Lazer Beams

Our Way

When things don't go our way, it's because our ego is getting in Hashem's way.

Hashem does everything for the absolute best, so let's put our own sorely limited intellect aside and let Hashem run the world.

Why all the hard times?

Without challenges and times of difficulty in our lives, we'd never seek emuna. If someone had perfect health, plenty of money, career success, marital bliss, and wonderful children, he or she would most likely never seek Hashem. Hashem doesn't want a person to stagnate spiritually. In that respect, concealment is a gift. The life difficulties that are manifestations of concealment stimulate prayer. Deficiency ignites effort and yearning to seek Hashem. Effort and yearning in turn build new and stronger vessels to hold the Divine illumination of emuna that brings us closer to Hashem. - from the "Garden of Yearning"

"Ratzon", Will

Our ratzon - the will, efforts, and yearning to seek Hashem - is a prime vessel for the Divine illumination of emuna just as a crystal goblet is for a fine wine. We wouldn't want to pour a thirty year-old Chateau de Rothschild Cabernet wine in a broken or dirty glass, for the wine would either spill on the floor or become ruined. A fine wine necessitates a whole and immaculately clean goblet. By the same token, without proper vessels, a person can't receive Divine illumination. Hashem doesn't want to spill His "fine wine" on the floor – we must be able to contain it. -from the "Garden of Yearning"

Preventive measures for Swine Fever

Our good friend Janice A. in Colorado is doing a wonderful public service by reminding people the best preventive measure to take for Swine Fever:

"If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you." Exodus 15:26

The Miracle of "Ad Halom"

Israel’s Memorial Day, Yom HaZikaron, begins this year on Monday evening, April 27, 2009. Israel never forgets its debt of eternal gratitude to its sons and daughters who gave their lives for the achievement of the country's independence and its continued existence. It is a day of collective and personal heartache mingled with awe and honor for our holy martyrs.

When looking at Israeli military history, most people consider the Six-Day War of 1967 as Hashem’s greatest miracle of modern times. My choice would be the War of Independence of 1948-49.

In the initial stage of the War of Independence, the Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian armies scored notable successes. It looked like the tiny Jewish nation would be finished before it began its modern-day rebirth. The formidable Egyptian army - backed by tanks, artillery, armor and aircraft, which Israel did not have - were able to cut off the entire Negev and to occupy parts of the land that had been allocated to the Jewish state, reaching as far north as Ashdod... 

Continue reading The Miracle of Ad Halom on this week's Breslev Israel magazine.

Debt problems? Read The Plastic Family by Rabbi Shalom Arush.

This week's Torah portion, Achrei Mot/Kedoshim, is an Obligation to Holiness. Apropo holiness, don't miss Modesty 101. There are also Holy Vehicles this week.

Beauty is in The Eye of the Beholder.

In the spiritual journeys department, see Journey to Abu and Seeds of Doubt.

For our Noahide readers there's Heaven for 7 and for kiddies the Desert Sings.

G-d willing, we hope to see all our friends in Los Angeles later this week. Have a wonderful week!

Reb Shlomo Carlebach: The Last Seder in the Warsaw Ghetto

Thanks to Neshama in California for sending us the following clip, which is capable of making a stone shed tears. Remember that our return to Hashem in the holy Land of Israel is the only guarantee that there'll never again be a Warsaw Ghetto. Have a wonderful Shabbat and new month of Iyar.

It's Good News Week

When you see today's 60-minute lesson entitled Good News, you're bound to walk away with a smile on your face. Enjoy it!

Come on Home!

Holocaust Day this year falls on Monday Night and Tuesday, 20-21 April, 2009.

Many people are asking if there could be another holocaust, G-d forbid, and particularly in the "Land of the Free." For the last three weeks, people have been sending me a steady stream of emails asking for my opinion on Nava's post (Dreaming of Moshiach, one of the most popular Jewish blogs on the web) from April 7 entitled American Jews: Leave Now!, where she brings a number of sources that urge US Jews to leave write away.

Not long ago, Rabbi Shalom Arush said, “Those who don't come to Israel while they still can may be lucky to escape from the USA with a plastic bag and a pair of pajamas in the not so distant future.” Unlike some of the sources Nava brings, Rabbi Shalom says that they shouldn't feel like a gun is pointing at their head, but that all the Jews of the Diaspora - not just America - have an obligation to do their utmost to Come on Home to Israel as soon as they can.  

Rabbi Shalom Arush discusses the root cause of the Holocaust in One Infamous Night, our feature article in this week's Breslev Israel web magazine.

Were it not for a tragedy that happened to my own mother in Grodno, Poland (now Belarus) right before WWII broke out, your friend Lazer wouldn't be here. Read how even tragedies are all for the best in The Pin Cushion, this week's absolutely must-read.

Read about the Death Train and a dozen more gripping original Holocaust Day articles in this week's issue.

Rabbi Erez Moshe Doron says that if one really wants the truth, he or she will find it in Keep Searching.

Rivka Levy talks about what it feels like when all your neighbors are having babies and you're not in Maybe Baby.

Oded Mizrachi tells part 2 of Girl of Sinai and Shlomo Brunell tells us part 6 of his personal odyssey from Presbyterian Minister to Orthodox Jew in Strangers No More.

Alice Jonsson asks a tough question in Who are You to Judge? Sara Azulai writes about this year's Blessing in the Curse. Breslev Kids get more Perek Shira for kids.

This week's Torah portion is Tazria - Metzora. Here's wishing you a week of blessings and success.

Hashem Loves Me

Counting the Omer

" By virtue of the Omer that I counted today…may I be purified and sanctified with the sanctity from above, and may this cause an influence of great abundance in all the worlds."(Seder Sfirat HaOmer, terminating prayer).

At the conclusion of each night's counting of the Omer, we ask Hashem that we be purified and sanctified. We also say that our purification and sanctification triggers an influence of tremendous abundance in all the worlds – both material and spiritual.

Before attempting to comprehend the above principles, we have to realize that the people of Israel at Pesach are a nation of newly redeemed slaves. Not only were we newly redeemed slaves at the time of our exodus from Egypt, but every year at Pesach as well. Pesach is the furthest time of the year from the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when all of Israel makes tshuva out of the awe of Hashem. As the long winter months transpire, we drop our guard and fall slaves to our bodily urges and appetites.

At Pesach time, we complete a process of physically cleaning our domains from chometz, or leavened agents, and begin a spiritual process of cleaning our hearts as a preparation for freedom. Tshuva is the cleansing of the heart from all evil.

True freedom, which includes the liberty from social pressure and bodily urges, comes only from Torah. Therefore, even though we break off the chains of bondage at Pesach, we're not really free until we receive the Torah 50 days later on Shavuot. During the interim 49 days, we count the Omer as a process of preparing ourselves to receive the Torah. Rebbe Nathan of Breslev says that each of the 49 days corrects a character attribute that corresponds to the 48 ways of attaining Torah (see tractate Avos, 6:6 for the entire list), while the 49^th day serves as a correction to our prayers.

Rebbe Nathan writes (Abridged Likutei Moharan 63:2) that the 49 days of the Omer also correspond to the 49 gates of Tshuva. By reciting Tehillim (Psalms) every day, one can open each gate of Tshuva. Therefore, concludes Rebbe Nathan, saying Tehillim during each day of the Omer is extremely important.

Rebbe Nathan's principle of Tehillim and Tshuva explains how the purification of our souls during the days of the Omer invokes abundance in all the worlds, as we shall see – with Hashem's grace – in the following parable: