Lazer Brody's Blog, page 16

Peace or Ceasefire?

No, we're not talking about Israel and the Arabs; we're talking about what's going on at home, behind closed doors.

There's a big difference between a marriage that maintains ceasefire status and between a marriage of true peace in the home. Let's hear the advice of our esteemed and beloved Rabbi Shalom Arush shlit'a:

Light of Moshiach and How to Play Dreydel

The famed tzaddik and Kabbalist, Rebbe Zvi Elimelech of Dinov, author of the B'nai Yissachar, calls the light of Chanuka Or Haganuz and Or pnai Moshiach, or the "hidden Divine lights" and "the lights of Moshiach's countenance. These concepts cannot be understood by logic, explains the Melitzer Rebbe, only by pure and simple faith.

The Melitzer Rebbe speaks quite a bit about Moshiach during Chanuka. He also has a very special dreydel - pure silver - with the letters nun - gimel - hey - shin on it, one letter per side. I asked the Rebbe why he uses a dreydel with a shin and not with a pey, as most people in Israel do. The Rebbe hinted that there are tremendous inner secrets in these four letters, and particularly that the numerical value of nun (50), gimel (3), hey (5), and shin (300) equal 358, the exact numeric value of Moshiach (mem - 50, shin - 300, yud - 10, chet - 8 = 358). My dreydel, pictured on the left, is an exact copy of the Rebbe's. The Rebbe also added something very cryptic when he told me that each spin of the dreydel brings Moshiach closer.

Don't underestimate the fantastic quality time of playing dreydel with your children. In the Brody household, we play for almonds, for cashews, or for coins. The action is better than Vegas, and it's kosher too! Here's how to play dreydel in classic Chassidic Yiddish tradition:

First, make a cental kitty, starting with about 20 coins or almonds. Let each player have at least 10 of his own units to play with.

Second, give the dreydel the best spin you can. Champion spinners have prestige status...

Third, once the dreydel lands, here's what you do:

Nun: first letter of "nem" in Yiddish (take) - take one coin or nut from the central kitty

Gimel: first letter of "gib" in Yiddish (give) - put one coin or nut in the central kitty

Shin: first letter of "shik" in Yiddish (send) - send every other player one coin or nut from your own pot

Hey: first letter of "halb" in Yiddish (half) - you win half the central pot

Your children and grandchildren won't forget the quality dreydel time you spend with them for the rest of their lives. When the dreydel game is over, serve the Chanukah delicacies...

May the light of Chanuka illuminate our lives, and may we all benefit to see the Menora kindled in the Beit HaMikdash this coming Chanuka, amen.

Take that First Step

You haven't tried the 4-minute routine yet? OK, I'll give you something easier to do, just so long as you take the first step. But before I show you a super-simple exercise that will make you feel great, let me tell you a parable:

A group of friends once made a trip together. On the way to their destination, they saw someone standing with a backpack on a desert crossroads. Seven days later, on their way home, they encountered the same person with the backpack standing on the same desert crossroads in the hot sun. The group of friends asked the backpacker, "Why are you standing here?"

"I want to go to Jerusalem," responded the backpacker. "I'm waiting for a ride."

"How long have you been waiting?" they asked.

"More than a week," he answered.

They laughed. "Jerusalem's only a two-day walk from here. If you'd have started walking, you could have been there and back four times already!"

Many of us want to change, yet we expect it to happen automatically, with no effort on our part. Life doesn't work that way. An old Hebrew expression says, "Even a journey of a thousand kilometers begins with a first step."

For years, you've been dreaming of getting in shape, losing weight or both. Take the first step! Walk for a few minutes or begin doing a simple and relaxing exercise like this. You'll love it and you'll feel so much better. And before you know it, you'll be well on the way to achieving your goal - if not all of it, then at least a good chunk of it.

Don't be afraid - go ahead and take that first step up your personal mountain. Step by step, you'll get to the top.

The 4-Minute Kettlebell Office Routine

Turn your office into a gym and turn a small part of your coffee break into a health-revolutionizing regime that will only take 4 minutes a day of your precious time. Keep one kettlebell in your office - that's all you need to get started down the road to great health and conditioning. 

This 4-minute, nonstop, no-rest kettlebell routine will have a dramatic effect on your health and mood. With only one moderate-sized kettlebell, you'll not only burn about 50 calories during this workout, but you'll double your metabolic calorie burn for the next hour, which will be an after-burn of another 90 calories, give or take. And, this brief routine is enough to give a shot of endorphin, the post-exercise "feel good" hormone.

Here's the routine:

30 seconds - kettlebell slingshot clockwise

30 seconds - kettlebell slingshot counter-clockwise

60 seconds - 1-hand alternating kettlebell swing

30 seconds - kettlebell goblet squat

30 seconds - kettlebell clean - right hand

30 seconds - kettlebell clean - left hand

15 seconds - kettlebell halo - clockwise

15 seconds - kettlebell halo - counter-clockwise

Total = 4 minutes

Suggested kettlebell  weight (less for beginners):

moderate, men = 18% of your body weight

moderate, women = 10% of your body weight

vigorous, men = 25% of your body weight

vigorous, women = 14% of your body weight

In other words, if you're a man that weighs 167 pounds (76 kg), you'll pick a 30-lb (14kg) kettlebell for a moderate workout; a woman who weighs 124 pounds (56 kg) will choose a 12-pound (6 kg) kettlebell.

If you change nothing else in your lifestyle, but you do the above routine every day, you'll lose between 1-2 pounds a month; not only that, but you'll feel much better. These 4 minutes a day will save you hours in doctor's offices as well. Worth it? Go for it!

Lazer's Dream

Sometimes we see things for years, day in and day out, but we never realize what we're seeing.

I had the sweetest and most amazing dream I ever had the night before Chanukah. In my dream, I was shown that tefillin and the Holy Temple resemble one another (see above image - this is the best possible reproduction I could make of what I saw in the dream).

After I saw that the tefillin and the Holy Temple are both crafted from the same Divine mold, the Melitzer Rebbe shlit'a came to me in the dream with a special pair of "tefillin" - it was a miniature Holy Temple, the size of tefillin, with tefillin straps extending from it. He then put the "Holy Temple tefillin" on my head, smiled much wider than he usually does, gave me two affectionate slaps on the cheek, and I woke up. 

The Tefillin Miracle

Chanukah is a time for miracles. The holy Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev tells us that each year during Chanukah, Hashem illuminates us with the same light of miracles that He illuminated the Maccabees during their supernatural victory over Antiochus and the Greeks. Emuna is what triggers these miracles.

Chanukah is still here with us. If you can imagine the difficulty that the Maccabees and their few followers who remained loyal to Hashem had in preserving and practicing their faith, imagine the difficulties that a Jewish inmate in a rough Texas prison has. Sandwiched between hardened redneck Jew-hating fellow inmates and prison guards who think that tefillin are same outer-space weapon that have been smuggled into his cell, DG does not have it easy. Emuna Outreach is in contact with him all the time, and he sent Rabbi Lazer the story - in his own words - of his Tefillin Miracle, a must read on this week's new Chanukah issue of Breslev Israel web magazine.

Also featured this week:

Rabbi Shalom Arush - There's no Mistake

Rabbi Nissan Dovid Kivak - The Egypt of the Soul

Dr. Zev Ballen - Emuna, the Only Choice

Racheli Reckles - It's Not Your Fault

David Ben Horin - Hot Air

Yehudit Channen - Waiting for Justice

Special Chanukah Articles:

Lubavitcher Rebbe - Unconditional Resistance

Rabbi Shalom Arush - The Fortress

Rabbi Lazer Brody -A Chanukah Parable and Two Leaders, Two Paths

Talya Levy - The Kislev Connection

Chanukah is a special time for giving tzedakah. Help us illuminate the lives of Jewish soldiers and prison inmates both in Israel and abroad. Let's gift them the priceless gift of emuna - Donate to Emuna Outreach.

First Light

Rebbe Natan teaches that the first light is the strongest light and the most significant, not only in Chanukah but as a basic rule of life that everyone should know. Enjoy this shiur and have a lovely new week and a joyous and illuminating Chanukah!

The Beams Friday Web Yeshiva: Shabbat Shoftim

We here at the Beams are delighted to feature select lessons, brief and comprehensible, from Breslev Israel's distinguished staff of English speaking rabbis. We surely hope you enjoy this, so don't let your day go by without grabbing some Torah, especially ideas that you can say over at your Shabbat table. What's more, each week we feature a taste of the Chassidic world's most popular niggunim for your enjoyment.   

This week we'll hear lessons from Rabbi Shalom Arush, Rabbi Lazer Brody, Rabbi Dr. Zev Ballen, Rabbi Aharon Dobinsky and Rabbi Ralph Cohen. Our musical guest this week is our cherished spiritual son from Seattle, Washington - now Jerusalem - singing his gorgeous new song, "Mercy".  Enjoy and have a lovely Shabbat! 

Lesson #1 - The Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Shalom Arush shlit'a: Coping with Tribulations (3 minutes)

Life is full of tribulations; how do we cope with them? Let's hear our beloved teacher, Rav Shalom Arush shlit'a (Hebrew, with English subtitles):

Lesson #2 - Rabbi Lazer Brody - Parshat Vayeshev: Measure for Measure (8 minutes)

Parshat Vayeshev teaches us that a person reaps exactly what he sows; one's good deeds come back to aid him in the future, measure for measure, and the opposite as well���

Lesson #3 - Rabbi Dr. Zev Ballen - The Power of Joy (37 minutes)

Lesson #4 - Rabbi Aharon Dobinsky - Turn it All Around (12 minutes)

Lesson #5 - Rabbi Ralph Cohen - The Laws and Customs of Chanukah (30 minutes)

Now, for the spiritual, calorie-free dessert - the musical cherry on our cake:

Let's join Nissim Black outdoors, for his most exquisite musical personal prayer session (you'll find the lyrics directly below the vid:

Lyrics

Sometimes I feel like I'm running in the world on my own/ down and out/ please help I need you/ My heart aches/ I can't take it no/ I know that You���re here right now/ but You hide your face/ I can't wait to see You/ My G-d I seek You/ I know that I'm imperfect/ but I know that hurts when/ in my life when I don't feel you/ I become another person/ it ain't worth it No/ Fix me/ only give me what I need to proceed to the place I should be/ open up the gates and make em��� wait on me/ G-d please help me/ Cuz I'm low and I am falling down/ And I need you to pull me out/ Cuz just wanna grow/ grow/ grow/ yeah/ I want You to take control/ yeah/ And Have mercy on me/ Will You pick me up again/ will You pull me closer in/ Cuz I just wanna know/ know / know Ya/ And I want You to bring me closer/ Yeah There's times when I feel down and out/ and I can't figure out/ why you do it me/ yeah/ I'm surrounded on all sides/ I try/ to get back up/ but I find that fall maybe harder than before yeah/ G-d I'm in War yeah/ I feel I can't get up now/ Cause everytime I fall down/ I'm fighting an enemy/ and it won't let me break out/ Heal me/ only give me what I need to proceed to the place I should be/ open up the gates and make em��� wait on me yeah/ G-d please help me/ Cuz I'm low and I am falling down/ And I need you to pull me out/ Cuz just wanna grow/ grow/ grow/ yeah/ I want You to take control/ yeah/ And Have mercy on me/ Will You pick me up again/ will You pull me closer in/ Cuz I just wanna know/ know / know Ya/ And I want You to bring me closer/ Yeah I can feel you in my heart only sometimes/ But I need You in my life right now yeah/ can't move without You/ I'm full of doubts yeah/ Show me/ what I can do/ when I only want you/ I only want truth/ my King yeah/ You are my only help/ Yes You are my only help/ Yes You are my only help/ Yes You are my only help/ Yes You are my only help/ G-d please help me/ Cuz I'm low and I am falling down/ And I need you to pull me out/ Cuz just wanna grow/ grow/ grow/ yeah/ I want You to take control/ yeah/ And Have mercy on me/ Will You pick me up again/ will You pull me closer in/ Cuz I just wanna know/ know / know Ya/ And I want You to bring me closer/ Yeah

Enjoy, and have a super Shabbat!

Rebbe Nachman on Vaccinations

This is a guest post by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum shlit'a, an excerpt from Chapter 15 of his book The Wings of the Sun: 

Nowhere in Rebbe Nachman's writings is there an explicit statement indicating that his warnings against doctors were restricted to his own time and place and would not apply if medical knowledge were to advance significantly. In fact, we see that Rebbe Nachman took a skeptical view of the growth of medical knowledge: "He said that there has already been so much research into medicine that the experts now know absolutely nothing, because after so much research they see that it is impossible to establish the truth" (Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom #50). It is significant that although Rebbe Nachman had always advised his followers to avoid doctors, his warnings became stronger than ever after his trip to Lemberg, whose Austrian-trained doctors were then among the most advanced in Europe.

On the other hand, there is one statement by Rebbe Nachman that places all his warnings against doctors into a very different light - a statement that provides a basis for those who wish to argue that his warnings simply do not apply to contemporary medicine. This is his statement urging his followers to have their children vaccinated against smallpox. This disfiguring and often fatal disease was then prevalent throughout Europe and Asia. A primitive form of innoculation had been in use for some time in Turkey, and spread to the rest of Europe in the 1720's. However, it was not without its dangers, and the best that most people could do when there was an outbreak of smallpox was to flee.

It was not until the 1790's that the English country physician Edward Jenner observed that those who had been infected with cowpox did not become infected with smallpox. In 1796 he performed the first vaccination on a young boy, and found that, despite the boy's subsequent exposure to smallpox, he did not become infected. Knowledge of the new technique spread rapidly throughout Europe, and immunization against smallpox soon became a standard medical procedure. At first it was a subject of heated controversy within the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, but in 1804 a Dr. Shimon of Cracow printed a broadsheet entitled "A New Remedy," in which he encouraged all Jews to have their children vaccinated as a preventive measure. Within a short time, hundreds of Jewish children were being successfully vaccinated, including those of leading rabbis and Torah scholars (Sefer HaBrit I, 17:2).

In the midst of this controversy, Rebbe Nachman came out in favor of vaccination in the strongest terms:

"Every parent should have his children vaccinated within the first three months of life. Failure to do so is tantamount to murder. Even if they live far from the city and have to travel during the great winter cold,they should have the child vaccinated before three months" (Avaneha Barzel p.31 #34).

Rebbe Nachman's championship of vaccination is clear proof that his opposition to doctors and medicine was in no way bound up with some kind of retrogressive attitude of suspicion towards modernity and innovation per se. Here was a newly-discovered technique with a proven power to prevent a dangerous disease, and within a matter of a few years Rebbe Nachman came out emphatically in favor - Jenner first discovered vaccination in 1796, and Rebbe Nachman's (undated) statement must have been made some time before his death in 1810.

Strictly speaking, vaccination is not so much a remedy as a preventive measure. Rebbe Nachman's powerful endorsement seems to imply that he would have been no less in favor of tried and tested measures for preventing other diseases - unlike the Ramban, who says that "when the Jewish People are in a state of spiritual perfection... they have no need of medical procedures even as precautionary measures". As we will see later, Rebbe Nachman himself saw his healing pathway of faith and prayer as the most powerful form of preventive medicine. Nevertheless, from his endorsement of vaccination, we can infer that Rebbe Nachman would not have been opposed to actual preventive medical techniques where they had proven their effectiveness.

Rabbi Lazer Brody adds:

I have traditionally been against vaccinations, because of many of the dangers. Yet, in light of the measles controversy and the strong stance of this generation's leading poskim, many people have been asking me what to do. In such a significant question, I don't take such a heavy responsibility without first consulting with my teacher and spiritual guide, Rabbi Shalom Arush shlit'a, whom I just spoke to. Rabbi Arush shlit'a cited Rebbe Nachman's support of vaccinations that Rabbi Greenbaum shlit'a mentions in the above article, and added that since the vast consensus of our leading poskim are in favor of vaccinating our children, we must vaccinate them. What's more, the children in the Chut Shel Chessed Cheder, under Rabbi Arush's auspices, receive vaccinations but do not force people to vaccinate. The Melitzer Rebbe shlit'a, who also shies away from doctors and medical intervention whenever possible, holds of the same opinion as Rabbi Arush.

Racheli Reckles writes that people should not be forced to vaccinate; scroll down to see her point of view:

A Medical Dictatorship

Just look at these cute sheep. So innocent. So clueless. So sheep-ish. 

They almost look human. Except I suspect that they're slightly more intelligent than we are. At least, some of us.

As you may have heard, there's been tons of insanity and hysteria regarding the recent measles outbreak in the Northern U.S.

It's gotten so bad that many rabbis have issued statements demanding that everyone vaccinate their children. Even schools have threatened to kick children out if they are not vaccinated. One friend of mine got a 30 day notice just yesterday. In the middle of the school year!  

This gets my blood boiling. Iraqi Balboa is 'bout to come out in all her fighting glory.

I'd like to give the sheeple a little common sense, because obviously the radiation from their smartphones has fried their pre-frontal cortices. In layman's terms, they've lost their ability to use their critical thinking skills. 

Believe it or not, I'm not going to tell you about all of the potential health dangers of vaccines. You can look that up for yourself, if you feel like being more informed. 

I am going to point something out that people on the pro-vaccine side seem to be incapable of understanding.

It is completely unethical, and overstepping your social boundaries, to demand that I, or anyone who doesn't share your beliefs, have a medically unnecessary treatment performed on my child. 

Since when are we living in a Communist Dictatorship? 

As far as I was aware, the United States was one of the few places in the world where a person could make decisions based on his personal beliefs. I thought that was our right. 

And now, the religious world, the rabbis, the religious day schools, want to take it away from us. They want to invalidate our right to raise our children the way we deem fit. They want to force us to accept their demands, even it if means going against our beliefs. 

How disgustingly unethical.

Let me give you an example just to show you how wrong this is.

Say, tomorrow morning, you get an email from your Jewish Day School Principal: "Dear Mr. Goldberg, In the next 30 days we will be transitioning our students over into a more inclusive Jewish learning program. Our goal is to teach our students that gender is not as fixed as we were led to believe, and they must learn to be more fluid in their lifestyle and life choices. We want our students to feel comfortable breaking down the gender barrier so they will be able to do things as girls or boys, in whichever  way they feel more comfortable.

Practically, this means that girls will be attending the traditional morning service that was reserved for boys. They will be putting on tefillin and wearing talits. They will be called up to the Torah and do all of the mitzvot boys traditionally do. Boys will be taught about family purity laws and how to count their clean days. They will learn about the different types of blood stains so they can better understand if they are ritually pure or impure. 

We also demand that our girls and boys dress both in pants and skirts. Eventually we aim to do away with the gender-based terms altogether. It is our hope that we will create a more unified, inclusive student body who understands each other more and blah, blah, blah."

So, if you're a Torah-based, traditional parent with traditional beliefs, how would you feel having this forced on your child? Wouldn't you feel that you are entitled to raise your children according to the belief system that you feel is appropriate for your family? Wouldn't you be angry if someone were trying to force you to live by a belief system that is so completely against yours?

Who is anyone else to tell you how to raise your children?? 

That's what gets me so angry. 

In the name of the greater good, parents are being forced to violate their right to live as they want and put their children in potentially serious danger.

Oh, right! When it comes to health, it's okay to think like a communist.

Let's take a deep breath and look at the most recent measles outbreak, courtesy of the CDC website, which I hate so much.

Can you read that little line in the black there? Right above? What does it say? In case you can't see it, here it is:

"THE NUMBER OF US REPORTED CASES IN 2018 IS SIMILAR TO RECENT YEARS AND IS IN THE EXPECTED RANGE."

So far this year, there have been 220 reported cases of measles. 220. Does that justify kicking kids out of school, especially in an area that didn't even have an outbreak?? Does it justify rabbis overstepping their boundaries and telling the general public how to take care of their health?

What has gotten into everyone??? Why all the hysteria??

Is Judaism turning into communism? You would think the one place a person could trust that their religious beliefs would be respected would be in a RELIGIOUS SCHOOL! For G-d's sake!

Now that I've hopefully made my first point clear, I'd like to make another point. 

The theory of herd immunity is totally bogus. 

It's a theory, not a fact. And it doesn't apply to "immunity" that's received through a vaccine. It only applies to natural immunity, which is immunity a person develops once they've been exposed to a pathogen. The chicken pox is a great example.

Here is a wonderful article among many you can find that explains why herd immunity will never occur in a mostly vaccinated population. I encourage everyone to read it so they understand the words they are speaking instead of saying words that sound like they're informed but mean absolutely nothing.

Any doctor will admit that vaccines are not 100% effective, meaning that not every kid develops an immunity from a vaccine. Let's not take this point for granted. Just because a kid got vaccinated, it doesn't mean he's developed an immunity to the disease. And I'm not even getting into all of the side effects that could potentially happen. 

Furthermore, assuming he does develop antibodies, there is no doctor that will 100% guarantee you that the kid is absolutely 100% protected for a certain number of years. Even 10 years no one can promise that. 

All that being said, the point is that since the effectiveness of a vaccine cannot be absolute, there is no chance to fully eradicate these diseases. 

Did you get that? That means that even if 100% of the population were vaccinated, the measles and all of the other diseases would still exist and still circulate! 

In any case, what I want to say to all the rabbis and schools who have suddenly started acting like Fidel Castro: back off. 

Give each parent the right to come to an informed decision and raise his child the way he feels is best.

And for G-d's sake, give us a little more credit. We're not a bunch of pot-smoking hippies that refuse all unnatural medical interventions. We are parents who do our research, question the status quo, and are not afraid to do the right thing for ourselves and our families. We are well-educated and trust our judgment and common sense.

Therefore, our decision to not vaccinate comes from tons of reading, deliberating the pros and cons, and a deep desire to do what's best for our kids. 

Stop invalidating us. And stop bullying us. 

~Racheli