Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
June 27th 2025 -Volume 14 Issue 33 1st of Tamuz 5785
(The inspiration for this E-mail is this heartwrenching video below of Reb Eli Stefansky…check it out by our video columns)
They were great men, but they were wrong. He was a chacham. He was a leader. He was from the Nosei Ha'aron- he carried the Ark of Hashem. Yet he was wrong. He missed the boat. He got great men to follow him. Great Rabbis in later generations even admitted that had they been there, they probably would've joined him. But they were all wrong. They got swallowed alive. His tribe was Shevet Levi. They are the banners of Torah. All those that sit in yeshiva and in Kollel today and dedicate themselves to full-time pursuit of Torah are them. Yet… maybe we're wrong too. Maybe we suffer from gai'ava- Torahdikeh arrogance as well. Maybe, just maybe we're even more susceptible to that sickness, that spiritual disease, that evil middah then those that aren't Bnai Torah.? It is with those thoughts that I write this E-Mail. I'm not speaking to you. I'm speaking to myself. Feel free to listen in. You can even feel free to get offended. I'm opening up a nerve. It might hurt.
There seems to be a theme between last week's parsha and this week's. It's about great men messing up and getting it wrong. Wrong is a polite word though. Their noble and certainly spiritual intentions, which we can't even fathom or even come close to are in fact quite the opposite. They're wicked. They're evil. They're sinful. They threaten the entire Jewish nation and almost bring us to oblivion. They bring us to a point where Hashem has almost had enough with all of us.
He didn't feel that way about our complaints with the lack of food or water in the midbar, He didn't feel that way about us when we were all idolators in the Egypt and were at the highest level of impurity. He didn't even threaten to wipe us all out when the day after the Spies debacle, literally the day after, a whole group disregarded the explicit command and tried to go up anyways. He punished the sinners and that's it. Yet, it seems when a handful of great people, talmidei chachamim and tzadikim get it wrong that's when all gehenom is ready to break loose. That's when we're in danger. That's when it hits the fan.
It's understandable, I guess. When most of us sin, Hashem can be merciful. He understands we have desires; we're drawn to our yetzer hara's inclination. But it's only momentarily. We can rise. He sees our frailty. It's when the ones that know better mess up. When they don't see how off they are and they believe they are acting with religious indignation, and it's l'sheim shamayim, then no one can bring them back. And if there's nobody to bring them back, then there's no one to bring the rest of us back as well. Because we need them.
So, if we, or I, claim to be from them. If I see myself as one of the minority of the minority of Jews that Hashem has blessed with a healthy Torah upbringing, with the knowledge of the beauty of Torah, of mitzvos, of Shabbos of how lucky and fortunate I am to be part of Hashem's special nation, then I also understand that I have a job to be a leader, to be a role model, to connect those who weren't given that special gift and share it with them and teach them about it. And if that's true, and it is how I view myself, then I as well have to be very careful and cognizant of the tremendous danger and susceptibilities that come with that job. From the story of the spies and of Korach's rebellion it would seem that pitfall can best described in one word. Ga'iva- arrogance. Arrogance that leads to the misjudging of a situation and the difference of my worldview and Hashem's. Arrogance that causes me to think that I'm right, I'm holy, I'm noble when really, I'm the cancer and the evil that needs to be swallowed up and that is bringing destruction.
Last week, we saw that in regards to the spies. They were holy and righteous; Anshei Shem, men of distinction, as were Korach's group. Their intentions were mamash mamash for the sake of Hashem, in their NOT so humble opinion. They felt they would lose out on all of that by coming to Eretz Yisrael, and the chances are they were probably right. The yeshivish, beis medrash, hypothetical, Torah they were learning would not be what they would be busy with when they came to the land where they had to fight, they had to join the army, they had to plant and grow and build and settle. They loved Hashem, so much, they loved learning so much from Moshe, they didn't think that there was anything greater. Talmud Torah k'neged kulam.
But that was their mistake. They thought when they weren't supposed to. It's hard to turn off your brain and not think, when Torah is your life, and you feel you may lose it all. But guess what? If you can't, and you’re a leader, then all of klal Yisrael is in trouble. Because it was never about Torah. It was about the will of Hashem. And if you Rabbis and leaders and "great men" don't get that, then how is anyone else supposed to? And thus, we're all at risk and can't come into the land.
