February 10 will go down as a historic day for the Nation of Israel. Setting another precedent, the Israeli people are proud to boast one of their own on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Hundreds of thousands of Sports Illustrated subscribers, customers, and web patrons will have the opportunity to stare at, fanaticize about, and well, satisfy themselves in other ways to the physical image of a daughter of Israel.
In other news, another daughter of Israel has been elected the next Prime Minister of Israel. Elected on a platform of business as usual, Tzipi Livni has pledged to follow through on promises made by the outgoing Prime Minister to give up over 90% of the Biblical territories of Judea and Shomron, and in the process throw over 60,000 Jews out of their homes.
What a coincidence that these two events would happen on the same day.
Nothing is a coincidence in Hashem’s world.
The Land of Israel is ours because of the Covenant made between Hashem our G-d, and Avraham our forefather. This Covenant was sealed by the rite of the Brit Milah, or, Circumcision. Our task in life is to maintain this Brit between our Maker and our nation by always channeling all energies and desires related to the organ associated with this Covenant towards holiness. Our obligation is to be Shmirat HaBrit, or to guard the covenant guaranteeing us the Land of Israel. In return, Hashem gives us the Land and protects us. This comes straight from the Torah. According to the Zohar, our safety and security in the Land of Israel is dependent upon the fulfillment of the mitzvah of proper sexual conduct.
Even the Hebrew letters that spell the Land of Israel demonstrate the link between the mitzvah and our security in the Land. There are four names given to the Land of Israel: Eretz Yisrael, Eretz Tzvi, Eretz Kedusha (Land of Holiness), and Eretz Chaim (Land of life). Take the last letters of each word, and you have Mem, Yud, Lamed, and Hei. These letters spell the word Mila, which is the mitzvah of Circumcision, and subsequently, the constant guarding of this mitzvah throughout one’s life by observing the laws of sexual purity. The first letters of these names spell the name Yitzchak. Yitzchak was the first man to have his Brit Milah at the proper time. He was also the first Jew to live his entire life in the Land of Israel.
As long as the Jewish people guard the Brit, Hashem won’t let anyone disrupt our peace and security in the Land of Israel.
Given these facts, how should we interpret a daughter of Israel appearing in a swimsuit, tempting millions of men across the world to sin in the worst way while on the same day another daughter of Israel emerges as the national leader and vows to give away parts of our Holy Land to the people who are trained to exterminate us.
What does being on the cover of a magazine do? It brings men to look at her. It is a sin to look at a woman’s physical beauty. Sexually inviting graphics cause men to think of sex. It is a great sin to commit sexual fantasies. All of this leads to the sin of spilling seed. It could be the result of an erotic dream, drops of semen falling out after urination, or through an individual spilling his own semen alone.
The sin of spilling seed is one of the absolute worst sins in the Bible.
The spiritual impact of these actions is devastating.
According to Pirkei Avot, man comes from a putrid drop. The most sophisticated piece of machinery on earth is the human body. The human body is a sophisticated harmony of hundreds of organs, millions of nerve endings, and 10 trillion electrical connections in the brain that all act together and function as a whole. The most advanced telecommunications system does not have even 1 trillion electrical connections to it. From this putrid drop come all of the instructions for this amazing machine. The amount of spiritual, emotional, and physical energy behind this drop is immeasurable. When you observe the laws of sexual conduct, you are re-channeling this energy to your will. You will quickly discover how much you are truly capable of in all aspects of life. When you spill it away, you are taking a piece of your soul and throwing it to the ground.
Rabbi Nachman states, “The lust for food, at least gives a person more energy. The [sexual] desire does not even do that, it does the opposite. It greatly weakens the person.”
Take a step back and vision this on a national scale. An individual will spill his energy on to the ground and receive nothing in return, weakening himself in the process. The Nation of Israel, in making the types of concessions both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Prime Minister elect Livni have pledged to make, are giving pieces of our national homeland away in exchange for nothing in return, weakening us as a nation in the process.
The three principles of Jewish faith are as follows: One, everything comes from Hashem. From the movement of the billions of stars that make up the universe, to the breeze blowing on a single blade of grass, everything that happens is under the personal Direction of the Master of all Creation. Two, everything that happens is good. Regardless of how we perceive an event, even if we think it is bad, it is in essence good. The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that to find truth, we must discard the notion that truth means that which makes sense to you. To do this, we must recognize good in everything even if our basic sensibility is telling us that something is bad. This leads us to the third principle of Jewish faith. Everything that Hashem does, He does for our own good. He does it for a reason. Things happen so we can constantly ask, “Hashem, what is it that You want me to do right now? How can I come closer to You? Do I need to rectify a past sin, improve a character trait, or perform an act of Chesed? “
Everything that happens is a Divine opportunity to improve ourselves both in this world and the next, and to bring our souls closer to their Heavenly Source.
So forget the elections. Don’t worry about who won. Don’t stress about the next Knesset. That is not what will make a difference in things.
We needs to ask ourselves this simple question: Why did Hashem give us Tzipi Livni?
What is He asking of His children right now?
Taken into this perspective, our G-d is sending us a very clear message. Our sexual misconduct mat be what is separating us from our Holy Land. We need to do tsuva for our past transgressions and gradually refine our actions in this area.
We are warned in the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus 18:28):
Let not the Land disgorge you for having contaminated it.
Fortunately for us, there is hope. The Torah tells us that the salvation of Hashem is as fast as the blink of an eye. We don’t have to march on the Knesset, we don’t have to write letters to the editor of Ha’aretz, and we don’t have to sue for a recount. Hashem commands us to have faith in redemption. Even as the sword touches the neck in its death swing, we have faith that Hashem will save us.
Psalm 81 is very clear on this: “If only My people would heed Me, if Israel would walk in My ways. In an instant I would subdue their foes, and against their tormentors I would turn My hand.” (Psalm 81:14-15)
Hashem loves us so much. Of all the times these two events can wake us up, Hashem chooses Shovavim. Shovavim is the period where the Jewish People have the best opportunities to do tsuva for our sexual misconducts. It is the six week period where we read from the first six Torah portions of the Book of Exodus.
Now is our chance.
Hashem gave us the best opportunity to make the world a better place today by working on improving our sexual behavior. You can take the first step right now! By clicking on this link, you can start learning about the mitzvah right away. From there, you can fully understand what exactly is at stake, the mitzvoth and tsuvot we can perform, and the sheer joy we feel at every moment when we fix our souls and are able to feel great amounts of Hashem’s energy surge inside us and ignite our existence.
Along with making great progress in the search for inner peace, we are meriting Divine Protection over the Land of Israel. That is a security which no politician, Palestinian, or Persian can ever breach.
Barrack Obama, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Tzipi Livni are not the main players on the global stage.
We are.
Moshiach is waiting to appear.
Hashem is waiting to redeem us.
It is not up to the Israeli Knesset, the U.S. Congress, or the leaders of the world to redeem mankind.
Hashem gave that role to us.
Let’s do our part to make the world a better place.
David Fink is the Editor-in-Chief of the daily investment newsletter, Real Wealth Recon. In 2008, his Real Wealth portfolio MADE MONEY, outperforming the three major indices by 38%, and the average Hedge Fund by 25%. For $99 a year, you get David’s daily market commentary, instant emails for every trade he makes, total access to David’s portfolio, and a weekly review of the major articles published around the world. Why hand over your hard earned money to someone in a suit saying “trust me.” Keep your money and trust yourself. Join the elite investors who are making money this year, and tell Wall Street: YOU’RE FIRED!
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