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"
July 11th 2013 -Volume 3, Issue 37–4th
of Av 5773
Parshat Devarim/Chazon/Tisha B'av
The Orientation of How
I was the only man there. My wife had gone to Jerusalem for
the day and it was me and Elka, my 6 year old, arriving at her/our 1st
grade pre-orientation orientation. They do that here. So there I was with a bunch
of mothers from Elka's class. It was so cute all of these former preschoolers
holding tightly to their mother's skirts nervous about what this assembly will
mean for them as they prepare for the next stage in their lives. I looked down at
my beautiful little girl in order to share this special father/daughter moment.
She in turn looked up to me with her cute little eyes and adorable accent and
said "Daddy you cen go 'ome now, eets just for Eema's…" and
then she began to lead me so gently to the doorway-in case I didn’t understand
her eengleesh. I happened to agree with her on this point. Yet knowing that my
wife obviously would not be so happy with me leaving her there by herself, I tried
explaining to her that I was like her Eema for tonight. I was not convincing. Elka
ran off to play with her friends. I stayed in the corner and caught up on some
phone/email work. She pretended I wasn't there. I played my part well. It was
finally over and we reunited outside again. I was her Abba, she was my Elka and
we walked hand in hand, family once again.
We are in the period of the "nine days" the week
before Tishah B'Av that historical day of mourning and tragedy for our loss of
our temple...our land… and the closeness we had with our Father. In this period,
Jewish law and custom instituted practices of mourning for the Jewish people. We
don't eat meat or drink wine during this period. I miss meat. Not just Israeli
meat but a good slice of a Nebraska free-range red, white and blue cow. We don't listen to music during this period
of mourning. I miss music. My kids make a lot of noise in the back seat without
the CD playing. My country drives are longer without the sounds of music making
the hills alive. Bathing and swimming are limited and cannot be done for
pleasure. No Kayak or nachal tours for me this week. The no-shaving thing
doesn't bother me that much, although my mustache started to scratch me the
past few days. The no-buying new clothing might be saving me some money,
although it has certainly put a damper on my wife's clothing business. Our
lives have changed for a little bit. But in another few days it will be over. We'll
get past it. Summer vacation is just around the corner again and we will move
on. But maybe we shouldn't…Maybe we shouldn't write off Abba so quickly…
Over the past two weeks of this period which our sages say
will be one that will be a time of crying and mourning until we merit to
return, I have read and heard heart-wrenching stories of terrible stories of
young children dying in tragic "accidents". Infants drowning, a young
girl, my older daughters age being killed by a car, a tragic suicide by a sick
teenager. Parents who will never again hold their children's hand from Gan, see
them at their Bar/Bat mitzvah, walk them down to their Chuppah. My eyes tear,
my heart is ripped apart, my soul cries out. I can't empathize, because I can't
imagine it. But I can't turn the pain off, because it is so great. For these
families as they mourn, meat, muic, wine, bathing are not signs of mourning.
They are expressions of the inner pain and loss. For them life will never be
the same. And as they experience the intensity of the tragedy that has changed
their lives forever they couldn't eat a steak or think about swimming and
enjoying themselves if you paid them. They have lost their most precious
treasure and nothing in this world has any allure anymore.
There is an incredibly moving Medrash in Eicha, the prophecy
of Yirmiyahu that we read on Tisha'a B'Av. It describes the Hashem coming to
the Jewish people to comfort us after the loss of our Temple. The Jewish people
though refuse to be comforted, complaining that although we had sinned, yet
where was His mercy, what of all those that sacrificed, that sanctified, the
Torah we alone accepted, the songs and prayers we sang and the hopes and dreams
to build the Land for His presence. Hashem responded do you think that I am
also not in pain? That I also do not mourn? That I also do not need comforting?
The prophets than come to comfort Hashem, but instead Hashem sends them to
comfort Jerusalem, the city bereft of its inhabitants…its children once
frolicking in the streets, its scholars singing words of Torah into the night,
its Temple that once housed the presence of the our Father. Jerusalem as well fails to be comforted. There
will be no comfort, the Medrash concludes, until that return, until our enemies
are destroyed, until we are once again reunited with our Abba in our home.
The Torah portion of Devarim which we begin this week, is
Moshe's last "schmooze" to the Jewish people. In the parsha Moshe as
well uses the word Eicha-"How?" that was echoed by Yishayahu
prior to the destruction and by Yirmiyahu upon witnessing the destruction.
Whereas Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah asks How does
the city once so full of people now sit abandoned and alone, and Yishayahu/Isaiah asks how did the people who were so holy
become so immoral, Moshe's Eicha is a personal one, and as the Medrash makes
the connection, the precursor to all the rest.
"How can I carry the burden alone of your contentiousness,
your burdens, and your quarrels Provide men of understanding… and I shall
appoint them as your heads. You answered me and said 'The thing that you
proposed is good' "
Rav Zev Weinberger in the Shemen Ha'Tov suggests that the
problem, downfall and eventual destruction all started from this point. When
the Jewish people rather than step up to Moshe and protest losing their
connection with him and thereby their special connection with Hashem that Moshe
alone would provide, acquiesced to the new arrangement they had already than
began to go down that slippery slope. How do you put a man like Moshe into
"retirement"? Don't you understand that it is through him that you
can have the greatest clarity and connection to Hashem. How do you just move
on? It must be that connection to Hashem was not so vital. We were already
fading. We had begun to lose it. And it is still lost until today.
Hashem though, has never lost it. Like a parent that suffers
the loss of a child, Hashem mourns each day for his children to wake up, to
come home, to invite him back and to truly, from the deepest recesses of our hearts,
feel the pain of the loss of the greatness of what we were meant to become. What
we can still become. What we will become as soon as we truly return. As soon as
He returns.
I've been around religious
Jews all my life. How many times have I heard
"I don't mind the nine days-I kinda like Milchigs"- (you know who
you are), "It's not so bad without a music- a little quieter around the
house- I can listen to classes in the car now.." Life in America is
really not too bad- It’s a Galut/Exile in a country of kindness" "There's
more Torah now than ever before and that's the most important thing…the most
important thing" We are not mourning. Our loss isn't real. Our child
hasn't died. Our home isn't burnt. Like our ancestors told Moshe millennia ago
when he first said Eicha- "The thing that you proposed is good"
–We''ll make do without you. We will have our distinguished wise men of
understanding. We will move on. We'll catch up with Abba at the end of the
orientation. We haven't caught up yet. Sadly the "orientation" has
left us disoriented and disconnected. But Abba is still waiting outside for us.
We just have to realize that we need to leave. We need to ask him to take our
hand once again. We need to forget everyone else in the room and realize that
it's time to come home. We don’t want any more tragic reminders of our mourning.
Our Father doesn’t' have to call, yell or punish us anymore. May this year see
us once again hand in hand walking home together as recapture that special
family that we are.
Have a Shabbos filled with
blessing and peace,
Rabbi
Ephraim Schwartz
*************************************************************************
RABBI
SCHWARTZES TOUR GUIDE COURSE QUESTION OF THE WEEK
(answer below)
Pretty cool that this happened to be the question-as I'm
going in order- for this week!
It
is customary to read the Book of Lamentations (Megillat Eicha) on:
(a) The Fast of Gedalya
(b) Yom Kippur
(c) The general Kaddish Day
(d) The 9th of Av
*******************************************************************
RABBI SCHWARTZES QUOTE OF THE WEEK
They asked Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi
“Which is greater: love of G‑d, or love of your fellow man?”
“Love of your fellow man,” he replied.
“For than you are loving the one that your Beloved loves.”
****************************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ YOUTUBE LINK OF THE WEEK
BBC –The destruction of jerusalem film for your tisha b'av viewing (59 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y37rCFAUoMU
************************************
Har
Ha'Bayit/ The Temple Mount Jerusalem- Although I have never been up there, the Temple Mount is
certainly the most important place in the world for the Jewish people and
perhaps one of the most fought over pieces of land in the world. Although many associate
the Har HaBay it with the Beit
HaMikdash, the Beit Hamikdash for most of its history was on a much smaller
mountain and smaller area than the present day mountain top which was built up
by Herod in the last century before its destruction. Herod needed a big
building and the mountain wasn't big enough so he framed the mountain to give
it its present structure. After the Romans and Byzantines plowed the Beit
Hamikdash it remained barren until the early arab periods in the 7th
and 8th century where they made it their holy site building the al
aska mosque on the southern courtyard where Herod and the earlier Chashmonaim
had their palaces for visitors (the chakra) and the dome of the rock, where Jewish
sources describe to be the place of the Even HaShesiya,/foundation rock. The
Crusaders as well built their Templer castles up there in an area they thought
was Solomon's stables the Arabs however came back and built the rest of the
structures there. May this year we merit with the coming of Mashiach to visit
this special site with the Temple rebuilt and the offerings necessary to purify
us so that we may enter all of our holy sites without question.
Answer is D- Easy as well..especially
after you've read this E-Mail. But sadly many secular Israelis do not know the
answer to this question and it is quite difficult for them. Kind of like how I
would not know the different Muslem or Christian texts that are read on their
holidays. Which of course we were responsible for as well. So it is a pretty detailed
question that every Jew should know, but I don't really see the significance of
a tour guide knowing unless he is guiding religious groups that actually know
it anyways…
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