A Day in the Life of a Jew

Chodesh tov! The Midrash teaches that the first day of Nissan, when the Mishkan was erected in the wilderness, was the happiest day in Heaven since the Creation of the world.

In Jerusalem, you certainly feel a heightened joy, as the holiday of Pesach draws near. Last night the Kotel was crowded with people, including a large group of Breslov Hasidim who came to recite the Tikun Clalli, to dance, and to sing songs in honor of the new month and the birthday of Rebbe Nachman. Like every Motzei Shabbat, I joined the group that came to recite Tehillim and special Rosh Chodesh prayers with the holy Kabbalist, Rabbi Eliahu Leon Levi. What an incredible high!

HaRav Eliahu Leon Levi

Crowd in the Kotel Chamber

Like Father Like Son

Then, first thing this morning, after the mikvah and davening, I took my young sons to a garden down the street to recite the blessing over newly budding trees, with the former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu. The blessing, said once a year in the month of Nissan, thanks G-d for creating a world in which nothing is lacking for our enjoyment.

HaRav Mordechai Eliahu

Teach your children well

Then we went off to bake matzahs with Rabbis from the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva. Just a page turn of history backwards, Jews in Russia weren’t allowed to make matzot. Today, these same Jews, now Israeli immigrants, have replaced the Arab worker in the matzah factory in Jerusalem. What a joy it is to see this clear sign of the Geulah in front of your eyes!

Russian Jews

Here they come!

Smile!

Checking the machine for chametz

Later in the day, we hope to join a joyous procession that will bring a new Torah scroll to the Mercaz HaRav High School Yeshiva in honor of the eight boys that were murdered, symbolizing that their love of Torah and the Land of Israel will go forth with an even greater flame.

From there, we have to hurry to a wedding of family friends. It’s a lot of events and happiness to squeeze into one day, but that typifies life in Israel. The Holy Land is the center of the world, and Jerusalem is its vortex. Here, everything spins so fast that it is impossible to keep up with the dizzying pace. This is life in the fast lane. As the complete Redemption draws closer, the spinner gets faster and faster. I am sure that my fellow Israeli readers will agree that here in Israel, ten, twenty, a hundred lifetimes are compressed into one. Things happen so quickly, we undergo daily life changes at a centrifugal pace. It is a totally different experience than Jewish life in Diaspora, on the circumference of the circle, where things moves so very slowly. In the Diaspora, people don’t seem to change at all. You can go back for a visit after ten years and the people seem exactly the same, like figures in a wax museum.

In simple terms, this is where it is happening, brother. Chodesh tov!   

Special Guest For Shabbat

Rabbi David Samson's Lech Lecha Yeshiva

Here is a short dvar Torah from Rabbi Samson in the honor of Shabbat:    

IN THIS WEEK’S Torah portion, we meet a unique form of Mega-Tumah (impurity) known as Tzaraat (Vayikra, 13:20). Compared to other forms of impurity, this form of defilement is the severest.

The first Mishnas in Seder Taharot delineate Ten Levels of Tumah (Kelim, 1:1-5). According to this list, a person who is a metzorah is at the highest level of defilement that a person can contract, exceeded only by the tumah of a decaying cadaver.

The Mishna then goes on to delineate 10 levels of Kedusha (holiest) in Israel. The holiest is the Holy of Holies upon the Temple Mount, where only The High Priest can enter once a year on the holiest day of Yom Kippur.  The Mishna then categorizes the various types of defiled people and lists those who are forbidden to enter the Temple, the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, and finally any walled city in Israel. As would be expected, the person with the greatest level of defilement – the metzorah is exiled to the most remote part of Israel and prohibited from living within the confines of any walled city in the country.

The Talmud (Erchin16a) teaches us that tzaraat is caused by evil speech, called lashon harah. One who speaks lashon harah about a fellow Jew is ostracized from the community, but may still dwell within the confines of Israel. There is, however, one person whose defilement is so great that he is banished totally from the land – a person who speaks lashon harah about Eretz Yisrael. The Torah prescribed a punishment for the Spies and their followers of being banished not only from the community, but from all of Israel: "All who detest me shall not see her (Israel)". (Bamidbar, 14:23). "In this wilderness will your cadavers decay" (Bamidbar, 14:29).  From this we can see the extreme severity of speaking negatively about Eretz Yisrael. It is  the epitome of defilement.
 
May we merit to cherish the Land in our hearts, deeds, and speech. As the Kuzari concludes, "For Yerushalayim will verily be reconstructed only once the Jews yearn for it with all of their hearts."

Where Will You Be When Mashiach Comes?

The esteemed Torah scholar, Rav Nachman Kahana, gave us permission to post this piece from a Torah article he wrote last week. The passion of his brother, the holy Rav Meir Kahane, may Hashem avenge his murder a million times over, echoes in his words:  

Our Rabbis have taught that when the Mashiach will appear, he will stand on the roof of the Bet Hamikdash and announce to the nation, "Righteous ones. The time for your salvation has arrived. And if you do not believe, look at the light which has shined upon you... upon you alone and not upon the other nations of the world."

