© Ohr Somayach International
Dear Rabbi,
We went to our Synagogue on Friday night, to give thanks following the LA earthquake. The Rabbi spoke about how it is difficult to believe that a decent, good, all-caring, and all-powerful G-d would cause an earthquake.
Is this true? Doesn't G-d control natural phenomena such as earthquakes?
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Dear Rattled,
First, I would like you to know that we here in Israel were shocked and stunned by the earthquake and the tragedies that have unfolded because of it. We are following the coverage of the event with both interest and compassion. We share in your grief and by no means do we intend to preach to you from this column. But as Jews, we look for meaning in everything that happens in our lives, and it is in that light that I would like to suggest the following.
The Mishna in Tractate Brachot says that when one sees an earthquake one should make the blessing "Blessed be He whose strength and power fill the world." This clearly expresses the belief that G-d controls earthquakes, and causes them so that we can experience His might and power. Why do some need to experience it now and why do some have to experience it more than others? I do not think that anyone can know for sure why other people experience earthquakes. But we can try to find meaning and purpose for ourselves as individuals.
The Talmud in the beginning of Tractate Brachot says that if someone is suffering they should review their actions. There must be some way that this suffering can give meaning to a piece of my being that needed to be nurtured. The Mishna in Brachot also mentions that if someone suffers a personal loss they should say: "Blessed be He, the true Judge."
There is a wonderful Chassidic story about Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchov. He once had it announced that after the Mincha service on Shabbat he would be lecturing on the subject of "What I, Levi Yitzchok would do if I were G-d." There was much excitement about the topic, and the synagogue was filled to overflowing when the time for the discourse arrived. R. Levi Yitzchok dramatically made his way to the lecturn, and in an emotional voice said: "If I, Levi Yitzchok were G-d, I would...do...exactly what G-d does. The problem is that I am not G-d, am not all-seeing and all-knowing, and that's why I don't understand so much of what He is doing." Essentially, that is what we mean when we make the blessing "Blessed be He, the true Judge."
As Jews we are ever hopeful that every dramatic event will bring us closer to a time when G-d's presence is openly revealed. [The following is not an argument for why the earthquake happened; it is intended as a ray of hope on a dark and tragic landscape]. The Israeli city of Tzfat has suffered several devastating earthquakes. After one of them in the year 1839, the Chassidic Rabbi, Rebbe Avraham Dov of Avritch, said the following: "This catastrophe is a sign of the redemption. The Talmud in Sanhedrin alludes to the time when the Mashiach will redeem us. He will come when 'This gate shall collapse, be rebuilt, collapse, be rebuilt again and again, until there will not be enough time to rebuild it before the Mashiach comes.' The word gate in Hebrew is _sha'ar_. These same three (Hebrew) letters when reshuffled, spell the word _ra'ash_ (meaning earthquake)...May this be the last 'collapsing of the gate' mentioned in the Talmud, and may we soon see the final redemption in our time - Amen." [emphasis mine-RMY]
Ditto!
Sources:
Mishna, Tractate Brachot, page 54a
Talmud, Tractate Brachot, page 5b
Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, page 98a
Safed the Mystical City, by Dovid Rossoff, pages 163-164
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Rabbi Moshe Yess
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BS”D
Dear Messiah Watch International Member,
www.rabbiyess.com
This email may indeed be historic. I suggest you save it and give it as much publicity as possible. This is truly an amazing circumstance we face.
First of all I wish to thank one of our members, Elisheva, who drew my attention to some specifics referenced herein.
Imagine a ship on the sea that has a crow’s nest. The person in the crow’s nest has much further vision to a more distant horizon than those on deck. Imagine also that a low lying fog blinds those on deck while our person in the crow’s nest is above that fog. Allow me to explain.
Around the time (1990-91) that Rabbi Schneerson (our person in the crow’s nest) announced that the time for the Redemption of world Jewry had arrived the former Soviet Union had just collapsed. While the former Soviet Union was certainly no friend of the Jews…. at the time it was hard to grasp (for myself) how the Final Redemption had actually started…. aside from the fact that many hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews were suddenly free to emigrate from that God-hating regime. A partial Redemption? Yes. A clear indicator of that same event being the actual start of the Final Redemption? T’was not clearly apparent at the time for this deck bound sailor swabbing the decks on the good ship Wandering Jew.
Rabbi Schneerson’s Prophecy announcement: "The Time of Your Redemption Has Arrived" (if taken as reliable truth) sets into motion a whole new paradigm of seeing recent world events. If the Final Redemption had indeed begun…. then certain parallels to the first Redemption of the Jews from Egypt would be operative in current world events. Why so? Because the Radak, a great Jewish legalist, states that we can learn out the Final Redemption of the Jews from what transpired during their first Redemption from Egypt. This gives us "Torah eyes" to see present world events.
Moses had been charged by God to redeem the Jews from Egyptian slavery for one purpose - to serve God- starting with the means and how to do so in a to be given Contract with God - the Torah- atop Sinai that was a turning point in human history with no precedent to compare to. I.e. God literally touching down atop a mountain on Earth after a series of plagues upon Egypt.
All the scheming of Egypt against their enslaved Jews would be "rewarded" with plagues and suffering upon the Egyptians in order to glorify God‘s Name amongst the heathens. Those plagues were misunderstood events... clouded as to their collective and ultimate purpose, namely, the Redemption of one nation, living in the midst of and enslaved to another and more powerful one, to serve God. It took until the tenth plague…the death of every Egyptian firstborn son…until the general population of Egypt woke up to the fact that the previous nine plagues were not just quirks of nature on a grander scale than normal nor random tragedies…but rather that the hand of God was behind all of them for one purpose…Jews (and those who joined them) being liberated to serve God.
In one day America’s long ongoing and carefree cocktail party was shattered. In spite of protestations to the contrary September 11th began the final war of Christianity against Islam. This is not merely a war on terrorism within the finite perspective of current global politics but beyond doubt it is a Messiah age End of Days' war. See clearly for yourself:-
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Zohar Torah portion of Va'era page 32a
In the future the children of Yishmael [Arabs] will stir great wars in the world. And the children of Edom [the West] will gather against them, and make war with them, one on the sea, and one on the land, and one by Jerusalem; and each one will prevail over the other but the Holy land will not fall to the hands of Edom. At the same time, a nation from the end of the world will be awakened against wicked Rome.(Rome here is said to refer to the spiritual center of western civilization) and it will make war against her for three months, and many nations will gather there, and they will fall by her hand, until all the children of Edom will gather against her from all corners of the earth. And then G-d will awaken Himself against them, as it says, "a sacrificial slaughter for the Lord in Batzra", and it says, "to shake the corners of the Land". And after this, the children of Yishmael will be finished from the world. And all the supernal powers of the nations will be broken, and no power will remain above except for the power of Israel alone.
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This above Kaballa tells us the plot line of the Final Redemption as it unfolds in current and soon to occur world events. The war between the Arabs and the Christians has already begun as of 1991 and is ongoing. Neither side will win. God will win.
I am solely guessing that the “nation from the end of the world” is N. Korea. It really matters not who it is. Some nation or other will do what is foretold to occur in this Kaballah. Some sort of war starts from that non-specified country right about now… or shortly I believe…. and it then starts a world war that is climaxed with a slaughter for God in Basra after which the children of Ishmael will be finished from the world. That is a foregone conclusion to occur. It has been already been viewed via Prophecy. By then “all the supernal powers of the nations will be broken and no power will remain above except for the power of Israel alone.” Do not confuse and misunderstand this to mean the State of Israel. Note the word above.
Now we will hopefully see how the present unfolding Final Redemption occurring in world events parallels the events of the First Redemption.
Each of the 10 plagues against Egypt were actually against the pantheon of Egyptian deities …as well as being the sufferings that they were for the Egyptians themselves. The Nile turning to Blood (the first plague) reflected God’s supremacy over that river which the Egyptians literally worshipped as their source of life. Similarly with all the other 9 plagues. Each corresponded to an Egyptian deity. God trouncing every idol of Egypt via all the plagues.
But a minor detail about that first plague has taken on supreme significance for myself as of today thanks to Elisheva, one of our members who redirected my attention to it.
This past Sunday was the first day of the present Hebrew calendar week. We Jews began reading the Book of Exodus this past Sabbath afternoon. In case you do not already know…that Book tells the story of Moses, Pharaoh, the 10 plagues and the ultimate purpose for the downfall of Egypt and the liberation of the Jews…I.e. to serve God.
Knowing that the God of the Jews is all powerful and knowing that God promised to never flood the entire world again Pharaoh schemed to find a way to outsmart God that would not bring dire consequences upon himself. Here’s the Exodus text:-
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Exodus 1: 7-10
Verse 7: The children of Israel were fruitful and prolific, and their population multiplied. They were exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them.
Verse 8: A new king [Pharaoh] came into power over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Verse 9: He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are becoming too numerous and strong for us.
Verse 10: Come let us deal wisely** with him. Lest he increase so much, that, if there is war, he will join our enemies and fight against us, driving us from the land.
** “wisely” should be understood as “dealing shrewdly” or as “outsmarting them.”
And what was the shrewdness involved here on the part of Pharaoh?
The Jewish Biblical commentator par excellence, Rashi, explains it for us…
Verse 10:- Come let us deal wisely.
means "preparation and readiness" for a given matter; that is: "Prepare yourselves for this!"
Wisely with him.
to the nation [of Israel]. "Let us wisely determine what to do to him." Our Sages [however] explained differently: I.e. “with Him” as "Let us deal shrewdly with the Savior of Israel (G-d) by bringing about their fate through water [drowning the Jewish male babies in the Nile] for He has already sworn that he will never again bring a flood upon the world."(They [the Egyptians] did not realize that [His {God’s} promise was] not to flood the entire world but He [God] might flood one nation. [From an old Rashi text]).
Driving us from the land---
against our will. Our Sages, however, explained it: [Pharaoh spoke] as a person who expresses a self created curse about himself but attaches his curse to others. It is as if it had been written: "And we will go up out of the land and they will inherit it."
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How many times have we heard the modern Arabs say “We will drive Israel into the sea”?
In fact this matter of death by drowning of the Jewish males back in the days of Pharaoh is still operative today…isn’t it!
And for the lovely United Nations, that hotbed of uncompromising, premeditated animosity towards the Jews.... they too wish to deal shrewdly by imposing a giveaway of the Jewish Holy Land to dedicated Jew haters and murderers, the PLO et al.
Pharaoh, the Jew hater who thought that he could out trick God vis a vis being guaranteed that he would not die by flood after God’s Promise following the great Flood…that same Pharaoh watched as his entire army later drowned in the Sea of Reeds. Measure for measure.
Death by water seems, therefore, to be the way that this Final Redemption is going to occur in part if not total.
Under the pen name of G. Zarchi the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote an article back in 1950 (or prior) in the Chabad Magazine HaKriya v’HaKedusha. In that article the Rebbe stated that an entire country will go under water. Add to that what I have been sending out these past few days:--
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“…The destruction and nullification of those negative factors which cannot be elevated to holiness. For this reason, we find many prophecies describing the fall of the nations which ruled over the Jews, e.g., "Babylon [Iraq] has fallen and she will be broken," "There will be a slaughter for G-d in Batzra,[Basra, Iraq]"
- Rabbi M.M. Schneerson (March, 1991, 2 days after the conclusion of Operation Desert Storm) explaining the second of two factors pertaining to the emergence from exile of the Jewish people.
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The polar ice caps are melting increasingly thereby raising sea levels. An Island called La Palma in or near the Canary Islands has a precariously perched hunk of land on a cliff that should it fall down it will send a 600 foot high tsunami across the Atlantic and devastate the Eastern seaboards of both North and South America, Heaven forefend.
We just saw 100,000 people killed (so far) by water. People who, like the Egyptians, were/are idolaters. They literally worship idols.
God don’t like that. That ain't serving God.
It took the past nine and their pending tenth plague until the Egyptians woke up to some insights of what was afoot in day to day events. They finally realized that the plagues were brought on via a Divine Decree for such that involved the services of Moses as God‘s Emissary to and for mankind.
Rabbi Schneerson is the Moses of this Jewish generation. The Kaballah specifically states that there is an extension of the soul of Moses in every Jewish generation.
The fall of Egypt served the benefit of mankind to rid itself of idolatrous Egypt and to thereafter receive what has become the moral basis for all human society…the Torah, the 5 Books of Moses with its inherent Spiritual Axiom, Monotheism.
The animosity and scheming today against the Jews by the entire world community of nations including the USA is no secret.
Now….I want to send a psychotic death row inmate to move into your house with you. Surely you can make peace and be comfortable with “Bloody Bob” as your permanent house guest? Can’t you?
What’s that you say? You don’t want a repeat murderer living in your house? Not even for a day? Hmmmm….but the PLO next to us on our Holy Land is OK by you. Right? And our Holy Temple Land belongs to them…right? Think again.
OK…now we will indeed watch and see what God can and will do as the world deals shrewdly with the Jews as Pharaoh did.
September 11th, 2001 and last Sunday’s earthquake/tsunami were but the first two shots across the bow of humanity. Keep your eyes on the sun. Watch the weather.
Downtown Los Angeles got a record 3.98 inches of rain by Tuesday afternoon, topping the 2.09 inches record set on Dec. 28, 1931 by almost double!
And all mankind can shake their fists, grit their teeth and curse the Jews till the cows come home. But know with a certainty of a Promise made to Abraham, the first Jew, from the mouth of God:- “Those who curse you shall be cursed. Those that Bless you shall be Blessed.”
We are facing presently a house cleaning on a global scale. This is a prerequisite for mankind coming to serve God. And every bombing that happens in the Holy Land actually speeds up the process. For suffering atones and hastens Redemption as we see with the Jews in Egypt who originally were decreed to be there for 400 years but got out after 210 years because God saw, felt and accounted their suffering as having fulfilled the pre-assigned amount of suffering…thereby hastening their Redemption. Similarly so with the Holocaust. That monster Hitler (may his name and memory be erased) hastened the Final Redemption against his own sick will.
Hey good people! Even Rabbis on my own team are on the sidelines waiting this one out to see how it turns out. The Rebbe called such people “smart boys.”
And while wags and self imagined sophisticated thinkers will poo poo the premises and content of this email they too (like the Egyptians of old) will probably get the Rebbe’s Message somewhere around the 10th plague of our times.
We are facing a clear and present Final Redemption. The crow’s nest is occupied by Judaism’s and mankind’s one and only Savior, Final Redeemer and King Messiah, The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Shlita. Who will teach all mankind how to serve God.
Nations are collapsing. The greatest Epoch in human history is indeed underway. And what are we in store for. Let us hear from the crow's nest:-
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The Rebbe taught that the prophecy of Micah, "As in the days of your going out of Egypt I will show you wonders," means that the miracles of Moshiach's coming will be similar to the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt, but they will be WONDEROUS by comparison, making the miracles of the Exodus seem commonplace.
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Rabbi Moshe Yess
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I take pride in the fact that I come from a long line of noble Jewish ancestors who bravely stood alone against the thinking and deeds of their contemporaries. Abraham, the first Jew, was such an individual. He bluntly told his father that the idols Abraham was selling in his dad’s Idols-R-Us store were entirely useless. His dad didn’t like that too much and turned Abraham in for punishment to the King. That did not dissuade Abraham who thereupon gave the exact same message over to the King and his friends. Having their idolatrous theologies challenged by this rather lippy Jew they threw him into a furnace to be burned to death. God made a miracle and Abraham was saved. His father, Terach, and the King and his friends chose not to think too deeply about this. After all it is much easier to stay comfy with the lie you and your tradition are invested in than to seek truth and restructure your world outlook. But that comes with a price. As we shall see.
When the Torah is twisted and bent to be politically correct in difficult circumstances then the Rabbi doing such has in fact become a politician and his ability to convey what Torah states is compromised. He is led by the whims of his congregation’s lowest common denominator…not by the Torah.
It is attributed to a Rabbi Avigdor Miller that during one of his Torah discourses a Jewish woman walked in to the separate-seating gathering wearing a very low cut dress that caused quite the stir. Rabbi Miller stopped his discourse and announced “Would the cow that just entered the building please depart.” My kind of Rabbi. I’ve been his long time fan of his just for that. May he rest in peace. He was a Torah-driven Rabbi.
The world has just witnessed massive death by tsunami....activated by a 9.0 earthquake. The death toll may reach one half of a million people according to some estimates. Without delay charities from every sector of society are opening up donation centers. An unprecedented global relief effort is underway involving Koffi Anan (that great humanitarian!??!!) and Collin Powell. No doubt major corporations will soon announce that X percent of their net profits will go to help the victims of this “disaster.” Good for public image. Compassion, sympathy, empathy will know no limits here. That is until it gets old and the next fad comes along.
What will not be addressed about this event in any mass-media way will be God’s involvement in this….as that is taboo in terms of political correctness.
So allow me to inform all our members that beyond question we have just witnessed an event communicating Divine Anger. And lest some wags say that it was just a quirk…… the same victims are now getting a second Divine Bonk with this newsflash…
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BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - After the devastation wreaked by the seas, a deluge from the skies deepened the misery for tsunami-stricken areas Saturday, triggering flash floods in Sri Lanka that sent evacuees fleeing and increasing the threat of deadly disease as survivors shivered in relief centers. The death toll was likely to hit 150,000.
A magnitude 6.5 aftershock jolted Sumatra as the world's aid efforts shifted into high gear in ways big and small: elephant convoys working in Thailand, global assistance reaching $2 billion with a fresh pledge from Tokyo, and the U.S. military launching one of the biggest relief missions in history.
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Last week I signed up for earthquake notifications from the US Geological Survey. I have received about 15 separate notifications so far of subsequent major earthquakes in that region. The world and scientists will call them aftershocks. Not me. It’s the same Divine Anger. God is not locked in to sending mandatory “aftershocks.” Sometimes they do not occur.
Now let us unwrap some hypocrisy. Any Google search for “child sex trade” will lead you to the same tsunami afflicted region. Thailand being the most notorious. Add to that this link:-….gay Indonesia…. euphemistically called “utopia-asia.”
http://www.utopia-asia.com/tipsindo.htm
Then of course the local idolaters have to sign off on this. It’s good for the idolatry business. Catch this idolatry promoting snippet:-
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In the historic port town of Galle, Sri Lanka, several Buddha statues of cement and plaster were found unscathed amid collapsed brick walls in the center of the devastated city.
To many residents, it was a divine sign.
"The people are not living according to religious virtues," said Sumana, a Buddhist monk in an orange robe who sheltered himself from the sun under a black umbrella.
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Right! “Had all of you properly worshipped those idols this would never have happened! Abraham who?”
And why is the world all of a sudden rushing in to rebuild this region? Did the same present potential for world compassion move a significant finger for years against the countless children enslaved to the rampant foreigner-tourists sex trade there aside from recently enacting a “30 year in jail” law…should you be caught! Did that law stop the trade? No. “Please!…Take our kids and enjoy yourselves with them. Good for the tourist trade economy.”
So let us dispense with all the pretendings and foolishnesses and get to some Torah. Torah is God’s Lens on human events.
At present the countries of the world -bar none- are united in solving the “Middle East Crisis.” Even Israel’s PM, Ariel Sharon, has now seen the “wisdom” of giving away to murderers of Jews the very land that the entire Book of Genesis testifies to being the sole property of world Jewry. What a patriot! Aside from the fact that Rabbi Schneerson repeatedly warned of the disastrous consequences that even speaking about such ideas would bring in terms of Jewish blood flowing in the streets of the Holy Land… we see before us now a blinded world united in serving the opposite of what God has in store, i.e the return of world Jewry to the Biblical borders of the Holy Land. Guess Who is going to win? Guess Who has the biggest stick?
We have been informed by the Rebbe that the time of the Redemption of World Jewry has arrived as of 1991. That announcement via Prophecy from a true Prophet brings to the forefront any and every matter extant in Judaism that pertains to this Era of Redemption. So what (using this Torah lens provided by and from God) are we seeing happening now?
All the Jews were located in Egypt in the days of Pharaoh. While in that country the Jews sunk to the 49th level of spiritual impurity for which that nation was the world's epicenter and headquarters. Had Moses not been sent to redeem them we Jews would all be speaking Egyptian today and would still be enslaved to today’s descendant of Pharaoh or his equivalent.
A dispersion of the Jews into every country of the world has occurred these past 2,000 years. Open your eyes. We have a new and much larger Pharaoh. He is now the world. For the Torah truth is that there is not one country today that has not participated in and reflects the same spiritual impurities of ancient Egypt be it through sexual immoralities, denial of God’s existence, denial of Torah being alone the sole Eternal Covenant of God. As Pharaoh’s Egypt was a pantheon of false gods…so too is today’s world. Same Jew hating entity…just spread out quite a bit more with globally positioned branch offices.
Rabbi Schneerson’s announcements commenting on the factors involved in the Redemption of the Jews from this final Exile have some dire implications for Jews and non-Jews alike.
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“…The destruction and nullification of those negative factors which cannot be elevated to holiness….[emphasis mine…RMY]
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It took Pharaoh’s magicians until after the third plague to make an announcement to Pharaoh as to what was going on with the plagues and with Moses…
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Exodus
Chapter 8
19) Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said [would happen].
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I envision that a similar denial will rule the world-Pharaoh thinking and attitude today. I will yawn as Christianity starts pumping out its “Armageddon-Revelations spin” on these events. In fact such has already started.
Oh! Almost forgot! Those four hurricanes last season? First time that’s happened since 1893. Pay them no heed. Just a quirky coincidence [wink, wink.]
And no doubt many or some of you will ask me…”Rabbi Yess. If this Divine Anger is so apparent then why aren’t all the Rabbis of Judaism today collectively giving out this same message?”
Here’s the answer:- The Jewish Bible is replete with numerous occurrences of Jews (Torah educated or otherwise) who repeatedly ignored the words from God coming through their true Jewish Prophets. They paid dearly for that violation of Jewish Law. That comes with a price.
If this tsunami wipeout of Indonesia is the first Plague (and I cannot say that it is with a certainty yet) then we have nine more to go. If not then we in this world have 10 more ahead of us.
“Stop making a Pharaoh “mountain” out of what was obviously just a tsunami “mole hill”, Rabbi Yess.”
Right!
Genesis 13:13
But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
Rabbi Moshe Yess
