Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
March 13th 2025 -Volume 14 Issue 20 13th of Adar 5785
Kill Joy!
Getting ready for Purim? Getting ready to fast tomorrow? To celebrate? Me too. As well, I’m pretty much hoping that this year, Hashem finally gives us the merit to finally wipe out Amalek for the last time, so that we can bring Mashiach. I was pretty inspired by the Torah reading last week. It’s fascinating, isn’t it? Hashem doesn’t tell us that He’s going to wipe them out for us. He wants us to do the job. Think back to the original holiday of Purim, when it all started. The celebration isn’t that Hashem miraculously saved us from our enemies, with plagues, and sea-splits. That’s the next holiday. We celebrate that with Matzos and lots of Potatos and only four cups of wine. Purim we eat really food, meat boards, Haman’s ears and four bottles of wine- at least. Because Purim is something else. It’s a whole new level.
On the original 13th of Adar, do you know what we were doing? We weren’t fasting. The fast of Esther was Pesach time. Rather on that first 13th of Adar, do you know what we were up to? We were all picking up knives, swords, torches, M16s and we slaughtering all of our enemies. We spent an entire day killing every antisemite, every Chamas guy and their evil spawn. Every Free Palestine protestor around the world. In Columbia, in Harvard, in the Hague, in the UN. We killed them all in the 127 countries of Achashveirosh. We were October 7th’ing dem… An then for good measure Esther asked for one more day to kill some more that were still hanging around in Tehran/Persia. Ever think about that? Does that thought fill you with joy? Gladness? Longing…If it doesn’t, then you are kind of missing the point of the holiday. Then you really haven’t really tapped into what the true simcha of Purim is all about. You’ve just been doing Jewish Halloween with funny costumes and themed trick or treat baskets that you deliver and eat. You’ve missed out on the essence or true secret we’re meant to tap into of the day. Well, enough already. It’s time we grew up. It’s time to really get happy. Baruch Hashem we’re here for you like usual. So it’s a good thing you’re taking the time to read this… Like it generally is😊
Do you want to know and see what true joy is? The way that we can sort of understand that is by looking at our enemies. By looking at Amalek. See, I’m sure most of you- and I include myself in this club -always experienced and assumed that the peak of happiness is maybe on Simchas Torah, when we dance and sing with the Torah that we love; that we enjoy, that makes us special. Or perhaps if you’re not that Torah oriented, then maybe by a child’s wedding- especially if she’s a girl in Lakewood these shidduch crisis days. Maybe by the birth of your first child. If you’re a Breslaver then it’s just dancing around in the street at a traffic stop or being in Uman on Rosh Hashana. And for some more simple people it’s just when there’s a choson in shul and there’s not tachanun- particularly if it’s a Monday or Thursday and not wasted on a three minute Sunday Weds or Friday tachnanun, or if there’s a “hot” kiddush after davening. Those are great and fun and happy times. But they’re not insanely happy.
Do you want to see what insane happiness is? Take a deep breath and don’t get angry at me- but here it goes. Insane happiness is what the Chamas guys experienced when they pogromed us on October 7th. When they burnt. When they pillaged. When they slaughtered men women and children. You could see it in their faces. They were having more fun and experiencing more joy then any Jew has ever felt in their lives. And it had nothing to do with the drugs that some of them took. You could see it in their faces if you watched the crowds there when they abused, tortured, spit and scorned on our young men, women and children, as they returned our hostages whom they abused unstopped for 520 days. They had this look as if they had died and gone done to heaven. They were experiencing pure joy. Adulation. It’s the same look that the Nazi’s had, the Cossacks had and the Crusaders did. The Romans and Babylonians too once we’re at it. They had reached the peak of their existence. Their wildest dreams had just been fulfilled.
It’s a joy and a feeling that we Jews can’t even fathom. We don’t relate to you. We can’t comprehend, as most civilized and people can’t. To a large degree, our inability to see that evil and the joy that it gives them to know that they are eradicating the name of Hashem in this world by murdering His nation, for they know that in every Jew lies that spark of Hashem that they are extinguishing is the cause of all of our problems. Our inability to comprehend that degree of evil has been the reason why, since the founding of our nation, we have not successfully ever achieved the reason Hashem chose us. It’s why we never wiped out that 7 nations when we first came to the land. It’s why Shaul didn’t kill Amalek. It’s why Avraham made treaties with the Philistines. It’s why we constantly are making excuses for them. Because we just don’t get it. We don’t understand our purpose in Creation as well as they understand and our committed to theirs. We can’t comprehend that Hashem wants us to be His Hand of justice. That He’s counting on us to reveal His light and make His throne complete by feeling and being as committed as they are to their opposite mission.
Our job is to act as the Hand of Hashem, but the opposite of them, by eradicating and destroying darkness and evil. To feel the joy that they do in their evil work, because we understand that in that holy work of eradicating their evil we will instead be bringing light. That light comes from the Simcha that they have, but from the knowledge that by us destroying them, as we did on the 13th of Adar so long ago, that light and joy will now shine out to the entire world unimpeded. The Bais HaMikdash can come down. The redemption will be here because we’ve brought it. We’ve done our Jihadist part.
We got a little bit of a taste of that joy when the beepers blew up. Or during the first few weeks of the war when the bombs were falling and taking out buildings and the evil beneath them. Your felt that happiness, admit it. To be honest and really self-reflective, you can admit it… it felt even better than if they would’ve just all died in an earthquake or a Divine Corona plague. Do you know why? Because we did it, not Hashem. It was our boys. It was our guns. It was the beepers we sold them. It was the button we pushed. It was what we sing on Purim again and again, but the words never really sunk in, but it’s the essence of the entire Purim.
These are the days of Purim that Hashem has given for us la’amod al nafshom- for us to stand up for ourselves, to stand up for our own souls.
V’linkom mei’oyvehem- and to avenge from their enemies
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It’s not Hashem doing it for us. That’s good as well, but that’s Pesach and even Chanuka. But those are a celebration of a parent carrying and holding up his crippled child and taking him to a party. Purim is when we get our own legs and get out of our 2000-year galus wheelchair and walk ourselves. It’s megillas Esther- It’s revealing the hiddenness that has been inside of us that we never revealed, because we were always to insecure to bring it out. We were scared it would “make us like them”, because we didn’t realize that their darkness can never penetrate our light. Sure some of us might have to drink a bit to let that inner light feel free to come out, just as some of them had to take a few drugs. But the truth is if you’re really holy enough, you don’t need to drink either to get there. You just need to feel how holy and important our mission is. How much light the eradication of that evil will reveal. How powerful Hashem has made us to be able to do that.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that we read Parshat Ki Tisa this week about the story of the Golden Calf, which is the first big story after we received the Torah and became a nation. In that story, do you know what we did? What Hashem and Moshe demanded of us? He told us to pick up our swords and to kill all of those evil participants of our brothers, Ish es achiv, or at least the erev rav. Hashem didn’t kill them out in a plague. Plague death of enemies only happens before we accepted the role out Sinai to be His nation and partner.; His army. The Eigel story is our first test if we can even do that to our own brothers who brought darkness and prevent the light from happening. It’s our first test that we and the tribe of Levi are ultimately chosen as a result of, because our final role is to be able to do that to Amalek. To Chamas. To the 7 nations of Canaan. If we could do it to our brothers and to Jews, then we certainly should be able to do it to them.
The soldiers I speak to tell me of that joy that they experience when they wipe out and avenge our blood. Purim, though, is a time when we are all supposed to feel that. Vi’Nahpoch Hu- It’s when we turn around and become “Hu”, when Hashem tells us that we are Him. We are His arm. When we stand up and fight and kill and reveal His light. We complete His throne. We’re not waiting for miracles, and certainly not for permission from anyone. We can’t afford to wait. They’re not waiting. For we understand that Amalek, their descendants and supporters are the only thing standing between that light and the Bais Hamikdash finally being built. From world peace reigning supreme. From the shechina finally resting on this world.
V’chol ha’risha kulo k’ashan tichleh- and all evil will go up like smoke.
V’ta’avir mamsheles Biden zadon min ha’aretz- And the reign of iniquity will finally be Trumped from the Earth.
They are screaming loud Allahu Aqbar. That scream is begging for us to respond and should awaken within us an even more bloodcurdling cry of Hashem Melech as we pick up our own swords and liberate the world. Because it’s either Allah or Hashem. It’s Amalek. It’s Chamas. Or it’s light the light of Mashiach and the Simcha of the Yehudim.
That’s what Purim is all about. That’s why it’s a holiday that even after Mashiach comes will always be celebrated. Other holidays are what Hashem did for us. Purim is what we did for Him, and that unity is the secret of Mashiach. That happiness of being together with Him for Him. That joy and exuberance that until now our enemies have only experienced when they killed us, we will have finally redeemed, when we kill them.
Do you think you can do this? Do you even feel that you have the power, the chutzpa, the keilim (polite word), to even say or repeat this holy dvar Torah over to anyone? If you don’t then they’re winning. Then their darkness is still in your soul. Then your light and mission isn’t clear and you’re not confident enough in how much light you have and how evil their darkness is. Then you/we need to look up that mountain at the hands of Moshe uplifted to heaven, as we did in that first battle against Amalek after we became a nation, and realize how great we are and how important our battle is. Then we need to read the haftorah again of last Shabbos of how the great prophet Shmuel- think Rav Shteinman, or Rav Chayim Kanievsky if Shmuel’s too hard for you to imagine- picked up a sword and “Gintzu” knifed and sliced and diced the King of Amalek Achav with a big happy joyous Allah Aqbar on his lips as he experienced perhaps the most joyous moment of his life, that every Jew needs to feel and do. Because at that moment, he understood he was the Hand of God. That he was one with Him. That now Mashiach Ben Dovid can come. Because we did we what we did to clear the ground for the Shechina to finally rest and His throne to be complete. We cleared out Gaza entirely.
But if this is still hard for you, I’ve got a little practice and plan for how to get in shape for this. It’s by getting our hands in shape, by reaching them first in our pockets and by giving tzedaka. There’s nothing that inspires Jews more than money. Once we start to pay for these things that we want the whole package. We want the full deal. We want to stay all the way to the end. And thus we bring our shekalim before Haman’s and Qatar’s money. Once we start to get invested in it, Hashem awakens in us that power and desire to see that money put to good use. Think of all the money you donated to buying vests, bullets and BBQ’s for our soldiers. The more you gave, the more you wanted them dead. The more you wanted Mashiach and to win. The more happiness you felt when you heard they exploded.
On that note… friends. Once again, I turn to you and ask you to do something else and become the Hand of Hashem in contributing to our annual campaign. How can you expect yourself to be able to have the strength to pick up a sword and wipe out Amalek, if you can’t even reach into your pocket to pay the entrance fee? How can we claim to want the Beit Ha’Mikdash if you can’t even contribute to our annual Shul campaign… I’m just teasing. I know we all give money. We’re all giving a lot of money to tzedaka, to causes, to yeshiva guys that will be banging on our doors, to incredible organizations… Yet… here at the Young of Israel of Karmiel, we don’t have guys running around collecting for us, we don’t have fancy ads in magazines, no Charidy campaigns, no Chinese auctions. It’s just me. It’s just this E-Mail (and my status posts). It’s just Me and You.
You haven’t unsubscribed yet. There’s something that keeps bringing you back week after week and perhaps its because you know that no one else will tell you or write the things I do. That Hashem puts in my head for some reason. That reveals things, that more politically correct or less socially awkward Rabbis that were born with filters on their brains and mouths and laptops won’t tell you. So it’s a trade-off. I’ve washed your hands, it’s time for you to help me wash mine. Please…?
With that in mind I turn to you and ask if perhaps you could find it in your heart and wallet and credit card to throw us a few sheks… a few bills… or more. Our expenses our thousands of shekels, and that was before the war and all the extra responsibilities and soldiers and good work that we do. So please be a part of it. It will make you happy. You will be the Hand of Hashem helping your friend in Karmiel… It’s only twice a year that I come to you with this request. Which in truth is really not easy for me and I thank those of you that have already and have always been there for me. In that merit May Hashem bless us all with a happy Purim. With the Happiest Purim, one that sees the destruction of evil already tomorrow on the 13th of Adar and when this Purim we can finally say that we were finally nachu mei’oyveheim- we can rest because our enemies have finally been destroyed.
Have a Fraylichen Purim and an Amazing Shabbos!
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
(I love the quote this week… by the way…)
“Nit mit shelten un nit mit lachen ken men di velt ibermachen... - Neither with curses nor with laughter can you change the world.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/yiddelach - Purim is here let’s get started with Rabbi Schwartz’es Purim hits! Yiddelach from last year….
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/layehudim - And here’s my Layehudim by Dovid Lowy on vocals and arrangements start dancing NOW!!
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/techelet-mordechai - My original Purim song with Yitz Berry! Techelet Mordechai the perfect drunk yeshiva guy song…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/389yusuJ6Ng - OD YOTER GOY! Hillarious… if you understand Hebrew…
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S JOKES OF THE WEEK
Vi’Nahapoch Hu- No jokes this week…. You have to send me jokes… I ‘ve got Shalach Manos to make and Amalekites to kill…
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