In every generation, there are 36 (and some say 72….) hidden tzaddikim.

These are known as the ‘lamed vav’ tzaddikim, and Hashem created the whole world, and continues to sustain it, in the merit of these holy tzaddikim.

And they exist in every generation.

Even ours.

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Just what’s the problem?

The problem is that for the last 200 years….400 years….1000 years….2000 years…. the Jewish world has been flooded with fakers and impostors, people who want to ‘lead’ because they have massive egos, and they want the money and power that comes along with having a ‘position’.

Rebbe Nachman explains that really, these people are not to blame for their actions on some level, because they are crazy people with a lust for power.

Interestingly, Rabbenu says that the real fault lies with THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW these false leaders, and accord them honor and influence etc.

For a very long time, this puzzled me tremendously.

But now, I think I’m perhaps starting to understand it a little.

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It boils down to this:

We seek out people to follow who actually reflect ourselves, and our own opinions, and our own desires and ‘world-view’.

Angry, judgemental people who have a grudge against others (which is basically just a grudge against Hashem, and how He’s choosing to run the world) – they will gravitate to angry, judgemental ‘leaders’ who turn ‘being angry’ into the biggest mitzvah in the world.

Self-indulgent people, who don’t want to hear about overcoming their own negative desires and lusts will gravitate towards ‘leaders’ who have a heter for everything.

And who minimise working to overcome bad middot, etc, because hey, we’re all just human beings here, bub!

Arrogant people with ‘scientific-atheist’ tendencies will look for ‘leaders’ who reverberate in the same small echo chamber they occupy.

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And people who don’t want to take responsibility for their own lives, their own decisions, their own relationship with Hashem – they will look for ‘strong leaders’ who dictate and control every aspect of their lives.

And who demand ‘blind obedience’.

And who silence any questions and any challenges…. (often, literally, by using force, blackmail or threats.)

Clearly, these types of ‘leaders’ aren’t nice, good people.

But just as clearly – we actually follow the type of ‘leader’ we want, usually based on considerations that most people aren’t even aware of, because they don’t spend regular time every day trying to ‘dig in’ to their own psyche, to understand their real motivations, fears, expectations and issues.

==

So yes, the world is full of ‘fake leaders’ and ‘false messiahs’ of every stripe.

And the less a person is following ‘truth’ – wherever it leads them – the more they will be subject to thinking that these false leaders are ‘real tzaddikim’.

It’s an ongoing massive test.

And once I realised that really, these people are just seeking out ‘mirrors’ of themselves, I stopped arguing with people over ‘Trump being the good in Edom’, and I stopped (mostly….) arguing with people who are following obvious fakers – because the problem is not the ‘false leader’ they are following.

The problem is them, and the lies they like to keep telling themselves.

==

Here’s what Rebbe Nachman says, (from ‘His Wisdom’ – the English translation of Sichot HaRan, 126):

Regarding the messianic age, it is written:

“And it will be that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, ‘holy’ shall be said to him.” (Isaiah 4:3.)

The Talmud teaches that the angels will chant ‘holy, holy, holy’ before the Tzaddikim, just as they do before God. (Bava Batra 75b.)

This means just what it says. 

The Tzaddikim who remain faithful before the coming of the Moshiach will deserve this, and much more – so difficult will it be to remain firm in faith and not be misled by everyone’s mistaken beliefs in the pre-Messianic era.

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At that time, there will be many fake religious leaders.

A group such as ours [referring Rebbe Nachman’s own talmidim], in which people gather together thirsting for God’s word, certainly will no longer exist.

There will remain some truly religious individuals, but they will be very widely scattered.

The Rebbe than quoted the verse:

“Write this as a record in a book.” (Exodus 17:14).

In days to come, let people know that there was one who predicted this.

They will know and be encouraged in their faith in God and the true tzaddikim.

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Know: There are still 36 TRUE TZADDIKIM in the world!

(And some say, 72.)

And it’s our job to work on ourselves enough, and to vanquish the lies we tell ourselves enough, to start to be able to figure out who those people might actually be.

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In ‘Tzaddik’ (the English translation of Chayei Moharan) 605, it says this:

“The Rebbe said:

“Even if you aren’t a good Jew, following a Tzaddik is still very good.

This is what R Shimon [ben Natanel] meant when he said: ‘Don’t be wicked all by yourself.” (Pirkei Avot 2:13)

In other words, even if you are wicked, God forbid, ‘don’t be wicked all by yourself’  – you too should try to get closer to the Tzaddik, so that at least tehre will be some hope for you in the end.”

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We’re at the stage where more and more of us are realising that ‘fake rabbis’ and false leaders of all stripes are really a thing.

In the Jewish world, in the orthodox reality, that means that for many people, the test is now switching to the ‘test of Korach’ – i.e. the test of continuing to believe in true Tzaddikim, and the test of understanding that God wants us to be close to the true Tzaddikim – at least 36 of them! – that He put into the world to help and guide us.

This is not about ‘blindly’ following some ‘cult leader’, God forbid.

But it is about asking God to show us what is true, and what isn’t – and then trusting Hashem to do that and guide us to the right ideas and the right people.

