from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
May 8th 2026 -Volume 16 Issue 28 21st of Iyar 5786
Money for Nothing
It's been rough for us tour guides here. It's been a while since we've seen any of you. I don't think even in Corona, or the beginning of this war have I ever gone this long without touring one of you. Not Pesach. Not Lag Ba'Omer. My summer is still pretty much wide open. Some people refer to a downturn in their business. "It's been slow, lately", others say, when they don't want to really talk about how bad it really is. But I'm here to tell you the real scoop, in case you didn't get it. It's dead. It's almost three months now. It's from before Purim. It's like the Jews in the wilderness and the manna is running out, there's no water and there's just a big hot dry dead wilderness in front of us. I get their kvetching a bit more, these days. I can understand why Hashem got upset at Moshe for being so harsh with us about our lack of faith, at least at one point. It ain't easy.
There are quite a few guys that are doing alternate things. Sruli, started to do some Real Estate. Avi and Ari are doing some driving and deliveries. Some of my driver friends got gigs doing army deliveries. Even my friend who bought an ATV business before this whole thing started is now renting them out to the Army. He figures if they can't be used to share the beauty and nature of Eretz Yisrael with people that are coming here to visit, then at least they should be put to good use killing the mamzers that made this happen and perhaps even potentially, hopefully expanding the current borders of Israel to those more in line with our biblical promise. Creating new routes and trails to take people on, when this is all over.
My friend Yoni, has been on my case to join him on these Auschwitz, Europe, graves, old shuls and dead murdered massacred Jews gig he's got going on. As if there's not enough of that to see over here… It's always interested me, that there are people that want to see that stuff. That are not scared of heading out to countries where they killed all of our ancestors, where they would do it again, where there's no Israeli army that would even pretend to be interested in saving you. Why spend money and help an economy that would use that money to give parnassah to the grandchildren of the same people that helped the Nazi's and even sold your grandparents out to them? Why aren't you nervous about going to a place where anti-Semitism and Jew-killing is a favorite national pastime?
Yeah, I know, you've got that going on in the States as well, these days, so maybe it doesn't make you so nervous. You're used to burying your head in the sand. Which is usually good practice historically for when they make you dig your own graves. Ouch! But what possible inspiration does one get out of those places in Europe? What do people find or see there besides, death, blood, and tumah? And don't tell me that it's to learn the lessons of the past and "Never Again", because where are you still living…?
So I told him, no. I'm not interested. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional tour outside of Israel, as my Swiss and Africa trips reveal. But I don't want to work there. I don't want to take Jews there. I don't want to connect them to those places. Hashem told us that we should never return to Egypt. After the expulsion from Spain, our sages as well declared that we should never go back there- of course they made an exception for 5 Star Pesach programs with separate swimming pools and spas, Mordechai Shapiro and Leiner singing, kosher magicians and poker tables, with big Rabbis who write columns about Mesora in Mishpacha magazine serving as Scholars in residence. But besides that our Rabbis felt that no one should step foot on that bloodied earth. I don't know why they didn't do that in Poland or the Ukraine, though. Maybe it's because the "Jewish travel" lobby would have to much to say. Maybe they didn't want to give up their future scholars in residence gigs. Maybe they just wanted to provide parnassa for tour guides during periods of time when Jews were too scared to come to Israel…
So what have I been up to? Well I filled you in on some of the stuff. My trips down South to Sinai to do some volunteering trimming grape vines in my friend Gal's field. I've started writing for Mishpacha magazine again. Stay tuned for the upcoming Shavuos edition. I'm just about finished with my new book, "War Torah", three years' worth of Parsha material and E-Mails seen through the eyes of a Rabbi/Tour Guide/ Oleh/ Me… which I hope to get out volume I, by the new Torah cycle. Sponsorship opportunities upcoming… Stay tuned! As well, I've been doing some more learning, reading and hitting the gym. Gotta keep the weight off, especially with all the couch sitting noshing, I've been doing.
What about Parnassa? It will come. That's what credit cards are for. As one of my tour guide friends, told me, after Corona, the first years of the war, and all the other gaps in business we've undergone, Hashem has always sent us our manna right back afterwards. It's gonna come. This past winter in fact, He even sent the parnassa beforehand. It was the busiest winter- at least until Purim since the post-Corona year. It's like the promise of getting triplicate in the 6th year before Shemitta, that this week's parsha tells us about. Hey, why should tour guides be different then Shemitta farmers in that regard. We both make our living off the land. We even bring them all our tourists. So, Hashem gave us the same advance He gives them, in the months before this latest tourism drought. I just wish he didn't have to crush the dollar in the process… But at least, I'm not earning any right now anyways, so I don’t feel so bad.
Well once we’re on the subject of havtachos from this week's parsha and the mitzva of Shemitta, the year that we take a Shabbos from working the land, and step back and say Hashem runs the world. He pays my bills. I'm sitting at His table and I don't have to worry about the next course. Let's see if this is only a farmer thing or not.
The mitzva that follows these laws is fascinatingly enough the laws of the prohibition to take interest. Seemingly this mitzva one would more appropriately expect to find in Mishpatim or in Devarim, as we do, rather than here in the middle of the mitzvos that have to do with Shemitta, Yovel and buying and selling land in Israel. The prohibition to take interest is applicable to every Jew everywhere. Even you guys outside of Israel. What's it got to do with what seems to be only Eretz Yisraeldikeh laws?
Now in case, you thought that this wasn't the case, the follow up verse and even more perplexing Rashi that explain them makes this even more clear. The reason the Torah tells us for this mitzva in Mishpatim is because he's your brother, you should worry about him, he will cry out to Hashem. As well, in Devarim it tells us that Hashem will give us bracha if we keep this mitzva. He will even bring us to the land to inherit it. It certainly seems that it has nothing to do with a specific connection to living in the land. Yet here, the pasuk tells us that we need to keep the mitzva because
Vayikra (25:38) "I am Hashem, your God, who took you out of the Land of Egypt to give you the Land of Canaan to be Your God."
What does leaving Egypt have to do with charging interest? Rashi seems to address these questions, but his answers at first glance don't really seem to cut it.
Who took you out … " just as I discerned between a firstborn and a non-firstborn, I also recognize and will exact punishment from one who lends money to an Israelite on interest and claims that it belongs to a non-Jew.
Another explanation: “who took you out of Egypt” – I redeemed you on condition that you accept My commandments upon yourselves, even if they be difficult for you.
The problem with this Rashi's pshat is that first of all why is it the fact that Hashem is discerning between the first borns the barometer for Hashem's ability to tell the difference between one who lends with interest and doesn't. Hashem knows everything. He did ten plagues before that and showed he runs the world. He knows everyone's thoughts. The mitzva and prohibition seem to be directed to Jews who believe in Hashem. They're keeping the mitzvos. Perhaps they even believe in everything else. The challenge they may be forgetting and that this mitzva seems to be reminding us is that Hashem can tell who's a first born or not. What does this have to do with Ribbis?
As well, Rashi seems to learn this warning is directed not just to someone who charges interest, but rather someone who does it through a loophole. He gets a goy to lend it for him. He's trying to work the system. A way out of the mitzva. That's who this mitzva and warning is directed to. This is the mitzva that Rashi in the second pshat as well, seems to note is difficult. It's a different aspect of the mitzva then perhaps the other places where it discussed.
As well the next Rashis continue in what seems broader themes, but that the Torah seems to be noting is particularly note and warning worthy here.
To give you Canaan - as reward for accepting upon yourselves to fulfill My commandments.
The land of Canaan is given for many mitzvos. Perhaps even more so, for the mitzvos that can't be fulfilled here. The laws of the tithes, of sacrifices, of shemitta and yovel. What does interest have to do with living in the land. We can do that anywhere?
Yet it was the last Rashi that really threw me for a loop. Because it's not so much what he says, rather it's what he doesn't say. How he changes what is really said. And most of all the message and connection he seems to be making with our mitzva that sheds light on it all.
Rashi writes
In order to be a God to you - for whoever lives in the Land of Israel – I consider Myself his God, but …
Before I finish this famous quote, that Rashi paraphrases here, I want to ask you how you believe it ends. If you're anyone that ever argued with anyone about making Aliya, on either side of the argument, you're bound to finish that sentence as Chazal do in Kesuvot and other places.
"He who lives outside of Israel is as if he has no God."
All good Aliyah snobs (as Rabbi Efrem G. coined the phrase recently) know this gemara and throw it at all of you guys all the time. It's the exact opposite and contrast to the one that lives in Israel. It makes sense. Yet that's not what Rashi quotes. It's not how he finishes off the quote. He changes it. He wants to make a different message here. The question is what.
Rashi ends off that phrase differently. He writes
"but whoever leaves I consider to be an idolater".
Who said anything about leaving Israel here? Why does leaving Israel have to do with lending with interest? As well, it seems that someone that leaves is even worse than the person that doesn't come. As here Rashi calls him an idolator. That's a lot harsher than the godless person that Chazal call he who doesn't live here at all. There's something going on here, and I believe it's an incredible message for tour guides without work in Israel today. That's obviously what Hashem wrote in the Torah to teach us. It's all about me.
