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A message about 5784 from the Rav

This is a translation of a short letter that Rav Eliezer Berland wrote on Elul 25th, 5783 (September 11, 2023).

It appears in Shivivei Or number 327.

There’s a lot more interesting stuff in that newsletter from the last week, and after Yom Kippur I will translate more, God willing.

But I wanted to get this up before the fast begins.

Enjoy!

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Rosh Hashana 5784 (TShPD), the initial letters of: Tahel Shabbat P’dut David, is the most important, and the most special year since the creation of the world.

Because this year is the year of the revelation of Moshiach ben David,

And in this year, each person will merit to have teshuva shleima v’amitit (complete and truthful teshuva).

And in this year, each and every person will merit to rectify each of their blemishes since the sin of Adam HaRishon, and onwards.

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And also, each and every person will merit to complete the whole SHAS,and all 14 volumes of the Rambam, and all four parts of the Shulchan Aruch.

And all the Turim; and all the Yad Ramah; Kesef Mishnah; Lechem Mishnah; Mishnah LeMelech; Maggid Mishnah, and all the SHACH and the TaZ, Magen Avraham, Sem’ah, Chelkat Mechokek, and Beit Shmuel.

And also, all the Zohars, and all of Etz Chaim, and al the Pri Etz Chaim, and the Seraf Etz Chaim, and the Sha’ar HaKavanot.

And the Shemoneh Prakim, and all the Mesillat Yesharim, Orchot Tzaddikim, Sha’arei Teshuva, Pele Yoetz, Kav HaYashar, Menorat HaMeor.

And all the books of the RAMCHAL, and the awesome ARI HaKadosh.

And all the books of Rabbenu HaKadosh v’haNora [the awesome and holy Rebbe Nachman] – all of Likutey Moharan, and all of Likutey Halachot, and all of Sippurei HaMaasiot, and all Shivchey HaRan, and Chayei Moharan.

And all the books of his holy students, and the students of his students.

And we will merit to only study the holy Torah, from now and forever.

With the blessings of the Torah, and with great love,

Eliezer Berland

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DutchSinse has been banned from streaming on Youtube… he’s only managing to put up messages on his comment page now.

He just put up a message saying there are huge, enormous fires all over Canada again – way bigger than what happened a few months ago, around June 7, with that so-called ‘smoke bomb‘ in New York…

We live in interesting times.

But BH, all this is bringing the whole world to a place of finally doing some real, sincere and complete teshuva, and turning back to God.

And if there is one ‘message’ apt for Yom Kippur, 5784, than this is it.

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Living life with emuna

Shavua tov!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and a lot of praying, the last couple of days, on how to deal with ‘life in 2023’.

Very  long story short – it boils down to understanding that God is behind absolutely everything, without any exception to that rule.

If God wants my car hacked into, God forbid – then that is what will be.

And so on and so forth, for all the other ‘potentially scary’ stuff going on all around.

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The corollary to this is:

If God doesn’t want something to happen to me – it can’t, no matter how much other people or circumstances may be trying to make that occur.

And as 99% of what happens in this world is a function of our relationship with God, and our ongoing attempt to make teshuva, improve our bad middot, pray, do good deeds, reveal God’s Kingship in the world and learn Torah, etc, the more I put my time and effort into these spiritual endeavors, the better off I will be, on so many levels.

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Tachlis, after spending a day looking at manual transmission old cars, I realised that I can’t just side-step the challenges here, by trying to ‘buy’ my way out of them.

Once I realised that, I moved some pictures of tzaddikim into the new car, and I spent a fair bit of time praying very sincerely that God should keep me, and everyone else using the car and driving the car safe.

And also, everyone else safe on the roads, in whatever way that needs to happen.

I am also having in mind now ‘hackers’, when I say my tefillot haderech, and also saying that prayer with a lot more kavanot.

This approach has cheered me up immensely.

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Something else I realised, is that all this ‘soul hacking’ stuff has been going on since time immemorial – at least since Ancient Egypt, and probably way before.

Just back then, their ‘tech’ was much more spiritual and not as crass as the tech we have to deal with today.

R Avraham Sutton actually wrote a book about all that, called Spiritual Technology.

Point is: while there are some very challenges things going on right now, they are not NEW in the way they appear to be.

I am thinking of that rabbi from the Gemara, who the witches were trying to cast spells on, using the dust they would gather from under his feet.

He said let them gather the dust!! If God doesn’t want their spell to succeed, they can’t harm me!

This is the paradigm I need to be operating out of, going forward – focussing way more on spiritual solutions, and bringing more of the practical teachings of Rabbenu and the Rav, BH.

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I hope you have a good fast.

And we’ll pick things up again next week.

 

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A good Rosh Hashana

Shana Tova v’metuka!

We are now officially ‘on the other side’ of Rosh Hashana 5784, and it seems to me, there will be a lot more sweetness this year then it currently still appears.

There’s a Breslov custom to do vidui on the eve of Rosh Hashana, at the grave of a real Tzaddik, where you go through as much stuff you can remember from the past year, and try to atone for it, before Rosh Hashana begins.

If you’re in Uman – you do that by Rabbenu.

But here in Jerusalem, a lot of the Rav’s people – the wives and kids and others who didn’t make it out to Uman – go to the grave of Shimon HaTzaddik.

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It’s been the minhag for me and my kids to go to Shimon HaTzaddik for a few years now, so Friday morning, we all piled in the car and headed out to Sheikh Jarrah.

Rav Natan Sternhertz, Rebbe Nachman’s main student, actually wrote a book where he set out many of the ‘sins’, alphabetically, to go through.

A lot of that book is geared more towards men, but it’s still a great ‘jumping off’ point, and I find every year that God draws my attention to some other part of the text, where I suddenly remember what a cack job I did in that area, the last 12 months.

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In previous years, some of my kids have been more, and less, into doing vidui at Shimon HaTzaddik.

