Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
May 8th 2014
-Volume 4, Issue 29-8th of Iyar 5774
(24th day of the Omer-three week and three
days!)
Parshat Behar
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 then 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 6th
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 50th year, the Yovel jubilee.
The first one since the times of the 1st 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 a precious Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
**********************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL QUOTE OF THE WEEK
" And you should sanctify the fiftieth year, and
proclaim liberty throughout the land …”"
-The Liberty
Bell (and this weeks Torah portion J-so much for
separation from State)
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE
WEEK
(answer below at end of Email)
The New Testament account (or fableJ
-comment my own) "healing of Tabitha" by Peter took place -
a) Emmaus
b) Yaffo/Jaffa
c) Casarea
d) Jerusalem
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL GEMATRIA OF THE WEEK
Many
of our great sages see in the verses that discuss the Shemitta and particularly
the Yovel 50th Jubilee year
as being hints and the secret of our redemption and return to Israel as it is
quite explicit that the exile is as a result of the non observance of these
mitzvos. One of the more interesting Gematriot I saw is that the verse
"יובל הוא שנת החמשים
שנה תהיה לכם ‘It is Yovel, the fiftieth year it
should be for you
Is the same Gematria as the prophecy
of Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah who our Haftorah tells us was imprisoned in the pit in
the kings palace before the exile and who Hashem gave the ultimate consolation
prophecies to that says that once again it will be heard in Yehuda and in the
streets of Yerushalayim
קול ששון וקול שמחה קול חתן וקול כלה-"The sound of Rejoicing and and the
happiness the sound of a groom and a bride" Both their
gematriot equaling 2078. Just as Adam and Eve were once one and were separated
and come together in marriage again. So do is Yove lwhen each man returns to
his home a reunion like marriage. May we see the ultimate reunion and
redemption and return of the Shechina to our holy places.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE
WEEK
Har Bental-high
up in the Golan, at 1700 meters above sea level, Mt Bental stands out as a
beautiful and historic place in Israel. It has incredible overlooks of Syria,
the Golan and the Hermon and what has been called the "Valley of
Tears-Emek Habacha" underneath it. The valley is called that after a
fierce battle in the Yom Kippur war when we were outnumbered by attacking Syrians
10 to 1. Yet heroically our soldiers stood their ground fighting blindly in the
night, jumping from burning tank to burning tank, in what can only be referred
to as a miraculous battle until we regained this highly strategic site.
The mountain is called Bental which is translated as the son of dew because it is smaller than its counterpart in the called Avital- father of dew. "dew" to the 60 mm of dew that falls a year there. There is another volcanic mountain as well nearby called Ortal the light of dew, which is kind of nice until you think about the father, the son and the.."Light?" hmmm who named these things anyways? There is a nice cafe at the top of the mountain humorously called Coffee Anan after the former UN general (anan in Hebrew meaning clouds as well-it's an Israeli play on words). There are all types of bunkers and lookouts over here that you (or your kids) can walk through as you get a feel for what the experience must have been. All in all a classic Golan heights site.
The mountain is called Bental which is translated as the son of dew because it is smaller than its counterpart in the called Avital- father of dew. "dew" to the 60 mm of dew that falls a year there. There is another volcanic mountain as well nearby called Ortal the light of dew, which is kind of nice until you think about the father, the son and the.."Light?" hmmm who named these things anyways? There is a nice cafe at the top of the mountain humorously called Coffee Anan after the former UN general (anan in Hebrew meaning clouds as well-it's an Israeli play on words). There are all types of bunkers and lookouts over here that you (or your kids) can walk through as you get a feel for what the experience must have been. All in all a classic Golan heights site.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL ACAPELLA YOUTUBE CLIPs OF THE
WEEK
During Sefira the custom is not to listen to any instrumental
music thus the development of cool acapella genre of jewish music here's a few
cool clips…
Shemitta in Israel coming up check out the prep…
A New Maccabeats
from my friend Rabbi Klatzko Boi Kalla
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S JOKES OF THE WEEK
Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellman's
mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the "Titanic" was
carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz,
Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after New York
City. The Mexican people were eagerly awaiting delivery and were disconsolate
at the loss, so much so that they declared a national day of mourning which
they still observe today.
It is known, of course, as...Sinko de Mayo.
****************************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ' S EXAM ANSWER OF THE WEEK
Answer is A:
Yeah as readers of my
weekly Email know I'm not a big fan of Christianity and its stories-although I
know plenty of nice Christians-don't get me wrong. But in our course we had to
learn all of the great stories in the new testament and of course every place
that all the "miracles" took place. Not surprisingly most of the
stories in their Bible and almost all of their "miracles are pretty much
replicas of what our prophets and tanach stories already have. They pretty much
copied them. Anyways Peter was one of the J-Mans students who fascinatingly
enough I have heard according to some interesting reliable Jewish sources
(although controversia See Machzor vitry student of rashi and kol bo as well as
WikipediaJ) that he actually repented and in fact was the author of the
Nishmas prayer we recite each Shabbos. Anyways again-see how much I try to
digress on questions like this- he healed this sick woman in…Yaffo. Actually
the story is he raised her from the dead-like Eliyahu and Elisha both
did-except they really did it. Yaffo is a big Peter city incidentally big
church there dedicated to him as well. Aren’t you glad you know that now?
.
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