Friday Frenzy- Parshat Chukas / Balak 2019 /5779

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

July 12^th 2019 -Volume 9 Issue 40 9^th of Tamuz 5779

Parshat Chukas/ Balak

Friday Frenzy

 Have you ever noticed that it doesn’t make a difference what time Shabbos starts you’re always rushing the last minute? ‘Oh no did you set the Shabbos clocks? Who’s in the shower it’s almost candle lighting? ‘Or in Israel it’s ‘Who turned the ‘dood’ off, there’s no hot water.’ (For those who haven’t been here yet and have no clue why a dude would be in charge of your hot water…. I’m not telling you. Come to Israel and find out the pleasures of solar-heated hot water tanks yourself.). ‘Did you put the blech on? Did you print up Rabbi Schwartz’s weekly E-Mail for our meal yet?’ Really religious people make sure all their bottles have been opened. Ask them why. ‘Where’s the cleaners? How come no one set up the candles?’ If these conversations have not taken place in your home than you are not a shomer shabbos Jew.  Or your one of those exemplary people that recently heard a shiur a few weeks ago- it really only lasts a few weeks- where the speaker inspired you to get everything ready on Thursday or even Wednesday night so that you can come into Shabbos all peaceful and relaxed and not rushed and not hurried. Soooooo beautiful… So romantic… So holy… yeah, right! As I said it usually only lasts a few weeks or so, about as long as your resolution not to peek at your cellphone as it beeps in your pocket in shul.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against good resolutions and extra preparedness for Shabbos. In fact, my wife has been on a kick for the last few years to have our table set already Thursday night, despite the fact that it’s a pain to lay my laptop on top of my challah board as I write this weekly E-Mail to you from my dining room table. But regardless of the table being set and even many times the chulent even being up Thursday night-there’s nothing like a chulent that has been cooking for 2 days straight by the way., which really can be a distracting smell while I write this- now you know why there are so many chulent allusions in my E-Mails.). But despite all her best efforts, we’re still running against the clock to the last minute. It doesn’t really make a difference. It seems that there is something built into Erev Shabbos that gives it that frenetic feeling.
Now there are some that might suggest that this is the yetzer harah, the satan or Donald Trump’s fault. I prefer to find the spiritual, holier excuse. To be milamed zechus on klal Yisrael that suffers from the erev shabbos frenzy. Just call me Rabbi Ephraim “Berditchever” Schwartz, the Rabbi who can see a Jew on his phone in shul or talking in the back in middle of Torah reading and say “hey, at least he’s coming to shul, right?” That’s what 15 years of Jewish outreach work does to you, what can I say.
So the truth is, I posit, that the erev Shabbos rush is actually built into Creation. In fact, it goes back to the very first Erev Shabbos itself. It goes back to Hashem. What do I mean there is a famous Mishna in Ethics of our Fathers

Pirkey Avot (5:6) Ten things were created on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight, and these are they: [1] the mouth of the earth, [2] the mouth of the well, [3] the mouth of the donkey, [4] the rainbow, [5] the manna, [6] the staff [of Moses], [7] the shamir-, [8] the letters, [9] the writing, [10] and the tablets. And some say: also the demons, the grave of Moses, and the ram of Abraham, our father. And some say: and also tongs, made with tongs.

Now if Hashem had a wife, which he doesn’t by the way for any of my Christian readers out there, you could imagine the conversation going on up in heaven. “You had 6 whole days to take care of this stuff… why the last minute... How many times do I have to tell you to get your stuff together in advance? Really…Now??!! Its five minutes to the first candle lighting ever and you forgot to take care of the mouth of the donkey! The rainbow?  What is a tong of tongs anyways?” As I said Hashem does not have a wife or a mother for that matter that would be yelling that at Him. But yet as you see there seems to be something to be built into Creation from the very beginning that there is a last minute rush to get things done. The question of course is why?
Now let’s leave all ten, or ten plus things according to the “some say” opinions, to the side. We had a long enough E-Mail last week. Although it is interesting that the majority of them are seemingly connected to Moshe Rabbeinu. Let’s just talk about the first three or the three “mouths”, that are mentioned. Why those three? Because this week’s Torah portion in Israel has the story of Bilaams talking donkey mouth, this week’s Torah portion outside of Israel (and our last week’s one) is the mouth of the well that Moshe hit, and the parsha before that one was the mouth of the earth that swallowed up Korach. Fascinating isn’t it? Three weeks in a row. Three mouths that were created at the last minutes of Creation and all three of them being pretty much the stories that show up in the Torah right before we are meant to finally enter the land of Israel. Before we are meant to finally achieve the purpose of Creation, of creating a home for Hashem here on this world by which his Divine presence can shine out to the rest of the world. By which we can repair the sin of Adam Harishon, that got thrown out of the garden of Eden, just a few hours before that twilight when Hashem had to create all of these last minute things. To fix that the things that got us thrown out His world in the first place
What are those three things and what are their significance? The Mishna in the previous chapter of Avot gives us a clue.

