My Personal Gimmel Tammuz Memories and Experiences, by Shoshanna Silcove

Thursday, May 12, 1994

Lubavitch World Headquarters

Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York

About a dozen of us gathered around a large table in the classroom of the seminary that catered to adult women who had returned to their Jewish roots. This was a class for returnees to Judaism who had journeyed from secularism to Torah observance.  Most of us were now married and well established members in good standing in the religious community. The Rabbi sat patiently at the head of the table and waited for us to settle into our seats so he could begin his lecture.

Suddenly, a late comer arrived looking distressed and frazzled. It was Naomi (not her real name), one of the pillars of the community. All eyes were on her as she noisily clamored to drop her handbag and sit down. Everyone noticed she had been crying.

" I just got off the hotline," Naomi announced loudly to no one in particular, and without taking a breathe she continued, "and I am so worried. The Rebbe's condition is worsening...what if, what if...G-d forbid....", gasping for air her voice trailed off as she slumped with drooping shoulders into her chair. 

These were the days before the internet and mobile phones. The hotline was a telephone number with recorded updates of the Rebbe's health status. It was set up shortly after the Rebbe's stroke almost two years prior. It was available for anyone to call anytime 24/6 for free and listen to the Rebbe's aides give over a short report of the Rebbe's current medical condition. 

From the day the Rebbe's stroke silenced him, it was as if time had stopped for his Chassidim. Our entire life's focus centred on our Rebbe's health condition. We all increased and intensified our efforts in our religious observances and, in carrying out the Rebbe's projects in the hopes that in the merit of our holy work G-d would heal the Rebbe. His health condition was never far from our thoughts, and no matter what was going on in our personal lives, our intent in our prayers and religious practice was that he should be healed. 

The Rebbe had imbued a Messianic fervor in us, and the feeling among Chassidim was that the decline in his health must be a temporary, albeit painful stage, that would soon be ushering in the Final Redemption. We told ourselves and each other that the only possible outcome to the Rebbe's illness would be the revelation of Moshiach, and we were certain it was imminent, or at least we acted like we were confident in that expectation. No one would dare utter a word about the alternative outcome, which was unthinkable for us then.

Nevertheless, it was getting harder to deny the Rebbe's health had greatly deteriorated to the point of him becoming incurable according to natural means. Only a miracle could save his physical life. We were living in denial of that fact but, also with a deep abiding devotion and faith in the Rebbe's leadership, his teachings, and in his holiness. None of us were prepared for what would happen a mere few weeks later on Gimmel Tamuz.

Naomi's fears were shared by us all, except she was the only one who had the temerity to express them. As we all awkwardly squirmed and averted our gaze from each other to hide our anxiety, the Rabbi began to speak and said something that would be an epiphany for me. "No one should be worried about the Rebbe's health. Anyone who worries about the Rebbe's health is not truly a chosid. The Rebbe is not like a normal human being, he is the Leader of the Generation, a Tzadik (Righteous person), a prophet, and he is a godly being. While it may seem to our physical eyes that he is sick, this is not the reality at all. We are being fooled and deceived by unholy forces. We need to work on ourselves spiritually to come to a greater understanding and, then we will  know that what we are seeing is not an illness at all, but what we are seeing is that the Rebbe is actually transforming into becoming the Moshiach."

With the Rabbi's words, the other women's facial expressions suddenly changed  from worried to calm. Even Naomi, as distressed as she was, breathed a sigh of relief. However, I felt my anxiety level rise as my mind became preoccupied with a flurry of unspoken doubts and questions. 

The Rabbi's depiction of the Rebbe's condition confused me as none of it made any sense based on Torah. While up until now I had respected and admired this Rabbi's learning and Chassidic credentials, I felt as if I had just entered a cult. This went against everything I had been taught up until that point of what Chassidus teaches about what a Rebbe is. A Rebbe, to my understanding, is a human being, a special one, even one with supernatural mystical powers of prophecy and miracle making, but a human being of flesh and blood nonetheless. Nowhere in my studies had I learned differently, and it was at this point on that day that I realised that I could not be counted among those who held by this misguided strain of thinking that much of Lubavitch had embraced. The harsh reality was that the Rebbe was in extremely ill health, and no amount of wishful thinking or intellectual contortions and distortions of Chassidic concepts would change that fact.

All this deeply disturbed me, so I made an appointment with another learned and prominent Rabbi whom I perceived to be quite grounded in reality. We sat in his office on Eastern Parkway where I emotionally blurted out how perturbed I was by this cultish thinking. I told him that I felt that denying the Rebbe's illness was not only against Chassidic teachings, but also a denial of our Rebbe's great physical pain, and wasn't that uncompassionate? 

To my astonishment I found myself uttering the words that we were all thinking but dared not say,

 " Rabbi, what if the Rebbe passes away?" As soon as I heard these words leave my lips my tears flowed freely as if the dam broke. He waited for me to finish my crying spurt and a few moments more until he spoke.

"None of us want for the Rebbe to G-d forbid pass away. And we are praying everyday that the Rebbe has a complete and full recovery, as we also pray that Moshiach comes. However, we cannot pretend that this is not a possibility that the Rebbe could pass away before that happens. After all, the previous Rebbeim all passed away, and, as much as we hope and pray it doesn't happen, we must prepare ourselves with the possible eventuality that our Rebbe could also."

Finally, we were no longer ignoring the elephant in the room. Later on, after the Rebbe's passing, it would become clear to me how indebted and grateful I would be to this Rabbi for being authentic with me, for not pretending, and for preparing me for the great loss that we would all soon experience.  It was this Rabbi's honest and caring words that would put me in good stead to emotionally deal with the grief of Gimmel Tamuz. When it happened, I was not in  the same terrible  state of shock of those who were in denial and never imagined that it was possible that our Rebbe could pass away,

Gimmel Tammuz 1994

Motzei Shabbes

Early hours of the morning

It was the middle of the night and I was awakened by the phone. As I sleepily put the the receiver to my ear I heard my friend Mindy (not her real name) on the other end. She sounded strange, almost other worldly and trance like as she said, "Shoshanna, I want to ask you if I am hearing what I think I am hearing." She conferenced me into the Rebbe's health hotline and I heard a male voice saying, ' Baruch Dayan Emes'   and the Shema prayer repeatedly on a recorded loop. 

Immediately I knew what this meant and felt my eyes moisten. Mindy then conferenced us into a phone call with a respected Rebbetzin.  With all three of us on the phone we listened to the hotline recording. Mindy asked the Rebbetzin to tell us if we heard it correctly, if it was really saying what we thought it was saying but did not want to accept. "Yes, it is true," she said sadly, " the Rebbe's holy soul has left his holy body."  Mindy and I started to wail, 'No! No! Noooo!""

I woke my husband and told him the terrible news.  In his groggy state he told me that I must be mistaken, that it could not be true. I felt restless and I couldn't stay in my apartment any longer, so I threw on some clothes and ventured out into the streets of Crown Heights.

It must have been about two or three in the morning. The streets were starting to come alive with a few Chassidim gathering and meandering out of their homes as the news was just becoming known. I made my way in a daze down Kingston Avenue towards 770, the Rebbe's shule. A woman came towards me with a tambourine in her hand. She was smiling as she tried to hand me the tambourine which I refused. " Don't worry!" she cried out, 'the Rebbe will get up any minute now!" I remained unconvinced.

As I arrived at 770 I saw some young men singing and dancing in the street. Their faces beamed with joyous anticipation, as for them this event could only mean one thing-- that the Rebbe would appear as Moshiach momentarily. In my intense sorrow and grief I envied them.

I sat down on the steps of 770. It was a warm summer night and for some reason I could not bring myself to enter the Rebbe's shule. I opened a book of Psalms and cried and prayed. Weeks later I would discover that the press was there filming, and a snippet with me saying Psalms on the steps of 770 appeared on national television.  I had not even noticed the press there at the time.

Gimmel Tammuz

The day of the Rebbe's funeral

It was an extremely hot day. Crown Heights was quickly filling up with hundreds of people from all over New York and other places. The biggest concentration of crowds was around 770. Most people were crying bitterly, but some were singing and dancing. A group of young men were singing and dancing right in front of 770. One of the Rabbis of the Crown Heights Rabbinical Court  loudly admonished them for disrespecting the Rebbe by their inappropriate expressions of joy, but they ignored him and continued.

A line formed going towards the front room of 770 where the Rebbe's holy body wrapped in his tallis was placed. Around him were a minyan of grieving Rabbis, shirts torn, faces ashen, praying through their tears, candles burning. People stood in line awaiting their turn to stop at the doorway where they could see the Rebbe to either say goodbye, ask for forgiveness, or say whatever was in their hearts. When my turn came I was astonished to see how frail the Rebbe seemed under the tallis. Yet, wrapped in the tallis he appeared in my mind's eye like a glowing angel. Was this really my beloved Rebbe? Could it be that this was the greatest leader of world Jewry of the twentieth century lying still? It all seemed so surreal.

At the time my husband was manager of the Merkos book store across the street from 770. We decided instead of jostling with the crowd and getting pushed around in the heat, we would go up to the second floor of the Merkos offices and watch the funeral from the window. There we stood with our four year old son watching in disbelief as the Rebbe's coffin was being transported over the crowd. We followed the procession in our car to the Ohel where the Rebbe would be buried next to his father-in-law the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe. 

The displays and cries of grief at the Rebbe's burial were beyond description. " Stand Rebbe! Stand!," one chosid could be heard yelling, " this is your last chance!", he bellowed out just before the Rebbe's coffin was lowered into the ground.

I was embroiled in deep and astounding grief for a long time to come. Not that I had not endured losses in my life, unfortunately I had had several losses from a young age. Yet somehow this was different and far more profoundly felt. As I sat in 770 unable to control my tears, I could hear some other Chassidim happily chirping that the Rebbe was still alive, or that he was still actually really here physically, or that the Rebbe would be coming back any moment now, and that we must be joyous. These Jews were still in denial, and I found their resistance to the grieving process to be highly offensive.  Didn't the Rebbe deserve to be grieved? After all this great and righteous hero had given of himself to us, how could we disrespect him and go on merrily as if we did not feel the void of his loss in our lives? 

The aftermath of the Rebbe's passing were heady days indeed. As Chabad muddled its way through the grieving process and grappled with a new reality, there would be great divisions within our ranks. There would also be healing, and the Rebbe's holy work would live on and thrive.  It has been thirty years now since we have not had the merit to hear the Rebbe's words from his holy mouth, and twenty eight years since his passing. None of us could have ever imagined that it would take this long for the Moshiach to come. Nevertheless, we remain faithful Chassidim,  and as such we keep waiting and working to bring Moshiach when we will see our great and holy Rebbe once again. Ad Mosai!

The Reality of the Current World Situation, by Shoshanna Silcove

 It's the Global Elites' Depopulation Agenda brought to us by Big Pharma, compromised and bribed World Governments, The World Economic Forum, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Chinese Communist Party, Climate Change Radicals, the mainstream media, WHO, FDA, Dr. Fauci et al, TGA, CDC, APHRA, Big Tech's social media companies and, the EU etc...all captured by Globalist corrupt control, all colluding and collaborating, each for their own power interests.

The goal is to reduce the population and introduce totalitarian control. Their tools are to institute and foment crisis and chaos through fear and divide and conquer using identity politics, political correctness and misinformation. Fear is fostered through pretending a bad seasonal flu is like the 1900's Spanish flu and, offering totalitarian solutions to crises the Globalists manufactured. This is accomplished by corrupting true science through capturing the regulatory agencies, and through censorship of scientific facts, and propaganda. The most potent tool is the dangerous deadly experimental drug that causes serious long term health issues, genetic changes, early death (SAADS) and infertility.

These powerful Global interests have overlapping ideological beliefs. They all believe the world is overpopulated, and that we must depopulate to stop Climate Change. They believe Capitalism is to blame. They see themselves as superior super-menchen that are destined to world domination and control of us little feeble minded people. This means curtailing individualism and replacing it with collectivism (communism) and taking away our human rights, using high tech, and especially bio technology, through control of World Health.

They are all anti- family, promoting homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion, infanticide, and male-hating feminism, all of which are meant to disempower individuals from depending on themselves and their families and, instead depending on the State. All these contribute to their DePopulation Agenda by lowering the birth rate.

All of the above is not conspiracy theory. Any Jew who studied even a bit of Torah knows there are power hungry forces throughout history that have conspired to pursue evil. Examples abound such as the stories in the Torah of of Purim, Pharoah, and Noah etc. History is replete with examples of evil conspiracies such as The Inquisition, Naziism, etc. The big difference now is this evil is on the most unprecedented grand worldwide scale. This is largely due to the mass media and the internet (Youtube, Facebook, Google) being controlled by these powerful Globlalist interests.

Yet, regardless of all this, we G-d fearing Jews know how all this ends. Hashem will show His Face soon. In the meantime, we must-- 1.wake up our fellow Jews to these evils 2. Fight through non compliance. Ad Mosai. , Shoshanna Silcove, Melbourne, Australia, June 24, 2022

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Being Joyous in Turbulent Times, by Shoshanna Silcove

      I expect the societal and political world to continue to deteriorate. This has all been prophesied to occur just before Moshiach comes. The unholy elements, the bad guys, the corruption will continue to prevail over that which is good and holy, at least on the societal and political levels.

We have no control over these events as it is all in Hashem's hands. However, we do have control over how moral, good and holy we want to be. We do have control over the Torah and mitzvos we do.

To stay inspired, and to keep from getting dejected from all the bad news, we can look at the goodness of the people around us, the ordinary people who do good and want to be good. Also, it is crucial in such turbulent times to connect with Hashem more intensely, specifically by focusing on davening, because if davening is absent or by rote only, then one's Torah and mitzvos become dry and uninspiring, and the connection to Hashem weakens. It follows the reverse is also true.

My teacher and guide Rabbi Manis Friedman is an example for me of this approach, as he is fully awake to the corruption yet not dragged down by it, and this is his formula of how to stay joyous and inspired that I am passing on.

Confessions of a Victim of Big Pharma, by Shoshanna Silcove

 Diethylstilboestrol (DES) was a medication commonly prescribed to prevent miscarriage, between 1946 and 1971 in America. If your mother took DES while she was pregnant with you, then you are a DES daughter or DES son...' Better Health Channel
    

It was 1989. He loomed large and imposing, even as he sat behind his expensive oak desk, many medical degrees displayed on the walls around the room. "You will most likely never fall pregnant, but even if you do, you will not come to full term," explained the highly acclaimed fertility expert in a flat emotionless professionally polished monotone.

 A short time later I would discover, at age 31, that I was a victim of Big Pharma from before I was born. This victimisation gave me membership to an exclusive group of women known as DES daughters. This was a drug given to thousands of young women in America in the 1950's and 1960's that was supposed to prevent miscarriages. My mother had had a miscarriage after my older brother was born, so she was proscribed DES and took it when I was still in utero. 

 Upon discovering I was a DES daughter, I had many questions for my mother that I could not ask her because she passed away from cancer at the age of thirty three when I was only five years old. While correlation does not equal causation, one wonders if she would have lived much longer had she not taken the hormonal drug. Since the medical establishment would never investigate this possible causation we can never know for sure, however, I strongly surmise this to be the case.  I would learn that most of the thousands of DES daughters would never be able to have children. I met a woman in my community who was infertile from this drug and she successfully sued Big Pharma. 

Big Pharma was forced to admit culpability because DES was never properly tested before it was approved. Profits came before people, but unlike today, Big Pharma did not have the power to quell all legal liability as they do when it comes to the Covid19 drugs.

As a young woman I wanted and planned to have at least four children, or maybe more. One cannot describe the trauma I felt being told that I was most likely never going to become a mother.  However, I was blessed by G-d with an open miracle to have the one child I did have, as the vast majority of DES daughters have none. The difference between zero and one for a couple struggling with fertility is bigger than the universe. We would not be the proud grandparents we are today had we stayed at zero.

 Nevertheless, the impact all this had on my life and the lives of my family is incalculable. Psychologically the pain and hurt runs deep.  I can compare it to having been a rape victim, as I felt as if I was violated before I was even born. All these years I harbor a distrust of Big Pharma and its cohorts in the medical system which had failed me. It turns out this distrust has served me well because, I am fully aware and cognizant of the horrific harm Big Pharma and even many doctors are actually capable of inflicting on an unsuspecting public.

 The similarities between the DES saga and the present Covid vaccine debacle are strikingly numerous. An untested drug was used on thousands of unsuspecting people in an experimental trial that seemed initially to work in yielding its promised result in the short term, only to be revealed in later years as having caused irreparable and extensive damage to peoples'  health and lives. In the case of DES however, there was still a healthy skepticism of Big Pharma and, ultimately they would be held accountable. At that time Big Pharma did not yet have the power to control the governments of the world as they do now. This makes them a much more formidable and dangerous force, capable of inflicting great and horrific crimes against humanity on a mass scale. Like the DES debacle, in reference to the Covid  shmax drugs, we are yet to meaningfully grapple with or face  the huge onslaught of its detrimental effects to come in the not so far future. You have been warned!

    

Apartheid Comes to Chabad of Melbourne, Australia, by Shoshanna Silcove

"Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart",  Wikipedia

      

     This past Shabbes marked the first one after the Rabbis and their associated community organisational heads of Chabad of Melbourne, Australia declared a state of apartheid in all their shules and institutions. Proof of Covid19 vaccination status has now become the requirement for a Jew to be permitted to daven with a minyan. The main Chabad hub, known as Yeshiva Centre, hired an outside professional security service that posted a guard at each of its entrances. Each guard held lists of names of Jews, who had, prior to Shabbes, submitted their proof of vaccination to the Yeshiva Centre. The guards checked off their names, and those not on their list were not let through the entrances onto the premises.

