A
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
"Your friend
in Karmiel"
December 22nd
2023 -Volume 13 Issue
11
10th of Tevet 5784
There have been so many scenes and moments from this war.
So many pictures, memes, songs that capture the raw emotions, the intensity of
all the incomprehensible and unprecedented feelings that we are all going
through. There always is. We live in an era of soundbites, Tik Tok, and of
course Whatsapp status( in the Frum world), we don’t have time for lengthy articles,
News columns or programs. We want the quick fix and bite and move on. It’s all
we can handle. It’s like our generation has had my stomach surgery on our
brains and attention span. Three bites and we’re full. But those three bites
have to count. They have to have it all…
It's not only that way today. There have always been images
that have captured the moment. Those soldiers holding the flag on Iwo Jima, the
guy standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square in the Chinese Communist
revolt, The Menora with the backdrop of the swastika Banner in Berlin in the
Holocaust, the young boy with those frightened eyes surrendering in Warsaw
Ghetto and of course the three soldiers with tears in their eyes at the
liberation of the Kotel kissing the Western Wall in the 6 Day War. A picture is
worth a million words and those pictures capture all the raw emotion of the era
and times.
Good pictures of course have also accompanied songs of the
era. Who remembers “We are the World” for the starving children of
Africa, “Where have all the flowers gone” was a Vietnam hit. I remember
in the Gulf War there was this “God Bless the USA” song that had the
lyrics “And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And
I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.” that I think would probably be ironically
politically incorrect to sing for most of the Americans today.
Israel as well had and has it’s songs. Yerushalayim Shel
Zahav was the 6-day wars song, Lu Yehi- Naomi Shemer’s Beatles “Let
it Be” knockoff was the Yom Kippur anthem, and the “Ein Li Eretz Acheret”
song- composed during the War of attrition still gives strength and determination
to soldiers and their families today. The
pictures, the music and songs together give us that snapshot or meme that can
wrap the overwhelming and immensity of what we are undergoing in one easily
digestible morsel.
This war is no different. In the frum world that song is
Acheinu. It’s a war of brotherhood. Of us being there for one another. Of us
realizing that we are one family. That no matter how divided we were, how
estranged we are from one another, how far we may live and how different our
lives are we have one shared enemy that doesn’t differentiate between us. That
my brothers pain hurts me deep in my soul- even though I have never met him
before. It may be the brother that we might have thrown in the pit and wrote
off as being a danger to our nation-hood, but now we have revealed that we are incomplete
without him. That we can’t become who we were meant to be without him by our
side. We recognize how much we love him, how much pain our Father is in when we
were divided, how he had sparks of holiness that we never knew about. Sparks
that ignite our own inner flame. Sparks that we realize that we needed to
attach to in order to reveal the light of the Shechina, of Hashem in this world.
Yet there is an even more powerful song and image that
captures even more all that we have been going through the past 78 days. It’s
replayed itself over again and again. We’ve all seen them again and again. Yet,
no matter how many times it never fails to bring tears to our eyes. Even the
funny meme knockoffs make us cry. The song is “Gam Ba’Shaot Ha’chashuchot shel Ha’layla- In the darkest hours of the
night,there will always be a little star to light your way home” ( here it
is with translation in case you always wanted to know what the words are - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqO-jpPoMHE&t=0s ) . And then of course you have the image of the son, the soldier,
the father, the brother, the sister returning home from the battlefront to the loving
arms of the family that has been praying, hoping, crying longing for them. That
embrace, those tears, that moment captures it all. I can’t see enough of them.
I can’t stop watching these clips. It's the moment that we are all focused on.
It’s really what this war is all about and it encompasses the direction and
goal Hashem wants us to achieve. The return of all of us to our Father.
Just in case you are a bit skeptical about that assertion,
then you need to look no further than this week’s parsha which is the culmination
of the entire story of our nation- or rather the prelude of our family becoming
a nation in the story of the return of our family and Yosef to his father
Yaakov. It hasn’t been 78 days that they’ve been apart. It’s been 22 years.
Yosef was kidnapped and sold as a young boy and today he is almost 40. The
moment and drama has been building with the great reveal to his brothers- I am
Yosef is my father still alive. Does he still remember me? Does he miss me as
much as I have missed him? Has he like me looked out my window at night and
seen those stars and dreamed of him looking out at and seeing those same stars.
