There Will Be Miracles!

27 Tammuz, 5784 – Transcription from Rabbi Shalom Arush’s weekly class in Holon 

Hashem’s Protection 

Everyone is afraid, everyone is calling me … Until now we didn’t understand how much we need the booklet “True Happiness”. Now everyone knows that we need True Happiness to hold onto emuna (faith). Emuna never changes! Never! Hashem always loves us, and we will have only good, and better, and even more better, and even more and more better!  

We must remember not to forget what we saw with our own eyes! How, before Pesach, that motzai Shabbat, how Iran threatened us, and then carried out their threat by sending hundreds of missiles. And look how Hashem protected us! And immediately afterwards, the Holy One, Blessed Be He finished off the evil man, the late Iranian President Raisi, who threatened us!  

Even at this very minute, they are sending missiles, mortar shells – I don’t know the names of all of them. Not ten, not a hundred, not a thousand – tens of thousands! And what protection! May His Name be praised! We must not be ingrates! We must hold onto the faith! Remember that Hashem treats us with kindness. And what kindnesses! Now our work is just to appreciate what Hashem does for us – don’t be ingrates!  

It is written in the Chumash that we must not be afraid because we must remember that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, took us out of Egypt and protected us and that is how it has been for all these generations; Hashem will certainly protect us!   

Not for nothing did Hashem take us out of Egypt; not for nothing did Hashem bring us to the Land of Israel! Look at how Hashem is building Jerusalem: roads, tunnels, bridges, lighting, buildings, gardens! And the main thing – Yeshivas, Synagogues, Talmidei Torah, mikvahs, Torah classes!  How good Hashem is!  

So, did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do all this so that Jews will be killed?!  No – He did all this to kill those who hate the Jews. We must not think that Hashem will harm the Jewish people, chalila! 

Praying for the People of Israel 

Let us see what is written in parshat Pinchas. The Holy One, Blessed be He, says to Moshe Rabbeinu: “Take revenge for Bnei Yisrael against the Midianites.”¹ What did the Midianites do to us? They caused the Jews to sin – they sent out their daughters, Kozbi bat Tzur, and thus caused the Jews to sin. What did Moshe Rabbeinu do? He took “one thousand, one thousand from each of Yisrael’s tribes.”² So that means two thousand from each tribe. And Chazal explained that one thousand went to fight, and one thousand prayed for them.  

In our yeshiva, we made a hitbodedut chain. Every day, at any given moment there are a few who are praying for the Jewish People. To make it easier, we took some of my students who live in America, who pray during the night hours in Israel, when over there it is daytime. And so, people are praying all 24 hours of the day for the Jewish People. [It is possible to join the chain – See A Protective Shield.] 

So, at the time of Moshe Rabbeinu, every warrior had a person praying for him. Today, there are many people praying for every warrior: His father, his mother, his brothers, his friends, and all Jews. Many are praying for each one. And therefore, we must pray now. 

Rabbeinu says in Sefer Hamiddot, that the tzaddik is punished when he fails to pray for the people of his generation. Rabbeinu says there as well: “When there is some din on Yisrael, chas veshalom, the Holy One, Blessed Be He tells the tzaddikim so that they will pray for Yisrael.” ³

Therefore, I have heard that many rabbis have said that we must pray on Friday and Shabbat, make prayer gatherings tonight (Thursday) as well. Rabbeinu writes that anyone who does not pray for them, the Holy One, Blessed Be He becomes angry with him.  

Rabbi Nachman writes in Sichot HaRan 39: “It is right that [a person] should feel the troubles of an individual, all the more so the troubles of the many, chas veshalom.” To feel in one’s heart. “Whoever prays for Yisrael, giving his all to it, everyone loves him, and he is also granted humility”.⁴ And therefore, whoever wants to merit humility, should pray for the Jewish people devotedly. 