    This exclusion of Jews from entering an institution and shule that prominently displays the name Chabad along with the Rebbe's visage and name, is a disgrace and an affront to everything the Rebbe taught us to believe in. The juxtaposition of this scene of a gentile security guard with the authority to deny entry of a Jew into his shule to pray to Hashem, against the backdrop of the Rebbe's picture and name, leaves one feeling chilled with shame and disgust. Such a sight is reminiscent of the oppression against our people by Nazis, Soviets or so many other gentile anti-Semites. However, this time the oppression is being carried out by Jews, by those who define themselves as Chassidim of the Rebbe, against their very own fellow Jews and Chassidim.

    Those carrying out this apartheid against their fellow Jews have many rationalisations for their policies. First, is that of the survival of the institutions which rely heavily on government funding. They have no choice but to make sure they follow government regulations, otherwise they will be forced to shut down. This argument is the most understandable one and the easiest justification to accept. From a pragmatic point of view this is actually correct, as a shut down could occur. One can empathise with the organisational  officials' impulse to do everything possible to keep the institution viable and sustained. However, one must ask, sustainability at what price if the soul of the institution has been destroyed?

     There are numerous halachik arguments used as well, such as the concept of pekuach nefesh.  This was previously used  during lockdowns to justify the cessation of all communal Jewish practice, and is now being used to justify the exclusion of a certain newly defined underclass of Jews. This argument is easily dispelled however, by simple scientific facts and statistics,  a topic that is out of the scope of this article. Suffice to say, contrary to the government and media propaganda, there is no danger to anyone's health from the unvaccinated. Besides, why do those who are vaccinated fear being made ill by those who are unvaccinated, unless they do not believe their vaccinations actually work to protect them?

     All these rationalisations and justifications, while on the surface may seem reasonable and fair, all have some common underlying aspects to them. They are all coming from the yetzer hora in a silk kapotah, or the evil inclination dressed up in a silk kaftan. This  famous centuries old analogy describes how even the most well meaning Jew can engage in the most wicked and unholy actions while dressing them up as good and pure.

     What are the unintended consequences, from a spiritual perspective, of engaging in this apartheid? Is a Chabad centre even worth its name if it creates an underclass of Jews, if it intentionally separates Jews as outsiders, as those who are not entitled to be given access to fully engage in Torah and mitzvos, as is their G-d given right? Does it reflect the ethos of its namesake anymore? Can this institution even be defined as being one that is on the same path as the Rebbe's mission? One can only sadly conclude that is does not. 

       One can certainly sympathise with the conundrum that organisational heads find themselves with during these dark times. Nevertheless, a Chabad institution that betrays the foundational theological principles of Chabad in order to sustain itself, has ceased to be a Chabad institution and has morphed into a hollow building with Chabad window dressing. These are burning issues and questions that this community must contend with. The Rabbis and officials are showing callous indifference to the suffering of their community as they refuse to  be challenged. They behave as dictators doling out orders without explanation.  Much of the suffering is exacerbated by these policies, but especially by the present apartheid, which  will surely not bode well for the future of this community, or bring blessing upon those who are imposing it.

Rabbis and COVID, by Shoshanna Silcove

 We are taught to respect and even revere our Rabbis. Does this mean however, that we are to follow them blindly when they falter? What do we do, how do we respond when Rabbis become confused, compromised, corrupted, or even crazy? What is a G-d fearing Jew to do when a large percentage of the Rabbinic community has lost their way?

Rabbis are not infallible. We have more than one historic precedent of Rabbis who lost their way. The most famous one is the Shabtai Tzvi debacle. The vast majority of Rabbis worldwide were completely convinced he was the Messiah and, even after he converted to Islam and did many seemingly insane and heretical acts, they still believed in him. Moreover, these true believers in Shabtai Tzvi included some of the most esteemed and learned Rabbonim of their generation. All their Torah learning did not protect or shield them from going off the deep end and losing their way. 

 Judaism is not like most other religions that demand blind submission and obedience to their clergy. We do not see our Rabbis as being closer to G-d or as having a more direct connection to Him. Each Jew has a direct connection to G-d as His only beloved child. We are a nation of priests and, as such we have the right to question our Rabbis. The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught that a Jew should be able to ask a Rabbi to explain themselves, we must understand what the Rabbis are conveying to us and, it must make sense to our minds. When clarification is needed we must ask them from where in Torah do they derive their instructions, advice, guidance, decision, or opinion. If a Rabbi either cannot or refuses to explain themselves in a manner that makes sense, then we are allowed and perhaps even obligated to dismiss their guidance or decisions.

The COVID crisis has brought out some of the best and some of the worst in people.  A large proportion of Rabbis who are part of what can be roughly called the Rabbinic establishment, has been appallingly disappointing in their reaction to this crisis. Much of their guidance and instruction is incomprehensible and seems irrational. Their priorities, instead of being what Torah teaches and what G-d wants, are actually what the government wants, and they use Torah concepts and halachas to justify the government policies. It seems many have found a new master, and instead of serving G-d they are now bowing to their new idol, the new COVID cult, led by craven politicians and their corrupted health officials.

These  Rabbis offer arguments that on the surface seem convincing and supported by Torah and Jewish law to justify their actions. They promote and support the government's decimation of our religious rights and freedoms with nary a peep in protest. The ordering of the closure of schools so that Jewish children are kept from learning Torah, the closing of shules so men can not daven in minyanim, the ceasing of all the public aspects of our service to Hashem,  the authoritarian enforcing of ridiculous and unhealthy government edicts such as mask wearing even for children etc, are all justified by them with lofty sounding Torah concepts and complicated halachik explanations, all of which are easily debunked. Some Rabbis have even gone so far as to endorse mesirah, something that is totally and completely prohibited by Jewish law and seen as an egregious act, yet these Rabbis  have somehow made this permitted as if they can make a pig kosher.

 While submitting to their government overlords, they  invoke the science and the experts' advice. However, one cannot help but ask, which  science and which experts? It is not as if the science about COVID is settled, in fact it is completely contradictory and changing from minute to minute, while only the government authoritarianism, their trampling of  all our rights and especially our religious rights, which the Rabbis endorse,  remains static. 

