The Apparent World Entropy

Some things even a blind man can see.

Maniacal Iran is approaching nuclear capability. America is disintegrating economically, politically and demographically. Europe too faces deterioration from within from its Muslim quislings. The Mideast Muslim nations live in an inferno. Poor Israel gets no calm from the world's nations, nor from its indigenous Arab haters. Nigerians are being butchered left and right, and nobody cares. North Korea is another hellhole that's liable to turn another country into a parking lot. Fukashima meanwhile continues to leak. Toxicity is in the air, in the earth and in the water. And so on.

People the world over are experiencing a silent tremor. They sense correctly that the world is in turmoil, tailspinning into chaos. Given the path that Nature takes, we are on the brink of WWIII, and were that to happen that would be the end of the world.

There's just one little detail left out of this panorama. The Jewish people are a Supernatural eternal people. And therefore, this horrible scenario cannot happen. The world was created for their sake and for their sake it will continue to exist.

What really is happening is that Israel will be squeezed into a corner by the Evil in the world and G-d will save the Jews and usher in for them the Era of the Ultimate Redemption. In the meantime the forces of Evil are separating out from the forces of Good, so as to give people everywhere the clear free choice to forge their own destiny. Because, when the clouds of smoke dissipate, the only ones left to enjoy the world will be the Jewish nation and those from the Good who sided with her.

The Jewish New York Times

Many Jews today, especially those who see themselves as elite, sophisticated or intellectual, a cut above the rest, read the New York Times. Are they ignorant of the bias this paper has against Jews? They may, in fact, not know this bias dates back to WWII when Jews were being exterminated by the millions, but certainly they ought to have sensed the bias by now, after all its commentary on all those wars Israel had with its enemies, until today. More likely they've fallen victim of their own self-worth by identifying with Sulzberger's paper that, after all, is also "sophisticated and intellectual".

The NYT will always downplay horror perpetrated on Jews. Their avant-garde readers are all too eager to join in with its rationale. As you would expect, Reform Judaism plays a key role. (Notice the "aristocratic" air of the Sulzberger pose. No sign of "Jewishness" here.)

Here's a well enunciated, well presented 12 minute clip of the stance the NYT took during the holocaust years, and why:

P.S. See here for the NYT's latest advocacy of terrorism against Israel!
P.S. (7/21/14) See here how NYT toes the line of Hamas' demands during Protective Edge war.
P.S. During war on Hamas ("Protective Edge") - here.
P.S. (8/6/14) NYT Rejects Ad by Eli Wiesel Condemning Hamas - here.
P.S. (9/1/14) NYT censors Breitbart.com/s anti-ISIS ad: here.
P.S. (3/9/15) NYT with some faux-pas photography (link).

Joseph Telushkin's Book on the Rebbe

Joseph Telushkin wrote a book about the Rebbe. Would the Rebbe approve this book by a "Conservative rabbi" (akin to a "Reform rabbi")? Not only does he dilute his own Judaism, he encourages its dilution for all his congregants.

Would the Rebbe want a book about him written by a rabbi whose synagogue features a "lady cantor"? This practice does more than scorn the halachah of Kol Ishah or mixed seating; It encourages the scorn, disgraces the Torah scroll and feigns a holy atmosphere. And of course there's a modesty issue. It's highly likely one must not enter such a place to pray in the first place.

Here's a Facebook ad [with my graffiti] where his synagogue heralds an upcoming Shabbat ("... join us to hear her beautiful voice"):

I come not to review the book because I'd never read it. Would you buy gold from a dealer who dilutes the precious metal?

No doubt this book is full of platitudes, portraying the Rebbe as a "great person", in which case he misses the whole point. He does not understand the Lubavitch chassidic movement's real purpose, with the Rebbe at its epitome, which is to raise the expectations and yearnings of the Jewish people for Moshiach in the latter generations!

There may well be a hidden agenda too, at least a subliminal one, and that is - to distance Jews from current Messianic expectations (so they approach his own view).

I, for one, think the Rebbe himself would never have endorsed this book. He probably would have trashed it.

