from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
July 1st 2022 -Volume
11 Issue 38 2nd Tamuz 5782
Parshat Chukas
There There are some tour guides that can find
you the hardest hikes in Israel. I’m not one of them. Everyone has to find
their niche. Don’t get me wrong, I like hiking. I even enjoy a vigorous climb
as long as there is a water fall payoff at the end. But the extreme endurance
climbing and jumping and risk taking is not my things. Baruch Hashem it’s not
most of my tourist’s thing either. It’s just not much of an Orthodox Jewish
past time. 40 years hiking in the wilderness was about all we need to last a
lifetime.
My niche though, is that I can find you the
best Mehadrin (super-kosher) restaurants in Israel. I find that most of my
clients are far more interested in that. Truth is a lot of them, don’t really
even care that much about the super-kosher part either. They just want a Rabbi
that looks as yeshivish as them telling them it's alright so they don't feel
that guilty about eating it . I’m happy to oblige them. It’s one of the
benefits of having a Rabbi as your tour guide. I provide absolution and what
happens on a Rabbi Schwartz tour stays on a Rabbi Schwartz tour. I’m kind of
like Vegas in that way.
But yes, jokes aside. (And I was joking.. I
would never take you to a place that wasn’t up to your standard). Kashrus in
Israel is kind of confusing. It’s not just a letter- Hebrew or English-
enclosed in a circle, star, or triangle. There’s lots of different symbols and
words. There’s mehadrin, there’s mehuderes, there’s this badatz and that
badatz, this chasam sofer and that chasam sofer and there’s a bunch of sefardi
stuff out there as well, which who knows what laws they use?
Especially this year we have a whole
smorgasboard of questions. Is it heter mechira? If it is, can we eat it? What
do we do with the peels? The pits? What is an Otzar Beis din? Is yevul nochri
better or worse? Who would’ve though getting a falafel would be so complicated.
Yes, you definitely want a Rabbi-Tour Guide- preferably a fat one- or at least
one that used to be fat until a few months ago, to help you gastronomically
maneuver through this quagmire of chummus and Shakshuka. Sorry, I’m all booked
up already for the summer, but I’m happy to help you…just save me a bite.
But the truth is that, yes kashrus is a
complicated thing, but at the same time one needs to take a bit of a deep
breath. Baruch Hashem we are living in a world today when we have the luxury of
having lots of food. We also have the good fortune, the knowledge and the
benefit of having much higher standards of kosher then most of our great great
grandparents had in previous generations. Yes, its true that they certainly had
a simpler and more basic diet as everything was “haymish g'bak’t-
homemade. There was no commercial food with all of its kosher nuances and
ingredients from all over the world. Yet at the same time if one looks at many
of the rabbinic responsa written back then about the types of questionable meat
and poultry that the Rabbis permitted people to rely upon- as they had not much
choice back then, we could certainly say we’re pretty frum.
“The cow isn’t limping so badly”. “It’s
not such a big hole or scratch on the chicken’s lungs” Glatt Kosher wasn’t
accessible to most people and they certainly didn’t have it on their toilet
paper and laundry detergent. We’ve come a long way, baby. To a large degree I
in fact believe that it’s a good thing. We don’t have to rely on the leniencies
they did in the past. We can have a higher standard. In the Schwartz home
certainly I try to make it a place that everyone will always feel comfortable.
And when it comes to my tourists I want them as well to feel that they don’t
have to come to the holy land and compromise any standards that they may have
been keeping when they’re living in their temporary homes (whether they believe
that or not) in Chutz L’aretz.
Yet… yet… yet… I have told my children
repeatedly- although they don’t always listen, that they should realize and
never refer to anything that has a lesser standard then we might have as being
“not-kosher”. We may not eat from certain more lenient kosher standards, but
that doesn’t mean that they are not Kosher. Who knows if my alteh bubbies and
zaydies or theirs, who didn’t have the fortune to live in our era of “having it
all”, may have relied on those very same leniencies. If they di,d than they
would be calling them non-kosher as well.
