Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
October 29th 2016 -Volume 6, Issue 54
26th Elul 5777 (hooray!)
Parshat Vayeilech / Yom Kippur
Dancing in the Fields
It’s
a long day. I’m looking at my watch. Only a few hours left. I’m hungry. There’s
only about 274 pages left in the machzor. Only. Maariv was fine
last evening. Kol Nidrei was moving like usual. Only three or four
piyutim after Shmone Esrei. We sing them in our shul. They’re nice
songs and I feel holy and angelic. This morning also started off great. We
daven at sunrise and if you ask me it’s the perfect time. I’m well rested, it
quiet, peaceful, idyllic, serene… The songs the prayers, my soul has been
soaring. I started getting tired in middle of Musaf. I think it was somewhere
around the 20 pages or so of the service of the Kohen Gadol that you read and
read and read… Now if you’re a Brisker that spent a few years learning Kodshim-
the tractates of Talmud that deal with the sacrifices then maybe you get
excited by the intricacies of these rituals. Back and forth, more slaughtering,
more blood sprinkling, rinse, dry, slaughter, repeat. But I was always more of
a Nashim/ Nezikin kind of guy. Oxes goring, court cases about people
grabbing onto lost talis’es, all types of fun wedding, divorces and all
the relatives you can or can’t perform levirate marriages with. I make it
through it though. We have a bit of a break and then it’s back for Mincha. Just
a few more hours left until…. Bagels!
I’m
having a hard time though getting back into it. There’s none pf the usual ashrei
that generally precedes Mincha. We jump right in with the Torah reading. But
it’s not even the tune of the High holidays that we use for the reading. The
reading itself seems like a strange selection. It seems that we are reading
about all the forbidden relationships. Don’t lie with your mother, your sister,
your aunt, your in-laws, your neighbor’s wife. Huh? What’s this all about? Now
perhaps if it would have said don’t lie to them. I could relate a
bit more. After-all that’s something I think that most people could relate to
and probably have to do some reflecting upon. Except for my mother, of course
who I would never lie to, Mom. But why does this have to be part of the Yom
Kippur service perhaps one may suggest even the central part right and
introduction to Mincha before we start the last prayer before the closing of
the gates of Neila?
As
the chazzan reads the Torah reading I check my Artscroll commentary on the
bottom for some insight here. What did people do before they had Artscroll to
peruse during all the boring parts of prayer? Teshuva? They list a few reasons
for the Torah reading. Rashi says its because illicit relations is something
that people have a strong desire for and its worthy to reflect upon that. OK, I
can accept that. But that whole list with all of those relatives? I can barely
spend more than a few hours in the same sukkah with some of them without
getting into a family fight, certainly never considering any intimacy. Oops..
Bang on chest.. I shouldn’t have said or thought that on Yom Kippur.
There’s
a Midrash that suggests an alternative reason that the symbolism is that just
as we shouldn’t uncover any nakedness so too Hashem should not uncover the
nakedness of ours sins. OK. It’s midrash nice, but again there’s a lot of
symbolism. A lot of Torah readings that deal with repentance and Hashem’s
incredible capacity for forgiveness that are more explicit and inspiring I
believe that would that point home even better. Tosafos offers another reason
that is perhaps a bit more intriguing. He suggests that since the women in shul
are all dressed up in their High Holiday finery. ‘Dressed to kill’, shall we
say-maybe pun intended. This Torah reading is meant to remind us to keep our
head and our eyes straight. Interesting. Nice. Appropriate perhaps. But I hate
to think of the Torah reading on this most holy of days as just being one great
big rabbinic ‘kol koreh’- you know like those posters that adorn the
walls of Meah Shearim to guard our eyes. There’s gotta be something deeper.
Something that can way me up and get me back in the mood. Something that our
sages who established this Torah reading saw that it possesses that will be the
perfect segue into the next and final hours of this holiest of days.
My
mind continues to wander. I think back to the Temple, the Beit Hamikdash. What
Yom kippur was like back then. The truth is it was the day of the year that
people probably prayed the least. We were all gathered in the Beis Hamikdash
awaiting the Kohen Gadols arrival from the Holy of Holies in peace. We were
waiting for the sacrifices to be done, for the goat that was thrown off the mountain
in the Judean desert along with all of the sins of the Jewish people to meet
their bitter end. All our eyes were plastered on that red string that was
hanging that would turn snowy fleece white. We would be clean and purified. And
then the really party would start. Our sages tell us that were no truly festive
holidays on the Jewish calendar besides______________ fill in the blank. No
it’s not Purim. No not Simchat Torah either. Not even Lag Ba’Omer in Meron or
Rosh Hashana in Uman- as sacrileigious as that might sound. No the happiest
days on the calendar were Tu B’Av (a different e-mail you can read about that
here if you’d like http://holylandinsights.blogspot.co.il/2016/08/the-greatest-love-of-all-parshat.html
) and that’s right Yom Kippur. Huhhh? Yom Kippur- a happy day? A solemn day,
perhaps. A holy day, definitely. A looonnng day, Uh huh. But happy? That would
not have been the first word that came to mind. The Talmud tells us that on
those days the young maidens would all go out in borrowed clothing of white-
borrowed so as not to embarrass those who could not afford them. And they would
dance in circles amongst the vineyards. Wow! Sounds like a party. What would
they sing- just so that there is nothing left here to the imagination. They would
say to the ogling young bacheloers that would inevitably be gathered around..
Young
man, lift up your eyes and appreciate whom you are selecting (to marry). Don't
look at our beauty. Instead, look at the family (from which we descend).'
Can
you imagine that? Rav Shlomo Goren the third chief Rabbi of Israel suggests
that this perhaps the reason why we read that Torah reading on Yom Kippur. For
this is the time during the Temple days when people would go out to find their
mates. Their basherts. They would go out to the fields. They would dance. The
Torah reading that we read is to tell us what not to look for. To beware of
forbidden relationships. To look for the right things. To focus on building a
holy Jewish family.
But
I believe it goes even deeper than that. It must. Why on this holiest of days
is it the best time to go out, to find your bashert, to dance in the fields?
What are we missing today? What have we lost about Yom Kippur that makes us
feel even guilty and sacrilegious even reading about this, let alone
envisioning it on Yom Kippur?
Rav
Mordechai Alon suggests a very powerful insight. He suggests that the essence
of Yom Kippur, the point that we have reached by Mincha time when our sins have
pretty much been cleared away after hours of praying, of sacrifices, of the
Kohen Gadol coming out brings us back to the moment when we can restore the
world and fix the ‘original sin” of Man; of Adam in the garden of Eden. Of the
moment when for the first time in the world Man and wife were separated. Not any
more just physically but spiritually as well.
A brief review of the story of the garden would be helpful here. Hashem
creates Man on Rosh Hashana the 6th day of Creation and unlike all
the other creations, Man is created not merely by Hashem speaking but by Hashem
actually forming us out of earth and blowing his spirit, our holy neshama/soul
inside of us. The message is clear. Man is meant to unite heaven and earth. To
build Hashem a dwelling place on this world. All the other Creations alternate
between physical and celestial. Man is the merging of both.
Yet
Hashem takes it one step further. He creates Man and women as one. He then
brings all the animals to Man and he names them. He gives them and defines
their spiritual essence. According to the Midrash he even attempts to have
relations with them. “To know them” in the biblical sense. But he realizes that
with them he will never be able to achieve his completion. He needs flesh of
his flesh, and one that shares his own spiritual nature. Hashem puts him to
sleep and we are told of the first surgery of the world. A spare rib is removed and his wife. His
bashert, his ezer knegdo- his helper opposite him is formed. Adam’s
response upon seeing here is the recognition for all eternity; the first ‘therefore’
in the Torah.
“Therefore a man should leave his father
and his mother and v’davak- cleave to his wife and they shall be
as one flesh.”
Rashi
notes that the Divine spirit is telling Man this as the first, the most
essential, and most pivotal knowledge that he should have. This is in order to
teach him that forbidden relations are prohibited upon him. And that the two of
them alone are created in order to form one flesh. To create and bring forth
life.
Not
so incidentally that word to cleave v’davak is also found in reference
to our relationship with Hashem, our Creator. v’davka bo we should
cleave and become one with Hashem v’atem Ha’dvaikim Ba’Hashem Chayim kulchem
hayom- and we are the ones that are cleaving, to Hashem, you are all living
today. It is also only with Hashem that we are meant to believe and state each
day that Hashem is one. The mitzva of oneness of cleaving. With Hashem and with
our mates.
Yet
sadly it does not work out that way, the next narratives finds Chava/Eve alone
her husband is not there with her. They are separated. And that’s when the
snake comes. He tempts her. According to the midrash he seduces her and through
his seduction is trying to woo her to mate with him. To give up on the divine
one-ness connection with her soulmate. Our sages use the term that by eating
from the Tree of forbidden knowledge- inappropriate knowledge, knowledge
perhaps even in the biblical sense of man and wife she was injected with zuahama-
a spiritual pollution. Her husband blames it on her, she blames it on the
snake. Our oneness, our cleaving between man and woman is gone. And as a result
of that so is our fully being able to cleave and connect to Hashem.
Our
sages tell us that we all suffered from that sin and that impurity and distance
until the giving of the Torah. There we were commanded to separate from our
wives for three days. We heard, saw and experienced the Divine voice and the
commandments and we were given new souls. It’s incredible that the first thing
Hashem tells us to do after the Torah is (Devarim 5:26) “to return to our
tents” and as Rashi notes to go back to our wives. Rebuild the oneness.
Cleave. Connect. Unite. Become one and bring oneness into the world. Yet forty
days later we sinned. We strayed. This day it was with a golden calf. Our sages
compare it to a bride cheating under the chupah still. This was the 17th
of Tamuz. On the month of Elul Hashem forgave us. He would not destroy us. But
He still did not want to dwell with us. Moshe would lead, but Hashem would not
be one with us. We still had the zuhama. We then began our real period
teshuva. Moshe went up again and on Yom Kippur he brought us those words that
we were waiting for salachti ki’dvarecha- I have totally forgiven you.
He brought done the second tablets. We were restored. We were one.
Is
it any wonder why the central point of Yom Kippur at this point would be to go
out and find our bashert? Why they are dancing in the fields, in the
garden. ‘The’ ‘garden’. Why this would be the happiest day on the calendar. We
have the ability to return to Eden. To entirely restore the world to the way
it’s supposed to be. We read the Torah reading of the arayot-the
forbidden relationships and we don’t even need the traditional Yom Kippur tune
for it. We have gone back to the beginning. We are back to that perfect
primordial spiritual man. The one that can unite with only his bashert. The one
that remembers that our only function is not beauty but rather the family. The
family of mankind that will bridge heaven and earth. That will ultimately build
that Home for Hashem once again in this world.
The
Mincha prayer has now ended. It’s time for me to get up and say my pre-neila
drasha. The gates are closing up above. I am returning from my thoughts, from
my visions of the Temple, of the dancing in the fields, of the specialness of
my bashert. I have bonded and I have cleaved. All that remains is for me to
turn my tearful eyes up to shamayim and ask Hashem to finally return to
His tent. To rest his shechina- his Divine presence upon our homes. We
are told that when a man and his wife are b’shalom- when they are at
peace, when they are complete, then the divine presence will rest between them.
Hashem, your nation is awaiting. We have struggled, we have strayed, we have
sinned, but we want to return, we need you to first bring that peace to restore
the festivity to this most incredible day. To return us to the fields and to
bring us back to that garden. Your garden. Please once again say those words salachti
kidvarecha.
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
***********************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL VIDEO CLIPS OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7g2qckv28k– Shlomo Carlebach Kvakoras frim Nesane Tokef…beautiful and classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DALWbiEsN7c
- Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev Yom Kippur story from none
other than…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iauRLe7Pqc – I
can’t read this weeks Haftorah of Shuva without humming this classic of Rav
Shmuel Brazil. Fast Forward to start at 2:30 and just enjoy…
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S
FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Bemokem she-eyn ish iz a hering oykh a fish..”
– When there is no other
man a herring is also a fish. (this really only sounds good in Yiddish)
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S JEWISH PERSONALITY AND HIS
QUOTES IN HONOR OF THE YARTZEIT OF THE WEEK
“In the beginning, sin is like a thread of a
spider's web. But in the end, it becomes like the cable of a ship.”
“He
who remains unmarried impairs the divine image.”
“Fortunate
are you Israel before whom are purified and who purifies you? Your Father in
heaven. Just as a Mikva purifies the impure So the Holy One Blessed Be He
purifies Yisrael.”
“If a rock, though extremely hard, can be
hollowed out by water, how much more so should it be possible for the Torah,
which is compared to water, to change my heart. I will begin to study it, and
try to become a scholar of The Torah.”
Rabbi
Akiva Ben Yosef (16 CE – 136 CE) This Sunday,
the 9th of Tishrei- If there is one yartzeit you should remember
every year it that of Rabbi Akiva one of the greatest sages of the mishna
period. In fact if you think about it much of the Yom Kippur davening revolves
around Rabbi Akiva in order to invoke his memory and his merit into our
service. We being Yom Kippur with the repeated statement before Kol Nidrei by
taking out the Torah scrolls and kissing them and saying ohR zaruA
la’tzadiK u’liyishreI leV simchA-
the last letters of that verse which means a light should shine for the
righteous and those of a straight heart joy, are R’ AKIVA. We then recite how
we permit us to pray with all the sinners- again Rabbi Akiva’s famous maxim
that loving one’s fellow Jew is the greatest rule in the Torah. We then recite
the verses that recall the quote above of being purified before Hashem. We
recite the Avinu Malkeinu prayer at each Shmona Esrei that was written by Rabbi
Akiva, We even read about his death when we mention the ten martyrs- that
seemingly is appropriate on Tisha B’av to be read, but not necessarily on Yom
Kippur if not for us trying to once again recall Rabbi Akiva. Finally we
conclude our Yom Kippur with the final dying words of Rabbi Akiva the words
that every Jew since recites upon his death Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu
Hashem Echad. Those words were recited by him the morning before Yom Kippur
when he was taken out to be killed by the cursed Romans.
Yet at the same
time Rabbi Akiva is the least likely of heroes and leaders. Until he was forty
he wasn’t just ignorant but he himself says that he hated Torah scholars. He
was anti-religious. And then upon wooing the wealthiest daughter of Jerusalem
away from her family that disowned her obviously he became a Baal Teshuva and
started to study. Ultimately he abandons his wife and family for 24 years (with
her permission and blessing) and comes back as the greatest scholar of his
times with 24,000 students. He sees the Temple destroys and laughs while other
Rabbis cry because he sees that just as this prophecy was fulfilled so too will
it eventually be rebuilt. Ultimately he becomes convinced that his prize
student, Bar Kochva is the Messiah. Mashiach and he not only announces it to
the world but he encourages all his students to join his army in their revolt
against Rome. He himself at over 100 years old become his ‘armor bearer’.
Ultimately though Bar Kochva fails and Rabbi Akiva is martyred in a gruesome
way by the Romans.