Pirkey Avos (4:21) Rabbi Elazar Ha-kappar said: kina’h-envy, ta’avah- desire and [the pursuit for] kavod- honor remove a man from the world.

What were the temptations of Adam that got us thrown out of the garden. The snake tempted Chava by telling her that she could be like Hashem. Hashem didn’t want them to be like Him. They could have honor, they could have knowledge. He made them jealous, He showed them a desirous tasty fruit. It implanted in them what our sages call zuhama- this spiritual poison and hunger for the things that ultimately make co-existing together with Hashem in the garden unfeasible. And so out of the garden we were sent. Two angels guarded the tree of life, but instead we were given another tree of life to attach ourselves to that would help us overcome this poison. It’s called the Torah. It is our way back to the garden.
Well we got that Torah a few thousand years later, and we were finally ready to return. We had a few stumbles along the way, the golden calf, the spies, lots of kvetching but the time was ripe. It was finally time for Hashem to give us our mouths back. The mouths that we had defiled way back when we sinned in Eden. The first mouth Hashem revealed to us was the mouth of the earth that swallowed up Korach. Korach represented that poison called jealousy. He wanted, as did Adam and Chava to be as close to Hashem as possible. Why is Aharon the chosen one? Why not me. The mouth of the earth swallowed him up. That’s what jealousy will do to you. The land and earth is from where you came. Mother earth. It’s where you will ultimately return. When you are jealous of another despite the fact that you may think it is for spiritual reasons, ultimately you will be consumed by it. That’s what mouths of earth do. They remind you that nafshi ki’afar tihiyeh- your soul should be humble like the earth from where you came.
The next lesson was the mouth of the well. It was the rock that Moshe originally hit to bring out water, but now he was meant to speak to it. The well and the water represents desire. We have this insatiable thirst that needs to be quenched. Initially the way to deal with those desires outside of the land of Israel when we first came out of Egypt is to hit that rock. Knock down your desires. When you do that then you will be satisfied as the water you need will come out. But as they were coming to the land of Israel there was a different message that was meant to be heard from the mouth of the be’er. It was the message that just as a rock obeys Hashem and can produce water, so to the Jewish people should recognize that their desires were given to them by Hashem. They just have to channel them. We are not a religion or a people that are meant to be hidden away in clouds of glory and thrown out of yeshiva the second that we realize some desire is burning inside of us. We are coming to the land of Israel where we are meant to plant, grow, make falafels, invent waze and mobileye and find the cure to cancer. We are meant to live in this world and eat delicious, grapes, pomegranates, olives and watermelons as we watch milk and honey flow and appreciate Hashem in all of it. Our desires are holy they just need to be talked to and channeled, as the mouth of the well was meant to tell us, in the service of Hashem.
And finally we come to good ol’ Bilam, the man who could just not get enough honor in life. He is the prophet of the non-jews our sages tell us on the caliber of Moshe. But he needs Balak to honor him. It’s not about all of the money in Balak’s house. It’s about getting the honor of taking down the Jews. It’s about even if Hashem says I shouldn’t go and curse the Jews, but maybe I’ll change His mind. Then I really will be the greatest prophet. The answer to that desire came from the donkey. The limo that he rode in on, that he thought was there to transport him and bring him to glory opened up its mouth as well. It showed him that he was not riding to glory. He was smashing into a wall with an angel of death ready to chop off his head.
 Do you know people like that? The pursuit of fame, glory, tweets, like and honor is what drives them? Are they your president? Prime Minister? Or are they me and you that post silly things and waiting to get a smiley emoji back that tells me “ Wow! They think I’m funny. Look how many thumbs up I got, how many “hits” I have. That’s not what coming to the land of Israel was meant to be about. It wasn’t about bringing out our honor and pride to the rest of the world because we are the best, smartest, strongest and coolest people in the world. That’s just the donkey talking. We’re coming into the land to create that home for Hashem.
Hashem created these things bein hashemashos-right before Shabbos. It’s not only because it was after the sin of Adam and Chava and Hashem needed to make some quick last minute changes to the world. Rather it is because that time of twilight is border between the holiness of Shabbos and the physical, material work of the six days of work when we are out there in the “real world”. These mouths are the bridge to bring us into Shabbos. They allow us to enter that world where we have returned to Hashem. On Shabbos we will dress with honor and give kavod to Shabbos, the day Hashem has given us to express that holy desire for honor. We will make hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz on our challas again and again, recognizing that the bread that comes from the ground is there to elevate our Shabbos table and not bury us in the petty jealousies that took down Korach. And we will fill our mouths with songs of praise that will pour like the water from the well as we eat the delicacies we desire in honor of Shabbos. As we eat our chulent.
We are told that when Mashiach comes the redemption of Hashem will come with the blink of an eye. On Erev Shabbos as we approach that moment when we enter back into the garden of Hashem, it is no wonder that we are rushed and hurried. The redemption is around the corner. We have been waiting 5779 years for that return. Hashem has been waiting as well. Perhaps it is that excitement that the waiting is almost over that causes that last minute hurry. I don’t know. It could be. Or not either way. It’s almost Shabbos and I got to get into the shower. Shabbos is coming! May it be the final yom shekulo Shabbos- the day and time when it will only be shabbos that we have been waiting for.
Have peaceful and holy Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Shabbes hot der rosheh in gehenem oich ru...”- On the Sabbath even the wicked in hell have rest.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO  OF THE WEEK

