Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
July 3rd 2015 -Volume 5, Issue 34 16th
Tamuz 5775
Parshat Balak
Wow Moments
Perhaps
my most favorite part of being a tour guide is what I call the "Wow
Moment". It is that few minutes when you take your tourists to a place
and they are kind of scratching their head, and you know they are asking
themselves "Why did he shlep us all the way over here?" I mean
it's pretty and all that jazz and perhaps even historical, but was it really
worth the extra drive..? Climb…? Hike...? And then you turn the corner and are
overlooking a glorious view, or you pull out your Tanach and describe for them
that where they are standing is where this story took place, or you ask them to
close their eyes and envision something special and meaningful and all of a
sudden a change comes over their faces. "Wow!!"
"Awesome" "That's incredible" "Amazing".
Those are the moments we live for. Our mission has been accomplished. The hike
and trek to get out here was worth it. It is a moment you know they will carry
with them back to the States. You may even get a tip. Truth is you don't even
need one (don't quote me on this- we always like oneJ). The look on their faces is more than enough.
In
many ways being an outreach Rabbi was very much the same thing. Watching new
students eyes and faces transform before you as you shared with them their
first Torah insight, their first real connection to their heritage, their first
taste of Shabbos...of chulent JJ,
there's nothing better than that. You can actually see how you have opened with
a key the hidden treasure that is their soul and it blossoms right before your
very eyes. It is a "Wow Moment" of the holiest kind. It is
those that I treasure for a lifetime and I thank Hashem for giving me the
privilege to be part of and to witness.
We
have all read stories, heard inspirational ideas and have had people tell us
about incredible visits that they have had to all types of fabulous places.
Yet, none of the above has the same impact as the power of sight. Seeing
something that is moving connects ones soul with what one sees in the deepest
of ways. The images embeds into ones soul and can connect to ones memory in the
deepest of ways. It is perhaps for that reason that the Torah warns us V'Lo
Sasuru Acharie Li'Vavchem V'acharei Einechem- don't "tour/stray" with
your heart and your eyes. The heart is open and looking to connect, the
eyes are the receptacles that transplant their images on the soul of a man. One
of our great sages once said that he felt this was the most challenging of all mitzvos;
Our natural desire is to "tour" with our eyes, to explore the world,
to "check it out". Yet as Rashi teaches us seeing can lead
directly to the heart coveting, to rest of the body engaging in activity that
ultimately will bring man to the depths. The eyes are the windows to our souls
for better and for worse.
This
week's Torah portion introduces us to what our sages considered to be the
"Rebbe" of the bad eye. The Mishna in Avot urges us to
be from the Students of Avraham whose traits consist of having a "good
eye", as opposed to the students of Bil'am of the eye that sought
out bad. The Parsha seems to be full of Bil'am, who is employed by Balak
the king of Moav, touring around to see the Jewish nation so that he may
place that eye upon them and curse them. This is despite the Almighty's
explicit repeated command not to attempt to do so. This is despite the incredible
Divine irony of Bil'am’s donkey being able to see the angel that
threatens to destroy him with a sword which Bil'am can't see initially. Even
when Bil'am comes to different positions and outlooks points on the Jewish
people and breaks out in blessing rather than the curses he had hoped to
unleash upon our nation, he persists on trying to find a better spot, another
sacrifice another opportunity to use his eyes as a tool to wreak destruction
upon our people.
If
one follows the verses though the third time around Bil'am seemingly finally
gets it.
And
when Balaam saw that it pleased HaShem to bless Israel, he went not, as at the
other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the
wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling tribe by
tribe; and the spirit of G-d came upon him.
And
he took up his parable, and said:
"The
saying of Balaam the son of Beor, and the saying of the man whose eye is
opened; The saying of him who hears the words of G-d, who sees the vision of
the Almighty, fallen down, yet with opened eyes:
How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, thy
dwellings, O Israel!
The
ultimate "Wow moment" took place for Bil'am. For the
first time he states his eyes had been opened. He saw the Jewish people as they
really were. Not this fearsome tribe that Balak and the world media were
presenting him with. They were a nation whose tents were holy. The Midrash
brought by Rashi suggests that Bil'am saw that the Jewish tents
were set up with the openings not facing one another "So that one would
not see into his neighbors tent". Unlike many of us who prefer tinted
windows on our cars so that no one else can see into our car. (As our children
fight with one another, or as we yell at them for fighting, or so that we can
hide our latest purchases from prying eyes-which is generally what our children
our fighting about). The Midrash’s terminology is that they were
structured such so that we would not look into another person's tent rather
than the vice-vers- others checkin' us out.. What's his is his, no one wanted
to covet, begrudge or give a "bad eye" to his neighbor. Each Jew
would, as my mother used to scold us (and to fulfill her prophesy I do to my
own children as well), "keep their eyes on their own plate". We knew
that our eyes were the windows to our souls and we wanted our windows to be
faced inwards rather than upon another.
Bil'am saw that and he said "Wow!"-
Ma Tovu-how wondrous and goodly are your tents. His blinded eye that
always saw the negative, whose heart could never seem to connect to anything
but the curse that he saw was opened. With a little practice and warming up of
Hashem putting the right words in his mouth a few times and with that
incredible paradigm shifting moment he was able to find the blessing within
himself albeit for a minute for the nation that was just moments before his
mortal enemy.
It
is interesting to note that it is that blessing that Bil'am said at that moment
that become the custom of the Jewish people to say as they arrive in shul each
morning. Think for a second how bizzare that must be. We have no shortage of
poets, lyricists and beautiful texts that we could start off our morning with.
Yet from all of that, we chose Bil'am's personal blessing. Bil'am who after
that one moment, returned again to his diabolical plot and in fact ended up
advising Balak to have the Moabite daughters seduce the Jewish people. This in
turn brought down the wrath of God and 24,000 Jews were killed in the ensuing
plague-more than any battle, plague or Divine punishment that happened in the
40 years in the wilderness. Yet is it is
Bil'ams prayer that becomes the text of choice to start off our morning. Why?
The
answer is because there is no more powerful way to start off our morning, our
day, our lives, than with that sense of Wow! How special is our tents,
our places of worship, our fellow Jews and our nation. If even Bil'am that
archenemy of our people who intended to destroy us, yet when he actually beheld
us was so overcome with the beauty and specialness of our nation, than how much
more so should our wow be when we see our fellow Jews each morning, when
we take our first breath and steps in Hashem's glorious world. We start our
morning with that Wow because it is meant to engage our good eye to give
us the vision we need to activate our hearts and love for life, for our
brothers and sisters and for Hashem our Father in heaven.
This
week we begin the three week period of mourning for the destruction our Temple.
Our sages tell us that when the temple was destroyed the Divine presence had
already departed from it. It was sticks and stones that the Babylonians and
Romans destroyed. What caused the divine presence to depart? It was because we
had let it go. We were no longer awed by the Temple and the almost
unfathomable-to-us-today notion that Hashem had a house that He resided in
where we would be able to come and "see" his countenance and glory.
It was a nice building of which we had many. Jews also lost their awe and wow
of one another. We were a nation divided that coveted, begrudged and even
hated, fought and eventually even killed one another. Our good eye was closed
and Bil'am's evil eye was rampant. So Hashem took it away. The building
destroyed, the fires burnt, our blood flowed. And we, finally, with tears in
our eyes, said sadly,"…Wow… what have we lost…what have we done…when can
we come back...?
As
we contemplate over the next few weeks let us think about that wow that
we lost and start to focus on the wows that will bring us back. If we
could only see the good in one another, the beauty of our Torah, the joy of our
mitzvos, than Hashem will surely return us to our home as He comes back to
dwell amongst us. May we very soon share in that biggest "wow moment" of all.
Have a awe-inspiring Shabbos,
,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
***************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
New Yackov Shwekey video “I can be”
A modern day Bilam?
8th day new video “Just like you”
***********
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE
WEEK
While in the states I picked up a great book with
yiidsh quotes and wisdom and I have always wanted to teach my kids Yiddish so
here we go each week another great proverb in yiddish maybe you guys will learn
it too!!
“Der
miesteh leben iz besser fun shensten toit.”- The
ugliest life is better than the nicest death
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FAVORITE QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“The speed of light is greater
than the speed of sound. Which is the reason why many people look smart until
they open up their mouths"— Albert Einstien
"The average woman would
rather have beauty than brains, because the average man can see better than he
can think."-Anonymous
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
(New exam this week these questions are from the
most recent tour guide exam-let’s see how I do)
answer below at end of Email
Water Systems
from the Iron Age can be found
A.
Hatzor
B.
Gezer
C.
Hurbat
Kayafa
D.
Tel
Kasilya
.RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL MIDRASH OF THE WEEK
Conversation between Bilam and his donkey after the
donkey smashed him a few times into the wall to avoid the angels sword that Bilam
couldn’t see and Bilam repeatedly hits it, according to the Midrash-.
