Insights and
Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
"Your friend
in Karmiel"
January 26th
2024 -Volume 13 Issue 15 16th of
Shevat 5784
Parshat Beshalach
From the River to
the Sea
It’s a bracha that has been recited by many since this war has begun.
It’s one that I only pretty much recited until now when I flew back and forth
from the States. To be honest it really didn’t have such meaning to me. The
blessing is one that is recited on four occasions. It’s called the Gomel
blessing- or in yeshivish shprach bentching Gomel. The halacha is
that there are four that need to recite this blessing of thanksgiving. One who
crosses over an ocean or desert, one who recovers from a serious illness and one
who is released from prison or captivity.
Now thank God, I’ve never been in prison or captivity although I did
serve plenty of time in detention in the principals office, but I don’t think
that counts. As well I have never been sick enough where it was life-threatening,
though I might have said it when I went for my stomach surgery, just because they
put me under for the surgery. So really the only times I have recited the
blessing was on my overseas flights to America (and Africa!), which as well
doesn’t seem too life-threatening.
Actually, the last time I came back from America when I recited the blessing,
I had in mind for the first time that Hashem saved me from that dangerous country
of yours where antisemitism is up like a million percent and most of the people
I passed on the street at these Free-Palestine protests want me and my nation
wiped out and think Hamas or the Nazis didn’t do a good enough job. They after-all
went to the right Universities that indoctrinate them. That’s not even to
mention the “Der Shturmer-Goebel’s worthy TikTok social media and “legitimate”
News outlets that should be quite frightening to most people that don’t suffer
from 80-year-old short term memory loss of pre-Holocaust era propaganda. That
was scarier than the flight across the ocean. Yet the blessing is as well for
any life-threatening situation that one is saved from and so I might have said
it as well for some car accidents as well that I came out in one piece from.
Yet today here in Israel there are not too many soldiers that haven’t
recited this blessing after every mission that they come back in one piece from.
There are thousands, if not tens of thousands that survived the pogroms of October
7th and the following days in which they and their families were in
their words miraculously saved. Tens of thousands of missiles have fallen on
this country, in cities like Ashkelon and Ashdod, all over the Northern border.
It’s literally miracles daily and so many that “were right there’ just
minutes before that were saved. And then there are those that I visit in the hospitals
that were unfortunately injured. Whether they were soldiers, civilians wounded in
attacks, and all of the usual non-war related cholim that have undergone
serious surgeries and illnesses. Yes, the Gomel blessing is perhaps the
bracha that Klal Yisrael is reciting more often than ever and like all things
that are happening in these days of the final era before Mashiach comes it is
something Hashem wants us to focus on.
Now just in case you were skeptical, one need not do more than what we
do every week this past year and just take a peek into this weeks parsha, which
is of course the parsha of our redemption from Egypt. The highlight of which
contains of course the Song of Sea that we sang upon being redeemed. The
singing of that song our sages tells us is in fact the source for all the criterion
for the recital of this blessing. We were freed from captivity, we didn’t
suffer any of the sicknesses of the plagues that were placed upon Egypt, and we
crossed the sea and the desert.
And so in the song of praise we thank Hashem for it all. We recognize
that He is our savior. The song begins with the word Az Yashir- then we sang,
and our sages tells us that it is a song for all times. It is past and it is present,
and it is even about the future. Its conclusion is that Hashem will rule
forever and how we will build him a Beit Hamikdash where his Shechina will
rest. It’s a song that we sing daily. It’s to a large degree the original
Hatikva- the hope song that is full of praise that we await to sing when we are
finally able to see its fulfillment.
Rav Kook Zt”l however takes this blessing to a whole new level. He
notes that the words of the blessing describe a fulfillment of an obligation
that we have. It is unique in that way,
as other blessing of thanks just seem to be an expression of appreciation to
Hashem that is about the moment or experience that one has undergone. Here the
bracha almost puts us down in calling us undeserving or “obligated ones.”
Blessed are You, Hashem our God, ruler of the world, who rewards the chayavim-
the undeserving with goodness, and who has rewarded me with goodness.
What did we do wrong? Why not just say and sing “Thank You Hashem”?
Perhaps even deeper to an understanding of this blessing and maybe even this
war as well is the question of why we even have to thank Hashem for this “salvation”?
After-all isn’t He the one that threw us into the dangerous situation in the
first place? He put us into slavery. He gave us the sickness or illness that we
recover from. He imprisoned us. He sent these animals to attack us and enslave
us. He gave us October 7th and missile attacks. So why do we have to
thank Him so much when we didn’t die or get killed?
The answer though perhaps can best be found in the flowers I bought my
wife this past Shabbos, and the ones I’ve started buying the past few weeks. I’ve
stopped taking her and my family for granted. A week, a month and already more
than three months of meeting so many families who have lost loved ones. Whose
children will never grow up knowing their Abba. Of meeting soldiers who have
lost their limbs and can’t walk, can’t go to the bathroom alone, don’t know if they
will ever be able to see or hear again. The families of hostages that I’ve met
who are still living on October 7th and would do anything to have a
phone call saying Good Shabbos from their loved ones. Who haven’t slept and
refuse to do so until they can once again tuck their children into their bed safely
and wish and kiss them good night. After spending a Shabbos with the families
of refugees who haven’t slept in their own beds for over 100 days already and
probably won’t for who know how many months to come, even my house, my own bed,
my Shabbos table around my dining room suddenly has so much more meaning. There
is so much more that I have never appreciated and taken for granted all these
years, that I realize I truly am not worthy of. There’s so much that I have to
thank Hashem for and that I need to say Gomel for.
That, writes Rav Kook, is the essence of this special blessing. He
notes that the four categories of people that recite this bracha all correspond
to the different blessings and perhaps even challenges that we have noticing
and appreciating the goodness Hashem is always providing us with. The first one,
those that travel through the desert are the refugees. The ones that have no
home. Perhaps all their lives they only saw the amenities that they didn’t have,
or the nice ones that their friends did that they may felt they were lacking.
They don’t have enough rooms, the ceiling leaks, they wish they would have nicer
weather, they had a bigger backyard, a swimming pool. They want a nice hotel
breakfast and bigger kitchen. Well try spending a few days in the desert. Or
maybe even get thrown out of your house to a five-star hotel in the Dead Sea
for a few months and then you will see and thank Hashem for all the goodness
your own four walls in your home really are, leaky roof and all.
The second, those that travel over the Sea is for those that perhaps
don’t appreciate where they are living. They think they need to go to Cancun.
They want a cruise. The land and country where they live is just not enough for
them. They need adventure. The same old-same old humdrum daily life and grind
of going to work and coming home is boring. Is mediocre. It’s doesn’t give them
the high or the thrill they seek. They don’t get how amazing their existence
is. How blessed Hashem has made their lives. They think they are lacking, when
in fact He has taken care of everything that we could ask for. Soldiers fighting
in the land and sea and that haven’t had a normal day can tell you that they
would do anything to rewind and go back to their normal lives. That they miss
that day-to-day grind. “Chozrim la’Shigra- back to the regimen” is what
so many here want. Yet now it is with an appreciation like never before in the
obligation we had to thank Hashem for how much and for how long he set us up in
what was in fact a truly perfect and blessed existence before this.
The last two that recite this blessing are the ones coming out of
captivity and the ones who have recovered from an illness. They are more
personal blessings. The most personal ones perhaps. The one who recites this
blessing after undergoing some type of medical emergency and life-threatening
medical experience knows and understands how precious the gift of life and
health is. He was given it anew. Whereas before this he might’ve wished that he
was skinnier, prettier, stronger, more capable, more energetic. Where we might’ve
said if only Hashem had done this or that for me… or made me this way or that
way… After facing death, we all realize how incredible it is that we wake up
each morning and can breathe. That we have life that we can accomplish things
with. That we have family that are around us and care for us and that we can
give to you. That we can hug and kiss and be embraced by. Because so many don’t.
Because so many didn’t make it through. Because so many loved ones have been
lost and don’t have the life that we do. And then we bentch Gomel and
thank Hashem for what we didn’t realize or appreciate He has done for us until
now.
Finally, the last category is the prisoner. The captive. The hostage.
The one who has perhaps thought that he needed to be a free-spirit. That felt
trapped in life. That feels stifled by Torah, by Mitzvos, by community, by
family, by obligations. That perhaps always lived with a gnawing sense that the
life that Hashem has given us is one that hampers our “growth” our “becoming”
our sense of being. They/we/I want to be free. Well welcome to 210 years of
Egypt. Welcome to jail. To slavery. To Gaza tunnels with Hamas terrorists
imprisoning you. That’s what being “not free” is really like. That’s what
lawlessness and no sense of direction and being stifled feels like. Ask our
soldiers who have spent days and days on high alert in far flung places how
much they long to daven with a minyan, to be able to return to the Beit
Midrash, to put on tefillin or wear tzitzis. How much they long to
attach themselves to Hashem and to His light rather than to struggle in the
murky darkness of a godless world. Then you can understand how much we’ve
missed and not appreciated about the beauty and pleasantness of the ways of Hashem
and how fortunate we have always been to be chosen to be the ambassadors of
that light to the world.
I remember one of the first times I was driving around with some Pizzas
and cigarettes for the soldiers and one soldier came over to me and asked me if
I had tefillin for him to put on. I apologized and told him that I didn’t. I
wasn’t in the habit to drive around with my tallit and tefillin, and to be
honest he didn’t really look like anyone that I thought would be interested.
The tattoos, piercings and ponytail he was sporting didn’t scream I really need
some religious rituals or Torah. But I was wrong. He rebuked me.
“What type of Rabbi are you
to come around with out Talit and Tefillin?” he told me.
I guess I was the cigarette,
Pizza type, but that’s not what he was looking for. He wanted Hashem. He wanted
light. He wanted to connect. He realized how much he had been missing in his pre-October
7th life. He had been “Gomeled.”. And now he wanted to sing
the song of Hashem. The song of forever. Of ‘Hashem Yimloch L’Olam Va’ed.’
While we are singing the song of the Sea, our enemies and the nations
and individuals of darkness are singing a different song. It is “From the River
to the Sea”. One of my great colleagues mentioned to me that their call and song is one that we as well should be
echoing. The story of our Exodus in the Parsha two weeks ago begins with Moshe
visiting Pharaoh and the plague of blood by the Nile River. It concludes this
week with the splitting of the Sea. Our redemption will come from the river to
the sea God willing this week. It will as well return us to our true borders
which are from the other side of the Jordan River all the way up to that other
River past Iran, Iraq and Syria, the Euphrates and take us all the way to the
Sea which is not only the Gaza strip but to the Sea of Egypt and beyond. When
we have the river to the Sea we will be able to set the whole world free. We
will shine the light of Hashem upon the world. We will build that temple that He
has been waiting for. And finally we will hear the entire world respond to our
Gomel as is traditional.
Mi
she-g’malcha kol tov, hu yi-g’malcha kol tov selah.- May he who rewarded you with all goodness
reward you with all goodness for ever
Have a grateful appreciative restful Shabbos
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
"Ven me zol Got
danken far guts, volt nit zein kain tzeit tsu baklogen zich oif shlechts.- If we thanked God for
the good things, there wouldn’t be time to weep over the bad.
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer
below at end of Email
24.The
"Ecce Homo" Arch was built according to the hypothesis in the study
by the emperor_______.
What is
another name for Pools of "Beit Hasda" (Bethesda Pools)?
a. Pool of
Towers
b.
Hezkiah's Pool
c. Sheep
Gate Pools
d. Pools
of Israel
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrCK7zLj2U0
- Check out this Famous Rabbi Schwartz
and family Story of our Exodus from Egypt with my Va’Yosha composition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuIB3ZKsXiQ
– Joey Newcomb’s latest One Note Niggun…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxW57BL1EW4
– Yackov Shwekey’s latest Ten Li Koach-
for return of Uri Danino and all hostages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdZN0NYW0VY
- Kinos
Be’eri wow… a lament for the kibbutz unreal…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp-jJpj4dq4
-
Gorgeous Eyal Golan latest Yeled Sheli
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER
INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK
Dovid's Non- Prayer – This column has discussed how to pray and how to daven, this week’s
parsha tells us that when the Jews were standing before the Yam Suf before it’s
splitting and start to cry and to daven, Hashem tells them that they shouldn’t
daven.
Ma Titzak eilai- For what are you crying out to Me? Speak to the
Jewish people and let them travel.
The Midrash on this verse tells us that Moshe asked Hashem what
they should do if not pray. And Hashem responded
“It is for you to sing song and praise to the One to whom the
Kingship belongs.”
It seems strange that at the moment of the greatest trouble when we
are facing the army of Egypt with no where for us to go that it is at this dire
moment Hashem tells us not to pray. What’s going on?
Reb Aharon Karliner asks another interesting question that I know
has bothered me and I’m sure most of you that have recited the prayer before or
after the recitation of Tehillim/ Psalms. There it states that we ask Hashem quite
audaciously that He accepts our prayers
Ki’ilu amram Dovid HaMelech olav ha’Shalom b’atzmo- As if King David OB’M recited
them himself.
C’mon… You know that bothered you… Really? My simple prayers should
be as if King David himself recited them! What’s that all about?
So he answers with a story of a village of Jews who were facing a
terrible decree from the king based on a false blood libel that levied against
them. They realized that they the King would not necessarily be open to their
request for clemency and even a hearing and so they waited for the opporotunity
when they might be able to come into him. As they stood outside of the palace
they saw a group of local peasants and farmers that were coming before the King
with requests that he lower the taxes that they were suffering from as they had
a very difficult year. The peasants though were typical ignorant polish
peasants and they had no clue how to write their request and fill out the necessary
paperwork to bring their request and gain access to the king. They approached
the Jewis representatives standing there and asked if they could fill it out
for them.
The Jews seeing their opporotunity of course agreed and yet when
they filled out the peasants petition rather than talk about the taxes they
wrote about their own plight and the false blood libel and pending decree
against themselves. When the peasants brought this petition before the King he
took one look at it and asked the peasants what the meaning of all of this was.
When they admitted that the Jews had filled out the form, the king smiled and
laughed and appreciated the cleverness of the Jews and granted them an audience
and accepted their request.
Reb Aharon Karliner thus explains our prayer and how we must daven
at certain times and moments that is perhaps the key to all of our prayers. He
explains that when Dovid Ha’Melech davened he never davened for his own needs.
He always directed his prayers for the Shechina, for Hashem’s praise.
Me’hulal ekra Hashem U’mei’oivai evashe’ah- I will praise as a I call to
Hashem and I will be saved from my enemies. Dovid praised Hashem and then
Hashem saved him from his enemies.
When we daven we ask Hashem to not think of our prayers as we are
davening for our own needs, our own troubles, our own salvation. Rather he
should accept our prayers as if Dovid Ha’Melech is saying them to praise
Hashem. We’re just saying the words. He wrote the letter, the plea; the
petition. We’re like the polish farmers perhaps that don’t know how to write
and we’re like the Jewish delegation that perhaps aren’t worthy to get an
entrance to the King because we’re not sure if we’re worthy enough. But if we
use the words of Dovid Ha’Melech and we come in with the praise of the King then
we’re sure to be answered.
That is what Hashem tells Moshe. Don’t daven for your needs. Just
sing My praise and then you can travel. Then you’re in. Then the miracles will
come.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
734 BC The Exile continues- Things were getting worse and worse in the Northern
kingdom of Israel. The previous kings Menachem and his son Pekachia
were evil and as we said their pacification plan didn’t work as Pul the king
of Assyria attacked and exiled the Eastern side of the Jordan and the
land of Gilead with the two tribes of Reuvein and Gad. Pekachia
ben Remalia Pekach’s general assassinated the King of Israel
and took over the kingship with his men from Gilead and promised to make
things better for the Jewish nation. Yet, like most politicians it was mere
words. Hashem was running the show. He was trying to get us to teshuva. And yet
our leaders didn’t realize this. Some things never changed.
Under the rule of Pekach the next phase
of the exile of the ten tribes continued with the continued attacks from Aram/
Syria from Pul who was more commonly and historically known as Tigleth
Philesar the 3rd. He attacked the North conquered and exiled
most of the Northern Jewish settlements and tribes. Pretty much like has happened
today. The Navi tells us of the tribe of Naftali which includes the
settlements of Iyun near Mapal Ha’Tanur and the name of the
nachal there today. Beit Avel and Kadesh which are around Kiryat
Shmona, as well as Chatzor all the way down to the Kineret where
Tiverya is. Basically, the entire Galile Panhandle. It’s hard to even
fathom that here we were just about 100-150
years before the destruction of the first Temple and almost 1/3 of Eretz
Yisrael is already in the hands of goyim and our nation has been thrown out and
are refugees.
What is even more shocking though, is that it is
at this time that Pekachia himself decides to create a civil war and
fight against kingdom of Yehuda. As we will see next week this is not
just a civil war but in fact there will be hostage and prisoner taking as
brother fights against brother as the nations around us seek to destroy us… It’s
the worst of times and getting worse.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FUNNY THANK YOU JOKES OF THE WEEK
Yankel was thinking
about how good his wife was to him, so he prayed to god to give thanks. To the man’s
astonishment, the booming Hashem spoke to him.
Yankel:” : “Hashem,
I’m so grateful that you gave me my wife. If I may ask, my Lord, why did you
make her so beautiful?”
Hashem-“ I made her
so beautiful so that you could love her, my son.”
Yankel:” : And why
did you make her so kind-hearted?
Hashem: “I made as
such so that you could love her, my son.”
Yankel:” And why,
did you make her such an amazing cook?
Hashem: “I blessed
her with the talent of cooking so that you could love her, my son.”
Yankel: “Thank you,
Hashem but forgive me but I must ask one more question. Why, did you make her
so dumb?
Hashem “I made her
dumb, my son, so that she could love you.”
Thank God we don't
need to hunt for food anymore. I mean, I have no idea where pizzas live in the
wild
Only in Israel will
you find someone that tells you when you ask his affiliation “Baruch Hashem I'm
an atheist”… Wait...
There is this atheist
swimming in the ocean. All of the sudden he sees this shark in the water, so he
starts swimming towards his boat. As he looks back he sees the shark turn and
head towards him. His boat is a ways off and he starts swimming like crazy.
He’s scared to death, and as he turns to see the jaws of the great white beast
open revealing its teeth in a horrific splendor, the atheist screams,
“Oh God! Save me!”
In an instant time is
frozen and a bright light shines down from above. The man is motionless in the
water when he hears the voice of God say, “You are an atheist. Why do you
call upon me when you do not believe in me?”
Aghast with confusion
and knowing he can’t lie the man replies, “Well, that’s true I don’t believe
in you, but how about the shark? Can you make the shark believe in you?”
The Lord replies,
“As you wish,” and the light retracted back into the heavens and the man
could feel the water begin to move once again.As the atheist looks
back he can see the jaws of the shark start to close down on him, when all of
sudden the shark stops and pulls back. Shocked, the man looks
at the shark as the huge beast closes its eyes and bows its head and says, “Baruch
Ata Hashem Elokeinu Melech Ha’Olam…”
Right after takeoff, a
pilot comes on the microphone to welcome his passengers. “Thank you for
flying with us. The weather is....”
Then he suddenly
starts screaming while still on the mic, “OH MY GOD! IT IS BURNING!!, IT IS
BURNING!”
Then silence.
A few seconds later,
he comes back on and says, “I’m terribly sorry about what happened. I
spilled some scorching hot coffee on my lap...you should see my pants!!”
A voice from the back
of the plane yelled, “Why don’t you come back here and see ours?”
Berel is at a looking
to buy a horse, the horse trader leads him to a majestic white stallion. The horse trader said:
"This horse can understand three commands, if you want it to walk, say “Praise
Hashem”, if you want it to gallop say “Baruch Hashem” and if you
want it to stop say “Please Hashem”.
Berel did not believe
the horse trader, so he requested to try it out. He got onto the horse and then
said: "Praise god." The horse started walking. He then said "Baruch
Hashem" and the horse started galloping towards the end of the cliff.
Berel panicked and forgot the phrase to stop the horse, it looked as if he was
about to fall, he shouted out of fear: "Please Hashem” the horse
stopped.
Berel, being relieved,
said "Baruch Hashem”
Thank you, student
loans, for helping me get through college. I don't think I can ever repay you.
"No thanks. I
am a vegetarian." is a fun thing to say when someone hands you a baby.
"Thank you for
calling the NSA..." "The only government organization that
**actually** listens to you!"
Be thankful for
Doulas. They really help people out
I want to thank
everyone here for teaching me the word "Plethora" It means a lot
I'd like to thank my legs for supporting me. My
arms for always being by my side and my fingers... I could always count on
them.
I once thanked a French guy to death It was a
merci killing
Thank you weight loss surgeons. What you do
takes guts
**********************************
The answer to this
week”s question is C– Wow! It never fails to amaze me how much information that
I never need still is implanted in my brain. I thought for sure I got this one
wrong and probably would’ve skipped it had I been taking the exam. But whadaya
know… I got it right. I forgot the whole Christianity religion and gospel
stuff, and to be honest really never paid much attention to it in my course, as bubbeh mayseh- particularly
from a religion that killed so many of us in the name of their false Messiah
savior- was not something I ever thought I would need and certainly not guide.
Yet, I remembered Hadrian’s famous Arch in the Old city on the Via Deloraosa-
which is similar to the famous Titus Arch which was a victory Arch, as opposed
to one that served a function as entrance to city wall. See the Roman’s didn’t
have walls around the city. We shouldn’t either by the way. We as they did
should just make it too scary for anyone to even think of attacking or invading
us. Well it turns out that arch is also known as the Ecco Homo arch where Yoshka
was shown before he was crucified and a whole derasha was given there.
As far as part 2 I definitely
didn’t have a clue about the pools but guessed Shepherds pool because I
remembered something about some fake news “miracle” where Yoshka healed someone
on Shabbos by bathing there and the Jews made a whole protest and it was a
shepherds pool and I was right! So both
right this week again making the latest score is Rabbi Schwartz at 17.5
point and the MOT having 5.5 point on this latest Ministry of
Tourism exam.
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