Practice What You Know
If you visit the best doctor in the world and the doctor cures you, you will become ill again if you do not follow the doctor's instructions. Can anyone blame the doctor? It is your own fault for not following the doctor's suggestions.
Similarly with wisdom, the ideas will only be able to help you if you constantly put them into practice.
Today, ask yourself: What ideas that I already know would make a major difference in my life if I applied them?
Right now, the before Yom Kippur, I am still suffering from having two infected teeth. One had a root canal and now I have to wait for the other. The Dr (Dentist) in this case didn't diagnose the problem. I had to diagnose it myself. I know from my previous wisdom what the problem is, primarily because I have had root canal before. So sometimes the best Doctor in the world (after G-d of course) is yourself.
Love Yehuda Lave
Hebrew language--The Language of the DNA of Creation!! very powerful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od-xkRDw6nk
Three Secrets for a Happy Marriage:
1) Give 2) Give more 3) Give in
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Guidelines for the holiest day of the Jewish year – the Day of Atonement.
by Rabbi Shraga SimmonsFollowing the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses pleaded with God to forgive the people. Finally on Yom Kippur, atonement was achieved and Moses brought the second set of Tablets down from Mount Sinai.
From that day forward, every Yom Kippur carries with it a special power to cleanse our mistakes (both individually and collectively) and to wipe the slate clean.
This works on two conditions:
(1) We do a process called teshuva – literally "return." Teshuva involves four steps:
- Regret – acknowledging that a mistake was made, and feeling regret at having squandered some of our potential.
- Cessation – Talk is cheap, but stopping the harmful action shows a true commitment to change.
- Confession – To make it more "real," we admit our mistake verbally, and ask forgiveness from anyone we may have harmed.
- Resolution – We make a firm commitment not to repeat the harmful action in the future.
(2) Though the combination of teshuva and Yom Kippur atones for transgressions against God, it does not automatically erase wrongs committed against other people. It is therefore the universal Jewish custom – some time before Yom Kippur – to apologize and seek forgiveness from any friend, relative, or acquaintance whom we may have harmed or insulted over the past year.
Angel for a Day
On Yom Kippur, every Jew becomes like an angel. In the Jewish understanding, angels are completely spiritual beings, whose sole focus is to serve their Creator. The Maharal of Prague explains:
All the mitzvot that God commanded us on [Yom Kippur] are designed to remove, as much as possible, a person's relationship to physicality, until he is completely like an angel.
Just as angels (so to speak) stand upright, so too we spend most of Yom Kippur standing in the synagogue. And just as angels (so to speak) wear white, so too we are accustomed to wear white on Yom Kippur. Just as angels do not eat or drink, so too we do not eat or drink.
This idea even has a practical application in Jewish law: typically, the second verse of the Shema, Baruch Shem, is recited quietly. But on Yom Kippur, it is proclaimed out loud – just like the angels do.
Five Aspects
There are five areas of physical involvement from which we refrain on Yom Kippur:
- Eating and drinking
- Washing
- Applying oils or lotions to the skin
- Marital relations
- Wearing leather shoes
Throughout the year, many people spend their days focusing on food, work, material possessions (symbolized by shoes) and superficial pleasures (symbolized by anointing). On Yom Kippur, we restore our priorities to what really counts in life.
As Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler writes:
On Yom Kippur, the power of the [physical] inclination is muted. Therefore, one's yearning for spiritual elevation reasserts itself, after having lain dormant as a result of sin's deadening effect on the soul. This rejuvenation of purpose entitles a person to special consideration and forgiveness.
Structure of the Day
On Rosh Hashana, the Books of Life and Death are open and God writes who will be granted another year of life. For many, this decision hangs in the balance for nine days until Yom Kippur, when the final decision is sealed. With this in mind, the prayers of Yom Kippur are designed to stir us to mend our ways:
- The Yom Kippur prayers begin before sundown with the haunting melody of Kol Nidrei. The Torah scrolls are all removed from the Ark, and the chazzan (cantor) chants the Kol Nidrei prayer three times, each with greater intensity.
- The special Yom Kippur Amidah (standing prayer) incorporates the Al-Chet confession of our various mistakes. With each mention of a mistake, we lightly beat our chest with the fist – as if to say that it is our impulses that got the best of us.
- The Yizkor service – said in memory of loved ones – is recited following the morning Torah reading.
