. All foundations of the earth collapse …. Arise Oh G-d, judge the earth, for You allot the heritage among all the nations.” (Tehillim 82)

My friends, let’s retreat into the sukkah, far from the tumah and the tumult. Let us grasp the arba minim. Soon with Hashem’s mercy, we will see the Day of Destiny, when righteousness returns to earth and we are released forever from the hands of the slaves who want to bring us down to their level. 

“Kol mevasair mevasair v’omer … The voice of the herald … proclaims: Save Your nation and bless Your heritage, tend them and elevate them forever …. Please G-d … Save now and bring salvation now!”

GLOSSARY

Arba minim: four plant species held during prayers during the Holiday of Sukkos

Dovid ha Melech: King David

Kedusha: holiness

Petira: death

Tzaddikim: holy people

Rabbi Winston – Parashas HaAzinu

 IF YOU ARE reading this, you’ve made it this far, b”H. It’s still early in the year, but hopefully, the fact that we made it through Yom Kippur, hopefully physically and spiritually unscathed, is a sign that we will do just fine the rest of the year, provided of course that we don’t go “sour” at some later point. If it can happen to Rebi Yochanan Kohen Gadol and Elisha ben Abuya, it can happen to just about anyone, God forbid. 

But just like the weather, things can change pretty quickly, and sometimes almost without any sign, or at least one that we saw. How many times have people thought that the weatherman was wrong in predicting an upcoming thunderstorm, only to see a clear blue turn to thunder clouds in a matter of an hour…just after you lit the barbecue and invited your neighbors over.

Honestly though, was anyone really worried about their judgment heading into the Yemai Norayim? It’s like predicting the arrival of Moshiach: after seeing so many predictions come and go without actualization, you just don’t take them seriously anymore. Similarly, after surviving so many Rosh Hashanahs and Yom Kippurs without really changing too much, it can start to seem more like hype than reality. 

That is a dangerous misunderstanding, which I will explain with an analogy. 

Once a wealthy father decided to teach his two sons the importance of hard work and financial independence. He told his sons that they would be paid by the hour for the work they did, and that the money they earned would be the basis of their livelihood. 

Concerned at first that they would fall short and not be able to pay their bills, they both worked hard. But after some time one of the sons worked a little less here and a little less there, and was surprised to see that somehow, he had enough money to pay his bills. The other son just kept working hard the entire time through.

The lazier son just got lazier and started to work even less, assuming that his father had been bluffing about only receiving what he earned. He tried to convince his brother of his theory, but his brother wouldn’t buy it and continued to work as if his parnassah depended upon it. 

Many years later the father died. When it came time to divide the inheritance, the harder working son received far more than his lazier brother, who vehemently protested. Until, that is, the lawyer pulled out an accounting sheet that revealed the truth. It turned out that every time the one son fell short financially because he worked less, the father made up the difference from the son’s future inheritance. What he received as an inheritance was what had remained after years of drawing from it. The lazier brother only had a small inheritance, and no longer had a father who could pay him for his work. 

Likewise, the fact that we can “sail” through the Yemai Norayim and come out on the other side doesn’t mean that we survived them, or at least completely survived them. We don’t know if we fell short or by how much, and how much it cost us as a result. Best to work hard now and “earn” our livelihood while we can, to avoid shock and disappointment later when we find out that we ate away for years from our eternal inheritance.

THIS IS A very short parsha that does not get enough attention. Some of the most important lessons about life are in Parashas HaAzinu, and overlooking them makes us vulnerable. 

