I found this very touching.

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Righteous Gentile Gets Israel Burial
Jun/17/09

Oscar Schindler by his RG tree.

(IsraelNN.com) The ashes of a Polish man who hid and saved 12 Jewish escapees from the Warsaw Ghetto in an apartment he rented for them were buried in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv Tuesday along with those of his wife. Two of the people Jerzy Wunsche saved in 1943, Yosef Atlasowicz and Miriam Sherman, attended the funeral. Sherman, who was a baby at the time, was raised by Wunsche for three years after World War II ended before he handed her over to the Jewish Agency.

When Wunsche died a year ago his family discovered his will called for him to be buried under the tree planted in his honor at Yad Vashem. His wife Zofia’s wishes were to be buried beside her husban. When burial at the museum proved impossible, Atlasowicz and Yad Vashem arranged for the couple’s burial in the portion of the Kiryat Shaul cemetery reserved for righteous gentiles. “He was a very modest man,” said Wunsche’s son John. “He thought what he was doing was normal, and that everyone should have done it.”

The below history was compiled by Rabbi Bindman in his book “The Seven Colors Of The Rainbow.”  I have not yet read this book, but found the following excerpt very interesting.

The Noahide and Jewish readers should take to heart that Noahides have had a G-d-centered relationship with the Jews for millenia.  This is not a “new” phenomena.

In my opinion, this perspective is far more empowering to Bnei Noach than pretending that the Noahide-Jew relationship is a novel concept.  Rather, you are part of a great chain of people who similarly strove for G-d against all odds.

What is novel, is that humanity is steadily approaching the redemption.

-iHN

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Mesopotamia, origin of seventy nations

Following the flood, humanity was still one united body, living in one place, the area now known as Mesopotamia or Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow through a fertile plain. Here the people had settled and given birth to children. Their state of security was so great that they began to consider themselves the masters of all creation, ready to challenge G-d Himself for supremacy. They saw their own unity as the key to this, and they did not commit the sins of banditry and sexual infidelity (bestiality) for which the previous generation had been condemned. They were kind and loving to one another, but they grew arrogant as a group and decided to build a high tower, the Tower of Babel, from which to gain an access to heaven.

(Natural History Museum - London. w/permission)

This was a form of idolatry (violation of the Covenant of Noah), and their punishment from the heavenly court was that their languages should be confused. They would no longer understand each other as before. This was the origin of separate languages as we now have them; seventy basic tongues were established, from which all of today’s languages descended. This was also the number of the actual nations of the non-Jewish world before they were subdivided and intermingled. (more…)

As discussed in the current issue of NoahideNations.com’s Connections magazine, Noahide kiruv is an important concept.

“Kiruv” literally means “bringing close.”  I believe it is distinct form proselytizing in that kiruv aims to bring a person closer to their original spiritual path, rather than “the new and better path.”  For all Jews, this is the path of the Torah & the 613 mitzvot.  For all Gentiles, this is the Toah & the 7 Mitzvot of Noah.

As the Tibetan Dalai Lama said to Israeli travelers who sought his audience,
“‘You come from the most ancient wisdom…the source…You do not need to travel all the way here to seek the truth…You should return to your country and learn your religion well.  Return here if you feel the need, but only after you have done so…’ “¹

Hence Kiruv aims to return people to the source, the most ancient wisdom, the Torah.

If I were a Noahide, and I were involved in Noahide kiruv, I would firstly reach out to people who are already living the Noahide path but don’t realize that they are.

Here is a recent news article from the Jerusalem Post about the Makuya community from Japan.  I have seen them in Israel on several occasions.  Has anyone in the Noahide community contacted these lovely people?

WITH THE women dressed in delicate and colorful kimonos, the group paraded through portions of Beersheba’s Old City, singing Jewish songs in perfect Israeli-accented Hebrew.
Photo: Yocheved Miriam Russo

“A Friend Indeed” Jpost.com March 18th, 2009.

In a world intent on endlessly criticizing Israel, the Japanese Makuya are something else. At least once a year - beginning shortly after the state’s founding in 1948 - a delegation of Makuya makes a pilgrimage to Israel. They have only one objective: to show their support for Israel and - even more unusually - to emphasize their unconditional love for Jews and Judaism.

The Makuya aren’t converts. They aren’t political. They aren’t asking Jews to change anything, let alone convert to their own religious beliefs…(see full article at Jpost.com)

This is the first issue of “Connections,” from September 2008.
The magazine has contributions from many of the major leaders and visionaries driving the Noahide community today.  You can download the PDF file from NoahideNations.com.

Just a note of clarity about terminology:

“Rabbi” in Hebrew is “Rav” which is a title, as in “President Washington” or “Dr. Jeffres”

When a person has a personal rabbi that they “cling” to and go to for guidance and questions, they often refer to that particular rabbi as “my rav” or “my rebbe.”

The term “rebbe’ is used as a title instead of, or in conjunction with “rabbi/rav,” mostly in Chassidic circles, such as Chabad and Breslev.  Whereas other Orthodox Jewish circles simply use the term “rav” such as “Rav Moshe Feinstein” or “Rav Ovadyah Yosef.”

On having a rebbe, in “Pirke Avos” “Ethics of Our Fathers” it says:
“Accept a teacher (rav) upon yourself, acquire a friend for yourself, and judge everyone favorably.”

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Guest post by: Alice Jonsson from Breslev.co.il

The current news out of Israel illustrates how profoundly vital it is that more non-Jews than ever immediately turn to Hashem and His Torah. Unfortunately I could write that sentence just about any day of the year and it would be true. I could also substitute pretty much any country. Take Denmark for example. That’s correct. Denmark.

Apparently Danish headmasters are now telling some Danish Jews that they should send their children elsewhere for schooling because of the large numbers of Arabs, specifically Palestinians, in some of the schools. They claim they will not be able to keep the Jewish kids safe. Grown adults claim to be incapable of keeping children from attacking minorities in their schools.  Gentile to Gentile, this is what I have to say to those Danes: when grown folk, as we say in the South, can not control their children there is something horribly amiss.

Number two, sometimes the worst aggressors are the so-called passive aggressors, those who perpetrate violence by doing absolutely nothing. When you throw Jewish children to the wolves, or let the wolves take over, instead of getting rid of the wolves, you can bet the wolves will be coming for you next. Be grown folk and take charge. Or at least have the guts to admit that perhaps you do not want the Jews there in the first place.

I live in Atlanta, GA. If in the year 2009 a school in Atlanta said that African American or Latino students should go elsewhere because the administrators just won’t be able to keep them safe from racist whites or whomever, can you imagine the totally justifiable outcry? Oprah Winfrey would be filming live in the parking lot. But Jews in Denmark. Feh. Next the Danish government will be recommending that Jews all confine themselves to a small part of the country and live behind large stone walls with giant iron gates. To keep them safe. This is what happens to the world when non-Jews do not live by the Seven Commandments.

But how do we help people to learn about these commandments? How do we live with them ourselves? (more…)

Here are some resources for you to learn the origins and basis for Christmas, as well as guidelines for Chanukah, and some other thoughts I had.

Table of Contents for this post:

1. Can Noahides Celebrate Christmas?
2. Can Noahides Celebrate Chanukah?
3. Historical Background
4. How to Handle Family Conflict Over Christmas and Chanukah
5. There Are Worst Things Than Christmas Trees

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Can Noahides Celebrate Christmas?

From The Path of the Righteous Gentile:

… the Noahide is strictly forbidden to create a new holiday that has religious significance and claim that it is part of his own religion, even if the religion is the observance of the Seven Noahide Laws. For example, it would be forbidden to make a holiday celebrating the subsiding of the waters of the Flood of Noah or anything of the like. And, all the more so, it would be forbidden to institute holidays that ascribe religious significance to events [or myths] outside the purview of the Seven Noahide Commandments [for example, Easter or the popular holiday on Dec. 25].

Celebrating secular activities and commemorating historical events, even if they involve a festive meal, are permissible [for example, the Independence Day of your own country, such as July 4th in the U.S.]. [It is also permissible for Noahides to participate in days which are set aside by their nation for remembering to praise and give thanks to the One True G-d, such as Thanksgiving and the National Day of Prayer in the U.S.]

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Can a Noahide Celebrate Hanukkah?

Yes! (there may be Rabbinic approaches that disagree.  iHN follows those that do agree, namely Rav Yoel Schwartz.)

…as long as Noahides don’t turn their celebration into a new religion or incorporate idolatrous practices into their celebration. Doing so is forbidden.  If they light candles, they should not say the blessings over them since they were not commanded to do these things, whereas the Jews were commanded after G-d made the miracles for them. However, reading the story of Chanukah, singing songs of praise to G-d, and speaking about G-d’s greatness are appropriate for Noahides.  See Nancy’s guide below.

Nancy, of the Oklahoma B’nai Noach Society has put together a lovely Chanukah Guide based on her Bnei Noach family’s yearly celebration.

You can donwload the PDF of the guide at the following link:

http://www.okbns.org/Free.html

Chanukah begins at sundown on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev.
This year it is Sunday December 21st.
Each day of Chanukah begins at the evening.
So the first day is Sunday-night & Monday-day.

Here is the introduction to Nancy’s guide (with permission):

Every year as our family begins to prepare for Chanukah, we get a lot of questions from family and friends about why and how we celebrate this “Jewish” holiday.  This guide is written to answer the most common questions and provide a starting point for other Gentiles to begin a tradition of celebration in their own homes.

Unlike the Jews, Gentiles have no command to celebrate Chanukah.  But we may choose to do so as long as we don’t turn our celebration into a new religion or incorporate idolatrous practices into our celebration.

Our family likes to read part of the story each night and light the appropriate number of candles according to the Jewish tradition.  On the eight night, we invite everyone we have room for (always making sure to include someone new) and read the whole story from the beginning!

This book tells only of the way our family celebrates this holiday — which may be different from the way other families celebrate.  However, all celebrations include telling the Chanukah story, lighting candles, and having a lot of fun.

Here are the rules our family uses for gift-giving:

1. The gift must increase or reinforce the recipient’s knowledge or awareness of G-d.
2. The giver should be able to explain the relationship of the item to one of the lessons of Chanukah or how the gift will benefit the recipient to be more aware of G-d.

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Historical Background of Christmas

The Real Story of Christmas (download) (low bandwidth)
The Real Story of Christmas (download) (high bandwidth)

(To read answers to the following questions, go here:
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm -iHN)

1. When Was Jesus Born?
2. How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?
3. The Origins of Christmas Customs
4. The Christmas Challenge

Excerpt:

The Christmas Challenge

• Christmas has always been a holiday celebrated carelessly.  For millennia, pagans, Christians, and even Jews have been swept away in the season’s festivities, and very few people ever pause to consider the celebration’s intrinsic meaning, history, or origins.
• Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian god who came to rescue mankind from the “curse of the Torah.”  It is a 24-hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid.
• Christmas is a lie.  There is no Christian church with a tradition that Jesus was really born on December 25th.
• December 25 is a day on which Jews have been shamed, tortured, and murdered.
• Many of the most popular Christmas customs – including Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas presents, and Santa Claus – are modern incarnations of the most depraved pagan rituals ever practiced on earth.

Many who are excitedly preparing for their Christmas celebrations would prefer not knowing about the holiday’s real significance.  If they do know the history, they often object that their celebration has nothing to do with the holiday’s monstrous history and meaning.  “We are just having fun.”

Imagine that between 1933-45, the Nazi regime celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday – April 20 – as a holiday.  Imagine that they named the day, “Hitlerday,” and observed the day with feasting, drunkenness, gift-giving, and various pagan practices.  Imagine that on that day, Jews were historically subject to perverse tortures and abuse, and that this continued for centuries.

Now, imagine that your great-great-great-grandchildren were about to celebrate Hitlerday.  April 20th arrived. They had long forgotten about Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen.  They had never heard of gas chambers or death marches.  They had purchased champagne and caviar, and were about to begin the party, when someone reminded them of the day’s real history and their ancestors’ agony.  Imagine that they initially objected, “We aren’t celebrating the Holocaust; we’re just having a little Hitlerday party.”  If you could travel forward in time and meet them; if you could say a few words to them, what would you advise them to do on Hitlerday?

On December 25, 1941, Julius Streicher, one of the most vicious of Hitler’s assistants, celebrated Christmas by penning the following editorial in his rabidly Antisemitic newspaper, Der Stuermer:

If one really wants to put an end to the continued prospering of this curse from heaven that is the Jewish blood, there is only one way to do it: to eradicate this people, this Satan’s son, root and branch.

