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Criticism
2008-06-08 11:47:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsThe Zohar describes this as the WORST of all possible worlds...in which there is still hope.Our prayers from Yom Kippur state that the Men of the Great Assembly deliberated on whether the challenges of this world are worth it, and declared "Better than man have not been created."It's somewhat of a Jewish tradition to criticize ourselves. There has always been the grumblers in the back of shul (synagogue), who know with absolute certainy that they could have done it better, given the rav's speech better, built the shul better, installed better chairs, etc. In this day and age, with semi-anonymity of the 'net, all those grumblers and more have opened up blogs where they can pick at every little thing within the religious Jewish community.Lets face it, the religious Jewish community is suffering SERIOUS growing pains right now. Yeshiva's are crowded yet insufficiently resourced. Imbued lifestyles of learning are conflicting with real world need for...
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Jews Destroy Serbia?
2008-06-08 01:07:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsMost Western Jews , or more specifically, American Jews, believe that anti-semitism is a thing of the past. For the most part, overt anti-semitism is definitely no longer acceptable in the United States (with the big bold exception of calls for death to Jews in the context of support for Palestinians on US college campuses).But it seems that anti-semitism disappeared only for an eye blink. It's starting to pop up again in the oddest of places. The halacha that "Esav hates Yaakov" is as eternal as every other halacha. While perusing some sites I follow after Shabbat, I came across this from journalist Michael Totten, reporting from Serbia ...?What do most Serbs think of Americans now?? I asked Filip David.?Very bad!? he said and laughed. ?There is very messy propaganda, you know. Here there is no private opinion, only public opinion. During Milosevic they said for four years that there was no alternative to war. And after Dayton, the next day, they sa...

Teen Path: Zionism Confusionism
2008-06-05 13:01:00
by Chavi at Mystical Path sToday while on Facebook I was looking at the groups my friends had joined and was horrified to see one friend had joined a group called The Neturei Karta Fan Club.The Neutra Karta Fan ClubDescription: For those who love the anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta. Seeing this and the pic for the group just made me want to scream. I was shocked that this friend would join such a group. This friend is very chassidish and serious and in my minds eye would never do such a thing. But I guess you never really know a person. I could understand my friend not liking the government of Israel or not being a supporter of the State of Israel, but this was way over the line.As frum Jews we're supposed to appreciate what we have and what we've been given. These people, what do they thing, Eretz Yisroel is a joke? There are many Israeli bloggers who speak against Israel. But, generally they speak against the policies of the government, or the wackiness of pa...
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To Unite
2008-06-05 05:00:00
by Reb Gutman Locks at Mystical PathsBefore performing certain mitzvahs, and within the daily prayers, we sometimes declare that we are doing that deed, or praying those prayers, ?? For the sake of the union of the Holy One, blessed be He, with His Presence, to unite the name yud-kay with vav-kay in a perfect union in the name of all Israel.?? Yud-kay are the first two letters of His most holy name, and vav-kay are the last two letters of this name.The question is, what are we uniting here? To unite something means to bring it together, to join, combine, or incorporate so as to form a single whole or unit. Certainly, this cannot be our intention here because, as we all know, Hashem and His Presence are already one. And it cannot be His name that we are trying to bring together because His name is also already one. Neither He nor His name need to be unified. He is never apart from Himself nor from His name. So what are we intending to do when we say this?The answer becomes clear in t...

Israeli Politics
2008-06-04 12:00:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsBelow is a parlor talk by an Israeli Knesset Member, Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, from 2 weeks ago (in English). He's surprisingly candid about government corruption, Israeli's geopolitical situation, and has some good tidbits about Pollard and why even opposition MK's won't vote to bring down this horrible regime. I don't normally recommend wasting time on these guys, but this gives some pretty good insights into Israeli politics... (1 hour, English)Support the Path! - Posted at Mystical Paths, MPaths.com.
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The Prayer of the Sheloh
2008-06-04 05:59:00
Kever of the Holy Sheloh, zt"l in Teveriaby Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsThe Sheloh HaKodesh, the holy Rabbi Yeshaya Halevi Horowitz, zt"l (1500's), composed a special tefilah (prayer) for parents to say for their children. He wrote that the optimal time for this tefilah is today, Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan. The prayer is considered so special that in Israel it's distributed to all young children to bring home today.Here is a link to this special prayer, in hebrew. And here it is in English. (Thanks to Reb Aryeh for the English link.)More on the holy Sheloh can be found here.(Original photos by Akiva.)Support the Path! - Posted at Mystical Paths, MPaths.com.
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Seething!
2008-06-03 23:01:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsThis morning I awoke to the news that the US and the UN were condeming Israel in a big way (nothing new there) for, gasp, building houses in Jerusalem. Yesterday, I met a friend at the mall in Pisgat Zeev. For those who don't know Jerusalem, if you drive out of Meah Shearim, go 5 minutes straight, you're in Pisgat Zeev. 5 minutes. What I didn't know was I was, per the US and the UN, traveling to a different country, territory, oh heck I don't know (neither do they).By the way, the mall in Pisgat Zeev was equally being shopped by Jews and Israeli Arabs. Groups of Israeli Arab teenage girls were doing the teenage mall thing, prowling in small groups. But, "U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's office also released a statement Monday that said the secretary general was "deeply concerned"".The game here is this, even though Israel has been rebuilding and building Jerusalem since 1967, creating new communities and rebuilding old ones, building streets, malls, h...

Shmuel HaNavi
2008-06-02 20:03:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsA visit to the kever of Shmuel HaNava, the tomb of the biblical prophet Samuel on his yaretzheit.Support the Path! - Posted at Mystical Paths, MPaths.com.

Reb Shlomo on Jerusalem
2008-06-02 09:45:00
Yitz at Heichal HaNegina has created this powerful video from Reb Shlomo Carlebach, zt"l, in honor of Yom Yerushalayim...
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More on Mezuzahs
2008-06-01 09:20:00
by Reb Gutman Locks at Mystical PathsOn my post on Mezuzah's, anonymous commented: "What a nice god you have! He smites people down because their Sofer made a mistake! He also magically changes the mezuzah when one sins! Why can't I get such a nice cuddly lovable god?"Another commented regarding using mezuzos as some sort of talisman or amulet is contrary to halacha.In last week?s Torah portion (Bechukosai) we read many times that G-d acts toward us according to the way that we act toward Him.[i] From this we understand that (using your language) we ?get the kind of G-d? depending upon the way we behave toward, and perceive of, Him. Yes, my G-d is ?lovable,? really gorgeous. In fact, there is nothing more lovable in the entire creation than the Creator. To see even the briefest speck of His loving glory makes all of life?s ups and downs worth while.It seems, by the way you wrote, that you do not perceive of G-d as being a loving G-d, but apparently, as a stern, judgmental, even ca...

Press Releases from the King of Kings
2008-05-31 21:06:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsThose outside the orthodox Jewish world, and sometimes even those inside, often wonder why we spend so much time analyzing the Torah and Talmud in such depth. For those involved in the American financial markets in the past, my answer is (l'havdil) "Alan Greenspan". For those who don't get that or aren't market followers...(via Israpundit) Jack Wheeler, former advisor to President Reagan, advises that Condi and the State Department are cowards and aren?t prepared to upset anybody except the Israelis. He guestimates that Bush will order a strike against Iran after Nov 4/08. He also noted that Bush mentioned the Peace process not once in the Knesset and thinks that is significant.In politics and other significant negotiations, we pay close attention to every facet of every detail to gain our best understanding of the situation. Did the King glance our way, did the President nod silently to the comment, did the Secretary not repeat a position she norm...
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Haircuts
2008-05-28 23:39:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsQuestion: Is one allowed to have a hair cut, during the 50 Days of the Omer Count?During the period of the Omer, we follow a number of customs related to mourning - a kind of semi-national-mourning. One of those customs is to NOT cut hair (including not shaving, even if one does so in a permitted fashion during other times).However, there is significantly different customs (minhagim) regarding WHEN during the Omer period this period of mourning lasts...- MOST hold from the end of Passover until Lag B'Omer.- Some don't begin the period until Chodesh Iyar.- Many chassidim (and others) continue the period from the end of Lag B'Omer until Shavuos, but others don't.- All hold that Lag B'Omer itself is exempted, and do cut hair - hold weddings - celebrate - listen to music - on Lag B'Omer.For those who hold the custom until the end of the Omer, there is disagreement on when "preparation for Shavuos" begins and therefore hair should be cut...- Some say ...
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Moon Soup and Planet Salad
2008-05-28 05:00:00
by Reb Nati at Mystical PathsThere is a problem that stems from lack of faith in Hashem and His chachamim, His sages. Through faith in the holy sages and the true tzaddikim we bring out our Jewish mishpat, the righteous judgments to light up this world. Conversely, a person or group or nation who repudiates this faith is condemned to a mind plagued by confusion and doubt. They are unable to attain judgment or derive true laws of conduct from their studies, and are never clear about the path to follow.This pollution of the mind and inability to exercise mishpat result in conferring authority on unworthy leaders. This in turn causes our writings, aka the Holy Torah, to lose their authority, and leads to the Jews being exiled from their land and their places in which they have settled. (Sound familiar?)This is the issue of mazal. As a result of the breaking down of the Authority of the Holy Torah, the wisdom of SOD HA-IBUR, 'the mystery of intercalation', was taken from the Jewish ...
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Mazel
2008-05-27 02:59:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsAnonymous commented: just wanted to let you know that the saying "good luck" refers to a world were things happen randomly and by chance - I know you don't believe this so I would suggest using a better saying such as "good mazal".We have a custom you are surely aware of, shouting out Mazel Tov at good occasions (wedding, bar mitzvah, etc.) Mazel, in common translation, means Luck. And Tov means good. Mazel Tov = Good Luck, literally. Using more Jewish religious circles terminology doesn't change the fact that we're wishing someone 'good luck'.What is this mazel thing, and why do we want people to have good ones? In super brief (perhaps in more detail in a future post), when we appear to be operating within the realm of the 'natural pattern of the world', even within the natural pattern there's a supra-rational pattern. BUT it's not the G-dly pattern of being connected to G-d and clearly operating (at all times) according to the Hand of H...

Mezuzah's
2008-05-26 12:34:00
by Reb Gutman Locks at Mystical PathsWe are so used to seeing our Mezuzahs that they can be taken for granted, or seem to be just pieces of leather in a case stuck on the wall.Rabbi Ben Tov has a special spiritual ability. Mezuzahs ?tell? him things about the room where they are affixed.A friend of mine, Daniel, was learning in a yeshiva in Brooklyn. He was having a problem and thought that maybe Rabbi Ben Tov could look as his mezuzah and tell him what he should change in his life. He took the mezuzah from his apartment?s front doorpost to the rabbi. The rabbi looked at the mezuzah and accused him of some very shocking things.?You have been learning the new testament for a long time!??What!? Daniel was shocked.?You are married to a non-Jewish woman and you are a missionary!?He grabbed the mezuzah from the rabbi?s hand and ran out screaming about how crazy the rabbi was to say such things.He went back to his apartment and was complaining to his roommate about what happened. His room...

The Hand of Doubt
2008-05-25 23:13:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsWhen you see the Hand of G-d, the hand of doubt must be extra strong to offset it. For, this world only exists to give you the choice, the free will, to turn to G-d, or (c's'vsh) turn away from G-d. G-d's presence is strongest in the Holy Land, in Israel. If a person chooses to look, and to live with faith, they'll see it, sometimes even clearly. And if not (c's'vsh)? They'll be beset by troubles, they'll live in a "land that eats it's inhabitants", or if they don't merit to be woken up by G-d, they'll live a fine life but find themselves not being non-religious, but literally feeling compelled to be anti-Jewish-anti-religious (a state of being that exists ONLY in Eretz Yisroel), as to avoid seeing the blessings that shine within view in Israel, they have to actively fight them off....Traffic has been terrible in the mornings. I've been traveling different routes to try to find a reasonable path to a work site. After days of spendin...
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Good Forum, Bad Forum - Tech Alert: Skype
2008-05-25 22:24:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsWhile we're busy trying to use these tools to their greatest potential for good, Torah, and kiddush Hashem, there are those busy using these tools for the opposite, hijacking, corrupting, destroying, perverting.I've been a long time user of Skype , which was a major technological advance in free internet phone calls, and even more cool, free internet video calls. Following our move to Israel, this has been a nice facility for my children to video chat with their grandfather.But, in the past two weeks Skype has been infested with highly-inappropriate contact requests. Someone developed a facility to send these inappropriate requests to millions of Skype users, with an inappropriate picture, literally resending them several times daily to most Skype users.Be warned, there's no solution to this at the moment (tech brief here). If you're being impacted by this, you may want to shut down Skype. I am, starting right now. And that's just sad.If you'r...
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Live Video Link from Meron
2008-05-22 21:52:00
Here's a live video link from Meron. (valid on Lag B'Omer 2008 only)Here's another, lower quality-no sound, but more bandwidth.Both only work in Internet Explorer, the pages are hebrew (doesn't matter for the video), and the first link si pretty much overwhelmed (so you'll be lucky if it actually starts).Anyway, good luck!
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Preliminary Lag B'Omer Post
2008-05-21 22:22:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsHistorically, Lag B'Omer has been a heavy posting time hear at Mystical Paths. We've pointed you to where you could donate Chai Rotel, the drinks of blessing for kever Rashbi, gotten you connected to live video feeds and posted live reports from the Kever of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron.We did that with Rabbi Nati on-site, and myself in the US coordinating. This year, we both may be there (though it's looking very difficult for me personally), and if not we're both in Israel (in the same time zone), and Lag B'Omer is Thursday night into Erev Shabbos. All in all, it may mean less live posts and more after-the-fact posts. Regardless, we hope to have some pictures and video from this year.In the meantime, check out this Rashbi site and a video from that site below. Oh, and if you want to get ILL, the FADE/FAKE Kabbalah People site is SELLING a live access feed with personal reporting by their "Rabbi" Karen and Mr. Michael, where for only $26 ...
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Prophecy
2008-05-21 05:00:00
by Reb Akiva at Mystical PathsA critical question was asked over at a more, shall we say, skeptical oriented Jewish blog. Why did all the depth of the Torah, the Mishnah, the Gemora, the deep delving into meaning, start so late? Why don't we have writings from the generation in the desert, from Yehoshua bin Nun, from the Elders, or the Judges, or the Men of the Great Assembly, or the prophets themselves? (Yes, we have the words of Hashem from the prophets, or the brief events of the judges, but we don't have any Torah study from them.)My answer? Perhaps because this was the time of prophecy. Connecting with Hashem, reaching out to Shamayim (heavenly sources) was not only something happening to the prophets, but was simply quite normal. There were thousands, tens of thousands, of acknowledge prophets. (Not all their prophecies were recorded, and only a few specifically preserved for all generations, as they applied to all generations or the far future.)In such an environment...
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HaRav Eliyahu Update...
2008-05-20 17:25:00
HaRav HaGaon Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, SHLITA, a leading Torah scholar of our generation, is hospitalized in serious condition. Please daven for HaRav Mordechai ben Mazel Tov.(Background info from Dreaming) This is the third time that HaRav HaGaon HaMekubal Mordechai Eliyahu Shlita is hospitalized.Rav Mordechai Eliyahu Shlita is an orphan since the age of 11 when his father, HaRav Salman Eliyahu, zs'lk, passed away. His mother, Mazal Tov, single-handedly raised and educated him to become G'dol HaDor.(Update from Rabbi Nati) I just was in Meah Shearim, Jerusalem and they are preparing for the possibility of the worst, G-d forbid. People are gathering in the streets and crying. Much traffic was coming in, much of it kippa sruga (the mizrachi/national religious segment of society, to whom Rav Eliyahu is one of their leading rabbaim).For the second time recently, we see the unusual circumstance of two separate religious segments coming together, as HaRav Eliyahu is accepted as the...

Refuah Shalayma HaRav Eliyahu!!!
2008-05-20 12:26:00
Newsflash: Former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu was rushed to the intensive care unit at Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek Hospital Tuesday before noon.The rabbi's condition was described as "critical."The public is asked to pray for a complete and speedy recovery for Mordechai Tzemach ben Mazal Tov. [I suspect this is wrong, it's probably ben Mazel, as Mazel is a not-uncommon female Israel name, but Mazel Tov would seem rather unusual.]REFUAH SHALAYMA HARAV ELIYAHU, SHLITA!!!

Is G-d Really All? ? The Argument
2008-05-20 05:00:00
by Reb Gutman Locks at Mystical PathsThe subject of Hashem being all, including the lowest of lows of creation, has been an ongoing argument amongst the scholars of mysticism from the earliest days. There are many opinions and many shades of opinions on this subject. The argument has become quite heated at times causing Jews to distance themselves from each other and even worse. So to ask me to resolve this fierce argument in one short letter with exact quotes and sources (and with my very short memory for exact quotes and sources) is asking not only for the sea to part, but for it to be put back together again.If you like, here are a couple of places to look, but most likely they will not be enough to resolve the argument. Bli neder, in the future there will be a more thorough treatment of the subject sent out.To understand the subject and not just the argument, please read the posts entitled ?Idolatry,? ?There Is Only One Infinite,? and ?What Am I?? The subject of ?Ain od? (?Ther...

Hear Our Cry!
2008-05-19 13:19:00
by Reb Akiva & Rabbi Nati at Mystical PathsIsraeli Prime Minister Olmert, who sips coffee while missiles strike malls and children in Ashkelon, says "Ayn Ma La'asot", there is nothing to do. Israeli Defense Minister Barak, who tours and reviews and restrains all action proposals from the army while towns and now cities are cowering, says "Ayn Ma La'asot", there is nothing to do. Bush and Rice, who stand a in brotherhood and partnership while wielding the carving knife and going for the heart say, there's nothing to do but give them everything they want, lean back for surgery please.We met the chief rabbi of a major Israeli city at the Kotel, a big rav with his talmidim coming to pray. R. Nati approached him and asked for his approval, or at least his signature, on our cry for the geulah. He said, "why, I already pray for this 3 times a day." We walked away downtrodden. But then we realized, he's right...The Lubavitcher Rebbe called out, "I've done all that I can do, now i...
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A Great Zohar, A Great Historical...
2008-05-19 12:35:00
by Akiva at Mystical PathsTwo links not to miss today...Dreaming brings a Zohar about Al Qaeda!Zohar HaKadosh in Parshat VeYechi...??? ??? ?????, ?????? ????? ??? ????? ????? ???? ????? ??? ???? ??? , ?????? ???? , ??? ??? , ???? ??The people who fight these wars are the sons of Reuven*; descendants of Reuven**. They will make 4 wars during certain periods of history but the last one will be excessively daring '??? ??' - and the last war will be during our period of time.* This does not mean that they are Jewish because the descendants live in these areas for hundreds of years and during the long exile, lost their path and religion.**As many may not know, the prevailing Taliban rulers are from the Pashtun Tribes of Afghanistan and some of them trace their lineage back to Reuven! In fact, they call themselves Bani Rabani (B'nei Reuven).The Wall Street Journal: 1948, Israel and the Palestinians: The True StoryThis claim of premeditated dispossession and the consequent creation of t...
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The Teen Path: Appreciating the Land
2008-05-15 23:34:00
We introduce a new contributor at Mystical Path s. Chavi is a religious Jewish teenage young lady of American background living in Israel.by Chavi at Mystical PathsLast week we 'celebrated' Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day. I spent the day with a friend in the West Bank (a day off is always nice) and we discussed, what is this day to us while sitting in the Land of Israel, in the West Bank.My friend replied, "I'm celebrating having a home in the Holy Land." I had thought about this subject for some time before Yom HaAtzmaut, as the majority of the frum (ultra-orthodox) Jewish world says the founding of the State was a bad thing. However, I think we have something to celebrate.Not a government, the Israeli system is just nuts. Not a State, for this state isn't doing very good things. But, the achievements here are great. I can sit here in the Holy Land, I can pray at the Jewish holy sites, I can look out across the hills of Land of Israel. How is that?Blessings from...

Proof that Mashiah is on his way
2008-05-15 01:50:00
by yaak at Mystical PathsProof that Mashiah is on his way.Support the Path! - Posted at Mystical Paths, MPaths.com.

Blocked, Rented, and Sold
2008-05-14 23:58:00
by Akiva at Mystical PathsToday, Jerusalem was blocked, rented, and sold...Blocked, as massive parts of Jerusalem were blocked off, businesses shut down, tourism shut down, lives distrupted, for the convenience of the political class. Whole streets were simply evacuated, major attractions reserved for their viewing pleasure. Somehow, we've come to expect and accept that, the people simply bow to the needs of the politicos, and the impact on the little people isn't of concern. This was true in the days of dukes, and such days seem to have returned.The Old City, at least the Jewish quarter and the Kotel, were simply EMPTY, as it was exceedingly difficult to get there.Rented, as on this day of Presidential Conferences the Kotel Archaeological Park was rented out to Evangelical Xians for a World Wide Celebration of some sort. While I'm not unhappy they chose Jerusalem for their event, I wonder on a day when a Jew had a hard time making it to the Kotel how 10,000 Xians had an easy...
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Argument with The Arab - Part 4
2008-05-14 07:00:00
by Akiva at Mystical PathsThe end of the "dialog" from a Muslim commentor at YouTube...Muslim: It is the bost basic of human rights to defend your land from theft from freaks who think it should be theirs because some caveman lived there 2000 years ago. With that logic the (f-word) vikings can ethically re invade the uk and the uk can retake usa since the blood is still in the population in both cases. You are wrong simply because the foundation of your argument is based and built on (b-word) and as we know when you build a house on (b-word) it will eventually fall down as israel will.Akiva: Ahh, we come to the end of your argument. First you come to argue by my religion, then figure out you have no clue what you're talking about. I counter even with arguments from your religion and nations which practice it, which you also seem to have no clue about.Then you argue from modern politically correct standards. Yet, even that doesn't hold water as if Israel responded in kind, the b...
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Rabbi Nati Update...
2008-05-13 23:01:00
mmmph, mmmmmmph, mmmmm, mmpphphph!!!!!!!
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