FC with Binyamin Aug. 21.2007

Binyamin:

I want to tell you all again and again, there is nothing new.

You are all waiting to hear 'real news', like you said, that the banks will fall apart, that money will be worthless, that a war is going to break out on such and such a day, etc.

But no one can give a definite time for these things. Yes, a war will break out and Hashem will have mercy. Yes, the banks will fall apart and Hashem will have mercy. When will all this happen? That we leave to Hashem.

Putting the focus on these matters only takes us away from our main goal, which is to come close to the truth and to Hashem and attach ourselves to Him and His will.

This is not what everyone wants to hear; they want things to be interesting. They want action.

They want us to say, "On this day Moshiach is coming. Get ready!"

"Good," everyone will say. "Let's get ready." They'll get the materials they need, build a gate, fix up the busses, maybe take down the immodest pictures, make all kinds of arrangements, but the most important thing they will forget and that is teshuva [repentance].

They can build a gate and lay out a red carpet from the Western Wall all the way to Jaffa road but Moshiach will still not come, because this is not the way to prepare for his arrival.

This is what we are doing: we are constantly dealing with materialistic things and materialism in general; we have to do things we find interesting... but to repent?

'Must we speak about that again... what more can we do?

We've already joined Tehillim (Psalms) groups; we attend lectures on guarding one's tongue, we even spend an hour a day making sure not to speak slander. We recite the entire Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs), we say all sorts of special verses from the Torah, we go and pray at the Western Wall... what more do you want from us? What else can we do?'

All these actions lack substance since we're not prepared to do the most important thing and that is to leave the gashmius - the materialism.

And it really is not enough to say Perek Shira and all sorts of special prayers or to go to the Kosel [the Western Wall] once a week.

We must open our hearts, our mind, our kishkes [literally: intestines] and remove the Yetzer Hara - the Evil Inclination.

Whoever sits in the house of G-d must extract the Evil Inclination from within himself and that is a most difficult and painful surgery.

There is no greater pain, no greater difficulty.

It is pain mixed with pleasure.

We must look inside ourselves and try to understand the reason behind every single thing we do. We must stop dealing with superficial things that keep us busy and arouse the connection between our bodies and our holy souls and then use this connection to come close to Hashem.

What else is there to say to the Jewish people?

Serving Hashem is the only thing that will save us.

The banks will fall and so will money.

We have a house but Hashem can make our house fall.

We have objects but Hashem can destroy those as well.

So what do we have left?

Only our relationship with Hashem.

That is the entire purpose of this world and the World to Come.

When we reach the stage that follows Moshiach's arrival, what will remain is Shleimus - completeness and dveikus - strong attachment to Hashem. The strong attachment we will have is that we will truly become a part of Hashem with nothing coming between us and that will be the completeness.

It's really not a simple matter and getting there is not easy. It is very painful and agonizing.

But it will also bring everlasting pleasure.

And that is what we are striving to reach - that is the main goal.

Whoever cannot handle such a goal; it is obvious that there will be no place for him.

If he is not suitable he cannot withstand.

When you have a jigsaw puzzle and you have a piece that does not fit, it cannot become a part of the puzzle; all of the pieces have to fit together. 

Therefore, my recommendation to the Jewish people is:

Try and minimize all the dealings and business matters as much as possible,

eliminate as many materialistic desires as you can

and do whatever you can to minimize the materialism that constantly surrounds you.

To the wealthy people who have an abundance of objects and to the poor people who have very little, get rid of any unnecessary materialistic things; get it out of your heart and your desire as much as possible.

A day will come, and not in the distant future, when all those objects will either disappear or be destroyed and we will be left naked: not naked of clothes, I hope, but of all the different objects that we love so much and then all we will need is to grab hold of Hashem and He and only He will save us. 



 

Chapter 41 -  This world is nothing

FC with Binyamin Sep.01.2007

May you all have a good week.

But this is not going to be a regular week at all.

Although, maybe an irregular week is considered regular. As we have said before things will now start happening one right after the next; like last week with that big fire in Greece which has yet to resume, and all sorts of other rough situations going on throughout the world such as floods in America, etc.

This week we will be receiving another reminder about the situation. Hashem is constantly sending us warnings and signs; He really wants to give us the chance to repent. Through all these different signs He is showing us the secret to survival and to life in the next world = the days of Moshiach and like a good father does, He is giving us all sorts of hints to help us. If a person does not understand the hint coming from a certain direction, Hashem sends Him another hint coming from a totally different direction and He just keeps sending more and more signals showing us that this world is nothing. It's nothing more than just a performance - a movie.

At the end of a performance, the curtain closes, the lights in the auditorium go on and people look at around at each other, reminded that they are not in the play; they are in a completely different world.

While people are watching the movie, they feel like they are watching real life, but then when the movie ends and the lights go on, they remember that real life is actually totally different.

That's how it is in life. Hashem gives us signs such as strange weather and all sorts of natural disasters, horrible illnesses, G-d Forbid, all kinds of strange things that happen to people and abnormal problems in order to make us realize that this world is all just an illusion and nothing more. 

This world is just a place where the soul comes, dressed in skin, bones and veins, etc. to go through rectification, purification and cleansing; to prepare itself for a spiritual world, a world of truth, and a world of eternity.

It is very interesting that the signs we are receiving now are no weaker than the plagues of Egypt, whether it is a Tsunami, a billion mice in China, the Twin Towers that miraculously fell or a hurricane destroying an entire city.

Hashem is giving us tremendous signs in so many different ways. The only difference between what happened then and what is happening now is that the plagues then took place only in Egypt and the things happening now are taking place worldwide.

If we would take the Tsunami and put it together with what happened in New Orleans, along with the earthquake in Turkey and the mice in China and many other things that have happened it would be far greater than the plagues in Egypt. But as it happened, these things were spread out throughout the world.

It's truly amazing; Hashem created for our world things like the internet, the television, although we (in the Ultra-Orthodox community) don't have television, and radios - including radios for people's cars, radios you can walk around with, i.e. walkmans, so that within a matter of seconds everyone can hear what is going on throughout the world. With television, people can even see the images clearly, and those are signs, tremendous signs that no one wants to pay attention to, aside from the few people who seek the truth.

Regarding the digging at Har Habayit by the Arabs:

Binyamin: Regarding the tunnel at Har Habayit - for whoever is not aware of this, the Arabs have been using bulldozers and whatever tools they can get their hands on to try and destroy any remnants of Beis Hamikdash. They are building a tunnel under the Western Wall.

They want to bring down the Kotel!

They are trying to bring down the Western Wall!

They do this because they know that Hashem said this wall will stand until the Moshiach comes and even after that.

They think they will succeed in bringing down the wall but they won't manage because Hashem gave His word.

But the Jewish people, the Jewish people must return to Hashem, because if they don't...

Only those who remain...

It is a very simple calculation;

Whoever does not believe in Hashem,

Whoever has the appearance of an Ultra -Orthodox Jew,

Whoever whispers the words in the prayer books while thinking about his vacation,

Whoever dresses in a way that is obviously immodest,

Whoever steals, whoever lies,

Whoever does not truly believe in Hashem,

Whoever is not prepared to make sacrifices for Hashem,

Whoever is not prepared to live for the sake of Heaven...

All of these people have no place in a world of truth. They will not be able to live in a world of truth.

Just as every person needs air to breathe, these people will not be able to breathe the air of truth; only the air of the lies. But since the air we will be breathing is the air of pure truth, they will not be able to survive.

Time is short. I advise every Jew to do full repentance starting from this moment, if you haven't already begun.

There really is no time. It won't be long before the first shot is fired.

People should get to work now if they haven't yet.

There is no time. I'll say it again; there is no time.

Every person can identify and understand at least some of the signs. And there are so many signs every day, for the individual person and for the world as a whole. There really are many, many signs given all the time.

May Hashem help us understand, repent and merit receiving our righteous Moshiach.

Q. What do you have to say about the Labor Party going bankrupt?

A. Baruch Dayan Ha-emet (what you say when you hear of a Jew's death). Of course it is the end. Those who started are coming to an end and they are the big evil ones, the leaders of the Erev Rav (the Egyptians who became Jewish and exiled with the Jews) but they have second and third generations of Erev Rav and they have a mane of other political parties and this is all going to disappear.