Kedoshim 2011- Love Mirrors

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

April 29^th 2011 -Volume I, Issue 27–25^th of Nissan 5771

Parshat Kedoshim

 

Love Mirrors

 

I'm not a mirror person. I don’t' make funny faces at myself when I come out of the Shower or when I shave. Come to think of it I don’t really shave hmmm but I probably wouldn't anyways. I certainly don't check myself out as I get dressed and squeeze into my pants or Shabbos suit. Certainly not after 7 days of Pessach when Matzoh balls, Matzah lasagna, Potato Kugels and briskets never seemed to stop finding their way to my plate. No, mirrors are not a good thing.

 

On the other hand I always liked those funny mirrors. Particularly the ones that make you really tall and thin. Now that's something I wouldn't mind having in my house. If they could only invent  worth investing in.

 

Joking aside though I believe that most of us would probably suggest that the Torah perspective on mirrors and self-absorption with ones looks and ones self would probably be quite negative. Yet interestingly enough quite the opposite it would seem is true. This weeks Torah portion which is all about the mitzvot that would mandate and guide one to living a holy life -Kedoshim Ti-Heyu- Holy shall you be- contains within it the oft quoted Golden Rule.

V'ahavta L'Rayacha Kamocha, Ani Hashem- You should love your neighbor as your self, For I am God.

The great sage Rebbe Akiva makes the powerful statement that this mitzvah is a fundamental and encompassing rule in the Torah. Yet it is interesting to note that the Torah states as the benchmark and pre-requisite seemingly for this mitzvah a healthy sense of self- love. For the mandate to loving ones neighbor it seems is linked at its core with "as your self". If you don't love your self the Torah is telling us you can't or won't successfully be able to love others.

 

As a Rabbi, counselor, husband and father I have found this idea to be extremely powerful and challenging in many different ways and areas. I have seen so many who have been raised with an unhealthy sense of guilt in their lives that have such a sense of worthlessness and absorbtion over their mistakes, flaws, and baggage that no matter how incredibly righteous and incredible I try to convey to them that they are. They have a hard time looking in that mirror and seeing the person and tzadik I see. It is to them that the Torah suggests look at the mirror of love. As a husband and a parent so often we can judge or expect our spouses and children to be as perfect as we want our own mirror picture to look and unfortunately we aren't looking at our true internal mirror of them that reflects the truly incredible nature that is so present in our own hearts. We focus on the negative and are looking at distorted mirrors. You can't love like that and you can't create love without first appreciating the most significant primordial love of self first.

 

The School of Slobodka in Europe in the 1800's perfected the method of self love that is the greatest expression of this principle. As the Alter of Slobodka would say "Each person is precious because they contain the image of God". To denigrate one's self is to denigrate the God who created you. To love oneself in appreciation of the Divine nature that one contains is to love Hashem. It is to love our Creator and all of his Creations.

 

We have begun the period of Sefirat Ha'Omer-the 7 week time frame between Pessach and Shavuot. It is during this period of time when we are told that the 24,000 students of the great Sage Rabbi Akiva died. The Talmud tell us that this was as a result of them not properly fulfilling the mitzvah of having the greatest love and respect for one another, their Rebbe's greatest principle. It is non-coincidental that this took place during this time of year. For it is at during this period of time when our ancestors first discovered their own self- worth and love. Leaving the bitter down trodden and persecuted slavery of Egypt we journeyed for 49 days until we became the Nation that merited to achieve the most monumental revelation of Mankind's history. We saw and heard our Creator and we entered into that eternal covenant of love. The days of the counting of the Omer are meant to be the days of building up our own self-worth so that we may see within ourselves that Holy image of our Maker and that we may then be able to reflect out His message of love and self worth to all that will shine in that light. We've all received a powerful gift this Passover in this inner light. Now we just have to find it and hone it and start gazing in that mirror. Who knows you may even feel brighter if not lighter.

 

  

Have a special Shabbos ,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-
TIMNAT HERES-KIFL HARES- THE BURIAL SITE OF JOSHUA BEN NUN THE STUDENT OF MOSHE WHO LED THE JEWISH PEOPLE INTO THE LAND OF ISRAEL. YEHOSHUA WAS GIVEN THIS CITY AS A REWARD FOR NOT SPEAKING BADLY OF THE LAND ISRAEL IN THE INCIDENT OF THE SPIES. TOGETHER WITH CALEV BEN YEFUNEH - THE OTHER SPY AND JEWISH LEADER WHO SPOKE WELL OF THE LAND AND YEHOSHUAHS FATHER NUN THEY ARE BURIED IN THIS SMALL ARAB VILLAGE IN THE SHOMORON (BIBLICAL PORTION OF THE TRIBE OF EPHRAIM :)) JUST NORTH WEST OF THE CITY OF ARIEL
TODAY IS THE YAHRTZEIT OF YEHOSHUA BEN NUN AND IT IS ONE OF TWO TIMES A YEAR(THE OTHER BEING THE TENTH OF TEVET) THAT JEWS ARE PERMITTED TO COME INTO THE VILLAGE TO PRAY BY THESE GRAVES.  THERE ARE SOLDIERS POSTED IN FRONT OF EVERY ARAB HOME FOR PROTECTION FROM 10:00 PM UNTIL 4:00 AM THE TIMES WHEN WE ARE ALLOWED TO GO.I WAS THERE THIS EVENING TOGETHER WITH OVER 10,000 JEWS INCLUDING THE CHIEF RABBI OF ISRAEL AND MEMBERS OF THE KENESSET AND IT WAS TRULY INSPIRING.
THE MEDRASH TELLS US THAT WHEN YEHOSHUA CAME INTO THE LAND OF ISRAEL THEY STOPPED AT OUR FOREFATHERS GRAVES AND PRAYED PERHAPS IT IS IN THAT MERIT THAT WE ARE STILL ABLE TO GO TO THEIRS THOUSANDS OF YEARS LATER.

RABBI SCHWARTZES COOL YOUTUBE LINK OF THE GRAVE OF YEHOSHUA GATHERING A FEW YEARS AGO!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ0Y9TyCNKs

Shabbat HaGadol- Acharei Mos- Greatfully Proud

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

April 15^th 2011 -Volume I, Issue 26–12^th of Nissan 5771

Parshat Acharei Mos/ Shabbat HaGadol

‘Great’fully Proud

I’m so proud of them. It was only 10 months ago that we were living in Seattle Washington. My children were all “Americans”. Hebrew was a subject some of them struggled with in school, certainly not one they enjoyed speaking. They lived in a culture that had baseball, two car families, large houses, backyards, English books, magazines, radio and videos. A country that ran on dollars and cents. And in one day their lives changed.

 They moved to a place where their teachers didn’t understand them. They had to sign language their friends to make them understand them. They sat through hours of class barely knowing what subjects they were learning. No Baseball. No radio they could understand. Money that looks like it came out of a monopoly set and learning brand new forms of entertainment that included marbles, nuts, little rabbi flipping cards, elastic “Gummi” bands” and for my one year old, tully,- stray cats. But they have persevered. They have transformed. Dare I say, they have even flourished. They can all speak Hebrew at different levels now. My three year old Elka, being the first that is actually thinking in Hebrew as she expresses herself naturally many times in Hebrew words. Video computer games are a thing of the past they barely remember. They love playing in the park walking around and shmoozing with friends and my oldest Shani can negotiate sal eprices in shekels in the store with the best of them. My American baby’s are growing into Sabras, and not a day goes by that I don’t have nachas from every one of them. {Bli Ayin Harah- phew phew phew}

This Shabbos, being the one before the holiday of Pesach is called Shabbat HaGadol the “Great Shabbat”. The commentaries attribute different reasons for this title. Some explain that it commemorates the first Pesach in Egypt when the tenth of Nissan, the day of taking the Paschal lamb, fell on the Sabbath. There is also the great Haftorah from the prophet Malachi that speaks of the "great day" and the great zayin that appears in that Haftorah that symbolizes the 7^th day. But the truth is that the title is granted to this Shabat simply because of its association with the holiday of Pesach. The holiday when Hashem showed us how special we were and proud he was of us.

