Karmiel

Karmiel
Our view of the Galile

Friday, September 9, 2022

Love and War- Parshat Ki Teitzei 2022/ 5782

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

September 9th 2022 -Volume 11 Issue 4 13th of Elul 5782

 

Parshat Ki Tetzei

Love and War

 

Vacation, finally! And yet although the tour guide Rabbi Schwartz might get a few days off to recuperate and re-“Jew”-venate, your friend in Karmiel still needs to get out his weekly E-Mail. Your children wouldn’t know what to do if their Shabbos meal ended an hour early without the weekly missive. Your boss might wonder why you don’t have that smile you usually do Friday mornings while you pretend that you’re working on your computer at work, but really reading the jokes on the bottom. The Rabbi in your shul might wonder why you’re paying attention to his drasha instead of reading that printed up E-Mail each week. But perhaps most significantly, my mother would be disappointed if she didn’t have something to either read and compliment me on and tell me how much she loves me- or alternatively to scold me and give me Mussar and tell me to stop writing about my surgery and my personal life and business.   Then she would of course tell me that she loves me as well… and I forget everything else she said. If I even heard it in the first place.

 

Regardless I gotta write this. So here we are sitting out in the front yard of my vacation tzimmer overlooking the Mediterranean and the hills of the Western Galilee and writing to you. It’s beautiful, by the way. It’s serene. I’m here without my family. It’s just me. Me and Hashem. Hashem and His mountains in His magnificent country that He has privileged me with sharing with so many over the past few months once again. I sit here and can’t even express how loved I feel by Him and how much blessing He has given me. Have you ever felt like that? Just so amazingly loved, so grateful, so close to Hashem, perhaps even a bit unworthy.

 

Why me? What have I done to deserve such love? I certainly can think of plenty of reasons and things for Him to be pretty annoyed at me. And ‘annoyed’ is a polite don’t-feel-so-bad, kind of word. There’s lots that I’ve done or haven’t done that He should be downright fuming at me about. And my wife, my mother, my kids, my rebbeim and even my tourists and congregants could give Him an even more elaborate list just in case He was looking for things. Yet… yet… yet… He doesn’t stop loving me and showering me with blessing. It’s crazy. It’s overwhelming. It’s really everything.

 

As I sit and ponder and bask in this glow of appreciation, I hear music come on. It’s the neighbors tzimmer next door to mine. Like every good Israeli they like 70’s and 80’s American music. Thankfully it’s not Pink Floyd or Madonna. Rather perhaps the couple next door seem to be feeling as loving as I am. They are listening to love songs. Songs that I’m familiar with. Songs that aren’t Jewish, that I listened to in my younger goyish music stage of life. Songs that are actually beautiful and emotional. But as I sit here in Elul trying to write this E-Mail, I try to make those songs that I can’t get out of my head a little holier. Like the Chasidic Rebbes of old who also perhaps snatched one or two goyish songs, and as they say, found and released the sparks of holiness inside of them. Perhaps I can have my goyish music and my kedusha too… Or not. Regardless, it’s playing, my soul is stirring, and it’s too beautiful to go inside and close the windows. I’m here and now you are too.

 

The truth is it really isn’t that hard to find that holiness. Maybe even it’s a bit too easy. I just never thought about it before, but now the words come rushing out to me from their very loud surround sound speaker with entirely new meaning. The love songs that they are singing about really aren’t about the love between a husband and wife, a boyfriend and a girlfriend or perhaps even something more illicit or forbidden. They’re about Hashem and me.

 

I can’t live my life without You”.

 I’m alive when You’re with me”.

You give me meaning.”

“You’re my world.”

My inspiration

You’re my everything.”

“I’d walk the world for You.”

Our love is eternal”.

You bring out the best in Me”.

 I’m alone without You”.

 

Lyric after lyric, chorus after chorus. It’s all Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It’s a jukebox or playlist from heaven. (or not). But its tugging all of my heartstrings. I feel as if I’m being serenaded by Hashem. The Melech is in the field with me. (or not).

 

After this musical introduction I open up our parsha. It is a parsha that is packed with mitzvos. Interestingly enough they are mitzvos that are primarily concerned with two topics: love and war. Sure, there are plenty of other mitzvos here as well, but the themes of love and war keep coming up again and again. We are introduced to the conjunction of both of those in the first mitzva of the parsha. The strange mitzva that during war one is permitted to take a non-Jewish captive woman as a wife.

 

The Torah tells us that it’s a love story that really isn’t,. On the one hand this guy is perhaps moved by the flaring testosterone of warfare and killing and murdering people- enemies of course. His spiritual guard is understandably a bit down. On the other hand, this woman is really not a good match for him. No less than Dovid Ha’Melech fell into this trap, and found out much later, with the rebellion of his son Avshalom who came from such a union, that bad things come from fake love songs.

 

As well the Torah continues its journey with marriages and love gone awry. We have the person who has two wives one which he doesn’t love. He hates her. We have divorce. We have widows who have to marry their brothers-in-law. We have all types of people who engage in forbidden pre-marital or extra- marital, or forbidden relationships-some consensual some not. It’s a mess. It’s a goyisheh love song. At the same time, interestingly enough, we learn the laws of making your wife happy during the first year (and always!) and the laws of marriage. We have women jumping into their men’s fights and standing up for their men. Inside of all this murky bad stuff we have holiness. We have a love song of Hashem joining this union.

 

Similarly, the laws of war have all types of brutal depictions. In last week’s parsha we are told to wipe out the 7 nations men women and children. Genocide. Ouch. At the same time, it told us to be careful not to knock down any fruit trees. Man is like a tree. Hmmm… It told us about the holiness of the soldiers in battle. Who was exempt. How not to fear. The Kohen recited Shema and gave them blessings. It’s intense. This week with the holy army- according to Rashi it only contained those that didn’t fear they had any sins in their hands, right away though it starts to tell us about taking these captive women. The Chozeh of Lublin notes that the Torah permitted this because if not the yetzer hara would be too great and the men would take her even if she was forbidden. Wryly, he says, that the only Jews that would be susceptible to this yetzer harah are the ones that think they don’t have any sins. The ones that think they’re big tzadikim- those are the guys you have to watch out for. Those are the ones that the yetzer harah could snare with one pretty shiktza. With one goyisheh love song.

 

The Torah then tells us that our camp must be holy. It must be sanitary. Hashem is amongst our camp. This is not a goyisheh army. As well the parsha concludes with the obligation to wipe out Amalek. Again, men women, children and even animals. We are meant to do this with brutal hatred. They are the enemy. They are preventing the shechina from shining amongst us. We need to take them out.

 

War and love. This is the season we are in as well in Elul when we read this parsha. On the one hand this month we are told that we are together with our beloved. Ani l’dodi v’dodi li- is the famous acronym for this month. At the same time, it is a time of fear and trepidation. We have a court case coming up this year. In a few weeks’ time Hashem will pull out the books and decide if we will live or we will die. The Satan will be there with plenty of ammunition. Like most Israeli wars- we don’t have too much to fight and shoot with. But anachnu b’sheim hashem elokeinu nazkir- we come in the name of Hashem.  How do we navigate these extreme emotions and situations we face?

 

Rav Shlomo Aviner notes that the obligations of war really obviate many of the commandments. Not just simple ones either. We violate Shabbos, not only to go to war but even to rescue people and even bodies. We even violate the “theme” at least of the three big sins. As we noted it is permitted to take a non- Jewish woman, we are obviously killing and even some of the Kosher laws are permitted to being violated during war according to the Rambam non-Jewish wine is permitted to being drunk. The reason he suggests is because when we go to war there are no personal considerations that mitzvos are obligated in. It’s about negating oneself entirely for the nation and for Hashem’s glory. I am not an individual in war. I am Israel. I am Hashem’s army. As one we have the power, and we move beyond the usual individual mitzvos which are about our personal growth. We are entirely connected to Hashem and the mission he placed upon us.

 

In marriage it is a very similar concept. It’s not about what I want. What I’m feeling. What I can get out of the relationship. What I desire. It’s about building a home for Hashem. It’s about creating a family. It’s about becoming one. It’s about understanding that the love and bond shared between you and your spouse has the ability to be eternal, if Hashem is part of that love song as well. If He’s not, then you’re in trouble. Then your children are in trouble. Then it will be war.

 

Rebbi Nachman of Breslav said that every wisdom in the world has a song attached to it. Even non-Jewish ones. It is where it gets its chiyus from- its spiritual essence to exist. Religious songs, love songs, celebratory songs, they are all pieces of one great song of Creation. Amazing grace, if you will. In Shir Ha’Shirim – the Song of Songs it says

Tavo’I v’tashuri mei’rosh amana- which literally means you should come straight down from the peak of Amana.

