Filed under: AVODA ZARA, IDOLATRY, other dimensions, Reform Judiasm, Renewal, Running and Returning-Ratzo v Shuv, teshuva, The Guide, Transformational Experience, WOMEN OF THE WALL
THIS IS NOT FROM THE GUIDE BUT CONCERNS CURRENT EVENTS
Maimonides, The Rambam, in his masterwork, the “Mishneh Torah”, In the section that deals with the Yom Kippur service in the “Beit Hamikdash” (Holy Temple), Writes that before the “Kohen Gadol” would do the Yom Kippur service the elders of the Sanhedrin would make him swear to do the service according to the oral tradition. Specifically, they made him swear to burn the incense only inside the Holy of Holies. The “Sadukim” (Sadducees), denied the authority of the Oral Torah and would place the incense on a burning fire-pan outside the Holy of Holies first and later the “Kohen Gadol” should carry it inside the Holy of Holies. The Sanhedrin made the “Kohen Gadol” swear not to perform the service in the manner of the Sadducees. After this both the “Kohen Gadol” and the elders would weep.
The Kohen Gadol cried because they suspected him of being a Sadducee. The elders would weep because there was reason to suspect him. The Rambam enshrined this tragic touching sequence of events in his “halachic” writing , The Mishna Torah which designed as a practical manual of halacha. And that make this unusual as most of Book is only practical laws and not much else. The Sanhedrin would do this because one year the “Sadukim” proposed a compromise which they said would be for the sake of peace. They proposed that the “Kohen Gadol” should light the incense outside and then take it inside the Holy of Holies, That though that this way the sages could observe Torah the way they understood and the way of the “Sadukim” would also be fullfilled. . The sages concluded that add a mitzvah of the Torah, is forbidden. As adding or subtracting from the Mitzvot of the Torah is one of the 613 commandments. The knew that to refuse would make them seem uncompromisingly indifferent to Jewish unity, but the Rabbis had no option but to follow the Law and not change it to fit the whims of others..
The bottom line is that we must always no matter what guard the Torah and not compromise concerning the instruction The God has given us. We must only do things His way ! We see from this that there are times when the guardians of the Torah have to stand up for what right NO MATTER WHAT. This teaching it seems the Rambam thought was so essential to transmit the Rambam broke himself his format of writing by including this story in the Mishna Torah. The Rambam probobly included this story in the “Mishnah Torah” as he knew that In every generation the Jewish People would have their ‘Sadducees’. (reformers) But in every generation the defenders of the Torah must say no !
No one is perfect but we don’t have to be like the Tribe of Dan who were known as the “yarud sh’bashvatim” (the lowest of the Tribes). With them idol worship was so rampant that the Clouds of Glory which escorted the Jewish People through the desert would not accompany them. In the Book of Devarim (29:17), when Moshe warns of the possibility of “a man or a woman or a family or a tribe turning away from G-d”, our Sages understand that the Torah is referring to the tribe of Dan. Lets not be like them
Women of the Wall Vice Chair Batya Kallus and WOW Chair Anat Hoffman, advise and support a hefty list of anti-Israeli NGOs.
While Women of the Wall has built up a name for themselves as a feminist organization promoting women’s rights in Israel, their leadership in fact have links to anti-Israel groups that not many people know about.
In Israel, Women of the Wall is often presented as a feminist organization seeking to conduct egalitarian prayer services with women wearing tallits at the Western Wall, the last remnant of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the holiest site within the Jewish faith. Regardless of whether one views their actions as provocative publicity stunts that disturb the peace at the Western Wall or as noble deeds designed to promote women’s rights within the Jewish religion, the Israeli public is generally not aware that the Women of the Wall leadership possesses links to anti-Israel groups.
The Jewish Press has learned that Women of the Wall Vice Chair Batya Kallus serves as an adviser to Sikkuy. This NGO is a signatory to the Haifa Declaration, which calls for the abolishing of the State of Israel, praises violent resistance, and accuses Israel of manipulating the memory of the Holocaust for political purposes.
Furthermore, Kallus has facilitated funding for anti-Israel groups Adalah, Ir Amin, Yesh Din, and Mossawa, as part of her position as programs officer for the Moria Fund. Though outwardly presented as human rights groups, these organizations contribute towards the delegitimization of Israel in the world.
Adalah is opposed to Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, views Israel to be a colonial state, and has participated in anti-Israel activism via Israel Apartheid Weeks and the Goldstone Report, which until its arguments were retracted by its main author caused Israel significant diplomatic damage. Adalah is mentioned by name 38 times in the Goldstone Report.
Ir Amim supports the division of Jerusalem, has asserted that Israel’s archaeological digs within the city are a “tool in the fight for control” over the city, that Israeli governmental powers are being handed over to “settler organizations,” and that the Security Barrier is not motivated primarily by security concerns. They run highly politicized anti-Israel tours of the holy city, which indoctrinate internationals into holding anti-Israel views. In the Huffington Post, Ir Amim appealed to the US Government to “threaten Israel with severing diplomatic ties. Threaten us with cutting back on, or even cutting off, the annual support package. Bludgeon us over the head and force us to wise up.”
Yesh Din views Israel to be an apartheid state and demonstrated support for Turkey after the Gaza Flotilla incident, even though the Turkish sailors on board the Mavi Marmara ship chanted jihadi slogans and attacked IDF soldiers. They routinely indoctrinate foreign diplomats to hold anti-Israel views, petition the Israeli Supreme Court to rule more in favor of the Palestinian side, and encourage Palestinians to demand more from Israel.
Mossawa is based on the premise that “the State of Israel was established on the ruins of the Palestinian people, for whom the event was a national tragedy – the Nakba.” Mossawa, like Adalah, explicitly has stated that they refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. They publish an annual racism report that makes outrageous claims, such as labeling an indictment against Hadash Chairman MK Muhammad Barakeh for assaulting a police officer as a violation of the Arab MK’s political freedom. This listing just represents a sample of the types of organizations that Kallus facilitated funding for.
Woman of the Wall Chair Anat Hoffman also happens to be the chair of the Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem. Her association partners include Yonathan Mizrahi and Dafna Strauss from the Emek Shaveh organization, which calls for an international committee to investigate Israeli archaeological work in Jerusalem and runs archaeology-based anti-Israel tours of the city.
The Domari Society of Gypsies is also part of Al Aqsa Grassroots, an anti-Israel network that supports “resistance to the occupation” and is against the “Judaization of Jerusalem,” in addition to supporting the Palestinian right of return to Israel proper.
Additionally, prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords, Hoffman was the chairwoman of Women in Black, a group that advocates giving all of Judea and Samaria, as well as East Jerusalem which includes the area of the Kotel, to the Palestinian Authority. Interestingly, the Women of the Wall organization do not deny these accusations in regards to their leadership. Women of the Wall spokeswoman Shira Pruce stated, “Our participants and supporters come from all walks of life, political opinions, and Jewish denominations.”
In the BBC interview, Hoffman said she is a Reform Jew. The Reform movement does not adhere to halakhah. And the controversy at the Kotel is not only over halakhah, but over violating the rules for traditional prayer set at the Kotel in order that the stringently observant, who visit it daily in large numbers, will not be comfortable praying there. Hoffman’s goals are to have reform and conservative practices recognized as valid halakhically in Israel, as evidenced by statements she made to BBC News.
A declining Reform Movement wants to Reform Israel The Reform movement rejects Jewish Law and the Western Wall’s sanctity. Over 60% of its members intermarry. While all Jews are welcome, the movement itself should not get official religious recognition in the Jewish State. From its beginning, the Reform movement rejected essentially all that we have called Judaism for millenia. The Torah is hardly the final authority for its version of Judaism. Its founders dispensed with the entirety of Jewish Law as found in the Talmud and later authorities, and also severed the historic connection between the Nation of Israel and the Land of Israel. The 1843 Reform Declaration of Principles stated that “we know no fatherland except that to which we belong by birth or citizenship.” Or, put more succintly by leaders of that day: “Berlin is our Jerusalem.” Prayers for return to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, and the restoration of a Jewish government, were among the first deleted from their prayer books. In addition to all of the above, the Reform movement is also in precipitous decline. Besides having merely 1.7 children per family, 60% of recent marriages have been with non-Jews. Only one of every five intermarried parents raises children as Jewish (more than one in 4 raise them “partly Jewish by religion and partly something else”). Looking at the comparative birth and intermarriage rates, and what is happening to the Conservative Movement as well, it appears likely that the Orthodox will constitute the Jewish majority within several decades.
“As recently as 1999, Israel’s Reform leaders reaffirmed that to them, the Temple and the Western Wall have no special sanctity.”
THUS WOW (WOMEN OF THE WALL) DONT NEED THE KOTEL (WESTERN WALL) AND ARE NOT NEEDED THERE EITHER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reform rabbis officiate interfaith marriages. Reconstructionist rabbis don’t even have to be Jewish, because of falling enrollment numbers Conservative Rabbis are are considering doing interfaith marriages GOD IS NOT A BUSINESS AND THERE IS NOTHING JEWISH ABOUT ANY OF THIS !
In the 1950s and 1960s Jews lived in Jewish neighborhoods, socialized almost exclusively with Jews, the intermarriage rate was 6%..Among non-Orthodox Jews, the intermarriage rate is 78 percent now . THE POPULATION OF AMERICAN JEWS IS BEING DEVASTATED, Their next generation will not be Jewish !
The term Jew is today and for generations has been associated most with the religion of the Jewish people (Judaism). Early Secular Zionists and Reform Jews wanted to detach themselves from the title of “Jew”, and only use the term “Hebrew”. In fact, the main body of Reform in America was always called the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. It was only renamed the “Union for Reform Judaism” in 2003 ! They dont want to be jews !
and
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167024#.VxygojFGQ8A
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18591#.Vxyk1zFGQ8A
Our sages prayed that the temptation for idolatry would be removed and their request was granted. Since then there were no more true prophets and the general level of spirituality went down but people still want “bad” things and can do great things !
How can one not feel shame and loathe past behavior when he realizes, as taught by Rabbi Chaim Volozhin in Nefesh HaChaim, that each transgression causes damage in the upper worlds. The level of one’s understanding determines the extent of damage that results.13 Obviously an unlearned unintentional sinner14 does less damage than the sin of a holy man who has revealed the essence of his soul, because at that level, Heaven forbid, from his transgression the damage begins, affecting many worlds, while the unintentional sinner was only acting with his animal soul so the damage is less widespread.
This is one reason it is difficult to ascend into Holiness, to reveal the higher powers of your soul. One who only has a Nefesh, his sin only damages in peoples “animal souls”. If one acquires their Ruach, they by sin can damage the flow of Divine abundance going to Ruchot “the emotional soul”. If a man acquires his Nashama “Soul of Divine intellect”, he can damage the way people think by his errors, God forbid. Such a man by his foolish thoughts can lead many astray by the power of their thoughts and their words.
Rebbe Nachman teaches that in order to avoid temptation one must direct his mind away from the object of his desire completely; he must not confront the desire at all. Nor should he speak, think, or wonder about it; he should totally avoid letting his thoughts confuse him. 15 This applies to the unlearned man, but the scholar all the more so, so that he does not defile his intellect with impure thought; he should turn to the Torah and meditate upon it, putting sin out of mind.
In the prophecy of Ezekiel, it says: “The Chayot ran and returned” (Ezek. 1: 14). The sages say that this running is entering into holiness, contemplation of the divine, and returning is descending back to the more physical level. We too,
12.Tanya 155.
13.Nefesh HaChaim..
14.Rabbi Nachman’s Stories 21.
15.Duties of the Heart 295.
when faced with temptation, can run, approaching God and freeing ourselves from the temptation, and when we return we’re in a different place. King Solomon is talking about this running in the Song of Songs when he says, “Draw me and I will run after thee; the king has brought me into his inner chambers” (Songs 1: 4). Elijah the Prophet explains this as meaning that the Holy One has an innermost sanctum in the innermost chambers of the Torah that he has composed, so the disciples of the wise, each and every one of them, have an innermost sanctum in the innermost chambers of the Torah. If you see afflictions creeping up nearer and nearer to you, run to words deep within the Torah, and afflictions will at once flee from you as Isaiah teaches, “Come my people, enter into thy chambers … until the indignation is past” (Is. 26:20).
There are many Holy places to go to with your soul!
This idea of running and returning also applies in the physical sense, as it is known that wandering causes humility and a lowly spirit fitting for teshuvah(returning to God) . The breaking of arrogance of spirit by wandering is like the decomposition of a seed before it begins to grow; likewise in spiritual growth the ego must be broken so that divinity may permeate. The breaking of the seed coat from sprouting of Godly revelation can be difficult to handle at times but one must always remember, as the Malbim teaches, that all precious things together cannot compare with the survival of the soul, which is the end purpose of man and of his hopes. 16 It is taught, in tractate Magilla, that snow is good for mountains, heavy rain good for trees, gentle rain for fruits of the field, and drizzling rain to seeds under a hard clod. A young scholar is like a seed under a hard clod; once he has sprouted he soon shoots forth. A scholar is inflamed by the Torah, and should be as hard as iron that can break a rock into many pieces. When the young
16.Malbim parsha Chayah Sarah
scholar’s seed coat is breaking and he finds it difficult, let him become inflamed by the Torah and his difficulties will be as nothing, as he is then as hard as the iron that breaks rock. From becoming inflamed by the Torah one can see, as Rebbe Nachman teaches, that there is always rejoicing in the Holy One’s presence-so even if one falls one must remain happy. Whenever a person falls it is for the sake of ultimately elevating them further; when a person remains happy he will eventually reach the higher level. 17 And one should never despair no matter how bad the situation may look, for as Rabbi Avraham teaches in his book Meditation of the Sad Soul when God is angry with those that fear Him He punishes them in a natural way, but when He delivers them He employs wonders and supernatural means. 18
We are talking about a complete transformational experience here. It is and will be dramatic. But by this “reassembly” you will become purified and refined, you can acquire the higher levels of your Soul your Ruach, Nashama, Chayah and Revelation of Yachida.
17.Rabbi Nachman’s Stories 355.
18.Meditation of the Sad Soul 91.
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