"TorahCare" = Preventive Medicine

Torah's outlook on medicine, by today's standards, looks upside-down. Health care from Torah's perspective advocates a predominantly PREVENTIVE health care system -- not a

WAIT-TILL-IT-BREAKS-THEN-FIX-IT health care template.

Doctors should be paid for preventing sickness or disease. When people get sick - that's when doctors should be footing the bill!

Our society has it backwards and that's why society abounds with sickness, and that's why medical prices are skyrocketing. When you focus on treatment of sickness, then, because of high technology that's used, which continues to become more sophisticated, it always costs more. For example, the "Obamacare" solution is 97% about treating sickness. How pathetic!

Were the emphasis on preventive treatment, medical costs would plummet!

Torah is light. Torah is truth. The Torah way to practice preventive health is detailed in Maimonides (Hilchot Deah, chpt. 4).

In rule 30, he goes so far as to offer his personal GUARANTEE that a person will remain healthy all his life and never require a doctor until the day he dies when one follows the Torah's way to maintain health. How can Maimonides guarantee it? Because he relies on Torah.

Were people to abide by Torah's laws, medical costs would be negligible, people would live longer, would hardly get ill, will take time to exercise, eat well, sleep well, and one's perspective would be positive and rosy.

How do we know prevention is Torah's way of practicing medicine? It says so clearly in Rashi (Ex. 15:26), "God provides you with Torah and its commandments so that you should spare yourself of diseases, as the doctor says to the person 'Don't eat that which bring you back to illness'...". Clearly, Torah's way is the preventive way.

By the way, this Rashi also supports the fact that the number one way to illness is by what we put into our mouths (see here too).

Some Horror Pictures

Got this email. Because my folks, ע''ה, survived the holocaust, I empathize with the sender's sentiments, even though I'd have worded the slides differently. I show them here to document this atrocity in one more place on the face of this globe; To counter the deniers, and to remind people what people can do to people.

Shalit's Release - A Rebbe Story

Here's a story about a "Rebbe Dollar" given to Gilad Shalit's mother.

Maybe someone should now hand one to Esther Pollard for the sake of her poor husband, who needs our prayers. May God bless him soon with a release too, and for Mr. Rubashkin as well.

Glenn Beck - "We're All Jews"

Although Glenn Beck, towards the end of his speech, quotes Rut, who converted to Judaism, wherein she simply and eloquently identifies with Jews and Judaism - while he is christian, his reason for quoting her was to identify with Jews for humanity's sake, and he therefore is most worthy of praise. The point he made about standing in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and several more, were poignant and, to Jewish ears, remarkable as they were unusual, coming from the lips of a gentile.

Jerusalem or Damascus - The Rebbe's View

With Syria now embroiled in rebellion and likely to become a flashpoint for broader, regional flare-up, the Rebbe's perspective on this landscape deserves attention because, according to him, Jerusalem and Damascus pivot on the same fulcrum; Only one can rise while the other must fall! What was true in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War may well hold currently as well.

The Idiocy of Evolutionism

The stomach wall is as thin as a potato chip. Yet it manufactures and secretes hydrochloric acid, one of the most potent and corrosive acids known -- without the slightest damage to its thin wall. That's because it also produces an alkaline mucoid substance to keep the stomach from auto-digesting.

If one were to believe evolutionists, it would have to be that first came the "development" of the alkaline-base secretory ability, followed by the acidic production much later. Otherwise, there could be no possibility for the stomach to survive the acidic assault. On the other hand, without HCl production, pepsinogen cannot convert into pepsin, and proteins cannot then be digested, and death would ensue.

Either way, then, evolutionists face a "catch-22".

In a human being's scrotal sac, sperms cells are manufactured and stored. In another human being, meanwhile, her ovaries are busy preparing ovum cells ready for ovulation.

Upon mating, a spectacular drama unfolds, one that even Hollywood could never have imagined. Millions of sperm cells suddenly rush out, swim against the forces of gravity and mount all obstacles as they seek out the tiny fold at the higher side of the uterus. Of the millions that started out, only a few thousand sperm remain by the time they whiplash their way down the fallopian tube. These strongest contenders race through this last leg of the complex labyrinth, in their bid to win the race. Of these hundreds of thousands, only one sperm will finally earn the trophy - a race that can be won in under 10 minutes.

