Cornered- Parshat Toldot 2019 /5780

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

November 29^th  19 -Volume 10 Issue 6 1^st Kislev 5780

Parshat Toldos

Cornered

Eran- that's an Israeli name by the way, sat up all night. He'd had enough already. He looked back and questioned the past 3 years of his life and all he had been through. He was a vintner, not exactly like the great Torah commentator Rashi a thousand years ago. He wouldn't exactly call himself religious even, although he believed in God. But he always felt connected to this oldest of beverages. The main drink of our ancestors and the one that is used for all of our rituals. He felt it a privilege to be able live in the Land of our forefathers and he wanted to make wine just like they did. In the 90's already the Galil and Golan areas and even Jerusalem and the Hebron hills were producing grapes and wine on the same hills and valleys that our ancestors did 3000 years ago. There was one frontier left. A place where no one dreamed of moving to and making it flourish again it was the unclaimed last bastion of ancient Jewish life that was still unpopulated and barren and empty. Welcome to the Negev.

One of the amazing things about Israel is that we have every type of terrain in this tiny little country of ours. We have cities and metropolises. We have beaches, hills, valleys, streams, and lakes. We have volcanoes, we have snowcapped mountains and we have the Dead Sea. And of course we have the largest part of our country almost 60% is Negev, dry rocky desert. Much of the Negev may not even be part of the original biblical borders of Israel although there were certainly Jewish life there. Our forefather Avraham lived in the Negev for a period of time, the northern part was within the borders of the tribes of Yehudah and Shimon and in the times of Shlomo Hamelech the Jewish extended all the way down to Eilat. Even in the second Temple the Chasmonaim Kings expanded into this Southern territory of Israel. Yet for thousands of years this region remained empty and barren. Bedouins, spice traders made their way through the Spice trails here but there wasn't much Jewish life back here. Eran wanted that to change.

His inspiration began when he saw a report of an archeological dig that discovered ancient wine making presses and production that took place in the area thousands of years ago. Wow, he thought, wouldn't it be amazing to once again plant and produce wine in the same land. He did some geological surveys and discovered that the incredible dry and cool climate, the elevation and the earth would in fact be ideal to grow grapes. The government as well, at the time, were looking to expand Jewish life in the Negev and he availed himself of the subsidies and grants to buy land and begin the process of producing the first wines grown in the Negev desert. But as our sages tell us Eretz Yisrael is niknis bi'yisurim- it is only acquired through painful tribulations. Nothing good comes easy certainly not the best place in the world, Hashem's chosen Land.

Government bureaucracy in Israel is certainly legendary combining the ineffectiveness of its early socialist roots, the always I'm-smarter-than-you and don’t- tell-me- how-it's-supposed-to-be-done stiff neckedness of our wonderful nation, and the general unhelpfulness of the lazy middle eastern culture into one big package of pain in the neck frustration of getting anything done in this country that only the truly determined can survive. Once he got through all of that, he labored, planted and finally produced his first crop of grapes only to find a herd of camels eating them all up. He chased them away, but planted again, but once again he found the camels back again. He put up fences and perimeters. Nothing was working until he realized that the local Bedouins were the ones causing this damage. So night after night he and his wife took shift guarding their crops.

One night he caught a group of the Bedouins getting ready to do damage and steal his poles he confronted them. Unabashedly they informed that this was their land and he should leave. He showed them his titles and government permits. They were about as interested in that as I am in the green garnish on a platter of New York Deli cold cuts at a bar mitzva. (I kind of miss those-shnitzel and rice can only take you so far). They told him that the land was theirs. They were there first. He should leave. When he went to the local police, they apologetically informed him that there was nothing they could do. So he went back and guarded his stuff. Night after night he would chase them away, but somehow they kept managing to get in. After a bit of research, he realized that he had planted himself on that ancient spice trail, that was today being used as a modern day drug trafficking trail from Egypt up into Israel. The Bedouins were not going away.

On this night a group of three Bedouins pulled up to his farm and told him that they could solve all of his problems, they would offer protection of his fields and grapes. He would be able to do what he wanted, although ask for is for 3000 shekels a month for their "services" and he would be good to go. A lesser person at this point might have just caved and paid it out writing it off as your traditional Israeli "bakshish", "protektzia", "grease the squeaky wheel" operating expenses that traditionally make things happen in this neck of the woods, although from what I understand these days it's cigars and champagne that sometimes get our Prime Ministers to work on your behalf… But Eran was not someone that was going to cave. His heart and soul were in this land and he wasn't going to pay another blue shekel these crooks. He sent them off and for the first time since he started this process he turned to Hashem and he cried and he prayed.

