Myrtle Rising

In Honor of the Memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane

18/11/2019

Sorry I'm late about this, but I didn't find out in time.

Rabbi Meir Kahane's yahrtzeit was 18 Cheshvan.

I can't remember when I first came across Rabbi Kahane's writings.

But years ago, I read 3 of his books and several essays.

His fiery love for all Jews invigorated me. His unique ability to shepherd the klal while honing in on the individual Jew both fascinated and inspired me.

His writing was sharp & passionate.

In particular, Rabbi Kahane managed to see & come to the assistance of Jews in pitiable circumstances who remained unseen & unheard.

He expressed sincerely righteous anger on behalf of impoverished lonely elderly Jews living in once-thriving Jewish neighborhoods that turned into crime-ridden danger zones – elderly Jews who needed to stock up on powdered milk and other non-perishable foods because it was too dangerous to make the trek to the grocery store more than every few months.

And he rescued them.

He found safer neighborhoods for them and arranged to pay for their rent.

Rebbetzin Heller told of a 13-year-old Jewish girl who could not manage a Jewish education because she was in a wheelchair and the religious girls school simply did not have the funds or ability to make the school wheelchair-accessible.

Rabbi Kahane made time to come to this girl's home & teach her privately on a regular basis.

(This was literally several decades go; nowadays, disabled students enjoy the same religious education as their able-bodied counterparts. In fact, here in Eretz Yisrael, I've seen girls in wheelchairs attending Beis Yaakov schools right along with their able-bodied classmates, not to mention all the special ed schools available.)

And I never did find the horrible racist attitudes he was supposed to have expressed, despite looking out for them as I read his material. I know that disappoints or befuddles some people, but that was my honest response. Too bad.

Every Jew was important to Rav Meir Kahane.

Torah was important to him.

Torah was so important to him that he stood up to the anti-Torah leaders and their minions fearlessly & forcefully.

They tried to humiliate and derail him on talkshows & in debates.

(In the 1985 debate between Rav Meir Kahane and Alan Dershowitz, Dershowitz made insinuations comparing Rav Kahane to truly evil menuvalim like Louis Farrakhan and Yassar Arafat.)

But Rav Kahane was unflappable and impossible to manipulate.

While I ended up leaving the Kahane path and joining the charedim instead, I never lost my admiration for his passionate & courageous ahavat Yisrael.

People usually give me funny looks when I mention his ahavat Yisrael.

That's not what he was known for, but if you actually read what he says, that was his driving force.

Interestingly, Toras Avigdor created a post in honor of Rav Kahana's yahrtzeit.

Rav Avigdor Miller sided with the majority of the charedi Gadolei Hador regarding the Shoah, which focused on the deeds & attitudes of Jews, rather than the establishment of a Jewish Homeland.

Rav Kahane focused on the State of Israel as a preventative to a future Shoah and strove to do everything he could to make the State a safe harbor for Jews.

(The above represents one of the major differences between the charedi & dati-leumi in hashkafah, which I'm not going to go into here.)

Rav Miller always held by the halacha that a Jew who is shomer Torah & mitzvot is your brother and you absolutely must love him.

So despite Rav Miller's sharp difference in hashkafah with Rav Kahane, Rav Miller still had strong praise for him – praise which Rav Miller did not hesitate or fear to say publicly.

You can read it in the link above. Or simply click here:
Rav Avigdor Miller on Rabbi Meir Kahane

Hashem yinkom damo.

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What is the #1 Ultimate Way to Improve Your Tsniut/Tsnius/Modesty? (And absolutely NO tape measures, rulers, or mirrors necessary!)

17/11/2019

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In Nefesh Chaya, Rav Shimshon Dovid Pincus offers the best & surest way to improve tsniut:

(1) Cultivate a relationship with Hashem by talking to Him.

(2) Say brachot with kavanah – especially the asher yatzar bracha (which, among other things, thanks Hashem for concealed body parts & processes).

This wonderfully effective advice follows on the heels of a previous post:
An In-Depth Discussion of One of Today's Most Despised Topics: Tsniut/Tsnius/Modest & Dignified Behavior & Dress

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An In-Depth Discussion of One of Today's Most Despised Topics: Tsniut/Tsnius/Modest & Dignified Behavior & Dress

17/11/2019

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Today, we're going to discuss something a lot of people (even some frum people) resent: tsnius/tsniut.

But we're not discussing the halachot.

Why?

Because it's the attitude of tsniut, the ideology of tsniut that is the key to everything.

In fact, it's almost impossible to keep the halachot of tsniut unless you have the mentality of tsniut.

That's why some girls & women get fed up with all the halachot.

Knowing ONLY the technicalities of inches & centimeters & decibels & colors & designs is not enough and sometimes even makes this mitzvah confusing.

(This is in contrast to most other mitzvot: Tsnius is very individual with a lot of nuance involved.)

In fact, if you internalize the ideal of tsniut, you almost don't need to learn the technical halachot because they're actually self-evident once you get the mentality correct.

(Please note: I did not say that the halachot are irrelevant – on the contrary, they're quite important! But tsniut is unusual in that the knowledge of halachot ALONE is really not enough to keep this mitzvah properly, especially with changing times & styles.)

Also, while it is a major mitzvah for women, tsniut also applies to men.

Contrary to what some people think, Jewish men cannot actually go around with all their hairy chests, armpits, and knees showing. No offense.

That's why most frum men dress in a dignified & modest manner.

Significantly, covering themselves was one of the first acts of rectification Adam & Chava performed after eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

(Actually, Chazal say that prior to that Original Sin, they were enclothed by a material similar to our fingernails, but more luminous. So they weren't bare in the way people tend to assume.)

People Wear Clothing; Animals Don't

One of the brachot we say in the morning is "Baruch...malbish arumim."

"Blessed...is He Who clothes the naked."

Clothing (and the mental realization of the need for clothing) is one of the major differences between us & animals.

The less you cover yourself, the closer you are to an animal state.

The more you cover yourself, the farther you are from an animal state.

(Rav Avigdor Miller discussed this idea, but I can't remember where.)

Since time immemorial, people have understood that one way to degrade the humanity of a person is to remove his clothes.

This affects the self-perception of the victim (he or she feels humiliated) and it also affects the perception of those around the victim (they see him or her as degraded & less human, which either inspires pity or cruelty).

Even cultures that go around wearing very little can still have strict customs about removing that little bit.

Despite this innate common sense, certain cultures throughout history have warped this intuitive response, like the Greek Olympics promoting unclothed participants as a glorification of the human body.

Or today's Western world insisting that the less covered a woman is, the more liberated she is.

Unfortunately, feminism's dumbing-down of even very intelligent women has blinded most women from seeing the hypocritical double standard. If body-baring fashions are so liberating, why aren't professional men encouraged to exchange the 3-piece suit for shorts & a sleeveless undershirt?

Why, in the last line-up of Republican candidates, did we see a line of men from different backgrounds & body types all wearing dark neutral-colored 3-piece suits with neck-hugging ties...and the one female candidate wearing a red suit with a miniskirt and a plunging neckline?

Did anyone think she looked "liberated" in contrast to her male colleagues?

Did anyone think she looked "equal" to them?

(To me, combined with her paradoxically modest hair style, the whole look at her age made her look more like a madam than a presidential candidate...and according to the guardians of political correctness, such an observation now makes me catty, jealous, and repressed. Oh well.)

Conversely, professional women ARE supposed to cover their face...with make-up.

Skillfully applied make-up can actually transform ALL facial features (including the shape of the face) so that the woman is unrecognizable from her natural bare-faced state.

So you are:

a liberated woman if you bare your body yet smother your face into unrecognizabilty.

AND

you are also equal to your male colleagues who do the diametric opposite and cover their entire body from ankle to wrist to neck, while leaving their faces bare of any creams & powders.

Yeah. Right. Sure!

And I've got a bridge to sell you...

A Covering as Physical Protection

In his book, Nefesh Chaya, Rav Shimshon Dovid Pincus explains that tsniut plays an enormous role in the act of protection, and that one of the main roles of a woman in her home is to protect her family & home.

(The most basic level of this is the Mama Bear archetype.)

So let's look at the idea of protective clothing, starting with physical protection:

Many cultures who inhabit some of the hottest places on Earth actually cover themselves from head to toe.

(Think of traditional Arab dress.)

Why are these Beduin men all covered up? Don't they know it's hot out there? Why aren't they more "liberated"?

Why is this man wearing such long loose clothing & a head-covering? The camels seem just fine without any clothes or kefiyah at all!

Why?

Their clothing protects them from the sun, from sunburn & sunstroke.

Long, loose clothing allows air to circulate around shaded skin while total exposure cannot do the same.

Clothing also protects against mosquitoes & other pests.

In areas of excessive dust, sand, or smoke, people place some kind of covering over their face to protect their eyes and lungs.

In the Philippines and other areas in the East, hikers are advised to avoid wearing red garments and other bright, eye-catching colors when entering the forests (which they say attracts unsavory entities – and they don't mean the physical 4-legged kind) because many people have gone missing while wearing red and other such colors. In the US too, an unusually high number of missing people were wearing the color red and other bright colors.

(Wearing a red garment is a problem in Judaism too, interestingly.)

So all in all, we see that physical covering offers physical protection.

A Covering as Spiritual Protection

In Judaism, there are some important concepts regarding protection:

ayin hara – the evil eye

This comes from envy. One of the best protection against ayin hara is to keep a low profile.

Bracha ba'ah b'seter – Blessing comes in secret/when hidden.

This means that good things are more likely to happen behind the scenes.

Ein habracha matzuyah eleh b'davar samui min ha'ayin – Blessing is only found in something concealed from the eye. (Bava Metzia 42)

Very similar to the concept above it.

Likewise, if concealment enables & enhances blessing, then the opposite must also be true: Publicity can decrease or eliminate blessing.

In Nefesh Chaya, Rav Shimshon Dovid Pincus notes that the most amazing miracle of life occurs in a completely hidden manner: the creation of a human being.

Think about it: According to halacha (and traditionally common sense), conception occurs in the dark under a bedsheet or blanket.

Then the process of pregnancy occurs under the concealment of a woman's layers of flesh, in a completely dark environment.

The angel sent to teach the child Torah does so in complete concealment, its miraculous & holy mission invisible, silent, and unfelt by even the pregnant mother herself.

For reasons of ayin hara, increased blessing, and modesty (they're all connected anyway), some frum communities have a custom not to speak about a pregnancy until a certain month or they don't even speak of it at all.

(For these same reasons, ultrasounds are controversial for some frum people.)

Going back to humanity's beginnings, the Creation of the World was a massive light show.

But the creation of Man was not.

Adam was quietly formed from the clay of the Earth.

Woman's creation was even more subtle. Adam was even put to sleep for the event.

It was not witnessed by anyone except Hashem Himself.

Yet what a powerful, world-changing event it was!

Tsniut & Miracles

In Melachim II:4:1-37 (which is also the Haftarah for Parshat Vayera), we have the famous story of Elisha Hanavi & the miracle of the never-ending oil.