====

Xtianity (and its many derivatives that popped up in ‘chassidic’ thought) teaches that THE TRUE TZADDIK does all the work for us.

We just go and polish buttons, and we’re ‘saved’ automatically.

This isn’t yiddishkeit.

Anyone who sat ‘polishing buttons’ in Egypt instead of following Moshe Rabbenu out into the wilderness died in the plague of darkness.

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But here’s the thing:

Anyone who refused to accept that Moshe Rabbenu was THE TRUE TZADDIK, and thought he was just some charismatic cult-leader who wasn’t encouraging people to think for themselves, with all his Torah laws and brand-new regulations – those people also died.

It stands to reason, that people like this also didn’t follow Moshe Rabbenu out into the desert in the first place, because how could you trust anyone who tells you something so obviously irrational?!?!?

I mean, the guy stuttered…. and he was married to the daughter of the biggest idolater in the whole world…. and he ran away from the authorities….

Only a gormless, brainwashed retard would follow someone like that out into the desert.

Right?

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But that’s not where the test ended.

Even after all the miracles, the manna, the splitting of the sea – people were continually muttering against Moshe Rabbenu, and challenging his leadership.

The classic example was Korach.

Who needs all this TRUE TZADDIK, stuff Moshe?! You are just aggrandising yourself at the expense of everyone else, collecting tithes for your own personal use…

Every Jew is a ‘tzaddik’ – a true tzaddik! So who needs you, and all your rules and diktats, Moshe Rabbenu?!

You are just trying to turn us all into a cult….

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Korach was very persuasive.

And all of the people he ‘persuaded’ got swallowed alive by the earth and also didn’t make it to the promised land, Eretz Yisrael.

Yeah, sure, they passed ‘Stage 1’ of geula, and they got out of Egypt, and they understood the world is full of ‘false leaders’ and big lies.

But they didn’t pass Stage 2 – the test of Korach, where they still understood there were 36 True Tzaddikim in every generation, and a TRUE TZADDIK hidden away in every generation, who they had to search for and get close to.

As it was then, so it is now.

====

Let’s end with some more Rabbenu.

In Sichos HaRan (translated into English as ‘Rebbe Nachman’s Wisdom’, by the Breslov Research Institute), Rebbe Nachman tells us the following:

“It’s written about the time of Moshiach (Job 38:13): ‘To grasp the ends of the earth and shake the wicked from it’.

However, one who comes close to a true Tzaddik, [he] can grab hold of him, and not be cast off.

When we hold on to the Tzaddik, we can stay firm.”

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Personally, I am seeing a MASSIVE difference between those people who are really working on their emuna, emunat tzaddikim, and staying close to Rebbe Nachman’s teachings, and sheltering under the Rav’s wing – and everyone else.

People are still going through so many tests and hardships, but there is absolutely no talk of ‘suicide’ or ending it all or anything like that.

Nothing even close to that.

There is still a lot of joy, even amongst the tears, and a lot of hope, even amongst all the worry and fear.

And the source of that is Rabbenu’s teachings, and the Rav’s gentle support via his shiurim and prayers.

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Rebbe Nachman also teaches this:

In Sefer HaMiddot (Tzaddik, #151),  he writes:

THE COMING OF THE MOSHIACH DEPENDS ON DRAWING CLOSE TO THE TZADDIK.

Next, he explains (Tzaddik #152):

THE PRIMARY FULFILLMENT OF THE SOUL COMES THROUGH DRAWING CLOSE TO THE TZADDIKIM.

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There are 36 True Tzaddikim (and some say 72…) even in our lowly generation.

And the big test now is to avoid the ‘test of Korach’, swallow our own pride and arrogance – and to go and seek them out.

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You might also like this article:

A reader reminded me it was R Yaakov Emden’s yarhtzeit today, and asked me to stick the post where you can download PDFs of his books back up.

I’m very happy to do that, so here it is.

I am currently having a lot of trouble with my eyes and the internet, so I don’t know how much new stuff I will be posting up for the next few days.

I know they are saying there is a new variant of ‘Covid’, which now apparently affects the eyes…. so I deduce from this that I / we / everyone is being zapped with some form of radiation that is causing a lot of eye issues.

So, please forgive me if I don’t answer emails so fast at the mo, I have a lot of eye strain, and I need to stay offline as much as possible, it seems, until they settle down again.

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Also, I was asked if the Rav is saying anything specific about the matzav in Israel.

The Rav has been saying for years that the real war is at the ballot box, and that they replaced guns with votes and political parties and slogans.

He has also been giving some small, but potent, hints that the real people behind our difficulties are the ones we actually believe are protecting us from ‘our enemies’.

If you read Hebrew, go HERE and try to read some of the things being put up, including the prayers, because once you understand the Rav’s style, you start to pick up some awesome clues. It’s mamash like how the Gemara was written, with allusion and seemingly bizarre non-sequiturs and stories, to try and convey and preserve important information for the Jewish nation, that was actually dangerous to publicise….

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HERE is the English site, and THIS is the most recent prayer for the molad (new moon) of Iyar, 5783.

This is a snippet, that shows you that the prayers are also containing a lot of ‘instructions’ on how we continue to battle this spiritual war:

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ascended to the hidden heights while fire surrounded him and his students, and his bier went by itself to Meron to the place of its concealment, that there is the aspect of holy of holies, and therefore all the Jewish people must ascend on LaG B’Omer to the holy of holies – to Meron.

For Iyar is the initial letters of “My enemies will turn back, will be shamed in a moment,” and then is the time to subdue all adversaries and all oppressors of the Jewish people.

==

And this, too:

Because in the month of Iyar, that then are revealed the 13 Rectifications of the Beard of Atik Yomin, all the impurity is eliminated from the world.

And then is fulfilled, “And the spirit of impurity I will remove from the land,” and then, “Edom will be a conquest, Seir will be a conquest of his enemies, and Israel will have success.”

And then “The humble will inherit the earth, and will delight over great peace.  And in a little while, there will be no evildoer; you shall contemplate his place and he will be no more.  For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but Hashem is a support of the righteous, Hashem knows the days of the innocent, and their inheritance will be forever.  They will not be shamed at an evil time, and in days of hunger they will be satiated.” 

 

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Ah, I have to tell you, dear reader, I am feeling quite low at the moment.

This evil has been going on for millenia…. and sometimes it feels like it’s never going to break and crack and finally disappear.

Some days, it’s hard to keep going.

But keep going we must…. and when I hit that low place, I know the Rav and the other tzaddikim are actually preparing the way before us all, just it’s still hidden.

May God fulfill the words of the Rav’s prayer, above, very soon.

Amen.

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Below, you’ll find 13 books and pamphlets of R’ Yaakov Emden that have been out of print for a century.

These are all historical records about what was transpiring with the Frankist-Sabbatean movement around 250 years ago, and again, if you have any interest in getting to the truth of what was really happening then (and you read Hebrew….) nothing beats getting the information from a contemporary source.

For now, I’m just sticking the information out there to start circulating around.

BH, if God wants me to return to this subject again, I’ll do that on another occasion.

I highly recommend you download these books to your own PCs, because I have no idea if the spammers will be trying to take this page out of action again.

Enjoy!

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 1 – תורת הקנאות – Hamburg-Altona 1752:

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-1-תורת-הקנאות-Hamburg-Altona-1752.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 2 – שפת אמת – Hamburg-Altona 1752

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-2-שפת-אמת-Hamburg-Altona-1752.pdf

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Yaakov Emden – book 3 – אספקלריה המאירה – Hamburg-Altona 1753

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-3-אספקלריה-המאירה-Hamburg-Altona-1753.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 4 – לוחות עדות – Hamburg-Altona 1755

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-4-לוחות-עדות-Hamburg-Altona-1755.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 5 – שבירת לוחות האון – Hamburg-Altona 1759

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-5-שבירת-לוחות-האון-Hamburg-Altona-1759.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 6 – מאירת עיניים – Amsterdam 1753

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-6-מאירת-עיניים-Amsterdam-1753.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 7 – פתח עינים – Hamburg-Altona 1757

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-7-פתח-עינים-Hamburg-Altona-1757.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 8 – בית יהונתן הסופר – Hamburg-Altona 1763

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-8-בית-יהונתן-הסופר-Hamburg-Altona-1763.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 9 – עדות ביעקב – Hamburg-Altona 1756

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-9-עדות-ביעקב-Hamburg-Altona-1756.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 10 – עקיצת עקרב – Hamburg-Altona 1753

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-10-עקיצת-עקרב-Hamburg-Altona-1753.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 11 – ספר התאבקות – Hamburg-Altona 1762

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-11-ספר-התאבקות-Hamburg-Altona-1762.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 12 – ספר שמוש – Hamburg-Altona 1758

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-12-ספר-שמוש-Hamburg-Altona-1758.pdf

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Rabbi Yaakov Emden – book 13 – מגילת ספר – מהדורת כהנא עם הגהות והוספות – Warshawa 1897

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Rabbi-Yaakov-Emden-book-13-מגילת-ספר-מהדורת-כהנא-עם-הגהות-והוספות-Warshawa-1897.pdf

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You might also like this article:

https://woocommerce-859816-3922029.cloudwaysapps.com/jonathan-eybshutz-the-original-sin/

As promised, here’s a re-post of a post from 3 years ago.

It was interesting to me, re-reading so many of the comments under this post, and other posts related to the discussion of Trump being ‘good’, to see just how brain-washed almost everyone was, at that stage, before ‘Covid 19’, that Trump was some sort of Edomite ‘messiah’.

Again, we know where those ideas came from.

So, here it is, I haven’t changed anything in the text, and it’s a useful snapshot of that time almost three years ago, when we were waiting for Trump to finally ‘clean the swamp.’

And instead, we got Covid 19 fake pandemics, lockdowns, and GO nanotech shots waved through on ’emergency approval’ which meant they didn’t even really pretend to conduct clinical trials to make sure they were safe and effective…

Tell me again, that Trump is the ‘tov-she-b’Esav’.

