Avraham “Abe” Bernstein | Home

• I came on Aliyah in 1983 from the US. I came with my wife and my two oldest then infant children. I had a university degree, a few years experience in hi-tech, and enough money to make a down payment on an apartment. I understood if I were to wait even a few years, and took out a mortgage on a home, then it was unlikely that I would ever leave the Golden Medina.

• I have always lived in Yerushalayim (English: Jerusalem). Har Habayit (English: the Temple Mount) is the navel of the world from which the Shechina (English: God's presence) eminates throughout the world.

• For an observant God-fearing Jew, the ultimate place to live is in Eretz Yisrael. For the past 2000 years, every year at the end of the Passover Seder, every Jewish family chants the prayer next year in Jerusalem. With the advent of the Zionist movement, Aliyah began in earnest about 1880. Until the 1960's it was physically difficult to live in Israel. But by the time I came in 1983, even though at the time the standard of living was much less than in North America, still one could expect to live a long healthy and fulfilling life in the modern State of Israel.

• Now (in 2025) I have no regrets moving to Israel. I truly believe that I was part of the process of building the land, and that I personally grew and was transformed in the process. The transformation is as if we were in a dream (Psalm 126). The values and life style of my children and grandchildren are so much better than my North American friends and relatives. Israel's standard of living is one of the highest in the world. Professionally I live at the pinnacle of the hi-tech world. It is sad but true, that many progressive people in the West hate the Jewish People, but I am proud to be a member of a righteous and just nation, even if we are forced to "dwell alone". And it is clear to any objective person, that we are living in the footsteps of the Mashiach (English: Messiah). The ancient prophesies are being fulfilled before our eyes, in particular see Zecharia 8:

4) Thus saith the LORD of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age.

5) And the broad places of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the broad places thereof.

6) Thus saith the LORD of hosts: If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvellous in Mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts.

7) Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country, and from the west country;

8) And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.

... 11) But now I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days, saith the LORD of hosts.

12) For as the seed of peace, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.

13) And it shall come to pass that, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands be strong.

... 15) so again do I purpose in these days to do good unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear ye not.

• Unfortunately since the delusional Olso "peace accords" in 1993 there were many divisions in Israeli society, between religious, secular, left, and right. Most of these divisions are now disappearing since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres. The process was painful, but Israeli society is now healing and maturing, and most are becoming much more aware that HaShem is the Ribono Shel Olam (English: Master of the Universe).

• About 800 years ago the Ramban described the ancient Rabbinic tradition that the only thing that HaShem actually created ex nihilo were atomic particles (Greek: Hyla, Hebrew: Tohu VeBohu) which were used to subsequently form all other elements in the universe including stars, planets, plants, animals, and Man, etc. HaShem compressed this chaotic mass of particles into a dark hot object (what modern physicists refer to as a "plasma") smaller than the size of a mustard seed for an unknown period of time. Creation began when HaShem caused this object to explode, scattering the particles throughout the universe, and then light appeared everywhere. (According to the cosmologist Prof Steven Weinberg, it took about 400K years for the universe to cool down to 3800 degrees Kelvin, at which time stable hydrogen atoms were formed, which formed into hydrogen dust clouds due to gravitational attraction. These dust clouds became luminescent, when the whole universe began to glow with primordial light). This is identical to the description of the "Big Bang" theory that is now accepted by all modern astrophysicist cosmologists for the past 60 years.
• The Ramban refers to each "day" of creation as an epoch (Hebrew: Tekufa). On each new day HaShem injected massive changes into the universe. Darwinian "evolutionary" theory cannot account for the explosive changes in life after each new day. Each new day increased the "order" in the universe, i.e. reduced entropy. The Hebrew expression and it was evening and it was morning (Gen. 1:5) (Hebrew: Vayehi Erev Vayehi Voker) that closes each day of creation alludes to this increase in order. The Ramban states that the root meaning of the word "evening" (Hebrew: Erev) is derived from the Hebrew Ta'arovet (English: "an unordered mixture"), while the word "morning" (Hebrew: Boker) is derived from the Hebrew Mevukar (English: "ordered").
• HaShem's ultimate act of creation was when He "touched" modern Man on the 6th day, on Rosh Hashanah 5785 years ago, which conforms to the archeological time frame of the beginning of civilization, history, and writing. Since then the passage of time is as we now know it. This transformation happened nearly simultaneously worldwide wherever civilization existed from Mesopotamia, the Nile Delta, the Indus Valley, the Mekong Delta, the Yellow River Valley, etc. Don't fool yourselves. The psychology of modern Man has not changed since that time.

• In our time (i.e. 2025) the world is witnessing (1) the fulfillment of this directive when the Jewish People who dwells alone (Num. 23:9) in this world will rise up like a lioness (Num. 23:24) to devour evil, and (2) the moral bankruptcy of the Abrahamic "supercessionist" (aka replacement) theologies.
• The supercessionists have a highly flawed understanding of "ethical monotheism". Islam, while being monotheistic, worships A God Who Hates. The Quran openly states that their god sanctions murder, pillaging, piracy, and slavery. Also see their recent theological support of Oct. 7. While Christians (especially Catholics), with their highly suspect monotheistic credentials, i.e. their belief in the "trinity", fundamentally cannot accept that ethical behavior requires adherence to God's laws in the Torah, and cannot accept that evil often requires force to be eradicated.

I pray that we will soon see the fulfillment of the prophecy blessed be those who bless Yisrael, and cursed be those who curse Yisrael (Num. 24:9).

• Oslo, which was hatched in 1992, was not a "noble experiment" that "just happened" to fail. The primary perpetrators, then Foreign Minister and Deputy PM Shimon Peres and then Deputy FM Yossi Beilin, intentionally designed it to fail! It must never be forgotten that Oslo enabled the so-called Gaza "Disengagement" (2005) which paved the way for the Hamas barbarians to rule Gaza. See reserve Major General Gershon Hacohen's recent mea culpa, who had major responsibility for implementing the "Disengagement".

• Arafat regularly responded in Arabic to those who called him a traitor for making a treaty with the Jews that he was just following in the footsteps of Muhammad who made the fake 10 year treaty of Hudaibiyah (c. 628 CE) with the tribe of Quraysh who he subsequently slaughtered 2 years later. Beilin, with a Phd in political science, was aware that Arafat had no intention of keeping his Oslo treaty obligations, but that the nations of the world, in particular the United States, would never allow the Jewish State to declare that Arafat's egregious fundamental breaches would allow Israel to declare the treaty null and void. Even 20 years later, in 2012, Beilin publicly admitted that it would be diplomatically impossible for any Israeli political leader to cancel the treaty, during a televised debate with Naftali Bennett when Bennett was just starting his political career. (See the full video here). During the debate, Beilin completely lost his composure when Bennett justifiably accused him of being responsible for the thousands of Jews who were murdered, maimed, widowed, and orphaned as a result of the so-called Oslo "peace" process. And never forget Peres' brash salesmanship of the big lie of a New Middle East to the Knesset and to Israeli public, which was just in fact his vehicle for graft to become a billionare along with his Peres Center For "Peace" And Innovation.

• Unfortunately many hareidim conveniently like to forget that their current wickedness since Oct. 7 2023, goes back to roots of Oslo. The so-called "spiritual" leader of the Sephardic hareidim, Rav Ovadiah Yosef, was a critical supporter of the Oslo legislation in the Knesset. Without his support, the law would never have been passed. Ovadiah naively believed the military advisers of the wicked Peres who argued that Oslo was an opportunity for the Jewish People, instead of listening to the millions of religious Jews who pleaded that Oslo was a death trap. Note that Ovadiah was a native Arabic speaker. He was a aware of Arafat's true intentions. Even a few months after the treaty was signed, when buses began to regularly blow up in the cities of Israel (especially in Jerusalem), Ovadiah never withdrew his Knesset support while he still had the chance. On Oct. 7, we saw the final fruits of Olso. His true justification for joining Peres' government was the huge amount of money that Peres funneled into their Torah educational network, El HaMayan, in spite of the clear and immediate danger that Oslo posed to the Jewish People. Ovadiah's right-hand man, Aryeh De'eri, was convicted of embezzling some of these funds, for which he spent 2 years in jail, and subsequently restricted from re-entering politics for 7 years. Yet shameless De'eri returned to politics to again become the leader of the Shas party. And to this day, most Sephardic hareidim like to opine that Ovadiah was a Torah gadol (English: a great learned leader of Torah). At best they are lunatics!

• An IDF general (i.e. Ilan Biran, the then Aluf Pikud HaMerkaz), personally ordered me in front of other soldiers, to refrain from preemptively defending myself when a Palestinian terrorist aimed his rifle at me (or at other soldiers or at civilians) until AFTER the bullet left the terrorist's rifle! Also Biran predicted how the new era of "peace" would eliminate the need for an IDF presence in the Jordan Valley even while Arafat was blowing up buses in Yerushalayim while he was speaking!
• For his fealty to the so-called "peace process", and concomitant lack of concern for the lives of his soldiers, the Oslo government subsequently rewarded Biran by appointing him as Director General of the Ministry of Defense, and later as chairman of government controlled corporations, i.e. Israel Oil Refineries, Bezeq, and Yes.
• Unfortunately after 30 years of the fake peace rigidly enforced by a fake legal system that ignored the associated massive corruption required to make it work, HaShem overwhelmed the Jewish People with the Oct. 7 massacres, which immediately woke up the vast majority of Israeli Jews from their stupor. I call this "baseball bat to the head" therapy. According to ancient Jewish tradition already stemming from the time of the Egyptian bondage, nothing happens to the Jewish People, whether good or bad, that is not dictated by HaShem - see Gen. 15:13.

Because the Russian government halted all Jewish Agency activities in order to prevent conscripts from fleeing, Jews who did manage to escape simply showed up at Ben Gurion airport, and declared themselves as refugee new immigrants. Normally it would take the Ministry of Absorption 3-4 months to prepare the paperwork to receive a new immigrant family. Until the paperwork is approved the immigrants have no financial benefits, and due to the war Russian currency was not easily convertible to hard currencies. The family stayed in two spare rooms in my home which had an adjacent bathroom. I arranged to receive the family via the Russian Olim group Machanayim. In a previous job, I worked with one of their senior people.

