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Yesterday, my wife and I and two friends made a pilgrimage to the tzion (resting place) of Rebbe Tarfon. It is in the mountains of the Galilee between Tzfat and Meron, surrounded by a grove of olive trees.

If you remember the Haggadah, Rebbe Tarfon was one of the five rabbis discussing leaving Egypt in B’nai Brak. 

Since the theme of this blog is Redemption (Geulah), the time has come to discuss building the Third Temple. But first, we need some historical background.

Three structures have borne the name Mikdash (Sanctuary). The first was the Tabernacle built by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai, as it says (Ex. 25:8), “Make for Me a Mikdash and I will dwell among them.”

This is a good time to say something I have held back for a long time. I have held it back because it is touchy and involves some friends of mine, but it needs to be said. As some of you may know, I co-authored the book, The Path of the Righteous Gentile, with Rabbi Yakov Rogalsky. And we asked Rav Mendel Feldman, alav hashalom, a Talmid Chacham and old-school Lubavitcher Hasid, to check our work and give us his endorsement. He agreed, and worked closely with us, and put his name on the book.

For those of you who are considering moving to a Chinese Buddhist monastery, let me explain how the dynamic works over there. Let us say that there is this Chinese fellow named Lang, and he is something special – brilliant, creative, with the power to bring his creative ideas from koach to poel, potential to actual. And everything he does, he does in the name of his G-d (sic), but he sees Him as Heaven. He does not know His Name, but he thinks he knows who He is and he knows a little bit about what He wants from Lang.

Two very wise and influential people have badgered me to write a retraction of my article called, “Warning: Do not convert to Judaism.” They say that people are confused by what I wrote and think that I am against conversion.

One fine day, a German shepard dog got lost in a forest. As he was coming around an oak tree, he came face to face with a big wolf, who snarled and bared his fangs and said to the dog, “Prepare to die, you miserable creature.”

The dog shook with fear, and bending low to the ground, pleaded for his life, “Please, Mr. Wolf, spare me.”

Let us talk about conversion to Judaism. No one should do it. If you converted to Judaism, you were led astray by a well-meaning, but unlearned Jew, probably a rabbi.

The truth is that when someone converts, he or she becomes grafted onto Kehillat Yisrael, the Congregation of Israel, which has one body and one soul, and a covenant with G-d. The conversion is to the people, not to the religion.

“They [the Men of the Great Assembly] said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, develop many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah (Fathers 1:1).”

The Torah tells us that it is forbidden to break down fences, as it says, “One who breaks down a fence should be bitten by a snake (Eccles. 10:8).” So obviously, it is unwise to break down fences, even in the name of leaving Galut (Exile), even in the name of seeking G-d. But every fence has a gate; our job is to find it. And for that, we need the Levites, because they are the gatekeepers.

Warning: I am about to do something very manipulative, which is to ask the reader to assume a “willing suspension of disbelief.” I want you to envision Geulah, the Final Redemption, and put yourself in it. 

We can actually take a lesson concerning this from the Passover Haggadah. It says, “In every generation, a person is obligated to envision himself as if he came out of Egypt.”

There once was a wealthy man who owned many fields, but had no oxen to plough them. So he took a purse full of silver and gold coins and went to town on market day to buy oxen. This was a good man. He gave generously of his money to the poor, and offered a meal and a place to sleep to whoever needed it, but he did not believe in G-d’s active involvement with the world. He rejected the idea of Divine Providence. 

This first blogpost was inspired by the following story from the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a: Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, while meditating near the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, was visited by the Prophet Elijah, may he be remembered for good.

“When will the Messiah come?” asked Joshua.

As mentioned in the previous post (The Voice of Redemption), the Talmud teaches that Ben David will come the day (hayom) we hear the voice of G-d. Simply put, when prophecy returns, we will have entered the Messianic Era, a time of redemption and freedom and love; no longer a time of alienation. Weapons of destruction will be re-formed as farming tools and the knowledge of G-d will cover the world like water covers the seabed.

The Talmud (Makkot 24a) also teaches that the 613 commandments of the Torah can be distilled down to one simple principle, “Darshuni v’chai – seek Me and live (Amos 5:4).”

In the vicinity of Kiryat Shemona in the north of Israel, there is a cemetery for sofek-Jew/sofek-Gentile, a person about whom there is a doubt whether he or she is Jewish.

I was made aware of the existence of this cemetery by Rabbi Leibl Bistritsky, zy”a, the late Chief Rabbi of Tzfat (Safed).