from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
June 17th 2022 -Volume 11
Issue 36 18th Sivan 5782
Parshat Shelach
Sabras
I’m sure you’ve heard the term
before that is used to refer to native born Israelis. You see those pink
prickly pears growing all over Israel. The reason they say that Israelis are
called Sabras is because just as the sabras are sharp and prickly on the
outside and sweet and juicy on the inside once get you past their thorny
exterior so are our fellow native Israelis.
Now, I’m not sure about the sweet
and juicy part so much. But certainly I think we can all relate to getting
pricked by those sharp thorny Israelis. Yet, the truth is I have a different
reason why Native Israelis are called Sabras and that is that the Sabras in
fact are not native to Israel. The whole thing is a bluff- just as the idea of
a Native Israeli is. The Sabras in fact originally come from America and
Mexico-the latter even being a national symbol for that country. They’re not
really native to Israel. They haven’t been here forever, despite the way they
might act and flourish as if they were always here. They’re imports like
everyone else that is coming here that were transplanted to this country from
far away. And so are native Israelis.
Even more fascinating is that
Arabic origin of the word Sabra is really translated as patient. They called it
that because they don’t need a lot of attention and water to grow. They
patiently sit quietly and take whatever comes their way. Hmmm… How Israeli does
that sound to you? Now I know that Israelis are always waving two fingers
at you touching their thumb to them and yelling impatiently Savlanut-
savlanut…patience… patience…They are really not the most patient people at
all. So to call them Sabras is perhaps even more ironic than people realize.
Yet in Hebrew the word Sabra is spelled with the letter Tzadik. Li’tzbor is
to gather. To take whatever it can get. Israelis don’t see the Sabra as
something that is patient, but rather that takes all the water it can get and
make the best out of it. Perhaps that’s something that accurately describes the
Israeli can-do attitude and the “make-the-desert-flourish” a justifiable title
for them.
I write about Sabras this week,
because this week’s Torah portion of Shelach here in Israel- and yes I know
that you in the Diaspora are not up to us yet-in more ways than just the Torah
reading (see that prickly sabra attitude that I developed come out) is the one
that talks about how we are all meant to become Sabras. How our nation that had
been exiled for 210 years to Egypt was finally on the way to come back home.
How we were supposed to come here and finally fulfill the purpose of us
becoming Hashem’s nation which is to settle the land and shine Hashem’s light
unto the world from here. It’s really the purpose of all of Creation. And the
way that we were meant to do that and become this nation of Hashem was by first
sending in spies to prepare the land and the people for our reunion. It’s the
marriage between us and our land that has been waiting since Hashem promised it
to our forefather Avraham centuries before. And the spies were meant to be our
shadchanim.
See, the land of Israel is like
no other land. It’s our Bashert. It’s waiting for us. It can throw us out. Or
it can make us a nice dinner when we get home after a long long day in galus.
It’s a sensitive land. It has feelings. It can make our lives and our home the
best place in the world for us to be in, or it can make it a miserable place
full of strife, famine and misery. It can be sweet and juicy or it can be
thorny and prickly. Just like us. We were made for one another. But like many
perfect couples, to achieve that holy union and relationship takes a bit of
courtship. It takes maintenance. It takes date nights. And perhaps most
significantly it takes a lot of appreciation and sensitivity to the needs,
desires and soft spots of the other.
So Moshe sends in the spies to
smooth the way and prepare the land for our arrival. It’s like Eliezer going to
pick up Rivkah for Yitzchak laden with gold, camels and good stuff. Except the
difference is that the land of Israel doesn’t really need camels or jewelry.
It’s not it’s thing. What it really likes is Torah. It loves Mitzvos. It really
loves Jews. So Moshe sends the people La’Tour es Ha’Aretz, the
holy Berditchever explains that he sent them there to learn Torah. To start
sweetening the land up from a small taste of what it would be like to have her
nation back home.
