Without teshuvah

"There is no such thing as a small sin if a person doesn't have regret. Without teshuvah, no sin is small. Every sin is a catastrophe if a person doesn't regret it."

Rabbi Avigdor Miller, "Easy Road to Teshuvah,"# 524, 6:58

Va’ad HaRabbanim L’Inyanei Tikshores

In Eretz Yisroel there is a Va’ad HaRabbanim L’Inyanei Tikshores which

provides a *hechsher* to stores that sell technological devices, to ensure
that they are not selling devices that can cause severe spiritual damage.
In the past year there has been an awakening in Eretz Yisroel [particularly
in Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak] to gather in front of the stores who have
refused to accept a *hashgachah,* and call them out for causing the public
to sin. The authorities are particularly disturbed by these protests, as
they wish to see technology “advance” among *chareidim*. To add to this;
the government is battling to abolish the kosher phone system, one that has
been extremely successful for the past two decades in maintaining a high
standard of kosher phones among the *chareidi* populace.
 
How do the authorities fight the population that gathers to rightfully
express their grievances? They take a page from the Soviet playbook. They
arrested the *mashgiach* Rav Tzemach Tzarfati, who is tasked with ensuring
the *kashrus* in the cell phone stores. He was arrested and jailed for over
one hundred days, including Purim, Pesach and Shavuos.
 
This past Erev Shavuos a number of Sephardic Rabbanim sent a letter of
encouragement to his wife, to express the appreciation for her husband’s
standing at the forefront of Klal Yisroel’s struggle. And outside of the
prison where Rav Tzarfati was held, groups gathered nightly to call out
encouragement to Rav Tzarfati, as well as to protest the incarceration of
an innocent man.
 
Rav Tzarfati was held without any charges ever pressed against him.
Obviously he is a “counter-revolutionary” [i.e. he is a nuisance to them],
only in “democratic” Israel they are grappling with the proper expression.
Perhaps they are attempting to “re-educate” him as well, as they refused to
allow him a room in prison without a television playing.

[As I have explained 1000 times, it's hard to have Torah Im Derech Eretz in Medinas Yisroel]

What we can learn from the Queen

We are hearing lots of gushing about the Queen, how her whole life was serving England. It's a silly notion. The woman lived in palaces, was attended to by servants, and enjoyed honor like you can't imagine. I think maybe a social worker in the run down part of Manchester might be more of a servant. But her life wasn't all fun and games. She did have to put up with a lot. There is a service element involved in being Queen. As she once told Piers Morgan upon his inquiry of her feelings about an event at the Palace, "How would you like 20,000 strangers trampling on your lawn?" She wasn't allowed to speak her mind. Prince Charles tried doing this recently and was hit with some really shocking threats from MPs about ending the monarchy. The Royal Family live like wealthy honored people, but they live in a glass box, and that's not so much fun.

We can learn from this woman. She wasn't beloved for nothing. For one thing, she practiced silence. The Mishnah says, "There is nothing better for the body than silence." Rabbi Avigdor Miller noted the reference to the body. Why is silence good for the body? He says, silence also applies in your own head. People make themselves sick with self-talk. The Queen's philosophy, as learned from the Queen Mother (her mother) was "never complain, never explain, speak rarely in public." Well, the Queen lived till 96. So there you have it. The Mishnah come to life.

Yet, she was reportedly very intelligent. So it's not as if there was nothing on her mind. But it takes intelligence to shut the mouth. Fools blabber on.

It also takes self-discipline. And she had lots of that. Always well-dressed, cool-headed, controversy-free, busy, and punctual. If you asked me when I was 20 if royalty was good or bad, I'd have condemned it, being American raised. But I say now that if royalty sets a good example, it's a good thing. People need good examples. The Queen set a good example, in many ways. She was regal, long married, modestly dressed, well-spoken. She reportedly also had a good sense of humor and didn't take herself too seriously. That's an incredible accomplishment for someone who lived in luxury and honor.

So let's give her credit. It says something that the NY Post can say, "The Queen is dead" and we all know exactly which queen is meant. 

Paris 1920

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgVl6Yk4itw

One can imagine practicing Torah im Derech Eretz in this place. 

Lubavitcher Rebbe on the exemption

 "God divided the commandments. Some apply to both men and women. Then there are some commandments from which men are exempt so that they may focus more on those activities unique to their purpose. Likewise, there are commandments from which women are exempt to allow them to accomplish more in the areas entrusted to them. Now, you might think that the reward for the commandments is awarded only to those who actually perform them. But the Torah declares, as the Arizal explains: the fact that women are exempt from some commandments doesn't mean, God forbid, that they have no share in them. Rather, when the husband performs those commandments he does so on behalf of his wife as well. As it is with kiddush on Shabbos: when one person recites kiddush he exempts all those who are listening to him as well even though they are merely hearing it. The same applies to the commandments from which women are exempt like the commandment to write a Torah scroll for instance. God established that women do indeed share in the benefit. They were only exempted from performing the actual deed for when the man fulfills it, he does so as a representative and on behalf of his wife. 

"But the question could be asked: Perhaps this only occurs after marriage when she has a husband? The Zohar states that this is incorrect. The souls of husband and wife were created like all souls in Heaven from which they then descended. In heaven they were created as one soul. They were separated into two bodies only when they descended into this world. And so Torah calls an unmarried man a half-body. And this is also true of the woman. And then, when the right time comes, God brings them together, for is He who ordains the match. This teaches us that even before marriage God knows that the half-souls of a young man and his future bride are part of one whole. So, even before marriage as the young man fulfills commandments in which only men are obligated he might not realize it. But God who gave prescribed commandments and their reward certainly knows that they are performed in part for him and in part for the woman, who, at the proper time, will be re-united with him to become one unit. So years before his wedding, and even during early childhood, when a boy performs a commandment incumbent only on men, it is done in part for his half-soul's female counterpart, and the same is true of the woman." 

Lubavitcher Rebbe, Farbrengen of 26 Iyar, 5744, May 27, 1984 in "Two Halves of a Whole," Living Torah, 1657