Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
May 16th 2025 -Volume 14 Issue 27 18h of Iyar 5785
It's Lag Ba'Omer. The 33rd day of the Omer count. There are bonfires all over the country. Meron is swamped. It's perhaps the only holiday that seems to have been added to the Jewish calendar and accepted by all since the times of the second Temple, when the story of Chanuka took place. As well it seems that this is the only holiday that is about a person. Jews generally don't make Saint this day or that day. That's the other team. Moshe Rabbeinu doesn't have a holiday on his yartzeit when he passed. Neither does Avraham Avinu, Aharon Ha'Kohen doesn't either despite the fact that everyone loves him and the Torah even tells us when he passed away (Rosh Chodesh Av). Yet, Reb Shimon Bar Yochai who lived after the destruction of the second Temple seems to be the anomaly. We celebrate his yartzeit, hundreds of thousands visit his grave this week. In fact Meron is the second most visited site, after the Kotel, in Israel. It's wild. It's strange. Some might even claim it’s a distortion of our religion. Afterall until the Ari"zl 500 years ago no one even really knew where he was buried or came to his grave. Bonfires, bows and arrows, picnics, songs praising him… what religion is this?
Now for those that are skeptics and that claim that this is all brand new, and "only" a custom of the great kabbalist of the Ar"I… I'd be careful before discounting the AR"I customs. I mean that would mean throwing out your hakafos and dancing on Simchas Torah, your Tu B'shvat fruit and Friday night Kabbalat Shabbos service as well. We're all practicing ARI Judaism for a while now. So don't be so quick to write it off. In fact the era of the Ar"I is really a turning point in our history that according to many has brought us into the new Messianic era.
His teaching of the secrets of Kabbala which to a large degree is sourced in Rebbi Shimon's revealing those secrets to mankind, and bringing them down from heaven, moved our nation from being one that is developing the Torah and its study from being an intellectual, legal, ethical and historical work and a life occupation to one that is revealing and tapping into the essence of our soul, our hearts and connecting spiritual worlds to our own. It started with Reb Shimon, it was brought to the masses with the ARI and then it continued to develop with his students, with chasidut and even with the philosophy of the Gaon. Until it comes to its final destination… A bunch of Breslavers jumping up and down on a graffiti painted van to retro music and laughing, little kids getting haircuts, Sefardim slaughtering sheep and thousands of American chasidim and some rich guys from Lakewood paying lots of money for permits and drivers to get them in to the grave. And that's during a war with missiles and sirens going off. Sing with me now… L'kavod ha'Tanna Elokai… Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai… L'kavod ha'Tanna Elokai Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai…
Hey, as a tour guide that got to take some of those Lakewood guys in a slow year… I'm not complaining. In fact Yom Yerushalayim is coming up, if any of you Zionists out there feel that same passion as the chasidim and Lakewood guys to celebrate that holiday and come on in… I'm happy to take you as well. Although from the weak Atzamaut turn-out, I'm not banking on it. Maybe you guys figured voting for the WZO was enough. It isn't. You've gotta come here to be a Zionist. Alimony checks to Israel during a war and some helmets and vest donations for our soldiers are just polite ways of saying take my money and leave me alone here with my meatboards and Chafetz Chaim Heritage videos. Until a week or so ago, you may have even felt Baruch Hashem here we have a medina of chesed and Donald Trump… a true ohev Yisrael… But those meetings in Qatar are getting even you nervous already. Bibi's golden beeper doesn't match up to a half a billion dollar plane, or the purchase of 160 F16 planes by them. It's getting scary watching Esau and Yishmael hold hands and join forces. To quote Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai… you can't trust the Romans… Everything they do is for their own good. It's for tarrifs, its for money, it's for their honor and ego…The other Rabbis didn't see it. They celebrated the Romans new pro-Israel government and were happy that the old Biden/Kamala and Titus and Vespasian ones were out. But eventually, Reb Shimon's warning and what was considered radical and politically incorrect keen Torah perspective became apparent to all. Pay attention to what Rabbis that live near Meron tell you… By the way Meron is 15 minutes from my house…
Yet there's something deeper about Rabbi Shimon and Lag Ba'Omer this time of year that struck me as I was driving around my Lakewood guys. Eretz Yisrael is really a beautiful and amazing country. You really have to live here to appreciate it. As we drove through the glorious hills and valley we passed fields and fields of wheat being ready to be cut, of new fruit trees ripening, of barley fields already cleared. It struck me because I had just started reviewing this week's parsha and I read about how all of our holidays revolve around agriculture. After Pesach we enter the Omer period of cutting the barley, Shavuos is the time of the cutting of the wheat and thr first fruits being brought to Jerusalem. Sukkos is the time of the harvest. Our holidays aren't about historical events and certainly not about remembering the past events, besides maybe Pesach. Rather they're about living in the here and now. They're about looking at the fields, the earth, the blessing Hashem gives us and bringing that back to Him. Celebrating those gifts with Him. It's about bringing us together.
The word the Torah uses for holiday is a Moed- which literally translated is an appointment. Hashem is up there. We are down here. We don't really see each other much. Once again, Rabbi Shimon in one place disputes Rebbi Yishmael, and states his radical opinion that one should study Torah all the time and not even work for a living. Because if someone is busy planting, plowing, winnowing, reaping and harvesting all day… Torah ma te'hei alaeha… vuz vet zein mit Toirah… when will he ever learn? When will he ever meet Hashem? Fascinatingly enough though in another source, Rabbi Shimon seemingly contradictorily writes that one can fulfill their obligation of being engrossed in Torah all the time, with the mere recitation of Shema once in the morning and evening. The Chasam Sofer explains these two opposite as one refers to the people living outside of Israel and one is for those in Israel. Which would you guess is which?
He writes that in Israel, one who works the ground, the field, the land is already connected.
He doesn't need Torah. He's doing Torah because he's working the land of Israel. He's taking the gift of Hashem to us and building a home for the two of us, to be together all the time. It's more important than Torah. It's like putting on tefillin. (his words!). In fact it's not only farming, but anything that improves and builds that home is a mitzva of such a high level, that Rebbi Shimon feels that one doesn't even have to study Torah. Just say Shema in the morning and evening and working in Eretz Yisrael is your Torah for the rest of the day. It's your fulltime connection. It's a life of Mo'ed.
Jews in the diaspora, that don't merit to live in the house and land of Hashem. That don't get to experience being together with their God. For they live in a land where they are as if they have no God. (not my words…). So they have to call for an appointment. They have to study Torah and should never work, because their work is not godly. It's not a mitzva. It's building fat fancy Torah buildings, Shuls, Yeshivos and Chesed organizations in a place where our heavenly spouse/Father/Creator doesn't want us to live. Because it's too far from Him. Its land doesn't connect you to Him. The fields, the nursing homes, the construction projects don't sing the song of Shavuos, of omer, of Rebbi Shimon…
Rebbi Shimon it seems felt the way that I do as he drove around the country. In the Sifri he writes
Why is Israel called "Teivel" (a spice or mixture)? Because it has the flavor and taste of everything, as opposed to all the other lands which all have one flavor and each country doesn't have what the other one does. Eretz Yisrael, though is a land that is lacking nothing. Eretz Yisrael is
"lo sechsar kol bah- it lacks nothing and contains everything…"
As he drove with his Lakewood guys through the land he pointed out the window and told his students. Do you know why Israel has hills and valleys? Because in a valley one can only plant in the area of the valley, but on hills one has up and down and all around as well. He noted to them as well how in each tribe's portion they have crops and each one has individual and unique tastes and flavors. It's a land that's lacking in nothing. The wines of the Galile are different than those of the Golan, of the hills of Yehuda. Rebbi Shimon was tour guiding them. He was passionate about this holy land. Because he understood that this was home sweet home, that Hashem had gifted us and the more we enjoy and praise that home, the closer our relationship is with Hashem.
But it's even deeper than that. The purpose of mankind, Reb Shimon reveals is to that we are souls and bodies. Our soul comes from above, our body from the earth. Every nation has it's earth from which it was formed. The DNA of Bnai Yisrael is from the earth of Eretz Yisrael. Our jobs, our creation, our life mission is to raise up that earthliness of our bodies from the ground and make a bridge to the heavens. We're not supposed to just be spiritual beings. We're meant to be Shabbos beings.
In six days, Hashem created the world and on Shabbos he created rest. He made creation holy. He blew His spirit of spirituality into the world. Rebbi Shimon was hiding from the Romans for 12 years. He studies Torah, he becomes elevated. He is removed from the Creation. He becomes one soul with Torah and Hashem. When he comes out, he can't understand why anyone would be busy planting or doing anything besides Torah. So he goes back in for one year and comes out again and it's Erev Shabbos. He sees a Jew running with Hadassaim in honor of Shabbos. He gets it. He sees that the real function is to enjoy the physicality of the world and raise it up to Hashem. Each Jew finding his portion, his Shabbos in this world. His piece of land in Eretz Yisrael. Rebbi Shimon, the Kabbalists tell us is bechinas Shabbos. He is on one hand holy of holies. On the other hand he is the one who finds that spark in each Jew and urges us to shine it out. To create one big light. One big bonfire. To create our own holiday for Hashem in his honor. To unite all of us in one gigantic flame of song and praise, for our portion in this world, in this land. It's not Yerushalayim. It's Meron. It's our portion that is uniting with Hashem's in a blaze of glory.
This year we leave Meron and enter Shabbos. The light of Rebbi Shimon is shining in each of us. It is calling for us to come home. It is calling for us to find our place in the land. To be complete Jews that can only truly express and find themselves when they are home. It's a made-in-Israel, holiday that is the most recent addition. It's interesting after the Parsha mentions all of the holidays, it mentions the mitzva of the lighting of the ner tamid- the eternal flame. It's a mitzva, Rashi notes that's mentioned already, almost literally word for word. Yet it's brought down here again by the holidays mysteriously and repetitively. There are some that see that as a reference or hint to the holiday of Chanuka, but on a deeper level this eternal flame is really Rebbi Shimon's bonfire. The most recent addition. It's not a mitzva of eight days. It's a daily fire. It's Reb Shimon's flame. The next verse and mitzva is of the 12 loaves of bread. Do you know when they are changed. Ba'yom Ha'Shabbos- Ba'yom Ha'Shabbos. Each Shabbos. Rebbi Shimon is Shabbos. It's holy of holies. It's eaten by Aharon. Aharon is the unity of the Jewish people. We are the bread of Hashem. Fire and bread. Our flame and the loaves that we planted, we grew, we harvested and bring to Hashem. The heaven and earth unite. The covenant of Hashem and us that is eternal is fulfilled.
May the light of Rebbi Shimon continue to bring the healing to the world. May we merit to shine and find our place around his big bonfire. The 32 days before lag Ba'omer represent the lev, the heart in gematria. The next 17 remaining are Tov. Good. May that goodness and tov bring us to Mashiach by Shavuot.
Have a firey Shabbos and a Lag Samayach!
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Dos land brent un di bobe tsvogt zikh.- The country's on fire and grandma is washing her hair.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
18. According to the New Testament, the tax collector climbed a sycamore tree located in the city of
______
Why did Herod build Sebastia?
A. Due to its location on the network of roads and its potential for
international trade
B. To better control the Samaritan areas in the Land of Israel
C. To develop agriculture in the central Samaria region
D. Because he considered himself the successor to the kings of Israel,
Omri and Ahab
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/rebbi-shimon-bar-yochai - Lag BA'Omer isn't complet without my Bar Yochai compsotion. Thank you Dovid Lowy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjAq6tSlPuY – loving this new Lag Ba'Omer song Yivatel great video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BBzHviRk7c - The Cave--- Alex Clare… Don't know what to say…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P4RQzMZKNw – I don't know why I just love the peacefulness of this Shabbos classic Kol Mekadesh by these Daati guys…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPrWNSz1alk – Was looking for this classic Rabbi Akiva V'Ahavta YBC song and fell on this spoof instead…. The song is good.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
589 BC -Broken Pots and Yokes Prophecies of Doom- The cards have been dealt. The prophecies have been given. The Talmud tells us that for years there was a bas kol that told Nevuchadnezzar to destroy the Temple, but that he hesitated to do. Finally in the ninth year of Tzidkiyahu's reign he headed over to Iran/Bavel to bring Nebuchadnezzar his tribute. There the Talmud tells us he shared a meal with him and saw Nebuchadnezzar fressing like a dog… in traditional barbaric Babylonian way. He had blood all over his face, and Tzidkiyahu was disgusted. It was then that he headed back to Jerusalem and made the decision to rebel against him.
At the same time that this was happening, there were other nations that were also beginning to rebel against Iran. Egypt raised it's head as did Tzur in Lebanon and even some place in Amon and Jordan. Perhaps it was this sense of the weakening of Tzidkiyahu and the inconceivable concept that Hashem would actually destroy this Temple and his nation that led to his rebellion. There were false prophets that assured him that all would be alright. His security cabinet assured him that the walls of Jerusalem were powerful enough to hold them back. According to the Midrash there were even strong men that could hurl the catapults back at the Babylonians. Yes, it seems we had Iron Domes back then as well. So with all of that being said, Tzidkiyahu rebels and Nevuchadnezzar is not a happy camper.
On the tenth of Tevet He sends his army to surround and siege Yerushalayim. The first of the four Temple destruction fast days starts annually on this day. According to the Halacha this fast would even be fasted in Shabbos if it fell out that way (which it doesn’t) Something that even Tisha B'Av doesn’t do, because in some way this is the most harsh of the fasts. The reason the commentaries explain is because, we ignored the signs. Daily life continued despite the siege. No body was killed. We thought we would win. We didn't get the destruction was coming. We didn't repent. We didn't listen to the prophet Yirmiyahu who advised against this. We fast to wake ourselves up, to remember the mistakes of the past and to learn from them. The destruction has begun, and the Jewish people were still clueless. It will take three more years, but the writing on the wall started with this siege.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FIRE AND LAG BA’OMER JOKES OF THE WEEK
Reb Shimon survived in a cave for 12 years on carobs and a spring… For most youth today the biggest problem would be that there's no wifi service.
Why did Reb Shimon only have carobs and spring water for 12 years in cave? Because he Uber Eats Door Dash guy didn't know how to find "under spiritual rock, near the Shechina…" (should've taken me as their tourguide)
Reb Shimon wrote the whole Zohar while in hiding…. Imagine if he would've had whatsapp and cell service…
!2 years in a cave and Reb Shimon didn't complain once, meantime we can't make it through a trip to visit his grave in his memory without a million complaints about the Israeli government and cursed Tziyonim…. What a tikkun for his neshoma..
When he came out of the cave the Talmud tells us he burned people up with eyes. My Rabbi does that every time I pull out my phone during Torah reading to check my E-mail…
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."
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."
Children 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, and by Reb Shayaleh…
***************************************
The answer to this week”s question is B- And… we're back to another hard question that I probably would've skipped. X-ianity is not my thing, although some bubbeh maysehs stuck with me. This one didn't, the reason is because the answer is Jericho and we never toured there with my course, as it's Area A and We can't go there. The second part I also got wrong. I guessed it was because he wanted to be like Ahav and Omri- although Ahav was really more in Jezreel. However the correct answer was B about consolidating Samarian support. So I got this one entirely wrong and thus the new score is Rabbi Schwartz 11 Ministry of Tourism 7 on this exam so far. Oy….
