Israeli Revolutionary

2011-01-30T18:15:00.002+02:00

I haven't written in a while. Been very busy since getting married and everything. Now B"H we have a son 9 months old. Wanted to start writing again when I have the chance.

The Israeli Revolutionary is back!!

2009-03-31T13:16:00.001+03:00

After a 3-plus month break, I'm back, and married, and better than ever. That's all I have to say for now.

Xmas customs

2008-12-21T19:05:00.005+02:00

My last couple of posts were relevant to Hanukah.

Some people get very depressed this time of the year. I think the reason is Xmas, the evil holiday, celebrating the birth of the evil empire. Undoubtably, the Somech"Mem wields a lot of power at this time of the year. It may explain Hanukah being this time of the year, since it celebrates its defeat.

Also there's Easter, which celebrates the rebirth (and continued rebirth) of evil. Easter is that experience where you just think you killed the yetzer hara and then it comes back twice as hard. However, there will be a time when it's killed off for good...Purim, or Pesach perhaps.

The Easter bunny is a reincarnated homosexual. This is how the Romans were reincarnated.

The custom of searching for eggs: Eggs are a sign of mourning, as in the last meal before the Tisha B'Av fast. The parents hide the eggs and the kids search for them. This is the legacy of Edom, to search for new churbanot for the Jewish people, to spend every last minute trying to figure out how to uproot every last vestige of Judaism from them.

Decorating Xmas trees: This is the Xtian bible. The tree represents the Tree of Life, the Torah, which the Evil Empire took and redecorated in the clothes of Edom and claimed for themselves. They consider this day the day where the Torah was nabbed from the Jews and redecorated--thus they cut down (kill) and decorate Xmas trees.

"Hanukah bushes": For all those Jews who accept this premise...that is, that the Torah is no longer relevant.

Santa Claus and stockings: The evil prince enters people's houses secretly at night to fill their stomachs with candy. Yesh li rav achi...

Ho...Ho...Ho...For on the morrow we die.

Mistletoe: an excuse for making licentiousness obligatory.

Exchanging presents: exchanging bribes. Our sages say that people's lives shortened the moment they started accepting presents.

Joseph had to overcome his temptation on the Egyptian festive day which caused the yetzer hara to be at its strongest. Is it any wonder we read about Joseph during Xmas time? If Joseph could do it, so can you...

2008-12-16T19:20:00.000+02:00

David's message for the day: Rid yourself of the burden of gentile culture!

Quick, get me away from this gentile culture!!!

2008-12-15T17:00:00.007+02:00

From Likutey Moharan #14 (from Breslov Institute translation by Moshe Mykoff) with my own comments:

"To draw peace into the world it is necessary to elevate the Holy One's glory to its source--i.e. to fear. As is written, "To fear the glorious name."

Glory is referring to souls, as it says, "So that my glory will sing to You and not be silent."

The entire idea of this chapter is that all the souls have to elevated to fear of G-d (Yirat Hashem), since this is the main part of their tikkun.

"Yet, it is impossible to elevate the glory except through the Torah of lovingkindness. And of the Torah of lovingkindness our sages taught: This is the one who studies in order to teach it...This applies equally to converts who convert and to baaley teshuvah (repentant Jews), for they were also on the outside

So this tikkun is achieved by teaching Torah to others, specifically to bring them to fear of Hashem.

"Now the only way to attract converts and baaley teshuvah is through Torah...This is what our sages taught: There is no glory other than Torah. And, concerning, "If you take out the precious from the vile", our sages taught: This refers to those who draw people to the service of G-d."

Through Torah and Yirat Hashem, the klipah (forces of evil) is removed and this is the main part of the tikkun. The precious here is the soul, the vile is the klipah, which is the state of not fearing G-d, or in short being in rebellion (as we see, most gentiles are in rebellion against Hashem, since most haven't accepted the 7 Noahidic laws. And in order for any tikkun to begin for them, they have to stop rebelling.)

"Yet, it is impossible for either Jewish sinners or converts to come to an awakening of repentance except through Torah, which shines to them wherever they are, as in "Your wellsprings shall spread outward." Specifically "outward", because the Torah is comprised of 600,000 letters, corresponding to the 600,000 [Jewish] souls. And each soul has its own source Above, in the Divine thought of the Holy One, for "Israel arose first in thought."

Each generation is comprised of 600,000 souls. First the Jews must return to Yirat Hashem, which is its source Above. As in known, the soul comes from Binah/Ema, which is Yirah.

"And through a union of souls, the souls of the converts are created. When the souls are aroused through the letters of Torah that a person recites, and they shine to one another, this is the concept of union--each one receives light from the other. And, by means of the union of the souls' shining within thought, the souls of converts are created.

"So, too, the Jewish sinner. As long as he is called a Jew...even though he has sinned, he is a Jew. He also has a hold and a source in upper thought. As a result of the shining, the source of his soul shines together with the other sources, so that an illumination reaches this Jewish sinner from his soul's source. And, by virtue of this illumination, he returns in repentance."

When one studies Torah properly, he creates the souls of converts. This is part of the rectification of the 974 generations. Again, the rectification comes from bringing a person to Yirat Hashem, so a person must study with Yirat Hashem. He also brings Jews to Yirat Hashem.

"This is what our Sages taught: Why do Torah scholars not have sons who are Torah scholars? Because they did not recite the blessing for Torah first."

That is, because they didn't recite the blessing for Torah study, the soul illumination of their children did not reach the children. A Torah scholar's soul comes from the world of Beriah, the source of the souls themselves and also the source of Yirah. So by saying the blessing before Torah study, they are able to draw down from the soul root of their children illumination, so that their children's souls can be drawn from Beriah.

"Now, a person can only merit Torah through humility...He Has to break his haughtiness, drawing from the four aspects of humility...before those greater than he, before his equals, before those lesser than he, [and] that he himself is sometimes the smallest of the small must humble himself relative to his own level. He should imagine himself lower than he really is, corresponding to, "Every person must sit beneath his place."

This is because the main hold of the klipah is from haughtiness. The entire culture of the 974 generations (the goyim) is built entirely upon ga'ava and rebellion. So to the extent that a person removes ga'ava from himself, and likewise the influence of gentile culture, so too he removes the klipah and is able to reach true and clear yirat Hashem and Torah. Elsewhere, Rabbi Nachman describes the klipah as soiled clothes (bigadim tzoim)...

"This is the meaning of "and you shall honor it"--honor it with clean garments. "Clean garments" alludes to throwing off the soiled garments. For this is the essence of G-d's glory...to induce people to repent and to draw down the souls of converts."

On Shabbat we're supposed to wear clean clothes, preferably white clothes. Shabbat is the ultimate state of tikkun. So one who wears clean, white clothes on Shabbat brings himself to Yirat Hashem.

"Each person, according to his level, can be aware of glory's elevation to the source of fear. To that degree that he honors those who fear G-d, G-d's glory ascends to its source...

And the essential thing is that a person sincerely honors those who fear G-d."

The point is that it's not enough to merely "fear G-d" but one must also honor those who fear G-d. It's the nature of the world that people honor others according to their wealth, their wisdom, their strength or their good looks. However, the essential point is to honor those who fear G-d.

"When a person returns the glory to its source, i.e., to fear, and thus completes that which is lacking in fear, he then merits peace."

Since fear is where everything is united, one has peace, since contradiction is removed and everything is for the sake of Heaven. This includes inner peace, peace in the home, and universal peace. A rabbi once told me that a couple that have equal levels of Yirat Hashem between them, will have peace in the home, since at the end of the day they can settle most disputes by asking their rabbi.

"And when a person has inner peace, he is then able to pray. For the essence of prayer is achieved through fear."

In short, a person who fears G-d knows what to pray for and is clear in his head. Instead of praying for material things or all the different varieties of things gentile or gentile-influenced culture has to offer, he prays for simple things like Torah and the ability to raise G-d-fearing children, etc.

It is a common mistake for people to believe that tikkun olam can happen through taking advantage of all the things that gentile culture has to offer. This is the yetzer hara. Rather, one has to fear Hashem continuously and sincerely, and, moreover, work on drawing closer to those who fear Hashem. The error of Adam HaRishon was that he thought he could do the the tikkun from within the klipah. Big mistake for him and the entire world!

Rather, the tikkun of Adam HaRishon comes from drawing Jews to Yirat Hashem. One must fear Hashem himself and not do something that will tick Hashem off. This is the only thing in the world that it is permissible to worry about. Practically all of us live in a certain denial in our everyday lives against Yirat Hashem. It's a difficult thing to be cautious in every part of our lives like that. In any case, this is the main tikkun. And of course one must find a Rav who truly fears Hashem and who hates monetary gain, so that he can give a clear picture of the path to take.

When all of Am Yisrael is brought to true yirat Hashem, that will be the tikkun of Adam HaRishon. When the souls of converts are created and so all the goyim--past, present and future--are brought to true Yirat Hashem, that will be the tikkun of the 974 generations.

"...prayer rectifies strife and creates universal peace, the peace of all the worlds. This is why the Amidah concludes with the blessing for peace...

"We see, therefore, that someone who wants to draw universal peace has to elevate the glory to its source--i.e., to fear. And through fear, he merits peace in the home. Through peace in the home he then merits prayer. And through prayer, he merits universal peace."

So the proper order is:

1. Elevate souls to fear of Hashem

2. Fear brings peace in the home

3. Peace in the home leads to proper prayer

4. Proper prayer leads to universal peace.

It happens that the main goal of most baal teshuva yeshivas is to just get people in the door of Torah and mitzvot. While this is certainly praiseworthy, it often leaves people without a place to go from there. After one is "in the door" they have to continually work on achieving greater and greater levels of yirat Hashem. I believe that this can only be achieved with the help of a true tzaddik. Sometimes in keruv, people employ tactics which don't produce yirat Hashem at all, but can even cause a person to become observant in mitzvot while still lacking any sort of true yirat Hashem or a reason to work towards it. But yirat Hashem is the goal of everything, since like I said, that is the main tikkun.

Israel says, "Baruch Hashem!" - America says, "Barack Hussein!"

2008-12-07T23:50:00.012+02:00

Baruch Hashem is Hebrew for "Blessed is G-d" or "Thank G-d."

Barack Hussein is Arabic for "Blessed is the beautiful."

Isn't this the difference between Israel and the West? We bless G-d, they bless beautiful appearances.

I've given some thought lately to the spiritual significance of the Obama victory. On a more basic level, this is what liberal Americans wanted all along. A (seemingly) open-minded, self-aware moral relativist, who pays homage to Heaven on occasion when it suits him. Actually, perhaps all these accusations that he is a Muslim are really uncalled for. I don't think it really matters either way. His Muslim father became an atheist later in life. His mother, who was the one mostly responsible for raising him, also "touted herself as an atheist," although she sometimes flirted with Xtian ideas along the way. Obama describes her as a "secular humanist" with a "healthy skepticism of religion as an institution." And perhaps this describes Obama well also. In short, the mentality that G-d is there for convenience's and comfort's sake, and not to command us what to do. So really he is sort of a messiah for all those people who possess such a mentality, and there are certainly plenty.

Which brings me to the next point. Obama was being accused of being a Muslim. Unlike most Jewish right-wingers, I don't really believe he was a Muslim. Nonetheless, he represented the mentality of Yishmael more than that of Esau. Besides the fact that his father and step-father were Muslims, here is what I mean to say.

The Torah states that Abraham gave gifts to and sent the children of his concubine Keturah to the East, which the Zohar understands to mean that he sent them to the Orient where they used impure names, which eventually gave rise to such religions as Hinduism and Buddhism. Whether this means that the Indians are Abraham's descendants or only that they were taught spiritual ideas by some of his descendants is unclear. In any case, it is understood by some commentators that the children of the concubine Keturah were to be called by the name of their older brother Yishmael. I believe that this is the meaning of what is sometimes said regarding the 70 nations which separated after the Tower of Babel: that all 70 nations today are included either under the domain of Esau or Yishmael. Therefore, the children of Keturah, meaning those practicing the religion inspired by Keturah's descendants would also be considered under the domain of Yishmael. Therefore, of the two possibilities, India is also considered under the domain of Yishmael, even though India is not a Muslim country (it's understood of course that Islam only came about 2,000 years after Yishmael lived). Therefore, most of the East are under the domain of Yishmael and the West, including America, are under the domain of Esau.

However, there is often a battle between the two over who has control of what. Besides the obvious examples of the crusades and the current "war on terror", such examples as the Marxist takeover of China could be included, since Communism is a Western (Edomite) invention, which came in and took control in the domain of a traditionally Buddhist ("Yishmaelite") country.

So too in America. If anything, Obama's beliefs look very eastern, prompting high praises from the likes of Deepak Chopra. This is why in my opinion he is (incorrectly) accused of being a Muslim. ...Because unconsciously Edomite Americans recognize that Yishmael is making a bid for control of their country.

And why must it be so? Some sources say that Esau/Edom will be conquered by Yishmael in the end of days. This actually makes sense if some remnant of the Western world is to be spared. Rashi points out that Yishmael repented and recognized Israel's right place, but Esau did not. Some understand this to mean that in the end of days Yishmael will repent. This of course doesn't necessarily mean all of Yishmael, nor does it merely mean Arabs, but also those under his wider domain, such as India, Japan, etc. Now in order for an Edomite nation to repent it must be taken over by Yishmael first. This includes America. And that is why Obama has been allowed to win, despite being a vicious enemy of Israel. He is merely a pawn for creating the conditions so that at least some Americans can repent and come to recognize Israel.

There is however a more sinister aspect to this election. It is recounted in Genesis that Esau went to Yishmael and married his daughter when he realized his parents didn't like his Canaanite wives. Recall that this was one of Esau's first moves when he decided to kill his brother Jacob. According to kabbalistic understanding, this pairing of Esau and Yishmael was designed to effect Israel's destuction. The significance of this pairing is described in greater detail in Rabbi Marvin Antelman's book "To Eliminate the Opiate, Vol. II" on page 118.

Therefore, did America (Edom) marry Obama (Yishmael's daughter) to attempt to finally destroy Israel?

The Day Israel Committed Suicide

2008-12-03T21:24:00.001+02:00

I wanted to submit this story to the short story contest, but found out that it has to be at least 6 pages in length, and this is 2, so I post it here.

The Day Israel Committed Suicide
By David H. Samuels

It was a soaky, soggy night. Blasting hip-hop music was heard coming from apartment 41a on the 19th floor. The special UN police force broke down the door to see a terrible, shocking sight. The floor was covered in blood wall to wall and whisky bottles and porn mags were strewn about. They approached the body that was lying face down on the floor. As they walked towards it, they noticed open pill bottles scattered around the head, a knife was in one hand, a gun in the other. They turned the body over to see one of the most gruesome sights any had ever seen. There were 17 bullet holes in the chest. The wrists were slashed at least 10 times each. Pills were shoved into the foaming mouth.

The police turned down the music and the forensics department was called in to do their work. After the apartment was thoroughly dusted for fingerprints, the body was carried out.

News of the death of Israel spread throughout the world. No one had ever seen anything like it. It was called the most stubborn suicide in world history. A new term was coined for it: “Suigenocide”. The UN resolved to never let another suigenocide take place again.

Meanwhile the body was still being taken to the hospital by ambulance. In the midst of that 18 minute ride, the paramedics began to see signs of life coming from the mutilated corpse. “Is it possible?” they thought. Indeed, not only did the body start moving, but he even began talking, asking “What happened?” and so forth. The paramedics were stunned. They told the driver to speed up and turned on the siren. When they arrived at Ichilov Hospital the body was rushed in and emergency surgery was begun. Soon they had a stable pulse and other vital signs. In the midst of this a Shabak agent strolled into the operating room and ordered everyone to leave. After the doctors and nurses were forced to exit, the Shabak agent went over to the body and unloaded his pistol into its head. Soon after, the vital signs plummeted to zero.

The results of the investigation began to emerge as quickly as they were suppressed. The fingerprints of Shimon Peres were found on the pistol that was used to shoot the victim 17 times in the chest. Ehud Olmert’s prints were found on the knife. Aharon Barak’s prints were found on the porn mags, but no one could understand the significance of this. The prints of various Erev Rav were found on the pill and whiskey bottles.

Nonetheless, it was declared a national suicide. However, more and more evidence emerged indicating that in fact it was a murder. Therefore, a religious Yemenite youth was taken into custody and charged with the crime. It wasn’t exactly clear how he had anything to do with the murder, but it was said that he was seen near the crime scene on the same day. Disturbing reports began to emerge of a connection he apparently had with radical right wing elements. It was therefore determined that he must have been responsible for the murder. Thus, it was reported in newspapers that his fingerprints were found on the pill and whiskey bottles, the gun, the knife and the porn mags, even though no police reports were produced to support this. All the evidence indicated that there was more than one person involved in the crime. So it was also decided to throw his brother in jail, since he clearly couldn’t have acted alone. They also closed down his mother’s kindergarten for good measure.

It was from then on called an assisted national suicide: “Assisted Suigenocide” for short.

The UN declared 3 days of mourning to mark this international tragedy. The body, according to Jewish custom, was set to be buried the next day.

All the dignitaries of the world came to Israel’s funeral. The Head of the UN gave a speech talking about the contributions of Israel to world history, religion, culture, art and science. President Bush gave a sermon about the sin of assisted suicide and that such things must be prevented in the future, declaring a War Against Assisted Suigenocide. Even Ahmadinejad of Iran admitted that perhaps the Holocaust happened after all, saying it must have been perpetrated by a West Bank settler. Shimon Peres cried his eyes out yelling “Yisrael! Yisrael!” as the body was lowered into the grave. He said Baruch Dayan HaEmet cutting his shirt pocket as he did so. He then said Shehiyanu since he had finally inherited a place amongst the Arab nations and was free.

As the mourners began the burying process by scooping dirt onto the casket, a shocking thing took place. Faint knocking could be heard coming from within the casket. A voice cried from within, “Let me out!” The casket was raised back up and Israel burst force, throwing off the cover. All the dignitaries were shocked. Not only that, this formerly mutilated corpse was now completely healed. “You thought I was dead, but here I am,” he cried out. At that moment, the dignitaries made a frenzied rush towards Israel and choked him, all simultaneously. It was heard from one of the Erev Rav “That’s right, choke him, that’s the only way to kill this one.” In the midst of this strangulation, the Head of the UN gazed at the united hands on the neck of Israel and laughed, saying, “Isn’t it funny…Iran, Palestine and the United States are finally united in something. It looks like the UN was a success after all.” Just then a great deal of bickering emerged from the group strangulation. Each argued about who got to have his hands on the jugular. “Me first,” yelled Mahmud Abbas, “My people suffered most.” Ahmadinejad said, “Me first, we sponsored Palestine throughout their hardships.” President Bush said, “Me first, I sponsored Palestine throughout their hardships. Who gave more, you or me?” And so a fight soon broke out over who got to press the jugular. The dignitaries and Erev Rav killed each other.

THE END

2008-11-12T21:39:00.002+02:00

I read recently that the Pashtun tribe of Afghanistan are all members of the lost tribes of Israel. I've decided to go to Afghanistan to go bring them back to Israel.

What better proof for your Zionist conspiracy theories? America goes to war in Afghanistan to free a lost tribe of Israel from their oppressive brothers, the Erev Rav, that is the Taliban...(if we would call them Erev Rav)...

What a sign from heaven that is. Isn't this proof that the entire world resolves around Israel? September 11th happens and America goes first thing to attack (or free perhaps) our brothers in Afghanistan...hmmm...And then America attacks Iraq and frees our people from another deadly enemy, Saddam Hussein. And American thought it was defending itself, but it was really just a pawn in the hands of the Almighty to free His people.

2008-11-12T21:34:00.002+02:00

I couldn't help but notice that Edom is self-destructing. I want to congratulate America on it's choice of self-destruction. Maybe the American Jews will think about coming to Israel now? Or maybe not. Didn't 78% of them vote for it...

Lunar Eclipse...

2008-08-18T10:28:00.004+03:00

On Motze Shabbat I noticed that the moon was incredibly bright (and full). I quoted to myself the pasuk "And the light of the moon with be as the light of the sun" (Yeshaya 30:26). I don't think I've seen the moon so bright before, where it seemed indeed to be a part of the sun's brightness. Later in the evening I went to the Kotel. On the way there I noticed that the moon had been cut in half. Very strange, I thought. By the time I got to the Kotel it was almost completely covered. Then I realized it must be an eclipse, although I've never seen one before. I heard this was the only lunar eclipse of its kind until 2026. I'm not sure what that means because we get lunar eclipses twice a year. I guess the intent is magnitude.

2008-07-30T15:21:00.006+03:00

I was sent this video, "The Seal of Truth," last week by my friend Yitzhak, which is also posted on Rav Lazer Brody's blog. I had a chance to sit down and watch it and all I can say is "Wow!" It's well worth the hour. Here is the description from Google video:
An amazing Near Death Experience with great detail concerning the Heavenly Court. This is perhaps one of the most vivid and explicit accounts of what the soul may go through when departing this world. A must see.

2008-07-20T22:25:00.007+03:00

Well, I guess it's a cliche that war is hell but see this video of the 2006 Hizbullah kidnapping of Goldwasser and Regev which set off the 2006 Lebanon War. My friend and former co-worker Tamar Yonah posted this video on her site along with a description of the action. At first I had doubts that this really was the kidnapping in 2006, but it seems that it's really the tail end of the entire incident. The real action seems to start at 2:14 or perhaps a little earlier with Hizbullah watching the Israeli positions and then blowing up the humvees. Then they cut to the end of the incident with the kidnapping itself, where they blow up the fence (while already under fire), drive in a Range Rover, and take the already injured soldiers, before the get away. Watching this, I get a real sense of hell on earth. It's one thing to watch stuff from America about Iraq, but all of this happened only a few hours drive away, and I've been to the Lebanon border more than once.

There was another video I was looking for of the 2000 kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah with UN assistance. Apparently this video was shown publicly a while ago with the key shots of UNIFIL helping Hizbullah selectively sliced out. However, the families of the soldiers were shown the video with the UN car still in. Interestingly the site (as well as its cache) of the UN car linked to the kidnapping (in the article linked above) has been removed. Thus all traces of evidence of UN involvement have been deleted from the internet.

In other news, here is an article about the child-murderer K--tar (yimach shemo v'zichro), written by one of his victims. It's hard to believe our government could be so stupid (and wicked) as to release someone like this, who vows to kill again.

CAPTIVES 2

2008-07-16T21:29:00.005+03:00

I was reminded today of an incident I witnessed 2 years ago at the very end of the Lebanon War when I was walking down a street in Jerusalem:

20/Aug/06
FORGET ABOUT THE CAPTIVES!!

That appears to be this administration’s latest position. Last night as I was being dropped off at Jerusalem’s Binyane HaUma after Shabbat I witnessed one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen in the past 4 years that I’ve lived here. Two scummy looking men were rolling up a torn down pile of posters on the ground. As I walked by I caught a glimpse of which posters they were rolling up. Recently posters have gone up all over the country with pictures of the captive soldiers, in patriotic blue and white, saying simply “Return the boys to their borders.” No political jargon, just a plea to get our soldiers back from the hands of Hizbullah and Hamas. So the face on the top of the pile of posters was that of Ehud Goldwasser, who was captured by Hizbullah on July 12th. I looked around and noticed a number of bulletin boards normally covered in posters stripped bare. In the back of these two hoodlums' pickup truck was a pile of similar posters which they had recently stripped from Jerusalem’s streets. I walked over to the truck just as they were making their get away and asked in Hebrew, “Who’s paying you?” They stopped the truck for a moment and said “What?” I got closer and asked again, “Who’s paying you to do this?” With that, they gunned the throttle and sped away.

In fact I saw the same thing almost exactly one year ago at the time of the disengagement. As I was walking from a shiur in Givat Shaul [also in Jerusalem], a pair in a pickup truck stopped in front of me, ran out, tore down a massive number of posters protesting the Gaza disengagement, piling them on top of another pile in the back of the truck, and just as quickly sped away. By the next day the entire city had been stripped bare of the Gush Katif posters which a day earlier had covered all the streets. Just like that. Out of sight, out of mind.

And so too now with our captives. While Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Goldwasser rot in the prisons of Hizbullah and Hamas, wondering if they’ll ever see their families, friends and homes again, their government is busying itself with erasing their memories from the public’s minds, the same public who they were taken captive defending. Will we allow it?

And their families...While they worry day and night about their sons, brothers and husband (in Goldwasser’s case) wondering if they’ll ever see them again, their government is busying itself with making sure the public stops worrying. Don’t worry my dear families, the tax money you pay to save your sons is being spent well.

Today, I have this to add. It occurred to me at the time, although I didn't say it, why they were tearing down the posters. This reason was because the soldiers (at least the ones kidnapped by Hizbullah) were already dead. The government wanted to get people to forget about them as quickly as possible. Now the question is why.
Most likely reasons:
1. Because the soldiers being dead would make the war, and hence this administration, look like total failures.
2. More sinisterly, the soldiers were most likely killed at the time or shortly after the initial ambush. The government knew about this at the time (as they later admitted), which would make the entire war a sham, a political game of some sort, perhaps a CFR scheme. Pity the soldiers who lost their lives in that conflict who thought they were defending their land and nation, when really they were just cannon fodder for a political game.

Having said that, the government just exploited Goldwasser and Regev's images for their own political gain, while they kept knowledge of their real fate a secret. As soon as using their images was no longer advantageous, they ordered that their pictures be stripped from the streets. Now, two years later, their image has some advantage again, since by now the PM has finally completed his scheme to look like something of a hero in all of this. Obviously if all this happened in August 2006, with Olmert bringing back 2 corpses it wouldn't have gone over at all. But time passes, and they gradually released hints of information about the soldier's real fate to get the public used to them being dead, so that today, getting their bodies back seems like something of a victory.

CAPTIVES 1

2008-07-16T20:05:00.005+03:00

This has to be one of the most catastrophic days in Israeli history. Today, an entire war in which over 150 soldiers and civilians were killed (to say nothing of a few thousand injuries) was made worthless and in vain. What is the underlying message of this "prisoner swap," one of the stupidest and uneven trades in world history?
1. Don't join the Israeli police. Even if you're murdered by some vicious terrorist, they'll still release him for a couple of corpses.
2. Don't join the army. If you get captured, Israel will trade you, alive or dead--it makes no difference to them, for whoever your captors ask for. The government will send you to get shot at and tell you not to shoot back for fear of killing rotten, disgusting enemy civilians. Either that or they'll send you to go throw some Jews out of their houses. If you actually want to fight the enemy, go elsewhere.
3. If you're an Israeli civilian, arm yourself to the teeth, because if a terrorist comes knocking on your door, no one's going to save you. And if the terrorist succeeds in killing you along with your entire family, the government will release them anyways in a prison swap for some corpses and body parts.
Let me add an indirectly related fourth:
4. Don't join the Israeli intelligence establishment, because if you get caught they'll deny any connection to you and leave you rotting in prison for the rest of your life or worse.

UFO Update

2008-07-09T20:40:00.003+03:00

Ok, after looking into this a little bit more, I've concluded that I have no idea what I saw or have any explanation regarding what took place last night. All I know is this: I was walking to the synagogue in Beit El B between 9:55 and 10 pm last night when I saw a mysterious flash fly through the sky, perhaps only a few miles away, travelling horizontally in an east to west direction before being blocked by some trees. I saw it very briefly and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me and would have forgotten about it completely, except when I came back home I found that an identical phenomenon of an bright flash, travelling horizontally in an east to west direction before disappearing on the horizon was being reported all over the country. The official story is that a meteor fell around 8 to 8:10, but what I saw was almost two hours later. It's difficult for me to believe that I just imagined seeing what thousands of other people across the country were also seeing, down to the last detail. What's the statistical likelihood of that? Never in my life have I seen anything which I suspected of being a UFO, nor do I walk around looking for UFO's in the sky, nor do I really walk around looking at the skies in general. It just happened that at this one moment in my life when I thought I saw a UFO, people from the north all the way to central Israel, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem also thought they saw a UFO.

The other witnesses were not at all convinced that they saw a meteor either and called the police and newspapers en masse. Now would people really go to the trouble of calling the cops because they saw a falling meteor? In any case something isn't being said. For one thing how I am supposed to answer the apparent impossibility of seeing this "meteor" almost two hours after it supposedly fell. Haaretz I thought had slightly more objective coverage of the story:
Meteor sighting sparks UFO panic in Israel
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1000206.html
Rafaeli explained that at one point he could no longer see the light that divided the skies. "As I am a man of exact sciences in my professional life, I don't believe in aliens. It is possible that it was a case of a meteor that entered the atmosphere, but it does not appear that way. In any case, it was a beautiful site."

Was that a UFO I just saw or...

2008-07-08T23:29:00.006+03:00

Ok, I realize I may be going off the deep end on this one. Tonight I was going to pray Arvit at 9:55pm here in Beit El. As I approached the synagogue I saw an orange flash of light in the sky which quickly became invisible from my angle because of trees blocking it. I thought to myself, "Did I just see a UFO?" I should add here that I've never seen a UFO or a ghost before or really any "supernatural" phenomenon, although other people I know have. To tell you the truth I thought I was immune, or perhaps protected from such things. So I wrote it off as my imagination. Then I came home and read this, posted at 9:34pm Israel time.
Shining Object Spotted in Sky
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/149569

I read that Ynet claims it was a meteor, but I've seen meteors and this didn't look like a meteor.

In other news, I've started handing out "Abuse Passes". You see, I recently was in Ofra beating up Jewish youth and stealing and damaging their property. I was a bit short on money so I went to the Yesha Council to look for work, and they gave me this cool job in Ofra to go beat up Jewish youth who oppose them. Before I went on my first assignment they handed me this card:

ISSUED BY THE YESH"A COUNCIL

OFFICIAL

ABUSE PASS

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: THE HOLDER OF THIS CARD
HAS THE AUTHORITY TO BEAT, STRANGLE AND DAMAGE
THE PROPERTY OF WHOMEVER THEY DEEM FIT.
THE HOLDER OF THIS CARD MAY NOT BE ARRESTED
OR HELD RESPONSIBLE IN ANY WAY AS SUCH.
ALL INDIVIDUALS PRESENTED WITH THIS PASS ARE
KINDLY ASKED TO TURN THE OTHER CHEEK.
SINCERELY, THE YESH”A COUNCIL

2008-06-29T18:44:00.002+03:00

It's been a while since I've written, and I suppose I should do a bit of explaining. Actually, not much explaining, just that I've been busy trying to earn a living the last month, and starting my video production business.

Today, I suppose the Cabinet intends to decide that the 2 captive soldiers are dead. Worse, they plan to hand over K--tar, a most evil child-murderer, yimach shemo v'zichro. The truth is that probably there was more than a subtle indication that the 2 soldiers were dead for some time. My suggestion is that they make K--tar and his fellow hizbullah prisoners into corpses and hand over their corpses in trade for other corpses. Even with that considered, Hizbullah would still have gotten a better deal.

Carter: Yimah Shemo V'Zichro

2008-05-28T12:59:00.004+03:00

Carter: Israel has 150 Nukes
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126317

The point is to force Israel to disarm. The situation with Iran means that Iran can make a demand that if Iran will disarm, Israel must certainly do so as well. Carter is setting the stage for this scenario. The reason Israel hasn't been attacked since '73 is because how that war was finally ended. In '73 when Israel was attacked on all sides, it almost lost. However, the story goes that Golda Meir called Cairo and Damascus and told them to pull out all troops or face nuclear destruction. Thus Israel was saved from destruction. The Arabs realized that to destroy Israel they would have to try a different tactic rather than attacking Israel on all sides every decade. Thus began Camp David, Oslo, etc. That is, unless they can get Israel to chuck its nukes. Syria, Hizbullah and Egypt are waiting for that eventuality, arming and preparing for that day.

Three Generations of Fabrications & the War Industry

2008-05-26T15:36:00.005+03:00

I'm talking about Bush and his forebears. Not just Bush but also the Dulles brothers, among others.

While the Council on Foreign Relations and its like are usually seen as trying to create a "New World Order", the reality of the situation is that their main interest is doing whatever makes them the most money and gives them the most power. This usually involves manufacturing wars, which they then can make tremendous fortunes on by selling weapons and oil. Although Bill Gates is known as one of the wealthiest men in the world today, with a fortune of over $50 Billion, that's just because (we assume) Bill Gates let's people know he has over $50 B. People who are smarter keep their fortunes to themselves and can get away with paying no taxes along the way.

During the Versailles treaty, John Foster Dulles helped create the conditions to insure a second World War. After that, he and his brother Allen went about propping up Hitler and the Nazis so they could eventually take over Germany ("ironically" on the basis of being "stabbed in the back" at Versailles). And the rest is history. His friend, Prescott Bush (GW's grandfather) and the Harriman brothers, along with a consortium of other bankers continued to funnel money into Nazi Germany even while they were at war with the United States. Kind of ironic then that Prescott became a senator and his son and grandson American Presidents.

So Prescott Bush helped manufacture WWII. When that ran out, the military industrialists turned their attentions to a new industry--nuclear arms and the Cold War. The role of the Dulles brothers is well known in this arena, with John taking the job as Secretary of State and Allen CIA director. At a critical juncture in this time period, President Kennedy (not a brilliant person by any means and an anti-semite as well) began to wake up a bit and catch onto the scheme of American politics at this point. He vowed to shatter the CIA (the CFR's official organ within the US government) into a thousand pieces. With that the CIA rubbed him out.

As a career intelligence agent and head of the CIA from 1976 to 1977 and Vice President during Reagan's term, Prescott's son, George HW, helped keep the Cold War on track. However, after four decades, the Cold War began to burn itself out (much like WWII in Prescott's generation) and officially came to an end during George Sr's tenure as President. Nonetheless, Bush helped prop up Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan to create a new war as its replacement, the so-called "War on Terror" which officially began shortly after his son GW, a career alcoholic and sometime coke sniffer, took office (which is to say he was never smart enough or in control of himself enough to have an idea different than his father, except for show in order to win votes).

So with that we have three generations of war fabrication. A proud accomplishment no doubt.

It should be pointed out that all three major presidential candidates are either CFR members or have strong CFR connections. If people should ask where does someone like Obama fit into this, I would say he is sort of like the CFR/NWO's messiah, representing all their higher aspirations. Moreover, by strengthening violent Arab terrorists and Iran, he will help create a new war in the future, more violent and deadly than all those which preceded it. This might not happen during his term in office (if he should win), but it will happen nonetheless.

War, War, War. War is all you need...

Shabbatai Zvi-Benz

2008-05-21T22:26:00.006+03:00

Fact: Mercedes was named after Sabbatian Communist Adolf Jellinek's granddaughter.

Adolf Jellinek was the mentor of Solomon "Sheker" Schechter, who is traditionally regarded as the spiritual father of so-called "Conservative Judaism" in the 20th century. Rabbi Antelman in his book "To Eliminate the Opiate, Vol 2" notes that Jellinek was a Sabbatian-Frankist and Communist Revolutionary.

Jellinek's son, Emil, was an early financier of Daimler Motor Company. He commissioned the first car to be called "Mercedes", allegedly to be named after his daughter.

From Wikipedia:

In Baden in 1889 his first daughter, Adrienne Manuela Ramona Jellinek, was born on September 16, and called Mercédès, the name Mercédès meaning mercy. Rachel died 4 years after the birth of her daughter. Even so, Jellinek came to believe the name Mercedes brought good fortune and called all his properties after it. One of his sons wrote: “He was as superstitious as the ancient Romans.”

In most cases when Sabbatians used a particular name or word over and over again, they did so because it had some symbolic Sabbatian meaning (since the Sabbatians were heavily into all types of symbolism).

Mercedes therefore refers to the Spanish word for Mercy. In the kabbalistic system of sefirot "Mercy" or "Rachamim" in Hebrew refers to the sefirah of Tiferet (beauty).

According to the twisted and heretical Sabbatian version of kabbalah, Tiferet also refers to Shabbatai Zvi (and has another implication about the destruction of Israel--see "To Eliminate the Opiate").

Thus we have a Shabbatai Zvi-Benz.

Which makes us wonder what the famous 3-pointed-star logo represents. Sabbatatians have a "trinity": Judaism, Christianity, Islam--all united in the center--that is Shabbatai Zvi (or Mercedes if you like).

Is it any wonder therefore that the famous Sabbatian mass murderer Hitler drove a Mercedes and put so much money into them to give them their sterling reputation.

Nazi Pope, Nazi Car

2008-05-21T22:05:00.003+03:00

Can it really be that Israel would negotiate the Golan away? This Golan? With Turkish Sabbatian intermediaries.

As for this piece of real estate...Who really cares?

Just Bouncing Around with AOL

2008-05-05T14:51:00.002+03:00

My friend Barry Chamish put a link to my last blog entry in his latest sendout "Water" but I'm told it bounced all his AOL emails. As of yet I'm not sure what he meant. I supposed I'll find out eventually. Is that to say that AOL put an adult block on my site or something....

In any case, I'm finding myself in one catch-22 situation after the next the last few weeks. Also my new cell phone slipped from my hands for a moment, fell and died. Such a random tragedy. I'm suppose to travel to Jerusalem to try and get Cellcom to revive the precious little thing.

Going on strike has its advantages.

I read that Olmert's latest scandal will "shake the country". When will people ever learn? Can anything this guy does surprise anyone? If he turned out to be an axe murderer who stocked the streets of Jerusalem at night and ate his victims, would anyone be so surprised really?

The Insanity Front

2008-04-28T18:37:00.006+03:00

I'm becoming more and more convinced that the world is rapidly becoming insane. It was insane before this, but it's reaching a new level after Pesach.
First take a look at this article posted this morning:

IDF Guards Replaced by Private Firms
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125978

I believe the intent is to get the residents of Yehuda and Shomrom to leave by withdrawing security. This was precisely the idea of Daniel Pipes of the CFR before the Gaza disengagement, despite his later phony non-apology:

"Should the [Israeli] government go ahead with the forcible removal of Jewish residents of Gaza, intra-Israeli violence appears to be a distinct possibility. Which in turn makes me wonder why the Israeli authorities do not take quite a different track and merely stop providing security for them."

Since Olmert doesn't have the political clout to pull off another disengagement, certainly of this size, he's decided to take an alternative route by pulling out security and leaving the residents of Yesh open to incessant attacks by Arab terrorists. This according to the Daniel Pipes plan, will force them to choose whether they wish to remain or not. And then we have a voluntary withdrawal.

Now before we know it, the Pipes disengagement plan has gone into effect:
Defense Minister Waffles on Security Checkpoints
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125996
"(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Ehud Barak refused a request in the morning from Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair to remove a roadblock between PA-controlled Ramallah and the Jewish town of Beit El, because doing so would endanger the lives of the Jewish residents who live nearby. Unfettered access to the area would make it easier for terrorists to reach Jewish towns in Judea, Samaria as well as urban centers in pre-1967 Israel.
By afternoon, however, it was announced that he agreed to dismantle a key security checkpoint strategically located between Shechem, known in the area as "terrorist central," and nearby Arab villages....."

I don't know if people realize what removing the roadblock between Ramallah and Beit El would actually mean. Beit El (as well as a key military base) are located just adjacent to Ramallah. One can see the Ramallah roadblock when driving out of Beit El. If that were removed it would effectively give terrorists relatively easy access to Beit El and the military base. On occassion Arabs have penetrated Beit El itself by crossing the video-monitored fence that surrounds it. What's to keep these Arabs from making a regular habit of entering if the roadblock is removed? Doing so would make life impossible here.

Therefore, the question has to be asked, "Has the Disengagement already begun?"

2008-04-27T22:11:00.002+03:00

At times I have to admit I feel overwhelming pressure. Now is such a time. And in situations like this it's difficult to know what to do next and where to start. I guess this is one of the times Rabbi Nachman referred to like when he was hanging off a wall in Tiberias (or Acco?) during a seige and about to fall to certain death, when he called out to G-d and somehow was saved.

There are times when I wonder if all my efforts are in vain. Sometimes people attack me from all sides for no apparent reason. Or I get pursued by satanic forces in a way that's so obvious it's almost comic.

Like on Pesach during Arvit some guy was standing right next to me, staring straight in my direction. I couldn't imagine anything more distracting. How is a person supposed to concentrate on their tefilot with someone practically staring at them? Then the next day I positioned myself in such a fashion as to avoid such an eventuality. Sure enough, to my surprise, some other guy came right over to me and did exactly the same thing. It was like the Satan decided to follow me around all day to muck up my prayers, sending different people to do his bidding, apparently with identical orders.

And inevitably just when I begin to feel like I did something good in the world, someone comes from a place I never expect and tries to eat me alive.

Here's the dilemma I had last night, put in allegorical form:
A certain Jewish heathen has a serious illness and his body is racked with pain. He asks a Jew to pray for his recovery. Feeling that he could perhaps open this heathen's eyes a little bit about Hashem's goodness and also not wanting this man to suffer anymore, he agrees and goes about praying a great deal, all with heartfelt emotion. After a week, the heathen begins to recover and his pain is eased. At this point, the heathen goes to the priest of Baal Zebub, god of Ekron, and asks him to pray for his recovery also. He then tells the Jew who is praying for him that he also enlisted the priest of Baal Zebub, telling the Jew, "His prayers also can't hurt. I need everyone in my corner that I can get."

Now the Jew is left with a dilemma. If he continues to pray and the man recovers, the heathen will say it was because of Baal Zebub. However, if he doesn't pray, and the man's condition worsens, he'll say it was because Hashem can't help anyone. So does he continue to pray for the heathen's recovery or not? On the one hand, he means well and doesn't want any harm to come to this confused Jew. On the other, he doesn't want the priest of Baal Zebub or his idol to get any more recognition. So in effect all of this Jew's heartfelt prayers have been devoured by Baal Zebub. He says to himself, "Why did I bother in the first place?"

2008-04-26T21:48:00.002+03:00

What can I say?
I try to do good in this world.
Does anyone give a.....?

Passover Week

2008-04-24T23:45:00.005+03:00

Pesach week has been nice here, although for some reason I felt an ununsual amount of stress at the beginning and middle of it. Let's hope this isn't a negative sign of some kind. The last few days have been better though. I went to Hebron, the Kotel, and today to Rachel's tomb. I went to my friend and former A7 co-worker Ben Bresky's place in Jerusalem tonight for a BBQ. Mazal Tov to him and his wife on their baby girl.

These holiday weeks always go faster than they should. I've been sitting here looking at pictures of Israel and the Temple Mount, among other things, on my computer, contemplating how things should be and almost going crazy in the process.

Tzfat

"The Darkness of Exile"

2008-04-02T22:24:00.004+03:00

Now a bit about the galut.
If I may say so, galut/exile is both a place and a state of mind--both go hand in hand. Of course, there are different levels of galut. There is a "spiritual galut" in Eretz Yisrael itself. People in exile lament this, as if to get around the physical galut they find themselves in. But the spiritual galut in Israel is infinitely higher than the galut in physical exile. The galut outside of Israel (chu'"l) is so deep that the people who live there don't even realize they are really in galut, or even if they do, the spiritual sleep they find themselves in. Even King David, who had the highest level of Ruach HaKodesh in history, called living outside of Israel worshipping idols. Even at his level he couldn't avoid a spiritual fall in chu"l.

The Shechinah/Divine Presence doesn't dwell outside of the land of Israel. Does anyone consider what that means? That means that a person living in chu"l has no relationship to the Shechinah. Even if they did when visiting or living in Israel, that relationship was lost once they left. But because the Shechinah is an elusive thing and difficult to define, as soon as a person leaves they don't really realize what they've lost, not until they return. And then once they leave they forget again. People in Israel, even secular people, have a spiritual sensitivity which even religious people in exile don't have.

When I worked for Arutz 7, I used to screen calls for the radio. I could immediately tell if a person was calling from exile or not, before they even identified themselves (and not because of reception). A person calling from chu"l has a different sound in their voice, a sound of insensitivity and stress. It's almost possible to see the confusing thoughts circulating around their heads just by hearing their voices. Inevitably they would offer up some confused advice totally out of touch with the reality of things. And then they would insist that everybody had to listen to them or else...

Countless calls I listened to like this.

I could also tell if the person calling was Jewish, even if they themselves didn't know (yes, there are such cases). Once a woman called who had three gentile grandparents and one Jewish maternal grandmother, making her halachically Jewish. She didn't realize that this made her halachically Jewish. Anyways, she wanted to come on the radio and then when I told her I couldn't bring her on at the moment, she baulked and didn't want to come on at all. However, I insisted on bringing her on later in the show and called her back. Why did I insist? Because I could sense the kedushah of a Jewish neshama on the other end. Anyways, it happened that she found out she was halachically Jewish on air.

I point this out because people should realize that there are many subtleties that can just be read from a person's voice or style of writing, let's say, which tell how much holiness rests upon them. These aren't things that people usually pay attention to, but they have tremendous effect upon a person's state of mind and general happiness. I can also tell if a person keeps Shabbat or not based on the way they comport themselves. Shabbat gives a person inner peace. A person who doesn't keep Shabbat is always trying to comport themselves in such a way so as to copy someone else. They can never be one with themselves really.

I once watched a movie at Ma'ale Film School, a religious film school in Jerusalem. Almost all the characters were supposed to be religious. At the end, I turned to a friend sitting next to me and commented that it's amazing that not one single religious person was acting in that film. Afterwards the presenter noted that in fact all the actors were secular. My friend asked how I knew. The answer is that all the actors were posing in various fashions and didn't know how to just be, the trademark of a religious person, and especially one who keeps Shabbat. If I were directing a film with religious characters, I would insist the actors keep Shabbat for the time they were playing the roles (most are method actors anyway, so it shouldn't come too hard). Otherwise, how could someone believe their phony portrayals?

And this is galut. A person can have a picture of their wife on the wall, but if they don't have her close, what good is it? The Shechinah is the wife of all Am Yisrael. Galut is a phony portrayal.

2008-03-30T20:14:00.007+03:00

Shabbat was quite nice here although for some reason I always forget what happened by the next day. Anyway I experienced a miracle going into it.

Last week I went with a group of tzaddikim to the north to pray for rain and a yeshua shelemah. Because I spent the entire day on my feet walking all over the place, my leg hurt quite badly by the time I got back (because of an injury a few years ago). It got progressively worse by Friday, to the extent that I thought I would have to get it checked. However, when Shabbat came in, the pain miraculously disappeared. Hodu l'Hashem ki tov, ki l'olam hasdo!

A similar thing happened on Yom Kippur this year. By YK afternoon I was incapacitated with a migraine and had to spend the rest of the day in bed. I couldn't take any pain killers because of the fast so I just tolerated it. Having had migraines like this before, I can attest that without very strong medicine, they can last unrelentlingly for 3-5 days. These are very bad migraines, the likes of which I used to go to the hospital for, until I got a hard-to-get prescription for the only cure. Waiting through the entire day in excrutiating pain, I watched the clock for the end of the fast so I could drug myself and be done with it already. I was lying there in bed in an apartment in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem, hearing the holy Jews cry out in the surrounding synagogues in the closing Neila service as the sun went down. However, as the day's prayers came to a close, the migraine miraculously disappeared and I didn't need to take anything. From that I knew we must have been forgiven. Hodu l'Hashem ki tov, ki l'olam hasdo!

Misc.

2008-03-23T18:17:00.003+02:00

Well, this Purim I was here in Beit El again. I went to the synagogue where they had a community seudah. It was quite a rushed day because of Shabbat right after. I had one small plastic cup of wine and that was enough for me, since I tend to get wasted on a small amount of alcohol. Someone said I wasn't drinking enough, so I had another plastic cup and that put me out for about an hour. No sooner was that over and then Shabbat began.

I have been following the aftermath of this yeshiva shooting quite closely, like many people here. Joel Bainerman, a friend of mine and top notch journalist, says this in Barry Chamish's latest newsletter:

This yeshiva attack stinks. The guy came from a wealthy family. The "reprisals from the far right" story has been all over the media for the past week. The gov't didn't close down the Arab mourners tent- and said they destroyed the house but I don't think they did. The police reaction is very hard to believe- that the first ones on the scene are one rookie- and one "volunteer". How could they have been the first ones on the scene? this wasn't typical hamas terrorist attack at all. This was set up by the branch of the gov't that is trying to stir things up- for all sorts of horrible reasons.

The question I have about the shooting is how it's possible this guy went on shooting for a period estimated by some as around twenty minutes. I pass by Mercaz HaRav every week. It's on one of the busiest streets in Jerusalem. How it's possible that a guy could go on shooting for that long (around 400-500 rounds) without anyone noticing is a mystery, especially in terror-conscious Israel. As soon as one bullet was fired, any passers-by should have been on the phone to the police. Is it possible that the police deliberately delayed a response? I recall a CFR tactic used in Lebanon of blowing up school buses filled with Christian children in order to exacerbate Christian-Muslim tensions to create a civil war. I think Joel is right. Something is really wrong with this picture. I don't know whether or not the government was involved in planning it, but it's possible that they used it as an opportunity, much like Pearl Harbor and 9/11. In this case the purpose is to tick off the settlers and frame them on charges of conspiring to commit acts of terror against Arabs, which we see all over the media in recent weeks. But I don't' put it past the Shabak to be in on the planning either, given the other atrocities they've carried out to frame the religious right, the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin to start with. Just after the yeshiva shooting the education minister, a founder of the anti-semitic Peace Now, said that the reaction of the students to her visit to Mercaz HaRav reminded her of how things were just before the Rabin assassination. She is right, in so far as that the provocations of people like her and the people she represents, haven't changed in the past 13 years.

Jabal Mukabar

2008-03-16T21:24:00.003+02:00

Today I went to a protest in Armon HaNatziv with the intent to tear down the yeshiva murderer's home. I didn't get through but it turns out quite a few people did. To my surprise only a few hundred people showed up. I might have expected thousands or tens of thousands of outraged Jews from all over the country to show up to take care of business. In any case the kid I rode on the bus with came all the way from Haifa to participate in the mele.

I have just learned that many of them got through and apparently are causing quite a balagan in the murderer's neighborhood. For the first time in a long time I have to say I'm really proud of our people. Building hilltop settlements is nice, but something about causing a little destruction amongst our enemies is very cathartic. It's been a long time coming.

2008-03-12T15:55:00.003+02:00

From Sichot HaRan #91: (Translated as Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom, R' Aryeh Kaplan, Breslov Research Institute):
"If you want to study with continuous diligence, be careful never to speak against a fellow Jew.
When the bride is beautiful, love is perfect. But, when the bride is blemished, love cannot be complete. The Torah is a bride. It is written, 'Moses charged us with the Torah, a morasha (heritage) for the congregation of Jacob' (Deuteronomy 33:4). The Talmud says: Do not read MoRaShA, but Me'uRaSa–the betrothed (Berakhot 57a; Pesachim 49b). “Moses charged us with the Torah, the betrothed of the congregation of Jacob.”
Every Jew is a letter in the Torah. The 600,000 letters of the Torah parallel the 600,000 Jewish souls. The Torah is the root of all Jewish souls. If there is a defect in a single Jew, it is also a blemish in the Torah.
But if you are careful not to speak against any Jew, then you will also find the Torah perfectly beautiful. You will then have a deep love for the Torah, for when the bride is beautiful, love is perfect. This great love will lead you to great diligence in your studies.
It is written, “God's Torah is perfect; it restores the soul” (Psalms 19:8). Each Jew represents a letter in the Torah. When people neither seek out nor speak of the flaws in their fellow Jews, then the Torah is perfect, with neither flaw nor blemish. When “God's Torah is perfect” then “it restores the soul.”
When people find the Torah without fault, then their love makes them worthy of continuous perseverance in its study."

I have this posted to my wall, since it's easy to forget, very easy.

More...

2008-03-09T17:06:00.008+02:00

I haven't been writing a lot lately. It's not that I don't have anything to say, however, every time I think of something to write, I stop myself for some reason. Anyways, I'll say a bit more this time.

Last night I went to a lecture by the kabbalist Rav Eliahu Leon Levy at the Western Wall. The lecture was continued next to the Binyanei HaUma convention center. He said 3 things bring death to the world (according to the Ari).
1. When a person does nefilat kapaim (tachanun) by putting their head in their left hand.
2. When a person looks at women in a cemetery (he suggested that a person who goes to a cemetery put their head down and cover their eyes from looking at people from the time one enters to the time one leaves).
3. One who hangs around a lot of women, especially when talking to them.

There were many other things as well that he said, many times mentioning the yeshiva students who were murdered Thursday night. And there was considerable emphasis on avoiding any sort of sexual immorality. He said no one is a gibur (hero) in this area, since most people rationalize believing that they can cavort with women and not be affected in some way. Not even the angels could avoid stumbling in this area, since the Torah says, "The sons of G-d saw that the daughters of man were good, and they took themselves wives from whomever they chose" (Genesis 6:2). In other words, the angels themselves stumbled by first gazing at women, and then once that happened they couldn't stop themselves.

As I tried to point out in my article, "The Mother of All Evil," the beginning of tikkun olam begins with rectifying sexual sins (tikkun yesod). Once that is completed, the tikkun of Adam HaRishon can be completed. Once that happens, Mashiach will come, and the tikkun of the Tatkad dorot (974 generations) can be completed, which is what tikkun olam was really supposed to be to begin with, and therefore the entire universe will be recreated in the image of G-d. However, it all starts with tikkun yesod, to first rectify the 130 years that Adam HaRishon masturbated, which is the last part of his sin (and therefore the first that needs to be rectified). This is why it's so important to say tikkun yesod daily. Rav Levi says that of all one's Torah study and other religious activities this is the most important thing to do in one's day. For that reason he put together a tikkun yesod that can be said every day relatively easily, and which cleanses the soul from top to bottom of all sins, both deliberate and accidental.

To point out something which should be obvious, guarding against sexual sin is so important that even Eastern religions are aware of it. They might not be aware of the subtleties of such things as keeping Shabbat and keeping kosher (although they are away of the basic concept behind kashrut, just not the way that the Torah approaches it), but they are aware of the great spiritual damage caused by spilling seed in vain.

A person's strength comes mainly from the air one breathes and from not wasting one's energy on vain sexual pursuits. In the East they are well aware of this. Actually, just looking at a woman saps the energy from a person, something easily noticed if one is sensitive to these things. This is not a matter of being a prude, rather it's a matter of having basic intelligence. I don't even think a person has to be that intelligent to realize this. It's like with anything else we do that affects our health. If a person eats junk food all day, he'll probably become weak and sick eventually. Similarly if a person has their mind in degeneracy all day, he'll probably become cynical and depressed. Intelligence requires a person to avoid depression. (People think that truth requires a person to be depressed. But if that were the case, no one could bare to live, which is to say that if the ultimate truth is negative then people would just shoot themselves. Since people don't usually do that, it's a sign that, deep down, people don't believe that the truth is negative.)

I've tried to point out to people that it's not merely a matter of blind faith, but a matter of intelligence. Anyone who values their health would avoid these things. Just because a person isn't smart enough to see the connection between one thing and another doesn't mean there isn't a connection. People put it up to blind faith, but it's really intelligence, and a basic disregard for people's assumptions, which are usually mistaken anyways. One thing I learned from my bout with atheism was the ease with which cause and effect are confused and reversed. Cause and effect are very subtle and contain an almost infinite number of minute factors. However, because people confuse cause and effect they ignore the importance of tikkun yesod, which is central to every single thing in life both spiritually and physically.

Security in the Toilet Update

2008-03-06T22:59:00.002+02:00

As Israel's security deteriorates further, I am now told that a terrorist or two went and shot up Mercaz HaRav.

This is in addition to the missile attacks throughout the week on Sderot, Ashkelon and the cities of the south.

Does the security look like it's ever going to improve? Probably not, as long as we have these CFR dogs running the country. What do they care, except how to sell out Israel to the malchut harishah as quickly as possible. People sometimes think there's hope in Netanyahu. Yeah, right. But I now remember that I lamented this in my March 2nd post, so why waste space.

Now I'll lament America a bit. Do you know that Hilary, Obama, and McCain are all members of the CFR? Well, America, you're finished. Ironically, you have the CFR's George Soros sponsoring both Obama and McCain. Who ever heard of such a thing, sponsoring both sides. It's like they don't even try to hide that the elections are rigged anymore.

I'm done for the day. But I leave you with a beautiful picture from the land of our friend and peace partner Iran. And perhaps this is the only reason not to nuke them to the foundations...

Tomb of Esther & Mordechai

Hamadan, Iran

2008-03-04T10:02:00.003+02:00

Some people are saying there might be a third Intifada in the works. I think it's best to see how things will develop for now. I asked a number of people who were here during the last one to see if this is what it looked like. It seems that last time, they were rioting in the cities more and it broke out more quickly and explosively. The question is how much the Arabs want to get beaten up and sprayed with tear gas every time they decide to throw rocks and light things on fire. They might have gotten tired of it, or perhaps not.

It's possible they might not need an intifada, since the missile launchers are doing a pretty good job and are making a big mess as it is.

In the nearby Arab village you hear a lot of provocation on their PA mics. I can't really make out what they're saying, since I don't speak Arabic, but you can tell they're calling for jihad. However, I'm told that people could smell tear gas a few days ago, which indicates rioting.

Time will tell...

2008-03-02T12:08:00.007+02:00

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last post, and in that time period, the political situation here has begun to explode--somewhat.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125428
Although I try to keep away from political forecasts for the most part, I'm reminded of an article I wrote in 2002 where I proposed that a missile war would spell the end of the Sharon regime and that Netanyahu was being readied to step up to take his place. Of course, Sharon is out of the picture and in his place is his once deputy PM, a certain worthless lawyer. In the meantime, the worthless lawyer is setting the ground work for an all out withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem.

I believe that everyone with intelligence understands that this worthless lawyer isn't really capable of executing such a withdrawal. If he wants to pull such a stunt off, he'd face the very really possibility of a military coup, something Sharon himself was quite worried about, and Sharon was a general. But the worthless lawyer certainly has more to worry about than Sharon, being that he is a worthless lawyer and that his plans are more ambitious than his predecessor's withdrawal from Gaza and Northern Shomron. So to get the job done they need a real military man such as Netanyahu. But first the lawyer is needed to write up the paperwork and then off with him when this missile war escalates.

Rabbi Nachman says that G-d created the world primarily for emunah (faith).

It happens that sometimes a person doesn't have enough emunah to do all the good he wants to do and doesn't get it all accomplished. It can also happen that a person's emunah is stronger than his plans for the future, so he actually accomplishes a lot of good without even intending to.

L'havdil, the same applies for evil. Sometimes a person doesn't have enough false faiths (emunot cazbiot) to accomplish all the evil he wants to. Or a person can have a lot of emunot cazbiot and actually do more evil than was ever imagined.

So too in this situation. This is why they replace bad politicians with other bad politicians. People think they're all the same, but each is needed in his time to accomplish the desired evil.

There will yet be a time when individual leaders are called upon for the specific type of good they can accomplish.

2008-02-18T21:01:00.002+02:00

Tomb of Rav Hayim Vital in Kiryat Malachi, Israel...maybe....

Image from Rav Hayim Vital's Epitaph

From his tomb in Damascus

The Arizal, one of the greatest kabbalists of all time, said his soul came into the world only to rectify the soul of Rav Hayim Vital, and that it was necessary for the coming of Mashiach. Rav Hayim Vital himself was under the impression, apparently from the Ari, that if he did everything right, he would be Mashiach ben Yosef. For various reasons, things didn't turn out as planned. After the Ari's death, he moved to Damascus and spent most of his remaining years there, where he was buried. A number of years ago his body was apparently brought from Damascus to Kiryat Malachi, however, there is uncertainty about whether the grave above really is the grave of Rav Hayim Vital or not, and in fact it is unmarked.

2008-02-13T15:49:00.002+02:00

To further my point I made a few days ago, it has emerged that McCain is funded by George Soros, a first caliber self-hating Jew and former CFR member, who funds the destruction of the state of Israel.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56177

Presidential Candidates, the Milkman, Torah and Wealth

2008-02-10T21:38:00.000+02:00

Last week, I was discussing with Rabbi Marvin Antelman the topic of Presidential candidates. It seems that most of them are either evil, or CFR members or at least friendly with the CFR. John McCain writes for the CFR, so Republicans shouldn't think they're getting a clean former-POW war hero with him, as he likes to be portrayed. Also discussed was Romney and whether he has CFR backing or not. There seems to be two opinions on this. See for yourself and cross-search "Romney" and "CFR" on Google. And Hillary and Obama could clean Suah Arafat's toilet for all I care. I think this election is the sign that America is finally over. Can America survive four more years of this kind of leadership after the Bush disaster? Bush still has a year left to wreck everything anyways.
-----
I was reading a bit about the formerly-secret kabbalist and tzaddik known as the Halban, the Milkman. There is a good article in Hebrew here:
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/15/ART1/446/933.html

In short he is the last surviving member of a group of four hidden tzaddikim, the others being called the Sandlar, the Street Cleaner and the Painter. I think these were their professions, since they lived their lives as normal, anonymous people in public. A few years ago he became known to the public and started accepting visits from people in the community who sought his help or advice. The article above was written two days before the start of the Second Lebanon War. At the time, his assistant told people he could no longer see people until the month of Elul since there were harsh decrees coming for Israel soon and he had to work on alleviating the decrees. Sure enough, the war broke out a few days later and didn't end until a week and a half before the start of the month of Elul.
Today he has lectures in Givatayim at the Beit Knesset Beit Yosef (on Etzel Street, corner of HaGilboa).
-----
Before Shabbat I read Likutey Moharan 162:
Rabbi Nachman says that Torah and wealth can’t exist in the same place (the same person), unless one has the humility of Moshe Rabbeinu or Rebbe, and is like “nothing” (dust before every person). The point is I think that Torah is truth, and wealth usually requires the distortion of truth in order to sell goods or talent. But one who is truly humble doesn’t need to distort truth because they can tell the truth about what they sell and why a person should buy it, honestly, or if a person shouldn’t buy it. This is because they have shame before every person and are only concerned about the truth. (Or they will make a point of selling only the best, so they can honestly say it is the best. Or if they are selling talent, since they have true truth, they don’t have to distort anything in describing themselves accurately.)

I think this points to how important it is not to lie or exaggerate, especially when doing business. Isn't that really theft? If a person lies or exaggerates they can never have Torah really.

Some people say they are humble like they're joking, but I think that they really think they are humble (and not as just a joke). Can you say, "I am humble" and not feel the least pride? I can't. Better not to say it then. A person can feel pride even if they poke fun at themselves. If a person jokes about how brilliant they are, don't they really think they're brilliant somehow? But they want people to think they're humble since they can joke about it. Even if they are brilliant, is it proper to feel pride at this when the truth is that they probably were born with it anyways? No, being born brilliant says nothing about a person's merits at all, no more than being born beautiful indicates that a person is anymore decent than anyone else. People use beauty and brilliance as a weapon. They use talent as a weapon. Is this what it was made for? This is why people can't have truth and wealth in the same place unless they are humble like Moshe. Because a person can have either truth or use their talent as a weapon, not both at the same time.

America?!

2008-02-04T17:21:00.000+02:00

Today I went to the US Embassy to get my passport renewed for a family visit sometime this summer. I'm convinced that every person I met there was an incarnation of the evil one himself. Something about going there reminds me of why I'm glad to be living in the land of Israel.

Among the many distinctly American quirks of the embassy are two separate and practically identical security checks. No sooner do you empty your pockets, take off your belt, open your bag, etc, thinking that that part of the trauma is over, and sure enough you're lead to another room (all with buzzing doors) and have to repeat the process all over again. I wonder if it ever occurred to these people that if they got it right the first time they wouldn't have to do it over again. Then they confiscated my cell phone and mini-flashlight for the length of the visit--as if that was supposed to accomplish something.

Then after going through the process of filling out forms and talking to a number of their satanic clerks I was led to a counter where I was told to pay US $75...or 300 shekels.

Now wait a minute. The US dollar is going down the toilet and I'm told to pay at an exchange rate of 4 shekel to the dollar. Today it reached into 3.5 territory, making the fee rightfully 268.35 shekel to be exact, a difference of 31 shekels or more than 8 dollars.

However, it occurred to me what the real implication of their $8 robbery was. Basically, they go by 4 shekels to the dollar because that's what the rate has been (approximately) for a number of years. By refusing to acknowledge that the dollar is going down and the shekel is going up, they're in effect telling Israel (in their own petty way), "We don't care how strong Israel gets and how far we plummet, to us Israel is always 1/4 value."

But what do I care, aside from the fact that I was robbed $8 today. The fact is that the dollar is becoming monopoly money. When I moved here 5 years ago, it was valued at 4.8 shekel to the dollar. Since then the dollar has lost over 27% of its value to Israeli currency.

And my message to America is this: Prepare for it to drop more. Bush still has another year to destroy the American economy. And then what? He'll make room for another incompetent. Do you think Obama is going to save you? Or Hillary? Or McCain? No. America's glory days are over. All the smart people won't run in politics because it's too unseemly these days. So you get worthless leadership followed by more worthless leadership. And that's how it will continue. In Israel we get worthless leadership and somehow the economy prospers. Explain that.

And to me America is less that 1/4 value. This is because America has lost its generous spirit. Today it's the big nasty monster hated the world over. There was a time when America was the inspiration for every other country. Did not France have its revolution because of America's revolution? But today France hates the very country it took its democratic values from, biting the hand that feeds it in every respect. And what can America do to this insult to its honor? Zilch. Because Americans have lost their self-respect as Americans. In many places, kids don't even stand in your schools for the pledge of allegiance.

And why should everyone hate America including the next generation of Americans? Because America is run by robber barons who only look out for their own business interests. And so America's Constitution is toilet paper. The very thing by which Americans used to identify themselves as Americans has ceased to exist. So Americans have no identity whatsoever.

So you take your dollar and hold on to your imaginary dreams of 4 X value. But soon it will be 3, then 2, and then toilet paper.

The Mother of All Evil

2008-01-28T17:17:00.000+02:00

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he didn’t just commit one sin but actually several. There were four stages in total to his sin, the first two of these being simple errors in judgment and the last two being actual sins.

In short, the first stage of his sin was that he expanded his kli (keter of Neshama) rather than bringing in sufficient mochin from Haya to fill this kli to allow it to expand on its own. What this means in everyday language is that he was supposed to rely on a miracle and he instead worked to build up his vessels in this world. Because he expanded his vessels and there was not enough light to fill them, it created darkness, since a vessel that is only partially filled with light contains darkness. (This error is repeated today in people who work all day and never find time for Torah, even though they have the opportunity.)

This error caused his consciousness (da’at) to fall from his head to between his shoulders (the top point of physicality), meaning he then had an evil inclination to fight, although the evil inclination was still external at this point. Before this, his consciousness couldn’t fall as long as his vessels were filled with sufficient light.

The second stage was that he descended into the world of Beriah (creation) to fight the klipah (the forces of evil). Instead, he was supposed to just start the process over again by doing his avodah (to serve Hashem directly). Because he chose to engage the klipah in a direct fight, it opened the door for it to overwhelm him. This second stage allowed the Nachash (the serpent) to enter the Garden, whereas before it couldn’t enter.

These first two stages were merely errors in judgment and not actual sins.

All of this eventually led to Eve being deceived by the Nachash and eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She didn’t want to die alone and for Adam to remarry, so she deceived him and had him eat from the Tree also, telling him he was eating something permissible.

Eating from the tree caused the forces of evil to enter inside of him now, that is to say the souls of the 974 generations of chaos. However, they still didn’t have a solid hold inside of Adam yet. This was accomplished with the fourth stage.

After eating from the forbidden tree, Adam and Eve slept together. They were supposed to wait until Shabbat for this, but they jumped the gun. This gave the forces of evil a strong hold inside of Adam.

At this point, Adam separated from his wife for 130 years. He wanted to get rid of the evil forces inside of himself, so he spilled seed in vain during that entire time. This brought the souls of the goyim into this world before they received their rectification. This succeeded in getting rid of the evil but it also created a serious blemish. In addition to getting rid of the evil, he threw the souls which had previously been rectified (those sourced in Adam himself) into the klipah. These souls were reincarnated in the time of the flood. They followed the way that they knew from their previous incarnation in Adam and spilled seed also and were wiped out, since they failed to fulfill what they were brought into the world to rectify.

The forefathers (Avot), Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who were all reincarnations of Adam, spent their lives trying to gather these souls together out of the klipah. This is why they sought to convert people. These converts were really the souls that were once part of Adam before the sin detailed above.

There were originally supposed to be four Avot. However, Hashem in His infinite wisdom determined that one of them should go astray and become the epitome of evil. This was Esav, Jacob’s twin brother.

The Avot worked at rectifying all the bad character traits, particularly pride, jealously and lust. These were all rectified by the three Avot, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, except for lust which was assigned to be rectified by Esav. Esav actually had a very difficult tikkun (rectification) altogether, but Hashem gave him the ability necessary to complete it. This tikkun involved going out into this world, the world of the klipah, and elevating the sparks from it, being a “man of the field.” Jacob’s tikkun was to simply sit in his tent and study Torah. The difference between Esav and Jacob’s avodah here is parallel to the difference between Mashiach ben Yosef and Mashiach ben David, respectively.

However, despite the gifts which Hashem had given him, Esav was overwhelmed by the evil inclination (particularly lust) and went astray, becoming the epitome of evil. Therefore, his tikkun was left for Jacob to take up and complete, in addition to his own. This is why, after taking Esav’s blessing he took off for Lavan’s house and eventually spent all those years working with Lavan’s sheep, becoming a man of the field. Before this, he spent his life in a tent studying Torah.

However, having two entire tikkunim to complete in one lifetime was a big responsibility, so Jacob left a portion of Esav’s tikkun to Joseph. Therefore, Joseph descended to Egypt, the heart of the klipah, and was tested with Potiphar’s wife, successfully rectifying the evil trait of lust...almost.

Joseph was destined to become one of the Avot, replacing Esau. Although he for the most part rectified the trait of lust, there was still a residue of this trait that went unrectified, for the following reason.

When Joseph was tested with Potiphar’s wife, Rashi says he was ready to have his way with her until the image of his father appeared to him and he ran outside. The image of his father was actually a reminder of a particular oral tradition he had received from him. This oral tradition was that when someone has an erection, they can avoid spilling seed in vain by driving their fingernails into the ground. This will cause the blood to rush to the fingertips and the seed will come out through the nails. This technically isn’t spilling seed in vain, but it’s still a form of spilling seed, although not nearly as bad. Because Joseph was such a tzaddik he was judged by the strictest standards. These ten drops that came from his nails resulted in him losing ten of the twelve tribes that were destined to descend from him (Sotah 36b). Therefore, he was left with two, Ephraim and Menashe, becoming a sort of quasi-Av instead of fully one of the Avot.

Since the trait of lust was not fully rectified in the Avot, this became a sort of Achilles heel throughout the generations. When Bilaam sought a way to cast an evil eye on the Jewish people in the desert, after searching and finding only good things to say about the Israelites, and therefore no opening for the evil eye, he eventually came upon the trait of lust, and concocted the plan to send the daughters of Moab to seduce the Jews, resulting in a plague.

This was repeated on many other occasions throughout history, such as the First Temple period where people went astray after idols, but only first after being sexually seduced. During the times of the Sabbatian heresy, Sabbatians would go from town to town and get people to first take sexual sins lightly, then to engage in outright transgressions such as adultery and eventually to worship idolatry. This is detailed in Isaac Bashevis Singer’s book Satan in Goray.

We can see from this that lust is the opening to other evil traits such as pride and jealousy. Without lust, Am Yisrael wouldn’t be susceptible to these other traits since these traits themselves were fully rectified in the Avot.

Just as this applies on the national level, so too it applies on the individual level. We find in the incident with Bilaam that the only opening for the evil eye is lust. The evil eye is called the source of all sickness (Rashi on Baba Metzia 107). This includes physical and mental sickness. On this note, it’s interesting to point out that Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Likutey Moharan quotes a medical opinion that castration cures insanity (not that he prescribed this). The point is that it’s impossible for a person to go insane unless there’s a weak leak in their chain—blemishing the covenant/yesod (sexual sin), which opens the door for the evil eye, the mother of all sickness. (Of course, it’s possible for a great tzaddik to fall ill, even though he has rectified the covenant completely, because he takes this sickness on to atone for all of Israel. We can assume this is especially an atonement for blemishes in yesod found in the tzaddik’s generation).

Yesod (foundation) is sometimes referred to in older systems of the Kabbalah as “HaKol” (everything), since everything spiritual and physical depends on it and its rectification. Rabbi Nachman says that no matter how great the tzaddik is in overcoming the evil inclination, it doesn’t impress him unless one overcame the sexual desire.

Rabbi Nachman also says that one cannot argue with the evil inclination because it will eventually overwhelm a person. This was the case in Adam himself in the second stage of his sin, where he began to fight the klipah and was overwhelmed. The key, therefore, is action, which means making a practice of saying special tikkunim called Tikkuney Yesod. It’s best to say this everyday if possible, but minimally during this time of year, called Shovavim, which is specially designated for this. This period lasts during a leap year, such as our current calendar year, all the way until Parashat Tetzave, read this year on February 16th. On non-leap years it lasts from Parashat Shemot until Parashat Mishpatim. These tikkunim are not only for oneself, but also for everyone who shares a similar soul root, one’s relatives, one’s previous incarnations, and ultimately for all of Am Yisrael, as should be clear from what I attempted to explain above.

One of the most fundamental of these tikkunim is Rabbi Nachman’s Tikkun Clali, which consists of ten psalms. There has been some question as to whether Tikkun Clali rectifies deliberate sexual sins. Rabbi Nachman himself says that it is meant primarily for a person who has a wet dream. He also promises to intercede for anyone who comes to his grave, gives a penny to charity and reads the ten psalms. This appears to be a special tikkun in itself, inclusive of everything, although it’s not clear whether it directly covers individual deliberate transgression or not, although Rabbi Nachman also says that someone must take it upon himself not to return to his folly.

The Sephardic kabbalists also have a number of tikkuney yesod, the most famous of which is that of the Ben Ish Hai for deliberate transgression, which can be found in his book Lashon Hachamim. More recently there is the tikkun of HaRav Eliahu Leon Levi of reading 13 psalms, 69, 55, 22, 129, 27, 125, 13, 124, 89, 85, 72, 28, 29. Rav Leon Levi says it’s also important to read the prayers before and after which can be found in his book Yeshuot Eliahu: Tikkuney Yesod. The book also includes the Tikkun Yesod of the Ben Ish Hai, and Tikkun Clali, among other things. Call 03-619-5068 for a copy. Minimally, one should make a point of reciting one of these tikkunim regularly.

People often wonder what harm sexual sin causes, because outwardly it often doesn’t seem to cause any problems. The answer is that the harm is mostly spiritual, although this can obviously have abundant physical consequences. People don’t naturally make an association between, say, masturbation and an argument they might have with their wife a few days later. But they are connected, even though people aren’t always brilliant enough to figure out precisely how. Sexual sin creates evil souls which then get a tight grip on a person, much like it did to Adam. These can destroy a person’s concentration (A.D.D.), cause confusion, a lack of energy and inner peace. We see this with people who can’t sit still and read a book, and of course it destroys the ability to concentrate in prayer. It’s not a coincidence that as sexual promiscuity increased, in the 60’s and 70’s, that people lost a sense of direction in life, since confusion is one of the consequences of sexual sin. As masturbation is encouraged, as it is in American schools, it’s inevitable that more and more children will have A.D.D., even if they’re very young, since the klipah is a sort of spirit which infects everyone in the generation (to say nothing of what the parents of these kids do behind closed doors, since children are spiritually most affected by what their parents do).

At this time of the year, during Shovavim, there are all-night tikkuney yesod. Each one of these removes one liability of Karet (spiritual cutting off from good), since sexual sin results in Karet. There are 5 major categories of sexual sin that need tikkunim:
1. Masturbation
2. Sex with a woman in Niddah.
3. Sex with a married woman (it follows that this includes other individuals who are forbidden by Torah, such as one’s close relatives).
4. Sex with a gentile.
5. Sex with someone of the same gender (and of course, animals, may these two sins never become common practice in Am Yisrael.)

2008-01-21T22:04:00.000+02:00

Yeshivat HaMekubalim Beit El--Old City, Jerusalem

The Yeshiva of Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, ZYA"A, Master Kabbalist

1720-Shevat 10, 1777

Pre-Independance War Photo.

Tzion Kever of Maran HaRashash on Mount of Olives

2008-01-20T21:56:00.000+02:00

Rabbi Shalom Efregen, The Baba Shalom, ZYA''A
1904-Tammuz 8, 1994

THE ART OF WAR

2008-01-14T17:59:00.000+02:00

Note: This is a companion piece to my other article Dying of Indifference. Email me for a copy.

"One who cannot see through the deception of the wicked is detested [by G-d]"

--Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, Alef-Bet Book, Breslov Research Institute, p. 217

And why should G-d despise a person who is deceived? Aren't we told how G-d protects the widow, the orphan, and the unfortunate from those who are stronger? But, behold, that applies to people who don't know any better and couldn't know any better, who are ignorant under duress. But one who could know better and chooses not to, and instead is deceived...this one is detested. Because isn't that person really relying on a miracle to save him when he doesn't have to? Thus he is one who tests G-d as well, and so is a sinner on top of being a bonehead.

Now today the nationalist sector in Israel has fallen into a dangerous trap, and the dangers of this trap are becoming more and more apparent. Only most don't seem to be aware of the trap they've fallen into or even that it's a trap at all. They might even think it's their strong point. That trap is the trap of talk. People write, talk, and come up with all types of "brilliant" solutions for our problems, but they are forgotten about quickly and replaced with more talk.

The bottom line is that all this talk, these protests, these get-your-head-bashed-in-by-a-Yassamnik extravaganzas are a substitute for having Knesset members who will do something. And since the nationalists have no representatives in Knesset anymore, they come up with protests, new alternatives no one will listen to, and send their kids to get their heads clubbed. Nice job! Ariel Sharon would be proud.

I ask a reasonable question here: Is perhaps the entire institution known as "Dati Leumi" perhaps outdated? Certainly there was a time when that stood for something, particularly after the victory in the '67 war, when it was important to build new settlements. The Datiim thought of themselves as being ahead of the Haredim, who they regarded as outdated and living in the distant past. But has not time caught with the Datiim also? Do their children really share the same values as they do?

The entire Dati Leumi attitude was more or less founded on the idea that the secular Israeli government they were dealing with wasn't really so bad after all. "They’re Jews also," they reasoned. And while this attitude may very well be true when applied to the majority of secular Jews to this day, it can't be said with regard to the government of Israel, where as a matter of principle the biggest, sickest psychopath gets to the top position.

Therefore, I make a radical proposal. Or is it so radical? Let's change our approach completely. Are we not fighting a war here? Therefore, let us fight a war. The time has come to tear up your Ahava and Emunah newsleters...

What people still haven't hammered into their heads is that this government and the people they represent are fighting a war with us and everything we stand for. Not only that, they understand the tactics necessary to win such a war. People can ignore it all they want, but that does not make THEM ignore the war they're fighting against US.

The perfect example of this was Gush Katif. Gush Katif should have been an example which people learned from for all time: "We won't forget, we won't forgive". People went to that lame protest in Netivot and Kfar Maimon, thinking it was going to stop the disengagement. Sharon, a brilliant tactician, had been planning the disengagement for years. He certainly was well aware that there would angry settlers and their supporters to deal with. And he certainly made plans on how to deal with them. He certainly knew that you would be standing there in Kfar Maimon before even you did. Wasn't it nice when a traitorous French "rabbi" stood up and declared how much we love the soldiers and all. Nice planning Sharon.

I went to a protest outside Sharon's ranch on the first night of the disengagement. As an American who somehow wasn't indoctrinated into Israeli brainwashing tactics as of yet, I watched how the Yesha Council speakers there carefully manipulated the angry mob into a pleasant choir singing HaTikvah. All this while their brothers and sisters were still being thrown out of their houses not far away. I wanted to vomit as I walked away to that HaTikvah accompaniment. Are these the stupidest people in the world, I thought. HATIKVAH!!

The people we are against understand every tactic in the book. Do people think that in our current disposition we will take one move or say one word if the possibility hasn't already been prepared for and a neutralization maneuver planned out?

If I started a political party, I would have everyone read books of war and covert tactics. The Ancient Art of War to start with. The Godfather, a book which Banco Ambrosiano President Roberto Calvi, a key figure in the Italian P2 scandal recommended whenever books were discussed, saying "Read it. Then you will understand the way the world really works." Rabbi Antelman's classic To Eliminate the Opiate, so that people know where the Jewish people really stand today and who we're dealing with. Chamish's Who Murdered Yitzhah Rabin, so people understand how blackmail works in this country for all time. And of course that classic formulator of political strategy, Machiavelli. There's also countless books about covert military tactics, espionage, sabotage, the KGB, the Assassins sect which invented "infiltrate and terrorize" tactics. That would get people into the right mindset.

Keep in mind that the Bolsheviks started off as just a bunch of punks. But they overthrew the mighty czar in his fenced off palace. History is full of countless such examples.

People need vessels for winning. War is the vessel for victory. Victory isn't going to come just because people go to prayer rallies.

If what I'm saying may sound cynical, it shouldn't. The master of prayer himself, King David employed the saboteur and spy Hushai the Archite to destroy his son Absalom's schemes from within by contradicting his chief advisor Ahithophel's counsel. His tactic could best be described as prayer and sabotage:

"And David said, 'Please confound the advice of Ahithophel, O Hashem!' David was approaching the summit [of the Mount of Olives] where he would prostrate himself to G-d, and there before him was Hushai the Archite, with his tunic torn and dirt upon his head. David said to him, 'If you pass over with me you will be a burden to me, but if you return to the city and say to Absalom, 'I shall be your servant, O king; I have always been your father's servant and now I am your servant,' you will be able to nullify Ahithophel's counsel for me...And it will be that anything you hear from the king's house, you will tell to Zadok and Abiathar the Kohanim. Behold, their two sons are there with them...send me by their hand any word you may hear" (II Samuel 15, trans. Artscroll).

Wasn't David the composer of the book of Psalms? But he was also a master of counter-intelligence, that is, conspiracy.

We also see Hushai's cleverness in dealing with Ahithophel and Absalom. In response to Ahithophel's correct advice on how to finish off David for good, Hushai responds, "This time the advice that Ahithophel suggested is not good." (Ibid 17:7). THIS TIME! Which is to say that Hushai understood that Ahithophel's advice was always good and that everyone else understood this as well. "But on this ONE occasion in his life, Ahithophel's gave less than the best advice." This subtle, disarming creation of doubt provides Hushai with the opportunity to offer his own bad advice in order to destroy Absalom and his entire conspiracy.

I’m not saying that teshuva isn’t important. The entire redemption depends on teshuva. But we need to be practical in our situation as King David was. Certainly David understood teshuva better than anyone, but he still used sabotage and espionage. Our situation is not only life-threatening, but threatening to the entire future of our people and our country. Even if one isn’t involved politically, it’s still important to understand how things work beyond what is printed in newspapers. To take the news—from any source—at face value and to present that position to others as if that's all that's going on is irresponsible.

Some people wonder what fascinates myself and others about conspiracies in general. Here is my explanation. Conspiracies are not about paranoia at all. I don’t see conspiracies in everything (although some people do). The real fascination is about systems and how they work. Everything in this world works according to systems. The smarter the person, the easier it is to figure out how a particular system works. The underlying assumption of this is that practically anything in the world can be figured out, unraveled and understood from top to bottom. Something can be understood so well that it's as if the investigator designed the thing himself. This can apply to any number of things. Once one gets a feel for the inner workings of one thing it's easier to get the same feeling for many other things seemingly unrelated. For instance a person can get a feel for film editing that's so good that they also have a feel for martial arts. When I was in film school, I spent a lot of time studying the film editing of some of the top directors of all time. I would take scenes and watch them dozens of times until I understood every detail of how one thing flows into another from shot to shot, and from his how an entire sequence is designed, and from this ultimately how an entire movie is designed from start to finish. A number of years later I met a top martial artist and we would discuss our relative interests of film and martial arts using practically the same language. I suggested he take the same idea and apply it to Torah study and see what he came up with. Over the next several months he was able to figure out a lot he didn't understand before in his Torah learning, even about things he had already studied previously. When Sun Tzu wrote the Ancient Art of War he certainly understood that war can be understood as a system to be mastered, like anything else. It seems to me that this is what the real pleasure of life is, to understand the beauty of design, both human-made and Divinely-made. When we talk about "Mochin" for instance, probably the best definition of Mochin is "packages of brain power", or in other words, the capacity to understand a particular system. The ancients certainly understood what I spoke about here. And G-d does too. That's why He gave us the mitzvah of Tefillin, which bring in mochin. And Torah study itself sharpens our minds and gives us the ability to understand how G-d runs the world, each system in its place. The design of a single halachah could fill libraries if its “system” were analyzed thoroughly.

A conspiracy takes it a step further, applying it to human behavior. If we say that everything that people do in this world runs according to a particular program unique to it, then like any man-made program it would have bugs. A bug is simply something that the programmer didn't think of, a loophole. A virus takes advantage of the loophole and can cause the program to then become its own worst enemy. A virus is simply the technological equivalent of a conspiracy.

To take a modern example of this in the Orthodox world, let's consider what happened to Chabad. When Chabad effectively took on the Soviet government because of their oppression of Soviet Jews, the KGB decided that the best thing to do to Chabad was to neutralize it through infiltration. When the Rebbe was alive, he was well aware of the KGB infiltration, but was too smart for them and was always able to outmaneuver them, keeping them at bay. But when he left this world, the KGB elements were left to do as they please. They then went about making Chabad into its own worst enemy. They took its strongest point, the Rebbe, and made it into a tool for Chabad's destruction. Indeed Chabad had a great advantage in its activities because they could always quote the Rebbe and knew they had perhaps the greatest tzaddik of the generation as their spiritual leader. But, today, every poster that goes up of the Rebbe with some "Mashiach says..." jargon inspires mockery. Mention the Rebbe and people sigh, waiting for some ridiculous claim to follow. So rather than being its strong point, as it should, "The Rebbe" is the tool of Chabad's destruction. And what was the bug in an otherwise strong system? He didn't deny that he was Mashiach enough times. The KGB simply took advantage of that fact and the general despair at the Rebbe’s demise, and turned it into a weapon to destroy Chabad.

POLITICS

Now to take the above to its practical application. As I pointed out earlier, everything that nationalists in this country are doing today is a mere substitute, a poor substitute, for having representatives in Knesset.

The Israeli government has a flimsy design because it was put together slipshod in 1948. A government like that can be dismantled more easily than something better designed with a constitution, such as America. Change in America is almost impossible because everything is institutionalized. Even the corruption is fungus that grew on a brilliantly and carefully designed constitution. Removing the fungus is almost as difficult as changing the constitution, which we know is very difficult. I'm not suggesting that the constitution needs be changed, because in reality it contradicts all the corruption that grew on it. Nonetheless, the fungus has a tight hold, and can't be isolated from the system it grew upon.

A flimsy rent-a-system design such as we have in Israel is different. The fungus and the system are one and the same. So both can be tossed together. No brilliant design underlying it. Just a bunch of crooks layered on top of more crooks. But take away the crooks and the system comes tumbling down. Easy come, easy go.

Nonetheless, the tower of crooks has to be dismantled.

It can be dismantled in two ways, through violent revolution or through taking over the Knesset. Knowing the right wing's distaste for violence generally, that leaves only the second option.

To do that a party must be formed. And to win, a winning strategy has to be developed.

Give people two things and they'll not only vote for you, but they'll also tolerate things about you they don't necessarily support wholeheartedly. Those two things are a strong economy and security. The reason for this is because most people are really libertarians at heart and don't want to be bothered with government. If they can go to work and not get killed on the way and come home to a nice house with food on the table, they're happy and that's about it. Give people that and 95% of them won't even notice the government. Disrupt one of these two things and those 95% suddenly become ideologues.

There are several examples of this throughout history. To take a more recent example: Rudi Giuliani. Giuliani had many detractors who said he created a quasi-police state in New York City. In fact during his term, the police shot a few innocent people, but he defended them wholeheartedly, to the great chagrin of many. But interestingly enough, practically all of these same detractors liked Giuliani and respected him, even the liberal-minded. Because these same people had to admit they liked the fact that they could walk to and from work and not get mugged every few weeks. And this security strengthened the economy, in particular tourism, as New York went from a practically uninhabitable haven for gangs, rapists, and murderers, to a nice family-friendly vacation destination. Even Times Square, once a terrifying place to be, was compared to Disneyland. Cry as many did that New York lost its character, no one was going to fuss too much so long as the economy was good and people weren't being mugged.

G.W. Bush on the other hand is hated by practically everyone because he's destroyed the economy and as much as he talks about security, people know deep down that America isn't really much safer than it was on September 11th. Because while Bush has gone and made wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he's also opened America's southern border to practically anyone who cares to cross, including say someone armed with WMD's.

Therefore, it follows that anyone who cares to be successful in politics must guarantee these two things and support it with results. The greatest experts in economics and its development need to be gathered together, along with the greatest experts in security. Make a party out of this and it will succeed. We need a party of the geniuses in Israel, both known and unknown. And the people who coordinate this party need to understand covert strategy.

And why is this not just a proposal like all the others, that should be forgotten in a day or two. Because the bottom line is that all I would need is two or three people to take my suggestion seriously. As a matter of principle I don't say something that's already been said before, and I don't make proposals unless they have a good chance of being executed. So too here.

Therefore step by step, this is what's necessary.

1. Get a few people together, even two or three to start out with. Study covert strategy in depth. Also the basic art of winning friends and influencing people.

2. One by one, go about the country and convince the most talented people to join your efforts and of the need for their talents.

3. Raising money can be taken care of by people who have training in this field. People shouldn't underestimate the number of strong and wealthy Zionists who would be willing to contribute to a successful bid to get good leadership in Israel. The more talented people you have, the easier this is. And vice versa.

Enough denying what we're up against and who we're up against and how they manipulate us. When people act like everything is ladi-da, do they really believe it? Everything requires study—our enemies require study, intensive study, to understand how they play chess. Then we can begin. But if not we'll never begin. It's a bigger mitzvah to act now than later.

Also:

It's been my hope to publish a small pamphlet entitled the "Jewish Revolutionary's Handbook". I would include in it a number of essays I've written including my "Art of War" and “Dying of Indifference” essays, as well as essays on true tikkun, as it’s understood by the kabbalah. I also intend to add a section of aphorisms, short one or two sentence weapons against the yetzer hara, doubt, and the attacks of the Erev Rav. People can take this book wherever fate may take them and think of how to fight the wars of G-d. It can be their little secret weapon in the war against evil and to establish truth on the face of the earth, to perfect the world into the kingdom of the Almighty. Anyone up to funding such a venture, email me.

2008-01-13T17:24:00.000+02:00

Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fostat (Old Cairo)

Built 882 CE

Home of the Cairo Geniza

Miscellaneous

2008-01-08T13:32:00.000+02:00

A good Jew as Rabbi Nachman defines it is someone who has overcome this world completely, that is one who has rectified the sin of Adam HaRishon in himself, and is a reflection of what we see in the story of the 7 Beggars.

In the story, all human capacities are returned to what they were supposed to be before the sin, so they can function properly and Adam could do the tikkun he was brought into the world to do, the tikkun of the 974 Generations of souls in chaos.

THE SPIRITUAL LANGUAGE

The physical is simply an aspect of the spiritual. The test of this is psychokinesis, where spiritual energy gains such critical mass it actually affects the physical world. Physical matter according to E=MC squared is just densely concentrated energy. Spiritual energy, sometimes called chi or nefesh energy, has the same rule applying to it. When it's densely concentrated it can have a physical effect, called psychokinesis. The Temple is really meant (in part) as a massive channel for an influx of nefesh energy. It's possible to bring this energy down but not be able to contain it and distribute it properly. The function of the Temple is to contain and distribute it properly so that it's not misused to create further chaos.

The spiritual language is mainly perceived through the third eye, which is also understood by many to come from the pineal gland located in the center rear of the skull, approximately the location of the back knot of tefillin. However, practically-speaking the third eye manifests itself between the two eyes in the middle of the forehead. When the tikkun of Adam HaRishon is completed in a person, one effectively only needs to use his third eye, and if tested could get around blindfolded (this has been done before). The third eye needs to be developed. Every one of the five senses is just a hint of some other equivalent higher spiritual sense that a person has from Adam HaRishon before the sin.

MULTIPLE UNIVERSES

Rabbi Nachman mentions that there are infinite universes above Atzilut, the world of Emanation. Each universe would be closer and closer to G-d ad infinitum, as well as “containing” all universes below it. Since G-d is infinite, there would be no universe that is totally absorbed into the infinite Ain Sof. So there are infinite universes above this one until Ain Sof. M-Theory is at least aware of multiple universes above this one (called Asiyah in Kabbalah-speak), each universe working according to its own laws of physics. But we understand from the kabbalah that these universes go on forever. What is remarkable is that each of these universes is reflected in some way in this universe, however subtly. Everything in the universe is reflected in the Torah. So each letter of Torah has infinite universes hanging on it. This is why it was possible to write an entire Tikkuney Zohar on just the first word of the Torah, Beresheit, "In the beginning”:

The Rebbe was once speaking of the tremendous greatness of the Torah, and its awesome secrets. He said, 'The entire Tikuney Zohar {a work of seventy chapters} is a commentary on but one word, Bereishis, the first word of the Torah. Thousands of volumes would not suffice to explain all the secrets found in the Tikuney Zohar. Its study has no end. So great is the Tikuney Zohar that all the skins of Neviot would not be sufficient to contain its wisdom.
'All this is but a commentary on a single word, Bereishis {In the beginning}. Take the next word, bara {He created}. A volume equal to the Tikuney Zohar could also be written concerning it. It would contain an equal number of mysteries.
'Now understand the depth of our holy Torah. A Tikuney Zohar could be written on each and every word. Each one contains inconceivable depth and mystery. The Torah contains not one, but many words. Its greatness is beyond the ability of language to describe.
--Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom, Trans. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Breslov Research Institute, #285

MAD GENIUSES
There are souls which come from a very high place called Neshamot Geva'ot, "high souls". Among many people this term is synonymous with "Basket Case." These souls usually have a strong klipah attached to them, often because of some past life's transgressions. Many times they were leaders or had some position of influence and caused a lot of damage, so their atonement in this incarnation is a lot of suffering, both spiritual and physical. The result is a person who has everything and nothing—everything in depths of understanding, nothing in happiness. This is why we find people such as mad scientists, writers and artists, who are geniuses but completely screwed up and miserable.

2008-01-08T13:28:00.000+02:00

San Francisco, 1906 Fire

2008-01-07T18:37:00.000+02:00

I'm a bit emotionally inept today. This entire week really.

It seems to me that the only obligation in the world is truth. Not talent or anything else. There's no physical benefit for truth in this world. Other people like talent, money, good looks, fame because that is the share they have in a person. But in truth they have no share in a person, because that's just between that person and G-d.

Here is a quote from the bookYeshuot Eliyahu: Tikkunei Yesod, by the kabbalist Rav Eliahu Leon Levy, (Yeshivat Tikkunei Eliahu u'Maayanei Hayeshua, p. 52-3) from the prayer at the end of his tikkun yesod:

"May I merit, Merciful Father, to grow a beard, without plucking a single hair from it, and all this for the honor of Hashem Yitbarach, as it says, "It is beauty to all His pious." And if there will be people who are far from Hashem Yitbarach who will keep me from all the reasons to grow my beard, especially a woman, that I will not because of this destroy my beard with a razor blade, G-d forbid, rather with an electric shaver that is permissable in times of dire need, and to pray to Hashem Yitbarach that He will cause the woman to merit to return in a speedy repentance, and there will be no destruction in my married life; rather love, brotherhood, and companionship will prevail between us."

The Baba Sali used to say that he preferred to pray with a minyan of men with full beards than a minyan of Torah Scholars. He would say that a person could never achieve fear of G-d if he trimmed his beard. The truth is that being a Torah Scholar has benefits in this world, many benefits, but growing your beard doesn't, except fear of G-d. And the "beginning of wisdom is fear of G-d" (Psalm 111).

Miracles

2008-01-02T09:52:00.000+02:00

There are some people who are punished for relying on miracles, and there are some people who are punished for not relying on miracles. The point is to know the difference.

We see this throughout history. Joseph asks the Butler to give a good word for him with Pharoah to get him out of prison, and he's punished with two more years of imprisonment for not relying on G-d instead.

On the other hand, we see the way the entire generation of the 2nd Temple was punished with destruction when believing they would be miraculously saved by the coming of Mashiach. There are many other examples of both.

It seems that the distinction is dependent on the soul root of the person involved. There are certain soul roots who were not affected by the sin of Adam HaRishon and there are others that were affected--in fact the vast majority. This can be inferred from the sin of Adam itself. There were in effect four stages to his sin. The first two stages were not sins at all, but were simple errors. The first error he made was not relying on a miracle. One may look at that and ask why should he have relied on a miracle? The answer to that is simple: He was Adam HaRishon before the sin and whatever his will was, so it would be. However after the sin he was sentenced to hard labor. This can actually be labor in Torah or Derech Eretz, but he must labor nonetheless. That is, he must labor and not rely on miracles to lift him up and take him to his goal or destination.

However, there were still soul roots who were not affected by the sin of Adam, the soul of Hanoch being one. Joseph was a gilgul of Hanoch. Thus, he was required to rely on miracles. Most other souls were affected in some way by the sin, including the souls of the Avot. It's not a measure of how great a tzaddik a person is, rather from what place their soul comes from. We can see throughout history tzaddikim who had a very hard time in life, just scraping by, and unable to perform miracles.

The fundamental of faith isn't to rely on miracles. The fundamental of faith is to know that the Torah is true and that being true it will be completely fulfilled in the end. This is what has given people the strength to give their lives al kedushat Hashem for generations. If they thought they would be saved by a last minute miracle, their sacrifice wouldn't be sincere.

An eved (servant) doesn't expect his master to help with what he's doing. If he's lifting a heavy brick for instance he doesn't expect that his master will chip in and come carry it with him. He does everything from start to finish not expecting help at all. In fact an eved doesn't even expect a salary.

I say this because I think that in our daily lives we expect miracles all the time and get disappointed every time things don't work out. We lose faith. But we shouldn't because that's not what faith is about. Faith is about faith that the Torah is true. It's easy to see that the Torah is true if one studies it honestly. It's easier to believe in Torah in fact than to believe in G-d. G-d is an abstract concept and it's easy to get confused. Thus we have the Torah. The Torah is called edut (testimony) because perhaps (at times) if the Torah didn't testify that there is a G-d we wouldn't believe in Him. We're generally taught that the opposite is true, to believe in G-d first, then the Torah.

It would seem that the first commandment "I am Hashem..." is redundant. After all, isn't it assumed that if there's a Torah, it must have been given by a G-d? But it's easy to forget this when we get disappointed. But once we see that the Torah is true and its complete perfection, we won't easily be convinced, even by difficult circumstances that the Torah is not true. Thus the Torah comes to tell us that there is a G-d, lest we forget.

For instance a person might get angry at G-d and still put on Tefilin and pray in the morning. It doesn't really make sense, but a person who understands the value of these mitzvot would do them even if they're angry at G-d.

So an Eved doesn't expect help or a salary. However, a son does. Avinu Malkenu (Our Father, Our King) is about the different aspects of our soul, the part that is rectified and the part that is not. The part that is rectified (the son) says "Avinu" (Our Father), the part that is not (the Eved) says, Malkenu (Our King).

Unless we know what is rectified in ourselves and what is not, it's not proper to rely on miracles. Rather people need to plan things out from start to finish down to the smallest detail. This applies to every successful venture, and to every thing we do every day. And so if G-d wants to help, He will. And if not, we don't lose faith because of disappointment. We understand that it was through our own error in how we conceived and carried out something.

Psychopaths

2008-01-01T22:18:00.000+02:00

I recently have been studying the topic of psychopaths. Our former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a psychopath. Perhaps I’m stating the obvious here; however, the word psychopath is something of a colloquialism, although in this case I’m referring to its clinical definition.

There has been some debate as to whether Sharon was really right wing or left wing. For a few decades he appeared to be right wing before suddenly returning to his former left wing (Mapai) ways. My argument though is that he was neither, because politics and ideas generally have no grip on psychopaths at all. Rather they use them simply as a device of manipulation.

For instance, while Sharon was busy building settlements, he, through a chance of fate, became the darling of the right wing. The right wing figured that his building settlements had something to do with ideals or something. It never occurred to them that he was just building settlements because that possibility happened to come into his hands at the moment. What he was really thinking all that time, no one will know. However, a few years later, he could just as easily tear those settlements to pieces and leave all that work a wasteland. People see this as a contradiction because they don’t understand the psychology of people and of psychopaths in particular. Human beings don’t naturally function according to right or left wing principles. These are artificial rules people imagine apply to human psychology. And the right made a big mistake by misunderstanding Sharon’s intentions.

A psychopath, for instance, could take great pleasure in spending years building something and then take equal pleasure in tearing that same thing apart. There is a certain demented poetry in that, it has to be said. Novels, plays and movies are made about such figures. Says one such psychopath:

“Everything is always shallow and listless. Magnanimous Kirillov could not endure his idea and—shot himself; but I do see that he was magnanimous because he was not in his right mind. I can never lose my mind, nor can I ever believe an idea to the same degree as he did. I cannot even entertain an idea to the same degree. I could never, never shoot myself!

I know I ought to kill myself, to sweep myself off the earth like a vile insect; but I’m afraid of suicide, because I’m afraid of showing magnanimity. I know it will be one more deceit—the last deceit in an endless series of deceits. What’s the use of deceiving oneself just so as to play at magnanimity? There never can be indignation or shame in me; and so no despair either.” (Demons, Fyodor Dostoevsky, trans. Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky, Vintage Books, 1995, p. 676)

And thus you have Sharon. People think he had ideals? Was it perhaps because he had a big stomach that the right wing thought he had ideals?

According to what is considered to be the seminal work on psychopathy, entitled The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley, a psychopath is defined by sixteen characteristics:

Superficial charm and good “intelligence”
Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking
Absence of “nervousness” or psychoneurotic manifestations
Unreliability
Untruthfulness and insincerity
Lack of remorse and shame
Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior
Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience
Pathologic egocentricity and incapacity to love
General poverty in major affective reactions
Specific loss of insight
Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations
Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink and sometimes without
Suicide threats rarely carried out
Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated
Failure to follow any life plan

Professor Robert Hare, considered the modern expert on psychopathy, gives his own checklist which can be found here. Hare describes psychopaths as "intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs.”

It’s estimated that perhaps 75% of prison populations are made up of people with “anti-social personality disorder,” which is what many psychologists prefer to call psychopathy today. The term “antisocial” actually sounds like something some mommy would use to describe her son Jimmy who doesn’t play well with the other boys. That’s why I use the term psychopath, since that more truthfully describes the phenomenon.

There are others that are described by psychiatrist Adolf Guggenbühl-Craig as “compensated psychopaths” who hold upstanding positions in society, so it needn’t be thought that we’re talking purely about losers, stalkers and serial killers here. A person can become head of state and still have essentially the same personality as the people who make up violent prison populations. Guggenbühl-Craig describes Nazi functionaries such as Adolf Eichmann as compensated psychopaths in his book “The Emptied Soul”:

Compensated psychopaths have played significant parts in society and in history. The more psychopathic compensated psychopaths are - in other words, the more they have to compensate - the more sinister they are. All the Nazi functionaries who administered the concentration camps and supervised the destruction of thousands and thousands of human beings; all of Stalin's subordinates who, during the time of the Soviet purges, directed the arrests and deaths of innumerable individuals; all of Mao's minions who so efficiently effected the disappearance of large portions of the Chinese population -certainly all of these people were compensated psychopaths.

I am reminded of Adolf Eichmann (the German Nazi official who as head of the Gestapo's Jewish section was chiefly responsible as the organizer of the "Final Solution"), a man who was relatively conscientious and dependable. Not a devilish monster, he was rather a classic example of a compensated psychopath whose conscientiousness was greater than that of most individuals.

...Compensated psychopaths are probably the most reliable supporters of a dictatorial regime, the emphasis being upon "compensated." A dictator would not function surrounded only with "pure" psychopaths--his regime would achieve nothing, eventually collapsing in utter chaos. A dictator's subordinates have to be conscientious and obedient--in a word, compensated psychopaths.

I wanted to come up with a definition of a psychopath according to Torah and the kabbalah. Emek HaMelech 31 states regarding the souls from the 974 Generations of Chaos:

"The Holy One Blessed Be He, may His Name be magnified and blessed alone, elevates [these souls] from level to level, at first incarnating them as mineral, and from mineral they ascend to plant, and from plant to animal, and after that to a human being, either as a gentile or slave, and after that to a Jew. And sometimes certain souls merit to skip two or three stages at a time. Our Master and Teacher, the Arizal, the Holy Lamp, transmitted a sign to his students to recognize these souls [that skip stages]. He said that when you see a brazen-faced person, that has no human shame, know that it is certain and clear that before this they were incarnated as an animal or a wild beast, or unclean bird. Just as these [animals] don't have any shame so too these [people], and they are acting in the manner that they knew how before [when they were animals]."

What is interesting and notable about this is that it states that such an individual who has skipped an incarnation is brash and lacks shame. This is a defining characteristic of a psychopath, perhaps above other traits. What is essential is that a psychopath is capable of all types of deviant and vicious behaviors with no shame whatsoever. While most people are capable of some deviant behavior(s) and perhaps occasional aggressiveness in excess, most people will usually feel some remorse for acting that way. Not so with a psychopath, who can go on forever acting aggressively and cruelly and never feel the slightest remorse.

The kabbalah teaches that the basic difference between the 974 generations and Adam HaRishon was that Adam was given the holy name MaH (an expansion of the Tetragrammaton whose numerical value is 45, the same as "Adam" and "MaH"). That is, the name MaH was incorporated into his soul. However, the 974 generations only included the name BeN (an expansion equal to 52). What this means is that they acted on pure dinim (judgments) without any sort of regulation or balance as included in the name MaH. So in short these people/souls lacked any capacity of second-guessing themselves—at all. It follows that when the process of incarnation from the 974 generations to Adam is cut short, as it is intended to go through DaTzHaM (Mineral, Plant, Animal, Human), the result is a person whose name MaH is incompletely integrated, if at all. Thus we get a psychopath, who never second-guesses himself. And this is the source of all the lunatics in the world. (Sharon for his part was brutally violent even in his youth and carried this tendency throughout his career.)

As a side note, it follows that when the Temple is built, this process of incarnation will happen more smoothly and so the number of lunatics who are born will significantly decrease. Thus, the saying that if the nations understood how beneficial the Temple was to them, they would send guards to protect it. And also the comment of the Ramban on Rosh Hashanah 18b that when there is no Temple, there is no peace. G-d only brings so many psychopaths into each generation since if he brought too many they would destroy the world. Of course, there are different degrees, ranging from Hitlers to petty office dictators.

There is another subject I wanted to address as well, which is the source of the majority of severe mental illnesses. There is a description at the back of the Ari's Gate of Reincarnation of a Ma'ase Shel Ruach (an incident of a spirit). The description of the woman thus possessed is remarkably similar to a catatonic schizophrenic. In those days, people were a bit smarter apparently and they went to Rabbi Shmuel Vitale, son of Rabbi Hayim, the Ari’s disciple, to dispossess her. In the end she turned out to be possessed by two spirits, that of a Jew and a non-Jew. When Rabbi Shmuel arrived the non-Jew’s spirit had already left, leaving the soul of the Jew. Rabbi Shmuel did a tikkun for the soul of the Jew and that soul also left, healing the woman.

Another story I have read regarding the Baba Sali and his older brother Rabbi David (from "Our Master and Teacher the Holy Baba Sali" by Rabbi Baruch Abuhatzeira, Salem Translations Ltd) performing an exorcism on a man named Masu’ad:

It happened when he [Masu’ad] was still serving in the French Army. For some inexplicable reason, an Evil Spirit had possessed his mind, making him behave in a most bizarre fashion. Eventually, his condition deteriorated to the point where he began foaming at the mouth. He underwent all sorts of treatments at the hands of the best doctors, but to no avail. (Vol II, p. 32-3)

Today he would probably be institutionalized and still be foaming all these years later. However, his relatives arranged for him to see Rabbi David Abuhatzeira, the leader of the congregation in Morocco. On the day of the appointment however Masu’ad was found cowering in the attic and refused to come out. The Baba Sali was asked about what to do. After blowing his shofar a few times and reciting a certain esoteric text for exorcising evil spirits, the Baba Sali saw the souls of the father and son who possessed the man approach him. After negotiating with them and getting their agreement to leave the man’s body for one year, Rabbi David came and forced them to leave permanently, apparently with no negotiations, but just a few gentle kicks on the sides of the man's legs as Masu’ad was lying on the ground. To the Baba Sali’s astonishment, Masu’ad stood up, looking as healthy as ever, the spirit never returning from then on.

There are many other stories of Rabbi Yehudah Fatiyah, a kabbalist who lived in Jerusalem in the first half of the past century. He describes every condition imaginable, such as behavior that could only be described as schizophrenic, to behavior that would be regarded as obsessive-compulsive. However, all of these were different types of possession at the hands of various souls and demons, each causing different symptoms. It appears that these differences depend in part on which section of the body the dybbuk (the possessing spirit) is located. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says that the evil inclination is a dybbuk that attaches itself to a person. It follows that most psychological problems, major or minor, are caused by some type of evil soul that attaches itself to a person. People think their thoughts are their own, but really they are a composite of their own and whatever physical or spiritual influences happen to be around them, for good or for bad. Dybbuks can force a person to think a particular way against their will, mainly to destroy them. Therefore, it's better (and usually less expensive) to go a kabbalist like Rabbi Fatiyah or his students rather than a psychologist or a doctor (in the case of medical problems), who have no idea what the real source of the problem is.

The fundamental of tikkun olam is tikkun of the soul. When the soul is in order everything is in order. The main point of Jewish society in Israel is supposed to be to build a society based on tikkun olam and on how that entire process is supposed to take place, the Temple being at the center of that. As a side note, I think this is the reason why most attempts by the religious public to have political influence have failed. The point is to build a society built and STRUCTURED on tikkun olam. Otherwise, the intent appears fascist. The "settler parties" in this country are allegedly based on the philosophy of Rav Kook. Rav Kook's entire philosophy was based on the kabbalah of the author of the Leshem Shevo V’Achlama (Rabbi Shlomo Eliashiv), who in many ways was Rav Kook’s rebbe. The Leshem explains the entire process of tikkun olam from start to finish. Most people who teach Rav Kook have no idea about any of this. The movement founded in his name doesn't reflect this either, and even discourages it. If the people and organizations who claim to follow Rav Kook really reflected his teachings we wouldn't be in this mess. I might even say that we might have built the Temple by now.

It is important to point out also that people have a hard time believing in G-d and certainly keeping mitzvot when their souls are all screwed up. If people are well first, physically and mentally, they aren't subject to all types of confusion, speculation, and self-destruction. A good example of this are the people who go to Oren Zarif, a psychokineticist who heals people of physical and psychological problems. Probably the majority of the people who go to him are secular, but the fact that they are better in the end makes them believe in G-d.

2008-01-01T11:47:00.001+02:00

Abuav Synagogue, Tzfat

2008-01-01T09:18:00.000+02:00

This morning I did a goral on the book "Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom" and this is what I found:

"I heard that the Rebbe was once encouraging a man who was greatly confused about his beliefs. The Rebbe told him, 'It is written that all creation only came into being because of people like you. God saw that there would be people who wold cling to our Holy faith, suffering greatly because of the confusion and doubts that constantly plague them. He perceived that they would overcome these doubts and remain strong in their beliefs. It was because of this that God brought forth all creation.
This man was then greatly strengthened and unperturbed whenever he had these confusing thoughts. The Rebbe said many times that the creation was mainly for the sake of faith. Thus it is written, 'All His works are through faith' (Psalms 33:4)."
---Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom, Breslov Research Institute, Siman #222
http://www.breslov.org/rabbeinu_works.html

Something

2007-12-30T21:13:00.000+02:00

I've been working on a number of new essays lately which hopefully I'll be able to post soon.

This Shabbat I was at my friend's house and playing with his kids when I pulled my back out. Then I had to go on a date immediately after Shabbat so I did my best to pretend like I wasn't in pain all the way, although it hurt like hell and I could barely stand up or sit up. Anyway after all that, the date didn't work out anyway.

The past week has been unusually long for some reason. I can't even remember what I was doing all this time. I've been studying story structure in general, an important thing if you're a would-be screenwriter. This week passed in a haze. I just remember arguing with people from the phone company who kept hanging up on me for some reason, or losing a the connection...I'll never know which.

I've been getting into car racing again lately. I discovered a lot of classic onboard Formula 1 cameras on you-tube. Some of these drivers really blow me away. When I was 16 and on, I suddenly developed an obsession with F1 racing and would get up in the middle of the night to watch live races around the world. At one point I went to the Elf Winfield Racing School in southern France, because I wanted to be race car driver. However, after having experienced driving a race car first hand, I decided I had better things to do in the world. In recent years, F1 has gotten kind of boring. Today it's nothing like it used to be and the drivers aren't so great or interesting. I think like everything it's become too commercialized and superficially polished. Here's one of my favorite videos, from 1989:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzJmXhtM9Ns&feature=user

Whatever...

2007-12-20T16:50:00.000+02:00

I'm finally getting settled into my new place, cleaning it up and so forth. I have to say that that was a good distraction for a couple of weeks, since it gave me something to do. Now that I have the chance to do what I wanted to do all along I've gotten a bit stuck.

I didn't really finish what I was talking about before about Tikkun Olam. Generally-speaking if a person is sick these days they go to a doctor. Breslovers are usually against going straight to a doctor for problems, because first of all the cure for our ills has to come from Hashem, and we can try all the treatments we want and still die anyway. So we have to entreat Hashem first for a cure, at least I would think in our minds that should be the first course of action even if we go to a doctor. Having had experiences with doctors because of family illnesses, I can attest that one time after another I've seen malpractice on unbelievable scales.

Once in NYC I went to the hospital with a severe migraine and rather than give me simple painkiller (as they usually do, since I have doctors' letters attesting to the proper treatment) this one doctor comes to me and wants to run a spinal tap and thousands of dollars worth of tests. I patiently tried to explain to this idiot that I get migraines like this every few weeks and all I need is pain killer. But he wouldn't listen and instead wanted to give me an IV of something that always makes me throw up. I told the guy I was going home to which he replied in all seriousness that I shouldn't be surprised if I'm dead in the morning. To hell with him! And that was the least of what I've seen. More than one doctor literally almost killed both my parents.

The same applies for psychological problems. If someone is suffering insanity in some form, and let's face it we all are, is it proper to go to a psychologist, who himself doesn't even know what the cause of your problem is, much less the solution? All these psychological problems are spiritual problems. Our souls usually get screwed up from previous incarnations, so we come into this world all screwed up, and get screwed up, miserable families who probably screwed us up in a previous incarnation also. Call it genetic or environmental, it makes no difference. Both come to us in almost every case because of some previous incarnation where we messed something up and so it comes back to haunt us so to speak. Indians call it karma, we call it mazal, but it's the same thing.

And the same for physical illness. It doesn't come to us unless our mazal is messed up in some fashion. So the main reason we come into this world at all, at least to begin with, is to fix whatever we messed up in our previous incarnations. I recall certain philosophers talking about a person taking responsibility for everything that happened from the beginning of time and all the circumstances in one's life, whether we're at fault or not, because in the end we're responsible for everything, just many times not from this incarnation.

So this is really what tikkun is. It seems to me that at times the tikkun we have to do is too heavy for us. Supposing we were mass murderers or something really terrible. Even a small thing is difficult to fix, much less something like that. What will Saddam Hussein have to fix if he should re-enter a body? What a miserable life he'll have, after all the innocent people he massacred. To say nothing of some of the other super-evil individuals of this past century.

One of the main points of going to a Tzaddik is so that he can help fix whatever we ourselves are supposed to fix but is too heavy for us. Tzaddikim can do tikkunim which are designed to fix big problems, or even small problems. This is why people report being healed instantly after going to a particular tzaddik. Once the damage is fixed, the person doesn't need to be sick anymore, since the spiritual cause has been removed. So too with any other spiritual problem. The truth is though that there aren't too many tzaddikim in this generation who can do this. I suppose there are a few. A few years ago there were more, but many left the world since then. I think this is the main reason to go to Rabbi Nachman's tomb in Uman, since he promised to help anyone who comes to his grave if they read the Tikkun Clali and give a penny to charity. The main time for this is Rosh HaShanah. Although some people have a problem with the idea of leaving the land of Israel to pray at a tzaddik's tomb, I think in general the same people will go to exile for a variety of other reasons which have nothing to do with trying to be a better Jew. Besides I should add that seeking a tikkun for one's soul counts as Torah study (for which it's permissible to leave the land of Israel according to all opinions). The Ari says at least that the practice of doing yichudim is a high form of Torah study, and yichudim are really tikkunim. So it follows that getting one's tikkun is a form of Torah, to say nothing of the fact that a person generally will study more Torah when and after visiting a Tzaddik. Rabbi Nachman himself specifically requested to be buried in Uman so that he could rectify the souls of the people who were buried there. Once, he said that he intended to rectify myriad more souls than only the people who were buried there.

The point that tikkun olam rests upon is tikkunei neshamot (the rectification of souls). This is more than just the soul in the limited sense that people normally think of it, but really the rectification of all aspects of a person's life, spiritually and physically.

Here is an interesting quote about what Rabbi Nachman says about rectifying the soul. It is from the story of "The Seven Beggars" concerning the sixth beggar:

"I heal her. Someone who does not possess all ten types of charity cannot enter all ten walls [of water]; he will drown in the water there. The king and his army tried to pursue her, but they all drowned in the water. I, on the other hand, was able to go through all ten walls of water...I was also able to draw all ten types of arrows out of the Queen's Daughter. I also knew all ten types of pulses, and could detect them with my ten fingers. Each one of the ten fingers has the power to detect one of the ten types of pulse. I could then heal her through the ten types of melody."
(From "Rabbi Nachman's Stories" trans. by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Breslov Research Institute, 1983, Israel, p. 432-3)

An interesting point is that the soul/body contains ten pulses. I think these are actually spiritual pulses located on a person's body, which respond to rhythm, particularly when inputted from the hands. Part of a person's tikkun is to bring all of these into sync, according to a positive melody that their particular soul needs. This way a person isn't fighting themselves all the time, which can cause a person to become sick. It seems that one of these pulses is on a person's head where Tefillin go.

Incidentally. Rabbi Nachman associates the 10 melodies with the 10 Psalms (the Tikkun Clali). Tikkun Clali means "General Remedy" and Rabbi Nachman said "There is a specific remedy for each sin, but this is the general remedy." ("Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom", trans. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Breslov Research Institute, 1973, p. 276). The Ten Psalms are 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, 150.

I'm Back!

2007-12-13T21:09:00.000+02:00

Wow, the last time I wrote was almost a month ago. Since then I've been busy trying to find a place and moving and packing and unpacking, etc. Anyway, I didn't make it to Jerusalem just yet. I had to leave my old place, so I moved into an apartment in a different neighborhood, same yishuv, at least until the summer. This place is a lot better. The last place was dirty, mildew and disgusting. Thank G-d I escaped from that place alive. That itself was a great accomplishment.

Hanukah was good, although I spent most of it unpacking. I moved the day before the first night, so no sooner had I arrived in my new place and I had to light Hanukah candles and everything. For some reason the movers flipped my refrigerator on the side and I had to leave it off overnight or I was told it was going to blow the circuits. So I put everything in my landlord's frig and all I had left to drink was a bottle of red wine. I was really thirsty since I hadn't drunk all day and really exhausted, so I gulped down the wine and passed out on my bed. Nine hours later I woke up, but it felt like four hours, since I got around 8 hours of sleep altogether in the previous two days.

Was Adam a Jew?

2007-11-19T18:37:00.000+02:00

The short answer is yes. I assume people are intelligent enough to understand here that I'm not implying that Adam was a member of the tribe of Judah, and so this is why I address him as a Jew. According to that reasoning, many people who are called "Jew" wouldn't be Jews at all (including myself), since they come from other tribes of Israel, such as Levi or Benjamin. Similarly here. Adam is both Jew and Israel even though neither physically existed at the time. This is because the term Israel is a codeword throughout Jewish and particularly Kabbalistic writings for Adam HaRishon.

As pointed out in my last post, the source of everything in the world is the 974 generations. This includes both Jews and non-Jews. The 974 generations is a codeword for non-Jews. Therefore every Jew was a non-Jew at one point in creation.

I should put here a retraction of sorts. It seems that the intention of the Sages statements on the Tatkad dorot (974 generations) is that they preceded the creation of the universe altogether. Through the process of creation itself however they receive their tikkun.

"[G-d] is constantly thinking how the outcast should never be rejected" (Samuel II, 14:14). Everything in the world is being brought to its completion so that it can have a portion in the World to Come (Garden of Eden), as the Sages say, "All Israel has a place in the World to Come" as it is written, 'Your people will all be righteous and will inherit the land forever. They are the treasure of my planting and the work of my hands with which to beautify.' Even though a particular soul may take many, many years to get rectified and another in less time, in the end they will all be counted together with the righteous...They are the impression of G-d's essence(Above paragraph is paraphrased from Emek HaMelech).

Everything is creation is going through a conversion process, from the inanimate to human beings. This is the hidden meaning of G-d's statement to Israel, "You were a convert in his land [Egypt]" (Deuteronomy 23:8). In Egypt, the Jews were going through a conversion/purification process so that they could accept the Torah and be included fully in the soul of Adam HaRishon.

From the point of Avraham onword, G-d determined that the tikkun of Adam HaRishon should be done through Avraham's descendents. This is not just a coincidence. Avraham was a reincarnation of Adam. Therefore, he took responsibilty for what he damaged in his previous incarnation. This is the reason he took upon himself to bring in many converts, since these were actually the souls that were once part of him as Adam, but had been thrown into the klipah (the forces of evil/chaos) when he spilled seed in vain for 130 years after his initial sin with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Unlike other religions, Judaism doesn't have a directive to convert other people. Everyone must act through one's own free will. The point is that in the end everything will be included either through conversion or through reincarnation in the seed of Israel and in the World to Come. However, the condition is that all of this must be through free will, since to be fully included in the image of G-d (Adam), one has to have free will like G-d.

In the meantime, non-Jews do have a directive to keep the Seven Noahidic Laws. However, they don't have a directive to study kabbalah and other aspects of Torah aside from that which pertains to the Noahide laws, since this can damage their souls. This is important to point out, since it's often forgotten. The importance of this is well illustrated in the following story.

A number of years ago, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (Peace be upon him) wrote a translation of the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) into English. Actually, this was an excellent translation and commentary. However, the fact that it was translated into English made the greatest secrets of kabbalah accessible to non-Jews, which is forbidden. Furthermore, it was published for profit, which added to the problem. When the Baba Shalom, Rabbi Shalom Efregen (one of the premier kabbalists of his age) heard this he was very disturbed. It happened that Rabbi Kaplan and his publisher both died suddenly before the book reached stores. The Baba Shalom subsequently undertook a tikkun for Rabbi Kaplan, so that he wouldn't have to return in another incarnation to fix the damage done by this.

So with that I put a disclaimer, that gentiles shouldn't study kabbalah. This was reiterated by Rav Kaduri as well. Judaism isn't a closed door. If one sincerely wants to learn and keep Torah, one should convert. In the end they'll convert anyway, in one incarnation or another. In fact we are taught that any individual, Jew or non-Jew can reach the highest spiritual level. However, a non-Jew can only elevate himself and not affect tikkun for others. The Jews are a nation of "priests" which means they are responsible for the entire creation.

The soul of a non-Jew is a soul from the side of holiness that is surrounded by the klipah. When a non-Jew converts, besides the soul that he already has, he receives a new soul as well, which gives him the capacity to effect tikkun olam.

Now, as I pointed out in my last post, there are 2 tikkuns, the tikkun of Adam before the sin and after. First the soul of Adam must be completely rectified and return to its state before the sin in Gan Eden and then he can do what he was brought into the world to do in the first place, to rectify the souls of the 974 generations, which is true Tikkun Olam in its broadest sense. This corresponds to two stages, that of Mashiach ben Yosef and then Mashiach ben David. It may comes as surprising to say this but these are not mere people (although they are also that), but actually parts of us. Every Jew, whose souls come from Adam HaRishon, is an aspect of Mashiach.

This is brought in the book "Tzaddik" on the life of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov:

"I [Rabbi Nathan] said to the Rebbe [Rabbi Nachman]: 'Perhaps this is the meaning of the saying, "The Son of David will only come when no one is paying attention" (Sanhedrin 97a). In other words, no one will think that this is him. But in truth, he has already come...and here he is..." He agreed with me and said that this was the meaning of, "And their king shall come from themselves" (Jeremiah 30:21). Then the Rebbe grew excited and exclaimed: "It was in fact Rav Nachman who said this in Tractate Sanhedrin (98b): 'If he [the Mashiach] comes from those presently living, then I am he! As it is written, "And their king shall come from themselves." 'Speedily in our days, Amen.'" (Tzaddik #275, Breslov Research Institute, 1987).

One could interpret this is a variety of different ways. I was once speaking to a rabbi I know in the Old City, saying that I heard that Mashiach was already here and asked what he thought of this. He replied, "What, you think that Mashiach is just a man? You're Mashiach, I'm Mashiach, all those people are Mashiach. Mashiach is a state of being."

This isn't to say that Mashiach isn't also a man. The point is that every Jew includes aspects of both Mashiachs.

Last week, I was speaking to a friend of mine from L.A. on the telephone for over 2 hours. Both of us went to NYU film school together. I was saying how I wasn't so impressed with movies made in recent times. When I was in film school and after, every movie I would go to I would think to myself, "This cinematography sucks, the acting sucks, the directing sucks, lousy editing, etc." Once a person learns all the methodology of filmmaking, every film becomes transparent. The techniques and thought process put in to an individual movie are no longer impressive. Rather they are manipulative, deliberately so. That is, unless a person can be so subtle as to make a film in such a way that no one can believe that the methodology is deliberate. For instance putting quirks in a person's acting so subtle and unique, that people might believe they are accidental, something somehow overlooked in the editing process. The same goes with every other area of filmmaking. That is, so that the technique is "too human" to be deliberate.

It occured to me that this a basic human drive--To do things so unique that they could only be natural and unintended. The more so, the more they resemble G-d's handiwork, in that the actual methodology is incomprehensible. G-d made us to create the world with Him, so this is what our desire ultimately is.

What then is closer to this than creating a human soul, since a human soul is something that is incomprehensible.

This is the first mitzvah of the Torah. Not only that, it is perhaps the only positive mitzvah that was given before Adam's sin that is explicitly stated in the Torah. "And G-d said to them 'Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, conquer it, and rule over the fish of the sea, the bird of the sky and all life that moves on the earth'" (Genesis 1:28).

Besides the obvious understanding of this verse, physical procreation, there is an added aspect of it which is generally overlooked. One might even call this the first aspect, since it involves the soul, while the mitzvah of having children involves the body. On Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur we ask G-d to open for us "Gates of fruitfulness and multiplication in Torah and Children." These are corresponding spiritual and physical aspects of the same mitzvah. Actually, any Torah study counts in this category. This is why Torah study is such an important mitzvah, since it is really the spiritual counterpart of the first mitzvah.

Now, there is a further aspect of this mitzvah of fruitfullness and multiplication in Torah. This is its true aspect. Tzaddikim are said to have their physical children and spiritual children. The latter are not just their students, but in fact the souls they create with their Torah study.

It seems this level is more than just picking up a book and reading. For various reasons those who engage in it are compelled to not engage in physical pro-creation at all. This type of Torah study effects the creation of the souls of converts. This was what Avraham and Sarah were doing in Haran before they entered the Holy Land. This is often compared to creating a Golem. A golem is not just a mythical Frankensteinian creature, rather it is also a metaphor for the creation of the souls of converts, which is ultimately the transformation of the entire creation into a reflection of G-d.

It is brought in Sha'ar HaGilgulim (the Gate of Reincarnation) of the ARI, that this is the reason that Moshe separated from his wife. He didn't have to divorce her, only he was commanded to no longer live with her. This was so that he could create the souls of converts. So too with Rabbi Shimon ben Azzai. Rabbi Shimon ben Azzai didn't get married at all. Rabbi Akiva also did this tikkun, as well as Abbaye, although Abbaye didn't have to separate from his wife at all. The reason is because certain soul roots can do both spiritual and physical aspects and certain soul roots can do only one or the other. Also Rabbi Nachman of Breslov married his second wife on the condition that they not consummate the marriage.

It's interesting to point out that although generally Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is remembered for his statements on the importance of simplicity and sincerity, it's apparent that he regarded this as a beginning, a sort of base which one should always remain connected to whatever level one was at. It's apparent that wherever one is at, it's very easy to delude oneself and lack honesty, or to take pride at some accomplishment, however small, and lose simplicity. Therefore, the importance of these attributes can't be emphasized enough. However, his real hope was that his followers would also reach the highest levels, just as he did.

He said to his followers: "You may be pure and sincere, but that isn't what I wanted. I wanted you to be Tzaddikim--outstanding Tzaddikim on the highest of levels. How will I be able to come before the Throne of Glory?" (Tzaddik #257).

"I [R' Natan] myself heard the Rebbe say many times that the main thing is a person's work and effort, nothing else. Everything depends on effort. Through work and effort everyone can reach great levels. The Rebbe said: 'I can turn a person into a worthy Jew--what they call a guter Yid--and make him just like me! Literally!'" (ibid. #230).

In fact all his teachings are about reaching this point of total tikkun. The term "worthy Jew" is really to say to be what a Jew was put into the world to do in the first place--that is, what Adam was put here for, as discussed above.

Googly-Eyed from Power

2007-11-14T17:06:00.000+02:00

Last night I had a dream that I was sitting in a big auditorium and Ariel Sharon's entrance was announced on a loud speaker. Ariel Sharon entered escorted by a number of guards. He was all googly-eyed since he's a vegetable, although he looked younger and thinner. He sat a few seats away from me and I handed him a picture of Bill Clinton. His guards then stole a tag from my keychain and gave it to him. Somewhere amidst my dream or waking up half asleep someone said he paid a big price for all he did. I think the message was that confusion is the punishment for being a ruthless leader. Rabbi Nachman says that a person who has no compassion goes crazy.

It occurred to me recently that perhaps all these crazy people in mental hospitals who say they're Napoleon and the like really are what they say they are. This was some sort of an atonement for a previous life's transgressions. The Talmud says that after the days of the prophets, prophecy was given over to children and nutcases. That is to say that nutcases somehow know what they're talking about even though they're completely crazy at the same time. Or at least they have some idea of who they are, even if the name and exact details might not be right.

I had hoped to finish what I was writing about the Tatkad dorot a few days ago. I had an entire treatise written out, but I got stuck on a number of points which I couldn't quite clarify. Bezrat Hashem I'll get them clarified in the next few days.

Is Bonaparte rotting away

anonymously in an insane

asylum somewhere?

Blog Note

2007-11-14T11:20:00.000+02:00

Today I enabled comments since I was told that comments wasn't enabled for some reason except someone who is logged in. Also I fixed the date stamp so that it's Israel time instead of Pacific USA time.
All the best,
David

Joseph and Beyond

2007-11-11T17:18:00.000+02:00

Today was the first day of the year that we saw any significant rainfall. Aside from that not much happened. Not too many apartments were listed today. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll find an apartment at all by the end of the month. It'll take a miracle to get out of here by then. If worse comes to worse I'll have an angry landlord screaming at me, but not much worse than that.

I heard today that the Arabs plan on finally cleaning up Joseph's Tomb. This is certainly a good sign. I was there in 2005 just before they stopped having regular visits. The entire place was a burnt out mess, a real disgrace of the worst kind. The sight was enough to make everyone there break down spontaneously in tears. A month later, when the next convoy arrived, the people got shot at, although thankfully with no injuries.

Anyway, now would be a good time to continue what I was writing about on Thursday in "What's the Payoff." Namely the details of Tikkun Olam (perfection of the world).

One of the things which is seldom if ever discussed is actually what Adam ("the first Adam") was supposed to do when he was placed in the Garden of Eden to begin with. More often discussed is what was supposed to be done after he was expelled, namely to fix what he destroyed until mankind returns to the Garden of Eden. This is called the Tikkun of Adam HaRishon.

There are actually four levels to this tikkun. In short the fall involves the gradual descent of Adam's consciousness from being able to "see from one side of the universe to the other" to what we find in people today. I have heard that he would have had an IQ in the range of 2000. The main error which began this descent was the emphasizing of the physical out of proportion with the spiritual. If these two things had been allowed to stay in balance, so that all physicality had a proportional spiritual illumination from within, a raison d'etre if we like, the descent wouldn't have happened. Originally all of Adam's consciousness was a perfect unity, but when he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, his consciousness fell into an incredible constrictedness and he had to deal directly with the concepts of good and evil, which became mixed together in a confusing manner. Eventually, he caused the souls that were incorporated into him to fall into the klipah (the forces of evil and complete chaos). So everything we see today is a result of the sin of Adam HaRishon. If not for that, our consciousness would be infinitely greater and our bodies wouldn't even be physical in the sense that is understood today, but like a combination of spiritual and physical, where the spiritual aspect would shine through and be obvious. And of course the world wouldn't be in chaos.

So, back to why Adam was put into the Garden to begin with. The name Adam is the initial letters of the names Adam, David, and Mashiach (Messiah). Adam in effect would have been Mashiach if he hadn't sinned. But when he sinned we had to go through a longer process to reach Mashiach. Also a new job opened up, called Mashiach ben Yosef (Messiah son of Joseph). His responsibility is to complete the tikkun of Adam HaRishon, to fix what was damaged. If not for that, there would only be what is now called Mashiach ben David, or simply "Mashiach," since he fulfills what Adam was put here for before the sin took place at all.

So what was Adam put here for? The answer is to rectify 974 generations of souls, called in Hebrew "Tatkad Dorot." It's unclear if these souls were actually people who existed before Adam or were supposed to exist but weren't brought into the world at all. There might be something to the claims that civilization has existed for 10's or 100's of thousands of years already, as is claimed by some researchers in their attempts to explain for instance the "Atlantis" mystery and the similarities between antiquities in Egypt and South America. It's also possible that all these claims are bunk and the 974 generation were never allowed to enter the world. Other possibilities also exist. I don't really know or claim to have any solution to this question. Anyways the point is that Adam was supposed to rectify these generations. These were 974 generations of souls in total chaos and destruction. It's not really clear what their specific sin was, but it's said they were extremely wicked and had to be destroyed. It's interesting to point out that the ancient South Americans were known for carrying out mass human sacrifices to their gods as well as cannibalism, so this probably didn't help them any, if we say these were included in the 974 generations. So we can imagine 974 generations where everyone was like Jeffrey Dahmer or worse and we can probably get some idea of the sort of people we were dealing with. Not a fun time to be alive I suppose.

So G-d separated the portion of the souls of these 974 generations that was better and more purified, purifying them further and creating from them the soul of Adam.

So Adam's job was to rectify the souls of these 974 generations until they were on such a high level they were ready to enter the Garden of Eden. Quite a task we can say. But it would have actually been relatively easy if he hadn't sinned, since he was in such an expanded state of consciousness. He was supposed to eat from the Tree of Life which would have further expanded his consciousness, and through his interaction with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (which G-d would have permitted eating from with the onset of Shabbat) he would rectify the 974 generations. However, eating from that Tree before he he was supposed to, he drew these souls into himself and subsequently expelled them into this world before they were ready to enter (or re-enter) it. So these souls entered the world in a state of chaos.

Therefore, from this we have two types of soul: Those souls from the 974 generations which were rectified and already included in Adam HaRishon and those which still awaited rectification.

Of those that were not yet rectified, G-d puts them through a purification process that takes a long time so they can eventually receive their tikkun. Since we assume these were souls that were in a mess, the natural process that they would enter creation would be first in an inanimate object ("Domeh," something silent) such as a rock or dirt. After spending time attached to a physical object like that, or any number of physical objects over time, they would be attached to a plant ("Tzome'ach," something that sprouts). After this phase they would be promoted to a living animal ("Chai"). Keep in mind they could be incarnated as any number of living animals, perhaps starting off as something vicious like a poisonous snake or a scorpion and eventually being incarnated as something friendlier (more human) like a deer or a housepet. Eventually, they would be incarnated as a human ("Chai Medaber"). And from this level they are eventually incorporated into the rectified soul of Adam HaRishon. It's possible also that they may skip a step or a few. This is actually a bad thing. When this happens we get Hitlers and Dahmers and the like. G-d doesn't do this too often lest the wicked multiply and destroy the entire world. Part of the function of having the Temple is so that this process takes place in a more gradual way. That's why we say that when the Temple is standing we have "peace" (Tractate Ta'anit).

Therefore, everything in the world has its source in the 974 generations and so everything in this world will achieve total happiness and perfection in the end.

"[Hashem] puts them in every generation to rectify, purify, and refine them because they are very precious and great souls, only because evil overwhelms them so much, the holiness in them has no power or strength to even lift its head." (Emek HaMelech 32)

So that is sort of like the inner explanation of what I wrote about on Thursday, namely how a universe in primordial chaos will eventually be a reflection of the image of G-d, which is called "Adam". And so we can understand a little of what Mashiach will come to accomplish and also what the rebuilt Temple will do, may it be speedily in our days.

Later on, I'll continue with more on the how of this.

If anyone should ask what my source for all of this, I can assure that it is the best there is. Only my Rav probably would prefer not to be identified, since he's very low profile, and asked to not be identified on the many occasions I learned with him. This is one reason I don't generally cite sources, since it was mostly learned orally.

Welcoming our Satanic Brother

2007-11-09T07:24:00.000+02:00

“You need to muddle up Satan. If you just eat organic it gives him an easy way in. Live in a mess. The need for order comes from fear and tension and that brings cancer.”

--Oren Zarif, Psychokinetic Healer and Boxer

In that case, the Satan has nothing on me. I've been living out of boxes and a suitcase for the last three years. I clean house about once a year during Passover. Not only are all my moves hidden from the Satan, not even I know my going and coming.

Every Friday morning before Shabbat, I usually have no idea where I'm going to be for Shabbat. Sometimes I get a call from someone inviting me over. Sometimes I just go to my neighbors and ask last minute if I can be their guest. Thankfully, my neighbors are gracious enough to not get annoyed by these last minute intrusions.

This morning I was reminded of a commentary of the Baba Sala, Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeria, on the mitzvah of HaK'nasat Orchim, hospitality to guests. I quote here:

"And G-d revealed Himself to him (Avraham) in Alonei Mamrei as he was sitting by the tent's entrance in the heat of the day" (Beresheit 18:1). The Sages say: "Hachnasat Orchim is greater than welcoming the Divine Presence." From where do we know this? From Avraham, for the verse says, 'He said, "HaShem, if I have found favor in Your eyes, do not depart from Your servant."' Many of the commentaries ask, 'But where did Avraham learn this principle from?' Various answers are suggested, but this is my own:

As Rashi points out, the word yoshev (sitting) which appears in the first verse is written without the letter vav. According to Midrash Rabba, this letter was ommitted in order to teach us that Avraham wanted to stand up in the presence of the Shechinah (Divine Presence), but was incapable of doing so. Then, G-d said to him, 'You sit and I will stand.' However, in the next verse it says, 'And he lifted his eyes, and behold, three people were standing in front of him. He saw (them), and he began running towards them.' Apparently, as soon as he saw them, his body suddenly received the necessary strength to begin running.

Avraham considered the meaning behind this phenomenon: When he wanted to stand up in the presence of G-d Himself, he was unable to, but when he perceived three strangers approaching him, he did have the necessary strength! From this paradoxical incident, Avraham concluded that 'Hachnassat Orchim is greater than welcoming the Divine Presence.'" (From the book, Our Master and Teacher -- The Holy Baba Sali: His Life and Spiritual Attainments, by his son, R' Baruch Avichatzerah).

So I thought to myself, how does this relate to befuddling the Satan? It occurred to me that having people around leads to disorder: the more people, the more disorder. So there's a natural connection between mitzvot involving other people, disorder, and confusing the side of evil that weakens a person. Even though it might seem like these mitzvot are an inconvenience and so might weaken a person and bog them down, actually they give a person the ability to complete a task, as we see with Avraham. And so too with things like studying with a learning partner and praying with a minyan, etc. So how does this tie in with this week's Torah portion? This week's portion talks about the birth of Jacob and his satanic twin brother Esau. At the end of the day, they have a confrontation where the satanic evil twin comes to kill off Jacob and his entire family. So Jacob sends him a large gift and the satanic twin is momentarily confused and suddenly wants to hug and kiss his brother, and in fact return the favor by inviting him to his home. So we learn from this that acts of kindness befuddle the Satan, and so too chucking the need for order.

What's the payoff?

2007-11-08T18:00:00.000+02:00

So today I got up at 4 in the morning to go to my job interview in Bnei Brak. It seems like a decent job, it just doesn't pay enough. I'm not really sure if this is worthwhile for me to work 8 hours a day so I can be in the red every month. 8 hours a day is really like slavery. Like at that point, you might as well sell your soul to your employer. But at least if you're gonna sell your soul, get paid enough to keep your body. These are decisions I'm incapable of making.

Like did I come into this world just to work myself to exhaustion and go home braindead every day? For what? People want a good team player, but I suck at it. I used to say to my good friend that people should kneel at his feet to get him to work for them, after spending $100,000 to go to NYU film school. I told him to go to interviews and declare "Kneel before Zod!" But people just want slaves. So what can we do about it. Is this an immature attitude? I say, better to be immature than braindead.

Anyway, last summer I got a certain amount of free time, so I would go to the Old City of Jerusalem and learn at the Shuvu Banim Breslov Yeshiva. Between my studies I would sit on the rooftop just to chill out and stare at the Temple Mount, sometimes for an hour at a time. I would really zone out. Just looking at the Temple Mount is a meditational experience, especially when you can stand on a roof and see the Mount of Olives in the background.

I would say to myself, "You mean from HERE, the dead will be revived?!" "From HERE, it all happens." It's quite unbelievable. You know how vast our universe is, to go from one end to the other! How many light years upon light years that is. The size of our universe is beyond comprehension. And yet somehow the entire universe gets it tikkun and is brought to perfection from this small place. And the revival of the dead is something else. The revival of the dead isn't just an event in itself, but also a metaphor for the Tikkun itself. That is, so that everything in the universe gets revived, so to speak, and will be as if it is alive and humanlike--the trees, the animals, even the rocks, dirt and the mountains. The soul and essence of everything will awaken and be revived--from one end of the universe to the other. And it all starts in this one place.

Around that time I watched the Nova PBS TV series called "The Elegant Universe," a program I highly recommend to everybody. I think I finally understood that there's some connection between the idea of Tohu (the biblical word for chaos) and the Big Bang. The Big Bang seems to be some form of the kabbalistic Shattering of the Vessels. According to the latest all-encompassing physics theory, called M-Theory, this universe, originally an infinitely small point (the vessel), collided with another universe (the light, relative to this universe) and thus this universe exploded (since it couldn't hold the light/energy) and scattered into a zillion pieces while being "impregnated" from the other universe. Apparently this can happen without end, so that the universe that collided with this one could have done similarly with another universe and so on and so on, so that all these universes are existing simultaneously on top of each other in the same space-time continuum, although each universe can have its own laws of physics. So for every point in space-time here, there can be so many invisible but very real universes overlapping each place.

However, the point that stuck in my mind was that this universe came into existence in chaos and continues that way to this day. That was part of the shattering of the vessels, described in the kabbalistic writings of the ARI. (In fact, we're only just beginning to come a little bit out of Tohu now, but this won't really begin fully until the coming of the Messiah. Usually that's seen as an end, but really it's only the true beginning.) According to the ARI, everything is gradually brought into a state of perfect order and balance, called Tikkun. That means that the entire chaotic universe as we know it, from one end to the other, will eventually be brought into a state of perfect order and balance and, in effect, formed into the perfect image of G-d. This is really incomprehensible to the human mind. Not even Moses, the greatest of all prophets, knew what this would look like, since "no eye has seen it." It would basically involve the complete breaking down of space-time as we know it. Even the ordinary way that things happen day to day is an aspect of chaos. Physical matter too is an aspect of chaos, since everything is separate and thus confused. But in the future, everything will be united in such a way so that everything will make perfect sense and will exist in perfect order and form, according to its proper place. And it all begins there on the Temple Mount.

I wanted to write a bit more about my theories on how all of this process works but I ran out of time. Next post.

Temple Mount with Mount of Olives in Background

Welcome Back!

2007-11-07T21:47:00.001+02:00

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything. Truth is I've spent the last several months confused as usual. So here I'm back. I was unsure if I would do anything with this blog at all, but now I think I'll continue what I started at least, to hopefully bring the best in kabbalah, film analysis, experiences living here in the Land of Israel and a variety of other stuff...

So anyway, since last summer I've been intending to move back to Jerusalem. The problem with personalities like mine is that unless we have a deadline we never get anything done. So in effect I haven't gotten anything done in that direction since the summer, although I have seen a few apartments, but nothing I really wanted to live in. Today I spent the entire day intending to go see a place in Jerusalem which sounded like a good prospect. I called in the morning and was told to come by at 8 in the evening. So I travelled all the way to Jerusalem from here in Beit El (a ride of about an hour), and sure enough I was told the place had already been rented. So such much for that day.

I really, really want to get out of this place. This house is driving me crazy. On the one hand it's nice and quiet, and on the other I could pull my hair out--nothing to do! It's like the place won't let me go. Anyway, I told my landlord I'm leaving at the end of November, so I plan on getting out of here by then, come hell or high water.

I started thinking today about when I came to live here in the first place. My family thought I had joined some kind of Orthodox Jewish cult which had brainwashed and converted me. Everybody was worried that I had fallen into the hands of a bunch of David Koresh-like crackheads with stars of David or something.

The truth is that no one converted me at all. I converted myself, so to speak. At the time, I was sitting in New York planning my film career and everything, writing scripts (one of them particularly brilliant if I I'm allowed to say that), looking for film work and living the life of a just graduated NYU-film alumni. Then I started to read books and my entire perspective on life changed. I had read Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Schopenhauer, Tolstoy and many other books of philosophy, religion, and psychology. But at the end of the day, none of them made sense, or I should say was really livable when all is said and done. So I started reading books on Torah and kabbalah also. And so after a time I concluded that this had everything the other books were lacking, and picked up at the point where they left off.

So I made the decision I had to make based on what I knew. I decided to pick myself up and move to Israel and learn Torah, and to hell with the consequences. I gave up a lot, but I knew I had to do it. At the end of the day I knew that when I was eighty and if I looked back and saw that I hadn't pursued this possibility, I would have been missing something. But if I was missing some films, I could live with myself. Films are forgotten over time. I watched more classis films than anyone else I knew at NYU. Has anyone bothered to watch some of the films of the late 20's and 30's? Those were real movies, real art and brilliance. The directors in those days really achieved something. From WW II and on, the movies went progressively downhill. But does anyone watch the movies of the 20's and 30's today and remember or for that matter appreciate their brilliance. Very few, aside from a few connesieurs and film historians. So everything done now will be forgotten in 70 years time and no one will give a crap anymore. This bothered me a lot. So I made film of secondary importance to me.

Another factor was just a personal one. Like many people I became an artist to fix everything that was screwed up about me. I started by going to acting school, and I can't tell you how many of the actors I met there were mentally ill. They thought they could fix themselves if they acted, but in many cases they became even crazier than before by pushing their emotions to the limits and making themselves very unstable. That's one reason I became a director, since directing is a bit more distanced, so you don't have to arouse some emotion every minute. The truth is though that art can't really fix what's screwed up in people, since to be able to do that you have to actually have the solution to the screwed-upedness. So this is what bothered me. I had studied a great deal of psychology in high school and university--volumes of it. At the end of the day it seemed to me these psychologists didn't really have a solution to anything, just theories which they tried and eventually found didn't work. Anyone who looks in a psychology textbook or just on Wikipedia, will see that no cure has ever been found to any major mental illness, such as Schizophrenia or Manic-Depression. At the most they can treat symptoms and that's about it. Around that time, my brother's good high school friend, a lifelong manic-depressive but actually a very fun guy to hang out with, killed himself. So, so much for lythium and whatever.

So I realized that if I was going to do something useful in this world I had to have something which could fix anything. We live in an insane, mentally-ill society. So we need to solve the psychological problem and then everything else will fall into place--social, political, etc.

A non-Jewish friend of mine said to me around that time that he thought all this psychology stuff was just a substitute for G-d. I thought this was an interesting idea. By that time, I knew that psychology was bunk, so might as well try something outside of the box. So I decided to test it. So I've spent the last five or six years testing this theory. I think I have a solution, but I can't write it all in one entry. Actually, he was 100% right, maybe more right than he knew. In any case that's about all I can write for now. I have a job interview early tomorrow morning. I don't think I really want this job, but I need the money so what can I do.

New York City, 2001--What a Life!
Photo by Bill Byrne

Intro To My Visitors

2007-07-19T19:46:00.000+03:00

Ok, I have no idea how to do my own website, so I figured I'd try doing a blogspot.

Ok, So, I'm doing this webspace for anyone who might be interested in me (should that arise) or should notice that I exist.
Also, I want to put here some things that interest me.

So, anyway, I'm an NYU Tisch Film grad, who got tired of the attitude of filmmakers in general, especially the younger generation, who I think only do stuff in the worst taste as a matter of principle. The film I used to watch when I was at NYU was devoted mainly to sex and violence, the more the better, the more grotesque, the more selling power it would seem. So I got disgusted with all of that and moved to Israel and tried to find the True Way.

So here I am, writing this page now. I used to work at Arutz Sheva, a major station here in Israel, and I recently left in order to pursue filmmaking again, somewhat let's say.

People sometimes ask if I went to NYU why on earth would I move to Israel and moreover why don't I work in film more. The truth is that the film world isn't really good for a religious person like me. I think that on at least half the sets I worked on in university, someone was hooking up with someone else and got laid in the end. And the other half, people were trying but weren't successful. I worked on a play where the lead male actor was sleeping with one of the male interns. I left before all of that unfolded, but so be it. Entertainment is mostly a business of sleaze. Hopefully someone will figure out how to do something good with it one of these days.

With G-d's help, I want to post here some pictures of Tzaddikim (especially holy rabbis), so people can know what great tzaddikim look like. I also want to put pictures of certain holy sites (I don't think I took any of those pictures myself, so thanks to whoever I downloaded them from). I think that seeing holy sites and going to them is especially good for trying to achieve a level of kedusha (holiness) and closeness with the Almighty, so I figured I'd put them here, so people can know what these places look like and maybe get some light from them in the end. Maybe I'll say a little about the tzaddikim I'll put here as well, since I'm put them all here for a reason, but maybe when I'll have more time.

Another hobby of mine was researching current and past events in Israel. I try not to pay attention to politics too much today, because doing so I think puts one into the grips of the sitra achra (the side of evil), so that a person can get easily manipulated by every story and every press release. Better to be stable, and if something important happens, you'll hear about it anyway. In any case, maybe I'll post some of the stuff I wrote about that, including information on the Sabbatian-Frankists who control Israeli politics today and are trying to bring this state to its destruction. I worked with Rabbi Dr. Marvin Antelman (who is highly respected) in this research for a number of years.

What else? I took a keen interest in psychology when I was younger. Understanding psychology I suppose was the pastime of my entire generation. I've concluded that it's all bunk and only screws people up and their entire understanding of the world. Most problems are spiritual problems and can be solved spiritually, through tikkunim (spiritual repairs) and by going to tzaddikim to get them to do tikkunim if necessary.

I know there are many screwed up geniuses out there. I came across them continuously in my experiences in the art world and living in San Francisco and New York, two cities full of the most screwed up geniuses on earth. People think there's no solution to their screwedupedness so they go and become more screwed-up and pursue screwupedness all the way. This is a big mistake. There's a way to fix everything if people seek the True Way. More on that another time, with G-d's help.