Mother Nature is Sending a Message 

Personal holiness has a direct effect on all that happens in one’s life and in the world. All the actions of the world, all the blessings and influences, are all dependent on sexual purity.  Rebbi Nachman of Breslev  

“We need to be nicer to Mother Nature because Mother Nature is not happy with us.” – Ellen DeGeneres  

What do Jews call “Mother Nature”? We call it by its Hebrew name, הטבע (Hateva).  

In Hebrew, every letter corresponds to a number. If you add the numbers of the letters that spell “Mother Nature” in Hebrew: 

ה = הטבע(hey) + ט(tet) + ב (bet) + ע (ayin) 

           = 5 + 9 + 2 + 70 

           = 86 

The number 86 the same value for Elokim, the Name of G-d. It’s the name of G-d’s attribute of justice. The side of Hashem that doesn’t show mercy.  

Nature is merciless.  

If clouds get saturated, it is going to rain – even if a group of sweet deer haven’t yet found shelter. If there is water on your lawn that is pooling into puddles and the outside temperature is less than 0° Celsius, the water will freeze – even if your cute puppy will slip and fall.  

Using the Jewish notion of “Mother Nature”, Ellen DeGeneres told the world:  “We need to be nicer to G-d because G-d is not happy with us.” Ellen DeGeneres just invoked the Name of G-d. 

When did she say this?  

She said it during the first week of shovavim!  She said it during the first of the six weeks that Hashem gives extra mercy and blessing to those who work on their personal holiness.  

Today, we can rescue mankind by taking real steps to attack the only darkness that we can eliminate – the darkness inside ourselves.  

Our mission in life is threefold:  

1. To resist the darker urges inside us every day, every hour, and every moment. 
2. To improve ourselves by coming closer to Hashem. As a result, it will be more difficult for the darkness to affect us, and if it does, the impact will less destructive. 
3. To turn that darkness into light. 

According to the Tanya, the struggle against our darker urges is the meaning of life. This is the Divine Service. Alongside learning Torah, praying to Hashem, and doing acts of kindness is fighting every inner urge for licentiousness.  

The War of Gog and Magog  

This is the war that God put us in the world to fight.  

The War of Gog and Magog is a lot like the French and Indian War, except that it’s not between the French and the Indians, but against both the French and the Indians.  

The War of Gog and Magog is a war between the Jewish People and the combined forces of impurity. Every moment that you stand up against these forces, you are conquering the world and leading the war effort against the Devil himself.  

This is the reason why the Sages call Judaism “military service” (מילואים). Being a Jew is being a soldier. You are on call every moment. At any moment, you can be forced out of slumber and called to battle.  

It can be late at night. You are reading an amazing article by Rabbi Arush. Before you turn in, you want to see how your favorite team did. You click the Sports page looking for final scores, and instead there is an immodest woman holding a six pack of beer.  

Right before you are about to retire for the night, your soul sounds the battle stations alarm.  

It’s no different than an Israeli unit serving on the Golan. In the dark of night, when most of the unit is fast asleep, the border fence alarm can be tripped. The alarm goes off, giving 20 soldiers 4 minutes to go from snug in their beds to dressed in full body armor manning their post.  

A Golani soldier is a national hero for three years. A Jew performs such service for 120 years.  This is the war that Hashem put us in the world to fight.  

When your soul’s alarm goes off because impure forces you push you to a forbidden site or place, you must force yourself to fight.  

You have to try to read something, take a walk, talk to God – beg for His help to subdue these urges, go to the nearest Synagogue or Yeshiva and start reciting emergency Psalms, or open up a holy book and start learning until the Satan inside you sounds the full retreat.  

This is How You Change the World  

Ellen DeGeneres made this statement standing next to her home in California as it was being flooded with rainwater from massive storms. The flooding was exactly five years after a massive inferno reduced large portions of the state to ash.  

California is the epicenter of everything we are commanded to fight in this world. It is populated by people who actively spread perverse, abominable darkness to the four corners of the earth.  

From DeGeneres’ mouth we heard: Hashem is angry about this.  

We can choose to spread light or to spread darkness. Will we spread Hashem’s light, or will we fail and spread the Devil’s darkness with our indiscretions?  

Rebbi Nachman teaches that what we do impacts everything around us. Resisting this urge brings peace, prosperity, and holiness to ourselves, our loved ones, and the entire earth.  

If we succumb or stop fighting, things continue to deteriorate.  

Rome was never defeated by any military. It imploded from abominations. Greece fell apart. Before the Jews entered Eretz Yisrael, it was populated by seven mighty nations, all of whom committed acts of personal defilement. G-d tells us that we replaced them not because of our righteousness, but because of their evil.  

We lost the First Temple, prophecy, and the reign of King David by not fighting this battle.  

Since the United States legalized sodomy in 2010, that nation has fallen apart. Homelessness has skyrocketed. Inflation has wiped away the ability of millions of families to make basic ends meet. Exactly like Rome, they are not being invaded by soldiers, but are overrun by foreigners breaching their borders at an unprecedented scale.  

An open Sodomite, Hollywood A-lister, and progressive, Ellen DeGeneres is the poster child for what is happening. She promotes everything that is destroying the world, and was one of the first to come out openly and promote abominations forbidden by God, the Creator of the World, without shame. 

For her to concede that this destruction is because G-d is angry with us is an amazing admission – and a powerful warning.  

Low-Hanging Fruit  

So, let’s get to it!  

1. Remove all lewd material from your home. Toss all your magazines, tapes, and posters.  
2. Use a kosher cellphone rather than one with internet.  
3. If you must have internet on your phone or computer, get it filtered! There are filtering options for the religious community.  Netiv is now in the USA. There are similar options in Israel, such as Etrog and Rimon. 
4. If you absolutely must use a non-kosher cellphone (for example, a work phone), get the app freedom.to. You can block yourself on your own computer or mobile device from any site you want. You can set certain time blocks, like from 6 PM to 6 AM for adult sites, or social media sites from 6 AM to 6 PM. You can even set it to locked mode where you cannot override yourself.  
5. Learn about personal holiness. For men, you can read Rabbi Arush’s book The Garden of Purity. Check out our articles on shmirat eynaim (guarding one’s eyes) and shmirat habrit (personal holiness). 
6. Join a support group. The internet has flooded the world with porn, adult dating, and online prostitution sites. Millions of people have become sex addicts, needing professional help or at least a support group to break free of these chains.  Guard Your Eyes provides free and anonymous help for anyone trying to break free.  
7. Recite Tikkun HaKlali. Reciting Psalms 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137 and 150 every day is a powerful rectification for the damage done to the world through the misuse of one’s body.  

We all want to make an impact on this world. We all wish we had the power of a Joe Biden or Donald Trump to change things.  

The fact is that you do! If you take one step towards this mitzvah, you are shaking the earth to its core. You are bringing Hashem’s light to mankind.  

You are taking the worst darkness that has engulfed everyone and everything and removing it.  

Even better: You are taking the deepest darkness and transforming it into the greatest light.  

*** 

David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, Center Stage Marketing, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.