Acrophobia- Parshat Shelach-Korach 2023 5783

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

June 16^th 2023 -Volume 12 Issue 36 27^th of Sivan 5783

 

Parshat Shelach/ Korach

Acrophobia

Shani is scared of elevators. When she was checking out hospitals where would be the best place to give birth to my grandson- or my twin grandchildren to be precise, the primary criterion wasn’t the level of medical care, it wasn’t the niceness and comfort of the rooms, it wasn’t even the proximity to Karmiel where she lived. It was what floor the maternity ward and obstetrics unit were on. How many flights she would have to walk up to get there when in labor. She wasn’t getting into an elevator. She would walk twenty flights if need be. But those big steel doors closing on her and that rush as it soars up floor after floor, number after number never knowing if those doors will ever open again or not sends shivers down her back and puts her in panic attack mode. She’d sooner give birth in her bathtub.

Now interesting enough, she doesn’t have a problem getting on an airplane, which seemingly and logically should be a lot more frightening. After-all it’s not just a few flights you’re going up its tens of thousands of miles. A lot more people die in airplane crashes then in elevator accidents. I always thought that’s why they have those little boxes with moving pictures to keep you preoccupied, so that you don’t think about the fact that that you’re in a metal crate with wings on it that’s flying above the ocean and could any moment drop. And no, I don’t have much faith in those little life jacket things on the bottom of your seat that you calmly pull the strings on gently and place around your neck (and then your child’s of course…hmmm) to save me while my plane is plummeting a million miles down on fire into the raging waters below. Yeah… that’s really gonna work… It’s a good thing Shani doesn’t read these E-Mails, she might stop flying as well.

Me? I’m fine with elevators. I’m fine with airplanes. I don’t have a problem with heights- although Aliza my wife is terrified of them. Maybe that’s where Shani gets it from. I don’t get it. The heights aren’t going to jump out at you and pull you down. What’s to be scared of?

OK I admit that I do get a little woozy looking over a cliff or ravine, or when I was in Dubai on the tallest building in the world and looked down. I did hold and grip a little tighter to the ledge and railing in case a big gust of wind came suddenly and the good Lord felt it was time for me take a little plunge- not that it would’ve helped any if He made up His mind. But I’m not scared of being or climbing up high. Quite the opposite, I find it invigorating. Aliza though wants me to stop reading this already… she’s getting woozy just hearing me describe it.

Fascinatingly enough, this fear of heights in fact is a clinical condition that is called acrophobia from the Greek word acro which means summit. It is estimated that 3-6% percent of the population suffer from it, making it one of the most common phobias followed only by the fear of public speaking. 3-6% of the population is a lot of people that want to stay on the ground. That are nervous going up.  That prefer the security of their own two feet on the terra rosa even if it means missing out on the glorious view one can only have from up above. Ahh… well… Different strokes for different folks.

Now this E-Mail is never just about sharing with you all of families (and my own) personal skeletons as therapeutic as that is and enjoyable upsetting my mother who complains about this all the time.

 “Whadaya need to put everything out there for! Nobody’s interested in all of your mishigas and personal life. Not your surgeries, your chulent and your silly offensive jokes!”

52 years and she hasn’t realized that it still goes in one ear and comes out the other. Or as I corrected her once never even made it into the first ear.  Yet, there must be a parsha connection to justify this weekly bitul zman, and to make people feel less guilty about taking the half hour or so that it takes to read my never-ending E-Mails. It’s a Dvar Torah right? Uhh. Huh… I know why you’re really here…

Well this week, I’ve got to connect it to two parshiyot. Shelach for you guys over there and Korach for us over here. And what better way then to talk about your fear of heights, or perhaps as we in Israel forget sometimes as well, our own fear of heights. Maybe the word heights is confusing you. Let’s talk Hebrew. Let’s talk Aliya.

See in Shelach when Moshe sends the spies into the land of Israel, it seems that there is a discussion going on between Kalev and the spies and all of the Jewish nation. Can we go up or not? Kalev tells them

Alo Na’aleh Ki yachol nuchal lah- Let us go up and up because we can conquer it.

Whereas the spies seem to be busy infecting us with this eternal acrophobia respond

Lo nuchal ha’am lalos ki chazak hu mimenu- the nation can’t go up for it is too strong for them.

Do you know what the irony of their punishment is that Hashem metes out to this acrophobic generation?

Bamidbar ha’zeh yiplu pigreichem- their corpses will fall in this wilderness.

And in case you didn’t get the irony Hashem repeats it.

Upigreichem atem yiplu Bamidbar hazeh- and you are corpses and you will fall in this wilderness.

Do you know what happens when we want to stay down because you’re too scared of what will happen and of falling when you go up to high? You become a corpse that is walking and that will fall down right here on ground. You fall in the desolate wilderness. Not only did you miss out on the incredible view and future that awaits you up on top of the world, but your false sense of security on the ground is where you will trip fall and break your head and die. It ain’t safer on the ground, particularly if Hashem tells you that the elevator up is one that He wants you go get on.

This week’s Parsha of Korach which fascinatingly enough doesn’t tell us when it occurs, It is a subject of much debate amongst the commentaries if this was before the spies story or afterwards, in the beginning of our sojourn in the wilderness or at the end of the 40 years,  yet it contains the same eternal timeless message. Which is why, some note, there is no date on this story as opposed to every other story in the book of Bamidbar that has an exact date given for it. For it’s lesson is above time. It’s way up there.

The Ramban though sees this story happening right after the spy story. Dasan and Aviram and Korach with his cronies also seem to have a different type of spiritual acrophobia. They don’t believe in elevators either. I don’t know of another parsha that repeats the words up and down, above and under as much as this one does.

Vayikahalu al Moshe v’al Aharon- and they gathered on Moshe and on Aharon

Madua tisnasu al kahal Hashem- why do you elevate yourself above the congregation of Hashem.

Elevate? Hmmm… Above…on…on..

Moshe tries to convince them to drop this thing… drop…?

Lachein ata v’chol adosecha ha’noadim al Hashem- therefore you and your entire assembly who are joining together on Hashem.

V’Aharon ma hu ki salinu aluv- And for Aharon what is he that you complain on him.

Their response?

Lo Na’aleh- we’re not going up.

It’s enough you too us up from a land of Milk and honey (Egypt?!) to cause us to die here in the wilderness yet you seek to dominate aleinu-above us even to dominate us further.

Even if you poke out our eyes- Lo Na’aleh! We’re not getting on that elevator.

Moshe falls down upon hearing this… falls down…Just like the tribes whose corpses will fall in the wilderness. And they ask Hashem to spare this nation. Don’t kill them all. Don’t drop them.

Hashem responds to Moshe

Ha’alu mi’saviv l’mishkan Korach- go up from Korach’s abode.

Get on the elevator because these people are going down; way down.

Moshe goes with the elders to the camp of Korach and orders them

Suru  na mei’al ohalei anashim hareshaim ha’eileh- go up from the tents of these wicked people

The nation listens. They get on the elevator.

Va’yeialu mei’al Mishkan Korach- they went up from above the abode of Korach, Dasan and Aviram

The punishment of Korach, much like the spies was that they went down but even more dramatically. The ground swallowed them up and they got their wish as Chazal ironically note. They didn’t want to go up- so they went down instead as far down as they could go. If Shani will excuse me- its like an elevator crashing down a thousand flights.

Moshe had asked for specifically that punishment for them

U’fatzasa ha’adama es piha uvala osam - and the earth will open up its mouth and swallow them

V’yardu chaim sh’ola- and they will go down alive to the pit.

And sure enough

V’yerdu hem v’chol asher la’hem- and they and all that was theirs went down.

What’s fascinating is that Moshe is generally the one advocating for Klal Yisrael. In fact, his name even means “to pull up”. He was called that because he was pulled up out of the water and yet here he seems to be the one pushing the down button on the elevator.

The AR”I Ha’Kadosh, the great 16^th century mystic, sheds light on this story by of course in his holy mystical way sharing us the secret of the souls of Moshe and Korach. This is not the first time we have the ground swallowing up someone in the Torah. To understand when this once occurred before we need to g back to the beginning of time. There we have two brothers fighting: Kayin and Hevel. Kayin brings a sacrifice from the simplest crops that he possesses, flax or linen. Hevel brings the best and choices of his sheep to Hashem. Their debate? Kayin feels everything is holy. There’s no better or worse. It’s all from Hashem.

Taken to the next level and understanding this argument in terms of the spies and Korach. We’re all holy. There’s no better or nor worse. There’s no land of Milk and honey. Egypt is also milk and honey. There’s no need for any elevators. There’s no need for a Moshe to take us up or an Aharon to be above anyone. There’s no need to make aliya. We have our yeshivos here, our kosher foods that’s even better than Manna. We have our chesed organizations. We’re good. No land is better. In fact making aliya to the land will only eat up our children. It’s an Eretz ocheles yoshveha- a land that will eat up its citizens. If we go there we will go down. Better to stay here on our stable Red white and blue land. The wilderness where your corpses will fall…

The Ari teaches us that Moshe is the soul of Hevel. When Kayin killed Hevel, the verse tells us the ground opened up its mouth and swallowed his body. It is perhaps that trauma of Moshe’s shared soul that inspires him to bring everyone up again. He understood that if we don’t go up. If Kayin wins, if Korach wins, if the spies win- if their argument and ideology that we are all the same and there isn’t any up or down, then the world will collapse. The earth will fall out under our feet. And so he lifts us up again and again. He brings us to those elevator doors of Eretz Yisrael and he urges us to go in. To go up.

The connecting parsha between these two stories is the mitzva of tzizis. The mitzva that we are told is a combination of wool and linen. It’s Kayin’s linen and Hevel’s wool. Kayin wanted there to be a world without Hevel. A world where there is no need for a blue string to bring up the white. It’s all good. It’s all holy. It’s a talis as Rashi says Korach claimed, that is all blue; all techeles, all the color of the sky and Hashem’s holy throne. To a large degree Korach is correct, it is all holy it is all Hashem. Yet, what he missed is that we all still have to up. We all have to connect to Moshe. Moshe is the intermediary, the elevator that we need to rise higher and higher. That will connect the heaven to earth. That will inspire us that we can make aliya. Alon na’aleh. We can go up. And if we don’t we will fall.

Acrophobia is a real fear that all of us suffer from. It’s no just Shani. It’s not just those Aliyah-phobes or those Korachs and spies that claim to be Rabbis that tell us that we can’t go up. We can’t become better. We can’t go higher and higher. We also like the comfort and security of the ground under our feet. The stability we assume we have staying right where we are in life. But what we need to realize is that the ground is shaky. It’s been that way since the beginning of time. Life is not one of those airport moving floors that just go back and forth across the airport of life. We need to get on the plane and fly and soar. The flight is leaving. Please turn off all your electronic devices. Buckle up. We’re ready take-off.

Have an uplifting Shabbos and chodesh Tamuz Tov!

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Iz do a braireh, darf nit zein kain moireh.- When there is a way out, there is no need for fear.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

26) According to Catholic-Christian tradition, the "Transfiguration" took place on Mount:

Which figures are related to the "Transfiguration" according to The New Testament?

A) John the Baptist and St. Paul

B) Melchizedek and St. Peter

C) Jeremiah and Isaiah

D) Elijah the Prophet and Moses

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/good-shabbos - Not all of you listened last week.. so it’s here again..! In fact I may just put this here every week. Because how else can you come into Shabbos without my special song. the next biggest klal yisrael hit- Dovid lowy on vocals and amazing arrangements Here it is Good Shabbis Good Shabbis Good Shabbis!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk67SWHgiVk – OK guys you really don’t want to miss this song. Abie Rottenbergs timeless Shadchan song updated with the girls version… in honor of Ohel Sarale organization for single girls. Amazing with Baruch Levine

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MST-1azpDYc – Gorgeous Shulem Lemmer latest song and video from vayitein lecha Umar Reb Yochanan

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzF2pvTT1Yc – Do you get more all star than Zanvil, Razel, Falkowitz, Meisels with incredible Shabbos in Tzfat footage. Awesome..

 

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

 

The Leper Strikes Again - 673 BC- After the relief of the famine and the miraculous salvation that Elisha had prophesized about, Yehoram, the King of the North still had it in for Elisha. On the one hand he saved the Jewish people miraculously and foretold of the retreat of Aram. On the other hand, Elisha was the cause of the famine in his eyes in the first place, as he cursed them. So what does a King do when he needs to figure things out? He finds a good Rabbi to commiserate with and that will hopefully be on his team. And fortunately, or unfortunately for him he had just the man. None other than the leper Geichazi Elisha’s former student whom he had chucked out and rejected after he betrayed Elisha to make some money from Naama on the side.

 

So the two of them, Geichazi and Yehoram were schmoozing about Elisha. Geichazi was answering Yehoram about his great miracles and guess who popped in the door at just the right moment. It was another flash from the past. None other than the Shunamite woman, who had left the country to Gaza at Elisha’s behest when the famine had started. When she had returned home to Shunam all of her property and fields had been taken from her. So she came to the king hoping for some justice. And whadaya know? It worked out perfect. Hashem arranges these things and when Yehoram hears first hand about the miracles preformed for her he makes sure she gets everything back.

 

It wasn’t just in order to help this woman that Hashem timed her arrival for this auspicious time. It was that Hashem wasn’t interested in Geichazi once again trying to look like a big knocker and be the one to tell Yehoram about the great miracles of Elisha. Hashem was sending him a message. I don’t need you. It’s not about you, as long as you’re trying to self-promote yourself. Geichazi should’ve taken the Mussar and returned. Yet he didn’t. He leaves the country entirely after that. He moves over to Aram, the modern-day Syria. But as we will learn next week. It doesn’t help. Things will get worse. Elisha heads over there after him. The end is starting to come apart.

 

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE FEAR OF HEIGHTS JOKES  OF THE WEEK

 

What do you call a bird that's afraid of heights? A Chicken

 

A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I’m afraid of widths

 

What do you call a mountain goat with a fear of heights? A goat

 

I’ve always been afraid of heights.But don’t worry, I’ll get over it

 

I'm not afraid of heights. I'm not even afraid of falling from heights. I'm afraid hitting the ground after falling from heights.

 

Co-pilot: why did you become a pilot?

Pilot: to over come my greatest fear.

 Co-pilot: heights?

Pilot: no, dying alone.

 

I don't have confidence or trust in elevators anymore. They always seem like they're up to something, but they also let me down quite often.

 

Why is jumping from great heights the most influential way to die? Because you make an impact

 

Once upon a time, there was a very brave but very arrogant man…

This man claimed he could survive anything. He survived falls from various heights, various guns, sharp objects and even acid. One day, he declared he was going to survive a steamroller. So this brave man went in the roller’s path…He sadly died that day, but the most important thing was he proved that he had guts.

 

How can you tell birds are afraid of heights? Because every time they look down they make in their pants.

 

If I owned a roofing company, and interviewed an applicant with a fear of heights..........I wouldn't "higher" them......

 

I hate it when people go on about their phobias. I have a terrible fear of heights, but you won't find me shouting about it from the rooftops.

 

Today I started an argument with my wife while riding in an elevator. I was wrong on so many levels.

 

Why is the elevator always sick? It keeps coming down with something.

 

I’m terrified of elevators, I’ve been taking steps to avoid them.

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The answer to this week”s question is D  - So some people get upset that I actually share this Xianity stupidity. It’s a fake religion based on lies and they killed all of us in the name of their heretical Jewish renegade “savior” if he even existed as they attribute to him. But the function of this column is not educational, but merely to show you guys what type of ridiculous course material we needed to undergo in order to become a licensed tour guide. Now Christianity obviously is one of my weak spots- was never interested and I knew it wouldn’t be my client base. But I actually remember some things. Particularly they places I pass and visit occasionally. Now Mt. Tabor is one of those that are hard to miss. The church stands on top of this glorious mountain. Transfiguration is this body and soul meld like star Trek of Yoshka Moses and Eliyahu Ha’Navi. Its stupid and bubbeh maysehs, but I got it right So that’s what really counts. So now  the score  stands at 19.5 for Schwartz and 6.5 for Ministry of tourism on this exam so far.