Parshat Shoftim- Goyish!- 2026/ 5786

 Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

August 14^th 2026 -Volume 16 Issue 41 1st of Elul 5785

(Due to serious technical technology issues- like phone swimmin on bottom of yarden.. you get a golden oldie E-mail this week.. Chazara is the Ikar :))

 

Parshat Shoftim

 

Goyish

Click here below for print edition

(Weekly Newsletter - Parshat Shoftim 2026  )

“Why do you dress like that?” I asked them. I was in one of my end of summer modes where I’m just ready to pick fights with my tourists. Don’t get me wrong I love Chasidim. I have plenty of Chasidish blood in me and I come from very haymish roots, my grandfather being close to the Tosher Rebbe and Reb Hersheleh of Spink. I even wear a gartel on Shabbos-when I remember. But I wanted to make a point. An important point, that I think most people don’t get. Particularly American Chasidim and Chareidim.

 

 “So what is it?”, I asked them. “What’s with the Shtreiemel, the frock, the white socks? Why don’t you dress like everyone else?” By the way this is not only a question for chasidim. You gotta love these cool litvaks that think they dress normal and fancy, like they walked out of GQ, when the truth is that they pretty don’t really fit in as well. Some have the tzitzis sticking out, others have their black hats which they think look pretty cool especially when they wear them on a tilt. Nobody told them that hats went out in the 50’s already. So, they’re also wearing out of date clothing that make them stand out and that really is not trendy to anybody but their chevra in yeshiva.

 

 Now the honest answer to why they’re wearing this clothing is that ironically enough they think it looks cool, . They think that the shtreimel with the hairs standing up are really cool. The beketcheh with the funny little designs- that’s not mamash black but a little tinge off-black and it even has some cute little flower design on it if you look really hard.are "chikav". Or how about that tiny rimmed small black hat that really was made for a Bar Mitzva boy that you’re wearing? C’mon, do you really think you look cool in it? That would be the honest answer to why you’re wearing them. It has nothing to do with tradition, with religion, or with Hashem. It’s just about the yeshivish or chasidish fashion statement of the time. But nobody will admit that.

 

 My tourists fumfeh a bit. Well... it’s about not dressing like the goyim. It’s about tradition. It’s about keeping the customs of our ancestors…they mumble. I don’t buy it, I tell them. I think it’s much much holier than that. From the way that I understand it, the reason why we dress differently and even in yeshivos why our Rabbis put such an emphasis on wearing your hat and jackets so much, is so that we remember that we are not them. We are not like the people in the street. We are Hashem’s holy nation. We are exiled here. This is not our home. We are foreigners. We want to remember that always, and it will help stop us from assimilating. From thinking we are just like them. From doing the things that they do and going the places they go. We don’t belong here, and we want to remind ourselves that we stand out like a sore thumb.

 

 My tourists nod their head in agreement. It makes sense. They’ve heard that before. They know it’s an important value. They’ve now fallen into my trap. Well, if that’s true, I continue, then perhaps you can explain to me why you feel more comfortable walking around on 5th Avenue in the Diamond district, or in your tenements and buildings in the Bronx or your nursing homes in who knows what hole in the country you found them in Mississippi or in Tennessee than you feel when you’re walking around here in Eretz Yisrael. Why do you come here and feel that you can’t wait to get back to “your” normal country where they bag your groceries and thank you for shopping in Walmart? Where they speak “your” language, where they understand and share "your" mentality. Where you feel like you’re at home even in your funny white socks. But here, the holy land, the land that all of your ancestors dreamed of coming to, the only place where your neshoma really has a connection to, the only place where any mitzva you do really has any meaning. Why over here do you feel like you don’t belong. That it’s not your country. That you’re a foreigner.

 

Now don’t give me any baloney, about non-religious Jews, or anti-religious governments, or about scary Arabs and fears of your kids going to the army. Please… They’re killing Jews all over the place in the US. The goyim there will continue and only escalate the rapidly growing antisemitism rate that’s increasing exponentially each year. You’re smart enough to know that America isn’t different than everywhere else we’ve lived in 2000 years of Galus. That “Never Again” is “always again’. You have an updated passport “just in case” or for when that day happens eventually. Agudas Yisrael lobbying and frum congressman and the OU and shmearing all the politicians isn’t going to make much of a difference, and neither is the pizza you brought to the local Fire Station or the money you gave to the Police Benevolent Society – which helps you get off of speeding tickets. They’re making the same “gezeiros” against education over there, and it’s the frum guys that aren’t letting your kids into the right schools anyways. It's not even the Goyim. Yeah…You really shouldn’t be feeling at home there. You’re even wearing the funny clothing to remember that. Think about that next time you put on your shtreimel or Borsalino.

