#god bless chabad

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Chabad Lubavitch is one of the most underrated organisations in the world. Like the name ‘Lubavitch’ suggests, Chabadniks really do show love to their fellow man, including non-Jews. I remember being treated politely by a Chabad lady when I went to buy some books; she even climbed up onto a chair to get something I wanted way up on the shelf, despite being pregnant. 

[thenightlymirror]

We had a bit of a snow day yesterday.

The blizzard took out two suburban Merkavas who smashed into each other on Church street sending me out of the way. Then when I got to the cemetery, Manuel was still plowing the entrance, so I had to drive around the block until there was safe passage.

The internet was out immediately and stayed out the rest of the day. That’s Cisco phones and everything. No email. No printers. This happened once before and I asked the Help Desk to send someone to inspect the router, and they closed the heat ticket two days later. So here we are.

I just spent the day organizing all these packets I have to scan. But then we have burials this weekend so how the hell am I supposed to print tags? Only solution, I was just going to handwrite them, was to drive to the funeral home down the street.

Now, background, I’m in love with everyone who works at this funeral home. More or less. Ron, is the funniest meanest fuck alive. He’ll call the office and just start going in on somebody, and everyone else will know who I’m talking to based on how I’m laughing. Pretty sure he calls me a hermaphrodite behind my back. Fair. He keeps trying to get me to work for him.

The girls are totally insane. There’s a certain type of woman that works for this Jewish funeral home that can only be described as Exactly Tony’s Type. Who the fuck is hiring these women?

This one girl, we’ll call her Margot (though that belies how hot her actual name is) calls the office, and for some reason we just immediately decide to pretend we’re in love with each other. As a bit. A little song and dance I like to call Borderline Personality Disorder. And then she walks in, and she’s the hottest fucking girl alive. What have I done?

Anyway, my irony poisoning is as such that I am able to make it seem like a joke and that I am not insane the whole time, somehow. And it is really just a bit. It’s a great bit.

But I walk into this funeral home from the blizzard and, boom, Margot is right there. She jumps up and does this little anime girl curtsy. Fucking dying. “It’s the love of my life!” We start going in, but truth be told, I was so nervous. I totally psyched myself out. Fucking hilarious.

So we don’t know each other at all, and in between staring into each others eyes and fawning, we’ll just have these funny conversations that are like, oh yeah, so, this is what my life is like. She gets a phone call, I get the computer going.

Everybody is popping in to Margot’s office to say hi. Ron’s got these three little orthodox boys, I swear to god little boys, from Chabad down the street to bless him for a service. They look like they’re hooking him up to the internet, wrapping the telefilm around his arm. He’s going in on these little boys about “So why are you digging tunnels to steal Christian babies now?” Hahahaha these are little boys studying to become rabbis. They had the whole line down.

This funeral home hired this new young guy, Dan, with long hair. I swear, again, the hottest fucking guy alive. How do they keep getting away with this! They wrap him up too. Ron’s explaining in front of the boys how they’re in a cult. Haha I’m trying to show these boys respect. I love these kids.

I realize I’m around a bunch of people who speak Hebrew, so I utilize some child labor to check the spelling on this monument I’m working on, and of course it’s all fucked up. These family’s just trust a whole line of people with no familiarity with the language at all to make this thing that’s going to last a couple hundred years, and as I learn the language it’s like, Oh shit, I’m in a graveyard full of typos.

But they confirm this Ahron spelling I have for this guy is legit, so I figure I should head back. Margot jumps up into my arms and I lift her off of her feet for a hug. I figure when I love a place, you gotta dip in and out. Don’t overstay your welcome. I can’t imagine I’m great in large doses anyway.

Everyone else in the cemetery has left for the day already. Everyone in my office has been gone half the week anyway as soon as they heard it was going to snow for a few hours. I’m in a beatific ecstasy.

[thepitofjob]

Job 31: 16-23. "The Joint."

The reason we want to know which animals chew the cud and which do not is because the ability to intellect is essential to the achievement of the Mashiach. Without its longitudinal view, mankind has gone nowhere. It eats the knowledge of the past, but it cannot chew the cud and therefore its joints, its ability to make conscientious strategic thoughts are out of whack.

So we are back to a discussion about Chabad, but not just in a religious theoretical way. Without Chabad, a cognitive approach in real life, the cud is not chewed. The process works backwards and forewards. One can analyze a Jewish word problem found in the Torah and search for evidence of its proper application, one can begin Chabad with a problem and reverse engineer it in search of a proper prohibition or prrescription in the Torah.

We know the world is experiencing an excess of poverty, homelessness and tyranny. We know this whether or not we read the Torah. But Jews have been reading about these for centuries. To know we are in arrears with the eradication of war, tyranny, and poverty and watch the shit show is a grave wickedness.

Tyrants love this. God hates it. God's hatred of complacency is why man has been told to chew the cud:

16 “If I have denied the desires of the poor     or let the eyes of the widow grow weary, 17 if I have kept my bread to myself,     not sharing it with the fatherless— 18 but from my youth I reared them as a father would,     and from my birth I guided the widow— 19 if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing,     or the needy without garments, 20 and their hearts did not bless me     for warming them with the fleece from my sheep, 21 if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,     knowing that I had influence in court, 22 then let my arm fall from the shoulder,     let it be broken off at the joint. 23 For I dreaded destruction from God,     and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.

If we let the joint between the arm and the should splinter, if we fail at valor, we shall be conquered by those whose wicked objectives must not come to pass. What the US Government did by allowing Donald Trump to cheat in that 2016 election and then dig terror tunnels and make good friends in India, Iran, Russia, and North Korea was a gigantic and stupid mistake, easily fixed. Every step of the way, the Department of Justice and the White House allowed Donald Trump to beat them like dogs and then the world order disintegrated.

He is a very stupid man. His friends in the Party and the Mormons are bean bags. They are all stupid. But they have won the world. How is this possible? How did our brains and our hands become disconnected? What do we say to all the people Donald Trump and the rest hurt while the US Gov was fist fucking itself?

The Zohar says above the righteous were afraid and the enemy was not. There must be fear of God or the world does not turn. Donald Trump, his party and his terror alliances must be stopped. Such things must never be allowed to consume our days again.

The Values in Gematria are:

v. 16-17: I have kept my bread to myself. I told the Administration to kill that mother fucker for cheating in the 2016 election ten years ago. I did not keep it to myself, a few concerned persons tried to get rid of him, but nothing worked. The Number is 11138, קיאלח‎, keilah, "the community assembly."

All year long the media has watched and provided insight into what was going to happen should a convicted felon, cheater, child molester, and traitor continue his return to power. Every step of the way the red carpet was thrown down, the debates continued, and while this was happening, the Russians, Iranians, Chinese, Indians, and North Koreans saw, once again, how we don't have what it takes. We get caught up, and can't get free.

Our entire navy and air force could have freed Ukraine last year this time and cleared Hamas and Hezbollah out of the Middle East, but instead, we focused on bandaids and water bottles for the poor Palestinians who robbed the world of its dignity.

During this time, the Prince of Wales and KC3 started contracting with the Episcopal Church, Catholic Church, Mormons, Waltons, Greens, Marriotts and Mitt Romney to abduct, rape, and in some cases murder American citizens and expatriates in ways that are too disgusting and elaborate to publish in order to ensure solidarity against them here in America and abroad did not succeed. They are also still in power, as the police and CIA have not responded in a manner that is efficacious or final.

v. 18-19: I have seen people perishing from lack of clothing. Have you? The Number is 11105, יאיה,yei, "what is proper."

v. 20-21: But I had influence in court. I could not believe the police and the Department of Justice called all of this "complex" and could not figure out how to lift a finger and protect the human race from this bullshit. To this very moment, the government is acting puzzled as to what to do about all the crime it has allowed.

There has been no brilliance whatsoever at work in curbing the wickedness that is overshadowing every minute of our lives.

The Number is 8537, ח‎הגז‎ ‎, "as a box."

The screen rant has a purpose. We are boxed in by logic that does not serve the purposes of the Torah or any faith on earth. Inside a box, logic bounces back on itself. By stating the crimes of Donald Trump and the Republicans were too complex, the government decided to allow powerful men and women to abuse and exploit their constituents and the citizens of other countries. The Torah says the logic is not boxed, it is a very straight line between the law and those it is supposed to protect or prosecute.

When that butthole Anythony Blinken got off his plane yesterday and started telling the government of Israel once again to protect terrorists, I almost shit kittens. He obviously lives in a box. Fortunately the law says the IDF does not need to do any such thing and Hamas can be killed to the last man at its leisure without the need for any ridiculous humanitarian pauses.

The time for that was before a bunch of Mormons decided to pack the shelves of their shitty apartments with missiles, bullets, and enough crystal meth to make Godzilla throw his dinosaur legs up.

v. 22-23: I let my arm fall from my shoulder. Legal documents that protect us from crime, guarantee civil rights and protect the environment are our salvation, not religion. Without tediousness towards secular laws, we cannot be saved. The application of the spiritual sentiment through secular law is why we chew the cud using Chabad.

The Number is 6131, ואגא‎, and aga, "and taunt." To taunt is to get man to act according to his laws and principals. Taunting is for children, not for civilized societies and their governments.

President Biden could have shot Donald Trump in the head, legally, after the siege of January 6, which was clearly a well planned act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in response to my reports they were engaged in trafficking in sex with minors with and for President Trump and his entire cabinet. They turned the misfortune of my reports to the police into a religious crusade that eventually turned into the plan to attack Israel on October 7.

We need to cover some ground and fast on all of this and return the sanity and prosperity these mistakes have stolen from their proper owners. The time for valor is past, that is very sad. Now is the time for remorse, but still we must make our way and cannot stop. The onset of the Mashiach depends on it.

[monsooninn]

Berakhot 11b: 11. "The Bemish."

Before the other documents in the Tanakh existed, the Charter existed, AKA the Ark of the Covenant. If one were to open the Box one would find the Shema, the primary area of focus of the Talmud contained inside along with other written artifacts man has decided to include at God's Discretion.

The Ark is often explained as an Agreement between man and God but it is more of a license to drive. God does not need to do anything for us, we need to do a lot for Him. One is the Torah. Without the proper understanding of the Torah, other documents based on it, the Bible and Quran in particular are not valid.

They are based on what are called Midrash, "fattening foods" or "commentaries" found alongside the Torah and Tanakh, all of which are written in an alpha numeric letting system that is written across multiple dimensions. Ever letter in Hebrew is also a number and connects to other numbers and letters like tinkertoys. Each tinker leverages the meaning of the original bits forward, backward, up and down. To discover the exact hidden meaning of a particualr combination is called Gemara, "thinnning out."

Kabbalah involves the process of looking, Chabad is used for polemics, the estasblishment of a particular point of view within a religion for the purposes of augmenting existing thought or adding to the subject matter.

The warning here is do not read the Bible without understanding how it is supposed to be read and for that purpose one needs a Chassidic Rabbi, what is called a Tzeddik by the Torah.

The Mishnah said "to master the mind of a Huna, one has "camped at home" seek the blessings of one who knows the Midrash, AKA a Tzeddik.

11. Rabbi Huna said: The Bible needs a blessing, but the Midrash does not need a blessing.

The Value in Gematria is 2300, ב׳‎ש‎, bemsh, "the balsam."

"The verb בשם (bsm) isn't used in the Bible but it's pretty sure it once existed. In cognate languages it means to have a sweet odor, or be sweetly pleasant.

This root's sole derivation is the masculine noun בשם (basam), meaning spice, balsam or sweet smell (Exodus 30:23, Isaiah 3:24, Esther 2:12). Besides smelling great, this balsam served as a token of wealth (2 Kings 20:13), a royal gift (1 Kings 10:2), and, of course, as an article of commerce (Ezekiel 27:22).

It was burned at burials (2 Chronicles 16:14). It was an ingredient of the anointing oil (Exodus 25:6). And it was used to purify Esther and the other brides to be of emperor Ahasuerus (Esther 2:12)."

There is nothing to be lost by the study of the Torah, Tanakh, Talmud, Bible and Quran as God intended. Their correct interpretations provide a very clear opening to the dwelling of a God of incredible proportions. No unhappiness is incurred during the search for Him.

[generation8]

SEE WHAT GOD DID THERE - Parshat Ki Tavo

B"H

19 Elul 2024 Parshat Ki Tavo

Yesterday we read the Torah portion of Ki Tavo.

The parshah includes a Divine covenant of curses and blessings which God commanded the Jewish people to invoke upon their entry into the Land of Israel – blessings which would shower down upon them if they would choose to follow God's ways, and curses which would befall them if they would choose to lead other lifestyles. The section continues with a long "rebuke," depicting in great detail the outcomes of these blessings or curses. The narrative ends with God tying this covenant back to an earlier similar covenant, which we read in parshat Bechukotai.

In both covenantal narratives, the verses which list the actual "curses" and "rebukes" are read publicly in a quieter undertone, on account of their harsh content in general, and their graphic descriptive nature in particular.

Yesterday we also celebrated the birthdays of the founder of the collective Chasidic Movement, Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, and of the founder of the Chabad Chasidic Movement, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.

The story is told about Rabbi Schneur Zalman's son and successor, Rabbi Dovber (the Mittler Rebbe), that when he was a teenager it happened that his father was away the week of Parshat Ki Tavo. His father would usually read from the Torah publicly himself, but in his absence someone else was appointed to read it in his stead. And when the reader reached the section of the Torah relating the "curses" and "rebuke," young Dovber fainted. When he came to, the Chasidim asked him what had happened. He responded, "When I heard the reader reading the curses, I fainted." The Chasidim asked, "But you hear the same curses read every year?" To which Dovber replied, "When father reads it, I don't hear curses."

What are we to make of this story? The verses say what they say. And what they foretell is more or less true to the horrific tragedies which ultimately befell the Jewish people in land after land throughout their two millenia exile. Finally, how does one not hear curses, when the Torah itself calls them "curses"?

But there is a fundamental principle we are taught that everything in Torah, even that which appears negative, is in fact Divine blessing. It is only that some blessings are too "high," too intense, to be received in an unrectified world without "breaking the vessels."

On the surface, this might not bring much comfort... Suffering can just be too intense for a person to make room in their mind and heart for what may feel like abstract justifications. But perhaps there are two ways to approach this idea, and in the context of these very verses, to at least open windows in our minds and hearts to begin to see the possibility of hidden blessings within the "curses," and perhaps even the possibility of transforming the "curses" themselves into blessings.

As noted, the two covenant narratives of Bechukotai and Ki Tavo are tied together by God Himself at the end of this week's parshah, Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 28:69):

"These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb."

In the earlier Bechukotai covenant, made in Horeb, after all the harsh predictions are enumerated, the verses conclude (Leviticus 26:44-45):

"But despite all this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not despise them nor will I reject them to annihilate them, thereby breaking My covenant that is with them, for I am the Lord their God."

"I will remember for them the covenant [made with] the ancestors, whom I took out from the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be a God to them. I am the Lord."

In other words, as prophesied by Moses, even if the Jews were, God forbid, to stray with every sin and to suffer every imaginable calamity (as they in fact, historically, did), God promised that despite it all He would never utterly reject them or annihilate them. He would forever remember and ultimately restore His covenant, His relationship, His love, with them.

This being the case, every word of curse is really both a curse and a blessing -- a curse that sin would result in suffering, and that increased sin would result in increased suffering, but combined with the blessing that no matter how far the sins may go, and no matter how far the resultant suffering may go, the covenant, the relationship, the love will forever remain intact and eventually be healed and restored.

In that light, we can perhaps also understand why God went to the extreme of describing in such graphic detail the inhuman suffering the Jews would potentially endure. For if God were to have promised only in a general way, "No matter how much you sin, and no matter how much you suffer, I will still remember you and redeem you," at some point in their long and bitter exile the Jewish people might have eventually doubted to themselves, "It is true that God foretold to us that we would suffer for our sins and that He would still never forget us. But He never actually told us just how much suffering we could expect Him to remember us and save us from... Perhaps now that things have gotten SO painful, perhaps such intense and prolonged suffering is a sign that God has changed His mind and no longer intends to remember us and save us..." And so G-d went to the extreme of listing every single type of curse and suffering that might befall us, in vivid gory graphic detail, so that we could never ever think to say that there is any sin or suffering from which God did not already promise us to still love us and still remember us and still cleanse us and still save us. Seen in this light, every rebuke listed in the portions of Bechukotai and Ki Tavo carries within it a hidden blessing -- the blessing of the promise of G-d's unbreakable covenant and vow to love us and save us, no matter what.

But let us take this a dimension deeper.

Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi, author of the Mishnah, once observed, "My ability in analysis and clear thinking was increased because when I studied under my own master, Rabbi Meir, I sat in the first row behind him and was able to see his back while he was teaching. And if I had sat in front of him and seen his face, my ability would have developed even more." (Eruvin 13b)

What does this mean? How does seeing the back of one's teacher sharpen one's ability to analyze and interpret his teachings accurately? And how does seeing the teacher's face increase this ability even more?

But there is so much communicated through body language and facial expression. Body language, for example, reveals whether a thought is taught in a state of agitation or calm. Facial expression, for example, reveals whether a thought is taught with harshness or with compassion.

And so with every verse we read in the Torah – Torah being the teaching of the Master of all masters of all masters – we must strive to see God's "back," and if at all possible, His "face."

This means that even when reading those verses which God Himself calls "curses" or "rebuke," we are not forced to assume that they were said by God with a scowl or scorn. They can also be read as God crying through heaving sobs of painful compassionate tears. Or as God yearning and begging us to make the right choice, for our sake as well as His. Or as God speaking with equanimity, out of His confidence that His simple words alone can deter us from wrongdoing even when spoken gently, because He believes in us that we are intelligent enough and mature enough to receive and internalize His words even when they are delivered with calm and trust.

Or employing more modern imagery, if we were to publish an "Emoji Bible," it would be entirely in our hands to choose which emoji we read into God's words, no matter how harsh a verse may sound -- an angry red faced emoji, or an emoji depicting God's heartbreak, or His crying, or His longing and yearning, or His hopeful hug, or His confidence in us and His empowering strength...

This is perhaps a deeper meaning into the concept of "shivim panim latorah" – that there are "70 facets of Torah," 70 different ways to read and receive and integrate every verse in Torah into our personal lived experience. Because the word panim connotes a dual meaning: panim-faces and pnim-inner world. A person's face-panim reveals what they are experiencing on the inside-pnim. The "70 faces of Torah" reveal the 70 ways of relating to and interpreting Gods own "mind and emotions" in expressing His Divine word. For the number 70 in Torah would seem to represent 70 different intellectual-emotional combinations and personality types (manifesting in the 70 Archetypal Souls of the House of Israel, the 70 Nations of the World, the 70 Prophetic Elders, the 70 Sages of the Sanhedrin, etc). And so when we dig deeper to decipher the deeper pnim, the deeper "intellect and emotion," the deeper "personality" of God behind His every word in Torah, we thereby discover a new panim-face-expression of God reflected at the surface level of His words, which can transform what we assumed to be a scowl into a smile, and a curse into a blessing.

There is a fascinating teaching in the name of the Maggid of Mezritch which perhaps aligns with this approach. The Talmud (Megilah 14b) questions why King Josiah sent messengers to ask a prophecy from the prophetess Hulda rather than from the prophet Jeremiah (II Kings 22:14). The Talmud answers that women are by nature more compassionate, and King Josiah was hoping for a compassionate prophecy. Asks the Maggid: If a prophet's role is to faithfully convey God's unadulterated message, what difference does it make what the temperament of the prophet is? The Maggid explains that although a prophet cannot choose the content of his prophecy, he or she can choose the tune, the tone, in which they deliver it. And if they choose to deliver a harsh message in a compassionate tune, that itself can transform how the message itself will actually manifest -- that its manifestation, too, will be compassionate. (Maggid Devarav L'Yaakov sections 120-121; Or Haemet section 426; Or Torah sections 164, 449; Likutim Yekarim 18a; Oheiv Yisrael, end of Parshat Ekev)

Perhaps this hints to an even deeper insight. That when we choose to read God's seemingly harsh words from a place of belief and trust in His infinite love and kindness, that "vote of confidence" in God from our end itself elicits a reflective vote of confidence in us from God's end, resulting in the remembrance of our covenant and the restoration of our relationship.

So too, in every generation, and for each one of us. It is in our hands to read God's words in the Torah, even those which on the face (panim) of it appear to be harsh, and strive to discern the inner (pnim) love, the inner heart, from which they were actually said to us. And this itself depends on us and the truth of our own inner (pnim) heart which informs our own surface (panim) consciousness and interpretation of God.

In the words of Proverbs (27:19), "As in water, face answers to face, so is the heart of a man to a man." Our ability to read love into the heart and intention and word of another, even a harsh word, and even of God, is commensurate to and a reflection of the truth and totality of the love in our own word, in our own intention, in our own heart, for them.

[datatoken1]

Trusting in God's promise, I donated to Colel Chabad to help Israel's neediest. Inspired by Scripture, I believe in the blessings that come from giving. I'm also saving with Marcus and mining crypto to build my future. Join me in prayer for God's blessings and guidance. 🙏 #Faith #Investing #Blessings #Crypto

[transition-with-the-torah]

How to Count the Omer:

The omer refers to the 49-day period between the second night of Passover (Pesach) and the holiday of Shavuot. This period marks the beginning of the barley harvest when, in ancient times, Jews would bring the first sheaves to the Temple as a means of thanking God for the harvest. The word omer literally means "sheaf" and refers to these early offerings. The Torah itself dictates the counting of the seven weeks following Passover: "You shall count from the eve of the second day of Pesach, when an omer of grain is to be brought as an offering, seven complete weeks. The day after the seventh week of your counting will make fifty days, and you shall present a new meal offering to God (Leviticus 23:15-16)." In its biblical context, this counting appears only to connect the first grain offering to the offering made at the peak of the harvest. As the holiday of Shavuot became associated with the giving of the Torah, and not only with a celebration of agricultural bounty, the omer period began to symbolize the thematic link between Passover and Shavuot. While Passover celebrates the initial liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, Shavuot marks the culmination of the process of liberation, when the Jews became an autonomous community with their own laws and standards. Counting up to Shavuot reminds us of this process of moving from a slave mentality to a more liberated one. When to Count the Omer The counting of the omer begins on the second night of Passover. Jews in the Diaspora generally integrate this counting into the second seder. The omer is counted each evening after sundown. The counting of the omer is generally appended to the end of Ma'ariv (the evening service), as well. [Some call the evening service Arvit.]

The article also contains the blessing and formula for [day #, week #] when you get to that point. For those who would like to have the full list of [day #, week #] in Hebrew, Sefaria has a page: Easy as 1, 2, 3: How to Count the Omer.

Those who don't have a current need for Hebrew script (shortening the page/list): Reform's Counting of the Omer: Blessings for Each Day.

The Conservative/Masorti page has a printable calendar, a weekly email, a mixtape, and resources on the spiritual reflection side: Counting The Omer.

Chabad also has Omer Tools: a daily counter, a daily email reminder, a counter app, and a printable calendar.

[ancestorsofjudah]

1 Kings 7: 31-33. "The Movable Stands, Part 2: The Opening Frame."

31 On the inside of the stand there was an opening that had a circular frame one cubit[s] deep. This opening was round, and with its basework it measured a cubit and a half.[t] Around its opening there was engraving. The panels of the stands were square, not round. 

The Circular Opening represents God's Commandment that all Patriarchs pass along the blessing of Shabbat to their ancestors. During Shabbat what passes by the lips must be enjoyed, it must nourish, it must displace all that is untrue, unworthy of the dream of Jacob for the future of the people Israel. In this way all the People of Israel are blessed without limits.

"Shabbat is associated with a limitless blessing, the blessing God gave to Jacob during his Shabbat, the one that gave birth to Israel itself."

The Gematria says the Mouth is 1x1.5 Cubits = 8065, ח‎אֶפֶסו‎ה, "She is locked up, 2863 בח‎וג in the circle 2823, בחבג‎ ‎with pleasure."

The Mouth of Pleasure in Judaism is Twilight, when the Three Stars, together called Chabad, AKA the Three Transitional States of Mind that crown a man with the wisdom God has sent him in exchange for observing Shabbat.

Chabad consists of Chochmah, "pure ignorance", Binah, "formalized knowledge", and Da'at, "evidence of understanding."

These three states transition one's naive state into one's practical/identical state during the few hours between the 6th and Seventh Days, AKA Shabbat.

The Circle mentioned above is the mouth, it is also a loop of contintuity, the intake of blessings during Shabbat and Pesach, the speaking forth of the truth which is the food that blesses humankind, those who observe the Shabbat and those who do not.

No matter what Shabbat feeds mankind Manna.

"Ten things were created on the eve of Shabbat at twilight. These are: the mouth of the earth (where it swallowed Korach); the mouth of the well (of Miriam, that provided water for the Israelites in the desert); the mouth of the donkey (Balaam’s); the rainbow; the manna; the staff (Moses’); the shamir (that cut the stones of the Altar in the Holy Temple); and the writing, the inscription and the tablets [of the Ten Commandments]."

Ethics of the Fathers 5:6

The Circular Opening is represented by the number 300, AKA Shin, AKA the Three Stars that adorn the Crown of the Patriarch, the King of Israel:

When the shin is representative of the intellectual dimension, the three lines stand for the three intellectual faculties of the Sefiros: the right line being Chochmah, the flash of an idea; the left line being Binah, understanding; and the centerline Daas, application of knowledge.

32 The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand. The diameter of each wheel was a cubit and a half. 

The only reference to Four Wheels other than the Four Directions, which we now know very well, is found in Ezekiel 10, and refers to the nature of the Ophanim, the infinity angel at the heart of creation:

9 I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like topaz. [= zara, the planting of Israel from the dream of Jacob].

10 As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel. 

11 As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about[a] as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went.

 12 Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels.

 13 I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.”

 14 Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

The Cherub is what is hidden by God, the man is born and gives birth to himself, the lion predates upon what the man does not yet know, and the eagle is the final stage of life when one detaches from all that is on the ground, what is left behind as man contemplates all that he can possibly know before he passes it on.

=4957, דטהז‎‎ ‎dataz, "If so, then knowledge is power."

33 The wheels were made like chariot wheels; the axles, rims, spokes and hubs were all of cast metal.

= 6319, וגא‎ט, and gat "the winepress" = the symbol of the ingenuity and happiness of man which provides the wine, the other essential element of a good Shabbat besides the Manna.

[torahtantra]

3. Parsha Lekh Lekha, “The Becoming.” From Genesis 12:1–17:27.

The Call of Abram

12 The Lord had said to Abram "the Shield", “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.[a] 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”[b]

*Great Nations =the result of the “Shield” wedding Sarai, “the Senate”. 

->What is a curse and why would a Blessed God levy them, and how?

For this we need to resort to the Bow and Arrow, "transmutation expertise", the Talmud, and the resources of Chabad Hasidic Philosophy.

Shelah means "emissary of blessing", kelalah is the opposite. God is always the Missionary of Blessings, man has the capacity to take these blessings and devolve them into curses:

In the words of our sages, “No evil descends from heaven”—only two types of good. The first is a “blatant” and obvious good—a good which can be experienced only as such in our lives. The other is also good, for nothing but good can “emerge from the Supernal One”; but it is a “concealed good,” a good that is subject to how we choose to receive and experience it.

Because of the free choice granted us, it is in our power to distort these heavenly blessings into curses, to subvert these positive energies into negative forces."

When devolution to God's Greatness occurs because evil men are at work this is when we need Abram, Serai and Lot the most.

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot “covered” went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran [Ararat. This implies Abram purged himself of all inhumane tendencies that caused the Flood].

5 He took his wife Sarai [his senate], his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan [the low place, the place of humility], and they arrived there.

This means Lot is "covered", protected by Abram, the Shield, AKA the covenant between God and Noah that took place on Harran, "the mountaineer" who was lot's "father".

All that took place on Ararat was meant by God to protect all the generations of mountaineer fathers and their sons who follow.

This concept of the mountaineer recurs in the Torah repeatedly. See my post on Torah Geography as to why.

6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh [early rain, the teacher, AKA the Tree of Eden] at Shechem [the shoulder]. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring[c] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Canaanites are "Royal Qualities" that must be inherited, from the generation ahead which has shouldered the burden of the religion across the ages, from Eden onward.

One of these is the "pitching of the tent", the creation of a mobile refuge that exists between the savagery we saw in early human beings and a mankind that subscribes to the enlightened tenets of the Temple:

8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel [house of God] and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai [place of ruin] on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev [dry, parched].

Abram, “The protection” and his “senate” leave the mountain top free of any hints of the curse, the urge to use state power for violence. They move on to Canaan where God says all ‘servants of servants’ AKA civilized governments are born. Imagine that, a government that acknowledges it is paid by the people to make life palpable!

They pitch a tent, meaning they establish a vessel in which the skills and attributes can be taught and learned. It is “West of the House of God, east of ruin, on the way towards a place parched free of anarchy. 

Abram, the “Shield” presumably a term for a Chief Executive, then heads towards Egypt which remains a Hebrew word for the “Temple of Ptah” the Egyptian god of speech. 

We don’t yet have the Ten Commandments. We have nothing in fact, except violence and killing and an angry God. 

Why didn’t God give us the Commandments and tell us on the cover page of the Torah all about the “Thou Shalt Nots?” 

Why did he wait until Slavery in Egypt, when the “temple of the god of speech” turned from being a source of science and statecraft into a place of lies, gossip, propaganda and stupefaction? 

Could the Commandments have prevented slavery? Or is there simply no excuse for killing, for the ruin of all that Joseph built and shame on you for not knowing this on your own, it’s common sense? 

Let’s see if the first mention of Egypt in the Torah offers a clue: 

Abram in Egypt

10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt "the Temple of Ptah, the Place of Tragedy" to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.

12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you."

-> Famines are periods when Torah instruction is suspended and from the ground up and even into the sea, life becomes stressed. This is true literally and figuratively as we are seeing.

Because our generation of mankind has turned profoundly away from the Torah and all faith in general to worthless superstitions about food, clothes, sex, and abortion, all the elements and resources on the earth are retracting and becoming poisonous to us, to plants, animals, and microbes.

Once we restore the Torah, the weather, the ground, crops, and the supply chain of food will return to normal along with it.

14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh "the Confederate", and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

-> The famine in Canaan, which had olives, grapes, grain and pomegranates (peace, prosperity, learning, and righteousness means corruption drove Abram and his government away. Right into the hands of Pharaoh, a kind of monarch that was always treated like a god. And we hate those. 

Now remember, Joseph was not a pharaoh but an emperor, an important distinction. 

Abram and Sarai have traded their freedom and their holy union for a bunch of farm animals. 

Sheep= subservience

Cattle= collateral for loans. Abram loaned his government to a god on the ground for some cattle. 

Male and Female Donkeys= donkeys are slow and really don’t do a lot of work. Male donkeys are the worst, and a female donkey just makes more donkeys! So Abram gave up his finely tuned working government for a  donkey farm. 

Camels= Camels are said to be infused with the elements around them. Obviously a bunch of camels who store up the propaganda of the Pharaoh are not going to be any good to anyone. 

Camels that carry the essence of the religion and the Tenets, Decrees, Commands, etc. these carry pilgrims from one oasis in history to the next.

So now, notice- long before the Flight, God has to schcrew around with the Egyptians to get Pharaoh to let the democratic government go free from its captivity to an idol; it seems to me we are in the same place with the same people, but politics have changed: 

17 But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

Governments must be grown up out of the principals established at the end of Noach. There is no way around this. The alternative is to allow confederacy, a government based on immoral principals enforced as if they were rule of law.

-> If famines represent periods without the Torah, then diseases represent the presence of the Exterminators, or violations of the Seven Laws of Noah.

It is a duty of all Israelites to ensure the Torah is mainstreamed and the Exterminators are treated and "vaccinated". Just as in real life, Incenses and resins are used for this purpose.

The Pharaoh, a confederate did not want any of these or a "senate" that belonged to a man who covenanted with God to address the causes of violence and shield the people through policy and rule of law. Why would he?

He returns the senate to whom he borrowed it, and we know what kind of culture grows up in Egypt instead. Absent an appropriate womb, a flawed model of government springs up next to the future Israelites and we know how that turns out.

All working governments must have senates, food, medicines and laws, they must "cover" the people, they must all be local, indigenous and bind the people to one another via lawful matrimony with the Head of State.

If these help a culture become something amazing, then surely famines and diseases - violence and oppression - are their undoing. A shield governor like Abram is what trans-mutates all that God gives us an initial blessing through His Torahs during the Seven Days and and amplifies them into civilized life through the manmade torah of sound government.

[howtosavethehumans]

Heretic for Most High

There is a Torah idea that says every “sinful” impulse a human has can be used for good, even the impulses considered most evil. I'll give you an example, if a man has an impulse to kill things with a knife, they can use this impulse to murder people, or become a butcher and help feed humanity. So a man one day asked the last Chabad Rebbe what could the “sinful” impulse of the heresy in denying the Most High's existence be used for, that is to deny god even exists. Although all my books were given away in Israel, so I don't have the exact quote, it was basically that when we see our fellow human in need, we shouldn't say God will help them and walk away, but we should, in that moment, act as if there is no God, and we should help them all we can. This is why I have become a heretic for HaShem, so many people are suffering and the world is moving so fast that in this moment we must act as if there is no God and help our fellow human beings with all we can. The same Rabbi said something similar to this: People are concerned with other people's spiritual well-being and their own physical well-being, but they have this backwards, we should be concerned with our own spiritual well-being and other people's physical well-being. It is through Tzedaka, through charity, that we will be redeemed, as it's said in Isaiah. Giving gets people stoked.

Good deed of the week, go give some type of money to at least one person you see this week struggling, especially someone living on the streets as you get old enough. It can be a penny to paper money, but give them something and then say a kind word to them. It is said the blessings are multiplied with a kind word/blessing of support and upliftment. For extra credit do it at least once a day all week.

[eretzyisrael]

THE REBBE’S YAHRTZEIT

Today is the third of Tammuz, the 30th yahrtzeit of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (1902-1994). The Rebbe is the most influential figure in modern Jewish history. Under his visionary leadership, the Chabad movement achieved massive success all over the world at a time when many Jewish institutions were struggling to survive. 

The Rebbe completely altered the global footprint of the Jewish people by inspiring thousands of emissaries to establish Chabad houses in far-flung locations, many of which previously had no Jewish community. 

If a Jew is traveling and wants to attend services, celebrate a holiday, or enjoy a home-cooked Shabbat meal, there is likely a friendly Chabad house nearby. The Rebbe was especially successful in reaching secular Jews with a message of love and joy rather than pressure and judgment. 

He taught that just as dark events in Jewish history contained within them the sparks of tremendous light, so too the darkest places in ourselves contain the sparks of our greatest light. We just need to ask God for the strength to face them, work on them and emerge into the light!

May the Rebbe's memory always be for a blessing.

[resplendent-ragamuffin]

I’ve decided I might as well put my 13 years of day school education to good use, so...

A Glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew Words This Rabbi Uses You Might Not Know:

(I’ll transcribe closer to the accent he’s using than ‘standard’ Israeli pronunciation, to make this easier. Not going to translate things he translates himself, for the most part, but erring on the side of over-explaining.)

Sefer (pl. Sforim):  Book, books. Specifically being used here for holy books.

Sefer Yehoshua is The Book of Joshua, Sefer Devarim is The Book of Deuteronomy

HaKadosh Baruch Hooh (I know this is a weird transliteration but they all looked weird): “The Holy One, Blessed Be He,” i.e. God. One of many names we use in place of Names, since we don’t use God’s Names in vain. Hashem is another ‘placeholder’ name, which literally means “The Name.”

Yehoshua Ben-Nun: Joshua, son of Nun (this might be obvious, but just in case.)

Moshe Rabbeinu: Moses, Our Teacher.

Klal Yisrael: He does define this, but since he uses it a lot: literally “the Whole of Israel,” but basically just means “the Jewish People.”

Nevuah: Another word he translates, but appears a LOT. Prophecy. See also Navi (pl. Nevi’im), “prophet(s).” Note: Navi or Nevi’im is also used to refer to the Prophets segment of the Bible, and he sometimes uses it that way (eg. around 6:00)

Mann: Manna (the biblical food, not the magic video game energy. Side note, I looked that up, and the two words appear to be unrelated.)

Eretz Yisrael: The Land of Israel

Perek (pl. p’rakim): Chapter.

Pasuk (pl. p’sukim): Verse. Chapters and verses are often given with their numbers in Hebrew, so...

A Note On Numbering: While Hebrew does have words for one, two, etc. numbers were often noted using letters instead, since Arabic numerals are a relatively new thing. Here is a chart. Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet is assigned a value. The first ten (aleph to tet) are 1-9, the next set (yud to tzadi) are the tens column (i.e. yud is 10, kaf is 20, etc.), and the last set (kuf to tav) are the hundreds (100-400). Note that when letters have multiple forms (eg. shin and sin) only one is used. Usually, to indicate that it’s a number rather than a word, there will be a mark before the second to last letter. So, for example, 25 would be כ"ה (kaf-hey, 20+5), and this year on the Hebrew calendar, 5783, is written as תשפ"ג (taf-shin-pey-gimmel, 400+300+80+3=783, with an optional hey (5) at the beginning for the millenium that’s usually left off because it. changes once a millenium. so why bother.) (It’s also sometimes used by commentaries to find numerological significance to words or phrases, a process called gematria.)

There is a slight complication to this. We don’t write God’s Name unnecessarily (see above), which makes writing 15 and 16 difficult--the 10 would be a yud, followed by a hey or vav for 5 or 6, and either way spells a Name. To avoid this, 15 and 16 are written as ט"ו (tet-vav, 9+6) and ט"ז (tet-zayin, 9+7) respectively. For those of you who have seen posts about Tu B’Shvat (often called “Jewish Earth Day”), that’s actually what the Tu means! The holiday is on the 15th of the month of Shvat, and when you read ט"ו like a word you get “Tu!”

Toras Moshe: The Torah of Moses. The Torah is often referred to this way, since it was given to us through him. This is also why he has the epithet of “our teacher.” Comes from (I think?) Deuteronomy 33:4, “The Torah that Moses commanded us is a legacy for the congregation of Jacob.” (translation from Chabad because I like theirs better.)

Tzaddik: Holy or righteous person. Sometimes translated as “Saint,” but not in a Catholic way. More like how you might call someone “saintly.”

Arvos Moav: Place name. I think this means “The Plains of Moab,” but am not 100%. Basically just means on the eastern shores of the Jordan River.

Yarden: Jordan

Reuven, Gad: Reuben, Gad.

Shevet (eg. Shevet Menashe): Tribe (eg. Tribe of Manasseh)

B’nei Yisrael: The Children of Israel. Another way of saying the Jewish People. See K’lal Yisrael above.

Perush: Commentary, commentator. Literally “interpretation.”

Chidush: He does kind of explain this, but basically means “something new.” Often used for a new interpretation or angle of interpreation of Torah, though here he uses it more to mean “an addition.”

Talmid Chacham: Literally “Student of the Wise,” means someone extremely learned in Torah.

“Lo Kam K’Moshe”: “There never arose like Moses.” Part of a phrase. The full phrase depends on which source you are taking it from (the original is in Deuteronomy, but there is a perhaps better known variation in the liturgical poem Yidgal--see here for both), but is basically “There never arose another prophet like Moses.”

Derech Eretz: Literally “the way of the land.” Kind of a complicated concept to translate, tbh, but most often used nowadays to mean being a decent person. More thorough explanation from Chabad here. Note, however, that both the 1997 Metsudah translation and the Sefaria community translation have Rashi meaning it more literally. Chabad translates it here as “worldly pursuits.” (When I said complicated I wasn’t kidding lol.)

D’Oraisa: “of the Torah,” refers to commandments that are given in the Written Torah from Hashem, eg. “Don’t eat meat and milk,” which comes from “don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” As opposed to

D’Rabanan: “of the rabbis,” Rabbinic commandments, from the Oral Torah, eg. “Don’t eat poulty with milk either“ (chickens do not have milk). Note that since “obey the rabbis” is a d’Oraisa commandment, Rabbinic mitzvas are also binding.

Seichel: Common sense, more or less. Being smart about things. Intellect.

Shtender: Lecturn.

Taskil: Successful. He’ll go into it in a second. (But it is funny that he pauses, seemingly to translate, and then just says another Hebrew word).

Osek BaTorah: Engaged/occupied with the Torah

Mazel: Fortune (like fortune telling, not like wealth). Also means “constallation,” though that’s not what he’s using it for.

Zekeinim (sing. zaken): The elderly

Chalutzim: honestly not 100% sure of this but seems to mean something like vanguard? My searches say “pioneers,” but given the military context idk

I probably missed some things, but hopefully this helps!

Day 1: Joshua 1 // יהושע א

Today, Friday July 7th, 2023, we are beginning an approximately two year journey to read the Prophets (Nevi'im) and Writings (Ketuvim) of the Tanakh. We will be using the OU's podcast shiurim for commentary to guide this study. However, please feel free to add your own sources and commentary in the notes. Please add any thoughts or discussion in reblogs so that it is easier to keep track of the conversation. Toda raba!

(Link to full chapter text on Sefaria)

[girlactionfigure]

There's something I need to get off my chest.

I'm an Ultra-Orthodox, Chassidic, Hareidi Jew. I live in Jerusalem, in an area that is exclusively Ultra-Orthodox Hareidi for street after street, suburb after suburb, for miles and miles. In all of these neighborhoods where the roads are blocked off and no cars drive on Shabbos, each black-hat-wearing family has many many children and literally no TV’s. I personally only ever wear black and white clothes, my wife only dresses in Chassidic levels of tznius (modesty), and my boys and girls all attend mainstream Hareidi Chassidic schools where the main language is Yiddish. My kids don’t and never will have smartphones, nor have they ever been on the internet at all. Period. They don’t know what social media is and they’ve never seen a movie — not even Disney animation. 

Having lived exclusively immersed in this culture for the last 21 years, I think I'm sufficiently qualified and well-researched enough to state that the consistent depiction of Hareidim and Torah Judaism by mainstream media, from Netflix to the daily news, is somewhere between delusion, slander and the literal equivalent of racism. If you consider yourself less closed-minded than how you imagine we Hareidim to be, then permit me to share a few personal details about my family, and other families in our neighborhood, to see how well your mental narrative matches up to reality:

- Besides learning Torah each day, most of the men in our neighborhood work full or part-time.

- Many women in our area work. Some even manage their own business or company. These are not special or “liberated” women — it’s so normal here it’s not even a discussion point.

- My wife is a full-time mother by choice, who despite attending an Ivy League College,  finds it a profound and meaningful thing to dedicate her life to. If she didn’t, she’d go get a job. Mind you, she also attends Torah classes each week, works out with both a female fitness coach (who’s gay) and a frum Pilates instructor, writes and edits articles for a couple global websites and magazines, and personally mentors a number of women. None of this is seen as unusual. 

- Kids in our community go to Torah schools where they learn (surprise!) Torah. They are fluent in three languages from a young age and the boys even read and understand a fourth (Aramaic). All the kids learn grammar, math and science. Weekly after-school activities have included music (violin, drums, piano), Tae Kwon Do, swimming, art, woodworking and robotics. The girls' school teaches tools of emotional intelligence. The principal of the boys' school doesn't hesitate to refer to kids to OT if needed. I practice meditation with my children multiple times each week. None of our kids think the world is literally 6,000 years old. They devour books about science and think it’s cool. They know dinosaurs existed and don’t find that existentially threatening. They have a telescope with which they love to watch the stars. 

- The women in my family (like the men) only dress modestly according to Hareidi standards. The girls don't find this burdensome or oppressive. Period. They aren't taught that beauty is bad. They're certainly not taught to hate their bodies, God forbid. Each morning when they get dressed, they are as happily into their own fashion and looking pretty as any secular girl is. They just have a different sense of fashion than secular culture dictates. (Unfortunately for me,  it's no cheaper.)

- The local Hareidi rabbis we receive guidance from are deep, warm, sensitive, supportive and emotionally intelligent. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t go to them.

- My boys assume they will grow up to learn Torah, as much as they want to, and then when they’re ready, get a good job or learn a profession to support whatever lifestyle they choose. My girls assume they’ll be wives and mothers (which they can’t wait for) but they're also warmly encouraged to train in whatever other profession they desire. (My 9-year-old daughter, chatting with her friend in the living room, just commented, "I want to be a mother and a teacher and an artist." Her friend replied, "I'm going to be a ballet teacher.") All options are on the table, and their future seems bright.

- We love living in modern Israel, feel proud and blessed to be here, and frequently count and celebrate its blessings. Everyone in my area votes. Sometimes not even for Hareidi parties. I pay taxes. (And they’re expensive!)

- As a Hareidi person, I’m glad we have Hareidi representation in the government — though I don’t always love or approve of how the Hareidi politicians act, or what they choose to represent. For the record, I'm equally dubious about secular politicians, as well. 

- While I don't spend much time in Tel Aviv, I do have a few close Hareidi entrepreneur friends who have founded high-tech start-ups there, and are — Boruch Hashem! — doing very well.   

- We don’t hate all non-religious people. Our kids don’t throw stones at passing cars on Shabbos. I doubt they even know anyone who would do that or think that it’s ok. We frequently talk about the Torah value of caring for and being compassionate towards everyone. As a family, we proactively try to find ways to judge others favorably (even those people who throw stones at passing cars on Shabbos.)

- We invite all manner of religious and secular Jews to join our Shabbos meals each week and the kids are open, happy, and confident to welcome everyone. (No, we're not Chabad.) One of the many reasons for having such guests at our table is to teach the kids this lesson.

- While we would technically be classified as right-wing and we don’t at all buy the modern “Palestinian�� narrative, we certainly don’t hate all Arabs, nor do we have any desire to expel them all from the land. We warmly welcome anyone seeking to dwell here with us in peace and we are pained and saddened to see the suffering and loss of lives of all innocent Arab families and children — as would any decent human being.

- Of the few local families I know whose kids no longer identify as religious, none at all chose to disown their kids. The very thought, in such lovingly family-dedicated communities, is hard to imagine. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just saying it's not as common as it's made out. Rather, these families have tirelessly, profoundly, compassionately committed to maintaining any connection with their children, and to emphasize that, no matter what, family is the most important thing. Because it is.

- We aren't just living our life blindly, dogmatically following empty religious rules; rather, we are frequently engaged with, exploring and discussing Torah's richness, depth and meaning. Our kids honestly love learning Torah, praying and doing mitzvos. They’re visibly excited about Shabbos and festivals. This lifestyle is in no way oppressive or burdensome for them. If you suggested to them it was, they’d laugh and think you were crazy.  

- We Hareidim are normal people: we laugh, we cry, we buy too much Ikea furniture, and we struggle with all of life's daily ups and downs, just like the rest of you. Some of our communities are more healthy and balanced, some are less so; some of our people are warmer, nicer and more open, some are more closed, dogmatic and judgmental; some of our leaders are noble and upstanding, and some are quite frankly idiots…JUST LIKE ANY SECULAR NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE WORLD TOO. But having grown up living a secular lifestyle myself, and today being Hareidi-by-choice, I can testify that in these communities there is generally a greater and more tangible sense of well-being, warmth, tranquility, connection and meaning. We love and feel blessed to be living this life and wouldn’t want any other.

If this description of Hareidi life is hard to swallow, be careful not to push back with the often-used defenses like: "Well, you're just an exception to the rule...", "You're just American Hareidim", "You're baalei teshuvah", "Well, I know a bunch of Haredim that aren't like that at all"....because the truth is, while there might be many Hareidim who aren't like what I described above, it's still an accurate description of literally hundreds of thousands of Hareidim in Israel and the US — a decent portion of all Hareidim in the world. Which is my very point — how come you never see this significant Hareidi demographic represented in the media, television series, or the news? How come we mostly see the darkest and most problematic cliches instead? 

And finally, if all the facts I've listed above about our communities are hard for you to accept as true, then perhaps the image you have in your head about Hareidim is less based on facts and reality and more based on stereotypes, fear, hate, and discrimination — like any other form of prejudice in the world. 

Care to prove me wrong? Well, you're welcome to come argue it out with me and my family at our Shabbos table on Friday night. It would be a joy and honor to have you. 

Doniel Katz

[americanmysticom]

Eye of G-d Nebula

TEKNA | ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK

Prayerbooks Share Folder https://icedrive.net/s/3w1TWbziGYFyFzZPCui6kQuvN3vS

photo;

https://getwallpapers.com/collection/eye-of-god-nebula-wallpaper

What’s in the Boxes?

The Torah mentions the mitzvah of tefillin four separate times. Each of these texts is inscribed on parchment and placed into the tefillin. These passages discuss the unity of G‑d. They describe the miracles G‑d performed for us when He took us out of Egypt, and how G‑d alone has the power and dominion to do whatever He wants in the physical and spiritual worlds. In other words, these verses cover the fundamentals of our faith.

These texts are:

1–2. Kadesh (Exodus 13:1–10) and Vehayah ki yeviacha (Exodus 13:11–16): These describe the duty of the Jewish people to always remember the redemption from Egyptian bondage, and the obligation of every Jew to educate his children about this and about G‑d’s commandments. 3. Shema (Deut. 6:4–9): Pronounces the unity of the one G‑d, and commands us to love and fear Him. 4. Vehayah (Deut. 11:13–21): Focuses on G‑d’s assurance to us of reward that will follow our observance of the Torah’s mitzvahs.

[The Cube symbolizes G-ds logic - that is, not man's. One a crown upon the head, a crown of G-ds shimmering light, the G-dly Soul. The other next to the heart of man, the presence of G-ds workings within the animal soul. Both cubes of one design, one tuning-fork.

A Holy Prayer focal-piece and amplifier.]

Highly recommended for daily morning prayer - not worn on Sabbaths because the Sabbath is specially set-aside and bathed by the presence of G-ds Grace.

https://www.hasofer.com/page.pl?p=chabad

https://store.chabad.org/mitzvahs-and-traditions/tefilin.html?utm_source=chabad.org

[If you don’t have Tefillin, then write down and memorize the passages, and recognize the crown of light that is upon your head, and with sparkling multicolor brilliance illuminating your heart as you speak the blessings during your daily morning prayers.]

also see;

Daily Torah Study

https://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/default_cdo/jewish/Daily-Study.htm

For G-ds Law, G-ds Torah, remains in full force and effect.

[mysticmachmir]

Dveikut: Cleaving to G!d

Dveitkut: (lit. “clinging”); profound concentration; spiritual attachment to, or unification with, the Divine; a communion with the Divine that removes one from physical awareness. Dveitkut is a Jewish mystical concept taken up both by Kabbalah and Hasidism of how we can grow closer to Hashem. Kabbalah focuses on the sefirot, or the Tree of Life, like a ladder - that from Malkhut we can climb up to Keter and come closest to the Ein Sof - we do this in our lifetime, and death is the ultimate reunification with the Infinite One. Hasidism focuses less on this ladder and the ascetic practices that the Kabbalists used to cleave, and instead were about making the material spiritual.

Let’s look at some source texts.

"You that cleave to Hashem your G!d are alive, all of you, today." —Devarim 4:4 "For if ye shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it, to love the LORD your Hashem, to walk in all His ways, and to cleave [u-l'davkah] unto Him." —Devarim 11:22

Ramban (Nachmandies) Commentary on Devarim 11:22: "The verse warns man not to worship Hashem and a being beside Him; he is to worship Hashem alone in his heart and in his actions. And it is plausible that the meaning of "cleaving" is to remember Hashem and His love constantly, not to divert your thought from Him in all your earthly doings. Such a man may be talking to other people, but his heart is not with them since he is in the presence of Hashem. And it is further plausible that those who have attained this rank, do, even in their earthly life, partake of the eternal life, because they have made themselves a dwelling place of the shekhinah."