The widow & orphans of Ovadia Hanavi turn to Elisha Hanavi after King Yehoram's officers threaten to enslave the orphans if the widow cannot pay the taxes.

In verse 4, Elisha Hanavi, after encouraging her to gather as many empty vessels as she possibly can, he instructs her to then close the door "about yourself and about your sons."

(The word ba'ad, translated here as "about," can also mean "for the sake of.")

Rashi comments: "The kavod of a miracle is to come in hatsne'ah" – hiddenness, modesty.

You probably recognized the root of hatsne'ah as the same root of tsniut or tsnuah.

Okay. It's admittedly not so clear in English.

Here's the Hebrew:

הצנע
צניעות
צנוע

And the text is not even talking about clothes or women.

Hatsne'ah is simply a core Jewish concept that concerns protection & blessing.

Many of us know that every real Jew possesses the following 3 middot:

chessed (loving-kindness)
rachamim (mercy, compassion)
bushah (a healthy sense of shame, which should naturally lead to tsniut in behavior)

Jewish who show a serious lack of one of the above are suspected of not being Jewish at the soul level, according to Chazal.

And now that we understood the physical & spiritual protection of hatsne'ah, we can better understand why terrorist & missile attacks often result in a call for increased tsniut.

In other words: increased spiritual protection.

As noted by Rav Shimshon Dovid Pincus in Nefesh Chaya, page 72:

"If a war would break out, chas v'shalom, and there would be a lot of casualties, with blow after blow from the enemy and troops falling every day, people would ask: Where is the missile defense? Where is the air-force cover? Where is the navy protection?

"If there are a lot of casualties, it is a sign that there is a problem with the protection..."

The Greatest Achievements are Unseen

Many, many Jews in Tanach achieved their greatness in their smallness & concealment: Leah Imeinu, Gidon, Chana the Mother of Shmuel Hanavi, Ruth, David Hamelech, Har Sinai (the smaller & quieter mountain), and so many more.

Yes, David Hamelech became quite famous later on. But the greatness that led to his kingship was achieved at home and out alone in the pastures surrounded by sheep.

For some of them (like Chana), we only know about them because Hashem chose to publicize their greatness in Tanach. With Chana, she's always indoors, either at home or davening in the Beit Hamikdash.

Even her tefillah, which became the basis for our all-important Amidah prayer, was barely above a whisper.

Who would ever know of Chana without her appearing in the book named after her holy son, Shmuel Hanavi?

So please note: Tsniut is a quintessentially JEWISH middah.

If you're Jewish, whether male or female, it's a core part of who you are at the soul level.

Modern society is trying to mash it out of you.

Don't let them do it.

Follow-Up Post:
What is the #1 Ultimate Way to Improve Your Tsniut/Tsnius/Modesty? (And absolutely NO tape measures, rulers, or mirrors necessary!)

For related posts:
The Overlooked Prophetess: Chana
Why a Leah Imeinu Can't (and Shouldn't) be a Sara Imeinu

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Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Vayera: Using Avraham Avinu as the Ultimate Guide to Self-Improvement

15/11/2019

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In Parshas Vayera 3 – The System of Avraham Avinu, Rav Miller discusses several practical aspects of self-improvement.

For example, one of the difficult aspects of working on middot and making genuine progress is the way it looks in the eyes of others.

Even if they are good & decent people, if you are only a couple of levels above them, you'll look strange.

I've been on both sides of this, having been the person who looked at a person a couple of levels higher than myself and thought they were strange or even that they "just don't understand" (HA!) and then when I got there myself, I realized they weren't strange at all and furthermore, not only did they understand very well, they were absolutely right.

And I've also been the person viewed as strange.

Many of us have had both experiences, whether it's when you really decided to dedicate yourself to avoiding lashon hara, keeping Shabbat, suffering insults in silence, improving your tsnius, giving the benefit of the doubt, or anything else...at least one person thinks you've become odder.

And I don't mean just the phase when you're acting a bit wonky because you're still trying to figure out how to incorporate the new improved behavior into your old self.

No matter how balanced & polished you get, someone somewhere (or a lot of someones) will find you very odd, even eccentric.

Some people even feel offended or threatened by the new you. ("How dare you think I spoke lashon hara!" "Why are you suddenly covering your hair like that? I always wear a waist-length swoopy wavy vampy shaitel that doesn't even look like I'm covering my hair, and I find that perfectly tsnius!" "Yes, but when you don't answer back, do you have any idea what a doormat you're making yourself out to be?")

And maybe you also remember times you found someone strange or offensive...until you matured spiritually and discovered otherwise.

(Just to emphasize: We aren't talking about people who really are strange & offensive, but people who only SEEM strange or offensive by people on a lower level than them.)

As Rav Miller says on page 4:

Great people are sometimes so great that others can’t appreciate them.

[Meshugah ish haruach] – The man of spirit – the man who is dedicated fully to Hashem – is a madman (Hoshea 9:7). It means that he appears to be a madman, a meshuganeh, in the eyes of others.

The navi said that – it means it’s an old story already that the avodas Hashem of great men is considered extreme by men of lesser stature.

And this means Avraham Avinu too.

Avraham Avinu: a man who so loved to do chessed, he sat at the doorway of his tent on the hottest of days recovering from a brit milah, and still yearned for guests in order to perform hospitality.

How did he get to that level?

Seeing the World Means Seeing Hashem

Basically, Avraham Avinu looked around the world and noticed all the seemingly little miracles that are actually very big.

A nice breeze, a peach tree, onions growing from the ground – Avraham Avinu took note.

And because Avraham Avinu saw all that Hashem provided the world, so Avraham Avinu yearned to emulate Hashem and also provide.

So Avraham Avinu also planted trees.

And because Avraham Avinu saw that chessed was very important to Hashem, that Hashem was the Ultimate Chessed, so Avraham Avinu became obsessed with being the personification of loving-kindness.

Obsessions are usually bad. They derive from ego.

But in this case, Avraham Avinu's chessed obsession derived from his pure adoration of Hashem Yitbarach.

The 2 Most Important Questions to Contemplate in order to Realize Your Spiritual Potential & become Great in Hashem's Eyes

In order to truly realize (or even attempt to realize) your genuine spiritual potential, and to become great in Hashem's Eyes, Rav Miller gives us the #1 advice from the Ramchal (Rav Moshe Chaim Luzatto) on page 11:

[The Ramchal] says there that man must find time every day to sit in solitude and contemplate some of the most important questions of life.

And one of the most valuable, he says, is the following: “What was it that made Avraham Avinu so beloved by Hashem? How did he become so great that he was chosen to be the father of the most holy nation?"

If you are already engaging in regular hitbodedut, the above also makes for a great topic of discussion.

Here are the 2 important questions are again:

What was it that made Avraham Avinu so beloved by Hashem?
How did he become so great that he was chosen to be the father of the most holy nation?

Rav Miller says that according to the Ramchal, engaging in the above will cause you to want to be like Avraham Avinu.

But no normal person honestly thinks he or she could ever be like Avraham Avinu, no matter how hard they try.

So won't this exercise lead to despair?

Nope.

Here's why...

Desire is the Key to Everything

Just the very DESIRE to be like Avraham Avinu is in itself a HUGE achievement!

Baruch Hashem, Rav Avigdor Miller constantly pounds into our heads the importance of our inner world.

Hashem wants your HEART.

Do you ever feel joy when you daven?

Do you ever feel deveikus when you daven?

Are you snorting around in a filthy, disgusting, stench-filled pig sty...yet you DESIRE to get up and wash yourself off, and communicate in refined language rather than snorts?

GOOD.

THAT'S an achievement.

I think we've all seen this so many times, and even experienced it ourselves:

GOOD DESIRE helps us get better.

People who don't even have the DESIRE to be good ultimately do not make it.

There is a world of difference between sinning & saying, "Oh, well. That's just how it is today; everyone else is doing it too and even worse stuff" and sinning & saying, "Aack! I HATE it when I do this! Yuck!"

Rav Miller reassures us (pages 11-12) that just the mere thought of choosing what Hashem desires makes Hashem say, "If that's the case, then you're My man already."

Re-Tweets & Likes aren't What Counts in Life

Internalizing the importance of intangible silent acts is particularly grueling in our times.

In a world where brushing your teeth is tweeted or posted, and then people actually respond with "likes," AND the tweeter/poster's feelings of self-worth actually depend on this – what a crazy challenge for us nowadays!

Self-promotion & public recognition are NOT what Hashem judges us by.

However, Rav Miller reminds us that good intentions still aren't everything.

Desire isn't the Whole Shebang. At Some Point, You Need to Take Action

Rav Miller explains that real desire should incur action at some point.

Standing up to your knees in water while shouting for water?

If you truly desire water, then you should bend down and scoop up some of the water you're drenched in, says Rav Miller.

If you accidentally break or damage something, even while trying to do something good with it, you can't just say, "Well, it was an accident. Because I didn't mean to do damage & because I meant to do good, so I don't need to pay."

You DO need to pay.

You're attending a Torah shiur?

Great!

But that doesn't mean you can stick your legs out and risk someone tripping over them. It doesn't mean you can spread out to much on the bench or hog the armrest.

Speaking in Torah is very, very important. All of Chazal emphasizes this. But if you speak divrei Torah loudly in a place where others are sleeping, that's very wrong.

(For more on that topic, please see: Rav Avigdor Miller on Conforming To Others.)

Speaking in a way that doesn't hurt others feelings is also part 'n' parcel of Judaism.

Rav Miller quotes Gemara Bava Metzia 58b:

Hurting people’s feelings is worse than stealing their money.

That's a very strong statement considering that the prohibition against stealing is part of the 10 Commandments and also one of the 7 Mitzvot of Bnei Noach, which incurs severe penalties.

Consideration of others is part of Avraham Avinu's chessed (pages 13-14).

Rav Miller's Final Thoughts on the Parsha

We'll finish with these final thoughts of Rav Miller regarding what we learn from Avraham Avinu (page 15):

Hashem created a world of chesed not only because He wants us to be happy, but because He wants us to learn to make others happy!

And:

And more importantly, by means of the avodah of walking in the footsteps of Avraham, you’re fulfilling the mitzvah of , וְ הָ לַ כְ ת ּ ָ ב ִ דְ רָ כָ יו walking in the ways of Hu Boruch Hakodosh Hu, the original Chafeitz Chesed who created this world to be an Olam Chesed, a world of good times.

Bonus:
For good guidance in these times of come-and-go war, please also see Rav Miller on Missile Attacks in Eretz Yisrael (1991)

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The Kli Yakar on Parshat Vayera: Why Does Avraham Avinu's Old Age Matter to Either Sara Imeinu or Avraham Avinu? Why Did Hashem Need to Change Sara Imeinu's Wording?

14/11/2019

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In Parshat Vayera, we encounter the famous incident of Sara Imeinu's laughter & words of wonder, followed by Hashem's sensitive re-wording when repeating the incident to Avraham Avinu.

In Beresheit 18:12, Sara laughs within herself & wonders at the idea of regaining a youthful biology.

Yet it happened.

However, it only happened to her. As Sara Imeinu noted: "...my husband is old."

And when Hashem repeated the scenario to Avraham Avinu, Hashem omitted Sara's reference to Avraham Avinu's advanced age.

In light of this, certain questions naturally come to mind.

Fortunately for us, the Kli Yakar not only thought of the obvious questions, he also came up with some answers.

At Least 2 Questions Come to Mind...

Question #1: Why does Avraham Avinu's age matter?

As the Kli Yakar points out: "...ki ein hadavar nimna ki zaken harbeh yachol l'holid – for it is not an impossible thing for a very old man to be able to beget [a child]."

Question #2: Why did Hashem change Sara's words?

Is Avraham self-conscious about his age?

No, that doesn't make sense in the context of everything we know about Avraham Avinu.

And, as the Kli Yakar notes, "Lamah yerah b'einei Avraham al sheh amra ha'emet? – Why would it seem bad in Avraham's eyes that she said the truth?"

After all, Avraham Avinu really was old!

Why would he get offended? He was the furthest thing from a vain person. In addition, he was a TREMENDOUS tzaddik! This means he was also profoundly emes-oriented.

Even more, Avraham Avinu deeply loved Sara Imeinu and she was his full & equal partner in everything he did.

Talk about 2 halves of 1 soul.

He's not going to see Sara Imeinu in a negative light. No way.

And so...?

The answer lies in Sara Imeinu's understanding of spiritual physics.

What Did Avraham Avinu's Old Age Mean to Sara Imeinu?

As is clear from the text and commentaries, Sara Imeinu was both profoundly pious & profoundly intelligent. Rashi notes that even her level of prophecy superseded that of her husband.

Sara Imeinu understood the great miracles that occurred over the long term when Avraham Avinu waged war against the Edomite kings.

She also realized that great miracles use up great merits.

In fact, Avraham Avinu himself was concerned about this very issue, as explained by Rashi in Beresheit 15:1.

So Sara Imeinu saw that Hashem rejuvenated her body with healthy youth.

But Hashem hadn't done so for her husband.

To her, this meant that the conquest had used up his merits and so he lacked the merits necessary to produce a child.

Furthermore, realizing that according to the natural order of things, she & Avraham Avinu were at the end of their life together, she laughed at what she considered an incomplete promise.

What is the point of she & Avraham having a child if they could not live to raise him, especially since out of the entire world at that time, only Sara & Avraham possessed the ability to raise a Yitzchak Avinu?

In her great humility, it didn't occur to Sara that she was worth the extra miracle. And she honestly thought that her husband's merits were used up - an assumption validated by Avraham's apparent lack of renewed youth & vigor.

So because she ascribed her humble disbelief to a lack of merit on Avraham's part (not because he lacked merits, but because both he & she felt certain he'd used them up in a truly miraculous conquest), Hashem changed the wording.

And to all of it, Hashem answered (Targum): "Is anything too hidden and separated and concealed from Me to prevent Me from doing My Will?"

Here's All the Above in a Nutshell:

Summary of main points:

Sara emphasized Avraham's old age as physical confirmation to the spiritual assumption that his merits had indeed been used up by the ongoing miraculous conquest of the Edomite kings.

But despite the seemingly confirmatory physical evidence of the logical calculation of spiritual physics, Avraham Avinu's merits had NOT been used up by the conquest.

Hashem refused to even hint to Avraham Avinu that his wife thought his merits were used up.

Anyway, Hashem can do ANYTHING.

And that is why Hashem changed Sara's wording.

Both Sara Imeinu & Avraham Avinu possessed enough to merits to not only have the child they yearned for, but also to raise him.

Note: For a very short & pictorial Kli Yakar on Parshat Vayera, please see...
The Kli Yakar on Parshat Vayera

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Harsh Judgement Generously Laced with Rachamim

13/11/2019

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You've probably seen this video already, but it's always good to point out Hashem's Kindnesses:

Miracle: Rocket Slams into Highway near Gan Yavne, Just Missing Vehicles

If you look at the timeline beneath the video, you see that the rocket hits just behind the cars around the 6-7-second mark.

Pausing & moving the little seconds-tracker thing 1 minuscule step at a time shows that the missile missed the nearest cars by LESS than a second.

As one of my teenagers said, "If the drivers had put one less spoonful of sugar in their tea that morning, they would've been hit."

Also, the missile hit behind the cars on that side of the highway and not on the busier side.

The missile missed the cement mixer, the bus, and other cars by mere yards.

Yishtabach Shemo.

It has been clear from the inappropriate rain on Sukkot, followed by the unusually dry yet extremely windy (albeit not unpleasant) weather this winter, that Eretz Yisrael is under din right now.

Combine that with this renewed barrage of rockets & the threat of Iranian intervention, there is definitely some pretty serious din hanging over us right now.

Yet when Hashem times missiles to miss His People by tenths of a second or by only a handful of yards, it shows that He is still very much with us and not in punishment-mode, but wake-you-up-mode.

WAKE UP.

While we certainly share the tzaar of the people who've lost their homes or been injured by these attacks, we can still see that the din is laced with generous amounts of rachamim.

May we all merit to do teshuvah from love and bring the Geula in a sweet way.

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What is the Message of Galut Yishmael?

12/11/2019

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An Eye-Opening Experience at an Israeli Men's Prison

Recently, my son was called upon to do some work at an Israeli men's prison.

A Muslim Arab fellow (we'll call him Achmed) worked with my son and Achmed was a bit apprehensive about working at a prison, even though it was a minimum security area (i.e., the prisoners aren't dangerous).

My son reassured Achmed that these prisoners were not violent criminals, that they were in prison for non-violent crimes, and he had nothing to fear.

There was a pause as Achmed tried to think of what these people could have possibly done that earned them a prison sentence for a NON-violent crime.

(In Achmed's world of the Palestinian Authority, white-collar criminals presumably can buy their way out of a prison sentence & sx offenders either aren't persecuted – because what they did isn't considered wrong in their society – or they manage to buy or intimidate their way out...or they're executed. It depends.)

Finally, Achmed asked my son if these non-violent prisoners have been locked up due to same-gender hanky-panky.

He couldn't think of anything else to fit the circumstances.

My son burst out laughing.

"We don't imprison people for that!" he said.

Achmed was shocked to hear that. He was even more shocked to learn that such activity isn't remotely illegal in the Medinah, let alone punishable in any way.

Insularity can be Fun!

So it was a funny story.

And it is also a very telling one.

It is also intriguing how some Arabs living their entire lives in Israel remain clueless about the basics of Israeli society & laws, including basic halachah, and they never even learn Hebrew despite the similarities between Hebrew & Arabic, making it an easy language for Arabic-speakers to learn.

Even if they're more secular, they still live relatively insular lives.

And they PREFER living relatively insular lives.

They like their culture.

Here's a sharp story related to that...

Tsniut Saves from Death

Yad L'Achim regularly hosts events in which a woman they rescued tells her story.

One woman, the daughter of a Jewish mother & a Muslim father, was married off in her teens to a Muslim in the village of her paternal grandfather, who was also the local sheikh.

Yad L'Achim helped her escape & make a new life for herself.

She became totally frum & married a good Jewish man.

But remember: The Muslim world considers her Muslim. And her escape from her Muslim husband is a terrible dishonor to him and to their clan. (Not to mention, leaving Islam is itself an executable crime, technically speaking, even if it's not always enforced.)

Anyway, long after her teshuvah & Jewish marriage, she was walking down the street one day (maybe Geula, Yerushalayim?) and dressed in full tsniut-mode: long skirt & sleeves, hair fully covered with a nice scarf, etc.

Suddenly, an Arab man stepped out in front of her, blocking her way & glaring at her.

It was one of the cousins from her ex-husband's village.

She was terrified he might kill her on the spot.

(Though that sounds melodramatic, it was actually a realistic possibility, given his value system & his ability to hide or be hidden among the alleys & other fellows working there, OR if he was caught, he could always rely on Israel's revolving doors of "justice" for Yishmaelim.)

Instead, he just stood scowling at her & looking her over.

Finally, he said something like, "I really should kill you for what you did. But as long as you're going to keep the family honor by dressing modestly, I guess we can let you go."

Then he left.

She explained to us that due to their insular lifestyle, her Muslim family members really have no clue that Judaism commands modesty for Jewish women (and men too, actually).

The Arabs mostly see secular Jewish woman who give no thought to tsniut (dressing & behaving with dignity).

So when this Arab cousin saw that she dressed modestly & even covered her hair (like Muslim girls & women do), he could only assume that she was doing so out of respect for the values of the Arab side of her family.

Without knowing Jewish Law, he could only assume that her intentions were to "keep the "family honor."

(And yeah, it's weird because he was in a place like Geula where you see modest Jewish women everywhere. But for some reason, it just did not compute with him. He thought whatever he thought. And baruch Hashem for that! Otherwise, she may not have lived to tell the tale...)

A Combined Message from Galut Yishmael within Galut Edom

But let's ponder this for a minute:

THIS is the Galut (Exile) that Hashem put us in.

Yes, Galut Yishmael applies more to Eretz Yisrael, but the Western countries (especially Europe) are also increasingly experiencing Galut Yishmael.

And look at how Yishmael is:
Unapologetically insulated.

They often keep their names. (There isn't even an Anglicized form of names, like Yassar needing to be called Jassar, like there is with Hebrew names. And I don't mean for ease of pronunciation, like "Mohammed" instead of "Mochammed." I mean, if you say Yechezkel instead of Ezekiel, no one will know who you mean. I haven't heard such an equivalent done with Muslim names.)

They keep their style of dress (more or less).

They keep their language (even when they could learn Hebrew so easily & it would help them so much to know Hebrew well).

They cling to their beliefs without apology or appeasement. (They may fudge things a bit, like redefine the meaning of Jihad with a false watered-down definition, but mostly they simply insist that Sharia law is just & compassionate & better, and that they aren't all terrorists – which is mostly true – or that what you consider terrorism isn't actually terrorism, and that if you think badly about Sharia or the way individuals practice Sharia, then you are an Islamophobic racist bigot who is persecuting them, and you'd better shut up.)

They have neither tolerance nor respect for atheism or polytheism.

And whether their values & laws are actually correct or not, they hold on to them unapologetically.

Having said all that, yes, they want a lift in their material lifestyle.

They want to enjoy the material comforts of the West. So they head West.

And while they're living on welfare in Europe or North America, they not only hold on to their own values, but unapologetically insist that others not only respect their values & beliefs, but even adopt them too.

(A British Jewish friend related how a Nigerian Muslim woman stood outside a British mall, boldly calling on everyone to dress more modestly. Let's see a religious Jewish woman try something like that! Even her fellow frum Jews would censure her and feel embarrassed by her.)

Look at how Yishmaelite weekend-schools in England have no problem teaching children how to cut off the hands of thieves without killing them – including detailed diagrams of the anatomy of the human arm, wrist, and hand to show how to carry out this procedure.

(And they also teach other stuff many Westerners find disturbing.)

And look at how British authorities minced around the whole thing!

Compare that to the British handling of frum schools for simply refusing to teach anti-Torah values.

In the Yishmaelite weekend-schools, you have the active instruction of how to carry out brutal punishments & executions for crimes (including acts that are not considered crimes by your average Brit).

And the Yishmaelites are unrepentant. You don't like it? Then YOU are the one who's wrong. That's their attitude. They don't go groveling or trying to smooth things over.

But for simply NOT teaching a secular value, the Jews get skewered?

Seriously?

Anything good & just in British law comes from Jewish Law.

Western countries originally based their laws on their religion, which derives any of its positive values from Judaism.

Yet it's against that same Judaism they turn.

(Interestingly, the Ofsted [The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills] that minced around what to do with the Yishmaelite curriculum was the same Ofsted that downgraded a Jewish school for hosting separate classes for boys & girls. I didn't realize gender-segregated education was such a problem for British authorities. After all, Eton still doesn't accept girls & there are still no boys at the Cheltenham Ladies College. Am I missing something?)

Here's Part of the Message...

Certainly, much of the above is a generalization and does not apply to every single Muslim.

There are certainly exceptions to everything written above.

But in general, the attitude of Yishmael today is as described above.

And it's actually how we're supposed to be with OUR own pure Torah value system of TRUE justice & compassion, as defined by Hashem Himself.

WE are supposed to insulate ourselves within our own holy Torah value system.

WE are supposed to dress, speak, act, and look like Jews – and do so with quiet dignity & without apology or embarrassment.

WE are supposed to dismiss the pop psychology & teach our children according to the purity & beauty of Torah Law.

Look at what Hashem is shoving in our face all the time.

There is definitely something He wants us to glean from Galut Yishmael. (Actually, there are a few things. This post addresses only part of the message.)

Will we get the message?

And even more importantly, will we be able to act on it?

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Guess Who Else is Jewish?

11/11/2019

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Recently, my son ended up working with a Jew with a shady past who is now doing teshuvah.

This Jewish guy said that he used to sell stuff cheaply to a Yishmaelite crime family who lived in an area controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

The Jewish guy quickly discovered that the Muslim-Arab head of the family was married to an Jewish-Israeli woman.

They had several children (all Jews, of course, but who looked, talked, and thought of themselves as Muslim Arabs) and who were married to Muslim Arabs.

Unusually, the Arab head of home treated his Jewish wife very well and she was happy in the situation. Her children, both the sons & daughters, also seemed content with their Arab lifestyle & identity.

The Jewish guy said he used to hang out with them until late at night. He said it was just like hanging out with his Jewish Israeli friends. He said he sat in their living room, looking around at the room full of "Arabs" and thinking, "Whoa, almost everyone here is Jewish!"

My son told him he should've told the grown children that they are Jews.

"Yeah, I know that now," said the Jewish guy.

"You can still tell them," said my son.

"No, I can't," he said.

Why?

One day, the Palestinian Authority descended upon the home with 30 officers and there was all kinds of chaos & fighting, maybe shooting, not sure exactly what. The Jewish guy dashed back into their home & hid there until everyone was gone, then he made his way out and back to the Israeli side.

He never went back.

It's heartbreaking to think of all the children of all the married daughters of the Jewish woman & Muslim man. So many Jews! Yet not a clue to their real identity.

But again, this comes on the heels of Who is a Jew? Disturbing Stories & Inspiring Stories. And How to Prevent Problematic Lineage from Affecting You & Your Descendants?

This also reminds me of an article in Hamodia, which featured a Romanian worker here in Eretz Yisrael who is 100% Jewish.

Yet he came here with all the non-Jewish Romanian workers and no one guesses that he is really Jewish.

On the other hand, there are so many people declaring they're Jewish & even celebrating Jewish holidays, but are not Jewish at all.

I heard that people who work in kiruv at college campuses now say that they've come to realize that the Jewish-looking student named Michael Goldberg or Abigail Schwartz is probably not Jewish at all, but only the child of intermarriage. (Their last name & their look is from their father while their Biblical first name happens to be in fashion this millennium.)

It's getting so that you don't even know who to approach anymore.

We really need Mashiach to come & sort us all out.

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The First Time I Went to Kever Rachel was the Same Night Rabin was Assassinated

11/11/2019

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To read about some of the real history of Yitzchak Rabin, plus my first time visiting Kever Rachel, a visit which coincided both with Rachel Imeinu's yahrtzeit & Rabin's assassination, please click here:

The Real Legacy of Yitzchak Rabin

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Why Does Hashem Want Us to Talk to Him So Much? Rav Avigdor Miller Provides the Answer in Parshat Lech-Lecha

8/11/2019

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It's always very interesting to hear detailed descriptions of our Tanach tzaddikim as real people with real lives.

It makes their lessons more tangible.

So Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Lech-Lecha:The Childless Righteous starts off by emphasizing Avraham Avinu's prestige in his time.

Avraham Avinu was rich in livestock, gold, and silver - all the best wealth of ancient Mesopotamia.

He was both famous & respected. In Hilchot Avodah Zarah 1:3, the Rambam states that Avraham Avinu spoke before large audiences; eventually, 10,000 gathered around him.

Rav Miller also states that ancient Greek historians claimed that Avraham Avinu taught mathematics & astronomy (not astrology) to the Egyptian priests. Josephus quotes ancient sources, which state that Avraham Avinu even composed books, only one of which is known today.

Together, Avraham Avinu & Sara Imeinu cultivated an ideal marriage and because of everything they managed to achieve together, Rav Miller describes them as "one of the most successful husband and wife conglomerates who ever lived."

Yet all they ever wanted was a child.

Why are Jews So Often Compared to Grapevines or Olives?

Avraham Avinu & Sara Imeinu struggled with infertility for decades.

They needed all those decades to pray.

Why?

Rav Miller explains (page 7):

But when some situation comes up and we respond by turning to Hashem with urgency and desperation, then the benefit we gain thereby is extremely great – that’s when Awareness of Hashem becomes seared into our minds.

There’s no question that when people are mispallel with sincerity it causes them to have more Awareness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

Rav Miller then states that prayer from a feeling of longing enhances yirat Shamayim and makes a person grow spiritually in ways he cannot otherwise.

Needless to say, Judaism's first Jews were already very special & spiritually elevated people.

But just like pressing grapes or olives brings out their most precious aspects, Hashem wanted to wring out every last drop of the superior qualities of Avraham Avinu & Sara Imeinu.

He needed that every drop of that material in order to create a very special Nation.

(Which is the deep & primary reason they wanted a child.)

Paradoxical Truth: Your Lowest & Bitterest Moment was Also Your Most Successful

When Hashem squeezes people, we often look outside for the solution.

A better medication?

Perhaps I should try the newest self-help guru?

Maybe I should check my mezuzahs!

Maybe I should also give tzedakah...

Rav Miller agrees that spiritual efforts, like checking mezuzahs & giving tzedakah, are very good efforts.

We SHOULD do them.

But what else does Hashem really want?

Rav Miller states (page 10 - emphasis mine):

But among everything, what He chiefly desires is that you should cry out.

Not once and not twice; over and over again you should cry out with all your heart.

Pour out your heart to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

And that's going to be a success that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants for you.

And if subsequently He grants your request and you're redeemed from your tribulations, and from then on you live a tranquil life, don't think that now you’ve achieved the purpose of life – to live successfully and happily.

No; your success was already achieved when you were in the midst of the tzarah and you called out to Hashem.

And the more you called out, the more you thought about Hashem, the more successful you are.

And why is Hashem's Way to success paved with such a painful road?

The answer lies on pages 10 & 11 of this dvar Torah booklet.

(Sorry, it's too much for me to sum up here. Very fascinating & worthwhile reading, however!)

Is This Breslov Chassidus or Litvish Slabodka? I Can No Longer Tell the Difference!

Rav Miller stresses that we should turn to Hashem with requests before everything we do, like before we:

bake a cake
buy a new fridge
drive to work
put ointment on a cut

Bring Hashem into everything you do.

Guess who said the following?:

When a man utilizes his misfortunes, not merely suffer like a like a stone, like a tree, but he reacts, he reacts with emunah, and he prays and prays and prays, and he pours out his heart more and more, then this man should know he’s gaining the most out of life.

Who said it? Rebbe Nachman? Rebbe Nosson? Rav Shalom Arush?

Nope.

Rav Avigdor Miller (page 15).

Rav Miller stresses that Hashem WANTS you to do this. You're not bothering Him.

In conclusion (page 15):

If you think about Hashem one minute a day you’re already great.

If you do it more frequently then you're an exceptional person!

Try it. Right now.

Don't postpone; it’s an opportunity.

And if it becomes part of our daily program, it means that we are embarked on a career of coming closer and closer to Hashem.

All credit for quotes goes to Toras Avigdor.

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In Honor of the Memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane

What is the #1 Ultimate Way to Improve Your Tsniut/Tsnius/Modesty? (And absolutely NO tape measures, rulers, or mirrors necessary!)

An In-Depth Discussion of One of Today's Most Despised Topics: Tsniut/Tsnius/Modest & Dignified Behavior & Dress

People Wear Clothing; Animals Don't

A Covering as Physical Protection

A Covering as Spiritual Protection

Tsniut & Miracles

The Greatest Achievements are Unseen

Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Vayera: Using Avraham Avinu as the Ultimate Guide to Self-Improvement

Seeing the World Means Seeing Hashem

The 2 Most Important Questions to Contemplate in order to Realize Your Spiritual Potential & become Great in Hashem's Eyes

Desire is the Key to Everything

Re-Tweets & Likes aren't What Counts in Life

Desire isn't the Whole Shebang. At Some Point, You Need to Take Action

Rav Miller's Final Thoughts on the Parsha

The Kli Yakar on Parshat Vayera: Why Does Avraham Avinu's Old Age Matter to Either Sara Imeinu or Avraham Avinu? Why Did Hashem Need to Change Sara Imeinu's Wording?

At Least 2 Questions Come to Mind...

What Did Avraham Avinu's Old Age Mean to Sara Imeinu?

Here's All the Above in a Nutshell:

Harsh Judgement Generously Laced with Rachamim

What is the Message of Galut Yishmael?

An Eye-Opening Experience at an Israeli Men's Prison

Insularity can be Fun!

Tsniut Saves from Death

A Combined Message from Galut Yishmael within Galut Edom

Here's Part of the Message...

Guess Who Else is Jewish?

The First Time I Went to Kever Rachel was the Same Night Rabin was Assassinated

Why Does Hashem Want Us to Talk to Him So Much? Rav Avigdor Miller Provides the Answer in Parshat Lech-Lecha

Why are Jews So Often Compared to Grapevines or Olives?

Paradoxical Truth: Your Lowest & Bitterest Moment was Also Your Most Successful

Is This Breslov Chassidus or Litvish Slabodka? I Can No Longer Tell the Difference!

Myrtle Rising

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