The lessons start from the very first word HaAzinu, but one that is really relevant in every generation is in this verse: 

Remember the days of old. Reflect upon the years of [other] generations. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you. (Devarim 32:7)

Remember the days of old: what God did to past generations who provoked Him to anger. Reflect upon the years of [other] generations: the generation of Enosh, whom [God] inundated with the waters of the ocean, and the generation of the Flood, whom [God] washed away…Ask your father—these are the prophets, who are called “fathers”…your elders—these are the Sages…and they will inform you: of the events of the former times. (Rashi)

What do we learn from this? First of all, that Jewish history repeats itself. If it didn’t, then what relevance would the Past have to the Present? As we see today, so many people have a difficult time believing that what is going on today, including increased anti-Semitism, bears much resemblance to what happened in Europe for thousands of years leading up to and including the Holocaust. The world is different today, they say. History is different today, they think. 

Maybe, but lesson #2 says, “Does that really make a difference?” Because, after all, it is not the gentile or turncoat Jew that creates the anti-Semitism. God does. 

They’re just perpetrators of it, HIS instruments to carry it out. Anti-Semitism, as the Gemora indicates (Shabbos 89a), originates from Heaven, and is not bound to place or people, only to the state of the Jewish nation.

Besides, says Lesson #3, who says that anti-Semitism is God’s only Modus Operandi when it comes to getting at the Jewish people? Just ask Enosh and the Generation of the Flood. The Coronavirus was not anti-Semitic, but it certainly had a profound effect on the Jewish people all around the world. Before that, there was 9/11. 

There can be a financial meltdown. The bottom line is, don’t wait to find out. Get the scoop as soon as possible, which brings us to Lesson #4. 

Lesson #4 says, be particular about who you ask if you want to understand about what is going on in your generation. There are many sources of valuable information today, some more interesting than others, many more accurate than others. But there is only one source to turn to when it comes to putting current events in perspective of ancient history, and that’s the Torah experts, prophets if you have them, and elders when you don’t.

Acting incorrectly to situations can have all kinds of negative consequences, sometimes even death. It is one thing to ask an expert for direction, but just because a person is an expert in one area of knowledge doesn’t mean that they are in others as well. The danger comes when people think that their personal expertise is enough to correctly assess situations that belong to other areas of expertise.

Of course, to need to ask and then not to ask is the worst. Recently I had a conversation with someone who was once religious but left it all behind. He simply “doesn’t buy it,” the whole God and Torah thing. If I had asked him for “proof” that God doesn’t exist, I know he wouldn’t have had any. No one does. If I had asked him if he’d like to hear evidence that makes the case for God and Torah, I know he would have declined. 

If I had then asked this person, “Do you prefer to be secular at the cost of truth?” he would have probably said yes, or feeling silly, he would have just counter-claimed that I have no “proof” either without finding out if I do. He’s like the son who stopped working hard because he didn’t see his salary drop off, unaware that it is costing him elsewhere.

THAT BRINGS US to Succos. Yom Kippur is for concretizing the truth in life, and Succos is about taking that truth out into the world. 

It’s a little like turning a shirt inside-out. From the outside, everything is neat and organized, even somewhat formal. Only on the inside do you find all the seams and hanging threads that keep the shirt together and looking nice on the outside.

Likewise, one of the nice things about a house is that it is private. All kinds of “interesting” things can take place in a person’s house that they would never allow the outside world to see. All the “seams” and “loose threads” that keep people together are hidden from public view…until, that is, Succos. That’s when we turn the “shirt” inside-out by taking our inside-outside into the public domain. 

Obviously aware of this change, many are on their best behavior for all of Succos, lest their neighbors hear family “secrets.” But families will be families, and it is not possible to keep up the facade forever. The inconsistencies will surface and reveal themselves, and many have had their embarrassing moments during the chag. 

But that is the mussar of Succos: tocho k’boro (Brochos 28a). It literally means that the inside should be like the outside, assuming that the outside is respectable. In other words, you have to be consistent, good on the outside and good on the inside. People who are never have to wonder if they said or did anything in public to embarrass themselves, since they always act like a mentsch. 

I have seen, on more than one occasion, how a couple of good questions can undo the calm and controlled exterior of a person. They present themselves as people who have it all worked out, but the questions show that they really don’t. They have just sidestepped some of the most important issues in life because God has let them. And they get real-l-l-l-ly angry at you for pointing it out. 