The stars that Hashem took our Father Avraham out to see. That He promised him
we are the just like them. That we will shine forever in the dark. Does my father
still remember me and long for me on those dark nights?
The moment finally comes. Yosef sends down wagons. Yaakov
has a vision from Hashem in those darkest hours of the night; the sha’ot ha’chashuchot
she’belayla. Hashem tells him that He as well is going to be going down
with him. He will be there and has always been there on those dark nights. And He
will come up together with Him, with us and bring us back. And the reunion
finally happens. One can almost hear the music starting up in the background as
Yosef himself harnesses his chariot and drives over to Goshen to greet him and
gets out of the wagon and runs into his father’s waiting arms.
Vayeira eilav- and he
appeared to him
Va’yipol al tzavrouv-
and he falls on his neck
Vayevch – and he cries
Vayevch al tzavoruv od-
and he cries again on his neck
It is a powerful moment. Yet there is something strange
that Rashi notes. One would think that Yaakov would as well be crying, there
would be hugs and kisses. Yet it seems that Yosef is the one doing the crying,
hugging and kissing. It is not as if Yaakov is not an emotional person. We find
in fact that he hugs and kisses his father Yitzchak, his wife Rachel, later on
his grandchildren in next weeks parsha Ephraim and Menashe. He’s not a Kalteh Litvak
or a stoic Yekkeh. Yet here strangely enough the Torah doesn’t share Yaakov’s
at least physical response and embrace of Yosef.
In fact the response that it does share seems a little bit
strange and depressing. The next verse tells us that Yaakov says to Yosef
Amusa ha’paam- I can
die this time
Acharey ro’i panecha ki odcha chai- after I have seen your face, because you are still alive.
Really??!! That was the problem? Yaakov didn’t feel he
could die properly without having seen Yosef? As one of the commentaries ask,
one would think that Yaakov should be asking for arichus yamim- long days
together of life to make up for all that lost time with his favorite son. Why
is he thinking about death? Rashi’s interpretation is even more perplexing. He
quotes what seemingly seems to be a Gaonic source that cryptically says that
Yaakov didn’t cry because he was reciting Kriyat Shema. The Sifsei Chachamim
takes this quite literally and thus notes that the halacha is that one is
forbidden to interrupt while reciting the Shema and thus Yaakov didn’t respond.
Yosef, he suggests must have davened early already that morning.
Yet the Maharal takes a different approach. He notes the
famous Talmud that tells us that when Rabbi Akiva was being taken out to be
killed and his flesh was being flayed by iron combs from his Hamas Roman Nazi
torturers, he as well was reciting the Shema. When his students asked him if it
was even obligatory at this moment under such duress to recite the prayer,
Rabbi Akiva answered them in words that is engrained in our nations soul and
was on the lips of every martyr since then.
“My entire life when I recited the Shema and I said the
words to love Hashem with all of my soul I envisioned myself giving up my life
for Hashem. Now that it has finally come to my hands to fulfill this mitzva
will I not fulfill it?”
Throughout generations our kedoshim- our holy martyrs went to
their deaths with the acceptance of the Kingship of heaven on their lips. They
didn’t see Romans, they didn’t see Inquisitors, Cossacks, or terrorists. They
saw a loving Father in heaven taking them home, bringing them up to the
heavenly gates next to His throne where they rest eternally and bask in His
glory. They said Shema Yisrael and accepted their fate as His will. They understood
that dying that way with Shema on their lips was the greatest sanctification of
Hashem’s name that was possible.
What is so special about Shema? What do the words mean? Why
is this the prayer that we recite to our children before we put them to bed, that
we recite twice daily, that is today being recited by soldiers all over Israel
and that is even hanging on big billboards not only in Jerusalem but even in
Tel Aviv? Shema Yisrael- is not merely to hear. Rather it is to internalize. It
is to make the idea one and part of ourselves. The idea is that Hashem is one. This
is not merely a monotheistic statement of our faith in one rather than multiple
gods. Nobody really believes in idols or a pantheon of Greek or pagan gods as
they once did. Rather it is our statement of faith that the entire universe,
all that there is, all that happens in the world, all of Creation is Hashem. He
is everything. He sees and is always present. In times of light and darkness. In
the Sha’ot ha’chashuchot- in the blackest Shabbos and nights He is there
with us. For He is one and there is nothing else besides Him.
The job of Klal Yisrael- the children of Yaakov who is
called Yisrael, is to reveal that light to the world. To have the whole world
recite Shema. To be inspired by our Shema. Yet, that only works if we can say
it ourselves and show our love for Hashem with all of our hearts and souls as well.
When we can show that we are ready, like our ancestor Avraham Avinu was, to sacrifice
not only our own lives but even our children, as he did by the Akeida, if that
is the will and command of Hashem. Because ultimately that shows that at the
end of the day, we truly have internalized, that there really is nothing
besides Hashem’s will in the world and we are merely here to be vessels to
reveal that light.
Yaakov, the third and last of our patriarchs who was raised
on this knowledge and the stories of his father Yitzchak’s sacrifice, and the
faith of Avraham understood what his job in this world was. His entire life was
to pass that light and torch on to his children. Yosef was the embodiment of it
all and it was why he dedicated everything to teaching him and raising him with
the importance of our mission. The mission to reveal the light, that could only
be revealed when we are one. When the children of Israel are united. And when Yosef
was lost, Yaakov felt that he had failed. That he had been unworthy to carry on
that important mission to the world, and to a large degree he was right.
Our hatred, our lack of unity, our blindness to the
essential nature of each of us would make it impossible for the Shechina to
ever shine. And thus he sent Yosef out on the mission to restore it. In the
words of Rabbi Dovid Fohrman it was another Akeida story. It was Yaakov sending
Yosef into the most dangerous world to bring about the light and sanctification
of Hashem.
But Yosef succeeds. He not only brings the brothers together,
but he brings out something even more important. Areivus- a sense of
responsibility for one another. This is really the essence of what it takes to make
Hashem Echad. Today many people speak of unity. Unity is that we stand as one.
We’re there for one another. We help and we feel each other’s pain. Areivus
though- as Yehuda took over and told Yosef that he felt for his brother Binyamin
is deeper than that though. It is that I am responsible for you. Because you
are me and I am you.
The law of Areivim is that one Jew can fill his obligation
for another Jew. I can make kidddush and you fulfill your obligation by
hearing it. I can do a mitzva and it is as if you have done the mitzva. If you
have a debt then the guarantor takes on the debt as if it is his own. Because it
is his own with acceptance of that responsibility. That is oneness. That is the
revelation that Yosef brings out from the brothers. It’s when he finally breaks
down and cries. Because the light has been revealed. Because now we have truly
become one and now the One-ness The Hashem Echad can be revealed to the world.
When Yosef sees Yaakov, the verse tells us that he appeared
before him. Rashi tells us that Yosef took all of his personal emotions aside
and stood before his father- so that his father could see him. He entirely
nullified himself before his father to show him that this was never about me.
It was about revealing Hashem. It’s all that Yosef did in Egypt. He taught the
entire world that Hashem is Echad. Yaakov in turn sees that and like Rabbi
Akiva much later (who the kabbalists tells us shared the same soul as Yaakov-
besides the same letters of his name) takes all of that love he felt for Yosef
and he channels it to Hashem. Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad-
I can reveal that light now. Until now had I died, I would’ve been remiss. It
would’ve been out of sadness. It would’ve been without bringing Hashem’s light
to the world. But now I can pass, for the torch has been passed. Hashem’s
one-ness will be shared with the world.
I don’t think it’s coincidental that the image and videos
that are so moving of this war are of children returning to their parents. It’s
what this is all about. Each of us are children of Hashem Our Father in heaven
has been waiting for not 22 years like Yaakov or even 78 days for us to return home
to Him but rather for 2000 years since our Temple, His home has been destroyed
and really for 5784 years since he threw us out of His Garden. But we are on our
way home. We are not only uniting but taking responsibility for one another.
Our soldiers on the frontline our children, are literally doing that. They are willing
giving their lives for us, because they understand, we all understand that they
are us and we are them. The more that we as well feel and understand that it’s
not someone elses child that’s there fighting, that’s kidnapped, that’s
homeless, that’s wounded, that’s a widow and orphan, but that it’s me. That it’s
my brother whom I’m an areiv for then the light of Shema will shine
down. Then Hashem Echad will be revealed. Then we will have a new song and a
new era that will define our era. The song of hope, prayer, love and redemption.
May we sing it soon.
Have a lightfilled Shabbos and may all our prayers be answered,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Tsu itlechen neiem lid ken men tsupassen an
alten nigenTo every new song one can find an old tune.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR
GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer
below at end of Email
19.Menachem
Begin commanded over the ___________ organization.
Where in
Jerusalem is Menachem Begin buried?
A. In the
"Great Leader of the Nation" cemetery
B. On the
Mount of Olives
C. On Har
Hamenuchot
D. In
Sanhedria
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/avinu-malkeinu
- in memory of all of those fallen
on Kiddush Hashem my Avinu malkeinu
composition. Thank you YItz Berry
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/shomer-yisroel
– And as a zechus for all of the
soldiers my Shomer Yisrael Composition with Dovid Lowy arrangements and Vocals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEbji84Ii3k
– Mordechai Shapiro’s latest Ani Yehudi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nic1TLdqCU
- Gorgeous
Solomon Brothers Shvurei Lev with a Carlebach twist…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzqFRRoreZE
-
Shuli Rand powerful Ani Maamin
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER
INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK
Yehuda’s Prayer – The longest speech in the Torah is Yehuda’s speech which assumedly
is to Yosef to release his brother Binyamin, however if one examines the speech
our sefarim tell us that in fact Yehudah is not talking to Yosef he’s talking
to Hashem, and Yosef is just listening in.
Vayigash Eilav Yehuda Vayomer Bi Adoni- and Yehuda came close and
he said please my Master.
That Adoni is in fact Hashem. It is a transformative idea if one
reads the speech with that in mind. What is he telling and asking Hashem?
Al Yichar Apcha b’avdecha- don’t be angry with your servant.
Ki Kamocha Ki’pharaoh- because Hashem you are like Pharoah- I
understand that all that Pharoah is doing is really from you. All my troubles, all
that has gone wrong. All that you have hit me with it’s all from You Hashem
Adoni Sha’al es avdav leiomor Hayeish Lachem av oh ach- You Hashem
asked me in the from of Yosef if I have a brother. If I have a father? I see what you want me to reflect upon. I am
examining my deeds and realize I abandoned my brother. I caused pain to my father.
To You Hashem. You asked me and I realized I have sinned. You sent Yosef to
order us to bring Binyamin down to Mitzrayim. It’s all you Hashem. We have
sinned. I now take responsibility. I’m
now ready to put my life on the line for him, for klal Yisrael. I am his guarantor.
My life is tied to his life. He is tied to our Father’s life.
When Yosef heard this he couldn’t hold back. He broke down. Yehuda’s
prayer was answered. The light shown out. All of the house of Pharaoh heard. The
Shechina had resided and the brothers are united.
That is what prayer is really about. Vayigash- coming close, not
only to Hashem, but to ourselves. To get to our inner kishkas and see what we
need to do to get close. When we do that, Hashem answers. The geula can come.
We will finally be redeemed.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Ezra HaSofer 313 BC- We’ll
take a chronological break from this column, to pause this week to talk about
the great leader Ezra Hasofer who's yartzeit is the 9th of Tevet
this Monday. Our sages tell us that if the Torah wasn't given through the hands
of Moshe, Ezra would have been the next choice. In fact many of the basic
practices of Judaism and the Torah "culture" comes from his
establishments. Our Hebrew writing known as Ketav Ashuris, that we have today
dates back from Ezra, the way that we read the Torah and its establishment to
be read during the weekdays comes from him as well. He established many customs
to prepare for Shabbos as well as to encourage Jewish women to be more
attractive to their husbands increasing the holiness of the Jewish home.
It was he who led the return to Eretz Yisrael
from Babylonia and the rebuilding of the 2nd Beit
Hamikdash in Yerushalayim. This is something I
like to talk about and mention obviously when
we look up at the Temple Mount from the Kotel and
discuss how Ezra's temple that was funded
by Cyrus of Persia was more of a small wooden
shack then the great Temple of King Solomon or
later of the Maccabees or Herod who built the
final complex.
Perhaps most significant of his accomplishments,
is the incredible ceremony that he held upon coming to Israel and finding that
many of the Jews were intermarried with the nations that lived here. Can you
imagine that within 70 years after suffering a holocaust of the destruction of
the first Temple that the majority of Jews would be marrying out of our
faith... I guess some things never change. What did change however was Ezra. He
got up and mourned, cried and put on sackcloth and told the Jews that they had jeopardized
the future of our people. We are a Jewish nation that is meant to be proud and
marry one another and create a nation that will shine out to Hashem. Incredibly
that speech stirred to the Jews to action where they sent away their non-Jewish
wives and returned to the faith of their forefathers. There's a great picture
of this speech in David's Tower by the Jaffa gate in the museum, where it goes
through all of the different eras of Israel and I like to talk about that
there.
Perhaps the one failure of Ezra was that he
failed to inspire the Jews in Bavel to join him in
this historic return. It seems the Jews living
in Israel despite non being religious were able to be
inspired much quicker to leave their wives and
families, then the Jews in Bavel were to leave
their Kosher Pizza shops on 13th avenue
or in Lakewood or the five towns equivalent they had
there. Maybe 10% of the Jews went up with them.
Mostly the shleppers, the ones that couldn't
marry into the nation and lots of Kohanim and
Levites who wanted jobs in the temple. It's hard
for most people to wrap their brain around the
concept that the majority of Jews never even saw
the 2nd Temple as they remained in
Bavel. Perhaps they sent their daughters there for a year in
seminary, maybe they came for their kids Bar
Mitzvas, but mostly they just made their "alimony
payments to the Jews who had returned to
Jerusalem. Take my money and leave me alone...
This is usually one of my parting thoughts that
I share with my tourists after experiencing a trip
in Eretz Yisrael and as they head off to Ben
Gurion airport back to the unpromised land from
whence they came.
Now although Josephus mentions that Ezra was
buried in Yerushalayim with great ceremony, as
far as I know there is no place in Israel where
his tomb is. It seems the cemetery on Mt. of Olives which does date back to the
first temple would be the likely place though. Jewish tradition outside of
Josephus however places his grave in Iraq near the Tigris river by a village
named Al Uzair. The tomb is still there today and Jews and Muslims would go
there regularly to pray.
Regardless where he's buried Ezra is one of the
only people in the history of Klal Yisrael who's
yartzeit is remembered each year when we fast on
the 10th of Tevet when we recall the beginning.
of the destruction of the Temples. Perhaps as we
remember the destruction, we are also meant to
remember that the beginning of the destruction
really began already in its early beginnings when
the majority of Israel were not inspired enough
to come back home and rejoin the return to Zion that he led... I'm just
saying...
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FUNNY
MEMES/ JOKES OF THE WEEK
Coming up this Friday
night; Jewish women will find out what
time Friday night davening really ends!!
I’m not surprised that
Hamas is hiding in a school. I’m just surprised that the school is Harvard.
Nothing screams
everything I know about this conflict I learned on Tik Tok quite like chanting
to globaluizze the intfada at a ceasefire protest.
Hashem please give me
the confidence of a non-Jew explaining to me what is and what isn’t anti-semitism
Palestine has no
history Only a criminal record.
People in the West :
phone the police when their neighbor plays loud music. Also people in the West
expect Israel to put up with neighbors that rape and kil them and plan their extermination.
Women who its difficult
for that their husbands are in Miluim Reserves should just have them go to the
local mosque and screen Shema Yisrael and they’ll get sent home quick!
**********************************
The answer to this week”s question is B – OK I’m back on my game here, finally. This one was fairly easy. Begin was the head of the breakoff group and army from the Hagana called the Etzel- or which is an acronym of Irgun Tzval Leuim- or National Organized Army, a more aggressive fighting force that felt that the Hagana was too busy trying to pacify the British and the only way we would ger our State is if we fought against them and attacked them as well. He is the only Prime Minister buried on Mt. of Olives/ Har Ha’Zeitim and one of the few not buried on Mt. Herzl where other PMs, Presidents and heads of Knesset are buried. He chose to be buried next to two heroes Barzani and Feinstein soldiers that were sentenced to death by the British and blew themselves up in the prison before their execution taking down some British with them and not allowing them to have the pleasure of hanging them. These are the true great men of the nation , Begin said and therefore chose to be buried next to them, rather than the left-wing pacifists PM that were on Har Herzl. So this is another one right making the latest score is Rabbi Schwartz at 13.5 point and the MOT having 4.5 point on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.
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