Karmiel

Karmiel
Our view of the Galile

Friday, March 3, 2023

Splenda- VS Sugar- YOM Kippur Vs Purim -Parshat Tetzave 2023 5783

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

March 3rd 2023 -Volume 12 Issue 20 10th  of Adar 5783

 

Parshat Tetzave/ Zachor

Splenda vs Sugar/ Yom Kippur vs Purim Top Ten List

It’s that time of year again boys and girls, not that I could tell by your level of participation in our annual support the Young Israel of Karmiel and weekly Insights and Inspiration fundraising campaign. I’m just sayin…

  Hello guys!! It’s Purim time. It’s time to open your wallets, your credit cards. It’s time to get happy. Happiness comes when you relieve that heavy drain that’s pulling down your pants pocket in your wallets. Your underwear is showing guy from your heavy wallert, like our African neighbors in the hood. From all of those grants and money you made in your post-Corona bank accounts.

 

 It’s time to be part of settling the land of Israel. It’s time to get into the mode of sharing that Toras Eretz Yisrael that you love weekly with so many and partnering with us in sharing and spreading that light to the world. So where are you? Loosen those clenched fists. Whip out your credit cards. Partner with us. Every bit helps. Stand up and say Ani Yehudi and I won’t let Amalek bring me down. I will wipe him out with my shekalim. I will make that Mikdash in Eretz Yisrael happen. Because I hate to tell you this, but he’s working hard to prevent you from being excited about building that ultimate campaign, by making you too cold to even donate to our shul here in Karmiel. He says to Hashem “once again, these guys will never build you a Bais HaMikdash- see how they don’t even contribute to his fundraising campaign.” But you could show him. Donate now! Below! Every bit helps… Every shekel and dollar shows your with us. That Amalek is destroyed. That you’re ready for the big campaign. That you’re part of our family.

OK, now that I got that out of the way, let’s get to the fun part, or the even funner part that you’ve been waiting for. See, the reason why you probably haven’t donated yet, is because you haven’t done the proper preparations or hachanos for this great day coming up this week. It’s like coming to Yom Kippur without Elul. It can’t happen. We tried to prepare you subtly with our Parshat Shekalim drasha, but you didn’t get the not-so-subtle hint.

 See, for Yom Kippur it’s fairly easy for us to get ready. We Jews are good at abusing ourselves and beating ourselves up for all the things we did bad. We have the weight of the world on our shoulders literally. The reason Mashiach is not here is because we didn’t bring him yet. We still have sinas chinam. We haven’t watched enough Chafetz Chaim Heritage videos. We have internet. We wear long shaitels. We have I-phones. We have too much gashmiyus. We’re too comfortable in galus. We like to klop on our chests hard and say how sorry we are and feel bad and guilty. That comes easy for us. We fast, we afflict ourselves, we suffer in shul all day and count how many pages we have left until we can eat. Yeah, we’re good at that kind of stuff. But that’s just for Yom Kipurim. That’s the day whose power is like Purim. It’s not the real deal. It’s Splenda.

 The real day is this week and the work for this day is so much harder. It’s so not natural to the Jewish psyche. Jews don’t get drunk. Jews always like to know things. Ad d’lo yada-getting to the point of not knowing is not who we are. Jews like their clothing and don’t dress up in stupid costumes. Halloween, Mardi Gras and stupid goyish masquerade parties are sooo, soooo not us. Either is just throwing money at whoever comes to us, by the way. We are smart investors. We want our money to go to good causes. The best causes. Not just to anyone that opens their hands.

 We are not silly. With the exclusion of holy Breslavers who are like the kohanim gedolim or Nazirites of Purim all year round dedicating themselves to the Mikdash of Purim and never leaving its holy state- we don’t jump up and down in the streets and randomly dance with people. Yet that is the avodas ha’yom of this holy day. Purim is the real deal. It’s the sugar to Yom Kippurs saccharin flavored sweet and low. It’s what it’s all about.

 The Yid Ha’Kadosh explains the difference between these two seemingly opposite days with a fascinating insight. Purim, he notes falls out on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday while Yom Kippur only happens on the other days of the week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Shabbos. He explains that these different days correspond and shed light on the essence of each of the day.

 In creation the things that were created on Purim’s days are all things that can have Tumah- impurity. Sunday the land was created, and earthenware vessels have Tumah, Monday is the sky which has no Tumah. Tuesday is trees and plant life and wooden things have Tumah, while Wednesday the sun, moon and luminaries have no Tumah. And Friday obviously humans and animals have no Tumah while Shabbos certainly is all holy. Thursday though, when both days can fall out has a bit of both. On one hand this day when the fish and birds were created, technically do not have Tumah; as any vessel made out of them is not tamey. Yet the Rabbis decreed Tumah by the Ozniah bird feather vessels and by ostrich eggs because they can get confused with regular vessels. Therefore, Purim and Yom Kippur can both fall out on Thursdays.

 So in a nutshell or eggshell to be more precise, Purim is the days when Tamey things were created, Yom Kippur is days when only pure things were created. He explains this idea with the Zohar that tells us that there are two steps to purifying gold. First you put it on the fire and heat it up to get out all the impurities and to purify it. The second step is to take the parts that are left over and to go through it and get out all the gold that maybe have been left or got scattered into it. That’s Yom Kippur and that’s Purim.

 On Yom Kippur we heat ourselves up in that holy fire that burns up all the bad stuff. The fire of atonement comes down from heaven when we do that and purifies us. Purim though is the real fun. It’s when we’re rich and have all of that gold already. We realize we have it all. We just need to sort through all those golden sparks left in the wine, in the food, (in the Armani Kef Sushi I just ate this week for those that watched my statuses), in the world and elevate them. To get down in the mud and reveal Hashems’ light in the places the rest of the year we don’t even want to get close to. That are too dangerous for us. But not on Purim. It’s the day when we can do it all.

 OK, Dvar Torah over. Enough of the spiritual holiness. Enough with the davening and machzor page counting and crying and Mussar sefarim. It’s time to get down and dirty. It’s time get you to the place where its all about the money you will give. Enough with your serious berating mashgiach in yeshiva or your frowning Rabbi with his serious sermons that you have heard too many times. It’s time for your Purim Mashgiach and Purim Rebbe; your favorite Tour guide/Rabbi from Karmiel giving you our annual Top Ten Purim Mussar schmooze. This year it is why Purim is different than Yom Kippur. Why Yom Kippur is Splenda. It’s time for some sugar and to taste the real deal. It’s kind of like why all the holiness and Torah and mitzvas and Shabbos in Lakewood, Monsey England and Boro Park or any place in Shmutz La’aretz is fake and artificial as sweet as it might taste. I even went to Dubai for you guys just to taste the best of the physical world for you-like the seudas Achashveirosh so that I can come back to Eretz Yisrael and appreciate the real thing. See, what I do for you… So here we go. Let’s hit it boys, I give you the long awaited

 RABBI SCHWARTZ’s YOM KIPPUR and AMERICA IS FAKE WHILE PURIM  AND ISRAEL IS REAL TOP TEN LIST

10) So let’s start with the easiest difference and similarity. Both Yom Kippur and Purim get started historically when we are fabulously wealthy and we think we are at the top of the world. Yom Kippur happens right after we are fabulously wealthy having left Egypt and received all of their booty on the banks of the Yam Suf. We then received the Torah but very quickly, we mess up with the golden calf. Hashem gets annoyed that we want to build golden calf shuls in the wilderness rather than just wait until we get to Israel and build His Temple there. We’re so busy singing and dancing hakafos around that bima of the golden calf singing “Thank you Hashem” for taking us out of Egypt and the Holocaust for these gods of prosperity that we can make for you in this midbar, that we forgot that it was not the point of it all. We had been purified on Mt. Sinai in the fire and the voice of Hashem, but we didn’t know that we had to pick up that Egyptian gold and bring it to Israel to build a Bais Ha’mikdash with it. So Hashem decided to kill us all. Nice. We needed purity. We needed to do the process of teshuva all again to cleanse ourselves. We needed to fast and pray and then He forgave us and Yom Kippur was born.

 Purim, was similar as well, but coming from the other end. At that era we were in galus, we were really accepted in Achashveirosh’s palace. We had Ivanka. We had Kushner. We had Friedman. We even thought Trump Achashveirosh liked us really, and our next door neighbors were never going to line us up and shoot us and stick us in concentration camps. Yeah, America Persia is not Egypt, Spain, Europe, or everywhere else in our history. We’re finally good here.

 We forgot that the reason why we’re in galus is to purify that gold and send it off to Karmiel and Israel. So we dined on the vessels of the temple there in chutz la’aretz and made big Purim seudos there. This time though, Hashem  wasn’t going to wipe us out from heaven with some fire. He sent the goyim to do it for us. He sent Haman and Amalek to wake us up. To get us out. To burn those golden calves. To make us want to come home and build the Mikdash. It worked for five minutes, but in the end most Jews didn’t come back. They forgot- like we always do. They stayed there in Bavel, and so the second Temple was temporary. We needed more Purims in galus and a few more holocausts until Rabbi Schwartz came around to tell you what the day is really about so we get it straight this time around. Got it,now?

 9) One day of Purim is not enough and neither is one day of Yom Kippur, So Hashem gave us two days. See Yom Kippur, our Rabbis tell us is really the 9th and 10th of Tishrei. The 9th we eat and feast on Erev Yom Kippur. It’s a taste of Purim almost, just to remind you that Yom Kippur is not the real deal. It’s about Hashem purifying us, rather than us bringing Him up from the bottom. Purim it works just the opposite we fast on taanis Esther before Purim to get any of those remaining Yom Kippur things out of our system. You know, it’s for those Jews that really need a little bit of fasting, misery and selichos with an extra-long davening to feel happy. So we’re happy to provide that for you. But get over it. It’s a happy fast day. Purim is around the corner. The redemption is coming. You did your teshuva. Now just elevate. Inebriate. It’s not dangerous anymore. It’s holy. It’s a mitzva., Go crazy. Go Breslav. And pour that wine in your cups and that money out of your wallet. Not because you need to buy your atonement. You have that already. Rather it’s because you now see that all that money has one purpose. Friendship, love, Eretz Yisrael. Me 😊

 8) On that note about money by the way number 8 here is also a fascinating connection. See on both days we win lotteries. On Yom Kippur the centerpiece of the day is the lottery of the two goats. One is for Hashem one is for Azazael. The Hashem goat goes up to the Bais Ha’Mikdash in a sacrifice. Poof all burned up. It’s all for Him. Azazel goat is chucked off the mountain. Ripped to pieces and thrown to the Esau angel with all of our sins. And then Hashem turns that red string white and the apple has fallen in the above-and beyond-all-“Time” square in the  Bais HaMikdash. Party time.

 Purim is also a lottery-winning day. It’s the actual name of the day. It’s not Ki’Purim- like the lottery. It’s the real deal. We won millions. We won our lives back. We were dead. We were toast. And now we’re alive and all the money of Persia was now in our hands. Shlalam la’voz- their booty was there for us to be mevazeh- to make fun of. To do what ever we want with. What we always needed to do with it.

 Esau was mevazeh the birthright- he threw it all away for some of Yaakov’s chulent. He rightfully saw that money is inherently worthless when you’re hungry for something more in life, like a good bowl of chulent. But he didn’t realize that money has tremendous value if we could use it to build a temple to Hashem with it. If we can elevate it for a higher purpose.

 Do you know what we do on Purim different than Yom Kippur’s fake and earnest lottery where it’s all to Hashem?  Where it’s either sacrifice or Azazael. On Purim we won the real lottery. We go out to the streets and just throw bills around to anyone that wants it. We’re mevazeh that shelal, because it’s a mitzva. Because with the money and fancy stuff in this world we show that we don’t need to hold on to any of it. We can give it to everyone that asks. We’re loaded. We won the real lottery. And when that happens, you just want to share it.

 7) After that lottery on YK we moved on to the next level of happiness, we danced and sang and went into the fields and solved the shidduch crisis. Girls and boys would meet each other and realized we were are all of us so holy. We got over all our shidduch issues and just wanted to build lots of bayis ne’emans b’yisrael. Plastic tablecloths on Shabbos weren’t an issue anymore to turn down a shidduch. It didn’t make a difference if you were sefardic ashkenazic, Chabad, haymish or modern. We were all holy and we could all marry one another.  That’s great and a good reason to dance and celebrate.

  We lost that by the way as well, after we lost the Bais Ha’Mikdash and it’s no longer the “happiest day of the Jewish calendar” our rabbis told it was back then. Because today despite how many Ashamnu’s we clop and fasts we afflict ourselves with or how many pages we recite in the machzor, at the end of the day we still think our daughters or sons are not good enough for the next persons… But that’s because Yom Kippur as I said, is only “Ki”Purim. It’s not the real thing.

 Now Purim, if you think about it, is really insane. You know how the day and holiday ends. Rebbetzin Esther is married to a fat sheigetz for the rest of her life. How’s that for not really caring about a shidduch? If Achashveirosh is good enough for her, then trust me that girl that didn’t make it into BJJ is good enough for your son and the bachur that didn’t get into Brisk or who isn’t from the “top ten of Lakewood” is good enough for your daughter. From that union, by the way ,of holy Esther to the worst shidduch  ever and actually a forbidden one- if not for the fact that Hashem arranged it that she had no choice and therefore no culpability in it-from that Shidduch came out Darius who allowed us to return and build the Bais Ha’Mikdash.

 What do you say about that? That’s the real deal. It’s not about agreeing to marry someone that you think just underwent a Yom Kippur and is a baal teshuva. It’s about seeing the spark- as Rachel, Eishes Rabbi Akiva did, in someone that looks like Achashveirosh. Who is definitely not as frum as you. Who may have... dare I say a smart-phone. It’s about realizing that every Jew has a spark so holy that all that tumah that you may perceive about them, their dress and even behavior is all kleynikeit when it comes to building a bayis neeman. That’s the real party. Once you realize that, then you can get married and spend lots of money and help out the people that come collecting at the wedding for my Karmiel shul.

 6) Every Jewish holiday has its food. Pesach has matzos. Chanuka has got its latkes and jelly doughnuts. Tu Bishvat its fruits and buktzer, Rosh Hashana its apples and honey and fish heads. Sometimes it seems like our holidays were made up by some foodie God, or at least Hashem with the consultation of his heavenly angel in charge of Jewish supermarkets and Kosher caterers. Well Yom Kippur and Purim have their foods as well. OK, Yom Kippur is really not so much food. It’s a fast day after-all but it seems that the angel in charge of Yom Kippur complained and so he got the custom to eat kreplach on Erev Yom Kippur. Purim also got the kreplach thing going, but it got Hamantashen as well as every other delicacy in the world to eat at our Purim feast. As I said real and fake…

Now the Kreplach thing- which for those of you that are not familiar is like a Jewish wonton. Its dough with meat hidden inside that you put in your chicken soup. Sefardim don’t have chicken soup so they are oblivious to this custom. The reason for the custom is we are told that it’s eaten on the days that we klop and bang. On YK we klop al cheit on our chests for those sins. On Purim we klop for the name of Haman. (PS that’s also why some eat it also on Hoshana Rabba when we klop hoshanas on the floor.) What does klopping have to do with kreplach?

