Insights
and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
December 28th 2018 -Volume
9 Issue 13-20th of Tevet 5779
Parshat
Shemot
Looking
for a Leader
So it's that time of
year again. The Arabs have stopped killing us for about five minutes or so. It
happens every now and again. (Note – how I said have stopped killing us not
stopped trying to kill us- you have to read my words like Rashi to fully
comprehend their depth- trying I don't think has ever stopped.) So in
honor of the occasion and in order not lose that small window of opportunity,
my blessed brothers here in this country of ours have quickly decided to call
for elections, in order to increase fighting, divisionism, and in general
hatred and vitriol between Jews. We don't get these chances often. Usually we
have to hide in bunkers together and declare solidarity with our soldiers and
support for the Government as we stand united against our enemies who seek to
drive us into the sea. We all daven together, attend funerals sadly together,
we see hareidi men going out to bring support to our front lines, visiting
hospitals, we even have leftists not
hugging so many terrorists and actually even upon occasion condemning violence
and not calling for us to vacate our homes. We're together and it's kind of
awkward for many here. So at moments when we have a break, tragically we fall
back to our far too familiar and comfortable traditional default status of Jew
vs. Jew. Welcome to 2000 years of exile.
So in honor of the great occasion it I felt it
behooves upon me to offer up some of my recommendations for candidates for
Jewish leadership. I know many of you are clamoring for me to take that
position. But frankly, Jerusalem gets me kind of dizzy, I like it here in
Karmiel and I'm scared if I became prime minister I wouldn't have the time to
share with you my weekly missives, And then what would you do? Now I know the
pickings are slim out there in the running. There's not that many people in
office or running for office that you feel you can trust not to sell you, your
family and our country down the road for the opportunity to have a photo-op
with a US president in the rose garden. Heck, there's probably no one you would
even trust to babysit your pet rabbit. That being said I believe that the
Torah's wisdom can share with us some really important insight into the types
of people that Hashem choose for leadership. Some of their qualities, experience
and strengths and let's see if we can kind of like-you know one of the Facebook
"see-what-type-of-biblical-leader-you-are" type quiz's that they send
you. Plug in the info and see who we come out with it.
So let’s start, as this week's Torah portion
does, with perhaps our greatest leader, Moshe Rabbeinu. Would you back his candidacy?
What do you think his chances would be of taking office? Now if I were asked to
become his political campaign consultant- a job that I think too many Israelis
feel they have- I would probably say that we would have to engage in an ancient
Palestinian tradition of historical revisionism. Let's start from the
beginning. First of all, the Jewish people are in a crucial critical moment. We
have been persecuted in Egypt for quite a long time now. Babies are being
thrown into the Nile, we are being forced and whipped into devastating slave
labor and we have lost all hope. It's time for change. Nothing like a good
crisis to kick-off a campaign. Enter one Moshe Rabbeinu. Nothing like a new
fresh face to step in and save the day. Except, problem one, he's not really a
new face. See Moshe is the adopted grandson of Pharaoh. In fact, when the verse
tells us that Vayigdal Moshe and Moshe became great, Rashi quoting the
Midrash notes that he was appointed to be Pharaoh's chief of staff, His
Goebbels if you like. Hmmm… that doesn't seem to be something to put on his
resume, although there is quite a tradition in this country of party leaders
switching party’s affiliations and ideologies regularly. It's not something you
generally play up, although we can certainly work with it and describe it as an
awakening that he had.
OK, what's next? So the Torah tells us he went
out to his brothers and in fact gets himself into a street fight with an
Egyptian that is beating up a Jew. That wouldn't have been too bad, although it
is quite radical, it would've probably played out better if he had just
mediated and convinced him to back down, but it certainly shows a sense of
willingness to get his hands dirty, which people generally like. But then he
actually killed the guy, even worse he buries him in the sand to cover it up.
Even worse he gets himself into another fight with two Jews fighting-never a
good place to be, and word gets out and he is in fact arrested for the murder
of the Egyptian and sentenced to death according to the Midrash. Now we
certainly have important political figures in this country who have gone to
jail. And perhaps we might even be able to sell the notion that why should we
wait until after they are in office to send them to jail, Moshe served his time
before hand already. But murder is kind of a harsh black spot to have on your
resume.
