I am not sure what to do with this. I am not a "Messiah blogger", I do get a kick out of such statements, but my general attitude is halevai he should be right. From his mouth to God's ears.

Kikar is reporting that Baba Baruch, Rav Baruch Abuchatzeira, one of the son's of the Baba Sali, said that nothing is going to come of Trump's Deal of the Century, to be announced later today. According to Baba Baruch, nothing is going to happen because Mashiach is going to come before any of that becomes an issue.

According to Baba Baruch, with Trump as the president of the USA, we have all the signs of Mashiach (whatever they are). Nothing will happen because Mashiach will come and he will cancel everything. There will be no plan.

Things like this are way way way above my paygrade, so all I can say is "halevai". I hope he is right and Mashiach is right around the corner.

Rav Pinchas Abuchatzeira, the eldest son of the murdered Baba Elazar, is taking over his fathers former position.  Rav Pinchas is going to be accepting the crowds of people who seek advice and blessings.

I don't know what makes a person into a "baba". I don't know what turns a 36 year old avreich into someone who can give advice on the entire gamut of worldly and spiritual concerns, along with giving blessings. I imagine it is a combination of genetics, siyata d'shmaya, the support and blessings he has received from the gedolim he has been visiting and perhaps some of it is from what he has seen his late father do over the years.

According to Kikar, Rav Pinchas has begun accepting the crowds, but he has changed some of the rules of kabbalat kahal. One thing in particular that he changed was how the line to get in would work.

When Baba Elazar was giving the brachas and advice, it could take many hours of waiting for the average person to get in. While waiting with the crowds, and I went to him once and waited until the wee hours of the morning so i saw this firsthand, all sorts of other people came and got ushered in quickly to the rav's room. Some of them took just a few minutes and others took a long time. The people who were ushered in quickly ahead of those who had been waiting for hours were rich people and other important people. I don't blame anybody in particular for the favoritism showed, some say it was on orders, some say it was the gabbaim.

One of the new procedural rules under Rav Pinchas is that nobody has priority. People who come for a bracha will all be equal. They will sign in on a form when they come and they will be taken in according to the list. He told his gabbaim he does not even want to know who is in the waiting room so that he should not have to be distracted from the person who has come to talk with him.

This is a rule that is going to endear him to the regular people. While waiting all those hours, watching other people get rushed in, one can get frustrated and upset with the system. This first change is one that many people are going to like. Is it going to cause a drop in donations and financial support? It might not matter, considering his estate is estimated to be worth around 600 million NIS according to recent reports. Either way, to me, this is a wise first decision. I wish him well and much success in his new undertaking.

Mordechai Ben David Explaining Murders of Leiby And Baba Elazar

MBD, while giving a concert in Bat Yam, explained that shmiras aynayim, the lack of it actually, is the cause of the murders of Leiby Kletsky and Baba Elazar Abuchatzeira..

Everybody sees things from their own angle, from their own perspective. While nobody really knows the reasons why things happen, specifically why God allows things [that we see as bad] to happen, we each offer reasons that speak to us. Somebody focused on tzniyus will blame all bad events, tragedies, on lack of tzniyus. Somebody focused on achdut, will blame sinat chinam. Another will be focused on something else, and each subsequent person will see a different cause and effect. And some will just say Baba Elazar died because someone stabbed him to death.

Rav Amnon Yitzchak has been a leader in the Israeli baal teshuva movement. He is a fiery speaker, and he has a way to successfully connect with a certain crowd. Rav Amnon Yitzchak has more recently waged a war against the frum singers. It started off as a war against the singers who perform at "mixed" concerts, and eventually became a war against all singers.

