Sleeping Beauty- Parshat Yisro 2019/ 5779

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

January 25^th 2019 -Volume 9 Issue 17-19^th of Shevat 5779

Parshat Yisro

Sleeping Beauty

I don’t sleep much I have a lot on my mind, tossing and turning, tours coming up, bills to pay, schedules to balance, projects I need to work on, sermons and articles I need to write and give and you guys of course.. Yeah, all those thoughts that get pushed to the side during the day time, as I’m running around the country and sharing the beauty of our holy promised land, seem to pop up in my head the second I hit the pillow and try to close my eyes. I remember about twenty years ago talking to my Uncle Mendy one morning, and I asked him if he slept well that night, after a long previous day. His response still echoes in my ears, that I can only now begin to appreciate. He said “Oib ich shluf iz shoin gut- If I sleep it’s already good”. I can now say that I relate. Four  to five hours a night and man am I grateful.

I attribute my lack of sleep, to a large degree, to the fact that I must have used up all my sleep zechusim-merits to when I was in Yeshiva. Then I could sleep. A bagel was nothing to me. {For those non Yeshiva educated out there’s benefit and translation- a bagel is sleeping around the clock}. There was nothing like a good winter Friday Night when you can crawl under your covers by 8-9 o’clock and wake up the next morning and hey- it was still 8-9 o’clock. Maybe even 9:30…or 10? AM of course. Yeah, So I used up all my sleep merits back then. Now it’s just tossing and turning and of course after a while just getting up and heading down to my computer and composing this E-Mail to you. Now you see why there’s so many spelling and grammatical mistakes. I can write with my eyes half shut, but fuggetabout editing.

It’s a strange thing sleep though. It’s amazing that Hashem created the world and there’s so much that we are meant to accomplish and do and yet almost 1/3^rd of people’s lives are pretty much spent lying horizontally in a comatose state, dead to the world. It doesn’t seem like a productive way to create a world and mankind. Wouldn’t the world have been better served, if Hashem created us without the need to sleep? I know that there are a lot of Yeshiva guys and even more teenage girls, for whom their bed is their favorite piece of furniture in their house and for whom bedtime is their favorite time of day that are groaning upon reading this. But it’s true. I mean eating is an important time of day as well, but imagine a boss who designs a job where 1/3 of the time allotted for his employees to get their job done they spend eating. I can even understand perhaps that sleeping serves some purpose in humanity’s role in creation. Perhaps Hashem wants us to get a sense that we can start fresh, each day. That each day can start anew. But he could’ve created us like a computer or my internet modem that I regularly have to restart. Hit a button. Hold it down for a few minutes and boom it starts clean again. But 6,7,8 hours a night seems to be a long time to get that point across.

I think about this topic this week, of course because of the fantastic and perhaps most pivotal story in the history of the world that we read about in this week’s Torah portion. I speak of course about the revelation of Hashem and the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. All of us stood together and heard the words of Hashem from ‘His mouth’. We saw the sounds, noises, thunder and world shook. It was the moment the entire world was created for. We didn’t come to this moment though instantaneously. Much of the parsha discusses the preparation for that incredible moment. Three days, of separating from marital relations, purifying oneself, fencing up the mountain, one can imagine the incredible excitement, nervousness and pure spiritual adrenaline that must have been pumping through them. And yet, as all who are familiar with the custom throughout the Jewish world to not go to sleep on the night of Shavuot night the night we were given the Torah, knows. The reason behind this custom, the great 17^th century sage known as the Magen Avraham suggests, is based on a Midrash that writes how the Jewish people slept-in the morning the Torah was given and Moshe had to awaken them. We stay up, he writes, to rectify that sleep. It’s an astounding Midrash and a perplexing custom. How could they have slept in? Not set an alarm clock? Perhaps an even better question is how could they have even gone or even fallen asleep? I don’t imagine they had melatonin back then. I think my wife discovered that. What’s going on there?

Rav Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin offers a powerful and revolutionary perspective. There is a Midrash that discusses four kings of Israel and how each of them made a request of Hashem, each one a greater one than the previous one, and yet Hashem answered all of them. King David, the first of the Kings told Hashem that I can organize and army and lead them into battle and wage war against our enemies, yet I need to light up my darkness, to provide the light that will win the battle. Hashem acquiesced. King Asa was next. He told Hashem that he was capable of forming an army and marshalling the troops to battle but he would require Hashem to wage the war on his behalf. Once again Hashem agreed to do this. King Yehoshafat followed and he told Hashem that he was not even able to get the Jewish people to go out and join the army and wage wars. Maybe there were a lot of Chariedim back then J-no insult intended, I just couldn’t resist. All that he was capable of doing, he said was singing songs of praise to Hashem. The rest, he asked, is up to You. And once again Hashem, came to the rescue. Finally the last King was Hezkiah. He told Hashem I cannot even sing to You, forget about forming an army and going out to battle. I instead, he said will go to sleep and You Hashem should take care of all of the business that needs to be taken care of. The end of that story and that battle that took place Seder night against the army of Sancheirev and his 180,000 troops was that the next morning when the Jews woke up their enemies were all dead outside the walls of Jerusalem by plague. Pretty impressive.

Rav Tzadok explains that the Midrash is not telling us merely that one King was greater or less, mightier or weaker than the previous one. And it certainly can’t possibly be telling us that Hezkia and Yehoshafat’s faith and prayers were stronger than King David, Hashem’s most beloved. Rather he suggests that it is coming to explain and show us the incredible process of how our prayers need to work and to contrast that with our own efforts. King David, the greatest of all Kings certainly believed that all the battles that he won and all his incredible wars all come from Hashem. He said I could arrange armies, inspire an army and even take my sword and wage powerful and incredible wars and that would not for a second give me any sense that I have done or accomplished anything at all on my own. It was all You. I just need you to keep my light burning. Asa on the other hand said Hashem I can inspire and put together an army, and the power to do that I readily understand comes from You. But, if I actually have to go out to battle, fight and pursue an enemy than I am fearful that I will start to believe that it is me, not You that is waging that war. I need You to do it for me. Yehoshafat was even more aware of the frailty of his faith. He didn’t feel comfortable that he could even put together the army and not attribute it to his own charisma, his own inspiration and leadership. All he felt that he could do is say and sing the praise of Hashem afterwards.

Chizkiyah, 100’s of years after King David, distant from even the sense and appreciation that there is nothing that we do, absolutely nothing, that happens if not for the hands of Hashem, turned to God and said that If I even do anything besides go to sleep, I will not truly attribute this victory, this accomplishment to its rightful source. It is all You. All I can do is close my eyes and hit the sack and wake up the next morning and see my enemies decimated. Only when You do it all for us will I not stand any risk of taking some credit for myself.

Hashem created us with one function our Torah tells us. It is come to the realization and appreciation that Ein Od Milvado-there is no other force or power in the universe besides Him. He created us in a way that each night we would have the need and understanding that we can’t keep going. We can’t do it all. We need to close our eyes and He will take over. Even more than that though, He wants us to appreciate and teach us that we can close our eyes and turn off the lights. Our problems, our worries are only there, because we fail to appreciate that He is running the world, not us. Everything that is happening and that will happen is because Hashem wants it to happen. The world is running just right. Sure we need to do everything we can to accomplish, to build, to fix, to earn and to resolve. It’s why we were put here. But that should never be anything we should lose sleep over. The Boss has it under control. Hashem created us this way so that a third of our life is spent in a state when we can’t do anything, while in truth we are being taught what should be the most important lesson of our lives.

The Jewish people came to Mt. Sinai on the eve of that fateful day, Rav Tzadok suggests they achieved that great level. In the greatest act of faith, they went to sleep that evening and they slept like babies. Not a worry in the world. Hashem was totally in control. They understood that there was nothing that they could possibly do to prepare themselves more for that incredible one time in history revelation. They were totally in Hashem’s hands. We find a similar story as well in Tanach. The story of our forefather Avraham’s command to bring his son Yitzchak up to Hashem as an offering, begins with the Torah telling us that Avraham awoke early the next morning. It is telling us that he woke early, our sages point out, in order for us to note that he went to sleep the night beforehand. Amazing. Can you possibly imagining get a good night’s rest after hearing such a chilling command. Knowing that this might be the last evening you may spend with your beloved child and that you are commanded to do perhaps the most distressing thing in the world. Yet Avraham who understood that all that Hashem had ordained for him and commanded him to do was for good, went to sleep with the same peace and calm as if Hashem would have told him to shake a Lulav the following morning. It is all from Him. Hashem’s will runs the world and I am merely a pawn that is privileged to carry out what he commands me. Layla tov.

As I finish this E-Mail, my eyes begin to close. Maybe yours are as well. It’s almost Shabbos. The 13^th century Jewish leader Rabeinu Asher-the Rosh, notes that Shabbat is an acronym of the three words sheina bi’shabbat ta’anug-sleep on Shabbos is a pleasure. Those of us in Yeshiva certainly know that. There’s no sleep like Friday night after our Shabbat meal or Shabbos day after a big plate of chulent. But it’s more than that. The essence of that most special day, the pinnacle of creation is precisely that concept of sleep. We can turn off our responsibilities, our worries and our obligations. Everything is taken care of. Hashem created the world in 6 days and established the day of rest when we don’t have to do anything. We can put ourselves in sleep mode and merely bask in the joy and pleasure of an existence where the Creator is taking care of it all. It’s the lesson we learned that was the prelude to our acceptance of the Torah. It is the lesson that we learn and repeat each week as we sit down to our Shabbos tables. It’s what we spend most of our life doing. How amazing is that.  Truly truly amazzzzzzzzzzz…..

Have a restful Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

““A nacht on shlof iz di gresteh shtrof”” – A night without sleep is the greatest punishment

RABBI SCHWARTZES COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

https://youtu.be/AF_nfazQaek – We take no responsibility for this product. Naptime!- Not recommended at all…

https://youtu.be/_sAwz3pYka4   -Avrumy Weinberg Birkas Kohanim Elka loves this song this week! It’s beautiful

https://youtu.be/I2LMLWn_7ok   - Naaseh Vnishma by Simcha Leiner this weeks Torah portion

 https://youtu.be/_2fuHZpLDfc  - Micha  Shavuot Cartoon Torah medley

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q The term “Dhimmi” in Islam means:

A. Dancing/whirling dervish

B. People of the Jahiliyya period

C. Heretics

D. Non Muslim citizens of an Islamic state

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

Parshat Yisro– A true lamdan sees a halachic word in the Torah and it clicks a switch that there should be some type of halachic connection over here. Although to the rest of us simple folks it seems like a nice story. Take a look at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion.

The Torah tells us

Shemot (18:9-10) And Yisro rejoiced on all of the good that Hashem did for the children of Israel in which he saved them from the hands of Egypt. And Yiso said Baruch Hashem who saved you from the hands of Egypt and from the hands of Pharaoh.

Key word here is Baruch. Yisro is making a blessing. What blessing is it? The blessing of thanksgiving – Hagomel when one is saved from a trouble.

Once you’ve made that connection the next obvious question is can one make this blessing upon hearing someone else was saved. So if you take a look in the Shulchan Aruch, as the Brisker Rav does, the law is

Orach Chayim (219:4) a man can make the blessing of Gomel upon the good of his friend

The Rema notes on this law that this is not a bracha levatala- a blessing in vain, since it is a blessing of praise on the good of his friend that he is happy about.

The Ta”Z, being a lamdan as well notes that from the words of the Rema it seems he can only make the blessing if he is truly happy and not just saying it for ‘ways of peace’. Even so he should only make it without mentioning the kingship of Hashem.

Now that you got all the pieces together. Let’s look back at our verses. First it tells us that Yisro was truly happy for the good of Israel. Once we know that then it tells us he blessed Hashem. However in that blessing he didn’t’ recite Hashem’s kingship, just as the Ta”Z tells us. And there you have it, what seemed to us to be a simple story, is in fact a halachic discussion. Cool!

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

Achan and Emek Achur 1272 BC  After the battle of Jericho The prophet tells us that there was one Jew- there’s always one, that took from the booty of the city that Hashem had prohibited. God was no snitcher. However when the Jews attacked the next city of Ai, 36 soldiers were killed and it was a resounding failure. Hashem appeared to Yehoshua and told him that someone had stolen and all the Jewish people were culpable. Yehoshua made a lottery it fell on Achan and he confessed that his greed overcame him he stole 200 shekels, a strip of gold and a Babylonian cloak. They were all taken out with Achan and stoned, burned and buried. A pile of stones were placed on them in the “Valley of Achur- the valley of trouble” and the Jews went on to conquer Ai (more about that next week).

The lessons of the story, which of course all tour guides are meant to share are. 1) If Hashem tells you not do something don’t to it, your decision is not only a personal one all Jews are held culpable for each other and 36 Jews died because of his sin. 2) All Jews are responsible for one another. Really. We can be punished for not preventing someone else for sinning. We’re all in the same boat and if one guy drills a hole we all will sink. 3) When caught confess. Despite the fact that Achan was punished, he was forgiven and earned his place in the world to come. In fact our sages tell us when we recite the prayer of Aleinu each prayer the second paragraph begins al kein nekaveh lecha- therefore we long for you which is the same acronym as AChaN. His teshuva got him a place forever in every Jewish prayer.

So where is this place Emek Achur? Interesting enough it is mentioned in the book of Hoshea in describing the redemption

(2:17) And I will give her vineyards from there and the Emek Achur -depth of trouble for a Petach Tikva -door of hope, and she shall dwell there as in the days of her youth, and as the day of her ascent from the land of Egypt.

The city of Petach Tikva is named after this verse. Not that Petach Tikva is anywhere near this, however the original plan was to build Petach Tikva near Yericho and thus the name was chosen. I do mention this place as well as we visit Kumran, though for in addition to the Dead Sea scrolls that were found there, they discovered a copper scroll that wrote about a treasure hidden in the churbat Emek Achur hidden between two buildings in Emek Achur Modern archeologists place the valley near Hurkaniya not far from Kumran in the Judean desert however in 2005 the Israeli archeologists discovered a stash of golden ancient shekels in East Jerusalem under a house, which meet the copper scrolls description. I don’t know if it is historically correct, but one thing is certain, East Jerusalem is definitely a valley of trouble.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S SLEEP JOKES  OF THE WEEK

Chaim, an Israeli government worker went to the doctor and complained of being unable to sleep.
Doctor: 'Oh! Don't you sleep well at night?'
Chaim: 'Yes, I sleep very well at night. And I sleep quite soundly most of the mornings, too - but I find it's very difficult to sleep in the afternoons as well.'

Two siblings, Sarah was talking to her brother Bobby and asked how come it was that grandma didn’t have any teeth. Bobby in a very knowing voice explained that Grandma had gone to sleep one night with her head underneath her pillow, and what do you know? The Tooth Fairy came and took all her teeth.

 Yankel came to the doctor and told him that he was having trouble sleeping and he assumed that it was because he had High blood pressure problem in his family.

The physician doctor asked him from which side in his family it was from your mother's side or your father's?
"Neither," Yankel replied. "It's from my wife's family."
"How could your wife's family give you high blood pressure?"
He sighed. "You oughta meet 'em sometime, Doc!"

I have a sleeping disorder…it’s called children

Finally a real quote from President Ronald Reagan I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.

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Answer is D–  Yeah, I knew this one too. It’s a familiar term that I knew even before my tour guiding program. Probably from my history studies (which was mostly Rabbi Wein tapes). They did teach us about jervishes as well as what Jahiliya is- not that I remember, or am even interested in googling for your benefit. And I forgot the Arabic word for heretic. But I knew that Dhimmi was the status given to Jews and Christians living in Israel and anywhere under Muslim rule where they had 2^nd class status. They could have their own courts but there were different rules that applied to non-muslims, extra taxes and the like as well. Kind of like in Israel today where arabs are allowed to get away with murder and illegal construction and Jews are still 2^nd class citizens here- just under Israeli government….ahh well.. Anyways the important thing is that the score is Schwartz 13 and 1 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.