Who knows what we ourselves might have
consumed that wasn’t always up to the standards we have adopted. Don’t call it
not-kosher. Certainly don’t say the word “trayf”. And you know what? If you
happen to be somewhere or by someone that might give you something that might
not be up to our standards, don’t be embarrass them. Don’t make a scene.
Particularly if it’s a grandparent. I don’t think Hashem wants us to be frum on
another person's cheshbon. We find way too many places and too many stories
where our Rabbis made leniencies, particularly in situations like this. In fact
one of them that I never noticed before jumped out at me from this week’s
Parsha and I believe that it really is quite a small quick little lesson. But
it’s worth taking a bite out of it.
The Parsha tells us about how Moshe, having
just lost his right to go into the land of Israel because of his sin of hitting
the rock, then turns his face forward and continues to lead the people to the
promised land. Or at least as far as he can get. The first place he turns to is
the land of Edom; the home of the descendants of our psychopathic brother
Esau’s. He sends them a message and a request that we pass through the land.
It’s shorter for us. It’s easier. They are in the South and it’s the smartest
route up. We checked 'Alternate Routes' on our Waze and the other option is a
few more months of hiking all the way around Jordan through the Golan Heights
and back down again to Yericho. We probably will have to have a few wars along
the way. It’s would just be so much simpler “big bro” Esau/ Edom if we could
just cross through your land. But they’re not that forthcoming. They pretty
much tell us that they will kill us if we even try.
Moshe then makes the following statement which
again, you might miss if you don’t pay attention, as he raises the ante.
Bamidbar (20:19) We will go up on the
path and when we or our cattle will drink your water we will pay you full price
for it. Just don’t prevent us from passing through.
Now although it seems obvious that we would
pay for their water, Rashi thouugh previously notes something amazing. Moshe
had assured the Edomites that we will not drink the water of 'The well'.
What well? Was this a kosher stringency? What would they be paying full price
for? Zugt Rashi…
“Nor will we drink well water- He
should have said, “water from cisterns.” However, Moshe said, “Though we have
manna to eat and a well from which to drink, we will not drink from it, but we
will buy food and drink from you, for your benefit.” From here [we learn] that
even if a guest has his own provisions, he should buy from the shopkeeper [or
householder] to benefit his host.
Did you catch that? Imagine that. The Jewish
people have a pretty high standard of kosher for the past 40 years. We pretty
much are consisting daily on the Manna. That is the special spiritual food that
Hashem has Himself provided for us. It’s Badatz Eida Chareidis on spiritual
steroids. We are drinking the holy water from the well of Miriam. We all just
witnessed Hashem bring water from it again when Moshe hit it and we even
composed a song about it, we were so excited. Although some did say the song
was a bit too rocky… oy…
And now Moshe was telling us that we would go
through Edom and drink their trayf water, buy their chalav stam food, who knows
what hashgacha the Rabbanut of Edom has… And why? Because that’s what a guest
is supposed to do. Always,
Rashi tell us. Mi’kaan
l’achsanai – from here we learn what a guest should do. How he should
behave. This is the source and lesson of all times. It’s called Derech
Eretz kodma la’Torah- treating others with respect and decency comes before
the Torah.
It’s interesting, I saw one of the
commentaries ask, who gave Moshe permission to even ask Edom to cross through
the land in the first place. Aren’t they being guided by the cloud of glory and
the pillar of fire. Rav Margalit of Karmiel explained ingeniously that Moshe,
the Midrash tells us later on in the parsha when Moshe asked permission as well
ffrom Sichon to cross through his land that he learned this from Hashem. Just
as Hashem had offered the Torah to all of the other nations even though he knew
that they wouldn’t accept it. Yet Derech Eretz mandates that one has to at
least offer it to the non-Jews first. As well Moshe, felt that it was important
to offer Edom, their brother, our brothers the option of us coming through
their land. It’s called mentchlickeit. It precedes the Torah and “frumkeit”.
Food is a big thing for our nation. It takes
up a lot of our lives. It takes up a lot of our trips and tours and car space.
We bring nosh. We bring sandwiches. I see some- not lots- but certainly many
Americans that come here to Israel and they bring their meat, their hashgachos,
their nosh that they have in America. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate American
Corned beef and pastrami as much if not better than anyone else. My first stop
when I go to shmutz la’aretz is to Essen on Coney for my
Schwartz special Pastrami, Chopped liver and corned beef on club with mustard
and Flams pickles. But… but… but… Rashi tells us that when we come some place
else, there’s something respectful, there’s something mentchlich, there’s
a Jewish holy value to buy your food there. To support the locals. To make your
baalabos, your host, the people you’re visiting feel good. TO buy from them
even if you have your own bag of Manna and holy water.
It teaches us about this concept by our
psychopathic murdering Nazi brother Esau’s country. It’s teaching us that we
even will compromise on not eating the Manna from Hashem’s table which is
certainly better than any American cold cuts. It’s might mean even drinking the
smelly Edomite water that who knows what it will do to your sensitive digestive
system. What can we say when it comes to eating the food of Eretz Yisrael that
may not be up to your tender culinary refined tastes? What can we say that we
might save a few shekels by packing our own sandwiches at home and not buying
the nosh at the local store, at the perhaps slightly overpriced kiosk at the
nature park or attraction that we’re visiting? What do you think Moshe would’ve
done? What do you think Rashi would tell us to do? You donm't have to guess. He
just told you.
Non-observant Jews have a term that they call
Kosher Style. It looks kosher and tastes kosher, but the truth is the only
thing kosher about it is that it says the word kosher on the label. Kosher
isn’t a style. It’s not a taste. It’s not even a hashgacha. It’s a way of life
and an ideology that forces us to think about more than just the taste of
something and what I’m in the mood of before I put it in my mouth. Is this good
for my soul? Will this eating bring me closer to Hashem? Again and again our
“fashlas” in the wilderness were about food, were about water. The first sin of
Adam in the garden of Eden as well was about eating things we weren’t supposed
to. According to some it was about eating from the tree even before we were
supposed to eat from it. The Nachash convinced Adam that it
was even more kosher. It was so kosher that Hashem doesn’t want you to eat it
from it, because you will become like Him. But he missed the boat. It was
kosher style. It wasn’t Kosher. It distanced us from Hashem. It challenges us
until today.
We need to chew on that a bit. I need to as
well. We've got a big seuda of Mashiach coming soon. Our Baal H'aBayis is
waiting for us to tell Him that we want only the food of His table. Are you ready
to join the party?
Have a Kosher and delicious Shabbos,
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Der derech hayosher iz alleh mol kosher
- The just path
is always the right one
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
1) The gate on the Western side of the Old City
of Jerusalem is called ____________
The significance
of its location is :
A) The ease of exit to the flour mill outside of
the city
B) It is the remains of ancient Herodian gate
C) Its close proximity to the main crossroads
D) It’s close to the spring in the valley of Hinom
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE VIDEO OF THE
WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DnLm4aqgz8 - Can’t get enough of
Chanan Ben Ari’s latest song about his grandfather that passed away. Chananya! Great!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeG7M_SC9_A
- Karduner
and Joey Newcomb great song L’Sheim Shamayim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vala9QGU6E
-Rabbi Yoel Gold
Living with Rebbi a talk with Rebbetzin Trenk- inspiring as usual…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqkDHYQPmho
-Aharon Razel lates song Shema Yisrael a beautiful song about
covering our eyes in Shema with David Deor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukmz7glYA7Q
-Joey’s Morroco Medley still has me rocking Shukron
Allah!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/SHABBOS CONNECTION
OF THE WEEK
Clothing Check- Chukas – Our Sefarim tell us that Shabbos
has a special light that shines into each week. The light that we get from
Shabbos lasts for three days. Until Tuesday. From Wednesday and on we begin our
preparation for Shabbos in becoming the receptacle for the new light Hashem
shines for the coming week. It’s the cycle of Creation. It’s what keeps us
holy. It’s what makes this day so essential to the Jew.
