from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
February 10th 2023 -Volume 12 Issue 17 19th of Shevat 5783
Parshat Mishpatim
Children
need two parents. One to do their homework with them, the other to cook, clean,
do laundry, clothing-shop, food-shop, make a living to pay for all the
shopping, go to parent/teacher conferences and of course to spend quality time
and love with them. In Israel one has the added pleasure and responsibility to
deal with all the government bureaucracy offices that seem to dominate our
lives as well. Maybe children need 10 parents. But I can tell you with
confidence and experience that homework is a full-time parenting job.
I thought I was done with trigonometry, biology,
history, even chumash and Navi-at least the assignments, when I passed my
regents and received my diploma.
"No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's
dirty looks".
Yet, the only thing I seem to have moved beyond
is the pencils which really weren't too bad. So here I sit cracking my head on
Pythagorean theorems and Isosceles triangles as my younger daughter awaits help
with her "Teva/Science" homework and her questions on the story of
Gideon in Navi. My children are in bad shape...Daddy/Abba, deleted this
information from his brain a very long time ago. But if they want, I can teach
them how to write a sometimes-humorous Parsha Email, a great inspiring fun tour
of Israel or compose an amazing song. But they might just need another parent
if they have plans of graduating.
The truth is being a parent is not an easy job,
or so the more experienced one, my wife tells me. It is a constant balancing job
of chores, errands, and love. How do people with 10 or 12 kids manage? I have
no clue. Yet at the same time people with one or two kids ask me the same
question "how do we manage with five?" (Bli Ayin Hora). I tell
them to marry well. The one thing that keeps it all together is perhaps the
ingrained sense of responsibility and the natural sense to nurture, that our
Creator blessed us with. For most of us if someone would offer us a job
cleaning floors, picking up laundry, cooking, washing dishes and doing
homework, I don't think it would make it on our top ten of what I wanted to be
when I grow up positions. Yet, that's what we do, and we bless Hashem daily for
the privilege to be granted such a precious gift.
This week's Torah portion shares with us a
multitude of laws that govern relationships between man and his fellow man. It
starts with one's responsibility to one’s servants, his neighbors, his
obligation in regard to their possessions, his obligation in regard to watching
over his own possessions so they do not do damage. The Torah also delineates
one’s obligations towards the unfortunate members of society; widows, orphans,
converts, charity cases and those needing a loan, or a hand. The Torah even
mentions consideration one must have for accidental murderers, thieves, and
those that have made mistakes and wish to make things right once again.
Basically, the majority of civil law can be found in the first few Aliyot of
this Parsha. What is blatantly missing though is some guidance on raising one’s
family. In fact, there are not too many verses in the Torah that gives us
parenting tips or how to raise a Jewish family. If the Torah is the book of
Jewish living shouldn't there be at least one Parsha dedicated to the eternity
and well-being of our family?
The answer suggests Reb Yisrael Salanter the
great Mussar giant (as well as many of his students), that all of the clues of
how-to parent are incorporated in the laws of how one deals with society. If
one understands the degree of honor, respect, and consideration one must treat
one's servants with, one's neighbors with, and even those who have done wrong,
then our spouse and our children are of course to be treated with the same
level of dedication.
If Hashem provides a special place for one who
kills someone to run to as a place of refuge, shouldn't our child who crashes
our computer or consistently doesn't pick up their clothing be offered that
same refuge? If we are obligated to take in the lost object of a neighbor care
for it and seek him out to return it, are your kids lost shoes or coat
(generally 5 minutes-before carpool) any less? And if we can be mandated to
assist our enemy unloading his donkey from his heavy burden, is the homework
burden of our children (who sometimes resemble donkeys shlepping a load
with all those schoolbooks) any less of a mandate?
There's a great story of one of the great Mussar
ethicists whose student asked him what the best way to excel in the attribute
of kindness- doing chesed. His Rebbe told him that when he comes home,
and his wife tells him that the children need a bath he should run to do it
with simcha-joy. In that way he fulfills chesed with his wife, his
children and perhaps greatest of all with himself. He points out that when the
Torah describes the mitzvah of unburdening your enemy's animal it says
If you see your enemy’s animal crouching from
under his burden, would you hesitate to assist him in unloading? Unload with
him!
