Or perhaps this one?
11/29/07
The Great Debate - To be Eccentric or not to be...
John Stuart Mill – “It does seem, however, that when the opinions of masses of merely average men are everywhere become or becoming the dominant power, the counterpoise and corrective to that tendency would be the more and more pronounced individuality of those who stand on the higher eminences of thought. It is in these circumstances most especially, that exceptional individuals, instead of being deterred, should be encouraged in acting differently from the mass. In other times, there was no advantage in doing so, unless they acted not only differently but better. In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.”
James Fitzjames Stephen – “Eccentricity is far more often a sign of weakness than a mark of strength. Weakness wishes, as a rule, to attract attention by trifling distinctions, and strength wishes to avoid it. Originality consists in thinking for yourself, not in thinking differently from other people.”
Rebbe's Victory Niggun :one eyewitnesses account
In times of darkness I do not despair. When faced with adversity and all else has failed I have my Rebbe's niggun. Every true believer in the revolution knows the battle cry known merely as the Rebbe's vicotry niggun. It has become a sort of theme song to the revolution. If Rebbe had a sitcom it would play during the introduction. It can be sung at the height of our happiness, it has been proven to hasten Rebbe's arrival at weddings, and it is the ultimate weapon to achieve victory over the yetzer harah. It has also been known to shatter tables in half at weddings in the midwest. But where did the niggun originate you ask? Some say it was the theme to a sixties tv show, others claim it is the intro to an mbd song, but I know the truth because I was there! We all were there! It happened a few years back on chanukah. We were at Rebbe's house on the second night of chanukah enjoying a festive meal complete with sufganiyot and bananas. and we all began singing. (let it be known that there were many foreign nationals present at rebbe's crib that night) I began to play and it was apparent to me very early on that I was merely the kli and rebbe was actually strumming the strings to the guitar and orchestrating the melody. I know this because we began to sing a melody that I have never heard before yet I was strumming the guitar with my fingers! We began ay yay ay dei di day dai ay yay ay yay yahy yahwjvgy and rebbe began slowly revealing the ohr haganuz (hidden light stored up for the rightous people in the world to come. It shown for 36 hours before the sun was put into pplace and g-d didn't want the evil forces to tamper with it so he stashed it away. bnei yissoscher says these 36 hours are revealed during chanukah when we light 36 candles, rebbe has also told be that if you squint and watch the neros chanukah "you will see something you have never seen before". Back to the rebbe's house the klipot began to tamper with the niggun as they realized it was an existential threat to all the darkness and tried to snatch the ohr haganuz which had fabricated itself in the niggun. Hence the title victory niggun. With the nigguns birth rebbe helped klal yisrael achieve yet another victory over the satan and keep the hidden light concealed. Let it be noted that the niggun exists in a damaged state. There where three parts to the niggun. Tradition has it that the three parts corresponde to the three temples. Only two parts to the niggun were retained while the third part has been stored away until the building of the third temple.Amen! After the mesibah we produced the first raw version of the niggun at danimals pad and I will try to post that if I can dig it up in the archives, perhaps our historians can get to work on finding that and various other versions of the niggun(I think yogo has a copy of the punk rock version) and I even think shwecky may have covered the niggun in his miami beach pesach tour.
11/28/07
ON THE FRONT LINE!
"
we were taught to be hard to survive in this world
if you dont like my ways then whatever you all
this is a call to the rebels of today
to unite be counted and really be heard
11/27/07
11/25/07
11/21/07
11/19/07
Rebbe's Cavalry and Honor Guard
Due to recent threats directed towards the Revolution, the Ministry of Defense is currently organizing a cavalry regiment to escort Rebbe.The Machine Gun Fodder, however, will continue to walk.
Rebbe Colored Glasses
I'm wondering why we didn't pool our resources in time to buy these incredibly stylish and holy glasses.... Where is the Minister of Finance when you need him?
Label your blog posts!
Friends,
I have added the "label" function. Thus, if you are posting photos, add the label "photos", if you are adding parsha, add that label, etc. This way, as the blog grows, it will become easy to find a certain type of posting.
Wishing you all a wonderful week!