The Nesivos Sholom sees a hint to this lofty idea in the mitzva
of this weeks Parsha of Parah Aduma; the red heifer that is used to purify us
from the tumah when one comes in contact with death. Tumah, he explains, is the
when we come in contact with that absence of light. It’s when we are in connected
to the void of the life force of a holy neshoma. The purification process is that
we sprinkle the ashes of the red heifer on the 3rd and 7th
day of his impurity. Why the 3rd and 7th day? Because there
are two forces that take effect and prevent a person from growing. The first is
when he feels small. When he feels low. When there is no spiritual light. It is
on the third day- a hint to Tuesday the third day when we are furthest from
Shabbos. When that previous Shabbos light is waning. Then one must purify
oneself. If he does that, then when Shabbos comes- the 7th day he
can then receive the new light and purity of the 7th day and achieve
his holiness and light once again.
We don’t have the purity or ashes of the Red heifer, but we have
Shabbos each week to affect that purity and bring us back to our source and re-jew-venate
ourselves. That is the light and holiness of each Shabbos- our day of purity.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES
AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Eliyahu’s
return 724 BC –For three years Eliyahu hid out from Achav.
Having been forced to flee after the faceoff with Achav in Yericho by
the Shiva house of Chiel who had rebuilt the city walls. There Eliyahu
had taken the keys to rain from Hashem and caused a drought on the land of
Israel until they would repent. Yet Eliyahu had returned that key to Hashem in
exchange for the keys to resurrection so he could bring back to life the child
of the Tzarfati widow who chazal identified as growing up to the future
prophet Yonah ben Amitai. Well now the game was up. Hashem appeared to
Eliyahu and told him it was time to let it rain let it rain let it rain..
The three years that Hashem had decreed corresponded
as punishment for the three wicked Kings of Israel; Yeravam, Baasa and Omri.
In the same way that Eliyahu had mercy on the child, Hashem has mercy on
his children and realized the extenuating their pain and suffering even despite
the fact that we didn’t repent wouldn’t get us anywhere. It was time for Eliyahu
to tell Achav that Hashem was going to bring rain.
Eliyahu wasn’t a big fan of this, but he realized that he
couldn’t just run away. He didn’t want to end up in the belly of a fish like Yonah,
his future student would be. By the way we once again see the connection
between these two prophets, for Yonah as well was given the task to
rebuke and tell the city of Ninveh to do teshuva and he didn’t want to do
that task either. Sometimes it seems Hashem has different plans than the prophets
themselves. Hashem has more faith and confidence in us then even our leaders do.
It’s an important message and lesson.
Eliyahu though has another plan up his sleeve. He goes to Achav
and instead bumps into his former student Ovadia the prophet. Next week
we’ll learn a little more about him.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE KOSHER
JOKES OF THE WEEK
Rabbi Bloom
and Rabbi Levy are sitting in their local kosher deli and when the waitress
comes over, ask for two glasses of water. When the water arrives, they take out
homemade sandwiches from inside their coat pockets and start to eat.
Moshe the
deli manager is not happy with what he sees. So he goes over to them and says,
"Look, I'll give you both one of our snacks free of charge. My customers
won’t mind, seeing you are Rabbis. But please, you can't eat your own
sandwiches in here!"
Rabbi Bloom
and Rabbi Levy look at each other with twinkles in their eyes. Without saying a
word, they shrug their shoulders, exchange their homemade sandwiches and carry
on eating.
It was
lunchtime at the Jewish nursery school and all the children were lined up by
the teachers. Then, as usual, they were led into the canteen. Little Moshe
quickly noticed that at one end of the dining table was a large pile of apples
with the message, "Take ONLY ONE apple each, God is watching." At the other end he noticed was a large pile
of kosher chocolate chip cookies.
Moshe then
whispered to his friend Sarah, "We can take all the cookies we want.
God is watching the apples."
Rachel had not seen her Israeli
relatives for years, so she was very excited when her Aunt Leah and Uncle
Yitzhak came to visit her in New York. To celebrate their visit, Rachel took
them to an old-fashioned Kosher restaurant in Brooklyn.
"I'll have the kreplach," Rachel told the waiter.
"The kreplach is from
last night," explained the waiter. "Better you should order
something made fresh today. How about stuffed peppers?"
"OK, let it be stuffed
peppers."
The waiter turns to Aunt Leah.
"And you?"
"Bring please the pot
roast."
"The pot roast is strictly
for goyim. If you want something special, try the flanken."
"All right then, so bring
the flanken."
Uncle Yitzhak studied the menu
carefully then said to the waiter, "I can't make up my mind. What do
you suggest?"
"Suggest!" cried the waiter. "On a busy night like this who has
time for suggestions?"
When he arrived in New York the
customs official was perplexed as to why anybody would have 5 sets of gold
teeth. So Moisha explained. "We Orthodox Jews have two separate sets of
dishes for meat products and dairy products but I am so kosher and religious I
also have separate sets of teeth." The customs official shook his head
and said, "Well that accounts for two sets of teeth. What about the
other three?"
Moisha then said "Vell us
very religious Orthodox Jews use separate dishes for Passover, but I am so
religious I have separate teeth, one for meat and one for dairy food.
The customs official slapped his
head and then said,
"You must be a very
religious man with separate teeth for food and dairy products and likewise for
Passover. That accounts for four sets of teeth. What about the fifth set?"
"Vell to tell you the truth, once in a
while I like a ham sandwich." .
Benjamin and
Morris are sitting in a wonderful Kosher restaurant in Miami.
They are
talking among themselves in Yiddish. A Chinese waiter comes up and in fluent
and impeccable Yiddish asks them if everything is okay, can he get them
anything, and so forth. Benjamin and Morris are dumbfounded.
"My
God, where did he learn such perfect Yiddish?" they both think. After
they pay the bill they ask the manager, an old friend of theirs, also fluent in
Yiddish, "Where did your waiter learn such fabulous Yiddish?"
The owner
looks around and leans over to them so no one will hear and says, "Shhhh.
He thinks we're teaching him English."
Moshe goes
to see his Rabbi. “Rabbi, last week I missed saying grace after meals.”
“Why,” asks the Rabbi.
“Because
I forgot to wash my hands before the meal.”
“That’s
twice you’ve broken the law but you still haven’t told me why.”
“The food
wasn’t kosher.”
“You ate
non-kosher food?” asks the Rabbi.
“It
wasn’t a Jewish restaurant.”
“That
makes it even worse,” says the now angry
Rabbi. “Couldn’t you have eaten in a kosher one?”
“What, on
Yom Kippur?”
Rabbi Levy
is walking home from shul one shabbes when he sees Issy in front of him. Issy
is a learned and respected man who can hold his own with the rabbi on tulmudic
discussions. As Rabbi Levy tries to catch up with Issy, he is shocked to see
him go into ‘The Chinese Crab’ restaurant. As he looks through the window,
Rabbi Levy sees Issy giving his order to a waiter and a short time later sees the
food arrive – a plate of shrimps, lobsters and crabs. As Issy picks up the
chopsticks and starts to eat, Rabbi Levy bursts into the restaurant and
confronts Issy.
"Issy,
just what do you think you are doing coming into this restaurant and ordering
this treif? You are not only violating everything we are taught about the
dietary laws, but you also seem to be enjoying this food."
"Rabbi," says Issy, "did you see me enter this
establishment?"
"Yes."
"And
did you see me order this food?"
"Yes."
"And
did you see the waiter bring the food to me?"
"Yes."
"And
did you then see me eat the food?"
"Yes."
"Then
I don't see a problem, rabbi. Everything was done under full Rabbinical
Supervision."
A group of
Rabbis were having lunch in “Isaacs White House” kosher restaurant.
Unfortunately, Isaac served them watermelon spiked with whisky that he had
prepared for another table and he realised his mistake too late to do anything
about it. All Isaac could do was wait in his kitchen and expect the worst.
As soon as
the waiter came back into the kitchen with the empty plates, Isaac grabbed hold
of him and asked, "What did they say, please tell me, what did they
say?"
"Nothing
at all, Mr Isaac," replied the
waiter. "They were all too busy searching for the watermelon seeds and
putting them into their pockets."
Rachel and
her husband Max are in their local kosher restaurant. Even though Rachel always
seems to find something to moan about in this deli restaurant, they still
regularly go there because the food is good and it's frequented by many of
their fellow seniors.
As usual,
within minutes of taking their seats, Rachel starts to bother their waiter.
"Waiter," she says, "please turn up the air
conditioning. You know I can't stand a hot atmosphere."
But then,
five minutes later, she asks the waiter to turn down the air conditioning
because she is too cold. Soon after, she wants it turned up again because she's
getting too hot. But then their food arrives on the table and Rachel is at last
silent as she eats her meal.
Maurice, who
is sitting near Rachel and Max's table, can't help but notice that at no time
does the waiter show any anger - in fact he is surprisingly patient. So as the
waiter walks past his table on his way back to the kitchen, Maurice calls him
over and says quietly to him, "I can't understand why you don't just
throw this customer out of the restaurant."
"Oh,
we don't really mind," says the
waiter, "because not only do we have a customer focus program in
operation where the customer is always right, but also, this restaurant doesn't
have any air conditioning."
********************************
So last week we finished the 2021 exam my final score was 25.5
correct and 6.5 wrong which doesn’t make sense because there’s supposed to be
33 questions. So I must have messed up one week with my math. But anyways. We can
only answer 30. So if I take off 2 more of those questions, the it would give
me 25.5 right which on the exam the multiple choice part only counts for 30
points would give me 83% not bad!
For the next exam I’m translating the Hebrew one of the Summer
2020. Let’s see how I do… or you do..
Answer
is C – So I copped out a bit on this one, and imaginably I got
the answer technically correct. I wrote that the date was the 5th of
Iyar 1948. That was easy. I know when Yom Ha’Atzmaut is. On the other hand I
wasn’t sure of the secular date, so I didn’t write it. If I had to guess I
probably would’ve written the 5th of May which is wrong.
It was actually the 14th of May. If
they would’ve asked me when Cinco de Mayo is though I would’ve gotten that
right. But the truth is since they didn’t specify what date (Hebrew or secular)
I imaginably would’ve gotten the answer right. The second part of the answer
though was fairly easy. They didn’t mention Jerusalem, certainly Jerusalem’s
old city wasn’t even part of the State until 1967 and they didn’t know if they
would get it. It was even controversial if they would mention Hashem or God and
they settled on “Tzur Yisrael” the rock of Israel which could be open to
definition with Ben Gurion begging that should suffice and not be forced to put
to a vote, so forget about the building of the Temple. And no, they didn’t
mention borders as they had no clue what the borders would be when the
declaration was made what they would be.
The correct answer, which is the Partition
plan was mentioned as part of the justification for the establishment of the
State. This is the final answer on this exam for the multiple choice section
and so the final score would be Schwartz 25.5 and 6.5 for MOT (Ministry of
Tourism) on this exam.
