from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
"Your friend in
Karmiel"
November 29th
2024 -Volume 14 Issue 5 28th of Cheshvan 5785
All’s Well that Ends
Well
Sometimes the parsha just
smacks you in the face. One of the reasons given for the weekly obligation to
review the weekly Torah portion is because of the timely messages that
it contains for us, 3500 years after it was given. Which you’ve gotta admit is
pretty amazing and unique in itself. Is there any other book from even 300
years ago that has any relevant messages? That millions of people study? That
tens of thousands of Jews read religiously- literally each day, each week, each
Shabbos. You’ve got admit that’s mind-blowing.
Now the skeptic might throw out
something like Confucius, Buddha or if you really think you’re cool Hammurabi.
But really… give me a break. I mean I’m not just talking about some silly poems
or some “sage” epithets, or meditational baloney. The Torah is stories, it’s
detailed laws, it’s ethical lessons and perhaps one of the most amazing things
is that there are things written and mentioned that seemingly really shouldn’t
have any importance or significance, as they are just what at first glance seem
like minor extraneous details or words, yet, being that it was written by
Hashem, we always took them very seriously and never edited them out and even
studied and derived messages and lessons from them. It’s that stuff that hits
you in the face every once in a while. Because it almost seems that it was
hidden there for 3500 years, just so that I could get the message it was
sending me today. It was water deep in the ground that has been waiting for us
to bring forth.
So since this war began this has
been happening a lot to me. I’ve shared a lot of this with you. Just this year
alone, it’s been pretty wild how the first few parshiyot keep mentioning
Chamas which of course has a whole new context to us, every time we hear
that word. Even cooler, I mentioned to my shul two weeks ago how it blew me
away when I noticed that the plague Hashem hit the city of Sodom that gathered
around the house of Lot before their destruction was blindness. Do you know
what the word for blindness is in hebrew? Sanveirim. Guess who the head
of Chamas that started this whole thing was until we blew him up? Sinwar.. or
in Hebrew Sinvar… Yup same word. And yes, he blinded us. He blinded the world.
He blinded his people. And he suffered the fate of Sodom before it’s
destruction. C’mon you gotta admit… that’s cool.
This week though once again the
Torah portion didn’t disappoint. The past two weeks I’ve just been focusing on
this entire Philistine saga that keeps repeating itself. The Philistines/
Plishtim share a very similar name to the modern-day Palestinians. Now the
truth is that they are in no way related to those ancient folk. Neither is
their name which wasn’t even used officially until 2013 in terms of their
supposed Statehood and only in the 1900’s as an identification of the Arabs-
who were formerly Jordanians that lived here. Yet, if that’s what Hashem put in
their minds or the ancient Romans who gave that name to Judea, it must be because
there’s a spiritual connection with the ancient nation that lived here that
were thus called. It’s so that every time that we, in 2024 and every war since
this whole Palestinian mishigas started, hear their name when we review the
parsha each week, we are meant to find the modern message and connection for us
today.
But before I get to the Plishtim,
I’ll share with you the word that hit me this week which I never noticed before
and that is right after Yitzchak’s final interaction with Avimelech and those
Philistines and the oath and “peace treaty” of Avraham that he renewed with
them. The Torah tells us right after that, in what seems to be unrelated
information that Esau went out and found himself a bride.
Bereishit (26:34) Vayikach Isha
es Yehudis bas Be’eiri Ha’Chiti- And he took a wife Yehudis
the daughter of Be’eiri the Chitite.
Boom! Did you hear that? Maybe it’s
just me because I’ve spent so much time in the Gaza strip area and after
reading about the Philistines, that’s where my mind is. But to hear the name
“Beiri” right next to Gaza, which is of course the Kibbutz that got hit one of
the worst on October 7th startled me. In case that wasn’t enough
when I checked out Rashi you’re not going to believe what it says there.
Rashi describes the reason for Esau
getting married is that he wanted to pull wool over his father’s eyes. It’s
probably why he chose a woman with such a Jewishy sounding name. You don’t get
too much more Jewish than Yehudis. Ok maybe Breindel… So Rashi, quoting the
midrash compares Esau to a pig who shows off his split hooves to pretend to be
Kosher despite the fact that he doesn’t chew his cud. And then Rashi says
Kach eilu gozlim v’chomsim
u’marim atzmam kasherim- So to these
(descendants of Esau) rob and kidnap and present themselves as if they are
Kosher.
Did you see that word for kidnapping?
Chomsim. Chamas. Beiri, Plishtim, Chamas… It’s too much for me. It’s when Esau collaborates and marries
Chamas. When Beiri becomes swallowed up by the Chittim. It’s the stealing of
wives that comes after peace treaty. It’s trying to show that they are the
moral ones. They are the chosen nation. They are Yehudis. The true descendants.