One year, one of them even skipped it, and that led to yet more ‘avodat hamiddot’ for me, right before Chag, to try not to judge them to harshly, or feel aggrieved and upset about them exercising their God-given right to free choice.

It’s their life, after all, and they will have to abide by the consequences of their decisions.

But this year, I have to say it was a very uplifting, emotional experience for all of us.

By the end, all of us were crying a bit, realising just how flawed we actually are, and how much patience and love and compassion God continues to show us, year after year, when He gives us yet another chance to do a bit better, and to fix a bit more.

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Then the Rosh Hashana whirl-wind descended.

I was having the family of one of my kid’s friends come stay for two days, while the father was also in Uman.

They have a sweet 9 year with Downs Syndrome – and he needs a lot of love and attention.

Let me just pause now, and salute all those parents with Downs kids, and kids with autism, and all the other conditions that require so much constant care and attention from the parents.

By the end of chag, I was so impressed with the mother – and also the rest of the family – and very humbled by the amount of grumbling and whining I’ve done done the years about my own parenting pressures.

But the kid, the naughty, sweet kid, brought so much light into the home over the chag.

It’s hard to describe this properly, but if you’ve ever spent time with a child with Downs in a relaxed environment, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

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So on the one hand, I went into chag totally consumed by ‘here and now’ issues of making sure beds were made, and food was ready, and cakes were made.

(Boy, were cakes ever made. We were six adult women in the end, and everyone made at least two cakes…. It was the ‘sweetest’ Rosh Hashana I ever had.)

And on the other hand, I went into chag feeling pretty sad that the Rav hadn’t got to Uman, and that there is talk of wars and big earthquakes hitting Eretz Yisrael – I will give more details of this when I get the Rav’s actual words to read, and then BH I will translate what was said.

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Miraculously, I got ready in time for someone to drop me off at the Rav, on Ido HaNavi, for Friday night.

I hadn’t expected to go, so it made things even more of a ‘rush’ than usual, and the first five minutes, I have to admit I just felt a lot of sadness.

It felt like the ‘bad’ had won out, yet again.

But then I clapped a bit with the Rav… sang a big…. jumped a bit with the crowd of mostly women and very, very few men there.

And I started to cheer up.

The Rav himself looked radiant – mamash like he hadn’t just spent the last week travelling all over Eastern Europe, trying to pass through the border to Ukraine – and the vibe in the crowd was actually very joyful.

Some calm descended inside my turbulent soul, and I went back home in a much better mood than I came out.

God is deciding all this,  I reminded myself.

And God is doing everything for the best – including for the very best for Am Yisrael.

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Before Chag, I’d had a chat with my husband.

He went to Uman via Kerestir, in Hungary, and then the Baal Shem Tov – and he was travelling more than 32 hours, before he actually got there.

After what happened with the foot, the leg, the back, last year, we were both pretty nervous ahead of time that all the travelling could cause more problems, God forbid.

But he told me, he was doing fine, thank God, and that Uman was the busiest he’d ever seen it.

(Official figures say 47,000 men got to Uman this year…. and it’s probably still underestimating the total by a lot. Crazy – in a very good way.)

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Meanwhile, all the usual cr*ppy disinformation sites – including Daniel Amram’s Telegram channel, which I’ve come to the conclusion has turned into more ‘controlled opposition’ at this point – were running scare stories trying to make it sound like something awful was going on in Uman.

There are huge tailbacks at the borders!!!!

(Obviously, these people never shopped at Rami Levi, if they think that’s news.)

There are huge amounts of trash being left on the pavements in Uman!!!

(Like you’d get at any venue or ‘festival’ when tens of thousands of people are there – and that’s the excuse the Ukrainians use for squeezing a ‘tourist tax’ out of every visitor to Uman on Rosh Hashanah….)

A Ukrainian policeman is beating up Jews with a baton, for breaking the curfew!!!!

(And here? Why, policemen beat up Jews with batons all the time – and they don’t even need a pretext.)

But the bottom line is this:

Uman was awesome this year.

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All the travellers’ mesirut nefesh, time, effort and money is fixing things for all of us.

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Back in Jerusalem, I went back to the prayers on Ido HaNavi Shabbat morning, when there was no shofar to hear in any case, so it didn’t matter that I was sitting outside, half-way up some crowded alley.

I did my Shmoneh Esrei…. I did my Mussaf…. and the prayers really spoke to me this  year.

There was so much stuff in there about the ‘fake malchut‘ hatching conspiracies to destroy the Jews and entice them to serve idols, to tear them away from God.

But how in the end, God’s dominion will be clearly and openly revealed, and the kavod of Hashem will spread out to all corners of the earth… 

It gave me so much chizzuk.

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In the meantime, the ‘quiet space’ that I’d tried to carve out for myself to recite Mussaf turned into another test of middot.

Five seconds after I started praying,  a woman with an enormous stroller and five small kids showed up, and arranged her kids’ little plastic chairs in a semi-circle with me in the middle of it.

“And so, instill Your awe, O Hashem our God, within all Your works…”

(Duvey, give Chana the Bamba. Duvey! Come back and give Chana her Bamba!!)

“And so, grant honor, O Hashem, to Your people…”

(Ima, I really need the bathroom….Can you wait a little, chamood?….No, Ima, I need NOW!!!)

“Holy are You, and awesome is Your name.”

(At this point, one of the kids steals the small fold-up chair I’d brought with me to sit on, and I had a massive battle with myself to carry on talking to God, doing the Mussaf of Rosh Hashana, and not just dropping everything to chase my chair down the street.)

“You have chosen us from all the peoples…”

(Does this belong to anyone? Does this jar belong to anyone?) – from the corner of my eye, I could see it was my jar of kombucha, that I’d brought with me from home. Some toddler had ‘found it’ where I’d stashed it under my now missing chair, while I prayed.)

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Tov.

I decided to just try and ignore everything and everyone, and to accept God’s dominion in my life, at least for the next few minutes.

If God wants me to have the chair, I’ll have it.

If He wants me to drink kombucha before the long walk home, I’ll drink it.

If He wants me to keep getting bashed by strollers, my feet trod on by small kids, and continually elbowed by a teen praying and swaying so enthusiastically she doesn’t even feel what’s going on here – fine by me!

When I was done, I found my chair two feet away, and the kombucha had survived it’s mugging as well.

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On the way back home, I was pondering on why the prayers at the Rav so often hit buttons that can lead to some very bad middot surfacing.

But it came to me pretty fast, that this is the whole work to do down here.

We can’t ‘disconnect’ our prayers on Rosh Hashana from our real experiences and reactions as people.

And at the Rav, the two things go firmly hand-in-hand, giving you a clear picture of where you are really holding.

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The next day, I went to hear the shofar blowing at the Sephardi shul up the road.

It was much ‘calmer’ – but in many ways, a little ucky.

One of the main old guys singing the prayers in turn lives with a xtian Phillipino woman, and has a child with her.

He dresses chareidi, but doesn’t keep Shabbat or kosher….

I had a real fight on my hands the whole time, to not keep judging him harshly for being a disgusting hypocrite.

As soon as I heard the Shofar (enough….) I got out of there and came back home, before the urge to ‘judge harshly’ totally overwhelmed me.

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After Chag, my husband told me he’d had the best Rosh Hashana ever, over there in Uman.

I felt the same way, about my Rosh Hashana in Jerusalem.

In my home, where it really counts, there were no arguments this year, no ‘tension’, no eruptions, no harsh words.

And my house was literally packed to the rafters with people (and cake….)

BH, all of Am Yisrael will have a good 5784.

And all the ‘evils’ plans to harm the good people of the world will unravel, and come to naught.

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The Lamed Vav Tzaddikim

There are 36, and some say 72, ‘secret Tzaddikim’ in whose merit the whole world continues to stand.

This isn’t ‘happy clappy’ Breslov.

It’s not even ‘chassidut’.

It’s straight Gemara.

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Sanhedrin 97b; Succah 45b:

There are no fewer than 36 righteous people in the world who greet the Shekhinah in each generation.

Although as mentioned, the precise number of these ‘hidden tzaddikim’ is disputed in the Gemara.

From Chullin 92a:

“A homer of barley, and a letech of barley” (Hosea 3:2) – [this refers to] 45 righteous who cause the world to be sustained …

30 in the land of Israel and 15 here [in Babylonia]. 

Abaye said: And most of them can be found in the synagogue, under the upper room [i.e. among the unhonored masses].

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The Baal Shem Tov is also meant to have said this about the 36 hidden tzaddikim sustaining the world:

“Just as there are 36 hidden tzaddikim, there are 36 revealed tzaddikim.”

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Point is, while the details and numbers are disputed, the fact these hidden Tzaddikim exist, and that the world is sustained in their merit, it not up for argument.

One of the commentators here made the classic ‘Korach’ argument that essentially ‘all Am Yisrael are holy’, and they don’t need ‘Tzaddikim’ exalted above them.

On the one hand – Korach was totally correct, that all of Am Yisrael is indeed holy of holies.

We aren’t xtians, were one guy shows up and ‘fixes’ everything and everyone else all by himself, like some sort of ‘mini-eloke’, walking around in a human body.

But on the other hand…. we can’t do it all by ourselves, and there are, and always have been, elevated Tzaddikim in our midst, whose prayers reach those areas the rest of us just can’t quite get to.

And if we don’t recognise that this is an integral part of authentic yiddishkeit, then the ground will probably open all round us…. And you already know how that story ends.

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So far so good?

Great, let’s continue laying things out a bit more clearly here.

While no-one knows ‘for sure’ who these ‘Lamed Vav’ Tzaddikim are, they are aware of each other’s identities.

And usually, after they pass on, they are revealed as being one of the ‘Lamed Vav’ Tzaddikim – because to be revealed openly in their lifetimes can cause them a lot of spiritual problems, and can even result in their death, God forbid.

So now, this message from a ‘Lamed Vav’ is from 2017 – Rav Elazar Mordechai Menzer, the Lamed Vav in question, passed away a few months after delivering this:

Here’s what Rav Menser wrote in the letter:

“On Thursday night, before dawn, at 4.29am, after I’d finished davening ma’ariv, with the niggunim and the nusach of the holy days, I received permission from Heaven to reveal what I’m about to tell you.

“On the eve of the 17th Tevet, the yahrtzeit of the famous Tzaddik of the previous generation, who would be visited by many of the Tzaddikim of the previous generation at his home, the Rav Ezra Prachia Cohen, ztl, the father of Rabbenu, the Rav Chaim Cohen, shlita, the Milkman, the Tzaddik foundation of the world…

“Rav Ezra, ztl, came down on the day of his yahrtzeit and told his son, the Tzaddik, foundation of the world, shlita, ‘My son! My son! My son! Who is so dear to me and to the Creator of the worlds. I request from you very much, come with me Upstairs to Gan Eden. They have prepared a place for you there which is very good. Why stay here? [I.e., in this world.] Now that the holy Shechina and all of the Tzaddikim together with her are crying, when they see the lowliness of this generation?’”

Rav Menser continues: “After he said this, he then went on to speak at length about the zealots in the community, whose ‘loftiness in their mouths, and who hold a double-edged sword in their hands.’

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[Rav Ezra] then continued and said the following to his son:

“You are also being slandered, and also the other true Tzaddikim of the generation [are being slandered], and also the Tzaddik, foundation of the world, Rav Eliezer Berland, shlita, who fled into exile [is being slandered], and no-one paid any attention.

“I REQUEST FROM YOU [MY SON], THAT YOU HAVE MERCY ON ME. FROM ABOVE, I’M UNABLE TO CONTINUE WATCHING YOUR SUFFERING, AND THE SUFFERING OF THE REST OF THE PERSECUTED TZADDIKIM, WHO ARE BEING TRAMPLED ON. AND THE GEDOLEI YISRAEL WHO DON’T FOLLOW IN THE PATH OF THESE PERSECUTORS, THEY ARE ALSO BEING PERSECUTED.

“The Shechina and the Tzaddikim above, in Heaven, are crying and are suffering [from this]. Only the Satan and the accusors are happy and dancing about the fact that they’re besting the Shechina and the Tzaddikim above, whilst also lengthening this terrible, bitter exile.”

Rav Menser continues: “[Rav Ezra] then continued to speak about different matters, and in the end he concluded by saying: ‘More than this, I don’t have permission to reveal to you now.’”

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This article is six years old…. but it’s still as pertinent as ever, for what is going on today, in 2023, Erev Rosh Hashana 5784.

It continues:

A little while after this occurred, Nachman Salmonovitch from Shuvu Banim was visiting the Tzaddik Rav Menser, shlita, who permitted him to publicize the content of this letter, and also added the following astounding message:

“You should know, that all of this persecution [of Rav Berland] is born out of jealousy. I have no doubt that if these persecutors would have been living in the generation of Rabbenu HaKadosh, Rebbe Nachman, that they would have also been persecuting him….

R’ Salmonovitch explains: “It’s known that Rav Menser, shlita, only says the words that Hashem puts into his mouth, when people ask him questions. At 2am that morning, he told me that he’d just received another message from Heaven, and that I should give it over in his name. The message from Rav Menser was as follows:

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‘They don’t punish a person unless he’s first been warned, therefore I’m now warning you.

Tosfot in Masechet Sotah [which quotes Rabbi Yochanon, who brings the words from Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai] says that: ‘It’s better for a person to throw himself into a fiery furnace, than to embarrass his friend in public.’ And also Rabbenu Yonah [writing in Shaarei Teshuva, the Third Gate, 139, where he explains that we’re speaking about the ‘dust’ of murder, because the person who shames another causes the red blood to drain from the face of the person he embarrassed] – explains that one who embarrasses another in public, it’s like one of the three cardinal sins that a person should rather die than transgress.

(The three cardinal sins are murder, sexual profanity and idol worship.)

==

‘From now on, anyone who opens his mouth against Rav Berland, shlita, he’s considered to be a deliberate transgressor, and he should know that he’s playing with fire.

And he fulfills the words of the following verse in Pirkei Avot that states:

Warm yourself beside the fire of the Sages, but beware of their glowing coals, lest you be burnt. For their bite is the bite of a fox, their sting is the sting of a scorpion, their hiss is the hiss of a serpent, and all their words are like coals of fire.

‘Also, a person who only thinks bad thoughts against Rav Berland, shlita, should know that these thoughts are considered to be idol worship, and that he needs to use all of his strength to expel these thoughts [from his mind].

‘WHOEVER HAS ALREADY SPOKEN AGAINST RAV BERLAND, SHLITA, HAS NO REMEDY, EXCEPT TO GO TO TWO TRUSTWORTHY JEWS, AND TO TELL THEM THAT HE TAKES IT UPON HIMSELF THAT WHEN THE RAV, SHLITA, IS RELEASED, BH, HE WILL GO TO HIM TO APPEASE HIM, UNTIL HE HEARS FROM HIM [RAV BERLAND] THAT HE’S BEEN FORGIVEN.’

R’ Salmonovitch concludes: “This is what the holy Tzaddik Rav Elazar Mordechai Menser, shlita, told me.”

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To spell this out: the real ‘Lamed Vav’ tzaddikim in the world already know who Rav Eliezer Berland really is, and how holy he really is.

‘Pure’ makes ‘pure’ – which is why the followers of a truly sincere, God-fearing ‘rabbi’ and influencer, even if they don’t know themselves 100% what is going on, they take the steer from their own Rav, on what to think  about what is going on ‘about the Rav’.

Simply connecting to someone ‘pure’ can make ‘pure’ – especially in areas as convoluted and deliberately distorted as this.

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To spell this out even more – the people who are ‘against’ the Rav are totally disconnected from truly sincere, God-fearing leaders and influencers, and for sure aren’t connected to a truly holy ‘Lamed Vav’ – or anything approaching it.

Not knowing is not a sin.

It’s very hard to ‘know what’s true’, especially in our world of lies, especially about the Rav.

But when you don’t really ‘know’ anything other than what you read on government propaganda sites like A7 and YWN, but you still feel free to shoot your mouth off about things you truly know nothing about, and even to go so far as to slander very holy people like Rebbe Nachman and the Rav…. then you have a lot of teshuva to make.

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LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE.

It always has, it always will.

Think about this carefully.

Rav Berland is Holy of Holies, mamash.

If you read OIAG 1, 2 and 3, you will find tens of direct quotes from known holy tzaddikim – many of whom have no passed on – clearly and unequivocably pointing this out.

And there are still some ‘hidden tzaddikim’ saying the same things today, in ways that are not so hidden, for the people who have enough zchut to catch their not-so-subtle hints and clues about what is really going on.

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Remember, we aren’t xtians.

We don’t believe some ‘rebbe’ is the physical incarnation of an elok on earth, God forbid, who fixes everything hey presto, while we sit and polish some buttons.

But also remember, we aren’t Korach, who says that we don’t need a Tzaddik HaDor, and that ‘all the nation is holy’, and can do it without any pesky Moshe Rabbenu, and his 40 day fasts, and his tremendous prayer-a-thons to prevent the Jewish people from being totally annihilated….

It’s a very narrow bridge.

And the cost of falling off it, on either side, is going up all the time now – and will continue to do so, the closer we get to geula.

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Am Yisrael is currently facing a lot of danger – and also the world generally.

As I type this, they are bringing back ‘shots’ in Israel after Sukkot… apparently.

The war drums are going up again – but who knows if the ‘war’ is going to be waged via loaded syringes, or fake alien invasions, or the more standard ‘Iran has a nuke’ – I have no idea.

But one thing I can tell you:

Only the people who were following Moshe Rabbenu got out of Egypt.

And the rest didn’t.

So, give some careful thought to who that ‘Moshe Rabbenu’ of our lowly, pathetic generation actually is.

And then beg God to make sure you got the right answer.

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You might also like this article:

“The Geula is no longer being held up”

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HaYom HaGadol

This is an old song by Binny Landau, but the words seem very appropriate for now.

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HaYom HaGadol – look, it’s coming!…

And Hashem’s honor will be revealed in the world.

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While I was looking for this song, this flashed up from Dutchsinse, from about an hour ago:

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Here’s what he’s saying:

I’ve been blocked from commenting on youtube fully (greyed out not allowed to comment or reply to anyone), on all accounts and sub accounts. Browser and computer don’t matter, even blocked on the youtube app too. This is very serious.

So it would appear something big is going down (about to go down). Just letting you know. It doesn’t show signs of stopping, and I brought some corn for popping……

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I’ve been following him for a few years, he’s usually right about most things.

Could be another massive quake is about to hit….somewhere.

The weather in Jerusalem is super weird – that same chemtrail induced ‘cloud coverage’ we’ve seen in past months, when they are about to launch some other new ‘drama’ for us all to deal with…

All the cars are covered with the ‘mud rain’ that if I could be bothered to check, would probably mostly stick to any magnet you care to run over it.

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I am still waiting to hear if the Rav has been let in to Uman.

God willing it will happen, maybe even last minute, because I have to admit to feeling a little scared about what will be, otherwise.

Big things going on in the world all over….

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But the merit of the True Tzaddikim can save the people who are trying to stick close to them!

Here’s what a friend just sent me, in connection with the earthquake that hit Marrakesh:

🌟*The miracle of the earthquake in Morocco*🌟

The first Google photo shows the extent of the impact of the earthquake. By magnifying this, you will notice a strip of land in untouched Essaouira.

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The 2nd photo is the zoom of this strip of land The 3rd photo is a *precise* zoom of this area which represents 1km2 and indicates 💢the end of the impact zone in red

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Then the location of 💢*the house of the Tsadik* Rabbi Haim Pinto,

💢*The grave* of Tsadik Rabbi Haim Pinto

💢*The tent* where we were nearly 2300 people dancing and praying for the Shabbat of Hiloula 🔥*H…., By the Zchout of the Tsadik and the fraternal Union that we had at that time, created a barrier to nature to protect us* 🔥

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Well, talk about a clear example of how staying close to the True Tzaddikim saves us from the ‘shaking of the world’….

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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If you haven’t done your pidyon nefesh ahead of Rosh Hashana yet, go HERE to do it on the Shuvu website in Hebrew, or HERE for English.

I’ll update if I hear anything else in the meantime….

And may we just hear good news.

====

 

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Kilauea erupts again, and spiritual ‘insurance’

First, Kilauea in Hawaii has started erupting again, massively.

You can see a live stream of the lava here – it’s the Kilauea crater vent camera:

https://www.youtube.com/@DoingHawaii/live

This is a screenshot from around 8.30am Israel time:

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Second, on one of the 3 Telegram channels I still check in with, someone put up this video of them magnifying a 100 Euro bank note under a microscope:

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It appears to show the 100 EURO note is crawling with spaceships and ‘alien-demon’ figures.

Yah, that ‘fake alien invasion’ has been in the pipes for a very long time, and double yah – we are living in a world of allusion, where 99% of the ‘news’ is actually just brainwashing baloney to divide and control the general public.

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Third, related to the sentence above, is this from the Uncensored Israel Telegram channel, from Bezalal Smotrich:

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Whoever controls the army, controls the State.

So now the question is: who is controlling the army?

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Four: spiritual insurance for the coming year – do a pidyon nefesh ahead of Rosh Hashana and / or kaparot before Yom Kippur with a real Tzaddik, not just a rabbinic faker.

HERE is where you can do that with Shuvu Banim.

BTW, just to make it clear, I have never recieved so much as a penny from Shuvu Banim, I don’t write these things as some ‘influencer’ on a commission, and I also give a lot of my money to Shuvu Banim, because I get brachot from doing that.

My husband is off soon to Uman, and we’re both a little nervous about that.

Yesterday, we gave quite a large amount of tzedaka as a ‘pidyon’ to a Shuvu Banim cause, at least, tagged as a ‘pidyon’ in our own minds, as the Rav is now forbidden by the courts here from receiving any donations personally, or having anything to do with ‘money’.

That, together with saying the Rav’s prayers to go and come back safely to Uman is our histadlut for the trip.

Whatever happens next – we did our bit.

====

And for anyone thinking ‘but why go to a war zone just because Rebbe Nachman said to be by his grave on Rosh Hashana’….

A few days ago, two people got stabbed by a terrorist barely 10 minutes walk away.

Every day here – and also, WHERE YOU LIVE – people are dying in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways.

We don’t control the world – God does.

And whatever He decides, that’s what will be.

It’s the same argument you get from people who tell you should work on Shabbos, because otherwise how will you make enough money, and you should definitely skip paying 10% of your income to tzedaka (minimum…) because otherwise, how will you pay all your bills?!?!

All totally rational arguments that make a lot of sense.

But still completely and utterly wrong.

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I am waiting for the update as to whether the Rav has made it into Uman yet, BH.

As soon as I hear, I will let you know.

But in the meantime, I’m not planning on posting much else before the chag begins, baring an update on what’s happening in Uman.

So, I bless everyone with a sweet, healthy, holy, happy New Year, and may we all be signed in the book of life.

Amen.

====

UPDATE:

This is a brand new, short video from Rav Ofer Erez, from his BRESLEVTUBE website, explaining the importance of doing a pidyon nefesh before Rosh Hashana:

You might also like this article:

Get your ticket for Uman

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More quakes on the way

The last couple of weeks, Rav Berland has been talking about an earthquake hitting Israel.

