Aliyah Tips- Parshat Ki Tavo 5780 /2020

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

September 4^th 2020 -Volume 10 Issue 45 15^th Elul 5780

Parshat Ki Tavo

Aliyah Tips

Mazel Tov! You're coming home. It's about time, already. We've been waiting for you here. Listen, I understand and am sympathetic, it took me a solid 15 years after I was married to make it over here and I had to wander the entire US of A first. You were settled. You had your job, your family obligations, your kid's schools and you really enjoyed sour pickles and American beef. I understand. Change isn't easy. I'm just glad that you're finally coming. That you're smart enough to see the writing on the wall already. Hey, not too long ago there were 6 million Jews that didn’t. You've learned the lessons of history though. You know that when the anti-semites are out of the closet and acting brazenly defacing shuls, shops and that hatred is all over the place that the ship has already sailed. That baby isn't being putting back into its crib. The game is over.

 

I know it's a bit unsettling. You were hoping to wait until you got married/ the kids were older/ the kids got married/ the grandchildren/got married/ you could retire/ you would come in a coffin… Pick your choice. But hey, Think of all of those millennia of your ancestors that had dreamed and davened to be privileged enough to have booked themselves on the next Aliyah flight like you have. And the truth is these days you pretty much could do most of the same things that you did back there. Your children can still attend their pathetic Zoom classes that you're still paying tuition for. You can telecommute for your work. You've pretty much been doing that already most of the time. I know you're sad about leaving behind all of those relatives and friends of yours behind. But to be honest this past year, you haven't seen too much of them anyways outside of your facetime and family chats and don’t worry they'll probably be joining you soon.

 

Now what do you know this week's parsha is actually the perfect Olim settling in Israel parsha. In fact it's title gives it away; Ki Tavo- when you will come. In the past I 've written articles on on being good tourists when coming to Israel. But those days are long gone. There are no tourists anymore. If you want to come these days, Hashem has pretty much said that you gotta come for good. It's been nice for the past couple of decades having you here for you your Bar Mitzvas, for you seminary or yeshiva years or for your family vacations. It was nice seeing you. But enough already. Come home. I want you here with Me always. We've got work to do here. It's pretty lonely when you guys are aren't around here. And it's really frustrating for Me to see that ugly gold pimple on my Temple Mount where we once joined together. I'm sick of seeing all of these churches and houses of idolatry all over My holy city. Your holy city. Our holy city. I want you home so I'm glad that you've finally decided to join the job I chose you for 3300 years ago on a Mountain out in Sinai. So read this parsha good, it's your Aliyah handbook. It's the things you need to know Ki Tavo- When you are coming home.

 

The first mitzvos are agricultural. That means that understanding that the fruits and vegetables that you've been picking up in your local supermarket and have taken for granted until now will now be the greatest tools to bonding with Hashem. You should become farmers, learn a little bit about the land and become inspired by the incredible miracle of the fruits that grow from it. Reb Zalman Sorotzkin, in his classic work Oznayim La'Torah writes that the main function of settling the land is to plant there. To work, to sweat, to plow, plant, harvest and to make the land flourish. Now most of us are white collar works. Sweat on our brow has meant that the air conditioning is not working so well. We're doctors, lawyers, accountants, techies and metal salesman. But not anymore. Let's roll up our sleeves and really get to work. It's time for a paradigm shift.

 

The Chasam Sofer takes this even a step further. He notes that the famous dispute between Rebbi Yishmael and Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai on whether one should spend their entire time studying Torah and rely on the blessing that will come through the hands of the work being "done for you" or whether one should learn together with working the land, really depends on where one is living. Outside of Israel where one's work is really just a means for providing one with income and putting food on the table, then you're better off studying Torah. Live simply and sacrifice as much as possible in order to maximize your Torah study, because that's the only thing that has true spiritual meaning. This is not so for those living in Israel. Working the land in Eretz Yisrael is of the highest spiritual value. In the words of the Chasam Sofer someone that chooses to learn Torah rather than work the land of Eretz Yisrael

 

Chasam Sofer (Sukka 36A) "is like someone who says I will not put on tefillin because I wish to learn Torah, So to is someone who says he will not gather in my gran because I want to learn Torah"

 

Wow! Imagine that going out and working in the field is a mitzva like putting on Teffilin. How awesome is that?

 

Now if you're nervous that you don't have a green thumb, like me. Not everyone has a little garden in my backyard like my farther does or has patience to sit and grow onion, tomatos and lettuce and other things that go inside of a hamburger bun. Fear not, first of all in Eretz Yisrael, these things pretty much grow themselves. Everywhere you go you'll find trees with pomegranates, olives, apples, pears, grapes figs and dates. It's awesome. But besides that the Chasam Sofer throws us another chiddush- revolutionary idea. He notes that not only working the ground is a mitzva but any craft, or job that helps set up society and settle the land and that is productive is a mitzva as well.

 

See in America there are parents that tell their idealistic yeshiva students who don't want to go to college or work that getting a job and providing for their family is also a mitzva. My father tried that- it didn't work. But in Israel your job really is a mitzva. Not just a mitzva of providing for your family, or earning money so you can give tzedaka, support Jewish causes…yada yada. In Israel it is inherently a mitzva. Every tap on your keyboard at your hi-tech job is like learning another word of Torah. Every twist with your screwdriver on the house your fixing is like putting another coin in the pushka and every patient you take care of, every useful product you produce or sell is like another Kiddush on Shabbos that you make. In fact the Chasam Sofer writes that the last letters of the words the zavaS chalaV U'DvaSH- flowing with milk and honey that this week's parsha repeatedly uses spell the word Shabbos. How cool is that!

 

The Parsha continues with the mitzva of Bikkurim and Viduy Maasrot. All of our planting and growing is there in order for us to bring our first fruits to the Mikdash and to support those that are needy and are dedicating themselves to building our spiritual country; the Kohanim and the levi'im. But this is not merely a tax. We have the mitzva of maaser sheni, where we bring the tithes to Jerusalem for us to eat. Because life in Eretz Yisrael is not just about building Torah institutions and supporting Kollels. It's about each Jews personal spiritual growth. We need to enjoy the fruits and enjoy them in Yerushalayim. We need to visit Hashem. We have a whole year of the Shemitta year when we don't work and just study Torah. Yes, working the land is a mitzva. But at the end of the day, we need Torah wisdom. We need the light of Torah in our lives. We need whole year to tap into that. By the way next year is the 6^th year in the shemitta count cycle where Hashem promises that He will provide for three years worth of parnassa. I'm pretty much counting on that. I didn't realize that he takes it off the fifth year cheshbon… But it's all good.

 

The Parsha hits that message of the essence of our spiritual Torah life in Israel by the first commandment even as we enter the land is to put up these two huge stones with the Torah written upon them. Reb Eliyahu Dessler notes that this mitzva is in order to hit home that the first place and thing we should do- even before conquering the land and setting up our garden is to write some Torah. Head off to the Beis Midrash. Make yourself a chavrusa. Find yourself a Torah class. Log in to you zoom class back in the States for all I care. But your Torah will be different here. It is just as much of a building block. In fact it's the foundation for everything that you will build and plant. So carve that into stone. In whatever language you wish. It's all holy here. It's all part of our redemption.

 

Next we have the blessings and the curses. Life in Israel is one where everything has meaning. Everything is extreme. Your Shabbos, your, holidays, your mitzvos, your work, your government, your neighbors, your friends and your family are not just small little different aspects and pieces of the makeup of your life. They all unite into one country, one people, one purpose. Like all the parts of your body where there is nothing extraneous, there is nothing that you do here that doesn't have the highest spiritual significance. If you mess up. It can bring the worst curses in the world. You're in the palace of the King. It's intense. At the same time, You're in the palace of the King- it doesn't get more awesome than that every detail of that palace is with perfect precision. Your house, your mezuza, your tefillin, your shul your tomatos and shwarma.

 

Finally the most important thing about living in Israel and the key to getting the blessings and bringing down the shechina to live here with us is to be happy. See, America's founding fathers gave you the liberty to pursue happiness. The problem is that how can you really be happy when you're in exile. It was a fruitless pursuit from the moment we landed there. Sure there have been some good times. It was an exile of relative peace and tranquility where we did indeed flourish. It was good while it lasted. But happiness? Neahhh. Our souls could never be happy outside of our home. Happiness is only in front of Hashem. It's only where we can be doing what we're meant to be doing, what we were chosen for. The rest is just pastrami sandwiches which are quite filling but in the end they just give you heartburn.

 

So when you come here, the final rule is to be happy. It's not always easy. But just read the parsha again and again. Think about the promise that is being fulfilled through us. Think about our history and all that we suffered through to get here. Think about that special love Hashem has for us and that He has never abandoned us. That He's been eagerly awaiting your plane. That he's standing there at the airport waving the flag as you get off those El Al wings of Eagles (I think that's the name of the new group that is buying them out now-how cool is that!). Baruch Hashem this year has been an awesome one. Sure, it's been rough it's been unsettling and too many of us have suffered tragedies and losses that have created voids that can never be filled. But it's a year that has shaken all of us up and made us all realize how unsettled our lives really are. How everything we have taken for granted in the past was just an illusion. How we need to really come home and get to work in the place we were meant to. May this coming year 5781-taf shin pei alef be the year of t'hei' shna pidyon America- the year of the redemption finally of our brothers and sisters in America and the entire world as we return the land that is awaiting for us.

Have a redemptive Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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Check out my latest Mishpacha JR. magazine Video

The Beit Shemesh Area

Dovid, Golyas, Jeep rides, Shimshon, Tel Beit Shemesh,

Stories of Tanach come alive

Guest appearances

Elka and Tully

https://mishpacha.com/club-jr-episode-14

 

See the video everyone is talking about!

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 " Besser bay zikh krupnik, eyder bay yenem gebrotns.." Better barley soup at home than a roast at someone else’s home.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

43) The number of Knesset members in the Israeli Knesset is:

A.  70

B.  71

C.  100

D.  120

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO  OF THE WEEK

 https://mishpacha.com/club-jr-episode-14 - My latest video for Mishpacha Jr. The Beit Shemesh area guest appearances Tully and Elka

 https://youtu.be/JWNkamObGKc  -The Sound of the Shofar (Simon and Garrfunkel knockoff) by OORAH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKHa8WLJF8 – Berry Webber give a smile!

 https://youtu.be/NbbLiZ4STOg – Pumbedisa Elul-Hamelech Basadeh

 https://youtu.be/TIpNvIfs2g4  –Nissim Black's latest Rerun

 RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/MITZVA CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

 Parshat Ki Tavo – Bikkurim-First Fruits- Ok Mashiach is on his way, so it's time to start brushing up on the laws of the land. Sacrifices are all fine and good, but perhaps the most spectacular and common offering was the Bikkurim first fruit ceremony. Israel is a very agricultural society. Every year from Shavuos to Sukkos there would be daily caravans approaching Yerushalayim with baskets laden with fruit decorated each person according to their status. The poor head straw baskets the more affluent had golden ones. (There's a message in that-no one did more than they could afford). They would come from all over Israel, they would sleep in the streets of the cities along the way in order to let everyone know they were going to the Beis Hamikdash. Uman on Rosh Hashana had nothing on this. As they approached Yerushalayim they would have wagons being pulled by oxen with golden ornamented horns and music playing in front of them. All the shopkeepers and dignitaries would come to greet them. It was an amazing scene, and all for a basket of fruit.

 

Now the process to get ready for this mitzva starts as soon as the fruit begins to blossom. A ribbon is tied around the first fruit and a declaration is made that this is Bikkurim. It is only from fruits that are of the five of the species that are fruits; dates, pomegranates, figs, grapes and olives. For the next few weeks you would go out and watch how this fruit grows until it is fully ripe. So exciting. When it is finally picked you can imagine the joy and appreciation that one has for Eretz Yisrael, for living here, for the blessing Hashem has given us. There's only one place to head after that. Yerushalayim; to tell Him so yourself.

 One comes into the Mikdash. He walks up those incredible 15 steps, he sees the glorious building, the marble, the gold and hehears the heavenly choir of the Levi'im and their orchestra. He brings his basket to the Kohen who waves it together with him. He them makes a declaration, which recalls all the kindness Hashem has done for us since our forefathers. It's a familiar recital. They are the verses we recite at our Pesach Seder. We then place our humble offering by the Mizbayach for the Kohanim and our mission is complete. What an amazing service. Are you guys psyched? Get ready it's almost time to start it up again…

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

 Shaul VS Dovid Round I - 878 BC- With Dovid's marriage to Michal two things happened. Number one the Plishtim were not that happy that his wedding gift to his Father-in-law were the 200 foreskins that he took from the Plishtim that he killed as can be expected. In addition they figured that since Dovid was in "shana rishona" the first year of marriage that he would not be permitted to go out to fight against them, so they could act impunity. And they attacked. Little did they know that exemption was only for permissible wars that we wage to expand the borders of Israel. A defensive war though, everyone goes out to fight. And Dovid trounced them again and again.

 The second thing that took place as a result of this was that Shaul's jealousy and melancholy got worse and worse and he repeatedly tried to kill Dovid. He threw spears at him, he spoke to his servants about it and even to his son Yonasan. One evening though things really got exciting when Shaul posted his guards outside Dovid's home in order to bring to get killed the next morning. Michal though covered for Dovid lowering him down through the window and putting a statue in his bed with a goats hair sheitel. Yonasan attempts to make peace again and again ubber tzu helft nisht. Dovid flees to Shmuel in Rama.

 They got to a neighbourhood called Nayot. Today, there is a neighbourhood in Yerushalayim that is named after it. Chazal tell us that the name is a reference to the Beis Hamikdash called Neve Kodshecha, and that entire night Shmuel taught him the laws of the building of the Mikdash and they sat down to figure out where exactly Har Habayis where it would be built was meant to be. Shaul, sent 3 different groups of guards there to arrest Dovid and bring him back, but legion after legion all began to prophesize pon approaching them that Dovid was meant to rule. Shaul, himself made his way up to Rama to see what was going on and he came under the same spell of prophecy and eventually went back empty handed. Ultimately it seems that Dovid returned home again but it wasn’t for long when once again Shaul was out to get him.

 Dovid confronts his beloved friend Yonasan to see if there was any way out of this and  at the Rosh Chodesh Seuda Yonasan sees that any mention of Dovid to his father just brings out this murderous rage. In order to signal to Dovid that he should flee he goes out to the field and by utilizing a pre-arranged signals of shooting arrows and telling his assistant o fetch them as they had flown far away. Dovid knew that he had to flee. These trials and tribulations, that Dovid underwent became the inspiration for many of the psalms that he composed in his tefillos to Hashem. As well it prepared him for his Kingship. Because one thing a king has to learn, is that not everyone will love him and his life will always be in danger. Next week We'll learn the further adventures of Dovid in exile.

 (We've learned the stories until now check out the Rabbi Schwartz Dovid and Golyas video!)

https://mishpacha.com/club-jr-episode-14

 RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FARMER JOKES  OF THE WEEK

ack in one of the shtetels of Europe, the local Rebbe was having a conversation with a poor farmer about the nature of belief, and how even difficult financial times, everything comes from Hashem. The Rebbe said to the poor farmer, "Reb Yid, let me ask you, if you had a horse, and you were asked, would you give it to Hashem?"

"Yes," replied the farmer.

"And if you had a cow?"

"Absolutely."

"And a goat?"

"Of course."

"A wagon?"

"Rebbe, that's not fair!" protested the farmer. "You know I have a wagon!"

Morty Applebaum bought a donkey from an old farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day. The next day, the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, but I have some bad news. The donkey died."

"Well, then, just give me my money back," said Morty.

"Can't do that,” replied the farmer. “I went and spent it already."

"OK, then. Just unload the donkey."

"What ya gonna do with him?"

"I'm going to raffle him off."

"You can't raffle off a dead donkey!"

"Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead."

A month later the farmer met up with Morty and asked, "Whatever happened with that dead donkey?"

"I raffled him off. I sold five hundred tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $998."

"Didn't anyone complain?" asked the farmer.

"Just the guy who won,” said Morty. “So I gave him his two dollars back."

 Little Itzik Goldshmit from Kibbutz Kfar Giladi in Israel was visiting his American cousin who lived in Florida. One day a farmer was driving along the road with a load of fertilizer. Itzik saw him and asked, "What do you have in your truck?"

"Fertilizer," the farmer replied.

"What are you going to do with it?" asked little Itzik.

"Put it on strawberries," answered the farmer.

"Back in my kibbutz," Itzik advised, "We put sugar and cream on ours."

 One day Chaim Yankel, a farm boy in the town of Chelm, accidentally overturned his wagon load of corn while traveling on one of the country roads. The farmer who lived nearby was riding by and saw what happened. "Chaim Yankel!!" the farmer yelled. "Don’t worry about your wagon. Come to my house for supper and I can take you home afterwards."

"That's mighty nice of you,” Chaim Yankel answered, "but I don't think Dad would like me to."

"Awe, come on," the farmer insisted.

"Well okay," Chaim Yankel finally agreed, and added, "But Dad won't like it."

After a hearty dinner, Chaim Yankel thanked his host. "I really enjoyed the meal, but I know Dad is going to be real upset."

"Don't be foolish!" the neighbor said. "By the way, where is he?"

"Under the wagon."

 

Dudi Shaked, an Israeli farmer purchases an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields are grown over with weeds, the farmhouse is falling apart, and the fences are collapsing all around.

During his first day of work, the local Rabbi stops by to bless the man's work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams!"

A few months later, the Rabbi stops by again to call on the Dudi. Lo and behold, it's like a completely different place -- the farm house is completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there are plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows.

"Amazing!" the Rabbi says. "Look what God and you have accomplished together!"

"Yes, Rabbi," says the farmer, "but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone!"

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Answer is D –  OK we're almost done with this exam. And it looks like I definitely passed and could still get my license if I had to take the exam again 8 years later and hopefully even get a decent grade as well. This is another easy one. See, I like little factoids and nuggets particularly when we find ancient sources for modern Israeli life. The Knesset has 120 members the same as there were in the original anshei Knesset Ha'gedola- men of the great assembly of the second Temple period. Another one right again and the score is Schwartz 33 and 11 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.