Karmiel

Karmiel
Our view of the Galile

Thursday, November 14, 2024

The Avraham Accords - Parshat Vayeira 2024 5785

 Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

November 15th 2024 -Volume 14 Issue 3 14th of Cheshvan 5785

 

Parshat Vayeira

 

The Avraham Accords

 

He went through a personal Holocaust. He survived being thrown into the ovens, but his brother didn’t. He had family members kidnapped. He was mocked and persecuted wherever he went. His own wife was taken to be abused across the borders. To Egypt. To Gaza. Only a miracle saved her. Miracles that he saw daily and that he dedicated his life to teaching the world about.

 

He wasn’t going to let the evil bring him down to their level. He was going to plant trees of life instead.  He was going to fill the world with kindness and light. For only light can chase away the darkness. There was no one too evil that he didn’t feel could be reached and reveal the spark of holiness and godliness hidden within. That love, kindness and forgiveness couldn’t motivate them to return and be saved. Love conquers all. The power of Torah will return everyone. The world can be fixed.  But he was wrong. So so very wrong…

 

His first wake up in call in this week’s parsha, is when Hashem appears to Avraham, our forefather, the first Jew in the history of the world. did you think I was talking about some Kibbutznik, Holocaust survivor that was a left-wing peacenik? Yes… let’s try to reframe the parsha and story of this first Jew and the lessons he had to learn to become our Patriarch so it’s relevant to us today as it’s meant to be. The first lesson Hashem teaches him is that there are some people that are beyond saving. Love doesn’t conquer all. The city of Sodom and its neighbors need to be wiped off the face of the earth. There is no saving grace whatsoever. Fire and brimstone is all they deserve. It’s the only option

 

There may be people there that are innocent civilians. Imaginably the infants, babies and I’m sure even most of the women and children and probably quite a few men weren’t evil. Weren’t terrorists. Yet at the same time they weren’t tzadikim. They were certainly by no means righteous individuals. For the city to be saved when there’s a terrible stink there, when it is evil at it’s core, there needs to be at least ten holy righteous tzadikim in it. If there aren’t ten on that high level. If there aren’t ten that are willing to stand up and decry the actions of the evil-doers and that haven’t fallen under the influence of the regime. Even if they didn’t vote for them, but at the same time they didn’t vote against them or decry or rebuke them… Then the city must burn. They all must die. Avraham, Hashem tells him, understand that evil can’t always be turned. Sometimes it just needs to be eradicated.

 

This is not an easy lesson to understand for someone that went through persecution, horror and genocide and that had dreams of a better world. Yet this is the perquisite to him becoming the father of Yitzchak. It’s a lesson that he needed to learn five minutes after he was told that he would become the father of the Jewish people. It’s as if Hashem was telling him in the same sentence, that it’s the first and most important lesson that will come with your father and nationhood to pass down and convey to your descendants.

 

Lesson two though is an even more challenging lesson. The truth is lesson 2 really started even before this week’s parsha. It began right after Hashem first told him that he would inherit the land of Israel and would merit to have children. The lesson that Hashem gave him right after that first tiding and covenant was that the wife that Sarah had given him, her prize student Hagar, and her eventual child, would not inherit with Yitzchak the land.

 

Now understand who Hagar was. She was truly a tzadekes. She rejected her father Pharaoh’s house. One can assume that she was disgusted with his evil ways, having seen him take Sarah as a hostage. She left all the glory of that palace and attached herself willfully to Sarah, seemingly inspired by her and Avraham’s loving, peaceful forgiving and Hashem oriented lifestyle. Sarah wouldn’t have just given anyone to her husband. Hagar was her prize talmidah. Eventually Hagar will return and be Avraham’s wife for decades after Sarah’s death. Her deeds and ways our sages compared to ketores; the heavenly incense. She’s a good Arab, The best and most loyal.

 

The child that she would bear as well, Yishmael, will become the ultimate Baal Teshuva. The greatest Kohen Gadol that Hashem Himself asked for a blessing, thousands of years later, is even named after him. He is Avraham’s first-born child, right after Hashem promised him descendants. He’s the miracle kid born to him at age eighty-six years old. There’s no one that Avraham has higher hopes for. His own Sarah, who was greater in prophecy than him, even told him that this is what he needed to do. Yet…. again he was wrong. Yishmael and Hagar will never become who they need to become with love. That’s not how they’re built. That’s now what will make them into who they need to become.

 

Sarah, tell Avraham last week that he’s mistaken. He’s more than mistaken. His contzeptzia of treating Hagar with love and with equality and kindness is in fact …. Are you ready for the word she uses?

 

Chamasi alecha- You are Chamas… My wrath is upon you.

 

If you treat them equally and with kindness, you Avraham, are in fact just building the foundation of  Hamas. Hagar can only become Ketura if she recognizes that she is a second-class citizen. Yishmael will only become righteous if he is raised in a house where it is as clear as day that-

 

Lo yorish ben ha’amah ha’zot im bni im Yitzchak- that the son of this maid servant will have no inheritance rights with my son Yitzchak.