In particular, the Haifa area, near the ‘Stella Maris’ Monastery, where the xtian church took over the grave of Elisha the prophet and have been barring access to frum Jews in recent months.

Speaking a couple of weeks ago, the Rav made a comment that there will be an earthquake after Rosh Hashana.

Then he segued back into what he’s said in the past, that we are totally forbidden from touching any churches and mosques.

The implication appearing to be that God will make them fall down, all by themselves, without any help from people.

==

At this stage of the game, the Rav is pretty much the only person I pay attention to, when it comes to ‘predictions’.

He was talking about earthquakes in the same manner a few weeks before that massive quake hit Turkey, back on February 6 – which was ‘meant’ for Israel, but got moved a few hundred miles to Ankara instead.

Ankara was one of the main centres of so-called ‘Pauline xtianity’, where the Torah got trashed and villified, and the Jews cast as the permanent ‘villain’ in the whole made-up religion concocted by the Romans to turn the Jewish urge for Moshiach and geula permanently against them.

==

Yesterday, it was Morocco’s turn.

With the epicentre close to Marrakesh.

The Jews of Morocco had it better than many other countries, in many ways – but there was still tremendous discrimination, violence and anti-semitism in Morocco.

My father’s family is from there, and it seems my grandfather, who was a shochet, was murdered by his Arab ‘helpers’ who wanted to steal his kosher stamps.

He was bundled out the back of a moving car and died a couple of days later.

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So on the one hand, there is tremendous loss of life occurring in Morocco now, and that is always sobering and upsetting.

But at the same time, to not lose sight of the fact that nothing happens ‘for nothing’, and that Hashem is the Cause of all Causes.

And it seems that Hashem is starting to pay down some of those ‘old debts’ accumulated over the centuries, and the old mosques and churches are bearing the brunt:

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One more thing that comes to mind about Morocco.

My brother in the States told me last week that he was looking into doing a ‘Sukkot program’ in Morocco this year with his family.

Since Morocco normalised ties with the State of Israel last year, it seems that ‘Jewish tourism’ is going through the roof there, in so many ways.

But if you track the most popular destinations for Israeli tourists – which includes places like Turkey, Greece and now Morocco – you’ll see that all of these places are being hit with absolutely devastating natural disasters.

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And then we have Uman.

These days, Uman has also been ‘closed down’ as a ‘stam holiday’ destination.

Today, it’s returned to being a place you go for sincere reasons based on fulfilling the words of a true Tzaddik, who requested his followers to be by his grave for Rosh Hashana, for exalted spiritual reasons that most of us are a million miles away from ever really grasping a tiny part of.

But what’s amazing, is that I heard on the grapevine that this year, they are expecting 50,000 people for Rosh Hashana.

That’s double the 27,000 that made it out last year, almost exclusively from Eretz Yisrael.

And it made me very happy to hear that so many people are overcoming their fears to go and be by Rabbenu for Rosh Hashana 5784.

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Stuff is definitely starting to move in the world.

Remember, what Rabbenu taught us about how to survive the ‘shaking of the world’:

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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I live very close to the fault line that runs through Jerusalem, that is meant to ‘cleave’ Har Zeitim in two, when geula really starts to happen.

That’s kind of disconcerting.

So, I am doing my best to stay ‘grabbing on’ to a true Tzaddik, while the world continues to shake all around us.

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On that note, one more thing:

If you haven’t already, consider doing a pre Rosh Hashana ‘pidyon nefesh’.

Here is Rav Ofer Erez, with English subtitles, from 2017, explaining more about that:

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I’m sure he’s doing a pidyon in Uman before Rosh Hashana this year too – HERE is his website:

Or, you can do it with Shuvu Banim, HERE.

Give whatever you can afford, it doesn’t have to be the suggested amount (although clearly, if you are feeling like you are under a lot of harsh judgements, donating 5p as a pidyon is not going to do much to sweeten that…. it’s our ‘money’ instead of our ‘blood’.)

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And may we just hear good news.

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PS: I had an email from one of my C**N watching readers last week that they had turned back on, and things were going crazy in the world again.

That same day, I had another email from another reader telling me they’ve noticed an uptick in people dropping dead from heart attacks again….

Maybe, all this is just a CO-IN-CID-ENCE.

But maybe it isn’t.

Either way, God is behind it all, and He for sure wants our sincere teshuva heading into 5784.

It’s going to be a big year.

====

You might also like this article:

Shaking…awake

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Only fear Hashem

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday whose husband is going to Uman, BH.

She was telling me how there is some ‘fear’ around making that trip – for both of them – and I totally understood what she was saying.

Even before ‘the war’ in Ukraine, and even before ‘Covid’, going to Uman has always been attended by deep feelings of uncertainty and fear.

When you are travelling to a big Tzaddik, a Tzaddik HaEmet, the journey is never simple and never ‘easy’.

Because it’s the journey that makes the vessel to recieve all the blessings.

And so, the journey itself is fraught with obstacles and difficulties – most of which are 100% in our own heads.

==

Anyway, she was looking through a book written about how Shuvu Banim fought to keep access open to Kever Yosef all those years ago, when Ehud Barak was trying to ‘give away’ most of biblical Israel.

(As David Ben Gurion had done before him, with his agreement with Jordan’s King Abdullah to ‘give Jordan Jerusalem’, in return for the Galil.)

And in that book, she found a letter that Rav Berland wrote to his students, describing the ‘fear’ attached to travelling to the true Tzaddikim like Yosef HaTzaddik – and how the main ikker is to fear nothing and nobody, except Hashem.

She sent me a scan of it here:

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==

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The first line says:

Fear is the biggest issur (forbidden thing)…

And it’s akin to practising avodah zara, to believe, God forbid, that there is any other ‘force’ in the world, other than the Creator.

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Ein od Milvado.

