Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
January 13th 2023 -Volume 12 Issue 13 20th of Tevet 5783
Parshat Shemos
Flower Child
I’m
not a flower person. It’s just not my thing. Don’t get me wrong, I like and
admire a beautiful garden as much as the next person. I think it’s nice to sip
tea or wine and nosh on croissants and pastries and cheese surrounded by beautiful
colorful flowers and some birds chirping around in the neighboring trees for
good measure. I just never got into all the different types and names of flowers
or saw any particular thrill in planting or growing them. I can name you about
three types of flowers, Roses, Lilies and Tulips and I don’t even know the
difference between the last two.
In
Hebrew I’m way worse in knowing the differences between the types of flowers-
something that we had to know for our Tour Guiding course and exam incidentally.
I skipped all those questions. They were all Kalanits, Irsim, or Rakefet- not
that I know the difference of those either. That information just does not go
into my mind. I have a mental block when it comes to any interest in flowers
besides the aesthetic appreciation of how nice that bouquet or garden looks. I’m
the guide that is telling his tourists to “check out those pretty purple
flowers” or those “really gorgeous red one and yellow ones” and that’s
about all I have to say about them.
To
be honest, I was always jealous of those guides that could just stop on the side
of the trail and explain a few cool things about the flowers growing on the
side of the road or in the fields as we drive by. I’m so bad I can’t even make
things up about flowers. I evne bought books about the botany in Israel and the
information just doesn’t go in. I fall asleep in five minutes when I open them.
So, my tourists will just have to be satisfied with my incredible color
identification skills. What type of flower is that? They ask. “A purple and
green one with some thorny things sticking out of it” is the best answer I can
give them. But I think it’s time for lunch now, is usually the best distraction
that works, and we move on. Yup…my botanical acumen is not the reason they
hired me.
My
wife on the other hand, though likes flowers more than I do. She just recently
chopped down our haddasim forest that I kind of liked in front of our house and
know we have an herb garden and flower garden and a pretty lame looking orange
tree and an avocado pit in a glass jar growing in their former glorious place.
She likes planting things and watching them grow and then eating them, or
having them watch us eat. Either way, it’s cheaper than having another baby,
and I stopped growing (and eating), so it’s her nachas. Let her knock herself
out. I don’t think she knows the names of flowers either. Unlike her
grandmother Omi, who could probably write a book on the subject or even my
Mother-in-Law who can fake it pretty well, my wife is more like me in just
naming them by colors. But her added enjoyment is the planting and growing
aspect of it, while for me they are just taking up place on in their vase on
the Shabbos table where a nice platter of deli meat and cold cuts could fit. Or
they are just silly things that seminary girls bring for Shabbos instead of
those delicious plastic candy and nut platters which I really enjoy. Yeah,
getting flowers for Shabbos for me, is like having a tree planted in Israel for
your Bar Mitzva gift. Where’s the check?
Yet,
while reading this week’s parsha I discovered an incredible and bizarre midrash
and Rashi that that perhaps identifies some of my mental block and trauma when
it comes to flowers. You may have heard it before and kind of ignored it like I
did in the past-as it just seems so “out there” that you just don’t know what
to do with it. But yet, the insight that I saw from the Shvilei Pinchas this
week shed new light on the Midrash and on our Jewish roots- if you’ll excuse
the many puns coming in advance, that I just had to share it with you.
See
the Gemara in Sota 11b tells us that
when we were in Mitzrayim and the Egyptians were on the prowl for Jewish babies
to throw into the Nile, the Jewish mothers would go to the fields and give birth
secretly over there. But you know what? It’s such an incredible gemara, I’ll
excerpt it for you patient readers… It’s just too fantastic not to.
“Rav
Avira taught: In the merit of the righteous women that were in that
generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt...At the time when these
women would go to the river to draw water, the Hakadosh Baruch Hu, would
materialize for them small fish that would enter into their pitchers, and they
would therefore draw pitchers that were half filled with water and half filled
with fish. And they would then come and place two pots on the fire, one pot of
hot water for washing their husbands and one pot of fish with which to feed
them.
And
they would then take what they prepared to their husbands, to the field, and
would bathe their husbands and anoint them with oil and feed them the fish and
give them to drink and bond with them. And
when these women would become pregnant, they would come back to their homes,
and when the time for them to give birth would arrive they would go and give
birth in the field under the apple tree, as it is stated:
“Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother was in travail with
you; there was she in travail and brought you forth” (Song of Songs 8:5)
And
then Hashem, would send from the heavens above an angel who would clean and
prepare the newborns, just as a midwife prepares the newborn, as it is stated:
“And
as for your birth, on the day you were born, your navel was not cut nor were
you washed with water for cleansing; you were not salted at all, nor swaddled
at all” (Ezekiel 16:4).
And
then, the angel would gather for them two round stones from the field and the
babies would nurse from that which would flow out of them. One of the stones
flowed with oil and one of the stones flowed with honey, as it is stated:
“Va’yinkeihu
dvash mi’selah u’mitzur chalamish -And He would suckle them with honey from a
crag and oil from a flinty rock” (Deuteronomy 32:13).
And
once the Egyptians would notice them, realizing that they were Jewish babies,
they would come to kill them. But a miracle would occur, and they would be
absorbed by the earth. And the Egyptians would then bring oxen and would plow
upon them, as it is stated: “al gabi chorshu chorshim-The plowers plowed
upon my back; they made long their furrows” (Psalms 129:3).
After the Egyptians would leave, the babies
would emerge and exit the ground like grass of the field, as it is stated: “Rivava
k’tzemach ha’sadeh nasatich-“I caused you to increase even as the growth of the
field” (Ezekiel 16:7).
And
once the babies would grow, they would come like many flocks of sheep to their
homes, as it is stated in the continuation of the verse:
“And you did increase and grow up and you came with excellent beauty
[ba’adi adayim]” (Ezekiel 16:7). Do not read the verse as: “Ba’adi
adayim,” “with excellent beauty.” Rather, read it as: Be’edrei adarim,
meaning: As many flocks.
And
when Hashem, revealed Himself at the Red Sea, these children recognized Him
first, as it is stated: “Zeh Kei’li V’Anveihu -This is my God, and I will
glorify Him” (Exodus 15:2). They recognized Him from the previous time that
He revealed Himself to them in their infancy, enabling them to say: “This
is my God.”
C’mon.
I know it’s a bit lengthy but how fantastic is this Midrash? Now, Ive heard and
learned this before and to be honest it’s always creeped me out. I don’t know
little babies with flowers on their head sprouting up from the ground is
spooky. It’s kind of like why I never liked Teletubbies (besides the annoying
song “Time for Teletubbies..Time for Teletubbies.. Twinky Winky Lala Poh…
Teletubbies… Aarrghh…). As well as beautiful as the image of angels washing
and feeding us and nursing honey and oil from stone might be, that image of
Egyptians coming and plowing us over while we are buried underneath the grass
is a bit terrifying and what nightmares and years of therapy are made of. Maybe
that’s why I never liked flowers much.
Yet,
as in all deep and simple Midrashim and esoteric words of our Rabbis, they are
not fairy tales. There is a deep hidden message that they are trying to get
across. And the Shvilei Pinchas quotes the ARI’Zl and other commentaries that explain
what is going on here, as well as shedding light on some incredible corroborating
texts.
He
first notes the Klai Yakar he notes that Yaakov’s blessing and the one that
many parents sing to their children each night before they go to bed of Ha’Malach
Ha’Goel- the angel that redeems us is in fact referring to this story where
it finds its fulfillment. We tell our children that they should be
Yidgu
la’rov b’kerev ha’aretz- be fruitful like fish within the land.
He
explains that b’kerev ha’aretz- literally means within the ground. That
just as fish don’t have any evil eye-ayin ha’ra because they are hidden from
the eye under the water, so to the children of Israel in Egypt when they were
being fruitful and multiplying Hashem hid us from the Egyptians and their evil
eye inside the ground literally! That gives a whole new light to the song that
you sing your children at night, doesn’t it? Singing to them about them being
buried in the ground is almost as creepy as that other another psychopathic song
to sing your kids about boughs breaking and babies falling cradle and all…
In
fact he suggests that is the reason why Yosef bought all of the land during the
years of famine from the Egyptians. It was in order that he would be able to
remove the ervas ha’aretz- the impurity of the land spiritually from it
under his ayin harah and holy eye of purity that the Tzadik can bring. And thus
those future underground (literally!) Jewish
baby ward would be a holy place for the children of Israel to develop.
As
well when Pharaoh, who the Torah tells us forgot Yosef is nervous about the Jewish
people multiplying so much the words he uses is scarily
Shemos
1(:8)“And he (Pharaoh) said to his nation- Behold the nation of Israel is many and
greater than us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase;
otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and
rise from the ground.
Woahh…
You see that bolded underlined “rise from the ground”- it has a whole
new meaning, now doesn’t it?
Yet
it gets even more powerful and deeper. For we are told that there are four
levels of Creation. There are inanimate objects like rocks- called domeim
in Hebrew. There is plant life, wild and animal life and human beings. The
function of Creation is to elevate from one level to another. Dirt and soil
become plant life which gets eaten by animals which get eaten by humans. When a
Jew makes blessings or preforms mitzvos which each of these aspects of creation
for example using stone to build a shul, eating fruits and vegetables and salad
or fulfilling the agricultural mitzvos we elevate the plant life. When we eat shwarma
and steak and making blessings over them or to enjoy Hashem on Shabbos in our
chulent we’ve elevated them as well. The Sefat Emes even suggests that the four
terminologies Hashem used of V’hotzaisi, V’Hitzalti, V’Goalti and V’Lakachti
that correspond to the four cups of wine by our Pesach seder correspond to the
promise that we would elevate all the sparks of holiness up and out of Egypt
when we would leave. From the bottom up.
Thus
he explains when we leave Egypt and the verse tells us that va’yinatzlu es
Mitzrayim- we emptied out the country. The Talmud tells us two examples of
what that means. Either that it is like a fish net that emptied out all its
fish or a granary that has emptied out all its grain. All levels of Creation
and the sparks hidden there had been elevated. It is for that reason Hashem planted
us in the ground and fed us from the rocks. So that we don’t have to wait for
all of the holy sparks to go through all of the levels of Creation until they
make it to our Shabbos table. We start from the bottom and raised them up in
our pure, untainted infant-like state.
The
Egyptians fearing this brought oxen to plow upon us. Why oxen? Why plow? They
understood (on whatever subconscious spiritual level- in this message our sages
are teaching us) that the Yosef is symbolized by the Ox. It is the blessing of
Yaakov to him, it is they symbol of his tribe. They were trying to destroy us
by recalling the sin of the brothers and the hatred that sold us down to Egypt
in the first place and divided us. They were trying to sow hate and jealousy
among us and erase the holiness and unity that Yosef had revealed in us. But
Hashem didn’t let it happen. The righteous woman of faith made sure that we
would be taken care of. We all left Egypt together and pointed to Hashem and recognized
that we were the nation and He is the God that beautified us and we will
glorify Him. Together. We are his flower children.
One
of the most incredible things about flowers is that what makes them beautiful
is the various colors. There are no black hat gardens, or white kippa seruga
ones either. What makes a garden magnificent is the variety of colors, of
shapes, of petals. It’s a bouquet. In Song of Songs where most of the verses of
that gemara quote from Shlomo Ha’Melech we are constantly compared to a garden.
Each yid has the potential to achieve and become that special rose. Each Jew
can point their finger to Hashem and say “This is my God and I will glorify
Him. It’s in our roots. It’s how we were planted. It’s how we were raised.
Shemos – the book of our Redemption begins with this field of dreams. May it be
the pathway to that first Garden that Hashem planted that is awaiting us in
paradise.
Have a flowery Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
**************************
YIDDISH PROVERB
OF THE WEEK
“Vildeh grozen
vaksen iber nacht”- Wild grass grows overnight
“
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
6) Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem in the year:
The Muslims defeated the Byzantines in the battle of:
A) Karbala
B) Ain Jalut
C) Marj Dabiq
D) the Yarmuk
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE
WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRBfdj88KXM
– Naftali Kempeh doin Carlebach’s Mizmor Shir L’Shabbos…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ3pgTA2Wms
– Shwekey
and Waldner at HASC 36 down memory lane…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6SfG5j1PCc
– HASC 36 Eisp’aar new Eitan Katz song nice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRkpblJzAb8 - And of course Shemos is not complete without Aharon Razel’s
Ha’Sneh Boeir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgPGVU1nO7I
– Great
Fried Medley by Yanky Hill
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S
ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
War again- 704 BC –
Picking up from last week, we continue with the march through the Negev, which
was the land of Edom to attack Mesha the king of Moav, which of
course is modern day Jordan. Yehoram, is the one that instigated this battle after Mesha
refused to pay his annual tribute to Israel. He enlisted Yehoshafat the king
of Yehudah to join forces with him and the two together convinced the King
od Edom as well to join the party. They had thought that a surprise
attack from the South would give them an advantage over Moav who would
be expecting them to come from across the Jordan River, yet the navi,
tells us that they miscalculated. The journey across the long hot desert of the
Negev took them 7 days. And they found themselves outside Moav
but weary and more significantly water-less.
It is at this point that Yehoram
regrets this attack and expresses that perhaps this is Hashem’s way of punishing
them for their sins. Yehoshafat on the other hand, tells him that the
only way to really know the plans of Hashem is through the words of His
prophets. And whadaya know? Who happens to be in the neighbourhood? None other
than Elisha! He is described as the one who poured water on the hands of
Eliyahu. According to the commentaries this is either a reference to the
miracle at Mt. Carmel, when Eliyahu ordered him to bring up 12
barrels of water to pour on his altar there and which miraculously flowed. Alternatively
our sages tell us that the significance of Elisha more than his prophecy
and scholarship is that he served Eliyahu. Serving a talmid chacham
is greater than studying from him, in their eyes.
Elisha
at first rebukes Yehoram, who unlike the other kings who submitted
themselves and came humbly to Elisha and removed their crowns, kept his
on. He pushes him away with his words blasting him for not removing the illegal
bamos that were still in use. Yet, Yehoram, pleads for Elisha’s
help and asserts that he removed idolatry from the country and truly believes
in Hashem. Elisha, thus soften, however he still is challenged as he has
not achieved prophecy since Eliyahu’s passing. What’s the solution for
this? He calls a menagen- a music player. It’s time for a Kumzitz. Only
through music can he be uplifted, and only when he is uplifted will the spirit
of Hashem rest upon him. C’mon… How awesome is this… Take that all you anti-
Carlebach minyan people…!
When the spirit of Hashem
rests upon him, he tells them that Hashem will miraculously provide water. Their
battle against Mesha will be successful. They will and should destroy
their cities, burn down their fields and trees. Stuff up all their wells. Give
it to them like they never had it before. It was good news. It couldn’t get any
better.
Sure enough the next morning
they arose the next morning and water poured down the Negev Hills
towards the Arava valley. It was a miracle. They drank and prepared for
battle. But Hashem wasn’t done with preforming miracles yet. Next week we hear
what else He had in store for us and them.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE
JEWISH MOTHER JOKES OF THE WEEK
Heshy and
Barbra have been having trouble in their marriage for a while. So when they hear
about a marriage seminar promising to make their marriage great they decide to
attend.
“One of
the most important things in marriage”, says the speaker, “is to get to
really know your spouse well. For example, how many of you know what’s your
wife’s favorite type of flower is? Something like this is very important.”
Heshyy
smiles, proud of himself, leans over to Barbara and whispers, “It’s
all-purpose Spelt flour isn’t it?”
Morris
Epstein stopped by the florist to pick up something for his wife.
“That’s a nice little bouquet,” said a
woman, pointing to the flowers Morris was buying.
“Yeah, my
wife and I had an argument last night,” Morris admitted. “I was going to buy
her a dozen roses, but after I thought about it a bit, I don’t think she’s that
mad at me.”
Moishe was
at the flower store.
"Sorry, we don't have potted
geraniums," the clerk told Moishe, and then added helpfully, "Could
you use African violets?"
"No,"
replied Moishe sadly, "It was geraniums my wife Miriam told me to water
while she was gone."
Solly
Lieberman stopped off at the flower store and picked up a beautiful bouquet of
flowers for his wife's birthday.
"A
little surprise, eh?" smiled the clerk.
"You
bet," answered Solly. "She's expecting a cruise."
An elderly
couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left
the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one
said, "Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really
great I would recommend it very highly.
The other
man said, "What is the name of the restaurant?"
The first
man thought and thought and finally said, "What is the name of that
flower you give to someone you love? You know... the one that's red and has
thorns."
"Do
you mean a rose?"
"Yes,
that's the one," replied
the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, "Rose, what's
the name of that restaurant we went to last night?"
The wife
has just phoned me to tell me that 3 women in her office have received flowers
today and they are absolutely gorgeous.
I said,
"That's probably why !!"
Someone
keeps sending me flowers with the heads cut off. I think I'm being stalked
God
initially planned to use wasps to pollinate flowers. But in the end, he went
with plan Bee.
my wife
complains that i don't buy her flowers. To be honest, i didn't know she sold
flowers
Roses are
red, violets are blue. When it comes to flower colours, the person who wrote
this rhyme really has no clue.
Did you
hear the one about the dead flower? I think I should stop telling it, it just
makes no scents.
********************************
The answer to this week”s question is D – I got this one half right. I was off
on the date. Why anyone has to know the exact date anyways? Who cares. I guess
686 CE when Muhammed’s father in law the second caliphate took Jerusalem and threw
out the Christian Byzantine Romans. It was 638. Oh well. But I did know about
the battle of Yarmuk. I knew that from my Mishpacha magazine article tour on
the Golan Heights. You should know that from there as well. It was in the year
636 and it was one of the most important battles in the history of the world,
when the Muslims finally threw the Christian Byzantines out of Israel and
started the Muslim Empire. It was a 6 Day War isn’t that amazing. It took place
right by the top of Jordan Valley in Gilead. So got this one half right! So the score is 4.5 for Schwartz and 1.5
for Ministry of tourism on this exam so far…
