Kvetching-behaloscha 2013

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

 

May 24^th 2013 -Volume 3, Issue 30–15^th of Sivan 5773

Parshas Behalotcha

Kvetching

 

Manny is pretty pleased with himself and calls his neighbor over,

“Hey watch this. I taught my dog some new tricks.”

He picks up a tree branch, throws it, turns to his dog, and says “Fetch!”

The dog then immediately lies down, and starts complaining,

“I’m tired and hungry, I didn’t sleep well last night, my dog house needs a new roof, I can’t run as fast as I used to...

“Hey,” asks the neighbor,” what’s he doing?”

“Oh” said Manny” he must’ve thought I said Kvetch!!”

 Yes, kvetch. An ancient Jewish tradition it seems. The stereotypical old Jewish mother kvetching about her children not calling, the Jewish son kvetching about mom kvetching too much, the cycle has been continuing from time immemorial. Kvetching has become such a prevalent word that Microsoft Word’s spell check doesn’t even put a green line under it to correct it as a foreign word in this email. Let it not be said that we have not left our imprint on America.

The Torah portion this week of Behaloscha is probably the one that most qualifies as the Parsha of Kvetching. We find various incidents of the Nation, fresh from their grand revelation of Sinai, bound for the land of Israel incessantly despairing, whining, and yes; kvetching.

Chapter 11:1“And the nation was complaining and it was bad in the eyes of God”

Chapter 11:4 “ And the rabble that was among them cultivated a craving, and the children of Israel also wept once more, and said “ who will feed us meat? We remember the fish we ate in Egypt… the cucumbers and melons…But now our life is parched we have nothing to anticipate but Manna’”

 11:10 Moshe heard the people weeping of / to their families (Rashi commenting notes they were upset about the forbidden relations prohibited by the Torah)

 11: 18-20 To the people you shall say “Prepare yourselves for and you shall eat meat for you have wept in the ears of Hashem….Because you have rejected Hashem who is in your midst…”

Yes, a parsha of kvetching, but one with severe consequences. We are told of a fire of God breaking out in the camp, a mighty blow being struck against the people and of meat eating until nausea, eventually leading to death.  I’m sure many of us might relate to a certain amount of kvetching and might even feel a little bit sympathetic to the Jewish people. After all haven’t we all had one of those days?  Hashem’s punishment certainly seems a bit extreme.

The Ohr Hachaim the 18^th century Sefardic commentary and leader was also troubled with this question. He suggests that although to us it may seem like simple kvetching. To Hashem who knows the inner thoughts and desires of a man, the Jewish nation effectively was renouncing a life of the spiritual connection to the Almighty for the baser illusory pleasures of this world. The enthusiasm of the “Naaseh Vnishmah- We will do and We will hear” uttered on Sinai (from which they had only departed three days prior),  that could’ve only come  when one has an appreciation of true fulfillment in life, had been  replaced with an abandonment of our Divine role in humanity. How would the world reach its high spiritual expectation if the Nation of God wasn’t able to reflect a sense of appreciation for how overwhelmingly satisfying our relationship with our Creator can be?

 We are not the Nation that left Sinai merely three days ago. We have been through much pain, suffering and persecution as we wandered these past millennia through our Exile. Perhaps we have a lot that we can legitimately even kvetch about. Yet the secret to the eternality of our people is that we were always ready to recognize and appreciate that there is nothing more precious than being that special nation of God and come what may there is nothing worth relinquishing our heritage for.

 Rav Moshe Feinstein one of the great sages of the last generation once commented that that the reason why we have lost so many Jews to assimilation and un-affiliation in Post- War America, perhaps even more than any other generation since the destruction of our Temple, can be attributed to the lack of this sensitivity.   While many parents from the “old country” came over and were still observant and connected to the heritage of their ancestors. When it came to conveying that sense to their children, they failed. Many children unfortunately heard the oft quoted statement “Isz Shverrer tzu zain ah Yid- It’s tough to be a Jew”. If only the message would have reflected that which is said in our morning daily prayers and what so many of our forebears knew and sang even as they were led to their certain deaths.

Ashreinu Ma Tov Chelkeinu UMa Naim Goraleinu –How fortunate are we and how good is our lot and how beautiful is our portion.”

Yes, we may kvetch but let us never lose focus of that incredible precious lot and heritage that we have and may we successfully be able to convey that to all our future generations.

 

 Have an absolutely amazing Shabbos

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZES QUOTE OF THE WEEK

 "Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do."- Benjamin Franklin

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 RABBI SCHWARTZ YOUTUBE LINK OF THE WEEK

COOL Jewish music video in my old hood..(Tzur yisrael)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBLW9a3tVhk

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RABBI SCHWARTZES TOUR GUIDE COURSE QUESTION OF THE WEEK

 (answer below)

Where was the first power plant in Israel located?

(a) Naharayim

(b) Haifa                                                                                                                             

(c) Tel Aviv

(d) Afula

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

Misgav Am- located up north in the Galile panhandle the "Etzba HaGalil" and just a stones throw (literally!) away from Lebanon, Misgav Am definitely qualifies as a cool place to visit. Besides the incredible views of the Hermon, Lebanon, Syria, the Hula valley and on a good day even the Mediteranean,(!!!!), the guides at this visitor center Aryeh and Betzalel are two of the most incredible people you can meet. In their radical, funny and yet rife with life experience filled way they invite their guests to understand what life in Israel on the border is like.You are bound to be inspired with their Zionism and sacrifice and amazed at the strength of the Jewish people in sticking it out in this most critical part of our country.

 

Answer is C- This is a trick question once again. But one I got lucky on. The knee jerk answer of course is Naharayim which is the most famous power plant and the first to be powered by water right by old gesher and built by Ruttenberg in the 30's. However the first power plant was actually in Tel Aviv and it was diesel powered. I knew the answer to this question because I had managed to come across it the night before when I was studying old exam questions. I mentioned it to a few people as well before the exam (just by "chance") and they also got the right answer. Hashem was on my side J.

A Sight to See- Bamidbar/ Shavuot 2013

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

May 9^th 2232013 -Volume 3, Issue 29 –29^th of Iyar 5773

Parshas Bamidbar/Shavuot

A Sight to See

He was the general in the war for the sanctity of Jerusalem. A student of the Ktav Sofer who was known for battling the "enlightenment movement" in Austria-Hungary in the 1800's waving the flag of authentic uncompromising Judaism, Reb Yosef Chayim Sonnefeld fought the new battle in the old city of Jerusalem. The new secular Zionists had begun to come to the country in the first three Aliyah's and they were not just bringing the dream of a return of the nation to its land- they were looking to create a new Jew as well. Torah was out. Tradition and rituals were all images of the old persecuted "ghetto jew". The new Jew would never be subject to ridicule and scorn again. He would become a people like all other people, a nation like all other nations. The battle ground was in the holiest city of the world and both sides were digging in. Leading the Old Yishuv, Reb Yosef Chaim, valiantly fought the battle with edicts, posters, bans and demonstrations- your typical Jewish battle. 

The opposing Zionist camp was split between the secular new-comers and the religious Zionists led by no less of a figure than the first chief Rabbi of pre-Israel Palestine Rav Avraham Kook and his students who felt that the anti-religous camp should and could be partners in settling the land and co-operation was the way to achieve the goals of a religious State rather than opposition. (some things even a century later seem never to change…). The battles were fierce and sometimes even got bloody. Yet unlike modern times, Rav Kook and Rav Sonnenfeld had a deep relationship and mutual respect that transcended their political battles. Perhaps it was because they both shared so many common loves; Torah, Eretz Yisrael and perhaps most of all Klal Yisrael. They each understood that despite their differences of opinion upon the right path to bring redemption to the land and the proper way with which to deal with these new challenges to the sanctity of the city, each one was knew that the other was only acting for the sake of heaven and out of love for the Jewish people.

Once, the story goes, Reb Yosef Chayim was leaving Sha'arei Tzedek hospital with his student Rav Moshe Blau, when they bumped into a whole parade of young men and ladies marching in their blue and white, certainly not dressed or behaving in the typical "old Jerusalem" modest style. It was a display of the new generation and their anti-religious ideology and Rav Blau knowing how much pain the Rav would be caused suggested heading back inside. Instead, Rav Yosef Chaim told his student, “They are Jewish children, aren’t they?”

As the youth marched by, singing their songs, Rav Moshe noticed that Rav Yosef Chaim’s lips were moving steadily, as he murmured something softly to himself. Rav Blau moved closer and he heard his rebbe saying the following verses:

“May Hashem add upon you – upon you and your children! Blessed are you to Hashem, Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 115:14,15).

He repeated these verses of blessing over and over again, until the last child in that long procession had passed.

This week we begin the fourth book of the Torah the story of our wandering in the wilderness. The book of Bamidbar commences with the commandment for Moshe, the great leader and his brother Aharon to count the Jewish people. Literally count the Jewish people… Tribe by tribe, family by family… individual by individual. The Jewish people at that time numbered 603,550 and that is only the men between the ages of 20-60. Can you count that high? How long would it take you? Now imagine the most important people in the world, Moshe, who had gone up on Sinai and spoke with God face to face, split the sea, the ten plagues, Aharon the high Priest, who enters the Holy of Holies and achieves atonement for the entire nation, meeting each and every Jewish family. Wow! It would seem that this was a pretty inefficient system. Imagine what Yisro Moshe's father-in-law who helped establish the Jewish bureaucratic system (which we still suffer from today…) would have said. Was there a shortage of people that couldn't do this kind of leg work for our leaders? The 13^th century sage Nachmanides who poses this question asks "I don't understand this purpose of this commandment, Was it really necessary to know the number of the entire Nation?"

He answers that the significance of this event was not necessarily in the mere counting. Rather it was in the meeting and the count. Here's the scene-

"Honey, will you get the door I hear someone knocking- I hope it's not those collectors again- I just gave to the Tabernacle and sacrifice fund last week… If it is, tell them mommy's not home."

Ummm, Mom… I think you should come to the door…

Why? Who is it…?

I really think you need to see this mom… it's Moshe and Aharon…

I'll be right there…

They said they want to see everyone…all of us…

I'm bringing the camera…"

To quote the Ramban once again, the purpose of the count was so

"The one that would come before the Father of all prophets and his brother the sanctified of God will have a merit and life… each will have their special number given to them by Moshe as he places his eye upon them for good, and will beseech mercy for their family and bless them "May Hahem increase you 1000 times and may your numbers never falter…"

It is with this mitzvah that the Book of our wanderings in the wilderness begins. It is perhaps for this reason we refer to is as our book of Numbers/ the counting. Each Jew had their special number given to them by Moshe. They knew they were special. Moshe and Aharon visited them, knew who they were and met their family. Hashem was with them. They knew they were not going to be merely "wandering". They were going on their journey of a lifetime, with Hashem, with Moshe, with Aharon, as the people and nation of God. After that family meeting with Moshe they were ready to conquer the world.

This week we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot that momentous occasion when we became that Am Segualah, the precious nation of Hashem. For me one of the highlights of this special holiday the past few years has been to go to the old city of Yerushalayim. Before the sun rises at around 5:00 AM the streets fill up with 10's of thousands of my brothers and sisters heading to the Kotel for the morning holiday prayers. It is like days of old,  almost…(except as I pointed out to my children in the Temple times there were sacrifices being brought and thus these same streets were filled with animals as well and the smell of BBQ) .  As the Kohanim step up to the platform and bless us, I feel like I am transported back to that moment when we were chosen. And as I look around at the crowd I take it all in. So many different Kippa's, so many different backgrounds, from all over the world, from across the religious and non-religious spectrum, yet we are all here. "Yosaif Hashem Aleichem" I think, "May Hashem increase your numbers, Blessed are you Hashem Maker of Shamayim and Aretz". May He return all of His children once again to His home.

 Have an absolutely amazing Shabbos

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ SHAVUOS JOKE OF THE WEEK

With Shavuot arriving soon, the Hebrew school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the fifth commandment, '"Honor thy father and thy mother," she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?'

Without missing a beat, one little boy answered, "Thou shall not kill."