Although they never took this marathon trip before, sperm cells are well-prepared, as if they were briefed by prior intelligence. Each cell charges forward in this once-in-a-lifetime, mysterious and urgent mission. Throughout the race, up the vaginal wall, through the cervix, along the uterine wall, through the tiny orifice that leads to the Fallopian tube and along the fine tube for some 8 centimeters, sperm need no flashlight to light their way in valiant rivalry. Each performs as if it could win this race, although in fact only one out of several billion will extend its lifespan to what seems like eternity; All the others will die within 24 hours.

While the sperm makes its dash for impregnation, the ovum "egg" of the female had meanwhile, or some hours before, also undergone its own dramatic voyage. This started by gravitating to the surface of its ovary, from where it was ejected like a skydiver free falls from a plane. It either lands on the pelvic wall and then actively seeks out the fringed ends of either Fallopian tube, it too without the aid of a flashlight; Or, more likely, as agile as a monkey, it latches itself onto the fringes of the nearest tube during its fall. From there, the ovum rolls deeper into the tube, about 2 centimeters, waiting there to knight the winning sperm cell.

The intricacies of this successful "blind date", as those involved in producing the potent hydrochloric acid by the stomach's thin wall, are but two examples that speak to the marvelous wonders of God. Every species, of the many millions, whether they live in water, in or on earth, or in air, and every function, of which there is an enormous diversity - each and all of these involve the most amazing, mind-boggling processes.

I pity the fool who, to shield his weak ego against ignorance, pushes the timeline for these wonders so far back as to feel better because the further back the mystery began to "develop", the more it "makes sense" to him why he, now, lacks the knowledge to "explain" how or why it happened this way. How much simpler and elegant, and sensible, it is to merely acknowledge, as Chassidus teaches, that every moment is a recreation, by God, of wondrous life -- out of nothingness!

Reflecting on Evolutionary Theory

How did the Anal Sphincter evolve?

Being that the colon's stools simply plopped out without warning upon arriving at the orifice at the far end of the anal canal, it made a horrible problem among those lingering thereabout. The lingerers became nauseous and could not tolerate the mess and stench, so they would get angry and kill the offender. They did this even though they themselves possessed the same evacuative apparatus. Thus they killed each other unless one was "wise" enough to self-isolate as much as possible from social contact. This led to an isolationist mentality. Besides the low birth rate from random murder, for eons this isolationism further enhanced the low birth rates among the polluters.

Despite the low birth rate, after some billions of years, give or take a few hundred milllion, a sphincter "happened" to develop ("mutate") as a "congenital defect" in some person or animal. This mutation came with the built-in feature of being able to be turned off and on, or rather, shut or open, under voluntary control. This discovery led to unexpected delight, for now isolation became an unnecessary strategy to live a longer life, for rather than having to flee for one's life, one need only clamp down. Other sphincter mutations, in contrast, left the sphincter closed all the time, and this killed the organism shortly after birth. ("Bloated, Not-So-Sudden Infant Death Syndrome").

Only those possessive of the mutated, functional sphincter could congregate with abandon. These sphincter-enabled people then joined forces, eventually becoming the upper class of society. Politically they created a "Non-Crapper" party, in opposition to the "Smelly" class. This upper crust of the species began to further differentiate itself as intelligent beings because the ability to congregate in turn gave them the ability to learn from each other. Finally, by reproducing among themselves only, avoiding wedlock with loose anuses, they became the majority and, eventually, removed all trace of the lowly class they derived from - by shameless genocide.

The Long Short Road

Many ways serve to promote worship of Hashem, except Chabad's modus operandi is unique for taking the "long, short road". That is, to "get it" quickly, you first must cultivate "it" properly.

Two examples of this technique:

1) Take the case of a thief trying to break into a home to steal. When the owner realizes what is going on, he starts screaming to chase the thief away. But doing so did not solve the problem. On another day, the thief will try again in another way, and one of these days will succeed.

There's a harder way to take to try and thwart the thief; Doing it indirectly. While he's in the house, get him to sit at the table and convince him that stealing is counter-productive. Although this approach calls for ingenuity, this will get to the root of the problem and he will quit.

2) Take the case of someone whose blood vessels suffer integrity and this brings about lesions on his skin of his whole body. An unwise doctor might take some cream formula and treat the wounds as they show up. Although the cream might help, it will not halt new lesions from appearing, nor will any be amenable to cure.

The better way is to treat the problem at its root, by curing the blood vessels. Doing this will likewise cure the dermatitis.