I told the yeshiva: Today we prayed in the yeshiva. We opened the Ark etc., said the Thirteen Middot, prayers, Avinu Malkeinu. I told them: “Now, this war has no natural way to be conducted…” In the past there was war at the borders; now this is a war in which all the Land of Israel is in danger. I told them, “Now we have to say to the Holy One, Blessed be He, ‘Hashem! Fight for us! Because this is not a war that can be fought by natural means!” We must understand that only Hashem can protect us. And Hashem will protect us! Hashem will fight for us! 

Evil Will Never Depart from Them 

Hashem has enlightened me on an issue, that with Hashem’s help will give us the merit to have a great salvation. Chazal have taught us that there is nothing the Holy One, Blessed Be He, hates more than ingratitude. Therefore, we must all improve in the realm of acknowledging the good done to us – certainly by our parents, our spouses, everyone!  

In Proverbs (Mishlei) 17:13 (in Gematria, “17” – יז – is tov) it is written that “A person who returns evil for good – evil will never depart from his house.” Not only is he ungrateful, but he returns evil for good. Therefore, we must be careful not to be ungrateful, and not to return evil for good.  

Hashem granted me the ability to understand – the Jewish People did millions of favors to the people of Gaza. Millions! They gave them free electricity! They didn’t have to pay the electric bill! Do you pay for electricity? They didn’t. Truckloads of food! Built schools for them. Taught them! Everything for free! The kibbutzim around Gaza made sure to help those Gazans who were ill, take them to the hospitals. Countless favors! Millions! 

And the Gazans repaid the good with evil! They killed children, babies, women, the elderly, and all those who were at the Nova party. So much evil they did after all the good things that the Jewish People did for them. Evil will never depart from them! Never! That is my ruling, as it says in the passuk! Evil will not depart from them until the Holy One, Blessed be He will annihilate them! Hashem will take revenge! As it says in the parsha: Take revenge for Bnei Yisrael against the Midianites [Gazans]!¹

It is impossible to describe their cruelty – to return such cruelty and evil for the millions of favors that were done to them… and by the very kibbutzim that helped them! That is why the passuk in Mishlei says that evil will never depart from them. Rabbeinu writes in Likutei Moharan 113: “A person is punished knowingly and unknowingly, because I heard in the name of the Ba’al Shem Tov that before every [harsh] verdict, chas veshalom, they gather all the world, and everyone agrees about this verdict. Even the person himself, who has received this verdict, chas veshalom is asked if he agrees, and then the verdict is given, chas veshalom…” Rabbeinu says: “… and the issue is that certainly if he is asked explicitly about himself, he will certainly deny and say that the verdict is not so. But they trick him and ask him about something similar and he gives the verdict, and then it is handed down.”  Rabbeinu then brings what happened with David Hamelech, when Natan Hanavi came and told him the parable about the poor man’s sheep and David Hamelech said, “As Hashem lives…the man who did this is a dead man!” Whereupon Natan Hanavi responded: “You are the man!” 

Judging Oneself 

In our generation, everyone writes his opinions in Facebook or in TikTok, but they don’t understand that they are giving the verdict to themselves. Hashem sits and writes: “Oh, that’s what you ruled? Very good.” Rabbeinu says: “One must be very careful with this, not to hand down a verdict until he goes over it twice or three times, because it is life endangering…” One must be very, very careful.  

Gratitude or Ingratitude 

And the main thing is to be grateful! Rabbeinu says that one should never belittle a person who has done one a favor. And this matter, that Hashem allowed me to understand, is that our enemies did huge evils to us, every day! All of them! 

When we moved into the yeshiva in the Old City, they [Ed. Note: the Arabs] had no indoor plumbing, they had no electricity – and everything was done for them! They can study in the university for free! Therefore, Hashem granted me the knowledge that this should be spoken of. Say to the Holy One, Blessed be He: “You wrote in the Torah that ‘A person who returns evil for good – evil will never depart from his house’! We need to be strong to pray about this!  

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, will make endless miracles for us. But we must pray because the Torah says that the miracles will happen via prayer. Even if we don’t pray, Hashem will do miracles for us, but we ought to pray, we must pray. 

