Wow…

http://www.whoshalllive.com

Thanks for the embed tip DJ!

(Source: Nava)
translated from http://www.bhol.co.il/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=1&topic_id=876666&forum_id=771

My friend and I were sitting at a restaurant and out of nowhere my childhood friend Yossie Admoni shows up. He joined our table and tells us the most incredible story that recently occurred…

Tal Admoni recently ended his army duty; he was a commanding officer in combat engineering. Tal is 9th generation Israeli from his mother’s side, the Slonim family. Tal’s grandfather is Yaakov Slonim, one of the very few people that survived the Hevron massacre in Israel August 1929.

A few weeks ago commanding officer Tal was stationed in Hevron. His duty was to check all the Arab Muslims before allowing them entrance into the city; including men, women, seniors, and children. The barricade was placed on the main central road and every day he and his troop would regularly check for potential Jihads.

One evening the most remarkable thing happened. There were a few people that looked suspicious and they did not have permission to pass the barricade till their ID was checked to authenticate they are not potential suicide bombers. The Arabs were sitting on the side waiting while the soldiers were surveying them. One of the detainees, a 30-year-old Arab, requested to speak with the commanding officer. They bring him over to Tal while watching his every move with 70 eyes. The Arab tells Tal, ‘I have a document I want to show you but the document is inside my taxi.’

Together with his soldiers, Tal walked over to the taxi with the Arab and when they reached the Taxi, the Arab takes out of his glove compartment a document and explains that this certificate belonged to his grandfather. Tal takes the documents and as he reads it, he sees a list of people, all written in Hebrew. While Tal was glancing at this document, the Arab tells him, ‘my grandfather was in Hevron during the massacre of 1929 and he saved his Jewish neighbors.’ Tal continued reading the document and behold, he sees his grandfather’s name on the list, Yaakov Slonim.

Tal was stunned and thrilled, when he spoke to his mother a few hours before she told him that her father, Yaakov Slonim, is very ill and might not live much longer. Everyone in the Admoni/Slonim family knew the famous story of how his grandfather Yaakov Slonim was hidden by an Arab neighbor during the 1929 Hevron massacre and thus, saved his life.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Tal gave the Arab taxi driver permission to go home, much to the dislike of the other detainees.

Less than 24 hours later, Yaakov Slonim, one of the few survivors of the 1929 Hevron massacre, passed away, zs’kl.

I met a Chabad rabbi yesterday at mincha who told me the following story that happened to him:

“This weekend I went on vacation with my wife.  A man came up to us to help us with directions.  He was wearing a big cross on his necklace and around his wrist - and then he says to us ‘I’m Jewish!’

At first I didn’t believe him, because in my experience, some Christians consider themselves ‘Jewish’ for…reasons.

But then the guy said something that made me realize he really was Jewish.

So I said to this Jew who had somehow ended up outside of Judaism:
‘I wish I had a pair of tefillin! so you could do the mitzvah of tefillin.  Well, you can at least recite the Shema with me.’

So we covered our eyes and said the Shema together.

Just as we finished saying the Shema, a car drove up to the sidewalk where we were and out comes a chassidic man I had met that weekend, who just happened to have a pair of tefillin in his car!  And he showed up just as we finished reciting the Shema!

This month is the Hebrew month of ‘Elul‘ when we prepare ourselves for the upcoming Rosh Hashanah (New Year) in which our past year’s actions will be examined.  We are taught that our prayers during this month are more rapidly accepted by Hashem because ‘the King is in the field’ so-to-speak.

I said, “I wish I had a pair of tefillin” and suddenly tefillin appeared out of nowhere!  But my wife says I asked for the wrong thing.  I should have asked for Mashiach!

Note:
The relationship that Bnei Noach have to Rosh Hashanah - the New year - is different than for Jews.  I will post Rabbi Shwartz’s article on this topic in detail soon, B”H.

I spent Shabbat at my friend’s house.

So there I am, lying in my bed getting comfy and close to dozing off when my friend (we’ll call him Ploni) enters the room quietly and slips into his bed in the guest room that we are sharing.