Similarly, many non-chassidic, and even some chassidic, approaches base their ways to bring one closer into God's service by chasing "behavioral symptoms" and trying to cure these. They "put out the fires" as they apply cream to a skin wound, or take a stick to chase away anger, arrogance, jealousy, lust, etc. These are but temporary solutions that do not change the person from within. The Chabad chassidic way to deal with these problems is to influence and change the essence, which will likewise already cure much of everything else.

Without first expending energy and ingenuity with proper inculcation, the shorter road is nothing but an illusion, whereas after taking the long road, any problem thereafter can easily resort to the short road.

Clouds of Glory

It didn't seem possible under natural law, that many millions of people, from infants to elderly, on an hour's notice, from all over the district of Goshen in Egypt, could arrive to their point of departure in the city of Ramses. But this was what the Jews had to do on the night of Nissan 15, 2448.

By then the Jews were quite accustomed to astonishing miracles; In fact, a whole year went by where with every passing month a new and fabulous miracle would occur to break the back of Egyptian control over Jewish servitude.

Sure enough, another miracle now swept in - in the form of friendly clouds, serving as "flying carpets" upon which all Jews were taken aboard.

These "Clouds of Glory" not only transported the Jews, and their possessions, from their residences, to Ramses, but, from there, took them all to their next encampment site, Sukkot, a distance of 120 kilometers, again at breathtaking speed.

Under the leadership of their redeemer, Moses, miracles seemed to have become a daily phenomenon.

These miraculous clouds proved to be even more miraculous. A week later they shielded the Jewish masses against the artillery of the Egyptian army chasing from behind.

The clouds were 7 in number. Like walls around the multitude, four clouds from four sides engulfed them; Another cloud, beneath their feet, straightened out the path they would walk, and killed snakes and scorpions in its way; And a seventh one hovered above them to protect them against the sun, while proving shade.

These clouds had even more roles to play over the 40 years they would accompany the Jews in the desert, until the Jews entered the Holy Land. It was then the Jews were commanded, "In huts shall you sit for seven days ... so your generations will know that in huts I placed the Jewish people when I took them out of Egypt." (Lev. 23: 42-43) And, in the words of the Alter Rebbe in his Shulcan Aruch, "These were clouds of His glory that engulfed them to shade them and protect them against heat stroke or dryness; And as a model of this we were commanded to make shaded huts (sukkot) so we remember His miracles and wonders, and thus must we direct our thoughts when sitting in the sukka to remind us of the exodus from Egypt."

Was Christopher Columbus Jewish?

Here's a great article by a pastor, Ray Bentley, regarding the likeliood Christopher Columbus was Jewish. It's rare to see a man with strong faith in a counter-faith giving objective and unbiased analysis of what may well be the Jewish perspective.

The amount of knowledge Columbus had of Tanach is amazing. The date of final expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492, and the setting of sail the day after, and so much more evidence, makes this a really interesting read and points to one almost certain conclusion: Colombus was Jewish!

Was Christopher Columbus Jewish?

A Prophetic Book and the New World

by Ray Bentley

I sat down to read an amazing book recently, titled The Book of Prophecies, filled with astounding insights and prophetic statements, some very controversial. What makes it so amazing is that this book, a collection of the author's writing and favorite passages from other authors, was written around 1501 and the editor/author is someone I've heard of all my life but never - I mean never - even heard that he published such a book.

The author is Christopher Columbus; while he wrote this book, during the late 15th century, a terrible event known as the Inquisition swept through Spain and other parts of Europe. People were being tormented, burned at the stake and expelled from the country, and no one was targeted more heavily than the Jewish population, which had grown considerably over the centuries. Jewish conversos (converts) would be arrested and accused of not being true Christians. They wouldn't even know who was accusing them; evidence would be presented in secret. Then they would be tortured until they confessed to being heretics. Then, once they confessed, they would be killed.

Jewish immigrations into Europe escalated after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, but even before Christ, Jews had begun to settle in the Iberian Peninsula - they were referred to as Sephardim, which comes from the Hebrew term for Spain, Sepharad, used in the Bible. So strong had this community become, that the apostle Paul recognized the need to minister there (Romans 15: 24-28).

Part of this community included Christopher Columbus, a man dedicated to his Christian faith, but who by ancestry was most likely Jewish. He had earned the favor of the king and queen of Spain, with his vision and scientific knowledge. In fact, he had managed to raise the money to embark on what would become one of the most significant voyages in the history of the world.

But it was a dangerous time for all Jews, even favored ones. Historians note that the voyage was originally scheduled for later in 1492. But the inquisition overshadowed all plans; an edict had been signed demanding the expulsion of all Jews by August 2, 1492 (which ironically coincided with Tisha B'av, the day of mourning. If you haven't already read the article on our website about this day, I encourage you to do so here .)

Our voyager gathered his crew, boarded his ships that night, and set sail for the new world, on August 3, 1492. Christopher Columbus obeyed the edict along with almost 300,000 other Jewish people.

The rest you can read here.

UPDATE: Another article, by Charles Garcia, here.

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

We walk along a path that takes about 70 or 80 years to traverse. When we arrive, many believe the path simply comes to a dead end and we become the fodder of maggots. Some trekkers, on the other hand, see this trip as one to prepare them for yet another that follows, one that will take infinitely long to traverse.

Some people believe the world is ruled by Nature, an eternal tapestry of "laws" that never changes. Others believe Nature is a veil behind which a transcedental power hides and eventually will transform our existential panorama and its parameters to a "higher" dimension of experience.

That is to say, some people believe World is synonymous with Nature and its inherent rules. They think physical energy of various forms and formations, as they maintain or change over time - have always been around, always will be, never had a beginning and will never end. Other people, on the other hand, believe a beginning happened; Where absolute nothingness turned into existence - by a Creator, who happens now, in this "era" of universal existence, to hide behind a veil of Nature made to appear eternally self-sustaining.

Whereas no radical differences of physical appearance exist between these two groups, their differences of mindset create significant behavioral differences. One group, for example, constrain their lives only by rules instituted by men, with no compunction to break these rules when men take no notice. And, void of subservience to a higher power, their morality and that of the dog, for example, evaluate to the same standard.

Whereas those who believe a higher authority than Nature prevails, feel beholding to that power and behave accordingly. For example, this group will often congregate in prayer, move their lips in supplication, ask for blessings and steer their lives as if that eye in heaven records every detail of their existence. What passes for "prayer", for example, for this group, appears to the other group as people talking to the wall.

Another example of radical difference is their conversation. The first group will talk of nothing but that which relates to physicality or materialism. The other, in sharp contrast, you might overhear saying, "We should merit the Redemption now!", or "God bless you!", something the first group would regard as fantasy-land chatter.

It brings to mind the poem of Robert Frost, with this one exception: Those who take either of the two paths aforementioned, spurn the path taken by the other.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Again, I wish you all a happy, sweet 5772!

From Rags to Riches - then, Much Higher!

Dror, an Israeli tourist, decided to put America's promise of potential riches to the test.

He rented out some cart space at a mall and began selling cheap merchandise around the New Year winter season, when Americans do much shopping. He earned quite well and decided the next year to "expand", renting vans, filling them up with merchandise, parking them at the malls, to alleviate the problem of storing and retrieving more merchandise when inventory levels needed refreshment. The next year he further expanded into many malls. Indeed he was earning much money.

One day he got a call from his sister in Israel who informed him she was soon getting married and could he please come to the ceremony.

Dror was in a quandary. He had now long overstayed his U.S. visa requirements. Were he now to leave the U.S., he'd never be allowed in again. So he decided on this plan: He will leave the U.S. and make his way back into the U.S. by way of Mexico, which he knew had porous borders.

After his sister's wedding he flew to Mexico, found the escort he sought near the Arizona border, and for $200 joined a group that was set to cross the border by walking through. Very soon another group crossed this group's path and Dror was persuaded to join this other group, which was going to walk across the border through the desert. Dror felt somewhat uneasier with this new group but didn't let that bother him.

On the second night he awoke and found himself alone in a desert. The group was gone, his large bag was gone too, and only the small bag he used as a pillow remained his only possession. He opened this bag and found a bottle half-filled with water. Not sure of what to do, he decided to continue walking in the same direction he earlier embarked on. He had finished his water long ago and now felt tired and needed rest. He spotted a tree and next to it laid down, again putting his "pillow" under his head. But now he felt a hardness and opened the bag to find it contained a book. The book, written by Chaim Sasson, one that explains the Rebbe's claim to fame, entitled "Now I Have Come to Know" (עתה ידעתי), made him think. He turned to God and said, "God, if You get me out of this situation, I promise to become religious." He laid down again.

Not 5 minutes passed and he hears ringing. He realizes his cellular phone, which he now found in one of his jacket pockets, was ringing. A friend was calling him. Dror told the friend of his predicament. The friend then made a few calls.

It turns out Dror had already entered U.S. territory. The Arizona police found him and took him to jail. A few days later he appeared before a judge. The judge asked him, "Where are you from?" Dror answered. "What city". He told the judge. "What street?" Now Dror felt uneasy about this scrutiny; He told the judge. "What address"? Dror felt the judge was crazy.

It turns out this judge had lived in Israel as a child, right next door to where Dror lived! The judge maneuvered and helped Dror "fix" his paperwork in such a way that he would not have a problem returning to the U.S. after his deportation. And so it happened that Dror was deported, but could come back to the U.S., where he had more than a million dollars in his bank account.

Dror kept his word and became religious. He also returned to his previous enterprise, and in the process lost all his money. So he packed his bags and went to learn in the Chabad yeshiva in Ramat-Aviv. A chavrusa of his at the yeshiva, who dined at my Friday night Shabbat table, told us this story.

On Jewish Destiny - good video

Some see based on fleshy eyes, relegating conclusions to nothing beyond. Others see with what they believe is their God-given mind's eye, beyond Nature's constraints. For the latter, here's a great video that touches on the Jewish essence.



Jews live by rules that transcend Nature. Their role in this World preempted creation. Each lives eternally despite an impression based on Nature's veil. Even after departure from this World they remain a cohesive unity, coalesced to God and Torah.

The faith of Abraham, the perfect belief system based on Torah that would entirely collapse if even one element proved false, God's language and its revival, the Land of Israel that is the holy property of all Jewry - these and more are the crown jewels of the eternal trio: God, the Jews and Torah. Happy and righteous are those Gentiles who share this noble attribution, for they too will thus merit the anticipated utopia, a new super-Natural era close at hand.

Upside-Down Medicine

I don't know about you, but when I see a conventional doctor, you know, the one with a stethoscope draped around his neck, I think of a buffoon, even a murderer. The further I can get away from him, the better I feel. The one exception I make is the emergency medical man. Otherwise, most are either legitimized drug pushers or promoters of invasive surgery.

Never once in my nearly 7 decades of life did any of these allopathic ("straight") doctors ask me what I ate for breakfast, lunch or supper. This, even though what a person puts into his mouth is the number one reason for illness! (See here.) Never once did any ask me if I do exercise.

Many times it's a quick background "interview" - They give you a form with checkboxes and tell you, "Check off the diseases you had and those your parents had; List the medications you are on"; Now they almost "know" your entire history.

Idiotically, they look at symptoms as if these were the disease itself. Example: You go to the doctor and tell him you have a cough. "Oh", he says, "You need a cough suppressant" and prescribes the drug he's pushing today for that symptom. Does he not know the cough is your body's way of telling you it needs to expel an invasive or irritating substance? Why suppress the body's healthy reaction? Is this not stupid? He should really tell you, "Go home, keep coughing if you have to, and wait until it passes."

Example: You have fever, so you go to your doctor (why you would go is crazy too!). He finds no open wounds and figures you got a bacterial or viral infection. He checks your heart sounds with his stethoscope, and takes some blood for lab work. Useless procedures to be sure. Finally he gives you an aspirin-like drug to "lower your temperature" and an antibiotic (which is useless for a virus) to "fight infection".

But why?! The body developed fever because that is its own, best way to fight off disease! That's how God set up the system to work. For every 1 degree rise in temperature, the immune system (and the exchange system of substances) works 10% better! A rise in temperature reduces the spread of infection! Administering an antibiotic reduces the patient's chances of more quickly fighting off this same offending bacterium the next time it strikes; Worse, it also creates the opportunity for a resistant strain of this bacterium to develop. Antibiotics also increase the body's toxicity load. Fourth, they also destroy the good germs in the intestines that we need that synthesize for us vitamins B and K. Now I ask you - is the doctor stupid or what? He should have explained to you what might be going on and encourage you to eat nutritious food and then say, "Go home and don't worry, the body can deal with it".

Here's a good analogy that depicts today's medical viewpoint. Imagine you have garbage outside your house and rats there are darting about. You be the "doctor" to cure this problem; What would be your "treatment of choice"? If you intend on killing the rats as the cure, would you succeed? What good is it to go after the SYMPTOM when the SOURCE of the problem still draws rats?! And that's exactly how the American medical establishment tackles medical problems - by going after symptoms and ignoring the cause. In the case of this "rat disease", they would "treat" the problem by shooting the rats. However, not only will rats continue to come, but you've now also thrown into the already toxic load more toxicity; In this case, you've added bullet shells and dead rats that also have to now be cleaned up. Would it not have been wiser to simply clean up the mess and the symptom will have thereby cleared up on its own accord?

The trouble is manifold because patients themselves practically demand drugs. Why, were they to walk out of the doctor's office without a prescription in their hands, they'd probably be disappointed! They have been taught to accept the foolish outlook doctors promote. This despite the fact that patients are never cured for hypertension, diabetes, oseteoporosis, or, you name it. Antibiotics is the exception, if correctly applied, but the body could well have done that on its own, with proper diet and/or fasting (as the body's loss of appetite suggests). Patients are simply "treated" - but never cured, never rid of the pills they have to pop for the rest of their lives. That's medicine?! Doctors should be paid for PREVENTING disease, and if their patients come down sick - doctors should pay the bills!

Alas, the abuses of medicine are many, long-established, well-ingrained, from the education and licensing systems to insurance and hospital industries, well-greased by bribed politicians, well-publicized by controlled advertising revenue - so it's up to us to learn on our own. The internet today makes that possible, whereby we can seek information beyond the purview of nonsense conventional medicine advances. We have an open window today to truth and clarity. Will this window stay open for long? No doubt, here too they now seek how to close it off from the truth that will dam their rivers of profit.

Four Species as One Unit

The chill in the autumn air escorts us into the Succot holiday. As we spend much of our time under the outdoor Succah branches, we'll have to cope with rain, shine or chill. The fact that this commandment beckons during these cool days and not on nice, warm summer days, augments the evidence it is God's commandment and not one we decided for ourselves.

A unique aspect of this holiday, which it shares with Passover, is its gesture to unify all of Jewry into the holiday's orbit.

Of the four types of Jews, the Etrog symbolizes one who has Torah knowledge and fine character, as this fruit's taste and smell signify. The Lulav symbolizes the Torah scholar without fine character, for the Lulav (Date Palm branch) signifies a tasty fruit, but one without a smell. The Hadassim (Myrtle branches) that have fragrance but bear no fruit signify the Jew with fine character who lacks Torah knowledge; While the Aravot (Willow branches), which have neither taste nor smell, represent the barren Jewish condition.

But should any one of these 4 species go missing, the mitzvah of Lulav-shaking in the Sukkah cannot be accomplished; All 4 are mandatory and mutually inclusive!

The "4 sons" Torah alludes to, which we recite in the Haggadah, also are all invited to participate at the table during the Passover seder.

One point the mitzvah of the 4 species comes to teach is that Jewish people comprise, collectively, one body; Jews are comprised of "brain" and "brawn", either "smooth-hewed" or "crude", and each is as critical as the next - because inherent in each Jew is the equalizing "spark of God" that animates his soul. For some this light shines through to influence his character, whereas for others the bodily cloak of desires still needs refinement before the light can penetrate.

Here's the same point from another angle. Let's take the concept of "Penitence", a term relevant to these days before Yom Kippur. In English, or to Gentiles, this means something entirely different from its Hebrew term, "תשובה".

Penitence implies a resolution for correcting one's behavior after having done something wrong. What was done is done and now, having regretted his past action, the person goes forward with a clean slate, as if the past becomes irrelevant. The Hebrew term, on the other hand, teaches a different message.

The Hebrew word for penitence literally means 'returning to God'. The core of every Jew, which derives from a benevolent God, is also good and pure. That he did something wrong, for which he needs to repent, came as a result of environmental circumstances that shrouded his innate connection to God, which led him to err. As soon as he realizes he did wrong, he does "תשובה" - which means he returns, back to his original innate connection with God.

Instead of "penitence", a better translation of the Hebrew word would be "a Godly homecoming". The root of the Hebrew term, after all, means, "to return".

To further illustrate, the antonym of the Hebrew word for "penitence" is: "To return to doubts". This inherently implies that the truth of his essential bond to God, for the meanwhile, is clouded in his mind.

The Rebbe taught us there is a 5th son too these days, a product of our times. He's the one who does not even know about the Succot or Passover holiday. So powerful have been the forces of assimilation in recent Jewish history, that Jewish tradition of the past did not even find the need to address such wayward souls. These have been, for the most part, "kidnapped at birth", so to speak, because they grew up in a culture so foreign to Judaism, as is the American culture, or as that which Israeli governments have tried to infuse into their public school system and media, one that pushes to secularize and alienate the Jewish mind from tradition.

We Jews who know better must reach out to these people and teach them Torah values anew. Why? Because if the left hand itches, the right hand wants to relieve the itch.