When we overcome our fear of going to Uman, or Joseph’s Tomb – of more plandemics, whatever it is – we actually reveal our belief that Hashem is the Only Force in the world.

And then, the evil falls all by itself.

 

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Out of the shadows

For the last 10 years, it’s fair to say that Breslov has been kind of on its knees.

When I started getting into it around 18 years ago, it was firmly on the way ‘up’ in the world.

The first time my husband went to Uman for Rosh Hashanah, I got grief and ‘Uman widow’ jibes from pretty much everyone.

Three years later – no-one batted an eyelid, and so many more people were heading out to Uman for Rosh Hashana.

Everywhere you went in Israel, people were ‘becoming Breslov’.

A lot of that meteoric rise was due to Rav Shalom Arush’s efforts, and the Garden of Emuna books – and also other Breslov mashpi’im, like Erev Moshe Doron, who was hanging out with a lot of the Israeli celebs at that time.

And then… it crashed.

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The machloket over the Rav, and all the disgusting persecution and lurid media slanders ripped Breslov to shreds.

(It would take 10 years to understand that the people “within Breslov”, within Meah Shearim, who have been persecuting the Rav actually descend directly from very interesting families, and are close related to apparently ‘secular’ judges and politicians and big-wigs in Israel….Who could ever have guessed what was really going on, back then?)

But the point is – the fire came out of the engine, the Tzaddik HaDor kind of went into hiding, in a whole bunch of ways – and so much of ‘cool Breslov’ evaporated.

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For at least the last five years, people have been ‘Breslov’ because they mostly really engage with Rabbenu’s teachings, and for sincere spiritual reasons.

And in the Rav’s community, Shuvu Banim, that goes double and triple, because on top of the lack of real ‘support’, the ongoing financial grind, as the government has literally tried to close the community’s institutions down by making it a criminal offence to donate money to the Rav… there has also been so much shame and humiliation involved in trying to be ‘sincerely Breslov’.

So many people just lapped up the media lies.

So many people believed the couple of former Shuvu Banim crazies who basically ‘imploded’ spiritually, and then tried to blame all of their own problems and bitterness on the Rav and other people – instead of looking inwards, taking responsibility for their own actions and mistakes, and making some real teshuva.

And let’s not even talk about dawn raids by the police, gabbaim being rounded up and incarcerated for days, the non-stop controversy and difficulties involved with trying to remain attached to the Rav, in myriad ways.

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Point is: being Breslov has not been ‘cool’ nor ‘fun’, the last few years.

And even more so when they shut down Uman as a ‘holiday’ destination, first during Covid, and now with the war.

The same pattern is now going on with Rabbenu and Uman:

You don’t go for the ‘amazing experience’, the fun, the dancing on the streets all night, the seudat amenim in all the kivrei tzaddikim,  the slaughtering of sheep for kaparot by the side of Pushkina St, like used to happen in the old days.

You go, with maximum expense, and maximum discomfort, and yes, with a bunch of fear, too – only because spiritually, you understand the imperative of going to Uman.

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To put this another way:

Breslov generally, and Shuvu Banim specifically, have gone through a major ‘cleansing’ process, the last few years.

And what remains now (mostly….) are the people who are trying to sincerely serve Hashem, in the face of so many difficulties, and with a lot of mesirut nefesh.

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Honestly?

The last year, you could see that so many people are just getting very tired.

Even with all the best intentions in the world, it’s not easy to keep standing on your feet for an hour singing and dancing, in a grubby outside courtyard on the edge of Meah Shearim, even when it’s hot, even when it’s cold, even when it’s blowing a gale and raining.

Yet people have been doing that every single night, for a a couple of years.

But it’s hard.

And recently, it was starting to feel like the air is coming out of the tyre, and the ‘energy’ is depleting rapidly.

Even with the best will in the world.

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Which brings us up to the atzeret the Rav called yesterday, in Hevron.

It got postponed once – I think because of ‘security issues’, but not 100% sure of that – but yesterday, it was called for 9pm.

There were no buses put on that I could see – not least, because there is so little money for any of this stuff, as the State continues fleecing the Rav and the community out of hundreds of thousands of shekels every month in various ways, for the crime of…being the Rav.

But still, there were a good few thousand people who showed up yesterday.

And perhaps even more importantly – it felt like the fire has returned to the engine.

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The Rav came around 10.30pm, and prayed with everyone for over an hour, standing at the podium, with a very strong voice.

He’s 85, and has a whole bunch of serious health issue.

By contrast, I spent the whole time sitting in the deckchair I’d brought with me from home – and I even feel asleep in the middle of the prayers.

Not because I was tired so much – I’ve been ‘feeling tired’ for months, for years – but because there was something so powerful going on, it took me out.

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Stuff like that used to happen to me in Uman, by Rabbenu, as well.

I’d just be sitting there, then conk out – and it was always something very meaningful, spiritually, like ‘spiritual surgery’ was being done, somehow.

The Rav was praying that he gets to Uman for Rosh Hashana this year.

BH, that will happen.

(It looks like, it can only happen miraculously at this point…. but miracles can and do happen. Especially around the Rav.)

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But the real point is this:

It felt to me like the Rav is starting to come out of the shadows again.

It felt to me, like the koach of Rabbenu’s teachings to operate in the world, and the koach of the True Tzaddikim to really fix things at their spiritual root, has come out of ‘hibernation’ mode, and is switching into something way more active and alive.

Bezrat Hashem.

I came back feeling quite a bit more optimistic, about 5784.

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Of course, there were still issues on the return journey from Hebron.

Too many psycho teenage drivers decided to make ‘two lanes’ where there was really only one, and the result was a total logjam backed up from the turning by Halhul.

Halhul is one of the most ‘radicalised’ Arab villages in the Gush….

It’s known to be full of terrorists and guns.

And dafka there, is where Shuvu Banim’s psycho teenage drivers managed to create a huge traffic jam.

