Insights
and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
May 4th 2018 -Volume
8 Issue 28 12th Iyar 5778
Parshat
Behar – Lag Ba’Omer
{Emor-
for Diaspora}
Great
Blazes
One of the most memorable experiences that any student
spending a year of study in Israel has is the thrilling and unique celebration
of that lesser known mystical holiday Lag B’Omer. First, however a little
background. The holiday is the 33rd day of the Omer count
between Passover and Shavuot (Lag being the numerological/gematria value of
Lamed =30 and Gimel =3). It is significant in that it brings to a halt the
mourning period of the Omer for the death of the 24,000 students of the
Talmudic sage Rabbi Akiva who died during this period. Their deaths, the Talmud
tells us, came as a result of them not treating one another with the respect
and love their Rebbe had so much personified in his famous dictum“And you shall love your neighbor as yourself - this is a fundamental principal of the Torah."
The day of Lag B’Omer, Rabbi Akiva traveled to the South and started instructing five of his remaining students and her ordained them and charged them with the mission that would restore the light of Torah that had been so diminished with the passing of his
students. One of those students was the great sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Many years later on the/ Lag B’omer day that he passed away, our tradition has it that a great light was revealed to the world. On that day he uncovered many of the hidden secrets of the Torah which were later written down in the Holy mystical book of the Zohar literally “Shining”.
Now for the memorable Israeli experience that took place only about 20 minutes from my house this past Wednesday night and Thursday. For the past three weeks or so before Lag B’Omer throughout Israel you begin to feel something strange is going on. There are these huge pyres of wood slowly growing in empty lots around the neighborhood. Sticks, logs, beds, trees, houses are all being hauled, creating these immense edifices for something that can only resemble something out of an ancient Greek funeral ritual. Even stranger yet, these soon to be towering structures are being shlepped together and constructed by children, most under the age of ten. Then the evening of Lag B’omer comes. You know something is up when everyone begins to take in all their hanging laundry and shutters are closing tightly around the neighborhood. The “Night of Fire- Burning Children” has begun. Huge torches are lit and WOOOSHHH- the skies are lit with bonfires, as the festivities which include singing, barbecuing animals, dancing and three year old children’s haircuts (that’s another email) begin.
As an American who has attended many campfires in his youth where there were lectures on the finer details of fire safety for an hour beforehand. My memories of campfires consist of being ordered to stand about at least thirty feet away, as the supervising adult would allow us to peek at the flames from a distance. This was always done of course under the protection of three fire extinguishers and five park wardens. From that rather overly cautious perspective, the Israeli carefree attitude was definitely one that raises (razes?) hairs on one’s head. As a religious person who looks to our time honored ancient traditions for the spiritual inspiration that its timely symbolic rituals bring however, one can find some enlightening ones in the flames of Lag B’Omer.
As one looks and gazes into the fire there is an incredible sense of awe. The unbelievable power contained in its brilliant flames. The light it provides, the warmth it gives, and the stirring it brings forth. The Jewish soul is compared to a flame and reflects the heat of the passion that drives it. We live in a world too often where that flame isn’t felt. Where the spirit has become cold. From the times of the death of Rabbi Akivas’s students when the brilliant life giving force of the Torah seemed vanquished, through every dark era of our long and painful exile that our embers burned low, we were challenged to relight the fires of our souls. And miraculously we have. For our loving Father in heaven has assured us that in the darkness there will always be that brilliant flame that will never be extinguished, that will reach forth and burst out in blazing glory.
The Zohar, that sacred mystical work of Kabbalah which contains the secrets of the Torah, is premised on the principal of the love and kindness in which Hashem created the world. Rav Tzadok of Lublin writes that when one truly loves someone then all their secrets are shared. For a secret is but the inner depths of the recesses of the soul. On Lag B’Omer the Almighty shared with mankind those loving secrets that his presence will continue to illuminate our lives. We need merely to scoop ourselves up from the mourning and celebrate the eternal flame we possess.
Have a blazingly fantastic Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
**************************************************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S
FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Mit fremdeh hent iz gut feier tsu sharren”- It’s good to poke the fire with somebody
else’s hands.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
Q: The united underground movement was active in the years:
A.1917 to 1920
B.1939 to 1945
C.1945 to 1946
D.1948 to 1949
RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
https://youtu.be/oE4SlAGEMeg
- Yaakov Shwekey latest release Alef Beis Gimmel the words of faith
coined by Shalom Rubashkin
https://youtu.be/HWXH3g1bWv8
– For those of you that are still Acapelling
it until the last days of Omer Micha Gammermans new song “Finding Hashem”
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S HAFTORA CONNECTION OF THE
WEEK
Emor This week’s Haftora connection is easy to figure out. The Torah
portion discusses primarily the mitzvot of the Kohanim and the holidays and
their sacrifices in the Temple and the Haftorah is from the book of Yechezkel
and describes his vision of the third Beit Hamikdash and the Kohanim’s role
there. That part is easy. The problem though is when one pays attention to the
Haftorah we find a few interesting laws that seem to be different from our
Parsha. Most notable perhaps is that in Yechezkel’s vision Kohanim don’t marry
widows, which in the Torah it tells us was only a prohibition for Kohen Gadol. There
are other laws as well that seem strange. The commentaries all struggle to find
resolutions. Some suggest the third temple will be different. Others suggest
that it is personal stringencies the Kohanim took upon themselves. Certainly in
his vision he sees the Kohanim being teachers and judges of the people and more involved in the
spiritual educational system as opposed to the traditional of them merely being
the conduits of the ritual sacrifices in the Temple. I guess we”ll have to
wait, hopefully not too long, to see what the real story will be.
Yechezkel
/Ezekiel (590 BC)- Perhaps known as the most
Messianic prophet of the books of the prophets, Yechezkel focuses on the wars
of Gog and Magog and the visions of the Temple rebuilt and the services that
take place there. He was from a family of Kohanim according to the Radak he was
perhaps even the child of Yirmiyahu the prophet as he is called Ben Buzi- the
son of the “scorned one”. He was exiled to Babylon in the first Exile and he
lived through the period when Ezra was granted permission to rebuild the
Temple. His grave is in Iraq and according to the Abarbanel many would go and
pray there
Behar- There
are different suggestions as to when the custom to read haftorahs began, but it
was certainly in the period of the second Temple. It was also in a period during
that temple when Judaism was being challenged. It may have been when the Greeks
forbade the Torah reading publicly, or when there were those that denied the
Divine stature of the books of the prophets. Regardless the connection to the
Parsha is generally one that not only reveals the Torah connection and
continuation found in the books of the Prophets. It is one of hope and light
for the Jewish people in challenging times.
This
week’s Haftorah is perhaps the classic example of that. The Haftora begins with
Yirmiyahu in prison. The Jewish people were sick of his dire prophecies of doom
and they threw him in jail. Jail the messenger-so to say. It may not seem like
it could get worse than that. Yirmiyahu is trying to do everything he can to
save the Jewish people and he is speaking to deaf ears. It is at that point that
Hashem tells Yirmiyahu that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.
(Yirmiyahu 32:15) “Houses,
fields, and vineyards shall again be purchased in this land”
Hashem
tells Yirmiyahu to purchase the land from his relative, who was selling it.
This is a fulfillment of the mitzva in this weeks Torah portion, that one’s
relative should redeem their lands in order to “keep it” in the ancestral
tribal land. This seems like such a strange command, being that at the same
time the land is about to be destroyed and the Jews exiled. But ultimately that
becomes, Hashem says, the ultimate buying moment.
The
Haftorah tells us how he buys land and he signs the documents in the presence
of witnesses and with the seal of his student and scribe Baruch Ben Neriya so
that it shall last “many days”. How long is “many days”? How does
2500 years sound? This incident with Yirmiyahu takes place sometime between the
years 597 and 586 BCE. In 1975 the burnt clay seal or bulla as they are called
of Baruch Ben Neriya was found in the city of David where Yirmiyahu was kept
prisoner most likely in the archives of the kingdom and palace. Just in case
you were doubting whether it was authentic in 1996 another identical seal was
found with Baruchs name on it. 2500 years ago Hashem promised we would be back
and we are. That piece of land of Yirmiyahu was certainly a good investment and
this haftora teaches us that even when things look bleak. There will be a day
when all will be right.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S
AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (160 CE)– The most quoted Rabbi in the Talmud without a chapter that
doesn’t mention his name, Rebbi Shimon remains perhaps the most famous of and
certainly the most connected to of all of the Mishna period Rabbis. He is the
only person in the history of the Jewish people whose yartzeit became a
national religious holiday with hundreds of thousands making their pilgrimage to
his grave in Meron. I discuss Rebbi Shimon with my tourists and connect with
him many places in Israel. When I am in ancient Roman cities, like Tzippori,
Beit She’an and even Jerusalem by the Cardo, I mention Rebbi
Shimon’s controversial opinion that he stated how these roads and markets were
built in Israel by the Romans just to bring licentiousness and for their own
financial gain. These public statements of his got him into trouble where he
had to flee to Peki’in and hide in the cave that I take people to see
there. The spring and Carob tree that sustained him as he hid for 13 years with
his son are still there. When he came out he could barely move and he was taken
to the hot springs in Tiverya to be healed. Afterwards he wanted
to express his appreciation and he purified the city, by identifying all the
graves that were scattered throughout by the earthquakes that had devastated
it.
