The Giving Tree- Parshat Vayeira 2018 / 5779

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

October 26^th 2018 -Volume 9 Issue 4 17^th Cheshvan 5779

Parshat Vayeira

The Giving Tree

The Schwartz family moved around a lot. We were galus yidden. We started off our marriage in Brooklyn, NY. Midwood, to be precise. We were excited to find an apartment right across from my grandparents. Hey, free babysitting and my savta was a great cook that made sure we always had her special marble cake and kokosh cake and totod capulsta (stuffed cabbage for you non-Hungarians that have never tasted good cooking that only a Hungarian grandmother can make). We knew it was the right street because the address was 1818 Ave L. Two times chai. The L of course stood for life. Well actually that was my grandmothers address across the street. We were 1819, but that was the sign that I saw every morning when I went outside to Shacharis. And Gematrias are allowed to be off by one, right?

Our next destination was Des Moines, Iowa. It was a little different than Brooklyn. In NY we had a small one-bedroom apartment. When we had one child we put up a bookshelf in our living room and poof now we had two bedrooms. After our second child, we had become professionals and added one more bookshelf and now we had a three-bedroom apartment. But it was tight. In Iowa we bought our first house. It was about 4000 square feet 5 bedrooms with a huge basement, a front lawn with green stuff growing on it. They explained to us city folk that this was called grass and it grew on non-pavemented earth. We didn’t understand why they didn’t clear it and build a high rise complex on it. But people in Iowa seemed to like this thing called grass. When my kids came to our new house, they were like rats out of a cage running back and forth from one end to the other. Freedom!

Now I of course wanted to find significance to our house address once again. But 6207 Dagle street is not an easy address to find Talmudic references to. The gematria of 6207 is v’raz which means ‘and secret’. So I guess I would have to dig for a while until I found it. We had an Israeli guest once at our house and when he asked me my address and I told him, he said “Ahh you leev on degel street. Eez dere a flag hanging on eet?” And then I knew. A degel you see is a flag and we hoped that our house would be a flag and banner for all to come join us.

From there it was to Norfolk Virginia or Nahhfalk as they pronounce it down south. There I knew we had the right house as our address number was 1348. Can you do the math to figure out that gematria- Alef is 1000 if you need help…. Got it? That’s right 348 is samayach. Esmach in Hebrew meaning either ‘I will be’ or ‘make happy’. The street name Llewylen didn’t have much significance but if you read it in Hebrew it would be written loo Eilin- which would mean ‘if not for God’ or ‘Lo elin -he is to God’. I was pushing it, but certainly was happy in Virginia.

Then it was to Seattle. There we had three houses, the first two were rentals. Our first house was a mansion. It had 7 bedrooms, 4 decks overlooking Puget Sound. Maple and oak engraved walls and bookshelves, a private tennis court and basketball court a little meditation center with a fountain and a Jacuzzi, not a bad place at all. The owners, it seems, were stuck in China and they were desperate to rent it out, because if it was vacant it could not be insured. The previous tenants broke their lease and although the asking price was $5000 a month rent, we snagged it for $2000 a month. I didn’t need a gematria-which 4548 SW 54^th street didn’t really have- to tell me it was the right house. We had my parents and all of my siblings there for us for Sukkos right after we moved and I told my mother how glad she must be that I didn’t go to law or medical school, where it would’ve taken another 20 years before I lived in something like this. Thank God I stayed in Kollel… She was not impressed with the argument.

Our second house there 2731 Garlough was a little bit of a let-down after we moved out of our casa-de Schwartz and the West Seattle TLC (Torah Learning Center). But it served us well. Our minyan grew. We had big tent services in our large backyard and our family expanded as well. We finally bought a house in Seattle after 4 years of renting. Our newest house there 5121 Olga was a nice quiet dead end street. Emphasis on the word “was”. Much to our neighbour’s consternation, the not so friendly redneck with a rifle, the TLC wasn’t a quiet bunch. We had late Shabbos meals with 30 -40 guests a week. Holiday functions and classes and programs all the time. We had plenty of sleep over guests. 5121 Olga didn’t have much gematria significance that I could figure out. We had a daughter named Elka, there. I loved her. She was named after my grandmother Elka, but that was as close as I got to Olga. Seattle was not the place we were going to stay. So Olga became “I’ll Go”, and it was off to the Holy Land, the final stop for the Schwartzes.

We fell in love with our house in Karmiel the second we saw it. One of the American “nightmares” of moving to Israel is that you’ve got your big beautiful house in the States and here all you have are these stone forest apartment communities and a small three-bedroom apartment at best. We’d been there done that already. The Schwartzes wanted a house and Hashem sent us a beautiful one for cheaper than what a storage unit in Jerusalem would’ve cost. It was 6 bedrooms and three floors. It has a 2 bedroom attached suite, for guests. It had room for my wife’s store and even a few trees in the backyard. Although no real grass, but the fake Astroturf stuff is close and you don’t need to pay anyone to mow it. Best of all of course was the address. 10 Eshel. Can you have a better address than a street named after the tree that Avraham Avinu planted in this week’s Torah portion. 10 of course can be read ten in Hebrew which means “give eshel” The Giving Tree that was the new home of the Schwartzes.

Now this Eshel tree that our father Avraham planted was certainly not just a simple tree. The Torah doesn’t go out of its way just to tell us about the horticulture of our forefathers and what their preferred garden trees were. This is much larger than Johnny Appleseed. In English the Eshel is a Tamarisk or a type of evergreen tree. Why is this the tree of choice for Avraham?

 This is where having a tour guide as your weekly E-Mail insights writer kicks in. See the Eshel tree is unique as a desert tree that flourishes in the Negev and south near Beer Sheva where Avraham lived. Besides having big shady branches and leaves the eshel does something unique. It exudes salt that can absorb the moisture from the atmosphere. That water allows it to grow very tall and dig deep, strong roots. The salt meanwhile as well falls on the earth with the morning dew and prevents all types of weeds and the like that might damage the tree from growing. Pretty amazing, the wonders of Creation.  Which was imaginably the point of him planting it.

It's also pretty interesting in the big picture of this story in the parsha where salt seems to play a prominent role. Remember how salt, sulphur, hail and brimstone hit Sodom? Remember how the wife of Lot was turned into a pillar of salt. Our sages, quoted by Rashi tell us that the reason salt was chosen to be the medium of choice and not parsley, sage rosemary or thyme was that Lot had told his wife to offer their guests salt and she refused to. This was not because she was concerned for their high blood pressure. Salt reflects that special spice that without it the food is bland. Un kein taam. That was how the wife of Lot served her food. The message being of course ‘I made you food take it and eat it’. It’s the difference of going the extra mile. It’s sheli sheli vshelach shelach – what’s mine is mine and yours is yours. Take what you get and be happy. She was turned into a pillar of salt, which interestingly enough the midrash tells us that cows lick from every day and then it grows back again. The woman who didn’t give salt is an eternal salt shaker for cows.

Avraham as opposed to that plants an eshel- a “salt tree”. He plants a tree that everyone can come under. That will provide for all. It takes it all in. The salt attracts the environment and brings them all in. It also salts the earth and makes sure the bad weeds that come close won’t damage its roots. Pretty amazing and cool!

Our sages see in the eshel tree a lot more than a tree though. The Talmud in Sotah tells us a few different approaches. Reish Lakish suggests that it was an orchard full with all types of fruit trees, Reb Nechemia suggest it was an inn that he would welcome people into and offer a whole selection of food there. Perhaps even some chulent as well. It was there that he made the name of Hashem great in the world. They read the word eshel as sha’al- anything you asked for you got there and more. Rabbeinu Bachaya suggests that he even opened up a Sanhedrin to answer any questions you might have of faith. It was a one-stop shopping Walmart with a minyan for shacharis in the back.  It was all free. And it was all so that people would appreciate what a glorious Creator we have that gave this all to us.

There are others that see in ESheL an acronym for the three primary obligations of hospitality-achila- eating, shtiya-drink and either leena or liviya- sleeping over or escorting the person out. There is even a story I read about a great machnis orech- someone who would welcome in guests all the time to his house. Anyone that needed a meal knew they could find one by his house. His door was always open.  A great fire broke out though one day and his house and all his worldly possessions were lost. He went to the great Rabbi of his town, none other than Reb Chaim Volozhin to ask him why this happened. Reb Chaim asked the man if in addition to his hospitality did he also escort his guests out. Did he walk them to the door? Make them feel wanted; that it was hard to part from them? When the man responded that he did not. He fed them. He fed them well in fact. But after the meal, they left. What did he have to walk them for? Reb Chaim, then told him that the first two letters of eshel which he fulfilled are alef and shin- eating and drinking- achila and shtiya, which spell aish- Fire. You need to add the liviya-the escorting them out- to add the lamed to that word to put out the fire. Scary stuff…

Avraham Avinu planted an eshel not just to fill the need of some hungry yeshiva guys or seminary girls that needed a place to crash for Shabbos (Because the $25,000 you pay for tuition is not enough for them to cover some beans, barley and meat for a chulent for your children…). Avraham planted a tree for the same reason that the first thing Hashem does when He creates a world is to plant a garden and place man in it. Because He wanted to be kind to his Creation. He wanted us to learn from Him that we were put here to share goodness and blessing with the world. If that’s the motivation than obviously you go the extra mile. Obviously you provide salt and all that your guests request. Obviously you walk them to the door, offer them a bed and check in to make sure they are comfortable. And obviously you share with them-particularly those that have never experienced or been exposed to it- how meaningful a life connected to Hashem, Torah, and the Jewish people can be. You don’t have to be a proselytizer; I don’t think Avraham or any good kiruv/ outreach professional is. You’re just sharing the blessing of Hashem with someone who may not appreciate it yet.

To be honest with you, I don’t think I appreciated my own Shabbos as much until I was able to share it with others. To feel the way they enjoyed it. They were uplifted. They experienced it. I had always taken it for granted. It was just something I was raised to do. But once we began having guests, my life was enhanced as was my own Judasim. And all it took was a few small invitations. Our tree was planted.

This Shabbat is the Shabbat Project week around the world. Over a million Jews will be planting an eshel-(metaphorically of course- you’re not allowed to plant trees on Shabbos). That’s an impressive number. But there are 12 million Jews in the world. Lots of them have never experienced a Shabbos or a Jewish invitation. Other lots of them as well have never extended a Shabbos invitation to the first lots. Why not? You don’t have to go to Iowa, Virginia or Seattle to meet them. There are plenty of pavement lined sidewalks that could use a nice eshel tree in your neighbourhood. The story of Avraham’s tree in the parsha is the prelude to the most heroic moment in his life the Akeida- the binding of Yitzchak. One of the great chasidic rebbes once said we may not have the strength to offer an akeida up to Hashem. But if we want to tap into that great merit that Avraham achieved in that great act of sacrifice, we need to connect ourselves to him. It’s why Avraham’s tree planting endeavour is the prelude to the entire story We attach ourselves and identify with Avraham through the planting of our own giving tree. To host his children and grandchildren, who he prays for, over for Shabbos, for meals. To connect them to Hashem and to walk with them and show them the love that we have for his descendants, our brothers and sisters. Maybe then Hashem will return us to Gan Eden, to that first garden that He planted with the coming of Mashiach.

Have a deliciously hospitable Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“A gast iz vi a regn, Men antloyft fun regn, bagegnt men hogl..”- A guest is like rain. Run away from rain and you get hail.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q A Prime Minister buried on the Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitim):
a) Menachem Begin
b) Golda Meir
c) Moshe Sharet
d) Yitzhak Shamir

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

Parshat Vayeira– Perhaps the kings of lomdus are the Briskers. One can even argue that it is their style of lomdishe learning that has become the standard method adopted by all yeshivos. The founder of the dynasty was Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (1820-1892) known by his classic work the Beis Halevi is one of the best places to start to study if you want to appreciate the art form.

On this week’s Torah portion he asks the question on the halacha that is derived from Avraham’s, perhaps politically incorrect, statement to his son Yishmael. When he is about to take his son Yitzchak up to be bound and brought up as an offering to Hashem, Avraham tells Yishmael,

“ Shvu lachem po im hachamor- you stay here with the donkey 

What is the significance of telling him to stay with the donkey? So the Talmud tells us that we derive from here that Yishmael is compared halachically to a donkey. Just as a donkey does not have any lineage. So to Yishmael and a gentile does not have yichus- any Jewish lineage. Therefore, when a Jewish man marries a non-Jewish woman or maid servant the child is not considered to Jewish, as lineage can only pass when a Jewish man marries a Jewish woman.

The Beis Halevi asks though, that why is it at this point in time particularly does Avraham have to teach this lesson. See, Briskers are never happy with just a simple periphery understanding of something. There must be a deeper connection and an essential part of lomdus is taking things apart. If Avraham and the Torah are telling us right here that Yishmael is not considered Jewish we need to understand why. It would probably make more sense to tell us this when Yishmael is born. Or when Yitzchak is born. They are both middle aged men by now. So what’s pshat?

The brilliant answer he suggests is that Avraham wanted to fulfill the mitzvah that Hashem gave him to it’s fullest. Hashem was demanding that he give up his son, his only son, the one that he loved, Yitzchak to him. Avraham demurred each step suggesting that Yishmael was also his son and that he loved him equally to Yitzchak. Yet he understood that the mitzvah and sacrifice he was meant to make would be one of a father giving up his only son. If Avraham still felt that he had another son behind, then the act wouldn’t be as great. ‘At least I got one more at home that I love’ he would tell himself. So what did Avraham do. He made the statement and taught the halacha that Yishmael was not his halachic child. He is not his yichus. He removed him entirely from his heart. He was a real Brisker. That is why the Torah tells us this now. Why it shares with us this seemingly innocuous statement telling Yishmael where he should remain. To reveal to us the greatness of Avraham in this incredible sacrifice of the Akeida.

Isn’t lomdus awesome?

  

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

Pinchas Baal Pe’or and the plague- 1272 BC – We’re almost ready to enter the land of Israel and boom we mess up. It seems we never lose and opportunity to lose an opportunity. The story of the daughters of Moav coming out to seduce the Jewish men is one of the most tragic in the Torah. Now this was not only about illicit relations. The Moavite women got them to worship this idol named baal pe’eor which was served by “relieving yourself” on it.Uch…! The ensuing plague took 24,000 Jews, the worst of the entire 40 years. Thank god it all came to an end with Pinchas pulling out a spear and shishkabobbing the leader of the revolt Zimri and the Midainite princess he was in the process of defiling himself with.

So there’s the story, I would say the last exciting one in the Torah. Where can I connect my tourists to it. Well whenever we drive by the Dead Sea area I point out the mountains of Moav which of course today is Jordan. I’ve had tourists that wanted me to take them there to Petra and the like. But I avoid Moav. Call it post-Torah learning Moabite trauma. As well when we are down at the bottom of the Dead Sea we visit the Sodom mountains and we talk about how the early roots of this country and nation Moav started here with the illicit incestuous relationships between Lot and his daughter. It seems it runs in their blood.

On the other hand, the heroism of Pinchas, the zealot I have a few places that I can talk about. Obviously in that hotbed of religious zealotry in Meah Shearim. But our sages tell us that Pinchas is in fact the same soul as Eliyahu. It seems that zealous streak doesn’t go away. So I can talk about Pinchas anywhere I would talk about Eliyahu. Mt. Carmel by Muchraka monastery, by his “cave” by Haifa, or by the Jordan River   by Kasser El Yahud where he went up to heaven in a fiery furnace. One more unlikely place that I mention this story as well is that it is mentioned in sefarim that the souls of the 24,000 that died in the plague were reincarnated in the souls of the students of Rabbi Akiva.  They almost entered Israel then and Rabbi Akiva thought that it was time to redeem them and therefore he felt it was time to finally fix the sin of the daughters of Moav. He made his student Bar Kochva Mashiach and they revolted against the Romans. But the time wasn’t ripe and the students had spiritual problems between each other that still needed to be fixed. So technichally I can mention this story, by the many Bar Kochva sites in Israel, near Beit Shemesh, in the Judean Desert by Darga and the hidden caves there or by Herodian to name a few. As well I can talk about it by the grave of Rabbi Akiva in Tiverya. So If you know enough and are a good tour guide you can always make a good connection.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE TREE JOKES  OF THE WEEK

A man crashed his new expensive car into a tree He now knew how the Mercedes bends

What do you call a Russian tree? Dimitree

How do trees calculate square roots. They use log-arithms.

What do you call a dead pine tree? A Nevergreen!

What is a trees favorite thing to drink. Root Beer

Why did the tree need to take a nap? For rest.

Where do saplings go to learn? Elementree school.

 How did the tree get lost? It took the wrong root.

Yankel is a small puny guy but he needs money for his family so he applies for a job as a lumberjack. "Sorry, says the head lumberjack, eyeing Yankel up and down, "You're just too small."
"Give me a chance to show you what I can do," Yankel pleads. "You won't regret it."
"Okay," says the boss. "See that giant oak over there? Let's see if you can chop it down."

Half an hour later, the mighty oak is felled, amazing the boss. "Where'd you learn to cut trees like that?" he asks.
"The Sahara Forest."
"You mean the Sahara Desert ?"
"Sure, if that's what they call it now."  

Benny from Haifa passed away and was sent  down ‘below’. He was amazed, however, to discover lush vegetation, running streams, waterfalls and beautiful lakes everywhere. Everyone seemed happy. 
“You look surprised,” said the local angel. 
“Yes, I am,” replied Benny, “I expected this place to be very dry and exceedingly hot. Like a desert. But all I can see are trees full of all kinds of fruit, beautiful flowers, lots of vegetables, lush grass and water everywhere. This is not hell” 
“Well,” said the angel, “it used to be like you thought, but then the Israelis started to arrive and they irrigated the daylights out of the place!” 

The Cohen family was on very good terms with their Roman Catholic neighbors, the O'Briens. In fact,little Moishie Cohen and Christopher O'Brian from next door would play together from time to time. Or at least they used to.
Well , one late December's day, Duncan O'Brien, the non-Jewish father, came storming in to the Cohen's house holding poor Moishie by the ear. 'Your son is not going near my Chris again; he just has no respect for us and our religion!'
'What's the matter; what did he do?' inquired Mr. Cohen.
'I'll tell you'. said Duncan in a rage. 'He saw our Christmas tree and started making fun.'
'Really, what did he say?' continued Mr. Cohen.
Duncan said, 'He saw our tree and started asking all sorts of ridiculous questions - which kinds of pine trees can be used for a Christmas tree? What's the minimum required height? How close to the window does it need to be? Do too many decorations render it unfit? What if it's under a neighbor's balcony?!'

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Answer is A–  Wheww.. I’m excited another easy question. Most of Israel’s 12 prime ministers are buried in Har Hertzl in Jerusalem in the area of gedolei ha’Umah-the great individuals of the nation- the presidents, PMs and Knesset speaker are buried. There are a few exceptions. Ben Gurion is buried in the Negev in Sdei Boker, Sharon on his ranch and Moshe Sharret- who I bet most of you have never even heard of, but was the second Prime Minister of Israel, in between Ben Gurions two terms is buried in Trumpledor cemetery in Tel Aviv. Menachem Begin though, my favorite Prime Minister, refused to be buried with all of those liberal socialist on Mt. Hertzl and ordered to be buried on Mt. of Olives right next to the two people he said were the “real" gedolei ha’umah; two fighter from the Lehi and Etzel, Barzani and Feinstien, who blew themselves up in their British cell rather than allow the British to hang them. And now I am 4 for 4!