Rashi, writes that whoever leaves the land of Israel is considered to be a idolator. It would seem that this refers not only to those who illegally pack out or abandon Israel. As the truth is there's not too many in their right mind that would actually leave when things are going good. As Reb Chayim Kanievsky once told someone that asked him about leaving because he got a better job offer there, that he's a halachic shoteh if he does so. He's patur from all mitzvos because he's a fool, or mentally challenged and isn't liable for his actions which have no meaning. Seemingly he sees him as someone who's given a diamond and throws it away. Rather Rashi says "whoever leaves". Even someone who has a good reason. Even someone who goes when it's permitted to leave. He falls into the category of one who is permitted to leave, whether it's for parnassa, for a shidduch or even to study Torah. He's also viewed by Hashem as an idolator. That's pretty harsh. But that's what Rashi paraphrases. That's what he seems to be saying is the connection to the mitzva of Ribbis over here.
Why would someone leave Israel? There's only one reason. The reason is because you don't believe that you can find all that you need here. That your parnassa can and will happen here. That your bashert is here. That your Torah will even be on a greater level here. That your kids won't go off the derech here. You believe in Hashem. You want to serve Him. You know he preforms miracles. That he's good for His word. That He's quite capable of providing us with Manna and water in the wilderness. That He can even bring ten plagues on Egypt. But you have trouble understanding that He can tell that you’re his first Born. You think that you're subject to the same hishtadlus that perhaps the rest of the non-first born world is.
Perhaps you believe that you're just a little bit better and more loved then the non-Jews. Enough so that you can't lend Jews money with interest. But you can still work the system through them. You can use the non-Jews and be like them to rip off your brother. To advance your business interests. You can lend money through them, but you're forgetting that you're sitting on the table of the King. That you're brother is a first-born. That all of the mitzvos Hashem has given us is for us to appreciate that we are at his table. He gave us the mitzva that wherever we are living we shouldn't lend with interest because if you do, then you're forgetting that He gave us the land. We have a bank where we are taken care of from where our savings come from.
If you lend with interest, you really don't believe in Eretz Yisrael either. You're worshipping the same idol that someone who leaves Israel is serving. You're serving the dollar. You're worse than someone who's never lived here and never experienced it, who's just a nebach godless tinok she'nishbu, that may even be wearing a black hat in Lakewood or a shtreimel in Boro Park. If you're here and you leave here because you think it's gonna be better there. That, only there is where your yeshuah, your parnassa, your Torah and your children's chinuch is, then you're inherently leaving Hashem to worship idols instead.
The farmers here who have kept shemitta, as the Torah promises them, have seen that blessing. My friend Gal, out in Sinai that I visited told me that the bracha was that he was able to take off and learn Torah in Yerushalayim for a year. The tens of thousands of Kollel families who somehow manage to marry off ten kids and buy them all apartments as well will tell you about the daily miracles they experience. The soldiers, the generals, the families and survivors of this war and the entire country that's lived through this war and seen those missiles flying over our head and the so many times we should've been wiped out, know that we're sitting on the King's Table upon which His eyes aren't removed for even one second.
We're not living b'keri- with the mikreh, the happenstance that those who are living outside in the godless world are living. Hashem doesn't have to put all other things aside to deal with reminding us of where we are, who we are. We can be yashevtem la'betach b'artzichem- we can live, settle, dwell, sleep and just live securely here in our land. It's the final and best bracha. It's the only place where we can do that. So, I'm not going anywhere these days. When are you going to join the party?
Have a Shabbos of Chizuk and Chazak!
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Di shversteh arbet iz arumtsugain laidik"– The hardest work is to go idle.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdfk4KAiad4 – Lubavitcher Rebbe gives chizuk to Reb Nochum Partzovitz of Mir… Wow…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPI354InKqU – TYH's latest new release and hit that's gonna hit all over until you get sick of it… Ahavas Yisrael- Yossi Green and Storch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDU4bEDI31Y - Ronald Reagan's greatest aging Jokes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATo6Pk1fAGQ – Kobi Brumer- New Bar Yochai Kodesh Hakedoshim- nice…!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or3hlR093Qk – Dovi Lowy's Oseh Shalom unplugged… got into it this week…
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
31. A monument designed by the artist Dani Karavan near the city of Be'er Sheva is called
____________
The broad wall in Jerusalem is considered to be part of the fortification that defended
Jerusalem, during the war campaign of which of the following occupiers/warlords?