The Torah portion this week tells us an incredible story about the first of those special type of prayers that Eran offered. The parsha tells us that Yitzchak and Rivka after they had been married for 10 years and didn't have any children realized that she was barren. Rashi notes that unlike his father Avraham and even his son Yaakov, he was unable to take another wife or maidservant to marry him and produce children because since he was brought up a sacrifice by the akeida, he was sanctified and couldn't have a maidservant wife. So Rashi tells us that he went into one corner and prayed and Rivka went into the other corner and prayed.

There are a few puzzling things about these Rashi's. Did Yitzchak and Rivkah not pray for the entire 10 years that they would have children. Wouldn't anyone pray once they got married to have kids? Rashi as well seems to note that it was because he couldn't take another wife that they both went to pray. Really?! Is that what it took? And why does Rashi tell us they prayed in the corner? Who cares if they davened in their shul, in their kitchen, living room, study or in Uman? What does this make a difference?

I heard an incredible insight explaining a similar story in the Talmud in Ketuvot (62:). It tells us that the Rebbi Yehudah Hanasi married his son off to the daughter of Rebbi Yosi Ben Zimra. They got married and then he went off to study for 12 years as it seems was the agreement and custom back then. Lock in the marriage when they're young and they'll finish the deal after the learns a bit. When he came back they tried to have children and realized she was infertile. So the Talmud tells us that the two rabbis discussed the options. He couldn't take another wife because then it would look bad that he kept her waiting for 12 years like this. He couldn't take another wife because then people would shame her and say she is only his mistress. So therefore there is no option. So they decided to pray and she had children. Once again this is a very strange story. Why do they have to go through all the options first? Did not the great Rebbi and Rebbi Yosi not understand what seemingly every one of us does; that we should daven.

The answer is that there is prayer and then there is prayer. As long as one feels that there are other options on the table, their prayers will not reach the ultimate sincerity. They won't hit home the way they are meant to. For them really to accomplish the maximum, that they are meant to one has to feel that they have nowhere else to turn. They are in a corner. There's no right, there's no left. Their back is against the wall. That was the reason they eliminated all other options before their prayer. That is why Yitzchak and Rivkahs prayer after 10 years were the most heartfelt when they realized he couldn't take another wife. That's why it tells us they davened in the corner. And that was the prayer of Eran that fateful night changing night.

The next morning Eran's phone rang. It was an old buddy of his from the winery in the North and he was calling to ask him how he was doing. When he shared with him his plight, his friend revealed that the real reason he was calling was because he had a met a group of other families that wanted to join him in the Negev and also open up wineries and plant grapes. They didn't know how to work through the beuracracy and they wanted him to help them. They would pay him for his efforts and they would work together to build a stronghold there. Interestingly enough one of these friends had a buddy in the ministry of agriculture and they paid a visit to the troublesome Bedouin village. The friend was actually an inspector in charge of livestock issues. He walked into the village lights ablazing and demanded to see the immunization forms for the hundreds of sheep and goats they were raising, which of course they never had. He then informed them that by law he was obligated to kill all of the sheep as they pose an environmental threat. As he picked up his phone to make his call the Bedouins started pleading with him. He offered them a onetime chance that he would not report them and call down the cattle liquidation squads if they insure that the fields and crops of Eran and for that matter all the new farms that were planting would stay safe. They of course immediately agreed. The rest is history.

I sat there this week looking out at this lush green acres and acres long oasis in the desert sipping the Chenin blanc Eran poured for me. There are about 4 or five other vineyards in the area all of which are producing the finest and most delicious wines that haven't been produced here for millennia. He still does not wear a Kippa, although his wines are mehadrin min hamehadrin best tier Kosher. He tells me that the local Rabbi tells him that he is a tzadik when he comes every so often to put on teffilin. But he says that of one thing he has no doubt. Hashem answers our prayers when they are heartfelt. We have a father in heaven that is waiting for us to turn our hearts to Him and understand that besides Him there are no other options. I raised my glass and thought about our return here to Eretz Yisrael. It is not enough. that we have a home, a refuge, a place to settle a country even to shine out the light to the world from. We need our Father back here as well. He hasn't yet sent Mashiach perhaps because we still feel we have other options. Our backs are not yet to the wall. We're not in the corner. We have entered the month of Kislev. It is a month of miracles. It is the darkest Shabbos of the year this week and it is in that dark corner, in that darkest of months that the light of miracles and of the dedication of the Temple can break through once again. May we merit to have our millennia of prayers for that day finally answered.