A Hasidic parable from Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye, Ben Porat Yosef - disciple of the Baal Shem Tov: "There was once a great and wise king who magically created the illusions of walls and towers and gates. He commanded his people to come to him by way of these gates and towers and had treasures from the royal treasury displayed at every gate. There were some who went as far as the first gate and then returned, laden with treasure. Others proceeded to gates deeper within the palace and closer to the king, but none reached the king himself. At last, the king's son made a great effort to go to his father, the king. Then he saw that there was really no barrier separating him from his father, for it was all an illusion." Tzava'at Harivash 127: "... The same applies to your speech: do not think that it is you who speaks. Rather, it is the vital force within you, which derives from the Creator, blessed is He, that speaks through you and raises the speech to its source. This [attitude] compounds also the [notion of] equanimity because the faculty of speech is the same in another as it is with you, for all derives from Him, blessed be He."

___________________ All of these sources point to an idea that cleaving to Hashem means this - realizing that what separates you from G!d is all an illusion. You are holy, made in the image of G!d, and therefore G!d is within you. When we realize this, we are beginning to start the climb to cleave to G!d. Though it may not seem like it with the sources above, cleaving to Hashem does not mean to abandon all passions, to not care for others, or to just pray 24/7. What it is telling us is that through the connection-commandments of the 613 mitzvot, prayer, and Torah study, we are able to grow closer to G!d. Think of it this way: when we partake in mitzvot like visiting the sick, we are taking care of our community and we are walking in the path of G!d - in this, we cleave to G!d's holy, infinite self, in service to Him. It is is the radical idea that all of our thoughts, actions, and words can be focused on G!d. Kabbalists believed that only a few were qualified to reach devekut, but Hasidism had the "radical assertion that devekut could be realized by anyone who would turn to God in faith. Since there is no place that is void of God’s presence, one had only to become aware of that fact to obliterate the apparent distance between the human and the Divine."

So in simpler terms:

How do we reach devekut? Devekut is a God-consciousness imbued with love. An important ideal in Hasidism is a continual awareness of God and a love of God that is ever-growing and ever expressing itself in the world. In the words of the BeShT: “The purpose of Torah study for its own sake is to be in devekut with the One who is hidden within it.”

So in Jewish tradition, we must: Engage in prayer with kavvanah, study the Torah, and engage in service to G!d by following the mitzvot - like loving the stranger, visiting the sick, preserving life, and more. However, there are other ways as well - songs and melody.

Hasidic fondness for song and melody is based on this ideal. A particular melody of plaintive yearning is called a devekut niggun, an attachment melody, which Hasidim repeat over and over again in order to cultivate this state to the highest degree possible for ordinary worshippers. Chants are also away, as R. Shefa Gold often crafts from psalms and other holy texts - to get into a meditative trance with chanting or niggunim.

A task to experience devekut:

Pick a chant you like from here.

Sit down, comfortably, in a comfortable space - if you need to, mark it sacred in some way - candles, incense, etc.

Try and clear your head, and focus on the chant. Repeat it over, and over, and let your mind only be filled with those sacred words.

Stay like that as long as you like. Let your thoughts turn to G!d.

Sources:

Chabad

Jewish Virtual Library

Sefaria

R. Shefa Gold

The Jewish Religion: A Companion

Jewish Spiritual Practices

[jewish-privilege]

Today should have been my funeral.

I was preparing to give my sermon Shabbat morning, Saturday, which was also the last day of Passover, the festival of our freedom, when I heard a loud bang in the lobby of my synagogue.

I thought a table had fallen down or maybe even that, God forbid, my dear friend Lori Gilbert Kaye had tripped and fallen. Only a few moments earlier I had greeted Lori there; she had come to services to say Yizkor, the mourning prayer, for her late mother.

I went to the lobby to check on her. What I saw in those seconds will haunt me for the rest of my days.

I saw Lori bleeding on the ground. And I saw the terrorist who murdered her.

This terrorist was a teenager. He was standing there with a big rifle in his hands. And he was now aiming it at me. For one reason: I am a Jew.

He started shooting. My right index finger got blown off. Another bullet hit my left index finger, which started gushing blood.

After the massacre in Pittsburgh, we had a community training. Now that training kicked in. Somehow my brain directed my body to the synagogue ballroom, where the children, including two of my grandchildren, were playing. I ran toward them screaming “Get out! Get out!” I grabbed as many as I could with my bloody hands and pushed them out of the building.

One of our congregants that day, Almog Peretz, a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, ran after me to help get the children to safety and took a bullet in the leg. His eight-year-old niece, Noya Dahan, took some shrapnel to hers. Then an amazing miracle occurred: The terrorist’s gun jammed. Two other heroic congregants — an Army veteran named Oscar Stewart and an off-duty border patrol agent named Jonathan Morales — rushed toward him and he fled.

The ambulances had not yet arrived. We all gathered outside. I don’t remember all that I said to my community, but I do remember quoting a passage from the Passover Seder liturgy: “In every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand.” And I remember shouting the words “Am Yisrael Chai! The people of Israel live!” I have said that line hundreds of times in my life. But I have never felt the truth of it more than I did then.

I am a religious man. I believe everything happens for a reason. I do not know why God spared my life. I do not know why I had to witness scenes of a pogrom in San Diego County like the ones my grandparents experienced in Poland. I don’t know why a part of my body was taken away from me. I don’t know why I had to see my good friend, a woman who embodied the Jewish value of hesed (kindness), hunted in her house of worship. I don’t know why I had to watch Lori’s beloved husband, a doctor, faint as he tried to resuscitate her. And then their only daughter, Hannah, sob in agony as she encountered both her parents collapsed on the floor.

I do not know God’s plan. All I can do is try to find meaning in what has happened. And to use this borrowed time to make my life matter more.

I used to sing a song to my children, a song that my father sang to me when I was a child. “Hashem is here,” I would sing, using a Hebrew name for God, pointing with my right index finger to the sky. “Hashem is there,” I would sing, pointing to my right and left. “Hashem is truly everywhere.” That finger I would use to point out God’s omnipresence was taken from me.

I pray that my missing finger serves as a constant reminder to me. A reminder that every single human being is created in the image of God; a reminder that I am part of a people that has survived the worst destruction and will always endure; a reminder that my ancestors gave their lives so that I can live in freedom in America; and a reminder, most of all, to never, ever, not ever be afraid to be Jewish.

From here on in I am going to be more brazen. I am going to be even more proud about walking down the street wearing my tzitzit and kippah, acknowledging God’s presence. And I’m going to use my voice until I am hoarse to urge my fellow Jews to do Jewish. To light candles before Shabbat. To put up mezuzas on their doorposts. To do acts of kindness. And to show up in synagogue — especially this coming Shabbat.

I am a proud emissary of Chabad-Lubavitch, a movement of Hasidic Judaism. Our leader, the great Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, famously taught that a little light expels a lot of darkness. That is why Chabad rabbis travel all over the world to set up Jewish communities: I have colleagues in Kathmandu, in Ghana, as well as in Paris and Sydney. We believe that helping any human being tap into their divine spark is a step toward fixing this broken world and bringing closer the redemption of humanity. It is why 33 years ago my wife and I came to this corner of California to build a house of light.

Because we are obviously Jewish, identifiable by our black hats and beards, it has also meant that some of us have been targets before. Eleven years ago, my colleagues Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who ran the Chabad of Mumbai, India, were murdered with four of their guests. They were targeted by the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba because they were Jewish. And over the years people I know have been harassed and assaulted by thugs in the neighborhood where I grew up, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in incidents that typically go unreported by the press.

In his vile manifesto, the terrorist who shot up my synagogue called my people, the Jewish people, a “squalid and parasitic race.” No. We are a people divinely commanded to bring God’s light into the world.

So it is with this country. America is unique in world history. Never before was a country founded on the ideals that all people are created in God’s image and that all people deserve freedom and liberty. We fought a war to make that promise real.

And I believe we can make it real again. That is what I pledge to do with my borrowed time.