Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
Parshas Beshalach
Make Me Proud
What
is most ironic is that most Israelis, who claim to be proud, feel that their
fellow countrymen are lacking in pride and that only if they would vote for
them would they truly be proud once again. The religious feel that the secular
are not proud of their heritage and the secular feel the religious are not
proud of their close-minded minimalist lifestyles. The right feels the left is
not proud of Israel's existence and its accomplishments and the left feels that
Israel has no sense of pride in being a moral peaceful nation that cares about its
minorities. For a proud nation our obsession with our own pride seems to be at
the core of our Jewish psyche and sadly enough for me, a recent Oleh, all of
this makes me very not proud. Our country is ripped into shreds by all of this
well-meaning-and I truly believe it to be so-divisiveness. Thirty four parties
ran for office. Thirty four different groups and campaigns were dedicated to
bringing their own unique vision to the Holy-land and the Jewish nation. They
all lost. We all lost. In my humble opinion we have nothing to be proud of.
Whoahhhh…
you say, what do you mean, nothing to be proud of? Don’t you know that Israel
is the first to________ ___________ __________...that we are the greatest_____ _______ __________…. We accomplished________
________ __________…. There is no other place in the Middle East that ______
__________ __________… For three thousand years we have been the only ones
_______ ____________ ________… That every major ________ throughout history is
only because of the Jews- they got it from us……. In the field of ____ _______ ______ the Jews
were the ones that led the way… that broke new ground…that shone the light. See
how proud you just became, when I said that we have nothing to be proud about.
OK,
maybe I'm wrong. We are the greatest country in the world. We are the most
successful people around. We are a nation that is perfect. The world should
learn from us, rather than us from them. They have nothing to teach us. We are
Chosen and a light to the world. If not for us, where would everyone else be?
We are the smartest, strongest, most educated, most loved by God and the possessors
of the only truth. There is and will never be another nation as incredible as
us and it's about time we realized it.
Woahhhh…
you say again. But don’t you know that we are failing at _____ ______ ______...
and that more than half of us are ______ __________ ____________..... and when it comes to
_______ __________ _______ even the ______ are doing better… have it better…
are more____ _____ _____. What makes you
think you're so superior? Don't you know that _____ __________ _______ were all
Jews and doesn’t that make you ashamed to be Jewish. It certainly does me… I'm
sure Hashem as well can't be too proud of his people, with someone like that…!
And there you have it. See how un-proud you became when I said we should be
proud. So there we are, the proudest nation and the least proud nation all
wrapped up into one nice corned beef sandwich on Jewish Rye with mustard and
sour pickles (sorry about that I told you I was getting nostalgic about the
States J).
If
you have mixed emotions about now, don't feel bad. This is an ancient struggle
of our people; perhaps the quintessential one that has always been our
challenge. In fact it started 6 days after we left Egypt on the way to becoming
that perfect Nation we have yet to achieve becoming and it of course starts in
this week's Torah portion.
The
Torah tells us that the Jewish people left Egypt on the first day of Passover
leaving in their wake the greatest world empire in total destruction. The
entire infrastructure of Egypt was destroyed, the Egyptian morale and certainly
their "deity-complex" was shattered. Hashem had shown them who His
nation was and punished them for all they have done to us. You don’t mess with the
Jews. What a proud moment. But wait… what's that in the distance? Uh Oh… 600
chariots and the elite forces of Egypt are pounding down our backs and here we
are stuck against the Sea. The Medrash tells us that at that moment a bunch of
political parties opened up. . One group favored a battle with the Egyptians-
probably the militant right, another group advised leaping into the sea-this
was the Masada group-die as free men rather then slaves, a third said to
surrender and return to Egypt-perhaps the left- let's work this all out in a peaceful
diplomatic way, and a fourth advocated crying to Hashem for help- and there
goes those religious guys again. Welcome to our first Israeli politics. Not bad
it only took one week.
What
does Hashem say?
"Don't
be afraid! (for the masada people) Stand firm and see the Lord's
salvation that He will wreak for you today, for the way you have seen the
Egyptians is today, you shall no longer
continue to see them for eternity (for the diplomatic left returnee
advocates) . Hashem will fight for you (for the militant ones), but
you shall remain silent (for the religious prayer ones)."
Well
what do you know? They were all wrong. Hashem continues in the next verse..
"Why do you cry out to me (seemingly the political commercials
didn't stop, especially the prayer ones)"
"Speak to the Jewish people and tell them to go".
I'm in charge of this one. It's not about you-
Hashem says- it's about Me. And thus ends our first lesson of becoming a
nation. The water splits. The Jews come out and our first song-our national
anthem is declared. The song of our pride. Our song to Hashem.
Ashira
La'Hashem Ki Go'ah Ga'ah- I sing to Hashem for He is the pride of all
prides…
This
is my God and I will glorify him…
U'Vrov
Gaon'Cha TaH'aros Kameicha- With the abundance of Your pride You shatter Your
opponents
Who is like You in greatness…Hashem shall
rule forever..
This is perhaps the most pivotal moment of
our history. We are united. We are one. We are at once the most humble of all
nations and the most proud. We recognize that in essence there is nothing that
we have or accomplish that is not from Hashem. What fills us with the
most pride possible is that we are connected to that greatness. Our only and
greatest pride is that we are His people and He is our Father. It's never about
us being proud about us. It's always meant to be us proud about Him.
We've fallen a long way since that moment.
But there are times when we really do and can feel that pride. Think about your
most proud moments. Is it your child's Bar Mitzvah, walking them down the
Chupah? Is it when you achieved a milestone that you never thought you could
achieve, but for the help of Hashem? Is it when you moved to Israel and
connected and returned to that special country that we have longed for? It is
at moments of our deepest sense of pride that we are probably most filled with
a sense of humility and connection to Hashem. It is at those moments that our
souls fly back to that first moment and echo that song- Ashira La'Hashem Ki
Go'ah Ga'ah. I'm proud that Hashem is with me. Our least proud moments in
life are when we are disconnected from Hashem. When we are trying to "make
it on our own" and when we are trying to change and fix the
world and everyone else because we don't value their connection to Hashem and
their sense of pride in being His children; the connection they possess merely
by created in His image.
Our
sages tell us that our pride for Hashem is reflected in the Teffilin/Phylacteries
that we wear as a crown upon our head which state in it Hashem is our one God, our
eternal love for Him and our memory of that moment of our Exodus. Hashem, our sages teach us, also
"wears" Tefillin. In God's tefillin it states his pride in the
Jewish people… His crown…His greatest nachas. And what does it say in
his tefillin? Mi K'amcha Yisrael Goy Echad Ba'Aretz- Who is like you Israel,
one nation on the land. What makes Hashem proud of us? That we are one
nation. All of "our" accomplishments throughout history in
wars, technology, innovation, wisdom, ethics, even the light we share all comes
from Hashem. It is He that gives us greatness and from which everything comes.
The only thing Hashem can be proud of us is when we are one…when we are united
and when we can all put aside all of our petty differences and become His people
together…all of us.
Can
you remember that moment when we left Egypt? Do you remember that moment when
we stood on Sinai when we crowned Hashem? When we knew we could change the
world into His world? When we knew that was all that we wanted…all that we were
here for? When we all stood together as His people? I don't remember it…but my
soul does. It longs for that pride. It knows we can achieve it again. Ba'Yom
HaHu Yehiyeh Hashem Echad U'Shmo Echad- On that day may it be soon Hashem
will be one and His name one. Together we can be proud once again.
Have
a wonderful Shabbos and an inspiring Tu B'Shvat,
Rabbi
Ephraim Schwartz
RABBI SCHWARTZ PROUD ISRAEL VIDEO OF THE WEEK IN HONOR OF TU B'SHVAT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF7uGmmGn-M
************************************
RABBI
SCHWARTZES TOUR GUIDE COURSE QUESTION OF THE WEEK
(answer below)
Biblical
Giv'on is located in?
(a) Nahal Sorek
(b) East of Mikhmash
(c) the Ayalon Valley
(d) north of Nebi
Samuel
RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-
Ari
Ashkenazi Shul, Tzefat – The
Ari"zl – Reb Yitzchak Luria (1534-1572) was one of the greatest Kabbalists
of all times and can be accredited with starting the standard and normative
ideas about Kabbala elaborating and explain the concepts of Tikun Olam and
redeeming the sparks of holiness found in every aspect of Creation. His father
was Ashkenazi and his mother was Sefardi raised in Jerusalem and moved to Egypt
when he was orphaned at a young age. He came to Tzefat for the last two years
of his life ( he died at the young age of 38) and in those two years he
transformed much of the religious world and lifecycle as we know it.
Innovations attributed to the Ari'zl (which means lion but also an acronym of
his name Adonainu Reb Yitzchak of Blessed Memory) include Tashlich Rosh
Hashana, Simchat Torah Hakafot, Shavuot night studying, Ushpizin/ the heavenly
Sukkot guests and even the TU bi'shvat Seder that many will hold this Shabbos J. Perhaps most significantly each
Friday night they would come out to this field where the shul is and welcome in
the Shabbat Queen with psalms and songs. The shul originally built by the
Jewish greek community form Grigos was sold to the ashkenazic Chasidic Jews
that came here in the late 1700 and
early 1800's. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1837 that killed over 2000
Jews in Tzefat and rebuilt with mystical design that looks like an orchard and
trees.
On the top of the Ark with 3 pillars on each side
corresponding to the three classes of Jews Kohein Levi Yisrael one can make out
the face of man that was turned into a lion so as not to have any human images
in the Shul. In the rear of the Shul is a chair of Eliyahu donated by the
daughter of the the Sanzer Rav where it is said to be an omen for having
children. The Bima as well is known to be a place of miracles as in 1948 when a
missle hit the courtyard shrapnel flew into the shul and just missed the person
who was sitting there as he was bowing down during the modem portion of prayer.
Many put letters with their prayers in that crack which is still visible as
they do in the Kotel.
******************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ QUOTE OF THE WEEK
While the sage Choni was walking along a road, he saw a man planting a carob tree.
Choni asked him: "How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?" "Seventy years," replied
the man. Choni then asked: "Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length
of time and eat its fruit?" The man answered: "I found a fruitful world because my
ancestors planted it for me. Likewise, I have planted for my children."
~Taanit 23a
**********************
Answer
Answer is D-
Giv'on is mentioned quite a few times in tanach. The Giv'onim tricked Yehoshua
into making a treaty with them when the Jews first came into Israel. They
became the water carriers and wood choppers for the Jewish people. The city
became one of the Lev'im cities in the portion of the tribe of Binyomin. King
Shaul was from there and because he killed the Givonim King David (after
suffering a three year famine in Israel and being informed by Hashem that this
was the cause) handed over Shaul's children to be killed to them in order to
rectify the desecration of Hashem's name. The Tabernacle/Mishkan resided in
Givon as the final place (after Gilgal, Shilo, Nov) until Shlomo built the
Mikdash. Shlomo brought 1000 sacrifices in Givon when he received his dream
that gave him wisdom. By the pool of Givon as well was the fatal battle between
Avner Sauls general and Yoav Dovid's general. Archeologists have found this
ancient pool as well as all types of burial tombs and huge ancient wine cellars
for 95,000 wine jugs with what do you know? the letters Givon engraved on their
handles. L'Chaim!
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