It was an appropriate thought for the day.  This Christmas, how will we celebrate?

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How To Handle Family Conflict Over Christmas and Chanukah

(NOTE: this is a Jewish woman speaking with a Rabbi, not a Noahide woman.  However, I think the Rabbi’s advice is applicable to anyone really. -iHN)

family_trouble: what is the proper way to handle family who celebrates Christmas and we wish to bring our son up in a strictly Jewish environment?

family_trouble: I should explain–it is my mother who was born Jewish, and raised us Jewishly. My sister married a gentile and thus my mother is trying to please us all-celebrating X-Mas and Chanukah. My son was born naturally Jewish.

Rabbi Gurkow: and you are your son’s mother or father?

family_trouble: I am my sons mother.

Rabbi Gurkow: I see

Rabbi Gurkow: in answer to your question, since you tell me that you and your son are Jewish the correct thing for you to tell your mother is: “thank you very much for thinking of us during this family time, we will gladly participate in the Chanukah celebration, but please understand that we will not be coming to the christmas celebration

Rabbi Gurkow: “that would be contrary to the values and religion in which we are trying to conduct our lives and raise our daughter”

Rabbi Gurkow: then send your parents and your sister nice cards and gifts that have nothing to do with christmas and everything to do with family and love

family_trouble: We tried that for the first time this year and now my extended family is not speaking to us because of our decision. Should we make any attempts to heal the rift?

Rabbi Gurkow: yes
Rabbi Gurkow: but be sure to understand the dynamics first… the root of their irritation
Rabbi Gurkow: is it that your religion is different or that you sent anti family signals?

family_trouble: That we are “too Jewish” now and they cannot relate to us any longer.

Rabbi Gurkow: That itself can be seen in two ways described above. can you discern what the root is?

family_trouble: Yes, I was raised secular and my mother would prefer not to acknowledge her Jewish roots any longer.

Rabbi Gurkow: if the problem is indeed religious then you need to know first and foremost that the shoe is on the other foot… your family is being incosiderate here not yoruself

Rabbi Gurkow: you are not required to participate when the values at an event are contrary to the choices you made in life… you need not be brought to another’s life preferences… you have the right to make your own choices

Rabbi Gurkow: and if they cannot see that, then it is indicative that they do not respect your maturity, independance and inherent right to make your life’s choices
Rabbi Gurkow: you are howevr required to be civil, polite and nice
Rabbi Gurkow: if you have done that then you have fulfilled your requirement
Rabbi Gurkow: so in answer to your question, you should make efforts to make ammends — but do so without guilt… know that you are the one reaching out across a divide that you did not create

family_trouble: Thank you Rabbi–this has been a very painful time for me and my own family. I will take your advise and hope that the rift can be healed. I also plan to discuss this with my own Rabbi for support.

Rabbi Gurkow: I can only imagine how painful a subject this is, I can only imagie the pain of being left alone and misunderstood, and I must tell you that this will not go away… it will be an issue every year… so you must face it head on

Rabbi Gurkow: it may still have after-effects but at least it will have been dealt with
Rabbi Gurkow: please do discuss this with your rabbi
Rabbi Gurkow: he may have an entirely differnt approach, but that will largely depend on your rabbi

family_trouble: I think he will agree with you, Rabbi. I just needed support from a Rabbinical source at this time. You have been so very kind to lend you time and wisdom. Many thanks.

Rabbi Gurkow: your welcome
Rabbi Gurkow: shabbat shalom

family_trouble: Shabbat Shalom and thank you for providing me with some peace.

(source: http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/703,136539/What-is-the-proper-way-to-handle-an-invitation-to-a-family-Christmas-party.html)

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There Are Worst Things Than Christmas Trees

(I feel very similar to Shira who authored the below statements on cross-currents -iHN)

This piece by Rabbi Brody is so well said that I had to post it verbatim.  Sorry for those of you who already read this on BreslevWorld or LazerBeams.

By: Rabbi Lazer Brody

The Western intelligence community doesn’t yet realize the ramifications of Mumbai. Even if the CIA, Mossad, and MI5 pool their resources, they still lack the spiritual insight to realize what they’re up against. The real war in Mumbai is not a matter of western democracy versus Islamofascist terrorism. It’s much deeper than that.

