What you Pray for - Rosh Hashana 2020/ 5781

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

September 18^th 2020 -Volume 10 Issue 47 29^th  Elul 5780

 Rosh Hashana

What You Pray For

So here we are again. It's that time of year. If someone told you last year at this time what this past year would look like would you have believed them? We'd be all locked out of our shuls. We would be wearing masks. Our children would be learning on Zoom. Our summer vacation plans to Israel would be canceled because there are no flights. We would be out of work. We would lose our jobs, our loved ones, our spiritual leaders. We would be eating our Pesach Seders without family for the first time. Rebbi Shimon would be all alone for Lag Ba'Omer, Rebbi Nachman in Uman won't see all of his chasidim that come to him for the yeshuos and chizuk that he promised them. That Simchas Torah this year might be without any dancing. What would you say if someone told you that those were the stakes we were meant to be praying for last Rosh Hashana when all of this was decreed? That we had the power to make this a different year that would've averted all of this. What would we have davened differently? What's in store for us this coming year. Because as we approach this year's Rosh Hashana davening we can no longer say we didn't know how high the stakes are.

 

Someone sent me a meme that said a piece of advice from the wise. This year don't daven that we should be able to spend more time with our family- I'm just saying. Far be it for me to argue with the sage wisdom of Facebook Memes, but the truth is that is one of the things I davened for last year. I davened as well that I should have more time to learn. I davened that I should have more time and opportunity to make my tefillos that I pray all year more meaningful. I looked at my prayers in the past and was ashamed at how rushed and rote they were. I looked at how busy my life was and remembered my good learning years from my yeshiva and Kollel days and I asked for the opportunity to once again "get back into it". Now to be honest I didn't really ask for more time with my family. Don’t get me wrong I love them all to death and I don't know what I'd do without them. But I just didn't know what to do with more time with them. Frankly I still don't. But I did daven that I should be better at being a husband and father to the most important people in my life. That I shouldn't always be too busy and distracted to focus on how important they are to me. And it seems that all of my prayers were answered this past year. Do we have to be careful with what we pray for, because as the saying goes Hashem might just be listening and He just might give us what we asked for.

 

It's a fascinating day this Rosh Hashana of ours. On the one hand it is full of fear and awe. Our judgement is being written up in heaven. All our deeds are brought before Hashem, our thoughts, our sins. Whatever will happen to us will be written and sealed in either the Books of the righteous or god forbid the other one… At the same time our the prophet tells us it is a day rejoicing. It is the day when we coronate our King- excuse the corana pun. It is the birthday of the world. We eat and we drink holiday meals. Yom Kippur, which seemingly is even more intense as it is the day when we confess all of our sins and are fasting and praying all day as we beg for forgiveness and that any decrees that we may have incurred that are not good should be nullified,  as well in the times of the temple we are told was the happiest day on the Jewish calendar. Think Purim and Rosh Hashana in Uman or Lag Ba'Omer in Meron not even coming in a close second to it. There was singing, dancing, men and women. Shidduchim were made. They were days of joy. How do we balance these two things? How do we approach these days with what seems like two conflicting emotions that we are meant to be having?

 

The answer I believe lies in the parshiyos we have read that lead up to this holiday. In parshat Ki Tavo we read the scary terrible tochacha- words of admonition and horrific doom that Hashem tells us will befall us if we violate our covenant with Him. If we don't do and accomplish the mission that we were sent here to fulfill. Yet the parsha that we read last week begins with Moshe reassuring us that we are still standing before Hashem. That the pathway to accomplishing everything we need to is not up in the heavens or on the other side of the sea. It's in our hearts. We can do it. We have pulled through before and we will continue to do so. This is the covenant and promise that Moshe makes with us on this last day of his life.

 

To a large degree our relationship with Hashem is like a marriage. On the one hand marriage can be the scariest thing in the world. Life is for real. There's another person for good in my life that I have responsibilities for. That I have to accept, that I have to serve, that I will build generations with. If I mess up, it's not just my own life that I destroy, it's my entire family's lives. Yet at the same time there is no greater happiness and joy then on that wedding day. Because we now have the opportunity to put all our mistakes from the past behind us. Because I have found someone that trusts me and believes in me and will be my partner in everything that I can and will do. The future is open before me. It's a brand new life. It's my new birthday. It's a new year. And I can write myself in the book of the righteous and the living.

 

Perhaps the most depressing thing in the world and the root cause of all depression and suicides, is the feeling a person has that they don't really matter. That nothing they do has any meaning. Their lives are worthless. They have nothing to accomplish. There is nothing they can do. No one cares if they live or die. What's the point of it all anyways? Anyone that has ever killed themselves, taken drugs, or even suffered depression experienced this feeling or talked to their therapist about this emotion. What they were lacking in their lives, what perhaps all of us are lacking in our lives is one really solid Rosh Hashana. We need a day when we really really internalize that the King of the entire world wants little old me to stand before him and blow a shofar and declare Him to be my King, my Master, My Father in heaven.

 

Imagine if you were invited to the White House this coming January to inaugurate the next president of the United States. Not just to be there among the throngs of crowds watching the show. No, you're the guy that's standing there holding the "Holy" Bible and asking him if he solemnly swears to faithfully uphold… yada yada…Do you think you'd feel worthless than? Well I guess that would depend on whether you're a democrat or republican and who the winning candidate will be. But let's say it's your guy. How important would you feel? And that's for whatever lousy shmendrik wins in the farshtunkeneh United States of America which is going down the tubes anyways shortly after these elections in whatever civil war will break out. Where both candidates are not anyone that any normal person should feel comfortable saying proudly I'm so lucky that narcissist Donald or sleepy Joe represents me. But I bet you'd still feel pretty important.

 

Now what if it was the King of the World? What if it were Hashem? What if Hashem said to me, Ephraim… This coming Rosh Hashana I want you to be the one that inaugurates me. I have vetted you properly. You have the right credentials. Sure you've done lots of not so good things in the past, told a lot of really bad jokes with no punchlines and wasted a lot of people's time and those are just the lesser of your sins. But you're important to Me. I expect great things from you. The truth is, for the particular job I have planned for you, there is actually nobody else in the world that can do it. It's kind of the reason why I made you in the first place. I just need you to sign your name right here in the dotted line in this here book I have here titled the Book of the Righteous and We're good to go. If you do that and you sign up, I'll take care of cleaning your whole past slate and criminal record next week on Yom Kippur. Don't bother confessing today. That's not what today is about. Just blow that horn of yours and tell me that you're in. That's what Rosh Hashana is truly all about.

 

If anyone ever thought before this year that the actions of one person can't effect the entire world, why don't you ask Mr. Ching Chang who ate the bat in Wuhan. Or that group of Korean tourists- remember them-who first brought the plague to Israel. The idea that every single person has to wear a mask because each of could be the bearer of this dreaded virus and each and every one of us has the potential to spread the contagion that will close up our entire school, city, state and that can kill someone else with just a cough has been hammered into us. One person can wreak havoc in his smallest and most private of actions through a sneeze. You bet your life that we have all learned this year how much we each matter. How much devastation we can cause.

 

This year particularly when we don't blow the shofar on Shabbos, our sages tell us is because there may be one Jew somewhere that doesn't realize it's prohibited to carry the shofar on Shabbos and he may take it to someone to learn how to blow. Let me ask you something. What are the chances do you think of something like that happening is? I mean seemingly anyone that knows enough and cares about Rosh Hashana should know that it is prohibited to carry on Shabbos. As well even in the far out case that this could happen, but all of the Jewish people should lose out on the great mitzva and power of Shofar because of this one guy? The answer is yes. One guy is an entire world. If there's one person out there he can save the world and destroy the entire world. We are each that one guy and girl. Hashem needs us to inaugurate Him. The rabbinic prohibition to blow is like the secret service that is there to make sure that one guy doesn't get into trouble. That's the way we are meant to look at ourselves on this day. That is the sound of the shofar that we are meant to hear.

 

That is the flip side that this Rosh Hashana is coming to teach us this year more than any other year. How much good each one of us is meant to do. If my sneeze can destroy a world, then imagine what my smile could do for the world. What my act of kindness, what my words of Torah, what the very breath that I blow out of the shofar can do to coronate the King of the world and reveal it to all of mankind. It is overwhelming how much potential and power we wield. That Hashem has given us to wield. It is awe-inspiring and frightening and yet it there is no greater thing to celebrate and to rejoice over.

 

As we conclude this difficult year of Taf shin pey-5780 years of creation we enter into shnat tof shin pey alef- 5781which someone pointed out to me when read sounds like shnat ashpah- a garbage year. Uh oh… However, I saw a fascinating Chasam Sofer in his Toras Moshe (written in the early 1800's) where he writes almost prophetically based on gematriot that they year tof shin peh will be a year of death whereas the year of 5781 will be the year of mei'ashpos yarim evyon- from the garbage heaps Hashem lifts the impoverished. A'sh'p'ot'- garbage heaps is the same letters as taf shin pei alef. May this coming year be one that each and everyone us is uplifted. May it be a year of health, of spiritual growth, of blessing and of parnassah tova. May we taste and the smell the sweetness as this epidemic disappears from the world and may it be the one that heralds in Mashiach and Hashem's Kingship upon the entire world.

May we all be blessed with a ksiva v'chasima tova- A sweet and healthy new year,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

*********

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 " Der vos hot nit farzucht bittereh, vaist nit voz zies iz.."- He who has not tasted the bitter does not understand the sweet.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 45) Napoleon’s campaign in the Land of Israel took place at:

A. End of the 17th century

B.  End of the 18th century

C   .End of the 19th century

D.  Beginning of the 20th century

 RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO  OF THE WEEK

 https://cdn.theyeshivaworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WhatsApp-Video-2019-09-26-at-4.08.22-PM.mp4?_=1   - In honor of the Abraham Accords and peace Muhammad Saud sings Ochila la'kel

 h https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbGrOOVy9Dk – Mi Ha'Ish on a shofar ( read our places and people column below for the background of the psalm for where these words come from)

 https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/hashem-melech-r-ephraim-fina   – My Rosh Hashana composition with the incredible Dovid Lowy- Hashem Melech is our King!

 https://youtu.be/jOJFvfuXd9M   –Kippa Live Rosh Hashana Acapella Medley

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tga_lX-h2Us  -Shlomo Carlebach Reb Levi Yitzchak Rosh Hashana story

 RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/MITZVA CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

 Rosh Hashana– Shofar- So it's that time of year again. Even corona won't stop us from blowing our shofar. It may eb in synagogue or out of synagogue who knows? But one thing is certain we will all be coronating our King this year with Shofar as we do every year. But what is this mitzva really about. To make my question clearer, on sukkos we have a mitzva to sit in a sukkah and shake lulav, on Pesach we have a mitzva to eat matza and Shabbos we have a mitzva to sanctify the day. What's the mitzva of Shofar? Is the mitzva to blow it or hear it? As you can imagine like all good Jewish things, it's an argument.

 Now it would be helpful if the Torah would tell us as it does by the other mitzvos what our obligation. But the Torah is somewhat cryptic. The verse in Bamidar just tells us

 Bamidbar (29:1) tells us  On the first day of the seventh month it shall be called holy for you no mundane labor shall be done it shall be a day of Teruah (shofar blast)

 As well in Vayikra (23:24) it says Speak to the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first of the month, it shall be a Sabbath for you, a remembrance of [Israel through] the shofar blast a holy occasion.

 So a day of shofar, a remembrance thru shofar… as I said it doesn't really shed light on our dilemma. Yet the Rishonim seem to take a stand the Rambam says clearly that the mitzva is clearly to hear the shofar blast. As opposed to the Rambam stands Rabbeinu Tam and Tosafos who see the mitzva as one of blowing the Shofar. The fact that we don't all have to blow the shofar is because the baal tokaya is the representative of us, he's our shaliach/ agent.

 Some of the basic differences or for those that remember our old "Lomdus of the Week" column that we had a few years ago, the nafka minah between these two opinions would be what bracha is made? According to Rabbein Tam it would be l'tkoah bashofar- to blow the shofar whereas the Rambam rules we say the bracha that we have the custom to say which is l'shmoah kol shofar- to hear the sound of the Shofar. As well according to the Rambam if one heard the blasts from a stolen shofar he would fulfill the obligation. As despite the fact that a mitzva that is fulfilled by doing a sin is not valid. But here the mitzva is not to blow the shofar it's merely to hear it and thus the shofar itself is not the object of the mitzva, rather the sound is, and in the words of the Rambam sound can't be stolen. Rabbeinu Tam would say that it is a problem just as a stolen lulav or tefillin would be.

 Now although if it is merely the sound of the Shofar that we need to hear, than it shouldn't make a difference who blows it and perhaps even a child who is not obligated in blowing would be enough to fulfill our commandment to merely hear it like the Rambam. But the poskim rule that is not the case as we need to hear the blast of someone who has intent and is obligated in the mitzva. Similarly on the opposite end of the spectrum Rabbeinu Tam who holds that the mitzva is to blow and that we fulfill our obligation via that hearing is like blowing, similar to prayer. We need to have intent to fulfill our obligation with that blowing for it to work. So in reality there are those that suggest that both opinions may be similar in a practical way.

 The next question is what is a shofar blast that needs to be heard or blown. The Gemara tells us that there are different types of blasts the long tekiah the three pronged cry of the shevarim and the shrill sobbing of the teruah. Meaning from a biblical standpoint 9 blasts would be sufficient.  Interestingly enough Rav Hai Gaon suggests that in ancient times different people did it differently as ultimately a decree was passed that we need to hear all of the different alternatives which comes to 30 blasts. We do this before and during the musaf prayer again bringing it to a total of 100 blasts which is the custom that we follow.

 We use a shofar of a ram which recalls the binding of Yitzchak which took place on Rosh Hashana. However any kosher animal, besides a cow would be fine and a blessing is even made when one cannot get a ram. In fact the custom in Yemenite circles is to use the Kudu. There are many things that can make a shofar invalid and it is important to get one from a reputable dealer. I had the pleasure of visiting one of the largest Shofar importers this past summer (on the only tour I had this bein hazmanim) Kol Hashofar in the Golan Heights and it's truly incredible to see how much work and dedication goes into this special mitzva. May this year we merit to hear the shofar gadol we await Mashiach to coronate our King.

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

 Dovid on the Run Part II - 878 BC- So Dovid on the run from the city of Nov now finds himself in the heart of the enemy in the city of Gat. The king Achish or Avimelech (which was the standard name given to a Philistine king, like pharoh was in Egypt, or Casear in Rome was), has two bodyguards that it seems were the brothers of Goliath. What a small world! They recognize the sword of their brother that Dovid is holding and they want their revenge. Dovid uses a good old get the Jew out of trouble or the army excuse and pretends to be mishuga- a little crazy. The Plishtim certainly don't think it's worth their time knocking off a powerful and influential harmless mad man and so Dovid gets out of there. We recite each Shabbos the psalm 34 that Dovid wrote upon Hashem saving him from this dangerous situation. L'Dovod B'shanaso es taamo lifnei Avimelech. There are many great lines and songs from this psalm. Next time you sing them or recite the psalm remember this story…

 Now Dovid leaves the city of Gat, which as we mentioned is Tel Safi today near Kfar Menachem from there he heads over to the caves of Adulam, today that tel with its caves are in Park Adulam right outside the Moshav of Aderet in the Shefela. There he rallied together a lot of poor desperate people that chose to throw their lot with him over Shaul; 400 of them! From there Dovid headed on over to Moav in Jordan. It would seem that he crossed near the fortress that was by the top of Ein Gedi. There he left his family. Why Moav? Well it seems that Dovid might have thought that he had some protekzia over there, as his grandmother was Ruth who formerly a princess in Moav. After leaving his family Dovid returns to the area of Yehudah amongst his brethren from his tribe in the forest of Chareht. Today that forest is part of the National Park system and it is located off the road from Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway One road near Mevaseret and Beit Zayit. This is where he hides out until he hears about the city of Kei'lah

which is today Tel Kila in an arab village between Beit Guvrin and Chevron called Bei Ula, that is being threatened by Philistines, who believing that Dovid had lost his mind felt there was an opportunity to attack. Dovid goes there with his men and takes care of the Philistine problem after consulting with the Ephod that was smuggled down to him from the Kohen Evyatar. By doing this Dovid knew that his life would be in danger, as Shaul was sure to find out his whereabouts. But Dovid was a man of the people. His life was in the hands of Hashem and if his nation needed him, he would do whatever it took to save them.

 Sure enough Shaul finds out and the die is cast for the showdown. Stay tuned next year… for the rest of the story. For those of you curious enough of the travels of Dovid this week check out this google map link with his travels https://goo.gl/maps/4jHL8AG7GyanRBZZ8  

 RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE COLOR JOKES  OF THE WEEK

 Corona Simanim for a pandemic free 5781

Shwarma- May this pandemic not shwarm us with fever

Falafel- May the government stop fala-failing us

Chatzil-(Eggplant)- May Hashem C-hatzil (save us) from plagues

Halava- Halevai (if only) everyone would wear masks and social distance

Meat cigars- May this seger (lockdown) be over already

Bagels- We begel Hashem to have mercy on parents with children not in school

Lox- may this be the last loxdown we ever have

Dips- May the number of sick people curve dip quickly

Schug- May we soon be able to give sc-hugs to all our loved ones once again

Shot of whiskey- may we soon have a shot that will cure us all

Berel and Schmerel had put on a few too many pounds during COVID and they realized it was time to do something about it.

“That’s it, I’m going on a diet!” Berel exclaimed.

"Great," Schmerel said. "I'm ready to start a diet too. We can be dieting buddies and help each other out. And when I feel the urge to drive out and get a burger and fries, I'll call you first."

"Wonderful," Berel replied. "I'll go with you."

 So Joe Biden being the mentch that he is decided he was going to call Jared Kushner and congratulate him on the recent peace accords. So he gave his office a call and said                

"Hi. This is Joe Biden. Is Jared Kushner in?" 

 "Not today, Mr Vice Presdent. This is Rosh Hashonah." 

"Well, hello, Rosh. Can I leave a message?" 

Unfortunatly because of the lockdown I can only tell you "Inside jokes"

Dear G-d, my prayer for this year is for a fat bank account and a thin body. Please don't mix these up like you did last year. ……..AMEN.

 ********************************

Answer is B –  The only confusing thing about this question is that it took me some time to learn that the 18^th century is really the 1700's. I don't know why I always used to get that mixed up and think it's the 1800's. But the year Napolean came to Israel was 1799 and easy one to remember. So the answer is B. Another one right. Only 5 questions left on this exam and your allowed to skip 5 questions which means I techinically passed, but let's answer them until then end and see what my final score would've been. But as of now we stand at  Schwartz 34 and 11 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.