from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
November 17th 2023 -Volume
13 Issue 6 4th of Kisleiv 5784
I’m not a roller coaster type person. It’s not that I’m
scared of them. I’ve grown up a bit since my father took me on Space Mountain
when I was 8 years old and made them stop the ride in the middle because I
thought I was having a heart attack. I’m pretty confident that I’m not going to
die if I go on one. I just don’t enjoy even the thrill of the slight chance
that it might happen. Which to be honest, I’m not sure why anyone really does.
Life is good. I don’t feel the need to escape from it. I
don’t like to think about the fact that it might not always be here. The “it”
being me. See… I don’t even like to say it or write it… I like things to keep
going the way they are. Slight improvements or small ups and downs are good-
even exciting at some points. But I don’t need to go up slowly in a small open-air
car on a tiny track to the top of an insanely twisted railroad track with crazy
drops, again and again to get a high out of life.
It’s one of the reasons why this month has been particularly
challenging for me. Because as much as I don’t like amusement park roller
coasters- that pales as to what I feel about emotional roller coasters. Being
married to a woman who was pregnant multiple times was more than traumatic
enough for me. I like to be happy-always. Funn- always. Inspired-always. I can
deal with a small drops here and there, but really I like the steady heartbeat.
I don’t know how women do it to be frank. Those highs,
those lows, those hormonal emotional ups and downs that they have to go
through. I never appreciated the bracha I made each day of shelo asani isha-
until I married one. Until I got to know one really well, that wasn’t my mother
or sister. Since then, I thank Hashem every day that I don’t have to go through
those emotional swings. I can just be happy, inspired Rabbi Schwartz. Until this
past month… When everything changed.
No, I’m not pregnant. I’m not even fat- although without
tour guiding as I sit on the couch and am not out there running and hiking
around Israel a few pounds have come back. But I renewed my gym membership. Yeah...
it’s Corona-take-II, for tour guides. So, no I’m not carrying a baby around
growing in my belly. But it kind of feels that I have the weight of the world
on my shoulders. On all of our shoulders. And the emotional swings of this party
are not doing me well at all.
The first three days were shock, grief and even fear. How
can this happen? Where is this going? Where is everyone? The Army…the police…Hashem?
Is this for real? After that there was anger, rage, betrayal and fury. The focus
of course wasn’t just on the Hamas, although the horror and real vengeful, destroy-Amalek
sentiment that I can say I never honestly felt before against an entire nation
men women children babies…all of them was a new emotion for me. Rather it was
against our government or lack thereof here. How could they have let this
happened. How could they be so blinded. How could they continue to abandon their
citizens? Why are they not doing more? Where are they? What are they? It was
horrible. And to a large degree it still is.
And then there were the tears. The non-stop flow of tears
that just keep coming at random moments. I’m still glued to the news- for
better and for worse. And it doesn’t stop and perhaps it shouldn’t. Families of
hostages, of soldiers that have fallen, of so so many that went through the
Holocaust of October 7th and 8th and 9th…. Listening
to the constant barrage of tears of the 150,000 people that are refugees in our
own country and can’t go home and don’t even know when or if they will return. Children
who miss their homes, their friends, Businesses shutting down one after
another, farmers who after Shemitta and the post-shemitta year are now seeing
their fields and crops going to pot. The pain is so great, so deep, so endless.
And so so personal. It is so dark.
And yet the roller coaster has ups. Incredible ups and
slopes and tracks that we are climbing to heights never before. The Achdus/
Unity is insane. The love of one jew to
another, the disappearance of any hatred, any enmity any resentment or
holier-than-thou ism that we suffered and divided us for so long. The not-normal
revelation of Hashem in the world. In our world. In our soldiers, in the so
many keeping Shabbos, wearing tefillin, tzitzis in the unparalleled chesed in
the history of Klal Yisrael. In Egypt the Torah tells us “Ein bayis asher ein
sham meis- there was no house that didn’t have a dead body. Well today
there is no Jewish home anywhere in the world that not only doesn’t feel that they
have lost someone, but that hasn’t done something whether it is to donate, to bake
something, to take food, supplies, to daven, to learn, to comfort, to cry, to
march, to post- there isn’t a Jew that hasn’t connected to do this and revealed
the oneness of our nation and our God and it is inspiring. It’s mind-blowing.
