Kabbalists Happy Because They Get To Roll Naked In The Snow To Atone For Sins, Israeli Rabbi Says

Snow has a more personal meaning to kabbalsits, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri also noted, because they have the rare opportunity to perform a kabbalistic atonement ritual, tikkun gilgul sheleg – immersing oneself naked in snow and rolling front and back a total of nine times. "Days of snow are a days of celebration for kabbalists," Rabbi Batzri added.

Rabbi David Batzri

Kabbalists Happy Because They Get To Roll Naked In The Snow, Israeli Rabbi Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • Failedmessiah.com

A massive wave of winter storms hit Israel and the region this week, causing widespread flooding and snarling traffic all over the country.

The storms also brought snow to some locations, including Jerusalem.

Israel, which gets snow in places like Jerusalem once or twice in a decade, is ill-equipped to handle it.

It’s road maintenance crews lack the equipment, supplies and the training to properly deal with it. People don’t have road salt or other chemicals to use on slippery sidewalks.

Slush and ice (combined with bad Israeli driving) cause accidents and pedestrians slip and fall.

Even so, a senior Israeli kabbalist wants Israelis to know that the snow is a sign that God loves them and has accepted the acts of repentance done on behalf of the Jewish people by a select band of kabbalists who fast and torture their bodies during this special time of year just for this purpose.

Speaking on behalf of his father Rabbi David Batzri, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri said yesterday that the snow falling on Israel was "a good sign sent from God."

Quoting the biblical prophet Isaiah, Batzri said that, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool,” adding that the timing of the snow was significant, Ynet reported.

The six weeks that synagogues read the Torah portions of Shemot, Va'era, Bo, B'Shallach, Yitro and Mishpatim kabbalists customarily afflict themselves through fasting and other means twice each week on Mondays and Thursdays to affect atonement from above.

"The kabbalists torment themselves [during these six weeks] and pray for snow, which is a sign that the Jewish people's sins are being forgiven and erased," Batzri reportedly said. "Just like in the Temple, when the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and pray for the people of Israel's sins to be forgiven, the sign for forgiveness was the scarlet cord that would turn white. The same applies for kabbalists, who after the beginning of the fasting period wait for snow as a sign that God has forgiven the people's sins."

But the snow has a more personal meaning to kabbalsits, Batzri also noted, because they have the rare opportunity to perform a kabbalistic atonement ritual, tikkun gilgul sheleg, immersing oneself naked in snow and rolling front and back a total of nine times.

Tikkun gilgul sheleg atones for what Batzri called sexual transgressions.

But tikkun gilgul sheleg was really designed to atone for homosexual intercourse (and, one can assume from rabbinic understandings of it, male-on-male pedophilia involving penetration).

As Allan Nadler noted in a 2004 review of Professor Lawrence Fine’s book on Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari, “[m]any readers will be particularly fascinated by…the terribly unforgiving attitudes toward homosexuality prevalent in Lurianic circles. According to Luria’s most important disciple, Rabbi Hayyim Vital, Luria had instructed three of his followers how to practice the tikkun, or specific spiritual correction, for having sinned by engaging in homosexual intercourse. This remedy is not for the weak, as it requires 233 days of fasting, 161 of which are to be accompanied by what is known as tikkun gilgul sheleg — immersing oneself naked in the snow and rolling, front and back, nine times. The specific numbers here are all derived from exact kabbalistic calculations largely based on gematria, the technique that assigns numerical, mystically charged meanings to the letters of sacred Hebrew texts. In one of the book’s most shocking passages, Vital also testifies that the eminent kabbalist Rabbi Israel Najara, author of the most popular of the Sabbath zmirot (table hymns), ‘Ya Ribon Olam,’ would engage in homosexual behavior when drunk.”

Those fast days and naked-snow-rolling days are usually cumulative and do not need to be completed in the same year. Some Lurianic tikkunim can be performed multiple times in one day, meaning that if ten tikkun gilgul shelegs were needed to atone for a sin, but snow is a rare occurrence, the penitent could roll nine times, pause at least a set amount of time, and then roll nine more, doing all ten tikkun gilgul shelegs in one day.

However they’re done and for what reason, Batzri stressed that because of the risks involved in doing tikkun gilgul sheleg, only "elected" people known to the public as especially righteous men should do them.

Everyone else who insists on doing the ritual can suffice by taking a small amount of snow and “spreading” it on different parts of his body like his arms and face.

"Days of snow are a days of celebration for kabbalists," Rabbi Batzri added, quoting Jerusalem kabbalist Rabbi Salman Mutzafi.