Rav Amnon Yitzchak has weighed in on the tragic murder of Baba Elazar Abuchatzeira, looking at it from his perspective. He said:

For 9 months I have been screaming and fighting against the singers who are causing Israel to sin flippantly ignoring the Torah and the gedolei ha'dor and they sing songs that are assur and they perform to mixed audiences...  Immediately after Tisha B'Av all these invalid singers immediately have scheduled mixed concerts, and hassidim, dati, haredi all go to them against the psak of all the gedolei yisrael. Hashem hates filth, and all they do is filth....It says the departure of the tzaddikim is more difficult than the destruction of the beis hamikdash. There was a decree of destruction, after the beis hamikdash was destroyed the shechina was gone, millions were killed, the beis hamikdash was burned and the chachomim decreed to not listen to music with instruments until the ultimate redemption would come, except for in a seudat mitzva. It says in Shulchan Aruch that except for in seudat mitzva and during holidays listening to music is assur all year long. So, if the destruction of the beis hamikdash isn't difficult for us, so much so that we sing songs of the goyim and their tunes, and every day of the year has become like a holiday, so if the destruction of the beis hamikdash is not too difficult for us, so now we have been hit harder - the death of tzaddikim is worse than the destruction. Maybe this will wake us up.But it seems it is not too difficult for us. Concerts are already scheduled for right after Tisha B'av. The radio plays music during the Three Weeks....What was the disgusting murderer's name? Ashe Dahan. The gematriya of his name is 560. In Shulchan Aruch in siman 560 it deals with the decree of the destruction of the beis hamikdash. He killed during the Three Weeks, the gematriya of his name is equivalent to that of שירים - songs, and the siman dealing with the destruction is 560.Baba Elazar's main work was on guarding his eyes against filth.. The death of tzaddikim atones for us only if we aroused and strengthen ourselves in those issues the tzaddik had done.God forbid, we have not fixed anything. The great troubles are still ahead of us. If so many tzaddikim are taken from us at once, and we have reached such lows such as to murder a tzaddik..Because the tzaddik was careful about these things, the great message is we need to strengthen ourselves in these things, in the areas of holiness and tzniyus, and specifically not to listen to music that is not allowed and not acceptable from singers who are psulim and not allowed all year long. even from kosher singers all year round we can't listen to their music, and only during the holidays and at seudat mitzva. There is no clearer message than this.Someone who is lenient on this, if it turns out I am correct with what I am saying, he will be blamed in heaven for the death of the tzaddikim. Remember what I have said, and maybe we will finally have the intelligence to do teshuva  before the tsunami that is coming, as the tsunami in Japan and Haiti is nothing compared to the death of the tzaddik. (source: Kikar)

Wow.

Quote Of The Day

Your city needs a big tikkun... A spiritual wall needs to be built around the city [of Elad], or else in the next war all the missiles of Hezballah will probably fall directly on Elad, God forbid.


  -- Rav Dovid Abuchatzeira


Rabbi Dovid said this to the rav of Elad, Rav Mordechai Malka, when he went to pay a shiva call at the Abuchatzeira house in beer Sheva

This morning I woke up, as we all did, to the shocking news of someone having murdered Rabbi Elazar Abuchatzeira, the Baba Elazar, of Beer Sheva. Baba Elazar was the 70 year old grandson of the Baba Sali.

Baba Baruch, Rav Baruch Abuchatzeira, the son of the Baba Sali, has given an interview to Bechadrei Chareidim to commemorate the Baba Sali's yahrtzeit.

The interview is pretty interesting as he describes some of the greatness of his father, and relates various stories his father was involved in. One part in particular stands out. Baba Baruch describes how his father has appeared to him at different times in dreams.

One such time was during Operation Cast Lead they did not know if they should plan a hilula in honor of the Baba Sali's yahrtzeit. The Baba Sali is buried in Netivot and that was within range of the Grad missiles being shot into Israel at the time. To bring thousands of people to Netivot for a hilula seemed irresponsible. Baba Baruch says that the Baba Sali came to him in a dream and told him to prepare the hilula and he would take care of the rest. The next day he got word that they had agreed to cease fire.

Baba Baruch then says that the Baba Sali appeared to him in a dream less than 2 weeks ago. In this dream the Baba Sali told him that Mashiach will come this year, and that we should prepare and be prepared for his arrival.

Halevai it should come true!