What is the greatness of this holiday? It is the first of our Jewish holidays. Each holiday and each Shabbos we recall in our Kiddush Zecher Li’yitziat Mitzraim- the memory of our Exodus from Egypt. Yet for all the plagues wreaked upon our enemies and miracles performed for us the holiday’s name Pessach/Passover, which notes how during the final plague God passed over our houses and killed only the Egyptian first born, remains the incident by which the holiday is recalled. What makes this seemingly minor detail in the plethora of the wonders and great picture of our Exodus after 210 years so significant? The great Magid Rav Yackov Galinski suggests that the word skipping over Pesach (which incidentally is phonetically similar to the word doorway or opening -Pessach with a Taf) is meant to note the great love Hashem had for us. The Talmud tells us that Hashem says to the Jewish people

“Pischu Li Pesach Ki’Machat-open up [your hearts] for me an opening the size of the eye of a needle- and I will open up towards you the size of a banquet hall.”

All year around, all Hashem requires from us is a small tiny step towards Him to return… to achieve forgiveness… to receive all His blessing. On Pessach though, Hashem skipped over even that opening- that Petach. He picked us up and saved us out of pure unconditional love. The love he felt for our ancestors and our forefathers is what we recall each year. Hashem saw the greatness within us, beyond the 210 years of idolatry and assimilation that we engaged in while being enslaved in Egypt. We barely had the strength to do more than walk out of Egypt, let alone accept the commandments and the entire spectrum of leading the world as a nation and becoming the representative of the Almighty who redeemed us. Yet Hashem saw within us that spark of greatness and for all times recalls what the prophet says was

Chesed Neurayich-Lechtech Achari BaMidbar- the kindness of our youth and the faith we had in leaving what was our sovereign nation for centuries and moving forward to the Land of our Forefathers.

It doesn’t cease to amaze me here in Israel. The stores are all full of Passover products. Neighbors of mine who are not necessarily observant all year around are all cleaning their homes for Pesach and even eating outside as their homes are ready “Chametz-free”. To a large degree the State of Israel is a secular one- yet it is at times like this when we see that it is an incontrovertibly Jewish one. Underneath all of the fights and the assimilation Klal Yisrael remains the Nation that Hashem has chosen and is proud of. The overwhelming majority of this country will sit down with their families and recite the Haggadah, drink four glasses of wine, eat matzah and tell their children the story of how we became a nation. Pesach is when all the sins, lapses and disappointments of the whole year are skipped over. It is the holiday of love and our greatness. For over 3000 years we have never forgotten it and until today it is the time when all can come home.

 The prelude to that Pesach is this Shabbos. The Shabbos of greatness. To quote  Rabbi Berel Wein “

Greatness is an emotion that comes from self-confidence and self worth. Great people have always felt within themselves the beat of greatness. Greatness presupposes a feeling of being special, of importance and purpose.”

As I am proud of my children and how far they have come and how much they have accomplished since they have left their birth country and moved up to the land of our forefathers. How much more so must our Father in Heaven feel as He looks down upon his children’s Pesach Sedarim? It is a night when we can and should tell our children how much they mean to us. How important their questions are and how important their stories are. It is a night when Hashem as well skips over all of the past and just wishes to hear our stories, praises and love as well. There is no greater night when we can bask in our greatness and feel that special beat form within us. May each of us merit to celebrate this Shabbas and the Pesach with joy, love, peace and inspiration.

Have a GREAT Shabbos and a  joyfully inspiring Pesach ,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

Cool Passover Videolink of the week-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIxToZmJwdI&feature=youtube_gdata_player