Donkey- Why are you hittingme that I deserved to
beaten this way
Bilam- You made a fool out of me, If only I had a
sword I would kill you now.
Donkey- Apparently you can’t destroy me without a
sword and yet you are on the way to wipe out the entire of nation of Israel
with words?
The Princes of Moav overheard this and started to
laugh. They said to Bilam why do you ride this donkey if he doesn’t listen to
you..
Bilam responded- Its not my donkey I borrowed it
Donkey-nayyyy- I’m yours
Bilam- she doesn’t usually carry people and that’s
why she’s behaving that way
Donkey-nayyyy- You always ride me by day and by
night
Bilam was very embarrassed. Our sages would read
this and begin to cry- woe is to us from the day of judgement If Bilam the
wisest man of all of the nations couldn’t even answer his donkey reproof, what
profound shame will we experience on the Day of Judgement when the Almighty
Himself will recall all our failures.
Ouch!
****************
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S COOL THINGS TO DO IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Learn about different customs
of our many people – If one wanted to experience all of the Jewish Diaspora life
and appreciate the different customs that thousands of years of exile have
developed in our people one would need to travel all over the world. (Our read
Avi and Avi in the Mishpacha magazine-one of my favorite columns) Alternatively
you could just come to Israel and see it all here, since the beginning of the
ingathering of our exiles. Just here in Karmiel we have a Ethipoian shul, a
Yemenite Shul, one for the Indian community and Russian community, We have
Chasidim, Litvaks, Bresalvers, Chabad and yes even our very own American Young
Israel shul. Each community has its own cuisines, traditions, celebrations. In
Israel you can taste them all, pray with them all and celebrate with them all.
It’s a pretty amazing thing. Can’t wait till the rest of Klal Yisrael comes
home.
******************
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S DONKEY JOKES OF THE WEEK
Q:
What do you call a donkey with one leg ? A: A wonkey donkey
Q:
What do you call a donkey with one leg and a bad eye ? A: A winkey wonkey
donkey
There was a young man named Yankel who bought
a donkey from old farmer Farouk for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the
donkey the next day. When Farouk drove up the next day he says, 'I am sorry but
I have some bad news - the donkey is on my truck but he be dead.'
Yankel
replies, 'Well then, just give me my money back.'
'Can't do that,' burrs the farmer, 'I went out and spent it already.'
'Can't do that,' burrs the farmer, 'I went out and spent it already.'
Yankel
sighs, 'OK just unload the donkey anyway.'
Farouk then asks, 'What are you gonna do with a dead donkey an' that?' I'll raffle him off,' laughs Yankel.
The farmer exclaimed, 'Aargh, you can't raffle off a dead donkey.'
Farouk then asks, 'What are you gonna do with a dead donkey an' that?' I'll raffle him off,' laughs Yankel.
The farmer exclaimed, 'Aargh, you can't raffle off a dead donkey.'
But
Yankel with a big smile on his face tells Farouk, 'Sure I can. Watch. Just
don't tell anyone the donkey is dead.'
A
month later the farmer Farouk met up with Yankel and asks, 'Whatever happened
to that dead donkey?'
Yankel
answers, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at $2.00 each and made a huge
profit.'
Totally
amazed the farmer Farouk enquires, 'Didn't anyone complain that you had stolen
their money because you lied about the donkey being dead?'
'The
only one who found out about the donkey being dead was the raffle winner,'
chuckled Yankel, 'so when he came to claim his prize I gave him his $2.00 back
plus $200.00 extra, which is double the going value of a dead donkey, so he
thought I was a great fellow.'
****************
Answer is A: Three
important things to know in order to answer this question. The first is when
was the Iron Age, The Second is which of these sites are from that period and
the third is do they have water systems that can be seen. So here we go. The Iron age, which follows the bronze age is
pretty much the period of our forefathers through the first temple. Guess what
all four cities are from that period of time. Chatzor and Gezer where major
cities in the time of Shlomo and Kasilya was a philistine city (by the Israel museum
in Tel Aviv) and Kayafa is near Beit Shemesh. Except that the last two don’t
have water systems that have been uncovered as I recall. Gezer, I’ve never been
to but I believe it actually has the largest water system ever found in the world.
Hatzor has one too, though. Hmmm, this is tricky. Well since I never saw the
one in Gezer and I knew about the one in Chatzor that was my guess. I was
right! Because the one in Gezer was built in the Bronze Age. This was a very
tricky question if you ask me about information and distinctions I can’t
imagine any one would ever want to know about.
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