Ploni had a long drive that day, so he fell asleep within a couple of minutes.

I could tell he was asleep because there was a sudden explosion from his side of the room that sounded like a tank engine stalling.  I’ve never heard such snoring in my life!  It was actually startling at first.

My previous experience with snorers is that:

A) It’s not their fault
B) They can’t control the snoring
C) Even if you nudge them or tell them to turn over, the snoring comes back relatively quickly

So instead of pushing, tapping, nudging, shoving, kicking, or calling my friend to stop snoring, I simply rolled up my sheets, blanket, and pillow and went downstairs to sleep on the couch.

The next morning, Hashem choreographed things in such a way that Ploni had no idea I had left the room, and thus was not embarrassed by my leaving due to his snoring.

That afternoon, I went back to the same couch to do some Torah study while everyone else remained at the dining room table discussing politics.  It was difficult for me to leave the dining room conversation because we had a staunch Democrat with a huge brain and a staunch Republican who works in Washington.  Yet I needed to read the parsha.

So I’m sitting there studying Torah when the hostess walks in to have a nap in the room in which I was studying. Despite the hostess’s manners in not interrupting my learning, I kept losing focus because I could still hear the fascinating political discussion taking place in the dining room.

Every time I started getting focused on what I was reading, I would be drawn back into their political debate.  And I thought, “Hashem!  I pulled myself out of the political conversation so that I could learn Your Torah.  But even here on the couch I can’t seem to focus.”

That’s when the hostess started snoring.

Except that this time instead of getting up and leaving, I smiled and started chuckling at G-d’s kindness.

You see, now I was being given white noise that drowned out the political debate in the other room, but was gentle and quiet enough to let me study!

And THEN I realized that not only was Hashem doing me a kindness by giving me white noise to help me study, Hashem was teaching me a lesson in emunah (trust in Hashem)!

The lesson, I think, is that just as the hostess’ snoring was a gift for my benefit in the afternoon, so too was my friend Ploni’s snoring a gift for my benefit the night before - even though at first glance I may have been slightly frustrated that I had to sleep on the couch.  So retroactively, Hashem taught me to have more emunah next time something doesn’t go as planned.

Usually we hear stories of a person who was late to work on September 11th, and thus spared the terrorist attack, or other such miraculous stories of Divine Providence.

Yet, I think it crucial to recognize that Hashem is guiding our life every moment!  Not just in times of trauma and great peril.

And furthermore, if we put in our effort (like pulling out of the political debate in order to study Torah) then Hashem is right there to assist us along the way.

This story had me laughing and crying, and sometimes at the same time. It’s about an hour - well worth the time!

We Are Never Alone: The Unbelievable Story of a Child’s Birth

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A lovely post by Rabbi Lazer Brody on dietary wisdom.

This is the second time that Israeli Arabs from eastern Jerusalem have used bulldozers from their construction sites to kill and injure Israeli civilians.

Thank G-d, this time, no one was killed.

Unlike the previous attack, this bulldozer terror attack was stopped relatively quickly.

On the other hand, just like the previous attack, this one was stopped - yet again - by a religious non-police civilian with military experience.¹

The terrorist was first shot by Yaki Asael, 56, father of eight, from the Judean settlement of Sussiya. Yaki is a company commander in the reserves.

Rabbi Brody points out the divine providence that this recent bulldozer terrorist attack happened on King David street - which is exactly where the Abomination Parade took place this year in Jerusalem (King David’s city).

Hashem have mercy on us all!

shouting…

Camera: Does anyone here know first aid?!
Man: Yes, yes, yes.
Camere: There’s someone here that’s injured!!

Someone shoots at the bulldozer.
The grey-shirted man who runs up to the bulldozer after those shots is a border police officer. The man in the white shirt next to him is Yaki Asael (see above).

Man: No, no, he’s not dead! He’s not dead!
The border officer then fires several rounds at the terrorist. (The reason Yaki did not jump back like everyone else is that Yaki is a company commander in the reserves).
CUT SCENE

Camera: You…what’s your name?
Yaki: Yaki.
Camera: Good work Yaki.
Yaki starts walking away.
Camera: Yaki, you were the first one to shoot [at the terrorist]?
Yaki: Yes
Yaki walks away, tzitzit dangling.

Guest Post by Noahide Alice Jonsson
Source: BreslovWorld.com

I’m going to go out on a limb and declare that there is an experience that unites all B’nei Noach. Regardless of age, race, socio-economic strata, gender, or nationality; Democrat, Republican, Cherokee, Israeli, former Christian, former Atheist.

It is the confused — nay, incredulous — face a person makes when hearing about B’nei Noach for the first time.

“So what religion are you?”
“Well, OK, so you know what a Jew is right?”
“Oh, so you’re Jewish.”
“No. I believe in Judaism but..”

“So you’re not a Jew.”
“Right. See Jews have to follow 613 commandments and…”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, I know, it’s a lot. And B’nei Noach follow only seven. So..”
“Banana who?”
“No. OK, so you know who Noah was, right?”

“The guy with the boat.”
“Yeah! So there are some laws from the time of Noah, and…don’t go! I’m not crazy!”

When I first became a Bat Noach these reactions bothered me. I’m not the kind of girl who appreciates being looked at like I’m a religious wacko. I like my religion Orthodox and old school. No make-it-up-as-we-go, new-fangled stuff. When someone looks at me like I’m a member of a cult, not good. Not confidence inspiring. However, as wobbly as I was, I recovered from these awkward moments quickly. Why? Because Hashem reassured me with concrete, visceral results from my prayer - custom fit for my predicament.

When I started talking to Hashem, I felt I had plugged in to a source of power that was alarming to me. Previously, I thought religious people were talking to the sky or to something in their heads and that this somehow had a therapeutic effect. I thought some of them were clearly bonkers. And that most of them were a little bonkers. What they believe in sounds like fiction, weird fiction.

But when I do what our rabbi says, even when I cannot believe it will actually work, it works so thoroughly — and often with such speed — I know this “fiction” is true, like I know my mother loves me. Example: When my husband and I were doing in vitro fertilization — I’m talking the kind that costs as much as a new car — the doctors were throwing bills at us like confetti.

“Ma’am, we’ve decided to give you an ultrasound today. That’ll be $464. Cash. Now. And that’s the discounted price so wipe that look off your face.”

We had tried for many years. This was our chance. Rabbi said to go for a walk and to tell God we need some help and that we need some money. Truthfully, this seemed really tacky to me. I mean money is dirty and God is clean and there are hungry people. Surely a lightning bolt would fry me the second I opened my mouth to ask. But I go and I explain the situation to Hashem, apologetically.

The walk was uneventful. Feeling slightly embarrassed, I closed the sliding door, at least feeling refreshed from the cool fall air, brushed the grass and the burrs off my jeans, meandered around the house for maybe ten minutes, and the phone rings. It’s the mail order pharmaceutical company the doctor recommended to acquire the giant box (literally) of drugs that I would be administering from home. The patient woman who’d been helping us decided to resubmit our drug order to the insurance company one more time, just for the heck of it.

This was a bill for an amount so large it’d pay for a few classes at an Ivy League school, for a procedure not covered in our state. Period. And guess what? Despite the fact that the insurance company had just the day before categorically refused to pay for the drugs, they had agreed to cover our request. She calculated how much money we saved on the first few items on the list and it was at two grand in a few seconds. She was laughing and bubbly and was clearly loving the moment right there with me.

Ten months later, a very chubby little boy was born. And our lives went from black and white to color.

What tickles me most about how that specific event went down was how perfectly God knows me. He knows that I can be quite shallow and that a sure-fire way to get my attention is to make money fall out of the sky so I can pay a bill. There is nothing theoretical about a bill being paid. And most importantly, there is nothing theoretical about the gorgeous toddler hanging out in our living room. It all makes awkward religious discussions about bananas and Noah feel like nothing. Knowing that Hashem will meet me right where I am, (with no pretense) and that sometimes He even likes my plans, is everything.

