Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
April 3rd 2020 -Volume 10
Issue 25 9th Nissan 5780
Pesach
A Corona-versation
He was quite nervous when he called me last week. I had met Victor
once or twice before and we had schmoozed a bit. He was a fairly typical
secular Israeli living in a secular yishuv/ village here in the north of
Israel. Unlike the center of Israel where there's unfortunately a lot more
divisiveness and pre-conceived notions or opinions about religion and religious
Jews. I find our northerners, much like out of towners in the States, are more
laid back. Many of them were raised without much exposure to anything religious
and it really didn't play a part in their lives. But now he was nervous, so he
gave me-the only Rabbi he knew personally, a call.
"Rabbi, do you really believe that God is behind everything
that's going on? Or is this nature just "correcting" itself for all
we've done to it."
I think by the fact that he called me, and not his scientist next
door neighbor was a bit telling who he was beginning to realize was behind
this. So as I knew that he was already on the page, I figured I'd push it a
little bit.
"Actually" I told him "Our sages tell us that if
someone sees troubles going on and attributes it to "nature" then
they are not just being silly, they are being cruel."
See, it's pretty obvious that the world has a Divine designer. Victor
was a doctor. Every doctor realizes that no matter how many trillions of
millennia you had, an eye-ball, a beautiful flower or a sunset could never
randomly pop into existence. The perfect balance that the universe requires to
exist is statistically impossible. There's a better chance of finding a brand
new corvette with your name on its license plate in an empty field evolving by
itself than a grasshopper evolving. Or a
delicious pot of chulent on my Shabbos table just evolved there. So Hashem
created the world, we all know that. Now if He created such an incredible
perfect world wouldn't it be cruel to just let it run by itself. If one has a
baby wouldn't it be cruel to just leave it in the middle of the highway with
cars flying all around. How about taking a class of school children for a walk
blindfold on train tracks? How about being infected with a contagious disease
and just walking around a nursing home sneezing on people. That's cruel. Well
Hashem just letting the world run on its own, letting "nature" run it
would be infinitely crueler.
"So if Hashem is behind all of this do I believe that
Mashiach is coming" was his next question.
It never ceases to amaze me
how different secular Israelis are from their American counterparts. Tragically
I don't think any of the non-religious Americans could say the word Mashiach
with a straight face and not feel that this is a Christian concept at best. Not
so Israelis. They may never have kept a Shabbos in their lives and never walked
in a synagogue even on Yom Kippur, although most have. But in a second they can
believe in Mashiach, Hashem, and an appreciation of Torah and our special place
as His nation. There's a fire there that I believe is in the air that they
breathe here in this holy country.
So I told him that I didn't believe he was coming. I was pretty
sure about it. They say that the Chafetz Chaim explained that our sages tell us
that the redemption will come in the month of Nissan. Yet, he asked, don't we
have to believe that Mashiach can come every day of the year. He answered
incredibly, that yes, all year we have to believe he can come. It can happen.
We need to believe it is possible. Yet in Nissan it should be at least a 50/50
chance. This is the month it is most likely to happen in. If that's true for
every Nissan, I told him, I think this one everyone thinks it’s a good 80/20 at
least, that he is on his way.
"So does mean I have to do teshuva?" he asked me
"I have to start keeping Shabbos, following the commandments. Will I not
be redeemed if I don't? Will I god forbid die?"
Teshuva out of fear of a Corona death in my humble opinion is not a
healthy thing. Personally I have never been a fan of the approach that telling
people that they better stop sinning or Hashem will strike them down with a
plague will motivate people well in the long term. Don't get me wrong. I believe in Divine reward and I believe in
Divine punishment and I believe that all our actions even the littlest ones
make a difference and we will have to give an accounting for them. But in terms
of inspiring motivators that effectively push me to change myself and my ways,
viewing Hashem as an angry father who will smite his children unless they stop
bothering him while he is writing this E-Mail and get out of the room right
now…when is school starting again… Sorry just got distracted there for a
bit…But yeah you get the point… That's not gonna work for most. Heck it's not
even working for my kids. So I took a different approach, one that I think is
critical, and radical that and different then perhaps a lot of other messages
we are getting.
"No" I said, "You don't have to do teshuva"
I heard a sigh of relief and disbelief on the other end of the
phone. But then he wanted to check. Was I really an orthodox Rabbi? I knew
that's what he was thinking so I explained myself.
You see when we were back in Egypt our sages tell us that only 1/5th
of the Jewish people were saved. 80% of them died in the plague of the Darkness
before the last plague. (They died then so the Egyptians shouldn't see us
burying them). But we are told that by the final exile, all Jews are going to
be saved. Bal yidach mimenu nidach- No Jew will be left behind. So no,
you don't have to do teshuva. You will do Teshuva. You
will repent. You will return to Hashem You will understand how everything that
you understood about the world until now wasn't real. That Hashem who loves
each of His children ahavat olam- the greatest love in the world is our
Father. His arms are outstretched to you. And you will come running. And it
won't only be you, it will be all of us. We all need to return. Now we can wait
until the last minute, but frankly that would be kind of silly. We may as well
all start getting ready. Abba is on His way back home.
It's a fascinating thing by our Pesach Seder. The whole night we
follow a well spelled out Seder. An order of instructions of things to do. Kadesh-
we take the cup and recite the Kiddush. U'rchatz- we wash our hands. Yachatz-
break the middle matza and put the large part away for the Afikoman etc etc
etc…The one exception to this very detailed list of instruction is the last
thing #15 Nirtza. Anyone know what we're supposed to do? I've
looked at many haggadot for a translation or instruction and all it says
is that our service was accepted. We sing 'One is Hashem' and 'Chad
Gadya' and some other stuff that people just rush through half-drunk after the
4 cups of wine have hit us. We end with L'shana haba b'yerushalayim.
Most of the songs are later additions to our Seder-Nirtza service, but what is
it all about? It is, after all, the pinnacle of the entire night.
The answer I believe is quite simple and it is perhaps the hardest
part and most important part of the evening. Our instruction is to feel that we
are Nirtza- desired by Hashem. That He loves us. That He is our Father,
our Savior. That we were in the worst possible spiritual shape we ever could be
and He picked us up. Not like a life guard jumping in to save the drowning kid
in the swim suit who cant' swim. Not like the paramedic preforming the Heimlich
maneuver on someone choking or CPR on someone in cardiac arrest. But like a
Father or a Mother or a spouse holding their beloved right after they were born
in the delivery room, by their wedding. They are perfect in their eyes. They
are the most desired person in the world. That is what we are to Hashem…
always. The Pesach seder is the night when we recount that story of our birth,
of our union. The culmination of it all is Nirtza just recognizing how desired
we are.
The past few weeks much of what I've been hearing sadly enough is
how much Hashem is angry at us. Everyone has their own take. It's lashon
hara, it's sinat chinam, it's the fighting, the arguing, it's
extravagance, it's lack of modesty, it's the internet, it's smartphones, it's
immorality, it's talking in our synagogues, it's Shabbos observance. The
general consensus is two things. One, it's something someone else is doing- not
me. The second is that Hashem is angry and he doesn't want us. He doesn't want
our shuls, our yeshivos, our weddings our funerals, our social
interactions. There certainly is a truth that we all have things we are meant
to work on, that we could improve on, that we need to introspect about. What
that it is specifically, is above my paygrade. But one thing is certain. We
will all do teshuva. We all need to see those loving fatherly arms
outstretched to us with all our sins as we look at that shankbone (or chicken
wing) at our seder plate and remember how Hashem stretched out that arm to us
in Mitzrayim to bring us home to Him. He took us out with when we were on the
49th level of impurity. He loved us and cleaned our shmutz. We ran
to His Arms and we left all that divided us from him behind in a flash, in the
less than 18 minutes it takes to eat a matza.
Mashiach is on the way, the redemption is at our door. My rebbe
told me that for years we were wondering about the wings of eagles (or vultures
more correctly but that's a different discussion) that will be bring us home.
Well there are tens of thousands of planes all grounded waiting for that shofar
blast to bring every Jew back to Him, back home. So when you open up the door for
Eliyahu don't be too surprised if he has a man with a long white beard on a
white donkey standing behind him waiting to take you to the nearest airport. L'shana
ha'zeh b'yerushalayim- May I see you all this year here in Jerusalem.
Have the perfect Pesach,
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
********************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Libe
makht blind."-. Love makes one blind
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
22. The Karaite movement began in:
A.
7th century
- 8th century
- 9th century
- 10th century
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrCK7zLj2U0- If you heard my newest song
Vayosha great! Now check out the hillarious Schwartz Family Pesach 2020 video. This
may not be Oscar worthy but it will definitely put a smile on your face
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/eliyahu-hanavi - And of course your Pesach
Seder won't be complete with my Eliyahu Yahoo Yahoo song. It's great after 4
cups of wine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNDSbWm3upg&feature=youtu.be
– Gad Elbaz new song Mimakim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuSWS0IjvyY – Charosha- Corona version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQSbB5AY4N0 – Shlomo Carlebach Eliyahu
Hanavi
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/MITZVA CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Korban Pesach– Pesach Offering We've waited a long time to fulfil this
mitzva again. Hopefully this year is the one that we can finally do so. If do
forbid we don't then I'm sure next year we will. So let's start brushing up on
its laws.
The Rambam
notes that there are 16 Biblical mitzvos associated with the Korban Pesach
that's almost 3% of all of the mitzvos in the Torah! The mitzva is that the
korban must be eaten in its entirety by a pre-organized group of people that
each one can eat minimally a kzayis measurement. A group consists of men and
women children all ritually pure and of course with the males all circumcised.
No one that is part of the group is allowed to own Chametz at the time of the
offering and we start that time from earlier in the morning when we burn the
Chametz by.
The sacrifice
is must be a baby goat or sheep one year old without any blemish and purchased
specifically for the mitzva of korban Pesach. The animal is brought to the
Temple courtyard by a representative of the group in the afternoon after the
daily afternoon offering and incencse is brought, where it is slaughtered while
the Levi'im are playing instruments and singing Halel nad the Kohanim are
blowing the shofar. It's a really cool scene! The fats are burned on the altar
and the blood is captured in special vessels and passed from hand to hand by
the Kohanim to be poured on the altar. As well a korban chagigah-holiday
offering is brought for the holiday at this time this will serve as the main
course for your meal; as the korban pesach is the dessert. The entrails are all
taken out and washed off and piled together and sent home for the big korban
Pesach BBQ!
When the korban
comes home that day all that are part of the group gather into a home or
courtyard where the entire animal is roasted on a spit as one whole. The
preferred wood is pomegranate wood which doesn't have liquid inside of it that
will make it cook. Roasting means you can't add water, however oil, honey,
fruit juices and probably ketchup, BBQ sauce and mustard should be fine as
well. No meat can leave the courtyard and when eating it (and roasting is as
well) and no bones are permitted to be broken although you can separate it at
its joints. It is eaten at the end of the Seder while on a full stomach, like
when we eat our afikoman before midnight. The reason for this is so that no one
might come to break bones while eating it. We eat it leisurely like kings It
must be eaten with Matzah and Maror and a special blessing al achilat korban
pesach is recited. The whole thing has to be finished that night.
Now the
sacrifice had to be eated in Jerusalem. So everyone would come for the holiday.
If for some reason you couldn't make it, there is a makeup day a month later on
the 15th of Iyar. But it won't nearly be as fun. I'm hoping all of
us will be there this year. I'm getting sick of this quarantine as I imagine
you are as well. Happy Pesach!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN
ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
End of Shoftim Reconciliation
939 BC
– We conclude the book of Shoftim with the story and the
solution for the remaining 200 men of Binyamin that did not have wives. The
other 400 had take the daughters of Yavesh Gilead who's parents had been killed
by the 12 tribes for not joining the battle against Binyamin. But there were
200 men left. It was then that the Rabbis came upon a cool solution. They
realized the vow that they had taken was that they would not "give"
their daughters to Binyamin as wives. They never said anything about Binyamin
taking their daughters forcibly without their
permission. So on the 15th of Av there was an annual Jewish holiday
that was celebrated by Shiloh where the Mishkan was. It celebrated the day that
the Jews realized in their final year in the wilderness that they would no longer
die and would enter the land. On that day the Sanhedrin advised the men of
Binyamin to hide out in the vineyards and the when the daughters of the other
tribes came out to go to Shiloh they could take them as their wives.
In addition to that the Rabbis also permitted the
daughters who received their portion as an inheritance (eg there were no sons
and they took the portion) to marry outside of their tribes as well. From the
time that they came into the land these girls had to marry within their own tribe
only. Now the market was wide open. And so the 15th of Adar became a
Jewish shidduch day. Girls would dress in simple white and dance in the fields
so that their suitors would come. What an amazing day. This is the conclusion
of the book of Shoftim. The next book we will begin the book of Shmuel will
begin the story of the next phase of the Kings of Israel. King Shaul we are
told gets his wife at one of these Shiloh parties. Yet unlike his friends he
doesn't chase after the girls they come running to him.
We've accomplished a lot this past year with this study.
I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am… And now I can make a siyum on this
Book as any book of prophets learned with commentaries entitles one to make a
siyum. So If you learned it with me feel free to participate on Erev Pesach for
our Siyum!
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S AND EVEN MORE TERRIBLE CORONA JOKES OF
THE WEEK
FUNNIEST MEME's of the WEEK
Osama Bin Laden
was hiding in a cave with 3 wives in one compound and never left the house for
five years. It is believed that he called the Navy Seals.
Quarantined
with kids is PureHell
Because of
Corona Isolation this year Pesach is "Mishin" Impossible
I was in a long
queue, at 6:45 this morning, at the grocery store that opened at 07:00 for
seniors only. A young man came from the parking lot and tried to cut in at the
front of the line, but an old lady beat him back into the parking lot with her
cane.
He returned and
tried to cut in again, but an old man punched him in the gut, then kicked him
to the ground and rolled him away.
As he
approached the queue for the 3rd time he said: "If you old buggers
don't let me unlock the door, you'll never get in there."
I'm giving up
eating chocolate for a month. Sorry… bad punctuation. I'm giving up. Eating
chocolate for a month
Corona Virus is
like semicha. You think and say you've got it even though you've never been
tested. It's better to get it when you're younger. Everyone in Bnai Brak and
Lakewood has it and the less yeshivish you are the more serious you take it.
Grocery
shopping has become like a real life version of Pacman; avoid everyone get the
fruit and take any route to avoid contact.
People keep
asking if Covid 10 is for real. Listen up Shuls and Casinos and are both
closed. When heaven and earth agree upon something, it's serious.
Just sent a
dove out of the window when it comes back with a piece of toilet paper in its
mouth I will know that the virus is finished
Sure sign that
Mashiach is coming. It's Easter time and 6.5 million Jews are searching for
eggs.
My neighbor
just yelled at her kids so loud, I just brushed my teeth and went to bed.
Beware there
will be a shortage of bread this coming Wednesday for a week.
This Corona
virus has inspired us to share with you the exciting news God willing we are
expanding our family and we are adopting another fridge
He who has note
experienced these three things has not fulfilled his Passover 2020 obligation.
Isolation, Latex Gloves and face masks.
Going to ask my
5th grade Rebbi if that option to slap me into next year is still an
option.
What fun this
week is only 3 days at home and then another four days!
I took the
Mezuza off my front door and put it on my fridge as it seems that is the only
door I have been opening and closing
**********************************
Answer is B– OK we're back to some quasi
Jewish questions hopefully done with Crusader and Muslim ones…. I got this one
right! I actually don't guide Karaite things too often although the synagogue
in the old city of Jerusalem is certainly a place to talk about them and there
center I believe is in Ramla here in Israel and in our course we had an
interesting presentation from one of them. Karaism started in the 8th
century in the period of the Geonim in Bavel from a fight between two brothers
over who will take over the exilarch position. Although their golden age was
the 10th through 12th century score So the score now
stands at Schwartz 13 and 9 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam. Hopefully
I can keep this up and pass this exam!
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