The Rebbe said the reason one might hesitate is
because he feels that he is losing or assisting his enemy. However, the Torah
tells us in truth what is happening is that he is himself burdened by his
feelings of hate or anger and by working together he too will be unburdened.
Unload!-Azov Ta'azov IMO- Which can also be translated as leave
"you shall leave with him". Put one’s personal feelings behind and
you will find that you yourself are being helped.
There is no place this truer, the Rebbe said,
than when it comes to one's family and children. Too often our own personal
stress, needs and projected expectations weigh us down and pre-occupy us from
helping out those that are most important to us. The greatest chesed is
when we can put those down for a bit (and many times more than a bit) and help
unburden the load of those that we care the most about. In doing so we will
find that we ourselves will become unburdened. The chesed that we do
with our loved ones can be the greatest chesed. It's not always easy but
that what our real homework is really all about.
Have a moiridikeh happy Shabbos Mevorchim Adar!
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Eyn mame dergreykht mer vi a hundert lehrers.” One mother achieves more than a hundred teachers.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
11) The
highest summit in the Galilee is on Mount:
Which of the
following is the highest above sea level?
A) Karmiel
B) Nazareth
C) Beit
Shemesh
D) Mitzpe
Ramon
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/layehudim
–
Getting
into Adar Mode with my La’yehudim song
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/eitz-chayim
-In
honor of the second Parshas Matan Torah-
My amazing inspiring beautiful composition Eitz Chayim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzF2pvTT1Yc
– An awesome Lecha Dodi in Tzfat
with Malchus, Kempeh, Aharon Razel, Zanvel Weinberger, Levi Falkowitz and more…
Pretty amazing.. you don’t want to skip this..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-erxz2eRmI
– nothing Like Chanan BenAri songs being sung by a
chasidish guy Yanky Hill..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CeMYTczzII
– In the wake of the recent attacks a beautiful composition by
Mendel Roth- Eretz Al Tichasi Damim
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/yizkeraim
- And on that musical note my
Yizkereim memorial song
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Elisha’s Cave?- 690 BC- Mazel Tov! The Shunamite woman
had a son that was granted to her from the prophet Elisha. At first she
declined any special recognition for all the service and special hospitality
she had provided for him in her Shunamite house, which we said was in
the modern day Arab village of Sulam, at the foot of Mt. Tabor in
the lower Galile. She was after all very old and this would be a
tremendous miracle. Yet, Elisha promised her that all would be alright and the
child was born. Yet not long afterwards as he grew older he was out in the
field and he suffered from sunstroke. It’s a dangerous time of year around Sukkos
time. It’s not too hot so one doesn’t feel the heat, yet the sun is bright and
can dehydrate you. They bring the boy home to his mother and lo and behold, he
dies in her lap. This is not a good thing.
Yet, this remarkable woman has faith that Elisha had
promised her all would be well. So she calmly takes the child and places him
upstairs in the attic where Elisha’s room was. She then tells her
husband that she’s taking a donkey to go pay a visit to the prophet. He’s a bit
taken by that. The Navi tells us that he asks her why she is going? It’s not
Shabbos, it’s not a holiday. Why would she go visit the prophet. Our sages
learn out from this discussion that one should visit their Rebbi on Shabbos and
Yom Tov, by the way. She pushes her husband off and heads off to Mt. Carmel where
Elisha is.
Interestingly enough there is a cave on Mt. Carmel that is
known as Eliyahu’s cave. It would seem that this is really more of a
Christian made up site than an actual Jewish site, as it seems clear from the
Navi that the cave that Eliyahu hid from Achav was in Midbar
Yehudah- far from Mt. Carmel. Yet throughout generations Jewish
pilgrims have prayed there from the period of the Geonim making it one of the
oldest Jewish pilgrimage sites in Israel. In fact the Mabit who lived in
Tzfat in the period of the ARI in the 16th century
mentions and annual Hilula there and the Ohr Hachaim Ha’Kadosh in
the 17th century even spent Yom Kippur there. Yet, the site itself
dates back to the Byzantine period long after Eliyahu and it was
certainly used as a shared Christian and Jewish site.