 

 Rebbi Nachman though reads it homiletically, that we will come with the ultimate redemption and sing from the peaks of faith- emuna. As well others note that that the word tashuri is like the word Tishrei- me’rosh is rosh Hashana. On Rosh Hashana when we sing, we connect to that first song. We reveal the core and the love of all Creation that Hashem had when He made man. Since that first sin on that great day of love we have been at war. War with the yetzer hara, the Satan, the nations, with ourselves. But the King is back in the field in this month. It’s time to reveal that love song to the world. To put down our swords and turn them into plowshares. We’ll then live forever…knowing together… that we did it all for the glory of love.Have a song-filled Shabbos

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Tsu itlechen neiem lid ken men tsupassen an alten nigen..” - To every new song one can find an old tune

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HxjWn_7FdI   -  Nissim Black and Dustin Paul Human Greatness! Latest release…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt0mR1i9lOk   – A classic and powerful video from the Haftorah B’Shetzef Ketzef from Avromy Flam

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5dNzfzJVoE    Ahavas Olam from Akiva.. beautiful

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nx_tkCB0a8    Eitan And Shlomo Katz Everlasting Love also from this weeks hafotrah

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YjgCN3k3Uc    And of course Parsha ki Teitzei is never complete without Yigal Calek’s Ki Yikarey kan Tizppor

 

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

11)  The Muchraka monastery was founded by the    _________ church order

Its location is where

A)  The prophets of the Baal were slaughtered, and their idolatry was invalidated

B)  Eliyahu went up to heaven and where he appointed Elisha

C)  A heavenly fire came down and the faith in one God was restored

D)  The resurrection of the child of the widow was preformed and Eliyahu went into isolation

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/SHABBOS CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

 

Remember- Parshat Ki Teitzei- Our Parsha concludes with the mitzva to remember what Amalek did to us and to erase them from the face of the earth. We read this right before Purim each year. Yet it’s a strange mitzva. On the one hand if we remember them then we will never forget and then they exist. On the other hand we are obligated to destroy them so that there shouldn’t be any memory of them.

 

Amalek as we know is not the only remembrance mitzva. We are also obligated to remember Shabbos each week. It’s in the Ten commandments. The Ramban explains that the mitzva has two aspects to it. On the one hand it’s a daily commandment each day of each week to do things to remember Shabbos. Each day we count towards Shabbos. Each day we make little preparations for Shabbos. As well the mitzva of remembering is on Shabbos as well. On Shabbos we need to do something to make the day a memorable one. We need to sanctify it and make Kiddush on wine to celebrate it each week.

 

Shabbos reveals Hashem’s presence in this world. Each day we remember Shabbos we are erasing Amalek. We are testifying that Hashem created and controls the world. The remembrance of Shabbos erases Amalek. As well on Purim when we drink wine and celebrate the day we erase the memory of Amalek. They are totally gone. They are destroyed and we are redeemed. At least for the moment. Each Shabbos when we make Kiddush and remember Hashem on this special day as well we have erased Amalek. We have remembered. Lchayim!

 

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

 

Hit Me - 724 BC – After the incredible 2nd miraculous victory of Achav against Ben  Hadad of Aram that was foretold by the prophet Micha. Their army of 100,000 was wiped out and they fled to the city of Afek where Hashem made a miracle and the walls of the city collapsed upon them. Yet, as we mentioned last week our enemies know how to play upon our mercy and our un-comfortability with being victors. Ben Hadad and his men realizing that the end was near dressed in sackcloth and put nooses around their next and appeared before Achav and asked for mercy. That’s our weak point. We don’t like to see people in sackcloth and being pathetically submissive to us. As well when someone-especially a goy apologizes to us that’s pretty much all we really need. So Achav not only pardons them but even restores them to their land giving them their “terror” state in Damascus. Of course we signed treaties- that of course they had no intention of keeping and thus they left.

 

Hashem wasn’t happy with this. Fortunately, he had the prophet Micha to do some splainin to Achav. In a fascinating story Micha approaches another prophet and tells him to beat him up. The prophet of course refuses, and Micha curses him that since he didn’t listen to the word of Hashem as he spoke then he will die. Sure enough a lion pops out and eats him. Boom one down. Next he goes over to another person and gives him the same command and prophecy. This guy learned his lesson and sure enough he beats up Micha. Micha then waits for King Achav to pass by. He disguises his face as a beaten-up soldier coming from war and he turns to him and asks him a seemingly hypothetical question. Here he was told by a soldier to watch over a prisoner. If he did so properly, he would be rewarded, if however the prisoner wasn’t there when he got back then he would punished with his life in place of the prisoners. Sure enough, he told Achav I got distracted and the prisoner escaped. What should happen to me now.

 

Achav without blinking an eye told the “soldier/prophet” in disguise that he pronounced his own fate already. He should die in place of the prisoner. Boom! He fell into the trap. Micha then takes off his disguise and tells Achav that he had just pronounced his own fate Hashem had given Ben Hadad into his own hands to get rid of him. How dare Achav let him free and even build him up once again? Because of this Achav and the Jewish people will be held accountable with their lives. The truth is it will only be Achav that will be accountable. The Jews will be set free as the midrash tells us that Micha prayed that the suffering that he had when he got beaten up should atone for them.