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The good side of Edom

Date 2019-10-10 13:42:27
Categories Fake News Geula Jewish Community Judaism

Is the United States of America really the ‘good’ side of Edom?

After going into Yom Kippur in Israel with newspapers blaring headlines that Trump had given permission to Turkey to ‘invade’ Syria (!), I thought it was timely to try to track down what the Gemara says about the ‘good side’ of Edom. I know there’s an idea being floated around that America is somehow the ‘good’ side of Edom, and that Trump is somehow akin to the Roman Emperor Antoninus, who had a very close relationship with Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi around 1800 years ago. As things continue to get more and more ‘interesting’ in the international arena, I thought it was time to actually track down the sources in the Gemara that talk about Antoninus, most of which I found in Avoda Zara 10a and b. We can learn a lot from seeing what the Sages actually said about ‘Edom’ and its rulers, and how that maps on to modern-day America, and its rulers.

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The discussion begins in 10a, where the Sages are discussing idolatrous holidays and festivals.

They start talking about something called the ‘Ginusya day of their emperors’, and Rav Yehuda explains:

This is the day on which idolaters inaugurate their emperor.

The Gemara then asks:

But do [the Romans] appoint the son of a king as a king?

The Artscroll notes then state:

“The Emperors of Rome did not reign by hereditary right, but were selected by the previous ruler, or by the Senate.”

Does this sound familiar? The Gemara then goes on to quote a verse from the prophecy of Ovadiah – which is very interesting in its own right, not least because of the following quotes from it:

“Even if you raise [your nest] like an eagle of if you place your nest amongst the stars, I will bring you down from there….. “[T]he house of Yaakov will inherit those who had dispossessed them. The house of Yaakov will be fire, the house of Yosef a flame, and the house of Esav for straw. And they will ignite them and devour them. There will be no survivor to the house of Esav, for Hashem has spoken.”

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The allusions to Edom being America seem obvious. The bald-headed eagle is the American emblem – and appears on the logo of the CIA, amongst other things – and ‘the stars’ are also prominently linked to the USA, in just about every sense of the word, beginning with their flag, moving through the space exploration program, and ending with Hollywood. Let’s continue.

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Rashi explains in his commentary on Genesis 36:43 that Edom is the ‘ancestor’ of Rome.

The Gemara continues to explains that Rome is ‘inferior among nations’ (quoting Ovadiah) because they:

“Do not appoint the son of a king as king.”

Clearly, the Sages aren’t impressed with the idea of ‘democracy’. The Gemara continues that Edom / Rome is “very despised”:

“Because they do not have their own writings or language.”

These descriptions also ‘fits’ the USA perfectly.

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The Gemara now introduces us to the Roman Emperor Antoninus, who had a close relationship with Rebbi, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi.

The discussion begins with how the Roman Authorities – aka the Senate – are ‘persecuting’ Antoninus, and how Rebbe advises him to kill them off one at a time, and “to not contend with all of them at once.” Rebbe is scared to state this openly, because he’s wary of being bugged. The Gemara says:

“One can never be sure that a private conversation will remain secret.”

Admittedly, this does sound a little Trump-like. Let’s continue.

The Gemara next explains about how Antoninus has a daughter who is acting in a way that could cause her father to become embroiled in a public scandal, and again Rebbe advises him on what to do with her. Next, the Gemara describes how Antoninus is secretly sending Rebbi sacks full of crushed gold disguised as wheat, so that Rebbi will have money to pay the greedy Romans who will come after Antoninus. Then, the scene switches to the secret visits Antoninus would make to Rebbe’s house, where he’d kill the servants who accompanied him. The Gemara says:

“Every day, he would wait upon Rebbi. He would serve him food and serve him drink. When Rebbi wished to climb onto his bed he would bend down before the bed and say [to Rebbi]: “Climb up on me to your bed.”

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Before we get into the next, really interesting part, I feel the urge to state the obvious, namely that Trump isn’t doing this for any Jewish sage, last I heard.

He’s not sending Rabbi Berland sacks of gold, he’s not letting Rav Kanievsky use him as a footstool, he’s not asking the Biala Rebbe questions about how to keep Ivanka in line… For sure, Trump has a problem with his ‘Deep State’ trying to take him out of action, same as Antontinus did, but without any of Antoninus’ corresponding personal piety. Let’s continue.

The Gemara now gets into a very interesting discussion that has reverberations for us, and our generation, and our confusion of how best to handle, and relate to ‘Edom’ / America. Antoninus asks Rebbi if he’s going to enter the World to Come, and Rebbi tells him yes. Antoninus then starts quoting the prophet Ovadiah at him, and says:

But it is written ‘and there will be no remnant to the house of Esav’, which implies that the descendants of Esav (Edomites / Romans) will not enter the World to Come. Rebbi responded: “That verse speaks only of one who acts in the manner of Esav.”

“This was also taught in a Baraisa: And there will be no remnant to the House of Esav. It could have been thought that this applies to all Edomites. To dispel this notion, [the Torah] states: To the House of Esav.

By naming Esav, it teaches that only where the Edomite acts in the manner of Esav is he condemned; otherwise, he may enter the World to Come.”

All this is a direct quote from the Gemara.

