Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
July 19th 2019 -Volume 9 Issue 41 16th of
Tamuz 5779
Parshat Balak/ Pinchas
Giving it All
The commanding officer had tears in his eyes as he walked into the Bnai Israel congregation before Shabbos. He said that although usually a search would be called off after a day or two, his men were going to continue. How could they stop searching when so many people around the world were praying, Emailing, and continuing to come in to search. Leaving their wives and families behind in their own communities in order to search for the body of a Jew they had never met before in their life and knew nothing about. There were counselors, therapists, crisis management people. He told the Rabbi, that he never knew any Jews before and didn’t really know anything about the Jewish people, but if this is what they were about, he wishes he were part of us as he had never seen anything like this. Mi K’amcha Yisrael- who is like Your nation, Israel, the Torah says, Goy Echad Ba’aretz. – One nation in the land
I did not know Rabbi Bauman or Reuvein Tzvi ben Esther Baila as most of Klal Yisrael knew him for the five days it took until his body was found, as we all recited tehillim for him. My brother who lives in Norfolk and whose children were there at the beach at the time that the drowning occurred kept us updated and posted throughout this national crisis. But I do know Norfolk. My family was privileged to live there for three years as we started the Kollel there which led to the development of the school that Rabbi Bauman taught in. I know many of the people searching, I know the community there joined together in prayer, and I know they are sharing in tragedy. But with that being said, I don’t feel that this was more personal for me than for anyone else in Klal Yisrael. We don’t have to know the person to realize and to reveal that inner knowledge that they are my brother and sister and their pain is my pain, their worry is my worry and their anguish is my anguish. We are a nation that has had those unifying nerves that we share, pricked again and again that remind us that we are one. Whether it is tzoros in Israel, a tragic car accident, a terrorist attack or a suicide, we feel the pain. We will walk around the world for each other. It is what family does. It is what family feels. It is what it means to be a goy echad ba’aretz- a singular nation in the land.
Now if that is the case, perhaps someone can explain to me why at the same time we are the most divisive people around. Why we can’t seem to agree upon anything. Why even after we have elections which tears this country apart, we still can’t figure out who should be Prime Minister. So hey, let’s do it all again. Why is it that we will fight, we will demonstrate, we will attack, malign, and pretty much destroy anyone that sees things different than us? Why the most famous Jewish joke is about the guy alone on the island who has two shuls the one he prays in and the one he wouldn’t step foot in. It doesn’t make any sense. On one hand we will give our lives for a fellow Jew we don’t know, on the other hand god help you once I get to know you and I find out you voted for the wrong candidate, you go to that shul, you follow that Rabbi, you serve or don’t serve in that army.
Perhaps this Jewish dynamic could be understood with one of the most interesting puzzles that we find at the end of last week’s Torah portion and the beginning of this ones. The story of Pinchas. For those not caught up yet and who haven’t read it yet like we did in Israel (because you live in that country J), The leader of the tribe of Shimon, Zimri, gets up taunts Moshe with a Midianite princess in front of the entire people. The Jews themselves have begun to sin with the daughters of Moav that have come out to seduce them to worship their idol- Baal Pe’or. This is the fall-back plan that was devised by Bilaam when he couldn’t curse the Jewish people. And it was working, a plague broke out 24,000 Jews were dead. The nation is in tears and Moshe Rabbeinu is shell-shocked. Things are not looking good.
And then comes Pinchas. Like a hero he picks up a spear and chucks it at Zimri and the princess killing them. Boom. The plague stops. Pinchas, the zealot is rewarded in this week’s Torah portion with the Bris Kehunas Olam- He becomes the only person not born a Kohen to become a Kohen. As well he is awarded with Brisi Shalom- My Covenant of Peace. Because he was zealous for his God and he atoned for the Jewish people.
Now out of all the prizes that he could have gotten it seems strange that he would receive either of those. After all King David was not allowed to build the Beis Hamikdash because it was meant to be a house of peace and he had blood on his hand. In fact, the rule is that a Kohen that kills someone is not allowed to serve, so why is Pinchas made a Kohen? And the peace prize? Really? If you want to give him the best warrior prize I get that, Make him the general of the army. The head of the Vaad L’Mishmeres Tzniyus- the guard of the modesty brigade. But peace prize?
The answer really is that what Pinchas did was all and only about peace, and was all and only about Hashem. The act of killing someone while in the act of being with a non-Jewish woman- a bo’el aramis, is not a judicial law. There are no court deliberations, witness examinations, or even warnings, or appeals. It is something that someone who is not a “zealot” is prohibited from carrying out and killing them. As well it is only permitted while they are in the act of cohabiting, bizarrely enough. Moshe himself doesn’t pick up the spear and kill him as he feels it is his not his place to do so. Pinchas acted with the permission of Moshe, really without thinking of any of the personal consequences to himself. He could’ve been lynched. This was the leader of a tribe and the whole tribe was sitting right there. He could’ve been lambasted by the Jewish people; who did he think he was? His grandfather from his mother’s side worshipped idols. Trust me, there are no shortage of Jews that are out to get the zealot. But he did it anyways. He did it out of love and passion for the Jewish people and to stop the tremendous desecration of Hashem’s name that was taking place.
Rav Charlap in his classic work Mei Marom, brilliantly notes that this extra-judicial law that is only applicable here is in fact only brought about by the Zealot himself. Meaning the sin itself is not sufficient to get the death penalty. If someone would sin with a non-Jewish woman privately, or if the zealot missed the moment and the offender separated already, he wouldn’t be killed. His punishment would be lashes. The reason why he is killed than is really about the opportunity that the Zealot presents. He is overcome with passion. His beloved- Hashem- is being violated. The innate holiness that zera Yisrael- that Jewish seed possesses is going to waste, to impurity to a non-Jewish woman. That love and passion, not rage or anger or god forbid hatred, but that love for Hashem and for the fellow Jew that is about to commit this act is what provides for the halacha that he may act upon it. In the words of Rav Shaul Yisraeli
“The law
is one where the zealot doesn’t have to exert effort to subdue his natural
spiritual emotions and passion rather he has the freedom to express them and to
remove the abomination before him.”
That is however not enough. His act is also one that comes from a love of the Jewish people and to do whatever it takes to preserve not just them physically, by stopping the plague that came as a result of Hashem’s wrath for their sin, but by saving them spiritually. By showing them what true love means. How devastating it can be for our people if even one Jew is allowed to publicly flaunt and defile that holy spark we share. How much we need to do to prevent that from happening. That is the covenant of shalom. Shalom/ peace is not just lack of war. That would be a cease fire. Shalom is bringing it all together. Revealing the shared completion that happens when we are all connected like a perfect puzzle and we reveal the face of Hashem that shines when that happens. That is how the plague stopped. That is how the redemption will happen.
There are a lot people today that believe themselves to be zealots. Some are religious, some are secular, some are socialists, some are Zionists, some represent ideas that are an anathema to Torah and Jewish values, and some are only about Torah. We are living in a more and more radicalized world. The one common denominator in most, if not all of these camps, is that there is no absolutely no love for the ones that they decry and oppose. They are the enemies. They are evil. They are deplorable and anti-Jewish. They’re not Pinchas.
The other thing that they share though, which gives me hope, is that in times of tragedy, the true spark does come out. The love does. The unity does. And the prayers do. Pinchas can be found within us when we act for one another. He seems to be lost though when we believe we are acting for Hashem. We need that bris of shalom. We need that Kohen that will inspire us and reveal it.
We begin the three weeks of mourning for our Temple this Sunday with the fast of the 17th of Tamuz. It is a time more than any other throughout the year when we long for the Temple, the return of Hashem to His city. It is also a time when tragedy has always befallen the Jewish people. It’s not a good time to do wild activities. Every Jew knows there are always stories in the three weeks. Be careful. These are not lucky days. This year the community of Norfolk and other tragic stories in Israel and around the world seem to have gotten a head start. The tragedies are not just bad luck at an unlucky time of year. They are a call from above to unite. To get over our self-perceived zealotry and reveal that love for one another. We are told that Pinchas is Eliyahu Hanavi. He is waiting to bring us to Mashiach. To bring Mashiach to us. We just have to really appreciate and care enough that all of us, and only when it is truly all of us, are all there to greet him. May it be this year.
Have comforting and inspiring Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
**********************************************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S
FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Di kro flit hoich un zetst zikh oif a
chazzer.” -The crow flies high
but settles on a hog..
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://youtu.be/252RZTtjKd8
– Eliyahu Chait- Son of Reb
Baruch Lecha Dodi! Love the video! Just in time for shabbos
https://youtu.be/LBrlhRdGti0 – ITRI yeshiva 50
year anniversary- That’s my son Yonah’s yeshiva I spotted him at 1:48 and 5:02
and a bunch of times from 8:40 and on… He’s 21 getting on the market soon!
Check him out J
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/eliyahu-hanavi
–The Rabbi Schwartz Fan Club fan favorite in honor
of Pinchas is Eliyahu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0B1fnNXaCw&feature=youtu.be
–
Take the Three week Challenge…
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
Q Pistil (amud
haeli) is:
A) The peak of the mound (tel) in Shilo
B) The part that connects the flower to the stem
C) The organ that produces pollen in a flower
D) The female reproductive part of a flower
A) The peak of the mound (tel) in Shilo
B) The part that connects the flower to the stem
C) The organ that produces pollen in a flower
D) The female reproductive part of a flower
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE
WEEK
Parshat Pinchas– There is
nothing more exciting to lamdanim than when the Torah uses some extra words
that seemingly are there to reveal some type of solution to a halachic problem.