 

But the problem and perhaps the biggest problem we’ve always suffered from is that we forget how special and different we are. How much we are not like them. How pretty much the worst thing you once were able to call a Jew is a “goy”. You look like a “goy”. You dress like a “sheigitz”. I think the English for some reason call them a “yuk” or a “beitz”. I never really understood where that comes from. It’s not a modern-day problem. It’s always been our problem. The Yiddish phrase is “vi tzi kristaltzach-yiddletzach”- what goes on in the goyish world eventually permeates and makes its way into our world. In most cases we even out-do them. We become more Goyish, more Greek, more Roman, more Spanish, more German, more patriotic American Yankee Doodle with our BBQ’s and flags than they do. And unfortunately for us, Hashem has to always send us reminders, because the funny clothes doesn’t seem to workto remind us that we really don’t belong there. We really are not like them. We really need to come home.

 

 This week’s parsha repeatedly, perhaps more than any parsha, keeps hitting this theme home again and again. Right at the beginning of the Parsha we start off with the need to set up judges and enforcement officers that are different than them. There are no bribes, no showing favoritism, it’s not about who has the better lawyer or deeper pockets. It’s about pursuing real true righteous justice. Judges that are tzadikim, courts that have no political influences. This is the trick, Moshe tells us, to inheriting and uplifting the land.

 

Right next to that it tells us not to plant trees next to our Beis Hamikdash where the court sits and not to worship in the style of the goyim on a one stone altar. This is despite the fact that our forefathers did it that way interestingly enough… It was the mesorah… It was tradition. But guess what? It became goyish. And we Jews don’t do the goyish thing. In fact the Maharam Shick writes that we shouldn’t even plant trees near shul for that reason. We certainly don’t put flowers on a grave. Goyish is bad and we Jews have to stop looking and learning from them how to do things.

 

 It continues and continues this theme. Don’t bring sacrifices with blemishes even ones that are passing and that go away. Interestingly enough, the Talmud tells us that it was this precise law in the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza that caused the destruction of the Temple when the Caesar sent an offering with that type of blemish and the Jews refused to bring it. For goyim blemishes are not a problem. Their sacrifices don’t have to be perfect. For us Jews that have a perfect God our sacrifices can be nothing but the best.

 

It then tells us about Jews that worship like the goyim do and how when they try to sell their politically correct ideology to us and get us to join them we need to kill them. We should have no tolerance for Jews that try to make us like goyim. It’s too dangerous. We’re too susceptible.

 

 Even when we try to set up our own “government” the Torah tells us be careful that what we do shouldn’t be like the goyim. Don’t look to them to have a king like theirs. Ours has to have a Torah with him all the time. He can’t be too rich. He can’t have too many horses. He can’t even have too many wives. We’re not looking for Henry the 8th. Even Shlomo Hamelech fell into the goyish trap of this one. The man had 1000 wives. If you make a cheshbon he was in sheva brachos every week of his life. Most of them were idolators. Stay away from goyim. Don’t become goyish. Even if you’re the smartest person in the world.

 

It keeps going and going. When we come to the land don’t fall into the trap of all of the narishkeit of the goyim. Don’t try to figure out the future. Don’t sacrifice your kids on the altar of whatever religious or politically correct mishigas their society is telling you is common place. Don’t pay any attention to any of their pundits or future tellers and yay or nay sayers about what will be, what has to be, what should be. Stop listening to the stupid radio talk show hosts. It’s all baloney. We have Hashem. We work with faith. We don’t need to know what will happen because we know that whatever will be is good. It’s from our Father. It’s not from whoever is elected. It’s not from the President. It’s not from my man in congress. It’s not from the United Nations. It’s not even from Bibi and certainly not Lapid but not even from the Chareidi or religious parties. Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem elokecha- stop being so busy with all the future things that might happen if you don’t listen to what they’re telling you to do.

 

 Goyim have prophets. We have them too. Or we used to at least. But we also have fake ones that are like goyim. So stay away from anything that sounds sketchy. That sounds goyish. Oh and kill the ones that you know are false. They’re a danger. Because in general they will play on our biggest weakness to try to make us like the goyim. To try to make us comfortable in the goyish ways we’ve picked up. They tell us that we’re good Jews still and Hashem is happy with us and doesn’t mind so much if we don’t follow His ways. If we ignore some of the important commandments, like idolatry, like Greek culture, like lashon hara and sinas chinam, like staying in Boro Park, Monsey and Lakewood and not moving to Eretz Yisrael. Chutz la’aretz is not so bad. It’s not so important to move to the land Hashem promised us and told us to live in… The koach ha’torah will protect us. Uhh.. huh…Yeah.. that’s worked out really well for us in the past…

 

There’s an amazing mitzva that’s thrown in here of lo sasig gevul rayacha- don’t encroach on your neighbor’s field. Rashi notes that the Torah already told us that it’s prohibited to steal, what’s this additional mitzva? He says that this additional one of stealing your neighbors land is only applicable in Israel. If you build on your neighbor’s field in America or in Monsey, you won’t be violating this prohibition. (although it’s still stealing). Why? Because guess what? It’s not really your land. It’s the goys. It’s their country that you just happened to be stuck in. Don’t ever make the mistake that you really have any real property rights on it in this regard. They can and probably will throw you out pretty soon. Only in Eretz Yisrael, the land you were meant to inherit is the land sacredly yours. Only here does it really make a difference if someone moves his fence an inch or two onto the border of your lot. Because here every inch only you can uplift. Only your neshoma can bring down the shechina to. Over there it’s just a tenting campground until the next step in your galus. Until you make it home. Don’t ever forget that in your shtreimel and black hat.

 

I’m not going to continue. You should go on yourselves and read the rest of the parsha. Make sure to spend time reading about how we should wipe out all of the goyim in Eretz Yisrael and all of our enemies that don’t make peace with us. That don’t come over to our team. We are the light of the world. The world we are meant to create that will shine out the light of Hashem to needs to be built on the foundation that we have that light. They are meant to be taking tips from us on how to receive it. We approach the High Holidays in this month of Elul. On the first day of Rosh Hashana, Hashem will judge us. The judgement on us is what will impact the rest of the worlds on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashana. But this is the month to remember who we are and what rests on our shoulders. The clothing we wear may not be enough of a reminder. It’s time to get on the royal garments the nation of the King should be wearing. His coronation is right around the corner.          

Have a super duper Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Abi gezunt—dos leben ken men zikh alain nemen."-, Be sure to stay healthy—you can kill yourself later.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

32. The material from which most of the unique tools discovered in the Treasure Cave at Nahal

Mishmar are made is: ______

In which of the following ancient texts is Jerusalem mentioned?

A. The Gezer Calendar

B. Papyrus Anastasi

C. el-Amarna Letters

D. Mari Archival texts

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/lulay-heamanti-kavey   –My most beautiful Elul L'Dovid Composition. This song is the whole month. LULAY with the amazing Dovid Lowy on vocals and arrangements!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAelDAbKoX0&list=RDqAelDAbKoX0&start_radio=1    – Tzemach Tzedek Niggun.. Holy of the Holies…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-su4FGXbpbw&list=RD-su4FGXbpbw&start_radio=1   – Nissim Black's latest Niggun with Aaron Holder – I won't let you down!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJrvxh_XAro&list=RDTJrvxh_XAro&start_radio=1 – Benny Friedmans latest Uve'oso Yom- On that day!1

 

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

A Repeat of last week… Sorry no time… Chazara is the Ikar…

 

Hostage Return, but Ultimate Failure - 586 BC  - After the assassination of Gedalia ben Achikam, the day after Rosh Hashana and just a few months after the Churban, Klal Yisrael was in a bad despondent mode. Yishmael Ben Netanya after murdering the other Jews in Mitzpa, took hostages and captives with him back towards Amon. Amon of course is Jordan today. In fact it's why the capital is called Amman. Gedaliah's surviving adviser who had warned him about the impending attack and who Gedalia disregarded, felt it was up to him to return the hostages home. He took the special forces unit and chased after Yishmael, ultimately catching up with them by the pool of Givon, which is in the modern village of El Jib near Nebi Samuel and freeing them, Yishmael however escaped back to Ammon.