But Succos says that true simcha in life comes from being self-honest, from owning up to the truth on the outside and on the inside, especially on the inside. Ask the questions, the right ones to the right people. If you wait too long and use the status quo as a false sense of security, then the questions will come after you. 

They have after the Jewish people in every generation. By that time, the answers are usually so obvious, but also too late, and that’s on us.

Ain Od Milvado, Part 21

LYING IN A succah at night and looking up at the stars is like a breath of ain od Milvado. You can just breathe it in, if you make a point of it. It is easy to lose the forest for the trees, or in this case, the schach for the comforts of indoors outdoors. There is nothing wrong with making a comfy succah with all the “trimmins,” but it would be a shame to do it to the point of denying yourself the experience.

Succos is all about a person’s relationship to God, or more specifically, their relationship to hashgochah pratis, as the following story indicates: 

[In the future time, the gentiles will] say before Him: “Master of the Universe, give us [the Torah] anew and we will perform [its mitzvos].” The Holy One, Blessed is He, will say to them: “Fools of the world! Only one who prepares on Erev Shabbos eats on Shabbos, [but] what will one eat on Shabbos if one did not prepare on Erev Shabbos?”

In other words, God will tell the gentiles at that time the opportunity for performing mitzvos passed, and that it is too late to ask to perform them then. Nevertheless, He will tell them:

“Nevertheless, I have an easy mitzvah [for you] called succah. Go and perform it.”

Immediately, they will take materials and build a succah on their rooftops. But The Holy One, Blessed is He, will shine upon them the heat of the sun in the season of Tammuz, and each one [unable to stand the heat], will kick their succah and leave…

But didn’t you say that The Holy One, Blessed is He, does not deal tyrannically with His creations? 

[This is not considered tyranny] because [there are also] times [when this happens] for the Jewish people as well, like when the season of Tammuz extends until the holiday of Succos. In such years sitting in the succah causes them suffering. 

But doesn’t Rava say that one who suffers in the succah is exempt from performing the mitzvah of succah, and under these circumstances even a Jew is permitted to leave the succah? 

One may be exempt from performing the mitzvah and permitted to leave the succah, but should one kick it?” (Avodah Zarah 3a)

Why? Because kicking something means that you blame it for your misfortune, not yourself. But when a mitzvah doesn’t work out the way we planned, that’s hashgochah pratis, God’s way of telling us that we need to change something. Or, it can be that He is testing us, to see if we trust Him even if He seems to undermine our effort to please Him. 

Ain od Milvado doesn’t just mean that He is the only power in Creation. It also means that His way of thinking is the only way of thinking and, as He told us through Yeshayahu, it is not our way of thinking. It means if you want to second-guess anyone, second-guess yourself, but never second-guess God. He can live without us, but we can’t live without Him, and if we create any distance between ourselves and God, we are the ones to lose out, in this world and especially in the next one.

Shalom Pollack – The New Elites

 I just viewed a discussion of a group of secular Israeli intellectuals whose common denominator appeared to be their fear of the rise of the “new elites"  of Israel.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eSBQR-Evfc
(this is the link to the discussion, in Hebrew)

It was very interesting to see how the successors of the “old guard", the "blue blood", Ashkenazi founders of the state, feel their grip on power and "royal" prerogative slipping away in favor of "religious messianic extremists." The latter have hijacked true Zionism and "Israelism" for a fanatic intolerant interpretation of Judaism, as they put it.

In 1996 when Shimon Peres, the guru of the Left, lost a tight election to Netanyahu he was asked, "who lost" Peres answered, "the Israelis." And who won"? the Jews", he answered.

