Rabbi Arush: Tell all the Jews - Come to Israel!

Rabbi Arush spoke specifically about moving to Israel in his private shiur to the Yeshiva yesterday. The following is an exact translation of his words, from a recording my husband took:

We have to tell the all the Jews outside of Israel, that they have to come to Israel! You see that outside of Eretz Yisrael, there is danger. You think that in Eretz Yisrael it's dangerous? You're going to see what's going on outside. But in Eretz Yisrael there is seata dishmaya (Divine Providence), help from Heaven that is special here in Eretz Yisrael. Tzaddikim are saying that in Eretz Yisrael, nothing bad is going to happen! Eretz Yisrael is guarded - shmura. Protected. Tell them - come to Eretz Yisrael! What are you doing over there? What are you doing?

Until now, tens of thousands of missiles are falling in Eretz Yisrael, and nothing is happening. But one time, one missile fell in a Druze Villiage of Arabs, and tens died in one missile. But you see that Hashem is playing with the missiles, that they are going to fall between houses, and nothing is happening. 

He said that one time they asked one of the Arabic soldiers why are the missiles not striking? He answered that everything in the computers are set. It's fixed. But Elokim is moving the missiles from their place.

Rosh Chodesh Nissan - Time to Pray for Moshiach

I also want to share with you Rabbi Arush's thoughts on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, which is this Shabbos. This is a word for word translation!

We must prepare ourselves for a really important time. The month of Nissan. Rebbe Nachman writes that there are two months of teshuva – Tishrei and Nissan. In Tishrei we do teshuva because we are afraid – but in Nissan, we do teshuva because we love Hashem. All of that month, all of those days, are Yamim Tovim. They are festive days. The first twelve days, are days that there were sacrifices of the princes of Israel, 13^th is isru chag for the Nissim, 14^th is the sacrifice of Pesach, then 7 days of Pesach, then Isru Chag – one month of holidays!

This month it's going to be a new beginning for the rest of the year. It's the month of the Geula. Rabbi Nachman of Breselv writes in Likutei Moharan that this is the first day of the year for the kings. On this day Hashem is deciding all of the kings that are going to be. So there is an aspect that Rosh Chodesh Nissan is more important than even the first day of Rosh Hashanah in Chodesh Tishrei! On Rosh Hashanah Hashem judges us all individually. Each and every one, He is judging Him on his actions. But on Rosh Chodesh Nissan Hashem is judging generally – all of the world itself. Who is going to be the kings and so on. On Rosh Chodesh Nissan, Hashem is going to decide when Moshiach is going to come. There is not for no reason that our Rabbis say that Moshiach will come in Nissan. It's because on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, Hashem is going to decide if the king is going to be Moshiach, so he's going to come in Nissan. This is why everyone has to realize how important these days are and put in the effort, and especially on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, to pray that Hashem is going to put His kingdom on top, that He is going to be the King, and if you Hashem are not going to bring the Moshiach this year, please appoint good kings that it's going to be good for us.

This is the time for miracles!

Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi brought this down during here shiur this week, and it's so incredible I wanted to share it with you!

A faucet of miracles – at your seder

We're at an amazing time – "a moment of affection". The month of Nisan – the time of nissim, miracles. What does the Chatam Sofer say? There's a difference between a ko'es, one who is angry, and a ka'asan, one who is by nature angry; the difference between a spender and a spendthrift. One's momentary, the other existential. The same thing with a nes, a miracle. God split the Sea of Reeds, ים סוף , once, and that's it – so what?... But Nisan – that's the nature of the season. A gate of miracles opens up this week. The nature of the time is miracle after miracle, and all I ask, says God, is that הַרְחֶב פִּיךָ וַאֲמַלְאֵהוּ – open your mouth wide and let Me fill it1; שְׁאַל 1 Psalms 81:11 מִמֶּנִּי – וְאֶתְּנָה – Ask of Me and I shall give2. All I want from you is for you to ask. That's it. At the beginning of Nisan the angels overseeing your fortune changed their shifts. If you've felt stuck, locked in, closed – God called for a shift change, and now you have new angels supervising your fortune, your constellation. What's a constellation? A mazal – from the word nozel, meaning to flow. They cause a flow of changed fortunes. I so much want to give you all hope, because if you don't believe it you'll never see the miracles. So we must pray, because salvation is getting closer. We must have faith to receive the miracles. 2 Psalms

Rain in Jerusalem

It was so beautiful erev Shabbos. We had been praying for rain and although it was finally cooler and partly cloudy, we had only had enough to get everything muddy and dirty. I came home from my walk and took a shower, and then a friend called. She nonchalantly asked me how I liked the rain.

Rain, what rain? (thankfully I am very shielded in my little corner and have great windows)

So I opened the window and it was pouring!

Well I had just taken a shower, so a little water wouldn't hurt me. I went into the little chatzer (shared space) in my building, protected from the street, and started singing in my head and dancing in the rain. It was a blast.

Then I went out to run some erev Shabbos errands and discovered that my little walking street with steps was now a river! It was OK since I had my boots but it was pretty funny.

The rain had stopped by candlelighting but it was really fun and beautiful. Today was 60's and partly cloudy and such a nice break! A little fall weather in the end of October - what a concept!

The Way It Should Be

It was so nice. Yesterday, I was sitting on the bus on the way to work, saying my daily Tehillim. I young man sat down next to me, and pulled out a Shulchan Aruch. So there we were - me and my Tehillim, and he with his Shulchan Aruch, on the bus going wherever.

The way it should be.

Simchas Torah - Again?

In Chutz LaAretz, there are some people (mostly Chassidim) who do hakafos on Shemini Atzeret.

Here in Israel, people do second hakafos after the chag is over! Basically every shul has dancing with music - the air is electric. At least here where you can hear everything, it feels like music is blasting from every corner of the city. The joy is so palpable.

BTW, it's a little weird to go from Sukkos right into Simchas Torah without Shemini Atzeret first, but it makes so much more sense. There is no one day break where you don't do much that is special - it's just a continuation of the big party, and the gigantic culmination! And when really the entire city is off for Chag Sameach and there are parties everywhere, every single night, and then really the entire city is celebrating Simchas Torah, and everywhere you walk you can hear hakafos in progress, no one is in the street (except those that are dancing!) - I can't describe it! The floor at the shul last night was literally vibrating.

Off to wear my shoes out!

Hoshanah Rabbah is Here

Hard to believe that all this time beginning with the 3 weeks of mourning, to the 6 weeks of consolation, which includes Elul, and then the 10 Days of Repentance, and Sukkos...it's all over. Today is Hoshanah Rabbah, the last day of Sukkos.

On Rosh Hashanah, the judgment for the new year is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed, and on Hoshanah Rabbah the angels are dispatched to begin instituting the new din (judgment). This is it!

On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we say - yell more like - during davening:

Tefillah (prayer), tzedakah (charity) u'teshuvah (repentance) turns over the negative decree!

I realized on Rosh Hashanah that this is k'neged (corresponds) to the 3 ways we are supposed to serve Hashem, and didn't - or should do better - in the Shema:

B'chol livavcha - with all your heart - your heart went away from Hashem. So now, be involved in "avodah she'b'lev" - service of the heart - prayer - and turn your heart back to Hashem (where it belongs)

B'chol nafshecha - with all your soul - this is teshuvah. By applying the SCAR treatment (stopping the bad act, confessing, apologizing, and resolving to do better) we return our souls to G-d

B'chol meodecha - with all your might - the commentators say this is with all your money. Well, maybe you weren't so perfect with this last year, so now you can give tzedakah!

Today is the last day to apply this and change the din for the entire year. From here on out, don't worry, they still work - but only to change the effect of the din, not to change the din itself (for example, if you are set to make $25K this year, that $25K can go a very long way, or not at all c'v, but you will make $25K no matter what).

So, gmar chasima tova!

BTW It is an interesting question - if everything ends on Hoshanah Rabbah, what is Shemini Atzeret all about? Who needs it! In short, Hashem says "hey, don't leave so fast...it's 6 long months to Pesach and I want one more day with you - just you and me!"

Does the Hechsher Matter?

I'm always looking for new, good places to go to eat. Hey, I get hungry and I miss takeout sometimes, although Baruch Hashem I am cooking a lot now in my apartment.

Anyway, so I'm walking around near the shuk and I see this big sign on a meat restaurant - "Kosher L'Mehadrin." In this neighborhood that is pretty rare, so I decide to stop in and check it out.

I'm looking on the wall - there is a current Rabbanut Stam Yerushalayim (something I personally don't eat). Then there is another Mehadrin hechsher under it (2 hechshers is not so uncommon). However, this mehadrin "hechsher" doesn't look familiar - in fact, it looks fake. I pull out my list of fake mehadrin hechshers, and while this one isn't exactly like anything on the list, it sure looks like a mixture of a few of them.

I decide to get a bit closer to check it out further and see if I can see more signs of fake/real.

And then I notice it. Just to the left of the mehadrin hechsher (which I am 90% was indeed fake) - a nice, mid-sized cockroach, waltzing down the post where they were both posted. Not anywhere near the kitchen mind you...

So I walked out, thanking Hashem for this very clear sign that whatever was exactly going on with the kashrus, I definitely did NOT want to be eating there!

The Mighty TP Roll!

What could be every paper substance you could think of - kleenex, paper towel, cleaner-upper, carry it in your pocket and leave one of it on every desk in the office, all in one? Plus what it is supossed to do by definition of its name?

The might toilet paper roll!!!

Only in Israel. :-)

Just don't ask for hand soap - THAT is asking alot.

There's Nothing Wrong in Israel - It's Just that for Hashem, Ein Bayit

People quote various reasons why not to move here. They say this is wrong, and that is wrong, and x, y and z. And you know what? They're right!

There's just one problem. They aren't reasons not to move here. They aren't issues with this beautiful, holy land Hashem gave us. It's because we are still in galus, even here. Especially here. This land I'm living in isn't the real Eretz Yisrael - so it's OK it's not perfect. It's not supposed to be perfect yet.

The holiness of the land is still readily felt. Hashem wants His children home, there is no question. But Hashem ein bayit - G-d does not have a home. So things still have to be imperfect in the world, especially here, so that we remember to sit on the floor a couple minutes a day and pray that Hashem will come home.

It's like a wife that gets kicked out of her house by her husband, and he separates from her. Finally, she gets a letter saying "You can come home now! The door is unlocked." She comes back to the house, and lo and behold, she can come in!

There is just one little problem - her husband isn't there. She looks and looks for him, but he isn't home. So she leaves a big sign on the door "Please Come Home!"

That's us now. We're home, but Hashem isn't. So when things go wrong, instead of getting frustrated and beating your head against a wall, first you ask Hashem to deal with the situation at hand. And then you cry because this is all happening because Hashem doesn't have a house yet, while realizing that G-d willing soon, when G-d does have His House here again, all these problems will dissapear and the land will once again be the beautiful, perfect, Gan Eden on earth that it's supposed to be.

Bimheira v'yameinu.