https://youtu.be/V9ybPi0ruvc   – Living Wells- Rapping Schar Mitzva, Mach a Bracha, Yishtabach fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JfNQAEeSrM – Dovid Lowy- He’s my new singer of choice as he has begun doing my songs for me. Get used to him. He’s great and this is his awesome Ein Od Milvado

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdG3YjwwnAU  –A truly beautiful Shlomo Katz song I have never heard before (start at 1:30) Ma Tovu

https://youtu.be/tnljfeGZ7CM - This is not the music I like, but my kids do. Chasidish guy rocking it up Ein Adaom Nokef Etzbo?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3EtlVaiZyo  - Shwekey Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov from this weeks Parsha

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q   A settlement that was destroyed and rebuilt under the same name:
A) Kabri
B) Beit HaArava
C) Kfar Masaryk
D) Nir Etzion

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

Parshat Balak– The incredible thing about lamdanim is that they can learn out of anything some halacha. Torah is torah not stories and lamdanim look to make connections and derive one thing from another. This week I’ll share with you a halachic debate about davening that comes from the least likely source. Bil’am the wicked Midainite who tried to curse the Jewish people.

The medrash tells us that Bilaam’s strength to curse is that he knew the one second a day that Hashem gets angry, when he runs the world with the attribute of judgement, as rav Dessler explains. and he utilizes that moment to curse the Jewish people. That is how he could be successful. Now tosafos in brachot asks the question that if Bila’am only had a moment to curse the Jewish people what could he do in one moment. Tosfos answers two suggestions. The first is he would just say the word kla’aeim- destroy them and that would be sufficient. The second answer is that all Bil’am had do was start at that moment the curse. Once he started and so to speak lit the engine than he could continue as long as he needed. A nice midrashic tosafos right? What does this have to do with practical laws of prayer.

The Aruch Hashulchan explains that according to the second answer of Tosafos the same rule should apply for one who starts to pray a second before the time for reciting shema or prayer is over. As long as you start beforehand you can continue even afterwards. This by the way is pretty practical in many shuls that start davening too late or close to sunset for Mincha or the morning prayers too late to make zman kriyat shema or teffila.

The Mishna Berura argues though and says one cannot rely on this leniency. Why not? So Reb Chaim Kanievsky suggests that since there is two answers to tosafos and the first answer where he says a one word curse clearly does not hold like the second, we cannot rely on the second answer to permit one to start right before the time and continue on.

The Revid Hazahav offers a bit of a more lomdushe teretz though. He makes a difference between curses and prayers. A curse is supernatural. Perhaps it works as Tosafos suggests, get the engine running and you can keep going on as long as you want. Prayer though he suggests is like other mitzvos. Just as one does not get a mitzva for eating Matza after Pesach is over, or sitting in a Sukkah after Sukkos one does not fulfill the mitzva of prayer after the time is up. That is the reason he suggests the Mishna Berura disagrees.

So what do you say? Pretty lomdushe for a simple story of Bila’am. Lomdush and halachic a double bonus. Amazing!

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

Death of Yehoshua 1265 BC – He was 110 years old when he passed away on the 26^th of Nissan. Just 10 years short of the age his Rebbe Moshe Rabbeinu died. Chazal tell us that if head finished the job of conquering the land instead of giving the people a break he would have lived to 120. The conclusion of the Book of Yehoshua is very much like the conclusion of the Torah. Yehoshua gathers the people to Shechem and gives them words of rebuke and encouragement to live in the land, remove all of the idols from their midst and to follow the Torah and its laws. He makes a monument and it is placed by the Ark in Shiloh with his words of the Torah and he goes back to his city of Timnat Serach or Cheres and he dies there.

When I first moved to Israel I was privileged to visit the grave of Yehoshua. It is located in Area A of the Palestinian authority and on his yartzeit thousands visit the grave. Unfortunately we require a military permit and protection to visit the grave of the man who originally led us into battle to conquer the land. As Chazal tell us that he didn’t finish conquering the land and throwing out our enemies and I guess that is the price he is still paying for that failure.

