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Thursday, November 14, 2024

The Avraham Accords - Parshat Vayeira 2024 5785

 Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

November 15th 2024 -Volume 14 Issue 3 14th of Cheshvan 5785

 

Parshat Vayeira

 

The Avraham Accords

 

He went through a personal Holocaust. He survived being thrown into the ovens, but his brother didn’t. He had family members kidnapped. He was mocked and persecuted wherever he went. His own wife was taken to be abused across the borders. To Egypt. To Gaza. Only a miracle saved her. Miracles that he saw daily and that he dedicated his life to teaching the world about.

 

He wasn’t going to let the evil bring him down to their level. He was going to plant trees of life instead.  He was going to fill the world with kindness and light. For only light can chase away the darkness. There was no one too evil that he didn’t feel could be reached and reveal the spark of holiness and godliness hidden within. That love, kindness and forgiveness couldn’t motivate them to return and be saved. Love conquers all. The power of Torah will return everyone. The world can be fixed.  But he was wrong. So so very wrong…

 

His first wake up in call in this week’s parsha, is when Hashem appears to Avraham, our forefather, the first Jew in the history of the world. did you think I was talking about some Kibbutznik, Holocaust survivor that was a left-wing peacenik? Yes… let’s try to reframe the parsha and story of this first Jew and the lessons he had to learn to become our Patriarch so it’s relevant to us today as it’s meant to be. The first lesson Hashem teaches him is that there are some people that are beyond saving. Love doesn’t conquer all. The city of Sodom and its neighbors need to be wiped off the face of the earth. There is no saving grace whatsoever. Fire and brimstone is all they deserve. It’s the only option

 

There may be people there that are innocent civilians. Imaginably the infants, babies and I’m sure even most of the women and children and probably quite a few men weren’t evil. Weren’t terrorists. Yet at the same time they weren’t tzadikim. They were certainly by no means righteous individuals. For the city to be saved when there’s a terrible stink there, when it is evil at it’s core, there needs to be at least ten holy righteous tzadikim in it. If there aren’t ten on that high level. If there aren’t ten that are willing to stand up and decry the actions of the evil-doers and that haven’t fallen under the influence of the regime. Even if they didn’t vote for them, but at the same time they didn’t vote against them or decry or rebuke them… Then the city must burn. They all must die. Avraham, Hashem tells him, understand that evil can’t always be turned. Sometimes it just needs to be eradicated.

 

This is not an easy lesson to understand for someone that went through persecution, horror and genocide and that had dreams of a better world. Yet this is the perquisite to him becoming the father of Yitzchak. It’s a lesson that he needed to learn five minutes after he was told that he would become the father of the Jewish people. It’s as if Hashem was telling him in the same sentence, that it’s the first and most important lesson that will come with your father and nationhood to pass down and convey to your descendants.

 

Lesson two though is an even more challenging lesson. The truth is lesson 2 really started even before this week’s parsha. It began right after Hashem first told him that he would inherit the land of Israel and would merit to have children. The lesson that Hashem gave him right after that first tiding and covenant was that the wife that Sarah had given him, her prize student Hagar, and her eventual child, would not inherit with Yitzchak the land.

 

Now understand who Hagar was. She was truly a tzadekes. She rejected her father Pharaoh’s house. One can assume that she was disgusted with his evil ways, having seen him take Sarah as a hostage. She left all the glory of that palace and attached herself willfully to Sarah, seemingly inspired by her and Avraham’s loving, peaceful forgiving and Hashem oriented lifestyle. Sarah wouldn’t have just given anyone to her husband. Hagar was her prize talmidah. Eventually Hagar will return and be Avraham’s wife for decades after Sarah’s death. Her deeds and ways our sages compared to ketores; the heavenly incense. She’s a good Arab, The best and most loyal.

 

The child that she would bear as well, Yishmael, will become the ultimate Baal Teshuva. The greatest Kohen Gadol that Hashem Himself asked for a blessing, thousands of years later, is even named after him. He is Avraham’s first-born child, right after Hashem promised him descendants. He’s the miracle kid born to him at age eighty-six years old. There’s no one that Avraham has higher hopes for. His own Sarah, who was greater in prophecy than him, even told him that this is what he needed to do. Yet…. again he was wrong. Yishmael and Hagar will never become who they need to become with love. That’s not how they’re built. That’s now what will make them into who they need to become.

 

Sarah, tell Avraham last week that he’s mistaken. He’s more than mistaken. His contzeptzia of treating Hagar with love and with equality and kindness is in fact …. Are you ready for the word she uses?

 

Chamasi alecha- You are Chamas… My wrath is upon you.

 

If you treat them equally and with kindness, you Avraham, are in fact just building the foundation of  Hamas. Hagar can only become Ketura if she recognizes that she is a second-class citizen. Yishmael will only become righteous if he is raised in a house where it is as clear as day that-

 

Lo yorish ben ha’amah ha’zot im bni im Yitzchak- that the son of this maid servant will have no inheritance rights with my son Yitzchak.

 

If you don’t believe Sarah, which Avraham it seems had a hard time accepting, Hashem Himself tells Avraham, that she is correct. The angel even comes down to Hagar as well and tells her to return and accept the abuse of Sarah. It’s good for her. She needs it. It’s the only way that she can fulfill her purpose. This is the lesson that Avraham needs to learn even before he is foretold of the birth of Yitzchak. He needs to understand, once again that love and kindness is not necessarily the way to work and to be mekarev everyone. There are some that require a different medicine. There are some that need to be put in their place. They are pereh adam- they are creatures that will not respond as do most humans created in the image of Hashem towards loves and hugs. They are pereh- wild at their core and thus need to be reigned in. They need to be whipped. They need to be beaten into obedience. And then they will flourish and become the great nation they are meant to become. Then Yishmael can become a Baal Teshuva and Hagar can become the great Keturah.

 

The lesson becomes even more vivid in this week’s parsha when Avraham is commanded to expel Yishmael. To throw him out like a dog to the desert with a “Chaymas Mayim”- (am I the only one that notes the irony of that strange word for water jug and its phonetic similarity to Chamas- the wrath that Sarah had on Avraham and that seemingly he is throwing and expelling with Yishmael out of his house, out of our land…). Rule number one today in chinuch especially when dealing with a child that is trying to find his place, that may not be fitting in, that may be getting involved in inappropriate or even sinful activity is to keep them close. Is to shower them with love. Is to accept them for who they are and try to find the positive points to uplift them. To build them. Throwing them out is absolutely the worst thing one can do. It’s pretty much writing them off for good. If that’s the case for us today, imagine how much more so, this must have been for Avraham. He’s the king of kiruv. He’s Hashem’s ultimate representative of kindness. And this is his miracle child of his holy rebbetzin Hagar who returned to be abused and silently accepted her new God given incomprehensible role and raised him for 13 years. And now just chuck him out?! And the answer is yes.

 

See Yishmael has a problem. And to be honest we have a problem too. Yishmael’s problem is that he has a confusing life. On the one hand he is a son of Avraham. A first-born to be accurate. A first-born of whom the Torah-which Avraham observed- not only tells us receives a double portion, but for whom it is even forbidden biblically for the father to remove from his rightful birthright and give it rather to the younger favored son. In fact, Reb Chaim Brisker even suggests that this was Avraham’s dilemma when Sarah told him that he needed to throw him out. How can that be? How can Yishmael have absolutely no inheritance. Not as a first-born and not even as a son. It’s why Hashem had to come and tell him this explicitly. A Yishmael who thinks he has a right of inheritance to live in the land of Israel is a very dangerous being to have in the world. Yishmael can only become who he needs to become if he is thrown and understands that his status and only ability to even reside in Eretz Yisrael is to be that of a second-class guest of ours. A ger toshav that recognizes he has no sovereignty or rights. Only what we give him. Only if he plays by our and Hashem’s rules.

