Rachmonus Oif Unz- Parshat Lech Lecha 2018 /5779

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

October 19^th 2018 -Volume 9 Issue 3 10^th Cheshvan 5779

Parshat Lech Lecha

Rachmonus Oif Unz

It was right after the 6 Day War in 1967. The country was on a high. The 19-year-old State of Israel had just gone from prayers, tears and the terror of what all assumed would be the end of the young state to quadrupling its size and destroying the three major countries who had the full military support of Russia behind them. Pre-war estimates were that there would be at least 10,000 people that would be killed in the best case scenario. Parks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were turned into cemeteries and coffins lined the streets in Meah Shearim in preparation for the mass funerals that would follow. But the unexpected happened. We won. The Kotel, Jerusalem was in independent Jewish hands for the first time in 2000 years. The West Bank, Chevron the Golan Heights all of the lands of our ancestors had been miraculously returned to us. Our fledgling army of about 50,000 soldiers plus our reserves wiped out the trained 4 armies of over a half a million.

Turns out our estimates for casualties were about as precise as American election pollsters as well. Less than 800 soldiers died in battle as opposed to the 10,000 minimal that were direly predicted. I guess the military commanders forgot to take God into account. There’s a reason they don’t teach Israeli wars in military academies. That Sukkos the residents of Jerusalem made their Sukkahs out of the coffins that were prepared for them. They knew they were in the shade and protection of Hashem and what better way to express that. Yes, it was perhaps one of the highest and most miraculous moments of our modern times.

Yet, one can always count on a good Rabbi to put a damper on things and to give the so-needed necessary reality check. The story goes- that’s what we tour guides always say when we are not sure about a particular story, so we can’t be blamed for it afterwards, if another tour guide made it up- about Rabbi Aryeh Levine, the tzadik of Jerusalem who met the prime minister, Levi Eshkol, after the war. {Truth is the story is brought down in that classic pre- Artscroll first Gadol book A Tzadik in our Time}. The PM asked Reb Aryeh what he thought about this incredible victory and the incredible miracles that took place in this battle. Although not a religious person, for at least 5 minutes after the war there was no one that could deny the incredible revealed hand of God in achieving this victory.

The Tzadik of Jerusalem whose heart and soul was only and always concerned for the Jewish people and the holy soldiers of its army told the Prime Minister

“The aibeshter zohl hubben racmonus oif unz- God should have mercy upon us.”

A bit taken aback the Prime Minister asked Rabbi Aryeh why he was so concerned. After-all we had just wiped out all our enemies. In fact, there was such fear and awe of the Israeli army and the Jewish people that when two chasidim were walking down the street, the Arabs would cross the street to avoid them out of fear. If an Israeli soldier got a bus the Arabs would get up and give him their seat. So why was the Rabbi so dour.

Reb Aryeh responded with an incredible teaching from this week’s Torah portion. In the Parsha this week the Torah tells us about the first World War. It was four Kings against five and the four decimated the five and as usual we Jews got schlepped into the whole thing when the nephew of our Patriarch Avraham, Lot, got taken captive. Avraham goes out to battle with the first Jewish army ever 318 of them (or according to our sages just him and his servant Eliezer whose name in Gematria/numerology equals 318) takes down all of these armies. Right after this huge battle, Hashem appears to Avraham in a vision in the night and tells him

Bereshit (15:1) Al tira Avraham anochi magen lach- Fear not Avraham I will protect you

Now why should Avraham be frightened? So much so, in fact, that Hashem had to appear to him and reassure him that he will continue to protect and defend him. The answer, Reb Aryeh said, was that Avraham knew that the enemy would never a Jew stay with such a victory. They would be back. It is against the nature of the world to allow the Jew to remain on top. At least until the time is right…

Reb Aryeh’s words unfortunately came to fruition. After the 6 Day War the Jewish State and its soldiers were the rock stars of the world. The cover of Life and Time magazine. Movies were made and we were the most macho people around. It was cool to be Jewish and Israeli. But before you could even sing Hava Nagila it was over. The UN condemned Israel as aggressors and “Occupiers”. Our neighbors got together and passed resolutions to never recognize us and promised to come back again and push us into the sea. The PLO started its terror attacks not just in Israel but on Jews around the world. And a few years later we were once again at war in the devastating Yom Kippur war attack.

It's been over 50 years and almost 10 wars since that prediction of Rabbi Levine and over 3 millennia since Hashem’s reassurance to Avraham. We’re still at war and yet we are still around. Hashem is still watching over us and defending us. We have still not yet arrived at the time when swords will be turned into plowshares and the world will finally join us in bringing in the era of world peace where the glory of Hashem will reign. It’s been this way since the beginning and perhaps one of the most important things to remember is that we have not yet arrived and shouldn’t have any illusions about where we stand. False illusions of having “made it” stand in the way of us achieving and bringing in the era that we have long been waiting for. In fact that is the way the entire story of Avraham and this war really begins.

To understand history, we have to go back to its roots. Where did the conflict begin? How did it spiral into a World War and how were we schlepped into it? The Torah, fortunately tell us. It is up to us however to read it carefully and appreciate the eternal lessons it is teaching us. The Torah tells us that after Avraham and Lot come back to Israel from their short, eventful, sojourn in Egypt during the famine that was in Israel, they settled the land and there was a fight between the shepherds of Lot and Avraham. What was the fight about? It doesn’t say. Or does it?

Bereshis (13:7) And there was quarrelling between the shepherds of flocks of Avraham and the shepherds of Lot’s flock and the Canaani and Perizi were then dwelling in the land.

So what was the fight about? Well Rashi quotes the Midrash that seemingly the fact the Torah adds in here rather randomly that the Canaani and the Perizi were living in the land obviously was the source of their dispute.

Rashi (ibid) Since Lot’s herdsmen were wicked, and they pastured their animals in fields belonging to others, Abram’s herdsmen rebuked them for committing robbery, but they responded, “The land was given to Abram, who has no heir; so Lot will inherit him, and therefore this is not robbery.” But Scripture states: “And the Canaanites and the Perizzites were then dwelling in the land,” and Abram had not yet been awarded its possession.

And there you have it. Lot’s shepherds were a bunch of crooks and hoodlums and Avraham’s shepherds were rebuking them. At least that’s the way I learned it when I was a kid. This year though I saw a different, perhaps more relevant idea. Who knows, maybe even a controversial political one. See Lot wasn’t a crook or criminal. He was Avraham’s right hand man. He was the only one that has been with him and Sarah this whole journey. From Ur Kasdim, Charan, to Israel down to Egypt and back again. Lot doesn’t leave Avraham’s side. He risks his life to save the angels of Sodom. And his shepherds are petty criminals?! Let’s try to see things from their perspective. Maybe they weren’t that far off.

What was their rationale? So Rashi tells us that the land was given to Avraham. Hashem told Avraham to go down to Canaan and upon his arrival Hashem tells him “Guess what? Your descendants will inherit this land”. Truth is the Torah tells in the verse right before this promise, that this land was in fact originally in the portion of Shem and the Canaani had just come there and conquered it recently. The Torah even uses the same word V’Hacanani az ba’aretz there as it does by the fight of Lot’ shepherds.

 That was what the fight was about. Lot’s shepherds made a claim perhaps like this. Hashem gave us the land. Who are these Canaani Palestinians anyways? They weren’t here before. This was originally our land. They have no right to be here. We are liberating it from them.  Hashem has miraculously brought us here. He has made us flourish. Look how many sheep we have. Check out all our crops, our technology, our startups, our yeshivas and our falafel stores. We are home. It is time for them to go. Avraham has no heirs. The time for Lot has arrived. Mashiach is within us. And you know what? They were certainly right about that last point.

See we are told Mashiach in fact comes from Lot, from his grandson Moav. From Ruth. From David. The Beit Hamikdash, Jerusalem is all within Lot just bursting to shine forth. But you know what? It wasn’t yet time. The work of uplifting the world, of serving Hashem on a personal level and a familial level was here. But we were not yet granted the land. We had no right to raise one hand against the “occupiers”, unless of course it is self-defense. As when Avraham goes to rescue Lot and will fight the world for him. At the same time, he won’t let his sheep take a blade of grass that is not his. For Mashiach is not here yet, and until that time when Avrahams’ descendants will enter the land and be commanded to conquer it we are meant to respect and live with those that are occupying it. We have a mitzvah to live here, but not to conquer it. That will only come later.

Perhaps one of the most ironic things about us a nation is that when we were actually commanded to conquer the land and wipe out all of the nations that were there in order to settle it. We failed. We stopped short. Hashem warned us that if we allowed them to remain they would be thorns in our side and they were. When we’re not supposed to conquer it we try to and when we were supposed to we didn’t. Oy…god bless the Jewish people… the aibeshter zohl hubben rachmonus oif unz…

There is certainly no commandment to conquer the land and throw out the nations that live here today. Despite the miraculous Jewish sovereignty that Hashem has granted us once again after 2000 years in Eretz Yisrael, the “Canaani and Perizi” still live in our land. We daven every day.for Mashiach to come and for that shofar to blast. We get a mitzvah for living here and settling the land. It’s the only place in the world that every time you take a walk around the block you fulfil the will of Hashem of showing that we are living here and not anywhere else because we are believers in the Torah, believers in the covenant He made with our grandfather that it would be ours. We have to defend ourselves to the upmost even if it is only one Jew that is in danger and even if the entire world is against us and will condemn us. But we still have no right to take even one blade of grass that hasn’t been rightfully acquired. It’s Achmeds, It’s Abduls. It’s not yet Avraham’s.  The aibeshter has rachmonus oif unz. Hashem is watching over us and bringing us closer and closer to that day he promised our grandfather. This land will be ours in its entirety. Are we ready to shine that light out, that we are meant to when we get it? That’s what we’re supposed to be preparing for. It’s why he has rachmonis on us. Maybe it’s time we started having a bit of rachmonis for Him as well.

Have a spectacular Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Fun rachmones un fun pachdones ken men zikh nit oishailen.”- For compassion and for cowardice there is no remedy.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q One of the following roads was not an international road:
A) King’s Highway (Derekh HaMelekh)
B) Route of the Patriarchs (Derekh HaAvot)
C) The Coastal Route (Derekh HaYam)
D) The Mail Route (Darb-el-Barid/Derekh HaDoar)

RABBI SCHWARTZES COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

https://youtu.be/k67yR0hsiwo  - Adorable version in honor of Rachel Imeinu’s Yartzeit- Mama Rachel

https://youtu.be/E_hzOuAK5gY- Great New Shwekey video Yishtabach Shemo!

https://youtu.be/K0C2BeatCqs- One of the strangest shnorr videos I have ever seen….

https://youtu.be/-6hnYAEUV2M– Loving this holy song Nafshi Chamda Yishai Ribo and Motty Shteimetz

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

Parshat Lech Lecha – So this week we are introduced the father of the Jewish people our first Patriarch, Avraham Avinu. Now I’m sure this might seem like a funny question but put on your lomdishe hats for it and enter the Yeshiva world. Deep breath… thumb ready to twirl in the air. OK here we go. Was Avraham or for that matter all of our Patriarchs Jewish. Now all though I assume many of you would have in the past assumed that they were, the truth is there really was no such thing as being Jewish until after we received the Torah as a nation on Mt. Sinai a few hundred years after Avraham. So what status did our forefathers have prior to the giving of the Torah were they considered pre-Jew Jews, or maybe they were just Noachides.

Now no lomdusheh question is real without what the Talmud would call is a nafka mina- or difference between the two sides of the dilemma. So the difference would seemingly come in the observance of the commandments which are sages certainly find hints to in the text in all of our forefathers. Now obviously they were not commanded to fulfill the commandments, however our sages tell us that they were able to look at Creation and divine the will of Hashem and figure out the mitzvos and they observed them. The problem however becomes when it comes to Shabbos.

See a non- Jew or a Noachide are prohibited from observing the Shabbat. In fact the Talmud seems to suggest that they would be liable for a divine death penalty for observing it. So here we go. If the Patriarchs were Jewish then they could observe the Shabbat. If not how could they observe it? Seemingly they would be prohibited from observing it as Noachides.

Lest you think this is a theoretical question the Binyan Tziyon discusses a case of a baby that is found in a city that is half Jewish and half non-Jewish. So his Jewish status is in question and we give the stringencies of both… at least until he underwent a conversion. In a more practical and modern question what is done in a case today when someone has a conversion that is questionable or in doubt. Can he observe the Shabbat or not?

So the Cheshek Shlomo gives a brilliant answer, he suggests that what the Patriarchs did is wear tzitzit on Shabbos. See one is prohibited from wearing extraneous things attached to ones clothing on Shabbos when you go outside as it would violate the prohibition of carrying in a public domain- without the benefit of an Eruv of course. {This is a practical issue by the way when it comes to cleaners tags and possibly spare buttons attached to your clothing…consult your own Rabbi about that}. Now if they were Jewish they need to wear the tzitzit strings on their four cornered garments and therefore it would not be considered carrying, as they are part of their clothing. On the other hand, if they were not Jewish then the wearing of those strings would be extraneous and they would have violated Shabbat as every good gentile should.

And there you have it a lomdishe question, a lomdishe answer and perhaps an even practical nafka mina- another new term to use in your lomdus lexicon.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

Bilam, donkeys and curses- 1272 BC – The famous story of Bilam and his famous donkey that were hired by Balak king of Moav to curse the Jews is one of the most memorable from the Torah. Who can forget the donkey that opens up his mouth to speak and attempts to warn Bilam of the impending doom he is facing if he continues on his path to kill the Jews. The donkey crashes into the walls and the hedges to try and prevent and Bilam engages him in conversation even until he sees an angel with a sword warning him away. Bilam continues to try to curse the people but all that comes out his mouth are blessings. It’s a great story, unique in that it is the only one in the Torah were there was no Jewish corroboration. Moses wasn’t there, the Jewish people weren’t there. It was just Bilam and his mule and Hashem. This story is really all Hashem’s revelation to us so its definitely one that I want to share with my tourists.

The question is where and how? Well certainly when we are down in Eilat we can stand on top of  Mt. Tzefachot and we can look into Saudi Arabia as well as Jordan, I point out to my tourists that we are looking at the route that Bilam took from Midyan which is in Saudi Arabia and Jordan which is of course Moab. As well from that point you can look out to the south and note that general direction were the hills of Edom and Amalek as well that Bilam curses. In the North by the Golan Heights you can point out Assyria in the general direction of Lebanon and Syria whom he curses as well. As well there are a few places I like to take people donkey riding, one is in the Judean Desert near St. Georges monastery there are usually some Bedouin guys that offer donkey rides to the lookout there. As well and perhaps more fun is in Kfar Kedem in Hoshaya. There they actually give you donkey licenses at the end of your tour and ride there which always fun since you are dressed up in Biblical garb as well for the trip.   

Finally I like to focus on the particular blessing that Bilam gave the Jewish people that we actually recite each day when we come into our synagogues. Ma tovu ohalecha Yaakov miskinosecha yisrael- how wonderous are your tents Jacob, the dwelling places of Israel. The Talmud tells us how he noticed how the entrance to the tents are not facing each other so that Jews don’t see into their neighbors tents and he marvelled at the sensitivity we had to modesty and respect of each others privacy. I mention this when we drive through the Jerusalem through the Ramot Polin neighborhood which has these egg box shaped houses, or beehives that were built so that the windows don’t face each other. Each as well has its own porch under the sky so as to make it Sukkah buildable. These strangely built buildings were actually noted as one of the worlds strangest buildings by travel and leisure magazine check it out. https://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/worlds-strangest-buildings#4

They don’t exactly say the blessing of Bilam but it is still pretty cool.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S PRAYER JOKES  OF THE WEEK

One day, Chaim, Berel and Shmerel were hiking in a wilderness area when they came upon a large, raging, violent river. They needed to get to the other side, but had no idea of how to do so. 

Chaim prayed to God, saying, "Please God, give me the strength to cross this river." 

 Poof! God gave him big arms and strong legs, and he was able to swim across the river in about two hours, although he almost drowned a couple of times.

 Seeing this, Berle prayed to God, saying, "Please God, give me the strength and the tools to cross this river."  Poof! God gave him a rowboat and he was able to row across the river in about an hour, after almost capsizing the boat a couple of times. 

Shmerel had seen how this worked out for the other two, so he also prayed to God saying, "Please God, give me the strength and the tools, and the intelligence, to cross this river." 

 Poof! God turned him into a woman. She looked at the map, hiked upstream a couple of hundred yards, then walked across the bridge.

(hope that makes up for last weeks joke- I try to be an equal opportunity offender)

Berel needed some supplies from the office cupboard that was seldom used and was secured with a lock. He didn't know the combination, so he walked into Rabbi Greenbergs office and asked him to try. The Rabbi walked over to the cupboard a placed his fingers on the lock's dial and raised his eyes heavenward for a moment. Then he confidently spun the dial and opened the lock. Seeing how impressed Berel was with this demonstration of what seemed like prayer, Rabbi Greenberg smiled and confided, "The numbers are written on the ceiling." 

Two young boys were spending the night at their Bubby and Zaidies house. At bedtime, the two boys said shema and then started to daven when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs, "I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE. I PRAY FOR A NEW IPHONE. I PRAY FOR A NEW TABLET

His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf."

To which the little brother replied, "No, but Bubby is!"

Prayer for Seniors

God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
The good fortune to run into the ones that I do,
And the eyesight to tell the difference.

A family was having guests to dinner. At the table, the mother turned to her six-year-old daughter and says, "Dear, would you like to say the blessing?"

"I wouldn't know what to say," replies the little girl.

"Just say what you hear Mommy say, sweetie."

Her daughter takes a deep breath, bows her head, and solemnly says, "Dear Lord, why the helck did I invite all these people to dinner?"

With all the instant messaging and texting lingo going around - with abbreviations like "LOL" and "OMG" and "BTW" - I asked a young lady named Kaila if she would be going to shul this Shabbat, and she replied to me "JFK."

"JFK? What does that mean?", I asked.

Kaila answered politely, "Just for Kiddush."

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Answer is B–  This was another easy one. You can just tell from the name Derech Havot- the pathway of our forefathers that is a Jewish national road and not an international one. It is actually also called the derech hahar- the mountain road as it travels along the central mountain plain of Israel from the Chevron hills through Jerusalem up through Shechem and the West Bank which this question assumes rightfully so is part of Israel, although before 1967 this would have also been international as it went through the West Bank which was Jordan. The other roads Derech Hamelech is all through the Levant Egypt up the coastline and across the Jezreel valley to Jordan and Syria. The Sea route as well went from Egypt up through Lebanon to Turkey and the mail route of the Mamaluks also from Egypt through Lebanon and Damascus. so keeping score still I’m 3 for 3. Let’s keep the streak going.