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In the Artscroll notes it states:

“Edomites are barred from the World to Come only if they act like Esav (a barbarian who scorned God, committed murder and violated women.)….[A]ny gentile (even if he is not a ger toshav, who formally accepts the seven Noahide laws) has a portion in the World to Come, provided he does not emulate the barbaric Esav.”

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Before we get into a discussion of whether the USA has a history of acting like the arch-hypocrite Esav, pretending to be good, pure and holy while actually rampaging around the world slaughtering anyone who stands in the way of its economic goals and other materialistic desires, let’s just return to the Gemara in Avoda Zara 10b.

Antoninus is still having difficulties believing Rebbi’s assertion that he will make it into the World to Come, and tells him:

But it is written: “There (in Gehinnom) is Edom, her kings and all her presidents.” Apparently, all the leaders of Edom are assigned to Gehinnom! Rebbi replies that the verse isn’t talking about all Edom’s kings, just most of them; and that the verse states: All her presidents, and not all her ministers.

The Artscroll notes explain:

“A president is a ruler of Rome who is not a king, but serves at the behest of the Senate (see Tosfos). A minister is a royal adviser (presumably a senator) – Raavad.”

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In other words, every single president of Edom / Rome / America is going to gehinnom.

But here and there, there may be some Edomite royal heads of state, and also the odd Senator and Congressman who may actually escape the rampant moral corruption enough to make it into the World to Come. The Gemara continues with more discussions about the relationship between Antoninus and Rebbe, and the Artscroll notes trace this back to the prophecy that Rebecca is told when she was carrying Esav (Edom) and Yaakov (Israel) back in Genesis, 25:23. I.e. the two babies are two nations, and when one is up, the other will be down.

“Two nations are in your womb…the elder shall serve the younger.”

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The Artscroll notes then quote Rabbi Gedalyah Schorr, author of Or Gedalyah who explains that:

“Ideally, Yaakov-Israel and Esav-Edom were meant to enjoy a harmonious and complimentary partnership. Esav…was supposed to defeat evil, while Yaakov…was to promote good. Had Esav fulfilled his role, he would have been equal to Yaakov.”

This view is based on the midrash that states that six tribes should have descended from Esav and six from Yaakov, but this didn’t happen as Esav went bad, failed to live up to his spiritual job, and so Yaakov married Leah instead (who was Esav’s intended bride) and the whole course of Jewish history changed.

Again, Rav Schorr believes that the ‘perfect partnership’ between Edom and Israel did actually occur – uniquely – for one brief interlude in history, when Antoninus was (secretly…) subservient to Rebbe.

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From what I can tell, this passage in the midrash appears to be the basis of the idea that Trump is some sort of Edomite ‘good guy’, but there is absolutely no discussion here of any sort of ‘Edomite’ aspect of Moshiach and there is also a very large distinction made in these sources between EDOM and ESAV.

Parts of the former can make teshuva and get some share in the world to come. But Esav can’t. This is a very important distinction to make, if you’ve been reading articles like this. Assuming Trump is a retread of Antoninus, the most that would mean is that he’s sneaking Rav Kanievsky sacks of gold and asking Rav Berland coded messages about what to do with Ivanka.

Even Antoninus couldn’t and didn’t free Israel from Roman rule, nor give permission for the Jews to rebuild the temple. And even making that equivalence between Trump and Antoninus seems to be stretching us past reality.  As we already mentioned, Trump is not sneaking billions to any Jewish sage, nor waiting hand and foot on any rabbi.

If I’m wrong about this, please do let me know, as clearly that would change things. Which bring is to the last part of this discussion, which is this:

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Is it realistic to assume that America is the ‘good’ part of Edom, and not actually the bad, unfixable, ‘Esav’ part of Edom?

And that’s where the conversation is going to get a little sticky, because once you move all the brainwashing about apple pie and Uncle Sam out the way, you’ll find that American history is just one, big list of atrocities, genocidal actions and wars. Sure, they were always dressed up as being ‘good’ and holy, but really, they boil down to America using its military might to bully the rest of the world into doing what suited it best, economically.

(Btw, the UK preceded the US, and is also totally corrupt and the ‘Esav’ part of Edom. Anglo Saxon culture also included the Nazis, who were clearly also really bad. However, we’re focusing on the US, because that’s who is still empire-building, and controlling the State of Israel, in 2019.)

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The United States committed the first ever genocide, when it brutally killed off millions of its native Americans over the course of a few decades, as I wrote about HERE.

For 250 years, it built its economy off the back of black slaves who were initially brought to America against their will, and then bred by their slave masters like so much chattel. No-one really knows how many blacks lost their lives amidst brutal conditions, worked to death by their pious, white American owners.

No-one knows how many black women slaves were assaulted by their white masters. Blacks didn’t count as real people in America until well into the 1960s and the time of Martin Luther King Jr – and probably well beyond. Then, we have all the European Jews that were barred from entering the US before and during World War II, even though Roosevelt knew they were being slaughtered by the millions.