But that's last week's parsha. This week is Korach. This week even more, we see a sin by the carriers of the Ark, and the tribe of Levi then anywhere else. But first just a reminder, about who this tribe is. They are zealots, they replace the first born because they picked up swords and slaughtered their brothers and sisters who sinned by the golden calf. Thousands of them. They're hardcore scholars chosen to be the teachers of the nation. Who already know that they won't even have to work in Israel, because they are the dedicated spiritual leaders of the nation. They're not only army exempt, they're work-exempt. They have one job, or at least in their mind they do… and that's Toirah Toirah Toirah… So what was their mistake? And how did they go off so badly?
The Mishna in Pirkey Avos tells us that the world stands on three pillars; Torah, avoda and gemilus chasadim. When the Mishna tells us that is what the world stands on, it's telling us that each person is a world by himself. There are three aspects to Creation and to our purpose. A completed world is one where they are all revealed. Our sages tell us that those three pillars represent three aspects of life. Torah, its study, is bein adam l'atzmo- between man himself. The study and our connection with Torah is my personal growth. It's the way that I reveal that spark of Hashem within me. My letter, if you will, in the Torah, that is me.
Avoda, the service of Hashem, is bein adam la'makom. It's my connection and service to Hashem. My davening, my sacrifices, my teshuva, my overcoming of challenges and working on my faith. My attaching myself to His ways. My longing for His revelation in this world. That's the second pillar.
The final one, gemilus chesed, is of course bein adam la'chaveiro. It's my social obligations. It's my uniting mankind. It's not only seeing the spark of Hashem in each person, but loving them, doing kindness with them. Making the world a global better place and existence where the shechina can rest. Those are the three pillars. That's what the world and each person is meant to stand upon. It's what our job is to realize.
Korach and the tribe of Levi are charged with being the nosei ha'aron- they are the bearers of Torah and protecting the holy places. They have another important job as well which Moshe reminds them of. We'll get to that. They wanted, however also the kehuna. They wanted avoda as well. Their claim is a bizarre almost hypocritical one. One that is revealing about how blinding, gaiva and kavod- l'sheim shamayim is. They tell Moshe
Kol ha'eida kulam kedoshim- the entire nation is holy.
That being the case, there is no need seemingly for people to have limited roles. It's like a house full of sefarim that shouldn't need a mezuza and a talis full of techeles that shouldn't need a blue string. We're all equal. Why should Aharon be the Kohen Gadol? Who needs him?
What makes that so blatantly hypocritical though, is that their own role as Levites, the bearers of Torah is one that no other Jew can do. Only a Levi can carry the Ark and guard the Temple. Even the role of Kohen Gadol that they are asking for, or to be Kohanim, is as well saying and recognizing that not every Jew is holy enough to fulfill that role. So they agree that certain people have jobs that others can't. Their whole fight is about getting that job. So then what's with this fake, seemingly hypocritical, claim that every Jew is holy and special and no one should lead or be chosen. L'havdil elef havdalos- it's like those people that are standing up for Gaza and Chamas terrorists claiming that every life is special and precious, and at the same time when it comes to Israeli lives and civilians, there's a double standard. Are we all holy, or are you from the tribe of Levi that is unique and has special jobs that nobody else can have?
Perhaps the source of their mistake and distortion, though is precisely because they are seeing the world through their "Torahdikeh" eyes and they don't understand that there is a weltanschauung worldview of avoda- mindset that is very different than that. Let me explain.
See, when it comes to Torah, every Jew truly is equal. We each have a portion in Torah. A letter. We each have something that we all have to reveal in that book. The little 5-year-old child, the greatest Rabbi, the secular Jew, the modern orthodox one, the unaffiliated, each Jew can open the book learn and grow and can become great through its study. The Talmud tells us that a mamzer talmid chacham is greater than a High Priest. That being the case it is reasonable to look at the world through Torah eyes and say, "We are all holy". We are all the same. None should have any more opportunity than the other.
The problem with that view is that although it is true, in reality it leads one who takeh does learn, does study, is smarter, has more zitz fleish to sit and put in the hours to feel a sense of superiority over those that don't do that. We each had the same chance the same book, the same way to self-realize, and I made it and am doing it and you're not. You're working. You're playing on your computer. You're not frum. You're not as great as I am.
Avoda- though has a different set of parameters to it. Every yid has his own avoda. His own personal challenges, his own way of connecting to Hashem, his own sins he has to do teshuva on and his own rungs on the ladder that he is meant to climb. We each start at different places and we each are meant to achieve different levels. To a large degree, whereas Torah has one basic curriculum to it, learning reading and growing through the breadth and depth of its study, and thus who ever excels at that is on a higher plane, avoda is different. It's really more like the construction of a house. There are architects, there are electricians, there are roofers, there's the guy that installs the plumbing, the flooring and windows. No one is more important than the other. Each one is an essential component. No one expects the roofer to put in the floor or the electrician to put in the plumbing. Neither looks down on the other. And each one understands, that each person's avoda limits them to their area of training and expertise.
Now that's true in most places, yet in Israel there is something that is unique. They are called chapperim. Stay away from them. Been there done that and it doesn't work. Chapperim, are the guys that walk around and tell you that they can do everything. Usually their name is Dudu or Yigal. They can fix your roof, your electricity, your plumbing, your car and your marital problems as well. They don't understand or believe that one person shouldn't be able to do it all. You know how they say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing… Well in Korach's case it seems that even more dangerous than that is a lot of knowledge.
The Ari"Zl teaches us that there is a difference between Kohanim and Levi'im. The kohen, who is charged with overseeing the Avoda represents the middah of chesed, of expansion, of inclusiveness. The Levi is middas ha'din- pure judgement. A world of Din is a meritocracy. Every Jew is holy. Every Jew has a portion. Make something out of yourself. If you do great. If not you're a gornisht. The more you learn. The greater and higher you are. The Levi's job is to protect the kodesh. To allow the one's meant to come in to enter and whoever isn't not to. It's to keep the tamei, impure and unworthy out. Din.
The Kohen however is meant to uplift each Jew from where they are. To appreciate each person's sacrifice and never judge it. To look past whether it's a flour offering or a sheep or a cow and to see the nefesh. See, the challenge. See from where they came, what they've gone through and realize that despite how different their avoda may look from someone else's it not any less holy. We're not all sefarim on a bookshelf, and we're not all talisot that are made out of techeles. Yankel's talis and techeles is different than mine and so is his tachlis. His avoda.
The first Rashi of the parsha is bothered by the question the opening words of the parsha raises
Va'Yikach Korach- And Korach took, yet it doesn't tell us what he took. He answers?
Lakach es atzmo- He took himself.
The mistake of Korach is that he was looking at the world with a view of bein adam l'atzmo. A world based on my personal growth. A world focused on each Jew growing themselves through Torah. He called them all holy, yet at the same time, he felt that he was holier. He was the biggest scholar. He was the only one that had the merit; him and the other great Rabbis of Torah of his time. The truth is in a world of Torah that's the way it works. It has to work. The Ari"zl even suggests that la'asid lavo- the Levi'im and first-borns will be the Kohanim and it will work that way. It will be a world of din, of merits, of how much you've shteiged. Yet, that wasn't world that he was in yet. It's not the one we're in today either.
Moshe tells Korach, that the tribe of Levi has another job as well. That job is to be the singers in the Bais Ha'Mikdash. The choir. The musicians. The band. That should be enough for you Korach, for us bnai Torah and for Shevet Levi. You may be the bearers of Torah, but Hashem gave you an avoda that's perfect for you. That will humble you. That will give you a reflection in how to balance that Torah ego all your shteiging may have given you. Do you know what that is? It's to pick up an instrument and play music in the band. Yank out that guitar and start strumming a kumzitz.
The function of music is to uplift others. Is to find the song that resonates in someone else and play their tune. It's not the shtikel Torah you're going to teach them. It's not the vort you will say, the Mussar you will give them, or even the inspirational E-Mail you will write. It may not even have any words. It's just a tune; a niggun. A song that comes out of your instrument. That's your avoda, Korach. It's a holy avoda. If you can't be happy with that, then all of your Torah isn't about being a pillar for the world. It's about you. It's atzmo. And if you're not going to hold up the olam, then you will be swallowed by it.
The Ari'Zl reveals an interesting hint for Korach in the Psalm that we recite each Shabbos, that was fascinatingly enough attributed to Moshe Rabbeinu.
M'izmor Sh'ir La'Yom Ha'Shabbos- A song for the day of Shabbos, and if you rearrange the first letters of each word of that psalm it spells Li'Moshe. That psalm ends with the words
Tzadi'K Ka'Tama'R YifraCh- The righteous will flourish like a date palm. The last letters of each word of that phrase spells Ko'ra'ch. In the end of days Korach will flourish. His path will be the more righteous one. The world will have become a world where Hashem is revealed and the holiness in each of us will be apparent. The Tzemach Tzedek, writes that Korach was aiming for that world in his mind, but he wasn't there yet and either was the world.
The name Korach, our sages tell us, also, means bald. The Levi had to be shaved bald. They couldn't have any personal growth. They can't have their atzmo, their "zich", coming out. Their job is to bring that Torah to the masses without any of their own atzmo, their own hair showing. It can't be about them and their great vort. The word Yifrach- to flourish, Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz reveals to you… is also the letters chapper backwards. You, can't be a chapper, Korach. You can't look at the world with only your eyes, that everything is only Torah and our accomplishments, the brilliant insights and depths that we uncover in it. There's avoda that everyone has to do and they will look different than you. They will be starting and ending at different places and even religiosity and observance than you, because that's where Hashem placed them. Just as he placed you where you are. Your job, our job, my job, is to sing to them. To bring out the song that speaks to their heart and elevates them while they are doing their avoda at their level.
These were thoughts I had this week, as I left 12 days of sitting in my bomb shelter with my neighbors. There are all types in Karmiel.Chareidi, daati, secular, Russians, retirees, old young, soldiers, Kollel families. I have always been friendly and cordial to all of them. But over the past two weeks, I really got to know them a lot better. I wasn't the frum one and they weren't the unlearned, nebach, not yet frum. They were Jews with a different avoda. Who knows? Maybe they're even greater than I am. Perhaps they've gone up more rungs, their sacrifices and observances may have more meaning to Hashem. Their faith is stronger. Yet we were all together.
I didn't feel superior. I didn't even feel frummer. Our enemies didn't care, why should I. Hashem took all of klal Yisrael here in Israel and threw us in one big miklat. One big shelter. We became ketores- we became that mixture of incense that is brought in the Holy of Holies. The burnt missile shrapnel fragments that fell around us, are the burnt staffs of Korach that got burnt up and Hashem told us to put on the altar. To remind me what my avoda is. To remind me how to look at every Jew. May we soon come to that day, already this month, when we can once again come close hear that tune of the Levi'im as we said in Mussaf this morning
U'va'avodas beis Hamikdash nismach kulanu- And the service of the Temple we shall ALL rejoice
U'vishirei Dovid avdecha ha'nishma'im bi'irecha- and with the songs of Dovid your servant, that will be heard in Your city
ha'amurim lifnei mizbechehca- and said before Your Altar.
Ahavas Olam tavi la'hem- eternal love, bring to them…
Strike up the band…
Have a safe and phenomenal Shabbos and a redemptive Chodesh Tamuz!
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Der klugster mentsh benart zikh.- The wisest man fools himself"
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
23. According to ChrisX-tian tradition, Mary met ______ at the spring in Ein Kerem
Which of the following Christian sites is linked to Pentecost?
A. The “Last Supper” Room
B. The Good Samaritan
C. The grotto of Gethsemane
D. Capernaum
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG4PYvrxiag&t=43s – The video that inspired the above video a heart wrenching video from Reb Eli Stefansky Of Merkaz Daf Yomi (MDY) fame being interviewed with a powerful story… watch from 11:30-15:30 for the part that hit me in kishkas…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfBOC5wAdng&list=RDhfBOC5wAdng&start_radio=1 - Gorgeous new Mimkomacha from Eitan Katz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn02UvVZ-ag&list=RDKn02UvVZ-ag&start_radio=1 – New Simcha Leiner- belts it out with this latest release a New Day will Rise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKlz09SXUXw&list=RDzKlz09SXUXw&start_radio=1 - This incredibly inspiring Chasidic outburst of song at Slonimer Rebbi's wedding is everything it means
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
586 BC -The Last King's End- Tzidkiyahu' that last king of Israel was captured as he escaped from Yerushalayim. Not only was he captured but his 10 sons as well were taken with him. There he was put on trial before Nevuchadnezzar who told him that even according to our own Torah, one who rebels against the King is liable to be put to death. Not only him but his children as well. Tzidkiya pleaded that at least he should be killed first so as not to be made to witness the death of his children, but Nevuchadnezzar heeded his children's plea first that they should be killed and not see their father's death. Thus they were slaughtered in front of him.
Yet, the wicked Nevuchadnezzar was not done with Tzidkiya. He had his eyes poked out and burned in an oven and had him brought back in chains to Bavel. There as he was paraded through the streets, Tzidkiya lamented his fate recalling the cryptic prophecy that Yirmiyahu had told him that he never understood until then. Yirmiyahu had told him that he would be brought down to Bavel, yet his eyes would never see it. He assumed that meant he wouldn't be harmed, yet here he understood that he would be brought back blinded. The shame and humiliation and even death was not even to satisfy Nevuchadnezzar 's lust for punishment and torture. Our Midrashim tell us how he would feed him food and drink that would cause him stomach illnesses. That while he was kept in prison there, Nevuchadnezzar would have him molested regularly and abused in horrific ways. Tzidkiyahu died there in Bavel only after the death of Nevuchadnezzar. According to some his yartzeit is the 6th or 7th of Cheshvan.
Fascinatingly enough, this last king of Israel according to the Seder Olam was taken out and buried with a great eulogy and honor, by the son of Nevuchadnezzar, the more generous Avel Merodach. We will learn more about him in the coming week's in the post Temple phase of our history. Yet, with the death of Tzidkiyahu, the official reign of the kingdom of Dovid comes to an end until today. There are still remaining descendants of Dovid left, Yehoyachin, his nephew, son of his brother, Yehoyakim, who was the king that preceded him and had been exiled before Tzidkiyahu was instated as King was in prison still. He will carry on the Davidic lineage that will ultimately lead to Mashiach. Hopefully that day is coming very soon.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S BEST IRAN WAR MEMES/JOKES OF THE WEEK
I learned something very important over this war. A woman could be ready within 9 minutes to leave.
I wonder if Iran knows that if there's another alert in the middle of the night, there will be a whole group of angry Jewish mothers who will probably walk to Iran and strangle them with their own two hands.
This ceasefire is like a Chasidic boy getting a call froom his parents telling him that he's getting married tomorrow.
WWIII just canceled its 30 day trial.
Do not listen to the Fake News. America did not bomb Iran. It was a mostly peaceful protest against their Nuclear Facilities.
Breaking News: After more than 80 years in Brooklyn, the Mirrer Yeshiva has decided to move back to Shanghai.
Netanyahu tweet: NYC is three months away from developing a nuclear weapon
Rumor is Trump is building a golf course in Iran. He's already got the first three holes.
Satmar announced that with Israel's victory over Iran there is a prohibition to visit the graves of Mordechai and Esther. It has the same status as the Kotel does when the Zionists conquered it.
Classic Jewish Shabbos Goy
Israel: Fordo is very dangerous and we don't have any way to blow it up.
America: So do you want us to blow it up?
Israel: Fordo is very dangerous and we don't have any way to blow it up.
America: So are you asking us to blow it up for you?
Israel: Fordo is very dangerous and we don't have any way to blow it up.
America: We just blew it up…
Israel:Shkoyach!!!
Yankel going through the Egyptian border to escape Israel in 2025 to his wife Suri
"Just tell them you're my sister, if they ask"
Berel fleeing with his pregnant wife through the border tells her that she better not give birth. He's not interested in having sextuplets!
Iran learned the hard way, that we unlike them we don't hide weapons under hospitals… We hide them in Iran!
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The answer to this week”s question is A- Xtianity is not my strong subject. But actually I was surprised that I got this one wrong. The first part I knew and remembered. It's a church there that has the Christian version of Chana's prayer called the Magnificat on it, and its about Yoshkas's zona mother meeting her cousin Elizabeth who was the mother of John. Bubbeh maysehs and shtusim. But I remembered that… It seems that they steal Tanach stories and this is stealing quite a few. But anyways, it's the second part I got wrong. I associated the 2nd part of the question with the Church of last supper being a pesach seder story and thought the Good Samaritan was a story about a jew getting mugged and being saved and guessed maybe he was being oleh regel… But I was wrong seems the last supper is also a Shavuos story when yoshka gave his disciples ruach hakodesh, as stolen matan torah story. So I got this one half right and wrong. So the score is Rabbi Schwartz 15 Ministry of Tourism 8 on this exam so far, which should me back in passing range.
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