Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
March 27th 2020 -Volume 10
Issue 23 2nd Nissan 5780
Parshat Vayikra
Coro-Nachas
It's a week before Pesach and my wife and daughters are making
cakes, and breads, and pastas, because hey why not? It's not like we will not
have enough time to clean the house for Pesach. And it's not like there's much
else to do in the house at this point in time. Now we're not going away for
Pesach this year, in case you were wondering. Nobody is. And yet in a normal
year by this time in the game, we in the Schwartz family are outside on the
porch eating out of plastic bags whatever leftover shalach manos we
scrounged up or snuck from my kid's secret stashes. But this year is different
than all other years. There's plenty of food. There's plenty of time to clean.
It's a dream come true …right?
Do you remember last year the last minute scrambling to buy food
for Pesach? The frantic yelling and screaming who's gonna clean this room, the
car, the garage, the sefarim? How many times do I have to tell you
already… What about all the invitations or travelling. Am I going to your
parents or mine. Are all the kids coming to us? Where will they stay. All the
airport runs…I can't stand to be with this brother in law, that sister, that
cousin… he talks too much, we can never focus on the kids… all the politics and
drama. Not this year. Just me and my wife and kids. Zeh Hu. Pretty cool.
There are some benefits to this corona thing.
Now I know that's pretty callous of me. People are dying. There's a
plague going on. Hashem doesn't let us got to shul, to yeshiva, to our favorite
eateries, or tourist spots in Israel. You're right... We need to daven, we need
to implore the heavens to stop this already. We need to do teshuva. But there's
something else we need to do. You know what that is? We need to chill out… We
need to sit back and understand that we have no control over what is going to
happen, when this is going to end, how we will manage to pay our bills, to
survive being cooped up in a house, when the next minyan will be, whether we
will ever again taste a shwarma. We don't know. Just like we had no clue that
this was coming in the first place. That could be pretty unsettling. I get it.
But that's perhaps the biggest avoda/ spiritual work that we need to do now.
Just sit back and recognize that we're in Hashem's hands. He is driving this
plane. Not me. Not you. Not Trump. Not Bibi or Gantz.
I know that until now we all knew this and may have even believed
it to a certain degree. That's not the only radical paradigm shift Rabbi
Schwartz epiphany today. Everyone else is saying that already. How about
this? It's not even our merit of Torah
in yeshivas or mass prayers in shuls it seems that have any control over any of
this. Hashem pretty much shut those doors for us in case you thought that was
what this was all about. To me it is reminiscent of the Jews standing on the
backs of the Red Sea with the Egyptians in hot pursuit. There's nowhere to go
and Moshe starts to pray and Hashem tells him just go. Hashem yilachem
lachem v'atem tacharishun- God will fight for you and you just be quiet.
Sit back and enjoy the ride or cruise. It's not easy to sit back and relax in
total faith when there are thousands of Egyptian chariots and soldiers coming
and nowhere to go. Our natural tendency is to pray, to give charity-or at least
promise to- to repent, to go to some Rabbi for a blessing. But just to sit back
and say Hashem is running the show and I have no control while I hear those
horses coming… while I read those latest rising statistics, while I watch my
savings crash, my income disappear… Can I say that then? The answer is yes we
can. You know how I know that? Cause we did it before. It's how we were born as
a nation and it's our upcoming holiday.
Think about Pesach for a second. If you haven't yet. It's the only
holiday which we celebrate and commemorate on the day when nothing happened.
That first seder night, we were still in Egypt. Pharaoh was still the king of
Egypt. We were still slaves (although maybe unemployed due to certain home
restrictions from plagues). There was in fact a plague that was raging outside
and we were quarantined in our home. Just our families. That was our first
seder. It must have been terrifying hearing the screams and the death count on
Mitzrayim internet servers showing the numbers rapidly rising all divided up
neatly by communities from midnight and on. But we just sat there and sang
Pesach songs. Now this is not to say we were not vulnerable. Just a few weeks
before we are told 80% of the Jews had died in the plague of darkness. But that
night… no one was scared… no one even prayed. We just sat with our belts
unbuttoned (hey after a few days in quarantine I know understand that
commandment…) but ready to be snapped up, our shoes ready to leave the next day
and our staffs parked at the door. We were leaving the next day. Were we
packing? Were we worried? Were we scrambling? Nope we were chilled. We were in
His hands tonight. We just have to finish this delicious lamb chop BBQ Matza
sandwich and our four cups tonight.
The next morning we would rush. The next morning we would leave in
great haste because we didn't prepare. We even eat the matza to remember how
chilled we were that we didn't even pack sandwiches for the trip the day
before. We didn't stop at the Glatt Mart on Avenue M-itzrayim. We were too busy
chilling. The seder night that we commemorate we remember how there was no real
salvation yet, but yet we felt that we had already experienced one. We were
free while we were still in Egypt. Because we understood that night, that the
Egyptians, the plagues, the whole world can come crashing down and we are in
Hashem's hands. That is the memory of Mitzrayim. That is the story we tell our
children. That is what we should have no problem explaining to them this year.
Do you know how we do that? How do we get to such a level of faith?
The answer the Torah tell us is to tashbisu se'or m'bateichem- destroy
the Chametz from your house. It's an interesting word the Torah uses. tashbisu-
it doesn't only mean to destroy; biyur would be a better word to use to convey
that concept. Tashbisu is like the word Shabbos. Rest the Chametz from
your home. What is Shabbos? Shabbos is the day that we recognize that Hashem is
running the world. It's a day of rest. I don't have to work. I don't need to
check my phone every five minutes, I don't need to cook, turn on lights, open
my shop or drive anywhere. I'm in his hands. Everything has been taken care of
already beforehand. I can rest. I can chill. Akuna matata. Or today that might
be Corona-Matata…oy.
Chametz is me working over the bread. The dough, the wheat, the
baking the rising, it's bloated. It's me. It's my recipe (or Elka's-she makes
the best), my braiding, my special flavor and aromas. For Pesach we let that
all rest. We destroy that notion. The main commandment is to do bitul in
our heart not even to burn it. The real plan is to just declare that it's not
here. It's dust of the earth. All that Chametz is just our illusion of reality.
That what I see, touch and eat are really here. What I can't is not. If that's
true then perhaps I should worry about Egypt. They're here. Perhaps I should
worry about my bills, the plagues… they're also here. So what do we do before
Pesach. We say all that Chametz is not here. It's batel. It's not mine.
I can make it halachically null by just saying it with all my heart; Bitul ba'leiv.
All those cheerios in my cabinet, all those rugelach in my freezer. They're
dust of the earth. They're not real. Once I can do that I can then do the same when
it comes to all my perceived fears, stress, and apprehensions about life. I can
finally put them to rest. I can give them a Shabbos.
Pesach is called Shabbas. We count omer from the day after
Shabbos, which our sages tell us is Pesach. It Shabbos because we are rested.
We don't have to worry at all. Every Shabbos as well we remember Mitzrayim
repeatedly in our Kiddush and our davening. Same thing. At Creation Hashem
rested, but on Pesach 2448 years after Creation His nation who were slaves in
Egypt on probably what would be the busiest, most terrifying and craziest night
of the year or in our history, also rested. Also had faith. Also were able to
wipe away all worries and bask in the glory of a Hashem driven world.
This week we begin the third book of the Torah with Parshat
Vayikra. It is the parsha that introduces the concept of the laws of
sacrifices. It is fascinating to note that there is one phrase that repeats
itself throughout many of the sacrifices like the various Olah, entirely
burnt offerings, or the shelamim-peace offerings. It is that they are
done as a rayach nichoach la'Hashem -literally translated as a "pleasant
smell for Hashem". Rashi however seemingly troubled by the notion that
Hashem likes the smell of a good steak, explains the term differently. He tells
us that the word nichoach is like the word nachas.
"We gave Hashem
nachas, because He said something and His word was carried out."
Interestingly enough the word nachas is similar to another
word; menucha- rest.or nach- it is in its place. True yiddisheh
nachas is when everything turns out the way it was supposed to. My son
became a doctor. My boychik got a 100 on his exam. In my case it was when I
didn't get thrown out of class for three days in a row. I lowered my parent's
expectations a lot.
Hashem has nachas when he just says something and we do it.
We don't do it because we want atonement for any major sins. It's why it
doesn't say rayach nichoach by a communal sin offering or an asham/guilt
offering. It's not even for a thanksgiving offering. It's for an olah that's
entirely burnt. It's when I'm doing it because Hashem said. I'm literally
burning an expensive cow just because I trust Him. I'm in his Hands. I want His
peace. His shelamim. I want to give Him nachas. I want Him to
rest with me. I want my place to be with Him.
This year's seder will be different than any other seder we have
ever made before. I think all of us know that by now. For many it will be the
first doing without their extended families. Some might even think that it
feels lonely. But there is one thing about this seder that we should all
appreciate is that we are never alone. This seder is probably the first one we
will be celebrating globally that is most similar to that original one. We are
locked in our home. There is panic outside and we are with Hashem. We are
giving him nachas. We have rested all our Chametz and our notions that we have
any control. It's just us and Him.
The Rambam in his final words in his essential work Yad Chazaka
describes the era of Mashiach as one where the world will run as it usually
does.
Maimonides (12:1) Do not presume that
in the Messianic age any facet of the world's nature will change or there will
be innovations in the work of creation. Rather, the world will continue
according to its pattern.
So what will it be like then, you want to know? It will be like the
past few weeks. Listen to what the Rambam continues to say
Ibid (4-5) The Sages and the prophets
did not yearn for the Messianic era in order to have dominion over the entire
world, to rule over the gentiles, to be exalted by the nations, or to eat,
drink, and celebrate.
So in case that's what you thought we were hoping for you're
missing the boat…
Rather, they desired to be free to involve
themselves in Torah and wisdom without any pressures or disturbances,
so that they would merit the world to come,
No jobs, no work, nothing to take care of. We are all in His hands.
This is the practice-run, people.
In that era, there will be neither famine or war, envy or
competition for good will flow in abundance and all the delights will be freely
available as dust.
No need to shop or fight over anything in the supermarkets. No one
is interested in killing each other anymore. Nothing to even check the news
about or whatsapp. We have it all. We will be at rest. So what will we be doing
to keep busy?
The occupation of the
entire world will be solely to know God.
We''ll be learning and teaching how to give nachas to our
Father. It's a big job and all eyes will be to us.
Therefore, the Jews will be great sages and know the hidden
matters, grasping the knowledge of their Creator according to the full extent
of human potential, as the prophet Yeshaya (11:9) states: 'The world
will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the ocean
bed."
Thus concludes the Rambam. Chasal Sidur Pesach. Our pesach seder
will then end. Our new life will then begin. We've been waiting so long for
this era and Hashem is preparing us for that moment. Nisan, the month of
redemption is here. Can you feel it coming in the air tonight?
Have a restful Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
********************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
"Aleyn
iz di neshome reyn"-. Alone, one’s
soul is pure.
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
20) The Fatimid
caliph Al-Hakim is connected with:
- Bahá’í
- Ahmadi
- Druze
- Seljuq
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://youtu.be/LqvlDdQRrEo – Chanan Ben Ari
beautiful inspiring Corona song "Longing for People"
https://youtu.be/1a_E62Ru5l0 – Nobody comes to the Minyan no more-
perfect Shteeble Hoppers classic!
https://youtu.be/k0ci5EYb9qA - Homeward bound Corona song…
cute…
https://youtu.be/Qhw_vCUduLE - Ari Goldwag's latest song Bitchu
Ba'Hashem perfect!
https://youtu.be/8MnKmgJVEdc - I thought this was hilarious, my
mother thought it was in bad taste.. Die die yaeinu- Corona edition- not
for the overly-sensitive…
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/MITZVA CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Korbanos– Sacrifices today?– Welcome to the book of Vayikra. It's
the book that will be filled with all of the laws of sacrifices. Now it seems that
these are mitzvas that we have not been able to do for some millennia now sadly
enough. But we're getting closer and closer to bringing them- excuse the
korban/closer pun if you got it- oy…. So it's time to start brushing up on
them. But there is more than that we could do. See these are mitzvos that we
can do now more than ever even without the Beis Hamikdash. What do I mean?
Listen to what our sages tell us.
The Talmud in
Megilla tells us
Megilla (31B) It is written: “And
he said, Hashem, by what shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Bereshis 15:8).
Avraham said before the Holy One, Blessed be He:
"Master of
the Universe, perhaps, Heaven forbid, the Jewish people will sin before You,
and You will do to them as You did to the generation of the Flood and as You
did to the generation of the Dispersion, i.e., You will completely destroy them?"
Hashem said to him: "No, I will not do
that. "
Avraham then said
before Him: Master of the Universe: “By what shall I know this?” God
said to him: “Take Me a heifer of three years old” (Bereshis 15:9).
With this, God
intimated to Avraham that even if his descendants will sin, they will be able
to achieve atonement through sacrificing offerings. Avraham said before Him: "Master
of the Universe, this works out well when the Temple is standing and offerings
can be brought to achieve atonement, but when the Temple will no longer be
standing, what will become of them?"
Hashem said to
him: "I have already established for them the order of offerings, i.e.,
the verses of the Torah pertaining to the halakhot of the offerings. Whenever
they read those portions, I will deem it as if they sacrificed an offering
before Me, and I will pardon them for all of their iniquities."
Amazing! So reading or davening the verses of this week's Torah portion is
like one brings the korbanos. We can achieve the same atonement. The
same mitzva. Pretty cool.
Now the talmud at the end of Menachos tells us that it is not merely the
davening of the sacrifices but rather Rabbi Yitzchak teaches that "one
who engrosses oneself in the Torah of the sacrifices it is as if he brought a
sacrifice". Seemingly the difference between the two talmuds is
that the first one only says we receive the forgiveness of sacrifice but
perhaps not the mitzva. If one actually studies the sacrifices, understands the
laws and its ideas then it is as if he actually brought one. He gets the
mitzva.
Now in many yeshivos or shuls they see the daily recitation of the korbanos
which is in the beginning of the service as the optional part of davening. It's
the bumper time when I come late to put on my teffilin, or on shabbos
when we don't have any teffilin to come a few minutes late. In many yeshivos
they even skip it entirely. Perhaps they feel it is taking away time from davening.
But the truth is there seems to be a missing of priorities. It is mentioned in
halacha that if one has a choice to say hodu and/or mizmor shir chanukas
they should preferably recite korbanos for those were only established
much later historically and the reason is because they were said in the temple
when the daily Tamid was brought. So once we say korbanos we say that. But
certainly the sacrifice themselves have priority. As well the establishment of
the saying of yehi kavod, vayivareich dovid and the song of the sea
are all after the talmud period (Gaonim and on) and therefore the
sacrifices should have priority.
Now perhaps at this juncture one of the most is the recitation of the
portion of the ketores / incense as we are told the Ketores was used
to ward off the plague in the Torah. The Rema notes that this is something that
should be said seriously out of a siddur not missing a word. Because the Torah
tells us that if one misses out on one of the ingredients he is liable for the
death penalty. And as our recitation is in place of that it should be precise
and thus from a siddur. The Rema even goes further by saying that there
were some places that they didn't recite it out of fear that people were in a
rush to get to work and would not say it probably and that is in fact the
custom in many ashkenazi communities in America. In Israel everyone says it
because we just have more time…
But now Baruch Hashem he has given us a lot more time at home to daven at
home. We have no excuse not to recite the korbanos. Perhaps all of this
is to give us the time to do precisely that. Hashem wants us to be prepared for
the Beis Hamikdash. So let's all bring the Shabbos offering this week at least
in our prayers. Take the time, read them learn them and in that merit we will
actually be able to offer them next week.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN
ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Civil War Part II 939 BC – Last
week the tribes got trounced in two wars with Binyamin after they came to
avenge the atrocity of the Pilegsh that was killed by the men of Givah from the
tribe of Binyamin. 40,000 people of the 12 tribes were killed, but now finally
Hashem had told them that they were going to be successful after they had
fasted and prayed. This time though they made a plan. They decided that they
would set an ambush on them by drawing them out of the city with a small
contingent. While the army would chase them out they would cut them off with
the other contingent that would attack and destroy the city then they would
join the first group and wipe out the army that was now disconnected from the
city. The signal would be when the city was conquered they would set up smoke
signals and they would turn around and start fighting.
And
so it was about
30 Israelites drew the Binyamins out of the city on the road to Beit El. Then
the other group of about 10,000 came out from behind and they killed 18,000 of
the Benjaminites. The Binyamins turned back to flee to their city but they saw
it was being burnt down and started heading down to the Midbar Yehuda
area. They chased them and wiped out other Binyamin cities along the way
killing another 5,000 of them. They chased them to Gadom, which is an
arab village today in Taibeh called Ja'dum and killed 2,000 more.
This made the total about 25,000 killed. There were 600 men left that fled to a
place called Sela Rimon, which the early Greek historian placed in a
place that is called Kfar Ra'amun a little north of the West bank
settlement of Ofra. They hid out there for four months.
After
slaughtering most of the rest of the men and women and even animals of the
tribe of Binyamin, the tribes all took a vow that they will never allow any of
their daughter be given to the tribe of Binyamin in marriage. (which pretty
much consisted of the 600 men still hiding out). They were persona non grata
amongst the Jewish people. Bye Bye… but then they had regrets. Uh Oh… What have
we done? How could we pretty much wipe out one of the 12 tribes. This effects
all of us. They gathered in Beth El cried to Hashem and tried to figure
out what to do. On the one hand they had taken a vow not to marry them. The vow
couldn't be broken. It was not just a personal one. It was taken by the entire
nation. As well they couldn't set a precedent that a communal vow be broken.
But at the same time they felt the need to not lose this tribe and help them
out.
Stay
tuned next week for the craziest and even more bloody solution…. As I said this
story perhaps the worst in our entire history that had already taken close to
100,000 lives is one I imagine most of you are not familiar with. It's too
hard, it's too sad, but it's lessons about how far we can fall in our religious
zealotry on both sides is an eternal one.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S AND EVEN MORE TERRIBLE CORONA JOKES OF
THE WEEK
FUNNIEST MEME's of the WEEK
If you feel bad
that you're children are watching too much just mute it and put on the
subtitles and Boom. Now they're reading.
For Chanukah
2020 : The Toilet paper menora to remind us of the time when we had only one
roll of toilet paper and we made it last for 8 days
Are you sure
that the Corona started from a bat? I don't know lately I've been to develop
symptoms that are making me look like a cow
Latest Ministry
of Tourism warnings: Do not open the
door for Eliyahu Hanavi this year, he has visited to many homes already.
The next
internet asifa is going to take place on Zoom!
I'm starting to
understand why pets try to run out when someone opens the door.
One of my
teachers told me that I would amount to nothing when I left school, and here I am
lying on the couch and saving the world.
If you are
running low on space on your phone because of all of the memes you are receiving
you can delete your waze and google maps apps… won't be needing them for a
while.
Day 5 of
Quarantine I will never complain about a 3 day Yom Tov again…
Day 8 of
Isolation and it's like Vegas in our house, We're losing money like crazy,
cocktails are acceptable at all hours and no one has any idea what time it is…
After years of
wanting to thoroughly clean the house but lacking the time, This week I
discovered that was not the reason.
New Hagadda
Quote "I was like a 70 year old man (that's the at risk group) and I never
merited to recite yetziat mitzrayim at night time until ben Zooma
The Coronavirus Haggadah,PART I
KADESH When the
father comes home from praying in the middle of the street with the properly
distanced four cubits per person, he immediately runs to the sink, and washes
his hands with kosher for Passover soap and water for 20 seconds, while humming
his favorite guitar solo. Then, he recites the bracha over water with a grape-y
taste. Proper grape juice being unavailable since the closed Passover programs
made it almost as scarce as toilet paper.
URCHATZ The
head of the household scrubs his hands again, for 20 seconds, as does every
other member of the household - but one at a time, to create the proper social
distancing. Usually, no blessing is said here, but this year the proper
blessing is Birkat Hagomel.
KARPAS The
tradition is to dip a vegetable into salt water- typically parsley, celery,
potato, onion, or lettuce. Since none of that could be secured at the store due
to preppers and hoarders, anything green will do. It doesn't have to be food:
some grass clippings or a Hulk toy will suffice. Also, due to low availability
of table salt, we recommend using the surplus Ice-Melt in the garage (and
having the poison hotline number ready). Winter has been cancelled for the rest
of civilization anyway due to global warming, so you won't need it. If you're
lucky, drinking the road salt will kill the coronavirus, a win-win.
URCHATZ II
Everybody gets up one at time - not even single-file will be allowed - and
scrubs their hands again for another 20 seconds. While doing so, it's a segulah
to sing the alphabet in a language you don't speak, so that you spend longer
washing your hands.
YACHATZ The
head of the household takes the already-broken (due to legally questionable
price-gouging on whole ones) middle matzah and breaks it further. He then
estimates which the larger half of shattered pieces is and places it in the
afikoman (Greek word meaning "ransom") bag, and hides it in a
painfully obvious spot. This lack of cunning is to prevent children from
wandering outside to look for it. Can't have that; it's The Purge out there.
URCHATZ III
This time the person with the most-chapped hands goes first, out of respect.
MAGID We tell
over and bring down the story of our exodus, and we begin with the prayer of Ha
Lachma Anya. The text is spoken as usual, but with one edit: the part about
inviting the hungry to come and eat. Yeah, no one's invited this year. Maybe
next year, after the apocalypse.
As for the Mah
Nishtana, these are the four questions that can be asked: 1. Does anyone really
need to ask why this night is different from all other nights? 2. Do you not
see what's been happening all around you? 3. Do you live under a rock? 4. Have
you been under quarantine for so long, you completely forgot why you’ve been
under quarantine in the first place? However, the head of the household is
encouraged to solicit questions, starting with the youngest at the table, and
to put no cap on it whatsoever. Don't worry, nobody's going anywhere for a long
time, and there's no second night of Passover to prepare for. It was ruled that
due to all the various quarantines and shelters-in-place, everywhere is
considered a walled city, which means nobody is in Chutz L'aretz or “outside of
the land.”…
STAY TUNED NEXT
WEEK FOR PART II
**********************************
Answer is C– Arab stuff is not my forte. That
being said I thought I had this one by process of elimination. I knew this El
Hakim guy was old and the Bahai and the Ahmedim are pretty recent 19th
century inventions. I was also pretty sure that it wasn't the Druze cause I
knew it was this Darzi guy that started the whole thing. So I assumed its
probably The Seljuqim of which to be frank I remember absolutely nothing about.
I used to know it in my course but haven't thought about them since. But I was
wrong. The correct answer was the Druze. Because this Dazi guy said that El
Hakim was like some Divine incarnation- a Muslim Yoshka if you will… So I got
that wrong. So the score now stands at Schwartz 12 and 8 for MOT
(Ministry of Tourism) on this exam. Things are not looking good for me
now…Better up my game.
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