Comments

[seymour]

hey people do that on ski trips all the time

[miriam]

one word: WTF?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Apologies to:Creedence Clearwater Revival — Proud Mary:

Left my beis medrish in the city
Learn' for the Man ev'ry night and day
And I always woke up, davening "vosikin"
Worryin' 'bout the ways I might have sinned

Refrain:
Nude Jews keep on turnin'
Proud Moishe keep on learnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' in the snowbank

Had a shidduch date in Monsey
Pumped a lot of pain down in New Square scene
But I never saw the backside of my Rebbe
'Til I hitched a ride with a mikvah queen

Refrain

If you come down for chopped liver
Bet you gonna find a kiddish that's big
You don't have to worry 'cause you have no money
The Israeli government's happy to give

Refrain

Rollin', rollin', rollin' in the snowbank 3x

[rebeljew]

This is the same guy that exorcised a dibuk on the internet in the most boring several 10 minute Youtubes in history. If the carnival is in town, you know these lens lice and mike lice will show up.

[SYuchis]

Got to love those guys. Anything even a beautiful scene as hills filled with snow they are turning into sexual fantasies. Omg could they ever take thier heads out of the toilet and breath some fresh air that our loving god gave us to enjoy. HELLO..... The penis is a very small organ and there a lot more to life than fucking and sucking....

[jancsibacsi]

Kabalah is nothing but a mind game acting like children its all make beleive ,theese kabalists are nothing but con artists hahaha rolloing naked in snow 9 times wtf does he think.

[Jeff]

If the Israeli government weren't subsidizing the Haredim, they'd have the money to build more psychiatric hospitals in which to house these lunatics.

[Eli, what me messiah?]

YL,
LOL! 'Til I hitched a ride..."
Another improvement on the original.

[shimon]

roll in ze hay mit terri garr..."roll roll roll roll!"

[Garnel Ironheart]

Does it have to be snow in Israel? Because if he goes to Siberia or Canada he can find places to do the tikun all year long.

Old joke: guy comes to the Rebbe one cold winter day and says he's reached a great level of holiness and to do so he rolls naked in the snow to perform his repentance. Rebbe looks out the window and sees a donkey walking by. He points to it and says "Just like that ass?"

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, Eli. I should have wrote:"Downed a lot of chrayn down in New Square scene."

Shimon: LOL

[needitbadly]

Won't let me into mikvah. Where are they rolling naked? Please tell me. Please! Please!

[ah-pee-chorus]

thats about the jewiest head you could have.

1.kippah
2.tallis over head
3.tfillin
4.shofar
5.beard

the only thing that would top it is if he was performing MBP at the same time.

[Gevezener Chusid]

Was the picture taken on Ash Wednesday?

[Yochanan Lavie]

APC: That's not a shofar he's blowing...

[western jew]

Why not just build a snow man.

[western jew]

Fortunately naked snow diving has not caught on in America and other snowy places. Lets count our blessings.

[Edge Man]

Hey Shmarka, do you think rolling in the snow will atone for you having cut and pasted and plagiarizing most of this article from Ynet's Kobi Nahshoni?

[Shmarya]

Hey Shmarka, do you think rolling in the snow will atone for you having cut and pasted and plagiarizing most of this article from Ynet's Kobi Nahshoni?

Posted by: Edge Man | January 10, 2013 at 02:09 PM

Please.

Ynet is cited, and the only text taken from its article are quotes from Batzri, which are also cited.

That you aren't an honest or a smart person is exceeding clear.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

oh! this is the guy the goes up on a piper plane with a shofar so sollicit rain. well, now, his prayers must have been answered (after 10 or so years) as recently, it has been raining cats and dogs in eretz yisroel.
amazing how a iraqi jew plays with snow. he must have gotten the idea from r' na na na meuman. otherwise, last time a babylonian rabbi had anything to do with snow, was when r' hillel the elder was covered with snow while on the roof of the yeshiva auditing shiurim as he couldn't afford the tuition. what a big difference between the wisdom in those days and the folly of our days!

[Jeff]

It never ceases to amaze me that every frum trolls who comes here attempts to catch Shmarya at plagiary, when the sources are clearly cited (with hyperlinks, yet).

I keep waiting to see an example of the superior intellectual prowess resulting from a yeshiva education we keep hearing about.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

ah-pee-chorus
actually, he is wearing 2 pairs of tefillin simultaneously. the larger one is of rashi and the smaller one above is r' tam. :-)
Gevezener Chusid
actually, the catholics took it from us (tanakh) 1- And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of many colours
2-and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
3- And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
etc... :-) u must have noted his ash is horizontal and the catholics vertical!

[jancsibacsi]

Jeff --By this time we all know that a yeshiva education gets you regressing into a bygone era when there were no cars radios etc,it only gets you a life of entitlements and rebbe worshiping,ana after you marriage going all day back and forth from shull davening for parnuse that until you go out and work will never materialize of course you are backed up by others hard work for you to dream youre liz
fe away into oblivion leaving another dozen ones just like you throroughly robotisized and zombified.

[dh]

Yosef ben Matitya, that's so interesting. I didn't know that. No wonder I was so comfortable a couple of years ago when I was in NYC and got in a line with a bunch of folks with ash. I thought there was free food.

[Sarek]

Cute, YL.

snow is a sign that God loves them
Then God loves us here in the frozen north x100.

("White Christmas", Irving Berlin)

I’m dreaming of a white Jerusalem,
Just because God loves us so.
Where the roadways ice up
And autos crack up
And I can roll around like a schmoe.

I’m dreaming of a white Jerusalem
Because my red wristband makes me chant.
I will stuff the snow down in my pants
And recite my prayers in a trance.

[זבה גדולה]

ROFLMAO

what if the naked roller has an erection mid rolling, he might get stuck or even worse it might break off!!

Its SEX SEX all day long for them!

[MalachHamovies]

The ari says that sheleg is a "tikun" for someone who is Mishagel. mishagel is when a dog has sex. So according to the Ari if someone has improper sex or sexual thoughts "like a dog (mishagel)" then his "tikkun" is to roll in sheleg (snow). I once heard this from a Rabbi who studied kabbala.

[Joe Field]

Posted by: MalachHamovies | January 10, 2013 at 05:21 PM

I live in FL, there is no snow, would rolling in a bathtub full of is work.

[val]

Satan has deceived the whole world until the woman of Rev 12 delivers the true word of God Rev 12:5. She is not a church, she is not Israel, and she is not Mary. She is the prophet like unto Moses and Elijah Matt 17:3, Acts 3:21-23, Luke 1:17 delivering the true word John 1:1 from the wilderness Rev 12:6 to prepare a people for the Lord’s return. God our Father will not put any child of his into a hell fire no matter what their sins. It never entered the heart or mind of God to ever do such a thing Jer7:31, Jer 19:5. Turn your heart to the children of God. A gift is now delivered and proven to the whole world as a witness Matt 24:14. http://thegoodtale.blogspot.com. A righteous judge gathers ALL evidence before making a judgment. If you are called to know the true word- Prove all things. God chose a woman.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

The ari says that sheleg is a "tikun" for someone who is Mishagel. mishagel is when a dog has sex.

MalachHamovies, u r probably correct. The Ari lived in Tzfas where everynow and then they do see snow.
(the poor guy died at age 40).
What did he do in the summer? He probably took a cold shower.
What is the snow then good for?
They always found the more complicated solutions.
I wonder if everybody rolled in snow, he would have said it's no good enough? and they have to burry themselves in 40 seah of snow? Go figure.

[Isidore]

"Roll, roll, roll in ze snow!"

[ah-pee-chorus]

actually, he is wearing 2 pairs of tefillin simultaneously. the larger one is of rashi and the smaller one above is r' tam. :-)
Posted by: Yosef ben Matitya

i missed that. thats even better. he's going to be on the express train to gan ayden.

[Mike]

Wouldn't that be cold? Jeez man, who'd wanna get hypothermia doin this crap? Probably the oddest ritual I've ever heard in my life, and THAT is quite an accomplishment.

[David Ilan]

Rolling naked in cold snow is highly likely to cause "shrinkage"

[just me]

"Quoting the biblical prophet Isaiah, Batzri said that, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool,” ..."

We are warned not to add or subtract to G-D's word. His law can't be improved upon by man.

Ecclesiastes 12:11-12 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

Deuteronomy 4:1-2 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.

Ecclesiastes 3:14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.

Deuteronomy 12:32 See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.

Deuteronomy 13:1 All this word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

[Edge Man]

lol whoops! Sorry Shmarka... I'm glad I toned down my comment and rebuke since it appears my reading is not 100%.

And Jeff, thanks for the compliment.... lol I wish I was a frummy. However due to my many sins - and I wish the snow would take them away! - I can hardly call myself a frummy. And Yeshiva... well... I wish...

[Levi Keller]

Here in Finland we do tikkun gilgul sheleg every friday night between sauna and kugel

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Here in Finland we do tikkun gilgul sheleg every friday

wow! then the ari must have evoked the minhag avot of the fins. all year round?

[ger tzedek]

> Posted by: ah-pee-chorus | January 10, 2013 at 06:37 PM

The front tefillah is a bit too far forward, though, which naturally means he's an evil heretic.

[spacedout BT]

Jack Frost nippin' at your......toes?