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RABBI SCHWARTZES QUOTE OF THE WEEK

 

"If you can smile when things go wrong,

you have someone in mind to blame." ANONYMOUS

 

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 RABBI SCHWARTZ YOUTUBE LINK OF THE WEEK

Reb Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld on Zionism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oPdUUEFkaM 

Rare live footage of Rav Yosef Chaim and Rav Kook together

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYPBUphWP0

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RABBI SCHWARTZES TOUR GUIDE COURSE QUESTION OF THE WEEK

 (answer below)

Which of the following settlements was founded first?

(a) Motsa

(b) Petach Tikva                                                                                                            

(c) Rishon LeTzion

(d) Zichron Ya'akov

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

Nachal Gilabun It's Tiyul season and there is no place like in the Golan heights, Nachal Gilabun the southern-most Nachal in the Golan that streams into the Hula Valley is a great few hour hike with beautiful waterfalls for the whole family. Best of all it's free. One can also take a short detour to the nearby ruins of the Talmudic city of Kfar Devora and walk through the ruins of what was a large city. If you look through some of the ancient houses you can see, and oil press,lintels with birds and fish and coolest of all is ancient synagogue which had on its lintel "this is the beit medrash of Reb Elazar Ha'Kfar". What is even cooler is that Rabbi Elazar Hakfar is quoted in Avot  D'Rabbi Nasan as saying " Be not as the topmost doorpost, which no hand can touch, neither be as the lintel against which men strike their heads, neither as the raised step over which men stumble, but be as the threshold which all cross over. The building crumbles, yet the threshold remains. How cool is that perhaps it is the humility of that teaching that caused it to be the only remaining remnant that mentions the word Beit midrash from that period!

 

Answer is A or B?- This is another question where I'm not sure what the correct answer is I wrote Motzah because technically Motza was purchased in the 1850's by a Baghdadi Jew and in the 1870's a chaan/inn was built there however the settlement started in 1890's. I think however the answer they were looking for was Petach Tikva which is known as the Eim Ha'moshavot/mother of all settlements which was founded in 1878. So technichally the settlement started there first although motzah which is built on the ancienct temple period ruins where they actually found idolatrous temple items recently from the time do the second temple was purchased first. In Motzah as well as the ancient synagogue which is really not that ancient as it dates back only to the late 1800's. and was the former ch'aan are ancient springs from where the Talmud tells us they would bring Aravot/willow branches in the time of the mikdash for the service on sukkot in the Temple.

Back to the (near) Future-Behar/Bechokosai 2013

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

 May 3^rd  2013 -Volume 3, Issue 28 –23^rd of Iyar 5773

Parshas Behar/Bechukosai

Back to the (near) Future

The year is 2014 or 5775 from the Creation of the world. You as well as all of the Jewish people are living in Israel. Mashiach has arrived. You sold your diamond business, your neighbor gave up his accounting practice and pretty much everyone you know had to find some new trade to get into, except of course that falafel guy down the block. We were back home again, and now it was time to find a job.

You had thought about being a tour guide, particularly because there was a huge influx of tourists from around the world who wanted to see the new Messianic kingdom and Temple. But you heard that there was this guy out of Karmiel, that pretty much had cornered the market on tourism J. So, being an entrepreneur most of your life you checked out the market and realized that the two major upcoming industries were cattle raising and agriculture. See, lots of people had a lot of sacrifices that they had to bring for all of those years in exile; sin offerings, peace offerings, thanksgiving offerings and the like. Being that you really can't stand the smell of cows and you've always had this funny nightmare about sheep attacking you (perhaps too many years of counting them before you went to sleep), you decided that you were going to be a farmer. You always liked gardening and being from the biblical portion and tribe of Issachar, the Jezre'el valley where you received your allotted land was just perfect to start your wheat field. Things were good.  This year in fact you received a bumper double crop. Your wife couldn't be happier. You might even be able to add on the extra room of the kitchen that she had been hoping for. And than you went to class last night and everything changed.

You like your Rabbi. He's a good guy and very knowledgeable. Tribe of Yisachar people kind of pride ourselves on our Torah scholars. But last night the Rabbbi announced that this coming year, our business was to be shut down. No planting, plowing, or reaping. In fact he said we pretty much had to open up our gates and let whoever wants to come in and take whatever they wanted. Something about this year being the Shemitta year. Now don't get me wrong, I love these Yissachar Kollel Rabbis as much as the next. I always support them, have contributed whenever asked and have been meticulous about my annual tithes. But a full year free-for-all with everyone and their 10 kids trampling through my beautiful, hard worked fields and cleaning me out is getting a bit carried away, don't you think? If that wasn't enough, the next thing he said really through me for a doozy. All those loans that I had so generously made over the past few years to various individuals were all to be called off…nada…gornisht…bupkas. It kind of feels like one of those old Ponzi schemes back in the States. The Rabbi informed us that, sure in the period of Exile or even the second temple the great Hillel was able to work out some type of Prozbol loophole where the debts were handed over to the courts and were collected afterwards. But that was because back then not all of the Jewish people lived in Israel and the nature of the prohibition was only Rabbinical. But today Baruch Hashem- he said with a big grin- we are blessed to have all of the Jews living here, just as the Torah predicted and Hashem wanted it to be. Therefore no more Prozbol…no more debts... no more money…no more crops…no more extra room off the kitchen. Maybe we can send a few Jews back to America… Russia… Ethiopia… India… My wife is not going to be a happy camper. "I told you that you should just have gotten over your meshigas and gone into the sheep business"- I can just hear her already. 

The year is 5825 from creation (no one knows what 2064 anymore). Over fifty years ago your grandfather moved to Israel with the coming of Mashiach. This past year was the shemitta year and it was an amazing year. As in the years past the crops that you had from the 6^th year carried over and lasted for the whole year. It was exciting to experience that incredible miracle. It was fantastic in the beginning of the summer to read Parshat Behar/Bechukosai and hear about that promise and guarantee Hashem makes and watch it actually occur. The Sabbatical year is perhaps the most essential one of your family's life. It was nice being able to tell all those people that owed you money and were not able to pay you back not to worry about. Their slates were cleared. Hashem was in control and you had no doubt that you wouldn't lose out and would probably see some miraculous return. You were able to take off from work, pray at a later minyan in the morning (you really never got used to that getting up at sunrise work ethic that your grandfather had established) attend classes, visit Jerusalem more often with the kids, enjoy some fantastic tours around the country from this really special tour guide in Karmiel and just luxuriate in that extra time growing spiritually…in that extra room off the kitchen.

You felt kind of bad for your buddy in the sheep industry who worked all year and could never enjoy the beauty of the Shemitta year. For you it was like trying to imagine a week without Shabbos. You could never do it. You had heard that there were people in the "old days" that would work 7 days a week and you could never understand it. I mean like...why? It was obvious that Hashem provided for everything and all that you would have was decreed on Rosh Hashana each year. I mean, here you were taking off a whole year and were doing even better than ever. Why would people miss out on the beauty of Shabbos? How could they really ever focus on God and their family if they were working all week long. You barely can imagine how life life would be without this year off. This year for yourself…your family…for Hashem.

This coming year 5826 was even more exciting for your family. It was the 50^th year, the Yovel jubilee. The first one since the times of the 1^st Temple, when all Jews lived in Israel. This year would be able to give back all those lands that your family had purchased over the past decades to the original owners. You might even get back a few yourself. It was going to be another year off and you were looking forward to seeing the great miracles from your crops and sharing them once again with all who wanted. Maybe you would final fulfill that lifelong dream of finishing that semicha/rabbinic ordination you were thinking of doing years ago. The highlight of course was Sukkot when millions of Jews, men, women, children and even infants would all converge on the holy city to hear the king read from the Torah in the Temple court. Although we did this every Sabbatical year, this year was bound to be even more spectacular. You're getting shivers down your spine, just thinking about this amazing gathering, the festivities and just being together with the entire Jewish people as a whole, just like we were by Sinai so many millennia ago.

