Lazer Brody's Blog, page 318

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Confrontation Week: A New Message from Rav Shalom Arush

Rav Shalom speaks, yours truly translates:

Those of you who know me are well aware that I'm not an alarmist. For years, when others have been making doomsday projections, all I've cared about is helping people get closer to Hashem. A wasted life is a life without having developed one's own intimate personal connection to our beloved Father in Heaven who loves each one of us. The fact that He loves us so much is exactly why He's now going to such lengths to wake us up.
 
This week, millions of Arabs are expected to "peacefully" march on our borders. Although I always pray for peace – for that's my name – we cannot sit back as observers. Our activism is manifest in prayer and teshuva. Despite the fact that earlier this week, I said that the harsh decree of imminent conflict has been delayed, that doesn't mean that we can put down our guard or our spiritual weapons. The delay is to enable more people  to have the opportunity to do teshuva and to save themselves and their families. But who knows how long the gates of teshuva will remain open.

But meanwhile, few are doing teshuva. Rather than waking up, our people have fallen captive to the most sadistic and vicious enemy of all – the Yetzer Hara, the Evil Inclination.
 
The Evil Inclination has never been more powerful, more dangerous, and more sophisticated since the dawn of creation. The Evil Inclination – like chocolate-covered poison – gives his victim a fatal false sense of enjoyment and then destroys the victim's soul by severing him from Hashem, Heaven forbid. And people continue to extend their necks willingly toward the Evil Inclination's sword, begging to be slaughtered. Hashem wants to stop this spiritual holocaust, but successive previous wakeup calls have gone unheeded. After the recent earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and terror attacks, people have again fallen into a "business as usual" spiritual slumber.
 
Now – this week – the Palestinians are going to the UN to declare their statehood, while millions threaten to storm our borders. This wake-up call is likely to be the spark that ignites the explosion…
 
Will people listen?

Continue reading Fight Back! in this week's exciting issue of Breslev Israel web magazine.

"Frummie Rebelette" is a rebellious young lady in university from a religious background who has strayed far away from the upright path; yet, she still wants no-nonsense answers to some sticky questions. See the answers she got from me - you may be able tyo use them with a young person you know in a similar situation.

Also this week:

Rav Kook: Two Levels of Teshuva

Rivka Levy: The Blessing of Financial Problems

Racheli Reckles: Welcome to Israel

Yael Karni: The Russian Doll

Tikvah Motley: An Evangelist Comes Home

Zev Ballen: God or Bad

Dovber Halevi: The Real Builder

Chaya Ovadia: Through the Wringer

Pidyon Nefesh

According to Jewish custom, before Rosh Hashana, we send our names and a wish-list together with charity money to a pious individual, whose blessing and prayers are added insurance for a favorable New Year judgment. The charity money we give has a cogent power of atonement, for "pidyon" means "redemption" - we redeem ourselves from severe judgments by giving the Pidyon before Rosh Hashana. I personally give my Pidyon Nefesh to my beloved Rabbi and spiritual guide, Rav Shalom Arush, may Hashem bless him always, during our stay in Uman on the day before Rosh Hashana. You can too.

Anyone who sends a Pidyon Nefesh online this week will be included in the list of names (and their requests) that Rav Shalom Arush will personally pray for on the the holy gravesite of Rebbe Nachman next week in Uman. Don't miss this fantastic opportunity.

This Week's Double Drama

No need for TV or movies - there's all the drama you want right here in the never-a-dull-moment Middle East; in fact, this week presents us with a double drama.

First, this coming Monday, Cyprus is scheduled to start its off-shore drilling, adjacent to Israel's offshore Leviathan gas field. Turkey has threatened to prevent such drilling, and has war ships in the area already. Meanwhile, Debka reports that Greek and Israel have already signed a mutual defense pact, aimed at their mutual enemy Turkey.

Second, the Palestine Liberation Organization has decided to go for broke in appealing for full recognition in the UN this week - now hear this - according to the 1947 borders. Whether or not tens of thousands will demonstrate or not, or try marching on our borders, is something that only Hashem knows.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian border is still as tense as a bowstring.