Moshe flees, before they can kill him and the
Midrash fills in the blanks over the next forty years or so of his life. Let's
see maybe he can overcome these challenges to making him electable. So first
off the Torah tells us that he comes to Midian, and once again it seems this
guy can't seem to get off trouble. He sees some women getting harassed by some
shepherds and does the whole JDL thing again. The woman that he saves is
incidentally the daughter of the Pope of the world at that time, Yisro also a
former adviser and collaborator of Hitler/Pharaoh. Moshe marries his daughter,
who incidentally according to the Midrash might have been a Kushit or
African-American (although there were no Americans…what do you call them…hmmm
Colored…? Negro…? Black? Any politically correct options?) How do you think
that would fly in Boro Park, Lakewood or Bnai Brak? I mean but let's leave the
race card alone for a bit, but the Popes daughter?! Really? To make matters
even worse for his campaign, the Midrash tells us that he eventually made it
big there in Midian and became the ruler of the country there. Imagine the
former king of Saudi Arabia running for Israel political office. Now I know
former oil magnates make it big in the States, maybe pitch this as the
Bush/Obama blend Oil meets African American…hmmmm…
Finally, the Torah tells us he ends up as an
eighty year old shepherd running around with sheep in the Sinai desert. It is
there where he comes to his real "found God...Halleluya"
moment. Except it also doesn't seem to work out well. Rather than an expectant
Moshe who we would hope would stand up for the Jewish people by the burning
bush and jump at the opportunity to rescue them from their persecution and
near-annihilation. Moshe tells Hashem "Who am I to take to go to Pharaoh
and can I take out the Children of Israel from Egypt?" and as Rashi notes
Moshe said,
"Even if I am significant why is Israel worthy that a
miracle should be done for them and that I should take them out of Egypt".
I hope they don't have any video of that
conversation to release to channel 2. In the following week of discussion about
him "running for office”. The Torah spends an inordinate amount of time
and ink telling us how reluctant he is to take this job. He offers up his
brother, Aharon as a candidate instead, he is extremely skeptical of whether
the Jewish people will believe him or not. He almost seems oblivious to the
fact that the entire time this conversation is going on "the trains are
still heading to the Egyptian Auschwitz".
Perhaps
the final faux pas comes when after Hashem finally convinces him to take
the job and he comes to Pharaoh and he fails to convince him to release the
Jewish people and the work is doubled on the Jewish people and the local Jewish
Biblical Times are already condemning this radical that has just stirred up the
pot, Moshe loses it. He turns to Hashem and protests.
"Why have you done bad to the people and
why have you sent me? From the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in your
name he has harmed this people and you haven't saved your nation".
Now remember this is Hashem here. The Master of
the World. Yet Moshe right after the first crisis seems to fall apart and seems
ready to head for the door. Can this really be the true leader of the Jewish
people. Oh by the way did I mention he had a lisp as well and forgot to circumcise
his son on the way into Israel. Ohhh the Jewish tabloids will have a field day
with this election campaign. Let the blogging begin.
The truth is I don't think the Jewish people
would ever have a more unlikely leader than Moshe (although King David is a
very close second). It is perhaps precisely because he is so unlikely though
that Hashem chose him and he became the greatest leader of our people of all
time. In fact, our sages tell us that if not for Moshe we would never have been
able to leave Egypt, not ever received the Torah, no other individual who ever
spoke to Hashem "face-to-face". The Zohar on a very deep level even
tells us that there is a spark of Moshe in each and every Jew; The spark that
is in the most unlikely of spots and the spark that will always connect us to
the greatest of heights; to our redemption. What is that spark? What does is
look like?
The Torah tells us the one thing about Moshe
that was unique was that he was the humblest man on the face of the earth.
Humility is not a feeling of inadequacy; it's not a feeling of wimpy-ness or a
lack of appreciation of one's greatness. Humility is the recognition that I
exist, and my power to accomplish is all only because it is the will of my
Creator. I am nothing without Hashem and everything with Him. There is no 'God
and I' there is only a "Moshe Moshe" -without the hyphen in
between- that Hashem calls out to him from the bush as; A Moshe soul up above
that has absolute clarity of the existence of Hashem how there is nothing that
happens that is not His will, and a Moshe below that mirrors that exact
sentiment and who's every fiber is governed by that.
Moshe doesn't see a difference between Egyptian
fighting a Jew, a Jew fighting a Jew or some Midianites picking on the Pope's
daughter. The will of Hashem is that truth and goodness must prevail. He
doesn't even see Jews in Egypt's persecution as being worthy of redemption
initially as they are meritless, until Hashem tells him that it is his will to
take them out to bring them to Sinai. There's no black and no white, only
Hashem. Once Moshe recognized that it is the will of Hashem to take them out he
will even challenge Hashem based on His own will. Why then have You sent me, it
is Your name. You told me it is Your people. Let the party begin. That's our
candidate. That's our leader; The unlikely person who views his entire
existence as that of being an Eved Hashem-literally a servant of Hashem
who cannot do anything, but for the will of God.
We need a Moshe today. We have had enough politics
and poli-shticks, enough agendas, enough campaigns and enough fighting. Ritzoneinu
Liros Malkeinu- We want to see our King. Moshe within 50 days of us leaving
the lowest place where Jews can fall was able to raise our nation up to the
highest level of our entire existence. Because it was never about him, he was
nothing and therefore he became everything. We knew that. We felt it and we
were thus inspired to the degree where we became the nation of Hashem. We said Naa'she
V'Nishma- we will do and we will hear- none of the details of what the
Torah said were necessary for us to hear before our acceptance of it. It was
the will of God and that's all that counted. Our inner Moshe was redeemed. We
were ready to serve our Creator.
Now if we can only get that back again…
Have a perfect mazeldike Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
********************************************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S
FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Kain braireh iz oich a braireh.”- No choice is also a choice
RABBI SCHWARTZES COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/rivkah
-In honor of Rivky and Luzzy’s wedding this
week, the song I composed for their Chuppah. Like and share!!
https://youtu.be/2RO5QCMgo4A
- Cool
New Brachos Song! Borhei Prie Hae’etz the most interesting words song I’ve
heard in a while
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxYcHAYHZjQ&index=13&list=PLhj2bbUa_1xYblDSJhSh8rBG7YLJFtjKA&t=0s- The orginal ani maamin (and
in my opinion the nicest) by Pirchei COMPOSED BY MY DEAR DETROIT FRIEND AND NOT
NEARLY CREDITED ENOUGH ITZY WEISBERG
https://itzyweisberg.bandcamp.com/track/sholom-aleichem
- And once we’re on the subject here’s
another Itzy Classic- L’Kavod Shabbos Shalom Aleychem
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
Q According to Christian tradition, one of the sites
where Satan tried to tempt Jesus (their founder) was at:
A. The Mount of Olives
B. The Quarantal
C. Mount Zion
D. Kathisma
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS”
CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Parshat Shemos– One of the fantastic exercises
of the serious lamdan is to try to take a midrash, which can be an aggadic
interpretation, a story behind the text, a reflection of our sages, and try to
figure out how the Rabbis inferred that from the text. See, I believe that
there is a common misconception that midrash is just stories our rabbis passed
down to us. The word midrash means to infer. And each midrash can be sourced in
the text. You just have to be a lamdan sometimes to figure it out.
The
parsha’s that have to do with the exile and exodus from Egypt perhaps have the
most elaborate and are from the most embellished upon portions. We recount it
each year by the Pesach Seder and we are told the ore you add the more praiseworthy
you are. Let’s take one this week and explore. Shall we?
The
Torah tells us
Shemos (2:23) And the
king of Egypt died and the children of Israel groaned from the labor…
Rashi quotes the midrash that tells us that in fact Pharaoh didn’t
die. Rather
Rashi (ibid) It teaches us that he became
a leper and he would slaughter Jewish infants and bathe in their blood.
Yeah, that’s one of those famous midrashim that they make sure
to teach your kids in kindergarten in Jewish day schools. Nothing like a few
good nightmares. Now it would seem a very strange midrash being that the verse
tells us that that he in fact died. How can they say that he didn’t? So there
certainly are sources in the Talmud that teach us that a leper is one of four
people that are considered dead even when they are alive. A pauper, a blind
person and someone who doesn’t have children, are the others. So perhaps a
leper could be considered dead, but why take it out of the simple understanding,
the pshat. Where do they infer from the text that he in fact was not
dead?
So the Gaon of Vilna, before whom the entire Torah was certainly
an open book, tells us a rule. That actually has cool relevance to the Israeli
Army today. The rule is that any time it mentions the death of any King in
tanach, it just calles him by name and does not call him by title. As it says
and Shlomo lay down with his fathers, and Aviya lay down, and Rechavam lay down.
It never refers to them by the title King. In fact he says that David is
mentioned 52 times as King all with the title
“King David” until he was dying and then it just reverts to calling him
David in the words of our sages
Kohelet Rabba (8:8)“Ein shilton b’yom ha’mavet- There
is no authority on the day of death”
By the way that rule is implemented on graves of soldiers that are
buried and killed in service. There are no ranks or titles on their graves.
There is no ranking in death. We are all brothers on that day.
There is one place by king uziyahu where the Torah tells us
Isaiah (6) in the year of the death of
King Uziyahu. And our sages over the note. And did he die? Rather he became a
leper.
Their inference is of course from the above rule that if it
calls him a king still then he must be alive.
So that being the case here as well if it says the King of Egypt
died. That tells us as Rashi notes he must be alive. It calls him king. Now how
do you know he was a leper. Be Lomdush! He certainly wasn’t poor. He was a King.
As well we know that he wasn’t blind, as he would see all of the miracles and
we even know he wasn’t childless, as Hashem said he would kill his first-born
if he didn’t release our first-born. So that leaves leper.
Ok, now that we know he was a leper, why is the Torah telling us
that here, now and what connection does it have to do with the Jews crying out.
It must be that his becoming a leper was the source of their crying. Why? He must
have been bathing in their blood.
And there you have it. A Midrash that sounded like a story or
fable, but with a bit of lomdus and knowledge of rules of the Torah we can see
it straight out of the text. Now see if you remember this one for your Pesach
Seder.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND
PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Yehoshua’s spies 1272 BC I’m very excited as we enter
the next level of our exploration of Jewish eras and their people and places in
Israel. We finished the 1270 years of world history until the Jews came into
the land of Israel. In the process we covered the five books of the Torah. We
know begin the books of the Prophets, the first being Yehoshua.
The book begins with the
Jews still camped on the other side of the Jordan River, having just suffered the
death of Moshe and his days of mourning. Yehoshua prepares for the entrance to
Israel by sending two spies, Calev his fellow spy from the last time that went
with him on Moshe’s mission 40 years prior, and Pinchas the grandson of Aharon.
The spies cross over to the city of Yericho and stay by a house of “ill repute”
where the “matron” of the home Rahav assists them in avoiding detection by the King
who is looking for them. In exchange for her help (letting them hide on her
roof amongst some flax while covering up and suggesting they left already, and
then letting them climb out her window and escape) The agree to spare her and
her families house when the will ultimately attack the city. The spies hide in
the mountains and then cross back over to Yehoshua and give him the good news.
Now this story takes
place in Yericho, which of course is inaccessible to us today without special
military permission and accompaniment. Kind of like back then as well, the only
difference is that today it is the State of Israel that is at fault for that,
thank you very much Yitzchak Rabin in the Oslo agreements. There’s a big nice
red sign outside that warns that entrance is forbidden to Israeli citizens and
may be dangerous to your life. Nice! However, if one did make arrangements to
tour Yericho, one can visit Tel El Sultan where they have the oldest
wall in the world. Archaeologists date it about 7-8,000 years ago
which of course would be before we date the Creation of the World. As well they
find a tower that is the oldest and largest ever found. It certainly is
cool to stand on top of ancient walls of a city the Torah tells us about, which
is why it captured the attention of so many archaeologists.
I generally like to do
lookouts there from Mitzpe Yericho porch where you can see the entire
region. As well I like to point out when we are by the Lido gas station,
at the intersection of Highway 1 from Jerusalem and the 90 Jordan
valley highway, that the reason why this was the route chosen. Is because this
is the only break in the mountain range in the to the center. In Hebrew it is
called Matzok Haaeitikim- the break in the cliffs, the mountain range of
course being formed by the colliding of continents at Creation, that formed the
Syrian African Rift. Now in regards to spies and learning about their
role in Israel in Ramat Hasharon there is the Israel intelligence
center that is the museum dedicated to Israel spies and the various stories
of them. One needs an appointment to get a tour there but from what I’m told it
is well worth it.
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S ELECTION JOKES OF THE WEEK
Yankel Meets Berel and tells him with pride. “My son was running for the
Knesset seat in the government in the last election.”“Wow!” Says Berel, “And what does he do?”
“Nothing… He got elected!”
At an international medical conference the various countries were discussing the advancement of medicine in their respective nations.
The British doctor said “in England we are so advanced that I can take a kidney from a person and transplant it in another and within 6 weeks he will be out and abut looking for work”
The German doctor said “Well in Germany we can take a lung from one person and transplant it in another and he will be out looking for work in one month
The Russian doctor one-upped them when he announced that “In Russia they can take half a heart from someone and both of them will be up looking for work in two weeks!”
Well the Israeli not be outdone told them all that in Israel “We can take someone with a half a brain make him Prime Minister and in a half year half of the country is looking for work…”
Traffic was heavy on the Ayalon highway, inching along bit by bit. Finally Avi’s car makes it to the front and he sees a police officer and asks him what all the traffic is about. He tells him that there is a representative of Shas (sefardic political party) there and he rented a semi-trailer and is standing on top with a megaphone threatening that unless he gets 5 million shekels he needs in order to run in the upcoming elections he will pour kerosene all over himself and set himself on fire and jump off.
“So how much did he get so far”
About 100 liters of Benzine
So Bibi comes to visit a first grade class and ask the children know what would be considered a tragedy. Little Baruch raises his hand and says that it would be if a boy was crossing a street and didn’t look and was hit god forbid by a car. Bibi nodded however and told the boy that although that was a painful incident it was not a tragedy.
Then little Chaim raised his hand and said that a tragedy would be if a bus with students got into an accident and many children get injured and died. Again Bibi noted that this was not a tragedy but rather a devastating loss.
Finally little Dudu raised his hands and said that a tragedy would be if the Prime Minister and Knesset members were all in a plane and it crashed and they all died. Bibi nodded his head solemnly and said that Dudu was correct that would be a terrible tragedy. He asked Dudu how he knew and he said quite simply
“Because I knew it was not a terrible tragedy or a devastating loss.”
Answer is C– I guessed this one as well. Truth is I wasn’t
even going to include it as I really don’t like the Christian stuff. But hey, it’s
the season and you can’t run away from it. Even in Israel, unfortunately. In
our tour guiding course we spent 2 days in the North visiting the J-Man sites
around the Galile and we had at least three days of Chrsitian tours in Jerusalem.
It’s so much baloney, I was just googling yoshka jokes by the end.
Anyways, on this question I eliminated Mt. of Olives and Mt. Zion because although
there are a lot of churches they had to do with the end of his life where he
cried, bled and prayed and pished. The temptation thing was a rip off of
the Eliyahu Hanavi story where he flees into the Midbar/ wilderness for 40 days
and argues with Hashem about the Jewish people. I wasn’t sure if it was
Korantal or Kathisma, somehow the Korantal sounded more familiar. It was
actually right by Yericho, where Eliyahu was and I got it right. The Katchisma
was the seat that Mary rested on somewhere between Beit Lechem and Jerusalem.
But who cares? The important this that the….
score is Schwartz 10 and 1 for MOT
(Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.