- The lengthy Mussaf service features a recounting of the Yom Kippur rite in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. A highlight was the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies – the only person to do so, this one time a year. The Mussaf service also records how the High Priest would pronounce God's holy name, and in response the assembled Jews would prostrate on the ground. When reaching these passages, we too prostrate ourselves on the ground.
- At the Mincha service, we read the Book of Jonah, the biblical story of a prophet who tried to "flee from God" and wound up swallowed into the belly of a huge fish.
- While a regular weekday has three prayer services, and Shabbat and holidays have four, Yom Kippur is the only day of the year that has five. This final prayer is called Ne'ilah, literally the "closing of the gates," which serves as the final chance to ensure that our decree for the year is "sealed" in the Book of Life. At the conclusion of Ne'ilah, the shofar is sounded – one long blast, signifying our confidence in having passed the High Holidays with a good judgment.
- At the conclusion of Yom Kippur, Havdallah is recited over a cup of wine. There is no blessing on spices (unless Yom Kippur was on Shabbat), but we do use a Havdallah candle – which should be lit from a flame that burned throughout Yom Kippur.
The Fast Itself
The Yom Kippur fast begins before sundown, and extends 25 hours until the following nightfall.
During the afternoon hours leading up to Yom Kippur, it is a special mitzvah to eat a festive meal.
For making your fast easier, hydration is the key. Avoid coffee or coke, because caffeine is a diuretic. Heavy coffee drinkers can also avoid the dreaded headache by slowly reducing the amount of consumption over the week leading up to Yom Kippur. (See Aish's "Guide to an Easy Fast")
At the festive meal, eat a moderate portion of food so as not to speed up the digestion process. After you complete the festive meal, leave some extra time before sundown to drink.
In Case of Illness
If someone is ill, and a doctor is of the opinion that fasting might pose a life-danger, then the patient should eat or drink small amounts.
The patient should try to eat only about 30 ml (one fluid ounce) and wait nine minutes before eating again. Once nine minutes have passed, one can eat this small amount again, and so on throughout the day.
With drinking, try to drink less than what the Talmud calls "melo lugmav" – the amount that would fill a person's puffed-out cheek. While this amount will vary from person to person, it is approximately 35 ml (just over one fluid ounce) and one should wait nine minutes before drinking again.
How does consuming small amounts make a difference? In Jewish law, an act of "eating" is defined as "consuming a certain quantity within a certain period of time." Otherwise, it's not eating, it's "nibbling" – which although is prohibited on Yom Kippur, there is room to be lenient when one's health is at stake.
The reason for all these technicalities is because eating on Yom Kippur is regarded as one of the most serious prohibitions in the Torah. So while there are leniencies in certain situations, we still try to minimize it.
Note that eating and drinking are treated as independent acts, meaning that the patient can eat and drink together during those nine minutes, and the amounts are not combined.
Having said all this, if these small amounts prove insufficient to prevent the health danger, the patient may even eat and drink regularly. In such a case, a person does not say Kiddush before eating, but does recite "Grace After Meals," inserting the "ya'aleh veyavo" paragraph.
Now what about a case where the patient's opinion conflicts with that of the doctor? If the patient is certain he needs to eat to prevent a danger to health, then we rely on his word, even if the doctor disagrees. And in the opposite scenario – if the patient refuses to eat despite doctors' warnings – then we persuade the patient to eat, since it is possible that his judgment is impaired due to illness.
Wishing you a meaningful Yom Kippur!
https://www.facebook.com/398799110143354/videos/773517276004867/
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Upcoming Blood Moon to Lead to "Messianic Advancement"
"The sun shall turn to darkness, and the moon to blood, prior to the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord." (Joel 3:4)
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/blood-moon.jpg
April 2014 Blood Moon. (Photo: Anne Dirkse/ Wiki Commons)
Blood moon enthusiasts around the world are eagerly awaiting the appearance of a final blood moon of a special four-moon cycle, known as a tetrad, on September 28, 2015. What makes this particular tetrad unique is that each blood moon occurs during a Jewish holiday, making it a very rare historical occurrence.
