Dealing with Tammuz

Dealing with Av

That was in the month of Av whose sign is Aryeh (the Lion) because each person became like a lion who longs to attack his fellow

Keeping pushing forward!

Just like the Sun is fundamentally one in its essence, its rays changing in appearance upon passing through windowpanes of white, black, red, or green. And the sunlight changes according to the color of the glass.

And just as water with which an orchard is irrigated assumes the color of the flowers on which it falls.

The Secret to Living a Life of Torah: Learn to Embrace Paradox

The Nice Jewish Girl and the Horrible Violent Ogre

Judge Favorably…But Not Foolishly

Love from Afar: AVOID Bad Neighbors, Scoffers, and Sinners

Center God Firmly in the Picture…Do NOT Leave Him Out!

Happily Recognize the Secret Pride Lurking behind the Well-Intentioned Appearance of Humility

So What Do You Do Now?

Man in washing machine...scrub-a-dub-dub!

Beings and Events beyond Our 3-Dimensional World

“We do not sleep at all, not during the day and not during the night. And we stand day and night because we have no knees, only a straight leg. And our foot is like the foot of a donkey and we are not wearied by standing. And we eat two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. And the meal appears by itself and appears before each and every one and stands in midair across from one’s chest placed in a bowl. And [the meals] consist of a type of sweet red lentils equal to the amount of a man’s handful. And the entire meal is eaten and not even one lentil is left over and it is the amount for our satiation. And afterwards, the bowls disappear before our eyes and we don’t know who gathers them…and at the time we strike the spirits, a rod or strap materializes in our hand and our hand strikes that spirit on its own, whether strongly or gently, whether a little bit or a lot. And after that, the rod or strap vanishes from our hand.”

“This is not possible. For I fear lest you become frightened and panic-stricken.”
 
I said to him, “Do not worry about that. I do not become panic-stricken from seeing your face because I am used to these types of matters.”
 
He said to me, “I am embarrassed and ashamed to reveal myself because the structure of our face is different than the structure of human beings who are made with image and likeness.” [i.e. the Image of God, I think he means – MR]
 
I said to him, “If so, please make known to me the structure of your face.”
 
He sighed and said, “For our face is on the side of the shoulder and our nose is very long, reaching until the chest and also it is very crooked.”

Heavenly Penalties: Not Petty Revenge or Punishment, But Beneficial Cleansing

Question: If the Beit Din [Heavenly Tribunal] decreed on the spirit to be in Kaf Hakelah thus-and-thus years and I rectify the spirit via yichudim [profoundly holy meditations], and by this means, the decree of the Beit Din upon it is nullified, is that bad in the eyes of the Beit Din because I was the cause to nullify that which they decreed?
 
Answer: The intention of the Beit Din is not to take revenge against he who does evil. Their intention is only to cleanse the stains that were made by the transgressions in his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, in order to admit him into Gan Eden. And they know how many years the stains need and what kind of punishment will cleanse and purify. And if you purify and cleanse in a short time, what does that matter to the Beit Din? … because Kaf Hakelah and Gehinnom are not revenge and punishment for his sin. On the contrary, everything is for the sake of cleansing him from the stains that were made on his soul in order to admit him later to Gan Eden. And he resembles a man who buys new clothing and even though it is known and revealed before him that later, the same clothing will become dirty, nonetheless, this doesn’t prevent him from buying it. When it will become dirty later, he launders it. And during the laundering, his thoughts aren’t that he is taking revenge on the clothing because it got dirty. He only wants to clean it. 

Try to Feel Happy about Feeling Bad

Later, in the year 5673/1912 15 Elul, a 17-year-old virtuous unmarried girl came to me and her name was Katun the daughter of Aziza and she said to me, “I am an orphan from my father and in 5672/1911, my mother went to the land of Persia to visit my brother who was there because he was ill. And she left me and my little brother and my little sister with the sister of my mother, who was a very angry and irritable person.

“I felt as if a large cat had fallen on my back between my two shoulders and was scratching my flesh with great scratches in order to make for itself a way to enter into me. And I feared to scream lest the naughty sister of my father also get angry at me. And afterwards, I felt this cat enter my left arm.”

"My mother took me to a Yishmaelite plil."

"After several exertions, he said that it was a very strong Christian demon and the plil exhausted himself to exorcise it and he could not overcome it. And we went to the grave of Yehoshuah the Kohen Gadol and I did hitbodedut there alone, and I prayed there with copious tears. And amid this, a great trembling seized me and my eyes closed. And I saw an awesomely venerable man dressed in white clothes and wrapped in white wool. And I couldn’t gaze at his face and he stood at a distance of four amot and he was standing and gazing at me without speaking or words. And when we returned from prostrating, our goal was to go to the plil. Yet without meaning to, we found ourselves standing before your home..."

“And I...when I saw Katun cry and her tears on her cheeks, my heart broke within me, and my heart went out to her.”

[Yonah the spirit] said to me, “May God bestow goodness upon you for all your work and great chessed [loving-kindness], which is beyond value and it is more precious than all the treasure in the world.”
 
I said to him, “May the Blessed God also bestow chessed upon you all for the chessed that you all perform for me.”
 
And Yonah was amazed at my words and said to me, “How are we bestowing chessed upon you?”
 
I said to him, “I’ll give you the parable of a baby who suckles milk from his mother. And yes, she performs a great chessed by nursing him, because if she didn’t nurse him, he would certainly die. But indeed, the baby is also bestowing chessed upon his mother to empty the milk from her because if he wouldn’t, then the milk would dry up and [cause a lot of physical torment] and the doctor would need to lance them. Likewise, the issue in our matter. Because I exerted myself for a long time until God merited me to learn these yichudim. And if a buyer wouldn’t be found for them, then all the exertion would be for nothing, may God have mercy. But now I have found in you all a buyer, my mind is content within me that all the exertion wasn’t for nothing.

“Tell me, is it my desire to torment you with yichudim? Because I hope to receive a good reward for my efforts from this young man [possessed by Shabbatai Tzvi]?”
 
And he said to me, “That is not so. For isn’t this young man a poor man, and he can’t even give you a penny?”
 
I said to him, “If so, guess why I am straining myself and depriving myself of my business and my studies if not that I pity your soul because it is part of the Godliness Above and it shines like a pearl. It’s just that because of the transgressions, 'rust' has encrusted upon it. And the Holy One Blessed Be He, Who is the Cause of all causes and the Reason for all reasons orchestrated the matter to insert you within the body of this young man so that by this means, there will be an end and a limit to the rectification of your soul through my hands, that I will toil to rectify you.”

What's Worse than Hell?

Yonah: A One-Time Sinner with Major Repercussions

I said to Yonah, "First of all, please tell me and don’t hide anything from me: What was your sin that you’ve remained today 15 years in Kaf Hakelah? And who knows how many more years you’ll be in Kaf Hakelah for the same transgression?"

He said to me, “I never sinned all my days except for one time only. And this is how the matter came about: For I was an agent between merchants selling raw silk, and blue and purple dyes, to be the go-between for the sellers and buyers. And from this I earned a living for myself and my home. And sometimes a pressing situation arose which required an early visit to the home of the merchants themselves to speak with them. And one time it happened that the merchant was not at home and his wife said to me, ‘Sit a while until I’ll send for him to call him.’ And she sent her maidservant to call her husband and when she sent off her maidservant…and there was nobody with us in the home…and she withdrew 20 shekels and laid it on my chest. And I couldn’t overcome my inclination and I fulfilled her request. And this was my transgression. And this is why I’m 15 years in Kaf Hakelah and I don’t know how long I’ll be in this torment because the Beit Din didn’t make it known."

(Perhaps because he caused her to be forbidden to her husband, therefore each time her husband co habited with her, it was considered a transgression for Yonah in and of itself, and they added to Yonah even more years in Kaf Hakelah because this transgression reaped fruits. And thus the Beit Din didn’t inform Yonah how many years he’ll be in Kaf Hakelah.)

"And because of this transgression alone, I am struck."
 
I said to him, “Why didn’t you do teshuvah for this transgression during your lifetime?”
 
He said to me, “Because I was embarrassed and ashamed to tell of my crime and sin to a wise man, and I didn’t perform any rectification.”

Ephraim: A Shockingly Depraved Sinner Even For Our Time

A few years later, a quarrel occurred between [Ephraim] and some Yishmaelite donkey drivers. And when he was transporting some merchandise to Kfar Akuba, these same Yishmaelites ganged up on him and killed him. And they moved his body outside the village and buried him there and didn’t leave any sign of his burial place. And they left his donkeys and their load abandoned on the road and didn’t take even one thing from those.

Finally, his brother Shaul went and took the abandoned items and didn’t return anything to the owners. And he didn’t search for his body. And [Shaul] also took all the money and everything that [Ephraim] had in his home, and [Shaul] didn’t pay his creditors a thing. And [Shaul] also performed nothing for the gratification of his soul according to the way we are accustomed to do for the dead during the first 12 months.  
 
And because [Ephraim] suffered greatly over this, therefore it caused [Shaul] many obstacles and he lost all his fortune until finally he passed on in a bad way and a very difficult illness.

"And know, that in the place I am buried, there are also other Jews buried there, too. And it has been 17 years since I was killed."
 
I asked the spirit whether he made teshuvah in the moment he was killed. He said to me that because he was so panic-stricken, it didn’t occur to him to do teshuvah, and especially since he was an am haaretz, he doesn’t even feel the apprehension [that usually ignites a person] to do teshuvah. He also never put on tzitzit or tefillin all his days, except for 3 times and he didn’t daven except for Yom Kippur.

A Severe Sinner with a Happy Ending: The Power of Teshuvah

And this I learned from an episode that arrived to me in the year 5683/1922, when one elderly man came to me and said to me that he came upon his daughter-in-law during the life of his son and he cannot undergo fasts and penitential purifications (such as donning a sack and sleeping on ashes and the like of which are all called sigufim/penitential purifications).

I said to him, “Can you not fast at least one day and one night like Yom Kippur?”

And he said yes.

I said to him, “Go and immerse seven immersions before the final meal (because seven immersions are favorable to purify the soul from the tzaraat [spiritual leprosy] within it, as is written about Elisha the Prophet to Naaman the army official, king of Aram; Kings II: 5, 10) and accept upon yourself a fast of 24 hours for the mentioned sin like Yom Kippur (except that you are permitted to perform any kind of malachah). And on the day of the fast, come to me with redemption money equal to 325 fasts and I will perform a rectification for you."

And he did just so.

And because I perceived that this elderly man was a poor man and borrowed the above money from others, therefore I returned to him all the above money as a donation of charity and I did not take from it except 2 pennies alone.
 
And behold, two years later, this same elderly man passed away and I saw him in a dream that he is standing before the Beit Din/Heavenly Tribunal. And they gazed at him and they saw that he was a baal teshuvah, except that he only did teshuvah on adultery with a married woman, but not on the prohibition [against doing so with] one’s daughter-in-law.
 
And they didn’t speak with him a word regarding that prohibition. And without speaking or words himself, he entered one room on the side of the court of the Beit Din. And this room was dark and gloomy, and there wasn’t even a mat to sit on. And he enters there and sits on his knees in the corner of this room. And the Beit Din raised their eyes upwards and immediately, 3 angels descended from the heavens above the Beit Din. And these same angels are called Great Healers Who are Experts in the Wisdom of Surgery.

And they entered the room with the elderly man and closed the door. And they performed surgery on his organ and removed from there the “rust” and the blemish that had been done to the organ [because of his sin]. And they healed him completely and went out.

I saw until here.
 
And from this, a person should know the precious beauty of teshuvah!
How it is so great that it saved this same elderly man from several hundreds of years that he should have been sentenced to Kaf Hakelah!
And how many years he should have undergone incarnations as inanimate objects, plants, animals, and people.

And after he would undergo incarnations as inanimate objects, plants, animals, and people, he would enter Gehinnom because the sentence of Gehinnom comes after incarnations as inanimate objects, plants, animals, and people as is written in Shaar Hagilgulim, Introduction 22, page 22 72, and as is copied in his words nearby.

And therefore, our Sages said (Avot 4:17): “How beautiful is one hour of teshuvah and good deeds in This World than all life in the World to Come.”

In the Beginning: Slugs 'n' Snails 'n' Puppy Dog Tails

Little Boys, Israeli style

In the Trenches with Little Boys

Boy World is Also Full of Sugar 'n' Spice 'n' Everything Nice

What If You Pushed Just 1 More Baby-Step beyond Your Comfort Zone?

Measure for Measure: An "Ouch!" for an "Ouch!"

Self-Sacrifice from an Entire Village of Righteous Converts

In our time, there was a certain village called Sinitsa near the city of Rostov—all of its inhabitants converted. Their conversion was in Uman because others were all afraid to convert them. But we worked on the matter and converted them.

These converts were particularly strong men—tall, powerful, and big-boned. They all came together for Rosh Hashanah. They had their own table in the Kloiz [big synagogue]. Their wives filled the women’s section. They stood the whole time in prayer. They just cried and cried and let tears flow like water because they did not know how to recite one letter of the prayer.

I knew him well. He was from those who prayed in the Beis Hamidrash in Uman. One day, they sent him to Siberia, thousands of kilometers deep into a thick dreadful forest!

They sent millions of people there. The set work for a group of three…that is, to chop down a gigantic tree and cut it into small pieces of wood that are ready to send. Not only once, when a tree shook and fell, it buried many people alive underneath it.

But this matter did not disturb the evil government, may their names be erased.

Some government officials knew that our convert was a very smart person.

He did not acquiesce to this very enticing proposition.

He answered them in strong refusal. With holy brazenness, he said to them, "The whole reason I left my pleasant life and my birthplace to become Jewish was because of the holy Shabbos. How could you possibly think to convince me to work on the Holy Shabbos?"

His brazenness and refusal to cooperate aroused their wrath. From then on, they related to him very strictly and caused him extra problems. They forced him to perform body-breaking labor steeped in a sinking canoe amid burning frost that broke the bones.
 
Despite his tremendous physical power, he could not bear this awesome burden.

“It doesn’t make any difference to me if it is permissible. I became Jewish for the sake of the holy Shabbos. I am prepared to give myself up and die for the sake of the holy Shabbos!”

He answered without hesitation and did not continue to speak to her.
 
Indeed, he passed away there in that awful thick forest for the sake of His Blessed Holy Name.
 
Happy is he!

Siberian forest in the winter