Insights and
Inspiration
from
the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
September 24th 2021 -Volume 11
Issue 49 19th Tishrey 5782
Sukkos
Being Zusha
I am not Reb Zusha of Anipoli-in case you were
wondering. In fact perhaps the only thing that we have in common is that we
both traveled a lot and lived in a lot of different places. But that's alright
because as the famous saying of Reb Zusha goes that when we die Hashem is not
going to ask us why we weren't Moshe Rabbeinu or another big Tzadik. He already
has one of those. The only thing he will ask us me is if I became the best
Ephraim Schwartz that He created me to be. Or in Zusha's case, the best Zusha.
Yet a few times over the past month when I've schmoozed with some people I kind
of felt a bit Zusha-ish. It's really strange. Let me tell you about it.
See over the past month or so with the
Holidays and all I've had the pleasure as is my usual custom to catch up with a
bunch of my old friends, relatives and acquaintances. People that I love and
care about and just don't get a chance often enough to see or talk to. Even the
ones that don't read my weekly E-Mail or the few that didn't contribute to my
annual campaign. Perhaps even particularly those people. High Holiday season
and the end of the year is the time to reconnect. To find out how're the doing
and to share with them what's been going on with the Schwartzes- as they
probably didn't read my family update as well. Not you guys of course.
Now strangely though and inevitably the
conversation turns to my tour guiding business- or more accurately my since
Corona lack thereof, and the conversation turns rather sympathetic. "It
must be so hard for you" "How have you been doing it" "I
can't possibly imagine having to have your life and work and passion just
ripped away from you like that and for so long…" "How are you even
managing…" "You should know we think of you and the times we had
together so often and are davening for you that it will soon return" and
on and on and on. It's weird having people daven for you. It's strange when
people seem to be so concerned for you. But most of all it's bizarre hearing
all of these empathetic feelings and well wishes when the truth is of the matter
is I pretty much feel that I have had the most incredible year and certainly
past few months than I have ever had before.
The story of Reb Zusha that I'm referring to
is of course the one about the troubled person who came to famed Magid of
Merzitch and asked him how he can understand and internalize those words of our
sages that one is obligated to bless Hashem on the bad in the same way- and
perhaps even with the same fervor- that one blesses Hashem for the good that
happens to him. The Rebbi sent him to Reb Zusha to learn and understand this
concept. When he came to Reb Zusha he found him and his family living in some
poor rundown hovel in abject poverty nibbling on the few morsels of bread that
they possessed and shared amongst each other. Reb Zusha had suffered terrible
things in his life and yet he found himself able to sing and to pray with joy
always. When the chasid told Reb Zusha why he was there and the answer to the
question he was seeking. Reb Zusha told him that it was a very difficult and
challenging question however sadly he couldn't answer him. Everything in his
life has been hunky dory, totally awesome, spectaculorious. A bowl of cherries.
Chulent and Kugel! So he was sorry that he really couldn't be of help, because
all that he has experienced really is only blessings on good things. Nothing
really bad has ever happened to him and he wouldn't know how to react and bless
if it did.
So as I said in the opening sentence, I'm not
really Reb Zusha. But the truth is this past year has really been amazing one
for me- although I know for many others it really hasn't been. But Bli Ayin
Hara in just the last few months, I merited to marry off my son to his
incredible Bashert, I became the grandfather of twin boys. I was privileged to
have my parents and many of family members and friends there to celebrate those
simchas with us. I had my lifechanging surgery which has been amazing and I lost
about 30 pounds in a month and I'm can eat everything I want but just in small
measures and it feels remarkably satisfying- It's a dream.
It just gets better with this past Sukkos with
our Hachnasas Sefer Torah dedication that we just had last week to our shul
donated by my father in honor of his 75th birthday (pooh pooh pooh until
120!). The streets were full of people from all over Karmiel singing and
dancing as we marched the Torah. It was awesome. It was holy. It was
everything.
The truth is had I been working like a regular
year it probably would've been challenging to experience all of the above to the
fullest. Had I been working as usual I probably wouldn't have been able to reconnect
with much of my learning roots. Sure I miss my work, but hey- it's been an
amazing year and I just see blessing and happiness. And with our Torah dedication
and sitting in a Sukkah for the past few days-in our Sukka in the holy city of
Tzfat where my father took out a Villa for the entire family who have joined us
for Chag- my heart is just getting more and more full of gratitude, blessing
and happiness. It truly feels like Chag Simchaseinu; the holiday where we are
meant to tap into and draw enough happiness for the entire year from. It's a
wellspring that is overflowing.
But what is this simcha all about? I mean
every holiday seemingly is a time for happiness and rejoicing. The truth is the
entire holiday of Sukkos is a bit of a quandry to be honest. Unlike the other
holidays that commemorate a significant historical occurrence that took place
at the specific time such as Pesach our Exodus from Egypt, Shavuot the receiving
of the Torah, Chanuka and Purim the miracles that took place on those days,
Sukkos the Torah doesn't really tell us what happened. In fact the Sukkas that we
sit in we did so for 40 years in the wilderness. Sure there is an agricultural
aspect to the holidays and Sukkos is the time of gathering, but who are we
fooling. Most of us today know that fruits and vegetables are really made in
the Makolet or Supermarket, Farmers are just made-up fairy tale types of things
like innkeepers, wagon drivers or happy vegetarians. And if they do exist- are
we really going to feel happy about gathering wheat and grain in our silos.
Give me a new i-phone and I'm happy. But salad even fruit salad…? Not necessarily
on the top of my list to feel grateful and make a holiday about.
The Alshich Hakadosh- who lived here in Tzfat
where I am for Sukkos and who's tomb is just up the block from me though shares
an incredible idea. He in fact tells us that the holiday of Sukkos celebrates
the end of close to 1000 years of Divine misery with the world. Ever thought
you were having a bad day, bad month or bad year? Well try a bad millenia and
then see how you feel about it. See, Hashem created the world and it was good,
by Tuesday it was really very good by the first Friday it was holy, good and
perfect. Adam sinned and it was downhill from there, until eventually Hashem
had to destroy it and restart it again with Noach. However for the next 10
generations or so the Mishna tells us that Hashem was getting more and more
angry and depressed with his Creation. That lasted until Avraham was born and a
glimmer of hope, a ray of light returned to the world. Slowly the bad mood went
away and the world started to become better and better.
Fast forward to our Exodus from Egypt and ultimately
our coming to Mt. Sinai and once again the world was perfect again for about 40
days until the sin of the Golden Calf and the broken tablets. Oops. Sorry back
to square one again. Talk about ups and downs. We really don't give a God a
break at all. Finally on Yom Kippur though Hashem has totally forgiven us. He
will return to live within our midst once again. The order goes out to collect money
for the new digs of Hashem on Rechov Tabernacle and for three solid days we
bring everything we have to build that palace that He has waited for since
Creation. On the fourth day the call went out that we had more than enough and
on Sukkos those clouds of glory that we had been thrust out of enveloped us
once again. Happiness had returned to the heavens and it flowed abundantly down
to earth once again.
Zugt the Alshich Ha'Kadosh, and so it is every
year when Sukkos comes around. The joy that Hashem experiences when once again
when we are forgiven on Yom Kippur each year recalls that original happiness.
It brings it down once again to the world as we are enveloped in those clouds
of glory that are our Sukkos. We appreciate on Sukkos that even the sins that
we did never disconnected us from the love Hashem has for us. We have returned
to the perfect world of Adam Harishon back in the garden of Eden. In fact the sefer
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh explains that when the Torah tells us that we should take
the 4 species on the "First day" and our sages explain that despite
it being the 15th day of Tishrei the Torah is telling us that it is
the first day of the accounting of our sins. Meaning that as we enter our Sukkah
and take our lulav and esrog we are entirely sin-free.
He points out that this sin-free status that
we achieved on Yom Kippur isn't only for our personal sins that we may have
sinned throughout the year. It's that we have totally rectified every sin- and
get this part really well- even the sin of Adam Harishon. That sin is also
gone. In the words of the Ramchal we have in our Neila prayer achieved the
level of Adam without sin at all. For if we still bore that sin, if we still
had that baggage or any baggage, he deduces then Sukkos wouldn't be called the
first towards our sins. We would still have the sin of Adam, the sin of the Golden
calf, the sin of anything that ever took place on our records. We are as clean
and pure as they day we were born. That is the joy of Sukkos. We realize and
appreciate that all is good. The things that we may have assumed were bad are
all from Hashem for our good. The bad things that we may have even done also
came from Hashem. It is He that gave us the choice and it is He that was with
us when we sinned. And yes, it is He that cleansed us and purified us and is
now rejoicing at our return to Him.
Do you know why we aren't happy all the time?
It's because we are not in the clouds of glory. We don't feel that loving envelopment
of our Father hugging us. We're weighted down with baggage, worries, tragedies,
guilt and uncertainty. We're still living in the pre-Yom Kippur world. We don't
realize what we have achieved. How clean we have become. How much has been
forgiven and been transformed into merits. What an amazing year we have ahead
of us. How happy and proud our Father is of us. How long He has waited for this
holiday to come. We think we are in a little outdoor broken down hovel with
branches above it nibbling on morsels when in fact we are Zusha in the clouds
of glory and Adam feasting on the great Leviathan feast for an entrée and the
Shor Habor- that great steak from the heavenly table in the Garden of Eden. It
doesn't get better than that. There is no greater happiness and really no other
happiness that can compare to that feeling. It is Zman Simchaseinu- the time of
year that is the source of all of the happiness for the entire year because
there is no longer anything that is holding back from it expressing itself. The
surgery was a success. It's all good.
This Shabbos we read the book of Koheles which
some suggest is there to temper our joy and happiness with Solomon's profound
wisdom of the vanities and uselessness of everything in the world. Yet in fact
quite the opposite is true. Happiness and true joy comes when we realize how
blessed we are that we have returned to our core point in Creation when we no
longer need anything else to fill voids in our lives. We have it all. We have
Hashem. We have Eden. We are finally home again.
Have
a joyous Sukkos
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
******************************************************
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
"
A lustiger dales gait iber alles.."- Happy poverty overcomes everything.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
45) The Rehob inscription
(Ktovet Rehov) deals with the:
A) Establishment of an
ancient synagogue in the area of today’s Ein Hanatziv
B) Confines of the Land
of Israel
C) Secret of the ancient
town at Hamat Gader
D) Special structure of
the street in Susita
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/ushpizin
- Your Sukkos Experience is not complete until
you sing my Ushpizin compostion- the only real hartzig song ever composed
special for your Sukkah!
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/lmaan-yeydu-vsamachta
–
on the other hand if your looking for something to kick back your feet
and dance to this L'aan Yeidu I composed will keep you hopping and as well will
give you a biblical mitzva of singing the reason why we are in the Sukkah!
https://youtu.be/JKSpp85DF7w – ME and Yonah live singing my geshmak
Melech Rachaman Yom Tov song on guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFiIdXaZRlU
– A sukkehleh a kleineh Yiddish Classic- with cool sand art
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S HAPPY JOKES OF THE WEEK
Why was the mortgage so upset? Because it was a loan
Why was the horse so happy? Because he lived in a stable
environment
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and
love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not
try to understand her at all.
Why are frogs so happy? They eat whatever bugs them!
Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever
they go.
Berkowitz was in the best hospital in Long Island and was
moaning the whole time, finally he was transferred to a crummy hospital in
Brooklyn, happy as anything, they ask him what the problem was before, he
said before I had nothing to complain about ... HERE I CAN COMPLAIN!!!!
Shlomo and Hetty, an elderly widow and widower, had been
dating for about three years when Shlomo finally decided to ask Hetty to marry
him. She immediately said "yes".
The next morning when he awoke, Shlomo couldn't remember what her answer was! "Was
she happy? I think so. Wait, no, she looked at me funny..."
After about an hour of trying to remember, but to no avail, he got on the
telephone and gave Hetty a call. Embarrassed, he admitted that he didn't
remember her answer to his proposal.
"Oh", Hetty said, "I'm so glad you called. I remembered
saying 'yes' to someone, but I couldn't remember who it was."
At his 103rd birthday party, Zadie Herman Rosenbaum was
asked by his great grandson Shmueli if he planned to be around for his 104th.
"I certainly do Shmueli," Zadie Herman replied.
"As a matter of fact, statistics show that very few people die between the
ages of 103 and 104."
*********************************
Answer is B- This is actually a fascinating
archeological find that was found in the 1973 in the Jordan Valley Kibbutz of
Rechov from the period of the Talmud between the 6th and 7th
century. The inscription the largest in Hebrew found from this era. It
delineates the borders of Israel as it pertains to the laws of tithes and Shemitta
as it pertains to various crops grown in the area of nearby Beit Shean. Things
that were not grown within borders of the first temple or second temple had
leniencies attached to it. The inscription in its entirety is in the Israel
museum. This is really a tour guide question as most people don't know about it
or tour here. But since it was Halachic and interesting I like to share it with
my tourists as we drive through the area. So the score is 37 for Rabbi Schwartz and 9
for the Ministry of Tourism on this exam.
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