 

This lesson, by the way, is all taught to Avraham in Gerar. Or should I say the border and coastline of Gaza today. The place where incomprehensibly tragically and ironically we did the absolute opposite throwing out the children of Yitzchak from there and giving it as an inheritance to Yishmael. This is the starting point that Hashem choses to teach Avraham the hardest lesson that we have never ever really learned or fulfilled since Hashem first commanded us as such. Yishmael has no right to live in the land of Israel as a citizen. Israel is the inheritance of Yitzchak and only Yitzchak. It will as well become that of Yaakov and only Yaakov who will inherit it from him when that inheritance is removed from Esau. We’ve never learned this. We’ve never expressed this.

 

Even when coming into the land when Hashem explicitly told us that the seven nations need to be wiped out because this is our inheritance, we didn’t do the job. Even when we ruled the land in the times of King David and Shlomo there were still nations living in our inherited land as citizens. They were living in our kitchen. In our living room. In our Galil. In our Negev. In our Shefela. In our hills, in our valleys in our farms and cities. Israel is meant to be a Jewish state. A godly country with the only one true faith that shines out from here. Others may live here as practitioners or at least adherents of our faith. But they need to accept first of all that they are not inheritors of this land and that they have no portion in it and are mere dwellers at our pleasure. Second of all they have to recognize and acknowledge that Hashem is the true God, we are His chosen Nation and the Torah and all its teachings are true. If they don’t do that… they need to be expelled immediately. They are preventing the Shechina from being revealed. They are preventing the world from becoming fixed. And we who do not demand this and understand this are just as culpable if not even more culpable then they are.

 

Incidentally, and in case you think that I’m talking Messianically here. I’m not. Our obligation today of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael- to settle the land of Israel, at least according to the Ramban is not merely to live on a hilltop or buy an apartment in Tenuva or Shneller of even Karmiel. It is to inherit the land. It’s to make sure it is “not left in the hands of the gentiles” in his words. Mashiach’s job according to the Rambam and our sages is to wage wars, to build the Temple, to wipe out Amalek. It has nothing to do with settling the land. That’s for us today even before he gets here. For hundreds of years, there were many Jews that mistakenly thought and even preached that it was forbidden to move to the land of Israel until Mashiach will gather in the exiles and bring us home. So they didn’t move here. They stayed there… and got killed. Until all of sudden-without Mashiach first coming they returned. They came home. They settled here and made it the largest Jewish population in the world. All without Mashiach whom we are still daily waiting and davening for having come.

 

Mashiach doesn’t have anything to do with returning to and settling the land. As well he doesn’t have anything to do with throwing the gentiles and Yishmaelites out. The only ones stopping that from happening is the “contzeptzia” that we have allowed to foster that “the ben ha’amah” has a right to inherit together with the children of Sarah and Yitzchak. We came back to Israel and still come back as ‘settlers” as “conquerors” as “victors” as a homeless persecuted people returning to a biblical homeland and dwelling place. Those are all wrong. Our return to Israel is because this is our inheritance. It’s ours. It’s not theirs and never was. Even when we left and were thrown out, it was always our inheritance. Someone doesn’t return to their father’s inherited house because he wants to settle it, or because he conquers it. He returns because it’s his. When one returns because it’s his, he chucks out everyone else that’s squatting there and doesn’t accept our sovereignty. Everyone who doesn’t accept that it’s not and never will be theirs. It’s not even theirs until Mashiach comes when we take it back. It’s already not theirs today…

 

We have a hard time saying this, because we are infected with the Avraham syndrome and gene. We are too loving. We suffered so much and we don’t want others to suffer. We believe redemption is always possible. We’ve been treated like second class citizens and worse and as sub-humans and we can’t possibly imagine anyone else being treated like that. Certainly not at our kind and moral Avrahamic hands. We want to look for innocents in Sodom. We want to find reasons not to chase out Yishmael. We believe so fundamentally in the image of Hashem that is found in humanity, we can’t possibly imagine not treating them with that dignity. I get it…

 

Until this second year of war and the reading of these two parshiyot and these stories, I pretty much felt that way as well. I still have those 3000-year-old contzeptziot t that our nation has not yet been able to overcome. Yet it’s a message that rings true. It’s the voice of Sarah whose prophecy is greater than ours. I’ve seen Yishmael and I understand how true it is that the carrot will never win him over or elevate him. Although to be honest, I still don’t even see that by all of the Arabs here. I don’t see that by the Druze, by the Christian Arabs, by “friendly” Yishmaelites. It’s like many in America don’t see that in their “friendly” Esau-vites  neighbors that are “pro-Israel”. That love Jews. That say Good Morning and Good Evening to them and that they work with and shop with. They don’t see the hatred our sages tell us is a halacha bi’yadua- an established halachic fact that they hate us. They can’t fathom that they can turn tomorrow into Nazis, Crusaders, Cossacks and Amsterdamians… They don’t see it, as I don’t… but we’re starting to. More and more and more. We know it to be true, but just as for Avraham, its hard for us to swallow. It’s hard for us to have our contzeptziot broken. It’s hard for us to even think of saying the words “Israel is not a democratic state. All Christians, Muslims and non-believers have no right to live here. If they remain they will be killed. Hashem gave us this land as our inheritance. Just as no one can live in my inherited houses basement without my permission, they can’t live in my land. They have no rights. The son of the maidservant needs to remain and return to be afflicted under his Mistress.” That there is only one language and one solution. One accord. One State. One Faith and then the world can unite around the true claim that inherently they have all been waiting for us to finally declare. Am Yisrael Chai!

 

Are we ready to say that yet? Does it sound crazy? Is it possible? I don’t know. I know that there are many Muslim countries that have laws where they unabashedly say that no other religion may be practiced on pain of death or expulsion and nobody really seems to blink.  I know that throughout history, as do you, that countries and empires declared themselves Christian and threw out and killed all those that didn’t practice or believe in the State religion. No one knows those laws better than us. But were those laws and experiences meant to motivate us to create a free, democratic, freedom of and from religion State, as most of us have been living.  Or perhaps quite ironically the opposite. Perhaps it was for us to build up enough confidence in our own role in this world and have the gumption to declare that same historical right and heritage that every other religion and empire has co-opted from us, for ourselves and even more significantly for Ha’kadosh Baruch and for all of mankind. Has Hashem brought us back in time to the point where we realize that when we don’t do that then… Chamasi alecha… My Chamas will be upon you… Or are we still suffering from Avraham-itis? Are we not listening to the voice of Hashem as spoken through Sarah?

 

Sounds crazy right? Sounds apartheid-ical, correct? But is it Torah? One hundred percent. Is it what Hashem wants? This is what He’s told Avraham from the beginning that it’s always been about. Has Rabbi Schwartz lost his mind… I think so… But hey, there’s a new president in the United States. The Abraham Accords will be back on the table soon. It’s time for a revision of them. It’s time to give Yishmael and Hagar what they really need and become who they need to become. It’s not just America that needs to be great again. It’s the world. It’s Hashem. And it starts with us. With breaking our conteptziot. The journey and lessons of our parsha conclude with Mt. Moriah. With the final test of Avraham. With Hashem telling us that he doesn’t need us to sacrifice any of our children anymore. He doesn’t want that. He never did. The Mountain is already ours. We just need to claim it.  

 

Have a revelatory Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

EXCITING NEW NEWS!

 

SO AFTER MUCH DELAY… SHIPPING YOM TOV AND ALL I’M DELIGHTED TO TELL YOU THAT MY BOOK HAS FINALLY ARRIVED TO THE SHORES OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE FIRST COPIES HAVE BEEN SHIPPED OUT ALREADY…

 

It’s here!!!

NOW IT’S TIME TO GET YOUR COPY TODAY…

 

TOUR TORAH

 

FROM the Back Cover!!

 

There are Torah parshah books and there are Eretz Yisrael books and there are even tour-guide books, yet this latest work by Rabbi Schwartz puts them all together in a soulful literary adventure and exploration of the timeless messages of our Torah, seen through the eyes of a Rabbi and tour guide, that speak to each of us today.

 

Tour Torah is a collection of essays compiled from fourteen years of writings from his weekly emails, “Holyland Insights and Inspiration,” that reach tens of thousands of readers and fans of his Mishpacha Magazine columns and articles on sites in Israel. His work as an outreach rabbi in far-flung communities across the United States, together with his having studied under the great Rabbis and leaders of the last generation mixed with his unique sense of humor, make this series one that will invite discussion, laughter, and inspiration at every Shabbos meal and in all who have a passion for our Holy Land.

 

With resounding response from his previous publications, The Most Enjoyable Book series on Pesach, Rabbi Schwartz takes his love and passion of years of being one of Israel’s most popular tour guides and opens up worlds and gateways in Torah that can only best be appreciated with a tour and journey each week through the parshah to discover its stories, narratives, and insights.

 

 

PROCEEDS FROM THE BOOK PURCHASE GO TO SUPPORT OUR SHUL AND LOCAL WAR EFFORT AND CAN ALL BE MADE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE ON THE LINK BELOW

 

THE BOOK HAS BEEN ENTIRELY SPONSORED AND THUS IT IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FOR $36 PLUS DELIVERY ($10 IN USA)

 

WHERE ALL PROCEEDS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE AND SUPPORT OUR SHUL AND EFFORTS!

 

(AND OF COURSE IF YOU’D LIKE TO DONATE MORE… WE’RE HAPPY TO PUT IT ALL TO GOOD USE AND WE NEED IT!!)

 

https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E343033&id=50

 

FOR THOSE HERE IN ISRAEL IT IS 120 SHEKEL DONATION TO OUR SHUL AND WE WILL TRY TO HAVE IT DELIVERED IN JERUSALEM OR BEIT SHEMESH.

 

YOU’VE ALREADY MISSED THE FIRST THREE PARSHAS… MAKE SURE THAT YOU GET YOUR COPY THIS WEEK AND CATCH UP AND LEARN VAYEIRA BY YOUR SHABBOS TABLE WITH RABBI SCHWARTZ…

 ************************

YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Der emess kumt arois azoi vi boimel oif der vasser.”.- The truth comes out like oil on water.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

28.A term that describes animal or plant life that is located in a single and narrow

distribution area is_____.

 

What is scoria?

A. A type of volcanic rock

B. A species of bird

C. The name of a rodent

D. A sect of zealots

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xi-m2h3C0g   Must watch.. Chacham Ovadia song on Yom Simcha L’Yisrael Yom Tilim on Yishmael… Awesome..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYtF2-TCotM    Vayomer Hineini story and song Yiddish… nice..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA3ZM1InEKQ -  Reb Shlomo Carlebach Yartzeit this week with this new Pini Einhorn Carlichuppa medley…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SOqCf_j3OI   – Tamid ohev Oti African Version…?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsXZFSlwDnE    Alex Clare new album Shabbos Yom Menucha

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

 

Tzfanya- 639 BC Before we discuss the incredible era and kingship of the child king Yoshiya, let’s pause for a moment, as we did by Menashe and explore the prophets of his time that influenced him. Like his father Menashe, the prophets Nachum and Chabakuk, whom we discussed were still alive and prophesized. However unlike Menashe, who’s grandfather was Yeshaya who he killed, Yoshiyahu didn’t have the prophet Yeshaya, yet fascinatingly enough he did have a prophet who according to the Radak may have been a descendant of Chizkiya the King. The Navi gives us the prophet Tzefanya’s lineage and traces him back four generations to “a” Chizkiya”. If that is the same King, as the Radak suggests, then it would make Yoshiya his younger child uncle, despite being only about 8 years old, and Tzefanya being older. That’s kind of interesting…

 

However besides that little clue, we don’t know much about the identity or even life of Tzefanya. He is the 9th book of the 12 prophets and the final one that dies before the destruction. He will be joined by Chulda who we will discuss next week and eventually Yirmiyahu as well. Yet as he names translates Tzfon Hashem- the hidden of Hashem, we don’t have much information about who he was. Even his work the Navi is only three chapters and is rather short.

 

The thrust of his prophecies are about the sins of Yehuda. Particularly the inequity of the rich taking advantage of the poor and the rampant idolatry. He repeats the theme of a judgement day which he calls the Yom Hashem and how Jerusalem will be destroyed. Perhaps most fascinating and relevant is that he foretells of the destruction of the land of the Philistines and Gaza by Bavel, which is Iran… Hmmm… Their cities will be destroyed and be empty shells. We will see that will actually happen when Nevuchadnezzar will come, as well when Pharaoh Necho of Egypt will launch a war. Yet, Tzefania’s prophecies and rebuke had its desired effect on King Yoshiya. He took it to heart and thus began his teshuva movement. The greatest one since his grandfather Chizkiya. But sadly it only delayed the end. This is the last hurrah… And Tzefanya gets the credit for being the first source of that inspiration if not the primary one.

 

One last cool little tidbit of Tzfanya, his grave is in Lebanon in a place called Jabel al Tzafi that is actually a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has attacked recently near Nabaita… There are actually many Jewish graves in the area that tradition date back including Betzalel and Achisamach the builders of the Mishkan as well as the ancient Sarfad where the woman that Elisha resurrected her son was from. These are part of the borders of Biblical Israel that the Olei Bavel conquered and god willing Hashem is returning us hopefully very soon so we can daven at…

 

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE CITIZENSHIP IMMIGRANT JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

A Mexican man is taking his US citizenship test and is at the speaking portion.

The proctor says to him "I want you to use pink, yellow, and green in the same sentence."

The man thinks for a bit and finally says, "The phone go green green, I pink it up and say 'Yellow?'"

 

I was applying for Mexican citizenship and the interviewer asked, “Do you have a criminal record?”

I said, “No. Is that still required?”

 

Trump walks into the Oval office, turns to his administrative team and says, “I want to organise the deportation of 10,000 Muslims and one kitten.

Everyone looks around the table and, after a long silence,

The Secretary of States says. “Mr. President, why do you want to deport a kitten?” Trump smiles and turns to the rest of the table. “You see, no one cares about the Muslims.”

 

I just passed by Canadian citizenship test! I got an eh +

 

I went to the Islamic book store in London and asked if they have the book about Muslim deportation. The guy says get the heck out of here and never come back.

I replied yes that's the one, how much.

 

My friend from Prague finally got his US citizenship approved. That makes him a cancelled Czech

 

Two foreigners in America are applying for citizenship. They're lined up outside the Citizenship and immigration office, along with many others, not wanting to risk deportation now that Trump is in office.

Guy #1: I've had enough of this waiting, save my place, I'm going to shoot Donald Trump myself.

several hours later he returns.

Guy #2: well? did you get him?

Guy #1: no, The line for that was even longer than the one here.

 

Can one get Slovenian citizenship through a spouse? Asking for a President.

 

A man goes to apply for Finnish citizenship.

A man goes to apply for Finnish citizenship. He says to the employee, “I want to be a citizen of Finland.” The employee responds in broken English.

Employee: “You nice?”

Man: “Um... I suppose so.”

“Back of line.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Nice guys Finnish last.”

 

My friend just became an American citizen, but he was forced to give up his Chinese citizenship.

It’s been a real disorienting experience for him..

 

When you apply for American citizenship, you have to write a short paper about yourself. Or in other words,

 

A poll was taken in California, asking if people thought illegal immigration was a serious problem. 29 percent said, 'Yes, it is a serious problem.'

71 percent said, 'No es un problema serio.'

 

The answer to this week”s question is A – Finally got one entirely right! It’s about time… The first part was fairly easy. The word in Hebrew and English is the same, interestingly enough, is endemic, which of course is the correct answer. The second part was a bit trickier. For a second I wasn’t sure if it was referring to the rebels in the bar Kochva revolt called the Sicari by Jospehus, which were like assassins pretty much. So I wasn’t sure since it sounds similar. Yet I figured it was a trick and some where in the back of my memory I remember something like that having to do with Volcanic rock and so I went with that and I was right!!! Cool.  So back in the game I’ve got the  new score at Rabbi Schwartz having 18 points and the MOT having 10 points on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.

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