from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
December 19th 2025 -Volume 16 Issue 9 29th of Kislev 5786
The H- Word
"You're also in galus there in Israel" he told me. You have a secular if not anti-religious government. They arrest Yeshiva students. They drive on Shabbos. They have "Pride" parades that glorify what the Torah refers to as abominations. What makes you think that things are better in Israel then here in America where we can learn. We can be free. The government doesn't try to arrest our children and even gives us all types of great programs to help us avoid poverty. Torah has flourished here. Sure, we're in galus as well… We don't have the Bais Ha'Mikdash and were under the rule of the goyim. But guess what? Sometimes the goyim are better than having your own brother and sister persecuting you. That's even a worse galus. So stop with all of your gotta move to Israel stuff already, as if Mashiach is already here… He's not in Israel yet, and he's not here. So what does it make a difference?
He's not the first person that has presented this classic argument to me. But he's the first to really get the following answer I gave him, which truly came out of my heart. Perhaps it was because for the first time that I ever really felt and spoke so strongly about a video clip that I had seen that had upset me. It upset me that I never really felt this way before. That I was kind of like them. Like him for so many years, and even after I moved to Israel. I guess it takes time- 15 years of even living here until I finally got it. That's how toxic I guess the Kool-Aide is that it takes 15 years of Falalfel and Shwarma to de-tox from.
The clip was of Shulem Lemmer singing "God Bless America" in the White House with Trump. I always liked the song. It always made me feel warm and fuzzy and patriotic and appreciate of the United States- a true medina shel chesed, where we flourished for so many years. Yet when I heard him sing it this year it struck me. It bothered me. It pained me.
"God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam"
Do you feel my pain? Really? The mountains and praries are Eretz Yisrael. I speak about them all the time. The Yam Ha'gadol. The hills of the Shomron and Judea. Really? Is that the land that a chasidim with payos should be singing…should be loving? That any self-respecting Jew should? But those last words are what killed me.
God bless America, My home sweet home."
It hit me in heart. Because it was so beautiful. It was so patriotic. It had moved me in the past and I was nauseated with myself. Did I really ever feel it was my home sweet home? I looked back at myself and thought of that scene of the Von Trapp family singers in "The Sound of Music" singing Eidelveiss for the Nazis as they escaped from the staircase. I thought about all of those Tisha B'Av lectures I had heard and never really seemed relevant to me about how the Crusades happened because Jews didn't want to go home in Poland and said Po-lin. We will rest here until Mashiach comes. When they said Berlin was the new Jerusalem. I thought they were crazy. How could they think that about farshtunkeneh Germany or Poland. But it never hit me that it was me. It was Shulem. It's every Jew in America that feels mushy when they hear that song by Shulem in the White House and hear him say the words My Home sweet Home about anyplace besides Eretz Yisrael and don't get nauseated and disgusted with themselves. Maybe it's no coincidence and there's a hidden reminder that the guy that actually wrote that song's name is- ready for this….who knows…? Yup it was a yiddeleh named Irving and last name…. BERLIN….!! Ahem… Ah guy named Berlin is now calling America is my home… Could Hashem be anymore clear about the hidden message for Jews singing this song?
This is was what brought on my friend's wrath and indignation against me. Why do I think Israel is any better, he threw back at me. Here we're in galus too. Israel is also Berlin…
My response to him, that I really never gave to anyone else before but that really struck me and that I finally understood was that Israel is different. It's really not galus. We're not in exile here at all in the Holy Land. What we are here under is "house arrest". See in America and the diaspora for the past 2000 years we were locked up. We couldn't go home. It was forbidden. It wasn't livable or habitable or safe. It was too difficult to get here and certainly to survive. So we were jailed in various prisons. We were thrown in various pits. Sometimes we had the nice cushy prisons for white collar criminals and too many times we were in solitary confinement, concentration camps and death row. Some had kosher meals. Some even had gourmet meals and even the ones that didn't usually had some Chabad guys come and bring us doughnuts every so often. But it was still jail.
But here we're not in prison. We're in our own house. We're in our own home. We're sleeping every night in our bedroom and we're relaxing and even learning on our own couch. We just don't have our freedom yet. We still can't live and fulfill our dreams. We can't be the best we were meant to be. We have restricted mobility. A chain on our foot and sometimes even our neck. But at least we're home.
Now sometimes home/ house arrest can be even worse than prison. A lot worse. Do you know when? When you're stuck in the same house with the wife you don't like. The wife that makes you miserable. The one you've been running away from for the past twenty years. Hiding out in your work, in the bar, on your phone taking care of business, or even learning all night in the bais midrash in order to avoid their nagging, their whining, their criticism, their everything. Yeah… being locked up under house arrest in that scenario is a lot worse than prison. There's plenty of people that would prefer jail over that. But that's sad. That's so so sad. Because she's their bashert. She's the only person that they can ever truly be the person they're meant to become with.
The avoda in house arrest isn't to come home. It's to figure out ur Shalom Bayis. It's to understand how to become one. That's what Eretz Yisrael is all about. That's the final stage that we're going through to bring the redemption. But that only can come when we stop thinking that Otisville or White House-ville is ever a place that we should be loving or calling our home and even praying that Hashem should "stand beside her and guide her and be grateful for a land so fair". We should be saying that prayer about shalom in our only real bayis and State with our wife and family who are truly our home. Because Hashem knows that the only way we can have that peace is with His help.
Which brings me to this week's parsha and Chanuka too for that matter. There's another term that really for the first time I understood and that jarred me this week in reading the parsha of our first national exile to Egypt with Yosef and his brothers. It’s a concept and notion and something that I think I always took pride and felt good about back in America, that today… really not so much. I think I was wrong. I've "out-galused" it. Last week it struck me a little bit. But this week it hit me even more.
Our parsha begins with Pharaoh's dream that no one could interpret and then we have the Butler or sar Ha'mashkim coming over to Pharaoh and telling him about how he has in prison a very talented person that has just the skill set Pharaoh is seeking. Yet, like every good goy, he can't just speak good about Yosef, he has to knock him in the process. So he describes Yosef as a
Na'ar ivri- a Hebrew lad. Does that sound derogatory to you? Well Rashi certainly feels that way. He says on the spot
Cursed are the wicked who could never do a complete goodness. As he only mentions him in a scornful way.
Na'ar- a lad- shoteh- he's an imbecile and not fitting for greatness.
(Side-note-The Sifsei Chachamim by the way notes that na'ar (320) equals shoteh in gematria- which is always a good gematria to keep in your back pocket). But that's not enough. As well he calls him an ivri- a Hebrew. Rashi tells us that is referring to the fact that Yosef is doesn't even speak the language. But seemingly as we shall see he did speak it, which is a strange lie to make up. But then it hit me that this H-word-Hebrew is in fact the way that Yosef is always described as. Last week as well when he's libled and accused by the wife of Potiphar She talks about how this Ivri- lad tried to seduce her. He's again called twice the H-word; Ivri, Hebrew.
When I heard him calling Yosef that, it felt for the Jewish equivalent of the "African American ( do they even say that still) N-Word or shvartza, or when the Germans called us Zhid! It's like the Yellow star that they stuck on him and us. We're Hebrews. We're ivrim. Is that a good thing or not? Now the truth is I was raised that the term Ivri is a good thing. The first and only other time when it's used as a description of a specific person, in the five books of the Torah is of course by Avraham. Yet over there guess what it's also a term that Avraham is called by someone who is not our friend. By a rasha. It's the name that Og the giant calls him by when he tells him that his nephew Lot has been kidnapped. There Rashi describes the term as being
"on one end of the river while the rest of the world is on the other side"
Other peshatim on the origin of this term is that we are the descendants or students of Eiver he grandson of Noach and son of Shem. Yeah- Shem by the way is where the word Shemite- or Semite comes from. Ivri is the other side of that coin. In fact the Ibn Ezra in Shemot writes that if that's true then technically Yishmael and Esau would also be called Ivrim or Hebrews as they are also descendants of Eiver. They're the H-word too… It's like a white guy calling himself the N-word. His problem with that is that when the Torah gives us our first mitzva when we are redeemed it tells us about the mitzva of setting free an Eved Ivri- which is a Jewish slave not a Yishmaelite or Eisavite-Edomite. Redemption is only for really Hebrews. It's not for goyim.
Now back in my yeshiva and American days, I always was taught that this was sign and title of honor for us. We're as the descendants of Avraham are on one side of the world philosophically, religiously and ideologically, while the rest of the world is different. Jews don't mingle. We stay separate. We're not like them and we don't intermingle. We're like the oil metaphor of Chanuka. We rise above. We don't blend. Yet in the Torah it seems that it is not necessarily a good point. It's a derogatory term. It's a "yellow star" that we're wearing as a sign of pride.
But do you know what? It's still a yellow star. It's us accepting and calling ourselves the H-word. And it's what goyim seem to call us when they want to deride and speak of us with derision. Our true title is Yisrael. It's Yehudim. It's Jews. Our job isn't to be on the opposite side of the river. It's to bring the whole world up. It's to be a light to the nations. It's to have them join us on our side, Hashem's side and shine to them the light we've been given. When we're called Ivrim, it's always a galus term for us. It's an eved ivri- a slave that doesn't have the ability to impact He's stuck in servitude. He's in galus. In jail. In the pit with Yosef. It's the name Hashem tells Moshe to tell Pharaoh that Hashem Himself identifies as being called, He's the Elokai Ha'Ivrim- the god of the Hebrews. That's who Hashem is called as long as His nation is still in exile.
There's only one Jew who ever refers to himself as an Ivri, and Benny Friedman even sings a popular song about him. It's Yonah, the prophet when he's running away from Hashem, from his prophecy, from his job as a Jew. There in the midst of that storm that threatens the boat he's on, he tells the sailors and captain of the ship.
Ivri anochi – I am a Hebrew.
V'es Hashem Elokei Ha'shamayim ani yarei- and I fear the God of heaven.
Yes, you can stop humming the tune now.
But what is Yonah saying? When I'm running away. When I'm not fulfilling or sharing my light, the light of Hashem with the world. When I'm shyfully and bashfully and perhaps even fearfully staying on my side of the river and not shouting the truth to the world, then Hashem is only the God of Heaven. He's not here on Earth. I haven't brought him down. I'm in self inflicted galus. And I'm keeping the Shechina here in jail with me on the bottom of the boat.
The Midrash tells us one more interpretation of the word Ivri. It's fascinatingly enough from the word Ibbur- pregnant. In the opinion of the Rabbanan (the majority opinion), we are called Ivri because we are pregnant with Mashiach. In fact, Eved Ivri is the same gematria as Mashiach (358). Do you know why the goyim look down and persecute us and call us Hebrews in the Torah. It's because they see as pregnant. We're the ones that have Mashiach in our bellies and souls that we're meant to shine out to the world and give birth to, and we just won't go into labor. We just whine and kvetch like a pregnant woman, about our swollen feet and aching bellies, and headaches and nausea. We refuse to go into the delivery room. We're too scared of the birth-pangs. We'd rather just shlep along this heavy weight in our bellies. Keep up our pickle and ice cream and fancy doughnuts and meatboard cravings, then interpret and realize the dreams of the world. The dreams of Mashiach.
Pregnant people are not fun to be around. They're not easy to get along with. I remember when my wife was pregnant, she told me that the reason Hashem made women pregnant and not men is because men couldn't handle being pregnant. I wittily responded that I thought she was wrong. The reason Hashem made women pregnant is because women could never handle being married to a pregnant man and put up with him. I thought that was funny. Needless to say, I slept in the dog house that night and learned my place. Don't make jokes with pregnant women. Especially if you're married to them. But as every father and mother know, as the pregnancy gets closer and closer to the end it's more and more miserable. They're harder and harder to get along with. The hormones are flying. The body is out of synch. Those are signs that the birth is imminent. That it's time for that baby to pop.
That's where we are today. That's what is going on in the only country in the world where the national language is Ivrit. It's a pregnant language. It's a language of derision. It has holy roots and Mashiach babies hidden inside of it. But it's still pregnant. It's not living in Eretz Yisrael. We're still behaving like Hebrews in our land, where we are on one side and the whole world is on the other. We need to be a country that speaks Lashon Ha'kodesh not Ivrit the language of Hebrew slaves. We need to be Bnai Yisrael. We need to be proud Maccabees with a mission. We haven't yet taken up the sword of the Chashmonaim against the evil-doers and PC world and truly gone to battle in the name of Hashem. To reveal His name. To build and rededicate the Bais Ha'Mikdash. We're fighting wars so that we can have peace and quiet and less terror attacks and less painful whip lashes on our backs while we stay in slave-ittude here in Israel as we serve our self-imposed political slave masters who dictate to us what we can and can't do, and how much light we may be permitted to shine and how democratic our society needs to be. We've forgotten in our homeland that we're not meant to be Eved Ivri's for more than six years. It's the first mitzva in Mishpatim the Torah elaborates on after the Torah is given. When we are taken out of galus. When we are meant to come home.
Yosef, stops being a Hebrew the second he does that. He bravely turns to Pharaoh and looks him in the eye and stands in front of the entire United Nations and says. There's only one God. He's the One that interprets dreams. I'm nothing without Him. I'm every thing with Him. And I'm here to reveal His glory to the world. It's when Yosef does that, then remarkably the nations respect him immediately. They adorn him with a crown. He's the second to the king. For he revealed The King of all Kings.
He got up and said that in galus Mitzrayim and we're meant to do that today as well. That's not by singing "America my Home" or America the Beautiful", just as much as we understand that it's not about putting up a X-mas tree next to your Menora. It's about getting up in the White House and singing about mechiyas Amalek, about the eradication of Evil, of the fallacy and evil that is believing in Christianity and any other idolatrous faith. It's how we need a Bais Ha'Mikdash. How they're meant to serve Hashem and we need to bring sacrifices for them. How we need to all go to our real home that we love. How we have a baby we have to give birth to, called Mashiach who is kicking really hard inside of us. Who wants to come out. Who wants to be born.
Chanuka is when we gaze into that Menora and see that light inside of our souls. It's when we recall the miracles Hashem preforms for us when we put ourselves on the line for Him. When we stand up proudly and refuse to be slaves, refuse to be Hebrews, refuse to abdicate our role and stay on the other side of the river. We're no longer mei'ever la'nahar- we're not on the other side of the river, the sea. Nahar means light. We're one with it. We're not there. We're here. Herebrews. We're Home. That's our "H" word. It's when we become Bnai Yisrael. We're not scared of fighting with angels of Esau, with Greece, with the Edom or the entire world. Because Hashem is on our Team. We're His nation. He is the real H-Word inside of us. And it's time to bring that baby to the world. May the light of redemption shine in each of us to find the strength to finally see that miracle of birth finally be born. We have a home to build. A family to become one with. A Bayis Ne'eman Bi 'Yisrael.
Have a Mazaldikeh Shabbos and a lichtige Chanuka and a miraculous Chodesh Tevet
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Eyner ret rusish vi a yid, der anderer ret yidish vi a goy "- One person speaks Russian like a Jew, another speaks Yiddish like a Goy.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
12. The historic event that took place on November 4th, 1995 in Israel is
______
What is the background to the commemoration of “Land Day", marked annually by the
Arab citizens of Israel & Arabs of Judea and Samaria?
A. Land expropriation in the Galilee in 1976, followed by demonstrations in
various localities
B. The traffic obstruction events during October 2000 protests in the Galilee and
the conclusions of the “Or Commission” that was established in their wake
C. It is a religious holiday concerned with the sanctity of the land to Islam, but its
meaning was transformed with time to incorporate national goals and political
struggle.
D. The abolishment of the military rule within the boundaries of the green line
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/maoz-tzur – And here you go Rabbi Schwartz's Chanuka composition playlist- Here's my Maoz Tzur- Dovid Lowy did great ararngements and vocals on this beautiful waltz I composed to sing around the Menora
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx9DAGGPBxQ&list=RDCx9DAGGPBxQ&start_radio=1 – Loving this latest Dovid Lowy Mizmor Letoda release song. Just gorgeous…
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/chasof-zeroah – This composition the fun dance tune of Chasof Zeroa was one of my first composotions and that talented and now famous Yitz Berry did the arrangements on this for me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itqvxWkmJGs – Loving this Oil and Fire ( a little kol isha warning…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxooDVaQtUk&list=RDqxooDVaQtUk&start_radio=1 - Rmember this one… Colored Candles by Destiny!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Keitz Bavel - 371 BC -Just in time for Chanuka we get to the end of the galus of Bavel. With Belshatzar's feast partying over the supposedly unfulfilled prophecy of Yirmiyahu of a 70 -year exile having expired, wherein he used the vessels of the Temple. Hashem sent the handwriting on the wall and it thus the party ended. We say in Maoz Tzur about the yein ra'al masachti- they made us drink bitter wine. The exile was a bitter one with the destruction of the Temple. Yet, guess what in Hashem's world what goes around comes around. And Belshatzar and Bavel's reign ends at that feast of wine.
After the writing on the wall one of his servants saw that writing was gonna happen and he wanted to get ahead of the game, so when Belshatzar was good and toasted he chopped off his head and brought it to Cyrus and Darius of Persia and Medea. As well Hashem miraculously got everyone toasted at that feast and thus when the armies arrived they were all drunk and they killed them all and burnt their cities down to a crisp. There would and should be nothing left of Bavel to come back again with. They knew how to do it right. They did try, but again that was immediately put down, their cities were burned and Persia exiled the Babylonians. And thus the battle of Iran and Iraq begins until today.
Now although Belshatzar had calculated the date incorrectly from Nevuchadnezzar and was off by a year. Yet even then the Jews do not return right away to build the Mikdash. In fact it will take a while until they do that. Yet, fascinatingly enough, the exile ends and the prophecy of that end will begin not with the Temple, but rather with the return of the Jews to Eretz Yisrael under Cyrus. There's a message in that. Galus is considered over when Jews can come back to Israel unhindered and start the process of redemption. And thus the question becomes. Are we really still in Exile anymore today. Or are we just pretending we are… because maybe we're not yet ready to be redeemed… something to ponder as you look at your candles today and sing about the dedication of the Mikdash… what do you think
?
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE PREGNANT JOKES OF THE WEEK
Chaim and Suri were not blessed with children for many years of marriage. So they to go see their Rebbe for a blessing. The Rebbe tells them they came at the right time, since he just made plans to go to Uman to daven at grave of Rebbi Nachman, and he's leaving tomorrow.
'As soon as I'll get there, I'll immediately light a candle for you,' he promises.
Time passes and the Rebbe returns to the shtetl after 10 years. The first thing he does is visit the couple's home. He can hear a crazy loud noise when he knocks on the door. The wife opens the door; three little children on her arms, a couple of them hiding under her skirt, and others behind her playing around. The Rebbe counts as many as ten of them!
'Well this is quite a pleasant surprise,' exclaims the Rebbe. 'It seems like Hashem listened to my prayer. But where is your dear husband?'
'My husband traveled to Uman,' says the wife with a tired look on her face.
'To Uman? Why on earth would he go to Uman?'
'To blow out that bloody candle you lit…
A pregnant woman is hit by a car. She is sent into a coma for 1 year. She wakes up, no longer pregnant, screaming," Doctor! Doctor! Where is my baby?!"
The doctor replies, "Calm down, your babies are fine. You had twins! a girl and a boy. We gave them to your brother to watch while you were in the hospital."
She says,"My brother? That guy is a moron! Why would you do that?"
"I am sorry ma'am, we had no choice. There was nobody else. He even took the liberty of naming them."
"What??", she says. "What did he name my daughter?"
"He named her 'Denise' " says the doctor.
"Oh, well that's not so bad. What did he name my son?"
To which the doctor replies, "He named him 'Denephew' "
55 years ago today I kicked a pregnant woman for the last time. Today's my birthday
She went back a few years later when she again had twins and fell into a coma this time when she awoke she was again told by the nurse that she no longer pregnant.
"Congratulations! You delivered a boy and a girl!" The nurse said.
"That's great! Who named them?" She asked.
"Your husband did this time. He named the boy Jason."
"I like that. What about the girl?"
"Jadaughter."
For our third set of twins my wife went into a coma again. This time when she woke up I proudly told her myself that Hashem had blessed us with identical twin girls. My wife told me that she was pregnant with twin girls. She asked me what I named them and seemed relieved when I told her that the first one's name was Kate. The second one though she didn't seem that pleased about. I called her DupliKate.
There is nothing wrong with drinking while pregnant. My wife drank through all five months of her pregnancy.
A pregnant woman hobbles into the hospital with one hand on her back. A nurse asks her what's wrong, and the pregnant woman screams, "Shouldn't! Wouldn't! Didn't!"
The nurse shakes her head and says, "I'm sorry…I don't understand."
