Homesick- Parshat Va'eschanan Nachamu 2023 5783

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

July 28^th 2023 -Volume 12 Issue 42 10^th of Av 5783

 

Parshat Va’eschanan/ Nachamu

Homesick

“Are you homesick? Do you miss us?” I asked him.

 “Neah… I’m doing just fine and having a blast here…” he told me.

  I had a mixed reaction. I the one hand I was happy that he was having so much fun. This camp, that my son Tully went to for the summer cost me enough. The last thing I wanted was for him to be missing us and not enjoying it. Yet… yet… yet… I missed him. I don’t know if I ever missed him before. This was his first time away for an extended period of time. He’s the baby of the family- although now our bar mitzva boy. I knew my wife would miss him. After-all he’s her favorite. But I still had my Elka at home. She’s my favorite.

 

Tully’s a pain in the neck sometimes. I always fight with my wife about him because he can never do any wrong in her eyes and she’s his appointed defender. But when he said he didn’t feel homesick my heart fell a bit. I started to miss him. I loved him more. I even started to add him to my secret, private, daily ritual that I really never told anyone about. But hey, I’m feeling a bit mushy this morning. This weekly E-Mail is where I put it all out there. So here goes… the secret Ephraim Schwartz daily ritual reveal. There’s no need to tell anyone about it. It’s just between me and you…

 

So I don’t really talk to myself. It’s weird to do that. Yet, for the longest time there’s one thing I do say out loud to myself, pretty often when nobody else is around. When I’m driving in my car. When I’m spacing out. Or just alone in my room where no one else can hear. I’m not weird OK… It’s just some type of strange habit that started years ago and it makes me feel good. It probably started after I heard some type of shiur or something like that. I dunno… I just like to do it. And for someone reason I can’t stop.

 

“I love you Elka…. I love you Elka… I love you Elka….”

 

Yeah… that’s it. Ok. I don’t know. I think about my daughter and I say her name and my heart fills with love. I probably started it when she was a little girl and I would walk her to gan every day. We had those special shared moments together, and after our walk on the way home. I would just be in awe of that special love I felt for her and I would just start saying it. The truth is, and I’m really not just writing this so my other kids don’t feel left out or not “as loved”, I say it about my other children also.

‘I love you Shani,’

 ‘I love you Rivkah,’

 ‘I love you Yonah’. I even say it about Tully on special occasions.

 I usually say it when I feel a particular love for them. To myself of course. When they got engaged. When they had babies. When they made me particularly proud. Even Erev Shabbos or Yom Tov when I talk to them and share with them some Torah (that’s pretty much Yonah) or any other good news or update, I say it out loud. I say it to myself. It sounds nice out loud. It fills me with something special emotionally… perhaps even spiritually. So I really do it for all of them. It’s just Elka is the one that really doesn’t need any impetus. It just comes out by itself. Kind of like a burp or a hiccup that you can’t control. Although now this really is beginning to sound a bit weird.

In recent years, when I do this habit. I’ve started consciously something else to that as well. I started to say as well- and now this is really going to sound weird- but don’t judge me here. This is my safe spot. I started to say as well… “I love You Hashem”.

 To be honest, my love for Hashem isn’t the same or even close to the love I have for my children, for my wife, for my parents and most of my siblings. 😊 Let them figure out the word “most”. It’s probably not even as much as I love chulent. Which is pretty sad and pathetic. It’s certainly not as much as I know He loves me. I mean it’s quite obvious that Hashem is madly in love with me. He just always does tremendous things for me always and has given me one of the most blessed lives that I know of. But I do love Hashem back. And I want that love to get bigger and better. So, after I say my “love soliloquy” about Elka or my other children I then try to take some of that love and turn it to Hashem as well. “I love You Hashem.” I really, really do. It’s not as much as everything else. I wish it were. But I love You. I appreciate You and feel Your love for me. And you know what? Since I’ve been saying this, I really do find myself loving Him more. I do find myself growing more in my love for him. It even inspired me to add my wife and my parents sometimes into my private- or at least prior to this E-Mail private- ritual.

 Now, stop looking at me strangely here, Ok...  Like I’m a weirdo or something. You do the same thing as well. We all do this. In fact we do it twice a day. It’s the essence of our prayers. It’s what we said when we went to the gas chambers or our dead. I bet that there is not one shul out there that had explanatory Kinnot the other day that didn’t say at least once Jewish “Shema Yisrael” walking to our death story. It’s the basis of our lives. We’re all familiar with the story of Rav Eliezer Silver after the holocaust who went to find Jewish surviving children that were hidden in monasteries. The priests denied there were any Jewish children there. He then got up and and recited the Shema and the children one after another responded with the conclusion “Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad”.

 It’s the prayer that parents say to their children from the youngest age when we put them to bed. It’s the last prayer someone says after the final confession before dying. Shema Yisrael is everything. It’s our love statement that Hashem is One and that He loves us and we in turn love Him. So yes, you do it to. It’s not as personal and as powerful as the private expression of love I have when I’m alone in my car where it’s not part of a set prayer ritual. It’s not even close. But you all do it… so stop looking at me that way…

 The words of the paragraph interestingly enough are not just to love Hashem, or even the statement that Hashem is our God and is One. Rather it starts off with the two words Shema Yisrael- Hear O’ Israel. The Midrash and Targum tell us that this intro in fact meant to take us back to the beginning when we first heard those words to the deathbed of our father Yaakov when he gathered all the tribes around him and wanted to reveal to us the end of days. He saw that the shechina had left him before he could reveal this secret to them and suspected that perhaps there was something lacking amongst his descendants that caused them to be unworthy of this prophecy. We turned to our father then and said Shema Yisrael, a reference to Yaakov’s second name and then exclaimed our full belief and faith in Hashem and His love for us. Moshe on his dying day as well tells us that same statement and said that we should recite it daily. Twice daily actually, to be accurate. When we arise and when we go to sleep.

 The Chasam Sofer goes in a different direction though and takes this an even holier place. He asks why is it that we have to add in the two words Shema Yisrael. Why isn’t it enough to just say I love You Hashem. You’re our God, You’re One. There is no other mitzva where we say Shema Moshe or Shema Yaakov or Yisrael. We have to wear tzitzis. We have to destroy Amalek. We have to keep Shabbos. Why here and what’s the reason why we say the name Yisrael again and again?

 The mystical and perhaps even emotionally psychological answer that he gives is the mere mention of the name Yisrael- which he says is a reference to Eretz Yisrael creates a spiritual power that that fills ones heart with holiness and love. He says just as the Torah says we shouldn’t mention the names of idols or idolatry and impure things- which is why we don’t say J-man’s name and we just call him yoshka pondrik or when we were kids we used to say yoshka pickles- although it is really a desecration of the sanctity of pickles. But we don’t mention their names as it creates forces of tumah and purity. As well and even more so, just saying the name Israel again and again creates love and holiness. It’s why Moshe through out the book of Devarim which is really a book of the repetition of the Torah finds Moshe always saying Shema Yisrael.

 There’s even a great pasuk that tells us this secret. The verse says in our parsha prior to the Shema.

 Devarim (6:3) ‘V’Shama’ata Yisrael’-  And you Israel shall hear and you will guard to fulfill that which will be good for you and which you will become very great as Hashem the God of your fathers spoke to you of the land flowing with milk and honey.

 The Chasam Sofer says, that the pasuk can be read homiletically. That if we hear merely just hear the word ‘Yisrael’. Then in it will fill us the with the love and memory of Hashem’s promise to our ancestors and we will have the additional gift of power and strength to fulfill the commandments of the land.

 The Shvilei Pinchas suggests that this idea of the Chasam Sofer is not merely about the land of Israel but it’s as well just saying the name of the nation of Israel. In fact the entire power of the land of Israel is drawn from the nation of Israel who is one with it. Who it is named after. For even the name Israel alone saying ‘Yisrael.’, hearing ‘Yisrael’ is a segula to be filled with love for them and to be able to accomplish anything in the world that stands before us and tries to separate us from our mandate.

 With this he explains why Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai who on the one hand suggests that the only way to fulfill the obligation to study Torah by day and night is by literally doing so seems at first glance to contradict himself by saying that one’s obligation can be fulfilled by the mere recitation of Shema in the morning and evening. He explains that the saying of Shema is what will give a man the extra spiritual power to learn all day and night. Just by saying the words lovingly “Yisrael… Yisrael… Yisrael… Israel…” will create and fill one with such love that nothing else can stand between him and our Torah. For the Torah itself is as we are told is made up of 600,000 letters that correspond to the souls of the Jewish people. Saying and hearing Yisrael is like saying and reading the entire Torah. It connects me to everyone. It connects me to everything.

 Saying things twice or numerous times out loud hits things home. It reinforces things in our heart that we sometimes bury and don’t associate with. As I’ve said in the past, the one pasuk and song in the books of our prophets that I’ve always connected with (and that I’ve even chosen as the Hebrew name of my book series… PS stay tuned for my newest book hopefully coming out soon… just finished the first draft…) Is the words of the prophet Yirmiyahu

 Ha’ben Yakir li Ephraim ki Yeled Sha’ashuim – my dear son, Ephraim who is the child that is my plaything

Ki Midei Dabri bo- for as long as I speak of him

Zachor ezkereinu od- I surely remember him.

 Whenever Hashem mentions my name. He loves me more and more. Ok, he’s talking about all of us which are called after the tribe of Ephraim. But I take it personally as well. He loves me. He says my name all the time. When he “wakes up” in the morning and is “driving to work” he says “I love yo Ephraim, I love you Ephraim, I love you Ephraim..” He’s filled with love for me. Like, I’m filled with love for my children. More than that… a lot more than that…

 This Shabbos is Shabbos Nachamu- the Shabbos of consolation.  We spent all day yesterday on Tisha B’av saying one word again and again. Tzion… Yisrael… Eretz Yisrael… our father… our city… Your Temple… We love you… We miss you… We’re homesick for you… We say that every day, but it wasn’t like yesterday. Yesterday we meant it. Yesterday, we felt it… Yesterday we were really, really, homesick. And Hashem heard us. He counted our tears. His heart exploded with love as well… And he consoles us… Nachamu Nachamu… again and again… be consoled. I’m coming. The day is coming… Camp is almost over… I’ll be home soon. You’ll be home soon. We’ll be united. Ahavas Olam- the eternal never-ending love He has for us will finally shine forth in the world. We won’t be homesick ever again.

Have a consoling Shabbos Nachamu,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Az me redt zikh arop fun hartsen, vert gringer.” .- When one pours out his heart, he feels lighter

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

32) Al Khssgalil is the Arab name of the city:

According to the Oslo Accords, Jericho is located in which area?

A) international

B) A

C) B

D) C

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/good-shabbos - Admit it you’ve missed this for the past three weeks! And you’re getting sikc of my acapella Al Eileh. So we’re back again with my Good Shabbos song to welcome in your holy day of Shabbos nachamu… Good Shabbis Good Shabbis Good Shabbis…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukRlH4ZmxqE – Naftali Kempeh’s latest release hot of the press today! Hadur Na’eh.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dptj7zzIig&t=3s   – The song everyone will be singing this weekend. Shlom Carlebach’s Nachamu which of course defines this shabbos

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2AzOY10_mw  – The Nachamu that only us old timers will sing and remember tzlil V’Zemers iconic Nachamu…ready for nostalgia?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP6ZN_rlKc4  – And in honor of their daughters engagement this week! Mazal Tov!! SY Rechnitz’s Nachamu sung by my dear friend Moishie Mendlowitz!

 

 

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

 

Jezebel’s Death-. With the two Kings dead, killed by Yeihu at the behest and at the shlichus of Yonah, the prophet/student of Elisha there remains one last piece of vengeance left. It’s time to take out the evil queen and wife of Achav, the mother of the recently killed former King of Israel, Yehoram. Jezebel, was the daughter of the King of Tzidon and it was under her influence that the worship of the Baal spread around Israel. To make matters worse it was she that ordered the death of the prophets of Hashem and whom Eliyahu Ha’Navi had to flee from. Yet, the worst act in the eyes of Hashem and Eliyahu was fascinatingly enough her libel against Navot, the Jezre’elite who’s vineyard her husband coveted and her hiring of false witnesses to have him killed. It was Navos’s blood that was calling out to heaven for revenge and that day had finally come.

 

Yet, Jezebel was a wily one. She had realized that Yehu, who was the former general of Yehoram and Achazya his brother the Kings of Israel, had betrayed them. She heads up to the window of her palace in Tel Jezre’el and dresses herself up “to kill” excuse the pun- or more accurately to be killed. There’s a great lookout point in Tel Jezre’el overlooking the vineyards below where to tell this story from. There she sees Yehu approaching and calls out to him flirtatiously heralding him as “Zimri” the murderer of his masters. Zimri was the one that murdered the earlier kings of Israel; Basha. His name in Tanach lingo goes down in infamy like Brutus and Judas do in Roman and Christian lexicon. The ultimate traitor.

 

Yehu, though is not impressed. He calls up to the guards and tells them to give her a little freefall action. They chuck her from the window, he runs her over with his horse and then he goes on up to celebrate with a nice victory feast. After he eats, he tells his men to go take her out for burial. Not that she deserves it, but since she is the daughter of the King of Tzidon then he might as well afford her some type of burial. His point was made. Everyone got the message that there was a new sheriff in town. Navot, who had been given a death of stoning by being thrown down and stoned had been paid back measure for measure. Yet, it seems Hashem had still not finished with her. She was going to serve one last lesson for Israel. When they got down to her there was pretty much nothing left. The dogs had eaten her entire body and were lapping up her blood. Exactly as Hashem had told Eliyahu and had prophesied would happen.

 

Yet there was something left of her. Her head, here hands and feet were not eaten. The reason for this, our sages teach us was she had merit that whenever there was a funeral she would walk with the pier, and she would clap her hands or wail. Additionally, when there was a wedding she would sing and dance before the bride. To us this doesn’t seem too significant, yet Hashem doesn’t hold back reward from anyone. That is the lesson Hashem wanted us to learn from her in her death. His judgement is precise. This is the end of the evil Jezebel. But Hashem is not over with her house and the house of Achav. It’s payback time and next up are the other children of Achav.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE HOMESICK CAMP JOKES  OF THE WEEK

 

Yankel went on a business trip went out for breakfast When the waitress came to his booth, she asked "What can we get you?"

 

Yankel paused and said "I'll tell you what- I'd like the special, but I want my toast burned to a crisp, my egg not really done well, my coffee weak and when you bring me the food I want you to yell at me."

Puzzled, the waitress said "What are you, crazy?!"

"No," said Yankel - "I'm homesick.

 

An Irishman arrived at J.F.K. Airport and wandered around the terminal with tears streaming down his cheeks. An airline employee asked him if he was already homesick.

"No" replied the Irishman "I've lost all me luggage!"

"How'd that happen?"

"The cork fell out!" said the Irishman.

 

Berel walks into a bar and orders 4 beers, and drinks them, and leaves. The next week same time does the same thing: orders 4 beers, drinks them, and leaves. The third week; same thing. The bartender is curious so he asks. "Well, I moved here few weeks ago. Back home my 3 brothers and I met every Thursday after work for a beer. Since I was feeling homesick I figured I would keep up the tradition even if I had to do it alone."

This goes on for several weeks until one week the man comes in and orders three beers and a coke. Bartender says, "I hate to pry but what happened? Did one of your brothers pass away?"

Berel chuckles and says, "No nothing like that. I just decided to quit drinking.

 

I came home the other night to find my wife crying on the floor. I said what's wrong? She said I'm homesick . I said what do you mean, you're at home. She said I know. I'm sick of it.

 

What do you call a homesick Asian? Disoriented

 

Yanky's parents were about to leave for a business trip. They told Yanky he would be staying at his Bubby's house for the week and they dropped him off on their way to the airport. Once his parents' car had left the driveway, Yanky started sobbing intensely.His Bubby asked Yanky, “what's wrong? Are you homesick?”

Yanky replied “No. I'm heresick”.

 

Achmed comes to the United States from Palestine, and he's only here a few months when he becomes very ill. He goes to doctor after doctor, but none of them can help him. Finally, he goes to a Palestinian doctor.

The doctor says, "Take dis bucket, go to the nearest farm and find a cow. Collect all of their manure and then take it to the chicken coop as well pick up all of their droppings bring the bucket home and stick your head in it and breathe it in for 10 minutes."

So Achmed does as the doctor orders he takes the bucket, goes into the other room, breathes in the fumes for ten minutes..He comes back to the doctor and says, "It worked! I feel terrific. What was it?"

The doctor replies, "You were homesick."

 

In Florida the other day, there was a bumper sticker on a parked car that read: "I miss New York."

To help them out, someone broke the window, stole the radio, shot out all four of the tires, added an Al Capone Gangsta bumper sticker and left a note that read: "Hope this helps."

Is this a great America or what?

 

A Jew is finally able to leave the Soviet Union to make aliyah and one of the things he takes with him is a giant painting of Stalin with a heavy frame. The Soviet customs officer asks: "Why would you take such a picture with you when you leave the Soviet Union?"

The Jew answers: "When I get homesick, I'll just look at the portrait of our great leader and it will be fine".

In Israel, the customs officer asks him: "Why the devil would you take a panting of this murdering goy with you to Israel?!"

The new oleh answers: "If I ever get homesick, I'll look at this ugly mug and this feeling will be gone very fast!"

Some time later a relative meets him in his apartment and asks him about the painting. The new oleh answers: "Who cares who the loser is on the painting, the frame is solid gold!"

 

 

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The answer to this week”s question is A  -. So I going to count this one as half right, but I’m not giving the MOT a half a point for the part I didn’t get. See I knew that Jericho is Area A. It’s easy to figure that out. A. stands for Arab, B is for Beineinu- Israelis and Palestinians. And C stands for Chelanu- Ours- Israeli. Jericho is definitely Arab. I got that part right. The first part of the question I had no clue. I don’t know Arab villages whenever tourists ask me what village that is or another is, my standard answer is Allah Akbar. Why not? They don’t care- If don’t care. I have never heard of Al Khssgalil. I would’ve guessed some Galil Arab city like Nazareth or so. But truth is there is no place called Al Khssgalil. It’s one of those wonderful Israelis mistrans-goog-late. The city they meant to write is called AlKhalil which means friend. Avraham being the “yedid Hashem” the friend or Chaver of God. And thus the connection to the word Chevron. So being that they spelled the word wrong in English they don’t get credit for it. So the score is 23.5 for Schwartz and 8 for Ministry of tourism on this exam so far.