 

If you don’t believe Sarah, which Avraham it seems had a hard time accepting, Hashem Himself tells Avraham, that she is correct. The angel even comes down to Hagar as well and tells her to return and accept the abuse of Sarah. It’s good for her. She needs it. It’s the only way that she can fulfill her purpose. This is the lesson that Avraham needs to learn even before he is foretold of the birth of Yitzchak. He needs to understand, once again that love and kindness is not necessarily the way to work and to be mekarev everyone. There are some that require a different medicine. There are some that need to be put in their place. They are pereh adam- they are creatures that will not respond as do most humans created in the image of Hashem towards loves and hugs. They are pereh- wild at their core and thus need to be reigned in. They need to be whipped. They need to be beaten into obedience. And then they will flourish and become the great nation they are meant to become. Then Yishmael can become a Baal Teshuva and Hagar can become the great Keturah.

 

The lesson becomes even more vivid in this week’s parsha when Avraham is commanded to expel Yishmael. To throw him out like a dog to the desert with a “Chaymas Mayim”- (am I the only one that notes the irony of that strange word for water jug and its phonetic similarity to Chamas- the wrath that Sarah had on Avraham and that seemingly he is throwing and expelling with Yishmael out of his house, out of our land…). Rule number one today in chinuch especially when dealing with a child that is trying to find his place, that may not be fitting in, that may be getting involved in inappropriate or even sinful activity is to keep them close. Is to shower them with love. Is to accept them for who they are and try to find the positive points to uplift them. To build them. Throwing them out is absolutely the worst thing one can do. It’s pretty much writing them off for good. If that’s the case for us today, imagine how much more so, this must have been for Avraham. He’s the king of kiruv. He’s Hashem’s ultimate representative of kindness. And this is his miracle child of his holy rebbetzin Hagar who returned to be abused and silently accepted her new God given incomprehensible role and raised him for 13 years. And now just chuck him out?! And the answer is yes.

 

See Yishmael has a problem. And to be honest we have a problem too. Yishmael’s problem is that he has a confusing life. On the one hand he is a son of Avraham. A first-born to be accurate. A first-born of whom the Torah-which Avraham observed- not only tells us receives a double portion, but for whom it is even forbidden biblically for the father to remove from his rightful birthright and give it rather to the younger favored son. In fact, Reb Chaim Brisker even suggests that this was Avraham’s dilemma when Sarah told him that he needed to throw him out. How can that be? How can Yishmael have absolutely no inheritance. Not as a first-born and not even as a son. It’s why Hashem had to come and tell him this explicitly. A Yishmael who thinks he has a right of inheritance to live in the land of Israel is a very dangerous being to have in the world. Yishmael can only become who he needs to become if he is thrown and understands that his status and only ability to even reside in Eretz Yisrael is to be that of a second-class guest of ours. A ger toshav that recognizes he has no sovereignty or rights. Only what we give him. Only if he plays by our and Hashem’s rules.

 

This lesson, by the way, is all taught to Avraham in Gerar. Or should I say the border and coastline of Gaza today. The place where incomprehensibly tragically and ironically we did the absolute opposite throwing out the children of Yitzchak from there and giving it as an inheritance to Yishmael. This is the starting point that Hashem choses to teach Avraham the hardest lesson that we have never ever really learned or fulfilled since Hashem first commanded us as such. Yishmael has no right to live in the land of Israel as a citizen. Israel is the inheritance of Yitzchak and only Yitzchak. It will as well become that of Yaakov and only Yaakov who will inherit it from him when that inheritance is removed from Esau. We’ve never learned this. We’ve never expressed this.

 

Even when coming into the land when Hashem explicitly told us that the seven nations need to be wiped out because this is our inheritance, we didn’t do the job. Even when we ruled the land in the times of King David and Shlomo there were still nations living in our inherited land as citizens. They were living in our kitchen. In our living room. In our Galil. In our Negev. In our Shefela. In our hills, in our valleys in our farms and cities. Israel is meant to be a Jewish state. A godly country with the only one true faith that shines out from here. Others may live here as practitioners or at least adherents of our faith. But they need to accept first of all that they are not inheritors of this land and that they have no portion in it and are mere dwellers at our pleasure. Second of all they have to recognize and acknowledge that Hashem is the true God, we are His chosen Nation and the Torah and all its teachings are true. If they don’t do that… they need to be expelled immediately. They are preventing the Shechina from being revealed. They are preventing the world from becoming fixed. And we who do not demand this and understand this are just as culpable if not even more culpable then they are.

 

Incidentally, and in case you think that I’m talking Messianically here. I’m not. Our obligation today of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael- to settle the land of Israel, at least according to the Ramban is not merely to live on a hilltop or buy an apartment in Tenuva or Shneller of even Karmiel. It is to inherit the land. It’s to make sure it is “not left in the hands of the gentiles” in his words. Mashiach’s job according to the Rambam and our sages is to wage wars, to build the Temple, to wipe out Amalek. It has nothing to do with settling the land. That’s for us today even before he gets here. For hundreds of years, there were many Jews that mistakenly thought and even preached that it was forbidden to move to the land of Israel until Mashiach will gather in the exiles and bring us home. So they didn’t move here. They stayed there… and got killed. Until all of sudden-without Mashiach first coming they returned. They came home. They settled here and made it the largest Jewish population in the world. All without Mashiach whom we are still daily waiting and davening for having come.