These Rabbis have become partners in the medical tyranny that is upon us. The painful truth is that these Rabbis are aiding and abetting the destruction of their communities while gaslighting the people with the fabrication that they are saving their lives. Ignorant of scientific facts that totally debunk and dispute the government policies and  reveal these policies to be not based on science or health but, on using COVID to expand their own totalitarian goals, these Rabbis are denying the reality around them. 

What is their motivation? It  could be different motivations. For some they act out of misinformation as they sincerely believe the government propaganda and fear mongering of the medical tyranny. For others they may actually understand the reality of the situation, but they are afraid to stand up for the truth. Perhaps they are worried about losing their government funding, their positions, or perhaps they just lack courage. 

Nevertheless, a day of reckoning is coming, on a spiritual level for sure, but  on a societal level as well, and many of these Rabbis will be exposed. As Shlomo HaMelech taught, 'this too shall pass'. COVID medical tyranny will eventually  pass as well, and when it does many of our Rabbis will have much to answer for.

What Are the COVID Vaccine Proponents Hiding?, by Shoshanna Silcove

  It's mind boggling how the risks of the COVID virus are completely exaggerated by the Medical Tyranny Media Government Cartel to be exponentially more dangerous and life threatening than they actually are, while the COVID vaccine's risks are downplayed and ignored.

People who warn of the vaccine's possible risks are scoffed at by them, their doubts in it's safety are said to be outlandish and, all their concerns are dismissed offhand. Meanwhile, those who decry the exaggerated hysteria surrounding the COVID, a hysteria that is manufactured by the cartel, are labeled by them as lacking compassion and being indifferent to the loss of human life. Yet, those who aggressively and over zealously promote the rushed, untested, unproven, genetically engineered COVID vaccine they label as humane and compassionate life savers. This is worse than a double standard, this is a twisted standard.

The Medical Tyranny Media Government Cartel tells us regarding anecdotes of injury and death from COVID vaccine, that these reports 'only indicate correlation but not causation'. But so what if that is so? This is about human life! Are we not obligated to protect it at all costs? Isn't that their argument to those who complain about restrictions and lockdowns, that we must do everything in our power to protect even one life, no matter the cost? Why does this argument not apply to the possible injury and death from the COVID vaccine? Shouldn't we then stop administering it until these anecdotal reports are fully investigated, until we get to the bottom of whether or not this vaccine is safe? How can they be so certain that correlation does not actually indicate causation? Why take the risk?

Moreover, why the censorship, suppression and, lack of transparency around these burning issues? Why are we only being fed a constant stream of propaganda aimed at marketing with the message that this COVID vaccine is the best things since sliced bread? As Shakespeare famously said, 'me thinks she doth protest too much!" Where is the transparency of a risk assessment? What are they hiding?

Is Israel Australia's Future?, by Shoshanna Silcove

 Australia is looking towards Israel as a COVID model.

In Israel they will require a COVID Passport for just about anything. They will also receive a 'Green Booklet' after having received two doses. Those with the Green Booklet will be considered first class citizens and, those without it will be second class. It will turn the country into a two tiered social system.

This will mean the COVID passport holders will not need to go into quarantine if found to be in touch with someone who tested positive, or if they went to a 'red zone' or hotspot. This will also mean they will not be required to be tested  if they were in a 'green spot' (less hot than red), hence it  could be  why it is called a 'Green Booklet,' although one cannot help but think it alludes to the Globalist Green agenda too. The Green Booklet holders will also be allowed limited international travel to listed countries.  Even those with the 'Green Booklet' will still be required to social distance and wear a mask. 

The government will have a  COVID data base on each person, and even those who recovered will have to be vaccinated.

There are reports of an underground industry growing there of forged COVID passports.

Those without the Green Booklet, the second class citizens, will be denied access to both leisure and professional activities. Israel is a  small country that has a huge social services sector many people rely on for financial and social support, so all access to those services will require a COVID passport. 

Everyone is either in or affiliated with the army, which means the entire active and reserve army, which is most of the population, must be vaccinated. The extensive military infrastructure in Israel has made it much easier than in other countries to carry out the mass vaccinations.  It basically means those without a Green Booklet will be basically locked out of society.

The social pressure in that small very closely knit country with a strong military culture is immense, and anyone not getting vaccinated will be easily stigmatised.

Moreover, most prominent and respected Rabbis have made edicts denying entry into all synagogues or religious gatherings without the passport.  A vast majority of the population have already received the vaccine, as Israel is reported to be administering it the fastest worldwide.

Why the American Presidential Election Will Most Likely Be Overturned, by Shoshanna Silcove