After one of my recent talks in the UK, I was introduced to a professor of military history from one of Britain’s most prestigious universities, who is also a consultant to the London Institute of Strategic Studies. He told me that he had accurately predicted every military conflict in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as its outcome – winners and losers. As far as Israel goes, he said, there is no logic; when the Jews should have lost a war, they won. When they should have won an armed conflict, they lost. I explained to him that strategic logic is quite different from spiritual logic, and that the concept of Divine Providence uplifts Israel beyond the laws of logical expectation and military science. So, whenever Jews are involved, the struggle is spiritually-rooted. Mumbai is no different.

The Sitra Achra, or “Other Side” Evil Inclination that is the force of evil in the world, is fighting against one thing and one thing only – the spread of emuna, the pure and simple faith in G-d. It’s not a matter of Israel against the Arabs or East against West. The real war that’s going in the world today is the war against true Jewish outreach.

True Jewish Outreach doesn’t suffer from tunnel-vision. It’s not satisfied with channeling people into the local synagogue or the local Kosher butcher shop. True Jewish Outreach attempts to bring mankind closer to The Creator, what we pray for three times every single day (Aleinu prayer, said at the conclusion of every service all year long – weekdays, Sabbath, and holidays), namely, “That all of mankind shall call your name.” Jewish Outreach rolls up its sleeves to make that happen.

Our emissaries - the “shluchim” of Chabad and the “mafitzim” of Breslev - are fighting the same war. Despite the small minority of pea-brains within Chabad and Breslev who perpetuate imaginary contention between these two magnificent Chassidic movements, the men of truth and honor on both sides know that we are brothers in arms. For example, whenever we publish one of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Sichos (discourses) that describes current events to the letter, we get a call from Rabbi Shalom Arush praising us for a job well done. Behind the scenes, our editorial staff here at Breslev Israel maintains closest contact with Chabad Outreach rabbis around the world. Our mutual efforts in providing spiritual guidance and “nutrition” to non-Jews – particularly our efforts in furthering the Noahide movement – are proof of our common mutual commitment to humanity.

Rabbi Gavriel and Rebbetzen Rivka Holtzberg weren’t murdered simply because they were Jews or Israeli. As bright beacons of Jewish Outreach, touching so many lives of Jews and non-Jews alike and bringing them closer to Hashem, they illuminated the world. The forces of darkness didn’t like that, so the Holtzmans were brutally murdered.

With this in mind, the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Rabbi Erez Levanon of saintly and martyred memory was also killed brutally by terrorists. For years, Rabbi Erez devoted his life to Hashem and to Jewish Outreach. He spent the last seven summers of his life roaming the boondocks of India looking for lost souls that he could bring back to the fold with the magnetism of his ever-so-gentle personality and sweet guitar. The terrorists weren’t satisfied with merely killing Rabbi Erez – they mutilated his body stabbing him hundreds of times.

The mainstream media is hiding from the public the full extent that the Pakistani Islamofascists tortured and mutilated the bodies of the Holtzmans. We cannot reprint the information we have about the gruesome torture marks on their holy bodies. One doctor said, “I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatized. A bomb blast victim’s body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words…”

The war is a cruel and vicious fight to the death. They have knives, bombs, and torture tables. We have personal prayer, a soulful melody, The Garden of Emuna, and a Shabbat meal for a traveler with nowhere to eat.

We at Breslev Israel mourn the tragic deaths of the Holtzbergs and convey our deepest heartfelt condolences to the grieving families, to our colleagues at www.chabad.org, to the Chabad movement as a whole. Breslev Israel wants our brothers-in-arms in Chabad the world over to know that we are one, fighting together to spread Hashem’s name in the world. We will stand by you always, until the day when hand-in-hand, we’ll greet Moshiach at the gates of our unified and rebuilt Jerusalem, speedily and in our days, amen.

(We invite you to visit Rabbi Lazer Brody’s award-winning daily web journal, “Lazer Beams”)

iHN Editor’s comment:
How exciting!!

Listen Here.

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(IsraelNN.com) Israel National Radio has begun what is possibly the first ever Sons of Noach radio show. Hosted by Ray Pettersen and Jim Long, the Noahide Nations show is a program about the Noahide, or Bnei Noach, movement - Gentiles who have accepted the Torah.