A. Ashurbanipal
B. Sargon
C. Tiglath-Pileser
D. Sennacherib
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Hopes Dashed- 351 BC- The King is dead. Achashverosh dies and his son, who according to Chazal was the child of his and Esther's thus making him Jewish, Darius the Persian becomes King. That year officially concluded the 70 years from the destruction of the Temple by Nevuchadnezzar and thus immediately the Jews with the urging of the prophets Chagai and Zecharia began work on the building of the Bait Ha'Mikdash. But before we get to that….
Let's understand how and why the Jews weren't that into it. What the prophets said. Why it wasn't so pashut. And what the message for us today is. See, because this wasn't the first time that we were being called to this task. It happened many times before this and I believe it's critical for us to appreciate the mind-set of those returnees and non-returnees. It's important for us today.
The truth is from the time that Sancherev exiled the 10 tribes, 150 years before the destruction. Yeshaya and other prophets spoke of the redemption and ingathering of Exiles. Chazal tell us that it is for that reason that many of the good kings of Israel were considered to be Mashiach, like Yoshiyahu and Chizkiyahu. In fact, Yirmiyahu Ha'Navi even thought it was the Messianic time and he went to galus to try to bring the 10 tribes back. But we weren't worthy at that time and ultimately the Temple was destroyed. It's as the parsha tells us this week in the tochacha, we have chance after chance and if we don't grab the opportunity, it will get worse.
Even with the periods of Exile, there was hope maybe with Gedalia it would be rebuilt. There was hope that Yehoyakim could bring them back. The many moment though was when Cyrus gave the go ahead and Ezra returned with Zerubavel to be the Kohen. Chazal tell us if the Jews would've returned with them it could've all been over. But they didn't. And thus the work was halted it was put on pause. The children of Haman stopped it. The Shomronim made problems. The Jews in Bavel said… see we told you so…" It was another false hope that was crushed.
Thus when the time came in the time of Darius once again. Hashem gave Chagai prophecy tell the Jews to return. Chagai turned to the Jewish people and told them this prophecy, but they didn't buy it. What was their tayna? Sit back and hold your seats and tell me if this sounds familiar…
They claimed there were no miracles, like Egypt, and this was supposed to be even greater than then. They claimed that we were still in Galus. That the nations still ruled over us. That we can't upset them. Hashem through the earlier prophets spoke of a period when we will be at rest from our enemies and we're not. This is not like the period of Shlomo Ha'Melech. This is not what we were waiting for. They wanted a supernatural redemption and this wasn't it.
Sounds familiar? Sounds 2026. It's good to know history and Tanach. What was Hashem's response through Chagai. Let's see next week.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE AFTERLIFE JOKES OF THE WEEK
I have like 50 jokes about the unemployed. Trouble is, none of them work.
I’m unemployed and asked my friend for advice.
He told me: “Get a job at NASA, they always have space.”
Why couldn't the unemployed teacher see? She had no pupils!!
My wife and I are both unemployed. My mum died in a car crash. We have three children and we're all staying in my grandma's place, and my grandma died this week. My dad has to work at 73. I'll do any job to take care of my family. Please share.
Sincerely,
William, Prince of Wales
I hate it when engineering students refer to themselves as engineers...
Like you don't see med students calling themselves doctors or arts students calling themselves unemployed.
My wife didn't leave me because I'm lazy, overweight and jobless. She left me because I don't know anything about baseball.
That was strike four
Why can't you trick an unemployed jester? Because he's nobody's fool!
What do you call an Apple employee who got laid off? Steve Jobless!
Being unemployed is horrible. I never thought I'd lose my job as a psychic.
Common synonyms of unemployed. Writer, blogger, and activist.
University: just the same as being unemployed. But your parents are proud of you.
The number of unemployed musicians today...Is disconcerting
People ask whether I’ll make cheese in my afterlife. I tell them, “There’s no whey in hell.
Ok, I admit it. I’m an unemployed leather worker. I’ve got nothing to hide.
I have 50 jokes about the unemployed. the thing is none of them make any cents
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The answer to this week's question is D– Finally! An easy one to get me out of this 50/50 rut I'm in. I'm not a big architecture guy or know many of the monuments. But Andartat Ha'Negev is a pretty famous one, commemorating the soldiers of the Negev brigade of the Palmach that fell in 1948.The second part as well is pretty easy. Tanch is one of my stronger points and the Broad wall in the Rova is where we tell the story of the Pesach night siege and miracle of Sancherevs army that were killed by an angel when we woke up the next morning. So full point for me on this one and the new score is Rabbi Schwartz having 22 points and the MOT having 9 points on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.
Beautiful, my wife and I have also seen myriad miracles since making the plunge nearly 3 years ago.
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