What's our job? Tons of prayer and teshuva...

Teshuva is like getting on a scheduled flight - better a minute too early than a minute too late. Have a good week!

All About the Shofar

Big Beam blessings for a wonderful Shabbat!

October 3rd: One night only in LA

To those of you from the LA area that have been asking if it's true that we're coming to Los Angeles after Rosh Hashana, the answer is yes; G-d willing, we'll be flying from Uman to LA right after Rosh Hashana and Shabbat Shuva for a big chizuk gathering for women on Monday night Ocober 3rd with our dear friend Rabbi Zecharia Wallerstein, then straight home to Israel. Details forthcoming...

Rav Shalom Arush: The Decree has been Delayed

My beloved teacher and spiritual guide Rav Shalom Arush had a bigger smile on his face this 
morning (image at right)than I've seen in the last few  weeks. He told Rabbi Nosson Maimon and me that Israel's 36 hidden tzadikim - several of whom are in contact with Rav Shalom - got together and prayed at the Kotel, the Western Wall and remnant of our Holy Temple in Jerusalem. They succeeded in delaying the decree of imminent war before Rosh Hashana that we spoke about last week.

Amazingly also, I heard this morning from a reliable source inside the IDF that if any of our diplomats or security personnel would have been harmed this past Shabbat in Cairo, then a war would have broken out between Israel and Egypt. With that in mind, we owe Hashem a tremendous note of gratitude for the prodigious miracle of rescuing the Israeli embassy staff from the thousands of blood-thirsty rioters that broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo this past Friday night.

Rav Shalom says that Hashem's love for us is beyond anyone's comprehension; the delay - not cancellation - of the war decree is to enable more people to make teshuva. Just yesterday, Rebbetzen Kanievski said that outreach is the most important mitzva today - we must help others come home to Hashem immedately. People scoff at me when I keep saying there's not much time; I'll get no satisfaction from telling someone "I told you so" when he or she can no longer get on the train to redemption.

Rather than dropping our guard, we must use the next few weeks to spread emuna everywhere and to strengthen ourselves in teshuva and emuna. We all have work to do; Hashem is moving forward in His timetable and things are definitely not business as usual.

Halacha forbids conjecture about when Moshiach will come. But, Halacha also demands that we prepare ourselves for his immediate arrival. We must all do teshuva anyway before Rosh Hashana, so there's no time like the present.

Many people - particularly here in Israel - have written me that deep inside, they're hoping for an all-out war to get things over with already. I understand their feelings, but with each day, so many people are getting closer to Hashem. Let's appreciate the fact that everyone is getting another chance, for the more we come coser to Hashem, the more tremendous miracles we'll see in the coming war, which Iran, Turkey, and Hizbulla are just itching to start.

The Tug of War

Above image Copyright 2011, Thinkstockphotos.com

If you're on a tug-of-war team, you can't be thinking if the other guy is pulling or not. You have to bear down and put 100% of your strength and concentration into your own pulling, otherwise you'll lose. As soon as we direct our thoughts on others, we lose focus on what we ourselves are doing.

85% of the people who have been emailing me in the last six days have completely missed Rav Shalom's message. They've sunken into fear or depression, fretting what will be, what the government will do, what the IDF will do, and so forth. Rav Shalom's message of the imminent harsh decree was not a doomsday prophecy; it was a call to mobilize, for us to dig our heels deeper into the holy ground of prayer, Torah, teshuva and mitzvoth - particularly loving our fellow man - to mitigate the harsh judgment.

In the rope-type tug of war, there's no time to contemplate how strong your adversary is. You simply must concentrate on pulling harder than he does. If you let up for a moment, you fly forward on your face. That's not what we want.

I've been out in the field looking at myself through a fine-tooth comb, and there's plenty room for improvement. All Hashem wants from us is that we try our best to be a little bit better than we were yesterday. He simply wants us to pull our share of the rope and to correct what we're able to correct. What the UN, the Turkish Navy, or the Israeli Government does is not under my control, so I neither bother with it nor fret about it. If I did, I wouldn't be doing what I'm supposed to.

