from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
June 24th 2026 -Volume 16 Issue 39 10th of Av 5786
Click here below for print edition
(Weekly Newsletter - Parshat Vaeschanan Nachamu )
Rather, this year Tisha B'Av instead of the usual lashon harah, sinas chinam, Chafetz Chaim, loving everyone videos that I'm really sick of already. Nor was it the sad holocaust stuff. It wasn't even Nova, Gaza Hostage stuff- which is the new holocaust. Who remembers the old days when the only thing to watch was Entebee videos… The good ol' days. Today it's just same old, same old. This year, there were quite a few different ones with a different theme, that I don't think I've ever experienced on a Tisha B'Av before. There was the OU one with Jen Airley, mother of Binyamin a soldier who was killed Hy"d, visiting people that were actually making things for the Bais HaMikdash. Getting Red Heifers, learning and practicing Korbanos, making the lechem hapanim-show bread, carving doors and weaving curtains, and chiseling stones. I was blown away. I felt Mashiach coming. Klal Yisrael was making the moves and truly taking action to prepare and herald in the geulah in ways I believe the Chafetz Chaim and others only dreamed of.
But what about the Temple Mount? The ugly pimple desecrating it. How can we do that? For that Reb Michoel Weichboard's Homebound video with yeshivish looking guys on it explained how the Har Ha'Bayis people going up and davening there thing is happening. Not only happening, but it's changing the face of the Temple Mount in the same ways that Hill Tops settlements are changing the make up and Jewish conquest of Eretz Yisrael in the West Bank. Arabs are staying away from the Temple Mount as more Jews go up there. That's cool! Ten years ago there were 400 people that went up on Tisha B'Av and they couldn't daven or certainly not bow down. This year there were 3500. That's a real number.
Now personally I don't go up there. Let's get that straight. Most of the Gedolim and Rabbis that I follow- blindly. Or actually not blindly. Rather biblically. Meaning, that I understand, that as much as it seems clear to me that there's really no kareis obligation in the places that they go. I mean think about it. The only place which one needs the Red Heifer for is the Heichal and that's no where near the place they walk which is the Azara at best which requires mere Mikva dipping. That area is 28 football fields with their end zones, while the heichal isn't even the size of one. No one's heading into Kareis territory. And we pretty much know that the heichal is by the Golden Pimple. Yet, even that being the case. The Rabbis say don't and the Torah says listen to them. So I do. It's why I don't wear techeiles either. I'm a traditionalist- at least to a degree.
Yet, the fact that they are going and that Rabbis with beards, that have their Rabbis that tell them to go and to see people bowing, to see them talking about the place of the mizbayach. To the talk of the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat Rav Shmuel Eliyahu of starting yeshivas there, of slowly getting rid of the desecration pro-actively. Conversations like this haven’t ever happened since our exile. It filled me with hope and a true feeling that its happening. That the geula is coming closer and closer and our building will be there soon. Hashem's building.
The truth is the establishment of the State was as well the beginning of the process that I don't think most Rabbis and most of klal Yisrael and certainly not the secular founders ever dreamed would look like what it does today. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of frum Jews. Of Olim that keep Torah and Mitzvos. Of luxury style living houses. Of Kollels and Torah like never before. It all started back then 75 years ago when most Jews thought it was something amazing and cool, yet it took many decades until today where it's become mainstream. Where more and more Jews are coming home. Where the largest population of Jews is here. Where, like the Temple Mount, and the work being done to build the Bais HaMikdash it was a pipe dream that was halachically and perhaps even mentally borderline outsiders that took part of. It was only the looneys that made Aliya back then. Yet, today it’s a reality for most.
The truth of the matter the same is true with the Israeli army these days. Where as once you wouldn't catch any self-respecting chareidi young man in an IDF uniform. Forget about tzitzis and payos. Today there's probably more tzitzis and payos that are even being worn by "chiloni" soldiers, than frum. Yet as well it started with the handful. It started with gezeiros. It started with staunch opposition from the Rabbis and which there still is. Yet, somehow Hakadosh Baruch is pushing things in His direction. He's taking these outliers and perhaps non-mainstream people to do the work that He wants done, while at the same time perhaps maintaining the status quo in other places, until He's ready for them to join. Or not…
It's not just today either. Think about the fights between the Chasidim and Mitnagdim. Between the Mussar Movement and the anti-that. Between Beis Shammai and Bais Hillel? Ok that's a bit too much perhaps. But back then in all of those fights and truly deeply held halachic and hashkafic positions were brutal. Rabbis thrown in jail. Sent to Siberia. Yeshivos and shuls thrown out of communities. It was tough and makes our dumb demonstrations seem like children's playground "he-stole-my-ball" spats. Yet today, they're all on the same page. Litvaks learn Chasidus and go to Uman, and chasidim learn Reb Chayim's and go to Miami… Just joking. I meant Lakewood.