Now although, the story of Eliyahu running away from Achav
didn’t happen here. Yet, from this story of Elisha on Mt. Carmel,
and the previous story of Eliyahu and the prophets of Baal that
took place by the Muchraka monastery at the tip of the Mountain, it
seems that this Mt. was certainly a place where Eliyahu hung out as well
as his students. So perhaps this could be the cave of Elisha as well as Eliyahu,
maybe using his Rebbi’s cave. The building, by the way, which used to be a cold
damp cave was recently renovated and is really nice and worth the visit.
What takes place next, when she arrives there? Stay tuned...
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE HOMEWORK
JOKES OF THE WEEK
Why did
the boy eat his homework? Because his teacher said it was a piece of cake.
If school
isn't a place to sleep then home isn't a place to study
.
Teacher
says to little Mary, "I want you draw a picture of a house" Little
Mary says "That must be my HOMEwork"
Yankel
came to cheder all puzzled and said to his teacher "Rebbi will I get
into trouble for something I haven’t done?"
He said
"No, why?"
Yankel said
" Because I haven’t done my homework.”
My
daughter was doing her homework and asked me what I knew about Galileo. I,
proudly and confidently, told her that he was just a poor boy from a poor
family. (If you don’t get this… you need to rhapsodize a bit…)
Hey, Berel!
You think your teacher knows that I help you with homework?
I think she does, mom!
She said
it was impossible to get so many wrong answers on my own.
Father:
When Abe Lincoln was your age he walked 9 miles to school and did homework by
candlelight.
Son: When
Lincoln was your age he was President.
I always
put my glasses on when doing Math homework. It improves division
"Dad,
can you help me with my homework?"
"Sure
son"
"What
are 5 mammals that live in the ocean?"
"3
whales and two dolphins"
"Thanks
dad"
"Anytime"
Me: Do
you want help with your homework?
Son: No
you make it worse Me: I do not!
Son: ok
what's a “naysayer”
Me: Easy. That
is a horse
Little
Ahmed is doing his anatomy homework.
He comes
upon a question: "What separates the head from the body?"
Ahmed answers:
"The axe"
Russia's
Three Steps to Homework
Step 1.
Putin it off
Step 2.
Stalin
Step 3.
Russian to finish
FROM a Real Letter to God Homework
assignmnet
Dear God,
Did you mean the giraffe to look like that or was it a mistake?
Dear God,
Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't you just
keep the ones you have now?
Dear God,
Who drew the lines around the countries?
Dear God,
Thanks for my baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.
Dear God,
It rained during our whole holiday and my father was so mad he said some things
about you that he shouldn’t have. Please don’t hurt him.
Dear God,
Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up.
Dear God,
If we come back as something, please don't let me be Jennifer Levy, because I
hate her.
Dear God,
I want to be just like my daddy when I get big, but not with so much hair all
over.
Dear God,
I think about you sometimes, even when I'm not praying.
Dear God,
I bet it is very hard for you to love all the people in the world. There are
only four people in our family and I can never do it.
Dear God,
Of all the people who worked for you, I like Noah and David the best.
Dear God,
I read Thomas Edison made light. But in Hebrew school, I learned that you did
it. I bet he stole your idea.
Dear God,
I don't think anybody could be a better God. Well, I just want you to know that
I am not just saying this because you are God already.
Dear God,
Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own
rooms. It works with my brother
********************************
The answer to this week”s question is D – I like easy questions, especially ones tha mention my home town of Karmiel. But really everyone should know that Mt. Meron is the highest mountain in Galile- even if you never went on a tour with me. As well Part 2 is pretty easy as well as As Beit Shemesh is in Shefela- lowlands, Nazareth is in Lower Galil- as is Karmiel which borders the upper and lower Galil on Highway 85- the emphasis is of course on the word Low in both of those. Mitzpeh Ramon though in the Negev is about 900 meters high above sea level. It’s in the South so some might think that makes it not high, but of course North and South geographicaly have nothing to do with elevation. So that’s of course the right answer. Making the score now 8.5 for Schwartz and 2.5 for Ministry of tourism on this exam so far…
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