Shabbat Blessings-Vayechi

Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"

  December 17^th 2010 -Volume I, Issue 11–10th of Tevet 5771

 Shabbos Blessings

I love Shabbos. I don't believe that I could even envision my life without that special day of the week. It's not merely the fact that I get to finally turn of my cell phone, my car, my running and weekly hassle. In fact I’ve probably worked harder on Shabbos than I have during the week. Torah reading, speeches, leading services providing inspiration and insights to my shul, were all part of the job of being a Rabbi  back in Seattle and Boruch Hashem here in Eretz Yisrael once again I have been blessed to start up again. (Come on over and visit our Young Israel of KarmielJ!). My love for Shabbos is also not as much predicated on the satiation of my delicious Rebbetzin's chulent or my homemade hand grated potato Kugel obsession, although, I probably couldn't imagine my life without those as well. To me Shabbos is most about that special time when once a week I can join together with my family, friends and community and bond and delight in one another. And perhaps most significantly it is the time that I truly feel that I can connect most with my Creator. It is our special day together.

One of the most special highlights for me on Shabbos is on Friday night as I sit down to my meal. After welcoming the holy angels, that our tradition tells us come to offer a blessing each week, I recite the Aishes Chayil- Women of Valor song composed by King Solomon, as an expression of the gratitude I have for my wonderful wife for being my partner in all I do. I then call my children together one by one and I offer them my weekly Shabbat blessing. The blessing I offer them is the same blessing that The Kohanim-the priest would give to the Jewish people in the Temple.

"

May Hashem bless you and guard you. May He enlighten your face towards Him and give you grace. May He lift your face up to Him and may He grant you peace."

This is a beautiful heartfelt moment and prayer that I cherish. It was something I always cherished when I would receive it from my own father (and still get whenever I'm lucky enough to be in Detroit, along with my own children who also receive Zaidy's blessing) and I hope and pray that their children will do so as well. Interestingly enough though, there is one more part of this weekly Friday night blessing that doesn't seem to have such a moving significance and and is in fact quite perplexing. I refer to the introduction that I utilize before the blessing my son, one that draws its source from this weeks Torah portion.

As we conclude the  1^st Book of the Torah the Book of- Bereishis we have come to the end of the Era of our Patriarchs and Yaakov is preparing his final blessings for his children. As he does so he also calls the children of his son Yosef, Menashe and Ephraim together and blesses them as well and bestows upon them the status to be considered as two of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Torah then quotes Yackov millennia ago reciting the words that I use as well for my weekly blessing.

And He blessed them saying By you- Becha- should Israel bless their children saying "May God place you like Ephraim and Menashe." And he placed Ephraim before Menashe

Following that directive of Yackov I bless my children and echo those same words, asking Hashem to bless my sons as Ephraim and Menashe.

The commentary's all struggle with the question of the significance of those two children in that all Jewish fathers since that time have been blessing their children with their names and that aspiration. I'd like to share with you two meaningful ideas that I believe shed light on this.

One beautiful approach suggested by the Ethical masters of the Novardok schools of Mussar in the early 19^th century is that these two brothers are seemingly the first pair in the Torah that we are introduced to that don't show any sign of jealousy for one another's preferred role and status. Cain and Abel, Yitzchok and Yishmael, Yackov and Esau, and even the twelve tribes and Yosef all seem to struggle with their stature and status in their family. Here for the first time though we find these two brothers and what do you know they get along. The Medrash tells us that Ephraim was the more scholarly of the two (And I'm not saying that just because like his nameJ) yet he does not feel jealous of his older brother’s Bechor –first born status. Even more revealing and explicit we see that Yackov goes out of his way to lay his right hand on this younger brother placing him first and yet there is no outburst from Menashe that imaginably we would expect to hear of. “Hey that's not fair! I'm the older one." They are in fact united.

The Rabbis point out that the blessing itself even alludes to that suggested  intent in the Torah’s usual subtle, yet grammatical way. The word which Yackov and the Torah utilizes to describe the blessing for all time is Becha Yevoreich Yisrael -In You-singular form-rather then the Bachem plural form- Should Israel bless their children. They were not jealous of one another, because they saw themselves as one. Just as one hand is not jealous of the other hand that may have the ring upon it. So too these brothers saw themselves as united in their mission and love of one another. It is that idea and wish that we bless and pass over to our children, that they should feel that same sense of love and utilize it to overcome any feelings of jealousy of one another.

The second idea, which perhaps draws itself in the merit of their feeling of love and unity, is that these two brothers merited to become much greater then what their potential would ever have been able to been. Centuries before these brothers were born there was a prophecy and vision that there would only be twelve tribes. It was a closed game. There was no room for anyone else to get on the court and to ever aspire to join those ranks. 12 was always seen as the magic number. Yet here we have these two brothers that were able to go beyond what was ever humanly foreseeable and achieve the lofty and eternal status of becoming a portion and tribe by which all of the Jewish people would be descended and would create its future from.

It is that blessing as well that I pass over to my children each Friday night. That they too one day will merit going beyond their foreseeable potential, becoming an everlasting eternal source that will light the world and have great merit.

So as we get closer to Shabbos I look forward again to this weekly blessing. It is on Shabbos perhaps the most when we have the freedom and ability to move beyond our own preconceived spiritual potential. It is the time when we can also put behind ourselves our competitive edge in our race to succeed in life and appreciate and even love the accomplishments of others. There are no greater blessings then those which we give our children and receive from our parents and forefathers than the ones we receive on this day. Come lets’ experience them together.

Shabbat Shalom U'Mevorach,

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RABBI SCHWARTZ BEGAN HIS TOUR GUIDE TRAINING COURSE THIS WEEK AND I WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU WOULD JOIN ME EACH WEEK BY LEARNING ABOUT ONE NEW PLACE IN ISRAEL AS I SHARE WITH YOU MY NEW POST 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

MEARAAT MURBA'AT- THE SQUARE CAVES-  AFTER AN INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL HOUR HIKE DOWN THE MOUNTAIN AT NACHAL DARGOT (OR DARJA)  WE ARRIVED AT A CAVE WHERE LETTERS WRITTEN BY SHIMON BAR KOCHVA TO HIS GENERAL WERE DISCOVERED FROM ALMOST 2000 YEARS AGO AT THE TIME OF THE REVOLT AGAINST ROME
HERE'S SOME PICS FROM WIKIS HEBREW PAGE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_Murabba'at
click on the hebrew link to see pictures.