This is a Tanach story yet it is an important one that many don’t know and realize. It’s as timely as it gets and it is the mistake that Israel makes again and again. We keep having mercy on the cruel who Hashem gives in our hand and we don’t appreciate that our obligation is to rid the country of those that wish to destroy us and who ultimately don’t accept our sovereignty over the land. There are no peace agreements. They can live and remain on one condition only they accept us. They are subservient to Hashem and us His nation. Perhaps the governments need to start reading this column

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE FASHION JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

Yankel: I stood under my Kallah's window and sang a love song to her. She threw me a flower.

Berel: then why is there a wound on your head?

Yankel: she forgot to take the flowers out of the pot

 

A shabby-looking man walks into an upscale bar full of businessmen and orders a Scotch. The bartender looks him over and says, "Sir, I don't believe you can afford the drinks at this establishment. May I ask that you go somewhere else?"

The man shrugs his shoulders and says, "You're right. I don't have any money on me. But I'll tell you what. I can show you a miracle. If I do, can I have one on the house?" The bartender sighs and nods, and sees the man take a hamster out of the pocket of his overcoat. Before the bartender can tell the man that animals aren't allowed, the man leans down to the hamster and says, "Play."

The hamster darts out of the man's hand, runs up to the grand piano in the bar's corner, and runs across the keys, playing Gershwin songs as he does so. It's incredible. Concert pianists don't play this well! At the end of the hamster's set, everyone applauds, and the bartender pours the man who came in a glass of their best Scotch.

The man savors the Scotch, and says, "That was incredible! If I show you another miracle, can I have another drink?" The bartender nods excitedly, and sees the man pull out a frog from his coat this time. He leans in and says, "Sing." The frog opens his mouth and begins singing a deep and rich love song. Everyone stops talking in the bar to listen to this frog. They have tears in their eyes, thinking about the ones they love, the loves that they let slip away. Not a dry eye in the bar. When the frog stops singing, the whole bar bursts into applause, and the weeping bartender gives the man the whole bottle of fine Scotch.

One of the businessmen comes up to the man and says, "Hey buddy, you look hard up. I'll give you five thousand dollars for the frog, what do you say?" The man thinks it over, says yes, and accepts five thousand dollars that the businessman offers. The businessman takes the frog and runs out. The bartender, shocked, looks at the man and shouts, "Are you nuts? That frog was beautiful! And it was a FROG! How could you let something worth a fortune go away like that?"

The guy takes a swig from the bottle and says, "What are you talking about? My hamster is also a

ventriloquist."

 

Dad, whose music did you listen to when growing up?”

Dad: Led Zeppelin.

Son: Who?

Dad: Yes. They were good too.

 

My drunk friend was kicked out of Karaoke for singing “Danger Zone” 7 times in a row.

He had exceeded the maximum number of Loggins attempts.

 

Knock knock!

Whos There?

Kenya!

Kenya who?

Kenya feel the love tonight!

 

“Somebody just gave me a shower radio. Thanks a lot. Do you really want music in the shower? I guess there’s no better place to dance than a slick surface next to a glass door.”-Jerry Seinfeld

 

“I wrote a song, but I can’t read music so I don’t know what it is.”-Steven Wright

 

“My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the ‘William Tell Overture’ without thinking of The Lone Ranger.” -Billy Connolly

 

“I love to sing, and I love to drink scotch. Most people would rather hear me drink scotch.”-George Burns

 

“When she started to play, Steinway came down personally and rubbed his name off the piano.”-Bob Hope

 

“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” -Steve Martin

 

“I know only two tunes: one of them is ‘Yankee Doodle’, and the other isn’t.” -Ulysses S Grant, former US President

 

Q: “What kind of music are balloons afraid of?”

A: “Pop music”.

 

Me and my friends are in a band called “Duvet.” We’re a cover band.

 

What part of a turkey is musical? The drumstick.

Why couldn’t the athlete listen to her music? Because she broke the record.

Why did the pianist keep banging his head against the keys? He was playing by ear.

How do you make a bandstand? Take away their chairs.

********************************

Answer is B This is a bit of a trick question, even for all of my tourists that I have brought here. Muchraka of course is the Carmelite Monestary on the tip of Mt. Carmel. Even those of you that haven’t been there with me, but if you’ve been watching my statuses you’ve certainly seen me there plenty with its incredible lookout point of much of the North of Israel. It’s there where the story of Eliyahu and the prophets of the Baal take place. The question though is which part of the story? Well for those of you that remember the story it could be one of two answers. Either the fire came down or he had the prophets of the Baal slaughtered there. But the name Muchraka should give it away. See, Muchraka means burnt place (it’s similar to the word in Hebrew as well charach is charred). The top of the mountain is where the fire came down and ate up Eliyahu’s offering. He then ordered them to take the prophets of the Baal to the bottom by Nachal Kishon and kill them there. So the right answer is B, which of course I got right.  So the score now is Schwartz 8.5 and 2.5  for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.


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