Yesterday I was at the hillula of the Baba Elazar, may his merit protect us. Who made the hillula – the father of a hostage. May Elkana ben Ruchama and Yosef Chaim ben Miriam and all the hostages return home today, alive and well. And may all the wounded have a complete recovery.  

Urgency of Prayer and Distribution 

Therefore, we must pray now, each one of us! Men and women – do longer hitbodedut, say the entire book of Tehillim. We must pray! One must pray that everything will happen thanks to prayers, and that we should have a part in the miracles that will happen. Everyone, exert yourselves! Until now we have been praying for the Jewish People – sometimes very well, sometimes not so well. But now each person should say to himself: “I must pray!” Say all of Tehillim! Pray for the Jewish People that Hashem will guard us from all evil and fight for us. We must pray for all the Jews in the Land of Israel and for all the Jews outside of the Land. We must pray for them! 

This is an auspicious time for the Geula. Hashem did something since Simchat Torah that there never was all these years – a war that lasts so long – it’s illogical. 

We must pray that all of us will have the daat of Rabbeinu, that everyone will have the books. I was in the cemetery, at the grave site of my teacher, Rabbi Yehuda Ze’ev Leibowitz. Someone approached me and said to me: “If I distribute [the book] The Garden of Emuna here, everyone will be resurrected. Your books resurrect the dead. A prisoner in jail whom I just spoke to, took upon himself to distribute 500 copies of “Chok Hatoda”. He had a trial and was exonerated.  

All Jews should have the books of Nachman ben Faiga. I’ll read you a talk from Rabbi Natan: “What it says in Chazal, ‘Fortunate is he who comes here with his learning in his hand, is now said about the books of Rabbeinu Hakadosh.” So, everyone must learn the books of Rabbeinu Nachman ben Faiga and Rabbi Natan, his disciple. And we must pray that everyone should have daat (understanding) and emuna. 

I was asked: What is the most critical thing that is delaying the Geula? I answered: It says in Likutei Moharan 7:1, “The main reason for the exile is due to lack of emuna.”  Lack of emuna! So, we should pray that the Jewish people will have daat and emuna. And that they will learn the books, the booklets, listen to the shiurim, learn emuna! 

We must pray for everything, and the main thing is to pray for each other! That the Jewish people will merit to improve their tefilla (prayer), hitbodedut, gratitude, guarding one’s eyes, tikkun habrit! 

The books that I was given the privilege of writing cover all of a person’s life, what a person needs in life, emuna, hitbodedut, shalom bayit, healing, a good living, education. Everything one needs in this world. Now we must distribute all this. And pray for it, that all Jews will learn the books and the booklets and disseminate them! All Jews will become distributors! 

We must pray at length. Because when we have emuna, we will have daat – the two things that we need. Everyone must pray! Hitbodedut, Tehillim for the merit of the Jewish People.  Hashem placed us in a situation where one must pray – and disseminate. 

The holy Ohr Hachaim says that Hashem has great pleasure from our singing and praising and thanking Him. He goes on to say that there are several levels. The first level, the lowest, is the praise said by the angels. When the angels sing to Hashem yitbarach, He is pleased. The second level is the praise and thankfulness coming from the souls of the tzaddikim who have never been in this world. The third level is the praise and thankfulness coming from tzaddikim who have already been in this world and are now in Gan Eden. The fourth and highest level is the song and praise coming from the souls that are in this world, in bodies. The Ohr Hachaim says that it is the loftiest, and much desired by the Creator, loftier than anything else. That is why we must say Tehillim all the time, sing songs to Hashem.  

We must strengthen our emuna, disseminate the booklet True Happiness and teach everyone what emuna is. 

Editor’s Note:

¹ Bamidbar 31:2 

² Bamidbar 31:4 

³ Sefer Hamiddot – Hamtakat Din (Sweetening of Judgment): 16

⁴ Sefer Hamiddot – Ahava (Love):5