Rav Shimon was most known for his
revelation of the “hidden secrets” of the Torah”. Much of his works of Kaballa
what is known as the “Idra”- the granary where Rebbi Shimon studied with
7 of his students the deepest secrets of the Torah, was written in the hills
and caves in the mountains of the upper Galile on many a jeep ride I
stop and we pray over there as well. And of course finally I take people to Meron
where we talk about the great light the Zohar that was revealed on the day that
he died.
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S FIRE AND LAG BA’OMER JOKES OF THE WEEK
One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside
the local chemical plant and in a blink it exploded into flames. The alarm went
out to the fire departments from miles around. When the volunteer fire fighters
appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to the fire chief
and said, "All of our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of
the plant. They must be saved. I will give $50,000 to the fire department that
brings them out intact."
But the roaring flames held the firefighters off. Soon more
fire departments had to be called in as the situation became desperate. As the
firemen arrived, the president shouted out that the offer was now
$100,000 to the fire department who could bring out the company's secret files.
$100,000 to the fire department who could bring out the company's secret files.
From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire
truck came into sight. It was the nearby Jewish rural township volunteer fire
company composed entirely of menchen over the age of 65. To everyone's
amazement, the little run-down fire engine operated by this Jewish Fire
Department passed all the newer sleek engines parked outside
the plant and drove straight into the middle of the inferno.
the plant and drove straight into the middle of the inferno.
Outside the other firemen watched as the Jewish old timers
jumped off and began to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen
before. Within a short time, the Jewish old timers had extinguished
the fire and saved the secret formulas.
the fire and saved the secret formulas.
The grateful chemical company president joyfully announced
that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and
walked over to personally thank each of the brave, though elderly, Jewish fire
fighters.
The local TV news reporters rushed in after capturing the
event on film asking, "What are you going to do with all that
money?""Well," said Morris Goldberg, the 70-year-old fire chief,
"The first thing we are going to do is fix the brakes on that lousy
truck!"
Yankel, the new beggar in town comes to the Rabbi of the community to
ask him for help.
"Everything I had and owned, Rabbi, was lost when my house burned down recently in a raging fire. I've nothing left but the clothes I’m wearing."
"Do you have a letter from your own rabbi attesting to this fire?" Rabbi Goldman asks.
"Yes, I did have such a letter, but unfortunately, that was also lost in the fire."
"Everything I had and owned, Rabbi, was lost when my house burned down recently in a raging fire. I've nothing left but the clothes I’m wearing."
"Do you have a letter from your own rabbi attesting to this fire?" Rabbi Goldman asks.
"Yes, I did have such a letter, but unfortunately, that was also lost in the fire."
At the local Talmud Torah School they brought in a fireman
to talk about safety before Lag Ba’Omer. He brought some visual aids with him
including a smoke detector. The fireman pressed the button to demonstrate and
asked the children if anyone knew what it meant when an alarm sounded from the
smoke detector.
Little Moishie immediately raised his hand and said,
"It means my Abba is cooking dinner."
And my favorite of the week… nothing like a joke that laughs
at yourself…. hildren to Pinocchio “Would
you like to celebrate Lag Ba’Omer with us?
Pinocchio “But I don’t have any branches or wood?”
Children- :)))))
Pinocchio- :(((((((
And finally favorite of the week
So the Breslaver was standing by the grave of Rebbi Shimon
Bar Yochai and he was pouring out his heart and was overheard saying
"Rebbe Shimon, I need a salvation and I promise that if you help I will
mention you and add you to my prayers on Rosh Hashana in Uman by Rebbe
Nachman...
************
Answer is C – This one was also pretty easy. If you know what the United
underground movement was. Which anyone
who has been on a tour of mine of Akko and its prison should know. Before the
founding of the state all three underground movements united for a period of
time. So that already knocks out D which is post state, or at least War of
independence un which the three groups had become one already and were no
longer underground and the Irgun and Lechi ceased to exist. If you know that
the Lechi or the Stern Gang was formed during WWII as they did not want to ally
with the British to fight the Nazis and actually they tried to cut deal with
the Nazi’s in exchange for the their support against British then you would
know that the only answer that makes sense is C, as the Lehi wasn’t formed
until 1940. The United underground Army was in 1945 and 1946 when the British
passed the White Papers and limited Jewish emigration. All three groups united
in response and blew up British bridges and trains into Israel in response;
sending a message if we can’t get in neither can you.
