Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
June 3rd 2022 -Volume
11 Issue 34 4th Sivan 5782
Shavuot
It’s one of those
rare meals that we’re not in any rush to finish. On most Friday nights or
holidays we had a long week. We’re tired. We’re ready to hit the sack. Don’t get
me wrong we enjoy our Shabbos and holiday Yom Tov meals. There’s good food. We
have wonderful family bonding time. There are zemiros, Shabbos and Yom
Tov songs that we all sing together, especially if you guys learned some new
Rabbi Schwartz compositions that you want to make sure your whole family learns
so that you can truly reach the most elevated and exalted levels of
spirituality. But at the end of that meal there is a bed waiting for you. A
welcoming warm pillow and blanket that you know will feel just perfect after
having such an incredibly satisfying spiritual and gastrointestinal experience.
So I understand that you don’t have time to read my whole Megilla each week. I certainly
spread it out over all three Shabbos meals. Because that bed is waiting there
for me after 6 long tiring days on the road. And I don’t want to disappoint it.
But Shavuos night
is different “at- all” as my Savta would say. I’m in no rush. The bed
isn’t going to be happening until the early hours of the morning. The only
thing waiting for me is the Bais Medrash where I will be fighting to keep my
eyes open, drinking lots of coffee and pretending that I am absorbing some
serious Torah learning in my muddled exhausted brain. If it were up to me, I’d
get a good nights rest and wake up early in the morning fresh and rested and
then first sit down and learn for a good few hours.
But the downside
of being the Rabbi of a shul is that you really can’t always get away with what
makes sense. Tradition trumps all. Certainly, a tradition that’s been over 500
years old that started with the ARI’Zl whom I speak about a lot on my tours in
Tzfat. It seems there were 8 students of his that stayed up and an angel
revealed the secrets of the Torah to them. The two that fell asleep missed out
and since that time the AR”I pretty much made sure we would never miss it
again. I have never seen any Shavuos night angels, although the guy that refilled
my coffee mug looked that way at one point. But, I’m certainly not going to go to
sleep and miss out, because that angel probably is waiting for that year to be
the one that he shows up and then everyone will laugh at me for missing it. But
I’m certainly in no hurry to finish the meal and get to the Bais Midrash. And
admit it neither are you.
So, in order to
help you out-Rabbi Schwartz is always there for you, y’know… I’ve got a few
things for you. First of all, this week’s E-Mail will probably be longer than
usual and you can read the whole thing twice if you really want to stall for
time. Don’t worry nobody will notice. They’re not listening to anything but the
jokes anyways. In addition, I have four new Shavuos songs that you need to
listen to and sing repeatedly and teach them to your family. They are easy to
learn, so that shouldn’t take much time, but they get better and better and are
addictive and you will find yourself humming them all night long. Finally, I
figured that tonight we will start with a game. Make it fun. I know it’s not
Pesach. So we won’t be throwing plagues and frogs at people or animal noises by
Chad Gadya, hiding and stealing afikomans or having lengthy negotiations. But
Shavuos the day of the giving of the Torah also needs a game for a long meal
delayer. So let’s play.
I want you to go
around the table and ask everyone if they had one biblical or Jewish historical
figure that they could meet with, that they could chap a half hour schmooze with,
who would it be and why. Sounds like fun? It’s a great opener for a good
discussion. It will teach you about your family, your children, and it will buy
time (which since my small stomach surgery- I need between courses to make
room) to shlep out the meal and you probably don’t have to get to the Bais
Midrash until one or two AM if you play and enjoy it right.
Now, I’m not sure
who or what your answers will be. But I can guess there will be some Avraham
Avinus, Sara Immeinus. Moshe Rabbeinus; or perhaps more friendly his brother Aharon.
Maybe your brainy kid will say King Solomon. Queen Esther I’m sure has a
fascinating story to tell. Yeah, I know your yeshivish kid would say Rava or
Abaya, the Breslaver wannabee maybe the AR”I, Rebbi Nachman or the Baal Shem
Tov. Maybe you can even add to the game and guess other peoples “choice person”
before they reveal it. But for me there’s only one person that I think would be
the most incredible experience to meet. I don’t even have to think twice. I’ll
give you a hint. It’s his birthday on Shavuos and non- coincidentally it’s his Yartzeit
as well. Can anyone guess? Yup you got it. The person I would most like to meet
is the King of all Israel. Dovid Melech Yisrael- Chai V’Kayam; the
singer and eternal King Dovid.
The truth is Shavuos
is the day that we are all really meant to tap into that spark and appreciation
of Dovid Ha’Melech. In fact, it is mentioned in the commentaries that the
entire book of Rus that we read on Shavuos was really written only to testify
to the purity of the lineage of Dovid, whose grandmother Rus was a pure holy
convert and whose grandfather Boaz was the judge and leader from the tribe of
Yehuda. It’s why the book concludes with that lineage down to Dovid. Not that
it necessarily helped much, because as our sages tell us there were plenty of bloggers
at that time that managed to cast aspersions on the halachic legitimacy of Moabite
converts and there were some that even suggested that Dovid ‘bichalal”
came from an illegitimate relationship after his father separated from his
mother. It’s why he was scorned by his brothers, and he had to hang out with
the sheep all day and play his guitar. Nobody wanted to accept him. Fake news
and ripping down authority and leadership figures is not a new phenomenon in Klal
Yisrael. I’m sure the fact that he was a redhead didn’t help him out much
either. You know what they say about “gingies”. He’s got that Esau hot-blood
in him. He’s destined to be a killer.
Yet Dovid
perseveres. He flourishes. That quiet time with the sheep, the struggles, the
abuse, the unacceptance by all sitting out in the vast wilderness all day
turned his heart and soul to Hashem. He bonded like no other. He composed song
after song that expressed the deepest emotions a soul can stir. There was
nobody there to laugh at him. No one to judge him. No one to join him. It was
him and His Creator and those songs are the core of every prayer, every Jewish
gathering, every Jewish ritual and kumzitz. Because they don’t get more
real. They don’t get more holy. I want to meet him and hear about that. I want
to tap into it.
Dovid’s first real
public experience though is of course in his famous faceoff with Goliath. I
mean come on. Does it get more awesome than that? You have a whole Jewish army
threatened by these Philistines and this giant of a animal (think like Hulk
Hogan or these WWW wrestling animals but ten times the size) threatening them
and blaspheming Hashem and his nation and Dovid picks up a small little
slingshot and knocks the living daylights- quite literally- out of him. It’s
not the first major battle of Dovid. He tells Shaul when he is interviewed for
the job- after everyone laughs at him- that he fought of bears and lions in the
past that threatened his sheep. He killed them with his bare hands back then.
But that doesn’t impress Shaul -rightfully so. It’s only when Dovid says
Hashem
hitzilani m’yad ha-ari v’hadov- Hashem
that saved me from the lion and the bear will also give Goliath in my hands,
that Shaul agrees he’s the right and perhaps only man for the fight. Dovid understood
that he didn’t have anything without Hashem. He was just His simple pawn and if
that was the case, all he needed to win any enemy was a few pebbles taking out
of that shepherds’ sack that was full of faith and love for His Creator. It’s
the only weapon we ever need.
Dovid’s life
doesn’t get any easier after that. His entire life is one challenge after
another. His father-in-law wants to kill him. I mean not just like most of our
father-in-laws- he really really wanted to kill him and he tries time and time
again. Dovid is on the run and his greatest weakness- or strength it turns out,
is that he can’t or won’t fight back. He has opportunity after opportunity to
kill this man who has made his life miserable and who has separated from his
wife or wives and family and he won’t touch a hair on his head. Shaul is the anointed
of Hashem and Dovid’s feeling is to let Hashem take care of the problem. I’m
not here to do God’s dirty work. If Hashem wants to avenge me that’s his
business- aval yadi al tihi bo- my hand will not be against him. For mei’reshaim
yeitzei resha- only bad people to bad violent things. They act zealously in
the name of Hashem to “right” what they view as divine wrongs against them. But
they’re wrong. They’re fooling themselves. It’s not about Hashem, it’s
personal. And Dovid didn’t have any personal. He was only about Hashem.
When he finally
becomes king, his life doesn’t get any easier. It also doesn’t get any
prettier. It’s a good thing Artscroll (love ya Gedalia Z. Don’t take this
personally) wasn’t charged with writing his biography. Dovid sins and he does
so big time. He takes a “married” woman, gets rid of her husband and marries
her. Ouch! Yes, our sages tell us her husband was a dead man walking as he rebelled
against Dovid. And yes she was technically divorced at the time. But who are we
fooling? This was not a good thing.
Except that it
was. Because we learn out from this story how we are all human. We all can
fail. We all can mess up- as Dovid did- royally. Because we are all Kings and only
kings can royally mess up.. But that’s not what it’s about. It’s the fact that
our story doesn’t end with that. In fact our story just can get better after
that. For there is teshuva. There is repentance. We can become bigger, greater,
more humble and closer to Hashem then we were before that sin. It is from that
sin, that we bring Mashiach. Dovid fathers Shlomo from that union. The Temple
for Hashem is built. The first era of redemption enters the world. Sin is not
bad. It’s a steppingstone to greatness. I need to hear that from him. I need to
internalize that. It’s him more than anyone else that we all need to hear that
story from.
For the rest of
Dovid’s life he is beset with tribulations. He sees his children die, abuse one
another, rebel against him. Trust me, one meeting with Dovid Ha’Melech and you
will never complain about tzaar gidul banim again. It’s a joke what we
have. Trust me after hearing Dovid’s horror stories about his children you will
give your boychik a hug. The fact that he slept in late, or that he did things
that you don’t approve of or that might embarrass you in your community or hurt
your other children’s shidduchim is literally “kinder shpiel” in
the precise meaning of the term compared to what he went through. But he never
stopped loving them. He never stopped davening for them. He never gave up on
them. He saw their goodness. Their potential. Even when nobody else did.
Dovid’s last
years he finally had some respite. He learned each night and each Shabbos he
never slept. It was his day of rest and he knew that he was meant to die on Shabbos
and the angel of death has no power over him if he is connected to Hashem
through Torah. Yet, God is trickier. His brought a storm with some leaves blowing
to disturb him and he looked up and stopped learning and died in the last hours
of Shabbos. Shabbos that was Shavuos. It was the day the Torah was given. The
day that we as a nation became the mamleches kohanim of Hashem- the
Kingdom of priests of Hashem and it was the day that our King was taken from
us. It was his birthday and his death day. And our sages tell us that when
someone dies on the day they were born it is a sign that they have achieved
perfection. When they die their soul is born again, just as Moshe’s was, in all
of us.
Each Shavuos we
remember Dovid Ha’Melech on this special day. Some have a custom to read and
learn the entire book of Tehillim he wrote. If you ask me that can be more
meaningful on this special tiring night than a blatt gemara. In our davening on
all our holidays we again and again ask Hashem to return us to the house of
Dovid. The house he longed to build for Hashem that he didn’t merit to build.
Yet our sages tell us that Dovid will ultimately be the one to build the third and
eternal Temple of Hashem. Each morning we begin our songs of praise with the psalms
of Dovid Ha’melech and the first one we sing is Mizmor Shir Chanukas ha’bayis
l’Dovid- a song for the inauguration of the Temple of Dovid. Dovid didn’t
build the first or second Temple. It is the third temple that we are singing
about. It’s the temple he wanted to build and will ultimately build. It’s not
too late for it to happen this year already. More Jews than I have ever seen
before are here in the Holy Land hoping and waiting for it to happen. Maybe I’ll
get that meeting, maybe we all will, with the help of Hashem already this year.
Have a Royal
Shabbos and song-filled Shavuos.
Rabbi
Ephraim Schwartz
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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH
PROVERB OF THE WEEK
A melocheh iz a melucheh, ober men hot nit kain minut menucheh..- Having a job is a having a kingdom, but it doesn’t leave you
with a minute of rest.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
30) The curtain covering
the ark in synagogues is called in Hebrew: ___________
Using this element in a synagogue, expresses the concept that a
synagogue is:
A) A special place for the
study of Torah
B) A sanctuary (mikdash
me’at)
C) A place of prayer only
D) The center for religious
Jewish life
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/dovid-melech-r-ephrayim -In honor of Shavuos get your
dancing shoes on for my latest Dovid Melech Yisrael composition with the one
and only Dovid Lowy!
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/eitz-chayim -Here’s my Eitz Chayim Hi, A fun
nice march that some claim is inspired by a TV show theme song… Free bowl of
chulent if you can figure it out.
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/kad-yasvun -If you listen closely to this
song I composed you can actually hear Hashem singing and shepping nachas from His
children that forget all worries and troubles and learning Torah. This is my
Kad Yasvun a truly perfect composition sung and arranged beautifully by Dovid
Lowy. You really need to learn and sing this by your Shavuos Table.
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/torah-hakedosha -Composed in honor of our Hachnasas Sefer Torah listen to this
holy Torah Hakedosha composition I and my son Yonah composed with Dovid Lowy’s
arrangements and vocals.. Especially listen all the way to the end for encore
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/melech-rachamon
-I know in the intro to this
song I mention Pesach however its really good for all of the three holidays
when we say the words in our Musaf prayer of the Melech Rachaman to return us
to the Bais Ha’Mikdash- this is my response to Shlomo Yehudah’s beautiful V’Hsareinu-
I think mine is nicer… what do you think?
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/SHABBOS
CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Torah Day- Shavuos
– Did you know that the Torah was given on Shabbos? It wasn’t
supposed to. In fact, Hashem actually planned on it being given on Friday. Yet
Moshe Rabbeinu pushed it off for one day so that we would get the Torah on the
holiest day of the week. Why would he do that? Is there something special and
unique about Shabbos that Moshe felt we should achieve that was different than Hashem’s
plan? And if so what special gift and lesson can we learn from that each
Shabbos?
The Koznitzer Maggid asks this question and he tells us
rather cryptically that the fact that it was given on Shabbos insured that it
was something that we would never be able to lose. It would be eternal. We received
a portion of Torah that can only be achieved on Shabbos. And that secret
ingredient was given to us by Moshe, when Hashem and even the angels in heaven
wanted to keep to themselves, because they felt we weren’t worthy of it. The
ingredient is called Chochmas Ha’Sod- the secrets of the Torah; the deep
mystical understanding of Kabbala that are hidden in its written word.
See, the Torah we are told is divided into four different
ways of being studied and learned. It’s called Pa’R’De”S- or orchard,
which is an acronym for Pshat- simple understanding, Remez- the
hints and allegories of the Torah, Derash- the inferences and stories we
can derive from the text and finally Sod-the secrets by which Hashem
created and runs the world with that are hidden in its holy words. The first
three are all Hashem wanted to give us. The secrets though, that was too much.
One has to be entirely pure and holy to learn them. There is a fear and perhaps
some divine PTSD that lasted from Adam, the first man who bit into that
knowledge before Shabbos from that tree that possessed it, that we would
destroy and misuse it. It would send us off the deep end. So Hashem taught it to
Moshe, but he didn’t mean to share it with us. Yet, Moshe felt that without the
Sod. Without those secret holy teachings, the Torah could god forbid
become just another fun intellectual book of values, history and teachings. It
wouldn’t be Divine. It wouldn’t contain the power of all of the universe. So he
felt that we needed that too.
Yet Moshe understood that we can only be on the level to
achieve and accept that hidden Torah if we were on the holy Shabbos level of
our exalted souls. When we had our neshoma yeseira. Unlike Adam who didn’t wait
for Shabbos, Moshe pushed off the Torah’s being given on that day so we could
get that fourth aspect of the Torah as well. And so the giving of the Torah was
postponed and not it is forever part of us and eternal.
Each Shabbos we celebrate and sanctify the day with wine
again and again. Yayin-wine, has the same gematria as the word Sod-
secret. Shabbos, the ARI’Zl tells us is the one day that is most opportune to
achiveve the wisdom of kabbalah. It’s when his deepest classes took
place. It’s the night that Chasidim gather by the Rebbi to hear the deep
secrets that they who follow in the ARI”zls ways reveal to us. Particularly on
Shavuos it is the time when we can as well tap into that holy light. So drink a
glass of wine. Open up your sefer and feel and experience the secrets and light
of Torah in this day as never before. It’s why it was given on this day.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN
ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
The place where perhaps the
greatest collection of churches for Eliyahu are in the Judean wilderness
near the Jordan River. It was here that Eliyahu fled to after swiping
the keys to rain from Hashem and locking up the gates of heaven for three years
so that no rain would fall on the land. The Navi tells us that he fled from Achav
to Nachal Karit by the Jordan River where he hid in a cave. There
the ravens would bring him bread and meat from the royal table of Achav
himself.
Incidentally our sages note that there was a
divine lesson in the fact that the ravens were chosen to bring the food. For in
the times of the flood when Noach wanted to send out the raven, the raven
protested. He told Noach to send out one of the Kosher birds instead as there
were seven of them. If he died, though, that would be the end of his species. Noach
though told the raven that he wasn’t good anyways for any sacrifices, so he
wasn’t that important anyways. Hashem rebuked Noach and told him that the raven
would serve an important function in the future. He would provide food to Eliyahu.
Eliyahu who had been tough like Noach had been on the raven, though with the
Jewish people needed to hear that lesson. Every Jew has a purpose. They shouldn’t
be starved or killed. They may look black on the outside but they can fly where
no else can bring home the kosher food that we may all need.
The area of Nachal Karit is
most likely in the area today called Wadi Kelt or Nachal Parat
not fear from Yericho by the Jordan river from Judean
wilderness. There are magnificent hikes there with all types of caves and
its amazing to think that it was here that Eliyahu once hid. The Christians
have quite a few churches here dating back to the Byzantine times when
monks and hermits would come out for solitude and meditation and the “Eliyahu
Ha’Navi” experience. It is one of the most peaceful places in Eretz Yisrael,
particularly when there are no arabs or flocked with tourists and hikers which
is rare. But I certainly recommend heading down there for an experience of a
lifetime. And check out the black birds that flock around there. They’re not
ravens. Most of them are called Tristramites here in Israel. But we can
pretend. We can imagine. This is where Eliyahu got his inspiration
perhaps we can get some as well.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE TORAH FIGURES JOKES OF THE
WEEK
What did David call himself after
his ID was stolen? Dav…
Who was the greatest financier in
the Bible? Noach -- he was floating his stock while everyone else was liquidating.
Who was the greatest female
financier in the Bible? Pharaoh's daughter -- she went down to the bank of the
Nile and drew out a little “prophet".
Yitzhak had
just moved into a new apartment and was out celebrating with his friend Benny.
At 2am, he invited Benny back to his apartment where they continued to
celebrate. Then Benny said, "Before I go, why not show me around?"
So Yitzhak
proudly showed Benny his apartment and all the high tech it contained. Then he
took Benny into his bedroom where his friend couldn't help but notice a very
large shofar on the chest of drawers.
"Why
do you have a shofar in your bedroom?" asked Benny.
"That's
my clock," Yitzhak replied.
"A
clock? Are you serious?" said
Benny.
"Of
course," replied Yitzhak.
"So
how does it work?" said Benny.
"Watch
this," replied Yitzhak, as he
picked up the shofar and blew it at the top of his lungs. They stood looking at
each other for a moment when suddenly, someone in the apartment next door
screamed, "Stop that, you inconsiderate oaf. It's quarter to three in
the morning."
What kind of man was Boaz before he got married? Ruth-less.
What excuse did Adam give
to his children as to why he no longer lived in Eden? "Your mother ate us out of house and
home"
The ark was built in three stories. The top one had a window to
let in light. How did the bottom two stories get light? They used floodlights.
Why was Goliath so surprised when David hit him with a
slingshot? The thought had
Who was the first person to download something from a cloud to
two tablets? Moses
Where is the first tennis match mentioned in the Bible? When
Joseph served in Pharaoh's court.
Which Bible character had no parents? Joshua, son of Nun
How do we know the people on the ark with Noah did not play card
games? Because Noah sat on the deck
A Surgeon, an engineer, and a politician were arguing as to
which profession was older. "Well," argued the Surgeon, "G‑d
created Eve from Adam by form of surgery, so I am sure that mine is the oldest
profession."
"No,"
said the engineer, "before life began there was complete chaos, and it
took an engineer to create some semblance of order from this chaos. So
engineering is older."
But," chirped the triumphant
politician, "who do you think created the chaos?"
Yankel came to a bar on a nightly basis, ordering two glasses of
Crown Royal. When the bartender asked him why he never changed his order, the man
explained that he had a friend with whom he drank a nightly glass of Crown
Royal for many years.
"My Berel was drafted and died in Korea," the man sighed, "and I decided to immortalize him by
drinking two glasses of Crown Royal every night. One glass I drink for him; the
other for myself."
One night, after thirty
years, the man entered the bar and ordered a single glass of Crown Royal.
"What happened?" asked the bartender.
"Oh," Yankel responded, "I quit
drinking."
********************************
Answer is B -I just love it when it works out that the questions from the tour guide exam which I post here in order of the exam relate as well to the time of year when I post them. It’s like the hand of heaven is making this happen adding divine ruach hakodesh to what at first glance seems like random questions. Well this one is of course easy. The Parochet is the cover of Ark and it is of course meant to symbolize the covering in front of the Ark of the covenant- aron ha’bris in the Mishkan and Temple No although this is a pretty easy question for us religious Jews I imagine the Arab or Christian wannabee guides will get this wrong- as I would when it comes to the nonsense names of parts of their false places of worship. Information I pretty much deleted after I finished my exam. Sooo in honor of Shavuos the day when we go the Torah covered by the Paroches I got this one right and the score is now Schwartz 24 and 6 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.
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