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/46098/upcoming-blood-moon-messianic-advancement-jewish-world/#zvTKmMsbl9Y3Wi3F.99
In a recent talk he gave in Jerusalem, Rabbi Mendel Kessin, a rabbinic scholar, spoke about the connection between the appearance of blood moons on Jewish holidays and historical events that bring the ultimate redemption closer. At the 36-minute mark, Rabbi Kessin introduces the history of blood moons to his Orthodox Jewish audience and explicitly connects the blood moons to redemption.
Kessin begins by explaining that a lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is between the sun and the moon, turning the moon dark. Lunar eclipses happen approximately every 12-18 months, according to Kessin. Rarer than an ordinary lunar eclipse, he continues, is a blood moon, which turns the moon red instead of dark.
Rarer still are tetrads – sequences of four blood moons six months apart. And extremely rare, happening only four times in 500 years, are tetrads that fall on the significant Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot [Feast of Tabernacles]. These sequences included the years 1492, 1948, 1967 and 2015.
It is commonly known that in 1492, Columbus discovered America. What is less well-known is that, on July 30, 1492, the entire Jewish community of Spain, approximately 200,000 individuals, were expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Columbus' discovery of America provided the Spanish Jews with safe harbor. As Kessin teaches, the discovery of America softened the exile of the Spanish Jews and, in that way, moved redemption forward. According the Kessin, the exile of the Jewish people began to ease up as far back as 1492.
The next tetrad falling on Jewish holidays happened in 1948, when the State of Israel was founded. The third extremely rare tetrad on Jewish holidays was in 1967, when the city of Jerusalem was reunited. Now, in 2015, the final blood moon of the current tetrad is scheduled to fall on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
In addition, the blood moon this Sukkot will occur just two weeks after the end of the current Shemitah year. This is significant because the Talmud, the most important collection of rabbinic teachings in Judaism, suggests that the the messiah will come in the year following a Shemitah year.
Speaking to Breaking Israel News, Kessin said, "Each one of these is a messianic advancement. There are incredible events that predate the messiah."
Why would God make blood moons a sign for the Jews? Traditionally, as recorded in the Talmud, a lunar eclipse is a bad sign for the Jews, who mark time with the moon.
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/blood-moons.png
On the other hand, the Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot are considered nights of the greatest protection of the Jews. The first night of Passover is referred to in Hebrew as leil shimurim, a night of guarding. Additionally, the outdoor booths in which Jews dwell during the holiday of Sukkot are meant as reminders of the fragile huts that protected the newly freed slaves during 40 years in the desert after the exodus from Egyptian slavery.
In essence, Kessin explains that the presence of a blood moon, which would otherwise have been a bad omen, is a good omen for the Jews whenever it falls in this sequence. "Every time a blood moon happens [on a Jewish holiday tetrad]," said Kessin, "there is messianic advancement."
Kessin reminded Breaking Israel News that the threat from Iran is also messianic, which he says can be clearly seen from the 13th century Biblical rabbinic commentary known as the Yalkut Shimoni. Rabbinic scholar and author Rabbi Nachman Kahana translates the relevant section of the 800-year old commentary:
Paras (Persia-Iran) will be the dread of humanity. The world's leaders will be frustrated in their futile efforts to save what they can, but to no avail. The people of Yisrael will also be petrified by the impending danger. And HaShem will say to us, "Why are you afraid? All of this I have done in order to bring you the awaited redemption. And this redemption will not be like the redemption from Egypt, which was followed by suffering. This redemption will be absolute, followed with peace.
"We have now entered the countdown to the messiah, which is unbelievable," Kessin told Breaking Israel News. "Based on the [verse from the Book of Joel cited above], based on what's happening, something awesome seems to be in the works. Fascinating!"
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/46098/upcoming-blood-moon-messianic-advancement-jewish-world/#zvTKmMsbl9Y3Wi3F.99
Fire broke out at the old Hamashbir building on King George Street in Jerusalem.
Photo Credit: Hadas Parush / Flash 90
Fire broken out Saturday at the old Hamashbir Latzarchan building on King George Street in central Jerusalem.
The main part of the building has been empty for a while, but the building's 'Off the Wall Comedy Club' and a yarn store on a lower level have been popular haunts for veteran Jerusalemites.
The building is also nestled cheek-and-jowl to the Lev Yerushalayim apartment hotel, another long-time 'de rigeur' for foreign tourists, including many Americans.
It is not yet clear what started the blaze; however, Israel Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld told JewishPress.com there has been no indication the fire was deliberately set.
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