The boy had been learning successfully in a top school (i.e. Machon Lev highschool), but started having problems during Covid when he was forced to be schooled at home. We achieved victory by sending the boy to be evaluated by the world renowned Feuerstein Institute who specialize in the treatment of people, especially of children, who don't act normally. Their evaluation confirmed that he was extremely bright. The ministry was simply too lazy to provide him with an assistant which they were legally obligated to do. Finally when they did provide him with an assistant, the ministry maliciously instructed the assistant to attempt to convince the boy to drop out of school.

Even though we eventually won our case which is highly unusual when social services declares the father to be a pedophile, the most depressing element was that the judge presiding over this trial became aware that the senior social services youth officer was committing perjury, and that the court appointed legal guardian of the children was aware of this perjury yet remained silent, yet the judge never criminally sanctioned his "colleagues" with whom he worked for many years in the family court system. The deputy legal advisor for the ministry refused to get involved in our case. And our expensive attorney who initially promised that he would advocate that they be charged with contempt and perjury, eventually backed down by saying that we should just be extremely grateful for the outcome.

The corporate opposition was led by huge electricity consumers who smelted metal. They advocated hidden subsidies with surreptitious government backing. I lost my case, but still the Ontario Energy Board, where the hearing took place, awarded me costs. I published an op-ed in Canada's then newspaper of record The Globe and Mail. As I got older, I came to the realization that this hearing was a God-given life changing experience that taught me how a single individual could successfully stand up to corporate and government corruption, as can be seen by my subsequent experience throughout my life.

Bottom line, a meditative state is achieved when your brain wave frequency is about 5 Hz, i.e. 5 beats per second or 300 beats per minute. If you can count to 5 in your mind every second of a clock for at least 15 consecutive seconds, or follow a metronome app that is set to 300 bpm, then you are in a deep meditative state. The better metronome apps usually provide both sound and visual feedback. Here is an excellent free Android metronome app. The best learning technique is to synchronize the sound and visual feedback. Initially most people can handle 180-240 bpm. With practice you can achieve 300.

Another, but indirect meditation technique, is via your phone's pulse app, typically measured by monitoring the blood flow through your finger or thumb by shining the camera's light into it. A pulse of 54 or less is indicative of deep meditation. You will need to control your breathing in order to achieve this low pulse rate.

1. vigorous exercise, both aerobic and muscular

   • intensive aerobic exercise for at least 20 minutes 3x per week which floods the hippocampus with blood which GENERATES new brain cells; where intensive means 75-90% of your theoretical maximum heart rate, i.e 220-YourAge; for example if you are 70 then your theoretical maximum is 150=220-70 bpm; I personally engage in 30 minutes of intensive aerobics 5x per week at 85% of my theoretical maximum heart rate

   • daily walks for 15-30 minutes, ideally 2x per day

   • daily stretching or yoga

   • lift weights that exercise various muscle groups that are heavy for you, 2x per week which increases bone density and can reverse osteoporosis; do 2 sets of 6-10, where the second last lift in the set has achieved muscle exhaustion, so the last lift relies upon tendon assist; requires rest/recovery of 3 days in order to prevent tendon injury

     • consuming calcium rich foods or medication, which are stored in your liver, cannot be absorbed by your bones unless your bones first send a hormonal signal to your liver that it needs to repair a break
     • microscopic tears of tendons on the bone surface generate such a signal
     • lifting a weight with tendon assist after muscle exhaustion causes such a microscopic tear
     • see how the reversal process works

2. proper diet

   • monitor glucose and cholesterol levels with regular blood tests, i.e. every 3-6 months

   • regularly drink lots of unsweetened water; I prefer to add a few drops of natural lemon juice; lack of proper hydration substantially reduces cognition

   • eat fish with omega-3 fatty acids (the elixir of the brain), and limit meat consumption

   • eat raw fruits and raw (or lightly steamed) vegetables, especially those with anti-carcinogenic properties; also see Angiogenesis inhibitor

   • eliminate consumption of sugar and artificial sweeteners; most people find cinnamon to be a good sweetener substitute while at the same time it reduces your glycemic index; stevia is also good

   • limit alcohol and caffeine consumption

   • limit milk consumption, except for a daily portion of non-sweetened probiotic cultured yogurt

   • don't smoke

   • control your weight which helps to regulate blood pressure and limits joint pains

   • limit salt consumption which causes most people's blood pressure to increase; instead try using new spices such as turmeric, ginger, or garlic powder, etc.

3. proper sleep habits

   • at least 7 hours of night time sleep

   • take an occasional nap

4. cognitively challenging activities

   • play a musical instrument

   • juggle

   • skip rope like a boxer, or learn ballet

   • play chess, or bridge, etc.

   • learn a new topic

   • read an intellectually challenging book

   • keep a journal or blog

5. meditation

6. prevent loneliness; connect with family and friends