 

Mashiach doesn’t have anything to do with returning to and settling the land. As well he doesn’t have anything to do with throwing the gentiles and Yishmaelites out. The only ones stopping that from happening is the “contzeptzia” that we have allowed to foster that “the ben ha’amah” has a right to inherit together with the children of Sarah and Yitzchak. We came back to Israel and still come back as ‘settlers” as “conquerors” as “victors” as a homeless persecuted people returning to a biblical homeland and dwelling place. Those are all wrong. Our return to Israel is because this is our inheritance. It’s ours. It’s not theirs and never was. Even when we left and were thrown out, it was always our inheritance. Someone doesn’t return to their father’s inherited house because he wants to settle it, or because he conquers it. He returns because it’s his. When one returns because it’s his, he chucks out everyone else that’s squatting there and doesn’t accept our sovereignty. Everyone who doesn’t accept that it’s not and never will be theirs. It’s not even theirs until Mashiach comes when we take it back. It’s already not theirs today…

 

We have a hard time saying this, because we are infected with the Avraham syndrome and gene. We are too loving. We suffered so much and we don’t want others to suffer. We believe redemption is always possible. We’ve been treated like second class citizens and worse and as sub-humans and we can’t possibly imagine anyone else being treated like that. Certainly not at our kind and moral Avrahamic hands. We want to look for innocents in Sodom. We want to find reasons not to chase out Yishmael. We believe so fundamentally in the image of Hashem that is found in humanity, we can’t possibly imagine not treating them with that dignity. I get it…

 

Until this second year of war and the reading of these two parshiyot and these stories, I pretty much felt that way as well. I still have those 3000-year-old contzeptziot t that our nation has not yet been able to overcome. Yet it’s a message that rings true. It’s the voice of Sarah whose prophecy is greater than ours. I’ve seen Yishmael and I understand how true it is that the carrot will never win him over or elevate him. Although to be honest, I still don’t even see that by all of the Arabs here. I don’t see that by the Druze, by the Christian Arabs, by “friendly” Yishmaelites. It’s like many in America don’t see that in their “friendly” Esau-vites  neighbors that are “pro-Israel”. That love Jews. That say Good Morning and Good Evening to them and that they work with and shop with. They don’t see the hatred our sages tell us is a halacha bi’yadua- an established halachic fact that they hate us. They can’t fathom that they can turn tomorrow into Nazis, Crusaders, Cossacks and Amsterdamians… They don’t see it, as I don’t… but we’re starting to. More and more and more. We know it to be true, but just as for Avraham, its hard for us to swallow. It’s hard for us to have our contzeptziot broken. It’s hard for us to even think of saying the words “Israel is not a democratic state. All Christians, Muslims and non-believers have no right to live here. If they remain they will be killed. Hashem gave us this land as our inheritance. Just as no one can live in my inherited houses basement without my permission, they can’t live in my land. They have no rights. The son of the maidservant needs to remain and return to be afflicted under his Mistress.” That there is only one language and one solution. One accord. One State. One Faith and then the world can unite around the true claim that inherently they have all been waiting for us to finally declare. Am Yisrael Chai!

 

Are we ready to say that yet? Does it sound crazy? Is it possible? I don’t know. I know that there are many Muslim countries that have laws where they unabashedly say that no other religion may be practiced on pain of death or expulsion and nobody really seems to blink.  I know that throughout history, as do you, that countries and empires declared themselves Christian and threw out and killed all those that didn’t practice or believe in the State religion. No one knows those laws better than us. But were those laws and experiences meant to motivate us to create a free, democratic, freedom of and from religion State, as most of us have been living.  Or perhaps quite ironically the opposite. Perhaps it was for us to build up enough confidence in our own role in this world and have the gumption to declare that same historical right and heritage that every other religion and empire has co-opted from us, for ourselves and even more significantly for Ha’kadosh Baruch and for all of mankind. Has Hashem brought us back in time to the point where we realize that when we don’t do that then… Chamasi alecha… My Chamas will be upon you… Or are we still suffering from Avraham-itis? Are we not listening to the voice of Hashem as spoken through Sarah?

 

Sounds crazy right? Sounds apartheid-ical, correct? But is it Torah? One hundred percent. Is it what Hashem wants? This is what He’s told Avraham from the beginning that it’s always been about. Has Rabbi Schwartz lost his mind… I think so… But hey, there’s a new president in the United States. The Abraham Accords will be back on the table soon. It’s time for a revision of them. It’s time to give Yishmael and Hagar what they really need and become who they need to become. It’s not just America that needs to be great again. It’s the world. It’s Hashem. And it starts with us. With breaking our conteptziot. The journey and lessons of our parsha conclude with Mt. Moriah. With the final test of Avraham. With Hashem telling us that he doesn’t need us to sacrifice any of our children anymore. He doesn’t want that. He never did. The Mountain is already ours. We just need to claim it.  

 

Have a revelatory Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

EXCITING NEW NEWS!

 

SO AFTER MUCH DELAY… SHIPPING YOM TOV AND ALL I’M DELIGHTED TO TELL YOU THAT MY BOOK HAS FINALLY ARRIVED TO THE SHORES OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE FIRST COPIES HAVE BEEN SHIPPED OUT ALREADY…

 

It’s here!!!

NOW IT’S TIME TO GET YOUR COPY TODAY…

 

TOUR TORAH

 

FROM the Back Cover!!

 

There are Torah parshah books and there are Eretz Yisrael books and there are even tour-guide books, yet this latest work by Rabbi Schwartz puts them all together in a soulful literary adventure and exploration of the timeless messages of our Torah, seen through the eyes of a Rabbi and tour guide, that speak to each of us today.

 

Tour Torah is a collection of essays compiled from fourteen years of writings from his weekly emails, “Holyland Insights and Inspiration,” that reach tens of thousands of readers and fans of his Mishpacha Magazine columns and articles on sites in Israel. His work as an outreach rabbi in far-flung communities across the United States, together with his having studied under the great Rabbis and leaders of the last generation mixed with his unique sense of humor, make this series one that will invite discussion, laughter, and inspiration at every Shabbos meal and in all who have a passion for our Holy Land.

 

With resounding response from his previous publications, The Most Enjoyable Book series on Pesach, Rabbi Schwartz takes his love and passion of years of being one of Israel’s most popular tour guides and opens up worlds and gateways in Torah that can only best be appreciated with a tour and journey each week through the parshah to discover its stories, narratives, and insights.

 

 

PROCEEDS FROM THE BOOK PURCHASE GO TO SUPPORT OUR SHUL AND LOCAL WAR EFFORT AND CAN ALL BE MADE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE ON THE LINK BELOW

 

THE BOOK HAS BEEN ENTIRELY SPONSORED AND THUS IT IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FOR $36 PLUS DELIVERY ($10 IN USA)

 

WHERE ALL PROCEEDS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE AND SUPPORT OUR SHUL AND EFFORTS!

 

(AND OF COURSE IF YOU’D LIKE TO DONATE MORE… WE’RE HAPPY TO PUT IT ALL TO GOOD USE AND WE NEED IT!!)

 

https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E343033&id=50

 

FOR THOSE HERE IN ISRAEL IT IS 120 SHEKEL DONATION TO OUR SHUL AND WE WILL TRY TO HAVE IT DELIVERED IN JERUSALEM OR BEIT SHEMESH.

 

YOU’VE ALREADY MISSED THE FIRST THREE PARSHAS… MAKE SURE THAT YOU GET YOUR COPY THIS WEEK AND CATCH UP AND LEARN VAYEIRA BY YOUR SHABBOS TABLE WITH RABBI SCHWARTZ…

 ************************

YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Der emess kumt arois azoi vi boimel oif der vasser.”.- The truth comes out like oil on water.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

28.A term that describes animal or plant life that is located in a single and narrow

distribution area is_____.

 

What is scoria?

A. A type of volcanic rock

B. A species of bird

C. The name of a rodent

D. A sect of zealots

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xi-m2h3C0g   Must watch.. Chacham Ovadia song on Yom Simcha L’Yisrael Yom Tilim on Yishmael… Awesome..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYtF2-TCotM    Vayomer Hineini story and song Yiddish… nice..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA3ZM1InEKQ -  Reb Shlomo Carlebach Yartzeit this week with this new Pini Einhorn Carlichuppa medley…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SOqCf_j3OI   – Tamid ohev Oti African Version…?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsXZFSlwDnE    Alex Clare new album Shabbos Yom Menucha

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

 

Tzfanya- 639 BC Before we discuss the incredible era and kingship of the child king Yoshiya, let’s pause for a moment, as we did by Menashe and explore the prophets of his time that influenced him. Like his father Menashe, the prophets Nachum and Chabakuk, whom we discussed were still alive and prophesized. However unlike Menashe, who’s grandfather was Yeshaya who he killed, Yoshiyahu didn’t have the prophet Yeshaya, yet fascinatingly enough he did have a prophet who according to the Radak may have been a descendant of Chizkiya the King. The Navi gives us the prophet Tzefanya’s lineage and traces him back four generations to “a” Chizkiya”. If that is the same King, as the Radak suggests, then it would make Yoshiya his younger child uncle, despite being only about 8 years old, and Tzefanya being older. That’s kind of interesting…

 

However besides that little clue, we don’t know much about the identity or even life of Tzefanya. He is the 9th book of the 12 prophets and the final one that dies before the destruction. He will be joined by Chulda who we will discuss next week and eventually Yirmiyahu as well. Yet as he names translates Tzfon Hashem- the hidden of Hashem, we don’t have much information about who he was. Even his work the Navi is only three chapters and is rather short.

 

The thrust of his prophecies are about the sins of Yehuda. Particularly the inequity of the rich taking advantage of the poor and the rampant idolatry. He repeats the theme of a judgement day which he calls the Yom Hashem and how Jerusalem will be destroyed. Perhaps most fascinating and relevant is that he foretells of the destruction of the land of the Philistines and Gaza by Bavel, which is Iran… Hmmm… Their cities will be destroyed and be empty shells. We will see that will actually happen when Nevuchadnezzar will come, as well when Pharaoh Necho of Egypt will launch a war. Yet, Tzefania’s prophecies and rebuke had its desired effect on King Yoshiya. He took it to heart and thus began his teshuva movement. The greatest one since his grandfather Chizkiya. But sadly it only delayed the end. This is the last hurrah… And Tzefanya gets the credit for being the first source of that inspiration if not the primary one.

 

One last cool little tidbit of Tzfanya, his grave is in Lebanon in a place called Jabel al Tzafi that is actually a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has attacked recently near Nabaita… There are actually many Jewish graves in the area that tradition date back including Betzalel and Achisamach the builders of the Mishkan as well as the ancient Sarfad where the woman that Elisha resurrected her son was from. These are part of the borders of Biblical Israel that the Olei Bavel conquered and god willing Hashem is returning us hopefully very soon so we can daven at…

 

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE CITIZENSHIP IMMIGRANT JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

A Mexican man is taking his US citizenship test and is at the speaking portion.

The proctor says to him "I want you to use pink, yellow, and green in the same sentence."