The pregnant woman's face contorts in pain as she shouts, "Can't! Won't! Don't!"
The nurse, bewildered, turns to a doctor.
"Admit her," the doctor said. "She's having contractions."
A lady finds out that she is pregnant, but she is worried. He husband has anger management issues, yelling a lot, breaking things, really horrible to be around. She doesn't want her kids to be like that, so she asks her doctor for advice. Her doctor says "Rub your belly once a day every day and say 'Be polite, be polite.' "
So she starts doing so. But as the pregnancy goes on, her husband's attitude gets worse. Instead of supporting her he gets more angry, more often, being super rude ask the time and really stressing her out. She starts to rub her belly more and more often. Instead of once a day it becomes two times, three times, ten times, a hundred, till she is almost constantly rubbing and reciting "be polite, be polite, be polite."
The due date arrives, no sign of the birth. A few days pass, not a contraction to be felt. Weeks turn into months, months turn into years, no baby is born. Eventually she dies at the ripe old age of 92. The medical examiner conducting her autopsy cuts open her belly and discoverers two old men with long white beards saying "After you, " "No, no, after you.
A pregnant wife told her husband
“John you may name our daughter anything you want but please not Ella.”
John not paying attention asked “Why not Ella?”
The wife said “It doesn’t matter, but please I am begging you, not Ella”
The confused husband when filling out the birth certificate wrote “Nutella"
A young woman is at her doctor's appointment when the doctor says, "Ma'am, I've got your results, and it appears that you are pregnant."
The woman appears shocked. "What!? You've got to be..." She pauses for a
moment. "...Kid-in-me."
After a a few moments of her giggling turn into silence, the doctor replies
"Did you seriously get pregnant just to say that joke?"
The woman says "It was totally birth it."
Doctor: Well, it looks like you're pregnant.
Woman: Oh my God, I'm pregnant?!
Doctor: No, it just looks like you are.
And that's why Doctor's shouldn't have a sense of humor…
A woman went to the emergency room, where she was seen by a young new doctor. After about 3 minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant. She burst out of the room and ran down the corridor screaming. An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was; after listening to her story, he calmed her down and sat her in another room. Then the doctor marched down the hallway to the first doctor's room.
"Whats wrong with you?" he demanded. This woman is 63 years old, she has two grown children and several grandchildren, and you told her she was pregnant?!!"
The new doctor continued to write on his clipboard and without looking up said:
"Does she still have the hiccups?
How do you get a nun pregnant? Dress her up as an altar boy (was debating whether to put that in there… but after writing about how much we have to not be sacred to make fun of avoda zara religions I went for it 😊)
What do cannibals call pregnant women? Kinder surprise
My wife is pregnant and my doctor asked me if I had ever been present at a childbirth before.
I replied, "Yes just once."
The doctor asked, "What was it like?"
I said, "It was dark, then suddenly very bright."
The pregnant lady sitting across from me laughed
"What is it?" I asked.
"Oh its nothing, just my baby doing standup."
"Really?" I inquired. "What did he say?"
"You wont get it." She laughed.
"It's an inside joke."
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The answer to this week's question is A– So the first part was easy. I remember Yitzchak Rabin's assassination and they recently commemorated it here. So I got that one right. The second one was more difficult. To be honest, I really didn't have a clue. But I process of eliminationed it and guessed A and not only was I correct, I actually learned something new. Which is one of the reasons why I have his column and like to take these exams.
See, I knew the story but not the name or details. It seems that "Land Day" is really the story of Karmiel! It's the day that the Israeli government in 1976 decided that we need more Jews in the Galile which was at that time about 90% Arab. As well the Galile's Jewish population was mostly alon the coast and the border of Lebanon and the Galile panhandle from Tiverya to Metulla while the center was all Arab. Thus, they needed a large Jewish stronghold in the center and Karmiel was the perfect location. So they repropriated that Arab land that was there that they had abandoned when they fled the country and was empty. The Arabs started protesting and ultimately 6 were killed in clashes. The left that joined them in these protests were paid off with offers of free apartments in Karmiel (that part of the story I knew). But the Arabs since tthen call this day Land Day and use it for protests. So I learned something new and got this one right and the new score is Rabbi Schwartz having a 8.5 point and the MOT having 3.5 point on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.
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