Life Challenges- Matos 2011

Insights and Inspiration
from the 
Holy Land
from 
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

July 22ND 2011 -Volume I, Issue 35–20^th of Tamuz 5771

Parshat Matos

 

Life Challenges

"There are only 4 challenges in life", that incredible teacher and leader of the last generation, Rav Pam used to say to his students. Just 4. Everyone, he suggested, will at least have to go through one. Most of us will have more then one. And it is a fortunate person who doesn't have to deal with them all at the same time. The four he was referring to were, as he would say in Yiddish, "Gelt, Gezunt, Giddel Bonim, and Sholom Bayis- or in English, Wealth (or lack of it), Health (lack of it too), Child rearing (which my Mother claims is never really over) and Marital harmony (something which even the best marriages are still aiming to aspire to).
Not a bad life, huh? Only four things to worry about. Do you feel more reassured about your life? More confident? The truth is when hearing it from that great Rabbi I did. It's a funny thing about problems I've found in life. Generally it is not the problems themselves that destroy and devastate the individual. Rather it is the unexpected hurt, and the lack of control and perspective that overwhelm and make these challenges so paralyzing.

If we examine the lives of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs in the Torah-the heroes and role models the Torah presents us with in its teachings, we find there wasn't even one of them who didn't undergo the most incredible challenges that we would never wish on our worst enemies. Can anyone imagine the isolation and wandering of Abraham and Sarah. The child rearing issues of Isaac and Rivka after years of infertility? The poverty, marital challenges (4 wives… need I say more) of Jacob? Yet, they are our heroes- not despite their problems and challenges- but because of them. They surmounted those challenges and they grew from them and they therefore serve as our eternal inspiration of what the human spirit can achieve.

This week we read from the Torah portion of the last incidents of the life of our greatest leader Moshe Rabbeinu. The Book of Devorim will be Moshe's final speech and reiteration of the Torah. As we reflect back upon the life and 40 year career of what the Torah describes as the humblest and greatest of all men who alone could speak face to face with the Almighty, we recall and look at the challenges he has until now gone through, in absolute awe. The fleeing from Egypt , The 10 plagues and splitting of the sea for a nation that seemed to have no merits. The trials of leading this stubborn people from the Golden calf, the continuous complaints about the Manna, the water, the travel, the land, of Israel , the power struggles of Korach, the battles with our enemies Amalek, Og, Sichon. Finally as we reach the borders of the end of that long tiring 40 year journey the people once again sin with the Moabite and Midianite women at the behest of our enemy Bilaam and the command is given to destroy this final enemy before entering the land. But once again the nation fails and allows the women to survive not heeding the command of God.

This weeks Parsha then concludes with perhaps an even greater frustration to Moshe. There is nothing more that he could hope for or be granted than the opportunity to go to the Land of Israel ; His dream, his hope, his dying request. And yet then he is presented with two tribes, Gad and Reuven, who make the request to not live in the land rather they wish to remain on the fertile plains of Jordan. Can there be a greater blow to the man whose only dream is to cross that river? Yes those are the last two incidents of Moshe's career. And we think we have challenges and frustrations.

To me it is these lessons and teachings that have always been the most important and meaningful of the Torah. A good life and a successful life is not one that is not filled with challenges. Greatness and fulfillment as can be seen in the Torah is quite the opposite. It is taking all of those difficulties and surmounting them. Finding that reservoir of strength and faith and realizing that life is a ladder that needs to be climbed and a mountain that must be scaled and that one's success will ultimately only be measured by how many challenges we have overcome and grown through. That is our heritage and that will be our legacy.

In this time frame of the Jewish calendar year in which we focus on the loss of our Temples and our long Exile, distant from the time and Land when the Divine presence would rest upon our Bais Hamikdash in that chosen city of Yerushalayim. We are meant to reflect on all of the challenges that we have failed in and continue to be found faulty of that has not yet brought us to that ultimate Redemption. The challenges that we have in our lives are not there to paralyze and overwhelm us. They are there to galvanize us to step up to the plate and bring us closer. And God willing very soon to bring us home.

                                         Have a very restful Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

Looking to Make Summer Plans?

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PROCEEDS SUPPORT THE YOUNG ISRAEL OF KARMIEL
for more info call Rabbi Schwartz 050-597-0649 from states (011-972-50- 597-0649.
or email rabbschwartz@yahoo.com

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RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

Yaffo/ Jaffa -ONCE KNOWN AS THE ORANGE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD THE CITY OF JAFFA NO LONGER GROWS ORANGES AND HASN'T FOR QUITE A WHILE (THEY LEASE OUT THE USAGE OF THEIR NAME-INSTEAD- TO PLACES AS FAR OUT AS BRAZIL) YET THE CITY OF YAFFA HAS ALWAYS BEEN MUCH MORE ABOUT THE CITRUS IT PRODUCED. THE CITY WHICH LEGEND HAS IT THAT WAS NAMED AFTER THE SON OF NOACH YEFET- WHO FIRST BUILT THIS CITY AND ITS BEAUTY- SERVED AS THE PRIMARY PORT FOR MILLENIA AND FROM WHERE THE NEW STATE OF ISRAEL GREETED ALL ITS NEW IMMIGRANTS IN THE EARLY ALIYOT. YONAH THE PROPHET SET SAIL FROM HERE, THE GREAT MANY OF THE GREAT SAGES THAT ARRIVED OVER SEA ALL LANDED IN YAFFO. AT ONE POINT IN THE 18TH CENTURY SO MANY PEOPLE WERE ARRIVING AND MOVING TO YAFFO THAT THE SAGES OF JERUSALEM PUT A CHEREM(EXCOMMUNICATION) ON THE JEWS THAT WOULD LIVE THERE FOR FEAR THAT JERUSALEM WOULD NOT BE SUFFICIENTLY POPULATED.
TODAY ONE CAN TOUR THE OLD CITY OF YAFFO WITH ITS WORLD FAMOUS GALLERIES AND SHUK. THE NEW VISITOR CENTER (2 MONTHS OLD)HAS A GREAT "MULTI SENSORY" ANIMATED MOVIE OF THE PERIODS OF EGYPT, THE PROPHETS AND THE LATER PERIODS WHO LIVED IN YAFFO AS WELL AS MANY FASCINATING ARCHEOLOGICAL FINDS. WHILE YOUR THERE YOU CAN VISIT THE HOME OF RAV KOOK THE FIRST CHIEF RABBI OF YACKOV THE BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEVE TZEDEK AND NEVE SHALOM AS WELL. WALK BY THE OLD PORT AND OLD TRAIN STATION. VISIT TWO RESTAURANTS THAT ARE DEDICATED AND RUN BY DEAF AND BLIND PEOPLE AS YOU CAN EXPERIENCE AND APPRECIATE THE GIFTS OF SEEING AND HEARING THAT WE HAVE AND FEEL WHAT IT WOULD BE TO BE WITHOUT IT FOR A LITTLE BIT- IN THESE EXPERIENTIAL  AND ACTIVITY CENTERED RESTAURANTS. YAFFO HAS INVESTED ALOT OF MONEY OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS TURNING WHAT WAS ONCE THE SLUMS OF TEL AVIV INTO THE TOURIST CENTER IT SHOULD BE. THEY'VE DONE A GREAT JOB AND CERTAINLY WORTH A GREAT DAY TRIP.