Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
September 23rd 2012 -Volume 2,
Issue 45 –5th of Tishrei 5773!!
Vayeileich/Shuva/ Yom
Kippur
Yom Kippur’s Mystery Man
Tour
One of the rewarding
skills that you develop when training to become a tour guide, is the ability to
see things along the road that you might pass daily and learn to appreciate the
hidden secrets and history that might lie behind their simple appearance.
“Look out from this vantage
point over here. Here’s where Avraham stood and looked out with his son to the
mountain of Hashem before the binding of Yitzchak”
“This valley we are
standing in is the same valley where David fought Goliath”
“This stream we are
kneeling before is the one that Gideon had his troops kneel before to drink
before the battle against the Midianites”
“See those white ripples in
the middle of the kinneret that is where our sages tell us the well of Miriam
is still rolling under the great lake-or maybe it’s those ripples…or those…”
Our Tanach, our history,
and our tradition all come alive when you are standing at various places and
you uncover the history that took place there. The connection we have and feeling
for our heritage is awe inspiring. One of the greatest treats of being a tour
guide here in Israel is to be able to reveal those hidden connections to your
tourists, as you show them that the stories and inspiring figures that they are
familiar with are not just fairy tales of the past that they read about in
books, or even study about in Yeshiva, rather they can reach out, touch and
connect with those same figures as they traverse the Holyland where they once
dwelled.
The truth of the matter is,
that it is not only a tour guides job to do this. Every Rabbi, parent and teacher as well is
meant to pass down our tradition in that same way. Our Pessach Seder is based
on this concept of a hands-on experiential telling of the story; from the
Matzah, Bitter herbs and four cups of wine. Our Purim feast gives a taste of
the joy of the holiday, our Chanuka candles connect us to the light of the
miracle of the Menorah and our sitting on the floor, fasting and mourning
customs connect us to the destruction of the Temple on Tisha B’Av. Our religious
experiences are not only meant to be days of commemoration but experiences that
have many layers, insights and nuances that are all there waiting to be
uncovered and most powerfully to give us a sense of appreciation and connection
to the thousands of years that our ancestors have been doing the same things at
the same time.
Which brings us to Yom
Kippur; the day that should be the most inspirational of the year. For many though,
the 15 out of 25 waking hour fast day, stuck in synagogue with a prayer book
that never seems to end, recounting your long litany of sins, fasting, looking
at your watch and wondering how much longer do we have go, does not necessarily
seem like the most exciting way to spend your Tuesday night, Wednesday morning,
afternoon and evening. Chazanut and singing is nice for a bit. But wouldn’t it
be great to have a tour guide through the Yom Kippur davening? Someone who can
make the prayers a little more alive for us? A guide to connect me and my prayers on a
deeper level to thousands of years my ancestors have been saying these same
words? Back in the old country J Our West Seattle TLC Yom
Kippur services were kind of like that as I would intersperse our davening
regularly with different insights.(For those of you still in Seattle you
can experience that still with the TLC’s newest Rabbi in West Seattle my
colleague Rabbi Yehudah Greer-contact the Seattle Kollel for more details)
Here in Israel though it is my understanding that if the Rabbi tries to speak
more than once during a service and for more than 10 minutes he is liable to be
left without a Minyan by the time he is done in the best case scenario and he
may himself be given a tour by the few remaining members. So instead we have this
weekly E-Mail to give you, my beloved readers and for that Rabbi/Tour Guide in
me the outlet to share with you a little bit of inspiration for your Yom Kippur
Tour this year as you prepare for our upcoming day of Judgment.
Today’s tour, which of
course has to start with a connection to the weekly Parsha as we come closer to
the end our annual Torah reading and the end of the Moshe our great leaders life,
starts with Moshe’s statement that he is 120 years old, his birthday and day of
passing and he is preparing for death. The Talmud tells us that when Moshe went
up to receive the Torah Hashem instead shows him the future generations. In this
vision he sees another great figure over a thousand years later, the great
Rabbi Akiva who is teaching Torah in the Beit Midrash. Moshe is overwhelmed at
how Rabbi Akiva would explain even the small shapes and crowns of each letter
in the Torah, to the degree that he says “You have Rabbi Akiva what do you need
me for?” When Rabbi Akiva than says that we have learned this all from Moshe on
Sinai though Moshe is consoled.
Rabbi Akiva, who like Moshe
according to the Medrash also lived 120 years (Hillel and Rabbi Yochanan Ben
Zakkai are the other two mentioned), is the hidden figure that if one looks
carefully can be found all over the Yom Kippur davening. In fact the Chi”da
notes that Rabbi Akiva, who was martyred on Yom Kippur, is in fact the essence
of Yom Kippur and all of our prayers should be in his merit. So let’s start
from the beginning (a very good place to start) and your homework this Yom Kippur
is to find various places in the service where our sages, who formulated our
prayers, placed references to Rabbi Akiva and his ideas.
Our introduction to the Yom
Kippur service before Kol Nidrei is the recital of the verse
“Ohr ZaruAH
La’TzadiK U’LiyishreI LeV SimchA-
A light shall shine for the righteous and joy for those of a stalwart heart”.
If you noticed the last letters of each one of the words actually spell out
Rabbi Akiva’s name. Cool! Well that’s pretty neat (we tour guides like it when
you say that). So our prayers start off with a hint of Rabbi Akiva. Even more
inspiring though is that as this is said we take that Sefer Torah, that he
explained every nuance of (even the word Es), around the Beit Knesset
and lovingly kiss it as we think of the love he had for the Torah. We then
recite verses and a statement of how we are permitted to pray together with
sinners for in truth
“Kol H’Am Bi’Shgagah- we
are all unintentional sinners (at least)”
That concept of all of us being connected and
responsible for one another falls under what Rabbi Akiva coined as the Torah’s
golden rule- “Amar Rabbi Akiva- Va’Ahavta Li’rayacha Kamocha- Zeh Klal Gadol
Ba’Torah- And you shall love your fellow as your self is a primary principle
of the Torah.”
Next before we recite our
Shmona Esrei for the evening service, we recite the verse
“On this day you shall
atone for all your sins to cleanse you; from all your sins; before Hashem
you shall be cleansed.” Once again we can hear the voice of Rabbi Akiva as he
exclaimed upon reading this verse
“How fortunate are you
Israel! Before whom are you purified and who purifies you? Our Father who is in
heaven. Just as a Mikva purifies the un-pure so too Hashem purifies Israel.”
One can feel the awe of the
day that Rabbi Akiva must’ve had.. All we have to do is jump into that mikva
that is the love of our forgiving Father and and Hashem himself will clean off
all the shmutz our soul has accumulated over the year.
The truth is, there is
perhaps no greater figure in our history who symbolizes new starts and the
concept of Teshuva. Rabbi Akiva who only started off himself learning to read Hebrew
at age 40 (when he would go to cheder with his little son) writes about himself
that when he was a simple shepherd and saw a Torah scholar he would say- “give
me a Talmid Chacham and I will bite him like a donkey!”When asked, “Why not
like a dog?” he answered: “A dog’s bites tears the flesh, but a donkey’s bites
breaks the bones. Can you hear in these words sadly many of our typical
secular and anti-religious brothers and sisters? Yet, with all the challenges
of a secular background and inspired by the potential he saw in the power of
water to penetrate a rock, he decided that his heart which is so open to the
love of Hashem, and the Torah which is so powerful should certainly be able to
return, grow and develop.
Our tour continues with
another prayer that we have recited repeatedly since Rosh Hashana and will
recite multiple times on Yom Kippur; The prayer of Avinu Malkeinu- our Father
our King (see my email last week). The Talmud tells us that the author of this
prayer was none other than our Rabbi Akiva. The story being, that it was a time
of famine without any rain falling in Israel and many of the sages tried
praying for rain to no avail. Until Rabbi Akiva was got up and recited this
prayer which was accepted. Why Rabbi Akiva? The Talmud says that although his
teacher Rabbi Elazar was greater than him but Rabbi Akiva was one who was able
to transcend his natural instincts and have mercy even in places and times when
he was justified to act harshly. How appropriate it is that the quote mentioned
from Rabbi Akiva in Ethics of our Fathers is
“Beloved is the man that he
was created in the image of God; an extra love is made known to him that he was
created in God's image, as it says (Genesis 9:6) "for in His own image God
made humankind." Beloved are the Jews that they are called sons to God; an
extra love is made known to them that they are called sons to God, as it says
(Deuteronomy 14:1) "You are children of the Lord your God." Beloved
are the Jews that there has been given to them the precious instrument; an
extra love is made known to them that they were given the precious instrument
of the world's creation, as it says (Proverbs 4:2) "For I give you good
precepts; do not forsake my teaching."
Rabbi Akiva was able to
transcend because he knew he was created in the image of Hashem who does so as well.
He felt beloved by our Father and inspired by the Torah and he taught us how
fortunate we are to have the power of that knowledge embedded in our souls. And
when we behave in that fashion Hashem as well reflects that and grants us
renewed life.
Finally for the conclusion
of today’s tour we recite during our Musaf prayer the story of the death of
Rabbi Akiva. His martyrdom was on this
holiest of days in the theater of Casarea, before the mocking Roman masses as
his skin was flailed off his body with burning iron combs for the crime of
teaching our tradition to his people. His students cried out
“Is this Torah and is this
its reward?’
and Rabbi Akiva responded
“My whole life I have
recited the Shema and have been unable to fulfill the verse to serve Hashem
with all of my soul and now I have been given the opportunity to fulfill that
as well”
Rabbi Akiva died in an act
of martyrdom. Ironically enough it was Rabbi Akiva himself who taught that one
is not obligated to give up one’s life for another commandment besides the
three cardinal sins (even to save a fellow Jew). For the Torah teaches us that
one is meant to “Live by the commandments”- not die by them. Yet for him
a life without the study of Torah without closeness to God was not a life worth
living or as he described like a fish without water. That was life. It is that
life that we are praying to be written and sealed in this Yom Kippur.
Rabbi Akiva died with the
words Shema Yisrael on his lips as he sanctified Hashem’s name one final time
before his death. We, as well, conclude our Yom Kippur Neila service with that
cry of Kiddush Hashem, Shema Yisrael, echoing that call of Rabbi Akiva that has
held us together as a God’s chosen nation for millennia. May Hashem bless all
of us this year, in the merit of the teachings and inspiration of the great
Rabbi Akiva whose ways and deeds still serve as a light for us, that we be signed
and sealed in the book of good life, redemption and salvation, sustenance and
support, merits, forgiveness and pardon.
May your first Shabbos of the year 5773 be an
incredible start to a fantastic year
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
GRAVE
OF RABBI AKIVA,TIVERYA- High up on the mountain top overlooking the kinneret
and the city of tiverya, th Golan (and on a good day even the Hermon) is the
grave of the great sage Rabbi Akiva. Although Rabbi Akiva was killed in Casera
seemingly his body was brought here the final resting place of the Sanhedrin of
which he was a part of for burial. Interestingly enough Rabbi Akiva’s great
wife Rachel who attributed all his greatness (Rabbi Akiva says Who is a rich
man?- he who has a wife who has beautiful deeds) to is not buried near him
rather she is lower in the city of Tiverya. The reason being that Rabbi Akiva
was married three times his last wife the former wife and convert of the Roman
governor Turnus Rufus is buried here with him. Also a much later tradition places
the burial of Rav Moshe Chaim Luzatto (Ramchal) the 18th century
Italian Jewish writer, kabbalist, philosopher and Ethicsist who wrote the great
Mussar works Mesilat Yesharim and Derech Hashem, who was persecuted and
eventually died in Akko. There are those that suggest that the RaMChaL only
lived for 40 years and as Rabbi Akiva did not study for the first 40 years of
his life he shared the soul of RaMChaL who rectified and completed the soul of
Rabbi Akiva. One rarely will come to visit this grave and not find a group of
sefardic Jews that are Barbequing and picnicking at this incredible spot for prayer
and gorgeous views. Who knows maybe they”ll let you join them.
RABBI SCHWARTZES FAVORITE RABBI AKIVA VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KWi0sFlcgo
RABBI SCHWARTZES YOM KIPPUR JOKE OF THE WEEK
Mrs. Epstein, A Hebrew School teacher at Beth Israel Congregation had just concluded her lesson in preparation of Yom Kippur and wanted to make sure she had made her point. She asked her class, “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness for transgressing one of the commandments?”
There was a short pause and then, from the back of the room, a small boy spoke up and said, "Transgress one of the commandments.”
AHHHH THE WISDOM OF CHILDREN
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