Parsha Tetzaveh
Introduction from 5772: Vocabulary that in my editing I
noticed could be confusing: Katones =
garment or robe and Katores = incense
This week is one of those rare occasions when I have to
repeat myself on the identification of the Breast Plate Stones but I hope this
year to add some of the mystical properties of the stones. We have to remember that
the Onyx Stones places on the top of the Apron of Aaron had engraved on them
the name of six tribes on each one for each shoulder. This week we have 12
stones representing 12 tribes on the Breast Plate.
Last
week we saw the engineering design for the Mishkan. In this week’s Parsha, we
continue but this time with the oil used for the sacrifices and the garments of
the Kohanim. Moshe is at this point either physically on Mt. Sinai or has
ascended before the Divine Throne. There is a nice Midrash which states that
the Angels came against Moshe: “What is man that you should consider him?” -
Psalms. G-D tells Moshe to reply to the fire breathing Angels and he tells G-D
that he is afraid. So HASHEM tells him to hold on to the Throne. Moshe then
replies, “Have you been slaves in Egypt? Do you have a Yetzer Hara to commit
Idol Worship? Do you desire to commit adultery? Violate the Shabbos? Etc.
“Immediately the Angels give him presents including the Angel of Death with the
secret of the Katores (Incense).
One
aspect of our Pasha is the clothing of the Cohanim. The Cohain had to be Kadosh
(holy) in mind and body. He had pants for modesty so even the stones of the
altar could not view his nakedness during the service. His garments as Rav B.
Wein Shlita points out in the name of Rabbi S. R. Hirsh Ztz”l this week were
for honor and glory not only for the Kahuna but for Am Yisrael to obtain honor
and glory by the presence of the ALL MIGHTY. Each garment had its special
powers. The Katones (tunic) had the power to atone for sins with blood such as
causing people to bleed, injuring a person, killing an animal on Shabbos and
accidental manslaughter perhaps also accidental relations when the wellsprings
of Niddah opened up. This came from the blood on the Katones of Yosef
HaTzaddik. The Tzitz of the Cohain Gadol did atonement for most sins especially
on Yom Kippur. The bells on the garment of the Cohain Gadol with their noise
nullified and voided idle talk, Lashon Hara, tale bearing, rumor spreading,
general falsehoods, etc. In past years I mentioned the healing of the stones on
the breast plate and the Onyx Stones uniting the tribes together. The modesty
of the belt separating the heart from the body atoned for immodest behavior and
even lewd gestures. Each piece of the holy garments on the purified and holy
Cohain made up for raising the spiritual level of Am Yisrael.
DISCLAIMER:
My source is the internet and not the Zohar or other Kabbalistic Work and my
word here is only research and should be taken with a grain of salt. On the
other hand HASHEM give properties to everything and the inanimate objects is
one of the four kingdoms or domains of Kabala so please keep an open mind just
take my word as one who has copied and pasted the information.
Rabbi
Shraga Simmons Shlita started off this week by discussing that while in Gan
Eden Adam and Chava were naked and saw each other as Neshamos with the body as
a capsule but after eating from the tree, they saw the nudeness of the body and
the physical. The Cohain Gadol in my opinion takes the Gashmiyous Cloth and
Stones and turns it into Ruchanius. His garments consist of three of the four
forms on this planet. Inert nature in the stones, plants in the cloth and
animal in the wool and he represents the fourth or talking creature. This is
essentially a reverse process from the original Gan Eden Process. "Do not consider his
appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at
the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord
looks at the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7) HASHEM rejects only physical appearance but
with the Cohain Gadol it is different for the clothes make the man holy when
combined with his intentions.
27:20 And
thou shall command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure olive
oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.
Rabbi Berel Wein Shlita (Nephew
of my Rebbe Rabbi Tovia Wein author of “HaYayin HaTov” ZTZAL) wrote: The purity of
oil for the lamps of the menorah/candelabra is emphasized in this week’s
Parshas opening verse. It seems clear that the Torah requires the purest of
olive oil for the fuel to light the menorah/candelabra not only for the
physical and practical reason that the flame should not flicker and be weak but
also for symbolic and moral reasons.
The light of Torah is dependent upon the moral purity of its source. Just as dregs and pulp contaminate the oil and prevent a steady light from emerging, so, too, grave imperfections of character and behavior weaken the teachings of Torah to students and to the masses of Israel. Recent events here in Israeli religious and secular society only serve to reinforce this standard.
The fuel for the light of Torah must also possess purity within it. King Solomon stated that “dead flies can render the finest oil repugnant.” The finest oil is present but it is the dead fly in the ointment that renders the entire mixture to be repugnant. This comes from the Torah.Org.
The light of Torah is dependent upon the moral purity of its source. Just as dregs and pulp contaminate the oil and prevent a steady light from emerging, so, too, grave imperfections of character and behavior weaken the teachings of Torah to students and to the masses of Israel. Recent events here in Israeli religious and secular society only serve to reinforce this standard.
The fuel for the light of Torah must also possess purity within it. King Solomon stated that “dead flies can render the finest oil repugnant.” The finest oil is present but it is the dead fly in the ointment that renders the entire mixture to be repugnant. This comes from the Torah.Org.
21 In the tent of meeting, without the veil which is
before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall set it in order, to burn from
evening to morning before the LORD; it shall be a statute for ever throughout
their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.
The Bnei Yisrael are called a “stiffed neck people” by HASHEM.
They are hard like the olive that falls from a tree. When the olive is left
alone it produces very little oil but when beaten squeezed and pressed the Bnei
Yisrael produce the sweetest of Torah learning. In the centuries in the Ghetto
and poverty the best works of Rashi, Tur, etc. were produced. Don Yitzchak
Abarbanel produced great leadership and works when sent to Galus. There were
some exceptions of Torah in a freer atmosphere like the works of the Rambam but
it was always out of beaten down Bolsheviks rule that a Moshe Feinstein, Yosef
Yitzchak and Menachem Mendel Schneersohn and produced the greatest of Torah
leaders.
Pure: Without sediment, as we
learned in Men. (86a): “He allows it to ripen at the top of the olive tree,
etc.” crushed:
He must crush the olives in a mortar, but he may
not grind them in a mill, so that they will not contain sediment. After he has
extracted the first drop [of oil], he places them [the olives] into a mill and
grinds them. The [resulting] second oil is unfit for the menorah but is fit for
meal offerings, as it is said: “crushed for lighting,” but not crushed for meal
offerings. -[from Men. 86a] to kindle the
lamps continually: Heb. לְהַעִלֹת, lit., to cause to rise. [The kohen] shall
light it until the flame rises by itself. -[from Shab. 21a] continually: Heb. תָּמִיד. [Since it burns] every night, it is
called תָּמִיד, as you say: “a
continual burnt offering” (עֹלַת תָּמִיד)”
(Exod. 29:42, Num. 28:6), [which is called “continual”] although it is [offered
up] only from day to day. Similarly, concerning the flat pan meal offering [of
the Kohen Gadol, the word] תָּמִיד
is mentioned although it is [offered up] only half in the morning and [the
other] half in the evening. [The word] תָּמִיד
mentioned concerning the showbread (Exod. 25:30), however, [literally] means
from Sabbath to Sabbath [i.e., continually]. From
evening to morning: Give it its measure so that
it will burn from evening to morning. And the Sages estimated [that this is] a
half of a log [between 6 and 10.6 fl. oz.] for the long nights of Teveth, and
similarly for all the nights. If any of it remains, it does not matter. [From
Men. 89a]
In short an eternal flame on the altar of the L-RD. (Unfortunately
due to our sins of idol worship in the first Temple and groundless hatred in
the second Temple we no long have this. Woe unto us that I have to argue with
Jews who think that we should be nicer to the Amalek in Gaza than our innocent
children from Beer Sheva to Gedera.
For the splendor of the glory of the
garments will radiate the holiness. Here we have a nation dressed in drab
working garments and covering garments. One does not send his flocks out to
pasture or milk his cows dress in tuxedos but rather drab working clothes. So
in contrast every morning at Shacharis and every evening at Mincha the nation
in the wilderness of Sinai would see the Cohanim is these splendid garments and
their glory would remind the people of G-D’s eternal glory.
3 And thou shalt speak unto all that are
wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make
Aaron's garments to sanctify him, that he may minister unto Me in the priest's
office.
Who is wise? – one who sees the
birth or end result. These women and male tailors had Ruach HaKodesh within
themselves to see the design. Just like Betzalel with the making of the
engraven sections and the rest of the Mishkan (including the joining of the
tabernacle boards and the way they were to be raised to their final height and
anchored in place). If one knows a little about metal and wood work and the
engineering of raising and lowering these giant planks of the Mishkan one needs
great skills and coordination. The weaving of the garments which is beyond the
knowledge and skills of most males not to mention Rabbis needed wisdom. How
many of us have ever followed the conversion of flax unto linen or the shearing
of the sheep into making wool just ready for the loom. Then comes the other
skills designs and measurements. All we do is go into some store and buy a
shirt and a pair of pants and shoes for a small amount of cash ignoring the
raising of the flax or animal for the wool or leather for the shoe.
Aaron and his sons were to minister the Korbanos and various religious Services in the Mishkan and Mikdash. Eventually the Kahuna became so many as 10 tribes were taken away leaving mostly Jews, Cohanim and Leviim with a few from Shimon and Benyamin that 24 Mishmaros or weeks for each Cohain family. Example week one would be Cohen, two Kohn, three Katz, four Rappaport, five Kahane, etc. In turn certain Levy families would accompany these Cohanim.
4 And these are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a tunic of chequer work, a mitre, and a girdle; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto Me in the priest's office.
Ephod was a vest/apron for the
Cohain over his checkered tunic. Each Cohain was to have a pair of pants to
separate his nudeness from the altar. When the Americans captured Iraq the
Israeli Television did not censor an Arab lifting up his robe and yelling this
is what I have for you Saddam and exposing himself as it was the custom not to
wear anything under the robe. Having pants was modesty and the girdle or belt
to separate the heart from the nudeness.