So what's the point of this? Why is my Tisha B'Av and yours different this year? What does this mean on a practical basis? Let's take a tour to the last Tisha B'Av we had in the midbar. Or more precisely the last one before we came into the Land of Israel, before that first redemption was finally realized. When that fifth cup of Vi'Heveisi- and I will bring you to the land took place forty years to the day from when we left Egypt.
So for 38 years, the Talmud in the end of Taanis tells us the Jews had a special custom. Presumably they took showers and listened to music that was non-acapella for the three weeks preceding and they even took their laundry to the local Ananei H'aKavod laundry mat. After-all the three weeks thing doesn't start for another thousand or two thousand years or so at least. Yet, they did have a minhag on each Tisha B'Av. Each year they would have all of the men 20-60 dig a grave and then go to sleep in it. Nice. See, there were 600,000 or so that needed to die in those 40 years. Every year, another 15,000 never got out of those graves. They stayed there. Their bones are still waiting to come home. It's what happens to Jews that don't want to come to Israel when Hashem tells us to.
Now, I'm not exactly sure how one sleeps in a grave. It can't be too comfortable, worse than your typical Israeli mattress for sure. Can you imagine that scene each Tisha B'Av. Hugging your family, your children, saying shema. The teshuva they must have done. The regret for their lashon harah and needless crying about a Land Hashem told them was good. How do you sleep? Yet the gemara tells us they slept. That's strange.
Even more than that was the next morning. The morning of Tisha B'Av. An alarm clock called out, they got a message on their phones. Maybe it was a siren or a shofar.
"Whoever is alive, separate yourselves from the dead'. And all who had the spirit of life in them came out"
Can you imagine the Modeh Ani, that morning? The hugging, the kissing, the new lease on life that each person got and experienced. It must have been awesome. It's like someone who survives an open-heart surgery, or has cancer removed and gets a clean bill of health. It's like peeking into Hashem's books Motzai Yom Kippur and seeing that you have been written in the "Life" Book. How many people had to bentch gomel that morning. You can imagine the singing, dancing and the festive reunions. And of course the nice Welcome home Abba steak BBQ parties that took place that night.
Except of course for the unfortunate 15,000 that died. Their houses were mourning. Were crying. Because their Abba never stepped out of the grave. They instead spent the day taking that dirt that he had dug out and buried him. In the midbar. Far from the land that they were heading to and that he was foolish and sinful enough to reject.
Now that was true for the first 39 years. Each year, there were less and less graves. Most were gone. Most had died. Whereas in the first few years 5% or 10% came out and there were more post burial parties then funerals, that changed. As more died, there were less parties and more funerals. Less gomels each year. Last year it was 50/50. This final year, there were only 15,000 left. Hashem had told them it was 40-year sentence and here we are in the final year. The last Tisha B'Av.
There wasn't a dry eye or a hope that they wouldn't come out. They knew the game was over. Their luck had run out. Nobody went shopping for any reunion parties. Everyone took showers and prepared shiva chairs for the next morning. Nobody wanted to get out of bed to go hear that call the next morning. And yet they couldn't stay away. And lo and behold. They all came out. It was a miracle. They were alive. The Geula was here. They were basically told by Hashem they could come into the land. Can you imagine the celebration? The party. The Simcha. Har Ha'Bayis was now Bi'Yadam… Am Yisrael Chai.
Except, they didn't believe it. It was a mistake. It's not time yet. We must have made a mistake. So what did they do? The climbed right back into the graves and buried themselves. They stuck their heads in the literal desert sand and didn't believe it was here. We're supposed to die in the midbar. We can't really be redeemed. It can't be true. It's osur for us to go into the land. And so they went back in to their graves to die in the midbar.
But guess what. They come out again alive. It was another miracle. They saw Jews returning to Eretz Yisrael. They saw missiles falling on Bnai Brak where you can't even find a parking spot. They saw crops growing in land that was desolate. They saw children dancing and playing in the streets of Yerushalayim. They saw soldiers with payos and Mashiach patches. And they say said. It's not the redemption. We still need to go to sleep in our graves. I switched subjects and contexts there in case you didn't notice…
They did this night after night. Miracle after miracle. They did this the tenth of Av, the 11th, this Shabbos. They did this for a whole week straight. They did this until the 15th of Av- Tu B'Av when at that point in time it became incontrovertible. It was undeniable. They saw the full moon and in the words of Rashi in the Gemara there.
"Rau ki cheshbon chadash michuvan"- that there is a new accounting going on. There's a new cheshbon. It's not their cheshbon. It's Hashem's plan. And as He tells us lo machsivosai machshivoseichem. My ways and thoughts are not like yours are. We think differently mortal and immortal. Infinite and finite. Master and servant. Don't try to figure me out. Certainly don't tell Me what I'm telling and showing you that it isn't real. Realize that the geula is already here. Stop hiding in your pathetic graves.
It's an amazing thing we're experiencing. We're in the "40th" year before we're about to experience the geula. Hashem is showing us miracles. He's calling us home. He's shofaring to everyone with the spirit of life within himself to separate themselves from the dead and rise up. Make Aliyah. And yet, we say it's not real. We're burying ourselves again and again in our graves. We don't realize the cheshbon chadash has started. That the Temple Mount is returning to our hands. To frum hands, not secular ones that gave it back. That the army of Israel is becoming Torahdik. Where "Hoshiya es amecha" is the song being sung, not kochi v'otzem yadi. Where yidden are starting to prepare reunion parties already with the shechina. And yet so many of us, are still more comfortable in those warm graves, and saying it's not time yet.
We always read parshas Va'eschanan on Shabbos Nachamu. It begins with Moshe asking Hashem 515 if he can come into the land. Hashem told him it's not for you. You can't. Moshe asks again. Hashem says no. Moshe asks again. And again Hashem says, I have a purpose for you there. You have to be against Baal Pe'or. You have to have Adirei Torah. You have to raise up sparks there. It's not for you. Stay in galus. And Moshe asks again. And again and again. Because he doesn't want to take no for answer. Because he's full of Geula energy. Because he wants so much to even be a bird that flies into the land. A Israeli cockroach that scrounges through garbage. Because he knows that closer to Hashem and better for him and for the world, if he comes in. So he keeps asking. He doesn't want to sleep in a grave. He asks until Hashem tells him to stop asking. That's when the game is up.
So many people tell me. Our rabbis don't tell us to move here. Most of them have never even asked their Rabbi the shayla. Because they prefer their graves and frankly don't want to move. Chafetz Chaim heritage Lashon Harah videos and kumzitzes singing "Im Eshkoecheich" are so inspirational and moving. And you get to have meat-boards with them and not deal with rude Israelis either. Forget about joining the army. Yet there are some that actually do ask. Once. Maybe twice. But that's it. It's like asking the Rav if your chicken is kosher or your wife is mutar and then running out before he changes his mind. Got my psak. My get out of Gehenom free card if Hashem asks me after 120 years. I'm good to go. That's called burying your head in a grave and not getting out of it. That's not being Moshe Rabbeinu and asking 515 times if he can move here.
Trust me if you asked your Rav in America, even in Lakewood, 15 times, even he would tell you to move already. Because he sees, that you can't stay there anymore. He sees that it doesn't work for you anymore. He understands what your soul is telling you. That it is in touch with the Shechina paging you. He hears the call that you hear that anyone that has nefesh chayim should step out of the grave and separate himself from the dead.
It's the last Tisha B'av in the midbar. The Har Ha'Bayis is almost in our hands. May this year Tu B'Av, this coming week, may all of klal Yisrael finally realize cheshbon chadash michuvan- there is a new accounting here. And may we all join all of the meisei midbar who have returned to life here in Yerushalayim Ha'Benuyah.
Have a consoling and geula revealed Shabbos Nachamu and an awesome Bein Hazmanim,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
This week's Insights and Inspiration is dedicated one again by my dear dear friends (every sponsorship gets you another dear😊) Tzipi and Ephraim Book, as zechus for shmira for all our holy Chayalim, and for all of Eretz Yisrael. May Hashem give us and them the strength to finally liberate our country and build the Bais HaMikdash with the Geula Shlaima!
Thank You!
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YOUNG ISRAEL OF KARMIEL
DAVENING SCHEDULE
PARSHAT VAESCHANAN / NACHAMU
CANDLELIGHTING -7:15 PM
MINCHA followed by Mariv -7:30 PM
SHACHARIS- 9:00 AM
Kiddush Chulent!
LAST TIME FOR KRIYAS SHEMA- 9:14 AM
SHIUR IN EIM HABANIM SAMAYACHA- 6:30 PM
MINCHA- 7:00 PM
MARIV 10 minutes after tzeis- 8:33 PM
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Di grub iz shoin ofen un der mentsh tut noch hofen."- The grave is already dug and man still continues to hope.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
9. The national burial section designated for the burial of leaders on Mount Herzl is called_________
What was the primary reason for the construction of the Tel Aviv Port in 1936?
A. A commercial strike was declared by the Arab leadership, which halted operations at the Jaffa Port.
B. The Jewish Settlement’s decision to create an independent agricultural alternative to compete with Jaffa oranges.
C. The desire to host an international exhibition with guest nations (The Levant Fair).
D. The poor location of the Jaffa Port hindered the proper unloading of goods.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b86TCegZslQ – Bardak is back with the Bein Hazmanim Tiyul video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x01JCnSSghA&t=2139s - I know it's not Tisha B'Av and watching a video the day after is like eating matza pizza after Pesach. But this one is amazing and thought provoking and Reb Michoel Killed it this year dropping gauntlet about Har HaBayis…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Qlbbzk4T0&t=1200s - Ahraon Sokol as well knocks it out with this challenging video- The Geula is happening now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB1cgEpA4FQ&t=1440s – Here's the OU Jen Airley video mentioned above about the Bais Hamikdash in the Making… worth the watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qxz077iTQ – Titein Acharis -with Rav Paley- Nachamu tune… I cried…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBwnnbVJhk8 – And last but not least Rav Breitowitz discussing the sugya of Har Habayis… Don’t be and sound like an Am Ha'aretz… watch it.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Tear Down the Wall -333 BC- Nechemia is coming. Darius has given him permission to return. To rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim. To unite the city. It's a temporary leave though. He wants him back. He needs his Jews. So Nechemia goes out in the middle of the night with a few friends and heads on over from Iran to Israel. Yet, he knows there will be opposition. There are Jews that are traditionalists and although it's only been 12 years since the Temple has been rebuilt, yet they don't want to do more. They don't want to rebuild the city. They're happy with the Status Quo. Maybe a Kotel is just enough for us… Is this sounding familiar to you?
So what does Nechemia do? The Navi tells us he goes to Shaar Ha'Gai and starts to break down the pathetic broken walls that were there. Where is Shaar Ha'Gai. Believe it or not, although today it's the entrance and intersection towards Beit Shemesh from Highway 1. That's obviously not what it's talking about. In fact today, underneath the Kotel Plaza which is built on pillars and arches from ancient second Temple days, they have discovered a whole underground city. The Shaar Ha'Gai is where the two valleys that Yerushalayim sits in the middle of, come together. It's there where Nechemia comes and starts to blow up the old walls.
Can you imagine today someone blowing up the Kotel. A Jewish person? A Rabbi? Do you know why he does that? For the same reason it probably should happen today. Ouch! Because the purpose isn't the Kotel. It's the rebuilding of the Ir. It's the return to a Jerusalem that is large and united. And some times you have to blow up the status quo to build anew.
Nechemia, then turns to the people and show them the failing wall and encourages them to rebuild it. He brings them wood. He shows them the permit from Darius to do that. Which is amazing. Because it seems that just because he had the permission from Trump of his times. That wouldn't have been enough. They had to see the wall falling down and apart first. But his plan works. They come together and Klal Yisrael starts to finally take responsibility to rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim.
How do our neighbors respond? Stay tuned next week.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE TOMBSTONE JOKES OF THE WEEK
A wife inscribed on her husband's tombstone...
Rest in Peace honey.
Rest in Peace, till I join you.
An elderly man was trying to figure out what to buy his wife for Chanuka. Knowing they already had everything they needed he decided to give his wife a Tombstone. She opened the present and thought. "OOOOKKKAYYYYY.. Sure, Thank you"
She thought the gesture was nice and a little weird at the same time. The next year the entire family was celebrating Chanuka again together and the elderly man had bought great gifts for everybody but his elderly wife. His kids and grand kids were so thankful and happy.
After everything was done his wife said "Hey! What about me? You didn't get me anything?"
The elderly Man replied "Why would I get you anything this year? You still haven't used what I got you last year!!"
A lawyer’s wife died. At her grave, everyone was appalled.
The tombstone read, “HERE LIES PHYLLIS, WIFE OF ATTORNEY MURRAY WILLIAMS; SPECIALIZES IN DIVORCE AND MALPRACTICE”.
Murray burst into tears. His brother said, “You SHOULD cry, pulling a cheap publicity stunt like this.”
Murray said, “You don’t understand. I gave them my business card.”
His brother apologized.
“…and they didn’t include the phone number!”
What's worse than 2 dead babies in a dumpster? One dead baby in two dumpsters
Yankel, the Yerushalmi yid with 12 kids was trying to rent a house. However, no landowner would allow him to rent their house due to the number of children he had. Frustrated, the man told his wife to visit the kivrei tzadikim in the cemetery and bring all but their youngest child with her.
He then visited a property and told the landowner that he would like to rent the place.
"Is this your only child?" asked the landowner.
"No, I have 12 children" replied the man.
"Then where are the other 11 kids?"
"In the cemetery with my wife," he calmly replied.
Dentist’s tombstone:
"Here lies Doctor Bob Greenberg, filling his last cavity".
What is written on Steve Jobs tombstone? iCame, iSaw, iConquered.
Engraved on a hypochondriac's tombstone? See, I told you I was sick.
A man comes to work at a cemetery. Two weeks pass, he comes to tbe boss and hands in his resignation. "What's the problem, Pete?" - asks the boss. – "Are the benefits bad, the salary? Are you afraid, maybe?"
"No, it's not that, Chief, - the man explains." - It's just... I can't take it anymore. I'm walking around the cemetery, and I see a writing on a tombstone: *Here sleeps*. Then, a few steps further, *Here rests*. Then, a few more steps and I see, *Here Such-and-Such found his peace*... And I've got to work!"
A mother and her 2 daughters are at a cemetery
One of the kids is curious and asks her mom “Mommy, why am I named Rose?”
Their mom replies “Because when you were a baby, a rose petal fell on your head.”
Her second daughter asks “Mommy, why am I named Daisy?”
Her mom replies “Because when you were a baby, a daisy petal fell on your head.”
Then, Rose looks at the tombstone and points at the name written on it.
“So why is that their name?” Rose asks.
Her mom sighs and says “We’ll always remember Samsung Smart Fridge.”
A distressed man is in the cemetery crying his eyes out and beating a tombstone while shouting "Why did you have to die! Why did you have to die!"
A nearby man comes up to him and asks him "I'm very sorry, was she your wife?"
The distressed man looks up at him and responds "it was her first husband".
After my friend died from an allergic reaction to peanuts, I went to his funeral. Everyone got upset when I put an Epipen on his tombstone.
So I explained: "It's what he would have wanted"
Three boys walk through the woods and suddenly hear cries for help. They follow the sound to the lake and see Trump drowning. The boys jump into the water and drag him to shore. Trump asks the boys how he can repay them.
The first boy says, "I want a boat."
The second boy says, "I want a truck."
The third boy says, "I want a nice tombstone."
Trump asks, "Why is that?"
The boy says, "Because when my dad finds out I helped save you, he's going to kill me."
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The answer to this week's question is A– I got this one right! I probably wouldn’t' have remembered the reason for the port, but when given the choice it came back to me. Yeah nothing like a good Arab strike to make us figure our stuff out…The first one though was easy. The Cheklat Gedolei Ha"Umah- the portion where the great men of our nation is what it's called and where every Prime Minister, President, and head of Knesset has the right to be buried. Begin, however refused to be buried there, he wanted to be buried with "Real" great men so he's on Har Ha'Zeitim… So beack in the game strong here with Rabbi Schwartz having 6.5 points and the MOT having 2.5 points on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam
