Lazer Beams

Beloved Child

I purposely saved the replay of this past Wednesday's emuna lesson for the weekend, so you can relax and hear exactly what your beloved Father in Heaven thinks of you. Today's 60-minute emuna lesson is all about you, Hashem's Beloved Child.

The Lesson of the Burnt Toast

Here's how to be a better husband and enjoy fantastic marital bliss in 3 minutes:

Have a wonderful Shabbat and keep those cheek muscles in shape. How? Don't let that smile leave your face.

Doctors and Moshiach

This post is in loving memory of the Lubavitcher Rebbe of blessed and saintly memory, whose 15th yahrtzeit is today, 3 Tammuz.

Disclaimer: This post does not refer to those very special physicians - may G-d bless them - who observe The Almighty's commandments and refuse to perform abortions.

The Talmud in tractate Yevamos (pg. 63b) says, "[Moshiach] Ben David won't arrive until all the souls are depleted from the body."

Rashi, our 11th Century sage from Ashkenaz (Germany-France) and the most important Talmudic commentator of all times, explains this very cryptic passage. "Body," says Rashi, "is the name of a partition that separates the Schina (Divine presence) from the angels, which serves as the warehouse for all the souls that were created during the six days of creation, and that are destined to be given to bodies that will subsequently be created."

The above Talmudic passage teaches us that all the souls must assume bodily forms on earth before Moshiach can come. Even though unborn babies all possess divine souls (neshoma, since the unborn learn the entire Torah - oral, written, and esoteric - from an angel while in the mother's womb), the entire spiritual/soul complex that includes nefesh, ruach, and neshoma [basic vitality, spirit, and divine soul] all come together in the body momentarily before the baby is born (for further reference see Talmud in tractate Nida, pg. 30b; Tanya, first chapter; Eleph Hamagen, commentary on Mateh Efraim, intro. to laws of Rosh Hashonna; Sha'ar Hagilgulim, Seder knisas haneshoma). So, when for some reason the baby is not born, then the soul cannot leave "Body" (or 'Guf' in the original Hebrew), the heavenly warehouse for unborn souls. Until Guf is empty, Moshiach is delayed in arriving.

In light of the above Talmudic teachings, any person who performs, supports, assists, or encourages abortions is delaying the arrival of Moshiach with his or her own two hands.

I often wondered why the Talmud is so severe in its condemnation of doctors, when it says (tractate Kiddushin 82a), "the best of doctors are destined to Gehennom (purgatory)." When considering that in Israel alone, doctors perform over 20,000 abortions a year, then it's easy to understand why Moshiach is not yet being allowed to reveal himself. No, one does not receive a prize for contributing to the delay of Moshiach. Our sages in their infinite wisdom could see far into the future; that's why they said what they did about doctors.

So, if you'd like to lend a helping hand in bringing Moshiach as fast as possible, do what you can to fight against abortion in every way possible. I pray for your health, but if you ever need a doctor, I strongly suggest that you choose a physician who's opposed to abortion. A good physician recognizes the sanctity of human life.

Connecting to the True Tzaddik

"You must ask God persistently to be able to draw close to the true Tzaddik. Happy is the one who succeeds in drawing close to the true Tzaddik in his lifetime – happy is his lot! For after one dies it is very hard indeed to draw close. One must pray over and over again to come close to the true Tzaddik in one's lifetime. For the Evil One has made it his mission to confuse the world. Israel is very close to redemption now and people have tremendous longing for God, the like of which did not exist in earlier times. Everyone is longing for God. This is why the Evil One has craftily sown dissension among the Tzaddikim and established many false popular leaders. Even among the true Tzaddikim there are divisions, to the point that nobody knows where the truth is. This is why one must beg God to succeed in drawing close to the true Tzaddik" (Likutey Moharan II, 78).

Read more about Connecting to the Tzaddik on this week's Breslev Israel web magazine.

Rav Shalom Arush's Miracle Notebook will change your life.

For our very special Noahide readers, Breslev Israel is devoting the next eight weeks to Alice Jonsson's wonderful series entitled The Special Path, elaborating on the seven Noahide commandments.

It's hard to believe, but we still have to teach some backward people that We Don't Have Horns.

There's a big difference between feeble human logic and Divine Logic.

If you haven't read Rebbetzen Chana Bracha's column on the weekly Torah portion, you don't know what you're missing; see In Merit of Miriam. You'll find more articles on Parshat Chukat here.

See part 15 of Strangers No More entitled Hear O Israel.

Spiritual Weapons bail a person out in times of trouble. If you can't stand know-it-alls, read Knock Knock.

Breslev Kids learn more about The Song of the Birds in Perek Shira for kids.

Blessings and smiles for a very special week. Chodesh Tov!

What does it mean to be a man?

Searching for Truth

There's a time-tested way of arriving at your true destination in life: it's called truth, as you'll see and hear in this week's emuna lesson, right here.

Adraba

When Israel is being threatened, we have to strengthen ourselves in two areas: In regard to Hashem, we have to strengthen our emuna and thank Him for everything - the good and seemingly otherwise. In regard to our fellow human, we have to look for and focus on his or her good points - that's what the song "Adraba" is all about: