Rosh Katan- Parshat Shelach 2021/ 5781

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

 "Your friend in Karmiel"

June 4^th 2021 -Volume 11 Issue 34 25^th Sivan 5781

 

Parshat Shelach

Rosh Katan

 

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things that one encounters in Israel, or in life in general,-but it really stands out here way too much, is what they call a Rosh katan. A small head. Maybe it's because Hashem graced me with a very big round head with big juicy cheeks that I am particularly sensitive to this small mindedness that I find when I have to deal with the various parties over here. Whether it's shopkeepers that just don't get how much business sense it might make to offer a little bit of customer service, a better hashgacha, or even an understanding that treating the customer that actually they are important to you is worth something and will improve your client base. Instead they just send out ridiculous follow up texts and robocalls to answer ten questions about what you thought of their service. Rosh Katan.

Politicians that just don't get that actually listening and not switching policies 180 degrees that you were voted in to office to implement is bad for any future prospects. It's government bureaucracies or the socialized medical clinics that are still asking you to fax things to them. That just like to send you around like a hot potato from office to office. Why can't anyone see outside of their little box and heads and create an efficient non frustrating system. Why is the answer to every question of "why?" is because this is the way it's done.

 We are a nation that has done tremendous things. In 73 years take a look at what we have done with this country. In 80 years since the holocaust it's unreal how much we've rebuilt. How we've excelled in all areas in recreating literally from the ashes the greatest and most educated Torah community we've ever had in centuries if not ever. And yet in so many ways we suffer from a Rosh Katan. Where we can only see in right in front of us. Where we are too blinded by what we see as the circumstances or systems in place to recognize that they don't bind us. That the impossible is really possible. That there are no limits to, really absolutely no limits to what we can achieve if we appreciate how powerful we are. Because Hashem is behind us. It's Him not us. And He can do anything.

 There is no greater contrast in the Torah of the repercussions of a Rosh Katan between the two story of the spies. The first in our Parsha of the spies that Moshe sent to Israel with the mission la'tur et ha'aretz to tour or visit the land and bring back information. The second is the story of the spies Yehoshua sent to Israel la'chafor es ha'aretz to dig deep and check out the land and the city of Yericho. The spies of Moshe on the one hand seemingly fulfilled their mission. They traveled the land for forty days from top to bottom, they got the layout, they brought back the huge fruits as directed and they checked out the feasibility- or as they concluded the unfeasibility-  of its conquest. The spies of Yehoshua on the other hand made it to Yericho were pretty much immediately identified they hung out by Rachav the most sought after woman of ill repute in the world, and with her help they were able to flee and they returned to Yehoshua after a few days hiding out. At first it seems they were not successful at all. They told Yehoshua what happened and how Rachav had told them that the nations were terrified of them and Hashem has given it in their hands. Two spy stories. Which would you say was successful? Who fulfilled their mission.

 At first glance the spies of Moshe truly managed an incredible feat. 40 days in enemy territory, 12 men. They brought back fruits. They managed to avoid detection and they brought back critical information. On the other hand, Yeshoshua's spies didn't really do anything. They came. They left and they really didn't see or report  much. Yet Chazal in the Midrash tanchuma describes these two spies as being the quintessential examples of Shluchei Mitzva- messengers that fulfill their mitzva missions.

 Tanchuma (Shelach 1) And there are no men that were sent to do a mitzva that were willing to sacrifice their lives and that fulfilled their mission like those two messengers that Yehoshua sent out.

Really?! A success? What did they do, see or report already?

 The answer perhaps can be found in the difference of the response of Yehoshua's spies and Moshe's spies. Moshe chose spies that were kulam roshei bnai Yisrael- they were all heads. The problem is that they suffered from "small heads". They saw the danger, the giants, the seemingly insurmountable challenges of this land where people are dying right and left, that seems plagued and they announced that it's impossible. It just can't be done. Kalev's response doesn't address any of their facts and reports. He doesn't argue. He doesn't offer strategic options. He doesn't try to find any fault with their arguments. He says two words. Aloh na'aleh- we can go up. It's not a problem Hashem is with us. There is nothing that can help us back. We were sent to merely tour the land and see how incredible it is and how miraculously it will be when Hashem will bring us in. Whether we would actually get in was never a question. Hashem promised us He would bring us in. Get out of your Rosh Katan. Realize that we have a Rosh Gadol that is leading us.

 The spies of Yehoshua were not given the mission to search out and check out the beauty and glory of the land. Their job was la'chafor- to dig. In fact, as opposed to Moshe's spies who were heads. Yehoshua's spies are described as chorshim. Which can and is translated in different ways by the commentaries. Either they disguised themselves as earthenware sellers (kli cheres is earthenware). Or that they were to act as deaf people (cheresh means deaf). Alternatively, choresh means to plow. To uncover what is underneath the earth. Their job was to really not do anything. Be deaf, be like a simple earthenware vessel. See what lies under the surface. See Hashems' hidden plan start to unfold. Let the people hear how even the lowliest person in the city of Yericho is waiting to be uplifted by the revelation that Hashem is bringing His team, His people, His nation back home. And that's exactly what they did. They revealed the head. They showed us that the impossible was about to happen.

 The Chasam Sofer shares an incredible idea on one of the most powerful oft recited psalms of Dovid Ha'melech is

Psalms (121)  Esa Einai el Ha'araim- I lift up my eyes to the mountains

Mai'ayin yavo ezri- from where will my help come.

 Things look hopeless. Dovid is on the run. He has been abandoned by everyone. A rosh katan would say it's impossible. But Dovid gives us that Rosh Gadol.

Ezri mei'im Hashem osei shamayim va'aretz- my help comes from Hashem the Maker of heaven and earth.

 Heaven and earth are also things that are impossible. But Hashem created them. Do you wonder how they could've came into existence? How anything can continue to exist? There is a Maker of heaven and earth. He is our help. He is the one that is driving our boat and thus all is possible.

 It's easy for me to complain about Israelis and their small heads. But to be honest we all suffer from small head syndrome. There are so many things that seem to us to be impossible and we just have to continue to doing things the way we used to because we are to small minded to think and believe that we can do things differently. Perhaps the greatest area where this Rosh Katan is when people talk about the impossibility of moving to Eretz Yisrael. Making Aliyah. Maybe it's why the Torah reveals it to us particularly here in this area more than any other.

 

But I'm not in the mood to hock about Aliya. It’s my Rosh Katan in other areas that I want ot pontificate about. I'll make it easier on myself and pretend I'm talking to you as well.  I never thought I could give up my job and survive for a year and just learn. Rosh Katan. For a year and a half? Yup still doing it. Can I survive without my smartphone? Plenty of people do… Can I turn it off while I eat with my family? Can I change so many things that I need to in my life? My health. My bad habits. Can we as a nation bring Mashiach. Can we invite over other Jews that are so far from yiddishkeit for a Shabbos meal? Can we partner in Torah? Can we get involved with chesed organizations? Hatzala, Zaaka, Bikur Cholim, Or are we like the meraglim with their small heads that just seem to thinks it's impractical. It's not me. It's not who we are.

 We all have an osei shamayim va'aretz that is there to help us. We know this because each and every one of us has had moments in our lives where we have seen His hand in our personal lives. Where things that we thought we could never do, happened. Turned out in ways that we wildly never expected them to. We have all toured Hashem's land in our lives. We just need to listen to Moshe's command that his spies failed to heed.

And you will be strengthened with them and you shall take the fruits of the land.. We need to take the fruits and gifts He has given us and realize how powerful we are. How we are unstoppable if we believe. We just need to be chershim- deaf to all of the noise that tells us that we can't. We need to recognize that we are klei cheres. We are simple earthenware vessels in the hands of our Creator. We can dig up from the dirt. We can make the redemption sprout. We just need to realize how big our head really is. If we could do that then very soon we will finally live the dream we were meant to with the ultimate redemption.

 Have a big Shabbos!

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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 RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

" Az me ken nit ariber, gait men arunter.." – If you can’t go over, go under.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

31) The Byzantine emperor in whose time Christianity became the state religion:

A) Justinianus

B) Julianus

C) Constantinus

D) Theodosius

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO  OF THE WEEK

 

https://youtu.be/jIzWpQlib_w  – Gorgeous Dror Yikra that you will sing this Friday night if you listen to this before Shabbos from

https://youtu.be/dIfc3zTl6h4   – Powerful video of Israeli farmer and the upcoming Shemitta dilemma or not.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiBgq4a16Fs   - Audio sampler from Shwekey's latest album just released!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrrJxX3CBnc   -  The Awesome Menachem Herman who we just confirmed for Yonah and Batya's wedding!

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/ ERETZ YISRAEL CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

Only Good – Parshat Shelach- Lashon Hara is bad. We all know that. Yet there is probably no Lashon Hara that has ever had greater consequence to the Jewish people than the negative speech that the spies spoke about Eretz Yisrael. Rav Kook notes that had the Jewish people entered into Israel and not listened to the Lashon Hara of the land Moshe would've brought us in. Hashem would've wiped out our enemies and the 7 nations miraculously. We would've achieved the final redemption. Our entire history would have been changed. This Lashon Hara was worse than the sin of the Golden Calf. This changed the course of history where Tisha B'av has been an eternal day of mourning and all because, 12 men spoke negatively about Eretz Yisrael.

 The truth is they spoke good things as well. Which makes it even scarier because many Jews tragially fall into that trap. They say Eretz Yisrael is amazing, it's beautiful, it's holy and then there's the but…. That's literally what the meraglim did. Prefacing the lashon hara with all types of praise doesn't work or negate it. In addition, it wasn't that they didn't see or say things that weren't true. There were giants. There were terrorists. We are surrounded by nations that want to destroy us. There are plagues that people die from. There are plenty of things that someone that wants to find fault can find. But it's Lashon Hara. It's bad about Israel. How can we speak like that? How can we complain.

 On an even deeper and more dramatic level one can point out, as did the Meraglim on the spiritual dangers that Eretz Yisrael poses. The Canaanites were the cesspool of the world renown for their immorality. Here in the Midbar we have our Torah, we have our Manna, We have Moshe and our Gedolim, We have our yeshivos. How can we go to a Zionist country and hope that we can make it better? Lashon Hara. The worst kind. It's what we suffer from, even those of us that live here. We are fault finders.

 The Midrash tells us that one of the non-Kosher birds is called the ra'ah because it can see very far. How far? It can sit in Bavel and see an animal carcass- a neveila- in Eretz Yisrael. The Baal Shem Tov asks that if it has such an incredible gift then why is it non-kosher. And he explains that anyone that can sit in Bavel, in the Diaspora and can see neveilos, can see the non-kosher aspects and problems of Israel. That's as Trayf as it gets.

 Eretz Yisrael is like our Kallah, our bride. There is no perfect Kallah. But there is no Chasan that will ever speak anything negative or even see any of the negative in his bride. She is his beloved. She is perfect. That is the way we should feel about Eretz Yisrael. It's probably one of the most important things that constantly needs work. To continue to see that beauty. To see anyting negative as beauty marks of the perfect bride Hashem has given us. If we do that then perhaps we can finally turn that day of Tisha B'av into the day of rejoicing that it is supposed to be.

 

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

Avshalom's Plot- 840 BC – So Avshalom has manipulated Yoav to get Dovid to allow him to return to Jerusalem, however two years has passed and Dovid still refuses to see Avshalom. Dovid, wants to make sure that nobody gets the wrong idea that he supported Avshalom's revenge killing of his half-brother, Amnon. But that wasn't good enough, obviously, for Avshalom. He wanted it all and he was going to take it all. And thus the insidious plot where he will stop at nothing to get what he wants begins.

 His first move to is get Dovid back into his life and unaware of what was about to hit him. The people loved Dovid too much and Avshalom deviously understood that for him to make any moves against Dovid he would first have to be perceived to be in good graces with him. So he sent for Yoav once again. Yoav, seemingly already feeling he had done enough and frankly not really interested in taking orders from Dovid's arrogant son, ignored him. Well by the third message Avshalom had enough and ordered his men to burn down Yoav's fields. Well, that woke him up a bit. Yoav came running and screaming and demanded how Avshalom could do this to him, afterall it was Yoav that got him back in the first place. Avshalom told him that coming back wasn't good enough. He needed his fathers' love and he wanted it to return as it was. Yoav relented spoke it over with Dovid and Avshalom was back in his life. Dovid would visit his einiklach, and Avshalom was basking in the glory.

 With that in place he slowly begins to behave like Dovid's successor. You have to understand, Chazal tell us that Avshalom was one of the top 7 most knock down gorgeous people in the history of the world, ranking right up there with Adam, Yaakov Avinu, Reb Yishmael Kohen Gadol. As well Avshalom had this Nazirite head of hair on him that he would cut every year and he it was just breathtaking to look at. He got himself servants that would parade before him in a kingly fashion and he would hang out with the people. Really really working the crowds and pressing the flesh. His favorite hangout was right ourside the palace where he would wait for all those that would come to have their cases adjudicated and he would introduce himself show concern for them and their plight and then bemoan the fact he wasn't a King or judge that could help them. If he were then he certainly would find for their sides. He promised people the world and they bought it. It seems we have a habit that we can't seem to be able to kick of falling for politicians and their promises.

 Next week Avashalom's plot finally comes to fruition.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE SPY JOKES  OF THE WEEK

 

A French, a German and an Israeli spy are captured one day. The captors grab the French spy, take him to the next room and tie his hands behind a chair. They then proceed to torture him for 2 hours before he finally cracks, answers all questions and gives up all of his secrets.
The captors then grab the German spy. They tie his hands behind the chair in the next room too and torture him for 4 hours before he finally cracks and tells them what they want to know.
They then grabbed the Italian spy. Once again, they tie his hands behind the chair and begin torturing.4 hours go by and the spy isn’t talking. Then 8 hours, then 16 and after 24 hours they give up and throw him back into the cell.
The German and French spy are impressed and ask him how he managed to not talk.
The Israeli spy says, ” I wanted to, but I couldn’t move my hands.”

 Don't be worried about your smartphone or your internet searches or clicks spying on you...Your vacuum cleaner has been gathering dirt on you for years.

 How did the chasidishe spy get caught? He went into a pub in London and ordered two whiskeys.

The bartender asked him: "Dry?"
To which he replied: "Nein, tzvei"

 What do you call a Medieval spy? Sir Veillance

 Did you hear about that suspicious looking bee that became a russian spy? He always was a cagey bee

 What does a spy do when they go to bed? They go under cover

 What's another word for a Canadian spy? A double Eh 'gen

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Answer is C- This one was a bit tricky. My knee jerk answer was of course Constantine. He is after all the first Christian Roman emperor and him together with his mother Helene really kicked off the whole Christian thing in Israel and in the Roman empire with all of the churches they built. But yet the question really tells you that it is not the correct answer. For making it the official Religion of Rome is already a later stage in the game. It was only after Constantine (and then Julian the apostate short term who went back to the old pagan ways) that it really took off. So once I knew it wasn't Constantine so then the answer had to be Theodotus. He was a big macher and really transformed Rome in many ways. Justin was a "sainted" emperor but one of the last Roman emperors. And I really don't know or care who Julianus was. So remarkably I got this one right as well!   So the score now is 23 for Rabbi Schwartz and 8 for the Ministry of Tourism on this exam.