Category: Society

"Boycott Woke Disney": A Prophetic 22-Year-Old Q&A with Rav Avigdor Miller

3/4/2022

Received this Q&A in the Inbox from Toras Avigdor's daily email subscription.

It's amazing how Rav Avigdor Miller knew specifically this back in the year 2000.

While it had been known for a while that Disney weaves in a lot of filth into their animation, I hadn't picked up on Disney's inclination toward this particular toeva at that point.

It's amazing how the rav called it back then—and it has ballooned to revolting proportions only recently:

Rav Avigdor Miller on Disney’s Immorality

Q:Is it wrong to allow one’s children to read Disney books like Mickey Mouse and things like that?
A:
Now, whether or not you should be reading Walt Disney to your children is one question.

But I say that you shouldn’t for a different reason.

I say that you should boycott Walt Disney because Disney is an active force in promoting all types of immorality and I don’t want to say what else.

They promote very filthy things like H-O-M [the Rav spelled out the three letters] – I really don’t want to say the rest.

And therefore, we should boycott Walt Disney as much as possible.

And if they hadn’t been promoting immorality then it would just be stam a waste of time.

What do you get out of books that make it that mice talk and other animals are talking? It’s meaningless.

But Walt Disney is worse than meaningless because of the immorality that they are promoting in America.

And therefore we should do everything we can to lend our support to those who are trying to make this world more moral.

We should help the people – even the goyim – who are fighting for morality.

We really should do that.

TAPE # E-219 (January 2000)

https://torasavigdor.org/rav-avigdor-miller-on-boycotting-walt-disney/

Used with permission.

Why You are Better & More Successful than an Angel

27/3/2022

Today, we're explaining why you are better than an angel.

Yes...YOU.

You...with all your flaws, frustrations, addictions, taavot, and failures...YOU are more successful than an angel.

And here's the proof:

Many of us are familiar with the teaching from Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer 22 regarding the angels sent down to this world in the generation of Kayin (Cain, son of Adam).

It didn't end well for them.

Despite their lofty experiences in Heaven & all the awareness they brought with them to this world...yet once immersed in this world, they sank so deeply into this gross existence, they indulged in every possible abomination.

As a result, they remain chained within the Mountains of Darkness (whatever that means exactly) until today.

Likewise, when Hashem sent His angelic messengers to destroy Sedom, even that brief dip in this earthly world polluted them with enough gross materiality to claim: "We are destroying this place" (Beresheit 19:13)—implying a disconnect from Hashem as their Master & Primary Cause of Everything, as if they were acting on their own at their own discretion.

And that resulted from only a brief sojourn in this world, where the angels retained all their memory and experience of the upper worlds and closeness to Hashem.

And they were ANGELS, for crying out loud! Not human beings, but otherworldly angels! Their entire being & creation consisted of the spiritual!

(Just for knowing: This breach in awareness resulted in Hashem banishing them from His Presence for 138 years—Beresheit Rabbah 50:9.)

Because even a brief immersion in our world—an existence suffused with deceptive earthly materialism, affects angels so negatively—is one of the reasons why Hashem needed to come through Egypt Himself (so to speak) for the final Plague (the Death of the Firstborn).

We know this from Hashem's famous statement as recorded in the Pesach Haggadah: "I—and not an angel, and not a seraph, and not a messenger."

As Rav Yaakov Galinsky stated, "The impurity of Egypt was so great that even angels could be defiled there..."

So what does that mean for us?

What does that say about us?

We, who lack any memory of the Upper Worlds...we, born into this wholly material existence which covers any true spirituality or goodness or morality with a veil of deception...

We, many of whom endured either an upbringing completely devoid of Torah or an upbringing mixed with true Torah & a distortion of Torah...

We, NOT composed of light like the angels, but composed primarily of earth and water, keeping us firmly anchored to the earthly world, and covering up our neshamah (which is the only pure light we hold yet cannot see)...

What chance do WE have?

Some Chizuk for All Us Non-Angels

So it means that...

...we are pretty great!

We don't really stand a chance.

Yet for some reason, so many of us ARE doing things simply because HASHEM told us to!

So many of us struggle against the current.

And today, it really is harder than ever.

In this history of mankind, it has never been this all-encompassing.

Think about it.

Sedom was the materialist pinnacle of ancient Mesopotamia.

It was like the Beverly Hills or Palm Beach or Tahiti of today.

(If you develop a whim to copperplate all your plumbing in the middle of the night in Beverly Hills, plumbers exist to accommodate you—for the right price, of course. The point being that in such places, you can micromanage your life to a ridiculous degree and indulge almost any whim you have as long as you can pay for it.)

But because of today's technology, the modern world has become like Sedom if Dr. Frankenstein had messed with it AND then given it steroids & heroin.

And today's impurity is beyond Mitzrayim/ancient Egypt.

They reached the 49th level, but we've reached the 50th (as noted by Rav Itamar Schwartz and many others).

It's so addictive and all-encompassing.

If the angels sent down in the pre-Flood times became so animalistic...

And if the angels sent by Hashem on a mission to destroy Sedom become corrupted by such a brief dip in our world...

And if the spiritual pollution of ancient Egypt proved so potent that no angel could remain unaffected by it...

...then those of us who make any sincere effort to keep Torah must be pretty AWESOME!

Think about it.

Think about our physical composition, our experiences & influences, and how the encroaching tumah pollutes everything with such convincing deceptions and lies.

And think about how even an angel remains unable to merely flit through this world unsullied.

Think about how an angel immersed in this world cannot maintain its purity or nobility on any level.

Yet YOU do!

You try, and you struggle, and you DO do good things.

And that means you succeed more than an angel when faced with the same challenges.

Hopefully, this will encourage you to focus on all the good you do (despite the fails & falls we all endure) and to keep on going with that good (even when it doesn't FEEL good—or important).

But just know: You ARE on a MUCH higher level than you realize.

Just because you try. Or even just because you refrain.

The above ideas (including the quote from above) are gleaned from V'Higadeta: Beresheis—Insights, stories, and teachings on the weekly parshah from the treasure-trove of the maggid HaRav Yaakov Galinsky, ztz"l. pages 87-88.

Rav Galinsky (1921-2014) was a tremendous talmid chacham and tzaddik who carried the torch of Novadok mussar throughout the Nazi invasion of Europe, the Siberian labor camps, and the vicissitudes of life in Eretz Yisrael until his passing. His teachings ring with joyful energy & uncompromising devotion to Hashem.

For more on this topic, please see:
why-this-generation-is-so-astounding.html

A Q&A Excerpt from Bitachon Weekly: "With all the Jews in Ukraine that are in danger, what does the Rav suggest we Yidden should be doing and thinking at this time?"

15/3/2022

Not surprisingly, I'm seeing a lot of confusion and distorted good intentions regarding this whole Russia-Ukraine fiasco.

So here is a recent Q&A with Rabbi Yehuda Mandel of Bitachon Weekly (Vayikra-Zachor-Purim 5782), which also features brief yet encouraging observations from one of the recently rescued Ukrainian rabbis & Rav Simcha Bunim Cohen:

Question:
With all the Jews in Ukraine that are in danger, what does the Rav suggest we Yidden should be doing and thinking at this time?

Answer:
First, it is important that every person should feel they are the one who can save the situation...

...The world was created for me. [a quote from Sanhedrin 37a – MR]

MAKE BELIEVE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD.

Be alone with Hashem and watch your Tefilos come true.

I did just that, and the results are incredible. I davened to Hashem that no one should get hurt.

Then I davened that people should do Teshuva, because that’s very important; their spiritual deprivation is worse than their physical danger.

Most Yidden in Ukraine are not Shomer Shabbos or anything and are living out their lives without Torah and Mitzvos. We need to care about them and be M’karev them; at the very least we should cry for them.

I also davened that there should not arise Agunah Shaylos, since they were taking the men away from their families to join the war.

I bumped into Rav Simcha Bunim Cohen Shlita last Shabbos and asked him to tell me about his thoughts on the topic.

He said that the story of Mordechai on Purim teaches us how one man can save the entire world, and that this is how every individual should think.

I felt the same way during the Gulf War; I davened that no one should get hurt, and that’s exactly what happened.

Every person should do the same, and should have in mind their Ruchaniyus as well, because the Geula is around the corner, and when Moshiach comes it will not be so simple for all the irreligious Jews.

So that’s why they must be in our minds all the time. This is what I had in mind.

This past Shabbos I met the Rav of Ukraine himself, R’ Yaakov Bleich, who arrived in Lakewood. I asked him about the plight of the men, and he reported that they are all getting saved; with spectacular Nissim.

Then I asked him about their Yiras Shamayim, if they are doing Teshuva?

He replied that this is exactly what is happening.

Even their president, who is a Jewish M’shumad, called R’ Bleicher and declared: Without G-d, we aren’t making it!

So, I feel that my Tefilos are being heard, and every Yid should take credit for the Yeshua, too.

Each person should feel they are in charge.

You can “remote control” everything with your Tefilos, your Teshuva, and Bitachon.

During the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was shooting scud missiles into Eretz Yisroel, and people were panicking.

At that time, every Gadol publicized that no one will be harmed, and that’s exactly what happened. The government was giving out gas masks [they were afraid of chemical warfare], and R’ Chaim Kanievsky said they should wear them on Purim [for a costume], and that’s what happened.

See how their positive words had an effect! Everyone should speak positively and watch how exactly that will happen.

Words are alive!

Part of the reason this explanation spoke to me is because Rav Itamar Schwartz repeatedly emphasized how one of the responses to covid-19 is to be alone with Hashem, to find at least 1 minute of quiet to really be with Hashem. (More than 1 minute is better, but even 1 minute contains immeasurable value.)

Hashem really wants each of us to be the unique individual He created us to be—a real avodah in a world that seeks to constantly distract us, keep us "connected" to people we may barely know (2000 Fakebook friends?), and to have us all think & act the same.

(That is a huge part of the reason why Hashem brought the covid-19 phenomenon into the world.)

And here, Rabbi Mandel emphasizes individuality and loneness, including the supreme importance of an individual's tefillot and deeds—and not just those of a tzaddik!—but of regular Jews.

Furthermore, Rabbi Mandel demonstrates real concern and caring for fellow Jews on all levels, noting how the coming of Mashiach—welcome by the sincerely frum (or sincerely TRYING to be frum!) will not be experienced in that vein by the irreligious Jews.

Also, it hadn't occurred to me to think of the agunah situations that often arise in wartime & displacement, but it is of course a serious concern and I really appreciate him bringing it to the forefront.

All in all, rather than taking sides and getting sucked into the false narratives surrounding us, it's best to take the advice presented in the above Q&A.

To receive Bitachon Weekly by email send a request to:

thenewbitachonweekly@gmail.com

(I'm not connected to this at all; just passing on the good information!)

A Timely Message by the Me'am Lo'ez from Sefer Yeshayahu

14/3/2022

Here is a timely passage from Yeshayahu/Isaiah 44:5, as explained by the Me'am Lo'ez.

(Rav Yitzchak ben Yehudah Abba initially published his Ladino commentary on Sefer Yeshayahu in Salonica, 1892. It was later translated & adapted into Hebrew by Rav Shmuel Yerushalmi, and then into English by Yehoshua Starrett, pages 277-278).

זֶה יֹאמַר לַיהוָה אָנִי, וְזֶה יִקְרָא בְשֵׁם-יַעֲקֹב; וְזֶה, יִכְתֹּב יָדוֹ לַיהוָה, וּבְשֵׁם יִשְׂרָאֵל, יְכַנֶּה

This one shall say, "I am Hashem's," and that one shall call himself in the name of Yaakov, and this one will write with his hand "For Hashem," and will adopt the name Yisrael.

Rashi, following Avot d'Rebbi Natan, sees each part of the verse as representing different categories of Jews:

The ones who say, "I am Hashem's" — the tzaddikim
The ones who call themselves by the name of Yaakov — the small ones, the children of the intentional sinners (reshaim).
The ones who write by their own hand "For Hashem" — the baalei teshuvah.
The ones who adopt the name Yisrael — the sincere converts.

And that is what it means.

But according to the Me'am Lo'ez, the verse contains yet another interpretation:

And God's blessings will be specifically for His chosen people, even though other nations may claim the same.

Even if they say, "I am for God," and call themselves in Jacob's name, even if they commit themselves to God in writing and call themselves the new "Israel," God's chosen will remain Jacob's physical seed.

And don't we see this everywhere today?

How many individuals and groups go around claiming they represent God's Will, they are for God and belong to God, and steal names for themselves from Yaakov and his sons (like Ephraimites, etc.)?

How many insincere and/or unaware "converts" (from the Reform, Conservative, and irresponsible Orthodox clergy) go around proclaiming themselves as Jews—many truly believing they are?

How many from the Russian provinces acquired fake certificates & ketubahs to lie about being Jewish to come to Israel and enjoy the benefits?

And what about the 2 big religions who claim to be from God, pretenders to the Chosen Nation?

It doesn't matter what people claim, whether in words or in writing.

The real Bnei Yisrael remain as Hashem's forever.

Furthermore, the Me'am Lo'ez explains that sincere converts, though not from the physical seed of Yaakov, will still be considered as if they are:

But there will be those among them who will earnestly convert and proclaim their bodies and souls to God.

These ones can also be called "Jacob-Israel" and will be added to the ranks of the Israel-born.

Hashem knows who "earnestly" converted.

He knows who TRULY proclaimed their bodies and souls to Hashem...

...and He knows who did not.

A lot of people are being fooled. But Hashem can never be duped.

Not only are the sincere ones called "Yaakov-Yisrael" (even though they did not actually descend from Yaakov), but the sincere conversion of their soul enables them to be considered equal to the born Yisrael.

And finally, to all the true Jews out there:

They will all be gathered together at the End of Days, one by one, each one for his own merit.

Hashem knows the heart of each person, the struggles and motivations.

With everything going on, it's reassuring to read of Hashem's individual one-on-one supervision for each person.

No Jew left behind.

Vital Words from Rav Avigdor Miller on How Human Beings Should View Each Other

9/3/2022

Here's a gem from Toras Avigdor (Q&A received by email) featuring Rav Avigdor Miller describing the Torah attitude toward non-Jews...in fact, ALL human beings really, whether Jewish or not.

(And non-Jews should view each other this way too. The world would be a tremendously better place if all non-Jews viewed each other—and us—with the correct perception: tzelem Elokim—God's Divine Image.)

So here's the transcript of Rav Avigdor Miller's lecture on the topic (emphasis mine):

Mankind is beloved because they were created in the image of Hashem.

The mishna says openly that all human beings have a tzelem Elokim.

The truth is, if you take an Australian bushman, a wild fellow, an Aborigine, and you train him, he can become a mensch; he can become a great man, he can even become a big tzadik.

As long as he is a human being there is no limit to the greatness he possesses within him.

Hashem breathed into him a neshama and he is capable of becoming one of the greatest men that ever lived.

Of course he doesn’t know it and that is why he doesn’t do it.

But that’s the plain truth: חביב אדם – Mankind is great because he was created in the image of Hashem.

* * *

But always we remember that every human being has on his face the image of Hashem.

And so when you look at any person you must have respect.

When I was in Slabodka, they refused to call a goy a sheigetz; a sheigetz means an abomination – they refused to say that.

We never called a goy a sheigetz because it is a contradiction to the doctrine of the glory of Mankind’s greatness.

That alone displays tremendous commitment to the idea of tzelem Elokim.

After all, Rav Miller describes walking past the yard of a primitive pub the morning after the Lithuanian locals indulged in a night of hard drinking.

And these were poor people with children who barely had enough money for food.

But they spent it on alcohol.

And Rav Miller describes seeing piles of men and women lying on each other, passed out and splattered with vomit after drinking so much.

It's so lowly and degrading.

And those Lithuanians natives were very quick to pull out a knife in anger. The local newspapers regularly reported stabbings.

Isn't all that abominable behavior?

Yet even living among such people, the Slabodka yeshivishers refused to call them sheigetz.

Despite the abominable & animalistic behavior of these Lithuanian peasants, they still possessed a tzelem Elokim and therefore the potential to rise to the pinnacle of human potential.

So the Jews of Slabodka yeshivah refused to call them sheigetz.

The rav continues [emphasis mine]:

And that is what the Mishnah says, חביב אדם שנברא בצלם – Mankind is cherished by Hashem that He created them in His image.

And if we can spread the news to the world, we are doing them a great favor; we are letting them know the message from Hashem, that He looks upon you with a very great affection because you are the image of Hashem.

The fact that a person can ruin that image by wrong emotions; that he can twist his face in wicked grimaces and make his face the opposite of noble, nevertheless if he would learn, if he would be trained, you can take that savage and you can make out of him a noble personality.

And he can become a Jew too.

But even if he doesn’t become a Jew, he could be become a chassid umos haolam [a righteous person from the nations of the world] and he will become worthy of chayei Olam Haboh [life in the World to Come] – and that is saying a lot.

Parallels between the Generation of Dispersal & the Tower of Babel (Dor HaFlagah & Migdal Bavel): Link to a Fascinating Class, Plus Some Brief Explanation Here

18/1/2022

Ever since discovering (via Rav Itamar Schwartz) the reincarnation of the 3 Awful Ancient Generations in our times, so much of the craziness makes sense:
www.bilvavi.net/english/bein-hamitzarim-028-living-life-pnimiyus-today%E2%80%99s-generation

Apparently, the Generations of the Flood, Dispersion (Tower of Bavel), and Sodom currently exit within the souls of both Jews and non-Jews in our time.

This is in addition to the Erev Rav souls plaguing us.

And just as with the Erev Rav souls, the percentage of soul comprised by the above Generations differs from person to person.

Just like a Jewish soul may possess only a spark of Erev Rav, a Jewish or non-Jewish soul may only possess a spark of the Generation of the Flood, the Dispersion, or Sodom.

And when we're talking about sparks, this means that a person can elevate those dysfunctional sparks via working on character traits, emunah, and bitachon—thereby eliminating these sparks and purifying the soul.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that just like some Jewish souls aren't actually so Jewish and instead comprise mostly or all Erev Rav components...likewise, Jewish and non-Jewish souls can also comprise mostly or completely souls of the 3 Awful Ancient Generations.

This is why we're seeing modern versions of attitudes found in those 3 Awful Ancient Generations.

They're back.

Recently, I discovered a shiur (just under 38 minutes) by a rabbi with whom I'm not familiar, Rabbi Yonoson Roodyn:
Migdal Bavel - The Most Mysterious Building Ever Built
www.torahanytime.com/#/lectures?a=34707

He describes the Generation of Dispersion (the Dor HaFlagah of Tower of Babel infamy) and the striking parallels to our time.

He also notes the difference in the all-encompassing emphasis between the first 2 Generations:

Generation of the Flood focused obsessively on the desires of the individual.
Generation of the Dispersion focused obsessively on creating a single-minded collective.

This explains why today's world features both an obsession with me, me, me...AND an obsession with homogenizing society via technology, media, combined with moving toward a socialist-communist structure.

We see the tug-of-war between these conflicting emphases in real-time.

Via this shiur, you'll see how truly NOTHING NEW lies under the sun.

Once you see the parallels, it makes things so much clearer and this clarity provides a path to develop the right attitude & values.

Meaning, instead of buying into to all the peer pressure and media propaganda to embrace values presented as "compassionate" or "liberating" or "open-minded" or "progressive" or "just," you'll see how a lot of that is simply the power-greedy communist Dor HaFlagah up to their old tricks 3786 years later.

(The Tower of Bavel fiasco occurred in the year 1996 from Creation/1764 BCE.)

I believe this knowledge can help us remain independent thinkers who cling more tightly to Torah hashkafah, rather than getting swept into all the feel-good brainwashing which actually derives from the newly arisen sparks of the 3 Awful Generations.

Please also remember Chazal already stated that these Generations have no portion in the World to Come.

They've returned now. But they hold no future in any world.

So if we follow them, chas v'shalom...where will we end up?

For more on this topic, please see:
The Invasion of 3 Ancient Generations://www.myrtlerising.com/blog/july-07th-2020
(Throughout that post, more links are available to understand even more.)

www.myrtlerising.com/blog/communications-from-stars-or-angels-in-todays-ufo-cults-nothing-new-the-generation-of-the-flood-did-that-too

Artist depiction of Migdal Bavel

Link to a Short Class on What the Zohar Says about Scandals before Mashiach

17/1/2022

With both global events & events within our communities (plus very personal events), we probably all feel the rope of emunah shaking very hard by now.

(Unfamiliar with the "shaking rope of emunah"? Then please click here: www.myrtlerising.com/blog/recognizing-the-spastic-rope-of-emunah.)

It's amazing how in just under 4 minutes, Rabbi Daniel Travis explains what's going on here:
Thanking Hashem When Things Look Bad #1063-Exposing Scandals Before Moshiach Pt1
www.torahanytime.com/#/lectures?v=175717

Basically, the Zohar predicts how before Mashiach, the Erev Rav will make the Torah SEEM putrid.

It's not, of course.

The Torah is the clearest, purest, most beautiful part of the Universe.

But the Erev Rav will behave in a way that repels the world AWAY from the Torah.

It's sort of like throwing sewage all over the Hope diamond. You might think the large lump in the middle of the sewage is a particularly large and nasty chunk of manure.

But no...it's the Hope diamond.

No matter how much sewage anyone dumps on it, it remains just as prized & valuable as ever.

Sewage cannot do more than cover the Hope diamond. Sewage cannot actually harm or change the Hope diamond in any way.

Don't let yourself get confused by the vast amounts of revolting sewage dumped all over by the Erev Rav!

Don't be fooled! It's all a cover-up. A particularly flabbergasting and repulsive cover-up to be sure, but only a cover-up nonetheless.

The real diamond is still there...just as precious, unique, and unchanged as ever.

Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Vayeshev: Fighting the Jewish Inferiority Complex

25/11/2021

In Rav Avigdor Miller's dvar Torah Parshas Vayeishev-Chanukah 5 – The Chanukah Battle, we start off by receiving a fully detailed scene of what happened when Yosef HaTzaddik tried to escape the clutches of Potifar's wife.

Based on the Midrash, here's the illustrative description (page 4):

So now this poor innocent woman is standing on the street shouting to everybody,
pointing at this dirty fellow who had tried to violate her...

...Potiphar rushed home from work and when she told him the story, all the details about what this wicked Ivri had tried to do, he became full of rage; he seized Yosef and began pummeling him.

And after a good beating, he grabbed Yosef by the ear and she grabbed him by the other ear, and they dragged him to the police station, to come before the judges to be sentenced...

...She and her husband are dragging Yosef through the streets by his ears.

Potiphar was an important official and his servant was well known so this disturbance certainly drew a crowd.

Women and children were staring from the windows; the men were rushing out of their houses to the streets to see what was going on...

And our sages tell us that as Yosef was being dragged through the streets, Potiphar
and his wife were heaping contumely upon his head.

She was shouting accusations, and Potiphar was gnashing his teeth.

“Look what we did for him. We elevated him. We made him the majordomo, the manager of our house, and that's how he tried to pay us back? By acting so lowly?!”

And the Egyptians who witnessed this spectacle, they were looking on and shaking their heads.

“Well, that’s what you get for taking him as a slave in your house. What else could you expect from a Hebrew? Only a dirty Ivri could be that wicked and do such an uncivilized thing.”

Ivri means a Hebrew but for the Egyptians it meant a hated nation, a corrupt people.

And they were kicking Yosef and spitting at him, insulting him as he was being dragged through the street.

At the same time he endured all this, Yosef HaTzaddik kept repeated the same verse (Tehillim 39:9): "The reproach of low people should not come upon me."

Potiphera's wife had pursued Yosef. The Egyptian people were steeped in immorality.

Yet now all the hypocrites came to fore with appalled, offended, pearl-clutching sensibilities.

As if!

Yet Rav Miller notes this as characteristic of Jew-haters.

Dirty people will call a Jew "dirty Jew."

Greedy, power-hungry people will accuse Jews of loving money over all else.

Cold-hearted, hostile people accuse Jews of being the same.

Rav Miller references a letter Pope Gregory wrote to King Louis of France, declaring that “Jews commit the most terrible crimes that are too horrid to speak about.”

Oho, Catholic Church!

Not sure exactly which King Louis & Pope Gregory corresponded here, but we all know about the Catholic Church.

Yeah, there are some decent and sincere people there. In modern times, some proved instrumental in saving Jews during the Holocaust AND returning Jewish children to the Jewish people.

But historically, the Church has shown itself as a bastion of corruption & immorality & bloodshed.

Talk about pot calling the kettle black.

As noted within the PDF, Protestants complained about Jews trying to kill Christians at every opportunity. That was not true of the Jews, but of the Christians themselves.

Nazis accused the Jews of trying to murder & corrupt society...while the biggest murderers & corrupters of society were the Nazis themselves.

The list goes on.

Here's an interesting note on page 6 from Rav Miller:

There is extensive literature on this subject only that you can't get it.

It's very hard to buy these books that speak about the crimes of the church.

There's a powerful organization that sees to it that this literature is not available and therefore to get books, real works that reveal the deeds of the papacy is almost impossible.

One historical work I wanted to see when I was writing one of my books but it was very hard to get my hands on.

There's one copy in the public library in the main branch and you can't take it out.

That's what an organization can accomplish.

Look Who's Talking

Rav Miller notes how a person can feel ashamed if someone speaks publicly in Yiddish—even as Italians & all sorts of other ethnic groups freely speak their language without a care.

Some Jews feel ashamed or uncomfortable with traditional Jewish garb. Even seeing another Jew in Chassidic garb makes them uncomfortable.

Yet scores of non-Jews go about wearing purposely ripped clothes or pants sagging to an extreme, or other extremely undignified or vulgar styles.

Some even feel proud of their ugly, demeaning style.

Many belief systems entered the heads of frum Jews.

At one time, Jews felt attracted to the Egyptian mentality. Later on, many internalized Greek & Roman philosophies—including their music, literature, and attitudes.

Today, many frum people seek to harmonize atheistic & hedonistic ideas with Torah Judaism.

Some do so purposefully while some do so automatically.

Rav Miller elucidates how evolution crept into the Orthodox Jewish community on pages 10-11.

On pages 11-12, Rav Miller mentions books of Jew-hatred from the time of the Greeks until an old edition of Roget's thesaurus.

On pages 13-14, the rav offers examples of Jewish self-hatred.

Fighting the Jewish Inferiority Complex

On pages 14-19, Rav Miller describes the seeds of the Chanukah saga...and it all started out with a massive Jewish Inferiority Complex, which even infected knowledgeable Jews who should've known better.

In a nutshell, everything went into a slide all because of what Yosef HaTzaddik initially experienced at the hands of the despicable hypocritical Egyptians: cherpat naval.

In other words: being despised by lowlife hypocrites.

And here is the main lesson & goal of Chanukah for us today (page 18):

On Chanukah we’re expected to grow great in combating the yetzer hora that caused the trouble of Chanukah.

It means we have to begin falling in love with the Am Yisroel – that’s what Chanukah is trying to teach us.

And if we don’t get busy studying the emes of the Torah, then sooner or later the yetzer hora will win out and we’re going to fall into that error of the ancient Misyavnim [Hellenists].

On pages 19-20, Rav Miller describes his experience with one way to do this: reading Shir HaShirim.

It's true that if you pay attention to the words & understand that it's Hashem speaking to you personally with the uncompromising love expressed within, it's an incredibly powerful experience.

Saying Shir HaShirim for 40 days is also a good segulah to meet your zivug. My husband & I got engaged on Day 39. (He was saying it too, but not sure which day he was up to at that point.)

A synopsis of the real Chanukah story appears on pages 20-25.

Throughout pages 25-31, Rav Miller emphasizes the importance of appreciating the goodness of the frum community.

He acknowledges we are not perfect.

And he goes into detail on those pages.

By the way, thinking of yourself with self-worth helps you act that way. People tend to act to expectation.

Having grown up in a mostly non-Jewish secular society with the Conservative & Reform movements, I always noticed that frum Jews are THE most self-critical.

No other group ever criticizes themselves like frum Jews.

This includes all the frum Jews who constantly say, "We're in denial about this-and-such! Our community refuse to acknowledge/deal with this-and-such!"

No other community does that as far as I've ever seen.

Even the activist frum Jews who ARE doing their best deal with [fill in the blank], still go around decrying themselves by saying "we frum Jews aren't doing enough!"

It may be true they're not doing enough & that so much more needs to be done.

Yes, it's true!

But it drives me crazy when these same frum self-critics refuse to see through the self-propaganda of the non-Jewish/secular society, which portrays itself as having its act together, but really doesn't.

(I think this results from working exclusively with the frum community while studying articles, books, lectures, and podcasts from the non-frum/non-Jewish. You see all the problems in the frum community while the non-Jewish/non-frum community paints a picture of what they want. And let's not pretend their material has nothing to do with making a bestselling book or course, right? Sure, they focus on problems in their society, but with a coat of paint over it. Also, nowadays, many non-Jews lack the values to understand what is a problem & what isn't, and what is a solution & what is not.)

Their supposed resources & solutions are not as effective as they like to claim.

I have personal experience in this with them.

Yes, all their organizations and so forth manage to help some people.

They aren't completely useless.

But the reason why Western society as a whole is plummeting in every area results from a lot of stuff being mostly talk with very little action, or simply ineffective.

They can advertise & promote as much as they want, just like a pig can advertise & promote its kosher sign of a cloven hoof as much as it wants.

But inside, its digestive system acts like that of every other treif beast.

Credit for all material & quotes goes to Toras Avigdor.

Modern Sefardim, Shabbat in Morocco, and the Possible Messages of the Current Attacks on Jews

23/11/2021

In the Morocco of my mother-in-law's days (1940s-1960s), shemirat Shabbat stood as the rule, not the exception.

And Moroccan Jews kept Shabbat happily. It held enjoyment & meaning for them.

Living within a traditional Muslim society also meant belief in one God stood as the norm.

Religious customs, regular sessions of prayer times throughout the day, modest dress & behavior for both men & women, hospitality...this gave the Moroccan Galut a platform to embrace the fundamentals of Jewish tradition.

The moderate climate also enabled abundant harvests of a wide variety of fruits, legumes, and vegetables, which thus enabled a tremendous amount of generosity in feeding the poor.

Even when the secularizing French influence infiltrated both the Jewish & non-Jewish societies of Morocco, it lacked Eastern Europe's rabid craze for the destruction of everything religious.

Making Room for Religion

Even today, you see how less-religious Sefardim tend to give way to the more religious.

For example, during the blessing said during a bris milah, you'll see very secular-looking Sephardi women suddenly cover their hair out of respect for the blessings.

When attending religious weddings—including the not-terribly-religious weddings, even the most secular women make some attempt at tsniyut, whether it's being technically covered up with long pants & long sleeves, or a longer-than-usual skirt.

Normally bare-headed men don a kippah.

In fact, in a wedding with a lot of bare-headed guests, kippahs get passed out to anyone who needs, and everyone dons one. No considers it religious coercion.

In fact, I recently attending a wedding on my husband's side in which the bride's gown showed an appalling lack of tsniyut (as did most of the female guests)...but the initial dancing hosted by the secular-looking DJs featured a mechitzah smack in the middle of the dance floor!

And everyone respected the mechitzah (for as long as it lasted).

BTW, the mechitzah (pleasantly) shocked me because when I first came to Eretz Yisrael around 30 years ago, the solid dati-leumi committed to weddings with separate dancing, but no mechitzah.

So all the more so with this family, a very tepid dati-leumi, I felt sure there would be mixed dancing all the way.

But much to their credit, the first part of the wedding not only featured separate dancing, but also a mechitzah on the dance floor.

When I expressed my joyful shock, one of my older kids told me this has become the norm; most weddings among this crowd feature a mechitzah on the dance floor.

And frum pop songs blared out from the speakers, including chassidish ones.

And everyone loved it, singing along & raising their hands prayerfully to shout, "Hashem Melech, Hashem malach, Hashem yimloch l'olam va'ed!" (Hashem is King, Hashem has always been King, Hashem will remain King forever & ever.)

As another example of mixing: In the slideshow of the new couple projected onto the walls, posed next to his really nice yet extremely immodest kallah stood the chatan...wearing long thick tzitzit.

And a kippah, of course.

(In case you're wondering how the chuppah ceremony is conducted with such a revealing kallah at these secular-religious Sefardi weddings, the kallah usually wears some kind of covering under the chuppah only. Or her veil remains long enough to cover—even if it's a see-thru veil. And the rav acting as mesader kiddushin takes tactful care not to face her.)

Wait a Minute...WHO was Throwing Rocks Again?

At the same time, today's Sefardi communities developed a reputation for patience & acceptance of those seemingly less religious.

I wondered how it all went together back in Morocco's religiously devoted days of yore.

So I very nicely & sensitively asked my mother-in-law whether there were Jews who transgressed Shabbat in Morocco when she lived there.

"Yes," she said. "A few. But only inside their home. Never publicly."

"So there was never public desecration of Shabbat in Moroccan?"

"No," she said firmly.

She also indicated that the minority of Shabbat transgressors didn't want to take their Shabbat transgression to the street.

In other words, they weren't unhappy living amid a shomer Shabbat society, even if they did not believe it for themselves.

Intrigued by this complete (and correct) reversal of today's norm, I said, "What would have happened if they'd violated Shabbat on the street?"

"They'd throw rocks at them."

Oho, I thought. So it's not just those "fanatic charedim"...or so I assumed.

"Really?" I said. "In Morocco, the Jews threw rocks at Sabbath violators?"

My mother-in-law's eyes widened & she went speechless as did a double-take. "No!" she said when she'd recovered from the apparently shocking insinuation. She managed to stammer, "Not the Jews—the Arabs."

Now it was my turn for a double-take. "What—the Arabs?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Wait, let me get this straight," I said. "In Morocco, if a Jew would have violated Shabbat publicly, the ARABS would throw rocks at them?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Why?"

"Because they knew the Jews shouldn't be doing that."

If a Jew in Morocco walked out of his house smoking a cigarette or getting into a car on Shabbat, his NON-Jewish society would stone him on the spot.

The connection between obvious transgression & negative consequence back then & there was obvious to all.

In fact, even if you don't personally approve of it, it's hard to label that as Jew-hatred or antisemitism because the goyim in that situation were davka making sure Jews observed Judaism...as opposed to so many other times throughout history when the goyim tried to force Jews to violate Judaism.

And in addition to the basic respect these Shabbat-transgressors had for their Jewish society, the threat of stones zooming their way also kept their desecrations from crossing into the public sphere (a dynamic that ultimately weakens everyone & brings harsher judgement on a populace).

What Might These Nasty, Sometimes Lethal Hits be Hinting?

For millennia, our Neviim & Sages have been telling us that Jew-hatred is merely the stick used to keep us in line with our unique, holy, and unparalleled role in rectifying the world & achieving personal greatness in the This World & the World to Come.

The surrounding nations are a type of polishing-sifting mechanism for Am Yisrael.

Only rarely do the surrounding societies remind us to return to the framework of halacha in such an obviously pro-Torah manner, as the Moroccan Muslims did when they attacked Jews who publicly desecrated their own religion of Judaism.

Usually, it's much less targeted & much more anti-Torah than that.

(For example, throwing rocks at Jews for doing things like living in Eretz Yisrael or going to daven at the Kotel.)

It doesn't mean we cannot defend ourselves.

It doesn't mean the haters are blameless. They're wicked & will face harsh consequences for their Jew-hating actions.

But it does mean we should also look beyond the stick (even as we struggle to dodge or fend off the stick).

As we find ourselves hit once again by a wave of attacks by Yishmael, we can look at what might be going on beneath the surface.

Once again, the attacks come as hits from behind or from the side—unexpected, short & to-the-point, yet lethal (or almost lethal, depending).

One thing that comes to mind is the nasty little barbs people sometimes shoot at others.

While the offender usually minimizes the nasty barb as "cute," "clever," "funny," or "S/He deserved it," the victim often feels slapped in the face, gutted, humiliated, enraged, etc.

With comment sections & social media, nasty little comments have reached an all-time high, spreading faster & farther than ever—before an audience of hundreds, thousands, or even millions—and staying there theoretically forever.

Another message might be about all the seemingly "little" breaches people make in halacha.

The skirts that are just a bit too short, the shirt that's just a tad too tight. (Men shouldn't wear tight pants either: https://dinonline.org/2016/02/26/tight-clothes-for-men/.)

The hair-covering that's not completely appropriate (because, hey, the main thing is covering the hair).

The one little look at something online not completely appropriate or even absolutely forbidden.

How many men glance at something online when they could be glancing at something in limud?

And as sincere & heartfelt as one's simple love of Hashem may be, all the "little" breaches mentioned in the weddings above are as appalling as the sincerely observed mitzvot in those same venues are meritorious.

(Probably, there are also other ideas I'm not thinking of.)

In so many situations, the Yetzer Hara comes through the back door, sneaking up from behind or to the side of a person looking the other way.

Then the Yetzer delivers that stab, that bullet.

Needless to say, I'm talking to myself as much as anyone else. I also struggle with all sorts of stuff.

Of course, as far as practical protection goes, normal security methods should be implemented & strengthened.

But throughout Jewish history, our greatest Sages have always emphasized the need to invest in good soul-searching & teshuvah when faced with Jew-hatred.

The Beautiful Rose Garden that is You

Whenever we speak of self-scrutiny (cheshbon hanefesh), we must emphasize the importance of doing this with love & compassion.

We should feel GOOD about seeking out what we need to strengthen.

And taking baby steps in the right direction is absolutely fabulous. Generally, you don't need to make grand gestures unless you really feel willing & able to do so.

It shouldn't be depressing or "Oh no, not this AGAIN..."

It should be like weeding a beautiful rose garden.

You are the rose garden in all your glorious beauty—and you just need to do your lovely gloriousness a favor by pulling out a few pesky weeds.

If even that's too much (and for some people, based on their personality & traumatic experiences, it really might be too much), people are also free to dance & sing songs of praise to Hashem as a response.

Simply davening or saying Tehillim are also wonderful responses.

And that's it.

How to Utilize Secular Social & Psychological Research for the Frum Community...and How Not To

16/11/2021

At one point early in my years of becoming frum, I loved articles & books showing how a Torah concept exists & receives backup by secular sources.

It gave the Torah path validation.

Later, I felt troubled by these same articles & books.

Why do we need the support of secular sources to validate Torah views?

Especially since secular sources can mislead. Contrary to how they're presented, they're actually not objective.

People think atheism equals objectivity, but without awareness of the human soul, the tzelem Elokim (Divine image) imprinted upon EVERY single human being, and God...it's impossible to arrive at the Truth.

Without God & the Divine aspects of a human being, it's also impossible to fully heal people from trauma & mental illness & all sorts of other dysfunctions. (As we've seen, the rise of all sorts of addictions, dysfunctions, and mental illnesses in Western society parallels the rise of secularism.)

Sometimes Studies Apply to General Society, But Not to the Frum Community

For a long time, I believed that properly conducted studies held a lot of value.

I still believe this to a degree...but not as much as previously.

The studies are usually PRESENTED in a convincing manner and...well, looks can be deceiving.

For instance, the studies conducted on non-Jewish societies do not always apply to the frum community.

Let's take the studies on children of divorce.

As just one example:

Within general American society, studies showed how children of divorce were more likely to get divorced themselves as married adults.

It made sense and I repeatedly heard this applied to the frum community.

Because it made sense, I also believed this applied to the frum community...DESPITE the fact that my personal observation did NOT view this outcome.

Meaning, to my observation (which I paid no attention to because of the secular research results), most of the married children of divorced parents (whether FFB or BT) tended to not only stay married, but even seemed to have better-than-average marriages.

Why is this?

Officially, I don't know.

But my observations showed the following:

On shidduchim, adult children of divorce developed more solid ideas on what to look for & less swayed from their ideals by others, enabling them to find a better spouse.

Once married, they seemed not only more committed to making the marriage work, but held more insight into HOW to do that.

However, because of my unwitting bias in favor of the secular research, I instinctively ignored all that.

(Note: It's very politically incorrect to say this, but nonetheless...most children of divorce experience a lot of long-term pain over the divorce—EVEN when the divorce is necessary. It's not fair & it's not always true, but many times, the children perceive & experience the whole ordeal differently than their parents. As FRUM married adults themselves, they loathe putting their children through that & go to great lengths to avoid it. Their frum lifestyle, value system, and attitude greatly assist them in their marital goals.)

Yet it wasn't until I read the early incoming results of a study on the frum community—which showed that FRUM children of divorce are NOT more likely to get divorced.

Only then did the light bulb flash on, enabling me to see what my eyes & ears had been telling me all along.

(Disclaimer: The link to this study was bookmarked on my old computer, but when I upgraded, my bookmarks got "translated" into 112 pages of confusing computer-language text crammed together in one long 112-page sentence. For the life of me, I cannot remember or find this website run by a couple of frum guys. If I ever figure it out, I will post it here.)

Think about your own observations:

In the FRUM community—of the divorced people you know—how many came from married parents & how many came from divorced parents?

Offhand, I can think of only 2 who came from divorced parents.

One divorced woman was the child of secular parents who repeatedly divorced & remarried all sorts of other people throughout her childhood. She also continued to embrace certain secular attitudes even after she became frum (which I believe contributed to her insistence on getting divorced without a good reason).

Another divorced woman (who, ironically, should've gotten divorced much earlier; a rare situation in which divorce would've definitely benefited both her & her children) was the child of divorced secular parents & held onto the marriage as long as she could BECAUSE she didn't want her children to go through what she went through. She managed to hold out until the youngest hit the mid-teens before getting divorced.

(And despite initially insisting she never wanted to get married again, she is now happily remarried to a good guy, baruch Hashem.)

All the other divorced frum couples I've known grew up with married parents (as far as I know).

In fact, I know some frum families in which more than one child got divorced or in which one child divorced more than once. In one case, one child was married 3 times by the time he was in his early thirties!

And again, these multiply divorced children grew up with parents who stayed married to each other.

These are not children of divorce.

And it made me think...

How many frum singles on shidduchim were harmfully stigmatized by this secular statistic?

How many faced automatic rejection simply because people believed they were more likely to get divorced—when that's apparently not even true for frum people, not for FFB nor BT?

(Again, whether they're born frum or not, the basic fact of BEING frum does NOT make children of divorce more likely than anyone else to get divorced themselves—both statistically & observationally.)

Yet each time I encountered adult children of divorce who remained married, I automatically considered each one the exception without even considering the absurdity of there being so many exceptions!

Unfortunately, based on the secular research, I also perpetuated this false presumption within the frum community.

That divorce statistic is just one example of error when we apply the results of a general study to the frum community without further examination.

So yes, the studies can be helpful, however:

one must always look out HOW the study was conducted and...
...IF those results really apply equally to the frum community.

(Note: I'm not saying that frum children of divorce don't have issues. Addressing specifically the issue of marriage, I'm saying that statistically & observationally, when frum children of divorce get married, they don't seem to divorce more than anyone else.)

When Can These Studies Help?

When can these articles & books validating Torah sources be valuable?

Perhaps when they prod us to look at an aspect of Judaism we always dismissed based on cultural or personality attitudes.

For example, reading an email about an idea presented in a book by Michael Easter called The Comfort Crisis (which I've not read) reminded me of a famous Mishnah in Pirkeh Avot 3:1.

The best way to a truly fulfilling & happy life is to think about death!

Here's Pirkeh Avot 3:1:

Akavia the son of Mahalalel would say:

Reflect upon three things and you will not come to the hands of transgression.

Know from where you came, where you are going, and before whom you are destined to give a judgement and accounting.

From where you came—from a putrid drop; where you are going—to a place of dust, maggots and worms; and before whom you are destined to give a judgement and accounting—before the supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.

And an excerpt of Pirkeh Avot 2:10:

Rabbi Eliezer would say:

The honor of your fellow should be as precious to you as your own, and do not be easy to anger.

Repent one day before your death...

(The famous question that follows is: But how can we do that when we don't know the exact day of death? So Rebbi Eliezer said to them: "So being the case, he should repent today, for perhaps tomorrow he will die; hence, all his days are passed in a state of repentance.")

And this Zohar (found on the Level 3 of the understanding of the above Mishneh here www.dafyomi.co.il/general/info/avot/33.html):

And the Zohar says: "fortunate are those who imagine in their hearts as if this day they are leaving the world."

Echoing the above, The Comfort Crisis cites the results of researchers from Kentucky University.

Their study showed how people who contemplate their own death are more likely to:

Show concern for others (via donations of time, money, and blood to blood banks)
Feel more gratitude & appreciation for the life they now experience

In other words, contemplating death makes people nicer, happier, more fulfilled—and overall better people!

In the frum community, some people experience a resistance to delving too deeply into the above mishnayot, perceiving these concepts as too gloomy, negative, or depressing.

Or some people associate death contemplation with groups like the Goths, whose nihilistic attitudes take the whole idea too far.

(For example, I knew a Goth girl who garbed herself with black hair dye, black eyeliner, and black clothes & slept with an empty coffin in her room—in fact, I think she sometimes slept IN the coffin—not to remind herself in a positive way of death to motivate herself to live better, but in a creepy, need-to-be-unique-&-considered-deep nihilistic way. Not good.)

So coming across a scientific study proclaiming the benefits of contemplating death could open the mind of a Jew with a block in this area.

It could also provide a new window into the above mishnayot, rather than automatically avoiding them or dismissing these mishnayot as "for people in previous generations" or "not for our generation because it's too harsh for our modern sensibilities," etc.

Using Social & Psychological Research Wisely

So can we use research about general society? Does it have value for us?

Sure.

But we need to know HOW.

Common sense & our own observations must take priority to these studies.

We also need to know HOW these studies were done, on which populations, how big a population, etc.

Sometimes, the studies either aren't always right OR they aren't true for the frum population.

Furthermore, their proposed solutions might be lacking too, influenced by social agendas or money or prestige (or all three).

This proves difficult to resist because those who promote the results do so via incredibly persuasive methods.

They believe in the results, they believe this knowledge will help others...which is why they are so incredibly persuasive.

And like I mentioned above, I also used to take this stuff very seriously & promote it.

I also believed it!

So I do not demonize or condemn people who swallow this stuff whole & who promote it. Most genuinely intend to help.

But again, though well-intentioned, it's not always correct.

Also, even when the results are correct, the methods created to solve the issues are often not completely correct (and therefore, not completely effective).

Or maybe they're even harmful.

So regarding the solutions: The methods are simply neither correct nor effective OR they're only partially effective...BECAUSE they tend to evolve from an atheist framework.

In short, these studies can be used to:

open a person's mind to an aspect of Judaism formerly dismissed (whether consciously or unconsciously).
offer more accessible language to understand certain ideas within Judaism.
validate certain feelings & dynamics.
provide a springboard or framework to understand a certain area or dynamic.
provide some benefit; even if only partially effective, it's still better for the person than nothing at all.

But we should be careful not to swallow them whole & uncritically.

We should use our own minds & observations, not be afraid to question (at least silently for ourselves), and to recognize that scientists & researchers also hold bias & agendas (this is true even of the minority who truly strive for objectivity).

We should definitely imbibe regular sessions of Torah & mussar/Chassidus to keep our minds working in the right direction.

Torah is what gives the brain a good workout.

<<Previous

"Boycott Woke Disney": A Prophetic 22-Year-Old Q&A with Rav Avigdor Miller

Why You are Better & More Successful than an Angel

Some Chizuk for All Us Non-Angels

A Q&A Excerpt from Bitachon Weekly: "With all the Jews in Ukraine that are in danger, what does the Rav suggest we Yidden should be doing and thinking at this time?"

A Timely Message by the Me'am Lo'ez from Sefer Yeshayahu

Vital Words from Rav Avigdor Miller on How Human Beings Should View Each Other

Parallels between the Generation of Dispersal & the Tower of Babel (Dor HaFlagah & Migdal Bavel): Link to a Fascinating Class, Plus Some Brief Explanation Here

Link to a Short Class on What the Zohar Says about Scandals before Mashiach

Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat Vayeshev: Fighting the Jewish Inferiority Complex

Look Who's Talking

Fighting the Jewish Inferiority Complex

Modern Sefardim, Shabbat in Morocco, and the Possible Messages of the Current Attacks on Jews

Making Room for Religion

Wait a Minute...WHO was Throwing Rocks Again?

What Might These Nasty, Sometimes Lethal Hits be Hinting?

The Beautiful Rose Garden that is You

How to Utilize Secular Social & Psychological Research for the Frum Community...and How Not To

Sometimes Studies Apply to General Society, But Not to the Frum Community

When Can These Studies Help?

Using Social & Psychological Research Wisely

Myrtle Rising

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