Here we once again come to a turning point or perhaps more accurately a failed opportunity. Much like the Palestinians and perhaps even the Israelis today, we never fail to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The Navi Yirmiyahu and his student Baruch Ben Neriyah tell Yochanan and the Jews that they should stay in Israel. Don't run away. Don't leave the country. We can rebuild. We can start again. Hashem will be with us. Yet, Yochanan and the Jews with him are too fearful. They are scared that Nevuchadnezzar will come take revenge upon them, for the murder of his appointed regent Gedalia. Thus they decide to flee to Mitzrayim. To Pharaoh, he will protect us from Nevuchadnezzar. There we will have food, we will have security. Hashem has left the holy land. We need to start again with our Torah in Africa, Spain, Portugal, England, Amsterdam, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslavakia, Volozhin, Vilna, Mezibuzh, Mezritch, America, Lakewood, Jackson… Egypt.

Yirmiyahu pleads with them to stay. He tells them Hashem regrets having destroyed the Temple. He will protect us from Nevuchadnezzar. Egypt is a bad move. It's not safe. Nowhere else will be safe. They will ultimately kill us there. They will kill us everywhere. Hashem wants us in His Home. In His palace. Please don't leave. Please stay. Here it will be good. But the people don't listen. They not only go down to Egypt, but they even take Yirmiyahu and Baruch with them. And thus the era of the first Temple ends. Not with the churban, but rather with our obstinate stiff-necked refusal to believe that Hashem wanted and wants us to remain here in Israel. To be at His side. What happens to the Jews who get exiled to Egypt. Stay tuned next week, but I imagine can you probably figure it out.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE FASHION JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

A fat fashion designer found a time machine one day.Thinking about how many opportunities of discovery await him, he went inside and clicked a button. He soon found himself in ancient Rome.

He noticed all the plebs wearing cool ancient clothes so he quickly went to the nearest shopping centre. Being fat himself, he asked the shopkeeper if they can sell him XL shirts.

That question made the shopkeeper curious, thus he asked the designer:

“Do you really want to purchase that many shirts?”

(it took me twice to get that one…)

 

Did you hear about the fashion designer who was on the phone while driving and nearly got into an accident? It was a clothes call.

 

Why can't fashion designers play uno? Because they always draw a cardigan.

 

What do you call a fashion designer that rejects everything? Calvin Deklein.

 

2020's fashion was really terrible. Probably because nobody had any taste

 

COVID is like fashion…

We started hearing about it in Italy…

Became popular in LA and NYC…

Florida ignored it…

And it was all made in China in the end.

 

How many trainers will it take to teach Tommy fashion design? None. Hilfiger it out..

 

Never talk to me about fashion. It just goes in one year and out the other.

 

My doctor really likes my choice of sensible footwear...I overheard him telling his colleague that I had "Serious healthy shoes".

 

Little old Yankel gets on a crowded city bus, every seat filled. A tough looking goy with a lot of prison tattoos is kicking his feet onto the seat opposite him, keeping it from being used. Yankel waddles over says 'scuze me' and pushes the tough bloke's legs off the seat.

Agitated, the tough bloke starts pointing to the prison tats on his face and says 'You know what these mean, little man?'

Yankel nods in a knowing fashion "means you got caught"

 

A guy goes into a bar wearing a shirt open at the collar, and is met by a bouncer who tells him he must wear a necktie to gain admission. So the guy goes out to his car and he looks around for a necktie and discovers that he just doesn't have one.

He sees a set of jumper cables in his trunk. In desperation he ties these around his neck, and manages to fashion a fairly acceptable looking knot and lets the ends dangle free. He goes back to the restaurant and the bouncer carefully looks him over, and then says, "Well, OK, I guess you can come in - just don't start anything."

 

I once met someone who refused to talk to people unless the conversation was about fashion.

He was very clothes minded.

 

My lawyer has such a good sense of fashion, he wins every court case

 

Where do fashionable ghosts shop? Bootiques.

 

Why do the clothes in Beauty and the Beast look so old-fashioned? Tailors old as time…OYY…

 

What do you call yoshka at a fashion show? A Cross Dresser…. YES!!

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The answer to this week”s question is C-  I'm not even going to try to explain this one. I got it wrong. This is really a togh exam. I guessed Iron and the answer is copper. I guessed Gezer and the answer is Al Amarna. That’s' all I'm wrong. The score is now Rabbi Schwartz 19.5 Ministry of Tourism 12.5 on this exam so far. As of now it's just a passing grade which is fine. One more question next week. Let's see how I do.

Seeing and Believing- Parshat Re'eh 2026 5786

 Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

August 7^th 2026 -Volume 16 Issue 40 24^th of Av 5786

 

Parshat Re'eh

 Seeing and Believing

Click here below for print edition

(Weekly Newsletter - Parshat Re'eh  )

 

It's tour guiding season in Israel. I'm working Baruch Hashem. It's nice to be back out there after quite a hiatus, perhaps even the longest I remember since this war started and even in Corona. But eh boyz are back in town. It's amazing. It's fun and exciting and of course inspiring.

 

See, one of the reasons I became a tour guide, besides that I realized very quickly that being a Rabbi and having a shul here in Israel is going to cost me money rather than pay my family's bills, is because I'm a pretty lazy, selfish guy who is desperate for inspiration in life. It's pretty much the same reason I went into the field of Jewish outreach in America for 15 years. I wanted to be inspired by my yiddishkeit and I have no patience or interest in learning Mussar or really working on myself. So I figured the best way to be inspired is to interact, teach and be challenged by others who have never been exposed to the incredible beauty, wisdom and inspiration that is in our faith. They also haven't yet been jilted and stymied or exposed to the many not nice things and underbelly of our frum society as well. They lived in Iowa and Virginia after-all.

 

I figured I could suck off all of their inspiration and then grow and develop and heighten my own inspiration and appreciation of my own yiddishkeit by sucking it off of them, and the things I would teach them. It worked I loved it. And thus upon moving to Israel  I took the same concept and went into the field of tour guiding.  I didn't want to become one of those that find the myriad of things to complain about in this country. I wanted to be inspired daily. And what better way to do that, then to find a job that would enable me to share the passion and inspiration of Hashem's holy land with those that have never experienced or seen it before. And there you have it… My new career was found.

 

Now perhaps one of the most remarkable and amazing things and usually the first thing I point out to my tourists is as we're leaving Jerusalem the incredible miracle that they need to open their eyes up and see. I ask them, what the national bird of Israel is. This was in fact the first and only real joke I remember when I was a little 8-year-old tourist in Israel with my parents. That, and of course all the graves he shlepped us to pray by. The answer he gave us was that the bird is the crane. See, everywhere you look in Jerusalem you will see cranes- the machine kind of course, just putting up taller and bigger sky scrapers, buildings and houses. It's not just Jerusalem though. It's everywhere. It's nuts. The last two years it seems this country has gone crazy. Everywhere you drive, Afula, Beit Shean, Netanya, Nahariya, Akko even in Sderot and Ofakim and Netivot by the Gaza Strip. Entire cities are just rising out of the ground overnight, it feels like. 10's of thousands of housing units. I don't know who's buying or building them all. It's crazy.

 

It almost feels like this nesting thing that my wife had before our kids were born. The house is getting ready. We need new rooms. New beds. New closets. The baby is coming. Seem's like the land knows that there's a lot of Jews on the way over here soon. The land it seems is a bit smarter then some of those that are still building additions on their home over there. Which is kind of like adding on to your maternity ward in the hospital and fixing it up, where the new baby is. Which is pretty stupid, if you ask me, cause he ain't staying there for too long. I hope. You ain't either, by the way in Tom's River or Jackson or Lakewood. I'm not even gonna say New York, because the smart ones are already in Florida.

 

But its more than just miraculous. It's historic as well. See, a hundred years ago, none of this ever existed. When I take my tourists out of Jerusalem through what I call the "space tunnels" towards he Judean Midbar, or to the Gush, I point out that it feels like we went through a space warp and landed on another planet with pretty much empty hills and mountains and desert. Yet, what I point out to them is that about a hundred years ago this is what Yerushalayim looked like. Those forsesty hills and mountains as you drive out of Jerusalem towards Mevaseret over there, that's what Givat Shaul and Har Nof looked like. That desert valley with the Bedouins and their goats, that was Ramot. That tall hill over there near Efrat with the agricultural terraces that, was what Bakka looked like, Bayit v'Gan. That's why when you walk around in Jerusalem you're always walking up and down hills. Because that's what this was. And in 100 years it's a metropolis rivaling NY, Paris and London. That's a miracle. That's what we've done with it and they haven't.

