from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
"Your friend
in Karmiel"
June 9th
2023 -Volume 12 Issue
35 20th of Sivan 5783
Our Inner Moshe
She had a traumatic childhood to say the least. Born in the Shoah,
during the worst holocaust in our history, Miriam saw her nation and her once
amazing, blessed life in the Diaspora fall apart. Her nation was assimilating,
they had become successful, they were the elite of their country and they were
popping out babies like never before. And in one moment, as generally happens since
that time, it all begins to fall apart. It started with small decrees and
escalated until we all pretty much became slaves to the culture and what became
an oppressive government. But even then she didn’t think that anyone saw what
was coming next. The general feeling was, let’s ride it out to the next
elections and things will get better. After-all we built this country. It’s
ours. They’re not all that bad. But she was wrong.
It started with chucking babies into the Nile. Labor camps followed, mass murder, second class citizens and abuse on all levels. But Miriam was a prophetess. She knew that there would be an end. There was a God that was crying and enslaved with us. There would be a better day and a redeemer that would take us out. Yet, that faith wasn’t beset with challenges.
See, her
father happened to have been the Gadol Ha’Dor. The great Amram was known and
accepted spiritual leader. All eyes turned to him for guidance and guess what
Daddy just did? He divorced Mommy. He gave up hope. Why have children if they’re
all going to be killed anyways? He had a point. He was the leader. He was Daas
Torah. And when Amram divorced his wife, all of those faithful Jews started to
follow and do the same. The first major divorce and shidduch crisis in Klal
Yisrael is unfolding. Children are crying, the women are mourning. But if this
is Daas Torah then we must follow. This trauma
as perhaps even worse than the external threat of the Egyptians. And Miriam
though wasn’t going to take this sitting down.
In what must have been an incredibly bold and gutsy move, she confronted
her father and convinced him to go back. We can’t be worse than Pharaoh, Pharaoh
may be killing the males, but what your divorce is doing, Totty, is destroying
everyone. We need family. We need marriages. We need children. The redeemer
will be born. Daddy, come home please…
And he did.
Not only was Miriam successful in bringing Shalom Bayis back to Klal
Yisrael, but she was as well the one person that stood by the river when her
brother Moshe of whom she had prophesized about that would be the future leader
and watched faithfully to see how Hashem would bring the salvation. One can imagine-
or perhaps not watching him being pushed into that crocodile filled river in a
small basket. All had given up hope and gone home. But not little Miriam. She
was there for her brother and had the final song when ultimately she saw those
prophesies fulfilled when she saw him grow up and take us out of Egypt. Has
there ever been a better sister? A more faithful prophetess? And yet…
The end of Parshat Beha’aloscha that you guys in chutz la’aretz
are still reading tells us about one last trauma in this great woman’s life.
Her little brother Moshe is getting divorced. Truth is I’m not sure if he’s
divorcing or not, but his wife Tzippora was talking about how he’s never home
and how Moshe has abdicated all of his marital responsibilities. He’s gone into
his spiritual cave. Now for anyone this would be a big blow, but this is not
the first Miriam has been in this situation. It’s all coming back. It’s Egypt
again. It’s her father the Gadol Ha’Dor again.. Who knows where this could lead?
So she goes to her older brother Aharon. She tells him what’s
going on. She tells him her concerns. And wadda boom wadda bing. She’s a leper.
She’s thrown out of the camp. The entire Jewish people wait for her until she
can rejoin and Hashem give it to her over the head.
“How dare you speak about my servant Moshe? He’s the most
humble man on earth. Everything he does is faithfulness. He’s my man, my
servant. Now get out of here.”
Wow! What just happened?
Let’s jump ahead to this week’s Torah portion here in the holy
land. The next Parsha that takes place right after this story is of course the
story of the spies. Now Rashi begins this parsha with a strange question. Why
are these two stories next to each other? This is a strange question, because chronologically
this is exactly when this story happened. Where else should we place this
story? Even more perplexing is Rashi’s answer which is that the Torah placed it
here in order that we understand the sin of the spies.
“Because she was smitten because of the matters of speech that
she spoke against her brother and these wicked people saw what happened to her
and did not take a lesson from her”
There are a few problems with this Rashi. First of all, is it
really that difficult to figure out what the spies did wrong? They bad-mouthed Eretz
Yisrael. They tried to convince the Jews to not go there, despite Hashem and
Moshe telling us that this was the purpose of our entire Exodus. They talked
about going back to Egypt. Really!!?? Do I really need a lesson from Miriam about
this?
Second, why are we putting them in the same boat as Miriam? Miriam
was a righteous woman. She was a prophetess. We owe our entire Exodus to her.
She saved the Jewish family. She saved Moshe. These guys are just bad apples.
Rashi even calls them reshaim- wicked ones. Although strangely enough
Rashi seems to contradict himself in the next verse and tells us that when Moshe
appointed them, they were all righteous. So what’s really going on here? Are
they righteous or not? Are they like Miriam or not? What does their sin have to
do with the sin of Miriam?
Now granted the easy way out is to explain that they both sinned
by speaking lashon hara. But Rashi doesn’t say that even. He says they sinned
in iskei diba- matters of speech. “Diba”- rashi defines later on
as something that could be positive or negative. Why doesn’t he call the crime
like it is? Bad-mouthing Israel. Lashon Hara.
Let’s turn things around a bit. It’s easy for us today to hate the
spies and point to other people as being from “their” group. We have a tendency
to always associate the bad people in the Torah with others. I would’ve been
with Moshe’s team. I would’ve never cried about coming to Israel. There’s a
famous story they say about the Kotzker when asked where his soul would’ve been
in the fight between Moshe and Korach and he responded that he certainly would’ve
been on Korach’s team. Yet, he would’ve even continued the fight afterwards…
Let’s put the time of the story of the spies in its proper perspective
and the events that occurred the past year and few months and days. It was really
the worst of times. We had left Sinai. We suffered the year before the sin of
the golden calf when thousands were killed. The shechina almost left us
and Hashem said He wanted to kill us all. Moshe stepped in and saved us, but it
certainly wasn’t simple and a done deal.
After that we had, just a few months ago, the people complaining
about the lack of meat and Hashem sends a fire and burns up people. Not just
people but according to one opinion the entire Sanhedrin. They really should’ve
been killed by seeing Hashem and eating by Sinai, but Hashem waited until Kivros
Ha’Taiva to kill them. There’s a plague. And then the final trauma comes is
when Eldad and Meidad start prophesizing that Moshe as well will die and won’t
even be bringing us into the land. Imagine that… the entire Moetzet Gedolei Ha’Torah
wiped out. Hashem is wreaking havoc and killing us. And now our one salvation
and hope, Moshe Rabbeinu is not even going to be there for us… Does that change
the picture for you a bit?
To make matters worse. Moshe sends us into the land to spy it out.
Who needs spies? Where are the miracles? Hashem doesn’t need spies to check out
the land unless there is something that we need to do. That it’s in our hand.
There’s not going to be blood and frogs and sea-splitting miracles. It’s our
army. It’s our power. It’s our intelligence gathering skills. Well guess what
boys… I don’t think we’re up to the task. Sure it’s a great land and all… But
without Moshe and based on our recent track record with Hashem, the new leaders
all “kosher” people at the time felt that we’re not up to the task. I think you
and I might agree at that assessment. They weren’t speaking bad. They didn’t
have bad intentions necessarily, just like Miriam didn’t. Rather they didn’t
take the lesson of Miriam who spoke about her brother, and they messed up in “matters
of speech”. They aren’t wicked because of their assessment or even their lashon
harah- its as Rashi says because they didn’t take Mussar and learn from the
story of Miriam.
The five books of the Torah, our sefarim tell us is more
than a history book. The Torah is the soul of each and every Jew and our
essence can be found in it. The first Book is the book of our roots, the creation of
the world Adam and Chava and the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and the tribes of
Israel. It’s our DNA. Shemot is about us moving from being a family into a
nation of Hashem that received the Torah and are charged with the mission of
history, to bring the world to Hashem and shine out His light from Eretz
Yisrael. Vayikra is how we will do that. It’s the sacrifices, it’s the preciousness
of each Jew and our service to Hashem and it’s how we can always rise up and
achieve purity even when we fall.
The Book of Bamidbar, which fascinatingly enough in Parshat Beha’aloscha
is divided into three books is the turning point once again. It’s when we move
from Moshe Rabbeinu’s leadership after he appoints the leaders, the Kohanim,
and builds the Mishkan in the first part of the Parsha to us becoming a nation that
eventually will be without him. We move to the point when we need to find the “Moshe”
inside of each of us. He pulled us out of Egypt (as his name translates), now
we need to take that eternal spark and finish the job.
Miriam didn’t get that. She couldn’t see the world without Moshe.
She saw Moshe as the ultimate redeemer- which in fact our sefarim tell
us he would be, as Mashiach will combine the soul of Dovid and Mashiach. Moshe
and Mashiach even sound the same- it’s just turning that hei at the end of his
name to the completed cheis- the anointed one. With Moshe separating
from his wife, Miriam once again saw the redemption and redeemer slipping away
from us. Yet, she didn’t realize that Moshe would be in all of us. He is
eternal like Hashem is. His spark will live on in the eternal Torah Moshe that
each of us have a letter in. That each of us has a connection and power to reveal
to the world.
Yet, the spies missed that lesson. They didn’t take the Mussar.
Without Moshe, we can’t do it. Kaleiv though gets it. The verse tells us
Va’yas Kaleiv es ha’am el Moshe- he hushed the people to Moshe.
He told them to stop talking. Stop the diba. There’s an
internal Moshe that we all possess. We just need to turn off the noise, the
fears, the insecurity and hear it. When we do then we will realize
“Alo Na’aleh V’yarashnu osa. Ki Yachol nuchal la- We can
surely ascend and conquer it, for we surely can do it.
Rashi tells us he said
“Even if we have do go to the heavens and he will tell us to make
ladders and go up there we would succeed with all of his words.”
We have the words of Moshe. We have the Torah. We can do it all because
he is always with us. Yet the spies at that moment became wicked. They responded
Lo Nuchal La’a lot el Ha’am ki Chazak hu mimenu- We cannot ascend to the nation, because it
is stronger than us.
The sefarim explain that what they were saying, is not that
the Canaanites were too strong. After-all they couldn’t be worse than the Egyptians.
Rather the nation they were referring to was us. We can’t bring the people up. The
yetzer harah is too great- it’s lure, our desires that just wiped out
our nation, our continuous pull downwards will not be able to go up. It is
stronger than our drive to Hashem. It is Chazak Mimenu.
And thus we fell. And thus they were killed. And thus that
generation did not merit to see the land. Only their descendants would be able
to come in. And even those descendants would be one day exiled from Eretz
Yisrael and be in galus until today.
In the back of the Siddur after davening, there are a 6 zechirot
that many have a custom to recite each day. They include the most important
principles of our Judaism and even the secret of what we need to remember to be
redeemed. They include remembering our Exodus, remembering the day of Shabbos,
our battle against Amalek and the revelation of Sinai. Yet, the odd one that I
don’t think most of us would’ve included is to remember this story of Miriam.
Yet, the Torah tells us that this is as well up there with the big six. The
reason for this, perhaps now we can understand is because the redemption can
only come if we take that Mussar of Miriam. If we remember that Moshe,
the eternal servant of Hashem is within each of us. Nothing can stand in our
way if we have that faith. Yachol Nuchal lo- We can conquer, we can go
up, we can build ladders to heavens and connect the worlds. Moshe is within us.
We just need to be quiet and hear his voice.
Have an inspirational Eretz Yisraeldikeh Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Der
mentsh lernt fri redn un shpet shvaygn-.” A
human being learns to speak early and to keep silent late.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
25) To
what direction do the migrating birds go, while passing in Israel in the
Autumn?
Which
of the following animals is endemic to the Negev and the Northern Dead Sea
area?
A) Bat
B)
Rock Hyrax
C)
Tristram Starling
D)
Nubian Ibex
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/good-shabbos
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hFqFzTCVDc - This
guy is really cool- actually saw them live in Africa when I was there with my
wife a few years ago…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4BOo-ywDNo
– I just can’t get enough of this Eitan Katz performance
with my new favorite song of his V’nacha- the holiest of the holies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdNS0Tmk-ig
– Avraham Fried- Boker Tov
Hashem- latest fun song…
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Four Lepers - 673 BC- The salvation of Hashem comes in mysterious ways, our sages tell
us and in the hands of unlikely people. As we discussed we are at the point
when all of Israel is starving to death besieged by Aram in the city of Shomron
the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Elisha had prophesized
that the next day would bring salvation to the degree that flour and barley
which hadn’t been seen in years in the city would be going for dirt cheap there
would be such abundance. Yehoram was skeptical and his general even
expressed his sarcasm that such a thing could ever occur. Well guess what? It did!!
That night Hashem brought down the hail with thunder
and lightening that had been sitting plastered up in heaven for over a few
hundred years since we left Egypt. Moshe at Pharaoh’s
request had asked Hashem to immediately and the hailstones froze in heaven
waiting for this moment to come down. The Arameans hearing the noise and
the barrage thought they were being attacked and fled in panic leaving
everything behind. Yet the Jews remained in their city unaware of the miracle
Hashem had performed for them.
Yet, there were some people that were outside of
the city gates that became the bearers of good news. 4 Lepers who being impure metzoras
were not allowed to come into the city. Now the truth is that the law that
Metzoras had to remain outside of the camp or city only applied to cities
that were walled when the Jews came in Israel with Yehoshua. There are a few of
those cities in Israel, Jerusalem obviously being the most famous, but Shilo,
Chevron and even Tiverya- or at least the biblical cities of Hammat
and Reket that are on the North and South of Tiverya are such
cities. Shomron though was built only after we came to Israel by Omri
less than a century before. Yet in order to make the city important this was a
law that they passed in the city.
These four lepers decided that they had nothing
to lose during this devastating famine and they decided to head over to what
they thought was the Aramean camp. Much to their surprise it was empty. Empty
of people that is. Yet, it was full of food, supplies and gold and silver. The
lepers were so excited that they started hoarding everything over there. But
after a while their conscience got the better of them, or perhaps it was their fear
that ultimately the word would get back to Yehoram about what they did,
so they went back to the city and reported the incredible sight they had found.
Yehoram was still skeptical though, he thought it might have been a trap.
But he relented and sent out two chariots to investigate. Sure enough when the
soldiers came back and reported the good news of how the entire road from the Shomron
down to the Jordan river where seemingly they had fled to was full of
the Aramites weapons and animals a rejoicing took over the city. The
people flocked down and for the first time in 7 years had plenty. In the haste
of course the General that had been skeptical of Elisha and Hashem’s
miracle had been trampled- just as Elisha had prophesized. Never doubt
Hashem or His prophets. It’s a bad move.
Who were these four lepers? Our sages identify
them as none other than Elisha’s former student Geichazi who had
been inflicted with leprosy after he ripped off money from Naama who had
come Elisha to be healed. It would make sense it was him and his three
sons as we know he was a greedy guy and those the desire to take all of the
money and supplies from the Aramean camp would fit his profile. What an
amazing story! It really comes full circle from the story of Naama where
it all began all the way back to the end of Aram. Next week we move on
to the next great miracle of Elisha.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRINLE DIVORCE JOKES OF THE WEEK
What is the number one cause of divorce in America? Marriage.
My ex divorced me because she said I treated her like
a maid. But even the judge agreed that she should keep the house.
My wife divorced me because I’m a compulsive gambler.
All I can think about is how to win her back!
My wife is furious that I don’t clean the coffee from
the machine after I am done with it. Grounds for divorce.
Yankel and his Bella are having an argument again.
Bella yells, “Get out of the house, I hate you! I want a divorce, get out
now!”
Then, as her Yankel is walking out the door, she
screams, “I hope you die a slow and painful death!”
Yankel stops and says, “Hang on a minute, now you
want me to stay?”
Why did the wife divorce the baker? Because he was
too kneady.
Two white bears got married, but soon ended up
unhappy and got divorced. It’s as if they were polar opposites.
If marriage is grand, what is divorce? Ten grand!
Why did the cat get divorced? He was a cheetah.
A divorce court judge said to Berel who was divorcing
his wife “I have reviewed this case very carefully, and I’ve decided to give
your wife $800 a week.”
“That’s very fair, your honor,” he replied. “And
every now and then, I’ll try to send her a few bucks myself.”
Divorced couples in New York are having trouble
deciding who gets the marijuana…The judges have started issuing joint custody.
A woman says to her lawyer “I want to divorce my
husband.”
“On what grounds?”
“Grounds? We have two acres at the edge of town with
a big lawn and some fruit trees.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. Do you have a grudge?”
“Yes, we have a two car garage but only one car so we
use the rest for storage.”
The lawyer, getting exasperated: “Does he beat you
up?”
“No, I’m up by 6:30 and sometimes he doesn’t get up
until after I’ve left for work.”
“WHY DO YOU WANT A DIVORCE?”
“We just can’t seem to communicate.”
A dentist and a manicurist decided to get divorced…They
fought tooth and nail.
Isaac and Sarah got married and left on their
honeymoon. When they got back, Sarah immediately telephoned her mother Leah.
"Well," said Leah, "how was the honeymoon, darling?"
"Oh mom," Sarah replies, "the honeymoon was
fantastic. It was so romantic, and ..and..." Then Sarah starts to cry.
"Oh mom, as soon as we got back, Isaac started using terrible language. He
said things I'd never hoped to hear, all those 4-letter words. Please mom, get
into your car now and come and take me home."
"Calm down, darling," says Leah,
"Tell your mother what could be that awful. Don't be shy, tell me what
4-letter words Isaac used."
"Please mom, I'm too embarrassed to tell you,
they're terrible words. Just come and take me away," says Sarah.
"But bubeleh, you must tell me, you must tell me
what the 4-letter words were."
Still crying, Sarah replies, "Oh mom, he used
words like WASH, COOK, IRON, DUST, ..."
What did Yoda say to Princess Leia after separating
with Han Solo? May divorce be with you.
Why did the stockbroker not get upset when her wife
divorced her? Because she’s got lots of options.
Why did the geologist’s wife leave him? He took her
for granite.
I asked my wife what she wanted for Valentine’s Day
and she told me she wanted a divorce. I told her I wasn’t planning on spending
that much.
I divorced my cross-eyed wife. We didn’t see eye to
eye. I also found out she was seeing someone on the side.
Why are relationships similar to algebra? Because
sometimes you look at your X and wonder Y.
Rifka and Beckie are talking about their children.
Rifka asks Beckie how her daughter is.
Beckie says, "Not too good. My daughter just
divorced her husband. He was a doctor."
Rifka replies "Oh, I am so sorry to hear
that."
Beckie continues, "Yes, it is sad. Her first
husband, whom she divorced three years ago, was a dentist. But she is OK now,
she is dating a handsome lawyer."
Rifka replies, "A dentist, a doctor and a
lawyer. Oy Vey! All this naches from just one daughter!
My husband and I divorced over religious differences.
He thought he was God, and I didn’t.
********************************
The answer to this week”s question is A - The first part of this question was certainly easy. Been to Africa. Seen the birds that flew south there from Europe and Asia through the Hula Valley which is the 2nd largest bird migration area in the world. Yeah, I knew that one. The problem was part 2 of the question, primarily because I didn’t know what the word endemic meant. I know what pandemic means but not endemic. I thought that it meant that it was natural and native to the area, and I’m pretty sure that is what it means. But the last three are all native to Israel and found in these areas, whereas the bat isn’t. So I just went with bat. Which is the correct answer- but to the wrong question- because they messed up and probably meant to say non-endemic to Israel. See I checked the Hebrew exam and that’s what they actually asked. So I got the answer right- and they should get the answer double wrong. But of course they won’t give you that extra credit, but thank god I don’t need it as the the score now stands at 18.5 for Schwartz and 6.5 for Ministry of tourism on this exam so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment