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thanks to HSD

On Palm Sunday, April 1, the Holy Father will lead the blessing of palms and the procession into St. Peter's Square, followed by Mass that will include the reading of the Passion. World Youth Day will be observed that same day.

On Holy Thursday morning, April 5, the Pope will concelebrate the Chrism Mass in the Vatican basilica, joined by the cardinals, bishops, and priests of the Rome diocese. In the evening he will preside at the Mass of the Lord's Supper, in the basilica of St. John Lateran, to commemorate the institution of the Eucharist. During that ceremony– which will include the traditional washing of the feet of 12 men– a collection will be taken up for a special intention chosen by the Roman Pontiff: this year, a medical clinic in Baidoa, Somalia. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Blessed Sacrament will be taken to an altar of repose.

On Good Friday, April 6, the Pontiff will lead an afternoon service consisting of the Liturgy of the Word, veneration of the Cross, and Communion. That evening, in the Roman Coliseum, he will lead the Stations of the Cross, with meditations prepared by Father Gianfranco Ravasi, a Biblical scholar from Milan.

On Saturday night, April 7, the Pope will begin the Easter Vigil ceremony in the vestibule of St. Peter's with the lighting of the Paschal flame, and the procession into the basilica will be followed by the singing of the Exultet and midnight Mass concelebrated by the Pope with senior members of the College of Cardinals. On Easter morning, April 8, the Pope will return to the Vatican basilica to celebrate Mass at 10:30, followed by his Urbi et Orbi message, delivered from the loggia of the basilica.

-shitalphin

This post��http://theantitzemach.blogspot.com/2007/03/sponsor-fifth-son-for-seder.html�has brought in $1500 for Cow Sedorim. I don't know all the protim about who gave, maybe it's matan b'seyser, the highest level of giving and I don't know all the protim of where the sedorim will be I just wanted to say thanks right away.� What I do know is that it was given in a true spirit of generosity and kindness by chasidim of that much maligned sect, Lubavitch. There was no yellow flag waving, no donning of tefilin, just the kiyum of the posuk "terem yikrou v'ani e'eneh od heym mdabrim v'ani eshmo". It's mamesh a beautiful zach. zol shoyn zayn di geulah. omeyn.

-shitalphin�

and drank the water

that doused the fire

that burnt the stick

that beat the dog

that bit the cat

that ate the kid

that abba bought for two zuzim

one kid, just one kid.

-shitalphin

Whoever's the first to get it right, wins a year's subscription�of "The National Inquirer" or "The Star." Your choice.��

Translated from Yiddish & Hebrew:

"Aharon will conduct the Seder in Kiryas Yoel and not in Williamsburg!"

"Aharon won't have competition at the Seder!"�

"Satmer made a video on shabbos to catch other Satmerers tearing down posters!"

"Reb Arele Rebbe [brother of the current 2] conducts 'tish' with the settlers in Chevron!"

"Gershon Shtemer sold his world-to-come!"

"Lakewood prohibits its students to�have cellphones!"

"Toilet paper kosher for Passover!"

"Gasoline kosher for Passover!"

"Belzer judge says about Aharon Teitelbaum that�for an ignoramous he can learn very well"

"They threw the judge out like a 'Sotah'"

"Leah Friedman [wife of Moshe Aryeh] broke the Satmer court forcing them to take her children back"

"Viznitz is�storming and bellicose"

"Litzman ate the�maror"

"Ravitz dances on the blood of Yankel Litzman"

"They were searching for a 10th man at the graveside of Rav Shach!"�

"Rabbi Elioshov prohibits smoking on Passover!"

"Rabbi Steinman disagrees and says that smoking is prohibited all year!"

"Shmulik Markovitz is furious and claims that Rav Shach smoked!"

"Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef fainted!"

"They turned off the electricity [lights] in Viznitz Elad while the Admur was there"

"Mendelistim destroyed the lecturn of Rabbi Arnster on Friday night"

"Brooklyn judges decided to move the Satmer case to Albany"

"The chevrah kadisha 'Kehilas Yerushalayim' destroyed a tomb because the family did not pay burial expenses"

"Beatings in Willamsburg" [this is a story about a bunch of young Satmers that party in their apartments Friday night, smoking etc.�Locals went to demonstrate in front of the apartments, which led to fights and arrests.]

"Neturei Karta planning on beating up Meshi-Zohov"

"Viznitz battling and at war"

"A gentile 'kohen' called a 'ben-torah'"

"The end of Israel is near" [quote from Hirsh of NK]��

…now we have sponsership for�our own seder, courtesy of Motty Pyshton's Flying�Circus (aka Tzirk Getzelt). Anyone�game?

�http://theantitzemach.blogspot.com/2007/03/sponsor-fifth-son-for-seder.html

Z-yid

For�since all existence  exists only because of Mendel Schneersohn, His birthday is therefore everyones.

As a�birthday gift, here is Sholom Brochshtat's new nigun for 11 Nissan:

�http://www.shturem.net/index.php?section=news&id=14194〈=hebrew

L'chayim!

�PS: We are invited to the Ohel for Shabbos.

by
Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain, Founder & Spiritual Director
DONMEH WEST

In one of my hermeneutic commentaries on the Zohar I began addressing the issue of what is called "redemption through sin" in Sabbatian theology and Kabbalah. Here I want to expand upon that subject.

The ancient Talmudic dictum of mitzvah ha'bah ba'ahverah — "fulfilling a Torah commandment by violating it" — which, along with other hidden teachings in the Jewish Oral Scriptures, underlay the antinomian notion of "redemption through sin" is not to be taken as a license for promiscuous or illegal behavior — or as a kind of sanctimonious "permission" for perpetuating one's pre-existing, self-indulgent, personal whims.

There is "sinning for the sake of sin" and "sinning for the sake of redeeming sin;" the former defines the actions of "sinners," the latter those of "Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalists." The two are mutually exclusive. In the words of the Ba'al Shem Tov:

"The indwelling Glory of God prevails from above to below unto the rim of all rungs. That is the mystery of the word, 'And you animate them all.' Even when a man does a sin, then too the Glory is clothed in it, for without it he would not have the strength to move a limb. And this is the exile of God's Glory"…. In the exhortation of Moses it says, 'See, I have placed before you this day life and good, death and evil.' From where has evil come? Evil too is good, it is the lowest rung of perfect goodness. If one does good, then evil too becomes good; but if one sins, then it becomes really evil. ("Instructions in Intercourse with God," trans. in Martin Buber's Hasidism and Modern Man, Horizon Press, 1958, p. 207)

Now, notice several things here:

1. Sin is not the "Glory of God" but the "husk" which, in the words of the Ba'al Shem Tov, "clothes" or surrounds it.
2. The "Glory of God" is "exiled" (which is to say, "trapped") within that "clothing" of sin.
3. If one sins for the sake of liberating the Glory of God from the evil surrounding it, then that evil becomes good. But if one sins for the sake of the sin itself, then that sin remains evil and furthermore contaminates the one performing it with itself.

Thus, the truly righteous man descends into the realm of sin, just as Abraham, according to the Zohar, "descended into Egypt," not to "enjoy" the sin but to break its hold over the Glory of God and thereby liberate from the evil husk of sin the Holy Sparks of God entrapped therein. Again, in the words of the Ba'al Shem Tov:

"In all that is in the world dwell Holy Sparks, no thing is empty of them. In the actions of men also, indeed, even in the sins that they do, dwell Holy Sparks of the Glory of God. And what is it that the Sparks await that dwell in the sins? It is the t'shuvah [literally "turning," or "repentance"] "In the hour when you turn [i.e., "repent"] on account of sin, you raise to the higher world the sparks that were in it." (ibid, p. 189)

Such teachings are also to be found among the early "Libertine" Christians who believed it was necessary to sin in order to be forgiven, and furthermore claimed they had learned this teaching directly from "Jesus" himself. (See Morton Smith's Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark, Harvard University Press, 1973, e.g. p. 258) Much later, the "mad monk" of Imperial Russia, Rasputin (who was and is highly misunderstood), taught a similar doctrine (possibly influenced by Frankist Sabbatianism) that "a great sin was necessary to be granted a great redemption."

Sabbatian Kabbalah — prior to its more extreme interpreters such as Osman Baba and Yakov Leib Frank — was actually quite conservative (one might almost say "prudish") about these issues, as demonstrated in the "Eighteen Commandments" Sabbatai Zevi laid down for his followers shortly before his death. It appears that at no time did either he or his prophet, Nathan of Gaza, suggest that others emulate his ma'asim zarim (mystical "strange acts") — such as converting to Islam, eating forbidden foods or engaging in antinomian sexual practices — which were seen, instead, as having been performed by Sabbatai Zevi for his followers and not as examples for them to emulate. It was only later that such extreme antinomian behaviors (and particularly those which dealt with sexual practices forbidden in the Old Testament) were adopted by the more radical interpreters of Sabbatai Zevi's and Nathan of Gaza's Kabbalistic theosophy.

I submit that our own "Yalhakian" Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah is a course correction in the development of antinomian Sabbatian thought and practice. That is, we are replacing the extreme literal antinomianism of Osman Baba and Yakov Leib Frank with the virtual (or "spiritual") antinomianism of Sabbatai Zevi, from which it originated and, we believe, was intended to be transmitted.

• "Redemption through sin" is not an excuse or rationalization for immoral, illicit or illegal behavior.
• No Torah Commandment is to be "violated" if doing so also violates any civil law.
• No Torah Commandment is to be "violated" if it violates, in any way whatsoever, the physical, spiritual or emotional well being of another person or of any other creature.
• "Redemption through Sin" is, for the most part, a virtual and spiritual act, not a literal and physical one; that is, it is performed primarily in what the Zohar calls the "heart-mind" and not in "real" time and space.
• Violating a Torah Commandment in order to fulfill it is done not for the personal pleasure or benefit of the one who does it, but only in order to release from whatever has been "broken" the Holy Sparks trapped within it and return them to God.
• Having spiritually "violated" a Commandment, one must sincerely repent of having done so and (with the exception of "Shepherds" such as Sabbatai Zevi, Jacob Qerido, Osman Baba, Yakov Leib Frank and others) do t'shuvah for it, which means "to turn away" from and not commit it again.
• Some ma'asim zarim ("strange acts" through which redemption is achieved by "sinning") are to be performed only by the "Shepherds" — such as Sabbatai Zevi, Jacob Qerido, Osman Baba and Yakov Leib Frank — on behalf of, and as a substitutionary act of repentance for, those whom they are shepherding. "Holy Apostasy" — literally converting from one religion to another in order to "merge" and release the Holy Sparks from both — is one such ma'aseh zar reserved for the Shepherds, such as Sabbatai Zevi, and not their flock.)

It is our belief that this position is in keeping with that of Sabbatai Zevi and Nathan of Gaza. I publish it here not as an interesting speculation but as a definition of what constitutes mystical antinomianism in "Yalhakian" Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah. Any other point of view does not represent what I have been teaching and practicing for the past 40 years, and should not be taken as doing so, regardless of who expresses it.

PASSOVER BEGINS:� MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2007

BASEBALL OPENING DAY : MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2007

COINCIDENCE?

I THINK NOT.

-shitalphin