In recent years, groups have been springing up, mostly in the United States, for non-Jews who are disenchanted with Christianity and seek spiritual fulfillment through the Torah of Israel, but don’t convert to Judaism.

Below is the latest Noahide radio program broadcast.

There was no specific incident in Ray Pettersen’s life that led him and his wife, 12 years ago, [to] give up the religion upon which they were raised. “We all seem to have this feeling that something wasn’t right,” he says, echoing a sentiment felt by Jim Long and other guests on their show. [see iHN poll on this topic] “There was no controversy in the church or anything that would have caused this to happen. I just felt that G-d was telling me this isn’t right. I wanted to find out what is right.”

Pettersen is the founder of the Noahide Nations web site which offers information and networking for other like-minded individuals. He relates one story where someone wrote in that he thought he was the only Noahide in his city. Another person emailed him and they found out that not only did they live in the same city, but in the same building. Connecting Noahides in this manner is the goal of the new radio program.

To facilitate this process, IsraelNationalNews has opened a new forum entitled Torah Spirituality for Gentiles. A person need only register for free and may then begin posting messages to the forum.

In response to a forum question about the number of Bnei Noach in the world, forum manager Ashira Yosefa writes:

A precise number of the Bnei Noach population globally is difficult to know, but based on internet activity and the formation of Noahide groups and websites, inquiries, etc., it is arguably safe to say that Noahides, in a general sense of the word, presently number in the hundreds of thousands and that number is growing. The actual Noahides themselves are growing, progressively deepening their knowledge of proper Noahide observance and lifestyle with the help of Rabbis and Noahide leaders. As their spiritual journey continues, more and more true Bnei Noach take their place in today’s world and readily proclaim their love of Torah, of Israel and of the G-d of Israel.

Radio show host Jim Long’s journey to Noahide beliefs began as he was filming documentaries on archaeological digs in Israel and Egypt. He is the founder of Lightcatcher, a publishing and film production company. Long is also the author and producer of several books and films such as Riddle of the Exodus, Digging Up the Future and Return to Gilgal.

The first guest on the Noahide Nations show was Darla, a mother from Texas who, like Jim and Ray, had slowly come to the realization that Christianity was not for her. In the radio broadcast, she details the story of how she broke the news to her family and informed them that she would not be attending the annual Christmas dinner. The result was a prolonged, painful period of not talking to her sisters and other family members.

Darla finally got back together with her family at an annual Thanksgiving dinner. She now says that her family has accepted her, despite what they see as her strange beliefs, and even ask her to teach them about Jewish holidays. Darla offers advice on how other Noahides can avoid family friction, especially during holiday time.

There are many different Noahide organizations. In general, all of them reject the New Testament and embrace the Torah, using the Seven Laws of Noah as a moral code. Different Noahides follow different Jewish customs, depending on personal inclinations [iHN: and, I hope, Rabbinic advice]. As Gentiles, Noahides are not obligated by Jewish Law to keep commandments such as keeping kosher, although many do.

Noahide Nations is a weekly podcast which can be downloaded from Israel National Radio by clicking here.

Jim and Ray welcome questions or comments, some of which they will read on the air. They can be contacted at noahide@israelnationalradio.com

Some very needed words by Rabbi Lazer Brody.

Beware of being swept up with Messianic speculation! I know it’s inspiring…but we should know the dangerous pitfalls of exciting over such speculation.

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(Source: Breslev)

According to Rebbe Yehoshua’s opinion in the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, Bo, 210), “Moshiach” (Hebrew for Messiah) will come during the month of Nissan (Rebbe Eliezer disagrees, and says that Moshiach will come in Tishrei). Perhaps that’s why everyone’s longing for redemption reawakens during the month of Nissan, when G-d redeemed the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt.

Everybody seems to be writing about Moshiach these days and everyone seems to be talking about him. Tamar Yonah (Israel’s Oprah, but a lot more talented) asked for my opinion during one of my recent appearances on her weekend Israel National Radio show broadcast.

