Planet X

Recently there has been much hyped-up speculation regarding the imminent arrival of Nibiru, the supposed 10th planet in our solar system. It is predicted to travel very close to Earth sometime between late March and early April. Tagging along for the ride are a few smaller planets and a whole bunch of asteroids, which are going to pelt the Earth and destroy most of it through causing earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and whatever other natural disaster you want to throw in there.

I have to admit that I fell for this prediction. Once I found out about it, I became obsessed with the thought that the end of the world is coming, and what I was going to do about it. When I found out enough info, I told my husband, preparing myself for his predictable cynical reaction. “The world is going to end in a few weeks!” I told him, trying to sound as legitimate as possible. He just looked at me for a few moments, trying to decipher if I was serious, or trying to play some kind of prank on him.

He decided that I was serious, as he knows my track record of naivete. He put his hands on my shoulders. “The world is not going to end,” he responded, not so reassuringly. I could tell that he was starting to get concerned about me. “Here, read this,” I said, as I clicked on the first website I could find on my google search.

Big mistake. The home page popped up with a big picture of a red planet and a drawing of a freaky-looking alien with fangs and an impossibly long neck smiling back at us. “Welcome Aliens!” was plastered along the top of the home page. “I’m not crazy!” I blurted out, before he could say anything. As I tried to pull up another more reputable-looking page, he began making spooky alien sounds. “The aliens are coming! The aliens are coming!” he began yelling hysterically. I ignored him while trying to find a website he would actually take seriously. I tried to find a website that I would take seriously.

In the end, I gave up. He didn’t believe me, and I was convinced he was the crazy one. I had many questions. Why were there no big Rabbis talking about this? Why wasn’t this event foreseen by any Kabbalist? Why aren’t all the Gedolim telling the Jews around the world to urgently make aliyah, because the world is about to be destroyed, but Israel will be saved?

I went to Rav Brody with my concerns, and he graciously answered me. Deep down I wondered if he also thought I was crazy. Probably. “The only thing you need to be concerned with is strengthening your emuna and your connection with Hashem,” he answered me. “And get yourself some psychological help, lady,” I thought I heard him mutter under his breath.

He was right. It made me feel a whole ‘lot better. I decided the world wasn’t going to end, after all. But I needed proof. So I started searching. Indeed, I found my proof. I came across a website that totally disproved the prediction of Planet X coming. It turns out Nibiru was predicted to swing by the Earth in 2003. When that didn’t happen, people changed their predictions to 2011. When that didn’t happen, they again changed their predictions to 2012. Now we’re on to 2016.

Just a logical question, here: astronomy is a very advanced science. Astronomers can easily predict, based on the distance and speed of any object in space, when it is supposed to arrive at a certain point. So how is it possible that we got it so wrong? Three times??

So here’s what I realized. This Planet X sci-fi thriller is accomplishing one very big goal for the Other Side. It’s diverting our attention away from our mission in life!

Like I wrote in “WMD’s,” the Other Side uses Weapons of Mass Distraction in order to keep us from focusing on what’s important. It doesn’t have to be a dramatic end-of-the-world threat that pulls our attention away from the essential purpose of our lives. TV, movies, social media, internet, etc., are all weapons of the Yetzer to keep our minds occupied with things other than Hashem. FYI – trying to convince your 38,239 friends on Facebook that Hashem exists does not count as kiruv!

Finally, my head came back down to planet Earth. I rationalized that even if the Planet X threat were real, then what could I have done about it? Either I was slated to survive or I wasn’t. What’s the point of worrying about something completely beyond my control?

Furthermore, how can I have emuna when I’m walking around with all kinds of negative thoughts and fears filling my head? Can I honestly say that I’m in a positive state of mind, when my mind is in fact filled with fears about the future?

It doesn’t have to be as extreme as a Planet X threat. Just watching the news makes people obsessed with some type of doomsday prediction. Whether it’s the impending stock market crash, China’s unstable economy and stock market, will the Fed raise interest rates again, the increase in terror attacks in the U.S., ISIS is spreading like a metastatic infection throughout Europe, natural disasters occurring all over the world, the Middle East is ready to explode, Russia is the new world superpower, did I miss anything? Oh, yes – who will be the big winners in this year’s Oscars??

We have two choices. Either we can be busy worrying about the end of the world, or busy worrying about how to strengthen our connection with Hashem.

The Other Side has set up a very cunning and subtle trap. It’s not easy to keep focused on what our main mission is in life. Somehow, we think everything we’re exposed to in some way relates to our main mission. Unfortunately, we’re fooling ourselves.

The only two things we need to be worried about are strengthening our emuna and doing what we came here to do. If we’re busy worrying about the sorry state of the world, we’re missing out on both.

Rav Lazer Brody’s advice? Don’t worry about things you can’t control. Just focus on your emuna and living as a Torah-observant Jew.

Easier said than done, I know. Much easier. The only solution I can give you is this: disconnect from all WMD’s as much as possible! If you need to be online for work, limit your interactions to strictly business-related ones. If you don’t have any work-related reasons for going online and having a smartphone, you don’t need them! I am a living example! I don’t have a smartphone. I have a ghettophone, and it works just fine. That is, as long as I don’t text anyone. It takes me an hour to text one sentence because I have to type each number five times to get the right letter. Even my kids make fun of me.

There is absolutely no reason for having a television or watching Hollywood movies. These just destroy your brains, and your marriage.

I guarantee that your minds will be clearer and less zombified if you disconnect from the garbage. Your emuna will go through the roof when you stop virtually injecting the mass media’s poison, otherwise known as “negative consciousness,” into your bloodstream. And, who knows? Could it be possible that much of the anxiety, OCD, depression, ADHD, and a long list of other disorders might have something to do with our brains being bombarded by constant negativity? Hmmmm.

On the other hand, it could be that the snake-fanged aliens are secretly beaming all of these disorders into our brains from their parallel universe in the seventh dimension, as they enjoy a big laugh at our expense while having us plastered  across their giant flat-screen TV’s. Some “Twilight Zone” music would be great right about now…

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Feel free to send Racheli your questions, particularly in the areas of marriage, dating, child-rearing and women's role; write her at racheli@breslev.co.il