Fifteen aspects of lowliness all exist today - the good news is that means soon we will be redeemed!
Below is one of the most comforting things I have read – not because it describes a time of peace but because it describes the times we live in and the clear import that because it was predicted and is coming true, so too we can expect the Moshiach very very soon, may it be TODAY!!
Hashem in His Infinite Mercy is 100% in control 100% of the time and can bring the geula without warning! B’’H He is letting us know His intentions – as He told us what to look for!
It is incumbent upon us to do everything we can to pray for protection for our children, our families, our extended families and for klal yisrael, that Hashem should protect us during the geulah, whenever He chooses to bring it. Especially since He has been so kind as to announce its imminent arrival! – see the fifteen aspects of lowliness from the Gemara below.
When there is spiritual darkness, spiritual light dissipatse it
One urgent thing that we can do in addition to praying for protection is demonstrating to Hashem with our free willed choices that we have learned to say “NO” to ourselves, to correct the failure of Adom and Chava when they ate from the apple. NO, we won’t bear a grudge, NO, we won’t take revenge, NO we won’t speak poorly of each other. Each time we are faced with the feelings of lack in the areas of jealousy, desires and honor, and we wisely comprehend our opportunity, we can tell Hashem “Hashem, I know you are behind, the thought, the emotion, the scene and every aspect here. And I want You to know that I choose to direct my energy only to loving and fearing and emulating YOU! That means that I am asking for YOU to grant success to my choice to please unhook the emotions flowing through me from this dark place and instead of gluing me to such misery, please use that energy to glue me to YOU! That is my choice! You are 100% in charge of success.
As we begin to see that we are our choices, over and over again, to choose soul over body or emotion, we begin to see that the aspect of the Divine Image will shine into our lives.
Rabbi Yaakov Zalman Labinsky has a free website www.becomingdivine.com His shiurim, on a wide range of topics including but not limited to Growing with the Parsha, Pirke Avos, Davening, and more, build and strengthen us in seeing ourselves as beings designed to choose soul over body/emotion. The Torah sources are from a wide range of sources and are fascinating.
What will come out of choosing soul over body? Imagine a simple shift of really turning to Hashem before embark on an important part of our day, or any part of our day. We recognize that He is 100% in control of success 100% of the time. Then, after we acknowledge to HIM that we remember that [ by saying tehillim, asking for His help, asking for Him to please show us gently what we need to see and do], and we begin our efforts, we have properly and truthfully approached the matter.
We are NOT our feelings. We are not what happens to us. We are our cumulative choices in dealing with these things and feelings. Let’s choose soul over body so He knows we are awake to His Kingship and are real with knowing that there is nothing but His Simple Unity in all the world, including every thought, emotion and circumstance in our lives. He is behind every scene. Let’s let Him know we know – and that we love Him, are eternally grateful for the good and the bad, and feel joy in serving Him.
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The excerpt below is from Redemption Unfolding, page 13-140:
“Chazal enumerate 15 levels of degeneration to which Bnei Yisroel may fall in the era of the footsteps of Moshiach.
The Mishna at the end of Tractate Sota 49b relates:
“In the period which will precede the coming of Moshiach,
1. insolence will increate [those who will act with insolence will gain strength and power’];
2. inflation will persist;
3. The vine will produce fruit yet wine will be expensive [people will be engaged in partying and always looking for additional events for self-pleasure];
4. the government will turn to heresy;
5. There shall be no rebuke;
6 There will be meeting places for harlotry [sinners will be so brazen that they will openly designate places of immorality]
7 The wisdom of Torah scholars will decay;
8. Those who dread sin will be despised
9. Truth will be absent
10. Youth will blanch the faces of elders [they will shame them publicly]
11. Elders will stand in the presence of minors [youth will demand honor from elders, as a physical demonstration of increasing insolence]
12. The son will deride his father and a daughter will rise against her mother
13. A man’s enemies will be the people of his household
14. The son will not be embarrassed [in front of] his father
15. The face of the generation will be like the face of a dog [the rich and affluent will have a greater craving for wealth, like dogs that are constantly searching for food )Eitz Yosef_
The implication is clear: if we do not raise ourselves to these fifteen levels of holiness, then not only will we lose our special status, but we will actually bring upon ourselves a corresponding fifteen types of opposing physical and spiritual punishments, as delineated in the Mishna.
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