It’s as high as it gets.
There have been moments of pride. Proud of our soldiers,
proud of our citizens, of our family. There are lots of funny laughing moments
and fantastic memes and jokes and humor that we always seem to find in these situations.
There’s lots of singing, of new songs, of concerts, of inspiration. Manny
Matara- Sha- Gerrrr and Eretz Nehederet spoofs. There have been moments of
unreal joy- and that’s not just for the Bris of my grandson a few weeks ago and
his upcoming pidyon haben this week- but when miracles took place, when we
returned to our homeland, when that hostage was rescued-that was out of the
park!
There are those tear-jerking moments, the so so many Army
base weddings taking place, the proposals, the births and the bar mitzvas. Those
video clips of the soldiers coming home to their children, to their parents
with that song they keep playing again and again. As I said, it’s been a roller
coaster of emotions. Are you feeling pregnant just reading this? It’s like we
woke up the day after Simchas Torah on emotional steroids. The ups and downs
keep coming. But yet the month of light in the darkness, of miracles and of
salvations is here. The ride is getting closer to the end.
As we enter this month we open up the chumash as we do
every week and look for today’s message to me. Oh and for you too… We’ve finally
reached the point of the birth of the third and last of our Patriarchs Yaakov; the
father of the 12 tribes from whom we descend. As well we get his brother our
Uncle Esau, who pretty much by the end of the parsha resolves to kill us. And
he’s still trying to. We also have the final stories of the life of Yitzchak vs
the Philistines in Gerar, non-coincidentally located in Gaza. His wife is taken
from him. He’s subject to severe antisemitism. He even calls the well that he
dug and that they fought with him over Sitna- hatred.
It’s actually fascinating if you read the text. The first
well he dug, it says he called Iska- contention, because they fought with him over
it. The third well which they didn’t fight with him over, he called Rechovot-
as Hashem has widened our place and made us fruitful in the land. Yet that
middle one which he called Sitna- hatred, it doesn’t say why he called it that.
The answer I’ve seen given is because as opposed to the first well where he fell
under the “contzeptzia” that they were fighting over land, over wells,
over water, over whatever… When they continued to fight with him even after he
gave it to them, he understood that the whole time it was all about hate. Hate
doesn’t have a reason. They’re just hateful, spiteful, Philistine animals that
can’t tolerate the Jew in our land. It’s not necessary to give a reason for it.
It’s self-understood.
But that’s not what my E-Mail is about this week. That’s
just a bonus. The moment that really stood out for me is the roller-coaster
ride at the end of the Parsha. Here we have Yitzchak getting ready to pass his
blessing down to his son. This is not just a bracha- this moment is
really the fulfillment of all of Creation. In Yitzchak’s mind it’s a return to
Gan Eden. Yaakov will be the spiritual heir and Esau will be his material partner
in bringing Hashem’s glory out to the world. Unlike his father Avraham who had
two wives and a Yishmael. Yitzchak has only one wife. He was brought up at the akeida
and offered as a sacrifice. He knows that his entire job in life is to bring
the world to its fulfillment. It’s Pesach night. It’s the night of the
redemption. It’s also Yitzchak’s birthday as he was born on Pesach- as we know
that our eventual exile takes place 400 years to the day from his birth. He’s
literally at the footsteps of Mashiach. When Yaakov comes in, he smells Gan
Eden, the food that he tastes our heavenly. It’s a Pesach Seder. He’s ready to open
the door for Eliyahu. And then the ride goes downhill.
Eliyahu is not at the door. It’s Esau. And Yitzchak trembles
the greatest shudder of his life. Rashi tells us he sees Gehenom open up in
front of him. The Midrash and Zohar tells us that he sees everything that will
happen from this moment on. He sees the destructions of the Temple, He sees the
Crusades, He sees the inquisition, the Holocaust, the 6 million. He sees Simchas
Torah 5784. Beeri, Kfar Azza, the soldiers, the pain, the horror and the
terror. And he shudders. And he is terrified for he realizes that everything that
he thought he knew. Everything that he thought should and would be. The son,
Esau, that he loved, that he had banked so much on. That he had planned the
future with. That ultimately would be essential to Hashem’s plan of revealing
His presence to the world had sold it. It wasn’t going to happen. It would all
be up to Yaakov now.
The path that Yaakov would have to take was going to be
terrifying, long, and full of turmoil. It was going to be a roller coaster ride
between these two brothers. One would be up, and one would be down. The day
that he had hoped for, that his father had been blessed with, that Hashem was waiting
for, when the entire world would find Him and bask in His glory, would require
Yaakov to not only do the work of Esau with the hands of Esau that he had taken
for himself, but he would still have to remain Yaakov. He would have to unite
the two parts of himself. The two parts of his nation and his descendants. Then
and only then would Esau become subject to him and recognize the blessing that
he could only get from Hashem through Yaakov.
There is a fascinating statement in the Talmud Yerushalmi.
Rav Hoshiya says
Gadol kiddush Hashem mei’chilul Hashem- The sanctification of Hashem’s name is greater than the desecration
of Hashem’s name.
The Talmud proves this point from the law that on the one
hand we see that we are prohibited from leaving a body of a criminal who had been
executed hanging over night. Yet, at the same time we find in Navi that Shaul’s
children who were executed were left hanging for months in order to publicize
the sin that they did and to sanctify Hashem’s name.
Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook though would often quote this Talmud
and explain its seemingly simple and perplexing statement. After-all it would
seem obvious that a sanctification of Hashem’s name is great and a Chilul
Hashem is not. Rather he understands the wording of the Talmud to be that
it is not that kiddush Hashem is greater than a Chilul Hashem-
but rather that it is greater “mei- chilul Hashem”- from a
desecration of Hashem’s name. When the Kiddush Hashem comes from a desecration
of Hashem’s name it is and will always be greater. It will be the greatest
light to happen.
Do you know what a Chilul Hashem is, he would ask? The
Holocaust is the greatest chilul Hashem. For a chilul- a
desecration, comes from the word chalal- empty space- chol-
mundane or absent of God. When Hashem’s name is not apparent. When it is
hidden. When all we see is evil. When the righteous are exterminated, murdered,
butchered. When His nation are like sheep to the slaughter. That’s the biggest Chilul
Hashem. And from that Chilul Hashem came the return to Israel. Came the
State. It was a light that the world had waited 2000 years to experience.
It’s not only then. It’s always that way. The destruction
of the first Temple led to the light of the story of Purim, and the miracle of
our salvation and the rebuilding of the Temple. The chilul Hashem of the
Hellenists and the Greeks and our assimilation during the second Temple led to
the eternal holiday of Chanuka and the Kiddush Hashem that we celebrate
annually still over 2000 years later. The destruction of the second Temple led
to the Mishna, the Jerusalem Talmud, the Babylonian one. The Crusades led to
the period of the Rishonim. The expulsion from Spain, the Torah in America. The
ups follow the downs. The Kiddush Hashem that comes from the Chilul Hashem is
from where the greatest light will come out.
The truth is that is the story of our biblical ancestors.
It’s the entire Torah and book of Bereishis. Avraham’s success and downfall and
success again and downfall. It’s Yitzchak’s story. It will be Yaakov’s story,
the tribe’s story, Yosef and Egypt and our first Exodus on Pesach. It’s the roller
coaster of Jewish history and life. It’s an eternal one. It’s an emotional one.
It’s a tragic painful one, yet it’s the one that will bring Mashiach. One whose
ride is almost over. Whose pregnancy will finally give birth.
The past 75 years here in Eretz Yisrael have been perhaps
the greatest and most intense roller coaster ride of all. Built on the Chilul
Hashem of the ashes of the crematoria and the martyrdom of the 6 million
Kedoshim our state was born. Yet, that state was not one that was ready yet to
acknowledge Hashem’s hand. The founders weren’t and the Jews that chose to
remain in galus didn’t either. We didn’t have Yerushalayim. We didn’t
feel we needed it. We were going to continue “rebuilding” in America spiritually
and in Israel economically and materially. We didn’t bring Yaakov’s voice and the
hands we took from Esau together in the country we were meant to. Thus the chilul
Hashem got greater and greater and led to the 6-day war only 19 years after our
founding. Yet, the miracles that came from that Chilul Hashem when we were
abandoned by the world and when we thought we would lose it all brought perhaps
the greatest Kiddush Hashem. We quadrupled our country, we got back all our
holy places. We saw Hashem. Many started to return. Teshuva happened. The light
was great. We were on the way up. And then we lost it.
The roller coaster took a downturn again. Kochi V’otzem
yadi- our strength, our power, our army became the “contzeptzia”.
Frum Jews that hadn’t moved decided that they didn’t need to. That they couldn’t.
That we need to wait. That it’s not time. And the land mourned. And the
miracles ceased. And the chalal- the hole and void got bigger and
bigger. Yom Kippur came and we lost thousands. We were broken. We were
terrified. Hashem saved us, yet the miracles were hidden. This wasn’t a 6- Day
war. This didn’t give us any more land. This was a test to see if we could
finally get the message and do what we need to do. And we didn’t. We made an
even greater Chilul Hashem.
Sure we learned. Sure we strengthened our Torah. Sure we
even moved to Israel. But it wasn’t together. We were divided. The frum for the
frum. The Left for the left. The settlers for the settlers. In 2005 we had perhaps
the next black day of chilul Hashem. We left Gaza. We left Gush Katif.
We threw out 7000 Jews from their home. We made a deal with “Avimelech” of
Gerar. We assumed it was just an “iska” when it was a “sitna”.
But it wasn’t their “sitna” for us. It was ours for
one another. It was a lack of appreciation of how every inch of this land is
ours from our forefathers. It’s from Hashem for all of us to live in. For all
of us to inherit. For all of us to unabashedly declare that to the world.. For
us to wipe out every single smelly Arab that doesn’t want to accept that. And
by the way there are many many that actually serve in the army and really do
want to live here in a Jewish State. It is possible. It’s what’s supposed to
be. It’s what we are supposed to bring the world to see. It’s why we took the
hands of Esau to use with our voice of Yaakov. It’s the end of the roller
coaster ride and the last big twist and turn before the greatest kiddush Hashem
finally is revealed.
It’s not fun being on a roller coaster. It’s not fun to be
pregnant. Yet Hashem has put us on that ride. He put that baby in all of our
tummies. There is a reason why the era of Mashiach is called by our sages as the
birth pangs. It’s not just the actual real pain of the birth. It’s the 2000
year emotional pregnancy that we’ve been walking around with that is taking it’s
final toll. Yet, the end is around the corner. We’re in the birthing room already.
The crib is waiting for us. The light is getting brighter and brighter. I can
smell the Kiddush. It smells like Gan Eden. The 5784-year-old chulent has been cooking
for a long time. It’s going to be a real “Kiddush” Hashem.
Have holy hartzigeh Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
This week's Insights and Inspirat
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Aroif kletert men pavolyeh; arop kolert men zich
shnell.”. – Uphill one
climbs slowly downhill you roll fast.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
14.The use of
Muqarnas in architecture in Israel started in the ___________ period.
Under the
auspices of which country did the Catholics operate during the Ottoman period?
A. Turkey
B. Italy
C. Spain
D. France
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/good-shabbos – It's been a few weeks and you probably miss this song. Here it is my Good Shabbos song!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olxRpPMfVGg
–
Ishai Ribbo and Omar Adam in Washington DC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDIupxVmnLo - Hillarious Eretz Nehedert BBC Sinwar
interview spoof
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IiqIDCYZRs
-
Shulem Lemmer Holocaust survivors song for Israeli Hostages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_WM5iKOfE
– Ahavas Chinam Shuki Solomon…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JBMG5mkg_s
–Miami Boys Choir latest- We stand with
Israel.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER
INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK
Praying for others Mincha – The Torah portion this week tells
us an incredible story about a special thought and approach to Tefilla that I sessential
for us to feel particularly at this point in time. The parsha tells us that
Yitzchak and Rivka after they had been married for 10 years and didn't have any
children realized that she was barren. Rashi notes that unlike his father
Avraham and even his son Yaakov, he was unable to take another wife or
maidservant to marry him and produce children because since he was brought up a
sacrifice by the akeida, he was sanctified and couldn't have a maidservant
wife. So Rashi tells us that he went into one corner and prayed and Rivka went
into the other corner and prayed.
There are a few puzzling things about these Rashi's. Did Yitzchak
and Rivkah not pray for the entire 10 years that they would have children.
Wouldn't anyone pray once they got married to have kids? Rashi as well seems to
note that it was because he couldn't take another wife that they both went to
pray. Really?! Is that what it took? And why does Rashi tell us they prayed in
the corner? Who cares if they davened in their shul, in their kitchen, living
room, study or in Uman? What does this make a difference?
I heard an incredible insight explaining a similar story in the
Talmud in Ketuvot (62:). It tells us that the Rebbi Yehudah Hanasi married his
son off to the daughter of Rebbi Yosi Ben Zimra. They got married and then he
went off to study for 12 years, as it seems was the agreement and custom back
then. Lock in the marriage when they're young and they'll finish the deal after
the learns a bit. When he returned from his studies, they tried to have
children and realized she was infertile. So the Talmud tells us that the two
rabbis discussed the options. He couldn't take another wife because then it
would look bad that he kept her waiting for 12 years like this. He couldn't
take another wife because then people would shame her and say she is only his
mistress. Therefore with no other option they decided to pray, and what do you
know? She had children.
Once again this is a very strange story. Why do they have to go
through all the options first? Did not the great Rebbi and Rebbi Yosi not
understand what seemingly every one of us does; that we should daven.
The answer is that there is prayer and then there is prayer. As
long as one feels that there are other options on the table, their prayers will
not reach the ultimate sincerity. They won't hit home the way they are meant
to. For them really to accomplish the maximum one has to feel that they have
nowhere else to turn. They are in a corner. There's no right, there's no left.
Their back is against the wall. That was the reason they eliminated all other
options before their prayer. That is why Yitzchak and Rivkah’s prayer after 10
years were the most heartfelt when they realized he couldn't take another wife.
That's why it tells us they davened in the corner.
We have a father in heaven that is waiting for us to turn our
hearts to Him and understand that besides Him there are no other options. After
2000 years of Exile we have returned here to Eretz Yisrael. Yet, as we see and
Hashem is telling us it’s not enough. that we have a home, a refuge, a place to
settle a country even to shine out the light to the world from. We need our
Father back here as well. He hasn't yet sent Mashiach perhaps because we still
feel we have other options. Our backs are not yet to the wall. We're not in the
corner. Hashem thus thrust us into a corner. We felt lost. We felt that nothing
could stop our enemies. We woke up and we davened like never before. We still
need those type of prayers.
We have entered the month of Kislev. It is a month of miracles. It
is the darkest Shabbos of the year this week and it is in that dark corner, in
that darkest of months that the light of miracles and of the dedication of the
Temple can break through once again. May we merit to have our millennia of
prayers for that day finally answered.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Civil War and Jewish Hostages? 620 BC – We know and we’ve learned and our sages repeatedly tell us that the
worst things happen to us when we have sinas chinam- when we’re fighting
amongst each other. Today, those fights are civil compared to the times of the
prophets, we have demonstrations, media posts and lashon hara. We couldn’t
possibly imagine Jews taking swords against one another. But that’s exactly what
happens at this juncture we are up to in our column. Amatzia the king
of Yehuda after his resounding and brutal victory over Edom, is dealing
with the pillaging and raids of the tribe of Ephraim from the Northern
kingdom who had felt rejected by Amatzia when they were turned away
from battle. So Amatzia sends message to Yoash the king of Israel
in the North that they should meet in battle and settle this in war. Craziness…
Yoash tries to beg out and warns Amatzia
that he’s messing with the wrong Kingdom. Remember the Northern Kingdom is 10
tribes against the two of Yehuda and Binyamin. As well fascinatingly
enough the Northern Kingdom looked upon themselves as being more
righteous. Since Yoash is a grandson of Yehu that had killed out the
house of Achav, the only remaining members of Achav’s house were
from his daughter (or sister) Atalia who had married Amatzia’s grandfather
Achazya. So ironically we have the King of Yehuda being
considered rightfully so not frum enough as they are looked upon as Achav’s
descendants. And Yoash who is a grandson of Yehu that killed out Achav’s
family felt that it was time to finish the job. Nothing like a family fight and
certainly a generational one.
So they meet in battle in Beit Shemesh.
The fact that the battle took place in Amaztia’s home turf showed that Yoash
really wasn’t that scared. They devastated the army of Amatzia who fled
back to Jerusalem. There Yoash pillaged the temple taking gold
and silver from the Beit Ha’mikdash and even taking children as hostages from the
house of Amatzia and his vassals and lords back to the Shomron.
They were taken in order to serve as “insurance” that Amatzia would not try
to attack him back again. As I said this is pretty insane, especially in light
of what we are going through now. Jews taking other Jews as hostages. Using
them as protection that they won’t be attacked, and in fact they weren’t. Amatzia
was eventually hounded out and assassinated over a decade later by his own
servants in the city of Lachish- not far from Beit Shemesh. Probably because
they were upset that their hostages were not returned and seemingly he did nothing
to return them Yoash on the other hand died right after this story. It’s
chaos. And as we will see it spirals down even worse.
Kind of makes you feel that we were miles ahead
with our petty fights about judicial reform and mechitzas in Tel Aviv
and nasty rhetoric. We perhaps have learned the lesson that fighting among ourselves
is never a winning strategy.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FUNNY
GAZA MEMES/ JOKES OF THE WEEK
Shifa is a hospital
like Mengele was a doctor
If a Jews is murdered
in the woods, does the World make a sound
Not everybody likes my
new slogan- from the Sea to the River don’t you mess with my shvigger
New Monopoly Game Card-
“Get out of Jew-Hater Jail Free – when you’re too much of a coward and a
hypocrite to admit you hate Jews. Claim you’re an anti-Zionist and not an Anti-Semite
Washington Rally
Security guards- “umm this rally is for 2 hours, you have enough food for a
week.
The News used to tell
us what happened and we had to decide how we felt about it. Now the News tells
us how to feel and we have to decide if it happened.
I F
Y O U
C A N
T S E E
WHATS HAPPENING IN
I S R A E L Y O U
N E E D
TO BUY SOME
NEW GLASSES
OK I think that we have
to really give it to them. No more mercy. We need to return to them their
internet today… But we have to make HOT their provider and let them try to
disconnect from them…
I have family fighting
in Israel now. They’re not in the army… they just fight a lot.
A new study out of
Johns Hopkins University shows that an increase of gun ownership among Gabbaim
correlates with reduced talking during Davening.
People now seem afraid
that Gaza will be occupied by Israel. Those same people were already saying
that Gazs was occupied by Israel. For everyone’s sanity please make up your
minds!
In response to the call
for a boycott of Israeli made products amongs Palestine supporters here is a List
of Palestinian Made Products and Companies You can Boycott
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Yeah…
The answer to this week”s
question is D – Got a half and half on this one. Arab archeology
isn’t my strong point, but I knew that much of the architecture we have is in
the Mamaluk period that really built a lot. The muqranas is the flowery columns
I believe so I got that one right. Churches and all that mishigas is even less
my interest. I guessed that the Ottoman which is Turkey was the right answer
for Part B, the answer was France. Who cares? Not even interested in googling
it. I’ll take the half right and be happy with is. So got the new score being Rabbi Schwartz at
10 point and the MOT having 4 point on this latest Ministry of
Tourism exam.
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