The USS Missouri - And the Rebbe

The USS Missouri was the platform upon which World War II ended. Not on land - but on a gunboat of the United States. That's where General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, held the solemn ceremony, where the enemies formally surrendered.

Who was responsible for wiring this huge battleship? The Rebbe of Lubavitch.

I already recalled one story I heard about this work the Rebbe did back then, circa 1944, which I related here: Escorted by Generals.

Now I came across another such story. Here's the transcript of the video. At the end of this narrative I leave you with a link to the video to see 1st hand, and because of slight changes from the transcript.

(Interview of Milton Fechter with "My Encounter With The Rebbe".)

I worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard from January 1943 till June 1945. A retired admiral came to City College and said that they were desperately in need of engineers for the Navy Yard. They were building the battleship Missouri there - that's the battleship on which afterwards General MacArthur accepted the surrender of the Japanese in Tokyo Bay after the war - and they were also working on a smaller battleship, the Idaho, and one of the aircraft carriers, but I forget the name for that one.

So they gave me my diploma early and I came to work there, in Building 3, on Flushing Avenue and Vanderbilt. The building, it's a giant building, is still there. It was a huge operation - there were 77,000 people working there - and our section had about fifty engineers and craftsmen, evenly divided between Jews and Gentiles. I mention this because at the time, that was one of the things that was on the Gentiles' mind, always to look who is a Jew.

New York City in 1943 wasn't like today. Up in the Bronx, for example, was an Irish man named Joe McWilliams, he was a big anti-Semite and he had an organization called the Christian Front. Half the New York City police were Irish, and many belonged to the Christian Front. And they created a lot of trouble for Jews in the Bronx. In Brooklyn, Ridgewood, you had the Germans, and before the FBI broke up what they called the "Bund," they used to march at night in Hitler uniforms on Bushwick Ave.

There was this guy I went to school with for 5 years - I was 3 years with him in high school and then 2 years with him in City College. A fellow from a good family, with money. I'm sitting next to him in class. It's Friday, June 1940, the professor comes into the class, and he had a long face. Gentlemen, he says, I have some very sad news to report, it just came over the radio, that France had surrendered to Hitler. My heart fell all the way down.

This guy sitting next to me, turns around to me and his eyes are blazing hate. And here is what he says to me: "You'll get yours next." I tell you, I couldn't say a word. I was so stunned. Five years I go to school with him, and didn't know what was in him.

I'm trying to give you a picture of the times. It's different today. It's completely different today. Then, you're in a room with 50 people, everyone knows who the Gentiles are and who's a Jew. The fact that people were so busy working on the war effort had dampened a bit the anti-Semitism that had raged in New York City for a number of years prior to the war, but it was still there.

Our section was separated from the electrical section by a wooden fence about 3 feet high. And that section had about 300 men sitting at drafting tables. So I turn to the man next to me, and I said, what are they doing there? And he said they are all doing wiring diagrams for the ships, mostly the Missouri. So much electrical wiring goes into a ship, you have no idea.

I take a look, and you have 300 people in white shirts, because in those days most people wore white shirts. And in the middle is sitting a guy with a black beard, earlocks, a black hat and a black suit.

So I turn to the guy next to me, I said who is that? He says, "He's a rabbi, and he is also an electrical engineer, a graduate of the Sorbonne." I looked over there and I said to myself, boy I've got to give this guy credit. If I were sitting among all 300, I couldn't wear earlocks and a beard and feel comfortable. He sat there serene as if he was sitting amongst his chevra, and that really struck me.

So, I went over and introduced myself. He told me his name is Schneerson. But he didn't tell me he was the son-in-law of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and I didn't ask him. Nobody knew, as far as I knew.

He spoke quietly, he was a gentleman and he had two very smart eyes. He was a very self-contained individual. He wasn't interested in what someone on the left thought of him, or someone on the right thought of him. He was content with himself and he obviously had a lot of inner strength. It was very illuminating to me, to see a person in a hostile milieu to be so serene.

Friday he left early because of the Shabbos. And Saturday he didn't come in, Jewish holidays he didn't come in. He was the only guy that got that accommodation. Nobody else left for Saturdays or Fridays or holidays. Only one man - him.

