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Advice for coping

From the outside, things look pretty tough at the moment.

The people with their eyes open are sitting here holding their breath, waiting to see what ‘the next stage’ of this destructive ‘chaos’ process that’s going to lead to geula entails.

And the people who are holding their eyes deliberately shut are feeling all that internal anxiety, that they don’t want to deal with, but still can’t escape.

I see those people in the shuk, looking mega-stressed while trying too hard to have a good time.

Or spending all their weekends at some big forest rave, trying to let the drugs and loud music ‘drown out’ the inner panic.

Or on their couches plugged into a screen, trying to keep their minds ‘occupied’, so they don’t have to think too much about what they can feel approaching.

The last couple of weeks, I’ve had a few days when I’ve done that last option myself.

Sometimes, it’s really hard to deal with all this uncertainty.

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There is a tightrope to be walked here, between ‘giving in’ to the panic, and going in to full denial about the reality of what is really occurring all around and within.

It’s not helpful to go ‘full truther’, 24/7.

And it’s also not helpful to just keep pretending everything is fine.

So, how do we cope with a reality that is getting increasingly difficult to handle?

Here’s my suggestions.

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  1. Talk to God for an hour a day.

You probably guessed I was going to start here, no?

Rabbenu teaches us that in that hour a day of talking to God, aka hitbodedut – that’s when we take off all the masks, and really look our pain in the face.

That’s when we plumb the depths of our fear and anxiety and anger and hatred – and all the other bad middot that every single one of us has.

That’s when I sit and tell God,

God, I’m so sad that ‘x’ is happening in the world….Sometimes I feel so alone and helpless in all this… sometimes, I feel like whatever effort I made for the good, it just didn’t get there…

Those conversations can sometimes continue in that vein for a few weeks, even, where I’m just filled with pain and questions and sadness and anger. But sooner or later, if I don’t run away from my true feelings, and I keep examining what’s going on, here, and keep turning things over with Hashem’s help – I get some clarity about why things actually have to be that way, after all.

And why God is only good.

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At that stage, I can make my peace with the matzav, take whatever actions are required, make whatever teshuva is necessary, and move on with my life in a much better frame of mind.

All of us have difficulties and heartaches to deal with right now.

Running away from all the pain in the world – especially our own pain – doesn’t solve any problems, it just gives us chronic anxiety and takes us even further away from God and geula.

No-one is saying sit in your pain 24/7, for the next three months!!!

That would be awful.

But you owe it to yourself, to your soul, to face your pain down for at least an hour a day, and to really listen to it and embrace what it’s telling you. With God’s help.

And that is what the daily of hitbodedut is for.

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2. Follow Rav Berland’s advice.

Before I hit Rav Berland, I was still doing an hour of hitbodedut a day, and still paying a lot of charity, and trying to learn a lot of Torah, and trying to make a lot of teshuva.

But honestly, my life still sucked in a lot of massive ways, and I was feeling totally overwhelmed by negative emotions and feelings, and a seeming inability to have any true ‘sweetness’ in my life.

We are at the end of days, and all of us are paying things down from the last 400 lives we stuffed up – in one shot!

No wonder we’re all clamoring for the Prozac and the weed and the fentanyl.

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When I started following Rav Berland’s advice, tho, that’s when things instantly started to feel lighter, and more cope-able.

Here’s a short breakdown of the things I am doing, as a result of following the Rav, that really help me so very much, to cope with what’s going on.

i. Say a Tikkun Haklali every single day.

The Tikkun Haklali is meant to rectify issues with a lack of emuna and bitachon, or faith and trust in Hashem.

You can download a PDF of the Tikkun Haklali with a good English transliteration, here: pdfslide.net_interlinear-tikkun-haklali

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ii. Say a ‘Pirchey Nivarchim’ at least once a week, preferably on Shabbat.

These are the set of 10 tehillim that the hidden Tzaddikim explain help Moshiach to fight his spiritual wars in the world, to overcome all that evil in the world.

Including the ‘evil’ that’s pushing for more wars, and taking bread out of the mouths of babes, and force-vaxxing billions of people with experimental gene therapies that have already killed and injured so many people.

(It’s a side note, but a friend just send me a link to a study that came out in the New England Medical Journal that showed that 82% of pregnant women in the study who were vaxxed at the 1st or 2nd trimester stage of pregnancy lost their babies in ‘spontaneous abortions’. There are no stats as to what happened to the women who were vaccinated at the 3rd trimester stage, when losing a baby would be characterised as a ‘still birth’, not a ‘spontaneous abortion’.)

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HERE is where you can download a PDF of the Pirchey Nivarchim with a side-by-side English translation.

Here’s the link spelled out:

GIFT: The “P’rakim Nevcharim” for Download and Printing in English and Hebrew

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And here’s the explanation as to how reciting the Pirchey Nivarchim can help fix all that ‘past life’ stuff that is mamash making life so unpleasant and so difficult for so many of us:

[Translated from the Hebrew notes in the back of the booklet you can download from the above link.]

The ten mizmorim (Tehillim) of the Tikkun Haklali are associated with the ten fingers of the hand, [and with] the Sixth Beggar [from Rebbe Nachman’s Tale of the Seven Beggars], who is called: ‘Without Hands’, who heals the Princess who falls into terrible weakness, with the holy niggun (melody)[played] with his hands.

And the ten mizmorim of the Prachim Nivarchim are associated with the ten toes of the feet, [and with] the Seventh Beggar, who is called ‘Without Feet’, who heals the Prince who totally fell from his emuna, with the dancing and circle dances of his holy legs….

The Prachim Nivarchim rectifies all of a person’s gilgulim (previous lifetimes) – all the way back to the sin of Adam HaRishon.

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iii. Do a Pidyon Nefesh with the Rav, on a regular basis.

Go HERE for more explanation and more information, but just know that while no-one can currently speak to the Rav personally, you can still do a ‘pidyon nefesh’ via his official website HERE – but you have to have emuna, mamash, now that it’s going to do what’s required.

Last week, on Thursday, after doing a lot of research into the Miami condo, I suddenly felt very weak, and started throwing up.

I felt REALLY ill.

My husband came home, saw how bad I looked, and instantly went off to do a pidyon nefesh on the Rav’s website. Within a couple of hours, I felt much better again.

Pidyon nefesh with the Rav just helps to ‘smooth over’ so much of the jagged edges our path is edged with, and that we have to traverse, because that’s just our tikkun this time around.

And is a huge part of why my life is just way more cope-able than it used to be.

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iv: Practise bitul, i.e. self-nullifcation.

This is something that totally changed my life for the better.

I am a strong character – I could SO easily be like all those psychos I write about here, and elsewhere, who can’t ‘see’ anyone else in the picture, or hear anyone else’s point of view.

What’s stopped that, really, is the Rav’s advice to practise the art of bitul as much as possible.

And it’s really hard.

But especially with my kids and my husband, each time I can manage to bitul, I see massive benefits from doing that.

And also in relation to my writing, adopting an approach of bitul means that I can make space for others to tell me what they think, and for others to argue with my ideas, and even, for others to insult me totally – and still continue doing what I’m doing.

It’s been such a present.

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I’m sure there’s more I could say, but this sums it up.

In short, if the Rav says ‘pray this prayer’ – I try to do it.

If the Rav says ‘attend this prayer gathering in Hevron’ – I try to do it.

I don’t always manage to follow the Rav’s advice, but I WANT to follow it, even when I can’t.

And I know that this is what is really making all the difference, and helping me to cope with a situation which otherwise, would be totally un-cope-able.

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Here in Israel, the corrupt government is talking about ‘enforcing masks’, and closing the airport, and reinstating green passports again.

Not this week.

Not next week.

But almost certainly, in time to totally ruin the summer holidays for most people, as the prelude to ruining the high holidays coming up at the beginning of September.

That’s stressful.

For a lot of reasons.

But I know if I keep following the Rav’s advice, I’ll somehow manage to come through all this in one piece, spiritually and physically.

And that’s really saying something, at this stage of the game.

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Don’t forget to check out the new site, ‘Words from the Rav‘, that brings down some short daily doses of wisdom from Rabbi Eliezer Berland in English.

You can find it HERE.

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Broken vessels

Some days, I kind of feel a little smashed up.

Like I got dropped on a hard floor – repeatedly.

Sometimes, this life is hard.

We are at the end of such a long process of exile, and our souls have stuffed things up so many times already, and there is so little ‘wholeness’ and ‘completeness’ in the world, and so many tikkunim to go through…well.

It’s like Rabbenu said:

“They have broken us, like a broken potsherd.”

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How to put those pieces back together?

Is it even possible, to put their pieces back together?

Pieces that got broken over the last 5781 years of history, and that are still chasing their shleimut… endlessly.

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These were my thoughts, when a friend called me and told me about kintsugi pottery.

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Kintsugi is a Japanese art-form, where broken pottery is kind of stuck back together with gold and silver.

It’s beautiful.

Way more beautiful than the original, unbroken, pottery ever could have been.

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We are living in the time of the second set of luchot.

The first set got smashed by Moshe Rabbenu.

And ever since, we’ve been living in a reality where it’s the second – and third, and fourth, and 85th – attempt is the one that really sticks, the one that is really ‘meant to be’, the one that really gets there, somehow.

Modern life can be so very hard, emotionally, because we all put so much effort in to so many things – and somehow, so often, it just gets smashed to pieces.

What, I’m going to start again?

I’m going to try again?

Who has the energy, who has the koach to keep going, when so much just ends up being smashed apart again?

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That applies to relationships.

It applies to our teshuva process.

Sometimes, it applies to our finances, our careers, the gashmius foundation of our lives.

Sometimes – the darkest times – it applies to our faith and emuna.

And even Rabbenu experienced this.

“They have broken us, like a broken potsherd.”

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At those times, it’s hard to imagine that what was ‘broken’ can ever be whole and useful again.

I’m in pieces on the floor, here.

I can’t even get out of bed in the morning, how do you want me to turn this relationship around, turn my life around, turn my teshuva process around?!

How do you want me to fix the world, God, when I am so broken myself?

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The answer is to just bring our broken pieces to the True Tzaddik, and let him get on with the job of putting us back together.

With the ‘gold’ of appropriate judgment, and the ‘silver’ of appropriate compassion.

Sometimes, it’s a long, drawn-out, painstaking process.

So many shards to deal with, so many sparks of previous lives that need gathering up, and replacing in the correct spot.

The work requires a lot of patience.

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But at the end, if we don’t give up and walk away, the vessel is finally made ‘whole’ again.

And is far more beautiful than before it got all smashed up.

As long as we don’t give up in the middle.

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You might also like this article:

Life is inherently risky

 

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More COVID-1984 Fake News

I think Moshiach must be close: even MSM news sites are starting to call out the fake news about COVID-1984.

First, there is this article, on the Arutz 7 site, explaining that the Karlin-Stoliner Rebbe has just been diagnosed with Covid-1984-induced pneumonia, which I excerpt below:

The news will be a severe blow not only to Karlin-Stolin chassidus, but also to the government itself, even if it doesn’t realize it yet. Among chassidim and in the haredi world in general, Karlin-Stolin has stood out as exceptionally stringent regarding adherence to the government’s coronavirus guidelines. While some Chassidic courts held prayers in large numbers over the High Holidays, Karlin-Stolin chassidim prayed in tiny capsules, meticulously adhering to social distancing and wearing of face masks, and many prayed alone at home.

Now, with the Rebbe having contracted the coronavirus along with several family members, haredi confidence in the efficacy of the government’s measures is likely to plummet to an all-time low.

The Rebbe’s diagnosis follows similar disillusionments in other groups – for instance, among Gerrer chassidim, who also meticulously adhered to guidelines regarding capsules, social distancing and mask wearing, and investing millions in providing the physical infrastructure necessary to do so – and despite this, experienced a large coronavirus outbreak in the last few weeks. Gerrer chassidus is also known for the severity it has accorded to following the government’s guidelines.

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The social distancing, masks and ‘capsules’ have precisely zero real science behind them, and are all about controlling and demoralising the population, not trying to prevent disease.

This story proves that unequivocably.

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Next, there was this story about Breslov chassidut fake news, on the YWN website (experts in ‘fake news’, if ever there was one:)

Entitled: Chassidim-coming-back-from-uman-carry-corona-back-to-israel-truth-or-fake-news, the article basically shows just how the government and the media collaborate in all their lies and propaganda.

It said that 17 Breslov chassidim had carried Corona back on Israel, on 17 different flights.

There were only 11 flights in total, that returned to Israel from the Ukraine.

Not only that, the ‘health officials’ quoted complained that the ’17 chassidim’ weren’t cooperating with taking any COVID tests or giving even basic information about their health.

So then, how does the Health Ministry even know they have COVID 1984!?!?

When Kikar HaShabbat contacted the Health Ministry for corroboration, the media contact there had no idea what they were even talking about.

IT WAS TOTALLY FAKE NEWS.

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The ridiculous story first appeared on the N12 news site – the infamous Channel 2, that first publicised the totally fake, doctored ‘video’ of Rav Berland apparently saying it was OK to do awful things to women, God forbid.

Back then, so many people in the Breslov community, and in the wider religious / chassidic community were so gullibly ‘happy’ to have ‘proof’ of their own horrible biases against Rav Berland and his community.

And now, God is mamash throwing it all back in their faces.

All the same propaganda and lies the [Rothschild-controlled] State and media used against the Rav and Shuvu Banim are now being trotted out again, this time to frame the wider Breslov and Chareidi communities, as being dangerous ‘disease carriers’.

If only we had been more honest, less willing to accept slander about the Rav 5 years ago, right now, we wouldn’t all be sitting in yet another lockdown.

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One of the commentators on a recent post, reminded me of this article, on the ravberland.com website:

Quotes from the Article:

”Pay attention, that this is beginning with one lockdown, and then another lockdown… Until all of us will be in an absolute lockdown. Don’t say that we didn’t tell you.”

https://ravberland.com/message-from-a-tzaddik-nistar-the-kochav-is-going-to-come-and-deal-the-evildoers-a-strong-blow/

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Here’s the full text of the message:

“Am Yisrael is currently in the most fragile of situations.

We need to strengthen ourselves a great deal, before the test of emuna that stands before us, and it’s assur (forbidden) to despair at all – at all!

“As much as the reshaim (evildoers) are preparing very strongly for the kochav (star / comet), the kochav stands ready to pass close by to us, and Moshiach Tzidkaynu is connected to this kochav. He is going to fight all the wards of Israel with this kochav.

“IN ANY CASE, THIS KOCHAV IS GOING TO DEAL THEM A STRONG BLOW.

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“Moshiach is already here.

Moshiach is to be found in Israel. Ask the tzaddikim hagadolim (the biggest tzaddikim), who are saying that the Moshiach is to be found in the North of Israel, and he’s flesh and blood, [it’s] a moment before pulling the trigger, before he is revealed to Am Yisrael.