The book around which the discussion was based is called, “The third revolution". Its prime subject is the influence of the pre-military study schools (mechina kdam tzvait) on religious youth in Israel.
In short, it claims that its students who famously go on to make huge contributions to the IDF are brainwashed by their rabbis to reject democracy, in favor of religious commitment and thus pose a danger to the country as it was meant to be.

The room was full of secular thinkers (one was an unrepentant, top architect of the bloody Oslo accords) who seemed to compete with one another as to who can paint the "religious" threat to "their" Israel in more apocalyptic terms. The author of the book was asked if civil war was inevitable. He answered gloomily, "It's either that or "we" won't be here any longer."

Listening to the questions and answers during the discussion, one heard a general attack on the Jewish religion, accusing it of having moved from the "universal messages of the prophets'' to a parochial, particularistic, chauvinistic creed. The Israeli 'universalists" are not the first to make these accusations against practicing Jews. The early Christian church preceded them, using similar language.

When I hear such rhetoric, I wish to ask what makes a Jew different from a non-Jew who embraces the same “lofty universalistic messages" of our biblical prophets.  Do the "universalistic” Jews celebrate and embrace the Jewish practices of the "universal" prophets such as Sabbath observance and dietary laws...?

Did the prophets say one can choose and pick from their teachings and still claim their mantle?

The room full of anti-religious Israelis senses the religious take over everywhere. They are afraid.
I would be curious to know how successful they are in passing their own values on to their children and grandchildren. What inspires their children as "Israelis"?
I wonder how many know why they should live in a Jewish state.
How many choose western democracies unburdened by Jewish fanatics?

Amongst other "messianic" values they poke fun of is the "extreme love of the land'' by their opponents. It sounds rather pagan to them. When PM Rabin said that the Bible is a book of real estate and he as PM will decide what to do with that real estate (when he gave huge chunks of it to Arafat) it sounded right to them. No God or book will tell them what to do with land or anything else.

When religious commanders tell their troops that military threats to Israel are not like other such threats in other places but are aimed at the honor of His People and His Land.
A Jewish soldier has the merit of defending not just his family and people but God’s people and God's land and should not show mercy to the enemy because he will show none to you or your family. (Rambam halacha)
This is exactly how the bible instructs Jewish commanders to imbue Jewish soldiers.
It made the intellectuals in the room cringe.
Since when did Jews fight for Jewish honor?
Aren't Jews supposed to turn the other cheek?

I believe that the Israeli intellectuals are in greater fear of the "new elites” than they are of the old Arab enemy that wants to physically destroy all the Jews of the Jewish state.
Indeed, Israeli anti-Zionist Arabs are now pampered by them as indispensable political allies in the battle against the fanatic Jews.  Ponder that a moment.

I believe they fear and hate a Jew (like me) more than an Arab who just yesterday murdered Jews as part of a holy war and today is willing to discuss “peace". Oslo two, three, and four are preferable to their nightmare of the "new elites" replacing them.

Is civil war of the Left (alongside their Arab allies) against the forces of Jewish darkness - a possibility?
I recall just such calls and hopes by prominent intellectual voices on the Left at the time of Oslo(1993) and of the mass expulsions of Jews in 2005. They relished the opportunity to literally destroy any fanatic Jewish opposition.

There is precedent.

During The 1948 war of independence, Ben Gurion ordered the sinking of the Irgun ship commanded by Menachem Begin and targeted the leader of the opposition, Begin.
Ben Gurion would not risk losing  political power to "new elites"
It was Yitzchak Rabin who proudly related how he shot at them even as they swam to shore.

Begin had his best hour when he ordered his people not to shoot back. "There will be no civil war," he declared.
No religious leader today hints at civil war against the Left. The concept of love for fellow Jew is ingrained in Jews. Not Israelis.

Yes, the "new elites" are indeed about to lead the country. Why? Because they care and sacrifice and believe.

The old guard is fighting a desperate battle as they are being phased out.

Our rabbis foretold the difficulties of these times.
May they pass quickly.

shalompollack613@gmail.com
tour guide and author