The man thinks for a bit and finally says, "The phone go green green, I pink it up and say 'Yellow?'"

 

I was applying for Mexican citizenship and the interviewer asked, “Do you have a criminal record?”

I said, “No. Is that still required?”

 

Trump walks into the Oval office, turns to his administrative team and says, “I want to organise the deportation of 10,000 Muslims and one kitten.

Everyone looks around the table and, after a long silence,

The Secretary of States says. “Mr. President, why do you want to deport a kitten?” Trump smiles and turns to the rest of the table. “You see, no one cares about the Muslims.”

 

I just passed by Canadian citizenship test! I got an eh +

 

I went to the Islamic book store in London and asked if they have the book about Muslim deportation. The guy says get the heck out of here and never come back.

I replied yes that's the one, how much.

 

My friend from Prague finally got his US citizenship approved. That makes him a cancelled Czech

 

Two foreigners in America are applying for citizenship. They're lined up outside the Citizenship and immigration office, along with many others, not wanting to risk deportation now that Trump is in office.

Guy #1: I've had enough of this waiting, save my place, I'm going to shoot Donald Trump myself.

several hours later he returns.

Guy #2: well? did you get him?

Guy #1: no, The line for that was even longer than the one here.

 

Can one get Slovenian citizenship through a spouse? Asking for a President.

 

A man goes to apply for Finnish citizenship.

A man goes to apply for Finnish citizenship. He says to the employee, “I want to be a citizen of Finland.” The employee responds in broken English.

Employee: “You nice?”

Man: “Um... I suppose so.”

“Back of line.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Nice guys Finnish last.”

 

My friend just became an American citizen, but he was forced to give up his Chinese citizenship.

It’s been a real disorienting experience for him..

 

When you apply for American citizenship, you have to write a short paper about yourself. Or in other words,

 

A poll was taken in California, asking if people thought illegal immigration was a serious problem. 29 percent said, 'Yes, it is a serious problem.'

71 percent said, 'No es un problema serio.'

 

The answer to this week”s question is A – Finally got one entirely right! It’s about time… The first part was fairly easy. The word in Hebrew and English is the same, interestingly enough, is endemic, which of course is the correct answer. The second part was a bit trickier. For a second I wasn’t sure if it was referring to the rebels in the bar Kochva revolt called the Sicari by Jospehus, which were like assassins pretty much. So I wasn’t sure since it sounds similar. Yet I figured it was a trick and some where in the back of my memory I remember something like that having to do with Volcanic rock and so I went with that and I was right!!! Cool.  So back in the game I’ve got the  new score at Rabbi Schwartz having 18 points and the MOT having 10 points on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.

Thursday, November 7, 2024

The First and Last War- Parshat Lech LEcha 2024 5785

 Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

November 8th 2024 -Volume 14 Issue 2 7th of Cheshvan 5785

 

Parshat Lech Lecha

 

The First and Last War

 

I bought a doughnut today. I’m ready for Chanuka. I used to find it funny that the second after Sukkos is over the bakeries are already trying to capitalize on “the winter holiday” season. In the States you had to wait until at least Thanksgiving before people got into the mode. But that’s goyim, I guess. They don’t need a lot of hachanos, preparations for their, l’havdil, yomim tovim…. We Jews need time to get ready. We need a month of Elul before the High Holidays. Three weeks before Tisha B’Av and the entire month of Adar to get ready for Purim. Although really frum people and most yeshivos already start that by Tu B’Shvat. Forget about when the women start cleaning for Pesach.

 

Yet, Chanuka didn’t really have or seem to require any prep time to me as a kid growing up in the States. But here in Israel, those jelly doughnuts were in the stores the second we blessed the month of Cheshvan. And having spent the past tour-less week picking olives in a magnificent olive grove down by the Sinai desert, I felt I had earned the right to start getting into the Chaunka mode gastrointestinally as well.

 

But it’s more than that. I’m ready for this war to be over with already. I was ready a year ago as well. I’m really not up to a holiday-free month of Mar-Cheshvan. I want to celebrate our victory over our enemies. I want to see miracles. I want the Bais Ha’Mikdash rebuilt. I want the tamey, the impure, the wicked, the sinners to be given over into the hands of the righteous, the holy, the pure, the oskei torasecha- the hands of those who only wish to toil in the Torah of Hashem. I want them all dead and I want our holy modern day Maccabees to shmodder their smelly bottoms. I want Chanuka in Cheshvan. Historically it is in this month that Shlomo completed building the Bais Ha’Mikdash originally, although it waited a year for its dedication. Well, we did the year already. Let’s Chanuka it now.

 

This war has been draining. It’s enough already. Soldiers, hostages, sirens, missiles and politics, politics, politics… Even the positive things that have come out of it are exhausting already. The Tehillim, the prayers, the resolutions, the chesed, the volunteerism, the tzedaka and the missions. It’s like after Corona’s first few months and the third vaccine already. Except that it’s not. Nothing has really changed in the big picture. Soldiers are still fighting, dying and getting wounded. The hostages are still not home. We’re still in bomb shelters, Work hasn’t come back. The trauma is just growing worse and worse daily and all the military people I talk to tell me the same thing. Despite the tremendous advances, the government and the Media claim that we have been making in “achieving our goals”, the end is still not in anyone’s sight. In fact I just saw on the News that they’re hoping to return the evacuated communities in the north by the end of 2025…. 2025!!

 

The only thing that seems clear is that it is certainly a long way ahead. It’s not in a month, two months or even six months from now. So, yes, clueless-American-tourist/client that called me this week about booking me for a Bar Mitzva tour in July. It is very possible that we still might be able to do a BBQ for your bar mitzva bachur with soldiers on a base. And yes, they probably will be able to pick him up on a chair and dance with him as well. So nothing to fear, your Chaim’l, as of now barring any early Chanuka miracles, will have his “chavaya”. Just don’t eat any jelly doughnuts early. You never know what type of powerful segulot to end the war they might have.

 

Now my mother doesn’t like it when I speak rough and gruff… I’m a Rabbi. Rabbis shouldn’t talk like this. Yet, I’m going to beg your indulgence for a moment and I’m going to say something radical now. War is stupid. War is dumb. War is idiotic. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s perhaps the craziest thing that exists in the world. Now, although that sounds pretty blunt and non-Rabbinic. It’s not me talking. In fact its direct quotes from the Hebrew of none other than one of the most brilliant Rabbinic thinkers of our generation, Reb Moshe Shapiro zt’l who passed a few years ago. In quite a few different essays of his that I read through this week, he discusses this bizarre phenomenon of war. His insight is deep and incredible as usual, but even more so it seems to be almost prophetic in describing the essence of all that we are and have been going through this past year and the footsteps that we are meant to be listening for.

 

As we’ve pointed out numerous times in our insights, we have a tradition that if one wants to understand the essence of something, not only do we have to examine the Hebrew word for it, but as well to look in the Torah for the first time that it occurs. In our parsha of Lech Lecha for the first time the word milchama- war shows up, and as well, he notes, the world war of the four kings against the five kings is in fact the first war in the history of mankind, which at that time was about 2000 years old. For 2000 years there was no wars in the world. And now led by Amrafel- who our sages tell us was in fact the same Nimrod who had previously united the world into building the tower of Bavel, and as well had thrown Avraham into the fiery furnace when he stood up against his idolatrous way, together with his three other kings started the first war of mankind. Not a bad resume… Today they might make him the next head of Hezbollah.

 

How do you convince a world to go to war, he asks? Seemingly it should be something that nobody in their right mind would ever do. We are raised to preserve life, to defend ourselves and to do whatever it takes to stay alive and avoid dangerous places where that might be threatened. Parents will to whatever it takes to protect their children. Why would any sane mother or father send their child out to do battle where the likelihood is that their child might be killed or wounded, forget about suffering tremendous life-long never truly healable trauma. It doesn’t make sense.

 

There is in fact, he writes, nothing that makes less sense or is more counterintuitive. It would be more logical that people would take up their swords and kill whatever king or world leader that is ordering them to go to war, rather than enter a battlefield or war zone where thousands will be killed. Yet despite this throughout history and particularly in the last century millions of intelligent people, people with human souls, families, jobs and loved ones have done precisely that. They’ve fought wars, they’ve died, they’ve killed and continue to do so. What is the rationale or understanding behind this?

 

What I find to be even more ironic and perplexing particularly today in 2024, is that all of those supposed peace-niks and left-wing anti war 60’s protestors in America and around the world are precisely the ones that are calling for war and supporting Hamas who started this war and their efforts. They do it in the guise of anti-wardom. They do it with calls for a supposed ceasefire. But what they are really saying is that Hamas is losing. They need support. They need for us tp bizarrely  provide them with tools and weapons- or money for that, as we did for their tunnels, in the form of humanitarian aid, that they steal and sell. We need to support Iran’s effort to achieve a nuclear weapon. We can’t destroy it and prevent them from having the capability to fight the war that they have sworn to wage against Israel and the West. The peace-niks themselves are the ones that are therefore pushing a continuation of this “struggle”. Of this war never really seeing it’s conclusion. Of the enemies “right” to be able to live and fight (and kill, and murder, and butcher and terrorize…) another day.

 

There is an incredible quote from our sages in the Midrash on this week’s parsha

 

Reb Elazar ben Avina says if one sees the nations provoking one another towards war be prepared for the footsteps of Mashiach”. (Bereishis Rabba 42:4)

 

The source for the Midrash is the description of thise first war of the world which at first glance  doesn’t seem to be at all connected to Avraham- the only Jew in the world at that time. Yet ultimately that’s on whose doorstep it all ended up and of course how the war ended. It’s fascinating if one really examines the story. There’s this 12-year period where the five kings are serving the four. Seemingly nothing to do with the Jews of course. This follows with about 13 years of intifada and rebellion from the 5 kings against them. By the way, that’s about how many years this thing with Hamas and Gaza has been going on for. Finally, on the 14th year everything comes to a head with the breakout of this world war. The war reaches it’s pinnacle with the precision kidnapping of Lot, the nephew of Avraham. Avraham doesn’t tolerate kidnapping and he wages a personal war against all four kings and destroys them and rescues Lot. He didn’t need “Bring Lot Home” posters or protests to be inspired enough to chase and kill the kidnappers all the way to Damascus. He figured it out on his own.

 

 Lot’s significance is that ultimately he will  have two children one of them named Moav who eventually has a granddaughter names Ruth who converts. She has a descendant named Dovid, who’s last name ultimately became Ha’Melech, and thus the house of kingship from which Mashiach will come was saved. Whew….

 

Now we know today that “Jews is News”, but this seems like a stretch. For 25 years there’s a war going on, and yet our sages tell us that we can derive from here that the entire story was merely about us. About the Jews. About Mashiach. Talk about seeing the world through Jewish eyes…

 

Rav Shapiro explains what our sages are telling us. He points out that the only logical reason for one to go to war is because they feel that their existence is threatened. The greatest threat to all kingships in this world is the eventual Messianic revelation of the Kingship of Hashem. When that day comes, and may it be very soon, all kings will bend the knee and acknowledge not only Hashem’s Kingship, but as well our nations role as His chosen people to serve Him and reveal His greatness to the world.

 

Kings don’t like that. Nimrod’s original plan that failed was to bring unity to the world and with mankind united against Hashem, they could accomplish that Hashem’s unity is above in the heavens and man can rule down on earth. They had a Trump card- excuse the pun, which was that they were united, all of mankind together. That unity is the only thing that can reflect to the opposite extreme the Unity of Hashem above. And so, Hashem messed them up. He broke their unity. He gave them each their own language. Mankind dispersed and Avraham was given the job of now uniting all of mankind and drawing them near to Hashem. The job of bringing Mashiach.

 

Nimrod- who’s name actually translates “let us rebel”, then took it to the next stage. He was going to force mankind to serve him and bring them all under one kingship. Kings fight for one reason. Because their kingship is threatened. They ultimately fear losing their power, their identity, and they blame it on the other nation’s infringement of their values, their ideology and their lifestyle. The truth is they have a right to be fearful. But it’s not from the other nations. It’s from the ultimate revelation of Mashiach and Hashem’s kingship on this earth. That’s when they will lose it all. That’s what all wars are in fact about.

 

Our sages tell us that the heart of kings in the Hands of Hashem. They may declare war against, Ukraine, Korea, Mexico, Sudan or Iran, but ultimately the real fear and threat in their neshomas  that they intuit,,  although they can’t express and clarify it is that they hear the rumblings of Mashiach and know that their end is near. The King’s are representative of their nations. The nations will fight with another and go to war because as this first war teaches us, they wish to prevent Mashiach from coming. They know that as long as Lot is still around, the clock is just ticking until their time and rulership and existence is up. The world will be filled with light. There will no longer be darkness. The kings will be redundant as their will only be One King. All that they have worked for toiled, become, created and built will all be used to serve Hashem. They can’t allow that to happen so they lash out like blind men fumbling in the dark at whoever is closest to them. That’s the underlying spiritual nature and essence of all war. It’s those sounds and rumblings that are the true source of all of the rumblings and provocations.

 

When one sees the nations provoking one another, when there is World War I, know that this is ultimately about the Jews. It may not seem that way, but guess what, it will come to World War II; 22 years later. It will come to the Holocaust. It will come to the return of Jews to Eretz Yisrael. It will lead to the United Nations recognizing a Jewish State. It will lead to every day since then, them condemning us. Them being fearful of the ultimate loss of their kingships. Them making wars against one another. In Korea, in Vietnam, in Cuba, in India, in Afghanistan, on 9/11 and in Ukraine. It may not seem like it has anything to do with us. And it really doesn’t. It has to do with Hashem. It’s their sinking feeling that the whole world as they know and imagined it is coming to an end. A flood is coming. But this time it is a flood of holiness. Of miracles. Of Mashiach. And of course of doughnuts.

 

The goyim can’t really reiterate that. It’s echoing in their subconscious souls. But if you listen closely, as our sages tell us you can hear those footsteps. It’s the gloom and doom of the world coming to an end. It’s them talking about woke-ness or as we call it in the Torah Judaism- hitorerus… It’s globalization. It’s death to the West. It’s Worldwide Jihad. It’s international Axis of Evil. It’s global warming. It’s border invasions. It’s wars. It’s missiles. It’s international courts. It’s the media. Do you hear all that noise? Those are all footsteps of Mashiach. It’s the panic that the world is about to change.

 

There is a story about the Imrei Emes of Ger who once came into a town and saw all the townspeople tummuling in the street. He asked them what all the noise was about and they told him that World War I had just broken out (although I know they didn’t call it that then). He asked them again what was it that they were all excited and discussing. When they responded that they were discussing all of the news and the reports he rebuked them. He quoted our midrash above and told them that our sages taught that when we see the nations fighting with one another then we have only one thing that we are supposed to be doing. We’re not supposed to discuss. We shouldn’t hypothesize. We shouldn’t demonstrate. We shouldn’t argue. We shouldn’t forecast winners or losers. Our sages tell us that our job is only to do one thing. “be prepared for the footsteps of Mashiach”. That is our avoda. That’s the only thing we need to discuss and be involved in. Everything else is just noise. It’s the outside of the doughnut. There’s nothing inside the middle.

 

I think about that as I finish off my doughnut. It’s interesting. In America doughnuts have holes in the middle. They’re empty. It’s just sweet, tasty goodness on the outside. But the middle? The core? Efes…. Gurnisht. Empty air. Not here in Israel though. Here our doughnuts are dripping with jelly. The outside is really just a sponge fried in oil, or last week’s leftover challa. The good stuff, the sweet gooky juicy flavoured jam is all inside and dripping out, (usually all over my shirt). There’s something to ponder about that. The goodness is getting ready to drip out to the world. So go out and get your doughnuts. The best ones are sold in a place called Geula… And there’s something symbolic about that as well…

 

Have a peaceful Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Ven ain soldat volt gevust vos der anderer tracht, volt kain krig nisht geven”.- If one soldier knew what the other thinks, there would be no war.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

27. The name of a non-active volcano located in the Galilee is______.

 

Which of the following communities was abandoned/destroyed during the

War of Independence and afterwards?

A. Biram

B.Rehaniya

C. Fassuta

D. Shibli

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/kum  – It’s this week’s parsha and time for Rabbi Schwartze’s amazing composition “KUM!”. Much much better than any silly yama yama songs that some people sing. Dovid Lowy on vocals and arrangements..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spdG-4kHI_k    – Donald Trump celebrating the Jewish way…

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUO94UjQrV4  Lefties losing it after the victory… Love it!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqEwD_EIc00  – Descendants of Nazis YM”SH singing Am Yisrael Chai…


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxYcHAYHZjQ  – Wow this is old.. the original Ani Maamin… from Pirchei..

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK


Amon- 639 BC – From bad things get worse. Menashe as we said was a bad King, He went off the derech of his father Chizkiya and brought the nation to new lows. Yet, as we noted at the end of his life he did teshuva. Some suggest this was for the last 20 years of his life which was half of his kingship, which was the longest of all of the Kings of Yehudah. Perhaps one of the impetuses for his teshuva (besides the boiling Babylonian Vat he was thrown in when he was taken captive, that we discussed). Was that right after that incident he became a father to his son. You know what fatherhood could do to some people… You want your son to be better than you. You want him to have faith.. You want him to be a good leader… Well it didn’t work.

 

The son of Menashe similar to the children of other kings that sinned and did teshuva, like Achav, it didn’t help for their children. Amon was raised in pretty much his father’s Baal Teshuva Kingship but seemingly he was drawn to his father’s reputation and evil past and decided when he became King at age 22 He was going to out do his father and he sensed as well that is what the people wanted anyways. So he once again closed up shop in the Bais Hamikdash, until there were literally cobwebs growing on the Mizabayach. He burnt a Sefer Torah and even committed incest with his mother…. Ewww…. Yes he was really really bad news..

 

He was so bad that it seemed his own servants eventually got fed up with him and conspired to kill him after only two years of his rule. Yet it seems that even in his death there were people that were powerful that had supported him. They avenged his death and gave Amon a royal funeral in Gan Uzza next to his father Menashe. Yet just when things seem like they can’t get worse and are pretty hopeless, Hashem shines a light of hope. The followers of Amon appointed Amon’s 8 year old son to be king in his place. They figured that being a little child they would be able to control him and do whatever they want. Little did they know what they were in for. Thus ends the short reign of Amon and stay tuned next week for the story of the child hero king Yoshiya.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE DOUGHNUT JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

Yankel walks into a bakery with his friend John the magician. John quickly palms 3 donuts and hides them in his pocket. He then snidely challenges the other Yankel who also claimed to be a magician to perform a trick of equal benefit. Yankel then calls the baker and asks for 3 donuts and if he'd like to see a magic trick. The baker does his part and provides the donuts. Yankel then eats the donuts and exclaims "Ta-Dah." The bakery is angered and asks "Well what's the magic trick?" Yankel replies "Look in my friend's pocket."

 

 My wife asked me “Can you leave me some of your donut?”

I replied “Ok, I’ll leave you the hole!”

 

What the difference between a black guy and a donut? One of them already had a hole before the cop saw it

 

I allow myself only one donut per year. This morning I had 433 B.C., 1731, and 1952.

 

Why do golfers love donuts? Always a hole-in-one!

Where’s a donut’s favorite vacation spot? The Sahara dessert!

 

Why did the donut go to the dentist? To get a filling.

 

Why couldn’t the teddy bear finish his donut? He was stuffed!

 

Why did the donut go to a therapist? He felt empty inside.

 

Why did the croissants take the donuts and bagels to Disneyland? They thought it would be fun for the hole family.

 

What’s the best thing to put in a donut? Your teeth.

 

What are strange donuts made out of? Weird-doughs.

 

What’s the healthiest part of a donut? The middle.

 

I’m opening a grocery store that specializes in Swiss cheese and donuts. I’m calling it Hole Foods.

 

What kind of donuts can fly? The plain ones.

 

What’s the National Donut Day theme song? “Donut Stop Believing.”

 

A cream-filled donut and an eclair decided to get a divorce. It’s a sad story, but the real victims are their children. They’re in for a grueling custardy battle.

 

Where was the first donut cooked? In Greece.

 

What do do-nuts wear to weddings? Tuxedoughs!

 

What is a donut’s favorite day of the week? Fry-day.

 

What do you call it when you order the same donut every day? A do-rut!

 

What’s a donut’s favorite lullaby? “Sprinkle, Sprinkle Little Star.”


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 The answer to this week”s question is A – Yeah, this season is not doing wonders for my score. I better start picking this one up. The truth is I totally didn’t know the first part of this answer. I guessed Meron and knew I was wrong, but I literally couldn’t even think of another mountain that might have been a volcano. The answer though is Karnei Chittin. Which is interesting and the truth is I didn’t even know that to be true. But hey… Anyone else out there know that? How bout any of you tour guides? Part 2 though I dd get right. I’ve toured Baram, there’s an old Talmudc Shul there and thus I have researched the place and knew that there was Arabs that had left and came back a few times and still claimed it even. I don’t even know anything about the other choices, so I went with the right answer on this.  So I got this one half right and wrong again and thus the new score is Rabbi Schwartz having a 17 point and the MOT having 10 point on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.