Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
December 24th 2021 -Volume 11 Issue 13 20th Tevet 5782
Parshat Shemos
Self-Conscious
We’re gonna get deep this week, I’m warning you in advance. That’s
what happens when I come back from an appointment with my new therapist. We dig
deep. We get to the core. I’m actually kind of enjoying it a bit. Truth is, I
was never much a therapist type of person- unlike some people who I am married
to, who shall remain nameless. I’ve always been very healthy and well adjusted
without any real issues in life. The people that told me that I wasn’t, such as
above spouses and probably children as well, certainly had issues of their own
that they needed to work out in order to deal with and appreciate “perfect” me.
I was even fine with me paying for those sessions for them. Who I was I to withhold
help for those most important to me in life to become as healthy and well-adjusted
as I was?
Yet, now it seems I have started to go as well. See, one of the
prerequisites for them approving me to have my stomach bypass surgery was that
I see a therapist prior to the surgery who would approve me. At first, they
said all I had to do was to meet with a dietician to prepare for the surgery
and what my new eating habits- or lack thereof would be. But after three months
of our zoom sessions with her and me putting on about 20 pounds in the time
frame when I was supposed to being losing weight to prepare for the surgery,
they escalated me to requiring mental evaluation to be able to be approved. In
all fairness to me, though I didn’t really think they were serious that I would
have to lose weight to be eligible to be approved for a surgery that would
pretty much prevent me from eating to much for the rest of my life. So, with no
choice I went off to meet Netta my new personal psychological guru.
She started off wanting to understand my core issues at why I
eat so much. Seemingly the answer I like food, was insufficient for her. The subsequent
corollary that I liked food “ALOT” didn’t really clarify it for her either. She
wanted me to tell her my life story and understand me. I asked her how much
time she had on her hands. Generally, it takes my tourists a good two-hour drive
from Jerusalem to Tzfat to get about half of my life story. But she was patient
and wanted it all. So I stuck in the tape and hit the play button on my nose
that I usually press when I’m telling my story to my tourists and a few hours later
she sat in front of me with her eyes glazing over. A response I’m generally
used to, although she was the first one to really take notes the whole time.
Something incidentally that I thing would be helpful to many people.
She then told me that she figured me out. Not bad, I thought. I
sat back and waited to hear her new deep insight into me. Her diagnosis, quite
brilliantly, to my surprise went something like this.
“From what I see, you want the entire world to be part of
you. You want to teach everyone. You want to tour everyone. You want to speak
to everyone and know them. You want to be mekarev everyone and inspire them. You
pretty much want them all to be part of you. In other words you want to eat
them all. You in fact want to eat and taste everything and you pretty much want
everything in the world to be part of you.”
To put it in Breslav terms. It’s kind of like Ein Od Milvadi-
everyone is part of Me. Cute. Insightful. I really couldn’t disagree much. She
thus explained that’s why I can’t leave food on the table, just like I can’t
leave one Jew behind. It’s all gotta be part of me. And there you have it.
Insight number one. I don’t think that really changed anything though, but she
approved me for my surgery and I was good to go.
Now part of my post-surgery regimen and maintenance is that I
continue to see Netta. I actually spoke to quite a few friends that did the
surgery and the ones that successfully were able to keep it off told me that it’s
because these sessions and discussions revolving around them help. I’m game and
have lots of free time on my hand thanks to the wonderful new gezeiros
here in the Holy Land that seem determined to starve all tour guides to death
anyways. So I go. I go to her and I go to the gym a lot also for the first time
in my life. Which I hate. Which I told her I don’t know how anybody likes it.
Why would someone subject themselves to picking up heavy weights and shlepping
and walking on a silly machine for 10’s of minutes -that’s all I’m up to- again
and again and again. It’s annoying. It’s strenuous. It’s exhausting. I do it
because I want my flab to turn to muscle, now that I don’t have any chulent to
fill that old skin up anymore. But I hate it. And yet I see people there that
really seem to be enjoying the whole thing and I just don’t get it.
Well, Netta once again gave me a fascinating insight that shed
light not only into my relationship with myself, my body, but fascinatingly enough
into this week’s Parsha. Because after-all in case you forgot this is a Torah
E-Mail, right? What she said was that pretty much in our frum world and in my yeshiva
upbringing, much focus, if not all my focus has been on the development of my
mind. Reading, learning, studying, writing and even teaching and speaking are
all really just gyms and workouts for my brains and hopefully for my soul; my
neshoma and my connection with Hashem. I liked all of that. I thrived in those
intellectual health clubs because I was developing myself. Who was I? My brain.
My heart. My Neshoma. My spiritual essence and core. What I didn’t really care
much about though was my body. In fact, I kind of disdained that fat, fleshy,
mortal side of me that really just slowed me down. I didn’t want to deal with
it and frankly didn’t lend much importance on every really taking care and
certainly not developing it. It wasn’t really me anyways.
Those people that like gyms. Those people that love jogging
every morning. Those people that are pumping, lifting, sweating and smiling
fulfilled next to me on the elliptical while I keep watching that very slow
second-hand count numbers thinking about the shvitz and jacuzzi at the end, are
enjoying so much what they are doing in the same way they I get fulfillment out
of learning a page of gemara or preparing a good sermon or writing a good
E-Mail. Because they identify themselves with their body in the same way that I
identify myself with my mind and soul. They are making it stronger and
healthier and themselves in the process. And the truth is they’re right. Because
as much as I could never see or say it before- probably because I avoided mirrors
a lot-we are body and soul. We’re not just a mind and a neshoma.
The reason why I could even start going to a gym is because for
the first time I was becoming capable of really being able to accept and even
embrace that part of who I am, as weird and strange as that feels. And the truth
is that really is essence of becoming the most of who we are meant to become.
It’s why we were put down here on this world, it’s why we were sent down to that
really terrible health club called Egypt and it’s what eventually brought us
out and made us into the nation that was ready to become the nation of Hashem.
The word galus in Hebrew which is translated as exile
really comes from the root word as gilui- to reveal. When Hashem sends
us into exile it’s not just a punishment because we had misbehaved and are
therefore docked from all the important and fun activities of living in Eretz
Yisrael. Rather we are in galus because we are missing something very
essential about ourselves that we are meant to reveal. When we finally uncover
that then we will be nig’al- we can be redeemed. We have reacquired and
taken repossession of our essence.
Our sages tell us that the Jewish people were redeemed from
Egypt because of the merit that we did not change three things; our names, our
language and our clothing. I never really understood that Midrash, more
recently the clothes thing by the way. I mean weren’t their pants falling down
all the time after working out in the pyramid sweathouses for 200 or so years?
Mine are, after just 75 pounds down and two months or so in a gym. But jokes
aside, my question always was that if they had their Jewish names, clothes and
language before hand as well and Hashem liked that about us so then what was
the point of sending us down there in the first place?
The answer though is pretty much the same idea that Netta
revealed to me. They may have had Jewish names, clothing and language before
but they never really identified it as part of who they really were. Why do
people change their name, language and clothing when they come off the boat to
a new country? Why did Yankel become Jake when he landed at Ellis Island, why
did Moshe become Manuel when he came to Spain? Why did Dovid become Dudu when
he landed Ben Gurion? (Interesting aside my Uncle Gedalia just pointed out to
me that the Yiddish name Yenta was a Jewish changed name of Juanita from Jews that
had come from Spain). The answer is because we never really saw our name as identifying
who I really am. The same is true with our clothes and the same is true with our
language. We lose them and we assimilate because we don’t really feel they
identify our essence. But the truth is that they really do. In fact they hit
the core of who we really are.
I was privileged to be given the honor this week of reciting the
blessings and giving the name to a newborn baby by his bris of the child of one
of our congregants. He’s a bit of a Breslaver, the baby was named Noson, as he
was born on the yartzeit of Rebbi Noson the student of Rebbi Nachman and as I
spoke I shared with them an insight by Rebbi Noson on the concept of a Bris. He
writes that a Bris is referred to by our sages as a mitzva that symbolizes sasson-
rejoicing. It is joy because it reveals to us the essence of who and what we
are. In the blessing I recited by the Bris we refer to it with three titles. Os
Bris Kodesh- Os- a sign, Bris- a covenant and Kodesh-
holy. What are these three things?
An Os means that we bear a sign upon our body that we are
special. That Hashem has marked me. That He is close to me and He has given me
a unique and specific purpose. To a large degree it is like our Hebrew name. It
identifies me as special and unique from everyone else with my own personal
special title. The word bris, on the other hand, is a covenant which is
something that separates us from everyone else. From all the other nations. We
as a nation have something that we share with one another that differentiates
and is meant to remind us that we have a unique national connection with one
another that is different than the rest of the world. That my friends, is of
course symbolized back in Egypt as our language. The common holy bond that only
Jews and all Jews share and that unites us.
Finally, we have Kodesh- holiness. We are meant to look
at our lives and realize that we have a higher purpose with our bodies. We are meant
to restrain our physical desires and our bodily lusts and passions. We need to
elevate them to holiness and to direct them to our higher purpose. That’s the message
of our circumcision. That’s what the simplicity and the modesty of what Jewish
clothing are meant to reflect. It’s not about showing off the body, showing of
my clothes. It’s not about what some pathetic and immoral fashion designer in
Paris, in Italy or on the streets of the Bronx decides this morning is “in” or “cool”
or not. It’s about understanding that clothing makes the man and what I wear
defines who I am and that there is no way in the world that would I let some fashion
maven or Hollywood star that I wouldn’t allow to be alone with my child for five
minutes in a room with determine what I should be wearing or who I should be in
my clothes today.
We needed to go down to Egypt, because while we were living in
our father Yaakov’s house in Israel in our own little ghetto, we took for
granted what our core essence was. Who we really were. The truth is we were just
a family at that point. When we left Egypt 210 years later, we had spent two
centuries working out in what my gym slang they call working on our “core”. We
understood what our roots were. We knew we each had a name that had defined our
unique God-given purpose that only we could reveal. We knew we had a shared
national mandate that our Lashon Hakodesh- our holy language and the way
that we only we were meant to relate to one another and join together with
would transform the world with. And finally we all had our special Jewish gym
suits. We knew that the clothing that the world would see us in must be
different than theirs. They need to see holiness coming from us. They need to
see humility and modesty. They need to see a nation that restrains itself. That
doesn’t wear things that say “check me out” or “I’m all dat”, rather
they direct those that gaze upon us to look upwards and say
“Mi goy gadol- who is this great nation
“Asher lo Elokim krovim elav k’Hashem elokeinu bakol koreinu
eilav”- that Hashem is close to them whenever they call to Him.
We had achieved our Os Bris Kodesh and now we could
really fully rejoice and be happy with who we are completely. Because for the
first time we were really shaleim.
The prelude to our redemption at the end of the parsha is Moshe’s
son getting his Os Bris Kodesh on his way down to Egypt. Gershom, that
son born in Midian, didn’t undergo the galus, the exile of the rest of
the Jewish nation. Yet he also needs to be redeemed. He also needs a revelation
that will give him the core identity that will guide him throughout his life. And
the Torah shares that final story before the beginning of the redemption in
next week’s Torah portion to tell us that we each need that as well.
We’ve suffered through 2000 years in this gym called Exile.
Sadly, too many of our brothers and sisters have given up their membership. Yet
at the same time we have seen so many of them in that gym coming back again for
that workout after perhaps generations of sitting on the couch. After generations
of never really looking in that spiritual Jewish mirror because they’re really
not happy with who they might see there. But it’s not only them. We’re all in
Exile because there is some part of us as well, perhaps as individuals, perhaps
as a nation, that we haven’t accepted and identified and worked out yet. We
still have some core exercises to do. If we had finished already, then the
heavens wouldn’t be closed still. We’d be home. We’d be healed. We’d be fit. We’d
be redeemed. Our workout is almost over though. I feel the holy waters of
Hashem’s Jacuzzi calling to me. Are you ready to jump in together with me?
Have an exhilarating Shabbos
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH
PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“In shpigel zet itlecher zein besten freind..” - In the mirror everybody sees his best
friend.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
8)The
most distinct historian of the Great Revolt against the Romans is: ___________
a)
One of the leaders of the Zealots in Jerusalem
b)
One of the commanders of the revolt in the North
c)
Commander of the revolt in the region of Qumran and the northern Dead Sea
d)
The commander of the revolt in Jerusalem
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE
WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evLYJFCmHXo
- My song of the week… Avraham Rosenblum Hafachta Mispedi
from the classic Diaspora at their HASC reunion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw3JHVExpbk
– Check out my brother from another mother
Nissim Black’s latest video Adored!
https://youtu.be/Nme1I3H16aI
– Shulem Lemmer and brother Yanky singing the classic
Abie Rottenberg Man from Vilna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRkpblJzAb8 – Parshat Shemos needs Ha’sneh
bo’eir of Aharon Razel of course…
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/SHABBOS
CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
The Beginning of Redemption-Parshat Shemos- Every Shabbos in our morning prayer we begin
the Shabbos part of the Amida with the words Yismach Moshe B’Matnas Chelko- That
Moshe should rejoice with the gift he was given of his portion. That portion is
the day of Shabbos that Moshe conceived was going to be the secret of the
redemption of the Jewish people from Egypt. It is as well the secret of our redemption
today.
When Moshe first got the job of overseeing the Jewish people by
Pharaoh before he had to flee for his life, his first act was to advise Pharaoh
to give the Jews a day off in order for them to be more productive. Now Moshe’s
intent was of course to give us this extra merit of being able to observe the
Shabbos, but Pharaoh bought the pitch hook, line and sinker and thus even in
Egypt the Jews were able to observe the Shabbos.
Why is Shabbos so essential to our redemption, more so than
other mitzvos? The Divrei Shmuel explains it is because the essence of Shabbos
is being able to remove one’s self from the balagan of the entire week and
focus once again on the source of all that we have and whom we truly are. Our galus
in Egypt and Pharaoh’s diabolical plot was all about distracting us from that.
It was about giving us too much work where we didn’t have time think. To renew.
To get back to our roots. The observance of Shabbos in of itself is already a
partial redemption because we are in fact leaving that weekday galus life and entering
the spiritual world of Hashem. That’s what redemption really is about.
When Moshe argued with Hashem about whether he was the right one
to take the Jews out of Egypt or not, Hashem tells Moshe that if he will not
redeem them than no one else can. With this understanding we can explain that
idea. For Moshe revealed to us the power we have each Shabbos to leave Galus.
Without that idea, sadly we will forever be enslaved. For a yid has to appreciate
that we can be saved. We can leave. Our lives can and should be different. Shabbos
is that special gift of Moshe that allows us to do that.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES
AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
The building of the Temple II- 833 BC- Having taken care of the wood from Lebanon the next
big piece of building material was obviously the stones which served as the
foundations and the walls of the Temple upon where the cedar and cypress beams
rested. There seems to be a bit of mystery as to where the stones came from.
Although the Navi does mention the workers Of Shlomo and Chiram the Gibalites
that cut the rocks, seemingly they didn’t shlep them from Lebanon to
Israel. There are no shortage of mountains here. But where?
In the late 1800’s the archeologist Charles Simon
Clermont-Ganneau discovered an inscription that resembled some winged
creature which he estimated came from the time of Shlomo in Me’arat
Tzidkiyahu. The cave is located right outside Sha’ar Shechem and was
definitely used as a quarry for the 2nd Temple and the period of Herod.
It’s location is right as it is the largest cave of its kind about 9000 meters
deep under the Muslim quarter. It actually ends not far from the Temple
mount. There are of course others that disagree and say this was only a 2nd
Temple quarry and rather suggest that perhaps it came from the Ramat Shlomo
area. Maybe? That’s not why it’s called that by the way. The neighborhood right
outside of Ramot is named after Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.
Now the main challenge of the stone cutting besides the transport,
which I will never figure out. Is the cutting of the stone. The Navi tells us
that no sounds or metal was heard of construction on the Temple and thus the
Talmud tells us of the mysterious Shamir worm that was used to cut the
stones. This was some type of mystical creature that Hashem created in the beginning
of Creation that Shlomo was able to get his hands on by capturing the demon
king Ashmodai. Now halachically one could use metal to cut the rocks of the
Temple, only the altar was prohibited from being cut with metal, but Shlomo
wanted to go above and beyond for his Temple. In fact, the Midrash tells us
that those stones were actually taken by angels before the Babylonians
came and removed and replaced with the stones and they will be restored by the
third Temple. This would seem to be that Jews did the cutting. As only Jewish
labor could be eternal. If this was the case then the work of the non-Jews
would be the carving out of the rocks afterwards and primarily the transport.
Hashem tells Shlomo that this building will stand not because of
the great construction but rather because of what we do in the Temple. It’s
about observing the commandments, both those between Hashem and Man and between
our fellow men. Only then will Hashem reside among the Jewish people. Only then
will it be His eternal home. Those words still hold true today. It’s something
to think about every time we stand by the Kotel and stare at that “Golden
Pimple” that still defiles, the mountain of Hashem.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE THERAPY JOKES OF
THE WEEK
Gravity is such a disappointment.
It always lets me down.
I planned to go to a
class on how to deal with disappointments. But it was cancelled.
I’m broke, sad and a
disappointment to my parents. But at least I’m not in debt. That’s the one
thing I’m given credit for
Me: I’m terrified of
random letters!
Therapist: U R?
Me: Aaarrgghhh…
Therapist: I C….
On the way to the
therapist, I said to my wife, “You’re going to bring up my obsession with
predicting the future, aren’t you?”
She said, “Yeah.”
I said, “I knew it!”
The therapist said I
can get over my fear of buffets…
But first, I’ve got to
want to help myself .
A man is talking with
his therapist.
The therapist says, “It
seems you have a severe phobia of marriage. Do you understand the symptoms?”
The man replies, “Can’t
say I do.”
The therapist says,
“Yeah, that’s the main one.”
Why did the Latino man
go to the therapist? To talk about Hispanic attacks.
Patient: I’m afraid of
the vertical axis.
Therapist: Why?
Patient: Yes!
The therapist said to
me, “Your wife has complained that you never buy her flowers, what do you say
to that?”
I said, “To be honest,
I had no idea my wife even sold flowers.”
My therapist refused to
help me with my fear of backing up my car. She said she would under no
circumstances perform reverse psychology.
Studies show regular
patients of chiropractors are less likely to need to see therapists due to
being so well adjusted.
What did the therapist
say to the depressed dog? Life is ruff.
My girlfriend was born
without her little toe and the sight of her foot makes me physically ill. My
therapist said I’m lack toes intolerant.
My dad is a Star Wars
fan and my parents are in couples therapy over it.
Therapist: So why do
you want to end your marriage?
Mom: I’m sick of all of
the Star Wars puns.
Dad: Divorce is strong
with this one.
My new therapist is
British; the first thing he asked me was…
UK?
"Doctor,"
said the receptionist over the phone, "there's a patient here who thinks
he's invisible." "Well, tell him I can't see him right now."
THERAPIST: What's the
problem with your marriage? WIFE: He replaces words with animal names just to
annoy me.
ME: I don't do it on
porpoise
Why should you never
try to start an argument with your child on picture day? They are not in the
right frame of mind.
My
therapist recommended that I write in a diary to help my low self-esteem.
Dear Diary, Sorry to bother you again.
Therapist:
So what brings the two of you here today?
My
wife: It's impossible to live with him. He's too literal.
Me: My car
Blind
Man: "Please help me, everyone keeps making nasty jokes about how my
disability means I'm somehow inferior to them. I'm constantly hearing
thoughtless, heartless reminders about how I'm different from other people, and
lacking a sense they have."
World's
Worst Therapist: "I see."
*********************************
Answer is B – This one was pretty easy. I mean everyone
know Josephus right? ; Or Yosef ben Matisyahu as he is known in Israel. Josephus
was one of the commanders in the North of Israel where the revolt against Rome in
67 CE began. After Vespasian came down with his son Titus to put down the Jewish
revolution, Josephus according to his own testimony after having his whole
brigade commit suicide at Yodefat was the only survivor and he joined up with
the Romans in order to give a historical account of the Jews. We never know
what to trust from Josephus or not, as he is writing HISstory- an account that
is meant to be favorable to the Jews but politically correct enough for the Romans,
but it is his writings that serve as the basic source to begin any exploration of
the period. So another one right and the score is now Schwartz 6.5 and 1.5
for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam. .
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