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Within the framework of a campaign of chizuk in yeshivos throughout the country, Rabbenu HaRav Dov Lando visited Yeshivas Imrei Moshe, headed by HaRav Mishkovsky, in Yerushalayim. Upon arrival, he joined the rabbonim and the student body for Ma'ariv, a prayer which then, in the midst of the year, resembled a Yom Kippur service.
Upon the culmination, HaRav Lando delivered a message of blessing and fortification, joined by HaRav Yisroel Ganz and HaRav Yitzchok Ehrenfeld, Rosh Yeshiva of Mishnas Akiva; HaRav Boruch Shapira, Ra"M of Yeshiva l'Tzeirim of Kol Torah.
Among his words was the following message:
"Dear students who study Torah. Fortunate are you and your portion. Study well, immerse yourselves in your study; the only thing that should interest you is study and performance of mitzvos, so that you gladden those who are interested in your welfare. Continue to ascend higher and higher in the levels of Torah, in depth and intensity, with the uppermost goal being to listen, absorb fully and be totally immersed in your study. ...
A study presented to the European Union institutions reveals how Europe is underwriting various organizations connected to the worldwide Islamist organization the Moslem Brotherhood — all from taxpayers' monies. According to this report, these organizations promote subversive ideology whose aim is to change the face of the entire continent from within.
The authors of this study, two very renowned researchers of Islam in Europe, arrive at a very clear-cut conclusion: if Europe does not wake up immediately, it is lost. This sordid assumption, based on hundreds of examples and facts, carefully culled, describe a 'game' sold out to begin with: since the time that European officials working throughout their world, a world of dry regulations, did not begin to notice what was growing skin and sinews outside the buildings of the government. The Islamists have learned the art of camouflage.
"The Moslem Brotherhood in Europe can be compared to a wolf in sheep's clothing," the researchers explain. "They are outwardly abandoning the path of violence and assuming a pragmatic facade: prepared to work together with the official systems, in order to garner funding. But let us not fall into their trap: the procedure of this tactic does not constitute a real change. Rather, the end goal remains as it always was: to destroy the secular democratic institutions of Europe and erect a theocratic regime based on the Koran. Their goal is global in which all areas of life are based on the Koran and the laws of Shriah,.while shunting aside the non-Moslems to a state of second degree citizens. The Moslem Brotherhood is a totalitarian force, and demands our recognition as such."
The extensive analysis which appeared in a Swedish newspaper, exposes the fact that some 100 million dollars of public money, earmarked for services of education, welfare and kindergartens, were streamed to institutions affiliated with extreme Moslem purposes. ...
R' Sender from the Warsaw ghetto; the first Jewish soldier in Washington's army' the old-timer who suffered through the bitter Communist exile, the politrok from the Stalin era; the wonderful miracle that happened somewhere in Poland. All of these have one common denominator: the Chanukah lights which burn their way through to a person's core.
Menorahs are known to have unique properties: they have the power of rousing hearts, of igniting the spark of faith, of beaming into them the light of Yiddishkeit. This is a historical voyage of menorahs that illuminated hearts that were distant and revealed the hidden spark, the pintele Yid of every Jewish heart.
Part 1
The First Chanukah
The gemora asks: What is Chanukah? It goes on to tell of the miracle of the cruse of oil. The fact that it was found was one miracle. Its duration for eight days was an additional one. Josephus tells of a third miracle connected to fire:
"And Yehuda ben Matisyohu and the entire congregation of followers which were with him came to Jerusalem. They destroyed all the altars which the uncircumcised had built and they purified the Temple from the abominations of the gentiles, and they built a new altar.
"And they laid the flesh of the sacrifice thereupon and they arranged the wood, but they could find no holy fire [to consume it]...
"And fire burst forth from the stone on the altar and they placed the wood upon it...
"And that fire remained until the third exile...
The Lights that Stirred George Washington
Chanukah, 1777
It was a harsh, almost unbearable winter. A division of soldiers stationed at Valley Forge had no inkling of what they were doing there and what they were waiting for. In their midst was a lone soldier, different from the rest, a Jewish soldier, a shomer mitzvos.
The troops were literally starving for bread, bone-cold and soul- weary. They lacked decent clothing to cover their frozen frames, and shoes to protect their icy feet. The situation was desperate!
Most of the soldiers voiced their complaints to George Washington, demanding that he take an offensive in the war against England. Many even prayed for his defeat. Others, including our Jewish soldier, gave their full support to the general and hoped that the war would bring independence to this young country. This was the widespread hope shared by most of the Jews who had fled to these shores to escape feudal oppression.
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Opinion & Comment
This part contains further insights on human character and especially the idea of being satisfied with one's lot.