Now where exactly is his burial place and how do we know that it is there? The Torah tells us it is is in Timnat Serach and the arab village of kefel cheres where tradition places him has a similar sounding name. In addition the Navi tells us that he is buried North of the “volcano” and sure enough on the Highway 465 Chotzeh Binyamin that goes through the Shomron there were many volcanic rocks and lava hills found. In fact just a few KMs south of this village there is a place called Hirbat Ara’ara which has remains of a volcano and above it towers a hill with a grave on top of it that the Muslims would call “Sheikh  Abdalla”- Abdalla for you non-arab speakers means Servant of God or Eved Hashem. And guess what Yehoshuah was called? You got it! The second to last verse of Yehoshua

Yehoshua (24:29) And Yehoshua Bin Nun the servant of Hashem died and he was 110 years old.

The Kaftor VaPerach mentions that Jews have been making the pilgrimage to visit this grave since at least the 13^th century. In addition to Yehoshua being buried there, there is a tradition that Kalev Ben Yefuneh, his fellow spy is buried there as well as Nun, Yehoshuah’s father.

We have finished Sefer Yehoshua as we continue this journey chronologically going through Jewish history and identifying the stories and eras as they connect to tour guiding and visiting the land of Israel sites they took place Up next Sefer Shoftim! Looking forward to doing it with you. Meantime Chazak Chazak Vnischazek on Yehoshua!

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S  TERRIBLE IN A HURRY JOKES OF THE WEEK

What do you call a South American girl who's always in a hurry? Urgent Tina
There’s a special type of people who are always in a hurry. They are called Rushians.
Why was Batman in a hurry? He had to go to the Batroom.
What did the doctor say to the short guy in a hurry? You're going to have to be a little patient
Berel and his wife walked into a dentist's office. Berel quickly says to the dentist, "Doctor, I'm in one hell of a big hurry! I have two buddies sitting out in my car waiting for us to go play golf. So forget about the anesthetic and just pull the tooth and be done with it. I don't have time to wait for the anesthetic to work!"
The dentist thought to himself, "My goodness, this sure is a very brave man, asking me to pull his tooth without using anything to kill the pain."
So the dentist asked him, "Which tooth is it, sir?"
Berel turned to his wife and said, "Open your mouth, Honey, and show the doctor which tooth hurts.
Yankel calls the doctor and said, “Hurry! My wife’s going into labour! What must I do?”        The doctor said, “is this her first child?”
“No” says the very overwhelmed Yankel says, , “this is her husband!”
A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen. ‘Careful,’ he said, ‘CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They’re going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don’t forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!’
The wife stared at him. “What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?”
The husband calmly replied, “I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving.”
A young lawyer, starting up his private practice, was very anxious to impress potential clients. When he saw the first visitor to his office come through the door, he immediately picked up his phone and spoke into it, making belief he was actually talking to someone. "I'm sorry, but my caseload is so tremendous that I'm not going to be able to look into your problem for at least a month. I'll have to get back to you then." He then turned to the man who had just walked in, and said, "Now, what can I do for you? Make sure to do this fast, as I am in a mad rush, as you can see from the endless telephone calls of clients."
"Nothing," replied the man. "I'm here to hook up your phone.”
Three hijacked passengers, an American, A Frenchman and an Israeli were captured by ISIS and were about to face a firing squad. Before their execution they were asked what they would like to eat for their last meal. The American prisoner asked for a juicy steak. He was served the steak and then taken away to be shot.
The French prisoner requested roast duck. He was served the duck and then taken away to be shot.
The Israeli prisoner asked for strawberries. “Strawberries?” asked the terrorists. “But they’re out of season!” “It’s okay,” said the Israeli. “I’ll wait….

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Answer is B–  I like doing these exams in this E-Mail not only to show you how much information we were responsible to know to become licensed tour guides in this country. It’s also for me as I research a bit to learn new things and remind myself of some of the things we learned. I remembered this information. Biet Ha’arava by the Dead Sea was evacuated right after the announcement of the State when we realized we couldn’t hold it against the Jordanians. I know that it is a jewish Kibbutz today, so it was the right answer. The question though to me was what were the other choices connection. Nir Etzion, up by Mt. Carmel I knew was established from refugees from the Gush around the same time, so that was its connection, although it was never moved or reestablished although the Gush of course was. Kabri, which is near Kfar Masryk was actually established by the refugees of Beit Ha’arava so that is their connection. I didn’t know that although I pass by them near Nahariya on the way to Rosh Hanikra all the time. Learned something new. Regardless the main thing is that I got the answer right. As Beit Ha’arava was reestablished in 2000 or so in its original location. V’shavu banim l’gvulam- the children have returned to our borders.  So the score is Schwartz 29 and 6 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.