from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
November 1st 2024 -Volume
14 Issue 1 30th of Tishrei 5784
Earthnic Cleansing
It was one of the most beautiful sites I have
ever seen. I was standing there at the edge of Sderot at a small hilltop overlooking
the Northern Gaza Strip called Givat Kobi. The lookout point was built just 2
years ago in memory of four soldiers that lost their lives not far from here 10
years ago stopping Hamas terrorists from invading Israel through tunnels and terrorizing
and massacring our citizens. That second Gaza war, that began after the
kidnapping and murder of three boys from Gush Etzion, lasted three months or so
in which 68 Israelis were killed and about 1200 wounded. 20 times that amount
were killed the first day of this war and over 10 times have been wounded thus
far. This is not to mention the half a million that have applied for emotional
and mental care from the trauma that we are still hoping to get to the point
where we can call it post-trauma. For now though, we are all still in it.
As a result of that war, Israel invested hundreds
of millions of dollars building huge and steel barricades and fortifications
miles wide and deep along the entire Gaza Border. It was virtually impossible
for any tunnels to be dug into Israel from there. We were safe, the army told
the Kibbutzim. Our enemy has been subdued. We have achieved peace. They won’t
raise their heads against us again. We can now reach out to them. Help them
rebuild. Employ them, bringing in over 30,000 Gazans a day into Israel as they
work (and map out) our farms, our cities, our kibbutzim. We can allow them into
our homes. We can create a great future together with them. 10 years later, the
surviving members of the October 7th Massacre saw those same faces on
that morning with bloodlust and hatred in their eyes enter their homes and
commit atrocities that aren’t even imaginable against them, no longer sing that
tune, or drink that Kool Aid. They want them all gone. The very cheap masks
have been removed. The time to redeem the land has finally arrived… That was
the view that I was looking out at.
Rabbi Ari Katz from the yeshiva in Sderot
described it best to me. Imagine living in Queens, Williamsburg or Brooklyn, NY.
Every night you look out through your gated and barred window over the harbor
to the Manhattan skyline. You would see large, tall buildings, bright lights,
cars driving around the highways. You would see a city and world. And then one
morning you woke up and it was all gone. Total darkness. Nothing left. Rubble.
Destruction. As one of the soldiers who just came out from there told me
proudly, it looks like something out of a post nuclear war movie set. That’s
what Northern Gaza looks like now. That’s what I was seeing through those
binoculars there. That, my friends, is nachas. Beauty. Revenge. The fury
and wrath of Hashem meted out by his holy kohanim dressed in green with our
tanks, our air force, our D-9s and our brave soldiers who have committed
themselves to this holy task.
“The land cannot be atoned for except
through the blood of the one who shed it.” Bamidbar (35:33)
Sadly, too much of our young men’s blood has
been spilled on this holy land redeeming it from our enemies. The soldiers that
are seeking to finally free the land of Israel from the curse it has been bearing
since the first day of Creation. To cleanse it of the evil. To elevate it with
the return of her children to her borders. But for that to fully happen and
become realized, the powers that be in the Army and government need to finally
swear off that Kool-Aid as well. They’ve got to stop drinking the Hamas propaganda
Araq, the United States and Nations heretical Iced Tea. They’ve got to stop
eating Sushi and start talking serious holy Chummus; the only language that is
understood over here. Alternatively they can just read this E-Mail and learn
the incredible insight of the Klei Yakar written over 400 years ago, by Reb
Ephraim Lunchitz. You don’t go wrong when Ephraims are guiding you…😊
The Klei Yakar notes the perplexity that we find
in our parsha of Noach. The story is quite simple on its surface. Mankind is
evil. Hashem regrets that He created them. He destroys the world, saving Noach,
his family and two of every animal. We then have a fascinating conversation
between Hashem and Himself. Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall when Hashem
talks to Himself? Well, open up the parsha and here we have it.
Bereishit (8:21) Hashem said in His heart, “I
hereby swear that I will never again curse the earth because of humanity, for
the inclination of a person’s heart is challenged by his evil inclination from
his earliest youth. Never again will I strike down all life as I have done.”.
The commentaries all note that no one was
included in this conversation. Only when the Torah was given to Moshe a few
hundred years later was this revealed. It’s a strange conversation. What does
that even mean that Hashem is talking to Himself? Didn’t He know before hand
that man was evil from their youth. What changed? And if man is indeed evil
again and Hashem always does what He’s supposed to do, then why wouldn’t He do
the same thing again? Finally, what is so important about this little talk
Hashem has with Himself that He felt was important to share with us? All we
need to know is the next verses of the covenant of the rainbow that Hashem made
with Noach telling him that there won’t be anymore floods or annihilation of
mankind anymore. Since when does Hashem share with us His thought process?
The Klei Yakar thus explains brilliantly and reframes
the conversation of Hashem into focusing on what Hashem in fact says, which I’ve
always missed. What Hashem is saying is that He will not curse the earth, the
land, anymore. The curse of the land has been taken care of. Until the flood,
the truth is man wasn’t entirely culpable for the sins that he did. The earth
was spiritually polluted from the sin of Adam and Kayin onwards. Mankind had
been swimming in a contaminated swimming pool. It needed to be cleaned out. It
needed to be emptied and restarted. Hashem washed it away and from here on in
the land will not need to be cursed. All the sin will be solely on man’s head.
He alone bears responsibility for falling into his yetzer hara. The
world itself has been cleaned.
But now comes the cool and important part of
what he writes. He notes that is all true everywhere that the flood cleansed
and purified. That pretty much covers the entire planet earth except for one
place. That’s right boys and girls. Our sages tell us that the flood never came
to the land of Israel. The holy land is the only place that still remains the
unpurified land that still sits with the sin of Adam upon it. It’s why, he
writes, Eretz Yisrael is so temperamental. It’s why the greatest evil
flourishes here. It’s why the land is punished and spits out its sinners. It’s
cursed as long as the Jewish nation is not here doing what it’s supposed to do.
It’s the one place on earth that is still waiting to be redeemed. On the one
hand this is the holiest land on earth. On the other hand, it is the only place
where the earth has never been cleansed from the original sin and where the
potential for the worst evil still emanates from the curse of the ground and
thus breeds the greatest impurity as well.
It is for this reason that Hashem promises
Avraham this land. For here the blessing will come from only his descendants
revealing Hashem here and fixing that sin. It is why the 7 nations that were
dwelling here were the worst of the worst. It’s why they, just as the
generation of the flood need to be entirely eradicated. Following that logic,
by the way, it is irrelevant whether the gentiles dwelling there were mixed up
by Sancherev and relocated and new goyim were placed here. It’s not the
people itself that are culpable for their sins. It’s the gentiles in any generation that dwell
in the land that deny Hashem, the Torah and the Jewish people’s role here to purify
and elevate the land. They don’t need to convert or become Jewish to do that.
They just need to understand and recognize that the land here is different than
the land of Egypt and other countries, as The Torah repeatedly tells us.
Unlike those other countries where the land
was eradicated and wiped away, here the land is the same as the one that Adam
and Eve walked upon. That the entrance to the Garden of Eden is still present
in and waiting for us to open the door to once again. Waiting for those angels
standing outside of it with twirling swords to finally put them down and
welcome us in, telling us that our job has completed. The Shechina can
walk with us once again. The land has been redeemed and atoned for.
The Arab world, Hamas, and their evil cohorts
called October 7th “The Al Aqsa Flood”. It’s a far better name
then “Swords of Iron”, which sounds pretty stupid if you ask me. Yup, “From
the River to the Sea” mamash… A flood… This war, Hashem has sent us to
fight, needs to be seen as a Mabul- the Flood Part II. The sequel. The
final purification of the land. It’s not ethnic cleansing that we need to do.
It’s Earth-nik cleansing. It’s the last bit of chametz in the world that
Hashem has saved for us to clean up and destroy for Him. The first part of the
job, the purification and removal of the curse of the land, He shared with us
His personal conversation that He took care of already.
Everywhere else in the world when the gentiles
raise their heads against us it is pure antisemitism. It’s coming from the evil
of their youth. Their indoctrination. Their desire not to see the Shechina and
light of Hashem in the world. Our job is to enlighten them. We need to raise up
the sparks of holiness amongst them. We need to be that light to the nations
But in Eretz Yisrael it’s different. Here, kiruv and light is not an option.
Here it’s total eradication. It’s expanding the view that I’m looking at here
in Northern Gaza, to the rest of the Biblical borders of Israel. To the Litani
River in Lebanon, on the other side of the Yarden in Jordan. To Beirut, to
Damascus and yes even to Nahar Mitzrayim all the way down to Egypt. It’s what
Hashem told us to do thousands of years ago when we entered the land, and what
we failed to do then and since then. It’s the Flood of Al Aqsa that we need to
be fighting. Only then will there be a rainbow coalition. A world that reflects
through it’s many prisms and colors the one light of Hashem. Only then will the
land be redeemed.
In only one language in the world is the word
for “victory- nitzachon”, the same as the word for eternity- netzach.
Our job, and the work of our holy soldiers isn’t to win the war. It’s not to
bring things back to normal. To create security, or god-forbid supposed “peaceful
co-existence”. It’s about nitzachon. It’s creating eternity. It’s
returning the shechina. It’s flooding Al Aqsa. We don’t need Donald
Trump to become President to tell us that it’s alright. Hashem told us so
Himself, when He let us be flies on His wall. When He was talking to His heart.
It’s time for us as well to have that conversation within ourselves. Things don’t
bode well for us when we ignore our surveillance. When we disregard the messages
He sends us. When we don’t look at our history. When we don’t understand our
mission. Our eternality. When we don’t aim for true nitzachon.
The original flood began and ended in the month that we bless and enter this weekend of Cheshvan. May we see the conclusion of this final flood as well with the blessing of Hashem and the bringing of sacrifices in His Home as the land finally returns to the state of Creation.
Have a victorious Shabbos and a blessed Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Ven
tsvai shpilen, muz ainer gevinen un ainer farliren..” .- When two play a game, there must be a winner and a loser.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
26. The route
from Cairo to Damascus, via the Land of Israel, which has Khans
(Caravanserai)
along its trail, was paved during the ______ period
Longitudinal
roads in Israel (North to South) are usually numbered by:
A) A
three-digit number
B) A
single-digit number
C) An even
number
D) An odd
number
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/shomer-yisroel
–
The One year anniversary of the composition of my first War song in honor
of the first Tachanun that we return to singing this week Shomer Yisrael….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0K2MbioXfQ
–
The original Noach Tzadik song by the Nikolsburger Rebbe where it all started…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLQqx-IgNxA - Lego Fauda… Love it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxTT_QOn3G0 – A beautiful tribute niggun to the holy Piacezner
Rebbe zy"a who’s yartzeit is this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW1yg5MNAeM
– And another amazing tribute to him…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7xHrfdlseQ
–Nissim Black Confession and
Election Rant
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Death of Menashe- 641 BC – It’s a new year and a new season and we have reached the halfway
point of the Kings of Yehudah with the death of Menashe. He is King
number 7 of the 15 Kings of Yehudah. As we said last year, Menashe was
one of the most wicked kings, yet at the end of his life as he was being tortured
by the Babylonians he did teshuva. He cried out to Hashem and according
to one opinion this longest reigning king of Israel spent the remaining 22
years of his kingship trying to rectify the sins, idolatry and murder that he
had unleashed in the country. Yet, it seems he was not successful. Although the
Jewish people stopped worshipping to false gods, they continued to offer
sacrifices against the law on their private altars and corruption was still
rampant. There is a dispute in fact whether his tshuva earned him his rightful
place in the world to come.
The Talmud tells us of the great Babylonian sage
and editor of the Talmud that was once making fun of “our good friend King
Menashe” to his students. Menashe appeared to him in a dream and explained
him laws that he didn’t understand showing him that he wasn’t even close to as
scholarly as Menashe was in Torah study. Yet, when Reb Ashi asked
him then how did he sin so badly, Menashe told him that if he was alive
during that era he would’ve picked up the bottom of his robes to run after him
to serve idols. The desire was too great. Perhaps as we suggested in the E-Mail
above the curse and pollution of the land was too overwhelming.
The Navi tells us that Menashe was buried
unlike all of the previous Kings that were buried in the city of David.
He was buried in a place called the “Garden of Uzza” in Jerusalem.
Where is this mysterious burial place that not only was Menashe buried
but seemingly as we will learn his children and grandchildren were as well.
Like most things that have to do with archeology there is a dispute. Some
suggests it was in the Valley of Hinom near the tayelet near the Begin
Museum. Others place his burial by Armon Ha’Netziv. There remains of
an ancient palace was found along with a magnificent column (that is actually
featured on the back of a the five shekel coin). It would seem to be a nice
place to have a palace and garden with an incredible overlook of the Temple
Mount and City of David.
Why was he buried there? According to some opinion
he felt that it was part of his teshuva. He didn’t want to hurt the souls of
his ancestors that were buried there. He didn’t feel righteous enough. He
certainly was correct about that assumption. But as righteous as he wasn’t,
wait until you hear and learn about his son Amon and what comes next. The slide
down continues as we enter the last century and a half of the First Temple
period.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE
FLOOD JOKES OF THE WEEK
Where
did Noah keep the bees during the flood? In the Ark Hives.
My wife and I had a huge argument because she
accidentally flooded the kitchen. but we've sorted it now. It's all water under
the fridge.
Why do you have to act quickly during a flood?
Because it's an emergent sea!!
God: Earth is going to be flooded. Someone
should build an ark.
Moses: I Noah guy who can do it
Noah's
son walks into a kosher deli and orders a sandwich. "Sorry," said the
owner. "We don't serve Ham."
One
day God calls down to Noah and says, "Noah me old friend, I want you to
make me a new Ark".
Noah
replies, "No probs God, me old Supreme Being, anything you want after
all you're the boss...
But
God interrupts, "Ah, but there's a catch. This time Noah, I do not want
just a couple of decks, I want 20 decks one on top of the other".
"20
DECKS!", screams Noah. "Well, OK, whatever you say. Should I
fill it up with all the animals just like last time?"
"Yep,
that's right, well . . sort of right . . this time I want you to fill it up
with fish", God answers.
"Fish?" queries Noah.
"Yep,
fish . . well, to make it more specific Noah, I want carp wall to wall, floor
to ceiling Carp!"
Noah
looks to the skies. "OK Go.., let me get this right, You want a New
Ark?"
"Check".
"With
20 decks, one on top of the other?"
"Check".
"And
you want it full of Carp?".
"Check."
"Why?" asks the perplexed Noah, who was slowly but
surely getting to the end of his tether..........
"Dunno", says God, "I just fancied a Multi-Storey Carp
Ark.
What
did Noah say after he let the dinosaurs in? Welcome to Jurassic Ark
Dear
Noah,
We
could have sworn you said you were leaving at 4:00.
Sincerely,
The
Unicorns
The answer to this week”s question is C – So we start off our new season continuing our exam from last season of which although I was passing, certainly not by that impressive enough of a score. Well starting off the season doesn’t change our score much getting this question half right and wrong. I really didn’t think too much about the first part of the question. I guessed that it was the Byzantine period and in my mind I thought it was perhaps built by the Nabateans of the spice trails that built many of the khans along their route. Yet the correct answer is the Mamaluks, which had I thought about it I probably should’ve got since their kingdom was based in Egypt and in Syria. I got part 2 correct though as all of the roads going North are even numbers. Highway 2 is the coastal road. Hughway 4 is after that to the East and the main Highway is of course Kvish 6 is the main toll highway going from South near Beer Sheva all the way up to the North. The last main highway is also an even number it’s Highway 90 along the Jordan Valley which runs from Eilat to Metulla. So here we start off the new season and the exam score stands at. So I got this one half right and thus the new score is Rabbi Schwartz having a 16.5 point and the MOT having 9.5 point on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.
