150,000 march to demand a more just economic system in Israel

To whom does the country belong?
The hoarders of wealth, or the brave of soul?

The Messianic era is characterized by massive social, political and economic changes, across the world and no less so in Israel. Last night, 150,000 Israelis across the country marched in the streets, protesting the high costs of living and raising a family in Israel, and demanding affordable housing, free education from age 0, lower prices on staple goods, and a new set of priorities for Israeli society--those emphasizing social and economic justice, and moving away from a socially-blind, free-market policy that has characterized the recent administrations.

The affordable housing movement, which has now morphed into a multi-cause social justice movement, began two weeks ago when Daphni Leef, 25, became so frustrated while searching for an affordable apartment in the Tel Aviv area where she studied and worked, that she decided to pitch a tent on the street and invited her friends to do so as well. One week later, tent cities sprouted up across Israel, populated by students and struggling, low-income individuals and families. In a recent poll, 87% of the Israeli public voiced support of the tent protests. Last night, tens of thousands of Israelis voiced their support and filled the streets in the largest protest in decades, if not in Israel's history. And this is only the beginning.

Contrary to certain portrayals, the people in the tents and in the streets are not radical leftists. They are students, low-income and middle-class families. Yes, until now, many have been secular. But I don't think that this will remain a secular protest, and I don't think it should.

Last week, a woman holding a newborn sat and listened to a communal discussion led by students in the Jerusalem encampment near Ben-Yehudah Street. As it turned out, this woman was a mother to 8 children, whose husband stopped working several years ago as a result of an accident. The ten of them live in a home no larger than 50 square meters in the periphery and still barely make it. When they heard about the tent protest, they heard a cry close to home, and together with their eight children they came and set up camp in the Jerusalem park. They have now been here five nights, and have no intention of leaving, until they hear solutions. This family, and many others, are not anarchists. They represent a large number of Israelis who are overburdened by years of unregulated free markets.

The time has come to ask a difficult question: Do religious Jews view capitalism as an ideal? Is the Torah a capitalist system? Have we become complacent, having lived well in America, England, South Africa, Australia, and other parts of the developed world? Have we compartmentalized tzedakah to the personal realm, standing by while the government and Israel's ten richest families hoard wealth, homes, cars and luxuries, while Israeli children are hungry? Where is the word "unregulated markets" in the Tanach? In the book of Jeremiah? For years we have swallowed the fact that capitalism is "the best system we've got". Well I've got news, my fellow yidden, we have something much better, and it's explained at length throughout the Written and Oral Torahs. And economically speaking, it looks a lot more like the vision of the tenters on Rothschild than like the current rules of the game.

Until now the religious community in Israel operates vis-a-vis the political-economic sphere as if we are still in exile. In many ways we are: our government is not focusing its resources on the construction of the Temple and the settling and bolstering of the land in its entirety. The Sabbath is a cultural relic and the holidays and commercialized. The values of the country have faded from idealism, Zionism and Jewish peoplehood to multi-culturalism and economic and social liberalism. In this context, we assume that a free-market society that leaves behind the weak and needy is something we take for granted, and at best, we can give a hefty donation on Pesach and give our last few agurot to the beggars in the shuk.

We learn, we daven, we invite Shabbos guests, and we tell Bibi to build, and we talk about the third Temple, and yearn to see it rebuilt. Yet how can we merit a Temple, when we are party to a system in which a family of ten chooses to camp out in public park, because the situation has become too heavy to bear? Our Temple was destroyed because of an indifference to the person next door, because the image of our own merit clouded the heart's most basic sensitivity to the material and psychological plight of our fellow Jew. The State of Israel should excel first and foremost in its care for the weak, in its social welfare, in its assurance of basic needs to its citizens. We don't need to imitate social welfare systems across Europe; we have our own values deep within our own national conscience, even if they are temporarily muted.

A commentator in today's press wrote that the movement beginning across Israel cuts through the traditional left/right divide with which Israeli society has become obsessed. I sincerely hope it succeeds in overcoming yet another divide within this society, that between religious and secular. There are severe housing and economic problems in the religious and haredi sectors in Israel, and there are is no reason why these sectors should not stand side-by-side with other Jews demanding a more socially and economically just society. A new generation of Israelis are hungry for a vision which can provide more than Zionism, more than capitalism. The protestors are chanting for bread and water, but can we as the religious community be bold enough to hear the thirst for a new incarnation of Israel from amidst the protests, and can we answer the call, armed with the authentic values and wisdom of Torah, and the derech eretz of Avraham Avinu? If not, we not only risk losing the momentum of this movement, but also our own moral integrity. Tests from Hashem -- especially in the time of Mashiach -- are more often than not pop quizzes, in the guise of another headline to ignore, on the way to shul.



And you shall return by your God: keep loving-kindness and justice, and hope to your God always.

A trafficker who has deceitful scales in his hand; he loves to oppress.

And Ephraim said: Surely I have become rich; I have found power for myself; all my toils shall not suffice for my iniquity which is sin.

And I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I will yet settle you in tents as in that time 

And I spoke to the prophets, and I increased their visions; and to the prophets I assumed likenesses

Hosea 12: 7-11

וְאַתָּה בֵּאלֹהֶיךָ תָשׁוּב חֶסֶד וּמִשְׁפָּט שְׁמֹר וְקַוֵּה אֶל אֱלֹהֶיךָ תָּמִיד

כְּנַעַן בְּיָדוֹ מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה לַעֲשֹׁק אָהֵב

וַיֹּאמֶר אֶפְרַיִם אַךְ עָשַׁרְתִּי מָצָאתִי אוֹן לִי כָּל יְגִיעַי לֹא יִמְצְאוּ לִי עָו‍ֹן אֲשֶׁר חֵטְא 

וְאָנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם עֹד אוֹשִׁיבְךָ בָאֳהָלִים כִּימֵי מוֹעֵד

וְדִבַּרְתִּי עַל הַנְּבִיאִים וְאָנֹכִי חָזוֹן הִרְבֵּיתִי וּבְיַד הַנְּבִיאִים אֲדַמֶּה

הושע יב, ז-יא

Kokhav Yaakov: A Deeper Look

This post is a follow-up to Comet Elenin and Rebbe Nachman.

In this week's Torah portion, Balaam wraps up his words with a prophecy concerning the end of days:

וְעַתָּה הִנְנִי הוֹלֵךְ לְעַמִּי לְכָה אִיעָצְךָ אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה הָעָם הַזֶּה לְעַמְּךָ בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים

And now, I am going to my people. Come, I will advise you...what this people will do to your people at the end of days.

In verse 17, he mentions the shooting star of Jacob (this is really the accurate translation, if we go by Rashi, whose commentary appears below):

אֶרְאֶנּוּ וְלֹא עַתָּה אֲשׁוּרֶנּוּ וְלֹא קָרוֹב דָּרַךְ כּוֹכָב מִיַּעֲקֹב וְקָם שֵׁבֶט מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל וּמָחַץ פַּאֲתֵי מוֹאָב וְקַרְקַר כָּל בְּנֵי שֵׁת

I see it, but not now; I behold it, but not soon. A star has gone forth from Jacob, and a staff will arise from Israel which will crush the princes of Moab and uproot all the sons of Seth

The words "a star has gone forth" is translation of the Hebrew noun kokhav and the verb darakh, which is related to the root of derekh, way. According to Rashi, this indicaes sudden, swift and direct movement, and is actually a metaphor for the rise of Mashiach:

דרך כוכב: כתרגומו, לשון דרך קשתו (איכה ב ד), שהכוכב עובר כחץ, ובלע"ז דישטנ"ט (מזנק) כלומר יקום משל

A star goes gorth: As it is translated, he drew his bow (Eichah 2:4), that the star passes like an arrow...that is, a ruler will rise

Rebbe Nachman, whose yartzheit falls on the day on which the newly discovered relatively bright Comet Elenin will come closest to earth, on Tishrei 18 5772, gives the following explanation of the statement "a star has gone forth from Jacob":

And know, that there are twelve tribes, corresponding to the twelve mazalot (signs of the zodiac). And each and every tribe has its own special formula (nuscha) and special gate through which (derekh) his prayer enters, and every tribe, through its pryaer, awakens the power of its mazal of the twelve mazalot, and the mazal illuminates below and causes the plant to grow, as well as other things it needs, and this is the meaning of 'A star goes forth from Jacob, and a staff will arise from Israel,' 'will rise' this is amidah, or prayer, when a tribe from Israel stands to pray, its prayer awakens a star, and the star shoots forth (dorekh) and nudges (makeh) various things, that they will grow, as our sages said, 'there is not a single blade of grass below, here on earth, which does not have an angel above telling it, Grow! (Likkutei Moharan 9)

In other words, according to Rebbe Nachman, the shooting of the star of Jacob is related to the power of prayer. Prayers of the various tribes awaken the stars to shoot forth and awaken the flora and fauna of earth to prosper. Life is traced to the stars, and the stars to prayer.

Back to the parsha: According to verse 17, the star of Jacob and staff of Israel will crush the nations of Moab and Seth. The Maharal elaborates that the keshet (bow) and chetz (arrow) symbolize the gevurah to needed for these struggles. Unkolus explains 'crush' as inheritance of the nations' kingdoms.

Verse 18 expands the prophecy to Edom, represented by Europe, the United States, and Western civilization at large:

וְהָיָה אֱדוֹם יְרֵשָׁה וְהָיָה יְרֵשָׁה שֵׂעִיר אֹיְבָיו וְיִשְׂרָאֵל עֹשֶׂה חָיִל

Edom shall be possessed, and Seir shall become the possession of his enemies, and Israel shall triumph.

Amalek:

וַיַּרְא אֶת עֲמָלֵק וַיִּשָּׂא מְשָׁלוֹ וַיֹּאמַר רֵאשִׁית גּוֹיִם עֲמָלֵק וְאַחֲרִיתוֹ עֲדֵי אֹבֵד

When he saw Amalek, he took up his parable and said, "Amalek was the first of the nations, and his fate shall be everlasting destruction."

Assyria:

וְצִים מִיַּד כִּתִּים וְעִנּוּ אַשּׁוּר וְעִנּוּ עֵבֶר וְגַם הוּא עֲדֵי אֹבֵד

Ships will come from the Kittites and afflict Assyria and afflict those on the other side, but he too will perish forever. 

And then Balaam wraps it up:

וַיֹּאמַר אוֹי מִי יִחְיֶה מִשֻּׂמוֹ אֵל

Alas! Who can survive these things from God?

 מה טובו אהלך יעקב משכנותיך ישראל

How lucky we are to have the Torah to guide us through these times.

Comet Elenin and Rebbe Nachman

According to 2012 doomsdayers, the end of the world which will also mark the beginning a new era may be highlighted by a collision between a large planetary object and the planet Earth, dubbed the Nibiru collision. As I have said before, the arrival of the Messianic era may be a phenomenon that other cultures have alluded to as well, insofar as awareness of the universe which Hashem put into place inevitably holds clues to its ultimate purpose. In this way, staying abreast of global shifts taking place in natural, economic and political orders, as well as cosmological orders, can both keep our eyes open for Mashiach, and help to bring the concept of Mashiach into the world in a revealed way.

In December 2010, the amateur Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin discovered a comet now called Comet Elenin, which some have identified as Nibiru. Shirat Devorah raises the question whether there may be a connection between this week's Torah portion's mention of Kokhav Yaakov and Elenin. The last words of Balaam in this week's reading hold a prophecy interpreted as an allusion to Mashiach (Numbers 24:17):

I see it, but not now;
I behold it, but not in the near future.
A star shall go forth from Jacob,
And a staff [shevet] shall arise from Israel

See Kokhav Yaakov: A deeper look for further interpretations on this verse. In the Laws of Kings, the Rambam's discussion of the Messianic era, the star of Jacob refers to King David:

The King Mashiach will rise forth and return the Kingdom of David to its former state. The Torah testifies [in several places] concerning him [the King Mashiach] [amongst them,] in the portion of Bila'am whose prophecies concern two messianic figures: the first Mashiach is King David who saved Israel from its oppressors; the final Mashiach will rise forth from his [King David's] descendants and save Israel in the end of days. Bila'am prophesizes: 'I see it, but not now'-- this refers to King David; 'I behold it, but not in the near future'-- this refers to the King Mashiach; 'A star shall go forth from Jacob'-- this refers to King David; 'and a staff shall arise in Israel'-- this refers to the King Mashiach.

Kokhav Yaakov is further elaborated in Terumah 172b (hat tip again to Shirat Devorah):

Then the 7th window will open in the entire world, and its star is Kochav Yaakov, and this is the one about which Bilaam said “a star shoots forth from Yaakov,” and this star will be luminous for 40 days and 40 nights. When Melech Hamoshiach will be revealed, and all the people’s of the world will be gathered to him, then the verse will be fulfilled which states [Yeshaya 11:10]: “the root of Yishai, which stands as a banner for peoples, to him shall the nations inquire, and his peace shall be [with] honor.”

We have yet to see whether Elenin will exhibit a 40-day luminosity, or astrologically speaking, whether it will be visible during that time span from Earth. According to calculations, Elenin will come closest to earth in mid-October, when it will be slightly closer to Earth than the planet Venus. According to the Minor Planet Center, Elenin is a relative bright comet, and it is uncertain just how bright it will become. 

What does the relative relationship between a comet, the sun and Earth mean for us? The best lessons may be learned in hindsight. On March 14, 2011, the comet came into opposition with the sun, and will do so again on November 22 of this year. March 14th, mind you, was several days after the massive tsunami hit Japan, wreaking massive environmental and human disaster, and setting off an international nuclear crisis that is unsolved to this day. That's an opposition; a near-alignment between the sun, Elenin and Earth will occur on September 26th.

Yet perhaps the most interesting date is that on which the comet will be closest to earth, October 16, 2011. And if there had to be one tzaddik who could ensure the effect of such a movement would be beneficial rather than destructive, who better than Rebbe Nachman, the everlasting stream of wisdom, whose 201st Yartzheit is Tishrei 18 5772, which falls on October 16th in 2011, as it did on the day he left this world in 1810.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman / Elenin ?

Measure for measure

A generation after the Arizal, the Jerusalem Kabbalist Rabbi Nathan Shapira wrote the book Tuv Ha'aretz on the supreme value of the land of Israel according to the Arizal and the Zohar. Rabbi Shapira himself made aliyah from Krakow, but spent the end of his life on shlichus in Italy. In another sefer, Emek HaMelech, Rabbi Shapira wrotes that "were it not for the prayers of the people of Jerusalem who pray at the Kotel in tears and supplication, these are the perushim and the great chasidim, the world would not exist G-d forbid, and for them it says Mount Zion will be a refuge, these are the Jews who live there and occupy themselves with the world to come." (Emek HaMelech p. 116c)

In one passage in Tuv Ha'aretz, Rabbi Nathan writes a bold critique of the rich stratum of his people living in the diaspora, extolling the special status of living in the land of Israel before Mashiach (my best translation):

Know that a tradition is in our hands that on the day when Mashiach will come with the ingathering of the exiles to the land of Israel, on that very day there will be seven thousand of the children of Israel, and on that very day the dead of the Land will live, and on that very day the walls of fire in Jerusalem will depart...and on that very day the dead of of the Land of Israel will return in the time of their life (b'et chiyutam) [and become] a new spiritual being, and the seven thousand who are alive will all become a new being (bria chadasha), a spiritual body, like the body of the primordial human who sinned and like the body of Moshe Rabbeinu, and all will hover in the air and soar like eagles, and all this before the eyes of the ingathered exiles.

And when the ingathered exiles see that their brothers have become a new being and hover in the air to go and dwell in the lower Garden of Eden to learn Torah from His mouth, blessed be He, then the ingathered exiles will fell a tremor in their hearts and feel great anguish and will ֿbecome incensed with the King Mashiach and will say: For are not we children of Israel like them? From where did they merit to become spiritual in body and soul and not us?

And the King Mashiach will say: It is already well-known that all the attributes of the Holy Blessed one [operate according to the principle of] measure for measure. Those who lived outside of the Land of Israel and made an effort to come to the Land so as to merit a pure soul, who did not take refuge in their wealth nor in their physical body, who came by sea and by land and did not fear to drown in the sea or become captive to harsh masters, in return for treating their spirit and their soul as essential, and not their body and their money, for this they returned as spiritual, measure for measure. 

Yet you, who could have come to the Land like them, but neglected to come because of love of money (chemdat mamon), who worried for your wealth and your body, treating them as essential, and your soul and spirit as marginal, for this, in the same way, you have remained physical, measure for measure...

And for the money that you desired hereby God blessed be He will give you money...and they who did not worry themselves over their body and their money, but over their spirit alone, God will make them into a new being, and usher them into the lower Garden of Eden.

The onset of the Birthpangs of Mashiach, circa 1495

A key milestone in our people's reflection on the relationship between the reality at hand and the redemption described and promised by the Prophets was a comment made by Rabbi Yosef Shaltiel the end of the kabbalistic text Sefer HaPliah ('The Book of Wonder'), a book he wrote in double exile from the Island of Rhodes. In the year 1495, equivalent to 5255, or resh nun heh on the Jewish calendar, the penultimate year he ascribes to the great tragedy of the Spanish Inquisition to European Jewry, he writes the following:

I think that the tragedy faced by the Jews in all kingdoms of Edom from the year resh nun of the sixth millennium through the year resh nun heh are a time of trouble for Jacob, out of which he will be saved, these are the birthpangs of Mashiach.

According to the modern scholar of Judaism Gershom Scholem, Shaltiel's and others' reflection on the catastrophe of the Spanish Inquisition marked the beginning of interpreting reality as a prism for chevlei mashiach - the catastrophe out of which a new era will be born. Which can only mean one thing...there is one very large baby on the other end of this 516-year-long labor.

Check this out: Ditch your calculator and try adding 516 to 1495 on paper. Could there be any more 1's? Maybe that's why Hashem loves the number [20]11.

Also, the number of years between when Rabbi Shaltiel announced the beginning of chevlei mashiach in Sefer HaPliah and today is the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word תיקו, which means [it's a] 'tie' in Talmudic discourse. According to prophecy Mashiach is destined to resolve all of the instances of a Talmudic tie and ascertain truth where it has been split in two.

The God-given destiny of the Jewish people is to turn darkness into light by revealing the unity behind creation. What is the meaning of the verse a time of trouble for Jacob, out of which he will be saved? From the trouble itself the salvation is churned and born. Enduring narrow straits produces a light so bright that it eclipses the darkness, stage after stage, until all darkness has been revealed --through what may be felt as great duress -- as condensed light.

For what better time for the light of moon to shine as bright as the sun than on the background of the darkest night of the year?

All that remains is to say 

ad masai 

until - when

as if your these were the lyrics with which your heart beats

kind of like 

when you call a travel agent in Eretz Yisrael, 

and after you tell them when you want to depart, they respond,

ad matai?

Why are we still in exile?

Here is historic footage from Hoshanah Rabbah 5744, September 28, 1983. After Maariv the Rebbe turns to address the crowd. More than just a Sicha (speech), the Rebbe launches into an impassioned plea: Why the Golus? The Rebbe's voice is broken with emotion. The Almighty can surely find a way to give us all of the benefits of Golus without the Golus. The crowd is silent, stunned, every eye is moved to tears. How can Hashem ignore such a plea! (From WeJew)

Google and the Geulah

You might have thought we'd report here that millions of people are searching right now for Tiger Woods, iPhone 5, and Kohl's. Not quite. We're here to report a much more interesting trend in Google search analytics.

What's the road from Google to a blog about news and Mashiach?

1. You may be losing sleep agonizing over what lies in the "days and weeks and months ahead". Hopefully A modern-day Esther put you at ease: Sarah Palin has been known to defend Israel's right to build with a prediction that "more and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead."

2. Tired of the weatherman seeking no higher power? We are too! March 9, 2011: Turning Point? may bolster your hunch that crazy weather forcasts are a sign of moshiach.

3. Has anyone else ever had an eerie feeling that ikea is the third temple? Or, to be more precise, a misplaced yearning for transcendence and completion? We catch your groove at Netanya IKEA burned to the ground on Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Adar.

4. If you tell Google that  the greatest threat to the republic is living in denial about what the United States has become, it may tell you that Edom is the last exile.

5. Could we be on to something here? Without Google, the internet is like the world's largest library, only uncatalogued and out of order. But if have Google in front of you, can you really say "I don't know" anymore? Today, if we want to know something, from how to get to the nearest post office to how to bake a cake to whether the war in Libya is over to what date Washington crossed the Delaware, we ask Google.

If that's the case, maybe we should be asking whether google knows the mashiach.


Thanks to the creative anonymous readers who thought up these search terms. 

Tokyo governor: Tsunami needed to wipe out Japanese egoism

On Monday, Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara said the tsunami was needed “to wipe out egoism, which has rusted onto the mentality of Japanese over a long period of time...I think [the disaster] is tembatsu (Japanese for divine punishment), although I feel sorry for disaster victims." On Tuesday, he issued an apology.

On Sunday, Korean pastor David Yonggi Cho said: “Because the Japanese people shun God in terms of their faith and follow idol worship, atheism, and materialism, it makes me wonder if this was not God’s warning to them."

* *

This week's Dvar Malchut (p. 23) brings a piece of advice from Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya, on how to fight doubt, the inner manifestation of the Jewish enemy of Amalek-Haman:

Sometimes, disappointment at one's own flaws and shortcomings become a great obstacle's in one's service. Yet rather than be frustrated in the face of imperfection, we should instead be astounded and overjoyed that God's light, in the form of words of prayer and Torah, can dwell in such darkness. To become angry or depressed over the discovery of a flaw while serving God indicates that we attribute excessive importance to our own selves. If we approach Torah and mitzvot out of a love for God, then a flaw in ourselves only enhances our awe of God's ways, how his light can extend to all places. Rather than build up an illusion of grandiosity, we know we are imperfect, and we focus on the miraculous kindness God has for us in giving us his own toolbox to improve.


At the end of the teaching, the Alter Rebbe says: "And this is the notion of heisech da'at - by way of distraction - that one distracts one's mind from the place he is to the wisdom of Torah and avodat Hashem (serving God)."

אין משיח בא אלא בהיסח דעת

Mashiach comes by way of distraction (Sanhedrin 97a)

Sometimes, the sentence above from the Talmud is understood as referring to Mashiach coming while we are not paying attention, i.e. from the place we least expect. Here, the Alter Rebbe may be hinting that the inyan (matter) of Mashiach is connected with the tremendous power we have to divert our attention from the seemingly all-powerful and all-inclusive sense of self to a state of consciousness in which God and His infinite wisdom are at the center.

In other words, when you find a flaw in yourself, you can actually use it to actually transcend yourself. So long as we are operating under the illusion that we are all-powerful agents on a road to perfection, even if we are doing mitzvot and learning Torah, it can all be feeding our ego, and ultimately, eclipsing God. But when we stumble, God is nudging us to break down our own idols of ourselves and focus on the true perfection - the light found in Torah, prayer and the mitzvot, whose light is even more striking when it shows up in little-old-me.

The Ba'al Shem taught that the Hebrew letters אני ("I") are the same letters as the word אין (Ayin, "Nothingness", a name of God). The secret is transforming the self into nothingness, and there finding God.

How then, can we understand the occurrence of an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe in the vacinity of the world's largest city and the epicenter of finance, technology and the modern spun-out-of-control lifestyle? On an individual level, every person is engaged in effort to bring kiddush Hashem, or sanctification of God's name, into one's own mind and heart, by making room for God in an ego-dominated consciousness. On a world scale, there are nations that represent the unimpeded strive of the ego, which eclipse God and bolster an illusion of human omnipotence, which is the worst form of idol worship. In the age of Mashiach, this mistake will be corrected, and in the place that egoism and human triumphalism stands, God's glory and kingship will be acknowledged for all to see. Events in Japan are a warning for the entire world, a preparation for the day on which knowledge of God will fill the land as water fills the sea. 

Confronting Heaven on the Harshest of Decrees: A Brief History

Photo of the Baal Shem Tov's handwritten siddur (open to Amidah, Matzmiach
Keren Yeshuah through Modim), with his students' names in the margins
to help him remember them in his prayers (Agudas Chabad Library/Wikipedia)

The brutal murders in Itamar were a din kashe - a harsh judgment of the highest degree from the Almighty, whose ways are worlds beyond us. Hashem is the true judge and Heaven only knows what is coming.

In the Roman conquest of Jerusalem at the turn of the first millenia, ten of the great rabbis of the generation were brutally slaughtered by the enemy. The generation was aghast -- what on earth or in heaven could explain the brutal murder of not one, but 10 holy souls, all at once, each tortured in a different way, and even beyond the individual level of suffering -- the elimination of not one, not two, but the ten pillars of the yidden's leadership, the knockout of the heart of Torah learning and guidance? In a dire search for answers, with the future of yiddishkeit at stake, the Cohen Gadol (High Priest) Rabbi Yishmael ascended to heaven to ask after the origin of the decree.

In heaven, Rabbi Yishmael was told that the 10 righteous souls of his generation were taken to atone for sin of the 10 brothers who sold their brother Joseph, the Tzaddik of the generation, into destitution, slavery and despair. Out of jealousy and concern for themselves rather than the future of the Jewish people, the brothers attempted to scuffle the subtle voice of truth in their midst, taking the future into their own hands and raising their own hands against God's plan.

The state of leadership of the Jewish people today is painful, to say the least. We have very few true leaders who would truly sacrifice themselves for the wellbeing of each soul of Am Yisrael. Politics, selfishness, interests and agendas have infiltrated even the most sublime of messages and campaigns. And yet, is this enough to explain the pain of the 12-year old girl who is now faced with pictures of her slaughtered family in her mind that even the world cannot bear to see, and the pain of her 8-year-old brother who is crying and asking "Where is Daddy!?"

Enter the second aliyat neshama - ascent of the soul - of Jewish history. In the 1740's, the Jews of Zaslav, Siytovka and Dunevich were brought under the rotten influence of Sabbateanism that was creeping across Eastern Europe Jewry. Certain members of the normative rabbinical establishment were distraught at the influence of Sabbateanism on the purity of Jewish minds and souls, and collaborated with Christian leaders to convert groups of Sabbatean Jews to Christianity -- at least that way they would not taint their Jewish souls or influence others in the community. Yet after the Jews converted to Christianity, they were slaughtered en masse by Christian authorities.

The holy Ba'al Shem Tov, founder of Chassidus, the teacher of Kabbalah to the people, was appalled by the rabbis of his generation behind such schemes. He made dire efforts on earth and in heaven to stop the conversion of Sabbatean-influenced Jews, arguing that a Jew can always do teshuva, but that once a Jew converts, he is cut off forever. He urged his contemporaries to see the Sabbatean Jews first of all as Jews and to never give up on them. And yet this time he was too late, and before his eyes groups of Sabbatean Jews were killed as a result of the rabbinical establishment's policies.

On Rosh Hashama of 1746 (5507), the Ba'al Shem Tov ascended to heaven again, like Rabbi Yishmael, to confront the heavenly court about the harsh decrees on the Jews of his generation. In response to his deep love for his people, the Besht was brought into the chamber of the Mashiach, in which he had the following conversation, as he recorded in a letter to his brother-in-law, Rabbi Gershon of Kitov:

I went higher until I actually entered the palace of the King Messiah, and I saw face to face that which I had never before seen from the day I reached maturity until now. And what was revealed to me is not for you. Also revealed to me were wondrous and fearful things regarding the depths of Torah which I have not seen and heard and no ear has heard in many years. And it occurred to me to ask him - perhaps all this delight and rejoicing is in preparation for his good coming.

And when will the Master come?

And his lofty reply is not to be revealed. But in this way will you know of it: when your teaching becomes famous and manifest in the world, and your wellsprings pour outwards,  that which I have taught you and you have comprehended, and they [others] will also be capable of performing unifica­tions and having [soul] ascents as you do. Then will all the kelippot (shells) be consumed, and it will be a time of grace and salvation.

And I was astonished and I had a great sorrow about the extent of time involved, and when such a thing might be possible.

The answer to the divine decree behind the tragedy of Rosh Hashana 1746 was kept secret from us, but in the footsteps of the tragedy, we learn that the Besht had a face-to-face conversation with the Mashiach, his only equal in love for the Jewish people down to the core. This interaction has guided the spread of the teachings of Chassidus around the world since the Besht until today, with every letter spoken or written containing the deep anticipation of Mashiach.

Many tragedies faced the Jewish people during the time of the Besht; Chassidus - the inner dimension of Torah, and the teachings that prepare the world for Mashiach - was not born out of peaceful monks meditating by a river, but out of a time of decrees on the Jewish people from left and right, much like today.

Some decrees the Besht was able to intercede, but others he there only to comfort the victims and their loved ones, and keep the spirit of Am Yisrael burning, no matter what. As a story told in the Yizkor Book of  my family's village in Tarnobrzeg (Dzikov) tells, when the community sent messengers to the Ba'al Shem Tov in response to a Polish decree to execute eight Jews on false charges, they were told it was too late; that the decree in heaven was already signed.

Sometimes, the prayer of one Jew who feels the pain of his generation can skip through all the worlds and change something which even the greatest of tzaddikim cannot reach. The following story is recounted about the true secret of the Baal Shem Tov's power of prayer:

The saintly prayers of the Baal Shem Tov and his close circle were unable to lift a harsh Heavenly decree they perceived one Rosh Hashanah (New Year). After extending the prayers beyond their time, the danger remained. An unlettered shepherd boy entered and was deeply envious of those who could read the holy day's prayers. He said to God "I don't know how to pray, but I can make the noises of the animals of the field." With great feeling, he cried out, "Cock-a-doodle-do. God have mercy!"

Immediately, joy overcame the Baal Shem Tov, and he hurried to finish the day's prayers. Afterwards, he explained that the heartfelt prayer of the shepherd boy opened the Gates of Heaven, and the decree was lifted.

At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with the 12-year old girl, Tamar Fogel, who found her family slaughtered on Friday night. At 13:30 on Sunday Israel time, Tamar, her brothers who survived the attack and grandparents will gather to bury their loved ones.

And so we stand, a generation deprived of true leadership, desparate for guidance, belching with pain from harsh decrees, who will stand for us in this generation? We need Mashiach now!! And to hasten his arrival, we heed the lesson of the shepherd boy who saved his generation from the harshest of decrees: I am but a yid at the end of history...all I know how to do is cry/beg/scream...God have mercy!

Never underestimate the power of the love of one Jew for another

MIN HASHAMAYIM TERACHAMU
From Heaven may you be Comforted! 

March 9, 2011: Turning Point?

I don't know about you, but I have been feeling very weird all week. Today (Wednesday Israel time) has been the peak. I had to take a day off from my normal duties so as to face rather than suppress what I'm feeling. Overall, I have a sense that something is ending and something new is being born, but what is being born has not yet materialized, so it's a very unsettling in-between feeling. Also, the weather here (Israel) is crazy: strong winds, quick bouts of rain interspersed with bright rays of sun...oh, and now, hail!

As a yid I know this has to do with Mashiach. It's Adar II, days before Purim, after events have been heating up for months. As Rebbe Nachman says, all beginnings are from Purim. Last Purim I moved back to Israel after 7 years away, when I left abruptly after becoming religious. On a personal level, it's as if my inner clock knows Purim 5771 is a milestone, and is trying to lower the volume on everything that is irrelevant in order to hone in on what's real.

On a global/environmental level, something is churning as well. On Tuesday, millions of anchovies washed up dead on the shores of the marina at Redondo Beach, California (amazing video). According to recent events, mass animal deaths right sometimes precede earthquakes, such as in the case of Chile and New Zealand. On top of that, all week small earthquakes have hit the California and Oregon coast. Is a quake heading to the Pacific Northwest? Former US Geologist Jim Berkland thinks so. (Coincidentally, my family in California, who are not religious, are flying out of the country on Purim for two weeks). Meanwhile, in North Japan a 7.2 earthquake has hit and a tsunami warning has been issued. Seismic activity worldwide can be viewed here.

On the Mayan calendar, today is the first day of a period called the Ninth Wave, the dawn of "universal consciousness", and the most compressed and accelerated phase of the calendar--the "final stretch" before 2012. Denise Le Fay describes the period on the Mayan Calendar that begins today:

March 9, 2011: We officially enter the last, the shortest, and no doubt the most compressed and accelerated phase within the Mayan calendar. Tomorrow humanity and Earth enters the Ninth Wave and quite literally we and reality will never be the same again...To the integrated, no longer polarized mind, tomorrow is another major turning point energetically. To the non-polarized mind and heart, entering the Ninth Wave phase tomorrow is entering the final stretch and seeing the finish line only a short few yards in front of us....the Ninth Wave phase will trigger us individually in exactly the way/ways we most need to correct, adjust, integrate and more fully release or let go of whatever within ourselves. I’ve been living this much more consciously the past few weeks and have paid close attention to the last-minute things I need to let go of so I’m free to BE instead of constantly externalized and focused (either mentally, emotionally, or physically) in old but highly familiar DOINGS. What I’ve realized over the past few weeks is what this transition from the Eighth Wave (which began Jan. 5, 1999) into the Ninth Wave (March 9, 2011) is for us....Pay attention to whatever you too may need to cast-off and permanently let go of so that you can more easily BE.

According to the Mayan calendar, there are nine stages of universal evolution. The sixth began in 3115 BCE, when writing began and Egyptian civilization consolidated. In Jewish history we know this period as parallel to the lifetime of Enoch, a key figure in eschatology. The seventh wave, which brought about global consciousness, began in 1755 BCE, which marks the beginning of the spread of Jewish mysticism according to the Ba'al Shem Tov's prophecy, that Mashiach will arrive when the Besht's teachings (Chassidus, the inner dimension of the Torah and the opening of Kabbalah to all) would spread to all corners of the globe. The Ba'al Shem Tov passed away in 1760, and his teachings began to spread widely and rapidly shortly before his death, by means of his main student, the Maggid of Mezerich. The eighth wave - galactic consciousness -  began on January 5 (17 Tevet), 1999 (around the time when the internet really took off), and the ninth - universal consciousness - begins today.

While at this blog we don't necessarily hold by the Mayan calendar and other end-of-days timelines, we do believe that Mashiach is something that spiritually attuned people everywhere will pick up on in its various stages, something that will be reflected by changes in nature, humanity and space. One important difference is that we firmly believe that Mashiach can come at any moment (even right now!) The phrase be'ita achishena (in it's time I will hasten it) encapsulates the paradox of anticipating the redemption: on the one hand, it has a "time", and it is certain; on the other hand, it can be hastened at any moment, if we rise to the occasion.

What is the significance of March 9, 2011 on the Jewish calendar? Well, for one, today, Adar 3 is the day ion which the Second Temple was completed in Jerusalem in the Jewish year 3412 (349 BCE):

The joyous dedication of the second Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash) on the site of the 1st Temple in Jerusalem, was celebrated on the 3rd of Adar of the year 3412 from creation (349 BCE), after four years of work. The First Temple, built by King Solomon in 833 BCE, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 423 BCE. At that time, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied: "Thus says the L-rd: After seventy years for Babylon will I visit you... and return you to this place." In 371 the Persian emperor Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild the Temple, but the construction was halted the next year when the Samarians persuaded Cyrus to withdraw permission. Achashverosh II (of Purim fame) upheld the moratorium. Only in 353 -- exactly 70 years after the destruction -- did the building of the Temple resume under Darius II. (Chabad)

As important as Purim is, it is Adar 3 that marks the ultimate success of the Mordechai and Esther: the consturction of beis hamikdash. King Achashverosh had enforced a building moratorium (sound familiar?), and only after the Purim saga did the state of the Jews improve under the Persian empire, ultimately leading to their return to Israel under Darius. Adar 3 marks the beginning of the second era in which Beis HaMikdash stood in Jerusalem, emanating spiritual and material blessing to all peoples and all of creation. Maybe this is why the Mayan Calendar sees this date in 5771 as crucial in terms of the beginning of the final era before ultimate transformation.

The inner dimension of mashiach - the upheaval that is going on in each of our souls and lives - everyone knows on a personal basis. The global dimension - earthquakes, animal deaths, bizarre weather - reminds us that something larger is taking place. Ultimately, Hashem is in charge, and everything that happens is for the sake of tefillah and teshuva.

משנכנס אדר מרבים בשמחה

24 whales stranded in New Zealand

A group of 24 stranded whales were found in dire condition in Parengarenga Harbor in New Zealand. Fourteen had died and the Dept. of Conservation was forced to euthanise the remaining ten. According to the Dept. staff, "The kindest thing was to end their suffering.''

The whales had been trapped in shallow water and mud for some time. Possible explanations include sickness and disorientation. According to Dept. staff, ''Because of their close ties to each other, when one of their pod gets into trouble and strands, generally the others will follow to try to help and become stranded themselves.'' (stuff.co.nz)

The whale, and more specifically, the Leviathan, features prominently in Jewish descriptions of the Messianic era. From inner.org:  

Leviathan is the name of an archetypal sea-creature, which is destined to wage battle against the Behemoth, only to be consumed by the righteous at the end of days; an animal of "the sea" (a symbol for the concealed realm), it symbolizes the category of righteous souls who are concealed in this world (and whose essential "occupation" in Torah is in its concealed aspect, the Kabbalah--esoteric tradition).

The following is taken from chabadworld.net:

Our sages in the Talmud describe an encounter between the Leviathan and the Shor Habar, the "wild ox." The wild ox will gore the Leviathan with its horns, and the Leviathan will slaughter the wild ox with its fins. Although this passage in the Talmud has deep symbolic meaning, Maharsha writes in his commentary on the Talmud that the Feast of Moshiach will also take place literally.

The Leviathan and the Shor Habar (wild ox) symbolize two types of divine service. The Leviathan, which lives in the sea, represents spirituality, which is hidden. There are righteous people whose main form of divine service is to separate themselves from this world in order to engage in strictly spiritual pursuits.

The "wild ox" which lives on land, represents the physical realm. There are righteous people who struggle to infuse the physical with holiness. The term "bar," which literally means "wild," shares a root with the Hebrew word "Birur" - refinement. The task of these righteous people is to refine the physicality of the world.

The righteous symbolized by the Leviathan reach superior levels of spirituality. However, the second type, who purify the physical, complete the purpose of creation, which is to refine the physical world.

When the redemption will come, the two classes of tzadikim will influence one another, and each will absorb the special qualities of the other.  In spiritual terms, "slaughter" means to elevate. This is the spiritual meaning of the mutual "slaughter" of the Leviathan and wild ox: Each type will elevate the other to its own stature. Thus, through the combined efforts of the two types of tzadikim, the highest levels of spirituality will be drawn down into the physical world.

Water, Flooding and Mashiach

A big wave crashing in Santa Cruz, CA / Mila Zinkova

 Exodus 1:8-10



A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

Rashi (11th-century commentator) on the phrase 'A new king': Rav and Shmuel [differed in their interpretation]. One said [the king himself was] really new, and one said his decrees were new.

rsm: Brazil and Australia, two nations recently hit by major flooding, are led by two newly-elected leaders, both of whom come in the footsteps of a past leader who was infamously anti-Israel. Brazil's Lula recently established the first Palestinian embassy in Brazil. Australia's Rudd left a deep diplomatic divide between Australia and Israel.

He said to his people: 'Behold, the people of the children of Israel are greater and stronger than we are. Let us outwit him, lest he multiply; if a war occurs, he too will join our enemies and fight against us, and depart from the land.

Rashi on the phrase 'Outwit him': [Him refers to] the nation. [As in] be witty regarding what to do to him. Our sages taught, let us outwit the savior of Israel, by judging them with water, for He has already sworn that He will not flood the world [again] (but they did not understand that He swore He would not bring a flood upon the whole world, but He will bring one on one nation).

 rsm: Major flooding is occurring now in Brazil, Australia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. In Brazil, over 620 people have been killed by floods and mudslides. In Australia, the worst floods in the country's history have devastated large parts of Queensland and are now 'spreading' to parts of Victoria, with more rain in the forecast. Floods in the Philippines and Sri Lanka have left one million people displaced.

Exodus 1:22

And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, 'Every son who is born you shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter you shall allow to live.'

All his people: He commanded his people as well. On the day Moses was born, his astrologers told him, today their savior is born, and we do not know if he is Egyptian or Israelite, and we see that his end is to brought down by water, therefore he made a decree that day on the Egyptians as well, as it says 'every son who is born', and not 'every son who is born to the Hebrews', yet they did not know that his end was to be brought down by the waters of Merivah [when Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it, failing to sanctify God's name, and losing his privelege to enter the land of Israel].

 rsm: Moses was destined to save the Jewish people, take them out of exile and bring them into the land of Israel. Egyptian magic foresaw that water was his 'weak spot' and attempted to foil his plan by drowning him. In return, God drowned the entire Egyptian people in the Red Sea. Every generation since includes an individual with the soul of Moses, who has the potential to bring redemption. In this sense, the war between the Mashaich and His enemies is negotiated with acts involving water. Current flooding may be merely warnings.

פרשת שמות, פרק א, פסוקים ח-י

וַיָּקָם מֶלֶךְ-חָדָשׁ, עַל-מִצְרָיִם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יָדַע, אֶת-יוֹסֵף

וַיֹּאמֶר, אֶל-עַמּו:  הִנֵּה, עַם בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל--רַב וְעָצוּם, מִמֶּנּוּ

הָבָה נִתְחַכְּמָה, לו:  פֶּן-יִרְבֶּה, וְהָיָה כִּי-תִקְרֶאנָה מִלְחָמָה וְנוֹסַף גַּם-הוּא עַל-שֹׂנְאֵינוּ, וְנִלְחַם-בָּנוּ, וְעָלָה מִן-הָאָרֶץ

רש"י: ויקם מלך חדש: רב ושמואל חד אמר חדש ממש. וחד אמר, שנתחדשו גזרותיו

נתחכמה לו: לעם. נתחכמה מה לעשות לו. ורבותינו דרשו נתחכם למושיען של ישראל לדונם במים, שכבר נשבע שלא יביא מבול לעולם (והם לא הבינו שעל כל העולם אינו מביא, אבל הוא מביא על אומה אחת)

 שמות א, כ"ב: וַיְצַו פַּרְעֹה לְכָל עַמּוֹ לֵאמֹר כָּל הַבֵּן הַיִּלּוֹד הַיְאֹרָה תַּשְׁלִיכֻהוּ וְכָל הַבַּת תְּחַיּוּן

רש"י: לכל עמו: אף עליהם גזר. יום שנולד משה אמרו לו אצטגניניו היום נולד מושיען, ואין אנו יודעין אם ממצרים אם מישראל, ורואין אנו שסופו ללקות במים, לפיכך גזר אותו היום אף על המצרים, שנאמר כל הבן הילוד, ולא נאמר הילוד לעברים, והם לא היו יודעים שסופו ללקות על מי מריבה

Heavy flooding worldwide

Flooding in Toowoomba, Australia 2011 / Kingbob86

UK:

Flood warnings are in place on nearly all of Scotland's rivers following heavy rain. Areas along the River Eden in Cumbria, a county in Northwest England, were also on high alert. North Wales had four flood warnings overnight.

Phillipines:

Two weeks of heavy rains in the Philippines have killed 51, left 400,000 displaced people, and have overall affected 1.5 million people.

Brazil:

More than 656 people have died from floods and mudslides in the mountains around Rio De Janeiro, in the country's worst disaster on record. "It's impossible to know the extent of the catastrophe," James Barros, a colonel from a state police battalion in the region, told the Globo news network. "There are areas where mudslides carried away entire families, with no one left to recognize bodies."(WSJ)

Sri Lanka:

Floods have killed 32 and displaced 300,000 in Sri Lanka, spurning fears of water-borne diseases and massive economic hardship following destruction of rice fields.

Australia:

Australia's flood crisis spread to Victoria on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of 3,000 residents, just after floods killed at least 20 and ravaged Queensland in the worst disaster in Australia's history. Sharks have been spotted swimming through flood-hit streets of a town in Queensland. Some towns still do not have clean tap water.

The Talmud teaches that while God promised he would not bring a flood upon the whole world again, he will bring a flood upon one nation (Sotah 11a).

Click here for a current map of Australia river levels
 

In search of a new god

The percentage of population in European countries who
responded in a 2005 census that they "believe there is a God
(Artem Karimov, based on Eurobarometer data)

In the Economist's 25-year special edition 'The World in 2011', Paul Saffo of Discern Analytics draws parallels between today and Karl Jasper's 'Axial Age'--the period between 800 and 200 BC, when Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Greek philosophy were born. Coincidentally, this was also the time during which the First Temple stood in Jerusalem, a time when according to Jewish tradition the divine presence had a dwelling-place in the physical world.

Saffo suggests that contemporary developments in air travel and cyberspace, coupled with wars, revolutions and natural disasters, creates a "petri dish from which a new god could spring,"in which:

Populations around the world are struggling to find security and identity in this strange new future-shock world. The rise of fundamentalism is a sure indicator of dissatisfaction with the current religious order. Unhappy believers first look back to their roots for comfort, but origins rarely comfort and thus they will inevitably search for a new god.

Indeed, natural disasters in past weeks have left many looking for answers, and what is out there is not always satisfying.

הִנֵּה יָמִים בָּאִים, נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה, וְהִשְׁלַחְתִּי רָעָב, בָּאָרֶץ:  לֹא-רָעָב לַלֶּחֶם, וְלֹא-צָמָא לַמַּיִם--כִּי אִם-לִשְׁמֹעַ, אֵת דִּבְרֵי יְהוָה

Days are coming, the word of God, when I will send a famine in the land - 

Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of God

Animal deaths = tenth plague?

What if the animal deaths this week are a huge chesed (act of lovingkindness) of Hashem, an enactment of only the animal toll of makat bechorot (death of the first-borns)?

וְעָבַרְתִּי בְאֶרֶץ-מִצְרַיִם, בַּלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה, וְהִכֵּיתִי כָל-בְּכוֹר בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, מֵאָדָם וְעַד-בְּהֵמָה; וּבְכָל-אֱלֹהֵי מִצְרַיִם אֶעֱשֶׂה שְׁפָטִים, אֲנִי יְהוָה

And I will pass through the land of Egypt on this night, and smite all firstborns in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.

After the carmel fire, Rabbi Uri Shreki, head of the Israeli division of Machon Meir, said the Carmel fire was the attribute of judgment taking its toll, in what could have been a much greater disaster. Considering what could have been, the way things happened derived from the "total kindness of Hashem".

It is also worth noting that Uri Shreki, whose article was brought to my attention last month by Yeranen Yaakov, did not take the view that am yisrael 'deserved' the fire, h"v. Rather, he said the fire was in the category of 'yissurim shel ahava', or 'sufferings of love', where Hashem sends ordeals to his favorites, the heavy price which is only worth it in light of what's ahead.

And the river turned to...animal fat?

Beef Tallow floating on the Houston Ship Cannal (AP/US Coastal Guard)

HuffPost reports:

Workers with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Texas General Land Office used pitchfork and fishnets Wednesday to pierce, corral and remove chunks of beef fat clogging the Houston Ship Channel, shutting down nearly a mile of one of the nation's busiest marine arteries...

Some 15,000 gallons of animal fat poured into the channel through a storm drain on Tuesday after an onshore storage tank owned by agricultural company Jacob Sterns and Sons leaked 250,000 gallons of the greasy substance, Brahms said...

"When it hit the water it instantly thickened," Brahms said. "It turned into a thick pattie, which is pretty much what we're cleaning up now."