Somebody told me on the way to shul today that the word Yovel/Jubilee comes from the word Hovala- to transport. Each Jubilee year we fulfill what the verse tells us- "It is a Yovel, and it shall be so unto you. You shall return each man to his ancestral heritage, and you shall return each man to his family." If on the Shemitta year we remove ourselves from any sense of ownership of the land of Israel, recognizing that it is all from Hashem. During Yovel we are transported back to that experience of Sinai. In the times of our ancestors all slaves would also be freed in the Yovel year. It is a time when we truly experience our freedom in its entirety. You think about all those poor generations before you, that were slaves in Egypt, slaves to the Babylonians and Romans, and most significantly and tragically slaves to their jobs, their silly and mundane pursuits and slaves to the various pre-occupations, temptations and distractions of those last societies of our Exile in the USA, Europe and even in the pre-Messianic State of Israel. You can't imagine how people lived in those days. How much they must have longed to be where you are today. What they would have given to finally be free. You raise your eyes up to Hashem, who you are so familiar and close to, and you thank your Father in heaven. It is so good to be home…

 Have an absolutely amazing Shabbos

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ FUNNY TOP TEN LIST OF THE WEEK

A Texan is visiting Israel, and feeling thirsty, he stops at a house along the road. "Can you give me a drink of water?" asks the Texan.
"Of course," says the Israeli, and invites the Texan to come in.
"What do you do?" says the Texan."I grow wheat," says the Israeli.
"Really?" says the Texan. "I'm also a farmer. How much land do you have?"
"Well", says the Israeli, "out front it's fifty meters, as you can see, and in the back we have close to a hundred meters of property. And what about your place?"
"Well", says the Texan, "on my ranch, I have breakfast and get into the car, and I drive and drive...and I don't reach the end of the ranch until dinnertime."
"Really," replies the Israeli. "I used to have a car like that."
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RABBI SCHWARTZES QUOTE OF THE WEEK

 

"This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to part from it again. To our Arab neighbors we extend, also at this hour—and with added emphasis at this hour—our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples' holy places, and not to interfere with the adherents of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety, and to live there together with others, in unity" -Moshe Dayan June 7^th 1967

"Har Ha'Bayis Bi'yadeinu, Ani Chozeir, Har Habayit biYadeinu(The Temple mount is in our hands, I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands)"-Mota Gur Israeli Paratrooper
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 RABBI SCHWARTZ YOUTUBE LINK OF THE WEEK

Reb Shlomo carlebach on when mashiach comes..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBvIzzes1zc

An in honor of Yom Yerushalayim

The return of the kotel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l1ol69rRxo

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RABBI SCHWARTZES TOUR GUIDE COURSE QUESTION OF THE WEEK

 (answer below)

The Jacotin Map refers to?

(a) The Crusader Period

(b) Claremont-Ganneau's survey                                                                       

(c) The map prepared by Raymond Weill's assistant in the city of David

(d) Napolean's travels in the land of Israel

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 RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

Lion's Gate-Jerusalem 1967on the 7^th of June or more appropriately the 28^th of Iyar (this Wednesday)  it was through these North Eastern Gates that the paratroopers entered the old city to restore the Temple Mount and kotel to our nation. The gates were built by Suliman (who modestly called himself the Magnificent) in 1517. According to legend he dreamed that he was being attacked by lions as a punishment for not fortifying Jerusalem properly and he installed the stones that were remnants of Beibars the Maluk ruler in the 13^th century that had the lions engraved upon them (his symbol). Truth is if you look carefully the symbol is really a Cheetah, But we won't pay much attention to the small details. The lion is the symbol of the tribe of Judah and therefore Jerusalem being the capital calls it a lion… so it’s a lion.

 

Answer is D- Naploean's entry into Israel is one of the more colorful asides of the history of our country. In his world conquest vision Naploean wanted came up from Egypt on his way to India in order to establish a coalition against the British. After conquering Gaza, Jaffa, and Haifa Naploean was unable to conquer the city of Akko that was ruled by the Ottaman/Druze Leader El Jazzar "the butcher". So he headed back down the coast slaughtering all his prisoners and his own soliders that were going to make the travel difficult. Thousands were lined up by the coast of Jaffa men women and children and killed by bayonets or drowning in order to save on ammunition. He was just that kind of environmentally concerned person. The map of Jacotin is one of the first of its kind of Israel using modern measuring instruments… not that I care… or that you can see it anywhere in this country… I got this question wrongL…and I really do not understand why anyone should have to know this to be a tour guide…