In his words
“When the Israel is fulfilling
the Mitzvos in the land then the land desires and longs that it’s people will
be in the land to fulfill the 613 Mitzvos of the Torah. Therefore Moshe sent 12
men and he commanded them Vayasuru- from the word Torah; that they should learn
Torah there. And then the land will be easy to conquer before them when they
fulfill the commandments. And Israel will influence the land and the land will
be our recipient…. For this is the main desire of the land.”
Yet the spies messed up. They
were bad shadchanim. Lousy marriage counselors. You know those therapists that
feel its healthy to talk about all of your problems and bring up every issue
since you first met and put it out there… Yeah… I know you know what I’m
talking about. Your “friend” told you about her experience with them. Well
that’s what they did and it was downhill from there. We cried and cried and
used up all of the tissues on that warm comfy couch of the clouds of glory that
we sat on in the wilderness just a few days from the Holy Land. And we’ve been
crying since needlessly because we found too many other what we thought would
be comfy couches for the past 2000 years that weren’t really the right fit for
where we were meant to be. They weren’t our Bashert and so eventually we cried
there as well.
It hasn’t been easy for our
Bashert either. Lots of ugly, smelly, obnoxious nations have misused, abused
and defiled her over the centuries and millennia. They still are today as well.
Lots of us have come home, that’s for sure. But she’s still waiting for all of
us. Half a husband doesn’t really cut it for her. The laws and mitzvos of the
land, like our once every 7 years Shemitta sabbatical, or our 50th year
Jubilee and even the regular tithes and gifts don’t really have their full
experience and mitzva until at least the majority of us are here. Hashem’s
shechina where we’re all meant to live perfectly together ain’t coming back and
His house isn’t going to be built until every last single one of us are
here. So it’s time to come home. It’s time to consummate that shidduch.
It’s ttime to be one.
A friend of mine sent me this a
powerful post. I shared it on daily Whatsapp status (which by the way if you
are not watching your missing out on free Ephraim Schwartz daily tours that I
share on there- just send me you contact number and I’ll add you to my Contacts
and then you can add me as well and see them and join the few hundred each day
that enjoy them). The post he shared says it like it is. It’s a wake-up call to
fix our mistakes. To understand that we shouldn’t be making the same mistake
twice. Or perhaps even more accurately not to make the same mistake we’ve been
making for way too long. It’s to remind us that when we read the parsha of the
Meraglim and note what a tragedy it was and that we think about the horrific
ramifications that we are still suffering from that we shouldn’t think that
this is a 3000 year old one time sin, but rather it is a mistake that we are
still crying for nothing about. That we have yet to fix. That we still are
making and that really really is in our hands to finally rectify.
Here it is. Do with it what you
want.
Have you bought into the
Meraglim’s report? I can’t
make Aliyah because….
The food is different then what I
am used to
The Spies said “V’zeh
Piryah-And these are it’s fruits”
Israelis are so rude
The Spies said “Efes Ki az
Ha’Am Hayoshev Ba’Aretz-The dwellers of the land are brazen.
Right now the only soft landing
spot for my community is in Romeima or Beit Shemesh and I can’t see myself
living in a large urban city as Yerushalayim
The Spies said “ V’Ha’Arim
Betzuros Gedolos me’od- and their fortified cities are very large”
The ‘neighbors’ are dangerous
The Spies said “And also
the children of giants we have seen there, Amalek dwells in the land of the
South and the Chitti, Yevusi and Emori dwell in the hills and the Canaani dwell
on the sea and by the Jordan”
My kids may go OTD ( Off the
Derech) as the education in Israel is not what they are used to and they will
get swallowed up.
The Spies said “It is a land
that eats up its dwellers”
I can’t see my family being
accepted by Israeli society
The Spies said “And we will be
like insects in our eyes and so we will be in their eyes”
Don’t be like the Meraglim! Be
like Yehoshua and Kaleiv!
They said “Tovah Ha’Aretz
me’od me’od- The Land is very very good!
Aloh na’aleh vi’yarashnu osah- Let us surely go up and inherit it.
Ki yachol nuchal lah- because we certainly can achieve it.