Danimal
I have added the "label" function. Thus, if you are posting photos, add the label "photos", if you are adding parsha, add that label, etc. This way, as the blog grows, it will become easy to find a certain type of posting.
Wishing you all a wonderful week!
Danimal
11/16/07
Vayeitze – Rebbe Reichman - Shem Mishmuel
Vayeitze – Rebbe Reichman - Shem Mishmuel
(transcribed by Dan-- all errors and typo's are mine. )
As Yaakov left Be’er Sheva to exile, he went to sleep on Mount Moriah and had a dream. There was a ladder whose feet were on the ground, and whose top reached to the very heavens. Hashem’s angels were going up and down the ladder. Then, Hashem appears, and tells Yaakov He will protect him on this trip, and return him to Israel. The image of the angels going up and down must be explained. Rashi says that we are dealing with two sets of angels. Those of Eretz Yisrael (E’Y), and Chutz La’aretz. Those of EY protect him while he is in the land, and those of Chul protect him when he is out of the land.
The Shem Mishmuel (SM) has a problem: the way the verse in Rashi explained the switching of the “guard,” first the angels of Israel go back to heaven, then the CHul angels come down to protect Yaakov as he leaves the land. The question is, there seems to be a point in time where Yaakov has no angels! There is a point in time where Yaakov is alone! He doesn’t have either set of angels to protect him.
Further, Shabbat chaf gimmel discusses a similar changing of the guard as they march through the desert after leaving Egypt. The passuk in Shmot says: during the day there was a cloud of Hashem, and at night a pillar of fire led the way at night for the Jewish people. There, the verse seems to say that these two entities are together when there is a changing of the guard. In the late afternoon, the cloud was there and the fire would come, and vice versa in the morning. The gemara says: “the cloud was together with the fire at some point” and vice versa. Wouldn’t it have made more sense then, for the angels of EY to wait for Yaakov, and wait for the Chul angels to come down, so that Yaakov will never be alone?
In fact, when Yaakov returns to EY, he meets a camp of angels. Yaakov sees the camp of angels, and calls it “Machana’im.” Rashi says: “two camps, one for EY, and one for Chul.” The angels greeted him while the other set was still with him. The old guard and the new guard were both present at a certain moment. He is always with angels. Why is it, that when he leaves EY, its not like that? At the White House, that’s how it would be!
Shem Mishmuel asks another question on top of this: does Yaakov really need angels to protect him? We read in the beginning of next week’s parsha that Yaakov meets a very strange man and has a fight with him. He defeats his adversary, and he says “give me a blessing.” The man says: “I will change your name to Israel, becuase you fought angels and men and you were successful.” We therefore see that this person was really an evil angel. An angel of Esav that came to fight Yaakov. It was a physical/spiritual battle. Yaakov can now beat an angel! He is stronger than angels! So why does he need the protection of angels in EY and Chul? A Tzaddik is greater than an angel.
There is a famous story about the Vilna Gaon, he was approached by an angel and asked to learn Torah with the angel. He said no! He knew Torah better than the angel! In every womb, a Jewish child is learning Torah. In Bila’am’s prophecies, Rashi says that when Israel is asked “what does G-d do?”, Rashi says that this refers to angels in Heaven asking men what does G-d do? Men have an ability to become GREATER than angels. Of course, we as men can also become worse than animals! However, we have the ability to be greater than angels! So, why does Yaakov need angels? He is Ish Tam, Tamim, perfection, he doesn’t need angels.
Shem Mishmuel says as follows: Rashi says in this weeks parsha that Yaakov took from the stones of the place and placed them around him and slept. Then, after the dream, that Yaakov took the single stone, and made it into a monument, and poured oil on it to commemorate his vision of Hashem’s protection. The change from singular to plural is explained by Rashi as a fight between the stones. All the stones fought over who would be under Y’s head. They all became one stone so that every stone could have the honor to support Y’s head. Y had been in the house of Lavan for 20 years, and he used to sleep in the fields with the sheep to protect them. There, there is no mention of a fight among the stones! It seems that when he was taking care of sheep, there was no fight among the stones. What is it about this moment in Yaakov’s life?
S”M explains that there is a statement made by R’ Chaim Vital. Great Kabbalist, one of the founders of the Kabala. He said: when a baby has a brit milah, he is gifted by Hashem with a “total soul.” Everything a human being could wish for—biological, emotional spiritual and intellectual components of the soul, in their complete and total potential and strength. This takes place during the milah. However, right after the milah happens, this complete soul goes away, and the baby is left with the soul of an infant, and it takes many many years for an infant to grow, and age, and complete and perfect the soul to go back to the way it was at the bris. It’s a lifetime of work to go back to the baby’s perfection after the bris. This is a fantastic and important principle. There is a moment at the beginning of life-defining experiences where one has a moment of perfection and then that goes away, and one spends a lifetime trying to regain that perfection. On the night the Jews left Egypt, the night of Seder night was a perfect night. Filled with light, no darkness for the Jews. A night that turned into day. The Jews were inspired even in the surroundings of filth and degradation of slavery, as if they were in Jerusalem as if they were in the Temple. According to the Targum Yonasan, every Jew flew there and ate their Korban Pesach. Every Jew was a king and a prince. A en Chorin, close to the Ribono Shel Olam, as if they had gone through 100 years of spiritual perfection. A taste of what it meant to be princes of Hashem. It was a difficult test to remain faithful at the sea! It was a far cry from the way every Jew felt at the seder night! The Jewish people came out with a strong and outstretched arm, fearless and confident in G-d’s protection and salvation, however, 7 days later, they feared the Egyptians! We see the same process at Har Sinai, 49 days after leaving Egypt. The giving of the Torah was given to a perfect people. A people which was free of all illnesses, fully believing, was able to say the magnificent statement “Naaseh Ve’Nishmah”—we are absolutely committed to Dvar Hashem. But 40 short days later, the Jewish people are faceed with tremendous spiritual downfall—golden calf—licentiousness, MURDER! Old habits come back!!! Trememndous power of belief is needed to withstand the difficulties of life. Its not the same as it was in the time of Matan Torah. 40 days later, it was real life, and real life was hard.
There is an amazing process which takes place, and that is that at the beginning of a process, Hashem in amazing kindness and goodness, gives a person a vision and experience of everything good that can come out of this process. The night of Pesach, Jews felt and saw what it meant to be a holy nation, to be in Jerusalem, at Sinai, the Jews so to speak saw Hashem! To be privy to hear G-d’s word Himself! A whole nation!! 600,000 men plus women and children!
As we struggle through the daily challenges and vicicitudes of life, and we have to reclimb the mountain, we can remember the beginning of the process. We experience it on seder night! Like the baby at the bris, but then Hashem says: ok, you are now in the valley, or dark forest, and you have to struggle. Sometimes in this forest, there are no markers, and Hashem says: find your way through the forest, and to the mountain, and its going to be hard to find it and climb it. There will be many great challenges, but you MUST climb, and you will re-experience what you tasted at the beginning.
This experience of the beginning of something and then the struggle afterwards is trye of everything in life. Take marriage: the first night of marriage is the happiest night of life! Joy, bliss, friendship, love, peace, all the wonderful thing which a person wants in their life. This is the first night of marriage. But then, it goes away, after a week, a month, a year, five years, but its not the same. For some people, the next morning its not the same. Its not SUPPOSED to be the same. The wedding night is a gift! Hashem puts the young couple at the top of a mountain, to see what it would be to have a perfect marriage, to see what it would be to have all the love and joy and peace and that is a gift of Hashem. Then, it goes away. Hashem wants the couple to struggle through the long windy road through the forest, and climb the mountain again. It may take 10, 20, 50 years to recapture the beauty, bliss, sanctity and love of wedding night.
When a person opens up a new business, what excitement! The first dollar, shekel, yen, he puts in a frame, full of simcha, joy. SO many people come in, friend congratulate him, he opens up his new store. A few days later, the store is empty. He has to face the rough and tumble life of a businessman. The first day joy is no longer.
As a teacher of students I can tell you, theres nothing like the first day of school—so much excitement—it’s the beginning! The top of the mountain. But 6 months later, its a lot of tired harried students, struggling to make it.
Why does Hashem do this? My own theory, not in the Shem Mishmuel, is this: A person is about to embark on a long, life-defining road. Torah, Business, Education, Marriage. These are long difficult roads, very hard roads, many ups and downs and curves, sometimes we fall and must pick ourselves up and go on. What will give us the strength to do this? What will permit us not to give in, not to throw in the towel, but to say, I’m going on no MATTE R WHAT!? What gives us this strength?
Its because we see the dream at the beginning. We Jews were at Sinai. We left Egypt. That original experience which Hashem gave us to see the glory and the blessing of total success, on the very first night of the wedding, the couple celebrates as if they were married for a hundred years, as though they have 300 grandchildren! Hashem gives people this experience at the beginning of life-defining processes so that we will have the strength to go through the entire process along the way. So we will have the vision
Shlomo Carlebach tells us: G-d gives us wonderful prophecies.
The joy of a newborn baby!!! But what happens when the baby is rebelling at 16 years old? Not such a wonderful experience. But at the beginning, Hashem tells s: “love this baby! It is going to be HARD. But the struggle is WORTH IT!! Have the joy now at the beginning of the road, so that it will give you the strength to go through the difficulties which follow.”
The passuk says “zacharti lach chessed neurayich… lechtech acharai bamidbar…” As you Jews go through difficult times, unfaithful to its father in Heaven, its Husband and most loyal supporter, we have have not been faithful, and Hashem says: remember the beginning of the road, the beginning of our relationship as G-d and Nation. There was a love of the wedding night! That’s what Hashem says. If Hashem Himself uses this inspiration to keep HIS dedication us, when WE, unfortunately betray Him, he says, NO. I WILL NOT ABANDON YOU. I am loyal. I know that the dream which we had at the beginning is worth it. I remember our Chuppa.
Rabbosai, getting back to Yaakov. Why was Yaakov able to be alone without angels, when he had the great dream? Because this was the beginning of the road, the juncture for Yaakov to go down the long, hard road of life, during which he would develop from Yaakov, the simple young boy struggling with his brother Esav, to become the amazing Tzaddik, called Yisrael, who, 20 years later, can defeat the angel in hand to hand combat. At the very beginning of the road, Hashem gives him a vision of what he CAN BECOME. Right now, he isnt at all like that! He needs angels to protect him. Because he was only Yaakov, only at the beginning of the road. But Hashem said, for one moment, Yaakov, you have to become a Yisrael. So, for one moment, I will give you the experience of Yisrael, you will be without any angels. You will see them going up, because you won’t NEED them, you will be alone! After this, he went poor, helpless, penniless to attempt to navigate his destiny. But for a moment, he was given this vision of what he could become.
Chazal said: when the angels came down to see Yaakov, they said: the throne in heaven has a picture of a human being there, and the picture is of this person, Yaakov! At that point, he was a plain person, but he was for a moment given the vision of what he could become.
It’s a long, hard, difficult road and mountain to climb. But it is worth it. There are difficult things to achieve, but the glimpse, the vision of what lies ahead gives the strength to carry through until attainment.
At the end of our parsha, it says “yaakov was alone.” He had achieved his goal. He was levado, without angels. Shem Mishmuel says something remarkable—every one of us, every Friday night, has a taste of this experience. We come home from shul, and when we come home from shul, we are accompanied by angels, the angels of Shabbos. We sing a song to them, who has sent you to me? Hashem. Then, we say, boachem, borchuni leshalom! Even before Kiddush, we say, Tzeischem leshalom! Very strange! They come, bless us, and leave!? Shem Mishmuel says: we know that Shabbat is the day of Yaakov, and that Yaakov was greater than angels, and didn’t need angels. So too, on Shabbos, we begin with angels, but when we come home, and the angels see the shabbos that the Jew has, they say, this is greater than us. The Jew has gone higher. I can’t accompany. The jew on shabbos is alone with Hashem, no angels. So we say, Tzeitchem leshalom. We say to the angels, we are beyond you, we are going to be with Hashem. It reminds me of the yichud of the chassan and kalah, as they leave behind the whole entourage of the chuppah, and go into the yichud room.
And so, Rabbotai, appreciate the sweet vision and experience of shabbos, which precedes the week—what we can become, so high, so beautiful. We should be zoche of the bracha of Yisrael, of Chassan and Kallah, of Sasson and Simcha. Shabbat Shalom.
(transcribed by Dan-- all errors and typo's are mine. )
As Yaakov left Be’er Sheva to exile, he went to sleep on Mount Moriah and had a dream. There was a ladder whose feet were on the ground, and whose top reached to the very heavens. Hashem’s angels were going up and down the ladder. Then, Hashem appears, and tells Yaakov He will protect him on this trip, and return him to Israel. The image of the angels going up and down must be explained. Rashi says that we are dealing with two sets of angels. Those of Eretz Yisrael (E’Y), and Chutz La’aretz. Those of EY protect him while he is in the land, and those of Chul protect him when he is out of the land.
The Shem Mishmuel (SM) has a problem: the way the verse in Rashi explained the switching of the “guard,” first the angels of Israel go back to heaven, then the CHul angels come down to protect Yaakov as he leaves the land. The question is, there seems to be a point in time where Yaakov has no angels! There is a point in time where Yaakov is alone! He doesn’t have either set of angels to protect him.
Further, Shabbat chaf gimmel discusses a similar changing of the guard as they march through the desert after leaving Egypt. The passuk in Shmot says: during the day there was a cloud of Hashem, and at night a pillar of fire led the way at night for the Jewish people. There, the verse seems to say that these two entities are together when there is a changing of the guard. In the late afternoon, the cloud was there and the fire would come, and vice versa in the morning. The gemara says: “the cloud was together with the fire at some point” and vice versa. Wouldn’t it have made more sense then, for the angels of EY to wait for Yaakov, and wait for the Chul angels to come down, so that Yaakov will never be alone?
In fact, when Yaakov returns to EY, he meets a camp of angels. Yaakov sees the camp of angels, and calls it “Machana’im.” Rashi says: “two camps, one for EY, and one for Chul.” The angels greeted him while the other set was still with him. The old guard and the new guard were both present at a certain moment. He is always with angels. Why is it, that when he leaves EY, its not like that? At the White House, that’s how it would be!
Shem Mishmuel asks another question on top of this: does Yaakov really need angels to protect him? We read in the beginning of next week’s parsha that Yaakov meets a very strange man and has a fight with him. He defeats his adversary, and he says “give me a blessing.” The man says: “I will change your name to Israel, becuase you fought angels and men and you were successful.” We therefore see that this person was really an evil angel. An angel of Esav that came to fight Yaakov. It was a physical/spiritual battle. Yaakov can now beat an angel! He is stronger than angels! So why does he need the protection of angels in EY and Chul? A Tzaddik is greater than an angel.
There is a famous story about the Vilna Gaon, he was approached by an angel and asked to learn Torah with the angel. He said no! He knew Torah better than the angel! In every womb, a Jewish child is learning Torah. In Bila’am’s prophecies, Rashi says that when Israel is asked “what does G-d do?”, Rashi says that this refers to angels in Heaven asking men what does G-d do? Men have an ability to become GREATER than angels. Of course, we as men can also become worse than animals! However, we have the ability to be greater than angels! So, why does Yaakov need angels? He is Ish Tam, Tamim, perfection, he doesn’t need angels.
Shem Mishmuel says as follows: Rashi says in this weeks parsha that Yaakov took from the stones of the place and placed them around him and slept. Then, after the dream, that Yaakov took the single stone, and made it into a monument, and poured oil on it to commemorate his vision of Hashem’s protection. The change from singular to plural is explained by Rashi as a fight between the stones. All the stones fought over who would be under Y’s head. They all became one stone so that every stone could have the honor to support Y’s head. Y had been in the house of Lavan for 20 years, and he used to sleep in the fields with the sheep to protect them. There, there is no mention of a fight among the stones! It seems that when he was taking care of sheep, there was no fight among the stones. What is it about this moment in Yaakov’s life?
S”M explains that there is a statement made by R’ Chaim Vital. Great Kabbalist, one of the founders of the Kabala. He said: when a baby has a brit milah, he is gifted by Hashem with a “total soul.” Everything a human being could wish for—biological, emotional spiritual and intellectual components of the soul, in their complete and total potential and strength. This takes place during the milah. However, right after the milah happens, this complete soul goes away, and the baby is left with the soul of an infant, and it takes many many years for an infant to grow, and age, and complete and perfect the soul to go back to the way it was at the bris. It’s a lifetime of work to go back to the baby’s perfection after the bris. This is a fantastic and important principle. There is a moment at the beginning of life-defining experiences where one has a moment of perfection and then that goes away, and one spends a lifetime trying to regain that perfection. On the night the Jews left Egypt, the night of Seder night was a perfect night. Filled with light, no darkness for the Jews. A night that turned into day. The Jews were inspired even in the surroundings of filth and degradation of slavery, as if they were in Jerusalem as if they were in the Temple. According to the Targum Yonasan, every Jew flew there and ate their Korban Pesach. Every Jew was a king and a prince. A en Chorin, close to the Ribono Shel Olam, as if they had gone through 100 years of spiritual perfection. A taste of what it meant to be princes of Hashem. It was a difficult test to remain faithful at the sea! It was a far cry from the way every Jew felt at the seder night! The Jewish people came out with a strong and outstretched arm, fearless and confident in G-d’s protection and salvation, however, 7 days later, they feared the Egyptians! We see the same process at Har Sinai, 49 days after leaving Egypt. The giving of the Torah was given to a perfect people. A people which was free of all illnesses, fully believing, was able to say the magnificent statement “Naaseh Ve’Nishmah”—we are absolutely committed to Dvar Hashem. But 40 short days later, the Jewish people are faceed with tremendous spiritual downfall—golden calf—licentiousness, MURDER! Old habits come back!!! Trememndous power of belief is needed to withstand the difficulties of life. Its not the same as it was in the time of Matan Torah. 40 days later, it was real life, and real life was hard.
There is an amazing process which takes place, and that is that at the beginning of a process, Hashem in amazing kindness and goodness, gives a person a vision and experience of everything good that can come out of this process. The night of Pesach, Jews felt and saw what it meant to be a holy nation, to be in Jerusalem, at Sinai, the Jews so to speak saw Hashem! To be privy to hear G-d’s word Himself! A whole nation!! 600,000 men plus women and children!
As we struggle through the daily challenges and vicicitudes of life, and we have to reclimb the mountain, we can remember the beginning of the process. We experience it on seder night! Like the baby at the bris, but then Hashem says: ok, you are now in the valley, or dark forest, and you have to struggle. Sometimes in this forest, there are no markers, and Hashem says: find your way through the forest, and to the mountain, and its going to be hard to find it and climb it. There will be many great challenges, but you MUST climb, and you will re-experience what you tasted at the beginning.
This experience of the beginning of something and then the struggle afterwards is trye of everything in life. Take marriage: the first night of marriage is the happiest night of life! Joy, bliss, friendship, love, peace, all the wonderful thing which a person wants in their life. This is the first night of marriage. But then, it goes away, after a week, a month, a year, five years, but its not the same. For some people, the next morning its not the same. Its not SUPPOSED to be the same. The wedding night is a gift! Hashem puts the young couple at the top of a mountain, to see what it would be to have a perfect marriage, to see what it would be to have all the love and joy and peace and that is a gift of Hashem. Then, it goes away. Hashem wants the couple to struggle through the long windy road through the forest, and climb the mountain again. It may take 10, 20, 50 years to recapture the beauty, bliss, sanctity and love of wedding night.
When a person opens up a new business, what excitement! The first dollar, shekel, yen, he puts in a frame, full of simcha, joy. SO many people come in, friend congratulate him, he opens up his new store. A few days later, the store is empty. He has to face the rough and tumble life of a businessman. The first day joy is no longer.
As a teacher of students I can tell you, theres nothing like the first day of school—so much excitement—it’s the beginning! The top of the mountain. But 6 months later, its a lot of tired harried students, struggling to make it.
Why does Hashem do this? My own theory, not in the Shem Mishmuel, is this: A person is about to embark on a long, life-defining road. Torah, Business, Education, Marriage. These are long difficult roads, very hard roads, many ups and downs and curves, sometimes we fall and must pick ourselves up and go on. What will give us the strength to do this? What will permit us not to give in, not to throw in the towel, but to say, I’m going on no MATTE R WHAT!? What gives us this strength?
Its because we see the dream at the beginning. We Jews were at Sinai. We left Egypt. That original experience which Hashem gave us to see the glory and the blessing of total success, on the very first night of the wedding, the couple celebrates as if they were married for a hundred years, as though they have 300 grandchildren! Hashem gives people this experience at the beginning of life-defining processes so that we will have the strength to go through the entire process along the way. So we will have the vision
Shlomo Carlebach tells us: G-d gives us wonderful prophecies.
The joy of a newborn baby!!! But what happens when the baby is rebelling at 16 years old? Not such a wonderful experience. But at the beginning, Hashem tells s: “love this baby! It is going to be HARD. But the struggle is WORTH IT!! Have the joy now at the beginning of the road, so that it will give you the strength to go through the difficulties which follow.”
The passuk says “zacharti lach chessed neurayich… lechtech acharai bamidbar…” As you Jews go through difficult times, unfaithful to its father in Heaven, its Husband and most loyal supporter, we have have not been faithful, and Hashem says: remember the beginning of the road, the beginning of our relationship as G-d and Nation. There was a love of the wedding night! That’s what Hashem says. If Hashem Himself uses this inspiration to keep HIS dedication us, when WE, unfortunately betray Him, he says, NO. I WILL NOT ABANDON YOU. I am loyal. I know that the dream which we had at the beginning is worth it. I remember our Chuppa.
Rabbosai, getting back to Yaakov. Why was Yaakov able to be alone without angels, when he had the great dream? Because this was the beginning of the road, the juncture for Yaakov to go down the long, hard road of life, during which he would develop from Yaakov, the simple young boy struggling with his brother Esav, to become the amazing Tzaddik, called Yisrael, who, 20 years later, can defeat the angel in hand to hand combat. At the very beginning of the road, Hashem gives him a vision of what he CAN BECOME. Right now, he isnt at all like that! He needs angels to protect him. Because he was only Yaakov, only at the beginning of the road. But Hashem said, for one moment, Yaakov, you have to become a Yisrael. So, for one moment, I will give you the experience of Yisrael, you will be without any angels. You will see them going up, because you won’t NEED them, you will be alone! After this, he went poor, helpless, penniless to attempt to navigate his destiny. But for a moment, he was given this vision of what he could become.
Chazal said: when the angels came down to see Yaakov, they said: the throne in heaven has a picture of a human being there, and the picture is of this person, Yaakov! At that point, he was a plain person, but he was for a moment given the vision of what he could become.
It’s a long, hard, difficult road and mountain to climb. But it is worth it. There are difficult things to achieve, but the glimpse, the vision of what lies ahead gives the strength to carry through until attainment.
At the end of our parsha, it says “yaakov was alone.” He had achieved his goal. He was levado, without angels. Shem Mishmuel says something remarkable—every one of us, every Friday night, has a taste of this experience. We come home from shul, and when we come home from shul, we are accompanied by angels, the angels of Shabbos. We sing a song to them, who has sent you to me? Hashem. Then, we say, boachem, borchuni leshalom! Even before Kiddush, we say, Tzeischem leshalom! Very strange! They come, bless us, and leave!? Shem Mishmuel says: we know that Shabbat is the day of Yaakov, and that Yaakov was greater than angels, and didn’t need angels. So too, on Shabbos, we begin with angels, but when we come home, and the angels see the shabbos that the Jew has, they say, this is greater than us. The Jew has gone higher. I can’t accompany. The jew on shabbos is alone with Hashem, no angels. So we say, Tzeitchem leshalom. We say to the angels, we are beyond you, we are going to be with Hashem. It reminds me of the yichud of the chassan and kalah, as they leave behind the whole entourage of the chuppah, and go into the yichud room.
And so, Rabbotai, appreciate the sweet vision and experience of shabbos, which precedes the week—what we can become, so high, so beautiful. We should be zoche of the bracha of Yisrael, of Chassan and Kallah, of Sasson and Simcha. Shabbat Shalom.
11/15/07
11/14/07
Rosh Chodesh
This is a photo of Rebbe davening on Rosh Chodesh, courtesy of Ben Sgan Kohanim. I am happy to announce that Ben has tentatively agreed to start posting Rebbe's thoughts and doings on a more regular basis.
Kol HaKavod, Ben!!!
Newest Affiliate Member of the RRRR!
We welcome the newest member of the Mischel tribe to the Revolution (Jawbonevalley branch) - a baby girl to Rav Judah and Ora - Mazel Toooooooov!
The Mischel Family Hachnasas Kallah Fund is now accepting contributions (Yes, we have 6 girls, 0 boys)
Calling all Current Talmidim!!!
URGENT, high priority communique:
There is a growing body of talmidim of Rebbe who are no longer able to physically attend shiur on a daily or weekly basis. While we at the RRRR blog understand that the pressure and responsibility of typing up summaries of Rebbe's teachings is a potentially time-consuming task, please know this:
Every time you refuse to accept the responsibility of doing so , you are responsible for the spiritual death of countless distant talmidim. Every time you think to yourself: "ech, this typed summary isn't polished, contains typos, isn't worthy to be published at all," in the supernal realm, a distant talmid of Rebbe moves further from his truth.
This is on your head, and I fear the spiritual consequences for your own soul, and for all of ours.
Please, instead, be a path (shvil) to the light of Rebbe's teachings. Our very souls depend on it.
To submit teachings to the blog, a special email address will be set up, for now, please forward any summaries to one of the contributors of this blog.
Tizku lemitzvot.
There is a growing body of talmidim of Rebbe who are no longer able to physically attend shiur on a daily or weekly basis. While we at the RRRR blog understand that the pressure and responsibility of typing up summaries of Rebbe's teachings is a potentially time-consuming task, please know this:
Every time you refuse to accept the responsibility of doing so , you are responsible for the spiritual death of countless distant talmidim. Every time you think to yourself: "ech, this typed summary isn't polished, contains typos, isn't worthy to be published at all," in the supernal realm, a distant talmid of Rebbe moves further from his truth.
This is on your head, and I fear the spiritual consequences for your own soul, and for all of ours.
Please, instead, be a path (shvil) to the light of Rebbe's teachings. Our very souls depend on it.
To submit teachings to the blog, a special email address will be set up, for now, please forward any summaries to one of the contributors of this blog.
Tizku lemitzvot.
11/13/07
There is a voice heard in the field. Whispers amongst the striking arm of Rebbe. Those who give life and limb daily to spread the legend of rebbe to the far reaches of the galut. The silence has been broken and we will take any means necessary to preserve the true integral teachings of our Rebbe shlita. We all express our love for our rebbe in different ways so let our individuality not be squashed by those parading around as the true face of the revolution, We will create a two blog solution if our voices are not heard! yechi hamelech!
11/12/07
Rebbe in Fair Lawn
On Motzai Shabbos, December 1, join Rebbe and (at least part of) the RRRR in that fairest of towns for a Pre - Chanukah Melave Malke.Be there, or be...
11/8/07
Next contender for rrrr artist...
The next submission was from a one , "Yakuza Grapple"- a fan of the revival from karisaka, Japan
11/7/07
The RRRR is now taking applicants for official artis
The RRRR is now accepting applicants for an official artist. The perfect candidate will be able to visually represent Rebbe and all that is Rebbe in a arty way. The first candidate is
D. WEinstein. http://www.danweinsteinsart.com More to follow...
11/5/07
Preparing for Battle
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Let us all Praise the Danimal!
Our Supreme Commander has purchased, at personal expense, high tech training apparatus for the use of the Revolution, so that we may hone our Battle Skills (and Axes) in preparation for the day when we come out from under our Rocks.
Please contact Danimal to schedule personal training sessions.
11/2/07
MANHUNT
Rebbe told me that a Jew named Ben Houbin (with a Boston Area Cell Phone number - available on request) attends the Thursday night shiur and types up notes of Rebbe's Torah. It would be great if we could get this Jew to post his notes on RuachRevival (the only blog dedicated solely to the spreading of Rebbe's Torah).
Presently, Herr HObin is ignoring my phone calls, and appears to have fled the country. If you have any information on this Jew's whereabouts, please feel free to apprehend and cajole him into compliance, using any methods sanctioned by the ethics committee of the RRRR (heh heh heh).
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