Halacha: When one prayers, he
needs to have a belt or an elastic band separating his lower body part from the
upper body part. Also while on the subject the minimum of the minimum dress for
praying (let us say one fell asleep at the beach) is a bathing suit, tee shirt
and sandals with some head covering. However, one should dress as one would
meet a king or president. Just as one does not appear before the president in a
bathing suit or scruffy work clothes so one should appear in descent dress or
minimum everyday dress before appearing before the L-RD. The minimum is called
B’De’evad (or because it would be lost otherwise – extenuating circumstances)
and the second is called Le Chathilla or from the start.
5 And they shall take the gold, and the blue, and the purple, and the scarlet, and the fine linen.
Each color represented a different
atonement and a different value among the highest heavenly spheres and should
be understood by all this way.
a choshen: An ornament opposite the heart. An ephod: (apron) I did not hear (that it was a garment) [i.e., I have no tradition concerning the ephod], and I did not find the explanation of its pattern in the Baraitha [Melecheth HaMishkan]. My heart tells me that he [the Kohen Gadol] was girded with it [the ephod] from behind, its width being like the width of an [average] man’s back, similar to a kind of apron called porzent [or pourceint], [a kind of] belt, [like an] apron [back to front] that princesses wear when they ride horseback. So it was made from below [i.e., for the lower part of the body], as it is said: “and David was girded with a linen ephod” (II Sam. 6:14). [Thus] we learn that the ephod was a belt. It is impossible, however, to say that it was only a belt, because it is said: “and he put the ephod on him,” and afterwards, “and he girded him with the band of the ephod (בְּחֵשֶׁב הָאֵפוֹד) ” (Lev. 8:7), which Onkelos renders: בְּהֶמְיַן אֵפוֹדָא. [Thus] we learn that the חֵשֶׁב was the band and the ephod was a separate decoration. It is also impossible to say that because of the two shoulder straps in it, it is called ephod, for it is said: “the two shoulder straps of the ephod” (verse 27). [Thus] we learn that the ephod was a separate entity, the shoulder straps were a separate entity, and the band was a separate entity. Therefore, I say that because of the apron below it is called ephod because he decorates and adorns himself with it, as it is said: “and he decorated him with it” (Lev. 8:7); the חֵשֶׁב is the band above it, to which the shoulder straps were attached. Moreover, my heart tells me that there is evidence that it is a kind of garment, for Jonathan rendered “and David was girded with a linen ephod” (II Sam. 6: 14) as כַּרְדּוּט דְּבוּץ and he renders likewise מְעִילִים as כַּרְדּוּטִין, in the narrative of Tamar, Absalom’s sister, “for in this manner the king’s virgin daughters dressed, in robes (מְעִילִים) ” (II Sam. 13:18). A robe: Heb. מְעִיל. It is a kind of tunic, as is the כְּתֹנֶת, only that the כְּתֹנֶת is [worn] next to his flesh and the מְעִיל is [what is] called the outside robe. Of checker work: Heb. ךְתַּשְׁבֵּץ. Made of boxes (מִשְׁבְּצוֹת) for beauty. The boxes are similar to holes made in gold jewelry as a setting for precious stones and pearls, as it is said regarding the ephod stones: “enclosed in gold settings (מִשְׁבְּצוֹת) ” (verse 11), and in Old French it is called cha(s)tons, settings. [I.e., the boxes of the checker work on the tunic are like settings for precious gems.] A cap: Heb. מִצְנֶפֶת, a type of dome-shaped hat, called cofia in Old French, A Kipa or Yarmulke as opposed to that of the Cohain Gadol who wore a Mitre similar to that which the Papal imitation looks like but the Tzitz was written Kodesh Le HASHEM because elsewhere (verse 40) [the Torah] calls them מִגְבָּעוֹת, and the Targum [Onkelos] renders: כּוֹבָעִין And a sash: This is the belt on the tunic, and the ephod is the belt on the robe, as we find in the order they were put on: “and put upon him the tunic, girded him with the sash, clothed him with the robe, put upon him the ephod” (Lev. 8:7). Holy garments: From the offering sanctified for My name they shall make it.
6 And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the skillful workman.
Rashi points out that these are the wise craftsmen who were given essentially DIVINE inspiration into the vision that Moshe saw on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and nights while he received the oral Torah. Rashi is now going to explain the working of the apron held together by the Onyx Stones (These were larger than the stones in the Choshen Mishpat if I am correct.
And they shall make the ephod: If I would try to explain the making of the ephod and the choshen according to the order of the verses, their explanation would be fragmentary and the reader would err in combining them. Therefore, I am writing [first] how they were made, as it was [i.e., in its entirety], so that the reader will be able to run through it [quickly]. Afterwards, I will explain it [how they were made] according to the sequence of the verses. The ephod was designed like a sort of apron worn by women who ride horseback [see Rashi on verse 4], and he [the Kohen Gadol] would gird [himself with] it from behind, opposite his heart, below his elbows, its width equaling the width of a man’s back and more, and it [the ephod] would reach his ankles. The belt was attached to the top of it across its width, [it was] the work of a weaver, and it extended on both sides in order to wrap [the Kohen Gadol] and gird [him] with it. The shoulder straps were attached to the belt-one to the right and one to the left from behind the Kohen [Gadol], at the two ends of the width of the apron. When he held them [i.e., the shoulder straps] upright, they stood [i.e., lay flat] on his two shoulders. They were like two straps made from the same material as the ephod [and they were] long enough to place them upright alongside his neck on either side. They were folded in front of him slightly below his shoulders. The shoham stones were set in them-one on the right shoulder strap and one on the left shoulder strap. The settings were placed at their ends in front of his shoulders, and the two golden chains were inserted into the two rings of the choshen at the two ends of its upper width-one on the right and one on the left. The two ends of the [right] chains were inserted into the settings on the right, and similarly the two ends of the left chains were inserted into the settings on the left shoulder strap. Thus, the choshen was suspended on the settings of the ephod in front of him [the Kohen Gadol] over his heart. There were two more rings on the two ends of the choshen, on the bottom of it. Opposite them [there were] two rings on the two shoulder straps from below, at its bottom end, which was attached to the belt. The rings of the choshen [were] opposite the rings of the ephod, lying on each other. He would fasten them [the rings] with a blue cord, inserted through the rings of the ephod and the choshen, attached to the band of the ephod, so that the bottom of the choshen would be attached to the band of the ephod, and it would not swing back and forth. Of gold, blue, purple, and crimson wool, and twisted fine linen: These five kinds [of substances] were twisted into each thread. They [the workers] flattened the gold into a sort of thin plate and cut cords out of them [the plates] and spun them, one thread of gold with six threads of blue wool, and one thread of gold with six threads of purple wool, and similarly with the crimson wool, and similarly with the linen, for the threads of all the kinds were doubled six fold, and one thread of gold was [twisted] with each one [kind of thread]. Afterwards, he would twist them all together. Thus, their threads were doubled into twenty-eight strands. This is explained in tractate Yoma (72a), and it is derived from the following verse (Exod. 39:3): “They flattened out the sheets of gold and he cut cords [out of them], to work (the gold cords) into the blue wool, into the purple wool, etc.” We learn that a thread of gold was twisted with every kind [of thread]. The work of a master weaver: Heb. מַעִשֵׂה חוֹשֵׁב. I have already explained (Exod. 26:1) that this is the weaving of two “walls,” [and] that the figures of its two sides are unlike one another.
An extraordinary garment needs not just any weaver but a master weaver. Just as the chief brain surgeon does the most complicated operations and does not leave it to an ordinary surgeon so here for the work of the garment of the Cohain Gadol a master weaver was needed.
7 It shall have two shoulder-pieces joined to the two ends thereof, that it may be joined together.
At both its ends: [I.e.,] to the width of the ephod. For its width was only against the Kohen’s back, and its height extended opposite his elbows, which are called coudes in French, as it is said: “they shall not gird themselves in a place that sweats” (Ezek. 44:18). [I.e.,] they should not gird themselves in a place of perspiration, [namely] neither above their elbows nor below their waists, but opposite their elbows. -[from Zev. 18b] and it shall be entirely connected: the ephod with those two shoulder straps of the ephod. He shall connect them [by sewing them] with a needle below [the shoulder straps] to the band, and he shall not weave them [together] with it, but weave them separately and then connect them.
8 And the skillfully woven band, which is upon it, wherewith to gird it on, shall be like the work thereof and of the same piece: of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. 9 And thou shall take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: 10 six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the six that remain on the other stone, according to their birth.
I would Google the OU Org. Torah Tidbits on this week’s Parsha where Phil explains how the names were written. It is well worth reading and perhaps viewing on line. As usual after the Temple was destroyed the tradition was slightly lost and it was confused exactly how the names were written and Phil explains all views.
11 With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shall thou engrave the two stones, according to the names of the children of Israel; thou shall make them to be enclosed in settings of gold. 12 And thou shall put the two stones upon the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, to be stones of memorial for the children of Israel; and Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD upon his two shoulders for a memorial. 13 And thou shall make settings of gold; 14 and two chains of pure gold; of plaited thread shall thou make them, of wreathen work; and thou shall put the wreathen chains on the settings. 15 And thou shall make a breastplate of judgment, the work of the skilful workman; like the work of the ephod thou shall make it: of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, shall thou make it. 16 Four-square it shall be and double: a span shall be the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof.
17 And thou shall set in it settings of stones, four rows of stones: a row of carnelian, topaz, and smaragd shall be the first row;
Hebrew: אֹדֶם פִּטְדָה וּבָרֶקֶת Now the Carnelian or Odem is on the top right corner per the model that I have before me and is colored more pink than red but the Wikipedia calls it: Carnelian (also spelled cornelian) is a reddish-brown mineral which is commonly used as a semi-precious gemstone. Similar to carnelian is sard, which is generally harder and darker. (The difference is not rigidly defined, and the two names are often used interchangeably.) Both carnelian and sard are varieties of the silica mineral chalcedony colored by impurities of iron oxide. The color can vary greatly, ranging from pale orange to an intense almost-black coloration.. Rashi comments later on every one according to his name: According to the order of their [the progenitors of the tribes] births shall be the order of the stones, odem for Reuben, pitdah for Simeon, and similarly for all of them. The stone can be clear, blue or even an orange-red hue. The Medrash indicates that on the Odem was also the names of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yacov but most commentaries I have seen seem to hold the same way as Rashi. Shimon’s stone was white in nature. And Levy bareket was green and the Hebrew Wikipedia calls it in English an Emerald as it appears to me.
18 and the second row a carbuncle, a sapphire, and an emerald;
Hebrew: נֹפֶךְ סַפִּיר, וְיָהֲלֹם Nofach is for Yehuda and a Yellow Diamond. Yissachar is the sapphire they have is not the dark blue but purple in hue so I am not a gem expert but am uncertain to the little model that I have at home and certainly my model has the wrong order of things because the Yaalom or clear Diamond is way down in the wrong row clear cut diamond. I went and googled the Sapphire for example and got this: Sapphire (Greek: sappheiros) refers to gem varieties of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide (Al2O3), when it is a color other than red, in which case the gem would instead be a ruby. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange, or greenish color. Pink-orange corundum are also sapphires, but are instead called padparadscha.
19 and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
Hebrew: לֶשֶׁם שְׁבוֹ, וְאַחְלָמָה The Leshem or jacinth is light sky blue in color and is of the tribe of Yosef, the Shavu is very orange brown in color and is used as a camaya (charm) for pregnant women that they should not have a natural miss abort and the tribe of Benyamin where Rachel died in childbirth hence the camaya. Achlamach is a darker purple than the sapphire and is of the tribe of Dan.
20 and the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper; they shall be enclosed in gold in their settings.
Hebrew: תַּרְשִׁישׁ וְשֹׁהַם, וְיָשְׁפֵה Tarshis is ivory white and the tribe of Naphtali. Onyx or Shoham is jet black like the shoulder pieces and is the tribe of Gad. Yispah or Jasper was a darkish brown and the tribe of Asher.
21 And
the stones shall be according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve,
according to their names; like the engravings of a signet, every one according
to his name, they shall be for the twelve tribes.
22 And thou shalt make upon the breastplate
plaited chains of wreathen work of pure gold. 23 And thou shalt make upon the
breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of
the breastplate. 24 And thou shalt put the two wreathen chains of gold on the
two rings at the ends of the breastplate. 25 And the other two ends of the two
wreathen chains thou shalt put on the two settings, and put them on the shoulder-pieces
of the ephod, in the forepart thereof. 26 And thou shalt make two rings of
gold, and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate, upon the
edge thereof, which is toward the side of the ephod inward. 27 And thou shalt
make two rings of gold, and shalt put them on the two shoulder-pieces of the
ephod underneath, in the forepart thereof, close by the coupling thereof, above
the skillfully woven band of the ephod. 28 And they shall bind the breastplate
by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a thread of blue, that it
may be upon the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastplate be
not loosed from the ephod.
The purpose of Creation was the Exodus from Egypt. That is, G-d created the world so mankind would know His greatness and might, praise and extol Him, and seek to emulate Him in thought and conduct. The Exodus concretely showed the world G-d's greatness and might, when He withdrew His nation from servitude to a nation from which until then not one slave had managed to escape, and established Israel as the Chosen People who would make known G-d's might to the world.
There is great significance to G-d's having called the ark poles [and, accordingly, the staves of the altar in our Parsha] a בד, ['Bad'] and not a מוט, ['Mot', also meaning stave or pole], because while 'Mot' can mean something that carries, it also connotes falling and collapse, as in, 'The earth trembles and totters ['mot hit'motet']' (Isaiah 24:19); and, 'All the foundations of the earth totter ['yimotu']' (Ps. 82:5). Thus, 'Mot' can mean both ascent and lifting up, as well as falling down. This is the connection between 'Mot' and 'Matah' [מטה] — meaning 'down'. Moreover, the person without strength collapses in bed ['mitah',מיטה]. 'Mavet' [מות] — 'death' — is also tied to 'Mot', for death is permanent collapse.
Thus, every rod fashioned by man to strengthen and support, carry and lift, can ultimately break and collapse. Yet, the rod G-d commanded to be made to carry the ark cannot collapse and break, because it symbolizes the power of G-d, Creator of the Universe, of Whom it says, 'G-d established the earth upon its foundations that it should never ever collapse' (Ps. 104:5); and, 'The world is established. It cannot collapse' (Ps. 93:1).
The ark pole is not a 'Mot' — it cannot collapse. Whoever trusts in what the ark pole represents, G-d's infinite power, will never falter. As it says, 'He will never let the righteous collapse' (Ps. 55:23), and, 'The righteous shall never collapse' (Prov. 10:30). The 'Bad' is not a 'Mot', but the symbol of Divine mastery and monarchy, of the yoke of His kingdom which will never collapse. The 'Mot', on the other hand, symbolizes the yoke of the nations which G-d broke during the first redemption: 'I am the L-rd your G-d Who brought you out from Egypt where you were slaves. I broke the bands of your yoke and led you forth with your heads held high' (Lev. 26:13).
So will G-d break the yoke of the nations in the future, as it says, 'They shall know that I am the L-rd, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from those who enslaved them' (Ezek. 34:27).
On the one hand, G-d called the pole a בד 'Bad'. On the other hand, He established for the Kohanim, the holiest segment of the holy nation, linen [בד as well as שש also means linen] garments: 'The Cohain shall put on his linen [בד] garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh' (Lev. 6:3). Likewise, on Yom Kippur we find, 'He shall put on the holy linen [בד] tunic, and have linen pants on his body. He must also gird himself with a linen sash and bind his head with a linen turban. They are holy garments'(Lev. 16:4).
We find the same thing when David dances before the ark: 'David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were all the Leviim who bore the ark, and the singers... And David had upon him an ephod of linen'(I Chron. 15:27). Metzudas David comments, 'The linen ephod was akin to the ephod of the Cohain Gadol, and was reserved for those who isolate themselves in the service of G-d.'
Precisely when the Cohain Gadol (reminder: Gadol is big, large or high so the meaning is High Priest) is dressed in linen, and precisely when he stands between the ark poles [Badim], the poles of faith and trust in G-d, does the Cohain Gadol perform the Yom Kippur service. The holiest man is Israel on the holiest day in Israel performs the service dressed in linen, as stated above, and standing between the poles [בדים].
Indeed, linen garments were reserved for those isolating themselves in Divine service in the Temple, for they were the symbol of the Master of the Sanctuary Who created His world in six ['Shesh'] days. G-d therefore decreed that His Kohanim must serve Him in linen garb, called 'shesh' [שש].
Following is Or HaChaim: “Israel shall thus dwell securely”: When? When they are alone. “They shall dwell” naturally follows “He shall proclaim, 'Destroy!'” G-d commanded Israel to annihilate every soul of the inhabitants of the land. By doing so, “Israel shall dwell securely, alone [בדד].”
The Jew who believes and trusts in G-d, in בדים, will arrive at truth and faith and tranquility, whereas he who trusts in man, in human strength, will arrive, G-d forbid, at, 'How does the city sit alone'[בדד] (Lam. 1:1).
To our sorrow, those who try to pervert the separatist faith and trust of 'a nation that shall dwell alone [לבדד]' (Num. 23:9) by claiming that it is forbidden to rile up the nations, and that the Jewish People, even when powerful, still depend on the nations, have no faith and distort the whole concept of trust in G-d.
Yet faith and trust in G-d are no small matter. The Jewish People must prove their trust in G-d by difficult, frightening, and sometimes ostensibly dangerous acts, acts that demand of Israel courage, acts which by their very nature show disdain for the non-Jew, anger him and threaten to bring a confrontation between him and Israel, and all must be performed with complete faith and trust that if Israel do what is decreed upon them, then G-d, too, will fulfill what He promised His treasured nation.
We must know and grasp this great principle, which is the key to speedy, magnificent redemption, without suffering or tragedy. A brilliant redemption, in which G-d's promise of “haste” (Isa. 60:22) is fulfilled, will come only when the Jewish People are alone, set apart, in isolation, and trusting fully in G-d to defeat our enemies.
[Dear readers, I'm aware that this Parsha commentary is difficult to follow, especially for those who don't know Hebrew. The commentary is excerpted and compiled from the Chapter 'Faith and Trust' of Rabbi Meir Kahane's book 'The Jewish Idea' and I tried to condense the explanation that the Rav zt”l gives in this chapter. While working at it, it became clear to me that the translation into English itself is part of the problem: it is not really possible to transmit what in Hebrew is an elegant and powerful interpretation based on Hebrew word roots, into English and leave it intact, despite the great, good job that Raphael Blumberg did. And doubtlessly, my 'condensation' obfuscated it further. Someone famous, I forgot who, once said 'A translation is like a kiss through a handkerchief' – probably, a condensed translation is like a folded handkerchief - so, good luck in trying to get the best out of it... Tzipora]
29 And Aaron shall bear the names of the
children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goes
in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the LORD continually. 30 And thou
shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they
shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goes in before the LORD; and Aaron shall
bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD
continually.
Since the destruction of the first
Beis HaMikdash in 3338 we do not have the Urim and Thummim but in the second
one, the Temple functioned without these two lost items. I assume that when the
Moshiach comes and prophecy returns, we will know what these objects are and
how to make them properly and how to consult them.
Why Parsha Zachor?
Devarim
25:17 Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way as ye came forth out of
Egypt; 18 how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, all that
were enfeebled in thy rear, when you were faint and weary; and he feared not
God. 19 Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given you rest from
all your enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee
for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of
Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget.
The Torah asks us a few times to
remember things like what happened to Miriam, Amalek, etc. Why did Aaron
Yehoshua ben Chaya Shoshana run away from his bride the next morning to fight
Amalek surely Nehemiah his assistant could have led the troops for a few more
days? The answer is that in each generation it is a Mitzvah to remember and
fight Amalek. Amalek is both the physical and the spiritual anti-Semite. He can
come in the form of Haman, Hitler, Himmler, Stalin, Saddam, Khomeini, etc.
Nowadays Iran continues and members of the Hamas and Hezballah want to do the
work of Amalek. They usually come in families. The Abu Beyuv, Abu Zevel, Abu
Jora, Abu Organic Fertilizer families, etc. are the ones coming constantly
coming after Am Yisrael. These are real blooded Amalek. Others just cling to
their philosophy. These are the ones that come and attack school buses, point
Katyushas and Kassams at schools and kindergartens attack the elderly, etc.
Their hatred for Yisrael, Torah and Mitzvos is a battle against HASHEM HIMSELF.
They are the opposite. They don’t need a non-Jewish Devil with a pitchfork
poking them on. They do this from the bottom of their rotten hearts. They hate
us so much that they are willing to blow themselves up to kill us, Hindu’s,
Buddhists, Christians, and even Shiite Moslems but the main enemy is us. We
represent holiness and the path to salvation or a light unto the nations of the
world. They live in darkness and train their very infants to become homicide
bombers. It does not matter if there is a paraplegic who dies in the world
trade center and posed no threat to them or a two month old Shalchevet Pass in
Chevron. Their crimes and that of their surrogates throughout all generations
we must remember and fight them. As long as they exist according to the Chofetz
Chaim regarding the passages of Amalek it is written KES in Hebrew instead of
KESAY. The KES is not a whole Throne for G-D until they are blotted out and
once more like during the creation HE can sit on HIS KESAY. We cannot have real
peace with Gaza or Lebanon until the Amalek leaders and army is deposed of. The
same with real peace with the entire Arab Nation. Only when HASHEM will give
strength until HIS people then HASHEM can bless HIS Nation with peace. May the
Moshiach come quickly to do what the Israeli ‘leadership’ has failed to do.
Going back through posts 12
years ago I found this gem which I want to share with the hundreds of people
who did not receive my posts back then. It is good advice to find a husband and
good advice even for men to have modesty: The Cohain walked up the Mizbayach
(altar) on a ramp and not stairs so as not to expose himself even with the
pants that he wore. I think this note of modesty for a man is important. All
the more so for a women who is called bas or the (householder) Bais as the
Rabbis doresh. Her beauty is inward and not exposed like the movies and TV
would have us believe. Yes
again as the spring and summer approaches, I appeal to parents and young
unmarried women to think about their attire before the King of Kings. On Rosh
Hashanah when the world is judged we shout “Avinu Malkaynu” (our father our
king). What princess goes out improperly dressed when she is representing the
king?
Rav Shraga Simmons wrote about
this in his weekly Drasha with the famous joke (revised by me). Two girl
friends go out to choose a dress from one of them to have a prestigious
interview with a law firm as a new lawyer. One says to the law graduate: “Here
is a great mini which is also low cut. The lawyer says, “Are you crazy, I want
them interested in me for my intellectual skills not my extra-office hours.”
The other pipes back, “So here you are looking for a job that might last a year
to five until you want to move up the ladder. Yet when it comes to getting
married to a man whom you expect to be your companion until old age, what do
you do? You display your body instead of your personality.” (Listen to: Why
does being single happen to good people? https://aishaudio.com/search/resultsdetail?class=38243 )
An extra Sefer Torah is taken
out of the Aron this week as our Rabbis ordained that we should read prior to
Purim Parshas Zachor. Remember what Amelek did for you by the way! Yaffa wrote: This is the only Shabbat each year that
(according to most authorities), every man and woman is obligated by Torah law
to go to Synagogue. On this day, the three verse passage [Deut. 25:17-19] that
starts "Zachor" is appended to the weekly Torah reading. By hearing
it read publicly on the Shabbat, immediately preceding Purim, we fulfill the
Torah commandment in it, "Remember what Amalek [the ancestor and inspiration
of Haman, the villain of Purim] did to you."
Anyone, who is unable to be present at this reading, should make an extra effort to hear the Torah reading [Ex. 17] that takes place immediately before the morning Megillah reading on Purim, or at least to hear "Zachor" read when it comes up in the Shabbat cycle of Torah readings, as the final verses of the portion, Ki Teitze.
Amalek is the national embodiment of baseless, irrational challenge.
Only when the Jewish people had succumbed to the "Amalek" within them, could they be threatened by the armies of Amalek the nation, as when Amalek attacked Israel "on the road, on the way out of Egypt" as they were headed toward Mt Sinai to receive G-d's Torah, and their mandate as His people. It was when the Jewish people challenged G-d, saying "Is G-d amongst us or not?", Then came Amalek and attacked Israel".
This is why Amalek and what he represents, constitutes the arch enemy of the Jewish people and their mission in life. Truth can refute the logical arguments offered against it. Truth can even prevail over man's baser instincts, over his selfish drives and desires: for intrinsic to the nature of man is the axiom that "the mind rules over the heart", that if a person truly understands and appreciates a truth, it is within his power to implement it in his behavior and ingrain it in his character. But man's rational powers are not equipped to counter the onslaught of an Amalek who brazenly mocks the truth and cools man's most inspired moments with a casual "so what?"
Amalek the embodiment of self-gratification, greed, anger, the quest for power and lust may get the better of us. As long as we are imprisoned in our own personal [Mitzrayim], Egypt where our truth was enslaved along with our souls, we face being attacked over and over again by this fierce
opponent.
So how do we respond to Amalek? How is one to deal with the apathy, the cynicism, the senseless doubt within?
With
Faith, not to be attained, but only to be uncovered, as it is already woven
into the very fabric of the soul's essence. Through Faith in G-d, one can
transcend Amalek in its totality. Through truth of G-d, one can cast Amalek
down to the abyss and win over our own personal AMALEKS inside each and every
one of us.Anyone, who is unable to be present at this reading, should make an extra effort to hear the Torah reading [Ex. 17] that takes place immediately before the morning Megillah reading on Purim, or at least to hear "Zachor" read when it comes up in the Shabbat cycle of Torah readings, as the final verses of the portion, Ki Teitze.
Amalek is the national embodiment of baseless, irrational challenge.
Only when the Jewish people had succumbed to the "Amalek" within them, could they be threatened by the armies of Amalek the nation, as when Amalek attacked Israel "on the road, on the way out of Egypt" as they were headed toward Mt Sinai to receive G-d's Torah, and their mandate as His people. It was when the Jewish people challenged G-d, saying "Is G-d amongst us or not?", Then came Amalek and attacked Israel".
This is why Amalek and what he represents, constitutes the arch enemy of the Jewish people and their mission in life. Truth can refute the logical arguments offered against it. Truth can even prevail over man's baser instincts, over his selfish drives and desires: for intrinsic to the nature of man is the axiom that "the mind rules over the heart", that if a person truly understands and appreciates a truth, it is within his power to implement it in his behavior and ingrain it in his character. But man's rational powers are not equipped to counter the onslaught of an Amalek who brazenly mocks the truth and cools man's most inspired moments with a casual "so what?"
Amalek the embodiment of self-gratification, greed, anger, the quest for power and lust may get the better of us. As long as we are imprisoned in our own personal [Mitzrayim], Egypt where our truth was enslaved along with our souls, we face being attacked over and over again by this fierce
opponent.
So how do we respond to Amalek? How is one to deal with the apathy, the cynicism, the senseless doubt within?
The Jew's response to Amalek is to "remember", to call forth his soul's reserves of super-rational faith, a faith which may lie buried and forgotten under the mass of his mundane involvement's and entanglements. A faith which, when remembered, can meet his every moral challenge, rational or not.
"Remember what Amalek did to you, Do not
forget."
Sources: Exodus 17:7-8, Zohar 111 P.224a, Tanya
ch.12, Maimonides' Laws of Repentance 10:2, Deuteronomy 25:17-19.
Amalek a story from 11 years
ago as we remember what Amalek did: A bad train ride From Jewish Views: Southern
Florida (Ft Lauderdale) hosts display of Nazi train car Posted by:
"fenderbender_5" www.cnn.com/2007/ WORLD/americas/
02/13/nazi.rail.ap/index. Html
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP)
-- Three teenagers were pushed onto a cattle car in 1943. They stood for two
days in the sweltering car, lurching as the train rattled toward Auschwitz.
Only one survived, the digits 5-7-7-7-9 tattooed on her arm.
Joyce Wagner trembled Tuesday before the railroad car, just as she remembers trembling before that similar car six decades ago in Poland.
"I was thinking -- my brother, my sister. Where did we stand?" said Wagner, 84, her voice wavering. "I'm the only one who survived, from nine children."
Wagner joined about 150 other Holocaust survivors Tuesday to view a railroad car of the type used to transport Jews from Poland's Warsaw Ghetto to a Nazi death camp during World War II.
The 31-foot (9.3-meter) railroad car still bears a faint swastika stamped into the paint peeling off its side. It arrived in Florida last month from Poland. Officials plan to park it on railroad tracks that end near the site of the planned South Florida Holocaust Museum, scheduled to open next year. A handful of similar cars are displayed at museums in Israel, throughout the U.S. and at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
"This particular car was seized from the Germans at the end of the war on Polish territory," Rositta Kenigsberg, the center's executive vice president, said Monday. The car could have carried Jews to the infamous Polish death camp, Treblinka. It also could have transported Nazi soldiers or war supplies, officials said. Even without proof it carried human cargo, the car is a disquieting reminder of the Nazi war machine.
When exterminating Jews village by village, one by one, became too inefficient, too cumbersome for individual death squads to handle, the Nazis mobilized their victims instead.
"The trains were the indispensable ingredient that made all this happen," said Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust historian who oversaw the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
The six major Nazi death camps were all located along rail lines. Auschwitz alone had 44 separate railroad tracks -- about twice as many as Penn Station in New York -- to receive trains from throughout Europe, Berenbaum said. About half the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust rode to their deaths in such trains, Berenbaum said.
Officials asked the 150 survivors in attendance to stand during the unveiling ceremony. During the war, most of them would have been squeezed into a similar railroad car with no food or water. Many passengers on such cars died en route. The car's unveiling ceremony included a recitation of the Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer.
Joyce Wagner trembled Tuesday before the railroad car, just as she remembers trembling before that similar car six decades ago in Poland.
"I was thinking -- my brother, my sister. Where did we stand?" said Wagner, 84, her voice wavering. "I'm the only one who survived, from nine children."
Wagner joined about 150 other Holocaust survivors Tuesday to view a railroad car of the type used to transport Jews from Poland's Warsaw Ghetto to a Nazi death camp during World War II.
The 31-foot (9.3-meter) railroad car still bears a faint swastika stamped into the paint peeling off its side. It arrived in Florida last month from Poland. Officials plan to park it on railroad tracks that end near the site of the planned South Florida Holocaust Museum, scheduled to open next year. A handful of similar cars are displayed at museums in Israel, throughout the U.S. and at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.
"This particular car was seized from the Germans at the end of the war on Polish territory," Rositta Kenigsberg, the center's executive vice president, said Monday. The car could have carried Jews to the infamous Polish death camp, Treblinka. It also could have transported Nazi soldiers or war supplies, officials said. Even without proof it carried human cargo, the car is a disquieting reminder of the Nazi war machine.
When exterminating Jews village by village, one by one, became too inefficient, too cumbersome for individual death squads to handle, the Nazis mobilized their victims instead.
"The trains were the indispensable ingredient that made all this happen," said Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust historian who oversaw the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
The six major Nazi death camps were all located along rail lines. Auschwitz alone had 44 separate railroad tracks -- about twice as many as Penn Station in New York -- to receive trains from throughout Europe, Berenbaum said. About half the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust rode to their deaths in such trains, Berenbaum said.
Officials asked the 150 survivors in attendance to stand during the unveiling ceremony. During the war, most of them would have been squeezed into a similar railroad car with no food or water. Many passengers on such cars died en route. The car's unveiling ceremony included a recitation of the Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer.
Thirty days before Pessach we start learning the Halachos. Danny
Shoemann before he was bullied off the internet by fanatics because the
internet is “trafe” wrote this with my comments: The intermediary days of
Pessach and Sukkos are known as Chol HaMoed. Some types of work are permitted,
others are forbidden. Chazal (our Rabbis of blessed memory) have some harsh
words for those who don't honor Chol HaMoed properly. Honoring Chol HaMoed
includes eating meals and wearing clothes that are closer to Yom Tov standards
than regular weekday standards. On Chol HaMoed one may do all work needed to prevent
a monetary loss. Preparing food for other days of Chol HaMoed or for the last
days of Yom Tov is allowed. Gardening is forbidden besides for picking fruit
for Chol HaMoed or Yom Tov, and to prevent plants dying, e.g. if they need to
be irrigated. Planting is forbidden. Cutting hair is forbidden on Chol HaMoed.
Cutting nails is only allowed if one also cut them before Yom Tov. Source:
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 104.
Remember if you are on a medical diet try to keep it within Halachic and Minchag guidelines contact your Local Orthodox Rabbi for further guidance. With life saving medications, we do not hesitate to use them even if complete Chometz usually in miniscule quantities is used. I keep on line and type electronically because people do need a Rabbi on Chol HaMoed. There is no need to ask questions of a Rabbi if you are taking heart medications or cancer medications, but one can consult your MD to see if there is a substitute that is kosher for Pessach that will not interfere with your healing or endanger your life.
Matza is made from flour and water - nothing else. (From one of the 5 gains mentioned in the Torah thus gluten free Oat Matzos can be produced specially for Pessach.)
The water is drawn from a well or spring the night before it is used. The water for Sunday's baking is drawn on Thursday night. The flour is ground from wheat that was harvested while still slightly green; once wheat is fully ripe it can become Chametz (leaven) even before being harvested, if it comes into contact with water. The wheat needs to be ground into flour at least 24 hours before it is used, to give it time to cool down. 18 minutes after water is added to flour, the dough becomes Chametz. Matza baking happens in 18-minute batches after which all equipment is thoroughly cleaned to remove all traces of dough. Matza used at the Seder needs to be made with the intention of it being used for a Mitzva; everybody involved in its production says "L'shem Mitzvat Matza" (for the purpose of the Mitzva of Matza) before all activities. This is known as Shmura-Matza. If a Matza has a fold in it, or a bubble more than a finger high (2.5 cm), then the fold or bubble are considered Chametz and need to be broken off and disposed of. The rest of the Matza can be eaten. One is forbidden to eat Matza on Erev Pessach. Most people have the custom to stop eating Matza from Rosh Chodesh Nissan already. Some don't eat Matza an entire month before Pessach. Source: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: 108, 109, And 110
To avoid questioning one can see in the stores, Wine Matzos, Egg Matzos, Diet Matzos etc. One does not fulfill the obligation of 3 olive bulks on the night of the Seder(s) by eating these types but only regular Shmura Matzos from wheat, barley, oats, etc. The Ashkenazi custom is not to eat at all on Pessach Wine or Egg Matzos except the elderly or ill people. The Sephardim can and do eat these type of Matzos but not everyone as many today follow the Ashkenazi custom. One has to be very careful if he is an Ashkenazi not to eat Legumes such as chick peas, soya, corn, etc. Some Ashkenazim eat peanuts and use cottonseed oil while others even use corn and soya oil as it cannot be made to look like Matzos. The Ashkenazim and some Moroccan Jews do not eat rice on Pessach except for children or persons with illnesses. In certain communities the people considered Tomatoes Kitniyos but that is so rare that one has to go out of his way or to know such people to come in contact with this Minchag.
Before I send out more stories from Rabbi A. L. about our Torah
leaders, I came across two nice stories from Chabad on Rav Moshe Feinstein and
a dream of a childless non-religious woman who then got twins perhaps it is a
spoiler but a great story. They will come in the near future.
While looking for a particular story I came across another story: http://theantitzemach.blogspot.co.il/2011/04/rav-moshe-feinsteins-yechidus-with.html
The Second Tefilin Connection by
Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles https://ascentofsafed.com/Stories/Stories/5772/745-24.html
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein expressed great interest in what the Lubavitcher Rebbe had said about tefilin, but agreed to do it only if the Rebbe himself would select the proper scribe.
Connection: Seasonal -- The yahrzeit of Rabbi Feinstein is on Erev Purim
In his public address at the end of Purim 5736 (1976), the Lubavitcher Rebbe announced to his followers that it was no longer necessary for young married men to write to him for permission to wrap also "Rabbeinu Tam" tefilin* in addition to their regular "Rashi" ones; rather, every Jewish male at bar mitzvah age 13 is entitled to and therefore should put on Rabbeinu Tam's too.
A few years earlier, Rabbi Tzvi-Hirsh Spritzer (ob'm), a Chabad chasid in Israel who was very active in the Rebbe's campaign for kosher mezuzot on every Jewish door, boarded a flight from Tel Aviv to New York. Due to the machinations of Heaven, he found himself sitting next to a religious Jew who introduced himself as Moshe Tendler. The struck up a lively conversation and by the end of the flight they were firm friends.
Rabbi Doctor Moshe Tendler, a major Jewish figure in his own right, was also the son-in-law of the "Gaon" [Torah genius] Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, for many decades the recognized leading decisor of Jewish Law in the USA. Rabbi Spritzer offered Rabbi Tendler that he would come to Rabbi Feinstein's home in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and check his mezuzot, and so he did.
Some time after that Purim farbrengen when the Rebbe spoke about Rabbeinu Tam tefilin, in a subsequent visit to the USA, Rabbi Spritzer decided he would go again to Rabbi Feinstein's house and report to him what the Rebbe had said. When he entered the great sage's office and introduced the topic, he was amazed to hear that until age 18 Rabbi Moshe Feinstein actually used to wrap Rabbeinu Tam tefilin! He then ceased, because of various reasons.
Rabbi Feinstein expressed great interest to hear what the Rebbe had said on the subject. In the end he said that {based on the Rebbe's encouragement,} he would take upon himself to don Rabbeinu Tam's once again after all these decades, but only on two conditions: 1) that the Rebbe himself would select the proper sofer (scribe) to write the parchments, and that they, the parchments, be written in accordance with the halachic decisions of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the "Beit Yosef" {which is the one preferred by nearly all Ashkenazic non-chasidic Jews}.**
When Rabbi Spritzer reported this significant development to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe immediately instructed his Chief-of-staff, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov, to contact the Chabad sofer, Rabbi Eliezer Zirkind, and instruct him in the Rebbe's name to go the next morning to the Gaon's home, and ascertain from him exactly what his requirements were for the preparation of the tefilin.
Rabbi Zirkind followed through, of course, and after a conversation with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, it was agreed that before the scribe inserted the small rolls of parchment into the tefilin boxes, he would first bring them to the Gaon to enable him to do a personal examination.
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein throughout his life maintained a voluminous level of correspondence in matters concerning Jewish law with Rabbis and laymen all around the globe. His correspondence was eventually edited and published in an 8-volume set under the title, Igres Moshe. ***
In the fourth volume of the Orach Chayim section, in chapter 9, there is a letter (see right) Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote to the Lubavitcher Rebbe dated Erev Parshat Shekalim 5740 (Feb.15,1980) two days after the first visit of Rabbi Zirkind, the sofer, in which he acknowledges the Rebbe's encouragement to him to resume wrapping the tefilin of Rebbeinu Tam, cites the various reasons why he had done so many years before, thanks the Rebbe for personally selecting and sending him a properly qualified expert scribe, and even mentions some details about payment.
In an interview with Kfar Chabad magazine, published in issue #252 Rabbi Doctor Moshe Tendler related an interesting aspect of Rabbi Zikind's first visit to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.
"It was Wednesday of the week that my esteemed father-in-law wrote to the Rebbe on Friday. I arrived at his apartment at 6:00 AM - he was accustomed to rise at 4:45 AM. Much to my surprise, I saw a Jew with a beard sleeping in the hallway right next to his door. I woke him and asked him who he was and what was he doing here so early in the morning?"
"He answered that he was a sofer from Lubavitch in Crown Heights, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe had ordered him to visit Rabbi Moshe Feinstein that morning to discuss with him his requirements and requests for the best possible tefilin. Since he didn't know what time the Gaon began his day, he was waiting outside the door until someone opened it. Rabbi Doctor Moshe Tendler arranged his entrance and immediately Rabbi Moshe Feinstein told him in clear, specific detail exactly how he wanted his tefilin to be prepared."
Rabbi Zirkind went back to Brooklyn that Wednesday afternoon and immediately made preparations to write the tefilin parchments exactly according to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's instruction. The following Tuesday he completed and delivered them, and after checking the writing and waiting for the scribe insert them into the boxes and sew them up, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrapped Rabbeinu Tam tefilin for the first time in 67 years. From that day on he continued to faithfully put them on every single day {except Shabbat and Festival} for the next 6 years up to and including his final day on this earth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source: Translated and adapted from Shemen Sasson M'Heveracha, vol. 4, pp 45-46
Notes:
* There are differing opinions regarding the arrangement of the four Biblical passages inserted in the tefilin boxes. The two main opinions are called after "Rashi" and "Rebbeinu Tam" (one of Rashi's grandsons), who champion them in their respective Talmudic commentaries. The Code of Jewish Law sides with Rashi's opinion. Nevertheless, it adds that "all G d fearing men" should have two pairs of tefilin and wear both each day, in order to satisfy both opinions. Rabbeinu Tam's Tefilin are donned by Chasidim and other Ashkenazim after the morning prayers, without the recitation of a blessing. Some Sephardim have special small tefilin, difficult to produce, which enable them to don both pairs simultaneously, as also recommended in the Code. (For more information, see //chabad.org/644015)
** Most Chasidim and Sephardim use versions of what is called "Nusach Ari." In addition there is "Nusach Chabad" initiated by Rabbi Shneur Zalman at the instigation of the Maggid of Mezritch, intended to meld the first two.
*** A ninth volume was published recently (Sept. 2011), after an interruption of many years.
Connection: Seasonal - 13 Adar is the yahrzeit of Rav Moshe.
Biographic notes:
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (11 Nissan 1902 - 3 Tammuz 1994), became the seventh Rebbe of the Chabad dynasty after his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, passed away in Brooklyn on 10 Shvat 1950. He is widely acknowledged as the greatest Jewish leader of the second half of the 20th century. Although a dominant scholar in both the revealed and hidden aspects of Torah and fluent in many languages and scientific subjects, the Rebbe is best known for his extraordinary love and concern for every Jew on the planet. His emissaries around the globe dedicated to strengthening Judaism number in the thousands. Hundreds of volumes of his teachings have been printed, as well as dozens of English renditions.
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895 - 13 Adar B 1986) was born in Uzdan, near Minsk, Belorussia. He became rabbi of Luban while young and remained there till 1937. After that he immigrated with his family to the United States, to the Lower East Side of Manhattan. There he became Rosh HaYeshivah of Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim, which became world-famous because of his presence. He became the most important halachic authority in the Americas, and his rulings were accepted worldwide. They have been published in a multi-volume collection called Igrot Moshe.
Two is Better Than One http://www.myascent.org/two-is-better-than-one/
“You have to choose between
me and the synagogue. If you go to the synagogue tonight, don’t come back home!”
Connection:
Seasonal–27th yahrzeit of the Rebbetzin Chaya-Mushka
Mr. Amichai Liani is a wealthy
New York business man. As such, he often helps to sponsor worthwhile Torah
& Mitzvot projects. Once, a few years ago, he was invited to the Chabad
Center for Russian Jewry in Queens, NY, to receive the high honor of being
the sandek (the one who holds the baby on his lap) at a brit
mila circumcision event. Twin boys had been born to a Jewish couple
from Russia after many years of childlessness. The Chabad rabbi was designated
to be sandek for the “older” baby, and since it is written in
Jewish Law * that being a sandek is such a great honor and
merit, no father should offer it twice to the same person, the rabbi
recommended to the happy parents that Mr Liani be invited to be sandek for
the “younger.”
After both ceremonies were
completed, one right after the other, all the guests took seats around the
laden table to participate in the celebratory meal. After everyone had eaten a
bit, the father of the twins jumped up and started to speak excitedly…in rapid
Russian. As he was the only non Russian speaker present, Mr Liani decided that
he could leave without being considered rude. He discretely presented the rabbi
with a check to cover the expenses of the meal in gratitude for the special
merit of being sandek, and made his way quietly to the exit.
Before he could leave, however,
the mother of the twins ran over to intercept him. She thanked him and asked
him in good English to please delay a bit longer; she would like to tell him a
story.
He agreed and she began.
He agreed and she began.
“My husband and I married while
we still lived in Russia. Soon thereafter we emigrated to the USA. We decided
that we would not have children until we had saved enough money. After we both
worked hard for ten years, developed a steady good income and acquired a nice
home here in Queens, we agreed that it was time to start a family. But, I
didn’t get pregnant. We went to a variety of doctors, but none of them were
able to help us.
“As we grew up in the Soviet
Union under Communism, we had no exposure to Judaism whatsoever. A year or so
ago my husband developed an interest and began sporadically attending events
and Shabbat services at this Chabad House for Russian-speaking Jews, which is
near where we live. When he started to participate on a regular basis I became
upset. As Russians and as modern, educated people this is not part of our
culture, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I complained about this to my
husband many times but he didn’t stop. If anything, he increased. Finally, one
night I delivered an ultimatum: ‘You have to choose between the synagogue and
me. If you go again tonight, then don’t come back!’
“He stayed home.
“That night I had a dream. A
petite elderly woman spoke to me. ‘I know that you are suffering because you
very much desire to have children. If you let your husband continue to go to
synagogue, I promise you that you will have a child. And…if you will go with
him, I promise you two!’
“I was astonished. I said to her
in my dream, ‘How will I let you know what I decide?’
“She smiled and responded, ‘Let
me show you,’ and all of a sudden we were driving through the streets of
Queens. The car stopped at a house that bordered on the Springfield Cemetery.
“She told me that when I go into the house, ‘Immediately on the left you will see a video playing. Go out the door on the other side of the room, down a few stairs and through another door, and you will be in a large room with many hot water machines for coffee and tea on the left side. Exit through the door on the far left into the cemetery and walk on the path till you arrive at a small building. That’s where my husband is, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I am outside, opposite the entrance.’
“She told me that when I go into the house, ‘Immediately on the left you will see a video playing. Go out the door on the other side of the room, down a few stairs and through another door, and you will be in a large room with many hot water machines for coffee and tea on the left side. Exit through the door on the far left into the cemetery and walk on the path till you arrive at a small building. That’s where my husband is, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I am outside, opposite the entrance.’
“I woke up. I remembered
everything in the dream clearly and it all seemed so real. Despite my “modern”
perspective, I found myself believing it. The next day I told my husband that
the following Shabbat he could start going to the shulagain. He was
surprised, and happy too, of course. Then I told him that I would go with him,
and his eyes bulged almost out of his head.
“Next I called the Rabbi of the
Chabad Russian center. He knew well my husband’s problems with me over his
increasing level of observance, yet we had never met, so he was delighted to
hear from me. I told him I wanted to go to the cemetery where the Lubavitcher
Rebbe is. He couldn’t hold back his excitement. ‘Whenever you want to go, day
or night, I will be happy to take you.’ Imagine his surprise when I said. ‘You
don’t have to take me; I already know the place. I just need to clarify the
driving directions.”
I went there, and everything was
exactly as described in my dream. Opposite the entrance to the Rebbe’s ‘Ohel,’ as
they call it, I saw the tombstone indicating his wife’s resting place. That’s
when I realized that it was the late Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka who had
appeared to me in my dream.
“I approached as close as I
could, and whispered, ‘I want two. I agree to go to the synagogue with my
husband.’
The next Shabbat I accompanied
my husband, and it wasn’t so bad. There were other Russian women in their
thirties there with backgrounds similar to mine and I enjoyed meeting them. I
went back the second week and the third week, and found myself looking forward
to the next time.
“A month after I started going I
found out that I was pregnant. With twins! And this story that I just told you
is what my husband is now telling everyone in Russian.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~
Source: As told to Yerachmiel
Tilles by R. Gil Hirsch on a Saturday night at Ascent, who heard it in private
conversation from Mr. Liani himself.
Amichai Liani is the owner of Café K, a chain of four restaurants-two in Brooklyn and two newer ones in Manhattan. He lives in Brooklyn.
Amichai Liani is the owner of Café K, a chain of four restaurants-two in Brooklyn and two newer ones in Manhattan. He lives in Brooklyn.
Connection: Seasonal-the 26th
yahrzeit of Rebbetzin Chya Mushka Schneerson on 22 Shvat (this year: Jan. 23).
Biographical note:
Rebbetzin Chaya “Moussia” Schneerson (25 Adar 5661- 22 Shvat 5748 / March 1901- Feb. 1988 C.E.) was the daughter of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef-Yitzchak Schneersohn. On 14 Kislev 5689 (Dec. 1928 C.E.), She married the next-Rebbe-to-be, her distant cousin, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in Warsaw, in a wedding attended by many Chasidic rebbes and leading Torah scholars of the generation. She devoted herself totally to supporting her husband in his role as a leader of world Jewry, and was known in her own right for her modesty, eruditeness and plethora of good deeds.
Rebbetzin Chaya “Moussia” Schneerson (25 Adar 5661- 22 Shvat 5748 / March 1901- Feb. 1988 C.E.) was the daughter of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef-Yitzchak Schneersohn. On 14 Kislev 5689 (Dec. 1928 C.E.), She married the next-Rebbe-to-be, her distant cousin, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in Warsaw, in a wedding attended by many Chasidic rebbes and leading Torah scholars of the generation. She devoted herself totally to supporting her husband in his role as a leader of world Jewry, and was known in her own right for her modesty, eruditeness and plethora of good deeds.
* Editor’s note: this is the
Ashkenazic custom. See the commentaries on Shulchan Aruch, Yorah Deah, 265:11
for fuller explanation.
The name is Cliff just jump over any time: This man must have
merits and gets a Miracle: http://www.aol.com/article/2015/02/23/man-falls-off-4-000-foot-cliff-during-his-honeymoon/21145696/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl27%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D617741
Not only a man but a teen
elsewhere: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2966312/Miraculous-survival-British-teenager-plunged-1-640ft-Austrian-mountain-posing-SELFIE.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral
Purim Halachos (not my usual jokes) in Hebrew – English: http://www.yonanewman.org/kizzur/kizzur141.html and http://www.yonanewman.org/kizzur/kizzur142.html
HAMANTASHCHEN COOKIE RECIPE: http://www.chabad.org/blogs/blog_cdo/aid/2742167/jewish/Traditional-Poppy-Seed-iMohni-Hamantaschen.htm
When Friday came along, something
strange happened. Early in the morning a poor man came knocking at the rabbi's
door. "Every Friday I receive an unmarked envelope in my mailbox,
containing enough money to buy food for Shabbat," the man explained. “But
this week, nothing arrived." The rabbi gave the man a bit of money and
sent him on his way. A few minutes later, another man came knocking on the
rabbi's door. Same story. Again and again, one by one, all the poor people of
the town came with the same story: This week, their anonymous envelope did not
arrive – for the first time in years.
Finally, the rabbi realized who
had been secretly supporting the entire town all these years. The Miser never
told anyone about his philanthropy because he didn't want anyone to feel like
they owed him. The rabbi instructed his family that when he dies, he wants to
be buried right next to the holy Miser of Krakow. Until today, a visit to the
old Krakow cemetery shows the rabbi and the miser, buried together in a small
corner of the cemetery.
From this story we learn that when
we do something good for a person, even if they don't pay us back – don't
worry! G-d is watches everything we do, and makes sure we get the proper
reward.
From
Sophia Ben Hur is mentioned in the Talmud now his rival’s villa is found: http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/villa-owned-by-ben-hurs-rival-identified-1502161.htm?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dnewsnewsletter
Feb 22
public opinion poll: Feb 24 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4630487,00.html
Changes Feb 27 Poll: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191915#.VPAvPE39nIU
No matter how you interpret it, the Likud-Religious have a better
chance of forming a coalition unless all the little parties get together and
make a 62 man coalition and because of Lapid-Deri feud seems to be calming down
as shown in the debate on Arutz 2 on the night of Feb. 26th. This could make
for up to an 82 MK right-middle coalition which would put the left out in the
cold. There is still 21% of the voters undecided and most of them are in the
right of center camp between the Likud and the National Union or Israel Home
Party on one hand or between Bennett-Lapid-Eli Yeshai or the New Party and
finally between Yeshai or Deri but not the Likud-Zionist Camp. Despite
Netanyahu’s proclamation not to form a coalition with the Zionist Camp most of
the Members of the Knesset don’t believe him. If you ask my opinion, the lack
of the Likud and Labor in the debate on Feb. 26th may have been a boost
for the smaller parties. The United Torah Party did not participate but their
base and Rabbis are so against TV and becoming Cabinet Members.
Nahal
Soldiers move to Kibbutzim near Gaza: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4629221,00.html
On Friday
Rosh Chodesh an Israeli tourist or two were feared lost or worse at Ein Gedi on
Shabbos there was a rescue near there: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4629185,00.html
Memories
from last summer why is Israel held to the different standards? https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=667888983301787&set=vb.232661860157837&type=2&theater
I am not
endorsing this show but just saying anything is possible if the conversion is
done right https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152666689924087&fref=nf
Potty
mouth Israelis caught on camera makes all the news shows. If it was a foreign
airline, charges would have been pressed: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191700#.VOrgwE39nIU
A thought
from a genius about human failings: http://features.aol.com/video/stephen-hawking-human-aggression-will-destroy-civilization?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D617689
Editorial Racism has no place in
Judaism
I have come across racism by Ashkenazim vs. Sephardim and
Yemenites and others against Ethiopian Jews. But this is the first case of
Reverse Racism. Let me remind all that the Lubavitcher Rebbe told Rabbi Simcha
HaCohain Kuk Shlita who told an audience in Rehovot which I attended that “Upon
waking up in the morning one should say: ‘I am prepare to take upon myself the
Mitzvah of Love Your Neighbor as Yourself and say “I love every Jew”.’ “
In the course of my work with Judaism I am invited or put in many
groups on Facebook and of course Missionaries slip through the cracks. I
receive questions from all sorts of Jews or potential converts from light
blonds to the darkest blacks, from India, Philippines, Indonesia, Hispanics,
Native Americans with Jewish Genes and you name it. One of the groups was
“Black and Jewish”. I am a member of a “Minority within a Minority” and a group
from Ghana so I was not worried about another group as Judaism has no color to
it or race. I have a few black members of my family and a Chinese Niece who is
learning in the Orthodox Seminary “Givat Washington”. I got a message from the
Administrator of the group that “we have had enough of Ashkenazi Information”.
Shass or Aguda would never go against the Rabbis of the other group if I wrote
or told a story about them. Upon further investigation I found most of the
group were non-Jews or Reform “Converts”. If I were to only write of Jews of
one color, or not wanting to hear of a Sephardic Rabbi like the Rambam, Rabbi
Yosef Karo, Rabbi Yosef I would be a fool.
I am my brother’s keeper and I cannot limit myself to write only
on black Jewish Issues, Carrot Top Jewish Issues, Kaifeng Jewish Issues or
Islamabad Jewish Issues that is not for me. Everybody has their own personal
tastes and might like to marry a Tunisian or Algerian Jew over a Moroccan Jew
and perhaps water seeks its own level but to bury one’s head in the sand with
one ethnic section of Judaism is for me repulsive and goes against Perkei Avos
“From all my teachers I have learned” quoting a story of David Melech Yisrael
the ancestor of the Moshiach.
If you cannot love all Jews let me suggest that you study deeply Mussar
and get your heart circumcised as the Noviim tell us.
From Dr. Harry an Editorial thought: Are we the type of slaves or servants defined in Parsha Mishpatim?
Most people spend their lives working for others, paying off debts to others and performing tasks that others tell them that they “must” do. These days, we don’t like to think of ourselves as “servants” or “slaves”, but that is what the vast majority of us are. It is just that the mechanisms of our enslavement have become much more sophisticated over time. It has been said that the borrower is the servant of the lender, and most of us start going into debt very early into our adult years. In fact, those that go to college to “get an education” are likely to enter the “real world” with a staggering amount of debt. And of course that is just the beginning of the debt accumulation. Today, when you add up all mortgage debt, all credit card debt and all student loan debt, the average American household is carrying a grand total of $203,163 of debt. Overall, American households are more than 11 trillion dollars in debt at this point, and those in Europe are even higher. And even though most Americans don’t realize this, over the course of our lifetimes the amount of money that we will repay on our debts is far greater than the amount that we originally borrowed. In fact, when it comes to credit card debt you can easily end up repaying several times the amount of money that you originally borrowed. So we work our fingers to the bone to pay off these debts, and the vast majority of us are not even working for ourselves. Instead, our work makes the businesses that other people own more profitable. So if we spend the best years of our lives building businesses for others, servicing debts that we owe to others and making others wealthier, what does that make us?
In 2015, the words “servant” and “slave” have very negative connotations, and we typically don’t use them very much. Instead, we use words like “employee” because they make us feel so much better. But is there really that much of a difference?
From E.
F. V. aka David: 16 foods that can cause cancer. http://naturalon.com/10-of-the-most-cancer-causing-foods/?fb_ref=Default
In Kabbala the left side is considered satanic or the Sidra
Acher aka the dark side. Rabbis bringing down the Shulchan Aruch condemn the
Israeli left and I could bring down a Rambam or two on this: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191917#.VPA49E39nIV
Inyanay Diyoma
Blabber
mouths loose lips sink ships. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/20/us-military-outlines-plan-to-retake-iraqi-city-mosul/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl6%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D616125
More
proof of global warming: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/383905/great-lakes-surface-frozen-second-straight-year
From
Steven G. our good friends Obama and Kerry: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/02/19/u-s-state-department-issues-travel-warning-to-israel/
The
Supreme anti-Torah Court ordered the destruction of a Yeshuv with no proof but
it helps stop armed terrorists: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191628#.VOjDzE39nIU
Iranians
getting physically closer to Israel: http://debka.com/article/24416/Iran-airlifts-thousands-of-Shiite-fighters-to-Syrian-port-of-Latakia-to-boost-Aleppo-warfront
Happiness
of Assad and Iran wanes but they slaughter children: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4629519,00.html
Also from
Arutz 7 and then the full report follows: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191709#.VOsSdk39nIU
The full report on Iran in
the Golan and their long term goals: http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8440.htm
Is the
US-Iran deal close to the end of the rope or will Obama/Kerry buckle under? http://debka.com/article/24418/Without-further-US-concessions-to-Iran-the-nuclear-deal-may-blow-up-in-their-faces
From
Shona who cares about America but does the POTUS? http://pamelageller.com/2015/02/cve-summit-turning-u-s-domestic-anti-terrorism-policy-over-to-terror-designated-cair.html/
Tuesday March 3 by Ester-Sarah Shirin Zarabi – guess what!
Netanyahu’s address is on Tanis Esther!!!
The major
of a city is responsible for the safety of the citizens but when he personally
stops a terror attack that is extra-ordinary: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4629577,00.html
An older
film sent to me by Ingrid on our Alpine Unit that has to act like natural born
skiers: http://www.mako.co.il/news-military/security-q1_2015/Article-23e0e9b21e2bb41004.htm&Partner=flash_embedplayer
20
Muslims make 1000 in the Phttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191718#.VOsRHk39nIUC
media: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/02/22/media-hoax-20-muslims-holding-hands-become-1000-strong-ring-of-peace-at-oslo-synagogue/
Gail
Winston published an article that sounds what I have been saying all along. “Regretfully
Our President is the Neville Chamberlain of Our Day” By: Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/regretfully-our-president-is-the-neville-chamberlain-of-our-day/2015/02/22/
11 MEMBERS OF A Hamas cell arrested: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191718#.VOsRHk39nIU
France
confiscates passports of Jihadists http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191718#.VOsRHk39nIU
From
Gail Winston: Netanyahu 'What is there to hide' on Iran deal?
PM reiterates dangers of nuclear deal negotiated between
Western powers, Iran, says, "If anyone thinks otherwise what is there to
hide here?" • National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen meets with U.S.
counterpart Susan Rice in Washington, to discuss Iran.
News
Agencies & Israel Hayom Staff Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said
Thursday that he knows the details of the deal being forged with Iran over its
nuclear program & asked "what is there to hide" after the U.S.
said it was withholding some information on the talks.
Netanyahu's remarks came
a day after the Obama administration said it was keeping some specifics from
Israel because it fears the close U.S. ally has leaked sensitive information to
try to scuttle the talks -- & will continue to do so.
"We know that Tehran knows the details of the talks. Now I tell you
that Israel also knows the details of the proposed agreement," Netanyahu
said. "I think this is a bad agreement that is dangerous for the State
of Israel, & not just for it. If anyone thinks otherwise, what is there to
hide here?" he wondered.
Netanyahu has angered the White House with his open opposition to a deal he
insists threatens Israel's existence, & by accepting a Republican
invitation to address Congress about Iran in early March. The planned speech
has caused an uproar in Israel as well, coming just two weeks before the March
17 elections. Netanyahu has rejected the criticism, saying it is his duty to
lobby against a dangerous nuclear deal with Iran.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki questioned Netanyahu's claim that
he knew the details of the deal. "Then the fact is that he knows more
than the negotiators, in that there is no deal yet," she said.
"Obviously, if there's a deal we'll be explaining the deal &
explaining why & how it prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
& if that's the case & we come to a deal, it's hard to see how anyone
wouldn't see that's to the benefit of the international community,"
she said.
Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its very existence, citing
Tehran's repeated calls for Israel's destruction, its long-range missile
program & its support for anti-Israel militant groups like Lebanon's Hezballah.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes.
Meanwhile U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice met with her Israeli
counterpart Yossi Cohen at the White House on Thursday, for a discussion on
Iran's nuclear program, among other issues. The White House said the national
security advisers agreed to continue close consultations.
This was hinted upon by Israeli TV last night but hushed up: http://debka.com/article/24421/Israeli-fighter-jets-stage-warning-passes-against-Syrian-air-force-intruders-over-Golan-Air-tension-high-
LET ME REMIND EVERYBODY THAT PAKISTAN MADE 18 NUCLEAR BOMBS WITH 6000
LESS POWERFUL CENTRIFUGES AND KERRY AND OBAMA WANT TO GIVE IRAN 6500 WITH A
GROWTH POSSIBILITY TO 10,000. THESE FOLKS ARE MORE OBSESSED WITH A NOBLE PEACE
PRIZE THAN TRUE PEACE AND THEY DO NOT CARE HOW MANY MILLIONS WILL BE NUKED TO
DEATH IN AN IRANIAN JIHAD.
Arab
Thieves Smuggling of Sheep causes disease outbreak: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191768#.VOxID039nIU
Man up
and tell the truth about the danger of Iran: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191770#.VOxKWU39nIU
PLO claims: Innocent terrorists brutally
murdered by the IDF after gunshots and Molotov Cocktails warmly greeted the
Jewish Soldiers with praises like ‘slaughter all Jews’: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4630093,00.html
Turkey is a NATO member but is building
the Hamas Headquarters for the West Bank with training: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4630331,00.html
From Svia: Raging Rudy Giuliani Destroys
Obama's Policies on…: http://youtu.be/E0hUtumtQpA
Secret
Iranian Nuclear Enrichment Site: http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Exiled-Iranian-opposition-Tehran-hiding-secret-uranium-enrichment-site-392109
Arabs
trying change the status on the Temple Mount: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191820#.VO3XN039nIU
The White House ratcheted up its
criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu this week.
National security adviser Susan Rice said that
Netanyahu's upcoming address to Congress "injected a degree of
partisanship" that is "destructive to the fabric" of the
U.S.-Israel relationship. Secretary of State John Kerry questioned the prime minister's
judgement and commented that when it comes to Iran, Netanyahu "may have a judgment that just may not be
correct here."
Media attention to the conflict
between the White House and PM Netanyahu (Elliott Abrams calls it a "manufactured crisis") takes away from the
real issue here: the pending nuclear deal with Iran. Reports indicate that the administration is
desperate for a deal and has conceded almost everything the Iranians want -
right up to allowing Iran to become a nuclear power.
Robert Joseph and William Tobey outline
the concessions that U.S. officials have already acknowledged in a must-read, terrifying overview of where the
negotiations are going. They conclude:
The greatest concession in the
negotiations has been the abandonment of the original U.S. goal of preventing
Iran from having a nuclear-weapons capability. This was a consistent and firm
position of the Bush administration. It was also the position of the Obama
administration until November 2013, when it was given up to secure Iran's
consent to the Joint Plan of Action. Soon after that, Secretary of State Kerry
described the new U.S. goal as taking Iran's "breakout time" from two
months to six to twelve months - as if we would know when the clock began, and
as if we could do something effective to stop the breakout within that
timeframe. The reality is that we have traded permanent concessions for
temporary restrictions that will leave Iran as a threshold nuclear state able
to build a nuclear weapon whenever it decides to do so. When the deal ends,
Iran can openly go to the brink of nuclear weapons with the blessing of the
international community.
Mossad
tactics according to Al Jazeera: Most of these tactics are written up in “I
Let Three Lives” by Herb Philbrick: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4630604,00.html
Is this
US home grown terrorism or terrorist from the former Soviet Union trying to
join ISIS for the plot has more questions than answers: http://www.jpost.com/International/Three-Brooklyn-men-arrested-for-plans-to-join-ISIS-392243
How to
ruin an alliance in a few easy idiotic steps: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191867#.VO7ZLk39nIU
The road
between my house and my niece or Yerushalayim is just a stone’s throw from the
Arabs: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191900#.VPA3YE39nIU
Neville
Chamberlain is alive and well in Washington DC: Ed-Op: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Into-the-Fray-The-Chamberlainization-of-Israeli-politics-392370
If you recall, two or three years ago Debka reported this it came
from Max: http://www.tlvfaces.com/reports-saudi-arabia-to-allow-israel-use-its-airspace-for-iran-strike/
This is your friendly atoms for peace
Iranians: http://debka.com/article/24423/Alongside-negotiations-with-the-US-on-a-nuclear-deal-Iran-practices-destroying-American-Gulf-vessels-
ISIS in Europe sleeper cells ready for
action: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191918#.VPA4sE39nIU
A Palestinian State is national suicide: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4631423,00.html
Re: Education in the USA under attack and
this is FL a Republican Majority State: You must
for the sake of the children of this country and those to come, go to this Report from 1992 put out by Marc Tucker’s National Center
on Education and the Economy (NCEE), go to their page 8 and begin reading and
you will know where the communist H.R. 5 Re-Authorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education “Student Success Act of 2015” bill got its fuel.
I am begging you to take
the time to call your Representatives and Senators and those on the House and
Senate Education Committees and tell them NO WAY – ESEA! Let them know you know
they are trying to control this country through the indoctrination education
(Common Core) across this great country. This is Cradle to Grave total control
to include:
HR 5:
•
Denies Parents their Rights over Their Own Children Pages 488; 522-555
•
Nationalizes education across this Nation usurping State Rights and in turn
making all schools GOVERNMENT schools
•
Creates radical tax collection through the assigned destruction and hostile
takeover of our local schools
•
Violates states rights under the United States Constitution
•
Destroys local, public schools through usurpation of our ELECTED school boards
authority & responsibilities
•
Destroys PRIVATE & RELIGIOUS education legislating “Title I” choice
vouchers to “follow the child”
•
Legislates services to these Title I "choice" children called DIRECT
STUDENT SERVICES AS A VOUCHER that must be
equitable and comparable to any public school, which is needed to satisfy
Common Core.
If your state applied for and
received a NCLB waiver, they had to agree to comply with any and all changes to
any future ESEA re-authorization changes – Florida did – did your state? Our
state elected have fed our children to the wolves for the funds to be used to
indoctrinate your children.
You may not know it but all
member country’s of the UN/UNESCO agreed to have the UN/UNESCO “Education for
All” in place by 2017. The UN/UNESCO “Education for All” is nothing more than
Robert Muller’s “World Core Education” or in our terms the “Common Core State
Standards” on steroids! HR 5 seals the deal and it leaves our ELECTED
Representative and Senators responsible for creating the full path to a New
World Order. This is why we are in a pattern of a “total re-structuring of our
society”.
The Re-Structuring is a
TOTAL TRANSFORMATION of our Society as we know it and the main thing here is to
produce Human Capital for a work force not for today but 10, 20, 20, 40 years
into the future. Your participating money hungry corporations and New World
Order legislators who have chosen to follow the communist way of life are
behind this. Whether you believe this or not – you must believe they are intent
on controlling your children through the federal government’s control of their
education. U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander has been calling for the “New American
School” since the early 80’s.
Please call and re-call
these Representatives and Senators – call them all and jam the phone lines –
let THEM know YOU know what their intent is – most of them probably have not
read the bill any more than they did Obama Care or the Common Core Standards. http://www.newswithviews.com/guest_opinion/guest232.htm http://www.newswithviews.com/guest_opinion/guest233.htm
So you think you want Jeb
Bush as President – promoting Common Core and sitting on the board of the Aspen
Institute –Wake up America!
Florida Senators: Bill
Nelson - 202-224-5274 Marco Rubio –
202-224-3041
Florida
Representatives: Miller, Jeff R -
202-225-4136
Graham, Gwen - 202-225-5235 Yoho,
Ted R -
202-225-5744
Crenshaw, Ander - 202-225-2501
Brown, Corrine -
202-225-01236
DeSantis, Ron - 202-225-2706 Mica,
John - 202-225-4035 Posey, Bill - 202-225-3671 Grayson, Alan -
202-225-9889
Webster, Daniel -
202-225-2176 Nugent, Richard -
202-225-1002
Bilirakis, Gus M. - 202-225-5755 Jolly,
David - 202-225-5961
Castor, Kathy - 202-225-3376
Ross, Dennis -
202-225-1252 Buchanan, Vern -
202-225-5015 Rooney, Tom -
202-225-5792
Murphy, Patrick - 202-225-3026 Clawson,
Curt - 202-225-2536
Hastings, Alcee L. -
202-225-1313 Deutch, Ted -
202-225-3001
Frankel, Lois - 202-225-9890 Wasserman Schultz, Debbie -
202-225-7931
Wilson, Frederica -
202-225-4506 Diaz-Balart, Mario -
202-225-4211 Curbelo, Carlos
- 202-225-2778 Education and the Workforce Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana - 202-225-3931
There is the Good Shabbos
Story did not arrive this week yet. So with best wishes for a healthy, peaceful
and restful Shabbos, I remain:
Rachamim Pauli