 

But it's not just a miracle or Jewish ingenuity and productivity. It's prophecies that were said thousands of years ago unfolding. Imagine if we were in Egypt and Moses said there was going to be blood in the river and then we saw it happen, that would be watching a miracle. Same for frogs, dead animals and first borns. Same for the splitting of the Sea. It's watching those prophecies be fulfilled. On the other hand of the spectrum imagine hearing Isaiah and Yirmiyahu talking about the exile of the Ten Tribes and the destruction of the Temple happening. Things that we thought could never happen. I mean, today, for some reason Jews think we can never get thrown out of America. It's the one place in 2000 years of history that it will not happen. After-all there's a bill of rights. Uh huh…

 

But imagine Jews back then by the times of the Temple in Yerushalayim. They for sure thought that it could never happen. Hashem would never destroy his own palace. He would never chuck us out. This was our home. He had promised it to our Patriarchs. Sure we weren't really keeping the Torah and our side of the deal, yet, come on. Hashem's not really gonna chuck us. And then it happened. We were exiled. The Temple was destroyed. The Jews saw the prophecies fulfilled. Hashem may have a lot of patience, but ultimately, we used it all up. And we saw every single word of those prophecies fulfilled, with bloody whipped cream on top.

 

Well, today, we're seeing the same prophecies being fulfilled. We're Rabbi Akiva who watched those foxes jumping out of the Temple Mount and laughed, because he only believed it was a sign that the future prophecies would be fulfilled. We're seeing it. Boys and girls laughing and singing on the streets of a rebuilt and populated city. Brides and grooms getting married in the hills of Yerushalayim. Torah returns to Zion. The nation being ingathered from the four corners of the earth. When Hashem was showing Yeshaya the prophet the vision of Messianic times he was literally showing him the exact image my tourists are looking out their window from our nice air-conditioned minibus. How's that for a tour. It's virtual reality glasses of what Hashem showed Yirmiyahu that we don't need special glasses to see. It's right outside our window.

 

Which brings us to this week's parsha. The parsha titled Re'eh-See. It's fascinating, that there is no Zohar on this week's Torah portion. The Zohar always uses the words ta chazei- come and see. That is different than our Talmud which uses the term ta shema- come and see. The difference between seeing and hearing is that hearing- or shema is an act of internalizing. It's taking information and processing it and making it part of our being and our core. Seeing doesn't require internalization. All it takes is opening one's eyes; cleaning your glasses. Last week, Hashem tells us about the land that we will go to. There's a lot of Shema going on. There's internalizing the punishments for not following the commandments of no rain and destruction and there's the rewards for keeping the mitzvos. It's a parsha that told us to remember our history, the sins, the mistakes, the revelation of Sinai. It's one that tells us to process the miracles that we witnessed of how Hashem helped us destroy our enemies and the need to find the strength and fortitude to come to the land and continue that job of inheriting it and cleansing it. It's a lot of hearing and internalizing.

 

This week's parsha though is not about that at all. It's about seeing what's in front of us. Things that you may miss. Thing's that you may find hard to believe. Things that may not even make any sense and seem counterintuitive. But it's there. It's in front of you. It's like these big cranes that you can't miss. But you're not realizing are miraculous. It's the good and the bad that is very clear in front of you. It's life and death. All you have to do is open your eyes and see it.

 

What's amazing though, is that what Moshe Rabbeinu is telling the nation to see, they can't see it yet. They're not there. They're not by the mountains of Blessing and Curse. They're not in the land Hashem promised them. He's telling them to see, but seemingly there's nothing yet to see. The answer though is that he's not talking to them. He's talking to us. He's telling us to see. He's telling us to process. He's telling us to stop burying our head in the ground. He wants us to open our eyes.

 

What does he want us to see? See the land has idols. See the land has Churches. See the land has bad enemies that will try to kill us. Do you see that? I see that. Anyone that drives around Jerusalem sees that. All we need to do is look up to the top of that burnt retaining wall of the Temple Mount, that we call the Kotel and that we pray to and we see that. So there we go. Yes, Moshe, we see it. What should we do about that?

 

Kill them. Destroy them. Wipe them out. Burn them. Build me a Temple when you're done and shine out my light to the world. Seek out my holy place. Bring me sacrifices. Visit Me on holidays. Be happy with Me. I am Hashem. I am your Father. You are My children. Even if you sin. I'm still your Dad. I want you to be with Me. Can you see that? Can you feel that? I'm bringing you to the Land. I've never lied to you before. I'm pretty strong and powerful. Don't close your eyes to Me. Don't close your eyes to who's Home this is. To whom I gave it to. Please Please see, the blessing. Please don't ignore what your eyes are seeing and find the curse instead.

 

The parsha continues with other things we need to merely see. There will be all types of false prophets and tempters that will try to show you fake news. They will tell you that you can't do this. That there are other "gods" you need to follow and listen to. Some are called Baal- they will act like your masters. Some are Asheira. Some are Trump. Some are the United Nations. Some are foreign concepts such as secularism, humanism, Americanism, pacifism. Don't worship them. Don't allow them to exist in your land. In our land. Destroy them. It's just AI. It's just fake news. It's just false gods. It's darkness not light. It's free Palestine. Don't let them blind you to what you see is happening out your window. See truth. Count how many fingers they have. It's all fake. They have six.

 

Take a look at the animal world. The Parsha continues. There are Kosher ones and non kosher ones. Really? Isn't food, food? The answer is no. Some are pure some are tamei. Some are good for you. Some will turn you into a beast. Some will block your eyesight. They have signs. See the signs. Recognize that they're there for a reason. To show you. To allow you to see. And then once you see that, then understand the same is true for the nations that will be in the land. The nations of world. There are some that will be kosher and some trayf. Some may be allowed to thrive and prosper with you and others need to be eradicated. Some will help you achieve your spiritual goals and others will just make you blocked. They need to be cut out. They need to be removed. Don't just put everything in your mouth. Don't just let anyone stay in your land.

 

As well and on the opposite extreme look at your brothers, sisters, converts, widows and downtrodden. Help them. Take care of them. Tithe for them. Support them. Share with them. The land isn't yours its ours. We're a family. Can't you see that? Can't you see that all of your success is only because I gave it to you. All your blessing and prosperity comes from me. Well, the same is true for their poverty. I gave it to them, so you could help them. So you could partner with me. So we could become one close family who is responsible and bound to one another. See, that. Don't be blinded by your ego. Don't think that it all just happened by itself. It's a prophecy. See it. It's in front of you.

 

Our tour is coming to an end. There's been a lot to see and process. The world is a different world than it was a few years ago. The movie in front of us and the vision Hashem is showing us is like the stormy sea of this week's haftorah that describes our Temple being built. The doors are started to close around the world, the smart ones see this and are getting out. The others not so much. Theres more and more terror building here in the West Bank. The world is slowly turning against us like it never has before. The last story is the US will as well. It's prophecy boys and girls. It's the same prophecy that says there will be a war against Iran/Persia and it will last nine months, which is coming to an end this Sukkos. Then the Edom will turn against us and the final battle over Jerusalem will take place. Much like the Jews in the wilderness, we haven't seen that last and final part yet. But we've seen all the rest. And usually, that's a good sign it will happen.

 

The Shabbos before Tisha B'av was called Shabbos Chazon. The visionary Shabbos, where our sages tell us that he who sees the Temple in its destruction and mourns it will merit to see it being rebuilt. Yet, to see it, we need to come to Parshat Re'eh. We need to open our eyes. The Temple is in front of us. We have everything we need to return it to us. We just need to act on what we see and have seen and we will have already been redeemed.

 

Have a perceptive Shabbos and a blessed upcoming month of Elul

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

" Az men lebt, derlebt men zich alts.."- If you live long enough, you will live to see everything.


RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

11. In which country was the oil pumped and transported via pipelines to the refineries in Haifa during the Mandate period? _____ 

Where is it recommended to take a tour regarding the life of Rachel the Poetess (Rachel Bluwstein)? 

A. The Moshava of Metula and nearby Nahal Ayun

B. The Moshava of Kinneret and the adjacent cemetery

C. Central Tel Aviv and the Trumpeldor cemetery

 D. The German Colony in Jerusalem and the Moon Grove 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/eretz-tu-bishvat   – This week's parsha Rabbi Schwartz composition best song ever!!! You should be singing this song of the words of Hashem on the amazingness of Eretz Yisrael all week long!

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/kum -  Every four steps you walk this Bein Hazmanim is a mitzva if you're doing it here! Kum Hithalech Ba'Aretz my song is based on yesterday's Daf of Hashem folding up all of Israel under Yaakov to teach us that the whole Israel is 4 Amos conquerable. Dovid Lowy did both of these songs arrangements and Vocals… Rock Em! 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnUk-oYYNLQ&list=RDBnUk-oYYNLQ&start_radio=1 s - Avraham Fried No Shtus…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blOaHJG7Y40&list=RDblOaHJG7Y40&start_radio=1  Aharon Razel Collab with Aviya- Me'Ata V'Ad Olam

https://24six.app/preview/music/content/448766/where-you-are   – Nissim Blacks and Eli Dachs collab Where you are!

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



A Welfare State? -333 BC In addition to building the walls, Nechemia's next agenda was the social structure and the immense poverty that was taking place in Jerusalem. It seems that there was a two class system. There were the wealthy officers and a lot of poor who were getting poorer, as the rich took advantage and lent them money and then took their properties and children as slaves and collaterals. Nechemia'immediately put a stop to this terrible practice. He instituted a tzedaka system where the poor would be supported by the rich rather than through loans. Their land was all returned so that they can work and prosper and their children came home.

 

One would think that this would've brought a lot of resistance, however the prophet tells us that Nechemia inspired the people with his own actions and they all joined. They followed suit. The people were grateful and the nation was coming together.

 

Of course there remained the opposition, the troublemakers. Next week we will learn about Sanballat Ha'Chori who tried numerous times to stop Nechemia'and prevent our return from taking place. Where's he from Huwara, right near the Shomron and once again one of the most troublesome spots in Israel. Somethings never change.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE CONSTRUCTION JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

You guys wanna hear an Israeli construction joke? ..... hold on I'm working on it.

 

Not all construction work is equally enjoyable. For instance, drilling a large hole is boring, but fastening two pieces of metal together is riveting.

 

Berel and Yankel got a job as construction workers and have spent the week working on a street

Berel turns to the Yanke and says,

“I don’t want to work anymore, I will act crazy so the manager sends me home early”.

He then proceeds to tie himself by the feet and swings around shouting,

“Im a lightbulb, I’m a lightbulb!”

Sure enough, the manager tells him to go home. Yankel, seeing the success his friend had, decided to start packing up his things.

The manager asks, “What are you doing? The work isn’t finished yet!”

To which the Yankel responds, “How am I supposed to see without a lightbulb?”

 

Me: I had to quit my construction job because I wasn’t strong enough for the work.

Friend: Did you give them your too weak notice?

 

I never wanted to believe that my dad was stealing from his job at the construction site...But when I got home, all the signs were there.

 

A construction worker walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt.

The bartender asks: “What can I get you?”

The construction worker says “One beer for me, and one for the road.”

How does a Jewish mother change a lightbulb? "No, that's all right. I'll just sit here in the dark."

 

What do they call it when two construction machines get into a physical altercation? A CAT fight

 

A frog applies for a construction job.

The engineer asks, "What can you do?"

"Rivet."

 

Little Chaim is selling lemonade by a construction site. His sign reads “1 cup for 25¢, 3 cups for $1

A construction worker stops by and asks to buy one cup of lemonade.

"25 cents", says Chaim

The construction worker then buys another one, and another one, paying 25 cents each.

As the construction worker walks away, he turns around with a smile, and says: "Hey kid, you realize I just bought three cups for 75¢… Maybe lemonade stands aren’t your thing."

"I guess you're right" says Chaim good-naturedly as he sets up the next 3 cups.

 

David has done well for himself and is Mayor of a small town in Israel.

One day, David and his wife Ilana are walking past a construction site. Suddenly, one of the construction workers stops and calls out "What's new, Ilana?"

"Why, it's nice to see you again Avi," Ilana replies.

She turns to introduce David to the construction worker, and they speak for several minutes.

After David and Ilana continue on, he turns to her and asks how she knows Avi.

"Oh," Andrea said. "We went to the same high school. I even thought about marrying him."

David began to say. "You realise how lucky you are. If I hadn't come along, today you would be the wife of a construction worker!"

Ilana replied without hesitation, "Not really. If I had married him, he'd now be a Mayor!".

 

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The answer to this week's question is B- There goes my streak. I got the first part wrong. I thought it was Saudi Arabia, as I remember the TransArabian Pipeline which was supposed to come from there. It turns out it never made it because of the war of independence. So instead and before that it was from Iraq from Kirku instead. I got the second part right though. I knew that Rachel hung out and sung a lot about the Kinneret and was a farmer. She got Tuberculosis and was thrown out of degania her kibbutz. Nice. Then she moved to Jerusalem and died at age 40 and buried in Kinneret cemetery next to Naomi Shemer there. Her face is on 20 shekel bill. So 50/50 on this one and the score is  Rabbi Schwartz having 8 points and the MOT having 3 points on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.