There’s another translation for
the word Sabra. It’s also something that many people claim Israelis are not
that good at. It’s Hasbara- Explaining things. Public Relations. Now the truth
is I don’t believe that to be true. Israel has just a good PR department as
anyone else. The world is not interested in hearing that’s all. But the truth
is it isn’t to them that we need to do Hasbara to. It’s to ourselves. We need
to understand and be explained to why we are here. What are Basherteh land is expecting
from us. We need some good Chasan class teachers. We need to understand why we
need to be here and why no where else is right for us. We’re hanging with the
wrong girl.
Even those of us that have
managed and are privileged to be here, we need some hasbara to as to why we
need to do everything we can to meet our land’s expectations of us, to bring
the rest of us here with us. To make it the place and the Bayis Ne’eman
B’Yisrael that we know we can make it into. Ki yachol nuchal lah- we can do it.
We need to do it. Then we can fully claim that glorious title being Sabras. The
explainers to the rest of the world that we were chosen to be.
Have a
remarkably holy Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
This week's Insights and Inspiration is sponsored by Temima
Girls High School of Atlanta in appreciation of Rabbi Schwartz for connecting
our HS girls to the amazing real-life Emunah of the Shemitah Farmers in EY
& relating it all to the Yom Tov of Shavuos for us! No better way to get
inspired than to laugh our way there!!
We so enjoyed 'zooming' with you- Temima HS for Girls in
Atlanta,
************************************************
Guys! Readers Friends… We need sponsors… Your
support is essential to us. It doesn’t have to be much. Any amount works. Honor
a relative, Memorialize a loved one on a yartzeit, a birthday a special
occasion. This weekly Email goes out to almost 2500 people weekly. Over 600
weekly actually open this. Jews from all over of all backgrounds and
denominations… This is the unifier of Klal Yisrael. SO please show your
support. Make a Rabbi happy. Just click below and the dedication is yours.
Thanks
so much!
Your
sponsorship can be made by clicking on the following link
https://holylandinsights.blogspot.co.il/
and
contributing via PayPal on our holyland insights sponsorship link
Alternatively,
you can mail a check made out to
Rabbi
Ephraim Schwartz
10
Eshel, Karmiel, Israel, 21681
Please
write in memo Insights sponsorship
Or
in the States to
25441
Gardner
Oak
Park, Mich, 48237
All
Donations support the local programs of the Young Israel of Karmiel and can be
deducted from your Maaser!
Thank
You!
************************************************
SHABBOS DAVENING SCHEDULE
SHABBOS SHELACH
EARLY SHABBOS
MINYAN- 6:05 PM MINCHA
PLAG MINCHA –
6:20 PM
CANDLELIGHTING
– 7:22 PM
KABBALAS
SHABBOS- 7:35 PM
SHACHARIS –
9:00 AM
Final time for
Kriyas Shema – 9:05 AM
MINCHA- 7:05
PM
MAARIV – 8:43
PM (ten minutes after tzeis)
************************
The Young Israel of Karmiel would like to wish a hearty Mazel
Tov for the second week in a row to Rabbi Moshe and Ahuva Goldbaum on the Bar
Mitzva of their son Yehudah. May the continue to shep much yiddishe nachas as
they watch him continue to grow l’torah u’lchuppa u’lma’asim tovim!
**************
Miss my smiling mug and voice and want more subscribe to
my weekly Whatsapp or Youtube video for my
FREE
My weekly 10 minute or less video short last week's
Parsha
Here's last week's Video
Very Humbly Yours
You can get the weekly Rabbi Schwartz video by
subscribing to my Youtube page on the above link. Or alternatively by Facebook
friending me
Or shooting me a whatsapp to my phone number
011-972-50-597-0649
And I will add you to the Whatsapp group
*****************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Nit fun a sheyner tsurke vert a gut vayb-” -A Pretty figure doesn't make a good wife
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
2) “E’ale betamar”
is a term that refers to: ____________
This term is
related to:
A) The days
of the Second Temple
B) The
Samaritan Sukkot holiday
C) An event
that occurred in a particular year
D) Palm
Sunday
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/eliyahu-hanavi - Rabbi Schwartzes
fan favorite- Eliyahu Hanavi in honor of all our Era Column Eliyahu Hanavi
stories…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e8aAdlfU5o - Mordechai
Shapiro’s new Dancing in the Rain with lyrics…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEu7MBCSHHs -Simcha Leiner’s
latest dance hit Shuvi..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0orWDLJfhc -Fried and Yingerlach singing Ani
Maamin at Siyum Rambam event…
https://ahblicklive.com/post.php?u_id=4wNTvxzoS7NIwHMKO5E -Adirei Torah Lakewood
Highlights…Awesome…
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/SHABBOS CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Rest Stop-Shelach – Every Friday night we start our Shabbos
with the story of the spies. It’s the song that we perhaps all know that
Shabbos is finally here. It’s the psalm that we start Kabbalas Shabbos with
each week.
Arba’im
shana akut ba’dor- 40 years Hashem was angry our nation…
asher
nishbati b’api im yavoun el menuchosi- And I swore in my wrath is they will come to my resting
place.
Now most of us
sing this with heartfelt kavana. The tune is a great one
particularly if you use the Carlebach version. Yet, if one thinks of the words
they’re not particularly inspiring. In fact they should be down right
depressing. Hashem is angry at us because we rejected and cried needlessly because
we didn’t want to come to Eretz Yisrael. He exiled us and killed an entire
generation in the wilderness that He swore would never step foot in the Holy
promised land. Yet that is the way we start off each Shabbos service. Why?
What’s the connection?
The Koznitzer
Maggid gives an incredible insight in which he connects this decree of Hashem
that we would wander for forty years in the wilderness with the first such
decree and punishment in the history of Mankind; the decree of Kayin- Cain from
outside of the Garden of Eden. Hashem appeared to Kayin after his offering
wasn’t accepted and told him personally, prophetically, don’t be upset. Don’t
be angry. You can come back. I’m here for you. Don’t run to the sin outside
your door. It will just disconnect you from Me. It will cause you to wander. To
feel alone. To feel homeless. To feel abandoned. Stay with Me. I will be your
place to rest.
Cain doesn’t
listen and he kills Hevel and his decree, the consequence of his action is that
he is disconnected and must wander. Yet Hashem tells him that he will give him
a sign- an eternal one, that he will always be able to know that he can come
home to. That sign Chazal tell us is Shabbos. Every Shabbos is there is no
denim- no punishment. We are home. Kayin will feel at rest. He can return.
When our nation
rejected Eretz Yisrael as well we lost that special connection. Yet each
Shabbos we can come back to that. The Parsha is called Shelach because we have
been sent out from Hashem. Yet the conclusion of the Parsha is the story of the
Jew that violated the Shabbos- the Mekoshesh gatherer of the
sticks. Shabbos is so essential and has to be observed because it is our sign
that Hashem tells us that we no longer need to work. We are at rest. We begin
each Shabbos with the story of the spies, and we are inspired that we have the
opportunity to return home on this day. We can come to the resting place and
return to the Garden. We can sing the next Psalm of Kabbalat Shabbos. Shiru
La’Hashem Shir Chadash- we sing a new song. A song of return and a
song of redemption. We are home again. And we hope never to wander anymore.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN
ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Resurrection-750 BC- As we left off last
week Eliyahu Hanavi was
living by the widow of Tzarfat and her son after he
had miraculously provided her with a blessing that gave her overflowing flour
and oil. Hashem had hoped that Eliyahu would learn from that
and see the suffering and starvation and rescind his decree that there would be
no rain in the land until the Jews had repented. But Eliyahu wasn’t relenting.
This woman was a righteous woman who had extended herself to him. She
personally didn’t deserve to suffer and so he saved her. But for the rest of
the Jewish people? For Achav and all of his murdering
idolatrous followers and the majority of the nation that didn’t protest? They
needed to suffer to come back to Hashem. And Eliyahu wasn’t caving. So
Hashem came up with plan B. It seems He always has one.
What Hashem did
next is that he caused the child of this woman to fall sick. She comes running
to Eliyahu and tells him what had happened, blaming him for
this calamity. After-all it was only because he was there that Hashem was
exacting judgement upon her. Perhaps she had been deficient in her care of him,
perhaps just even having such a righteous prophet in her midst made her look
bad. Eliyahu comes to the child and his heart pours out for
him. The child is lying in bed lifeless. Is he dead? There are different
opinions amongst the Midrashim, however either way he needs a miracle to bring
him back to life. Eliyahu turns to Hashem and prays and Hashem
responds to Eliyahu that the only way He can help him is by
giving him the keys to the resurrection of the dead. For there are three keys,
our sages tell us, that Hashem doesn’t give over to man. The key to rain- which
He had given to Eliyahu already, and the keys to birth and
to techiyas ha’meisim- to bring back to life the dead. Although
Hashem gave Eliyahu the keys to the rain, it would be
inappropriate for the servant to have two keys and the Master to have only one.
So if Eliyahu would give back the key to rain, Hashem would be
more than happy to oblige and trade him for the key to resurrection.
It’s a tough call
for Eliyahu but he concedes. Hashem gives him the key to the
rain and Eliyahu lays himself over the boy and does some
spiritual CPR on him and he comes back to life. Walla! Amazing! Miraculous. But
now the stage is set for Hashem to demand Eliyahu to go back
to Achav and tell Him that Hashem as well would bring mercy on
the people and bring rain. For just as Eliyahu learned his
lesson that a parent will do anything to save his child and it is his
responsibility as a prophet to save and provide for them and give them life. So
to we are the children of Hashem and Hashem cannot punish us endlessly and bear
to see us starve.
The Midrash in the
name of Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai tells us an incredible
aftermath and follow up to this story. For when the widow sees the incredible
miracle that Eliyahu had performed she tells Eliyahu that
now she knows he is a true man of Hashem and that his word is true. For many
people can preform miracles, but Eliyahu had to give up his
entire agenda and teshuva plan for the Jewish people to save this child. The
greater good doesn’t justify the smaller short-term death of even one child.
Hashem runs the world and at the end of the day the prophet’s job is to take
care of the here and now and not try to take the entire Jewish people and their
perspective of how things should be done and allow that to hurt anyone. It’s an
incredible and powerful relevant message that many of us need to learn when we
act out of spiritual self-righteousness and sometimes justify stepping on
anyone in the way. It’s a lesson that Eliyahu will continue to
learn and it will lead to his ultimate fate and eternal role for our nation.
The incredible
aftermath which we will continue next week is that Rabbi Shimon tells
us that this child that was saved became none other than the prophet Yonah
ben Amitai. We read the book of Yonah each Yom Kippur
and of him being swallowed by the fish. Rebbi Shimon sees this
connection in that the prophet is called the son of Amitai, from the term that
his mother, the widow used to describe Eliyahu who saved the
child and gave him life again as an Ish Emes- a true prophet. Emes-
Amitai- same word. Next week we’ll pause our Eliyahu story
to talk about this great prophet.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S REALLY (and I mean really ) TERRIBLE
ISRAELI HUMMUS JOKES OF THE WEEK
What do you call
it when a chickpea kills someone? Hummus-cide
What's the
difference between Black Eyed Peas and Chickpeas? Black Eyed Peas can sing us a
song and Chickpeas can only Hummus one.
why did Allah
give falafel and hummus to the Middle East? They prayed for more gas. "
Ugh.. I ate too
much hummus..And now I feel-afel.
Did you hear
about the chef that won an award for his chickpea recipe after he died? It was
awarded post hummus.
Two sides of
hummus decided to go out to eat. Two sides of hummus decided to go out to eat.
Once they finished eating, they said, "chickpeas!"
How much hummus
did the anorexic girl order? A tahini bit.
Where did Vegans
come from? Hummus Sapiens
Itzik Epstein
enrolled in the elite Israeli Paratrooper unit called “Tzanchanim” and while
its soldiers are known for their bravado, Itzik was a little nervous. On his
first day of class Itzik asked his instructor, "If our chute doesn't
open, and the reserve doesn't open, how long do we have until we hit the
ground?"
The training
officer looked at Itzik without hesitating and answered, "The rest of your
life."
Dave Rosenberg
recently made Aliyah to Israel and was still getting used to the new
bureaucracy. One day, he received a very strongly worded "second
notice" from the Israeli Tax Authority saying that his taxes were overdue.
Dave ran down to the tax office, paid his bill and said apologetically that he
must have accidentally overlooked the first notice.
"Oh," confided the tax collector with a
smile, "the Israeli Tax Authority doesn’t send out first notices.
We have found that the second notices are more effective."
An American
tourist was riding in a taxi in Israel. As the taxi approached a red light, the
tourist was shocked to see the driver drive straight through without even
slowing down. Surprised as he was, he didn't say anything, feeling himself a
'guest' and not wanting to make waves. The trip continued without event until
the next intersection.
This time the
light was green and, to the American's dismay, the cab driver brought the
vehicle to a grinding halt. Unable to contain his astonishment, he turns to the
driver. "Listen", he says, "When you went through
the red light, I didn't say anything. But why on earth are you stopping at a
green light?"
The Israeli
driver looks at the American as if he was deranged. "Are you crazy?!"
he shouts. "The other guy has a red light! Do you want to get us
killed?!"
An American
tourist in Israel found himself needing to get rid of a large supply of garbage
from his recent stay at an apartment. After a long search, he just couldn't
find any place to discard of it. So, he just went down one of the side streets
to dump it there.
Yet, he was
stopped by an Israeli police officer, who said, "Hey you, what are you
doing?"
"I have
to throw this away,"
replied the tourist.
"You
can't throw it away here. Look, follow me," the policeman
offered.
The police
officer led him to a beautiful garden with lots of grass, pretty flowers, and
manicured hedges. "Here," said the cop, "dump all the
garbage you want."
The American
shrugs, opens up the large bags of garbage, and dumps them right on the
flowers.
"Thanks
for giving me a place to dump this stuff. This is very nice of you. Is this
Israeli hospitality?"
asked the tourist.
"No.
This is the Iranian Embassy."
********************************
Answer is
C -This one was pretty easy for me. It’s a
date of course. Not just a tamar- date but a historical date a year taf reish
mem beis- or 1882 when the Yemenite Aliyah came to Israel. They called it that
name after the verse in Shir Hashirim- which I try to recite Friday afternoon
and whenever I do I think of these Olim. As it says I will go up ba’tamar with
a date but they saw it as ap of their Aliyah being foretold. I got this one
right and the score is now Schwartz 25.5 and 6.5 for MOT (Ministry of
Tourism) on this exam.
Oops I left out
the answer for last weeks question and score- thanks Marty for pointing it out…
The question
again was
31) A holiday
celebrated by Jews belonging to the Ethiopian community: _________
In the tradition
of the Ethiopian Kingdom, the origin of their connection to Jewish culture and
Jerusalem goes back to the days of:
A) King
Solomon
B) The exile
of the Ten Tribes
C) King Herod
D) Ethiopian
Emperor Haile
Selassie
And the truth is
the name of the holiday mamash slipped my mind. I knew it was something with an
“id” in it. Which is all I wrote. but the truth is its called sigd. So I guess
I got that wrong. It is celebrated 50 days after Yom Kippur. And it’s a day
they established to yearn for Bais Hamikdash and Torah. The Ethiopians date
themselves back to Shlomo Hamelech and the Queen of Sheba. So I get that
question half right. With the score being Schwartz 24.5 and 6.5 for MOT
(Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.
Insights
& Information is sent to e-mail addresses that of have been
submitted to the Rabbi Schwartz. To unsubscribe at any time, I send an e-mail
to rabbschwartz@yahoo.com with the words
"unsubscribe insights" in the Subject line and/or the first line of
text. If you know of anyone that may be interested in receiving this newsletter
feel free to pass this on to them...
No comments:
Post a Comment