America held off from really joining the WW2 effort in Europe until the last possible minute, waiting for Stalin to have millions of his soldiers killed by the Nazis, and for the UK to be brought to its knees as an Imperial power. And then, the US decides they are going to drop not just one nuclear bomb on Japan, but two. And not just on a smallish city of 10,000 people but on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where they killed almost a quarter of a million people, half of them in under a minute. This from Wikipedia:

Over the next two to four months, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed between 90,000 and 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000 and 80,000 people in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day.

This was totally cruel, totally murderous behavior. You want to try out your nuke? Pick a small target! Keep bombing in increments, until the Japanese gave up! Why bomb two such big cities like that, chik chak, with such terrible loss of life?

To this day, the United States of America is the only country to have actually used its nuclear weapons to destroy tens of thousands of people.

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Post WW2, the Dulles brothers and Eisenhower decided to secretly ship 1,600 hardcore Nazi scientists over to the US, as part of Operation Paperclip.

That Nazi science has morally corrupted the US in a million different ways, particularly in the realms of medicine,  biology and economics and industry, which most people still are blissfully unaware of. (Btw, I think that number is way too low. If you include intelligence assets that were ‘taken over’ by the CIA and the British, the number of former Nazis working for the West bounds into the thousands.)

The US has spent decades since WW2 rampaging around the world, starting wars whenever its economic interests are threatened, that have totally devastated whole countries and left tens of millions of people dead, homeless or totally impoverished and with nothing to look forward to. Of course, American actions are always dressed up as ‘good’ and ‘holy’ and above reproach ‘, but really?

America is acting exactly like Esav.

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Is everyone in the US acting like Esav?

No, clearly not. There are many good noahides / non-Jews in the US – and also in other parts of the Edomite Western world – and these people will be the parts of Edom who will make it to the World to Come, as described in the Gemara, above. But America’s politicians? America’s presidents? America’s generals? America’s elites?

There is absolutely no basis in fact or Jewish sources for believing that these people are even close to being the ‘good’ part of Edom.

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What the sources do seem to clearly show, however is that the USA = Esav, mamash.

Right down to its ‘presidents’, senators, eagle emblem and stars and stripes flag. Here and there, there might be a good politician, but the Gemara is clear:

[A]ll the leaders of Edom are assigned to Gehinnom.

The LEADERS of Edom are all the politicians, heads of states and European royalty. But America itself is obviously acting like ‘Esav’, pretending to be 100% kosher, but really just a pig. And the sources are clear that:

[T]here will be no remnant to the House of Esav.

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Which is why I find statements like this to be extremely puzzling:

“When Esau is seen helping Israel, it is a sign Moshiach is right around the corner,” Rabbi Kessin said.

In explanation, Rabbi Kessin quoted the Bible concerning the prophesied fate of Jacob and Esau told to their mother, Rivka. And Hashem answered her, “Two nations are in your womb, Two separate peoples shall issue from your body; One people shall be mightier than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23

The rabbi noted an ambiguity in the Hebrew text that had vastly different import. “Due to the absence of pronunciation markings, the wording of the Torah text can be read either as ‘va’ya’avod’, meaning he shall serve, or ‘va’ya’aved’,  he shall enslave,” the rabbi explained. “Esau will help Jacob by either serving him or by causing him to suffer since suffering is a way to bring God back into the world.”

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So, is Trump a possible reincarnation of Antoninus?

It’s possible, especially if you take into account Trump’s pronounced ‘anti war’ stances, but unlikely, especially if you look at recent tweets like this:

“President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world…and the Jewish people in Israel love him like he’s the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God… But American Jews don’t know him or like him. They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore.”

Does this sound like the kind of guy who’d be sending Rav Berland secret sacks of gold, or letting Rav Kanievsky use him as a footstool?…. If you look through the history books, there are other Roman leaders who sound far, far more like Trump than Antoninus Pius….

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I never got around to specifying who I had in mind in that original post, but go and read up about Crassus.

Snippet from HERE:

Some of Crassus’ wealth was acquired conventionally, through slave trafficking, production from silver mines, and speculative real estate purchases.

Crassus bought property that was confiscated in proscriptions and by notoriously purchasing burnt and collapsed buildings. Plutarch wrote that, observing how frequent such occurrences were, he bought slaves “who were architects and builders.” When he had over 500 slaves, he bought houses that had burnt and the adjacent ones “because their owners would let go at a trifling price.”

He bought “the largest part of Rome” in this way, buying them on the cheap and rebuilding them with slave labor.

There is nothing new under the sun.

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What’s going on right now is a massive opportunity for the Jewish community to finally fix the sin of ‘sinat chinam’.

And God is inviting each of us to do a bit of that ‘fixing’ in our own back yard.

Now that we know that ‘yichus’ actually has nothing to do with how easy or hard we find it to serve Hashem, really – in both directions – that  means that the whole shebang actually boils down to this:

Free choice, and working on our own bad middot.

I.e. whoever we are, there is still everything to play for.

And whoever we are, there are still choices that we ourselves can make, to really build the world, work on our own bad middot and rebuild the Temple – in our hearts.

And no-one is excluded from this work, not even ‘the biggest tzaddikim’, who have far more responsibility than us average Joes, for setting an example, in the area of cultivating true humility, and acknowledging their own bad middot.

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Baruch Hashem, Rav Eliezer Berland is a paradigm for this ‘real’ approach to avodat Hashem.

And Rabbenu, Rebbe Nachman, set the example for this, too, when he encouraged his student Rav Natan to write books like Chayei Moharan that really depicted Rabbenu’s struggles to work on himself, and overcome his own bad middot, and to uproot his ta’avot – lusts.

That was one of the biggest selling points of Breslov for me, all those years ago, that finally, I had a Tzaddik who I could relate to as a real human being – and who could also relate to me, and my struggles.

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I had a lot of issues with bad depressions and feelings of totally yeoush, before I hit Breslov.

And then, I started reading about how Rabbenu sometimes also had days when he despaired, and couldn’t carry on talking to God because of it…. but how he always picked himself up, broke through that yeoush and returned to Hashem.

Rabbenu had been there before me – and he charted the way to get out of all the bad middot, and the sadness, and the despair and all the other issues that prevent us from serving Hashem and building the world by refining our own characters.

And that information forms the real foundation of his teachings.

And Rav Berland is carrying on where Rabbenu left off.

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Below, I’m going to bring a translated excerpt of R’ Natan’s Likutei Halachot, which lays out some very important ideas about ‘free choice’, in connection with the True Tzaddikim and overcoming the Erev Rav.

Before I do that, tho, I want to tell you about a bar mitzvah I went to yesterday, in a penthouse overlooking the beach in the Gush Dan area.

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We have close family who made aliya last year, and it was their son’s barmitzvah.

Our family members are not ‘frum’, and down the years, we have had massive clashes and blow-ups around just about every family gathering you can imagine, beginning with my own wedding, and then snaking through a bunch of other weddings, funerals, stone settings – and even, my ‘good bye’ party, which my in-laws decided to hold in the 9 days, totally against my wishes.

Long story short, most of these ‘family gatherings’ have resulted in the sort of acrimony and bitterness that would make what happened with Kamtza and Bar Kamtza look like child’s play.

And so…. the barmitzvah appeared on the horizon.

But this time, things were totally different.

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Over the last few years, me and my husband have paid innumerable pidyonot to the Rav, on behalf of ourselves and other family members, to try to ‘heal’ so much of what has gone wrong.

Those pidyons have worked in big and small ways – to the point that even our ‘unreligious’ family members have paid a pidyon or two, now, as well.

And yesterday, we could all see the effect of what happens when you connect to the True Tzaddikim, and also make an effort to identify and work on your own bad middot.

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The barmitzvah and party were held in the Omer, at the time when you’re not meant to attend gatherings with live music.

The party was a ‘cocktail party’ – in every since of the word! – and totally not the sort of thing that me and my husband like, or are suited to.

In the past, my yetzer would have been working overtime, giving me justifications for why we shouldn’t go, why we definitely shouldn’t dance, why we definitely shouldn’t approve of all the OTT gashmius and untznius behavior, etc.

This time, I had one clear message in  my head:

This is family, and family are celebrating a big milestone in their son’s life, and instead of thinking about yourself, the whole time, Rivka, in your super-duper-holy-way, why don’t you think about what you can do for them, and the barmitzvah boy, instead?

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And this insight mamash changed the whole picture.

Instead of sitting in the corner dissing everything and everyone the whole night, and feeling holier-than-thou, I decided I’m going to do my best to really celebrate that barmitzvah with our extended family, even though we were way out of our comfort zone.

Because what’s the point of coming, just to sit in a corner with a sour face and making my hosts feel bad about themselves, and their celebration – and us?

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It’s only today, the morning after, that I realised just how ‘big a deal’ yesterday was – because make no mistake, it was still very hard not to fall back into the mindset of ‘Kamtza and Bar Kamtza’, while we were there.

Some close friend of the hosts from the UK stuck his hand out to me to shake when we were introduced, and I saw the look of panic flit across my brother-in-law’s face, because in the past, I have flat-out refused to shake hands with people back in the home country, no matter how embarrassed that made them.

This time – I shook hands.

And chalked it up to mesirut nefesh for shalom bayit.

And I still got overwhelmed by things like the saxophone-playing young woman with pink hair and tight black leather, and indulged in a bit of ‘quiet tutting’ before I got over myself again, and just found somewhere else to go and sit, where I didn’t have to eyeball her.

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In these small, myriad ways, me and my husband did our bit, to fix the sin of sinat chinam.

And on the other side of the equation, my sister-in-law did her bit, too, by accepting us totally as we were – with payot, headscarves and totally NO cocktail dress, and with strictly kosher food, and with an understanding that we should come as we were, with no other instructions about how to behave or dress.

It’s huge.

As I type these words, I really feel how ‘huge’ it was, yesterday, because there has barely been a family get-together that has no resulted in all out, acrimonious warfare for 25 years, since my husband first got ‘frum’.

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And now, here’s Rav Natan, writing about the Erev Rav, and free choice, and how we can really only uncover that ‘free choice’ to overcome our own bad middot when we’re connected to the True Tzaddikim.

Enjoy!

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Likutei Halachot – The Laws of Blessings on Smell and Blessings of Thanks (4, 33)

This is an aspect of what we have seen, something confusing and strange, from which everyone is astounded. That after the Nation of Israel merited to receive the Torah, with such wonderous signs. And everyone merited ruach hakodesh etc. After all this, to hear that they acted in such a way, to sin by going after the golden calf…

And even though it wasn’t the Nation of Israel who did this, but rather the Erev Rav, afterwards some of the Nation of Israel did sin.

Nonetheless, even the few of the few who made this mistake, what was going on with them?

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And even on the Erev Rav themselves there is still a difficulty, because even the Erev Rav had a huge spiritual awareness, as is apparent from the writings of the Arizal.

And certainly, even in them there was some small good, since they followed Moshe out of Egypt and threw away their families and households, and wanted to convert, since they saw tremendous signs and wonders from Moshe Rabbenu in Egypt.

And after all of this, after all the tremendous wonders that they saw with their own eyes in Egypt, and the splitting of the Sea and the war with Amalek and the Giving of the Torah with such tremendous signs and wonders, like its written ‘the great signs which you saw with your eyes, and the signs and wonders, etc.’

And after all this to do such an act, to make a calf for themselves as a god…[!?]

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But, from all this, each of us can understand just how much free choice we all have, and just how much the Sitra Achra can overcome a person every day, because Hashem Who is Blessed created everything for the sake of free choice, because everything was created for the sake of man. Not for the sake of the angels.

And so too, the opposite, not for the sake of the animals or the plants, etc.

Simply, everything was made for the sake of man, from the beginning to end.

And the main thing is that man has free choice, because it is for this which is his work which is of so great importance, far more than the work of the angels, since they do not have free choice, and a man does have free choice. And it was for this that Hashem created everything, from start to finish.

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So, it turns out that everything was created for the sake of free choice, and therefore free choice has great power.

So much so, that Hashem Himself, so to speak, is not able to cancel the free choice without cancelling the world.

Like our sages said, ‘everything is in the hands of heaven, except for the Fear of Heaven’.

And, on account of the greatness of free choice, for which everything was created, therefore the Sitra Achra has the power to overcome each time anew with all types of new confusions and ways to lead astray, such that he had the power to overcome Israel after the Giving of the Torah, so that they would create the golden calf.

And all of this happened because Moshe Rabbenu was absent from them and wasn’t among them.

So, the Satan confused the world until the made the golden calf, like it says there in the parasha, ‘and the people saw that Moshe was delayed…etc.’, [and they said] ‘come let us make for ourselves a god’, ‘because this man, Moshe, we don’t know what has become of him.’

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So, it turns out that the main way the Satan overcame them was by hiding Moshe from them, and placing in their hearts the thought that Moshe had now disappeared.

Therefore, he managed to persuade them to do this thing, because on that day the Sitra Achra so powerfully overcame them, that no-one had the power to nullify him, except for Moshe if he had been there.

And this is what it means when it says, ‘and the people saw that Moshe was delayed.’

And our sages explained this [that the word ‘boshesh’ delayed] can be read as ‘ba-shesh’ [the sixth hour came], that it was a cloudy day etc. [ie, that the people thought the day had already passed and Moshe, who had promised to return that day, did not arrive.] That the Satan confused the world so much, such that this day was destined for calamity. And, specifically, at that time, after the six[th hour] had come.

And it was a cloudy day, and so specifically then the Satan had the power to overcome with confusion and heresy like this.

Specifically, on that day and at that time. So much so, that no one had the power to nullify him with anything, except for Moshe Rabbenu himself, who was the Tzadik of that generation.

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And, since Moshe was at that time in Heaven, therefore the Satan succeeded at that time.

But, as soon as Moshe came down from the mountain, he subdued him and smashed [the tablets] and nullified the golden calf.

And he went back and received the second set of tablets. And returned to strengthen their emunah. But, even then, it was all in the power of the remainder of the impression of the foundations of emunah which remained engraved in the heart of Israel from the Giving of the Torah.

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At the time of Receiving the First Tablets, because on the basis of this foundation of emunah, each and every Tzadik has the power in his generation to clarify to Israel the holy emunah, because on account of this foundation of emunah the Nation of Israel in each generation merit to come close to the True Tzadik, to request and to search for him until they find him.

And like we described above, therefore we need to make an effort to come close to the Tzadik of the generation specifically, so that we will merit that he clarifies for us the holy emunah each time, according to the day and the hour.

Because, even though at the time of the Giving of the Torah, Israel merited emunah through ruach hakodesh, as we described earlier.

And so too, through the Tzadikim and the prophets in each generation, who clarified the emunah each time more and more.

Nevertheless, we ourselves need in this generation to come close to the True Tzadik of this generation, in order that he can clarify for us the emunah according to the current period and time.

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Ad kan.

Without a connection to the True Tzaddikim, the ‘Erev Rav’ in our midst will overwhelm us, confuse us and rule us, however ‘holy’ and sincere we ourselves might be.

Because only the ‘Moshe Rabbenu’ of the generation has the power to take them on, and destroy them.

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