Author: David Mark

David Mark is the founder and editor of Israel Rising. Besides Israel Rising, he heads up outreach for Ateret Cohanim in Jerusalem's Old City and acts as the Managing Director for Pulse of Israel. On the side he teaches classes that blend minimalism, mindfulness, and ecology with the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.
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The Election That Broke America

Something happened on Nov. 3rd. The quiet deconstruction of a unified American ethos, which had been occuring slowly and with little open expression, finally broke out into the conscious psyche of American politics.

For years there has been a growing divide between Red State and Blue State America, but now this divide has spilled out into a real split. Neither side trusts eachother and neither side appears interested in reconciling. In a sense there are two countries existing in one land mass.

So what’s next? And how does this impact Israel and the world?

The aftermath of the election and the uncertainty of America’s future as its decline becomes more and more apparent has no doubt emboldened its enemies, which in many cases are the same enemies that Israel has.

Without unity of purpose and with one President in the White House and another “President” acting as a shadow president, the US remains fractured on all issues. China, Iran, immigration, abortion, gun rights, and more appear to be issues which both the Blue Country and Red Country have diametrically divergent views about.

Ultimately, there is no long term salvation for the USA without a real sense of cultural cohesiveness; the sort of something, which is more than just a focus on making money.

America is now heading towards a breakup. First it will be unoffical, but as unresolvable issues pile up and the hard left tries to be more bolshevik than the bolsheviks, the break will in fact materialize. Red Country America and Blue Country America will separate.

Iran will rise once more after being beaten back by Trump. Turkey will continue to dominate and expand. China will overtake the USA and the West as the unrivaled superpower.

Israel will continue to be seen by Greece and Cyprus as well as the Eastern block of the EU as the fulcrum, which they can rely on. The same goes for the Sunni Arab States.

So however the next week pans out for Trump or Biden (media projections are meaningless) the USA has passed the tipping point and is now on a real descent.

The Statue of Exile falls at the End of Days. We will soon find out how long that actually takes and what will be taken down with it.

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Replacing Mourning With The Song of Joy

We are constantly mourning our predicament – Our yearning for completion, for living in a world of strife and shifting to a world of redeemed purpose. Yet, we have been mourning our loss of connection and lack of clarity of purpose for so long we know nothing else but mourning.

Redemption lies within. It lies within the song that moves us at our core, the song of creation, jubilation, and joy. This is the song that the Tzaddik plays to call us home, to move back to ourselves.

The challenge though is that in the two thousand years of exile we have lost will to search within and are caught up with the comfortability of mourning that which we can fix by simply letting go of the sadness we have built.

Exile is a mindset. It is a cycle of external wandering in hopes that we can find solace and time to think about who we really are. Now our wanderings actually led to the place that we dreamed of. Yet, we have faltered and stayed mourning for a loss of connection that we feel fail to recognize that the very place we are now in can help us recover who we are.

We are home. We have returned to the Land of the Lost Princess, the Land of Israel, of the Divine Presence. All that there is left to do is recognize that we no longer need to mourn.

(Based on Likutey Halachot Pirya v’Rivia Halacha 3, Story of the Seven Beggars – 6th Day)

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The Temple Is About Restoring Our Eternal Memory

Tisha B’Av is once again upon us. So many of us wonder why we are still laboring to keep it. After all, we have returned to Israel, the galut is seemingly over.

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Yet, the Temple, was more than a national symbol, it is our own eternal memory, because it is the memory of the World to Come. Tisha B’Av is about recapturing that memory and propelling ourselves forward towards the final redemption.

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KEEP IT SIMPLE: Winning The War Within

Evil is in essence is the distancing of oneself from the Creator. What that means is that the Creator within us, which is the eternal bound within our limited physical expression, becomes lost to us by way of our transgressions.

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If the light inside is so apparent, so pure, then why do we fall?

The main weapon used against us in our war with the dark side is an over abundance of distractions. These find their way into our consciousness through the ending pieces of information penetrating our mind all the time. These are excesses that keep our mind constantly thinking, but never settling on who or what we are meant to be doing.

This is why Rebbe Nachman exhorts us to remain simple in both thought and action. This is our main way to ensure our prayers stay on target and help rectify the world around us.

The dark side forces appear strong in the the world, but our voices are far more powerful. They are just waiting to be unleashed the moment we let go of the noise within.

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Don’t Overthink

There are times when the noises in our head, the voices, the thoughts are so much we begin to doubt ourselves. The world becomes painful and the path towards our own inner success fades.

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This is the lot of the chacham – the person who thinks he is smarter than anyone else. Eventually even the smartest person comes to the realization that he is not in control.

It is the path of the simple one, which leads to true happiness and therefore true success and of course true wisdom.

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Joy Is The Foundation For True Success

There is a need inside each of us to achieve success. However, this notion of success changes depending on the person. The more one is pulled away from his or her being, the more success is an endless pursuit after a career or social standing or money.

However, if one is grounded and truly seeking a successful relationship with the Creator, then success means drawing close to the Almighty. How is this possible? The first step is recognizing that all of our sustenance comes from the Creator. When this is realized true joy no matter the situation can be attained.

True success does not come by way of career or financial gains. Success is being happy with what the Creator has given you.

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Let Go Of What The World Tells You To Be

Rebbe Nachman’s story the Sophisticate and the Simpleton is a classic explanation about the struggle each of us experiences within. It is also the struggle between the increasingly vacuous Western World’s importance on success in one’s career versus a life filled with faith and contentment.

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Do We Hear The Land’s Melody Within Us?

Rebbe Nachman teaches that there is a special melody found within the Land of Israel. The challenge though is our world is set up to distract us from hearing it.

In the above class we learn that we must remove the layers around us and start to listen carefully for the melody of faith embedded in the Land of Israel.

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Discovering Myself Within The Creation

The Creator speaks with us, encourages us, and influence us by means of the Creation. It is our mission to complete ourselves by getting in touch with those sparks – those messages of information we so desperately need and can only be found hidden with the Creation that we are part of.

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Completing Ourselves With The Foods We Eat

Rebbe Nachman teaches in lesson 54 of the Likutey Moharan that the Creator sends us messages everyday to draw us close to him. His chief student, Reb Noson of Breslov expands on this by teaching that it is in fact our mission to use the sparks or souls found in fruits and vegetable to help complete our own souls.

Looking at this even deeper, we can now understand why we desire certain fruits and vegetables. Our personal Holy desires found in these fruits and vegetables are there for us to uplift ourselves and the world around us.

Once again we see that wholeness of the Creation – the Divine System which is embedded in the fabric of our reality reality depends on our own choices, especially what we ingest into ourselves.

The more we live in a manner that is in. sync with the Creator’s blueprint, the more world will return to its initial balance.

This is ultimately why the blessings we say over the fruits of the earth and trees have special blessings, because the produce of the Land contains the route back to our true inner expression and enlivens our life force in this world.

The more we connect properly to the Creation and the food produces the more we will connect to our personal and cosmic Divine Mission.