Lazer Beams

The Path to Inner Peace, Part 5

Today's segment is lively, showing how "Sammy" (the Samech-Mem, or Yetzer Hara) makes us crazy and ruins our inner peace.

Don't forget that you can hear a full-length Rav Shalom Arush-Lazer Brody CD in English on Breslev Beams Radio, every evening at 8 PM EST (3 AM Israel). If you haven't tuned in yet, give it a try. We feature non-stop toe-tapping Chassidic music with no commercials - just pure joy.

Happy Rosh Chodesh Adar Aleph. Let's get our joy in high gear.

The Road to Inner Peace, part 3

Thank you for your really kind comments about "The Road to Inner Peace." Here's part 3:

Hear Lazer on Israel National Radio every Sunday:

Israel Time: 4:30 PM

EST: 9:30 AM

Hear a Rav Arush - Lazer Brody talk in English on Breslev Beams Radio, every night:

Israel Time: 3:00 AM

EST: 8:00 PM

Dealing with insult

If we knew the blessings that happily accepting an insult (especially from our wives!) invokes, we'd beg for insults. See here:

Anger part 3 - How to come home at the end of the day

First of all, we apologize for the faulty Beams transmission yesterday; our server, Sixapart-Typepad, had a massive power outage it its main facility in San Francisco. That's par for the course on Tisha B'av, and all for the best. Baruch Hashem, everything is back up and operating.

Here's part 3 of this week's anger series; today's clip is a short 4-minute coaching session taching a husband how to come home at the end of the day. Internalize this lesson, and it'll make a big difference in your marriage.

No More Anger - part 1

Many people are asking why I've been quiet on current events lately. Truthfully, I'm a lot less concerned with Achmedinejad, Assad, and Abu Mazen than I am with the dog-eat-dog way people treat one another. No enemy of Israel can harm a Jew until one Jew harms another. That's why we here at the Beams, thanks to our wonderful Emuna Outreach crew in Bet Shemesh, are devoting this week to uprooting anger. As soon as we do, our enemies will fall on their faces - wait and see. Enjoy the series and have a good week.

Weekend Beams: High-level Anger

Left, Fire-spittin' "Mammy Yokum" from the Li'l Abner comics by Al Capp

Old Mrs. Broigges

a story reprinted from Chapter One of The Trail to Tranquility

Old Mrs. "Broigges" (Yiddish term for extremely angry) asked her oldest son to approach her sickbed. "Jacob, run fetch the Rabbi; don't delay!"

The Rabbi arrived immediately. "Mrs. Broigges," he whispered gently in her ear, "In order to assure your place in the World to Come, you must confess your sins and make peace with your fellow man before you leave this world."

"Yes, Rabbi," the old woman nodded. "I want to make amends. For the last forty years, I've been feuding with Yenta Grossman. Please summon her so I can beg her forgiveness."

The Rabbi sent his understudy to summon Mrs. Grossman as fast as possible. Within fifteen minutes, she joined the others by the dying Mrs. Broigges's bedside.

Mrs. Broigges opened her glossy eyes, and focused on Yenta Grossman. She extended two frail bony hands, and said, "Yenta darling, I'm so sorry for the years of hate and anger. I want to beg your forgiveness. Come closer, dear, so I can kiss your before I leave this earth."

There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Obviously moved, Yenta Grossman leaned tenderly toward Mrs. Broigges, to kiss her on the lips. All of a sudden…

"Yahowwwwwwwwwiiiiiii". Yenta released the most blood-curdling scream you ever heard. Blood splattered all over the room. Just as she was about to kiss Mrs. Broigges, the sly old warhorse clamped her teeth around Yenta's nose with the ferocity of an irate lioness. Yenta Grossman's nose was nearly severed from her face.

"Now, I can die peacefully," sighed Mrs. Broigges, closing her eyes for the last time, with an ear-to-ear grin on her face.

Don't think that the story is far-fetched. Angry people are willing to sacrifice an eternity of bliss for one bittersweet moment of revenge.

POW's PTSD - the living dead

Today is Israel's Memorial Day; for some, it's theoretical. For many of us, it's a day of opening up old wounds and 24 hours of tears in the eyes. Sorry, but I can't be responsible for typos in today's post, because it's hard to type through a film of glistening eyes. Mount Hermon in 1973 awakens from its slumbering corner in a deep compartment of my memory. So does the Litani Mission in 1978 and Beirut in 1982. Beirut sounds like "Et tu, Brute" - more fallen comrades, more cemetaries to visit.

We all honor the cherished memory of the fallen martyrs who sacrificed their lives so valiantly, so that Jews can safely walk the face of the Holy Land.

Few people know about the living dead: No one honors them. Few care. These are Israel's combat veterans that suffer from PTSD - Post Trauma Stress Disorder. Let me tell you about one, a special forces veteran from my old unit, that spent 4 months as a POW in Syria after having falling captive in the attack on Mount Hermon in 1973.

My buddy "Yuval", a kibbutznik, like an estimated 40 percent of the Yom Kippur War prisoners suffers from PTSD. The symptoms include sleeplessness, flashbacks, tension and nervousness, paranoia, panic attacks, concentration problems, social and emotional detachment, relationship difficulties, and inability to hold a job. Yuval, divorced and what you'd call a social misfit, gets stoned before he can fall asleep.

Last year, I visited Yuval in his kibbutz. Because of Israeli polarization and stereotypes, they wouldn't let me in the front gate until Yuval told the amazed gatekeeper that I'm his former army buddy. His two-room apartment had a strange smell of spoiled food; I noticed pieces of sandwiches stashed in every corner. He is forever anxious that he won't have enough food to eat.

PTSD has been known since World War I — when it was called ’shellshock’ or ’trench neurosis’ — but it was only after the Vietnam War that the condition received wide recognition, even here in Israel. The condition has become increasingly common here since 1973.

Being a prisoner of war exposes a person to an intense and continuing state of threat, constant tribulations and torture, and a destruction of one's human image as well as one’s belief in one’s self.

In my humble opinion, The Defense Ministry rehab psychologists just don't have the tools to give the PTSD vet what he needs, as in the case of poor Yuval. As a combat vet and an emotional therapist whose tools are the teachings of Torah, I maintain that the only way to overcome PTSD is through faith and spiritual awareness.

Yuval said to me, "Lazer - I'm glad to see you. But don't preach tshuva to me - I don't want to hear about you or your G-d. Where was He when they beat the sh_t outa me every night in interrogation?"

Right at your side, Yuval - He never left you for a moment. Yuval asks questions, but he doesn't want to hear my answers.

Emuna has the answers that Yuval needs for his emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Yet, his kibbutz upbringing has conditioned him to disdain the sight of a black hat more than he disdains the sight of a kafiya. It's a tragedy. If you check around the Defense Ministry rehab clinics, you'll find that the number of religious former POW's that suffer from PTSD is almost nil.

PTSD is a living death; my heart goes out to the IDF vets that suffer from it. Yet, there's a cure - tshuva and emuna. I've seen Rav Shalom Arush, himself a former elite-unit combat vet, help several veterans beat the PTSD rap. With emuna, there's hope for the living dead.