It is not correct to say that the thought of redemption in the time of exile is a dream, but the exact opposite: when we think about exile – that is the dream! * It is specifically when one accepts the illusion of exile, that it is a dream; it is only during the (dream of) exile that one fools himself into thinking that it is reality!
Esther Segal of Yerushalayim (yes, the mother of quintuplets born with the Rebbe’s bracha in the Igros Kodesh), shares an unpleasant experience she had two decades ago with a woman who ruined her vacation, but who left her with a different perspective on life. * With Ahavas Chinam we will be redeemed.
About my uncle, Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin, rav of Crown Heights for many years, and my aunt, Tzivia * Haritzka Nerovny, the Gentile to whom my grandfather sold the chametz * What the Russians did when they saw a Jew they were spying on, swallowing gold coins * Another chapter which deals with an earlier period, when Heishke still lived with his family in Krolevets.
“Exactly,” continued Shulie, “He saw that the privacy of every family was respected. He was blown away by the care that the Jewish people took in the finer aspects of tznius. They treasured their modesty and respected each other’s privacy, even when they were camped in temporary quarters, while living in tents…”
Today, everything is blowing up in our faces. The situation in Egypt makes things more and more dangerous, not just for the residents of the south, but for the entire population of Eretz Yisroel. It appears that soon we may have no viable alternative, except to go in and take the Sinai Peninsula for a third time. The public may not have fully digested the meaning behind the Egyptian election, but it’s clear that we’re now once again paying the price for another withdrawal.
Stories about shluchim who fight like lions when contending with endless hardships.
In a sense, by obliterating the potential for evil (the source of death) we become immortal — for a moment. * G‑d wants us humans to choose Him freely. So even though G‑d ultimately wants good, he also allows for the possibility of evil so that we can choose to make the good materialize. As both personal experience and world history have shown, it hasn’t been an easy struggle…
The phenomenon of identifying with our enemies when we receive some measure of good from them is a well-known psychological phenomenon known as the “Stockholm Syndrome.” When a Jew identifies with and pays homage to exile forces (or in the language of this week’s parsha, “Bilam’s honey”), he digs himself deeper into exile.
The following is a transcript of a farbrengen by Rabbi Yossi Paltiel last year in Melbourne, Australia in honor of Yud-Beis Tammuz • Part II
Stories from the Hadar HaTorah Alumni Farbrengen with Rabbi Yaakov Goldberg celebrating the Yeshiva’s 50th Anniversary.
July 6, 2012