Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
September 25th 2020 -Volume
10 Issue 48 7th Tishrei 5781
Parshat Ha'azinu/ Yom Kippur
Lockdown!
Not again…It's a lockdown
in the holy land and just when I was getting used to being back in Shul again.
It's still wasn't the same though. Our chulent kiddushes are still off, we
don't have dancing Friday night and the sefer Torah doesn't make its rounds
around the room before and after Torah reading. The masks that I speak to when
I give my weekly sermons make it more challenging to see if the crowd is
smiling at my jokes or snoring. Although the guys in the back that pull them
over their eyes are definitely giving it away….
But still it has been amazing to return to our shul since Shavuos. But
now we are closing up shop again. Someone wrote me that we should call the period
between Shavuos and Sukkos "bein hasegorim"-between the
lockdowns. Why do we have to go back to our rooms again?
See Pesach time was kind
of cool being locked up. We imagined the plagues and the Egyptians outside and
us safely with our Pesach offerings inside awaiting Eliyahu Hanavi. But Yom
Kippur in lockdown? (Although they are permitting small minyanim the
recommendations are to stay out of shul and rather pray in outdoor minyanim.).
That's a hard pill to swallow. Yom Kippur is all about Shul. It's sitting
inside and davening all dressed in white. Looking at the clock, counting the
pages. It's being surrounded with our brothers and sisters all dressed in
white. It's the guy sitting next to me- not socially distanced, sobbing through
the viduy confessions. It's singing anu tzonecha- we are your flock
together in harmony and it is about trembling as we read nesaneh tokef
and think about who will live and who will die, as we reflect over the so many
that are not with us this year and the so many who we all know who have died by
plague, by water, by fire not in their proper time. Too young… too early… too
much left to accomplish. Yom Kippur shouldn't be a day that we are outside in
the street at best or on our porch and couch trying to have some kavana
with the children jumping around in the background.
Sukkos as well, which in
Israel this year the synagogues will be closed for. How can this be? What about
our Hoshana marches as we wave our Lulav and Etrog proudly like victory swords
as we march around the Bima joyously asking Hashem to save us each day of Sukkos.
Our Hallel's with our Ma Ashiv sung together, our naa'anuims-
lulav waving each guy with their own minhag and the guys that are just making
up their own minhag of which direction to wave it or that dumb kid that always
hits you in the nose. There will be no Kaaaaa'eyyyy'-eyyy'-eiyyy-lehs by Torah
reading on Chol Hamoed. No Simchas Torah. No dancing, no sweaty up and down
jumping. No throwing the kids up and down Moshe Emes, No candies, no
chocolates, no Kiddush club. No 1950's songs tzavey tzavey or baruch
hu elokeinu that only get sung on Simchas Torah. No mi pi kel, I
can't even think about it. It's insane. This was supposed to be over a long
time ago… So was our Galus…So was our exile from our Beis Hamikdash…Maybe now
we can experience a bit what Hashem has been feeling like, locked out His home
for so long as well…
The truth is this is not
the first Yom Kippur we have been in somewhat of a lockdown. In fact, the first
Yom Kippur ever of our Beis Hamikdash also had somewhat of a lockdown. It's how
it all began, and fascinating enough we remember it every year in the Psalm we
read Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur repeatedly. It's lesson, perhaps more poignant
this year than any other year.
Let's go back in time
about 2900 years ago. The King of the Jewish people is Dovid and there is a
massive plague that is killing everyone. The final tally was 70,000 people!
Fascinatingly enough this plague we are told comes because Dovid counts the
people and not by means of the half shekel which is meant to serve as a kofer-
an atonement so that the plague will not break out… Kofer is the same
word a Kippur the day of atonement we are approaching. I believe that
the first time this corona plague, China plague or Hashem plague began Parshat
Shekalim this year right before Purim, when we read about the mitzva to give
our half shekel to the communal shul/temple and get an atonement and not suffer
a plague. Hmmmm…. You did get my fundraising E-Mail this week right?- I'm just
saying…it's never too late…J Links are below…) Maybe we should call it the kaparah
virus.
How does the plague stop?
Dovid goes to the granary of Arnava and buys the Temple Mount where the Beis
Hamikdash will be. There he builds a mizbayach, in the same place that Yaakov
built his altar and saw angels going up and down from there. The same place
where Yitzchak was bound to be offered up as a sacrifice and where the ram was
killed in his place. The same place, the Rambam tells us where Noach and Adam
HaRishon build their altars. It is there that King David, comes to that same mountain and
builds his altar and the lo and behold the plague ends. The atonement, the kaparah,
it seems, is achieved.
A few years later Dovid's
son Shlomo begins the most important project in the history of mankind of
building a Home for Hashem on this Earth on that same hallowed ground. It is
for this reason that all of mankind was created. The world has waited almost
3000 years for this moment. After 7 years the project is finally completed in
the month of Cheshvan. However, Shlomo decides to wait a good 11 months until
the Month of Tishrei to have the open house ceremony. Perhaps that is the
precedent in Israel that your real estate will never be ready on the date they
tell you or even that it is completed by. Getting it a year after the
construction is completed is ahead of the game.
Shlomo waits until the
month of Tishrei. Our month. This time of year. The birth month of Avraham
Avinu. Shlomo makes a 7-day feast that continues for an additional 7 days. This
is a very big deal. Every day is feasting, sacrifices and celebrations. Yom
Kippur is obviously one of those 14 days and of course Shlomo rules that just
as in the times of Moshe when the Mishkan was dedicated peace offerings were
brought on Shabbos, which would normally be prohibited, as we don't burn
personal optional sacrifices on Shabbos. Similarly, one would be permitted to
eat and drink on Yom Kippur in honor of the special occasion of the dedication
of the Beis Hamikdash. How cool must that have been?
And then the highlight of
the entire event finally came. It was time to finally bring the Aron to the
Holy of Holies. The nation led by Shlomo marched up from the city of David down
below. They walk up those steps to the Temple mount. Everyone is watching and
then it happens. Lockdown. Seger. The gates are shut and no one can open
them up. Uh Oh…
I don't know if you ever had that awkward
feeling when it's time for Torah reading in shul and the Aron is locked and
being the rabbi of the shul you're the only one with the combination because
the Gabbai who usually opens it is home sick with possible corona. All eyes are
on you as you fumble through the ridiculously complex combination. 3 times
counterclockwise, twice past zero the other way to 42 and then back again… and
of course it doesn't open. So you try again and again and again… and there is
grumbling… This is not a good thing. Yeah, I don't know if you've ever had
that…but they tell me that it's not fun at all…Can you imagine what Shlomo must
have felt like? So what does a Jew do in a situation like this? We say
tehillim. Being that they were composed by his father Dovid, Shlomo knew them
pretty well… But it didn't work and the grumbling got louder.
"I knew we
shouldn't have eaten on Yom Kippur" Berel said. "What type of
mishegas is this? Yom Kippur we fast!"
"Yeah"
Yankel said, "Who does this Shlomo think he is? Smartest of all men or
something. He was born from a sinful relationship of Dovid and Batsheva…not
that I want to say anything nisht b'shabbos g'redt"
There were some people
that blamed it on the people who talked in shul, others said it was lashon
hara, others said lashon hara on the people that spoke lashon hara.
You had your usual people that said it was the internet, long shaitels and
smartphones fault. Some people blamed it on the ones that wore masks or the
ones that didn't wear them. But most people just blamed it on the government. It
was Bibi, Biden or Trump… It was chareidim, it was chilonim, it was Russia, it
was Palestinians. It was Schwartz
Finally, Shlomo came to
Psalm 24.
L'dovid Mizmor- A song
for Dovid. Hashem's is the earth and its
fullness, the inhabited land and those who dwell in it.
We are all Hashem's.
Everything is His. We are His people. This building is the purpose of His
dwelling place on this earth.
Mi ya'aleh b'har
Hashem, u'mi yakum b'makom kodsho- who may ascend the mountain of Hashem
and who may stand at His place of holiness?
Can you imagine all of the
Jewish people, silent ,eyes closed at that moment locked out of their gates and
hearing Shlomo ask that very question?
Naki kapayim u'var
leivav asher lo nosa l'sahv nafshi v'lo nishba la'mirma- One with clean
hands and pure heart and who has not sworn in vain by my Soul, and has not
sworn deceitfully.
Can you hear them bursting
out in tears? Are any of us truly clean or pure of heart. Can any of us merit
to enter the holy house of Hashem…
Zeh dor Dorshuv-
mivakshey panecha Yaakov sela- This
is the generation of those that seek him those who strive to see Your face,
Yaakov Selah….
This is who we are Hashem
they called out. We want you. We need you. Open up the gates…
Se'u Shearim Rosheichem-
Shlomo begs for the gates to open up before the King who is coming.
However, the midrash tells
us that the gates upon hearing this request thought that Shlomo was referring to
himself. And they began to fall and collapse around him.
Terror took over the
nation. What a shanda. We can't go in and the walls are collapsing of
our shul; of our temple.
Shlomo clarified and said
"Hashem the mighty
and strong, is our king of war". The walls stop shaking but they still
don't open.
Again Shlomo calls out
"Se'u She'arim roshaychem" Open up gates and allow the King to
enter.
The ibn Ezra explains this
is talking about in the future times when the same thing will happen again. We
will be locked out. The doors will need to open. Mashiach, the redeemer is
approaching to redeem us. Dovid's psalm is talking about us.
And yet the gates still
did not open. The Talmud tells us that they only opened when he asked that they
be opened in the merit of his father Dovid. Poof- Open Sesame. The gates opened
and the people and the ark went in. When this happened, the Talmud tells us,
the entire nation understood that Dovid's sin has been forgiven. Their sins of
eating on Yom Kippur had been forgiven. All the sins of the Jewish people were
forgiven. We can only come into Shul when we appreciate that we can get that
forgiveness. The men and women went home celebrated, they had children, and the
new generation was born with that lesson in mind. We will always be forgiven,
those are the keys to opening up the doors of Heaven. The doors of the Hashem's
house here on earth.
In fact, the Talmud tells
us that the "original" sin that we are forgiven for on Yom Kippur of
the Golden Calf was a sin that didn't make any logical sense. Hashem had just
taken us out of Egypt. We saw all the plagues, all of the miracles. We walked through
the sea. We were eating His manna, we were celebrating His Shabbos as the God
who took us out of Egypt and Created the whole world. We heard His voice and
His ten commandments. How can it be that 40 days later we are dancing around a
golden calf and singing "This is the God that took us out of Egypt".
It doesn’t make any sense. The answer, our sages tells us, is that Hashem
caused us to sin in order to teach all generations that no matter how bad and
how far we fall and how grievous our transgression may be- I mean in the words
of the midrash this is like a bride who sins on her wedding night- But no
matter what- the congregation can always get atonement and forgiveness. We can
always enter into those gates and Hashem will forgive us.
Similarly, as well, the
Rabbis teach us that it makes no sense whatsoever that King David should have
sinned with Batsheva. Dovid was the kindest, most sensitive and passionate
person ever born. 3000 years after his passing his words and psalms give
inspiration, hope, prayer and to people around the world from all faiths. He
had everything as King and yet was dedicated to the people in all ways. How
could he have fallen so low as to take a woman that was another man's wife in
the way that he did, by sending her husband off to war to be killed. It makes
no sense. The betrayal is against every fiber in his being. Yet again our sages
tell us this was Hashem that caused him
to sin in order to teach all generations for all times that even an individual that
does the most grievous sin, the most horrific abomination and act, can still
get forgiveness. Can still have Yom Kippur. Hashem forgave Dovid when he did
Teshuva, but He waited until the Yom Kippur when the Temple was dedicated to
teach that lesson to the entire world.
Why did it have to be so
dramatic? Why couldn't Hashem just say Dovid is forgiven. Klal Yisrael is
forgiven. Turn the red string, white and move on and party… Why the lockout?
Why the lockdowns? The answer perhaps is to remind us that there is no half way
with our teshuva. We are either in or we are out. The doors are opened or they
are closed. We daven for teshuva shlaima- a complete Teshuva. Not just
erase partially. Not just some of our sins. Not just make us a little bit
whiter, not as black, so what if there's some stains on our collars… It's all
gotta be clean. From the worst sins we have done to the smallest least sins and
mistakes. Teshuva shlayma.
Similarly, we say refuah
shlayma- a complete healing. Not just a partial healing or a little less
sick. We want to be completely healed. Not just a vaccine, not just
anti-bodies. Not just remission. We want it entirely eradicated. refuah shlaima.
Finally, as well we want geula
shlaima. We want the doors to open and the Bais Hamikdash to be there. Va'yavo
melehch Ha'kavod. We don't want to go back partially to our shuls. We don't
want to have our big beautiful buildings songs, and dancing in our Synagogues,
in Lakewood, Monsey, Boro Park, LA, or London. We don't even want them in Karmiel,
Bnai Brak or Beit Shemesh. We want geula shlaima- a complete redemption.
We want the Beis Hamikdash. We want Mashiach. The lockdown is there to remind
us of that first time that we experienced this. May this year of 5781 be the
year that the gates finally open up and all of us walk through them together,
healed, forgiven and redeemed.
May we all be blessed
with a G'mar 'chasima tova- may we be sealed for the sweetest year ever.
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Di vegen fun teshuveh zeinen nit vainiker farborgen vi di vegen fun zind..."- The ways of repentance are no less hidden than the ways of sin.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
A) The inauguration of the Suez Canal
B) Breaching of the New Gate
C) Inauguration of the Hejaz railway
D) Breaching of the Jaffa Gate
https://youtu.be/RK35FibUb00 – Itzik Dadiya Beautiful Nosei Tefilla
Nov the city of Kohanim - 878 BC- We had
mentioned two weeks ago that Dovid after hearing that Shaul was out to get him
fled to the city of Nov. The city of Nov as we mentioned hasn't been
archeologically identified yet, but it is assumed to be somewhere in Shuafat
area. There he had
passed himself off as being on a secret mission for Shaul to Achimelech the
Kohen Gadol. He stocked up on some supplies and took the sword that he had
taken from Goliath when he killed him. However, he was spotted by Shaul's man
Doeg Ha'Adomi and he fled the city. Well know the chickens have come home to
roost.
L'menatzayach- for the leader. A maskil of David,
when Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul, telling him, “David came to
Ahimelech’s house.”
Why do you boast of your evil, brave fellow? God’s faithfulness never
ceases.
Your tongue devises mischief, like a sharpened razor that works
treacherously.
You prefer evil to good, the lie, to speaking truthfully…Selah.
You love all pernicious words, treacherous speech…
Honey, My parents are on the phone. Are we not going to
them this Yom Tov or are they not coming to us…?
5780 Rosh Hashana Resolution-Kabalah- stay away from
people that are negative
5781- Rosh Hashana Resolution Kabalah- Stay away from
people that test positive
People say that the new lockdown rules
are complicated. But for those used to Jewish law they are quite easy.
The Corona virus is contagious only
from 2:00 today until after Simchat Torah. Except from 6:07 in Jerusalem or 6:03
in Karmiel and 6:05 in Bnai Brak Yom Kippur until after the fast where it is
not contagious for the first 20 people in synagogue, or 10 people in courtyard.
After that it is very dangerous. But that
is only for those 20 people that live within a KM that have that magical protection
if you are outside of the 1 KM "eruv" you are at risk. If you are
protesting it is not dangerous at all… masks should be the size of tefach
depending on the shiur that you follow. Like a half a machine matzah should
work.
Rosh Hashana was on the only two days of the week that we
already have off from work and Sukkos has the longest Chol Hamoed when we are
all going to be locked up anyways… Classic 2020 move!
Every year we
begin our Kol Nidrei service in shul granting permission for us to daven with
all of the sinners. This year all of the sinners have not given us permission
to daven in shul….
Biden’s face
went egg-shell white with shock. The blood drained from his face and to
everyone’s amazement, he collapsed on the floor. Minutes passed and to
everyone’s relief, Biden got up shakily and then sat back on his chair.
His staff was
nothing less than stunned at this display of emotion from Joe Biden, nervously
watching as he sat, head in hands.
Finally, Joe
looked up and with a shaky quivering voice asked Dr.
Fauci,
"How many people is a brazillion?
Answer is A – I many times get these two visits
mixed up. Franz Joseph in 1868 and Kaiser Wilhelm in 1889. But I knew that they
did blast open the Jaffa Gate to welcome one of them, as the legend goes so
that his pointy hat will fit in the gate. But that certainly wasn't the reason
why they came. The reason Josef came was for the Suez Canal's opening. And in
fact it wasn't he that they broke open the Jaffa Gate for it was for Wilhelm.
Now when Josef came they did pave the road from Jaffa to Jerusaelm that's not
the Hejazi railroad that went all the way to Mecca but it was still a big deal.
So the correct answer is Suez Canal. Another one right and the score But as of
now we stand at Schwartz 35 and 11 for
MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.
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