Secret of Rain

As if Israel doesn’t have enough problems with a host of savage enemies, a government of corrupt and mediocre politicians, and millions of Jewish refuseniks who refuse to give up the exile, the water level of the Sea of Galilee is very low, and farmers are bracing for a dry and economically disastrous summer.

The Talmud teaches that the power over rain is one of the three keys that the Almighty has kept for Himself - the key of Rain, the key of Childbirth, and the key of the Resurrection of the Dead” (Taanit 2A).

"He will shut up the Heavens and there will be no rain."

Because the key of rain is in G-d’s keeping, when rain does not fall in Eretz Yisrael, we know that G-d Himself has turned off the faucet, because the Land of Israel is under the special Providence of G-d, as it says, "The Land where the eyes of our L-rd are always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end” (Devarim, 11:12). A lack of rainfall in Israel isn’t some freak disturbance of regional weather patterns, but, as the Talmud teaches, the result of our sins:

“Rabbi Tanchum ben Hamilai said, No rain falls unless the sins of Israel have been forgiven” (Taanit 7B).

The Talmud goes on to list many transgressions that cause the withholding of rain, but to understand the secret of the matter, we will turn to the holy Zohar.

It turns out that the secret is no mystery at all, as it explicitly states in the Shema:

 “Take heed to yourselves, that your heart not be deceived, and you turn aside and worship other gods and bow down to them; and then the anger of the L-rd will be inflamed against you, and He will shut up the heaven that there be no rain, and that the Land yield not its fruit; and you perish quickly from the good Land which the L-rd gives you” (Devarim, 11:17).

The Zohar explains that the idol worship referred to in the Shema means sexual transgression. In punishment for misusing the “lower waters” of the seminal life force during sexual sin, G-d shuts up the heavenly “upper waters” of life sustaining rain (Zohar, Bereshit 189B). This relationship occurs specifically in the Land of Israel, because the G-d’s covenant bequeathing Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish People, symbolized the brit milah, is based on sexual holiness.

The Ramak, Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, was dean of the Safed academy of Kabbalists, immediately preceding Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, the Ari. The Ramak explains that the heavens are associated with the “sefirah” or spiritual channel “Tiferet.” From here, the Divine blessing of rain flows forth to the earth, identified with the sefirah of “Malchut.” The channel that conducts the blessing of rain from Tiferet to Malchut is the “Yesod,” associated with the atmosphere between heaven and earth. The Yesod acts as a spiritual faucet.

Yesod - the Spiritual Faucet

Therefore, when the channel of Yesod is damaged, rains are withheld from the earth. Since the sefirah of Yesod parallels the organ of the Brit in man, it follows that sexual transgression causes the greatest damage to the channel of  Yesod, stunting the flow of rain and G-d’s blessing to the Land (See the commentary on the Zohar, “Matok M’Dvash,” Vayashev, 189B).

Readers who are interested in exploring this concept further are encouraged to read the condensed online introduction to the book, “Secret of the Brit,” on the www.jewishsexuality.com website. 

May we all endeavor to mend our sexual lapses, and may the Almighty have compassion upon us and grant us the blessing of rain, as it says, “And G-d saw their deeds, in that they turned from their evil way” (Yonah, 3:10).

The Land of Israel is Waiting

Take an empty can or plastic bottle of soda. Put a few pennies inside. Shake it. It makes a lot of noise, right? Now, take a slip of paper and write on it MIKE. Scotch tape it to the can. You can use it to scare away stray cats from your back yard, or use it as a noisemaker on Purim.

Just a lot of fizz and foam

G-d created the world and gave the continents of the world to the gentiles, and the Land of Israel to the Jews. The commandment to live in the Land of Israel has absolutely no connection to the question whether Medinat Yisrael is holy or not. That is just a smokescreen that Mike employs to hide the fact that he isn’t here doing something to help create the Torah atmosphere we all long for. Instead he chooses to live in a gentile land helping the goyim. He chooses to follow his own will, rather than the will of G-d. And he makes a pathetic attempt to cover it up by finding a thousand things wrong with life in Israel.

“Medinat Yisrael is out to kill the Jews!” Mike cries out in protest of Hashem’s great international ingathering of the Jewish People in our time. “The Israeli government isn’t religious! The Israel police and the Israeli army kick Jews out of their homes! They beat up girls in Amona! And the settler lemmings don’t fight back!”

But even if there are ten thousand things wrong in the Land of Israel, it is still a commandment from the Torah to live here. This obligation applies in all generations. The mitzvah to live in the Land of Israel is totally independent of the religiousness of the government ruling here. Jews are commanded to live here whether idol worshippers rule here, or Jewish leftists, or terrifying giants, uncircumcised Philistines, or Torah Jews. Eretz Yisrael is Eretz Yisrael, independent of any other factor, and we all are commanded to live in Eretz Yisrael, as we have been from the time of our Forefathers until today. 

 As to the side question regarding the holiness of Medinat Yisrael. Yes, Medinat Yisrael is holy. One of the commandments of the Torah, as clearly set forth by the Ramban, is to establish Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel (Supplement to the Sefer HaMitzvot of the Rambam, Positive Mitzvah #4). This supreme Torah mitzvah has been accomplished in our time by the establishment of the State of Israel. In the Laws of Hanukah, the Rambam declares that we celebrate the holiday of Hanukah because Jewish sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael was returned to the Jews for over two hundred years. We celebrate the Hanukah even though most of the Hashmonite rulers that followed the Maccabees were corrupt and estranged from the Torah. In the same light, the Second Temple was considered holy, even though Herod slaughtered all of the rabbis of his time, save one, whom he merely blinded. Jewish sovereignty is Jewish sovereignty whether the king or prime minister wears tzitzit or not.

Mike cannot understand this because he doesn’t want to. He wants to stay in galut. True, the present government of Israel is corrupt. True, its political leaders are corrupt. True, its justice system is corrupt. True, corrupt anti-Torah leftists control the media. One can go on and on, but all of this corruption does not, in any shape or form, negate the commandment to live in the Land of Israel. Eretz Yisrael is above all governments and politicians.  Just as a Jew has to eat holy food, and recite holy prayers, and perform holy acts, and observe holy days, he has to live in a holy place. There is only one holy place in the world. The Land of Israel. Not living in the Land of Israel is like not eating kosher food, and not going to shul, and not observing the holidays. Not living in the Land of Israel is much worse than ignoring these other basics of Jewish law, for living in Eretz Yisrael is the encompassing foundation of all of the Torah. Without it, a Jew can have a lifelong stock of gefilta fish in his basement, but he can’t have a Jewish king, a Sanhedrin, a shmittah year, prophecy, an Israeli air force, or a Beit HaMikdash, even in Brooklyn or Monsey, New York. He can practice a handful of personal mitzvot, but compared to Jewish life in Israel, Diaspora Judaism is Orthodox Lite. 

Orthodox Lite

Mike can write noisy, penny-in-an-empty-can, talkbacks until he is blue in the face, but the very essence of Mike’s Jewishness is missing, because he is performing his private brand of exile Judaism in a place he doesn’t belong, in an impure gentile land, where all the goyim are wondering, “Why is this Jew living here with us, when G-d gave him his own Jewish land?” Instead of sanctifying the Name of G-d by coming to live in G-d’s chosen Land, Mike does the very opposite, as the prophet Ezekiel declares:

“And when they came to the lands of the nations into which they came, they profaned My holy Name, in that men said of them, ‘These are the people of the L-rd and they have gone out of His land.’”

How can this terrible disgrace be erased? Hashem Himself gives the answer: “I will sanctify My great Name, which was profaned among the nations, which you have profaned by being in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the L-rd, says the L-rd G-d, when I shall be sanctified through you in their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own Land” (Ezekiel, 36:20-24).

In our time, this great sanctifiction of G-d has been brought about via Medinat Yisrael. Thank G-d that it’s ours! If there are things needing improvement, come help. If money is a problem, Mike, I’m sure our readers will pitch in and buy you a ticket. Put up or shut up. The Land of Israel is waiting.

Bye Bye, Complainers

Apparently, there is a Jewish gene for complaining. In any crowd, there are always the Complainers who have to spoil things for everyone else.

 In this week’s Torah portion, we meet them again, Korach and his Crowd of Complainers. This time, they complain about the leadership of Moshe and Aaron. Two of them, Datan and Aviram, are longtime Complainers. They complained about Moshe in Egypt; they complained about the travel accommodations in the wilderness; now they are complaining again that Moshe has led the Jews out “of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness” (Bamidbar, 16:13).

What chutzpah! Look how they turn things around. Eretz Yisrael is called the land flowing with milk and honey, but they describe Egypt in this way! Sound familiar? Over our history, Complainers have rejected Eretz Yisrael and found their own lands of milk and honey in Spain and France and Germany and America and Japan.

The Torah commentator, the Abarbanel, reveals what was really at the core of their rebellion. In a last ditch effort to save the situation and give the Complainers a chance to repent before the test of the incense, Moshe sends for Datan and Aviram, but they stubbornly answer, “We will not come up” (Bamidbar, there). The simple meaning is that they will not come up to the Mishkan to meet with Moshe, but the Abarbanel teaches that their declaration "ìà ðòìä" was a call of rebellion, meaning “We will not make aliyah to Eretz Yisrael.” They remained adamant in their opposition to G-d’s plan for the Jewish People, that even if G-d were to forgive them for the sin of the Spies and allow the generation to enter the Land of Israel, “We will not come up.” This was the source of their rebellion against the leadership of Moshe, who was committed to bringing the Jews to Israel. They wanted the milk and honey of Brooklyn and Paris and Mexico City, where they could remain important people, and not Eretz Yisrael, where they would be just another worker of the Land.

"Fishman and his blogs are true!"

We all know the rest of the story. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up all the Complainers. Hikers traveling through the Sinai today, can still hear their screams emanating from the bowels of the wilderness, “Moshe and his Torah are true!” Just like the Complainers of today will one day proclaim, “Fishman and his blogs are true!”

Shabbat Shalom