from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
July 12th 2024 -Volume 13 Issue 38 6th of Sivan 5784
Parshat Chukas
Snake Tzoris
I felt like I was having a conversation with Iyov (Job for all you bibliophiles). The first time I met Sivan was by her sister’s house. She was holding her sister’s hand and hugging her as her sister was telling us about her son who was kidnapped from the Nova festival. It was clear from the start that Sivan had taken upon herself to be the lifeline for this family. There was no one else, she told me. Her brother-in-law had left years before without giving a Get. He only reappeared to take half of the pathetically minimal amount of money the government is giving them to support themselves. Her sister wasn’t functioning, and neither was her remaining nephews. The older one was suffering from depression before this started and the younger 12-year-old, Ziv, was obviously having behavioral problems with all of this going on, while his mother pretty much hasn’t moved mentally and emotionally since October 7th. How could she? Her sister’s family thus became hers. That was the first time I met her.
Upon our second meeting, she told me a bit more about her own life. I learned that she herself had three children, one with special needs. As well her own husband had been attacked at work almost two years ago and is pretty much suffering severe PTSD and hasn’t worked and barely leaves the house as well. The support of the family pretty much had fallen upon her and now with her sister’s family on her head as well, it was becoming almost impossible for her to keep her job. Her in-laws did have money, however they were involved in all types of not nice things and had pretty much not only have never given them money but controlled their lives in many toxic ways. It was only on the third meeting that she told me that the toxicity caused her one of her husband’s brothers to commit suicide, while of the other two brothers one identified with an “alternative lifestyle and the other had become chareidi. Her own husband, she shared at this third meeting, probably also has been suffering from his own identity and proclivity crisis in the 18 years of marriage to him which has seen him going from extreme to extreme. Dysfunctional is too light of a word.
I didn’t think it could get worse, but it did. On the fourth meeting she shared how her own brother was killed by gangsters when she was 12. He was her light and beacon. That was the conversation we had when she was showing me how she had rats running around her kitchen because the ceiling and walls were rotting away from mold. Did I mention that her daughter had been abused, and that she used to have a good job within the past from where she was fired because of overtures and harassment of her employer, that she even in her most vulnerable state was able to escape from? Do you now understand what it means when I tell you that I felt like I was talking to Iyov? And I haven’t even shared with you all of it, if you can believe that. I told her that her name shouldn’t have been Sivan it should’ve been Av.
She answered me though and said, that the truth is she wouldn’t be opposed to that name change. Because through this all she felt and feels that she does have an Av. That Hashem is incredibly there with her. It didn’t make sense to me, how she was still walking around and functioning, and she told me that was precisely why she felt the way she did and answered me as such. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not human. It’s not normal. It’s miraculous that she is still able to smile, to be happy, to appreciate her children, her breath, but most of all Hashem. It’s because she sees, how Hashem steps in right when it gets too much. She doesn’t know what she did in a previous life to deserve the struggles and challenges that Hashem has put her through. But she understands and feels Him enough to know that He is there. She is in His Hands. She talks to Him. Her motto is
Shelach yehavcha el Hashem- throw out your needs, your desires, your wants to Hashem,
Vehu Yechalkeleka- and He will provide.
The fact that I was standing there with a check for 9000 shekel for her kitchen, that I was able to put together in my one day status campaign, was another proof of that to her. Our paths shouldn’t of and never would’ve never crossed. It was a miracle. It was her Father in heaven providing. She was His tool to bring Klal Yisrael together, as it seems His game plan has been this past year. His final end game plan. The plan before we all come home to Eretz Yisrael and build Him His Home here. And get the rats out of His kitchen as well…
How does someone, who to be truthful is not even fully observant and not having been raised in “our schools”, have so much faith? Be such a source of inspiration and Mussar to me. How are most of those that I meet not that different in that level of bitachon and feeling of Hashem, that I wish I could always have, that they are living and experiencing? Where does it come from? How do we all get there? The answer this week’s Parsha aptly called Chukas, which means inexplicable laws or decrees, tells us in various different narratives, that took place in our last year or two in the wilderness before we entered Eretz Yisrael for the first time.
The Parsha begins with the laws of Para Aduma, the red heifer whose ashes mixed with mayim Chayim- living waters, are sprinkled on those that are impure and suffering from the tumah of coming in contact with the dead. Its placement here in our parsha, despite its laws having been given and already enacted long before, back in the book of Shemos when the Mishkan was built, or even perhaps more appropriately in Vayikra where all of the Temple ritual and purity laws are mentioned, is because if you had to knock our stay in the midbar down to two words they would be Parah Aduma. For 38 years since the story of the spies it’s pretty much all we did.
