Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
February 25th 2022 -Volume 11 Issue 21 24th Adar Alef 5782
Parshat Vayakhel / Shekalaim
One million shekel a month. That was the number he told me and I was flabbergasted. Now granted, it was shekel and as I tell my tourists one of the wonderful things the State of Israel does for us is that they make their shekel bills look like Monopoly money, so that you don’t get confused with real green gelt. Because you hear denominations of 200, 300, 500, a thousand for a couple of small items or a shopping cart and you kind of freak out until you realize that it’s only shekels which isn’t real money anyways. But a million in any denomination is a lot. Especially if it’s a month’s worth of gross income. But that’s the number Yisrael, my vegetable farmer near Kiryat Gat told me he was selling of his tomatoes, basil, dill, coriander and beet leaves. That’s a lot of money in any currency.
I was visiting him with some of my Chasidic tourists from Brooklyn and we were standing outside of his hot houses where he grew these vegetables and herbs. He told us a bit about his vegetable growing career. His family had been growing there in the farm in the Moshav of Uza for a few generations since they came with another family and founded the Moshav which they called Uzah after a verse in Psalms. Which I’ll tell you at the end, it’s worth the read. The way the farms work is that every farmer gets a portion of about 25 Dunams or about 6 Acres of land. His family planted on those lands and when he took over the farms about 30 years ago he began renting other lands until he reached about 100 Dunams. Originally his family would sell their land under the Rabbanut to a non- Jew during the Shemitta year in which they would still be able to work the land in a limited way for the non-Jew in exchange for the profits made from the field in a process known has heter mechira conceived by the great halachic authority in Kovna, Reb Yitzchak Elchonon Spector, and that is implemented by the majority of farmers in Israel today. But about 28 years ago he decided to shift gears and be able to fulfill the mitzva of resting the land properly he started to invest and grow hydroponically grown vegetables which are grown above the ground and where there seemingly would not be issues of Shemitta.
He saw much success in this new venture as his ten dunams grew to 60 dunams before the last shemitta year and he pretty much over those decades began to focus entirely on the farming of these vegetables which he found he had more control over, as they weren’t subject to all of the various weather and earth variances and pitfalls that can occur in produce grown in the land itself. Now even these vegetables required some type of shemitta observance as our sages didn’t want people to become confused with them and regular crops so the Rabbis whom he worked with (Rav Rubin) required that he put black nylon tarps a few feet high around the hot houses so that it is apparent that is being grown indoors and not in a field. Yet after the last shemitta, Yisrael missed the adventure of actually planting in the earth itself and he slowly started to get back into it. He slowly rented more and more fields and as the years went on he saw tremendous success and he grew from 100, to 150, to 500, to 600 dunams and right before this past shemitta year he had rented another hundred dunams bring his fields to almost 175 acres and it was about 75% of his annual profits whereas his remaining 60 dunams of the hydroponically grown fields was about 25% of his business.
The expansion of his farming empire of course wasn’t cheap. He had invested close to 4 million shekel in new tractors, irrigation machines and the construction and planting of these hothouses and fields. But his business was flourishing, and he saw blessing like he never saw before. And now Shemitta was approaching once again, and for the first time Yisrael looked out at his fields and realized that he just wouldn’t be able to have them rest this year. A million shekels a month is not something you can just walk away from, besides all of the investment and loans he had taken for his equipment. He would have to go back to his heter mechira days. The land would be sold to the gentile, he would work and pay his bills. But then he went to shul one Shabbos and actually paid attention to the Torah reading. This is always a very dangerous thing by the way. Particularly if you are someone, like Yisrael who prides themselves on their moral compass.
The Torah reading was Parshat Behar and he heard the Torah reader recite the words of the mitzva of Shemitta. “And the land will rest before Hashem”. The words pierced his heart. He said to himself. I keep Shabbos, I keep Kosher, I honor my parents, I give charity. I try to fulfill all of the commandments. It’s black and white what Hashem wants me to do this year. He wants the land to rest. He’s not interested in my loopholes. How can I not keep this mitzva? How will I sleep at night after a day of working in my fields during this holy special year?
On the other hand, let’s be practical. I’ll say the number again. 1 million shekel a month. That’s besides the investment and financial obligations. How do you walk away from that? Well Yisrael was talking to his friend who mentioned to him an organization called Keren Ha’Shvii’s to assist farmers that undertake to fulfill this mitzva and assist them in keeping their head above water. He met with them and was surprised that they didn’t fall of their chairs when he showed them how much he had and how much he needed to be able to survive. They examined his fields and told them they would get back to him. Yet time went on and it was getting closer and closer to shemitta and he still had no word from them. Finally, a few weeks before Rosh Hashana they met with him and told him that they could come up with some minimal assistance. It was a fraction of the million-shekel mark; a very small fraction, but as we say in Yiddish it was eppess. It was something that he wouldn’t starve. It would be a huge challenge for him to walk away from this but in the back of his mind he still had his 60 dunams of hydroponics that he thought would be able to help him out and make it through the year. But then the Rabbis through the curve ball at him.
It seems that the organization had a higher standard then his previous Shemitta Rabbi in regard to the hydroponically grown vegetables as well. A black nylon a few feet high wasn’t sufficient for them. They wanted him to put a black nylon tarp roof on top of the hot houses in order that it really doesn’t look like a field and that it is separate. Yisrael’s heart fell through his chest. Tarp on the top means that his vegetables won’t get any sunlight in the winter. They won’t work. They won’t grow. He wouldn’t have anything. He figured that in a few minutes he would convince them of the ludicrousness of their plan. Naïve Rabbis don’t really understand what they are asking of him and such. But Rabbis really are not that convincible he realized, and before he knew it he understoof that he was a juncture. Was he in or was he out? What would you do?
This week’s Torah portion tells of Vayakhel, tells us about the mass donation campaign of the Jewish people to the Mishkan. Almost everyone chipped in and they brought so much that it was too much. There was one group of 12 people though that held back. They were the Nesi’im- the leaders of all the tribes. The rich guys. The most righteous. Or so they thought. They decided that they cover the gap at the end of the day. Whatever everyone else couldn’t bring. The Keren Orah takes it a step further. He writes that they felt that the Jewish people, the simple average guy could bring gold, silver, they could bring all types of building material and skins and dyed wool of all colors. But they couldn’t really invest in it the holy spark that the great Rabbis and leaders of tribes could bring. They underestimated the power of the simple guy, the simple yid. And now they were scrambling to find what they could bring.
Hashem wanted them to know that they had missed out on something great, so the Torah tells us that when they contributed those remaining gifts that no one else did of the 12 filling stones for the breast plate of the Kohanim and of his apron, it writes their name missing a letter. Instead of writing Nesi’im, it says Nesim, missing a letter yud. For eternity it would be recorded that these leaders had missed out. They were lacking that letter yud in their capacity to be Jewish leaders at this juncture.
The letter yud is an amazing letter. It is the smallest of the letters. It is the spark our sages tell us of the pinteleh yid, the little piece of God that is in all of us. That is in all of creation. When Hashem counts all of the names and tribes of Israel he adds on the letter yud to each of their names. In gematria the letter yud is ten. It is the tenth letter of the aleph beit, and it is the tenth man in the minyan. You can have 9 of the biggest, greatest, wealthiest and most righteous people in the room, but if you don’t have that tenth man you don’t have a minyan. You can’t say kaddish, you can’t sanctify Hashem’s name publicly. That one shlepper walks in though, he may not even be religious, he may have never cracked a Jewish book in his life, he may not have two shekels to rub together, but then the presence of Hashem is there. We can say Amein Yehei Shemei Rabbah. We can bring Hashem’s presence down to the world Because that one guy is worth just as much as all of the others in the eyes of Hashem. He has a purpose that is no less critical for the realization of the purpose of our nation. He may seem like some old rusty screw in a cog, but if he’s not there or if he’s missing then the engine of the brand new Tesla isn’t going to run.
The gift that they brought was the non-coincidentally those filling stones. The Rashbam noted that this was the gift that was left for them because those stones each had the names of the tribes of Israel engraved upon them. Their gift was the recognition that the names of the Jewish people would always be before Hashem on the heart of the Kohen Gadol who stood in the Holy of Holies. They would never forget again and underestimate the holy yid in each and every Jew.
We walked into Yisrael’s hydroponic hot house. It didn’t have black nylon on the roof. It didn’t even have black nylon tarp around the sides as it did under the previous Rabbi’s shemitta directives. Tears though began to flow down his eyes though as he looked and showed me the gardens that lay before him. This was his first time entering them in the past few months since Shemitta had started and he had never seen them like this. They looked horrible. He wasn’t prepared for the sight before his eyes.
See, what had happened was that Yisrael had decided that he was all in. All in meant that he was not going to grow anything this year. Black nylons that would block the sun would make it impossible for anything to happen. So, he chose to leave his fields entirely fallow. And they looked that way. There were weeds all over, brush that had grown up amongst what were once magnificent vines with glorious tomatoes. It looked like a hurricane had hit it. There was rubble. It was a wild barren field in place of what was his once magnificent colorful red and green gardens and hot houses that were neatly trimmed and tenderly cared for. It was a million shekel a month crop that was ripped and scattered all over rows and rows of brush and weeds. It was like what would be having a precious art and painting that you worked on for decades, a house that you had built with your own two hands, a business empire or computer network that you have developed and watched it all in front of your face fall apart. It was too much to bear, or so I thought.
I looked at Yisrael and the tears that were falling were not tears of anguish or regret. They were tears of joy, success, and fulfilment. He had persevered. He had overcome the hurdle. He could sleep at night knowing that he was true to his self and his beliefs. His yid had shown forth when push came to shove. Our sages tell us that in the World to Come both the righteous and the wicked will cry, the wicked will cry when they see that Yetzer Harah their evil inclination and it will seem like a small eye of a needle, and they will say how is it that we couldn’t overcome this. On the other hand, the righteous will see it and it will appear to them as if it was a huge mountain. They will cry and exclaim how were we able to make it up so high. So tall. Overcome such a big hurdle. Those were the tears I saw this week in Yisrael’s eyes. Those were the holy teardrops shaped like the letter yud that fell from his eyes.
The Yishuv of Uzza where Yisrael and his holy resting shemitta crops lie is called Uzza. The verse in Tehillim where Yisrael’s grandparents chose the name for their settlement is from Psalms chapter 68
Tziva eloheicha uzecha- Your God has commanded your strength;
Uzza elokim zu po’alta lanu- show this strength, Hashem, which You have wrought for us.
The strength of Yisrael from Uzza is the strength that all of us possess. It is the yud that Hashem shines in us and we can reveal it. We were put here to reveal it. But as well it’s the strength to see that in every single Jew. We Jews tend to miss that in those that we may think are not as “frum” as “successful” as “religious” as “Torah educated” as “smart” or as “righteous” as we think that we are. I’m sure if we passed by Yisrael, or Doron, or Dudu, or Itzik in the market or in the street or supermarket we would probably not given them a second glance. But they are heroes. They are the tenth man that are doing the mitzvos that we nesi’im have left for everyone else to do. Yet they are the ones building the temple. The only job left for us that remained after their holy work is to see their names on the holiest stones. To bring their prayers, their faith, their inspiration to the holy of holies before Hashem.
Have a million shekel Shabbos and a doubly happy Chodesh Adar Beis,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
Gelt farloren, gor nit farloren; mut farloren, alts farloren.- Money lost, nothing lost; courage lost, everything lost.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://youtu.be/SsGhspYDV18 – If you loved V’Zakeini and couldn’t get it out of your head this new Benny Friedman and Baruch Levine is the next on line for what you will be listening too “Hold On Tight”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scjur_Kw5gY – Shuli Rand and Amir Benyon latest video K’shatem minagnim- when you sing. I love when these two get together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U_07vNpfxA – Dovid Pearlman Fear of Flying an inspiring Chayaleh Newhaus composition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTOpp-I8Ihs – I don’t know who puts this together but this is someone’s top ten songs of 2021. What do you think?