There are two parts that are exciting about that. Firstly, you have to figure
out the halachic problem and secondly how the words provide the solution to
that problem. An added bonus is if the words are one that the average –non
lamdan-(baaalah bos-layman) might miss. As well if you can make it
into a machlokes-dispute and find two problems each according to their
own opinion being resolved by the text. Is that a lomdushe enough introduction?
Ok here we go.
This
week the Torah recounts (again!) the numbers and families of the klal
Yisrael. The Torah throws in extra details here and there and those are the
ones that your lomdushe Spidey sense should start tingling for. So the Torah
tells us about Moshe’s parents
Bamidbar (26:59) And the
name of the wife of Amram was Yocheved the daughter of Levi whom she bore to
Levi in Egypt.
Got
it? Let’s take this apart. First of all it doesn’t generally tell us the names
of wives, so The fact that it tells us Yocheved is significant. As well Why
does it repeat and tell us that not only was she the daughter of Levi but that
her mother bore her to Levi. Isn’t that obvious and repetitious? Also who cares
that she was born in Egypt? These are your puzzles. So what’s the problem and
what is the solution?
The
Nachal Eliyahu fills us in. He points out that since Amram, Yocheved’s husband
is the son of Kehas who is the son of Levi. So then Yocheved, also a daughter
of Levi, would be his aunt. This is a problem. For according to one opinion in
the Talmud in Sanhedrin (58.) A Noahide is prohibited to marry his father’s
sister. Since we are talking about the marriage before the Torah was given- as
the verse specifically tell us this took place in Egypt- that would be the
status that the Jewish people had seemingly this would be a prohibited
marriage. That would put into question the entire lineage of Moshe Rabbeinu!
The
Torah therefore tells us that Yocheved was the daughter of Levi – that she bore
her- meaning that Yocheved came from a different mother than Kehat. She was the
only one that was born to her mother- Levi’s second wife. And thus she did not
share the same mother as Kehat and therefore she would be permitted to her
nephew Amram who was only the son of her half-brother and not her full brother!
So there we have part one, now for the extra credit.
Now
what about the opinion in the Talmud that holds that a ben Noach is permitted
to marry his aunt? Why would the Torah need to tell us all these extra details?
See what I did there… I took our insight and connected it to a debate and now I
can start all over again. So he suggests another solution. There is a law that
it is prohibited for a man to have relations with his wife during years of
famine. We derive this law from the fact that the Torah specifically tells us
that Yosef had his children before the years of famine began. Which insinuates
that during the years of famine it would have been prohibited to have children.
That being the case than how was it possible that Yocheved was born when they
came down to Egypt. Levi and all the tribes came down during the years of
famine?
The
answer is that the Talmud tells us that there is an exception to the rule. That
is if a couple still has not had any children yet than those extenuating
circumstances permit one to cohabit. Aha! If that is the case, then we
understand what the Torah is telling us. Yocheved was born from a different
wife- as it says she bore her to him- she was the only one born to him. Therefore,
she was not the same wife that bore Kehat as we noted above and her mother was
permitted to cohabit with Levi in the years of the famine as she was the only
child of her mother.
C’mon,
isn’t that amazing, or what?
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S
AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
The Era of Shoftim 1245 BC –
After the death of Yehoshua the Jewish people divide up into tribes and settle
the land. We have the Mishkan, we have taken care of most of the former
“babysitters” of the land that were watching it for us until we returned and
now it was time to fulfill our divine mandate of creating a country that would
shine the light of Hashem out to the world. This period lasts for about 350
years until the first King of Israel will be anointed, even longer until
conquer Yerushalayim and build the Temple. But these 355 years of us returning
to settle the land really contain the important lessons and messages that we
need to study as we have today as well returned to the land and await the
Temple.
The era which is referred
to as the tekufat hashoftim- the era of the judges, ironically enough is
perhaps most described in Tanach as a period in time when ish hayashar
bi’einav yaas’eh- each man did what was right in their own eyes. Yes, the
period of judges which would imply law, legal systems, and rule of law were
characterised the most by people doing whatever they wanted to. No rules. No
laws. And failure after failure.
It is a fascinating
period that really leads to the discussion about the authority that the judges
had. Generally speaking, we have different types of leaders. We have prophets
they were given messages by Hashem for the Jewish people. They had to prove
their level of prophecy and once they were established their words had to be
listened to unconditionally. We have the elders and Torah Scholars who led
through their wisdom and tradition and understanding of the Torah. Their
authority was in some ways greater than the prophets as they would show and
teach their guidance from the Torah. At the same time though they could not
claim to be messengers of Hashem. A prophet had no authority to make laws based
on his own cognizance. He was merely a messenger. A Torah scholar could.
The shoftim were
sometimes both of the above, sometimes neither. They had a different function.
Their role was to not only judge and enforce the laws of the Torah, but to lead
the people militarily as well. They were meant to be pious and spiritual people
but they weren’t always the spiritual leaders of the people. In a large way
they were like the Kings or the tribal leaders of the nation. They were similar
to Kings in that they were appointed by Hashem although they had to be accepted
by the people. They also had the right to punish and enact decrees at their own
discretion. However unlike the Kings their position was not passed down to
their children, which generally meant that the period of Judges was led by
better men than the Kings of Israel were as they had to earn the respect of the
people to be appointed.
I like to speak about
this topic when I visit the Supreme Court building of Israel in Jerusalem
or the Knesset. The system we have in Israel is in some ways similar to
that of the ideal system of the Torah. The people to get to appoint our
leaders. As well, the political and civil leaders are not neccesarily the ones
that were meant to be the spiritual leaders. That is certainly true here.
However in many ways it is a very flawed spiritual system with corruption and
values that are not derived from the Torah, but rather from a flailing secular
culture that is constantly changing it ethical and moral compass. We pray each
day for the return of the period of Judges. May Hashem answer those prayers as
we learn and study about that period in the coming weeks.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S “AGING APP” JOKES OF THE WEEK
(am I the only one that has been deluged with them this
week)
Because their memories were getting so bad with
old age, Sadie and Sam had to put things in writing to help them remember them.
One night, Sam got up from the couch and said to Sadie, "I’m going to the
kitchen for something to eat. Do you want anything while I'm
there?" Sadie said, "Yes, Sam, some ice cream, please."
Just as Sam set off she added, "And write it down."
"Don’t worry, I can remember ice cream," said Sam.
Then Sadie said, "I also want strawberries on my ice cream... Write it down."
"No need, I can remember ice cream with strawberries," he replied.
Sadie added, "But I also want whipped cream on top of the strawberries."
Sam nodded, but left the room without writing anything down.
When he returned, Sam was carrying a plate of cold roast beef with mustard.
"Now see what you've done," she said, "You’ve forgotten the toast I asked for."
Mr & Mrs Goldberg had just got married. On their way to their home, Mr Goldberg said to his new wife “Would you have married me if my father hadn’t left me a fortune?”
A poor village family was visiting the big city for the very first time in their lives. The father and son walked into a tall building and stood in awe. The son pointed at two metal doors and asked his father what they were. The father had no idea.
Suddenly the two doors slid open and a little old lady, leaning on her cane, walked slowly through the metal doors as they slid closed behind her. A few minutes passed. The light on the metal door rang and the door reopened. Out stepped a young woman, who briskly walked to the front door.
The father, hardly believing his eyes, whispered to his son, “Quickly, go get Mommy!”
Young Berel enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, "This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you."
The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, "Which do you want, son?" Berel takes the quarters and leaves. "What did I tell you?" said the barber. "That kid never learns!" Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store.
"Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?"
Berel licked his cone and replied,"Because the day I take the dollar, the game is over!"
A woman walked into the kitchen and found her husband running around with a fly swatter
"What are you doing?", She asked him.
"I"m hunting flies," he replied.
"Did you kill any?" She asked.
"Yes. Two males and three females?".
"How do you know?" She asked curiously.
Well "Two were on the cans of beer, three were on the phone!!!!
Moishe and Yankel were two bacheloers sitting and talking. Their conversation drifted from politics to cooking. "I got a cookbook once," said Moishie, "but I could never do anything with it."
"Too much fancy cooking in it, eh?" asked Berel
"You said it. Every one of the recipes began the same way - 'Take a clean dish and...'"
************
Answer
is D– Botany is not my strong
point. Certainly not parts of the flowers. But I guessed this one right.
Deduction is a good thing. First of all you have to give them credit. That
Shiloh/ amud eli connection was cute. Eli being the Kohen Gadol who died in
Shiloh. But since the rest of them were flowers you know the question was about
flowers, besides that Pistil has nothing to do with Eli. So that was a dead
giveaway. Now I knew that it was something to do with reproductive organs. But
wasn’t sure if it was pollen or female. But then I remembered that pollen is
avak- like dust. So therefore pistil must be female. And so it was. So the score is Schwartz 30 and 6 for
MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.
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