Have festive Shabbos and a miraculous Rosh Chodesh Kislev,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Besser alter vein aider alter koiches " - Besser alter vein aider alter koiches.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO  OF THE WEEK

https://youtu.be/5RNoy6i02Cg  – Check out wine growing in the Negev

https://youtu.be/og74Y4ak-Bc  –Beuatiful song Tefilas Chasan snag by Simcha Jacoby the composer at his own chasuna..

https://youtu.be/zDX6La0Iq_4   - Birkas habanim for Yitzchaks blessing this week by Ohad live!

https://youtu.be/G1wzuNozYPg - Rosh Chodesh Kislev song by Eli Marcus

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

3) A stream that flows into the Jordan River:

A)    Taninim

B)    Tirza

C)    HaBesor

D)    Alexander

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/MITZVA CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

U'Lovdo B'chol levavchem – Tefilla/ Prayer- In the Shema paryer we recite the verse that we are obligated to serve Hashem with all of our hearts, our sages derived that the service of the heart that we are obligated in is the mitzva of prayer. This is a biblical commandment. Now as we all know we Jews have a mitzva to pray three times a day. Those prayers however are not the biblical obligation. In fact they were only established a mere 2000 years ago when the Temple was destroyed. They are rabbinic in nature, they were established in place of the sacrifies that took place in the Temple. So what is biblical prayer. Maimonides defines this obligation as a daily obligation where one thanks Hashem, asks and requests their needs, and praises Hashem for the gifts He has given.  As a result of this obligation not being dependent on a specific time frame, it is a biblical obligation on men and women to pray. Now even the Ramban /Nachmanides who disagrees with the Rambam and understands that daily prayer is not biblical in nature agrees that when is in a situation when they feel that they need something there is a biblical commandment to turn to Hashem and ask for it.

Prayer not only can be offered in whatever language one wishes, but it is in fact preferable to daven to Hashem in the language you understand rather than just reading words out of a siddur that one doesn't understand. Hebrew is of course our holy tongue and the words that our Rabbis established for the prayers that we recite certainly have extra depth and meaning and even power to incorporate all the thoughts and feelings that we need to have them received. It is worthwhile to use a siddur and learn those prayers, however one should not use their davening time to practice their Hebrew reading skills. Talk to Hashem, he's waiting for your conversation. As well if one does not have time to pray the entire prayer, something came up, they're sick, whatever… one should not just give up. Talk to Hashem it's a mitzva. A biblical one. As well if you have to shorten your prayer, no need to feel bad. You have fulfilled a mitzva by merely talking to your Father in heaven. I think that this concept is such a critical one in understanding the essence of what our biblical obligation is versus our Rabbinic obligation. Don't get me wrong I think that we should daven three times a day. We are obligated to fulfill our Rabbinic mitzvos as well. But they don't define or take away from the most important mitzva and the essence of the value of our biblical obligation.

Now if one feels that he or she has certain needs or are in a bind more than once a day, it would seem that we have an obligation to ask Hashem each time. That's a good thing, by the way. Not only are we meant to understand that no situation is hopeless. There's always a heavenly door that we can knock on. But we get a mitzva and reward for knocking on that door. There is no prayer as well that is ever turned away. Sometimes the answer that we may receive is not the one that we think we are looking for. But Hashem knows what's best for us. It is always the right answer.

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

Yiftach HaGiladi 982 BC –Now unfortunately many of the stories of Tanach took place in areas that I cannot take people to and show them to. See we have two tribes Reuvein and Gad that lived on the other side of the eastern side of Jordan River, which today is being "occupied" by Jordan. However as we drive along  Highway 90 from the Dead Sea up to Tiverya through the Jordan Valley it is the perfect place to tell the incredible story of one of the stranger of Jewish judges; Yiftach

Our sages tell us that Yiftach in his generation is like Shmuel was in his generation. Shmuel was a great man and scholar, Yiftach was pretty much not as we shall see. But it is a lesson for us to no neccesarily look back and say none of our leaders and sages are as great as the generation before. There are no Chafetz Chayims Gaon of Vilnas or even Reb Moshe Feinstien. Every generation will have the leader that they deserve and need to respect them as much as those in Shmuel's generation respected him.