“The Moshiach can be revealed the merciful way if Am Yisrael will come together in achdut (unity).

Then he will fight the wars of Israel (i.e. the Jewish people) and all the birth pangs will be sweetened, and will pass over to the haters of Israel [instead of on the Jewish people].

“The virus will be nullified, and the Gan Eden of Adam HaRishon will descend.”

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“Moshiach is already here.

“But the test of emuna that stands before us is a big one.

“This is an important message for all of the rabbanim (rabbis), the Admors, and the others who are engaged in outreach in Israel (i.e. amongst the Jewish people):

“In this difficult time, we should know that there is no turning back; rather, we need to work with all of our strength to wake Hashem’s people up, to make teshuva from love, for Hashem Yitbarach, and by this, we will merit to have the geula with rachamim (mercy).

“Because from the many sins we do, without paying attention to them, we have already descended into the slavery of the last galut (exile) of Amalek, and the difficulty is unbearable.

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AT THE END OF THIS GALUT, THIS EVIL MALCHUT (LITERALLY: ROYALTY, FIGURATIVELY: GOVERNMENT) WILL SPREAD IN ISRAEL, AND IN THE WHOLE WORLD FOR THE DURATION OF NINE MONTHS.

May we be saved from it, and and may we be redeemed speedily in our days, amen.

Pay attention, that this is beginning with one lockdown, and then another lockdown… Until all of us will be in an absolute lockdown. Don’t say that we didn’t tell you.

Today, it’s still possible to stop this.

Pharoah also started [to enslave] Am Yisrael with soft words.

If we do teshuva, but not completely, meaning with full, heart-felt intention, we will need to complete the relative portion with suffering, the very difficult ‘birthpangs of the Moshiach’, rachmana litzan (Hashem should have mercy).

Therefore, everyone should come, like one man, with one heart, let’s pray together, let’s do teshuva from love, and let’s merit to have geula b’rachamim (redemption with mercy), TODAY! If we will only listen to his voice.

But it’s a fact 100%, that the world will not return to ‘routine’ again.

We are in the final process of geula, Am Yisrael, and how it’s going to come – either with din (harsh judgment) or rachamim (mercy) depends on us.”

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We need to have achdut – togetherness – for all this to be sweetened, and for the evil malchut to fall.

And we also need to make some sincere teshuva, for believing the lying [Rothschild-controlled] media and State, instead of judging Rabbi Berland fairly, refusing to accept outrageous slanders and lashon hara, and piling our own lies and accusations on top of them, too.

You want to get out of ‘lockdown’ and the current COVID-1984 situation we are currently stuck in?

Then work on achdut, and making whatever teshuva is required in relation to Rav Berland and Shuvu Banim.

Again, let’s just remember that the Beit Din in Bnai Brak decided to excommunicate the Rav and his community back at the end of May, 2020.

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See this post, for more details:

The first cracks in the ‘psak din’ against Rav Berland appear

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Bnei Brak has been at the forefront of the government attempts to demonise and ‘lockdown’ chareidi communities in Israel, although it’s by no means the only place.

Do you think that’s a coincidence?

People, people, when are you going to get the message, and to stop being so ‘stiff necked’ and stubborn about admitting that you were duped and fooled by the same evil, anti-chareidi, anti-Judaism, anti-humanity [Rothschild-controlled] State and media that is now causing us all so much pain and suffering with COVID-1984?

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We have just over a week until the final judgment for Am Yisrael is sealed, at the end of Simchat Torah.

We can still turn this all around!

It just requires a little more humility, a little more honesty, and a little more teshuva.

To quote that hidden tzaddik:

“We are in the final process of geula, Am Yisrael, and how it’s going to come – either with din (harsh judgment) or rachamim (mercy) depends on us.”

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You might also like this article:

First, they came for Rav Berland

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Joining together

Even when the body is being locked down, our souls can still join together this Rosh Hashana.

Man, it’s been a tough day mentally today.

Word on the street is that despite Ron Lauder getting involved (!) to send a letter to the Ukrainian PM Zelensky telling him just how important Uman, Rosh Hashana is for Breslov chassidut (!), the answer is still a nyet for those amazing Jews stuck in no-mans-land at the Gomel crossing in Belarus.

There are no coincidences in the world, and it is totally no coincidence that those amazing, emuna-dik Jews have been dancing and praying with tremendous kavana (and also sleeping rough outside with very little food for 3 nights…) in Gomel.

This comes from the myjewishlearning website:

Birkat Hagomel (pronounced beer-KHAT hah-GOH-mel), sometimes known as “benching gomel,” is commonly said after recovering from serious illness but can also be recited in gratitude for completing a dangerous journey.

This blessing for deliverance is typically recited in the presence of a minyan, or prayer quorum, often in the synagogue following an aliyah to the Torah.

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My take on this is that the tremendous mesirut nefesh of those 1,000 (plus 1,500 others, also stuck in Belarus but not at the Gomel crossing) has helped the world ‘recover’ from the ‘serious illness’ that has plaguing us all year, COVID-1984, and has also helped the Jewish people to finally complete the ‘dangerous journey’ that has been our 2,000 year long exile.

The amount of bizayon and suffering they went through is indescribable, and in their zchut the geula is coming fast, and the sweet way.

But still, it’s so sad that apparently they aren’t going to make it here for Rosh Hashana 5781 after all.

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Then, there’s the heavy-handed police presence all over Pushkina that I wrote about HERE, that is making me and half the rest of my family feel like we just don’t want to go outside. At all.

But I have Rosh Hashana to prepare, so this morning I went with half my family in a taxi to a local super, to pick up the rest of what’s required to actually make yom tov.

The supermarket trip was surprisingly chilled and nice (outside the police state of Pushkina, it’s way, way more relaxed in every way).

But then, we got stopped coming back along Pushkina by a posse of 4 Ukrainian policemen, asking us for our papers.

We didn’t have our passports on us, so one of the policemen decided to get into the taxi – he practically sat on my lap, until the driver told him that Jews don’t hold by that sort of behavior, so he made a bit more space for me. Soo thoughtful….

Then, we get back to where we’re staying, we show him the passports clearly stamped with ‘August 28th’ – the last day a tourist could legally get into Ukraine for Uman, without special permission from the government – and then he starts Google translating questions in English like:

But you are women. Women not allowed here.

I thought his translation was off, so I tried to ask him what he was really trying to say.

Women not allowed here.

He typed back.

At that point – just before my blood pressure zoomed off through the roof, because what, after all this I’m going to get deported from Ukraine for being a woman?!?!? – one of the men in the household who knows a little Ukrainian told him da, da, women OK here.

Once he heard it from a man, the police guy took his mask off, asked for a cup of tea and then started joking about whether we’d poisoned it.

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Two minutes later, he left.

And then I had another mini nervous breakdown because I already haven’t slept for 2 days in a row, for reasons not entirely obvious to me, and I’m not eating so much here, and I literally felt I was going to fall over.

I need a falafel, something, I moaned to my husband.

So we went down the street, and saw black-masked police stopping the 3 1/2 Jews on the street very few minutes to ask them for their documents.

There were also at least 3 local Ukrainian TV crews trying to get shots of Jews looking like disease-carrying COVID-1984 hotspots, and I felt pretty uncomfortable when I realised one cameraman had his lens focused on me. I pulled a really gross face, then started waving to the camera like he was my mum, or something.