    Did the Democrats steal this election? Three elements are needed  to be able to determine if a crime, any crime, has been committed. These are motive, opportunity, and the means to commit the crime. 
    Firstly, did the Democrats have a strong  motive to steal this election? Consider that for four years the Democrats have been brainwashed into believing that Trump is literally Hitler. Their behaviour  and everything they say makes it appear that the  Democrats do indeed emphatically and deeply believe that they are on the side of good and Trump is on the side of an evil force akin to a Hitler. Wouldn't that be enough to provide a motive to get rid of Trump by any means possible? Most people would do anything, even questionable or illegal things, to get rid of a Hitler-like leader.  Almost any crimes committed would be justified by the goal of eradicating the evil Hitler from the world. Can one even imagine a greater nobler motive than this one? Therefore, the Democrats had the motivation, completely morally justified in their minds, to commit voter fraud.
    The second element  for there to be a crime is that of opportunity. Did the Democrats have the opportunity to commit voter fraud? It is not difficult to convince even a few Democratic volunteers or local officials, who are convinced that they are eradicating the world from another Hitler, to break a few rules. There is ample opportunity for all this to be done, and it would not need to be widespread to alter the election results away from Trump. The fraud needed to be done only in a few strategic Democratically controlled cities, and that would be enough to change the election's course. Former Democratic Senator Blagovich of Illinois, who spent over a decade in jail for attempting to sell a senate seat, asserted this week that voter fraud is par for the course by Democrats in the big cities, that it has been traditional practice for many decades. Senator Blagovich, having been part of this corrupt Democratic machine for many years is in a good position to make such a big claim. Therefore, the answer to whether or not the Democrats had the opportunity to commit voter fraud is a resounding yes, ample opportunity, because they have decades of experience doing it.
    The third element of a crime is having the means. How difficult is it to hack software? Not very hard at all, as even high school kids have been known to do it. And it is especially easy when the counting machines are owned and controlled by top Democratic politicians, which in this case they are. In order to commit the fraud the Democrats only needed a few highly motivated people to do a few relatively easy  things that may not even seem to them to be crimes. These are  making dumps of fake ballots in the dead of the night, destroying ballots, making fake ballots from dead people, etc. They certainly had the means to do all this and much more.
    So the three elements of the crime of voter fraud, motivation, opportunity, and the means, are all there, and make it very likely that the Democrats did indeed commit voter fraud.
    The next issue is whether or not the Democrats believed they could get away with it. Considering that they have been committing voter fraud in most Democratically run cities for the better part of four decades and have never been caught, then the odds of them believing they would succeed this time too are very high, probably at around one hundred percent.
    Was the fraud enough to alter the result of the election? Some of the best minds in the country are now studying the data. They are looking for statistical anomalies that stand out. For instance, if 125% of registered voters in a district voted then this is obviously impossible and has to be fraud. Then there are sudden influxes of ballots  during the wee hours of the morning. For instance, the odds of 130,000 votes suddenly appearing in the middle of the night and that they would all be for Biden is just about zero unless they were fake. Then there are weird patterns that are just not seen as normal behaviour, like ballots with only votes for Biden, no votes in any other of the legislative columns, as people normally vote all the way down all columns.  Data experts who study elections know there are patterns of voting, and when there are stark departures from these patterns it points to a very high probability for voter fraud. All this is not even including the blatant voter fraud caught on camera and affidavits from witnesses presently in litigation.  The smart geeks who are studying this ascertain a clear strategy targeted in just a few of the key cities needed to alter the electoral college votes in the Democrats' favour.
    Having established all of the above, what is the likelihood that this election will not be overturned? Not very high at all. In fact, regardless of all the media propaganda, celebrations, and congratulations, the stark reality is that it is far more likely that this election will be overturned than not. Get ready for a wild ride.

Australia's War on Business is a War on Everyone, by Shoshanna Silcove

    Have you taken a walk down Glen Huntly Road lately? The formerly prosperous and bustling Elsternwick Shopping district that has been much beloved by the locals,  and has been extremely popular with Jewish Melbourne in particular, is now a shadow of its recent self.  The economic calamity known as lockdown has just begun to show its signs there with several storefronts completely shut down on every single block.  The same can be seen on Carlisle Street, and one can presume in every single shopping district in Melbourne. These businesses are not temporarily closed. Nor are they doing business in a limited fashion through 'click and collect' or take away-- not at all. These businesses, many of them that were very profitable and well established, are well and truly done, finished, as in out of business and never to return again.

    For those of you my dear readers who are not business owners this may not actually affect you so much. Perhaps you still have a steady paycheck, are on Jobkeeper or the dole,  work for the government, are a member of the clergy, or work for an educational institution, so for you the restrictions and lockdowns have perhaps been at worst an inconvenience, or even better, a pleasant break from the routine. For the owners of most small to medium businesses, however, this has been an absolute living nightmare--- but just wait, it will be for you as well soon enough, as will be explained in a moment. But for now, if you are  not a business owner try for a moment to put yourself in their shoes.

    Imagine you worked and scrimped and saved for many years to finally own your own business. You take pride in it, it is your 'baby' as they say. You toil more than your employees because all the responsibility lies on your shoulders and, you care about it more than anyone else would, as that would be natural. 

    At times it took tremendous self discipline and sacrifice to keep it going, so much so that maybe you wanted to quit, throw in the towel and give up, but your persevered. During those tough times you paid your employees a salary but not yourself. During those tough times who was there that you could unburden yourself to? Your customers? They would be the last people you would confide in, unless you wanted to ruin your business. Your creditors? Your employees? The bank? The government?  Your competitors? Of course not! How about your friends who are not business owners? They probably mean well but could not relate. Your spouse? Maybe, unless you would rather not have them get anxious and worried about all your problems. The point is that a  business owner is very much on their own, the captain of their own ship, but unlike the navy captain, the business owner cannot rely on the support of their superiors or on the loyalty of their workers, as neither support nor loyalty are coming their way.

    Imagine, after all the hard work and sacrifice the business succeeds. It is humming along day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. Some quarters are better than others. Of course there are snags along the way and crises to handle, but in general you go in everyday and know what to expect. You have your routines. You have relationships with people whom you do business with that have been built over many years of trust and, sometimes you become very friendly with those people. You have plans, how to do it better in the next six months than you did in the last, a new exciting idea or product to try, or a new expansion plan, all of which keeps your interest and enthusiasm going. 

    Imagine also you have much of your hard earned money invested in machinery, or stock. Also there are many obligations to meet, not only cumbersome government regulations, but also a steady stream of bills. Bills such as rent, insurances, inventory, utilities, bank loans, consultant fees, accountancy fees, legal fees, payroll, upkeep, marketing, delivery charges, maintenance, taxes, unexpected costs, and the list of expenses goes on and on. All of those obligations rest on the business owner's shoulders and their shoulders alone. Employees go home after a day's work secure in the expectation that they will get their paycheck, but few of them can comprehend how much behind the scenes goes into their job security.

    Now imagine the government decides for whatever reason that not only your business but most of the other businesses are to suddenly stop trading. The daily buzz in your office, factory, restaurant, or whatever it may be,  suddenly ceases. The phones stop ringing. People stop coming to your premises. The daily hustle and bustle of your routine suddenly goes dead. Imagine thinking of all your capital that is tied up suddenly not only not earning you any money, but costing you money, heaps of money, as you stare at the emails and piles of obligations and bills you still have to meet regardless of the government shut down. How do you think that would feel? Do you think you would feel a bit of a vacuum in your life? Would you feel a bit lost? A bit out of sorts, a bit frightened even? 