Every year another generation of 20–60-year-old men died from that death sentence. It was tumah. It was mourning. It was death and purification from it. It was the the holiest and most pure kohen becoming tamey themselves, as they helped and sprinkled the ashes on those that had lost their loved ones. It was taking the reddest most alive looking cow, and turning it to ashes, and then having life and purity rise from there. It’s a chok. It’s unexplainable. Death is that way. Yet Ha’Makom yenachem eschem- It is in mourning that we feel Hashem’s place is right next to us. From that level and place of impurity the world of holiness and purity once we are turned to ash and brought back to life becomes revealed.
The parsha continues with not just the loss of our loved ones, but of our leaders as well. When Miriam dies our spiritual water dries up. She sang for us at the sea. She saw redemption, when her brother Moshe was cast as a baby into the crocodile filled Nile. We drank from her waters for forty years. And now she was gone. We were thirsty. It was unbearable. So we turned to our eyes to Moshe and begged and complained. We threw unto him our wants, our fears and blamed Moshe for putting us here. But we were wrong. It wasn’t Moshe. It was Hashem. It was too Him that we need to throw our wants.
Hashem is not just Moshe, Miriam and Aharon’s Father. He’s not just Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov’s God. We are His children too. He’s not there for us because of nepotism, our yichus, or holy protektzia. As well, it’s not even because we are righteous or our good deeds, Torah or chesed. He’s our Av. And we just need to turn to Him and say please Daddy, and He will provide. Moshe didn’t bring us there, Hashem did. It doesn’t make sense. Our suffering is a chok. But once we understand that we are in His hands, that we are purified by burnt ashes, then we uncover the living water that can flow in our own merits. That the kitchen works because the Master plumber is the one holding the faucet.
Moshe was meant to show us that by talking to the rock and putting down the staff. Yet he didn’t and thus Hashem’s name wasn’t sanctified. Aharon was as well guilty. His guilt really goes back to his part in the golden calf, the “child” of the Red Heifer that started this mess that needs to be cleaned up. The mess has always been and continues to be “why did you take us out of Egypt?” “How will or can we survive?”. “Who will provide for us?”. We need a calf, we need water, we need quail, we need Biden, we need Bibi, we need missiles and weapons, we need Trump. The Red Heifer is the cleanup crew of that mess. It’s ashes. It’s inexplicable. It’s purity from the impure. It’s life from death. It’s understanding that Hashem is the One who took us out. That He is the one that is bringing us Home. That 40 years in the wilderness comes from Him. That Amalek and Sichon and Og come from Him. That Hamas Hezbollah, October 7th, poverty, destruction, burnt houses, hostages, bad husbands and horrible childhoods are all from Him. And that there is a plan. A Plan. His Plan. It’s good and we won’t understand. We’re not meant to. We just have to know that there isn’t anyone beside Him and He’s there with us. Any One.
It’s hard to see that plan. To a large degree we are all hostages. We have been captured and imprisoned by the false conception that we have some control. That we need Moshe, Aharon and Miriam to be there for us. That we are lost without them. In fact, right after Aharon dies, Amalek attacks and we are told that they take a hostage. Rashi tells us it is one poor maidservant, the Targum and other commentaries talk about many, many, hostages and captives, which seemingly is more reasonable. Whoever heard of having only one hostage, captive or Prisoner of War?
I saw an incredible insight that understands this biblical hostage story as being more homiletic. There was one “poor maidservant” in each of our hearts and minds that was held hostage by Amalek. It was the “maidservant” perhaps that saw Hashem’s hand at the splitting of the Sea, and who’s faith we had lost and forgotten that vision. The hostage was our conception that we can’t make it. That sense of hopelessness. That feeling that we are trapped in a tunnel underground, and no one cares, and no one will come to save us. It’s one hostage concept that took over everyone.
Amalek had stolen and captured our faith and knowledge that Hashem is within us. That we have a Father that has orchestrated all of this for us. They attacked us, just as they did after the splitting of the Sea, once again, the Torah tells us, not only when Aharon dies, but when they saw that we were going the way of “atarim- the sites”. They saw that we were back to the spies’ path again when we thought we were in, or had at least some, control. These were the same Amalekites that wiped out the Ma’apilim- the ones that tried to go up without on Hashem, on their own the day after the decree of the spies. It was in the same place. Before entering Israel, we had to destroy that ideology. We wiped them out ad chorma- until their final destruction. We turned them to ashes, redeemed the hostage, and were ready to march further. It’s fascinating that it’s called Chorma- destruction both when the ma’apilim are killed and when Amalek is killed 38 years later. Because in both stories the conception that we can’t do it without Hashem was destroyed and His name was sanctified.
Yet, it still wasn’t over. There was a temporary relief and celebration when those hostages came back, but the the war wasn’t over yet. Hashem turned us back. We started heading back to Egypt. We marched from right outside Israel by Arad, all the way back down to Eilat. This is the wrong way. Oh no… not again. There are no living waters left. How much manna can we eat? Hashem, make this thing over already! It’s insanity. It doesn’t stop. It’s the tzorus of Iyov. How long can we deal with this middas ha’din- this strict Divine judgement of Elokim, we cry out. Fascinatingly enough Hashem responds perplexingly with His merciful name, (yud- hei- vav- hei) and sends snakes to destroy us.
Do you know what a snake is? It’s the creature that has no flavor in life. It has no connection to Hashem. It eats earth and there’s plenty of it all over. It is his curse, because in the original sin, he seduced Chava/Eve by telling her that “we could be like gods”. We can have control. That a bite from that sweet looking tree of knowledge, of science, of technology, military strategy, of self-worth will give us the steering wheel to be the deciders of our own destiny. That our ego is what will raise up from the ashes. But it doesn’t. It just throws down to crawl on the ground. The merciful Hashem sent those snakes to us to attack us and purify us. The venom that they spewed into us and that we in turn spewed forth, would be healed when Moshe put the snake on a stake and we looked up and beyond that. We realized that the snake is not healing or killing. It’s not Hamas. It’s not my boss. It’s not the media. It’s not Bibi. We’re mistaklin klapey ma’aalah- the Baal Ha’Tanya explains, that we look beyond the snake and rather to its Source. Where it comes from. Who sent it. And then we are mishtabdin es libam- then we finally turn our hearts and dedicate them to Hashem. To our Father in heaven. L’Avihem She’bashamayim.
Our holy mystical works tell us that the gematria for the word nachash- snake in Hebrew is the same as Mashiach; 358. The era of Mashiach will be the one that turns around that snake. That fixes that original sin. It is a time when Amalek will be destroyed. When each Jew at every level and orientation who has had their faith taken hostage in some capacity-and in truth we are all tinokos she’nishbu in some way or another- will have that faith returned and restored. That we become purified with the acceptance of that chukas ha’torah. That we understand that our job here isn’t to understand, rather it’s to understand that we don’t need to understand. We are here rather just to know. Just to feel. To reveal. And once we do that, Hu Yichalkeleka- He will provide us with all that we need.
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE
WEEK
" Tzoris
mit yoych iz gringer vi tzoris on yoych.”.- Troubles with soup is
easier than troubles without soup.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer
below at end of Email
13. The Burma Road, which was built during the War of
Independence, was
designed to bypass ________.
Where was Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini killed?
A. Nabi Samuel
B. Qastel
C. Deir Yassin
D. San Simon
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/good-shabbos
– It’s been a while since I posted
my Good Shabbos song… Missed it… I just love it…
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK
The Torah tells us that Moshe then prays for the
nation and Hashem tells him how to stop the plague. Rashi, quoting our sages
tells us on that verse that we learn out from Moshe that one should never be
cruel and not forgive. It’s a strange Rashi because seemingly we find other
places where it doesn’t seem like Moshe bore a grudge against the Jewish people
and even davened on their behalf. He loves us. As well there are other people
such as Avraham that we find daven on behalf of those that wronged him like
Avimelech. What makes this source so special?
701 BC- Sickness,
Scrolls and Snakes– Around
the time of the great miracle of the wiping out by an angel of the army of
Sancherev, Chizkiya fell deathly ill. I say around the time, because
as usual there’s a debate if it was before or after amongst our sages. Next
week we’ll talk about why this happened to Chizkiya, but because of the
timeliness of the parsha of the week, I want to first preempt that with what Chizkiya
could’ve and should’ve and didn’t do to get healed. There are important lessons
for us as usual.
One Day A Fisherman
got up very early in the Morning.
There was not enough
Sunlight to get into the Sea.
He saw a Pack of
Stones...
To Pass Time he
started throwing the Stone into the Sea.
While having the last
stone in the Hand,
The Sun came up then
he saw that the Stone was a Diamond.
He felt for his Misfortune
of Throwing all of them into the Sea.
Moral of The Story:
Don't Get Up Early In
The Morning....:
What do you call a divorced cookie? Misfortune cookie.
This was bad news as
it was a very cold, overcast day, the sun was getting low and temperatures were
plummeting. Wondering how they could attract attention Bill said, between
gritted teeth, "The international sign of 'man-in-distress' is three
shots fired rapidly into the air".
Tom said he'd give it
a try. An hour later he tried again. By this time the sun was beginning to set
and a light sleet had started. Temperatures were nearing freezing and both
hunters were in a bad way. Tom tried once more. An hour later sleet had turned
to snow, the wind had picked up and things were grim. Tom turned to Bill and
said, "I'll try one more, but if this doesn't work, we're both screwed
because these are my last three arrows".
Back in Soviet Russia Rabinovich
was called into the KGB headquarters for interrogation and asked
Comrade Rabinovich
tell me, what is a fortune?
Yankel answered very
quickly “fortune is to live in our Socialist motherland.
“And what's a misfortune?”
“A misfortune is to have such a fortune.”
There was a woman with
a hundred children. She lacked the creativity to name all of them, so she just
named them 1 through 100. Eventually,
through a series of misfortunes, 99 of the children died. Only the one named 90
survived. 90 grew up healthy, thankfully. She found a man and fell in love with
him. They got married, and happily started a family, with 90 eventually
overcoming the trauma of her dead siblings and having kids of her own. The kids
grew up. One day, they found a stray dog; they wanted to keep the stray but
they were worried about how their parents would react so they did it in secret.
They named the dog “This”; an innocuous name that would let them say things
like “let’s take ‘this’ out” or “‘this’ is so funny”. One day, when they were
walking this, he got run over by a car and died. Only 90’s kids will remember
this.
A great tragedy
befalls Russia. At a state dinner dozens of high ranking officials have died.
After eating a mushroom cream soup generals started falling to the floor left
and right. The investigation is quick: the official cause is mushroom
poisoning. Members of the press are invited to the scene of the tragedy.
"As you can
see by the foaming and throat scratching it is clear that some poisonous
mushrooms accidentally made it into the soup" says one official.
One brave reporter
points out that two of the generals seem to have gunshot wounds to the head.
"What happened
here?" he asked.
"Well these
two wouldn't eat their soup"
During one of his
campaign trips, Donald Trump visits an elementary school and enters one of the
classrooms. They are in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings.
The teacher asks Mr.
Trump if he would like to lead the discussion of the word “Tragedy.” So he asks
the class for an example of a tragedy.
One little boy stands
up and offers: “If my best friend who lives on a farm, is playing in the
field and a runaway tractor comes along and knocks him dead, that would be a
tragedy.”
“No,” says Mr. Trump, “that would be an
accident.”
A little girl raises
her hand: “If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing
everyone inside, that would be a tragedy.”
“I’m afraid not,”
explains the exalted businessman. “That’s what we would call a great loss.”
The room goes silent.
No other children volunteer. Mr. Trump searches the room.
“Isn’t there someone
here who can give me an example of a tragedy?”
Finally at the back of
the room, a boy raises his hand. In a quiet voice he says: “If a private jet
carrying you was struck by a missile and blown to smithereens, that would be a
tragedy.”
“Fantastic!” exclaims Mr. Trump, “That’s absolutely
right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?”
“Well,” says the boy, “because it wouldn’t be a
great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”
The
answer to this week”s question is B– Although
I knew this answer and even arguably got it correct, I”ll mark myself wrong for
not giving them the answer they were looking for. I wrote Highway 1 which is
the correct answer, I speak about this place all the time as I travel along the
highway from Jerusalem. Yet the were looking for a more specific answer. Bab Al
Wad or Shaar Hagai or Latrun which is the specific point on Highway 1 that it
detoured, and I guess they’re correct about that. So I’ll take the hit. The
second part though I got right with the answer being Castel. Although I thought
it was Latrun, but hey that wasn’t one of the choices, so I’ll take the win as
I guessed the right answer. I’ve still got a passing grade on this exam so far,
although it’s certainly nothing to be proud of. And so my score is now Rabbi Schwartz 8 and
Ministry of Tourism 5 on this exam so far.
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