The same skepticism and refusal to believe that HaShem really loves His nation Israel and that redemption has begun, as the Midrash describes, is now very much upon us.

The U.S. Vice President visited Israel last week (which the majority of religious Jews from the USA have never done), and made the following public pronouncement, "The establishment of the State of Israel from out of the ashes of the Holocaust is one of the great miracles of history."

Mr. Cheney knows what he is saying even more than we do, because he is privy to the machinations and intentions of our many enemies who would destroy the Medinah but cannot.

The great heartache of our times is that millions of gentiles are aware of what HaShem’s own chosen people are blind to. Thousands of gentiles pass by the square in front of my home in the Old City every day in awe of their merit to be in the Holy Land, when the majority of Jews in the USA have never stepped foot on the holy soil.

The Medinah is the first sign of the redemption of our people. Only a fool can imagine that HaShem will send the Mashiach to a desert land empty of Jews. The Medinah with all its seeming faults is performing what it was set about to do - to bring willing sons and daughters back to Eretz Yisrael.

While we build the "roof of the Bet Hamikdash" for the Mashiach to appear from, many leaders of galut Jewry convince poor, well-meaning Jewish souls not to come home. Had the rabbis ordered our people to return in the wake of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which declared Eretz Yisrael on both sides of the Jordan River as the "national home" of the Jewish people, Churchill would not have written in his memoirs in the 1920s: "On the porch of the King David Hotel, with my pencil, I established the Hashamite Kingdom of Jordan."

Had the Jews of Europe come back, they would not have gone to heaven through the chimneys of Hitler’s extermination camps. Had the Jews returned en mass after the Six Day War in 1967, there would be today no Palestine Authority in Shomron and Yehuda or Hamas in Aza.

In any event, the Mashiach will come, and he will ask every Jew one simple question: "Where were you when I came?"

My family and friends will all answer: "We were in Eretz Yisrael," but there will be many other answers such as: "Teaneck," or "Williamsburg," or "Crown Heights" and "Square Town," and the long list of recommended places that I saw on the OU website for young Jewish couples to live.

I am quite certain that the Mashiach is an understanding person. He will appreciate the stressful situation our people are going through in the galut and the difficulties they encounter in having to uproot themselves from their familiar surroundings to come to a country on the edge of the desert surrounded by fierce enemies. But at the same time, the Mashiach will also be a very practical leader; and in his capacity of bringing Torah to the entire world, I would not be surprised if he would institute a very practical solution for his problem: that all the Jews who will be in the galut upon his arrival will have to remain in the galut where they will be the Mashiach’s emissaries to teach the goyim their seven Noachide laws. And while they will be busy in Africa and in the jungles of South America and the city jungles of NY and Chicago, we in Eretz Yisrael will be putting the final touches on the roof of the Bet Hamikdash.

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana

Book of the Year

Don't forget to buy the book. Great Pesach reading!

Johannesburg Blues

Let's say this letter comes from Johannesburg, but it could be from LA, or Monsey, or Paris, or Melbourne. There are tens and tens of thousands of young Jewish males with the very same problem, living this Catch 22 purgatory all over the globe. True, there are many things in Israel that need fixing, but there is an underlying spiritual, cultural, and physical impurity in the Diaspora that has warped Torah values and corrupted the Jewish soul with the immoral and profane aspirations of the nations. Like a deadly, invisible gas, the Diaspora has poisoned our holy values, threatening to wipe out the young generation of Jews. It is a spiritual Tsunami. Like it or not, only the lucky ones who reach the shores of Israel can hoped to be saved.

At least here in the Holy Land, a guy can find a wonderful wife without having to own a Mercedez, a penthouse, a stock portfolio, and a boat. When you go out on a shiduch, the girl doesn't even ask what you do. She wants to know who you are. What you drive in, and what you live in don't matter. What you believe in is what really counts.

Here is the letter:

Dear Tzvi,
I am a young minded 35 year old Jewish guy in Johannesburg South Africa.
While Africa is a crappy continent and South Africa has issues,
the Jewish community of Johannesburg is generally well-off.
There are 100's of poor Jewish families but also 1000's of wealthy ones.
It is a very materialistic place to be with everyone trying to outdo each other,
who can go to Thailand or Bali- who can drive the newest Merc or BMW etc.
This is really how it is. Very material.

one for Abba, one for Emma, one for the kids

My point is that to fit in anywhere, you need to walk the talk.
Which where I live, means money. Cold hard cash.
I'm nearly 36 so it's time I looked for a wife etc.
But honestly- the Jewish girls here are brought up spoilt by their parents,
and they always want "better" for their children.
So if you are brought up with money- you want a guy with money-
so you can continue the upmarket luxurious lifestyle you are living.
And if you're a girl with no money- you still want a guy with money-
so you can live the luxurious lifestyle your friends are living.
I am not generalizing- this is how it is here.

Sure there are enough rooms for the kid and the dog?

I am not a very material person. So I feel out of place here.
Yes I have a degree but not in business.
I'd love to live in Israel if I could find a job there but I have no money to get there.
I simply cannot afford overseas air tickets.
Now here is why I email you-

The TORAH says a man (I am a man) must marry a woman and have children.
How can I possibly do that? Girls here ask "what do you do?",
and "what car do you drive?". I say a "Toyota" and well it does not work.
A girl here does not wish to date a guy with no money.

SO I am STUCK in a catch-22.
I need to get married and start living but I need money to do that, fact.
But I have no money. The Torah says to get a wife and then the money will come.
But here to get a wife- you need the money first.
SO I am stuck.

What makes it a terrible catch-22 is that I have spilled lots of seed.
I know this can damage making a living and other things as well.

I have slept with Jewish girls
• I have slept with non Jewish girls
• I have done naughty things
• I have spilt seed
• I have masturbated
• I have watched porn
• etc

If I have a wife, then I can sleep with only her.
And be with only her.
Don't need to spill seed anymore.
Or watch porn. etc.
So it's really best if Heaven gives me a wife-
and the MONEY to afford her-
but no- I am kept in a stuck state.

And being single with no money is depressing.
And Hashem gave me hormones.
At 35 must I be celibate?

So I masturbate. Is it not better than sleeping with non Jews?
Or sleeping with Jewish girls? 
If not,
then one watches porn.
Really what else is there to do?

SHOULD I rather study Torah?
There I will learn that a man to be complete-
must marry a woman and have sex with her-
and build a family with children and Torah.
Great..... I'll also learn that when I get married-
the Ketubah tells me I am obligated to support my wife-
Great...........so I'll learn that I must get married-
with money to support a wife-
so where is my wife? where is my decent livelihood = parnasah?
I don't wanna be rich. I want to be average.

So how will studying Torah help me actually?
It will just reinforce my stuck position.
I want a wife and want to only be with her.
But I have no parnasah to afford this.

Catch 22.

I believe in Hashem and the Torah.
But I am battling in keeping faith in light of all the above.
I can't talk to any Rabbi here about this.
They're all too busy. And don't properly answer questions anyway.
They also can't relate- they live in nice houses-
get paid good salaries- have wives 
and so they just cannot relate.
Also I don't know any Rabbi very well- and to go to one and say,
"I'd like to talk to you about sex and masturbation..",
well....it just won't happen.

So that's why I am emailing you and maybe you can shed some light on this matter for me,
who knows?

More Champion Awards

We know that Rob already won a Champion Award, but he deserves another for another brave step forward, as revealed in this heartfelt letter.

Adam from Monsey, NY. gets a Champion Award also for his giant step out of the darkness.

Champions of Truth 

Keep strong, brothers. Take this tip from the Jedi Jud. There are always trials when a person comes to cleanse himself from impurity. The Evil Prince of Galutia doesn’t want to let go of his captives. Keep your eyes fixed on your holy goal and you will make it. Close your ears to all those who would fill you with weakness and doubts. Go with the Force! 

Go with the Force!

Here’s Rob’s latest letter:

After conversations with my wife concerning the future, we have decided that the best option for us to pursue would be Aliyah. We have a piece of land here we have been working on for the last four years. I have come to the conclusion it is basically a waste of my time to put energy into something someone else will eventually own. I know it would be better for us to invest our energy into building the Holy Land.
 
I know my cyber buddies will flip out on me, but this is a decision I have been contemplating for a few years now. I am not worried about being killed because I would be buried there for sure.  Also I'm pretty sure my blood is not any more precious than those who live and die in the Holy Land.
 
I also realize we can never fully understand the struggle without actually being a physical part of it. In my own defense, I must do what is right. And the right thing for me to do is come and join in.
 
Thanks Tzvi, we love you man, Rob
 
Here’s Adam’s talkback:

80% of our ancestors died during the plague of darkness when we were slaves in Egypt. Why? Because they didn't have any desire to be redeemed. They would rather be slaves in Egypt, where they were familiar with their surroundings. The same thing seems destined to happen with the final Redemption. I'm not sticking around in the Exile and miss out on the Redemption that Hashem has promised us. While I pray that anyone reading this who is still in Exile (like I am) will wake up - I don't worry about it too much either. Tzvi and many others will keep on teaching the Truth - and the 80% who don't want to serve Hashem and be part of the Geulah will go back to sleep. However - if these blogs strike a chord with you, and you know deep inside your soul that the Land of Israel and the Final Redemption is your destiny - then don't wait any longer! Start planning your aliyah now!