Untouched by Pride and Desire
"And Dovid said to his heart, `Now, I will one day be finished at Shaul's hand . . . ' " In the previous perek (Shmuel I 26:7-8), we learn that, "Dovid and Avishai came to the people at night and there was Shaul lying and sleeping inside the ring with his spear wedged into the ground by his head, and Avner and the people were lying roundabout him. Avishai said to Dovid, `Hashem has put your enemy in your power. And now, I will smite him with the spear through to the ground, with one blow and I will not [need to] do it a second time.' "
Avishai, son of Dovid's sister Tzeruyoh, who was one of the finest among Klal Yisroel, ruled unequivocally over here that it was permitted for Dovid to kill Shaul. And we must acknowledge too, that the deep slumber which Hashem brought upon Shaul Hamelech and all his men (posuk 12), was in order that they should fall into Dovid's hands. "And Dovid took the spear and the flask of water from next to Shaul's head and they went away, without anybody seeing or knowing or waking up, for they were all asleep, for a slumber from Hashem had fallen upon them." Yet in posuk 9, Dovid tells Avishai " . . . `Do not destroy him, for who has put his hand out to [harm] Hashem's anointed one and remained innocent? . . . And Dovid said, `Chay Hashem, only Hashem will smite him . . . ' " In the Yalkut, Chazal ask, `Why did Dovid swear by chay Hashem? He swore to his yetzer hora, `I will not do this.' Rabbon Shimon ben Gamliel says that Dovid told Avishai, "If you touch a drop of that tzaddik's blood, I will mingle your blood with his." '
It is amazing to consider how Dovid's heart did not prompt him in the slightest degree to assert that right was on his side in his dispute with Shaul and to accept Avishai's assumption, as well as what seemed to be the evidence of his own eyes, that Hashem was presenting him with an opportunity to remove one who sought his life. This was because `Tzadikim are in control of their hearts.' Dovid was completely untouched by the desire for honor and glory and thus did not delude himself into thinking that Hashem meant him to take Shaul's life.
Whereas Dovid resisted the prompting of the desire for honor, Doniel resisted those of the attraction of worldly desires. `And Doniel made a point of not polluting himself with the king's delicacies and the wine he drank . . . ' Nevuchadnezzar had given orders that all those who attended the king should be fed with meat and given wine to drink, so that they would have a good and noble appearance. Doniel, Chananioh, Mishoel and Azarya did not want to eat this food. However, while they were really subsisting on a diet of seeds and water, they still looked as though they were living on fine food. How did this happen?
IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Chanukah is a time in which our ancestors had to find truth in the darkness of a Greek culture that was out to smother them. In this talk, Rabbi Miller of Gateshead tells us how to search for -- and find -- truth, wherever we are. The following is an edited version of remarks recorded on tape.
Concerning the attribute of truth in Yaakov Ovinu, there is a passage in the Midrashic literature, Tanna Devei Eliyahu, which says the following. At the end of Bereishis we read, "Vayechi Yaakov be'eretz Mitzrayim sheva esrei shonoh," Yaakov Ovinu lived in Mitzrayim for seventeen years. The Midrash says that these seventeen years, which he lived in the land of Mitzrayim, were the main years of his life. In these seventeen years, he had no grief-- shelo betza'ar. During these seventeen years, he was not troubled by his yetzer hora, and he lived mei'ein Olam Haba, a life in Mitzrayim, in Egypt, which resembled the life of the World to Come.
The difficulty in this Midrash is that there is a passage in the gemora (Bava Basra), which says that all three of our Patriarchs had the taste of the World to Come during their lives in this world. Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov -- each used the word "kol," meaning "everything." Avrohom was blessed bakol, with everything. The word "mikol" was used by Yitzchok. And Yaakov said, "Yesh li kol--I have everything." From their use of the word "kol" the gemora says that all three lived a life shelo betza'ar, belo yetzer hora, mei'ein Olam Haboh -- that these three people lived a life in this world similar to the life in the World to Come.
How does one see this in their use of the word "kol"? A life of "kol" is not the sort of life that people normally have in this world. No one has everything here. However, in the World to Come, you do have everything. So in the word "kol" lies the idea of mei'ein Olam Haboh, having a life in this world similar to that in the World to Come.
Yaakov Ovinu used the word "kol" right after his encounter with Eisov. This was when he came back to Eretz Yisroel after being with Lovon. When he came back to Eretz Yisroel, he met Eisov, had a fight with the mal'ach of Eisov, and was successful. It says, "Vayovo Yaakov sholeim -- Yaakov came out of it perfect." All this took place more than thirty years before he went to Mitzrayim. Therefore, how can the Tanna Devei Eliyahu tell us that the seventeen years in Mitzrayim were the main years of his life, because only then did he have the taste of Olam Haboh, when the gemora tells us exactly the same thing about Yaakov Ovinu more than thirty years earlier? Why do we accentuate just these last seventeen years? That's one problem that we'll have to answer.
With What do we Search for Truth?
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