That embarassed him enough to move another 500 metres down the road, away from me.

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I came home and just felt so miserable about everything that is going on right now, both in Uman and Israel and everywhere else.

After the falafel, I went to bed to do some quiet hitbodedut for an hour, as the Tziyon is now closed to women.

I felt much calmer afterwards, although still a bit shaky and exhausted.

My middot are just really not up to this test. At all. And we’re still in the middle of the test, with no obvious end in site.

Then my husband came back from the kever, and told me with obvious surprise:

They took the snake away. The Kever is pretty much back to normal again. There are people davening there and praying there again.

I was so pleased.

At least that.

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Then, I went over to the Breslovnews.com website, which is in English, and I read this article, which really spoke to me about the ‘test’ that we’re all going through right now, especially in the Breslov community:

When I reflect on the insanity of the current situation and the multifarious experiences centered around the issue of Uman 2020 within the Breslov world, I get the feeling that Rabbeinu HaKadosh is putting us to the test here, each of us in our own way – granting us all a glorious opportunity to put various facets of his teachings to work.

The author then lists about 15 different tests related to staying at home for Rosh Hashana 5781, or trying to get here, and succeeding or failing, and lists different teachings from Rabbenu that are linked to each one. It gave me so much chizzuk to read it, and I’ve asked permission to reprint the whole article here. But in the meantime, you can go to the Breslovnews site and read it in situ.

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Then I read about the global Tikkun Haklali, which is recited every Erev Rosh Hashana in Uman, and will be read again tomorrow too, at 12pm Israel time, 5am New York Time.

I will be your shaliach here, for that Tikkun Haklali.

Just be sure to recite it wherever you happen to be, at the same time, and have in mind that I’m your shaliach in Uman for that prayer, and God will consider it as though you said it here.

Even though the forces of evil have mamash succeeded in keeping us all apart on the physical plane, in so many different ways, tomorrow we can still have spiritual achdut.

We can still join together in prayer, each in our own little corner, and bind ourselves to the tzaddik and to Hashem, and to the kibbutz here in Uman.

The Tikkun Klali in Uman will be broadcast live tomorrow here:

ערב ראש השנה תשפ"א | מעמד תיקון הכללי העולמי

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Gosh, I can’t wait to be rid of this difficult year.

BH, 5781 will be so much better.

We will be rescued from all serious illnesses and dangerous journeys, and moshiach and geula will finally unfurl the sweet way.

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Let me end by asking forgiveness for anything I wrote here that upset any of my readers in any way.

I’m definitely still a work in progress, and my middot are sometimes really bad, sorry.

Also, I forgive anyone and everyone unconditionally for anything they said or did to me this year, including the a-holes that hacked my site.

I forgive you!

And may we all have a sweet, blessed 5781.

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UPDATE:

I got permission from the Breslovnews.com website to republish the article in full. Here it is:

By Reb Yaakov Klein of the Lost Princess Initiative – The Lost Princess Initiative

I know that people feel very passionately about the subject at hand. I have listened to and processed many of the arguments on both sides, having been back, and forth, and then back again myself. At the end of the day, I don’t know whether there is a clear “right” or “wrong” on the Uman issue. As R’ Chaim Kramer put it, “I can’t tell you to go and I won’t tell you not to go.” To my knowledge, there is no prophet in this generation who can definitively tell us one way or another. A person who approaches the conversation with an open mind will find that there are plenty of fair points on either side. But without trying to answer The Question of “what is one to do” – something Rebbe Nachman himself always shied away from (see Chayei Moharan 430) – the reality is that by virtue of the varied opinions, propensities, proclivities, circumstances, and personal feelings on the matter, the “Uman-goers” have been divided into many camps this year.

When I reflect on the insanity of the current situation and the multifarious experiences centered around the issue of Uman 2020 within the Breslov world, I get the feeling that Rabbeinu HaKadosh is putting us to the test here, each of us in our own way – granting us all a glorious opportunity to put various facets of his teachings to work.

– Those who feel compelled to travel at all costs are being charged with “conquering Hashem” by not capitulating to His decree (Sichos HaRan 69 and Likutei Moharan 124), and doing their utmost to overcome any barriers that stand in their way. (Likutei Moharan Tinyana 46, 48)

– Those who travel only to be turned back are being charged with rejoicing in the knowledge that they tried their best and that the main thing is the desire. (Sichos HaRan 12)

– Those who feel that this is simply not the year to go to Uman must hold firm to the tzaddik’s declarations that “fanaticism is not necessary”, and that “even while acting with simplicity, it is forbidden to be a fool,” (Sichos HaRan 51) as well as his teachings against obstinacy. (Chayei Moharan 431)

– Those who have sacrificed to spend Rosh Hashana with Rabbeinu and indeed managed, with great personal difficulty, to arrive in Uman must try their best to judge favorably those that didn’t even make an attempt, seeking to find the good points even in what – from their perspective – represents a gross miscalculation. (Likutei Moharan 282.)

– Those stuck between borders, faced with lines of impassive soldiers with riot gear as their children cry for water, are charged with finding the presence of Hashem even in the dark clouds of their suffering. (Likutei Moharan 33, 115, 195)

– Those who endure unspeakable waiting times along their travels to the resting place of our Rebbe are granted an opportunity to fulfill the teaching of “Hamtein”, putting their Breslover patience to work. (Likutei Moharan 6)

– Those who will, for the first time in decades, be spending Rosh Hashana away from Rabbeinu’s kibbutz and far removed from the spirit of the Breslover chassidim, must try their very best to remain joyous within their situation (Likutei Moharan Tinyana 24), hold tight to their faith in Hashem’s hashgacha (Likutei Moharan 250), and think only positive thoughts on Rosh Hashana. (Sichos HaRan 21)

– Those who are utterly confused, frustrated, and angry over this issue and can’t seem to find Hashem in any of this are charged with putting the Rebbe’s lesson of “Ayeh” to the test (Likutei Moharan Tinyana 12) and allowing the tzaddik’s silent songs of faith to reveal Hashem’s presence within the void. (Likutei Moharan 64)

– Those who will be joining together with other Breslover chassidim in special minyanim throughout the world are given the opportunity to truly believe that – as Reb Nosson taught – wherever Breslover chassidim gather, Rebbe Nachman’s spirit hovers upon them.

– Those who have been subject to ridicule by those who can’t possibly understand the unique Breslover Consciousness are charged with remaining silent in their experience of shame (Likutei Moharan 6) and judging the bullies favorably. (Likutei Moharan 277)

– Those who find themselves in the strangest, most God-forsaken places along their journey toward the place of their yearning are given the opportunity to remember that wherever a person travels, there is something for him to fix in that specific place. (Sichos HaRan 85)

– All are charged with taking responsibility for the collective suffering of our world (Likutei Moharan 4), with calling out to Hashem in personal prayer to request the final redemption (Likutei Moharan Tinyana 25), and with dancing the broken-hearted dance of humility to sweeten the judgments (Likutei Moharan 10).

– All are charged with crying tears of hope and joy (Likutei Moharan 175), believing that no matter where we might end up this Rosh Hashana, that’s exactly where we were supposed to be – because this is all part of Hashem’s master-plan. Like puppets in the hand of the master Puppeteer, all we know is that in the end it will be good, because despite all outward appearances, Hashem is running the world “better and better” all the time. (Sichos HaRan 307)

– All are charged with feeling the sheer power of this particular tzaddik’s spiritual-gravitational pull on thousands of souls in our generation (Likutei Moharan 70) – to the point that many were compelled to make sacrifices that so infuriated others solely because this degree of commitment to a cause (something they are personally unable to fathom) makes them a bit more uncomfortable than they are willing to admit.

In sum, we are once again experiencing the realization of Rebbe Nachman’s promise that “I will make you into many groups.” (Chayei Moharan 319) But at the end of the day, no matter where you stand on this glorious spectrum of heated debate and sensitivity, we are all bound with the spirit of this singular tzaddik whose life-giving waters flow in a great many directions. So no matter where we find ourselves this Rosh Hashana, let’s hold tight to these teachings with great joy and unity, roaring like animals in the field – as Rabbeinu wanted – for a time when the light of Hashem and His tzaddikim will envelop the world in a wondrous blanket of illumination with the coming of Moshiach, b’mheira b’yameinu.

ASHREINU!

 

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The police state of Pushkina

When I first got to Uman, pretty much no-one was wearing masks.

But then, Israel’s Orwellian health ministry started dictating to the Ukrainians that what was going on in Uman wasn’t ‘good enough’ to enable thousands of Jewish pilgrims to come for Rosh Hashana.

The argument went like this:

You need to turn Pushkina into a mini-masked police state, like we have in religious neighborhoods in Israel, and if you get the Breslovers to agree to that, then we’ll consider letting a few more chassidim out to pray in Uman this year.

And so, over the last few days, Pushkina has gradually turned into a police state – but only for Jews.

As soon as you leave the small area where the Jews are to be found, most of the masks disappear, and most of the ‘rules’ about COVID-1984 disappear, too.

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Of course, there was never any intention to let more Jews come and daven in Uman for Rosh Hashana, at least, not for the Israeli government.

Just as they have made every effort to truly wreck the high holidays in Israel itself for its observant citizens, it has spared no expense or effort to wreck the kibbutz in Uman, too.

A big part of that was introducing the black metal ‘snake’ path in the tomb itself, which meant that none of the men could stand and pray, and they all had to shuffle along the ‘snake’ quickly reciting the tikkun haklali once before getting told to leave.

Let me tell you – that totally wrecked the energy and the atmosphere you usually get by the kever.

Even in the women’s section, we could immediately feel the difference. And of course, it didn’t help that any time someone was chutzpah enough to actually try to pray a shacharit, minchah or ma’ariv there, the Ukrainian ‘VIP Security’ guards would try to shut them down – and then call for back up from the Ukrainian police, if they couldn’t manage it.

That’s why a few days, a small group of people dismantled the ‘snake’.

And while they got a lot of official censure for doing that, I have to tell you that most of the people here agreed 100% with their actions, at least in theory. Because the ‘snake’ was swallowing all the kedusha.

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But, the health ministry waved the ‘carrot’ of letting more Jews in if we all sat back and agreed to masks, and social distancing, and the ‘snake’ in the Kever – and all the other pointless COVID-1984 propaganda that’s been gushing out of the State of Israel – and so the snake came back.

This time, it was joined by industrial amounts of cling film, as Rabbenu was vacuum-packed into a number of tiny ‘cubicles’, which make totally no sense from a germ-prevention point of view, but since when was any of this really about public health?

At the same time, health ministry officials started popping up in local shops and in the local hotels, to bully the proprietors into wearing masks – and forcing their customers to do the same.

Instantly, the religious Jews of Uman developed visible ‘pariah’ status, as they walked around in bright blue surgical masks while the Ukrainians did not.

Very soon after that, signs started to appear in some local shops in Uman saying ‘Chassidim aren’t welcome’, while the local non-Jews also started to worry that the frum Israelis were disease-carriers after all, and started shunning us and eyeing us more suspiciously than usual.

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So, the State of Israel’s plan to wreck Uman 5781 has been proceeding magnificently.

On the one hand, they barred thousands of Jews from getting here, including the unfortunate – but amazing! – Jews stuck in no-mans land between Belarus and Ukraine.

They were sleeping out in the cold for a 3rd night yesterday, and while the State of Israel is totally refusing to help – because it’s an anti-semitic regime that oppresses religious Jews – the Belarussian government has stepped into the breach.

As well as providing massive tents and access to the Red Cross and food from Uman, packaged by the Breslov philanthropist Eliezer Shiner, may God bless him, the Belarussians have offered to pay for buses to Uman, and to also pay for the pilgrims flight back home to Israel.

So far, the State of Israel still isn’t budging, and is demanding the pilgrims fly straight back to Israel from Belarus, while also engaging in a smear campaign to  make out like these brave people ‘deserve’ starvation and sleeping rough surrounded by armed Ukrainian soldiers.

I mean, if they were going to Crete for Rosh Hashana that would be something else!!! The fact that they were trying to get to Uman makes them totally hefker, irresponsible and bad. And the State of Israel is going to punish them for attempting to celebrate Rosh Hashana in any spiritually meaningful way!!!

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So, there are currently just a couple of thousand Jews here in Uman, as opposed to the 50-60,000 that regularly come.

And at the same time, we have all the retarded COVID-1984 farcical rules, imported wholesale from Israel, to try to ‘kill’ the atmosphere here and scare people away from praying in the kever.

Take a look at what was going on in Uman this time last year, for Rosh Hashana 5780:

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And now, this is the scene I photographed this morning in Pushkina, where there was about 3 scary looking Ukrainian police guards with truncheons, for every chassid on the street:

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What a difference!

But here’s the good news.

(You know that good news always comes out from Uman, don’t you?)

If you check in Lesson 2:8 of Likutey Moharan, Rabbenu talks about a ‘serpent’ that eats all the good in the world, but then tries to ‘eat’ the True Tzaddik – and that is the ‘bone’ that gets stuck in its throat. And at that point, it’s then forced to regurgitate every last bit of good that it swallowed, from the beginning of time.

Rabbenu is the bone in the throat of that ‘snake’.

That selfsame lesson also talks about the importance of Rosh Hashana, and the awesome tikkunim that the True Tzaddik can achieve on Rosh Hashana.

That is the stage we are at.

The COVID-1984 ‘snake’ has wrapped itself around Rabbenu, mamash.

But when Rosh Hashana is ushered in, he’s going to utterly crush it into the ground.

And by Yom Kippur, things will look VERY different, especially in Israel.

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So hang on, and keep praying for the chassidim stuck in Belarus, and on other borders to get here before Rosh Hashana.

All the mesirut nefesh to get here this year means each person is worth at least 100, if not a 1000.

Spiritually, we HAVE reached the 40,000 people required to crush COVID-1984 – there are at least that many people who wanted to come, and who were totally prevented to by the State of Israel.

But, its time is nearly up.

So ain shum yeoush be’olam klal.

After Rosh Hashana, the power of the snake will be totally broken.

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You might also like this article:

Uman update

 

 

 

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There is no despair in the world

It seems that Ukraine bent to the pressure from corrupt Netanyahu and Israel, to ban Jews coming to Uman for Rosh Hashana.

UPDATE:

This decree only comes in on Saturday, August 29th, 2020. There is time to go now, if you can! May God help us all to beat this horrible decree of COVID-1984 once and for all.

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Ah.

I’ve just seen this;

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/3087826-ukraine-to-close-borders-to-foreigners-until-end-of-september.html

The darkness is sometimes so dark, isn’t it? But Rabbenu told us already, 200 years ago – ain shum yeoush be’olam klal!!!!

So, don’t give up if you or your loved ones have booked tickets for Uman this year.

If we keep dancing, and praying, and spreading the light of Rabbenu and Rav Berland around the world, everything can still all change.

All it takes is for a few more people to wake up and understand that we’re all being ‘played’ with COVID-19, and ‘global warming’ and all the other lies we’re being told.

The cracks are staring to show – even in the mainstream.

Take a look at this:

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These people are going against Rabbenu now, and that is a step too far.

They are going to fall fast, and hard.

Just watch.

Ain shum yeoush be’olam klal.

We ARE going to be in Uman for Rosh Hashana, somehow or other. The small person is starting to stand up and roar all over the world.

And God’s light WILL shine out all over the globe.

And there is nothing anyone can do to stop that.

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Today’s Eugenicists (aka, meet Bill Gates)

 

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Book your ticket for Uman Rosh Hashana

I’m back, and 28% refreshed from a few days holiday in the North.

It was a nice trip, as these things go, but I’m still feeling pretty knackered today… It’s hard to keep our batteries recharged at the moment, isn’t it, with so many things continually wearing them down again.

Anyway, I’m working on a series of ‘deep dive’ exposes about what’s really going on here, and I hope to have something meaty for you to dig your teeth into next week.

In the meantime, I just saw this video over on the ravberland.com website, of Rav Shalom Arush encouraging everyone very strongly to still go to Uman for this Rosh Hashana, 5781:

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https://ravberland.com/rav-arush-this-is-the-last-uman-rosh-hashana-before-moshiach/

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In the Levy household, we’ve been having a serious debate about Rosh Hashana this year. My husband has gone every year for the last 14 years, and he put his name down to go with Netivot tours a few weeks ago, too.

But then, the stories came out that the Ukraine was limiting the number of visitors from Israel to 5,000. Then, some other site said 10,000.

Then, the Yeshiva World [Fake] News website started running one story after another quoting Israeli officials who were trying to pressure the Ukrainian government into banning any Jewish visitors to Rabbenu this year, because of the fake Covid plandemic.

Like this one:

“Don’t Come To Uman For Rosh Hashanah,” Israeli & Ukrainian Officials Urge

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I went to look up who Dr Asher Salmon actually is.

He’s an oncologist – a cancer specialist – and deputy director of Hadassah Hospital.

He also happens to be Israel’s ‘go to’ man for that tool of the bunch of eugenicists behind COVID-1984, the World Health Organisation.

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Each time you see one of these ‘medical experts’ being quoted in the fake news MSM, spend a minute to go and look them up.

I guarantee you will find that they are either directly linked to the WHO, and / or they are heading up organisations and ‘non-profits’ that are being funded directly by big Pharma and / or eugenics-promoting organisations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, or the Rockefeller Institute.

(Many of them can also be directly linked to the Milken Institute, too, but that’s still harder to spot and a work in progress to bring those links more to the surface. But it’s coming. Believe me, it’s coming.)

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So anyway, after we saw that video from Rav Arush, saying that this is the last Rosh Hashana before Moshiach, and promising massive spiritual benefits to anyone who makes it out there this year, I encouraged my husband to book ANOTHER ticket to Uman.

On a different date, a little earlier.

We are doing our bit.

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Things are so changeable right now, who knows what the travel restrictions will actually look like, when we get there.

From what I can see from the headlines, ‘the evil plan’ is really NOT going to plan at all. Rav Berland sweetened it, exactly as he said he would, and now what’s going on is an increasingly desperate circus designed to keep the world’s population preoccupied while they try to get ‘the evil plan’ back on track.

Here in Israel, they have tried, and tried and tried so many times to reinstate a full lockdown, and for some bizarre reason, they just can’t do it.

More and more Israelis are waking up to the fact that COVID-1984 is a plandemic.

Fewer and fewer of us are buying the propaganda being churned out on sites like the Jpost and the Times of Israel and the Yeshiva World [Fake] News. And as we’re increasingly spotting the lies being told about COVID-1984, that is also translating into more and more people spotting the lies being told about everything else, too.

Like the Beirut Port bomb in Lebanon.

Like the ‘convenient’ nature of Hamas starting it’s fire balloons again now, for no other reason than to shore up Puppet Netanyahu and keep him in power long enough to deliver his end of ‘the evil plan’.

And all these planned and organised ‘spontaneous protests’, which are being jumped on by all the other corrupt MKs and ministers like Benny Gantz and Moshe Ya’alon, who are pretending to be serving the interests of the public, when really, they are just serving themselves and their masters in chul.

But we’re just not buying it anymore.

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Let’s end this with some encouragement:

Go buy your ticket for Uman Rosh Hashana, and don’t be scared. Ladies, encourage your men to go even though it’s so very uncertain and stressful at the moment. Rabbenu is always our main line of defense, our key spiritual defender, for a good year.

And 5781 is shaping up to be the biggest year ever.

If the WHO is going to such great efforts to try to stop people from being in Uman for Rosh Hashana, that tells you how big, spiritually, it really is.

So go buy your ticket!!!

Because ‘the evil plan’ is on its last legs, and you definitely want a front row seat when all the spiritual light of geula starts to shine out into every corner of the world, from Uman this year.

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You might also like this article:

Send your husband to Uman

 

 

 

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Advice for success and happiness

The new book by Rav Berland is out.

I got the steer to get on with it from my visit to Hevron, and now you can buy it in paperback, BH.

But I can’t.

As Amazon is still not delivering to Israel, or at least, they aren’t delivering this book to Israel. I’m working on getting the ebook together, but we all know that it’s not the same, spiritually, as getting a hard copy out there.

So again, if you want the privilege of being the first person to officially print the book in the world, go HERE and order a copy.

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Ah.

I’ve been pretty irritable this week. I guess that’s inevitable. All this uncertainty, all this backwards and forwards between what was, and what is, and what will be.

God is actually being so kind to us, He’s dismantling the gashmius, and the world of lies, in such a gentle fashion, relatively. If you go HERE, you’ll find a point-by-point summary, in English, of the Gemara Sanhedrin 97a, which paints a clear picture of what will be, before Moshiach finally shows up. Here’s some of the key points:

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Truth will go away like Adarim (flocks; Maharsha – people of truth will have to hide).

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Anyone who avoids evil will be considered foolish.

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Ben David will come in a generation in which youths shame elders, and elders stand in front of youths. A daughter reviles and shames her mother, a daughter-in-law shames her mother-in-law, people’s faces resemble that of dogs, and a son feels no shame in front of his father.

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Ben David will come in a generation of great brazenness. People will not honor each other (alternatively – even the most honorable people are crooked), even though many grapes grow, wine is expensive (because grapes do not yield much wine; alternatively, because everyone drinks a lot), the entire kingdom will be Minim, and there is no rebuke. (Ed. note: minim means ‘informers’, specifically people that snitch on other people to the government….)

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Ben David will not come until there are many informers. Alternatively, he will not come until Talmidim diminish, or until people lack money, or until they despair of redemption.

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Let’s take a look at that last one in more detail, shall we?

  1. Moshiach won’t come until ‘there are many informers’ – i.e. people and apps and security services snitching on every single person in the world, all using ‘coronavirus’ as the excuse – CHECK
  2. He won’t come ‘until Talmidim diminish’ – whether that’s kids in schools, or Torah scholars, we can also tick this box. I was just saying to my husband, how very hard it feels at the moment, to even give over some Torah at the Shabbat table. Just feels like wading through treacle, or trying to pull a bunch of wool through a thorn bush. I can’t concentrate so much at the moment, and I usually love sharing Torah, especially awesome Torah from Rabbenu or Rav Berland. But at the moment, I just can’t focus enough to really ‘learn’ anything much. And I know I’m not the only one. – CHECK
  3. He won’t come ‘until people lack money’. I have a feeling this is being sweetened, at least partially. Sure, there are a lot of people who have just been instantly tipped into terrible poverty – as was always the plan – because of the lockdowns. And for those poor people, the heart truly bleeds. I got an email from someone in Latin America who is seeing her friends’ small kids lacking even basic foodstuff, even basic things like milk. That’s hard. It’s really hard.

And then, on a totally different level, there’s the fact that cash is currently being phased out all over the place. You can’t buy a ticket to the Jerusalem Zoo with cash anymore, only card. Ditto the buses. When I go to the supermarket, I often get into disagreements with the cashiers who apparently lack the ‘cash’ in their tills to even give me 10 shekels change for a 100 shekel note.

New World Order, World Economic Forum, ‘Great Reset’, ID2020 – or maybe just God’s way of sweetening what was stated here in the Gemara, we’ll see.

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4. Moshiach won’t come until people despair of redemption.

We’re there, aren’t we? If not personally, than politically, and nationally and globally.

Yeoush is beating hard on most people’s doors right now, and without the power of the Tzaddikim, it’s very hard to stand up in the test.

It’s very hard not to just drown in bitterness, or to ‘disappear’ into never-ending business to keep the anxiety at bay, or to switch off and go into denial about it all.

Very hard indeed.

I was speaking to a relative in the UK yesterday who owns a big business. While they are still doing OK, in terms of revenues, they are probably still heading into administration because of the COVID-19 lockdown, because – like every other service industry business – they realised they don’t need their super-expensive office space anymore.

And so has everyone else.

Which means they can’t get rid of their super-expensive lease, and they can’t get someone else to take it off their hands, and with the economic downturn, the lease by itself is enough to push the business into declaring bankruptcy. She’s barely been out of her house for four months, and she told me that she reckons half the shops will be boarded up anyway, by the time she finally goes shopping again.

There’s no point doing anything, we’re all just in limbo. Who knows if they are going to lock us down again, if there’s a ‘second wave’. It just feels that it’s totally pointless, to try to plan or do anything.

That’s what she told me.

And that’s kind of what most of us are feeling right now:

Apathy. Frustration. Anger. Claustrophobia. Fear. YEOUSH.

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One of my kids’ friends wanted to know why there is all this frozen fruit for smoothies in the freezer, that just isn’t getting used. When I explained that I’m finding it hard to cook because I’m having a mid-life crisis, he told me: Yeah, my mum is too.

I think we all are, in one way or another.

How could we not be, after everything we’ve gone through the last few months, and as the uncertainty continues and the ‘world of lies’ carries on shattering before our very eyes.

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So, here’s my two cents on what God is probably expecting from us, at this really FRUSTRATING, UNCERTAIN AND ANXIETY-INDUCING stage of the geula process:

  1. Avoid all hakpada against other people – hakpada is harsh judgment, holding grudges, thinking the worst about other people, and concentrating on it. Rav Berland recently said this:

IT’S ASSUR (FORBIDDEN) FOR A PERSON TO L’HAKPID (JUDGE HARSHLY) ANY OTHER JEW, EVEN IF HE DOING ALL THE EVIL THINGS.

You know why?

Because we’re just judging ourselves, when we’re judging other people. Whatever we see them doing that annoys us, it’s really just a mirror. So whatever judgment we’re passing on those other people, we’re really just passing it on ourselves.

Isn’t that a scary thought?

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2. Try to dance for at least 10 minutes, every single day. This is still my ‘go to’ advice for getting out of yeoush, especially if you can’t just head out and visit the kever of a tzaddik, or spend 6 hours doing hitbodedut.

3. Buy a copy of Rabbi Berland’s Advice for Success and Happiness – and read it.

I started translating that book in the first place, because it was helping me so much to get out of my yeoush and despair every time I was cracking it open.

This is not a simple period of time we are heading in to, anything but.

We need as much help as we can get to weather the emotional storms still up ahead, and connecting to the true Tzaddikim, via their books and advice, is one of the single biggest things we can do to come through all this in one piece.

When we connect to the tzaddikim, and follow their advice, we are replacing our ‘bad’ thoughts and stupid ideas with their clarity and wisdom. And then, we can stop acting like an out-of-control retard.

Eventually.

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Here’s the link again:

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UPDATE:

This article has absolutely nothing to do with this post, except to show how totally bizarre the world has become – permanent Purim, in fact – and how totally UNcredible practically every single source of ‘news’ now is. I clicked on this by mistake, when I was typing in a different website address, and here’s what came up.

Unbelievable, that this is what passes as ‘news’ today.

Take a look for yourself:

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/152755/jerusalem-satanists-get-cold-feet-cancel-own-new-world-order-event-during-solar-eclipse/

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You might also like this article:

 

The face of a dog

 

 

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Rabbi Shalom Arush needs our help

Help to keep Rabbi Arush and Chut Shel Chesed Yeshiva going.

Yesterday, I got an email from someone I know from way back when, during the time my husband and I were a part of Rabbi Shalom Arush’s Chut Shel Chesed Yeshiva, telling me the Rav needs our help.

Here’s what she sent me to post up here, which I’m going to cut and paste below:

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Everyone knows Rabbi Arush for his books including “The Garden of Emuna,” and his classes. What you may not know, is that Rabbi Arush runs an entire organization centered in Jerusalem, whose reach is all over the world, called “Chut shel Chessed.”

> The sounds of Torah learning that fill Rabbi Arush’s Yeshiva 24/6 – you can have a portion in the merit of all that Torah.
> The sounds of small children learning in Rabbi Arush’s preschools, the breath of the children that sustains the world – you can have a portion in their learning.
> The sounds of school children, high school, and seminary/Beit Midrash girls and boys busy at their studies – you can have a portion in that too.
> The hundreds of food baskets and thousands of hot meals served to the poor of Jerusalem, many of them the families of Torah scholars – you can have a portion in all of that chesed, made even more important by supporting the poor of the Land of Israel.
? The almost one thousand classes given monthly by Rabbi Arush and his students, plus tens of thousands of books distributed and thousands of readers of the website in five languages – you can have a portion in all of that outreach.

No other organization gives you everything, all under one roof!

By donating to the Campaign “The Fire of Emuna” you become a full partner in everything that Rabbi Arush does.

And he wants to do more! He has a rare opportunity to build a new building for the boys school, which right now is squeezed into a makeshift space out of a few apartments – he needs the money NOW, or it won’t happen. He has an amazing opportunity to do special classes in the Israeli army, something that no one gets security clearance for – he got the clearance, and now we need the funds. He wants to greatly expand his efforts spreading emuna around the world.

He has already done so much, and he can do much more – but he cannot do it alone.

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Rabbi Arush has promised something huge back in return: A guarantee that anyone who donates to the Campaign will see miracles already this year! 

He will also pray for each and every person who donates. You can also receive special gifts like a mezuzah or Kiddush Cup specially blessed by Rabbi Arush, a personally signed and blessed Book of Psalms or “The Garden of Emuna,” or even a special, personal prayer for you at the Kotel.

In every way that you increase your donation, and even more so by encouraging other people to donate as well, so too do you increase your level of partnership, thus increasing your merit and the salvations that will inevitably come as a result.

Click here to donate via the Charidy website or to donate by phone using credit card, bank transfer, or horat keva (last two are Israeli only), or for more information on the special gifts, or to break your donation into monthly payments, call my personal contact for the Campaign on: (323) 992-6090 from the US or 058-320-5057 in Israel.

Remember, it’s all or nothing! The Campaign ends 12AM Midnight Israel time on Thurs. 6/27!

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Some more of my personal thoughts to add on this:

In case you don’t know how these charity campaigns run in Israel, they basically work along the lines of a Vegas game of poker. The site offers to match the donations brought in – but only if your campaign makes its target amount within 36 hours. If it doesn’t – then it’s really, really bad news.

Personally, I don’t like the idea so much, but it appeals to the Israeli ‘high stakes’ mindset, and I know most of the charity campaigns I’ve contributed to the last few years all over the orthodox Jewish world in Israel have been run along the same lines.

So, Rav Arush really needs our help.

I heard a whisper on the grapevine that the people behind the persecution of Rabbi Berland basically went after many of Rav Arush’s donors, after he came out – repeatedly – in public support of him. If you want to know why he suddenly fell quiet a couple of years’ back, it’s because the Meah Shearim Mafiosos targeted him and his institutions for retribution, and also threatened to get his books removed from shelves and stores in Israel for being ‘religiously coercive’.

This stuff would be funny, if it wasn’t so very, very serious.

And it makes me very sad to see that so many gullible people fell for their tactics, and that the yeshiva is now in such a bad way, financially.

Are we going to stand back, yawn and let the bad guys win?

I hope not.

And I hope you’ll consider giving something to the campaign, and letting other people know about it.

For once, the fundraising bumpf is not lying:

It really is all or nothing.

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Go HERE to donate, or follow the instructions above, to deal with a real, English-speaking helpful person.

PS: Just to say, this email really made me think about how much ‘good’ I got from the Garden of Emuna, and especially ‘Education with Love’, amongst Rav Arush’s other books. I can’t do much, but the little I could give I was very happy to do with tremendous gratitude. Rav Arush really did change my world for the best. I hope I can return the favor, at least a tiny bit.

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On the barricades with Rebbe Nachman

Refreshing the soul, with Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.

The last few days, I was really feeling the heat allegorically and physically.

My landlady has been telling me since last Summer’s 43o  heatwave that you ‘don’t feel the heat’ in Jerusalem – but of course, she’s wrong. And since L’ag B’omer, I was sitting in my house slow roasting along to constant 40o  plus heat for weeks already – and I was starting to crack.

Then there was all the ‘regular’ madness if you can call it that. So much to do every day, so many chores to take care of, so much stuff on the boil, personally and nationally.

So I told my husband: we need to go to Uman for Shavuot.

Despite our lack of cash, he borrowed some money and made it happen, God bless him. Then there was another wrinkle in the plans: women weren’t allowed in the Kever for the whole of Shavuot. Did I mind? Of course, yes I did. But I had to get there one way or another, so I made up my mind to have a different sort of Uman trip, minus Rebbe Nachman’s actual grave.

The hotel was understated but quite nice, quite quiet (relatively…) food was simple buy yummy. I had three whole days to try to get my head in order. There was yet another ‘wrinkle’ in the plans, inasmuch as we made plans to head out to Uman the same night that Rabbi Berland then called his atzeret in Hevron last week.

So, we figured we’ll go early to Hevron stay for half an hour, then bomb it back home, try to catch some sleep for an hour a half, then roar off to ben Gurion. In the meantime, there was another wrinkle in that plan, too: when I got home at 11pm Thursday night, it turns out one of my kids needed some urgent help to get her bagrut art project done and turned in on time.

So (long story…) I spent two hours sewing body parts together for 18 felt dollies, before spending 10 minutes packing my case like a madwoman, before departing for Uman.

Obviously, our taxi man didn’t show up in Kiev. Or rather, he did, but just not where we were expecting him, so we had to spend an hour combing the carparks to find him.

But when we actually got to Uman it was nice. Like, pretty much almost ‘normal’ – which was so weird to me, I spent the first day and a half trying to work out how to react to it. Usually, I hit Uman and I get the massive stomachache, the massive challenge, the massive insight, the massive something…. This time, nothing massive.

This time, just lots of walking around and around Uman itself, as I couldn’t get near the Kever and I couldn’t stay in a hotel room for 3 whole days without going totally bonkers. So I discovered all sorts of back alleys and new places in Uman that I’d never been to before, and certainly never by myself.

On Isru Chag, I decided to spend the day walking around Gan Sofia.

In the past, I’ve seen extending walks around Gan Sofia as something only ‘lightweights’ do, instead of pulling all-night prayer sessions by the kever, but as the Tzion was still barred to womenkind, it struck me as just the thing to pass the time. I spent the best part of a day just walking under trees that were three storeys high, bathing my eyeballs in luxuriant green and Victorian water features, and felt so very lucky.

Hey, there’s something to this, after all….

Walking back from Gan Sofia, I got some insight that Rabbenu’s grave is very chazak spirituality – so chazak, it can and does fry people’s brains out of their heads, sometimes. In our spiritually-dead days, most of us need a jolt like that, an electric shock of kedusha like that, to try to get the soul back from its flat-lining position.

But this time around, I also got why Rebbe Nachman used to request that his followers also visit Gan Sofia when they come to Uman, too.

Gan Sofia is total gashmius – the polar opposite of the intense kedusha that is the Tzion.

But we need both, in order to serve God properly.

But in the correct order and dosage, i.e. first the spirituality, and only as an after-thought or a dessert, the gashmius and materiality.

Second day in, I had this amazing dream that Moshiach is coming into the world next week.

I woke up in a really good mood, and it seemed like a ‘real’ dream to me. I needed that good vibe, as I came home to a tip.

We let a teenager have the house with her friends, and one of them managed to shatter the shower door all over the bathroom floor. There’s no milk in the house, they’ve moved all my stuff around…

But I got another ‘message’ from Uman this time around, which was to shower my teenagers with as much love and compassion and understanding as I can, whenever I can, because in this dark generation, unkind words can just propel our children straight into the clutches of  the tumah, God forbid. So I kept my temper and didn’t go off into rant mode.

The world is very hard to ‘be’ in at the moment, especially if you’re trying to put at least some focus on kedusha and God.

The filth is literally seeping in under the doors and through the walls. It’s permeating the atmosphere and degrading everything it comes in contact with. It’s hard to continue, some days. It’s hard to think straight. It’s hard to pray.

Before I went to Rebbe Nachman in Uman, current events had made me feel more than a little despairing about being able to raise my children in anything like a ‘healthy’ spiritual environment. We’re in a little bubble here in Jerusalem, but even here, the cracks are starting to deepen and the tumah is seeping through.

There is a relentless and effective ‘war’ being waged against the soul, and against kedusha, and against God, especially by the media. It’s claiming so many casualties, it’s truly frightening to witness how fast the moral fabric of the world is unravelling.

Which is where Rebbe Nachman really came in to his own.

Torah is eternal. Tzaddikim are eternal. Mitzvot are eternal. The Jewish people are eternal.

Even though the battle for the Jewish soul is currently very intense, if we stick close to our true tzaddikim like Rebbe Nachman and Rabbi Berland, they will act like spiritual bulwarks, absorbing and deflecting most of the ‘cack’. So somehow, us and families can come through the fighting unscathed.

But without that bulwark?

I dread to think.

You might also like these articles about Uman:

The Uman Experience – Part 9

Uman Redux

Uman explodes

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