Mobilize, yes; incapacitating fear and depression, by no means! Let's each of us start pulling. Talk to Hashem while doing some serious self-assessment, and you'll know exactly what you need to work on in the 2 short weeks remaining until Rosh Hashana. And yes, I believe we'll be the winners when the smoke clears.

Delegitimization of Religious Soldiers

For a long time now, Israeli leaders have been bemoaning their utter failure in the war for public opinion. They don't understand one simple fact - Hashem controls public opinion. King Solomon, the wisest of all men, said (Proverbs 16:7): "When Hashem is pleased with a person's ways, even his adversaries reconcile with him." In other words, if Hashem were pleased with our conduct, our public image would be favorable even with no PR effort on our part.

Yesterday, the spokesman of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) also complained of the "delegitimization ambushes" against the IDF by our enemies - from within and without - to embarrass it and make it look bad in the eyes of the world. For that reason, the IDF head spokesman wants to station cameramen in every unit.

Funny, but Hashem runs the world according to the ATFAT principle - a turn for a turn.

The IDF - influenced by the same anti-emuna elements that dictate the government's agenda of progressive destruction of Torah values - has been systematically delegitimizing its religious soldiers, the cream of its crop and the elite of the IDF's elite today.

Recently, four religious soldiers were shamefully expelled from officers' school because they refused - as Jewish Law dictates - to listen to female soldiers sing in an assembly. If that's not bad enough, religious soldiers are now forced to face the ridiculous new policy of placing women in field combat units, in violation of every conceivable concept of modesty according to Judaism.

I don't know how the IDF expects to win wars by delegitiming Judaism and its faithful soldiers. Hashem responds by sending enemies to delegitime the IDF. General Spokesman, your cameras won't help you until you stop fighting Hashem.

The Torah is our only deed to the Land of Israel. Those who are wringing their hands and wondering why the Pallies are applying for statehood must understand that if we observe the laws of Torah in every corner of our Holy Land, the Palestinian problem would evaporate. And if we don't, G-d forbid, the Torah in Haazinu promises that we will suffer at the hands of a non-nation nation; what a perfect description of the Pallies.

It's time - with the threat of war more imminent every day - that the government and the IDF do some serious soul-searching. To stop the delegitimization of the IDF, they should stop delegitimizing our most loyal soldiers and most dedicated citizens. 

Dispelling Rumors

Some people with a problem of too much time on their hands are circulating rumors that Rav Shalom Arush and I won't be in Uman this Rosh Hashana. That is utterly untrue. Both Rav Shalom and I have ordered our tickets and paid for them. We have every intention - with Hashem's loving help - of being in Uman with this Rosh Hashana.

Shining the Light

With all the strife in the world, let's not forget our first priority - keeping the peace at home. That's why I dropped everything to answer Harold's question:

Dear Rabbi Brody,

My wife is a remarkable person. She's responsible with money and our house is always in decent shape, in other words, there're never dirty dishes in the sink by the end of a day and things always look presentable. Just one thing makes me really miserable. My wife is an artist, and she spends hours on end in front of the canvas. I feel like she pours her entire heart out in her paintings, and there's nothing left for me. I'd like to walk or talk in the evenings, but right after dinner, she's back down in our basement (her studio) painting away until the wee hours. I feel really neglected, especially now that all our kids are married and out on their own. Please give me some advice, because I'm getting more and more resentful of my wife's painting and our marital peace is eroding – I can feel it. With appreciation for your taking the time to read this, Harold from New Jersey

You can read my answer to Harold in Shining the Light, part of this week's issue of Breslev Israel web magazine.

Don't miss these other stimulating articles, also in this week's issue:

Rabbi Shalom Arush: The Third Degree

Rabbi David Charlop: Education with Care

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook: The Ox, the Flute, and the First Fruit

Zev Ballen: Confessions of a Psychotherapist

Rivka Levy: Entice - The High Price

Dovber Halevi: The Gift of Failure

Chaya Ovadia: Are We There Yet?

Yehudit Levy: Forgiving and Forgetting

Yael Karni: Travels with my Father

May you have a wonderful week with blessings in everything you do, amen!