from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
"Your friend
in Karmiel"
September 1st,
2023 -Volume 12 Issue
47 15th of Elul 5783
I’ll be honest. Brutally so… It’s
really the only way I know how to write and perhaps why you keep come coming
back here. It was never my life-long dream to move Israel. I wasn’t raised on
that passion, love and understanding that life and living in Eretz Yisrael has
any central place in my practice of being a good Orthodox, Frum, Torah Jew.
Sure, I davened for the Messianic Era to come. Sure I went through the motions
and even may times the “e”motions of mourning the temple, davening hard for the
redemption three times a day and for the bais ha’mikdash and its service to be
returned each holiday and Shabbos, and for our long bitter exile to be over.
But all of that being said, I never really felt that my Judaism and Torah life
couldn’t be meaningfully fulfilled and right in the diaspora until that
happens.
Hey, for 2000 years we’ve managed fine and produced so many great gedolim, sages, and Torah works from the Talmud Bavli, to Rashi, to all of the great Geonim in Spain, in Africa and the great glorious Torah yeshivos and holy communities in Europe. They were great and holy and even eternal in the Exile, outside of Israel. It worked for them it could work for me. Eretz Yisrael is and was certainly for me the final inning in the large baseball game of our religious existence and I was fine enjoying the game and playing hard until it was time. Tell me the truth… we’re friends here. Do you feel the same way?
When I moved to Israel 13 years ago last week, it was more for pragmatic reasons then Zionistic or even spiritual reasons. My 6- year gig in the Seattle Kollel where we had an outreach shul was coming to an end. We had Baruch Hashem been able to see much success in our work and we enjoyed the life of spreading the word and passion of Judaism with so many who had never been raised or exposed to it. We had a shul, a school we started, a Torah and an amazing community that we had watched grow and flourish. Yet, my job was becoming more and more of a full-time fundraiser and it was becoming more and more apparent that I was reaching the point in life to do what my mother always said I should do.
“Get a real job, already”.
Or more accurately “
“What type of a job is a Rabbi, for
a nice young Jewish boy… leave that for the Goyim and make an honest living.”
So I made a cheshbon. I told my wife that in America the way it works is that you either “make it” or you don’t. If you make it, then you’re a winner. If you don’t- you’re a loser. And at age 40 just starting your “real world” employment career- it certainly ain’t easy to make it, with tuitions, health insurance, mortgage payments etc…
Being that was our mindset though, I don’t think I was prepared for what I can undoubtably say was perhaps the most moving moment of my life. And Baruch Hashem I’ve had many. My Bar Mitzva, my wedding, the birth of my children, the birth of Elka 😊.. The weddings, the grandchildren, the twin grandchildren. Simcha after Simcha, blessing after blessing. So many moments, so much to be grateful for. Yet, all of those, as powerful and amazing as they were, they still were not as incredible and memorable as the moment when I stepped off that plane with my family. The moment that still brings tears to my eyes when I think back to it.
Are there tears in your eyes? Did you get choked up? If there aren’t and you’re not, then we need to check your yichus. There’s something seriously missing in your neshoma. Your too “fahr-galused”. They’ve gotten to you. It’s gotten to you…
The hype began before we even stepped off that chartered NBN plane that had a few hundred people and families all making aliya. The NBN staff circulated around the plane and helped fill out all of our aliya paperwork. As the plane approached for the landing the excitement began to build as the song 'v’shavu banim l’gevulam'- the prophecy of the children returning to our home came on from the sound system and everyone began to sing and cheer. I felt that I was literally in the vision that the prophets all saw and told us about. This is the wings of eagles, that they saw, that all my ancestors dreamed about. I was living it. I was experiencing it. They saw me and my family. I was here.
When the doors opened, my breath was taken away. The only other thing close to that was when the doors at my wedding opened and I saw the chupa where I would be wed to my beloved standing in front of me and awaiting me to walk down that aisle. The Red carpet was out in front of us at the bottom of the staircase on the tarmac and there was a crowd of hundreds waiting there below with flags, with music. There were chayalim and chayalot, my brothers and sisters whom I had never met before just waiting there for us. Welcoming us… greeting us… hugging and embracing. I fell to my knees and cried and kissed the holy ground. I didn’t expect to feel like this. I didn’t know what I was experiencing. My neshoma exploded. I was home. My life had just changed. It had become. I had become.
Now, I’m pretty sure that if I was reading this before I moved here, I would be thinking to myself…stop with the crazy mushy gushy Zionist propaganda. Yeah, sure, Israel is important. It’s nice. It’s holy. But really… opening up a new part of your neshoma? Becoming real…? What are you talking about? Galus isn’t that bad… You can be frum and holy here also… We have Torah… We have yeshivos… We have spirituality. We have Shabbos… We have pesach… We have Yom Kippur and Sukkos… What is he saying…? He must have really not been shtayging or learning Torah in the States… Yeah… he was in kiruv and we all know that’s not really Torah or being frum… Not like us here in Lakewood or Monsey… He was in Seattle and Iowa so that’s why he doesn’t get it… Why he felt so special coming to Israel. But we’re just as holy and spiritual here… Sure we want Mashiach, but until then…
To understand and appreciate what I’m talking about, I want you to read this week’s parsha different than you’ve ever read it or listened to it before. Different than you’ve ever read any parsha before. It’s the parsha of V’haya Ki Tavo- and it will be when you come to the land that Hashem Your God has given you as an inheritance and you shall settle it.
The first mitzva the Torah tells us about upon your arrival though fascinatingly enough isn’t really applicable when we or the Jewish people arrived to the land. It isn’t on your arrival day either, by the way. The first mitzva is that of Bikkurim- bring the first fruits of the seven species that grow to the Bais Ha’Mikdash to the Kohen. This mitzva wasn’t kept until the land was conquered which took over a decade. It won’t be noheig for you either until you settle the land, you plant, you grow, you wait the few years for your orla and neta revai years are over and you can finally eat from your fruits. But yet, the Torah tells us this mitzva as the first thing when we need to be aware of when coming to the land. It’s on our welcome instructions. It’s what it’s all about, and it gives you a bit of an understanding of what you’re feeling when you land.
Do you know what you need to do? What this is all about? You come to the Bais Ha’Mikdash. You have that first fruit in your hand. In your basket. And you bring it to the Kohen and as you stand in that glorious overwhelming awesome house of Hashem you make a recitation like no other mitzva. One that doesn’t even make sense, that doesn’t seem true… but that now for the first time it’s real and you’re feeling it. You tell the story of your life to the Kohen. To Hashem. And your story, you just understood for the first time, really started back with our forefather Yaakov; back in that first Jews galus. It’s not Yaakov’s story. It’s not our nations story. It’s not a history lesson. It’s your story.
Arami Oveid Avi- It’s your father.
It’s you that the Egyptians persecuted, that were evil to, that tried to kill you. You feel those blows you suffered on your back. You remember those cries and pleas that you had to Hashem. You have just plugged into an out of body experience and transcended time and space. You realize that your soul was there and has come back again and again for 2000 years to this world and gone to gehenom and back and has been waiting for this day since our Temple was destroyed.
You don’t just recite these exact verses- like you do by the Pesach Seder when as well we are meant to feel as if we left Egypt.
Lo es Avoseinu- Not just our forefathers or history lesson. But us.
Pesach we try to get there. But today when your plane landed you really feel it. It all came together for you. You were there. You were at Sinai. You wandered. All the souls of all of your ancestors just landed there with you. You’ve come home and you're so so grateful. So humbled. So awed. You bow. You sing.
V’samachta b’chol ha’tov asher nosan lecha Hashem elokecha- and you’re so so happy with all the good that Hashem your God has given you. Happiness… Simcha like you’ve never had before.
That moment of Simcha that you feel is the experience of a complete tikkun of the very first time when we went into galus. It goes back to Kayin who didn’t bring the first and best of his crops in that very first sacrifice to Hashem, and was sent into exile.
When we return, the parsha continues and tells us how special we are united together with Hashem. How we are His am segula. We are His treasure. We’re bonded. We’re reunited. We’re eternal. We remember the covenant when we- not not the historical “we”, but me personally, you personally, your soul, our souls first entered the land and stood by the two mountains around Shechem and heard the blessing and curse. It recalls the blessing of the 6 days of Creation when Hashem created the world and the curse- the arur, we heard when we were thrown out of it and we understand that we’ve finally come back again, but this time forever.
We take the 12 stones that we crossed the Jordan River and we put them together and write the Torah on them for the whole world. It reminds us of the 12 stones that Yaakov, that first exiled Jew slept on when he left Israel to Aram and they joined together and he built that first mizabayach on. He made a vow that he would return. That we would return. That we would rejoice and bring sacrifices upon them at the gateway to heaven. And he did return. The 12 tribes came back with him. We came back with him. The tzon kedoshim- those holy sheep that we were gathered together and took 12 stones and renewed our vows and we were happy.
The feeling of happiness that the Torah tells us we experience right now when your plane landed is what we have been missing for so long. Sure we’ve had happy occasions, but it’s never been complete. It’s never transcended time. It’s never connected me to my soul in all it’s previous incarnations. To Yaakov… to Sinai…to Egypt… to Kayin…to the Garden… Hashem tells us in the Tochcha that Moshe tells us in the end of this amazing arrival parsha and in this little booklet that we are receiving upon our arrival, that everything we’ve suffered all of these millennia, all the misery, all the tzoris, all the stress, the killing, the persecution, the depression is all because
Lo avadata es Hashem elokecha b’simcha u’vtov lev- we never served Hashem with the simcha that only being Eretz Yisrael together with Him could’ve given us.
The Torah is not telling you that the “lo avadata b’simcha” is the reason for our punishment of exile. We were exiled because of all the sins we did. The previous verse tells us it’s because
Lo Shamata b’kol Hashem elokecha lishmor mitzvosuv v’chukosuv asher tzivcha- we didn’t listen and keep the commandments He gave us.
This past year over 1300 immigrants have experienced this. In just the last week or so over 215 have returned. The era of Kibbutz Galuyos, of us returning home is coming faster and faster. In the past 13 years since I’ve been privileged to come home tens of thousands and perhaps even 10-20% of frum families that lived in the Diaspora have hopped on those wings of eagles and become part of the prophecy and vision of Yeshaya which I recommend reading again and again in this week’s Torah reading. It’s also part of your arrival package of Ki Tavo. It foretells of the return, the ingathering, the peace, the world recognition, the crops, the glory and the simcha of our generation on our return.
Ani Hashem- I am Hashem,
he concludes
B’Ita Achishena- in our time He will hasten it.
Our flight…your flight has
arrived. Welcome home.
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Another’s
cloak does not keep you warm “- Another’s
cloak does not keep you warm
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
4. The
"House of David inscription" was discovered in the archeological site
of ___________.
To what period
does the monument called "Absalom's monument" (Yad Avshalom) in
Jerusalem
date?
A. First
Temple period
B. Second
Temple period
C. The Persian
period
D. The
Byzantine period
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/lulay-heamanti-kavey
- It’s
Elul and this is the song that you need to sing every single day from the extra
psalm we add l’dovid… enjoy my Lulay He’amanti..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQPuOp2Lxb8 –One of my favorite all time oldies
comedy piece Arik Einshtien and Uri Zohar on the Aliyahs pre-State… soo…sooo..
true.. and funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiBI37frwVs
– Eitan Katz beautiful Kol Dodi
Chupa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23bHBmxkz5U
–
My dear friend arranger and singer Dovid Lowy’s An L’dodi… stay tuned next week
for my latest Elul song that we just finished…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1mn2-q2rJA
–
And of course SY Recchnitz’s now classic An L’dodi…
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
The Wicked Queen- You know the saying…The apple doesn’t fall far
from the tree. Well sometimes the apple
is closer or farther from the tree. Sometimes the kids are worse than the
parents and sometimes the children grow even higher than the tree, their
parents ever were. Well, this week we start to learn about the continuing fall
of the house of Dovid Ha’Melech’s once glorious kingdom that’s been in a
downward decline since Shlomo’s son Rechavam took over and the
kingdom divided.
It reached its zenith when Yehoshafat became
King at the same time that Achav was King of Israel and married
his son Yehoram off to Athalia the daughter of Achav and Izevel.
But first a quick recap of the generations. After Shlomo Ha’melech the
kingdom divides. Rechavam is the first king of Yehuda in the
divided kingdom. His son is Aviya, followed by his son Asa and then
Yehoshafat. On the Yisrael Northern Kingdom side we have a
little more action. The first king is Yeravam who is followed by his son
Nadav who is then quickly killed by Baasha. Baasha’s son Alah
takes over for him and is killed by Zimri, the rebel who then killed by Omri
and thus starts the next long line of Israel kings with his son Achav. Achav’s
two sons Achazya and Yoram take over for him at the same time
that Yehoshafat and his son Yehoram are kings. And with the
marriage of Achav’s daughter who is Achazya and Yoram’s
sister to Yehoram the son of Yehoshafat the kingdoms come
together for a short time until Yehu wipes them all out. Got it?
So after Yehu killed out Achazya and Yehoram
the one left standing was the daughter of Achav; Athalia. And
if you thought her mother Izevel was bad, listen to what this kid did… She
kills out her grandchildren Achazya’s children in order to take the
kingdom for herself. A real bubby from hell… She almost succeeded in achieving
her goal and who knows where it would’ve gone, yet Hashem has a plan. She has
one grandson that gets hidden away by his aunt, Yehoram’s daughter Yehosheva
and places him in the holy of holies. There Yoash the one good king that
was truly righteous hides out under the protection of the Kohen Gadol,
Yehoyada.
This child Yehoash will herald in a new
era in the kingdom of Yehuda. If you thought that Shlomo was
young becoming King at age 12. Stay tuned next week to learn about the 7-year-old
king Yehoash and his rise to leadership.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE HOMECOMING
JOKES OF THE WEEK
Dave and Samantha Levy were on their first trip to Israel. They
rented a car, had all of their guidebooks ready and had a full itinerary for
their 10 day stay. One day, Dave and Samantha stopped for lunch at a falafel
joint. Dave asked the guy working there.
"What's the quickest way to the Dead Sea?"
The falafel owner scratched his head.
"Are you walking or driving?" he asked.
"I'm driving,” replied Dave.
"That's the quickest way!"
What’s the difference between an Israelite and an Israeli? About
thirty calories.
Why did the orange take a prune to homecoming dance?… Because he
couldn’t find a date!
Why didn't the skeleton go to homecoming? because he had no body to
go with.
I was at my homecoming dance when I noticed a kid in the corner
looking miserable. Feeling bad, I went over there and asked him what was wrong?
He responded that no one would ever want to dance with him because of his
wooden eye.
Upon hearing this, I made it my mission to find the boy a dancing
partner. After a couple minutes of looking, I found a girl crying out in the
hallway. When I asked her what was wrong she said hat no would dance with her
because of her peg leg.
I then went back to the boy with the wooden eye. In a couple of
minutes I was able to get him to work up the courage to ask the girl to dance.
As he approached her I felt pretty good about myself; that is until I heard
what happened next.
The boy asked the obviously excited girl to dance. She was so
thrilled she responded, "Would I, Would I!"
The boy responded "Peg leg! peg leg" and stormed
away.
How do they determine the homecoming queen and valedictorian in Palestinian
high schools?
The homecoming queen is the girl with the most teeth, and the
valedictorian is the person who could count them all.
The Israeli Ambassador at the U.N.
began, "Ladies and gentlemen before I commence with my speech, I want
to relay an old Passover story."When Moses was leading the Jews out
of Egypt toward the Promised Land, he had to go through the nearly endless
Sinai desert. When they reached the Promised Land, the people had become very
thirsty and needed water. So Moses struck the side of a mountain with his staff
and a pond appeared with crystal clean, cool water. The people rejoiced and
drank to their hearts' content. Moses put down his staff and went to a solitary
corner of the pond to drink, and meditate in prayer. But once Moses returned,
he found that his staff had been stolen.
“I have reason to believe ladies and
gentlemen that the Palestinians stole the staff of our great Prophet Moses.'"
The Palestinian delegate to the UN,
hearing this accusation, jumps from his seat and screams out, "This is
a travesty. It is widely known that there were no such thing as 'Palestinians'
at that time!"
"And with that in mind,"
said the Israeli Ambassador, "let me now begin my speech."
Dave Rosenberg recently made Aliyah to Israel and was still getting
used to the new bureaucracy. One day, he received a very strongly worded "second
notice" from the Israeli Tax Authority saying that his taxes were
overdue. Dave ran down to the tax office, paid his bill and said apologetically
that he must have accidentally overlooked the first notice.
"Oh," confided the tax collector with a smile,
"the Israeli Tax Authority doesn’t send out first notices. We have
found that the second notices are more effective."
Berel was a new oleh who just enlisted in the army and after a few weeks
was feeling kind of homesick and asked the Commanding Officer for a 3 day pass.
The CO says, "Are you crazy? You just joined the Israeli
army, and you already want a 3 day pass? You must do something spectacular for
that recognition!"
So the soldier comes back a day later in an Arab tank! The CO was
so impressed, he asked,
"How did you do it?"
"Well, I jumped in a tank, and went toward the border with
the Arabs. I approached the border, and saw an Arab tank. I put my white flag
up, the Arab tank put his white flag up. I said to the Arab soldier, 'Do you
want to get a 3 day pass?' So we exchanged tanks!"
An Arab, an Israeli and a Mexican are on a plane.
The pilot says that the plane is losing altitude and that the men
need to throw something out of the plane to reduce the weight. The Mexican
throws his collection of sombreros and the Israeli asked him why he threw the
sombreros, the Mexican said
"ah, we have plenty of those in my country".
The Arab then threw his falafels and the Mexican asked him why he
threw the falafels and the Arab said
" ah, we have plenty of those in my country".
And then the Israeli threw
the Arab out of the plane
.********************************
The answer to this week”s
question is B -. I got 50/50 on this one as well. The Bais Dovid
inscription I knew well as I guide in Tel Dan where it’s located for a long
time already and speak about it a lot, as it’s an incredible find that debunked
much of the minimalist heretical hypothesis that Dovid and Shlomo were not great
kingdoms as Tanach described and perhaps were just small tribal chieftains.
They came to this view because they never found archeological finds from their
period, just from before and after. But upon finding an inscription that said
the house of David far up to the North it proved that they were wrong. The second
part of the question though I got wrong. I thought Yad Avshalom was first Temple
period when it in fact was second temple. There was an old Jewish custom that
parents would bring their children there and stone the monument with stones as
they believed that it was the statue that Avshalom put up to memorialize himself
as he didn’t have any children. There are different traditions who really is
buried there. Some said Agrippas the king, othere say it went back to first
temple period- which was my confusion claiming it was Chizkiya’s grave or
Yehoshafat who we’ve spoken about in our Tanach column. Christians also have a tradition
about this grave as well. But who cares? Regardless it was certainly 2nd
Temple architecture, so I was wrong. So I got it half right on this question and
score is now Rabbi Schwartz having a 2.5 point and the MOT
having 1.5 point as we start this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.
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