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Guest post by Reb Ari

I recently verified this story from the grandson of the couple involved.

My friend’s elderly grandmother, Miriam, remarried a number of years ago to R’ Shalom. They live in Jerusalem. R’ Shalom is now in his mid nineties and in his youth he studied in yeshiva in Mir in Poland and had the opportunity to spend a week at the home of the Chofetz Chaim (R’ Yisroel Meir Hacohen Kagan, zs’kl). A few nights ago, in the middle of the night he woke and told his wife that the Chofetz Chaim had appeared to him in a dream and simply said that Moshiach will be here soon. The Chofetz Chaim said that it is time to get ready and to spread the message. My friend’s father (Miriam’s son) asked his rav, Rav Asher Weiss if this is something to take seriously. His response was that we are clearly standing right before Moshiach, and it certainly should be taken seriously and we should undertake to do Teshuva.

The second story I heard directly from the people involved.

There is a young girl about eight years old who needs a refuah (אביבא מלכה בת לאה) - she is currently in the hospital with loss of vision. Please pray for her. She has been in and out of the hospital for chemotherapy, and she has had multiple complications. A few months ago she had been in a coma for an extended period of time. When she finally came out of the coma, one of the first things she said was, “Did I miss the weddings? Did I miss Moshiach coming?” Her two older sisters were not engaged yet (I don’t even know if Aviva knew they were dating), but both became engaged and were married over the following few months. I was at the sheva brachos (post-wedding celebration).

May Hashem heal Aviva Malka bat Leah along with all the ill people of Israel with the coming of Moshiach, Amen.

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Reb Ari wrote a beautiful inspiring song about the coming of Moshiach: To listen, click here

Lyrics of “Finally Here”
As he walked home from yeshiva,
a sound reached his ears
clear and majestic, unmistakably near
Joy filled his heart
HE’S FINALLY HERE!!! Moshiach’s finally here!!!
He ran all the way home
said to his dad,
“Did you hear it - the shofar
or am I going mad?”
“Not now, my son,
can it wait ’til later, when the business news is done.”

CHORUS:
Where is our hope, our faith, our pride?
Where’s the desire, the love deep inside?
When we say we want Ben Dovid to come
We can’t fool ourselves or the Holy One.

She heard it, at first faintly
a note long and clear
steadily the sound grew
’til it was all she could hear
Joy filled her heart
HE’S FINALLY HERE!!! Moshiach’s finally here!!!
She rushed to the kitchen,
got on the phone.
“Sister, can you hear it
or is it me alone?”
“Can you call back tonight?
I’m facebooking now, so I hope it’s alright…”
CHORUS

When we finally hear the shofar
After all these many years
Our emotions can run deeply
moving us to tears
Joy will fill our hearts
WHEN HE’S FINALLY HERE!!! When Moshiach’s finally here!!!

We must strengthen our hope, our faith, our pride.
We can find the desire, the love deep inside.
When we say we want Moshiach to come
We can reconnect to the Holy One.

Hashem is your keeper; Hashem is your shadow upon your right hand. (Psalms 121: 5)

Hashem acts with us midah kneged midah - measure for measure. Like the shadow of your hand, which follows the movements of your hand perfectly. When we are kind, Hashem does us kindness. When we act strictly, and harshly with others…r”l.

This can be observed in great matters, and in small matters. I have a small matter to share:

The other day we had a repairman working on our house around 10:00pm. He worked really hard, and still had another home to work on before he could go back to his home for the night.

So before the repairman left, I made him some pizza on challah bread and gave him a slice of watermelon. He was very grateful.

I was happy to do a chesed (a kindness), which is it’s own reward.

But the next day, a family from our synagogue baked us a homemade pizza from scratch! (because my dad was in an accident, so they wanted to do a chesed for us)

Hashem tzilcha al yad yeminecha - Hashem is your shadow of your right hand.

Here’s a mind-blowing story about Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen that blows reciprocal pizza dinners out of the water:

We Are Never Alone (stream)
We Are Never Alone (download)