 Well on Yom Kippur it’s about banging away all the aveiros until you get to that holy piece of chopped Jewish prime Rib underneath all that fatty doughy exterior. Dough by the way is money. On Purim though, we bang Haman. We kill Amalek. We already have the meat and steak and meat boards all over our Purim seuda. Yet there’s a little dough left around a small piece of meat rolling around in our soup. We have to get rid of that dough as well and give it to the yeshiva guy dancing around drunkenly our Purim table singing. Or alternatively to the Rabbi’s shul who is writing this E-Mail. We may miss that little Krepel and keep it in our bank account for a rainy day and not reveal the meat inside of it. We may think we need to hide it away. So we eat Hamantashen with the delicious jelly, chocolate, poppy and even halva (for those that like it) popping out of it. It’s calling to us. Get rid of the dough. I’m really delicious. The dough is even sugary sweet when you do your avodas ha’yom. Real- Fake. Are you getting the hang of this E-Mail yet.

 5) We’re halfway there guys, And once we opened up the door to klopping let’s talk about the difference between the Yom Kippur klop vs the Purim one. On Yom Kippur we’re banging on our chests. We’re beating ourselves up. We sinned. We’re guilty. We rebelled. We and our fathers… bang bang klop klop. It’s all about us. It’s all about our sins. That’s important. That’s good. That’s purifying, but it’s really not the real truth. It’s again Splenda.

 See Purim we got it straight. It’s not us at all. It’s them. It’s Amalek. We’re holy. We’re precious. We’re loved. We’re really perfect and entirely untainted. Sure, we did a lot of bad things, but that’s not us. It’s Amalek. It’s Haman. It’s galus. It’s them. I don’t need to beat myself up. I just need to wipe them out. They are the ones that fooled me into thinking I’m not holy enough. They are the ones that invited me to all their (political) parties and served me food or lip service about how much they love the Jews and support Israel and are a medina shel chesed that is a far better place to be frum and raise your children we can better serve Hashem from than Israel is. They keep cooling our holy spark that is longing to attach itself to the shechina from Eretz Yisrael.with their Amalekite notion that it will be tomorrow-machar. Just not today. Not now.

 On Purim we klop them, not us. We just remove their name and their remnant, their cows and their sheep and block out all their names and noise and the sweet songs of the Bais Hamikdash and redemption will follow. A good noisemaker by the way to use- if not the best- is a pushka with jingling coins. Amalek wants our money to be spent there in their economy. Bang and Klop out all that noise by shaking that pushka with us.

4) From noise and names and klopping we move to the next similarity of real and fake which is of course the other part and highlight of Yom Kippur back in Temple times; the recitation and hearing of Hashem’s name from the mouth of the Kohen Gadol. There is probably no day that we say Hashem’s name as much as we do on Yom Kippur. Hashem-Hashem of the thirteen middos is recited again and again until nei’la when we really go wacko with it. We bow on the floor and pretend we are back in the Bais Ha’Mikdash and hearing that Name again. We are in the Holy of Holies. We are together with Hashem.

 But to be really honest…Shhh… It’s only virtual. We’re really not there. The name we recite is not the Name which can’t be mentioned today. We’re splenda’ing it. Because we’re really not in the Bais Ha’Mikdash. We really don’t have a Kohen Gadol We’re really not redeemed, as close as and as holy as our Yom Kippur feels.

 Purim on the totally opposite extreme as we know, doesn’t mention Hashem’s name once in the entire Megilla. This week’s Parsha read before Purim as well doesn’t mention even Moshe- the Ish Elokim’s name in it (had to get some parsha thing in this week). You know why? Because Purim is real. Because Hashem’s name isn’t just a recitation and connection to the above. Hashem’s name is me. Yisrael, V’Oraysa, V’Kudsha Brich Hu Chad Hu. We are one with Hashem. Parshat Tetzave is all about the Kohein, his anointing and inauguration and his clothing and the daily sacrifice that tells us that Hashem is with us. He is us. I am that holy spark. I am His partner in creation. The Kohen has connected us, but we are all His Kohanim to the world. We are a Mamleches Kohanim. We are Kings like the Ha’Melech in the Megilla because the King resides in us. It’s why King and Queen costumes are the most popular- although in Israel Santa Klaus which they call the “roiteh rebbe- the red rabbi” is a close second. Purim is when the name of Hashem is revealed in us. Revealed in us, even in Persia. Even in America. Even in Lakewood. Because we transcend time and space. Because even if we are there, we are here. Because everything there, we’ve brought back home to his Mikdash. We’ve donated to the campaign.

 3) Moving along and staying on the topic of campaigns and donations- is you haven’t gotten it yet. Yom Kippur starts off with Kol Nidrei, all our vows and promises are null and void. Someone once told me the pshat in this is, because we Jews are always good at making pledges and promises. We hear of a campaign or a cause and we promise to donate. We can’t stop ourselves. We’re moved and our yiddisheh neshoma wants to be part of it. We sell aliyos and its even a special mitzva and segula to do so on the High holidays because we need to express that holy nature. But when it comes to paying it off… Ehhh… Not as great.

 We have a rap sheet of promises and good intentions and Hashem gives us schar for pledging and for all of those holy intentions, but we need a clean slate before we start the next year and cycle of pledges that we never kept. So we “Kol Nidrei” it which many feel is like your credit card debt consolidation or Biden’s college student debt amnesty thing. So we can start all over again.

 There are no shnorrers on Yom Kippur. Money is muktza. We just make pledges and promise to buy aliyos at auctions or when I was a kid, they used to have little paper cards for donations to the JNF UJA or synagogue that you would fold down an amount and hand it in to the Gabbai. As I’ve been saying fake, lip service, words and pledges. Splenda.

 Purim is real. It’s real yeshiva guys banging on your doors and pestering you all day for more money after you’ve already given them. It’s reaching in your pocket again and again and again. It’s answering all those shnorr phone calls and giving your credit card information, until you know the number and expiration and three digits on the back by heart as well as you know asher yatzar.

 The mitzva of the day is matanos le’evyonim. Just give and give. We even have a mitzva to give food that can be eaten immediately by the feast to someone; a friend or not a soon to be friend who’s not even poor or needy. Food- not even money. Because money he still has to buy and it’s not as real as some great shalach manos with wine that can be enjoyed. Purim is dollars and cents because there are no pledges or promises on Purim. It’s tachlis. It’s shekels, dollars, Euros. It’s about saying words are cheap on Yom Kippur when my atonement is coming from above and Hashem. But on Purim it’s about me doing what I can to do. It’s revealing that I already have in my wallet everything I need to partner with Hashem in making this glorious existence His. In spreading His Torah and Light in every cause I give to you. I’m not davening for it. I’m footing the bill. Tachlis. Real. That’s Purim. The link is below by the way…

2) Almost there. Let’s talk Ad D’Lo Yada. Lets talk drunk, slammed, plastered, out of your box nuts and partying. Let’s talk about getting to the point where there’s no difference between Haman and Mordechai and between black and white, Klein or Gross, Jew or non- Jew. Let’s get as real as it is.

 See, on Yom Kippur the whole day is black and white. It’s sins and repentance. It’s this is bad and this is good. It’s about being focused. It’s about going and examining every thought, every action, every minute of every day this past year and every part of me and who I am. We are making ourselves into vessels for the shechina to come down to from above and its got to be as pure as possible. It’s like cleaning your house for Pesach, except on Yom Kippur we are that house. We have to entirely be focused and use our da’as and knowledge to the best we can to and be cognizant of everything.

 The problem is that our da’as is fake. It’s all subject to the limited mental facilities that we have. The knowledge we’ve acquired and the Mussar sefarim and pathways we’ve trained ourselves to guide us on how to get there. There’s only so much we can do when we are holding on to “me” and  using our own limited faculties. It’s all about “me” who I am, or more accurately who I’m not. Becoming who I think I can or should become; which is in reality never as great as truly possible. It’s about making small kabbalos and even limiting yourself- because we never give ourselves credit for the infinite levels we can soar to. It’s about being what we call “real”. But it’s in reality so so so so fake.

 Purim, we move beyond that. On Purim when I’m smashed, I can achieve the world. I can walk on a tightrope over Niagra falls if I’m drunk enough. I can walk in a busy highway with cars all over no problem. I’m invincible. I can bring Mashiach. I can be Mashiach. I can be Reb Chayim Kanievsky. I can be the richest person in the world and I can throw money at everyone.  I can truly not hate anyone at all. I can love everyone. I can kiss everyone. I can hug them. I can dance on tables. There’s no Haman. There’s no Mordechai. The entire universe is full of the Shechina. I’m in Nirvana. I’m alive because Hashem decided that I have to be alive. He wants me to exist at this very moment because He’s giving me life. Because He loves me. Because I can redeem the world. I’m unstoppable. Sure it took a few cups or bottles to get to this place, but it’s the most real place that Hashem wants me to taste on this special day. To, for once this year, really be as real as I can be. To stop eating the tofu vegetarian chazerai and to bite down into the juicy prime rib that Jewish reality is all about.

 1) And we are here drumroll…. The number one big difference and similarity between Yom Kippur and Purim is the holidays that follow them. Yom Kippur is a prelude to perhaps one of the most fake holidays- the holiday of Sukkos. Sukkos we get a taste of what the Bais Ha’Mikdash and redemption is really like. It’s only a taste because than Israel and where he Yom Kippur that was meant to prepare us for that is only a Splenda. We move out of our house into our Sukkahs to “feel” “as-if” we are in Hashem’s presence and house in those huts in the midbar or clouds of glory. It’s cute. It’s fun. It’s even inspiring. But we all know that we just head back into our house in galus next door where it’s air conditioned and where we cook all our meals. If we don’t sleep in the Sukka, because it’s too dangerous or because it’s mitzta’er and uncomfortable- then you really know how fake it all is. But what do you expect our preparation for this great amazing holiday is premised on Yom Kippur, where everything came from above and we just davened and did all of those other almost real rituals? So a Sukka to recapture those clouds of glory and huts in the midbar is as close as we can get.

 Purim though, precedes and hearkens in Pesach. On Pesach we will be redeemed. Especially this year, the year after the most amazingly and widely observed land wise shemitta since the times of Shlomo Ha’Melech in the first Temple- it’s happening. We will all be in a rebuilt Bais Ha’Mikdash. The golden pimple desecrating our holiest spot will be obliterated. There will be Korban Pesach BBQ’s to partake in. We will not only be seeing ourselves ki’ilu yatzanu Mi’mitzryaim as we did in previous years, but we will be redeemed and have witnessed miracle even greater than that when we return to Yerushalayim. That’s because this year Purim we will not be faking it anymore. We will have revealed the reality of the world. We will give real money to Rabbi Schwartz’s annual campaign. We will embrace and give Shalach Manos to people we may never have wanted to our felt connected to. We will sing and dance and celebrate and inebriate as never before. We will have Simcha. We will share Simcha. We will reveal the greatest Simcha. And then we will be home.

 So there you have it my friends. I didn’t think I would get this out this year. But I knew your Purim wouldn’t be the same without it. Just as my Purim won’t be the same without you… So please start letting that joy flow. The links are below. Be our partner. Be our friend. Share the love and Hashem as well will join us as we dance together on the happiest most real Purim of our lives.

 Have an authentically really real and happy Purim

 

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

 

T

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HELLO All,

 IT”S THAT TIME OF YEAR!!!

 

You enjoy our weekly E-Mails. You love Eretz Yisrael, You want to be part of spreading Torah well and sure could use some extra merits and you just want to say THANK YOU RABBI SCHWARTZ and make me smile even more this PURIM

 

So…. Twice a year, we come to you my dear fellow readers, friends, tourists, neigbors and Klal Yisrael and ask if you could become our partners in sharing this weekly E-Mail and in our shul, the Young Israel of Karmiel. Baruch Hashem we have an amazing congregation, that brings a special warmth and love of Eretz Yisrael and Klal Yisrael that has been active in drawing 10’s of families to Karmiel and uniting us all together. Yet our shul has many expenses and to a large degree much of our budget comes out of my personal pocket and generous donors and partners like you.

 

Our weekly E-Mail, our classes, and programs and facilities serves as a hub for the Karmiel community, anglos and Israelis. The light of our shul shines throughout the Galil! Please consider making a donation and contribution at the link below

 

1)  You can  click right now on our link to our blog http://holylandinsights.blogspot.co.il/  

and contribute via paypal on our website.

 

 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Vos iz dem indik far a khilek tsi men koylet im af purim tsu der sude oder af peysekh tsum seyder?”- What difference does it make to the turkey whether it's slaughtered for the Purim feast or the Passover seder?

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

13) The Jewish organization "HaShomer" was founded during which Aliyah?

"The Roaring Lion" Monument is located in:

A) Mescha

B) Sejera

C) Beit Keshet

D) Kfar Giladi

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/techelet-mordechai  - It’s Purim time and time for my and your favorite Rabbi Schwartz Purim compositions starting with of course my Techelet Mordechai song!

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/layehudim   -Here’s my Dovid Lowy sung and arranged composition that will be sure to keep you dancing all Purim Layehudim

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJFqkLCgMJ0   – One of my favorite not well known Purim songs- I hear this and think of my Norfolk days where Rabbi Friedman taught me this song.. Diaspora’s Ish Yehudi- such a holy drugged out song… I love it…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7fr0WMNW2k    – Lipa’s Hoshana’s for Purim…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ochb_fXAQ3I  - The Modzitzer Shoshanas Yaakov the really best of all with Yakov Motzen geshamak!

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE HOMEWORK JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

Why is the Shabbos before Purim called Shabbos Zachor? BECAUSE THAT IS THE LAST THING YOU WILL REMEMBER FOR A LONG TIME!

 

What was Queen Esther’s royal gown made of? POLY-ESTER

 

Why do we give out so much tzedaka (charity) on Purim? The Megillah says that this holiday is called Purim because of the PUR, the LOTS, that Haman drew. Therefore we give LOTS to the POOR!

 

What bracha (blessing) did the Jews say upon seeing Haman hanging on the gallows? HA’EITZ!

 

Who had the tallest family tree in history? HAMAN!

 

Top Five Purim Fears

Police lights on your front lawn

Your husband and car missing

A knock on your door in the middle of the night.

Missing a word of Megilla

A Yeshiva guys asking to use your bathroom

 

Top five Drunk Yeshiva bochrim

Calls your wife rebbetzin

Dances on your shaky dining room table

“Rebbi I just want to learn Toirah”

Weeps in the corner for Mashiach

Calls his mother to say he loves her

 

What do anti-vaxxers and anti- drinkers have in common? Hint- You have one shot at answering this question

 

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The answer to this week”s question is D – I got this one right as well. Ha’Shomer the percusor to the Israeli army and Israel’s first “protection society of vigilantes- mostly secular socialist Israelis that arrived in the 2nd Aliya were the defenders of Israel in the 1920’s. The roaring lion monument which commemorates the fighters of Shomer is located in Kfar Giladi and remembers Trumpledor and his 7 fighters that died in the battle of Tel Chai. Now for the cool part about this weekly E-Mail column. So you know when that battle took place? You got it this Shabbos on the 11th of Adar in 1920. So this Shabbos is the yahrtziet of those fighters and Hashem orchestrated this column this week to have this question and for me to get it right on that day!  So the score is now 10.5 for Schwartz and 2.5 for Ministry of tourism on this exam so far…

 

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