I came up there a couple of Sundays to see some people there and I'd see him sitting there all by himself in that vast hall. Oh, it was more than a block long, that building. You take a look at it. It was quite a building.

He came in Sunday, I guess because he didn't come in Saturday. And he worked all by himself Sunday. And, I'll tell you one thing, the rabbi had a lot of courage, to be there all alone on Sunday. The rats that ran around there were about that big. And he sat by himself, drawing the wires for the various electrical wiring that goes into a ship. You couldn't give me a million dollars to sit there by myself on Sunday.

I didn't see him very often, because he never came to the cafeteria. He wouldn't go to the cafeteria; it wasn't kosher. So I didn't speak to him that much, only about three times altogether. But as I say, I was very impressed with his serenity. You see, if he'd sat among three hundred guys with beards and he was perfectly at ease that would be one thing. But to sit among three hundred goyim, completely oblivious to everything around him, that was something that struck me.

Later, when I read in the paper that he became Rebbe, I wasn't surprised because I saw that he was a very bright man and he obviously he had a lot of inner strength. He could have continued working as an engineer. He had the capabilities, the math he knew more than most of us there. Sure he was an engineer but that wasn't his life, he didn't make it top priority with him. His life was rabbinical and not engineering. He had hobbies, and engineering was one of them, but he was a rabbi at heart. Sometimes he was an engineer, but the Rebbe was always a Rebbe.

---- ---- ----

(LINK to interview with above person.)

---- ---- ----

Here's a LINK to another person's encounter with the Rebbe -- this time when the Rebbe was Rebbe.

And here is part II of what the engineer was saying.

Why "CHABAD"?

(Here's a short extract of a Maamer of the Rebbe, with my own translation & highlighting, where the Rebbe asks a rhetorical question about the Rebbeim of Chabad (נשיאי חב‫"‬ד) )

----------

‫ומה גם שנקראים בשם נשיאי חב"ד דוקא, ולא באפן של חוקה חקקתי גזירה גזרתי

(במדב"ר ריש חוקת. תנחומא שם ג ח. ועוד)

 'ואין לך רשות להרהר אחרי

(רש"י ריש פרשתנו [מיומא סז ב‪[‬)
דהן אמת שקיום הדברים במעשה צריך להיות באופן של חוקה חקקתי

"And why are our Rebbeim particularly called Princes of CHABAD [an acronym for 3 faculties of intellect]; Would it not be more appropriate from a Torah perspective to use a term that suggests 'Do it because I so established it and you have no right to question me'? After all, in truth, the actions of chassidim should spring from an unquestioning mindset;

וגם יודע הוא בוודאות גמורה שהדברים שנאמרו ע"י רבותינו נשיאינו שהם סמוכים איש מפי איש עד משה רבינו הם אמיתיים בתכלית

"And as you know, with complete certainty, the words spoken by our Rebbeim were endorsed from one leader to the next all the way back to Moshe Rabbeinu and prevail as absolute truth;

ואשר רבותינו נשיאינו (בעלי המאמרים) בטח הבינו את הדברים. וגם יודע שצ"ל דיוק בשמירת דברי הרב

 (ראה סה"מ ה'תש"ח ע' 296 ואילך. ובכ"מ)

"And that our Rebbeim certainly understand the content; And they well understand there must be precision when quoting a Rav.

אבל יחד עם זה צ"ל ההשתדלות שהדברים יהיו מושגים ומובנים גם בשכלו

"Nevertheless, there must be the endeavor to grasp and comprehend these words as well.

וכאשר אינו מבין צריך לבקש (קומען און קלאפן אויפן טיר אין מיטן נאכט) שיסברו לו הדברים. וזה גופא היא הסיבה למה שלא הסבירו לו את הדברים, כדי שיבוא ויבקש (קומען און קלאפן אויפן טיר). ובכלל צריך להיות היגיעה בהבנת הדברים. וארז"ל (מגילה ו, ב) יגעת ומצאת תאמין. דמארז"ל זה הוא בנוגע לעניני העולם, ומזה מובן בק"ו שכ"ה גם בנוגע לעניני התורה, שע"י היגיעה באה המציאה

"And if one doesn't get it, he needs to ask (go knock on someone's door at night) for an explanation. In fact, this is why he was not explained the concept to begin with - so he should go ahead and ask (go ahead and knock on a door). Generally, toil must precede comprehension. As our sages tell us, if one toils and says he gets it, believe him. This saying regards worldly affairs, so how much more so in matters of Torah learning - where toil will yield mastery.

היינו שע"י היגיעה באים לענין של מציאה שאינו בערך היגיעה, ואינו צריך אלא לכופף עצמו ולהגבי' את המציאה

 (ער דארף זיך אנבויגן און דאס אויפהויבן)

"That is to say, with toil will come an understanding of a higher magnitude than the effort that was invested for it, and all he need do is bend down and pick it up."

________________________

(Segment from the Rebbe's Ma-amar of ש"פ חוקת, אדר"ח תמוז ה'תשד"מ   

"והי' מדי חדש בחדשו")

Truth as We See It

A popular "Redemption blog" stripped my blog from its blog roll. The claim for this action was that my blog "distances Jews from Judaism" (in saying the Rebbe is Moshiach). The absurdity of that claim I addressed elsewhere.

I want to add another reason for this implausibility. As per the Rambam (Avodah Zarah 2:3), "A man's intellect is diminutive; And not all intellects can grasp the clarity of truth. Were every man to follow his own intellect, the world would be destroyed by his shortness of intellect .... And regarding this issue the Torah warned, where it says, 'And don't stray following your hearts ...', that is to say, each individual should refrain following his short intellect, where he thinks his thoughts concur with the truth!"

Then why, one can ask, would Chassidus demand of us to ponder with our bovine intellect the foundations of our beliefs, if, in fact, we are short on intellect and cannot perceive the truth with our small minds?

The answer is simple. You cannot lay foundation of a belief based on your own personal intellect. You first learn what the Torah regards as the true belief, and what the belief has been of our Rebbeim. Only thereafter must a Chabad chassid contemplate and sweat, with the help of chassidus literature, in order to understand THAT BELIEF, with his entire intellectual capacity.

(Otherwise, you do as the Reformists among us do; Use their own minds as the determinant of truth.)

And if the Rebbe himself asked us - his "soldiers" - to further disseminate his message, (to accept him as Moshiach), it would be foolish of us to second-guess the Rebbe and think that by following through with his request we will thereby distance Jews from Judaism, G-d forbid!

If anything, Jews have never ever been so attuned to the Era of Redemption as they are today. The very fact that you have "Redemption blogs" bristling with hungry readers looking for any sign that points to Moshiach's imminent arrival, no matter what stream of orthodoxy they come from, tells you people are hungry for Redemption, conditioned for Moshiach. Even well-heeled Jews too today realize the superficiality of the Diaspora and yearn for the truth that only the Ultimate Geulah can render.

This is a special period in Jewish history, where Chassidus has awakened Jewry from centuries of deep slumber and now, in the last 7 (or 9) generations, has paved the way for Moshiach's imminent exposure, and to a new way of life, one the world was created for in the first place.

The Key to Bringing Moshiach Now!

23 years ago, the Rebbe shook his audience of thousands to the core. He dispatched his emissaries with a new set of marching orders. He called this new mission "the gate through which all outreach activity must pass through from now on!” (ספר השיחות ה'תשנ''ב, pp. 110-111).

He recalled a previous, long-standing mission, that of disseminating chassidic wellsprings, and said it was a mission accomplished! This in itself was newsworthy and significant.

But now, said he, there remains one last mission to see through, and that is to accept the countenance of Moshiach (לקבל פני משיח). He said this key mission will enable Moshiach to redeem all Jews from exile!

To put this mission in better perspective, consider what Maimonides asked of the Jew. He wrote, a Jew must "... believe in Moshiach ... he will come any day, and even if he tarries, … will still await him.” 

But now the Rebbe ratcheted up this preparedness from a dormant, inactive “waiting" state to one that calls for action. The Rebbe said, "Your task is to accept the countenance of Moshiach"!

Accepting is a far cry from just waiting. Moreover, he thereby effectively told Jewish people it was up to them to bring Moshiach! If Jews wanted Moshiach - it was their responsibility to bring him! They could not be passive observers! As for what Maimonides said, that waiting was over with. He had come. So waiting for him was over with. Now - said the Rebbe - they must “accept him!”

As the Rebbe said to Chief Rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Eliyahu, ע''ה, in 1992, "The redemption is at the door's threshold and awaits for every Jew to open the door and drag the redemption in!” 

In other words, there's no more “waiting”; Jews now have to “drag” Redemption into becoming a reality. Jews were now given an active role to play in the phenomenon! 

And just what did the Rebbe mean by “to accept the countenance of Moshiach!"”?

To this Chabad chassid it means to say - acknowledge that the Rebbe is Moshiach! As if to say, “Accept me!"

(Had the Rebbe simply said our task is "to receive Moshiach" (לקבל משיח), omitting the word "countenance" (פני), there would have been no point to that. How can we "accept" someone we don't know? To just say "receive Moshiach" removes the identity factor! It makes no sense to accept someone who remains unidentified. The action expected of the Jew from now on would then fall flat on its face.)

Some ask, especially to skirt commitment, then why didn’t the Rebbe just come out and simply say, “I am Moshiach”?

For one thing, the responsibility for having a king rests on the Jewish people themselves! It is up to them! There is no Jewish king unless Jews grant the king his sovereignty. (See here regarding the lesson David learned from Avigayil.)

Another reason the Rebbe could never just come out and say "I am Moshiach” is here explained. In his essence, Moshiach is the most humble of all people on the face of the earth.

This new responsibility we Jews were given recalls a similar episode in the past, when David was anointed as the new king of Israel by the prophet Shmuel. At the time King Saul had not yet been dethroned. In fact, David ended up with no more than some 600 “followers”. Not until 7 years later did David finally become king over all of Israel proper. 

Jews have been squandering this opportunity to crown for themselves a King Moshiach! It’s now been 23 years. How much longer must we wait?

All We Have are the Words of בן עמרם

Jews are believers and children of believers.

There exist moments in a chassid’s life when reminders help him stand firm about a supernatural belief inspired by his rabbi, one that otherwise would fly in the face of reality were we to measure reality simply with our fleshy receptors. Such reminders keep us separate from non-believers who would consider things strictly from Nature’s perspective. A Jew, after all, wears supernatural lenses.

That this rabbi happens to be the Rebbe of Lubavitch is not insignificant, for he is the Moses of OUR Generation!

We have such a reminder in this week’s Korach portion of the Torah.

During an argument between Aaron and the Angel of Death, we overhear Aaron say to the Angel something that ought not escape our attention. He said (see Rashi, Num. 17:13),

אין משה אומר כלום מלבו אלא מפי הגבורה

"Moses (of the generation) does not say anything of his own but that which he hears from God!”

Note how Aaron does not simply make a positive statement. Rather, he makes his point more emphatically. Note his assertion's incisive, unequivocal and resolute tenor - “does not say anything but”!

You can see the difference when you compare these two statements:
I drink tea.
I drink nothing but tea.
The latter uses the assertive language of exclusivity.

Similarly in our case. The Rebbe’s words continue to resonate with his chassidim (much more so than with those who were distant from him). We know the Rebbe spoke only that which the divine wanted him to say, to the point of excluding anything else!

He told us we are beyond the threshold of the Era of Redemption! Do we SEE Redemption? What we see or don’t see does not change the facts.

He also implored us to “open our eyes” to see the Redemptive events unfold - at least with our mind’s eye! He wanted us to believe him even though the world did not SEEM to be in the state he said it was in.

The Rebbe never gave false forecasts. And with regard to such a grand assertion - that we have entered the Era of Redemption - only a fool can think the Rebbe did not know what he was speaking about, or that he made a mistake, or that he was really just praying.

All the Rebbe said will happen will happen. If only things were more clearly visible for us already now!

(The Rambam too spoke of the first phase of Geulah as proceeding under the guise of "normalcy" - "עולם כמנהגו נוהג" [Melachim 12:1]. Thus we hear sad news too, such as the kidnapping of Jewish boys by scum of the earth. Apparently, while the view among the trees remains painful, the view from above the jungle delivers a rosy picture nevertheless and tells an altogether different story.)

The Perfect Conduit

Many Jews will agree that: "According to Judaism, we do not need intermediaries between ourselves and G-d".

Surprisingly, this is incorrect! We need a King to make a better connection with Hashem. The "Moses of the Generation" holds this very special role as leader of the Jewish people.

God could just as well have taken the Jews out of Egypt WITHOUT a Moses! He could have done all those miracles, and then some, to make the Egyptians chase the Jews from their presence, but, in fact, that's not the way Hashem proceeded. He wanted a "Moses" for every generation.

That's the way Hashem designed the Jewish collective body. IT NEEDS A HEAD, as sure as the individual himself needs a head. And that head exists whether the Jew knows it or not!

Hashem provides the Jewish nation with a "conduit" to reach Him. Without that conduit, the spiritual component of the bond between Hashem and His people could not sustain itself otherwise. Something in the connection will snap if that conduit were absent. The Jewish king or leader in every generation, as Moshe said (Devarim 5:5), stands between Hashem and the Jew to establish an unmitigated bond:

אנכי עמד בין ה' וביניכם

For that bond to Hashem to be intimate, so we do what He wants of us, as in doing His commandments, we need superb motivation and, most importantly, we need plenty of humility to accept God's yoke upon us. The King makes that self-nullification process in the Jew easier to render. The "Moses of the Generation", as a mediator between the Jew and God, is a very special "conduit".

All conduits, by their nature, automatically impose an element of "self" that compromises the channel, even if slightly. In Chassidut, this concept they call "a compromising conduit". A physical analogy could be the "friction" the conduit places on fluid that passes through the conduit to get from one compartment to the next. However slight the friction by this intermediary pipe, it still offers resistance to the flow.

Thus ALL conduits inflict some measure of "interference" when mediating between parties because the mediator has his own personality that cannot become irrelevant; To behave as if he were physically absent is an impossibility and therefore the mediation is less than 100% perfect.

The Moses of the generation is the sole mediator who can mediate with complete self-nullification, without getting his own interests to conflict whatsoever with the needs of the Jew. Only the Moses of the generation is the perfect, frictionless conduit to secure the unbreakable bond between Jew and Hashem.

A Misguided View of Moshiach

Like the fanciful story of a pot of gold, the belief among a few Jews that "The Messiah" references some worldly idealistic epoch about to appear without an individual Jewish hero - is apocryphal! Even some believers who pray in shuls have this mistaken notion.

No illusion can be further from the truth. That era cannot exclude the necessary appearance of a single Jew - the redeemer.

The Torah, the Prophets and our sages often provide testimonials of the individual known as King Moshiach, a person just as was Moses.

One of the 13 Principles of the Rambam reads, "I believe ... in the coming of Moshiach, and even if he TARRIES, I'll still wait for HIM." The words "tarry" and "him" refer to a live human being, not a dead idea.

Moshiach will be a Jewish redeemer, a great leader, who stems from the Tribe of Yehuda - more particularly, from the seed of King David. According to Gemora, thought of his creation preceded creation of the world. He epitomizes the purpose the world was created for in the first place.

The Papal Visit - The Rebbe's View

Apparently‪,‬ a group of Jews went to visit the pope in 1987. Regarding this event, the Rebbe spoke harsh words.

After the current pope's visit to Israel, where he met with chief rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef, I'm sure the same measure of repugnancy is due.

Here's a rough translation of some paragraphs the Rebbe spoke during a farbrengen, 6 days into the New Year 5748

תורת מנחם התוועדויות תשמ''ח - חלק א

6 Tishrei, page 111

"Last year there occurred an alarming event. Some who purport to speak on behalf of the Jewish public, as they themselves profess, went and behaved shockingly, of issues that relate to idolatry (עבודה זרה), which happens to be one of the 3 prohibitions of which it says 'You cannot pass it off, even should consequences lead to the opposite of life'.

"To make matters worse, they parade this affair in a blaze of publicity ... saying they saved face of Israel's respect, and will have brought eternal kindness towards Israel, as if no words can express the praise related to that famous meeting! Which, by the way, includes kissing of hands and fingers, calling each other in politically correct titles - issues of idolatry ... In addition, they flaunt their behavior as an ultimate achievement for the Jewish public's sake.

"And all this while we do not see Muslims or Buddhists chasing after him so hard. Yet nobody raises even the slightest objection!

"Although some show of protest was observed, it came through as a whisper because it was hushed up, in hope the fuss would be forgotten.

"They continue to hold their hand out, hoping to gain even more exposure, after having gained so much already ... and who is there to tell them to stop!

"Therefore, the only counsel to prevent this happening in the future is for those who can speak in the name of Torah and in the language of Torah to heed the words, 'Before mockers feel no shame' and go out to make an outcry against this.

"They must start with the positive and express, without hysteria, what real Judaism asserts. And even though 'You are a nation of a few', 'we have an Old Man behind us' - our Father in heaven, and even though 'Israel is separated and scattered among the nations', it is 'one nation'. On the contrary, because Jews are 'one nation', they were saved of all the impurities, and this is their importance - that 'their religion is unlike all other religions.'"

G-d's Imprint on Man

Inert matter cannot move on its own. Plant life can move by growing, but remains attached to the earth below. Animals were given freedom to wonder. Humans have, in addition, intellect to reason with.

Given that intellect, let's ask: What gives the human being that unique feeling of "independence" he feels as he goes about his daily life and daily business?

After all, in truth, he too is tethered to Nature's requirements to sustain his life. Nevertheless he seems to FEEL, after he replenishes his temporary needs for sustenance with gifts of Nature, as if he truly is an independent psychological nomad. During most of his waking hours, man usually feels he's the sole governor of his "free-wheeling" life.

Why should man be imbued with this feeling, when in fact empirically it isn't true? He is relatively more free from his immediate environment than is the stone, flower or cat, but wherefrom did that rather false notion of "freedom" he bears come from; Where COULD that come from?

To answer the question, we look for an analogy. A human can calculate. He then can create a computer to do calculations for him.

Similarly, G-d is independent. G-d is All There Is, and nothing BUT He exists. This is why and how He could imbue all us creatures with that "feeling" of independence. It is not true we are independent, but that illusory independence is at least "felt" to be true.

Just as a computer calculates based on code it received by human programmers, the human being can "feel independent" because that's how G-d wired him up - to resemble "the divine image by which he was created"

ויברא אלהים את האדם בצלמו, בצלם אלהים ברא אתו

(Gen. 1:27)

The name "Adam" can derive from the root word Adamah (earth); But it also derives from the root verb Adame (to resemble), "אדמה לעליון", in that man resembles the Creator in certain ways ‫-‬ as in feeling independent, having intellect or reasoning power, even given the power to procreate.

Rumor re: 5775

A discussion is brewing online within the Groner family, שיחי''ו (Rabbi Leibel Groner was one of the Rebbe's secretaries).

The story is that the Alter Rebbe was once reading from Pekudei 38:28, which mentions the sum of 1775 talents collected.

ואת האלף ושבע המאות וחמשה ושבעים

Instead of reading the "hei" of "ha-elef" (the thousand) with a "patach", he read it with a "tzeirei" (which turns the letter "hei" into 5).

When the Alter Rebbe read it as “5775” his Gabbai corrected him. The Alter Rebbe then said again “5775”, to which the Gabbai once again corrected him. This repeated itself 4 times. Thereafter the Alter Rebbe went into deep meditation. When he quit his meditation he opened his eyes and whispered to the Gabbai that “5775” had something to do with the coming of Moshiach.

Rabbi Groner verifies the authenticity of the Rebbe previously revealing this story to at least one of his secretaries.

It is believed this story's source comes from an as yet unknown "Polish" sefer.

(And, as a blogger Rafi points out, here, 5775 = תשועה
and "every time the word תשועה is mentioned in Tanach, it always has to do with David. No exceptions.")

That's David as in "משיח בן דוד".

Let's hope the Alter Rebbe's prophetic story is confirmed.
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This link, however, says the 5775 issue best!

"Have Moshiach - Will Travel"

The Rebbe, the Moses of our generation (the 9th Nassi since the Ba'al Shem Tov‫(‬ is the "Head of the Jewish People",
 "ראש  בני  ישראל"
as the acronym of his title suggests.

He is the אתפשטותא דמשה in this generation and
גואל ראשון הוא גואל אחרון

Just as the head, which contains the brain, connects (via neurons) to all parts of the body, from head to toe, similarly the collective head of the Jewish body too connects with and reaches out to every Jewish soul, the world over.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe connects with every Jew. In any of Nature's infinite ways, the Rebbe can reach and touch every Jew, each in his own unique way.

The infrastructure to accommodate the Era of Final Redemption meanwhile stands in waiting. The technology to broadcast his revelation to every corner of the world is a few tweaks away from operation.

The Rebbe stands between God and the Jewish people as the perfect conduit for shepherding the faith of the Jewish people. The role of Moses, which is the role of the Rebbe, is to imbue every Jew with knowledge of and pure faith in G-d.

The Rebbe did his part, in that everything is primed for debut of the the final phase of redemption. Now "the ball is in the Jewish people's court" - for them to shape themselves into the final collective vessel. Every Jew can be switched "on" to Moshiach - if he wants.

The last thing left for Jewish people to do - is to accept the Rebbe as their redeemer, so he can assume his sovereign role (eg: link). Our sages tell us (not as crudely as I say it here) that, if there ain't no people to make him king of, then king he cannot be.

Recall the time King David, already anointed in public by Shmuel the Prophet, was on his way to kill Naval for insubordination. But the wife of his intended target deliberately crossed his path and reminded David that although he qualified as King, he was not yet officially king because the majority of Jews in Israel had not yet accepted him as such (See King David's Delayed Inauguration). King David acknowledged the truth she bore and turned back. He could not yet behave as king, even though his role already received divine sanction.

The Rebbe worked a lifetime to render his heartfelt mission. Already in early childhood he dreamed of Moshiach's arrival to redeem the nation. Since day 1 when he first took over the Chabad dynasty in 1950, he poured out tons of Chassidus, founded Jewish organizations and promoted Jewish awareness of the Redemption Era (which now most accept). He brought hundreds of thousands back to the religious fold and meanwhile planted his emissaries in every corner of the world.

The reason Chassidut blossomed in the world was to put into action a new tool to help effect the ultimate change the world requires. Chassidut opened the floodgates of a once secretive Kaballah and brought into the world a new light by which the coming generations will foster that transition. The 7th generation from the Alter Rebbe (or 9th from the Ba'al Shem Tov) merits today to finalize that transformation from exile into the Final and Ultimate Era of Redemption. For many years before that Moshiach was taboo or an esoteric yearning, far from a popular idea. The chassidic Rebbeim changed all that. The deep slumber of Jews in the diaspora has been shaken off. Every Jew today is ready to "travel" and hop on the bandwagon of Geulah.

All Jews carry business cards that read: "Have Moshaich - Will Travel!"

The Final and Ultimate Geulah can happen if every Jew or Jewish family would just do a little something towards the Geulah to crack it wide open already.

Who Owns the Torah?

Heard this anecdote worth repeating regarding the holiday of Shavuot.

On Shavuot we mark the holiday as the "wedding" of the Jewish people to Torah.

In a wedding ceremony, the bride is easily recognizable to all, whereas the groom looks very much like every other man around. The only way to know certainly who the groom is is to see who takes home the bride after the ceremony.

Similarly, regarding Shavuot, to know who really owns the Torah, who really marries Torah - it is he or she who takes the Torah "home" with them; That is, those who internalize this holy book's agenda.