Who was Yiftach? He was the son of the "mistress" of Gilad who basically chased him out their home so he would not inherit with them. He went off and hooked up with some "empty" people, he words of the Tanach, or losers as certain presidents of the United States might call them. He settled in a land ironically called Tov- good. Some suggest that this was what they called the area outside of Israel as it was not obligated in tithes. The Talmud Yerushalmi seems to say it might have been the city of Susita is on the eastern side of the Kinneret in the lower Golan Heights. Although the brothers chased him away, divine irony always wins and in the end they came running back to him when they were under attack and being persecuted for 18 years by those Amonite marauders that would attack them from Jordan. Amon, by the way is near and where the city of Amman the capital of Jordan today is named after.  It took the Jews getting rid of their idols first for Hashem to give them their salvation. Interestingly enough their cries and prayers for salvation were not enough. Hashem wanted their repentance. But ultimately when they did get rid of them all Hashem gave them the idea to approach Yiftach for help.

We'll pick up next week with the end of the story.

  

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S JEWISH WINE JOKES  OF THE WEEK

A guy came to a rabbi, and said “please save my marriage.”

The rabbi asked what happened? And the man said: “I was honest.

“I was out for a drink with the wife last night. I finished two bottles of wine. And I said, ‘I love you.’

“‘She asked me, ‘Is that you talking, or the wine talking?’

“I said, ‘It's me........I'm talking to the wine!’

 Berel was the town shikkur/drunk. Once he got on a bus one day and sat down next to a priest.

The drunk stank of wine, his shirt was stained, his face was all red, and he had a half-empty bottle of wine sticking out of his pocket.

He opened his newspaper and started reading. A couple of minutes later, he asked the priest, "Father, what causes arthritis?"

The priest replied, "Mister, it's caused by loose living, being with cheap, wicked women, too much alcohol, and contempt for your fellow man."

"Imagine that," the Berel the drunk muttered. He returned to reading his paper.

The priest, thinking about what he had said, turned to the man and apologised. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come on so strong. How long have you had arthritis?"

"I don't have arthritis, Father," said Berel, "but I just read in the paper that the Pope does."

  

What did the grape say when it was crushed? Nothing, it just let out a little wine.

It doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full. There's clearly room for more wine.

Every box of raisins is a tragic tale of grapes that could have been wine.

The secret of enjoying a good bottle of wine:

1. Open the bottle to allow it to breathe.
2. If it doesn't look like it's breathing, give it mouth-to-mouth.

  

A priest was driving down the road one day when got stopped by a cop.

The cop smelled alcohol on the priest's breath and saw an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car. He said to the priest, "Father, have you been drinking?"

The priest replied, "Only water, officer."

The cop then asked him, "Then why can I smell wine?"

The priest looked at the bottle and said, "Good Lord! He's done it again."

 "

The Jewish Chronicle had heard that Benjy was coming up to his 108th birthday so they sent one of their reporters to interview him.
"How do you account for your longevity?" asked the reporter.
"You could say that I am a health nut," Benjy answered. "I have never smoked or drunk alcohol, I am always in bed by ten o'clock, I’ve been going to Israeli dance classes since I was a teenager and I've always walked three miles a day, even in rain or snow."
"But," said the reporter, "my uncle Shlomo followed exactly the same routine and he died when he was 70. So how come it didn't work for him?"
"All I can say," replied Benjy, "is that he didn't keep it up long enough." 

The drunken wino was stumbling down the street with one foot on the curb and one foot in the gutter. A cop pulled up and said, "I've got to take you in, sir. You're obviously drunk" The wasted wino asked, "Ociffer, are ya absolutely sure I'm drunk?" "Yeah, buddy, I'm sure," said the copper. "Let's go.". Obviously relieved, the wino said "That's a relief - I thought I was a cripple."

There's nothing to whine about with these wine jokes - they're grape! In fact, they're di-vine; a barrel of laughs, you might say!

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Answer is B–  Got this one right too… I very easily eliminated nachal taninim and alexander both of which I knew are know the coastline near each other. Alexander they cleaned up and has great turtles over there and Taninim as well has a lake I've taken tourists too fishing I believe. Besor I wasn't sure about, but I knew that Tirtza is in the Shomron and so assumed it flowed down to the Jordan Valley. In fact it is the biggest stream in the Shomron area. Basor turns out is by Obdat near Midbar Tzin where I just was yesterday. And that flows down through Gaza to the Mediteranean. So I guessed right Tirtza is the right answer putting me ahead of the game with the score being Schwartz 2 and 1 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.