Loving you- Va'etchanan Nachamu 2011

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

August 5^th 2011 -Volume I, Issue 38–12^th of Av 5771

Parshat Va’Etchanan/ Nachamu

 

Loving You

It’s a funny thing this thing called love. It’s hard to describe. The dictionary defines love as- a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. But anyone who has ever felt true love knows that it is an emotion that really can’t be put into words. What’s even stranger about love is that sometimes it can strike at the most unexpected moments. Last night as I went in to check on our one year old sleeping infant, and found him curled up in a little ball with my yarmulke perched on his head and my necktie- I had been looking a week for- crumbled up in his hand as he was snoozing away, I just stood there for a few minutes overcome with that feeling of total love. Why? I don’t know-I can’t explain why that yarmulke and tie mean so much to me. I just know that I love them… just jokingJ (sorry I couldn’t resist).

But jokes asides, our kids more than anyone elicit these feelings within us. We want to hug them at different moments out of the blue. Hold them close. Go on great trips with them. Show them how beautiful life is… how beautiful it can be-particularly in Eretz Yisrael. I have started our summer family Tiyulim and I can just sit back and watch all of these beautiful families around me basking in that love and all of that energy that parents are making to share the beautiful world with their children. The kids however? Not so much- as my children would say. How much longer? Can I have an ice cream? This is soooo boring… Why do we have to shlep around so much. Even worse are the older ones with the headphones implanted in their ears. They are in your car and with you on your trip in a twilight zone/alternate universe type of way. Their bodies are there, but their brains and souls have been captured by an alien ipod electronic god that slowly moves their heads to and fro every so often to the rhythm of a tune that has something to do with love.

But we love them anyways. We can’t explain why. It’s strange. Imagine if we someone just showed up on our door one day, demanding to be fed, cleaned up after, laundered for, educated, put to sleep and entertained as well- for free. They were cranky, impatient; they fought with your other children and in general stressed you and your spouse out- sometimes even bringing the two of you to serious disagreements (a nice word). How would we react? With love? Do you think you would sit by their sleeping bed at night and just gaze in their beautiful face. Yet, if they’re our own children it all changes. A funny thing this love. But there’s certainly nothing more special and more desired in this entire world.

One would think with the unique nature and mystery surrounding the origin of this love, that it would be a hard thing to force or even command someone to have. It has to be something that comes naturally and unexplainably-not something that we can expect to elicit on our own if it is not there. Ye,t as Jews we know that perhaps the two greatest mitzvot we possess are the mitzvot to Love your friend as yourself- maybe because he is your friend it is easier (an interesting aside- the literal translation of the verse in the Torah is your friend-Rayacha, not like the more common mistranslation or wrongful Christian paraphrase of love your neighbor-which it does not say in the Torah- although there’s nothing wrong with loving him as well.) But perhaps even more troubling is the mitzvah in this week’s Torah portion which we read twice daily in the Shema-

And you shall love Hashem your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your possessions.

How can we be commanded to love God? Isn’t love something we either have or don’t? I can understand the mitzvah to revere or honor God, to obey Him and even to relate to Him or imitate His ways as we are taught. Those are mitzvot that demand an action. But how does one elicit an emotion? We can’t exactly stand over God’s crib and bask in His beauty. What does this mitzvah mean? We recite it twice a day. It’s probably worthwhile to understand what it’s all about.

The Sefat Emet- the Rebbe of Ger suggests a very deep insight based on our questions. He seems to agree that it would be difficult for us to be commanded to have an emotional feeling for someone or something. One either has it or doesn’t. Therefore he concludes, it must be (and you can close your fist and stick out your thumb and swoop it up in the traditional yeshiva Talmudic motion) that if Hashem commanded it, we must already be programmed to have that emotion- to have that love. Loving our Creator is hardwired into our psyche. It’s there. It is in fact at the core essence of who and what we are- in as much as being a parent possesses having that same sense for one’s child. Being a Created being with a Divine soul means having an innate natural sense of overwhelming love for our Creator.

The problem with love though is that if it’s not expressed it gets buried and forgotten. If a parent never takes those moments to spend and focus on the love they have for their children, they can and will get so caught up in all the distractions of life to ever experience perhaps the most beautiful part of being a parent. If they never tell their children how special and important they are and how much they mean to us-not only will the children suffer, but we ourselves will be missing out on building and growing that incredible feeling and essence of life. It is in that vein Hashem commands us to express that inner self and love for Him. This is so that we may bring out the core of our souls. So that we may appreciate all that we are meant to be and feel.

With this understanding we can explain the beautiful, yet haunting story we read on Tisha’a B’av of the great sage Rabbi Akiva, who as his body was being ravaged by the Romans with iron combs declared to his students how he could withstand such torture.

“My whole life, I waited for this opportunity to declare my love for Hashem and now that it has come to my hand can it be that I will not fulfill it?”

And with the words of the conclusion of Shema he passed.

Rabbi Akiva was certainly not someone who had a death wish. He lived, enjoyed life and accomplished so much and had so much more to accomplish- more than any of us could ever hope to experience. So what does this perplexing statement mean? Perhaps the answer is as we have suggested. Rabbi Akiva was telling his students, that his whole life he wanted to experience this part of his soul that possesses such great love for Hashem even to the point of giving up one’s life. –to paraphrase and old love song- I will die for you , I will walk the world for you, everything I can do I will do for you. He waited his whole life to feel and express that powerful level of love which he knew was latent inside of him. At the end of his life he finally had the chance. His last lesson to us was how much and how deep that powerful love could be.

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Nachamu. It is the Shabbat after our intense mourning for our Temple that has still not been rebuilt. It is a time to remember that as we left and saw our Temple burning the Talmud tells us that the last image we saw was of the two cherubs embracing on top of the Ark- a miraculous phenomena- leaving us the most important message, as we left into our long bitter and distant exile. Hashem loves us even with all we have done. We had forgotten how much He meant to us. We had forgotten who we could be and what we could feel for Him. But He always- like a parent to a child- has that love for us. Sometimes we need to be far away to remember that love we had. Sometimes only losing that special person reminds us of how much they meant to us. May Hashem finally comfort His nation and return us all once again to His loving embrace so that we may once again truly feel the beauty of being His special children.

May you have a Shabbat filled with love and comfort,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

TEL FACHER/MITZPEH GOLANI- a small hill top in the golan heights, yet its its story of bravery and sacrifice are eternal. In 1967 this hill was the large post of the syrian army from which they terrorized the halutzim in the lower hula valley. On the last day of the six day war. The israeli army finally decided to capture this mountain top and finally do what it could to provide the security its farmers and their families ( many who had to until then sleep underground). They had only 24 hours to take this mountain top which was on a sharp treacherous incline covered with mines and barbed wire and and protected by Syrian soldiers with AK47’s from above. The hilltop was first airbombed – they exact target was beautifully marked for them by the Eucalyptus trees that were planted by the Syrian trees on the advice of “Our Man in Damascus” Eli Cohen, Israel’s heroic spy), however because the trenches and bunkers were so deep and so fortified they withstood the assault and the mountain had to be taken by a man to man uphill battle. 32 young soldiers , some 18 or 19 years old, from the Golani brigade, lost their lives capturing the mountain. Many of them in extreme acts of heroism including lying down on the barbed wire as their comrades climbed over them. Yet in the end with Hashem’s help we were victorious yet a steep cost. This is a an important site to visit as we pay our respects by the monument there to those who gave their lives for our great nation

The Gift?-Devarim Tish'a B'Av 2011

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

August 5^th 2011 -Volume I, Issue 37–5^th of Av 5771

Parshat Devarim

 

The Gift?

I was jealous of them. I know it doesn’t make any sense. But they had something I desperately wanted. Something that I have been trying so hard to get…to feel…but they had it. And because of my special gift - our special gift- I can only look back at them and hope and wish I could feel the same way. Let me share with you my thoughts.

I spent the afternoon today in the world famous Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv- Beit Ha’Tefutzot. The museum, the only other one besides Yad Vashem which is a National museum, chronicles 2000 years of Jewish Exile. Whereas most museums show artifacts, artwork and are there to display its articles of history and culture, Beit Hatefutzot is more about the story and our people rather than the displays. How they lived, how they adjusted, how they wandered, how they survived and persevered, yet what spoke to me the most, was how they remembered. From the moment one walks through the broken walls of Jerusalem, as you enter the museum, until you leave and see the picture of the re-conquered Israel, through the image of a menorah, one fees that there was a constant sense of  our people looking back. Each place we were exiled to…each shul we built… every wedding chupah… every prayer we said…every Tisha B’av- for 2000 years no matter what or where- we looked back. We mourned. We cried. We wished we were home.

As I watched footage of the Holocaust, I remembered all of those stories of those who walked to the chambers singing Ani Ma’amin- I believe that Moshiach will come and redeem us. They understood how desperately we needed to be home. The Jews living in England, Spain, Portugal Italy Japan, the Netherlands, China, all places where we were expelled or persecuted knew that we were only meant to be there because we couldn’t return home. We were a displaced people and the world was our DP Camp, and no matter how successful we were and how integrated and assimilated we became- there always came a time when we were reminded of this. When we were forced to remember once again how far we really were from where we needed to be. Berlin was not our New Jerusalem, Poland was not our Po-Lin (the euphemism used by Jews at that time which means -here we will reside) and Mother Russia was a lousy foster parent that nobody should ever suffer.

They knew what we were missing. They didn’t have Eretz Yisrael and in some way, as I have been trying to work on my feeling of mourning for our Temple and our loss, I was jealous of them. For me it is so much harder to feel that loss that I know we are supposed to be mourning now. I live in Eretz Yisrael- the land they all dreamed of stepping foot on… of kissing its earth and of breathing its air. I have the gift and miracle of dwelling once again in our Holy land. It feels so good. It feels too right. But it’s not. Yes, we are home but is it the home we were meant to have? We’re in the right address. There’s even the faint taste and feel of the holiness that once saturated its midst. But it’s not what it was meant to be. And I know I should be feeling it more.

I thought about the Holocaust survivors who went back to their homes after the War and then quickly fled. They knew it was no longer theirs. The memories were there. There may have even been remnants of their past existence. But the thought of living in such a place that once possessed so much life and so much love that was now merely a tragic mausoleum of death, hatred and pain was repugnant to them. It was too painful to even conceive.  So they left-many to Israel. Others to try their fate in a safer or what they thought was a more welcoming environment. I understand their reaction. But do I understand mine?  Do I feel that same pain when I come to the place of the Mikdash- to the Western Wall- today a home empty of the Shechina that once was? Or do I just feel lucky to have this small gift that we have been given and feel so satisfied and blessed that I have forgotten the glory and longing for the Temple and of our Father that were once here.

The Kotel, Jerusalem, our Return, the State of Israel are meant to be reminders to us of how much we are missing. The books of the Prophets tells us that upon the building of the 2^nd Temple by Ezra, less than a century after the destruction of the first Temple, there were some amongst the Jewish people that rejoiced and some that cried. The younger generation who had never seen the 1^st Temple rejoiced. “Wow the Temple is back- Har Ha’Bayit Bi’Yadeinu”. But the older, wiser generation who had seen the first Temple, who remembered the miracles, who had felt the perfect, delicious harmony of Creation that was experienced when the Divine presence still dwelled in its original home, wept at the site of the cheap imitation. They mourned their generation that seemed satisfied with so little; that didn’t know or understand how much they were missing. Can you imagine what they would have done if they would see how great we feel with just a remainder to the outer wall of the Temple mount? What they would think of us who live in a world where it is so hard to shed a tear that because we feel we are already home.

But we have our gift. We have something our ancestors for millennia wished they could have and in truth we have to feel blessed as well. Yet, on Tisha B’Av and in this entire three week period of mourning we have to remember and focus on what we don’t have. Perhaps this is the reason why on Tisha’a B’Av we spend our day going through our own liturgical Beit Hatefutzot. We read about our exile and we are meant to tap into and feel the longing and pain of all the generations from the time of the destruction. All the horrors, all the communities, all the martyrs, all the pain and all the suffering-it’s meant to awaken us to the consequences of the root of what happens in the imperfect world that we have not yet been successful in restoring. We are closer than we have ever been to finally achieving the final redemption. We are standing here under the place of where the glory and spiritual center of the world once shone forth and we can light the world once again by just shedding those tears and asking our Father to return. Your gift was only the wrapping paper. We are still waiting for the prize. We want You back. We are so close, yet still so very far. Hashiveinu Hashem- Please return us. Vi’Nashuva and we will cry and mourn and then we can rejoice. Chadeish Yameinu Ki’Kedem- renew our days…give us the longing and restore us like the generations of old. May this coming Shabbos Chazon and Tish’a B’Av finally be the day when we truly receive the real gift we are waiting for- the gift of You.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

MUSEUM BEIT HATEFUTZOT—TEL AVIV- see above for more details. The museum located at Tel Aviv university has incredible displays of synagogues from throughout the Diaspora, Jewish lifecycles, community structures, the culture, ideas and the highs and lows of each of our places of sojourn in this past 2000 year exile. It is an incredible museum for all ages. The museum also offers tours geared to groups, bar mitzvahs and it is even a great place for non-jews that are seeking to see and understand what Jewish life and its people are all about.