The Mystical Secret Behind the Attack on Safed and the North

by Rabbi Bentzion Mutzafi

[Excerpts from notes jotted at the orginal Hebrew lecture.]

The contemporary kabbalist in Israel, HaRav Bentzion Mutzafi, spoke about the difficult security situation in Israel, due to the daily rocket attacks striking the North of Israel. He cited the classic kabbala work "Chesed L'Avraham," wherein the North of Israel is described as the lower body of the holy land, with Safed and Tiberias being the two legs (right and left, respectively), and Mt. Meron, the resting place of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, is the organ of the holy covenant. The Rav said that the reason according to kabbalah that Tiberias and Safed are being struck is, as the holy Zohar teaches, the forces of evil and impurity always grasp onto the legs, and that this is connected to the idea of the "heels of Moshiach".

He stated that we should not think that the warfare is coming from the whims of Nasrallah and the Hizbullah. Rather, this is a divine decree. From Heaven Hizbullah received "permission" (so to speak) for now to shoot at Israel, which is part of the decree,. The Rav explained that it is as if the holy sages who are buried in hills and valleys of the Galilee are saying, "bring the rockets upon us, just not on cities full of people."

The Rav said we must do tshuva, and that everyone must strengthen themselves as much as possible in our faith and trust in G-d, because "by doing this a great salvation will come, the salvation that we really want -- a complete and final salvation. We don't want to go around the block again and again, another war and another attack. It should be the end to all the suffering, and it will be the end to all the sighs and sorrows."

Later, the Rav said, "...this time it is the final redemption. This is not 'until the Litani [River, in South Lebanon]', or until some other river or other plans of men. The plan of G-d Al-mighty is to completely redeem Israel from the nations of the world. To redeem us from the evil inclination, from the sorrows and the sighs--finally! So this time we need this to be final, and then what will be? (Reading a quote from a book that he was holding:] 'Evil will be nullified from the world, and anyone who is related to evil - will be lost with the evil,’ G-d forbid.”

The Rav also said that what is happening in the North is an atonement for the nation of Israel, and later on he said in the name of the holy Shelah that "every single Jew who is experiencing suffering - one must share in his suffering and feel his pain...and in this merit our souls are refined through the suffering, and then the klipah [spiritual obstruction] is reduced and the Shechina [divine presence] is able to rise, and this brings the geulah [redemption] closer."