I’m not sure
if Rabbi Akiva with that resume would ‘make it’ today in our highly critical
yeshiva world-view of fitting in. Yet it is in his merit that we come to Hashem
each Yom Kippur. May his life on this special holy day and the thoughts that it
provoke in us be a merit for all of us to be sealed for a good year.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
Q. A museum that documents the history of the
Valley Train is found in:
A. Kfar Yehoshuah
B. Afula
C. The old Gesher
D. Beit She’an
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ILLUMINATING RASHI OF THE
WEEK
Occasionally Rashi
will connect dots for us and underline important lessons that we may miss
because if we were just reading the text we would just gloss right over with
it. This week’s Torah portion is a classic example that is really worthy of
serious consideration.
Moshe, this week on
the last day of his life, calls in Yehoshua his loyal student and appoints him
his successor in front of all of the Jewish people. The verse tells us Devarim
31:7
Be strong and courageous, for you Tavo Es Ha’am-shall come with this
people to the land that Hashem swore your forefathers to give them and you
shall cause them to inherit it and Hashem who walks before you shall be with
you He will be with you. ”
Rashi notes that there
seems to be a discrepancy here, for at the end of the Parsha Hashem actually
Himself commands Yehoshua (ibid 23)
Be strong and courageous Ki Ata Tavi es Bnai Yisrael- for
you shall bring the children of Israel to the land I swore to them and I shall
be with you.
Rashi is troubled that
when Moshe gives the command he says Tavo –that Yehoshua will come with them
and yet when Hashem tells Yehoshua Hashem says Tavi- that Yehoshua will bring
them.
Rashi thus notes that Moshe
was telling Yehoshua that the ‘elders shall be with you’ everything he
does should be with their consultation and advice. Hashem however is telling
Yehoshua to bring the children of Israel that it’s all up to him. Even against
their will. If necessary smack them on the forehead. Ouch! Rashi’s words not
mine.
It’s an incredible
Rashi. What an amazing diverse opinion of the leadership of Yehoshua between
Moshe and Hashem. Moshe seems to tell Yehoshua that he should get a consensus.
Hashem tells Yehoshua to grab the reigns and pull the horse if need be. It’s
even more interesting that Moshe refers to the Jews as ‘the nation’. Yet Hashem
calls us the ‘children of Israel”. Even more thought provoking is that Moshe is
not allowed into the land because he yelled at the nation calling them rebels
and hits the rock rather than talking to them. One can postulate perhaps. That
Moshe after a life time of dealing with this stiff-necked people appreciates
perhaps even more that the path and method is and should be one of
communication. And perhaps for himself that would be true. Hashem though,
understands who Yehoshua is even more than Moshe does. He knows that Yehoshua who’s
whole life was of total subservience to Moshe. He was like the moon a mere and
total reflection of Moshe, while Moshe was the sun. Yehoshua needed to assert
that level of bitul of negation of one’s own personal ego in the
children of Israel. He would need to ‘hit them on their forehead. The forehead
is the symbol of my own opinion. My own ego. Yehoshua who exceled in that could
show them that Hashem will always be with them, if they are willing to let up
from their own selves enough to let Him in.
One little letter in
the Torah that we might have missed. tavo and tavi- Yet it is the
difference of a world.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S HISTORICAL
EVENT THAT HAPPENED ON THIS DATE OF THE WEEK-
Babi Yar massacre 8-9
Tishrei 5702 - September 29-30, 1941: They are perhaps two words that will always remain in infamy
for the Jewish people. Babi Yar is a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev where
perhaps one of the most horrific massacres of our people took place. With the
initiation of Operation Barbarossa, Germany's breaking of its treaty with
Stalin and the assault on the Soviet Union, the mobile killing units of the Einsatzgruppen under Heydrich's general
command, operated behind the advancing German troops to eliminate political
criminals, Polish government officials, gypsies and Jews. Jews were rounded up
in every village, transported to a wooded area, or a ravine, stripped, shot and
buried. On September 19, 1941, the German army captured Kiev, Ukraine. Within a
week, a number of buildings occupied by the German military were blown up by
the Soviet secret police and in retaliation, the Germans proceeded to kill all
the Jews of Kiev.
An order was posted
throughout the city in both Russian and Ukrainian:
Kikes of the city of
Kiev and vicinity! On Monday, September 29, you are to appear by 7:00 A.M.with
your possessions, money, documents, valuables and warm clothing at
Dorogozhitshaya Street, next to the Jewish cemetery. Failure to appear is
punishable by death.
From the cemetery, the
Jews were marched to Babi Yar, a ravine only two miles from the center of the
city. A truck driver at the scene described what he saw:
I watched what
happened when the Jews – men, women and children – arrived. The Ukrainians led
them past a number of different places where one after another they had to
remove their luggage, then their coats, shoes, and overgarments and also
underwear. They had to leave their valuables in a designated place. There was a
special pile for each article of clothing. It all happened very quickly … I
don't think it was even a minute from the time each Jew took off his coat
before he was standing there completely naked….
Once undressed, the
Jews were led into the ravine which was about 150 meters long and 30 meters
wide and a good 15 meters deep…When they reached the bottom of the ravine they
were seized by members of the Schultpolizei and made to lie down on top of Jews
who had already been shot. That all happened very quickly. The corpses were
literally in layers. A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck
with a submachine gun … I saw these marksman stand on layers of corpses and
shoot one after the other … The marksman would walk across the bodies of the executed
Jews to the next Jew who had meanwhile lain down and shoot him.
Over the next week,
33,771 Jews were murdered at Babi Yar. Many people were buried alive,
suffocated by the mass of bodies atop them.
In August 1943, with
the Red Army advancing, the Nazis dug up the bodies from the mass graves of
Babi Yar and burned them in an attempt to remove the evidence of mass murder.
Paul Blobel, the commander of Sonderkommando 4a, whose troops had
slaughtered the Jews of Kiev, returned to Babi Yar. For more then a month, his
men and workers conscripted from the ranks of concentration camp inmates dug up
the bodies. Bulldozers were required to reopen the mounds. Massive bone-crushing
machinery was brought to the scene. The bodies were piled on wooden logs,
doused with gas, and ignited.
When the work was done,
the workers from the concentration camp were killed. Under cover of darkness on
September 29, 1943, 25 of them escaped. Fifteen survived to tell what they had
seen.
May Hashem avenge their
blood and may their deaths al Kiddush Hashem sanctifying Hashem’s name inspire
us to lead our lives with that inspiration.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FORGIVENESS JOKES
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.”
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.”
Once upon a time in their marriage, Saul Rosenberg did
something really stupid. Ethel Rosenberg chewed him out for it. He apologized,
they made up.
However, from time to time, Ethel would mention what he had
done.
"Honey," Saul finally said one day, "why do
you keep bringing that up? I thought your policy was 'forgive and
forget.'"
"It is," Ethel said. "I just don't want you to
forget that I've forgiven and forgotten."
Teacher :What do you call someone that apologizes when they
do something wrong?
Yankel: An honest
person
Teacher: and what do you call someone who apologizes when
they didn’t do something wrong?
Yankel? A husband
**************
Answer is A – This is actually quite a timely question. I like when
Hashem works that out for my E-Mail. The reason I say that is because just two
days ago a taxi driver told me that the valley train through the Jezre’el
valley which was originally built by the Turks to connect the coast all the way
through Jordan to Mecca and blown up in the war of independence, is about ready
to start running again in the next few weeks. The trainline which really
provided most of the early development in the lower Galile in the pre-state
Israel ran from Haifa to Kfar Yehoshua, Afula and Beit Shean and Gesher. The
right answer to the question where the museum is in Kfar Yehoshua. We went
there in our course. I thought it was boring. I never went back. Oh well… But
it is cool that it will be running again. It will be great and easier for me to
get around the country like I had to this week instead of taking 4 buses.
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