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
17) The inscription: "And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice ..." is found in: ____________
According to one of the suggestions, this inscription was engraved in connection with an attempt to build the Temple in the days of:
A) Hadrian
B) Constantine
C) Julian
D) Eudocia
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/SHABBOS CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Fire Proof -Parshat Vayakhel- The parsha this weeks as we get closer to the end of the book of Shemos and the story of the construction of the Mishkan/ Tabernacle and home for Hashem tells us once again about the mitzva of Shabbos and keeping it as a day of rest that one cannot violate even for the construction of the home for Hashem on this world. The Torah though in this parsha mentions one specific commandment that one cannot do.
Lo siva’aru eish b’chol moshvoseichem b’yom ha’shabbos- one cannot ignite a fire in all of your dwelling places on the day of Shabbos.
The Talmud as well as our sages derive many laws from the fact that this prohibition was selected of all of the numerous prohibitions to be mentioned. The Sefas Emes famously notes that fire is a symbol of anger and the Torah is telling us that one should not get angry on the day of Shabbos. Don’t let the stress get to you. Others see in it that fire is the most creative element and the first that Adam creates in the Garden of Eden. Personally I always felt that it has to do with Chulent of course. For the entire custom of eating chulent is because the Karaites read this verse literally and wrong in that they interperteded that one shouldn’t have a fire burning in the house on Shabbos. As a result of that they sat in the dark and ate cold food. We have Shabbos candles and chulent food that stays hot overnight on a flame Shabbos to show that the Torah and our tradition only prohibited lighting a fire, but Hashem would never prohibit us from eating chulent on Shabbos.
Yet this year I saw the Alshich Ha’Kadosh that sees an frightening mystical idea in this verse and teaching. He asks why does the Torah utilize the extraneous term of “all of your dwelling places”. What places? Seemingly everyone has one house that they dwell in? His answer is that we have a rule that every mitzva that we do creates a heavenly angel that will give us reward in the world to come after we die. On the other hand each sin has the opposite effect. A dangerous destructive angel is born and it is that angel that ultimately will turn on the fires of Gehenom to punish us god forbid and to take account for the transgressions that we violate.
On Shabbos the Alshich tells us which is the source of all that is holy one has to be extra careful. For on Shabbos every sin that we do even if it is not related to Shabbos is really creating and igniting an angel that will ignite the fires of gehennom. It is a double sin. It is taking the holiest day that is the source of holiness for all of our lives and bring fire and destruction to the world. The juxtaposition to the building of the Mishkan with this mitzva can therefore be understood in the deepest of terms. If we understand that we are here to build a home for Hashem in this world then be careful not to bring fire into all our dwelling places. Don’t sin, for each sin is fire. We are here to make the whole world Shabbos. The whole world will have Hashem’s presence upon it. All of our dwelling places means this world and the next. It’s heaven and earth. It is menucha and it is rest. Fire that destructive force that comes when we don’t listen to Hashem is the antithesis of Shabbos. If we remember that than and only then can we make the world rest Shabbas Shabbason- Shabbos up there and Shabbos down here.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
The prophet and the King - 797 BC- Yeravam ben Nevat, now the king of the north having split off the from Rechavam the son of Shlomo in Yehuda, did not sin in the split off. That was meant to happen and had been prophesized yet as we said last week, his sin was his arrogance in which he stopped Jews from going to the Bais Ha’Mikdash. To make matters worse he constructed his own Temples in Beit El and in Tel Dan. He was nervous that he would lose his stature if Jews came to Jerusalem and saw Rechavam sitting while he stood. It was downhill from there. Yet Hashem wasn’t giving up on him yet and he sent a prophet to rebuke him. To try to get him to see the folly of his ways.
The prophet in question is unnamed, some of our sages suggest it was Micha, others Shmaya, but it seems the common consensus was that it was the prophet Ido. Although there are others that suggest that Ido was the child of the Shunamite woman later on in history. Yet this story is a fascinating one and it takes place in Beit El near the temple of Yerava’am whose remains are possibly there today still not far from where the ladder of Yaakov allegedly was. It seems that Yerava’am was offering a sacrifice on his altar there when Ido arrived and told him the bad news. The bones of Yerava’am and his the false prophets would be slaughtered and sacrifices would be offered and burned on top of them later in history by King Yoshiah. As a sign the prophecy was true that altar in front of him mwould split and the ashes would spill all over the place. Yerava’am heard these words and wanted to kill the prophet and he reached out his hand to grab him and his hand froze and became paralyzed. He pleaded with the navi to pray for him and he was released. Yet, when he tried to make amends by inviting the prophet, Ido told him that he was prohibited from eating or drinking there because the city was like an ir hanidachas that was an idolatrous city. He wasn’t allowed to take part in anything there. With that he left.
What happens with Ido next? Stay tuned next week.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE MONEY JOKES OF THE WEEK
What did one penny say to the other penny? Let’s get together and make some cents.
What is brown and has a head and a tail, but no legs? A penny.
When does it rain money? When there is “change” in the weather.
Why don’t cows have any money? Because farmers milk them dry.
Where does Dracula keep his money? In a blood bank.
Where does a penguin keep its money? In a snow bank.
Where do fish keep their money? In a river-bank.
How do dinosaurs pay their bills? With Tyrannosaurus checks.
Where can you always find money? In the dictionary.
What did the duck say after he went shopping? Put it on my bill.
What did the football coach say to the broken vending machine? Give me my quarterback.
I lost my job at the bank on my very first day. An old man asked me to check his balance, so I pushed him over.
A lot of people don't know this, but one of the greatest basketball players of all time was Jewish. He was known as Shekel o'Neal
Moishie is standing at a Jewish concert and suddenly noticed he lost his wallet. He got up on the stage and makes an announcement, “Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, I’ve just lost my wallet with over 5000 shekels in it. To the person that finds my wallet, I will give 500 shek!” A voice from the back of the auditorium shouted back, “I will give 750!”
It’s morning in Tel Aviv and inside THE KOSHER MOTOR garage, Jeremy Landau, one of the City’s brightest mechanics, has started to repair the engine of an old Ford. As he removes the Ford’s cylinder head, he notices Dr David Goldblatt, a respected cardiologist, arriving to pick up his Mercedes which Jeremy has just finished servicing.
Jeremy calls over to Dr Goldblatt, "Could you come over here please doctor, I’d like to show you something."
Dr Goldblatt walks over. "So nu, Jeremy," he says, "what’s this thing that’s so important?"
Pointing to the Ford and with a mischievous smile on his face, Jeremy replies, "I have a question for you. Just look at this engine, doctor. I’ve just opened up its heart. I will then carefully remove its valves and when I’ve done this, I will look for any existing damage. When I find it, which I always do, I will carefully repair it and put everything back together again and it will then work like new. So, doctor, my question to you is this: even though you and I are basically doing the same kind of work, how come I’m on a salary of just under 160,000 shekels a year whereas you probably take home around 1 million shekels a year?"
After what he felt was an incredible performance on evening cantor Baruch Steinberg - trying to impress- disclosed to the audience in the room that his voice is insured with Lloyds of London for 1 million dollars. All of a sudden Yankel from the back of the room pipes up "so what did you do with the money?"
Dr Goldblatt thinks about this for a few seconds, then smiles and replies, "The difference is, Jeremy …. try doing your work with the engine running."
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Answer is C – Im really not an expert on Roman rulers. I probably couldn’t name more than 2 or three that I can tell you anything too specific about. But this one question is one that I talk about often as it’s a cool stop and really usually concludes my old city of Jerusalem tours. The inscription is on the Kotel not far from Robinsons Arch on the South West part of the Kotel and it’s in graffiti carved into the rock which is very cool as it’s a pasuk about seeing the redemption from Isaiah. Archeologists suggest it was written during the period of Julian the Apostate. He was the emporer after Constantine turned everyone Christian and banned paganism. Julian didn’t like that and he wanted to turn back the clock to the good old days. So historians tell us that he tried to recruit the Jews to his cause and promised that if they support him against the Christians then he would allow us to rebuild the Bais Hamikdash. We did and construction may have even started and that’s when the inscription was scrateched into the wall. However it didn’t last long as Julian died and the game was over. So I got it right and now the score is now Schwartz 14 and 3 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.
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