Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
June 13th 2025 -Volume 14 Issue 31 17th of Sivan 5785
Trumpets of War and Redemption
Trumpets of War and Redemption
I slept through the sirens last night. I almost missed
the beginning of the final stage of Mashiach's times; the start of World War
III which really should've happened months ago. I'm a pretty light sleeper. As
soon as the sun shines in my room, I'm up. A small stir, a ding on my phone, a
flush of the toilet and I am awake. The only thing historically that doesn't
wake me up are my kids when they were babies crying and screaming in my ear.
That's my wife's job. Hashem didn't bless me with the anatomy to help them. I
would never infringe on her special bonding time feedings at 3:00 AM. So I
slept through it all.
Yet last night was the only time I missed out on all the fun. I didn't even hear my cousin's family whose house I was staying at, all come crawling into my room which was the Mamad-safe room in the house and hide there for an hour while I snored next to them. I was out cold. It was only in the morning when I was trying to find out what happened on my phone, as there was no reception that he told me. World War Three had started. Mashiach was on his way and I almost missed it all.
Now the truth is I did hear a brief alert on my phone at the time (although certainly no siren- which they said was blaring). I opened one eye, looked at my phone and went back to sleep. It was just the Hooties again, I figured. (Yes, I know that's not the way to spell their names, but it just looks funnier to write it like that.). The Hooties are even less of a reason to wake up then my crying children. They've been like pesky handicapped mosquitos, that really can't even successfully bite you. They just buzz annoyingly in your ears. But Iran is different. This is the real deal. I've been waiting for this a long time. Our first Temple's destruction was at the hands of Bavel/Iran. It's only right that we return to build it after we destroy them.
The truth is this really caught me off guard. Like most
people in this country, we've given up hope of this war ever being over. Of
Israel or Bibi ever having the guts to finally stop pointing the finger at Iran
and finally doing something about it. I was hopeful when the Chareiedim
threatened to leave the government and there was a chance that Bibi might be
facing new elections that he might finally blow them up just to stay in power
and distract everyone again, and gain support and look strong. That's his
general MO. But when they decided they were staying, I went back to sleep.
Mashiach is supposed to come by surprise, our sages tell us. And I was
surprised. So nuuu…. where are you?
Now it wasn't only the sirens that were blaring outside that I missed last night. It seems there were sirens that were in this week's parsha that also didn't wake me up when I reviewed the parsha. Sure, I definitely noticed the verses that discuss when an enemy comes to attack us commanding us to blow the trumpets in order that we be remembered before Hashem and He will save us from our enemies. But I thought that was just another false alarm. You know, one of the millions of signs that I've been preaching about in every parsha for the past two years, that never turned out to be much more than great material for my next book "War Torah", when this is finally over. I missed the Baal Ha'Turim on that verse (Bamidbar 10:9) that connects the last word of the previous pasuk "Li'doroseichem- for generations", to the first words of this pasuk of an enemy attacking us and writes that this is a hint for the final battle of Gog and Magog in the future generations and era of Mashiach coming. The words "tavo'u la'milchama" actually in gematria being "b'milchames Gog"- in the war of Gog.
As well, the haftorah of our parsha, which is the same one that we read on Chanuka incidentally, the holiday that celebrates the last time we had a Jewish war and victory against our enemies and rededicated the Temple, concludes with the Messianic vision of the Menora with olive trees on its sides and oil flowing straight into it to light it. The Navi Zecharia, is prophesizing about not only the return to Israel and rebuilding of the 2nd Bait Ha'Mikdash, but as the Noda Be'Yehuda notes it is referring to Messianic times as well. The Haftora talks about an era when all of the nations will join Israel, when miracles will occur and when the Shechina will reside once again in the Mikdash. As well it mentions the coming of Tzemach, one of the names of Mashiach to redeem us.
It is an era which as the haftora tells us, Klal Yisrael will be intermarried, will be wearing "dirty clothing" even the children of the High Priest. We all will have shmutz on us, all have skeletons in our closet. The Satan will be attacking us. Yet, at the end of the day, Hashem tells us that He will be the one that redeems us. Not our army, not our strength, not even our Torah, Mitzvos and teshuva. We're still wearing dirty clothes. It will be the Ruach of Hashem, that will light that menora. The oil will drip straight from the tree into it and ignite it. And Zerubavel, who the Talmud tells us is Nechemia who built the second temple and whom the targum Yonasan tells us is that same spirit as Mashiach, will rise up, find favor in the eyes of the world and will place the foundation rock back on the Temple mount returning the Shechina to Bat Tzion- the daughters of Zion.
Do you know what the symbol of the flag of Israel is? It's that Menorah of Zecharia with the olive branches. It sits in the Knesset. Yesterday when the Israel war cabinet met before this attack, the book of Tehillim was passed around and divided to the entire cabinet and recited they sat underneath this menora and fulfilled the prophecy. Before this Messianic attack, the first when Israel has ever launched against a large nuclear country in its civilian cities and killing its military leaders with over 1000 hits, destroying their facilities in a bombing spree that until now has only ever taken place against our adjacent neighboring countries, the Prime Minister of Israel went and davened by the Kotel. He put in a note. He quoted the Messianic prophecy of us arising like a lion. They heard the siren, the call, the trumpet of Hashem and understood it is only with His spirit. With the spirit of the Psalms of David Ha'Melech, that grandfather of Mashiach, that we will win, we will be redeemed. They may have still been wearing dirty green secular Zionist clothes, but the spirit and holy anointing oil of Hashem was lifting them up. Be'haaloscha et ha'neirot- when they lit the Menora, that flame in their heart, they directed the light to the Bait Ha'Mikdash, to our ultimate redemption.
Do you know what these sirens, these trumpets of Mashiach are? They are the trumpets that Hashem commands Moshe to make. They must come from him. For Moshe is our redeemer. They are described again over here, seemingly out of place despite the fact that according to many of the commentaries these trumpets were actually made back in the book of Shemot when all the other vessels of the Mishkan that were used for sacrifices were made. For here, in the book of our wandering as we begin our journey to the final stage of our redemption from our exile in Egypt and our march to Eretz Yisrael, we are told that they are blown. They are blown as we march, as we gather together, as we go to war and ultimately as we celebrate our special holidays. It is from these verses about these trumpets that we learn out the mitzva of anointing Hashem as our King on Rosh Hashana and the types of blasts we need to blow. It is a mitzva that started back then and follows us until today. It is today and now.
The Chinuch writes that the function of this mitzva is to wake us up. The nature of man, he writes is to sleep. It's to see the world as it is and not be awakened to the Divine spirit that is flowing through creation. There is nothing that wakes us up more then the startling jarring sound of a siren, that there is something going on. That things are not what they seem. We hear that sound and lift our eyes, our ears and our hearts up to heaven and become removed from everything else that is seemingly going on around us in the world. It is that glorious sound that Hashem commands us to blow and hear whenever we march forward. Jews don't stam go from place to place. As Rebbi Nachman, famously said, every step a Jew takes he is walking to Jerusalem. We need to know that and hear that sound.
Whenever Jewish leaders gather, whether they are our great sages, whether they are our ministers, our generals, our leaders, our Rabbis, they need to know that it is only the spirit of Hashem that is directing whatever important strategic decisions they are making. They are not alone. We have a divine spiritual heavenly nuclear weapon on our side. We have the spirit of Moshe. We need to stop all of the matters of the world that are on our plate, recite tehillim and look at the world and ourselves as a nation that is being remembered before Hashem. That Hashem is watching us right now and directing our and His return. The oil is flowing down to the Menora all by itself. We need to merely listen and blow Hashem's trumpet and anoint Him.
Those same trumpets are as well blown on all our holidays. The trumpets of redemption that we blew as we marched in galus, in the "ani ma'amin"s that we sang when our enemies attacked us, in the am Yisrael chai's that our soldiers sing and in the Hoshiya es amecha that they dance to. The trumpets of Moshe emes that our heroes who may be wearing dirty clothing in tunnels in Gaza are blowing as they discover Hashem in the depths and turn their hearts and souls from their perilous situation to the One that redeems them.
Those are the trumpets heard as our leaders gathered in all our eras to talk and discuss and try to come up to "solutions" to all the "crises" that each generation faces. Crises that seem hopeless as that the weight of the world weighs down on our shoulders to try to solve. Those trumpets that woke and wake us up again and again and that direct all our gatherings are the one that we will blow on all of our Shabboses, on all of holidays, on each Rosh Chodesh. They will blast again and again celebrating the redemption. They will keep us awake. They will be our sound of music.
It is only after we have this mitzva does the rest of Bamidbar begin with our journey. Va'yehi bi'nisoah aron- and the Ark travels. The Shela Ha'Kodesh writes that these verses contained in the upside down parenthetical letter nuns contain the secret of redemption. The entire Torah is revealed in them as it is the final journey. We recite these verses whenever we take out the Torah from the Ark. That act of the removing the Torah and returning it is what we are in the process of nationally. It's the journey home.
Mashiach will come when we are not ready for it. Rav Moshe Shapiro writes it's because we as humans can't fathom a world that is different than ours. That has so many dirty clothing, that is so divided, so distant, so far from Hashem, so secular, so obnoxious. But we need to awaken and listen to the trumpet of Moshe that is echoing in our hearts, that the nations of the world are heralding in and turning to us and begging us to blow. We don't need to do anything else besides sound that horn. It's not the army. It's not with might. It's just with the spirit of Hashem. My tours have been canceled for next week (again!). The Airport is shut down. It's making room for the eagle's wings ready to descend. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Bais Ha'Mikdash tour, can you hear that siren?
Have a safe and uplifting Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Der lebn iz nisht mer vi a chulem, ober vekt mich nit oif!.- Life is nothing but a dream, but don’t wake me up!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
21. A Druze village in Israel located in the geographical area of the Hermon, other than Majdal
Shams, is ______
Around which project has there been an environmental struggle in the northern Golan Heights in
recent years?
A. Establishment of wind turbines
B. Building a solar farm
C. Carrying out water drilling
D. Positioning cellular antennas
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/hashem-melech-r-ephraim-fina – Let our eyes see the redemption, My beautiful Hashem Melech compostition arranged by the one and only Dovid Lowy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSHECioGps4 - Can This be Mashiach?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsqF1ohf7KQ&list=RDjsqF1ohf7KQ&start_radio=1 – Mordechai Shapiro latest Ein Kelokeinu..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYg3Gbowysw - Vayehi binso'a Aron- Check out the largest silver Ark in the world just built! Wow!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ei3_trvIq4&list=RD2ei3_trvIq4&start_radio=1 Glorious V'Hareinu by Yeshivat Hakotel and amazing video
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
No time this week… will be back IYH next week…
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S END OF DAYS JOKES OF THE WEEK
Only in Israel can there be a feeling that a war is about to break out in middle of a two year war…
Israel eliminates Hussein Salami now we need to wait 6 hours before we go after Hosein Chalavi
Just in Iran is enlisting the help of the Gaza ministry of Health to count its causalties, They're up to 2.7 million babies
The Missiles from Iran will arrive between 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM just like the HOTTechnician
Iran is threatening that they will be turning to Israel's Supreme Court and it's Yoetz Mispati to file a complaint.
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Armageddon.
Armageddon who?
Armageddon tired of all this knockin’!
I was watching a horror movie about the Apocalypse. It took me 5 minutes to realise I was on the news channel.
A man on a tractor has just driven past me yelling "the end of the world is near"
I think it was Farmer Geddon
How do you kiss someone at the end of the world? On the apocalypse.
I make apocalypse jokes...Like there's no tomorrow
So what if I don't know what Armageddon means? It's not the end of the world
A man finally returns home from WWIII to his dog
The dog asks:
“Did you go for a walk without me?”
The man replies: “No, Iran”.
I heard llamas are going to bring about the end of the world. It's going to be Alpaca-lyptic.
What do you call it when pigs cause the end of the world? The aporkalypse.
Before the end of the world, God gathered three presidents: Trump, Bibi and Putin
God told them: “Go and tell your people that in two weeks, the world will end.”
Trump went back to US and said: “I have two pieces of news. One is good, and the other is bad. The good news is that God exists. The bad news is that in two weeks, the world will end”.
Putin went back to Russia and said: “I have two pieces of news. One is bad, and the other is even worse. The bad news is that God exists. The worse news is that in two weeks, world will end”.
Bibi went back to Israel and said: “I have two pieces of news, and both are good! First is that God himself recognized me as prime minister! And the second is that I’ll rule until the end of the world!”
***************************************
The answer to this week”s question is A I got this one right, although it did take me a bit to remember the Golan Heights since it's been almost two years since I've toured there since the beginning of the war. But of course how could I forget Masadeh- which of course shouldn't be confused with Masada by the Dead Sea which is Druze village in the foothills of the Hermon. I won't forget it because I had tourists once that went there by mistake having put it into Waze and were wondering why they weren't near the Dead Sea! The answer to part II is of course the Turbines the big windmills that provide electricity to all over Israel, that enviromentalists disn't want us putting there but that now dot the entire Golan Heights. So the score is. Rabbi Schwartz 13.5 Ministry of Tourism 7.5 on this exam so far, which should me back in passing range.
No comments:
Post a Comment