In the first of the Ten Plagues, Moses turns the main Egyptian waterway to blood:

This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water. (Exodus 7:17-18)

It's not that unusual

AP reports:

"It is not that unusual," said Kristen Schuler, a scientist at the US Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center. "There is nothing apocalyptic or anything that is necessarily out of the ordinary for what we would see in any given week." Indeed, the USGS keeps a log on its website with reports of groups of birds dying each week, averaging from dozens to thousands.

It may be normal for large groups of birds to die from time to time. It may also be normal for large groups of fish to die from time to time. But the timing of several incidents of mass bird deaths, along with several incidents of mass fish deaths, within days, across the globe is startling. Moreover, while mass wildlife kill is a known phenomenon, birds falling dead from the sky with no disease and no external harm is equally bizarre.

I wonder if in Egypt, each of the ten plagues were explained away by experts. I wonder at what point people started to wake up.

We are now approaching the Jewish holiday Tu Bishvat, and after that, Purim. In the Purim story, the Persian king's minister orders a death sentence for the entire Jewish people, as a result of a Jew's refusal to bow down to the minister, and only to God. Luckily, the king's queen is secretly Jewish, and through her exquisite beauty, wit and charm she convinces the king to reverse the tables, honor the Jew, and hang the minister. Purim is a celebration of the reversal of bad fate, and the ability of things to turn from entirely doomsdayish to entirely sweetened (b"H).

In the scroll recounting the story of Purim, God is entirely absent from the written text. In other words, anyone reading the story could argue that the miracle of saving the Jewish people was entirely due to Esther's beauty, wit, and charm; her uncle's wisdom to plant her as a spy in the palace in the first place; the king's love for Esther; Haman's lack of charisma; grim prospects for the upcoming election year; global warming; etc., etc. Indeed, all of these reasons were indeed the means by which the people were saved...but who was orchestrating the show? The point is, since supernatural miracle Chanukah (200 CE), it's all interpretation. It's all up to us. The test of the generation of Mashiach is emunah, best translated as steadfastedness. We have to find God within the Purim story; we have to find God inside the headlines, inside the wonders of creation, inside Egypt.

Take the Ten Plagues, which we read about during this week's Torah portion, Bo (Exodus 10:1–13:16). First, the nile turns red from blood (on that note, Houston's ship channel just get clogged with beef fat). Blood-filled nile is a little weird, but could be explained by various natural factors. Next, frogs are everywhere. Big ones. Again, weird, but nothing supernatural. Then, lice. If you've ever played with kids in Israel, you know how hard this one is to get rid of. At this point, you start to wonder: wait, first bloody nile, then frogs, now lice. Could there be a connection between the three? They seem unrelated, and each can be explained on its own by natural forces, and there have been somewhat similar instances in the past of each isolated incidents in the past, so, the Jews remain in captivity, and business as usual resumes...

We all know the end of the story. Pharoah connects the dots and begs the Jews to leave. God splits the sea and demonstrates his power over . Let's not wait for miracles, let's find Hashem in the times! Bo el Paro...come to Pharoah, because, you'll find out, that I was there all along ! ! !

Mass Suicides? #2

In my earlier post, I discuss an expert opinion that the 26 dolphins found dead in England in June 2008 had essentially taken their own lives, by inhaling large amounts of debris and mud. In the past, dolphins have been known to not come up for air or slam themselves against sides of a pool for no apparent reason, something that has led experts to believe dolphins are among creatures who can choose to take their own lives.

Today, more stories are circulating regarding suicide as an explanation for animal deaths in the past, especially when circumstances of an incident are highly unusual and when other plausible explanations are lacking. These stories are not further evidence in the latest trend of mass animal deaths, but rather as evidence suggesting that animals have a level of sensitivity and complexity which is generally overlooked. It is sad that we have to derive this understanding from such horrific circumstances.

1. Mass sheep suicide in Turkey, July 2005:

First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported.

In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.

2. 200 whales strand themselves on King Island between Australia and Tasmania. Apparently, this is not an isolated incident:

Mass strandings of whales occur periodically in Australia and New Zealand, as the whales migrate to and from Antarctic waters, for reasons that are not entirely understood.

Theories include disturbance of echo-location, possibly by interference from sound produced by human activities at sea.

3. Dogs known to leap suddenly from a bridge in Scotland:

In the past fifty years, 50 to 600 dogs have jumped over Scotland’s Overtoun Bridge and plummeted to their deaths. A few years ago, five dogs jumped in under six months. The Daily Mail wrote an article featuring reports of horrified pet owners who walked their dog over the bridge, when suddenly the dog would, without warning, leap over the bridge, falling 50 ft to the rocky bottom below. Perhaps even more disturbing, there are reports of “second timers” – of the few dogs who have survived the fall, some jumped over the same bridge again.

Many theories have circulated about why dogs react this way to the bridge. Some suggest that the dogs are deliberately committing suicide, perhaps due to depression in their owners or even a supernatural force. More recent research suggests that it may be the scent of minks, an animal known to live under the bridge.

Animals, who are closer to nature, are more attuned with the purpose of the world as ingrained in them naturally by their creator. If this is part of what is behind news, it is a huge wake-up call to humans to get the world back on track. Ha'olam lo hefker - this world is not abandoned, rather, this world has the potential to be a dwelling place for the Divine, and will be that one day, soon, b"H.

The search for explanations

With no signs of infections or other illnesses, and no external signs of what killed them, experts around the world are struggling to explain the mass animal deaths, while holding off on the temptation to connect events in Europe to the U.S.

In Sweden, 100 jackdaws were found dead on a roadside. Explanations remain vague.

According to CNN:

Autopsies were performed on five of the birds. The institute said they died due to "sudden, hard external blows," according to the press release. They had no signs of infection or other illnesses, and there were no external signs indicating what killed them.

"We have determined that the birds have died from severe internal bleedings caused by external blows," said the Institute's Marianne Elvander.

Meanwhile, "A county veterinarian has speculated that the birds that fell from the sky in central Sweden on Tuesday may have been frightened by fireworks, then run over by a car after landing on the road in the dark." (The Swedish Local)

Seems to me like this NY Times lesson plan designed for the classroom is doing a better job of asking questions than the media, which is either lazily relying on authorities' vague explanations for isolated incidents, or resorting to a Church's declaration that May 11, 2011 is judgment day.

A Vulture turned Mossad Spy

While birds around the globe are dying en masse, leaders and online forums in the Arab world are accusing Israel of a Zionist plot to train birds as spies...

Haaretz reports:

A vulture tagged by scientists at Tel Aviv University has strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, where it was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a Mossad spy, Israeli and Saudi media reported Tuesday.

The bird was found in a rural area of the country wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet bearing the words "Tel Aviv University", according to the reports, which surfaced first in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv.

Although these tags indicate that the bird was part of a long-term research project into migration patterns, residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be a "Zionist plot."

The accusations went viral, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the "Zionists" had trained these birds for espionage.