The carrier on of the legacy of Avraham and Yitzchak.
In case, as well- excuse the pun,
you thought this was far stretched, The Baal Ha’Turim notes that the only other
place where we have Be’eri is fascinatingly enough by one of our prophets that
also shares the same name. None other than Hoshea’ Ben Be’eiri. What is the
prophecy of Hoshea? Hashem tells him to take a woman of ill repute as a wife.
After he marries her and has children. The name he gives them are Lo ami-
not my nation. Lo Ruchama- not from my womb. Hashem then
tells him that he should send her away. When Hoshea protests that she’s his
wife and he has kids with her, Hashem responds
“You should’ve learned from
Moshe to daven and pray on behalf of Bnai Yisrael when I told you that I would
exile them. If you feel the way you do about a woman who is promiscuous and
children that you’re not even sure are your own, then how much more so are the
children of Israel, who are descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and
whom are one of the four things I acquired in this world along with the Torah,
the land of Israel and the Temple. And you suggest that I should trade them for
another nation because of their sins!!”
What is the message of Be’eiri?
It’s whether we are the children, descendants and inheritors of Avraham and
Yitzchak or not.
What is our dispute with the Plishtim
about? Fascinatingly enough it’s about two things. One, our wives. Avimelech,
both by Avraham and by Yitzchak, has to be corrected and taught that Sara and
Rivka respectably and respectfully are the wives of our Patriarchs. When they
come to that land, to Gaza, our forefathers feel the need to conceal that from
them. They present their wives as their sisters. They understand that the Plishtim
have no fear of God. If there’s no yiras Hashem, then the Plishtim
as well have no sense of the sanctity of marriage. It’s fascinating that the
first place we are told about the Plishtim as the descendants of Cham
and Mitzryaim the Torah tells us very strangely about where they come from… or
not…
Bereishis (10:13) And Mitzrayim
gave birth to the Ludim ad the Anamim, and the Lahavim and the Naftuchim and
the Patrusim and the Kasluchim whom from them came out the Plishtim…
So where are the Plishtim from?
Unlike everyone else where it tells you who their father was, the Plishtim
don’t really know…
Rashi- “From these two families
they came out, for the Patrusim and Kasluchim would exchange their wives with
one another and from them came out the Plishtim.”
To paraphrase the famous joke. The
most confusing day in Philistine is Father’s Day. It’s no wonder that Avraham
and Yitzchak are terrified to tell them who their wives are. Plishtim don’t
really respect those boundaries and sanctity. They are a fatherless nation. The
opposite of Toldos.
The other area that we find the Plishtim
fighting with our Patriarchs is about wells. Wells are not water cisterns. To
find a well one has to dig deep down below the surface and reveal them. One has
to find the source that is hidden far below the visible earth and bring forth
its water. Avraham and Yitzchak are geniuses at this. It comes from being able
to see the entire world as just a hiddenness of Hashem that we have to reveal
and bring forth. The Plishtim though? Not so much. They are very
surface. They have no roots. No home. They steal. They kidnap. They take what
we have uncovered and revealed, and they claim it as their own.
The Ramban and almost every other
commentary, that looks beyond the simple story, notes that all this discussion
which seems to be so minor and irrelevant- fighting over wells, giving them
names, stuffing them up and revealing them again is really the essence of everything.
It’s in reality hints, allegories and setting the precedent for what will take
place in the future. What takes place throughout our history and the end of
days. And thus the brilliant title of this essay- in case you missed it…Alls
well that Ends Well.
The wells, they explain correspond
to the Temples and even the Mishkan that will be built. They are the
wellsprings of life. It is on them that we have to dig deep to reveal them.
They have challenges. Some are from within, some are from our enemies that try
to stuff them up. The names the first ones are given are fighting-Esek
and Sitna- hatred. They are names that correspond to our fights with our
enemies that sometimes present themselves as claiming that those wellsprings of
life come from them. Eventually though as time goes on it becomes revealed that
it was really never about trying to hijack our faith and our water source,
rather it’s about pure hatred.
From a different though similar prespective,
the Klei Yakar notes that its about our
own internal struggle with the same concepts. The first temple is destroyed
because of our fighting over which kingship is the true kingship. The northern
Kingdom of Israel or Yehuda. Who has the right path. The right Rebbe… The right
pathway to that wellspring of life. The Second Temple though it becomes
revealed that its really, just pure hatred. Sinat chinam. Intolerance of
one another. It’s about not understanding that we need one another, and we need
to be united to reveal the shechina. The water pipe is clogged up. We
can’t see the source. Avraham and Yitzchak’s children don’t appreciate that all
of us are in the same well and have one source and sometimes it takes the Plishtim
and sometimes it takes Esau and his wife Yehudis bas Be’eri- who claim to be
the true well of Hashem (Be’eir- yud the well of Hashem!) to unite and remind
us that we have to dig deeper and deeper to get to that final well.
The last well called Rechovot- is
when Hashem will expand our borders. It’s the well of Mashiach. It’s the one
that everyone agrees is ours. It’s when they understand who our wife is. Who
our mother is. What the sanctity of a Jewish home is all about. It’s that the
blessing that they are so desperately seeking comes from us. That the well has
revealed the light and water and that they can drink from.
Yaakov will find his wife by the
well. Moshe will find Tzipora by the well too. The well is the place where we
build our families from. For as opposed to the Plishtim, a Jewish home
and marriage taps into a deeper and holier source. It’s not surface. It’s not
something that just falls from the heavens. It’s something that goes back to
the beginning of Creation. To the water in the depths. To the Garden of Eden.
To Adam and Chava. We know where we come from and thus we know where we have to
get back to.
The story of Esau and his wife
Yehudis bas Be’eiri is the turning point where we finish for the time with the Plishtim.
Avimelech and his Chamas guys got it. The next stage is Esau and his Be’eri and
his pig feet. He marries the descendant of Yishmael and the fight over the
birthright begins. The fight over the sanctity of marriage and the next
generations begin. Our parsha is called Toldos- Generations because that’s what
it’s all about. The ability to bring forth. To reveal generations. To be the
descendants of Avraham and Yitzchak.
The Plishtim show up again
and again right before the times of our redemption. They are the story of
Avraham before he goes to Har Ha’Moriah for the Akeida in Jerusalem for the
first time and that treaty he makes with them prevents that dream from becoming
realized. They are there before Yitzchak gives the birthright away. They will
come back when we come into the land of Israel. They will kill the tribe of
Ephraim that tried to leave Egypt early to get to Israel (see Rashi on the Az
Yashir of yoshvei pileshet-Shemos 15:14). They will terrorize us during the
period of judges as we try to conquer the land. They will give their daughter
Delila to the savior Shimshon Ha’Gibor, trying to destroy our marriages. They
destroy the Mishkan and Shilo and steal the Ark of the covenant. They want the
Ark as their own. They claim the Torah is theirs. The Well is theirs. They are
the ones that are the Jebusites that are sitting on the walls of the Jerusalem
with the lame and the blind preventing King David from returning the Ark to
there. It’s always them right before the beginning of a new era. They have to be
conquered. They have to recognize that the wells are ours before Mashiach can
come.
Fascinatingly enough, the modern
day Kibbutz Be’eiri is not named after the Biblical city. It’s named after one
of the early Zionist leaders Berel Katznelson. Berel was born Litvak to an
“enlightened” family and that left traditional Judaism and trying to find his
way, his wellspring was mistakenly drinking from the wells of Lenin, Marx and
secular Zionism. He was the founder of the Histradut, Labor movement and was a staunch believer in coexistence with
Arabs. He even opposed the Peel commissions two-State-solution partition plan
claiming we all needed to live together. Fascinatingly enough though, towards
the end of his life despite being a staunch secularist and the head of Mapai,
we find that he slowly returns to our wellsprings at least ideologically. He
decries the lack of unity amongst our nation as being our biggest failing. How
we excuse others but can never excuse ourselves.
“Is there another People on
Earth so emotionally twisted that they consider everything their nation does
despicable and hateful, while every murder, rape, robbery committed by their
enemies fill their hearts with admiration and awe?"
But even more impressive was he saw
many of the early secular Kibbutzim abandoning traditions. He urged them to
observe Kashrut and Shabbos as official policy and once when he discovered that
a Kibbutz had made a summer camp on the day of Tishah B’av, a day that he was
always strict about observing in mourning and fasting. he wrote in the Davar
left wing paper, that he was the editor of the following.
“I see the neglect of Tisha B'Av
in our society in general as a sign of a voyage that lacks the deliberate
rudder of a central idea. We claim to educate the youth for a pioneering life,
for a life of fulfillment... How will we achieve this?
Will this seed really grow on a
barren rock, on an asphalt floor?! An idea also needs fertile soil in which it
can deepen its roots. A new and creative generation does not throw the
inheritance of generations into the trash... it revives an ancient tradition
that can nourish the soul of the new generation”
Be’eri perhaps is thus aptly named
after him as well. Even more fascinating is that it is he that composed the
Yizkor memorial prayer for the fallen soldiers after the battle of Tel Chai. Be’eiri…
It is from there that we are perhaps all meant to return to that well of
Yitzchak. To find in even the secular of all of us and the so many that Be’eri
and October 7th were awakened by the Philistines to find their way
back to our birthright. Perhaps it is time for that final well of Rechovot to
bring forth its waters. The world is so so thirsty. Enough Yizkors and mourning
has been said. He who mourns will eventually see the Temple rebuilt. May he who
digs merit to bring forth the waters of life.
Have a passionate restful Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Fun
ain tifeh grub hot men mer vasser vi fun tzen flacheh..”.- From one deep ditch comes more water than from ten shallow
ones.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
30.
Hisham’s Palace in Jericho and Khirbat al-Minya in the northern Kinneret
were
built during the reign of the ______ Dynasty .
In
which part of the country is there a prehistoric site that is an official
UNESCO
World Heritage Site?
A) Galilee
B) Samaria
C) Carmel
D) Negev
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6oS6tqA1hY
– Gorgeous Ari Hil Ma Ani
Mevakesh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTBVdfHbuKE
– Love this Shmuli Ungar Vayitein
Lecha from the parsha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtvR_pqSBR4
– Eitan Katz Naftali Kempeh what a great
shidduch in this beautiful new release Shema Beni
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-8JfR9_LFAl
– Rak Tov… Itzik Dadya again and again
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/shalom-aleichem
- Lkavod
Shabbos Kodesh my Shalom Aleichem Composition… Dovid Lowy vocals and
arrangements!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
King Yoshiya- 639 BC – Eight years old is kind of young to become the King of Israel.
Although it is arguable that way too many of our world leaders kind of act like
6 year olds in this crazy world we’re living in. Yet Yoshiyahu, our
sages tell us was on King David level of leadership and righteousness.
As we will learn he began a religious revolution that was long overdue. What
makes this even more amazing is that his father Amon was a low life. His
grandfather Menashe certainly started off pretty bad as well. Yet, those
latent genes of Chizkiya and Yeshaya his grandparents eventually
activated in this impressive young man.
His Rebbi, the prophet
Tzfanya who we spoke about two weeks ago already had prophesized about the
destruction of the Temple at the hands of Nevuchadnezzar of Bavel. Yeah…
that’s Iran… By the time he was 16 already he began to seek out God of Dovid
Ha’Melech. Perhaps he heard all of the stories of Dovid’s
righteousness. His teshuva after his own sins. He certainly heard the
sweet poetry and songs of Dovid Ha’Melech that were sung still in the Beit
Ha’Mikdash. How much powerful it must have been to him knowing that this
was his ancestor. He connected to that yichus he had. It gave him a
sense of identity that had been stolen from him and his family. To a large
degree his name Yoshiya is even symbolic of that salvation of Hashem of
his life on a spiritual level.
Those formative years
ultimately gave him the foundation that at age 20 he began to take that
spiritual revival that he had and turn his eyes to the Kingdom of Yehuda and
even the remnants of Israel. Like his grandfather Chizkiya generations
before him he began to tear down the idolatry from the land. He destroyed the bamos-
personal altars that people erected, and he had the priests that worshipped
false gods killed and their bodies and ashes burnt on those same altars. He
wanted to send a message. There’s a new sheriff in town. We’re here in Eretz
Yisrael to reveal the name of Hashem and bring the Shechina down. The
dangers that we face of our enemies. Of Egypt, of Bavel of the
waning empire of Assyria are only threats to us when we are not doing
the will of Hashem. We need to take care of our own cancer and then we can
start to deal with everything else around us.
This was not an easy
path that he had chosen, but that path ultimately led him to the Bais
Ha’Mikdash where with his rededication campaign led to perhaps one of the
most amazing and important finds of all time? Stay tuned next week for the
story of the “Finder of the Lost Ark”
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FUNNY TERRIBLE WELL JOKES OF THE WEEK
I tried starting a
dating app for wells, but it dried up pretty quickly. It turns out, most wells
are just looking for something deep and meaningful!
Why did the well
get a job at the bank? Because it had plenty of liquid assets!
My friend told me he
could talk to wells… Turns out, he was just well-versed in plumbing!'”
A well wrote a book
about its life. Critics are calling it an autobiography, but I just think it’s
well-written.
You know, money talks,
but I tried talking to a wishing well the other day… all I got was silence.
Must’ve been well-off.
Where do sick wells
go? To the well-being center!
You can tell it’s a
really deep well because its voice echoes…well, well, well.
I thought I
could make a living digging wells…turns out it was just a pipe dream.
Q: Why did the well
get a job at the spa? A: It was known for its mineral water and deep tissue
massages.
Q: What did the well
say to the rain? A: “Hey, thanks for dropping in!”
Q: Why was the well so
sad? A: It had a deep and abiding sense of emptiness.
Q: What’s a well’s
favorite type of music? A: Anything but heavy metal!
Q: What did the
motivational speaker say to the well? A: “You’ve got so much potential. Don’t
just sit there…spring into action!”
Why did the well win
an award? For its outstanding well-fare work in the community!
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