Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
October 16th 2020 -Volume 11 Issue 1 28th
Tishrei 5781
Parshat Bereishis
Finding the Light
"Vee just vant to
voork" the angry Israeli said to the
TV camera. "Vee vant to provide fer ahr fehmileez. Dees ess not
right-dees lackdown… It takes ah vay ahr behseec right to open ahr shups end
werk een our storz". There's nothing like eezraeli eenglish. I "spik"
it to my children and grandson sometimes just so they become fluent in it. It's
kind of like ebonics with chulent and kugel rather than southern fried chicken,
which incidentally I happen to like as well- but that's just because of my
name. Yet unlike some of our kushite cousins, liberal college students and even
more significantly their radical BLM 'protestors' looters and rioters of all
races who have taken up their perceived cause, who seem to be yelling about the
fact that they should get everything for free and have a right to take whatever
they want in exchange for the injustices they have suffered, Israelis are
protesting for the right to work and earn an honest living.
But those are not the only
protests. I'm sure you have seen the religious black-hatted mobs screaming and
yelling about the right to go to synagogue. To pray. To send their kids to
Torah school and to yeshivas. Why were the beaches open? Why is it alright and
considered an inalienable right to gather and scream about how much you don't
like Bibi or Trump and you think he's a crook or a racist, but god forbid we
attend shul and daven for a cure from this plague. Is corona that smart that it
only is contagious in places of honest labor, or in shuls and schools? Is it also
scared of going out to rallies where it might get looted and robbed.
Now don't get me wrong. I
want to be clear here so I don’t get any angry disappointed E-Mails
again from people who didn't like my Sukkos getaway E-Mail. As much as I would love
to be working again, and as much as I miss my shul and want my kids in school, I
realize that we're in a crazy pandemic which no one has any clue about how to
solve, and I respect all of the government's attempts, fruitful or not- seicheldik
or not, to try to do what they believe is necessary to stop it. I really don't
think here or in the States anyone is trying to shut down shuls, businesses,
and schools because they hate Torah Jews. Yes, I know that they do not share
our values or priorities about what is essential and what isn't. But that's not
what this is about. As well I think it's pretty obvious that protests and
flouting the laws are just useless exercises in letting off steam and wasting
energy that could far better be put to good use sitting on the couch all day in
my living room and eating potato chips while catching up on some reading,
learning and surfing the internet for better jokes for you. Hashem put us in
this situation. We need to deal with it and find a new life in this mess as we
daven and hope for a better tomorrow.
But yet I couldn't help
but noting and being inspired from that interview and protests how important it
is to our people to be able to work. We don't clamor or protests for freebies.
That Israeli TV protestor-and I know I have seen plenty of people in the States
as well, blacks, whites, and all colors and races- that get on screen and are
crying and pleading with that same heart-wrenching sincerity. We just want to
work. We just want to provide. We just want to serve our God. Those are the
words that move me, not the ones wanting "justice" or decrying inequality.
Maybe it's because my mother raised me with words "life isn't fair"
whenever I would complain. Any expectations that we all get dealt the same hand
in life was quashed very early on in my life. But it's more than that. It's the
cry and recognition that is ingrained in our earliest DNA that we were put here
on this world to do something-not get something, that is screaming out at me from
my computer screen that moves me. Because it is not only a cry that goes back
to the beginning of our Creation. It is in fact the essence of
the entire world.
As I begin reading the
Torah from the "Beginning" once again this year, with plenty of time
and potato chips on my couch, I began to envision and examine that first day
and moment of Creation. The Torah tells us it all began with Hashem saying two
simple words; "Yehi ohr- let there be light". The
commentaries note that as opposed to all of the other actions of creation where
it says Hashem created, or separated, or formed things. This was just a
statement that brought energy, life, matter and holy light into existence. It
didn't 'bang', big or small, it just was. vayehi chen.
Now fascinatingly enough
though, this light is not the light that we have today. Our light that we
receive from the sun, moon and stars wasn't even created until the fourth day
of Creation. According to the Zohar, even more mind-bogglingly, Rebbi Yosi teaches
that the initial light was immediately hidden away for the next world for
righteous. Immediately. Right after Hashem separated it from darkness. It was
put away. The world was once again pitch black. The light was hidden.
Other opinions are that
the light was hidden after the first day but came out again on Friday when man
was created. It shone for 36 hours until after Shabbos when it shone once again
or alternatively that it shone for the first four days when Hashem created the
sun and the moons and their light from a small piece of the energy of this
light and was then hidden. (It's why they are called mi'eoros-
from the light!) Rashi, who always goes with the simple understanding, goes
with another opinion that the light and darkness worked "mingled together"
until the fourth day; which gives the image of disco lights going on and off
those days. It's a pretty cool way to think about Creation. It's like a
wedding, or a concert with the lights flashing on and off before the bride and
groom enter; before the big show begins. But ultimately Rashi as well tells us
that after those first seven days the light was hidden away, for the world
could not exist with it being present.
The question that we need
to understand though is what was the point of creating this light in the first
place? If this world is a world that Hashem-who obviously knew everything
before He created it, was going to be one that "can't handle the
light", why didn't He just make the sun and moon right away. He doesn't
need massive bursts or bangs of energy and matter to create a more minimalized
creation of light. It seems wasteful. Not being energy "light"
conscious or efficient is like the biggest sin these days. Doesn't Hashem know
about the New Green Deal. Energy conservation? What was He thinking? Why bring
a nuclear reactor to light up your closet? As well, if He wanted this light for
the righteous in the world to come, why didn't he just create it then?
The answer, our sefarim
tell us, is that although the light is hidden, it is there to be found and
revealed. In fact, the reason why we were put here in this world is to reveal
that light. All of creation was formed from that holy energy. The midrash tells
us that when Adam saw that light he was able to see "ad sof ha'olam-
until the end of the world" That is not a geographical term. The word olam
means hiddenness. Adam could see to the point that the entire world was full of
Hashem's glory. Yet, interestingly enough that light was revealed together with
the darkness. In a world of hiddenness and darkness. For it is in darkness
where we most appreciate how much we need that light. That we are here to turn
on the switch. Man wasn't put on this world to bask and frolic in a garden. Man
was created and placed in that garden l'avda u'lshamra- to work and to
protect it. It is thus our first and most natural instinct. Every human being
is meant to be a lamp-lighter. It is in our most primordial DNA to get out
there and get that job done.
Rabbi Shaar Yashuv Cohen
Z"L notes that there are three blessings that we say on light. The first
when we arise each morning is on this original light. Hanosein la'sechvi
vina l'havchin bein yom u'vein layla- Blessed is Hashem… who gives to the
rooster the understanding to differentiate between day and night. Now unlike
other blessings like thunder, lightning, rainbows that we make when we witness
or see something, we don't need to hear any roosters to make this blessing.
Some of the commentaries translate the word sechvi as we find in some
places to be another word for heart or the seichel-one's intuition. So
why doesn't it just say lev/heart or intuition? Who needs the rooster
reference?
The answer is precisely because
this blessing is one about witnessing or hearing something. It is on the
ability to recognize the light that is present and coming even before the sun
has risen. The rooster crows at the crack of dawn before sunrise. For despite
the darkness he knows that there is a light underway that is about to be
revealed. Each human's most natural instinct, just as the rooster, is to have
that knowledge as well. There is a great light hidden. Each new day we are
given back our souls it is to reveal that and crow it out to the world.
The second blessing on
light that we make is right before we recite the shema. In this blessing
we thank and praise Hashem for creating the me'oros- the lights of the
sun and the moon. The blessing begins
yotzeir ohr u'vorey choshech oseh shalom
u'vorey es ha'kol- He forms light and creates darkness he makes peace and
creates everything.
The light in this blessing
is the sun and the moon that were formed from the original light and the
darkness that was created when He hid that light. Creation we recite is
something that happens anew every day.
ha'mechadeish b'tuvo
b'chol yom tamid-he renews in His
goodness each day always ma'asey bereishis- the actions of creation….
Every day Hashem brings
out that sun that tells us that there's a new day that has light that has been
revealed. Light that we need to shine forth. It reminds us that Hashem has
hidden the ohr haganuz and in its place he was yotzeir me'oros-
formed the sun and moon from those lights for us to know we can also be me'ir
es ha'olam- shine out from that holy light to world. That is our job, that
is our work, it's why we are here. It is after appreciating that we say the
Shema. We tell the world Hashem is our God and the whole world is His. We have
commandments to fulfill, Torah to learn, there are consequences to our actions
and we remember that this is why He took us out of Egypt. We are bringing forth
that light.
And then we come to the
last blessing on light that we make. We make weekly at the moment that the
original Ohr ha'Gadol Ein sof- the eternal great light was hidden away.
The midrash tells us that Hashem hid that light on the first Motzai Shabbos, when
Shabbos went away. For the first time Adam experienced the overwhelming
darkness of the world and the night and he was terrified that this was his
death. But then Hashem showed him how to make fire. He could make his own
light. Unlike the sun and moon that Hashem was mei'ir from that hidden
light, fire is our invention. It is the light that we light from
the energy of that original light. The midrash tells us Hashem showed Adam that
we have the power ourselves to make that same light come forth and to reveal
the hidden light that is in the fabric of all creation. Just as that first day
Hashem made that light and separated between the light and darkness and the
holy and profane, we as well were put here to do the same. He was borei
me'orey ha'eish- he created as well the light-ers of the fire to bring His
light out to the world with our fire. And thus we start our 6 days a week of
work. Because now we know what those days of work are all about.
It's hard, the situation
that we are in now. It's challenging. Many of us are unemployed or less
employed. Our kids are home. Life is not what it was a year ago. I always
wondered what people do all day when they retire. Not every place is like
Israel where when one someone asks you what you did today and you say that you
went to the Post Office or that you went to the bank or to the Misrad Hapnim
that's entirely understandable that it should be a full day affair. But what do
people living in country where those things are just 5 minutes stops on your
way home from the grocery- as they should be- do?
The answer is that they find new jobs, because
we always have to have work. Just as there's a new light every day, there's a
new job that we are meant to do every day. When one day sets and the darkness
falls there is new light and new opportunity to reveal it. A day consists of 12
hours of night and 12 hours of darkness. Each day has darkness in it that
Hashem also called yom and each yom even begins with the night. For
light comes out of the darkness that Hashem created. Each morning when we arise
and see that nighttime darkness fading we are reminded that just as Hashem has
renewed creation with that light so must we. And so we take this Corona
darkness and find new ways, that before our pre-2020 lives we never would have
thought of, to bring light to the world. As we do this may Hashem finally shine
His new light on Zion v'nizkeh kulanu l'oro- and may we all merit to
experience the light that has been waiting 5781 years to finally be revealed.
Have a radiant Shabbos and renewing Chodesh
Cheshvan tov,
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
" Ven
di licht iz krum, iz der shoten krum."
When the light is crooked, the shadow is crooked."
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
49)
A Museum of Prehistory is located in Kibbutz:
A.
Dafna
B. Ma’ayan Baruch
C. Ginosar
D. Yir’on
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/ ERETZ YISRAEL CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
"Because
of [the verse]
Tehillim (111:6).
“Koach Ma'asav higid l'amo-The strength of His works He related to His
people,
Losais lahem
nachalas goyim- to give them the inheritance of the nations”.
For if the
nations of the world should say to Israel, “You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of
the seven nations [of Canaan],” they will reply, "The entire earth
belongs to the Hashem; He created it and gave it to whomever He deemed proper When
He wished, He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them
and gave it to us."
Ark boat.
What an awesome
beginning to read living here in Eretz Yisrael.
The Death of Shmuel- 878
BC-
With Shaul and Dovid's momentary reconciliation and Shaul's
official recognition of Dovid to be the next King of Israel it seems that the
life and job of Shmuel Hanavi comes to an end. The pasuk tells us that when
Shmuel dies all of Israel comes together to bury him and give honor to him. Not
since the times of Aharon Hakohein and Moshe have all of the Jewish people
joined for a funeral and that is a testimony to the leader that Shmuel was who
we say each Shabbos is equal to Moshe and Aharon even in his death. He spent
his short life of 52 years traveling around the country and inspiring and
teaching the masses. He was a man of the
people in the fullest sense. He anointed kings and yet he never feared to
rebuke them and to pick up a sword and do what needed to be done. It is the
image of leaders like Shmuel that we have when we daven to Hashem daily and ask
to return us to the leaders and judges of days of old.
Hashem said, “I
think I’m going to call it a day.”
Suddenly, the president of the board said, "Why are we wasting time
talking'? "First of all, a chandelier, ... why, we haven’t got anyone who
could even spell it. Second, we haven’t got anyone who could even play it. And
lastly, what we really need in the shul is more light!"
Ring-ring
ring-ring Ring-ring ring-ring Ring-ring ring-ring Ring-ring
ring-ring
Ring-ring ring-ring Ring-ring ring-ring…..
*********************************
Answer is B – Cheap question, which of course
tells you already I got it wrong. The truth is I pass this place all the time,
although I have never been there. It's right on Highway 99 on the way from
Kiryat Shmona to Tel Dan, Nachal Senir and the Golan Heights. It's a road I
travel (or used to travel) a lot. So I knew it wasn't Ginosar down by the
Kinneret and I never heard of Yir'on so I knew it wasn't that either, as I knew
it must have been in a place I heard of. That left Dafna and Ma'ayan Baruch,
two kibbutzim right next to each other. I went with Dafna, as it's closer to
the road and I always see it there. Ma'ayan Baruch is off the road more. Turns
out I was wrong. Oh well…Cool find in this museum is the skull of a 50 year old
"pre-historic woman" that was buried with a dog- showing that man had
a relationship with dog in pre-historic times. But we knew that anyways from
this weeks parsha… can you tell me where…? Ok I'll tell you the sin of Kayin
that Hashem gave him so no one will kill him according to one opinion in our
sages was a dog. So there you go. So this one goes to the MOT and the score is Schwartz
36 and 13 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam. Only 1 more questions
left…
No comments:
Post a Comment