     Couple all this with a government/media complex that promotes propaganda 24/7 to convince the public that 'we are all in this together.' Do you think the business owner feels that is true or would he or she feel it is a lie? How do you think the mottos 'stay home and save lives'  or 'staying home saves lives' would resonate with the business owner as they are overwhelmed with obligations and no sign when this will all abate and go back to normal? Would it be reasonable for business owners to start to feel abandoned by their country? Would it be reasonable for business owners to start to feel as if their government is actually out to destroy them? That this is a war against small business in general?

    One thing business needs to exist more than anything else and that is a semblance of certainty. Without that business cannot function. How can a business continue if there is no certainty as to how much inventory they will need to order? How can they manage employees without knowing how long they will need them for? Look at so many shops that are closed now and what will you see? Winter clothes in the shop windows that will never be sold. Behind that are warehouses filled with next season's and next year's clothes waiting to be delivered but are all boxed up. Restaurants with heaps of rotting food they will never use. Behind those are orchards that cannot sell their wine, farmers that cannot sell their produce, etc. Think of just one bottle of wine a restaurant will not be buying now. This effects the winery, the orchards, the printers who make the wine labels, the barrels maker who stores the wine, the landlords who warehouse the barrels, and so on and so forth. Entire supply chains are breaking. Small business keeps an entire society going. We are all intricately economically interdependent. This is why the lockdown is an economic calamity.

     Which brings us back, dear readers, to how this all affects even those who are still getting paid, working, or living off government subsidies. None of you are safe either as this must and will come back to effect all of you too. The government depends on taxes, and where do most of the taxes come from? From small and medium businesses. Eventually the tax base will shrink. As it is now the government has told us Jobkeeper and JobSeeker are too much of a strain to keep up much longer. Soon enough millions, and it will be millions, of people are going to be thrown off the government doles. This means they will be seeking jobs, but there will be no jobs. If there are no jobs this means that donations will also dry up, and this is very bad news for those who work for institutions that survive on donations. 

   This promises to be the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression and hardly anyone will be spared from its effects. Already we see a gigantic upsurge in mental illness and death. The upsurge in deaths are not from the virus, not at all! The lockdown is the virus, and its deleterious effects on our lives and all the human suffering that comes along with it are yet to be felt. There is only one way to avoid this catastrophe, and that is to reopen our economy, reopen now, and isolate the vulnerable, and go for herd immunity. We must learn to live with this virus or many more will suffer and die than the virus would ever kill.

             

       

        

Where is our Chabad Mettle in the Face of COVID19?, Shoshanna Silcove

•       During the times of the previous Rebbe in the Soviet Union under the evil Stalin, a group within Chabad  formed a special brotherhood. Each member of this brotherhood pledged their lives to the Rebbe, that they would fight to the death to continue and spread the practice of Torah and mitzvos. Many Jews were killed in those dark and dangerous days as Judaism was outlawed. Merely having a learning partner or a Torah book in one's home was an act of defiance and, a knock on the door from the Soviet authorities could mean banishment to the gulag, torture, or death. Informers were everywhere, and secrecy was imperative. There are stories of heroic acts in the face of torture and death, carried out in some cases just for the observance of one small mitzvah. There are stories of nine year old boys being sent by their parents to travel alone, through the vast Russian expanse, to make their way over many weeks in the cold and hostile land with empty stomachs, to yeshivas, all so they could learn Torah. Their parents had no idea if they would ever see or hear from their sons again. There are stories of young men lining up in the forest for hours to get a chance to put on the one tefillin that was available for hundreds of miles knowing if caught it could mean the end of their young lives. Yet these brave Chabad Chassidim kept the fires of Torah observance burning through their fearless self sacrifice.
•       When the previous Rebbe came to America, in a body broken by years of Soviet imprisonment and torture, but still with a great fighting spirit, he declared, "America is not different!" The same self sacrifice for Torah and mitzvos they had in Russia would continue in America, a land that many Jews believed to be a spiritual wasteland with no hope for a revival of Judaism. Of course, we all know that revival came about not only in America, but worldwide under the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, and as the saying goes the rest is history.
•       In present times, the question that begs for an explanation during this COVID19 crisis is, where has this Chabad fighting spirit of fearless self sacrifice gone? When Chabad community leaders and Rabbis acquiesce to Draconian measures with nary a protest and with no apparent regret, and go even beyond government requirements and unnecessarily close down shules, schools, mikvot, and everything that a Torah observant life demands, one wonders, is this even Chabad anymore?
•      These days there is no threat to life and limb, no imminent threat of imprisonment and torture or death by our government. The threats these days to our community is of modest fines, withholding of government funding to institutions, and some bad press. None of these consequences are in any way as destructive to our lives as what the Jews under Stalin faced. These are very much first world problems. And yet the fear of these consequences for not kowtowing to the government's requirements is way out of proportion. There is a lack of resistance  on any level.  The willingness on the part of these communal  decision makers to go even beyond government requirements,  so as to please their government overlords, is astoundingly disappointing and embarrassing.  There is even a lack of motivation to consider and try to find legal loopholes that would enable our Torah community to exist as it should. There is a complete and total capitulation and acquiescence to the government closing down of our Torah communal life that is so great, that it would not be too outrageous to say the Chabad spirit of yesteryear seems to have dissipated completely. 
•        Of course, there are the rationalisations for this. This must be done for pekuach nefesh, but is going even beyond the letter of the government law saving any lives? Not at all! Furthermore, there are the pseudo-spiritual explanations given by certain Rabbis and teachers to lull the community into a false sense of security and used to justify this lack of Chabad spirit. This is definitely the last gasp before Moshiach, they say. We all hope so, but no one really knows for sure when he will finally come or how much suffering we will have to G-d forbid endure until he gets here. They tell us that this is Hoshgacha Protis and it means that Hashem is happy with us not to be davening in minyanim, not doing mivtzoim, not sending children to proper yeshivas, not having frabrengens and kiddushes, He is suppossudly happy with the us not doing all the communal mitzvos Torah demands of us and that we have been doing for a few millenium. That now Hashem wants us to be more 'spiritual' and that all these mitzvos are not needed at the moment.
•       There are more than a few problems with all this from a Torah and from a Chabad point of view. Putting aside all the debate about COVID19 and how much of a threat it is or isn't to life etc., and putting aside that not a single person in our community has died from it Baruch Hashem, meaning we are not in a crisis here at all, and putting aside the fact that the communal leaders have contributed greatly to the unnecessary hysterical trauma and fear of many in our community, how can they simply turn Judaism on its head and suddenly say that all those communal mitzvos are not what Hashem wants? On its face that is an absurdly wrong assertion and one could even say it borders on heresy.
•       Torah is in the doing of mitzvos, not in sitting at home by oneself being 'spiritual' whatever that means. These mitzvos are largely communal and thereby we are required to do them together in groups as a community. Without that there is a gigantic lacking in our service to G-d. Or are we now adopting a new and different reformed religion in the era of COVID19, G-d forbid?
•       Then there is the issue that keeps coming up of our obligation to protect and save lives. Certainly, that is of utmost importance, as Torah teaches us. Yet, if life is all that counts, then why did those Chabad Jews risk theirs, and why did many die, all so Jews could observe Torah and mitzvos? And where is our bitachon? Do we not believe that Hashem gives and takes life, and we are not supposed to live in fear of dying? Is it suddenly the Chabad way to cower in our homes in fear of death, in fear of government fines, in fear of everything? Or are we to be the faithful bold audacious Jews who refuse to cower?
•       Certainly, we have an obligation to protect the vulnerable. Nevertheless, our over reach and incredibly exaggerated over reaction is now doing much more harm to us spiritually and psychologically than is necessary. We are greatly harming our children. What sort of lessons are they gleaning about what it means to stand for Chabad principles by this gross over reaction and hysterical fear? 
• Where is our Chabad mettle? Have we become so timid that we are ready to throw in the towel after all the decades of blood, sweat, tears, and self sacrifice, after all the work and toil?

Rabbis Gripped with Mass Delusional Hysteria, by Shoshanna Silcove

             One reason Chabad attracted me many years ago was that the Rabbis were confident enough in their own beliefs that they could accept and even welcome just about any question or challenge. They were all open minded and more than willing to explain everything, no matter how difficult.
           However, there is a marked change in Chabad now when it comes to the COVID issue. They have become completely closed minded and utterly unwilling and seemingly unable to explain why they have paskened the way they have paskened. Rabbis all over Chabad are obsessed with COVID restrictions, propagating fear and mass hysteria. Many are going even beyond their own governments' requirements. They seem to be completely impervious to facts and unable to reason about this topic.  This is not the way of Chabad! This is not the way of the Rebbe! 
           The only conclusion I can come to which can explain this extremely strange phenomena of Chabad Rabbis being this irrational is that this must be a maasah Satan!
          In the general population there is a good amount of irrational fear, but at least one can discuss and reason with many people, even if they disagree. There is even a worldwide debate on this issue going on presently based on science and reason.  However, in the frum community at large, and in Chabad in particular, there is no discussion and moreover, discussion is not allowed. It is as if we have suddenly become communistic--the Rabbis say so and that is it! And if chas v'shalom you question how they come to their decisions you are met with derision and are either ignored or told that you are dangerous and even may be called a rodef!  This reaction by them for simply asking for explanations to their decrees is absurd on its face.  Yet, here we have almost an entire community of educated and learned Rabbis and, their followers whom the Rabbis have influenced to behave like them in regards to COVID, spreading hysterical  paranoid trauma to a fever pitch.  
        What good can come from this perpetuation of hysterical trauma? Think of the psychological damage being done, especially to the children and their chinuch. Think of the spiritual damage being done while community members are being told that if they go to shule, minyanim, frabrengens, or simchas that they are purveyors of illness and death. Why are the Rabbis not at all advocating for the resumption of our communal religious life? Instead of  easily succumbing to the most Draconian restrictions imaginable of our religious life, why aren't the Rabbis looking for ways and means for us to practice our communal religion safely? Instead they seem to actually be giving up on practicing communal Yiddishkyte entirely! How destructive is this to us as G-d fearing Jews? Can we at least discuss this and come up with viable solutions instead of just being given ridiculous nonsensical and conflicting inconsistent orders without any explanations nor compassion shown?  The Rabbis seem to give out orders and then run away and hide.  Has anyone yet thought of what kind of a Tishrei we will be having? Dare we ask? 
        All this could very well be a mass maasah Satan, after all, we have had such things in the past. Didn't a majority of Jews follow the Shabbtai Tzvi, including the most pious and learned Rabbonim of the day? They were also completely impervious to reason and could not be challenged in their rock solid commitment and beliefs despite all evidence to the contrary.  And could one also not say the same for the extreme radical Messianists who still believe the Rebbe is alive in his body as before Gimmel Tammuz, that they are suffering from some sort of mass delusion, some sort of mass hysteria?
      Mass delusions are not unknown in history. As a matter of fact, there are many examples. The Salem Witch trials,  and one could also call the anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany a mass delusion as well. The Muslim world is replete with mass delusions, as are the angry mobs smashing statues in America. It should not be too difficult for us Jews with our long history  to imagine that we too could fall victim to being victims of our own mass hysterical delusion.
       The only reply one is offered when one asks why the over the top fear of COVID and the call for unfounded, exaggerated restrictions and precautions is one phrase, 'pekuach nefesh' they cry! Yet, ask them to explain how this is pekuach nefesh ( see my blog article previous to this one that shows how this is in fact not pekuach nefesh) and one cannot get any logically reasoned reply. What one does get in response are emotional outbursts from people who have not thought any of this through and, who cannot seem to get a grip of their emotions long enough to actually examine the facts and reason.