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We were stuck there for around 40 minutes, as Breslov chareidim with long payot walked the road together with bald-headed Arabs from Halhul in shorts, trying to figure out how to ‘un-stick’ the bottleneck.

One Arab started yelling at my husband to move his car to the side – and then my husband refused and started yelling back at him.

Are you crazy?!?!? I hissed at him from the passenger seat.

Really, you’re going to get into a fight with an Arab 10 seconds from Halhul, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a traffic jam where there is nowhere to drive away too?!?!

He was.

(There’s a reason we are also part of the crazy Shuvu Banim crowd….)

I’m not going to the side of the road just because some Arab is telling me to do that!

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At that point…. I just started ‘binding’ the whole traffic jam to the True Tzaddikim….

And the Arab walked off, while another Arab stuck in a car next to us started to make small talk with my husband.

You went for a big pray in Hevron, yes?

He asked my husband, with a big smile on his face.

And just like that…. this weird ‘friendly’ vibe descended on all the Arabs and Jews stuck in a massive traffic jam by the terrorist nest of Halhul, in the middle of the night, caused by crazy teenage psycho drivers from Shuvu Banim.

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I don’t know why, but the Arabs seemed amused, and even pretty happy about what was going on.

Some of them started playing their happy music and clapping loudly, kind of cheering all the cars on around them, as the traffic jam finally got unstuck by Arabs and Jews working together, to create some order on the road.

This is how peace comes to Israel….

I thought to myself, as the ‘party vibe’ continued for another 10 minutes, and even my husband calmed down and stopped giving ‘the stare’ to other drivers.

(In his defense…. we just got a new car literally last week, for the first time in nine years….)

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So.

Who knows what was going on in Hevron last night, really.

Who knows where all this is leading.

But what I can tell you, is that something is moving again, in a way it hasn’t for a very long time.

And it seems that real, sincere, holy Breslov is starting to rise up from the ashes again.

And BH, it will pull everyone else up with it.

Amen.

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The test of Korach

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Get your ticket for Uman

Someone asked the Rav a few days ago if he should still go to Uman, even if the Rav isn’t allowed to get there.

(God forbid….Basically, if the Rav doesn’t get there, geula will come faster but with a lot more suffering, and if he does get there, BH, it will come a little slower, but way more gently and ‘stretched out’, as we’ve been experiencing the last few  years.)

The Rav responded: Bevedai, bevedai.

(Of course, of course.)

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My husband has his ticket – and yes, it’s getting more and more expensive each year, and more and more difficult travelling-wise.

But things  can get sweetened and ‘fixed’ spiritually in Uman on Rosh Hashana, by Rabbenu, in a way that just can’t happen anywhere else, or any other time.

I’m not going to get into a big discussion about the power of the kibbutz – how each person who comes adds another holy ‘stone’ to the holy ‘houses’ being built, which create the spiritual power to really sweeten harsh decrees.

If you’re interested in how all this works spiritually, get a copy of Likutey Moharan, and start reading through it.

And if you’re not interested in the spiritual explanation, there is no other explanation.

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Point is, the kibbutz in Uman has tremendous power to turn things around.

And that’s why each year, they’ve been going after it in a million different ways, to try to limit it, close it down and scare people off.

But go buy your ticket!

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I spoke to someone who literally got back from Uman yesterday, and they told me that it looks like there are a few more checkpoints than last year.

But other than that – it’s mostly business as usual in Uman itself.

If the night-time curfew is still in place, it seems most people are now ignoring it, and the roads to the Tzion are lit up (which they weren’t last year, the same time.)

There is food there, there is electricity – although there was a power cut at one point during Shabbat.

(Old timers to Uman will remember when the power used to fall two and three times a day, in the middle of the coldest winter days. It used to be a very common part of the ‘Uman package’.)

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She said the travelling is difficult, because you are literally spending 12 hours on the road, even from ‘close’ locations like Kishinev airport, Moldova.

And there are still big delays at the borders, because they insist on taking all the suitcases off and checking them.

So, be aware that it’s going to be challenging travel.

But it’s the journey to the true tzaddikim that brings all the miracles, and makes the ‘vessel’ for the blessings.

Literally, every step a person takes on that journey creates angels that then accompany him onwards.

So the fact that the journey is now much longer, means there are that many more good angels being created, and the ‘vessel for blessing’ will be that much bigger, when you finally get there.

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Last week, Rav Berland said this about getting to Uman (from the RavBerland.com site):

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You can watch it here (shiur begins at timecode 30:52):

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This is how we get things to ‘sweeten’.

This is how we turn the harsh decrees around.

With prayer, emuna, emunat tzaddikim, mesirut nefesh, humility – and Uman.

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The day after this shiur, last Wednesday, the Rav was reported as saying the following:

Thursday night the Rav said everyone should buy tickets, there is talk about closing borders!

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The last couple of weeks, I’ve been feeling quite ‘nervous’ again, for no obvious reason.

I have the feeling this period of relative calm and ‘relative normalcy’ is about to come to a close.

Rosh Hashana is going to be huge this year, one way or another, and it’s the key to determining whether the next stage of the geula process comes gently, or with more suffering.

If you can’t get there yourself – then help someone else to get there, in whichever way you can do that.

And you don’t have to ‘buy in’ to all this – but if that’s the case, this blog probably isn’t the best place for you to be hanging out.

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Big things are on the horizon.

And I’m more than a little scared about those ‘big things’.

But I’m trying my best to have emuna, to believe that God is ultimately behind everything in the world, even the apparently ‘bad’ things – and to stay sitting within the Tzaddik’s circle, as per Rabbenu’s story of the Cripple.

More than that, I can’t really do.

But I pray that thousands of people overcome their own ‘fallen fears’ to make it to Uman and back safely this year – and that the Rav will be joining them, so that geula can come the sweetest way possible, and all the harsh gezeirot can be sweetened.

Amen.

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New date for the Atzeret in Hevron – This Thursday

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