JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these
things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE)
then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE)
draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30
When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that
summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT
COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A
fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES
AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the
garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea,
and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the
people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume
away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and
their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM
ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD
PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that
day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they
shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand
shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN
WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say
to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour
every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall
not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be
burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor
their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath;
but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for
he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC
BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of
hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here
are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through
war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only
Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land
in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half
of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18,
Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY
OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND
IN THE FUTURE
UN protests after High Court okays razing
Bedouin village-Envoy warns that demolition of Khan al-Ahmar in the West
Bank is a violation of international law; Palestinian Authority calls
measure ‘ethnic cleansing’-By TOI staff and AFP-6 September 2018
UN
Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov warned Wednesday that the razing of a
Bedouin village in the West Bank is a violation of international law and
would blunt efforts to reach a peace deal between Israel and the
Palestinians.His comments came after the High Court of Justice cleared
the way for the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, rejecting a final appeal in
a case that has drawn international criticism.Mladenov said the planned
demolition of the village “undermine[s] prospect for two-state solution
and is against international law.”He noted the UN has previously called
on Israel “to cease demolition of Palestinian property and efforts to
relocate Bedouin communities in the West Bank” and linked to a UN
Security Council briefing from August 22 on the situation in the Middle
East which mentioned, among other things, Khan al-Ahmar.The Palestinian
Authority said the demolition plans amounted to “ethnic cleansing.”#UN
has called on #Israel to cease demolition of #Palestinian property and
efforts to relocate #Bedouin communities in the #WestBank. Demolitions
undermine prospect for two state solution and are against international
law https://t.co/kT4ext2Dma #KhanAlAhmar— Nickolay E. MLADENOV
(@nmladenov) September 5, 2018-In its ruling, which was in response to a
petition from residents of Khan al-Ahmar, the High Court said an order
preventing the village’s demolition will be lifted in seven days,
allowing it to take place as soon as next week.There has been strong
international pressure on Israel to reverse its plans to raze the
village, which Israeli authorities say was built illegally. Sitting east
of Jerusalem, the village is located near several major Israeli
settlements and close to a highway leading to the Dead Sea.Khan
al-Ahmar’s demolition had already been approved by the court in May,
which the judges noted in their decision Wednesday.“The main petition is
an effort to reopen a conclusive ruling, and this reason is enough to
reject it out of hand,” they ruled.The judges also rejected the
petitioners’ request to delay Khan al-Ahmar’s demolition until an
alternative site is found for its residents.Tawfiq Jabareen, one of the
lawyers representing Khan al-Ahmar residents in the petitions, said the
court “was following Israel’s right-wing government” in its ruling,
which he said was “legally wrong.”“It is not based on legal arguments
and contradicts past supreme court rulings,” he told AFP. “This is
unfortunately what the government wants, and the court doesn’t want to
intervene.”Jabareen said there were currently no understandings between
the state and residents on a voluntary relocation.Residents of the
village have opposed the state’s plan to relocate them near a garbage
dump belonging to the Palestinian town of Abu Dis, as well an another
proposal that would have moved them to a site east of the Mitzpe Jericho
settlement.The High Court froze the planned demolition of Khan al-Ahmar
in July when it agreed to hear the residents’ petition.In the beginning
of that month, the state had begun its preparations to raze the hamlet,
where none of the structures have been granted permits. Security forces
were deployed to the village and construction workers began paving an
access road that would facilitate the demolition and evacuation.The
state says the structures, mostly makeshift shacks and tents, were built
without permits and pose a threat to the village residents because of
their proximity to a highway.But the villagers — who have lived at the
site, then controlled Jordan, since the 1950s, after the state evicted
them from their Negev homes — argue that they had little alternative but
to build without Israeli construction permits, as such permits are
almost never issued to Palestinians for building in parts of the West
Bank, such as Khan Al-Ahmar, where Israel has full control over civilian
affairs.Diplomats from Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain,
Switzerland and the European Union in July expressed their support of
the village, and the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian
territories, Jamie McGoldrick, condemned the Israeli demolition
order.Opponents of the demolition also argue that it is part of an
effort to enable the expansion of the nearby settlement of Kfar Adumim,
and to create a region of contiguous Israeli control from Jerusalem
almost to the Dead Sea, a move critics say will bisect the West Bank,
making a contiguous Palestinian state impossible
Poll finds
Netanyahu’s Likud party surging amid early election talk-Internet
survey gives ruling faction 36 seats, up six from its current standing,
with Yesh Atid trailing in second with 18 spots in parliament-By TOI
staff-6 September 2018
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s Likud party would win 36 seats in the Knesset if elections
were held today, six more than the ruling party currently holds,
according to a poll published Wednesday by Keshet TV.The result inches
the Likud towards a target laid down last week by Netanyahu for the
party to win 40 out of the 120 parliamentary seats in the next
elections. The last time Likud won at least 40 seats was 1988.Most polls
have shown the party maintaining power, and even gaining, despite
corruption investigations against Netanyahu.Elections are currently
slated for fall 2019, though many analysts believe Netanyahu will call a
snap poll sometime before then.Following Likud in the survey was the
Yesh Atid party, with 18 seats, up from its current 11. The opposition
Zionist Union, the Joint (Arab) List and the Jewish Home party would
each receive 11 seats, the results found.At the bottom of the list was
the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, with only four seats, down from its
current seven, and barely squeaking into parliament-The Zionist Union,
which leads the opposition, currently holds 24 seats, the Joint (Arab)
List has 13, and Jewish Home has eight parliamentary seats.The poll also
found that 16% think former Likud Minister Gideon Sa’ar is best suited
to replace Netanyahu as head of the party. However, 33% said they did
not know who should replace Netanyahu.Sa’ar resigned from the Knesset
and politics in October 2014, saying he wanted to spend more time with
his family, and then announced his comeback in April 2017.The internet
poll of pre-selected panelists, conducted by Panels Politics and
Panel4All, surveyed 538 Israeli adults representing both the Jewish and
Arab populations.In August, a similar Panel4All poll published by the
Hebrew-media Walla website gave the Likud 33 seats with Yesh Atid
scoring 20 spots.On Monday Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked warned that
Likud gains could endanger the right-wing in Israel if it stole votes
from her pro-settler Jewish Home party.Shaked said she was concerned
that a stronger Netanyahu would feel free to pick a coalition party from
the center or the left.“If Netanyahu wants 40 seats, that means there
will be a left-wing government,” she said at a conference in Jerusalem
organized by Hadashot TV news. “Last time Likud had 40 seats we got the
disengagement [from Gaza].”At the end of 2004, after failing to gain
majority support from his own party which had 38 seats, then-prime
minister and Likud leader Ariel Sharon formed a coalition with the Labor
Party to push through his “disengagement plan” to remove all Jewish
settlements from the Gaza strip.Zionist Union head Avi Gabbay said
earlier Monday that there was no chance his party would sit in a
coalition with Netanyahu, while Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid scoffed at the
idea that Likud would win 40 seats in the next elections.
Israeli
teen dies after falling off cliff in Yosemite when taking selfie-Mother
says Jerusalem resident slipped while trying to take photo at
California park-By TOI staff-6 September 2018
An Israeli
hiker was found dead in Yosemite National Park in California on
Wednesday after apparently falling to his death while trying to take a
selfie.Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Tomer Frankfurter, a
Jerusalem resident, 18, had been found and his body was being brought
to Israel for burial.Frankfurter was on a two-month trip to the US, his
mother told Israel’s Channel 10 news.She said that authorities told her
that he tried to take a selfie but apparently slipped and fell from a
height of 250 meters (820 feet).The US National Parks Service Police did
not respond to a request for comment.In June, two experienced climbers
died while trying to scale Yosemite’s iconic El Capitan rock
formation.Another hiker died in May while climbing Half Dome peak in the
park.The park only recently re-opened after being closed for several
weeks while devastating wildfires ripped through California.
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
OH
BY THE WAY WHEN THE MEDIA SAYS ALLU-AK-BAR MEANS GOD IS GREAT LIE. IN
ISLAM ALLU-AK-BAR MEANS OUR GOD IS GREATER OR GREATEST. THIS IS HOW THE
MEDIA SUCK HOLES UP TO ISLAMIC-QURANIC-MUSLIMS. BY WATERING DOWN THE
REAL MEANING OF THE SEX FOR MURDER DEATH CULT ISLAM. TO MAKE IT SOUND
LIKE A PEACEFUL RELIGION (CULT OF DEATH AND WORLD DOMINATION).
GENESIS 6:11-13
11
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with
violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the
earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and,
behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11
And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with
child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF
THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And
he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS)
man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be
against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against
him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL
ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his
brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the
morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground,
which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine
heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars
of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the
sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above
the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF
THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM
MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
Iran
worried about its survival, says Trump, leaving door open for talks-US
President says Tehran is in ‘turmoil’ and meeting with Rouhani at UN
General Assembly is ‘possible’-By Agencies and TOI staff-SEP 6,18
US
President Donald Trump left the door open Wednesday to meeting with his
Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General
Assembly, while saying the Islamic Republic is worried about its very
survival.“It’s possible, anything is possible,” Trump told reporters in
the Oval Office when asked about the possibility of a face-to-face with
Rouhani during the gathering later this month.“We’ll see what happens
with Iran. Whether they want to talk or not, that’s up to them, not up
to me,” said the US leader, who decided in May to pull out of the 2015
nuclear deal between world powers and Iran.“Iran is a much different
place than when I took over the presidency,” Trump added, describing the
country as “in turmoil.”“When I took office it was just a question of
how long until they took over the entire Middle East. Now they are just
worrying about their own survival as a country.”Trump is due to lead
September 26 meeting of heads of state of the UN Security Council, with
the goal of ramping up pressure on Tehran over its alleged violations of
council resolutions.The US is seeking to renegotiate a stricter nuclear
deal with Iran after Washington in May withdrew from a 2015
international agreement saying it failed to do enough to prevent Tehran
from acquiring nuclear weapons and stop its ballistic missile
program.With the United States now holding the presidency of the
Security Council, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday said the aim was
to put further pressure on Tehran.But Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad
Javad Zarif, on Wednesday hit out at the US plan.“There’s only one UNSC
resolution on Iran…@realDonaldTrump is violating it & bullying
others to do same,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.Washington has sought to
build up international pressure on Iran after reimposing tough,
unilateral sanctions on August 7 and setting a November 5 deadline for
halting Iran’s oil exports.Iran’s economy has been battered as countries
wrap up trade ties in fear of violating the US sanctions which
Washington said would be strictly imposed.
As Duterte wraps
up Israel visit, Philippine mayor on his drug list shot dead-4 gunmen
barge into the Ronda municipality’s town hall and fire repeatedly at
Mayor Mariano Blanco, who was sleeping in his office-By AP-TOI-SEP 6,18
MANILA,
Philippines (AP) — A Philippine town mayor who was linked by the
president to illegal drugs was fatally shot in his office Wednesday in
the latest brazen attack on local officials.Four gunmen barged into the
Ronda municipality’s town hall in Cebu province early Wednesday and
repeatedly shot Mayor Mariano Blanco, who was sleeping in his office,
police said. The men fled in a van.A police report said the gunmen
ordered two watchmen to lie on the ground at gunpoint, rushed to the
town hall, and then “a burst of gunfire was heard from the mayor’s
office.” The watchmen later found Blanco dead and notified the
police.President Rodrigo Duterte, who on Wednesday wrapped up a
three-day visit to Israel, had included Blanco in a list of officials
allegedly linked to illegal drugs. The mayor had denied any wrongdoing
and had been alternately sleeping in his office and his nearby house
after reportedly receiving death threats, officials said.Last year,
Blanco was stripped of control over the local police due to his alleged
links to illegal drugs. Blanco’s nephew, Ronda Vice Mayor and lawyer
Jonah John Ungab, was shot and killed in his car by motorcycle-riding
men in February after attending a court hearing for a client, a
suspected drug lord, in central Cebu city.Ronda, Cebu Mayor Mariano
Blanco shot dead inside his office https://t.co/7eFL8oBbBg
pic.twitter.com/UqxPaprOfz— NewsLine.ph (@newslineph) September 5,
2018-Investigators were trying to determine whether Blanco’s killing was
related to a local political rivalry, a personal feud or his alleged
links to the drug trade, police said, without elaborating.Attacks on
local officials by motorcycle- and car-riding assassins have continued
despite concerns raised by a national association of town and provincial
officials which has sought additional security.In July, Mayor Antonio
Halili was fatally shot in the heart while singing the national anthem
at a flag-raising ceremony in Tanauan city, south of Manila, in an
assault by gunman positioned on a nearby hill. The shooting was captured
on cellphone videos which were posted online, prompting police to order
tighter security.The next day, the mayor of northern General Tinio town
was killed in an SUV by motorcycle-riding assassins.The killers of both
mayors, among several who have been slain under Duterte, remain at
large.The killings have taken place alongside a national anti-drug
crackdown ordered by Duterte that has left more than 4,500 mostly poor
drug suspects dead in the last two years. Duterte has denied condoning
extrajudicial killings but has openly threatened drug suspects,
including officials and policemen involved in the drug trade, with
death.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
ToI
investigatesThe #MeToo moment of the Bratslav Hasidic community-The
ex-aides of a messianic, sex-convict rabbi fight from within to cast him
out-Bratslav hasidic leaders have issued a rare ban on Eliezer Berland,
a cult leader seen as a modern ‘Sabbatai Tzvi’; the rest of the Haredi
world is proving reluctant to follow suit-By Marissa Newman-6 September
2018
This is the story of a venerated rabbi who is also a
convicted sex offender, of the courageous ex-aides and former students
who exposed his crimes at tremendous personal cost, and of the small
sector of his ultra-Orthodox community that eventually recognized his
guilt and shunned him. It is also the story of the wider community that
still won’t openly condemn him, and of victims who’ve escaped his
clutches and those who’ve stayed loyal. It is the story of Rabbi Eliezer
Berland, a self-styled messiah who, after a year behind bars, is today
again a free man.***It was the night after the Yom Kippur holiday
concluded in 2013, and Rabbi Yom Tov Cheshin, the man once deemed the
closest confidant of the then-fugitive religious leader Eliezer Berland,
was cloistered in a safe house in Israel, nursing a slew of open
wounds, and wondering whether he had no choice but to destroy his
painstakingly assembled archive of material detailing Berland’s sex
crimes and other sordid deeds.Cheshin was once one of Berland’s most
loyal disciples. But when allegations began to surface against his
mentor, the mild-mannered Bratslav Hasid covertly began to investigate
him. Cheshin’s secretly recorded conversations with the enigmatic and
mercurial religious leader contained a year and half’s worth of
Berland’s maudlin confessions and violent outbursts. He also had
bombshell testimony from female victims within Berland’s Shuvu Bonim
community (a subsect of the Bratslav Hasidic dynasty). There was enough
material in his possession, Cheshin believed at the time, to put Berland
behind bars for life.Three years later, Berland would indeed be
incarcerated — though hardly for life — over two of the sexual assault
allegations to emerge from that period. After evading Israeli police in a
globe-trotting race through five countries, Berland was eventually
captured and extradited to Israel, cut a plea bargain, went to jail, and
won early release in the spring of 2017 — one year into his 18-month
sentence.Free again, Berland has now reassumed the reins of the Shuvu
Bonim community — since designated a cult — with his hypnotic hold over
several hundred followers only mildly impaired and his
self-deification, according to his ex-followers, wholly intact.So
powerful is his influence that two women, whose testimony of alleged
serious sexual exploitation by the aging leader spearheaded Cheshin’s
private investigation into Berland, remain in the community until this
day.Back in 2013, Cheshin was hoping to use the recordings to lay bare
Berland’s crimes before the rabbis of his Bratslav Hasidic community and
the broader ultra-Orthodox world, demystifying the self-styled
kabbalistic mystic he had admired since his youth.But as police took
interest in the Berland case and came closer to sniffing out his cache,
what Cheshin saw as the risk of law enforcement and media exposure grew.
Deeply suspicious of the cops and the press, as are many in the
ultra-Orthodox community, Cheshin regarded the two hierarchies as
working in tandem, and as potentially dangerous — one long, hostile arm
of the state.“I was sure that the moment the police got their hands on
the tapes, the next day it would be on YouTube. I had no idea how these
things work,” explained Cheshin in one of several interviews with The
Times of Israel in recent months.The possible seizure of the evidence by
the Israeli authorities was therefore, for him, a veritable doomsday
scenario, to be avoided at all cost.“I felt like I was in possession of
an atom bomb, and even if I hid it, it doesn’t matter where, someone
would find it in 10 years, and it seemed to me like it would destroy the
world,” said Cheshin. Or at least, more pertinently, would deeply
damage his community.More pressingly, there was also the matter of
Berland’s followers, with their burnished reputation for lawlessness and
violence, whom Cheshin compares to jihadists or the mob. Should the
recordings reach the Israeli public, Berland’s supporters would
immediately recognize the source, and, he feared, would come to kill
him.Days before his post-Yom Kippur moment of truth in 2013, Cheshin had
been violently assaulted in Uman, the Ukrainian pilgrimage site where
the spiritual father of the Hasidic sect, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, is
buried. Blow by painful blow, Berland’s Shuvu Bonim community members
exacted their retribution against Cheshin, whom they suspected of
possessing incriminating information on the emerging sexual assault
allegations that had prompted their leader to flee. It was only by
disguising himself as a German tourist that Cheshin managed to slip out
of Ukraine after the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage, and make it back
to Israel.Which was why on the night after Yom Kippur ended, Cheshin was
secretly sequestered in a friend’s house to dodge the fists of
Berland’s army of devotees. There, he sat down with his partner in
investigating the allegations, Rabbi Tzvi Tzucker, Berland’s son-in-law
and the head of the ultra-Orthodox communal modesty patrol Tohar
HaMahane. Together, they arrived at the “difficult,” if in their view,
unavoidable, decision: The incriminating material they had on Berland,
all copies, would have to be destroyed; the story must not get out.Their
reasoning was manifold: that the revelations would be a desecration of
God’s name; that the scandal would destroy the Shuvu Bonim community;
that it would downgrade serious sins of sexual impropriety in the eyes
of Berland’s followers; that the detailed questioning of the women
regarding Berland’s various sexual infractions, spread on national
Israeli news, would cast the pair as purveyors of pornographic and
immodest content (and “we would destroy the walls of purity, far more
than Berland”); and that as the covert chronicler of Berland’s illicit
deeds, he, Cheshin, would be ordered to testify.Primarily, however, the
two men were simply afraid for their lives at the hands of Berland’s
followers.Concerned that police were listening on the line, Cheshin
phoned his wife at home, furtively alerting her to the locations of his
various concealed tape recorders through code words related to Yom
Kippur ritual items. His computer was with him.‘It seemed to me like it
would destroy the world’ With hammers and axes, the evidence was
obliterated. A decisive thump, and an alleged outburst by Berland’s wife
Tehilla, calling her husband a “sadist” and pervert — recorded when
Cheshin arbitrated between the feuding couple — was ground to
dust.Another blow, and the alleged original testimony of a primary
victim, recounting how Berland told her they would conceive the Messiah
through the most unholy debasement, was wiped away. Pressing on, they
destroyed tapes in which Berland lampooned various biblical figures, in
which he called for the “slaughter” of a follower, in which he ordered a
bomb planted under his own grandson’s car.Cheshin would keep hold of
the smashed remains. But he, his wife, and Rabbi Tzucker, already
estranged from the community by choice, would also keep their silence,
for three long years.The Bratslavs’ #MeToo moment-Eliezer Berland
remained on the run from Israeli authorities until the summer of 2016,
eluding several Israeli attempts to extradite him as he moved between
Zimbabwe, Morocco, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and South Africa,
accompanied by a group of dedicated followers numbering around 40
families.In November 2016, months after his eventual extradition from
Johannesburg to Israel, Berland was sentenced to 18 months in prison and
ordered to pay compensation after reaching a plea bargain on two counts
of indecent acts and one count of assault. The jail sentence included
time served since the extradition proceedings began in South Africa in
April 2016. He won early release in April 2017, six months before his
jail sentence was up, due to ill health.His dwindled Shuvu Bonim
community — now numbering some 200-300 families, according to activists;
800-1,000 families, according to Berland’s current aides — lives on.But
five years after destroying his cache of incriminating material,
Cheshin, 39, has entirely changed tack, and has invested tens of
thousands of shekels to undo what he did back then — to restore the
smashed recordings. Now, furthermore, he is at the forefront of a
battalion of Shuvu Bonim whistleblowers who operate a hotline to raise
awareness of the dangers posed by Berland, who run social media
accounts, and whose efforts to lobby rabbis for condemnation of Berland
led to the convening of a special rabbinical court to hear the
testimonies of the assaulted women.The years-long struggle to expose
Berland offers rare insight into the internal policing, by modesty
patrols and rabbinic aides, of claims of sexual assault in deeply
insular Hasidic communities, where seeking law enforcement or media
intervention is forbidden-Remaining a deeply devout Bratslav Hasid (he
politely apologizes during a five-hour interview for the direction of
his gaze, a foot to the left of my head, explaining that he does not
look at women other than his wife on religious grounds), Cheshin is
somber and a meticulous archivist, whose efforts to retrieve documents
and compile evidence against Berland underline an evident penchant for
sleuthing and whose commitment to the cause is rooted in religious
conviction.His account of the years-long struggle also offers rare
insight into the internal policing, by modesty patrols and rabbinic
aides, of claims of sexual assault in deeply insular Hasidic
communities, where seeking law enforcement or media intervention is
forbidden.Defying repeated violent assaults by Berland followers and a
torrent of death threats, the small group of volunteers has, since 2016,
clinched a broad Bratslav Hasidic rabbinical denunciation of Berland,
fielded numerous civil lawsuits, and arranged protests outside public
appearances by Berland; it no longer shies away from media involvement
or social media to spread the word on Berland’s misdeeds.The shift begs
to be dubbed the #MeToo moment of the Bratslav Hasidic community,
although the ardently religious group largely eschews the internet and
likely would greet the comparison with a shrug.Still, in a community
where shunning through silence is often seen as an effective method to
root out misbehavior, and the rare public denunciations of misconduct
are heavily cloaked in Jewish sources and euphemism, the activists have
extracted an explicit Jewish legal ruling from Bratslav rabbis against
Berland, with some rabbis going as far as banning their followers from
marrying into the Shuvu Bonim community or praying with its members.The
disavowal of sex-offender Berland in the community, which activists
stress unhappily has yet to fully spread to the ultra-Orthodox world at
large, was also galvanized by the other, largely overlooked portion of
the Berland story: His messianism and equation of the tzaddik, or
righteous man, with God.Approached by Cheshin with testimonials on
Berland, dozens of Haredi rabbis “all, almost in unison, raised the name
of Sabbatai Tzvi,” Cheshin said, referring to the 17th-century false
messiah in the Ottoman Empire who sent Jewish communities across Europe
into an ecstatic frenzy, before ultimately converting to Islam in
captivity.Cheshin and the anti-Berland activists, as a result, almost
exclusively refer to his supporters as Sabbateans.For Berland’s
followers, “he entirely replaces God,” said Cheshin. “Let’s put it this
way: They don’t need God; he fulfills all the functions of God: He hears
their prayers, he has the power to make [through spiritual means]
infertile women pregnant, cure cancer. Not in the sense of a tzaddik
praying. In the sense that he is the source of power.”Five years after
he took a hammer to his trove, Cheshin has managed to retrieve many of
the tapes. Unbeknownst to him, a rabbinical court emissary who arrived
at his home as part of a Jewish legal case involving one of the female
Berland victims, had secretly recorded some five hours of the testimony
Cheshin had played for him, with a tape recorder concealed in his
pocket. With Berland’s extradition to Israel in 2016, the emissary
handed Cheshin the recordings.Gone, however, is the full hours-long
recording in which he and Tzucker confronted Berland, exacting a
confession from him that he had raped a follower, a married woman, he
said, though parts of the recording have been recovered.Also
irretrievable was most — though not all — of the audio of that woman’s
first testimony, when she quoted Berland’s “chilling” statement that
Cheshin said the activists remarked among themselves would someday
headline a book or TV series on Berland’s crimes: “I created you for
me.”-Nocturnal tours-Berland’s own social media machine, meanwhile, is
no less well-oiled.Every night, WhatsApp groups operated by his
followers come alive, updating anyone interested on his every move and
flooding social media channels with photos and videos, often well into
the early morning hours: Berland is in Holon, Bat Yam, Beersheba,
conducting home workshops for supporters or would-be followers. He’s on
Route 6. There he goes, off Route 443. He has arrived home. Dial in to
the Berland hotline to hear his lectures or the morning or nightly
prayers live. If you missed it, no matter: There’s likely a YouTube
clip, a link from a Berland Facebook fan page, or updates posted on the
Shuvu Bonim website.Berland’s nocturnal tours frequently stop at Israeli
hospitals in the predawn hours to visit the sick, with footage posted
in the groups showing the 80-year-old and his followers moving silently
through empty halls, unattended by staff.His followers brazenly post
videos of the speedometers of the vehicles accompanying Berland’s
convoy, often hovering well above the legal limit.And his supporters
arrange monthly late-night visits to pilgrimage sites deep in
Palestinian areas, from Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus to the grave sites of
Natan and Gad the prophets in the West Bank village of Halhul near
Hebron.YouTube videos uploaded by his followers also include slickly
produced “exposés” targeting his detractors.At the prodding of several
female MKs and activists, Facebook in July suspended the main page
dedicated to Berland — with over 22,000 likes. The decision was not
taken due to its status as an official fan page for a convicted sex
offender, but rather because its operator was apparently using a fictive
profile and bullying guidelines were violated on the page. But on July
19, the page was restored. Facebook declined to comment on the about
turn, saying only that “the issue was examined and dealt with.”The
active use of social media ties in to the community’s focus on outreach,
with a sizable number of Shuvu Bonim members being baalei teshuva
(formerly secular) Israelis, many of them Mizrahi, who became
religiously observant through Berland.-Inside Berland’s Jerusalem
enclave-While there are over 30 synagogues affiliated with the Shuvu
Bonim name nationwide, Berland’s stronghold continues to be in the heart
of Jerusalem, on and around Hahoma Hashlishit street that stitches the
ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim to Damascus Gate.In July, the
Jerusalem municipality began enforcing a cleanup of the area,
dismantling tents and collecting piles of trash, after years of neglect
and long-ignored complaints by neighbors. Cleared of some of the junk
heaps, the rundown area housing the group otherwise appears to have been
untouched for decades.Around the corner from the Education Ministry,
the small enclave begins where a bank meets a private money exchange —
“Change Breslov” — and features all the trappings of Jerusalem Hasidic
life. Black cars marked “gemach,” or Haredi free-loan society, are
parked on its streets. Women push strollers and chit-chat about work,
vacations, cooking, as dozens of young sidelocked boys and modestly
dressed girls cycle and rollerblade down its narrow stone alleys with
unfettered enthusiasm.The residents of the community do not look
suspiciously on newcomers, and, when I visited Berland’s enclave in
Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim area recently, they peaceably directed me to the
synagogue, where hundreds were gathered, as on every night.Spotting an
unfamiliar face, several women, unsolicited, parted the crowds outside
the window, the same eager question bubbling up spontaneously on their
lips: “Have you seen the rabbi?” (I dress modestly, and aware that
journalists seeking to cover the Berland saga have been attacked, I did
not identity myself as a reporter in these casual encounters that
evening; in mentioning them here, I have not identified the people who
spoke to me.) Inside, floating above a sea of black hats, the
tufty-haired Berland, wrapped in a white prayer shawl, was directing
evening prayers in his distinctive slur. On the sidelines, four rows of
young boys were being conducted in their singing by an excitable
teacher, with especially vigorous intoning and fervent rocking rewarded
with lollipops. Nearly all of them appeared to be named Nachman.‘People
here don’t delve too deeply into it… What does it matter if he’s the
messiah or not?’ Outside, some 100 women and children pressed their
faces against the glass. A smattering of half a dozen hijab-like head
coverings, signaling the hardline tendencies of the community, were
offset by women in far more modern dress. A pensive teenage girl,
wearing a white T-shirt reading “Angel,” leaned arms-folded against a
car. Several others were engaged in a heated argument about their high
school teacher.This was not the glazed-eyed cult of the imagination; on
the surface, there was little to distinguish this group from the
stringently ultra-Orthodox groups in the surrounding areas. But how many
have fallen prey to the convicted sex offender? And do they believe
Berland to be the messiah?“People here don’t delve too deeply into it,”
said a young woman holding a baby, who was born and raised on Hahoma
Hashlishit Street, on the latter question. “What does it matter if he’s
the messiah or not?”What matters is that around Berland one senses a
“closeness to the divine,” as “the tzaddik connects the human being to
God,” she continued, going on to describe cases in which she claimed
Berland revived gravely ill people with his (paid) kabbalistic
rituals.Another woman, an English-speaker who was formerly Modern
Orthodox before joining Shuvu Bonim five years ago, described the
community as a “family” and Berland as a wonder-worker.“The rabbi makes
his followers humble,” she said solemnly, only her face showing beneath a
black tent-like cloak.“We’re ordinary people, we go on trips, go to
hotels, go to guesthouses, do BBQs in the park, meet up, go to
restaurants — completely normal people,” maintained Barak Barber, a
current aide to Berland, in a subsequent telephone interview.“We are a
community that is being persecuted,” added a spokesperson in Berland’s
inner circle, alleging that ethnic discrimination stands behind the
broader criticism of their community. “Sephardim in the Haredi community
have always been second-class, and also perhaps the children of baalei
teshuva,” the spokesperson added.-Berland as messiah-Barber also denied
the community views Berland as a messiah. “The rabbi has never spoken of
himself in this way.”“Even if he said something, it was in the context
of a joke. The rabbi never said anything like this,” he said.But
numerous pieces of footage of Berland, books penned by his students and
lectures by his followers defending his conduct, along with testimonials
of those who left the community, indicate otherwise.“The tzaddik is God
himself,” Berland is quoted in multiple recordings as saying.According
to Cheshin, Berland explicitly refers to himself as “the tzaddik” and
tells followers to pray to his photograph. “He speaks of himself as a
God, 100 percent, God, messiah,” said Cheshin, though he also said of
Shuvu Bonim: “I don’t think they have an organized theology.”Berland is
“above all, and because he is above all, he can also be right here. The
rabbi said explicitly… wherever you speak to me, I hear you, I am
there,” said one of his most prominent students, Yaakov Salma.A common
defense by his students likens the convicted sex offender to King David
in his encounter with the married Bathsheba, noting that the Talmud says
the biblical monarch didn’t sin, contrary to what is perceived by a
simple textual reading of the tale. Therefore, they contend, Berland’s
transgressions are not what they appear to be to the untrained,
un-mystical eye.‘Even if he would commit adultery, on Yom Kippur, in the
synagogue, in broad daylight, in front of all of his holy, holy
Hasidim, they would say: he is doing spiritual corrections, that he
doesn’t mean it’“In all the generations, only one tzaddik was permitted
to have [spiritual] lows,” explained his student Ofer Erez (who himself
has over 12,000 Facebook followers), in a recent lecture. “You know who:
The messiah, the messiah, this is the messiah, King David.”The mostly
veiled allusions to Berland-as-messiah came to a head in two books
penned by his students in 2016 — HaKatav M’Bein HaIlanot and Emunat
Hahamim K’Hilchata — absolving sins of the common man when perpetrated
by the “tzaddik” or messiah. Faced with an outcry from the broader
Bratslav community, Shuvu Bonim distanced itself from the texts. But
activists contend the books gave voice to the true feeling of his
Hasidim.“Even if he would commit adultery, on Yom Kippur, in the
synagogue, in broad daylight, in front of all of his holy, holy Hasidim,
they would say: he is doing spiritual corrections, that he doesn’t mean
it,” said Isaac Winehouse, chairman of the international committee of
the friends of Kav Breslev, the hotline raising awareness of Berland’s
crimes.Both Winehouse, an Israeli real estate businessman backing the
activists, and Cheshin believe the families still entrenched in the
community cannot be saved.The goal of their activism now, they said, is
to prevent new members from joining and other women from being
attacked.-‘Berland’s control is total’-When she first began receiving
testimonies about Shuvu Bonim, Rachel Lichtenstein, the director of the
Israeli Center for Cult Victims, was initially hesitant. Most of the
complaints came from secular Israelis whose children had severed family
ties to join the community, and Lichtenstein wondered whether some were
merely grappling with their children’s decision to alter their lifestyle
to become religious. As testimonies continued to trickle in, her view
changed.“Slowly, we started receiving testimonies in which we saw
Berland’s control was total,” said Lichtenstein, who is herself
ultra-Orthodox.Those accounts, she said, included claims of extreme
financial exploitation (including a family exhorted to sell their house
and give Berland the money), parental neglect of children in order to
accompany Berland on his overnight jaunts, severed family ties including
by members who were previously Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox, a communal
system of punishment and monitoring, and the insistence that followers
hold to a singular, absolute truth. Lichtenstein did not elaborate what
that single truth was, but she cited a case of a teacher in the Shuvu
Bonim school system who lost her job after resisting instructions to
pray to Berland, rather than God.Those features prompted the
organization to unequivocally designate Shuvu Bonim a cult. Evidence of
sexual exploitation from women who approached Lichtenstein after Berland
fled the country buttressed the classification once and for all, she
said.Six Shuvu Bonim women have contacted Lichtenstein with personal
accounts of serious sexual assault, she said. The organization heard of
two other cases from family members, though the women themselves did not
appear. The victims also testified about two additional women who were
sexually exploited, though they remain loyal to Berland, she said.The
process of ensnarement into cults is “very gradual,” explained
Lichtenstein, comprising periods of trust-building, isolation, and
finally, intimidation, compounded by a sense of truth-seeking and veiled
threats about those on the outside.Outside Berland’s synagogue on a day
I visited, a middle-aged woman in a gray scarf and a pink paisley shawl
flicked through customized prayers printed on laminated flashcards. A
pink card for sustenance. An orange card for humility. She picked up a
yellow card and murmured: “Let me be deemed worthy to learn in the Shuvu
Bonim community all the days of my life.”-The Nigeria plan-When he
began to clandestinely record conversations with Berland in 2010,
entrapment was far from Cheshin’s mind. Rather, Berland was a “puzzle”
the loyal disciple was intent on cracking, and when the opportunity
arose to monitor him nearly 24 hours a day, it “was the fulfillment of a
dream.”Recording the Berlands “seemed something very lofty. I wanted to
save these things, to observe them [later], to behave properly, not to
make mistakes, to please them,” said Cheshin of his decision to start
taping. The move was also practical: He was to arbitrate between the
fighting couple, and needed to reflect back on the conversations to
hammer out a compromise.“I understood I was in the middle of something
that could also have historic value,” he added.His fascination with
Berland began at a young age, despite his family’s forceful opposition
to the rogue Bratslav leader. Stirrings of discontent emerged within the
community against Berland in the 1990s over his then-monopoly on
pilgrimages to Uman for which he charged exorbitant amounts; over what
was seen as his trigger-happy sanctioning of divorces; and over the
emergence of what Cheshin described as the “first religious crime
organization” by some of his followers.The criticism never induced
full-fledged ostracization, because Berland was doing something the
other rabbis in the community (Bratslav, unlike other Hasidic sects,
does not have one rebbe), could not: successfully wooing secular Jews
into the fold of the Hasidic dynasty.Seeing the elders as “squares” and
Berland as unmatched in his zealotry — particularly uncompromising on
matters of purity, modesty, and chastity — Cheshin gravitated toward
Berland as a teenager, though he stresses he was never a Shuvu Bonim
Hasid.‘If he’s Moses, let him split the sea, let him guide us to the
promised land’His opportunity to penetrate Berland’s inner circle only
came years later, when he was hauled in as a mediator. That role
followed a decade, starting in 2001, in which Berland was kept in a
nearly hermetic state at home, only receiving select visitors for $1,000
fee, and surrounded constantly by a ring of security guards operated by
his son and wife Tehilla.The controversial arrangement divided the
community.“If he’s Moses, let him split the sea, let him guide us to the
promised land,” Berland’s supporters would protest to Tehilla Berland,
according to Cheshin. “Why are you putting a bridle on his
mouth?”Tehilla Berland would counter with metaphors often drawn from
kabbalistic concepts: He was “a powerful light,” and her role was to
ensure that others didn’t get burned, recalled Cheshin. Other times,
Cheshin said, he would find her pacing at home muttering “he’s crazy,
insane,” before swiftly shifting back into praise of his quasi-messianic
stature.From his captivity, Berland would frequently seek contact with
the outside world, said Cheshin.‘I loved him, respected him, I thought
he was an incredible, messianic soul. But I didn’t submit to him’ In
2011, that came to a head when Berland’s grandsons and son-in-law
Tzucker busted him out of his home — essentially kidnapping him, with
his consent, from his wife and son.Enter Cheshin, who was in the unique
position of being close to Berland, his son, and his wife, whereas most
of the community was split along the family lines.During the ensuing
tempestuous arbitration proceedings aimed at bringing them back under
the same roof, Tehilla Berland agreed to continue to live with her
husband on one condition: that Cheshin would monitor him full-time.
(Recordings from the mediation proceedings were the subject of a recent
lawsuit against Cheshin by Tehilla Berland, who charged that his
recordings of the private conversations were illegally distributed to
the public. A court initially ruled in her favor by default, ordering
Cheshin to pay NIS 3 million — $829,000 — compensation after he failed
to counter her claim by a court deadline. The court later reversed the
decision pending his response.) For the next year and a half, recalled
Cheshin, none was so close to Berland as he.“I loved him, respected him,
I thought he was an incredible, messianic soul. But I didn’t submit to
him.”The mystic’s contradictory personality gripped him: Berland was
both a “suicidal hero” and utterly fearless, yet indescribably weak
when confronted one-on-one, particularly when facing his wife, he said.
Socially attuned, he would tailor his comments to those he was
addressing, moderating his tone for the temperate Cheshin, thundering
with threats of violence when addressing his more abrasive constituents.
Today, Cheshin believes Berland’s personality hews most closely to the
diagnostic category of psychopath.“He’s a meglomaniac, in the full sense
of the word,” he said.During the monitoring period, Cheshin said, he
observed one instance of Berland pushing several women into an elevator
ahead of Tehilla Berland’s return home. Rumors began to swirl that the
rabbi was kissing his female followers on the forehead, which Cheshin
said raised eyebrows, but was minor enough to be explained away. Still,
Berland held one-on-one meetings with women, a highly unusual
arrangement for a Hasidic rabbi, for which Cheshin was not present.It
was only after he left Berland’s immediate circle, however, that the
more serious allegations emerged. In 2012, Cheshin was contacted by
Berland’s son-in-law Tzucker, who asked him to accompany him in the
questioning of a married woman in the community, as word spread of
alleged sexual impropriety. Well aware that questioning perceived to be
hostile to Berland would be rebuffed by the woman, Tzucker cooked up a
cover: We will tell her the rabbi gave us each a handwritten note with
pieces of a secret plan to bring the Messiah, and that her story will
complete the puzzle, he said.Cheshin brought along his recording
devices. This time, however, it was no longer for the sake of his
personal growth, but rather to expose “Berland’s hypocrisy and present
to the rabbis his true face: A pervert and adulterer under a prayer
shawl.”The woman’s testimony led them to another female community
member, and to a Berland aide who had walked in on them naked and who
would ultimately serve as a key witness. That aide — who would leave the
community and be violently assaulted by Berland’s followers — would
discover his wife was among those molested by Berland.In the summer of
2012, the pair confronted Berland, and he allegedly confessed to rape
and other offenses, said Cheshin, and agreed to be placed on
round-the-clock monitoringAs of this writing, Cheshin says he has
gathered testimony over the years of a total of two women allegedly
raped by Berland and eight other cases of alleged serious sexual
assault. (In his 2016 conviction, Berland was found guilty of two counts
of indecent acts and assault, as well as for plotting the attack on the
aide-turned-witness who testified to witnessing Berland and a woman
follower undressed.) In the summer of 2012, the pair confronted Berland,
and he allegedly confessed to rape and other offenses, said Cheshin,
and agreed to be placed on round-the-clock monitoring. (A partial
recording of Berland’s alleged rape confession survives.) With the
backing of a sponsor who pledged to pay $30,000 a year for private
security, they planned his isolation. He would be relocated to a remote
area in Nigeria, separated from all but his closest family members until
his death. The goal: To let him live out the rest of his days without
harming others and to spare the community exposure and further pain.“Our
plan was to smuggle him outside the country, to a hidden place, so that
he would be there in a controlled manner. We would watch over him.
[There would be a] total disconnect from the community — just one class
[he would teach] over satellite, once a week. And even this class, we
would censor,” Cheshin recalled.Berland consented, and plans were set in
motion. But on the morning of the flight, with a taxi waiting outdoors,
Berland slipped away — he went into the bathroom of his home, and was
whisked off by two followers, to whom he had covertly given a
key.Cheshin had entered Berland’s inner circle just after Berland’s
first, apparently self-orchestrated kidnapping — from his hermetic
existence at home. Now that Berland had escaped a very different effort
to spirit him away, Cheshin had had enough. The Nigeria plan thwarted,
he cut ties with Shuvu Bonim altogether some two months later.Others
would stay: The two women Cheshin said testified about coerced sexual
intercourse with the elderly Berland remain members of the community
until this day.Attempts by The Times of Israel to contact them for this
article were unsuccessful.-‘How can it be? The man is 70!’-“For three
years, we were silent,” said Cheshin.“What stopped us from remaining
silent was a stream of stories we received [on Berland] from
Johannesburg,” he said, referring to allegations of sexual crimes
committed by Berland while he was on the run in South Africa.Moreover,
Berland’s supporters launched a local campaign in Israel to clear his
name, with no one countering their account of a conspiracy by the State
of Israel to bring down the disgraced Shuvu Bonim leader, said
Cheshin.Tzucker’s Tohar Hamahane drafted a letter to Haredi rabbis in
2016, seeking advice. And quietly, Cheshin then embarked on a lobbying
tour of ultra-Orthodox rabbis to drum up a coalition against Berland.All
of the rabbis were appalled by Berland, said Cheshin. And all refused
to join a public campaign against him.“They said, nearly unanimously,
that this is life-endangering and every person who does something on the
matter is liable to find himself in the grave, and we have no strength,
there is nothing to do,” he said.It was a dead end for Cheshin, who was
not willing to proceed without rabbinic sanction.But then, Shuvu Bonim
followers slowly got wind of Cheshin’s activism. Death threats followed.
A sample of WhatsApp messages, seen by The Times of Israel, posted in
reference to Cheshin: “A spark of Hitler.” “We must mobilize those who
beat him in Uman.” “Shatter him bone by bone,” “His body must be burned,
the ashes thrown in the sea.” There were also musings on slipping
Cheshin cyanide, as well as remarks to the effect that the rabbis
Cheshin was seeking to recruit against Berland would end up eulogizing
him at his funeral.The threats were followed by the widespread
distribution of fliers — pashkevilim — defaming Cheshin.But Shuvu
Bonim’s smear campaign was then met with a response “they didn’t dream
of,” said Cheshin.Bratslav rabbis, and in an unusual turn, the strict
Eda Haredit communal organization, put out a letter in support of
Cheshin. Though the text was far from an explicit condemnation of
Berland, siding with Cheshin was an unsubtle repudiation of the Shuvu
Bonim leader.The fight was on.In October 2017, a special Bratslav
rabbinical court released a religious ruling, verifying the accounts of
several women from Shuvu Bonim who appeared before the panel to testify
against Berland, and exhorting all to distance themselves from him and
his followers. In February, 26 leading Bratslav rabbis denounced him-In
the fall of 2016, the Kav Breslov hotline was opened, featuring
recordings of Berland collected by those who left Shuvu Bonim, personal
accounts by former community members, and more. The hotline is modeled
on other Haredi news sources targeting those who do not use the
internet, television, or radio, whereby they can obtain updates through a
phone call. The hotline receives thousands of calls a month, said
Winehouse, and is run by a handful of volunteers, including Cheshin.In
October 2017, the furious lobbying paid off when a special Bratslav
rabbinical court released a religious ruling, verifying the accounts of
several women from Shuvu Bonim who appeared before the panel to testify
against Berland, and exhorting all to distance themselves from him and
his followers.“We were convinced without the slightest of doubts that
indeed, the rumors are true, and we also received many witnesses who
testified that even though he said many times that he regrets his
offensive deeds and does teshuva [repentance], he continued committing
them shamelessly,” wrote rabbinical judges Betzalel Galinsky, Reuven
Nakkar, and Yitzhak Leznovski. The ruling was also signed by Rabbi
Nachman Zeev Frank, who was present during all the sessions.In February
2018, the rabbinical court received another boost, with a letter by 26
leading Bratslav rabbis backing the ruling and openly expressing their
denunciation of Berland. Since then, numerous conferences have seen
leading Bratslav rabbis excoriate Berland and his adherents.‘I didn’t
want to get involved in this business, I didn’t want to. But my daughter
came to me with others, and they said: ‘Why are you silent? Why are you
silent?’Also in February, prominent Bratslav rabbis agreed to sit down
to be filmed by the activists for a video (Hebrew) denouncing Berland to
be released to the media, a move Winehouse of Kav Breslov described as
an “exceptional anomaly,” given that most of them are vehemently opposed
to film, television, and internet.In the video, Frank described his
initial encounter with the testimonies by the women at Nakkar’s house,
in a hearing that lasted from the early evening until 3 a.m.“We heard
stories — I didn’t stop crying. I cried, I cried, I cried, I said… it
just killed me, that night. I said to myself, how can it be, the man is
70! We heard testimonies that are difficult even to speak about, awful
descriptions” that would incur the biblical death penalty, he
said.Recounting his own attempts to get other ultra-Orthodox rabbis on
board, Frank added: “Why didn’t these rabbis come out [against Berland]?
They told me explicitly: We have no strength for these wars. We are
afraid. I don’t want to name the rabbis, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic,
who told me, this is a Bratslav issue.”Rabbi Natan David Shapira,
another prominent Bratslav rabbi who appears in the video, said his
daughter had been in contact with Berland’s victims: “Some of them
cried, and some were happy to be with him.”“I didn’t want to get
involved in this business, I didn’t want to. But my daughter came to me
with others, and they said: ‘Why are you silent? Why are you silent?'”
Shapira said in the video, fists clenched.“You could see he wasn’t
normal, but not to this extent. Who could dream of these things? Who
could dream of it? Who could dream of it?” he continued.Shapira also
forcefully condemned what he described as the insufficient response in
the broader ultra-Orthodox world.“This is a drop in the sea of what
should have been done. The entire world, the entire Haredi community,
should have intervened here,” he said.Why won’t the Haredim condemn him?
But the wider Haredi world remains reluctant to openly denounce
Berland.In April 2017, following Berland’s release from prison, United
Torah Judaism’s Deputy Minister and MK Yaakov Litzman visited him in the
hospital, and fellow MK Menachem Eliezer Mozes has toured Shuvu Bonim
institutions and pledged increased funding for the community.Despite his
prison record, Berland was also invited to light a torch at the annual
Lag Ba’Omer festival in Meron this past spring, under heavy police
protection. In April 2018, his car was permitted to park in the main
Western Wall plaza, a distinction reserved only for a select few
religious leaders. The Education Ministry continues to fund schools
operated by Shuvu Bonim. Public condemnations of Berland among Haredi
rabbis are few and far between.Efforts by the anti-Berland activists led
by Winehouse continue, including backing a civil suit by three female
victims against Berland, his wife, and Shuvu Bonim; seeking to open a
new prayer space in Uman for Rosh Hashanah lest Berland or his followers
appear; lobbying lawmakers; and protests to have social media content
and pages dedicated to Berland removed.Meanwhile, the activists accuse
the Israel Police of turning a blind eye to a series of violent attacks
on them by Berland followers, which despite “dozens of police
complaints,” and powerful video documentation, have yielded no arrests
or charges.The Israel Police did not respond to several requests for
comment.Although Winehouse expresses pride in their success in
discrediting Berland in the broader Israeli public, among Haredim, the
issue is still seen as an internal Bratslav issue, he said.According to
Winehouse, Haredi newspapers have refused all of the activists’ attempts
to place anti-Berland ads in their pages, though he also credits the
local press for not providing any coverage of Berland at all. Overall,
he warned, there is widespread ignorance of the convicted sex offender’s
crimes due to a lack of access to this information.“In the Haredi
community, there is first of all a lack of knowledge, and also a lack of
cooperation,” he said.“We are trying to figure out how to get them this
information; they don’t have internet, they don’t have
radios.”Lichtenstein, of the Israeli Center for Cult Victims, said she
has privately received the backing of ultra-Orthodox rabbis, who
encouraged her to continue her efforts against Shuvu Bonim. But when she
sought a public condemnation, they were evasive, she said.“That they
know it’s happening and aren’t coming out against it, is, in my eyes, a
disgrace,” she said-longer ‘rabbi’ Berland? Cheshin’s attempts to
broaden the excommunication of Berland are ongoing.In the Haredi world,
Berland is “questionable, bordering on disavowal,” he said. But
ultra-Orthodox rabbis see the Berland phenomenon as “something outside
their world. And they believe their acknowledgement of [the Berland
problem] will bring the issue into their turf, and think the damage will
exceed the benefits.”Mostly, however, they fear his followers will
exact retribution on their students, Cheshin said, and “when you speak
to them more, they show you this. They’ll show you where it’s written in
Jewish law that a man doesn’t need to endanger his life” to combat the
wicked.The threat posed by Berland’s messianism to the broader
ultra-Orthodox public is also perceived as negligible among the Haredi
rabbis, he said.“Today, a false messiah won’t so quickly drive Haredi
Judaism crazy the way Sabbatai Tzvi did,” he mused. “People today are
much more fatigued and don’t really believe in messianic tidings as they
did then. And specifically because the community is more realistic and
more critical and less innocent than it was, it’s harder to
trick.”Nonetheless, Cheshin counts the shutting down of open Berland
support among the ultra-Orthodox, while not outright condemnation, as a
win. While he strives for much more to be done, the fact is that Berland
has lost credibility as a religious leader, he said.“It’s not yet
yimach shemo [may his name be blotted out], but it’s no longer ‘Rabbi’
Berland.”And six years after leaving Shuvu Bonim, he has seen a shift in
his own views.“We certainly understood, after a lot of inquiry, that
the desecration of God’s name is precisely the opposite [of the idea
that it occurs when negative aspects of the Haredi community are aired].
The desecration of God’s name is when the reputation that emerges is
that the Haredim are covering up for sex criminals,” he said. “When you
see that within the Haredi community there is a system of internal
monitoring, that the Haredim themselves are denouncing their criminals,
it creates trust.”-Press 13 to hear Berland ‘moo’-Dial the line for the
Kav Breslov news hotline and the flat recorded voices of Berland’s
former students will lead you down the warped passages in the archive of
his delirium.“For tapes of Berland’s son, press 1; for tapes of heresy
against God, press 2; for tapes [of Berland] against the Torah, press 3;
for tapes of insanity and madness, press 4; for tapes of anger and
murder, press 5; for tapes of the ‘tzaddik is Hashem,’ press 6; for
tapes denigrating the tzaddikim of previous generations, press 7; for
Berland violates the Torah, press 8; for tapes of desperation and
depression, press 9; for tapes of corruption and cruelty, press 10; for
tapes of Berland speaking about the fight against him, press 11; for
tapes of Berland singing secular songs, press 12; for tapes of Berland
screaming bizarrely, press 13; for Berland endangering life, press 14;
for disrespect of people, press 15; for times when the messiah will
come, press 16; for tapes of false promises, press 17.”The outlandish
Berland audio clips include him claiming that Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
“created the world,” his boasts about eating “delicious” human fetus
meat in China, his assertion that the biblical Moses and Aharon shaved
the heads of Levites like “Nazis,” and him making bizarre animal sounds,
including mooing.Until the fall of 2016, the broadcasters on the line
used voice distortion technology, fearing for their safety. But
Berland’s followers figured out who they were anyway, and all the
activists returned from Uman after the annual Rosh Hashanah Jewish new
year pilgrimage with black eyes, said Cheshin.In the following days, in
the traditional period of repentance before Yom Kippur, the activists
convened for a meeting on how to proceed.They took to their broadcast to
“repent.”“After I was beaten up in Uman, in Ukraine, for speaking out
against Berland, I understand that I must do a reckoning and do teshuvah
[repentance],” went the recorded message released by each broadcaster,
said Cheshin. “So I am doing teshuvah for fighting with my voice
distorted. And from now on, I am broadcasting in my own voice.”“I am not
afraid of any of you,” said one of the broadcasters, Yehoshua Gross, in
his recording. Not of “any threat, any terror.”“I am afraid of only one
thing: of God, and of the fact that your heinous rabbi is liable to
destroy, at the foundation, the wholeness of his Torah.”They stated
their names. They released their addresses. And they challenged
Berland’s followers to come murder them.“These are the laws of the
jungle,” said Cheshin. “If you show fear, they’ll attack you. If you
show bravery, they’re afraid of you.”The Times of Israel.