My answer was a cold sponge on the enthusiam of the Messianic double-guessers: The Gemara curses those who second-guess the coming of the Messiah and says תפח רוחם, or “May they drop dead!” (tractate Sanhedrin, 97B). The Rambam actually codified this curse into religious law (Hilchot Melachim 12:2); in his classic “Thirteen Principles of Faith” (see Rambam’s commentary on the Mishna, tractate Sanhedrin, 10:1, principle number 12), and writes that we must believe in the coming of the Messiah with complete faith, and although he may tarry, we must await his arrival whenever he comes.

According to both the Lithuanian tradition (disciples of the Vilna Gaon) and the Chassidic tradition (disciples of of the Baal Shem Tov), we must patiently wait for Moshiach with simple and pure faith. Torah, prayer, and good deeds are what the soul needs, not Messianic speculation.

Throughout Jewish history, whenever a false messiah or an expected “moshiach” arrival date became a disappointment, many people lost their faith.

I once heard a very sharp joke that the big tobacco companies finance the messianic movements, because whenever a messianic movement is proved wrong - either when the messianic candidate fails to save the world or when the speculated due date expires - then many of the movement’s members, former Sabbath observers, begin smoking on the Sabbath, and tobacco sales increase.

My esteemed teacher, the Melitzer Rebbe shlit”a, told me the following story: In 1860, rumors spread like wildfire that the Messiah will be coming that very year (1860 in the Jewish calendar is 5620, and 620 is the numerical equivalent of כתר, “keter”, which means “crown”, an allusion to Moshiach and the kingdom of David). In the prayer house of the great Chassidic master Rebbe Yechezkel of Shinova, the son of the renown Rebbe Chaim of Tsanz, the chassidim were all whispering Moshiach conjectures during a prayer service. Rebbe Yechezkel banged on the podium with his fist - bringing the services to an abrupt halt - and roared, “I promise you - Moshiach will not come this year!”

Maybe speculation about the coming of the Messiah would make interesting betting in Las Vegas, but it adds nothing to a person’s love of G-d, fear of G-d, Torah scholarship, soul development, and/or spiritual awareness. So why speculate? Why give yourself a broken heart by being disappointed when your expected Moshiach due date becomes just another day?

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches us that the only way to safely make it through these times is with simple and innocent faith. I strongly suggest that we all follow his advice.

Again, my apologies for the damp sponge, but one must extinguish a fire when it burns in the wrong place. A candle-light of simple faith is always better than the fire of messianic conjecture; the latter - unfortunately, destroys everything in its path.

It’s not too late to show up to the Noahide Sukkot celebration in Oklahoma!

(source: Aish.com)

The Talmud relates that in the future, when the pagans will complain to G-d about His preferential treatment of the Jews, He will tell them that this is because the Jews accepted and followed the Torah. They were not so much the “chosen people,” as the “choosing people,” so to speak; they chose to follow G-d’s law.

The pagans will then plead, “Offer us the Torah anew and we will follow it.” “You foolish people,” G-d will answer, “he who prepares in advance of Shabbat can eat on Shabbat, but he who made no preparations, what can he eat? Nevertheless, I have an easy commandment called Sukkah, go and fulfill it…” Why is it called an easy commandment? Because it has no expense. Immediately each one will build a booth, a Sukkah, on his roof, but G-d will cause the sun to blaze as if it were the summer solstice. Each one will then kick his Sukkah, and leave… Thereupon G-d will laugh, as it is said, “He that sits in heaven and laughs.” (Talmud - Avoda Zara 3a)

Although this passage is difficult for several reasons, I would like to focus on one of its main themes: that pagans will not be able to keep the commandment of Sukkah. The reason this is so strange is that of all the holidays, Sukkot has been perceived as the most universal, encompassing all the nations of the world.

The Talmud teaches:

Rabbi Eliezer said: “Why are 70 offerings brought on Sukkot? For the (merit of the) 70 nations of the world.” (Sukkah 55b)

Rashi comments:

To bring forgiveness for them (the 70 nations which comprise the world), so that rain shall fall all over the earth.

The Sages stress that Sukkot has a universal element which is clearly absent in the other festivals: Passover represents the exodus from Egypt and the emergence of a Jewish nation; Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jews. It seems paradoxical to find this expression of the inability of the pagans to relate to G-d specifically in the context of Sukkot.

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Chag Same’ach - Happy Holiday!