Signs Language- Parshat Shemot 2026 5786

 Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

January 9^th 2026 -Volume 16 Issue 12 20^th of Tevet 5786

 

Parshat Shemot

 

Signs Language

 

"I talk and I talk and I tell you again and again and it's like I'm talking to a wall!" my mother would tell me. "It's like it goes in one ear and comes right out the other".

 

I would of course correct her and explain that she was wrong. It never even went into the first ear. In general all of her important exhortations repeatedly to me, to buckle down, to do my work, to brush my teeth, to clean my room, to take out the garbage, to say Shema before I went to sleep, to listen in class, to do my homework, to be nice to my sister, to not engage in unhealthy activities, to look both ways before I cross… etc etc etc… And that's just what she told me yesterday 😊. They never even made it into the first ear. It's like I have this soundproof cone of silence thing (for those that remember "Get Smart" show) that would drop down over my ears and just make all that Mussar into a nice calming sound canceling Yoga like meditation hummmm ooooommmmm… that just never registered. What can I say? I just seem to have developed this Mussar Acceptance Deficiency syndrome. Maybe it was a side effect of some vaccine I had when I was a kid. Note to Trump – Thank you for your attention of seeing to this matter.

 

Now the truth is she has the final laugh, as most Jewish mothers do. Because her traditional Jewish mother's favorite curse that my children should give me as much "nachas" as I gave her was certainly fulfilled. Yup, what goes around comes around. As we plant so shall we sow. Yet, it seems this problem is not just a Schwartz family issue. It's generational that began way back when from the beginning of our nation. It starts back in Egypt. It starts in our parsha. It's the beginning of our exile and the secret to our redemption.

 

The book of Shemos begins with us coming down to Egypt. The truth is we really didn't even necessarily have to be there in the first place. We left off in Parshat Vayechi with all of the Jews pretty much heading back to Israel to bury Yaakov. We were there already. Why did they come back? Sure, Hashem had promised Avraham back by the Bris Bein Ha'Besarim that covenant He made with us that we would be persecuted in a foreign land for 400 years and then we would be redeemed. But as we know we were only there for 210 years. Hashem started the count way back from the birth of Yitzchak. Which would mean that we could've fulfilled that "foreign land" promise even in Israel, as did Yitzchak and Yaakov and the tribes even before coming down. Because, as the commentaries explain, Eretz Yisrael was still not ours. Kind of like we have it galus in Israel today still.

 

Now you might then ask well what does it make a difference if we are in galus in Egypt or in Israel? I've had some tell me that as the reason why they feel more comfortable staying in America then making aliya. But here it's being under house arrest, over there your locked away in a jail somewhere. House arrest could understandably be worse, after all you're locked up with your kids and spouse all day long in close quarters and if you don't get along with them, then you're in trouble. But hey, that's a lot better than gas chambers and concentration camps or being in a prison yard with Bubba. Obviously Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov never felt any need to "self-exile" out of Israel to fulfill this covenant. Neither did the tribes, until they sold Yosef. If Hashem wants us to be there, then He's fully capable of making that happen. But if we have and had an opportunity and the ability to go back, shouldn't we have done so?

 

Now the truth is one might argue that they couldn't go back to Israel. Pharaoh wouldn't let them. Well first of all just a few minutes before Yehuda said he would wipe out the whole Egypt to save Binyamin. Shimon and Levi took down the whole city of Shechem. When we want to do something, we do it. Hey look how this little fledgling army of Hagana fighters in 1948 of 50,000 wiped out a half a million Arabs from five countries in the War of Independence.

 

Now yes, Pharoah did kind of hold their babies behind as a collateral, when we went to bury Yaakov and actually did leave Egypt and return to Israel. Their cattle as well, it seems. As he didn't think just holding our babies would be enough. We might just leave the kids and make new ones, I guess. Hey, we were popping 'em out a half a dozen at a time. But our sheep, our cattle, our nursing homes and our meatboards, our Teslas and Dubai chocolate, that we couldn't take with us. He knew that we would never leave all that behind. And he kept them to make sure. But surely there must have been plenty that didn't have kids. That weren't married. That were retirees. Why didn't any of them stay in Israel? Why come back on those trains that were heading straight to the Egyptian slave pits. To the gas chambers of Mitzrayim.

 

I saw a fantastic Chasam Sofer last week, that says that is in fact the reason why right when they came back they were worried that Yosef was going to take revenge against them. It's why Yosef never explicitly said he forgave them. He just told them that it's all from Hashem. He says because Yosef was upset that they even came back. The famine was over. There was nothing holding them there. Why head back to Egypt. Why not go home? He thought maybe it's because they would think that they would it have it better there with their brother in the White House. They had protektzia. So what did he do. He turned them a cold shoulder. He stopped inviting them over. He wanted them to understand the tide had turned. They should head out. They should go back to Israel. Finish off the galus there.

 

Yet, they didn't get the message. They stayed and populated Egypt. They became the largest zip code in the entire country. If you didn't see the reference there… the 08701 zip code officially became the largest, fastest growing one in the entire United States of America yesterday- mamash this week's parsha va'yifru va'yirbu va'ya'atzmu bi'meod me'od- they became fruitful and multiplied and became very very great there. And thus Yosef only at the end of his life resignedly turns to them and tells them pakod yifkod- Hashem will have to take you out of here. It looks like you guys are here for the long hall. You ain't never leaving until the God Almighty Himself will shlep you out. So please take my bones with you when you do. And thus the Egyptian exile begins. All because we didn't listen. It went over our heads. In one ear and out the other. Yup it's an ancient problem that repeated itself and does so today, every single generation that thinks "this place will be different".

 

But how does it all change? How do we change? How do we start unclogging our ears and eyes? How does the redemption come? It's not my question. It's not my mother's either. It was Moshe's question. There they are for about a week or so by this burning bush back and forth arguing about saving the Jews and heading down to Egypt. Moshe wants to know what Hashem's name is. How he could do if he's got all types of speaking disabilities and stutters. Why would Pharoah listen to him. And Hashem answers him back with all types of deep and mystical answers and promises of miracles. And then comes the big question and excuse.

 

"But they won't listen to me. They won't believe me. They'll say Hashem never appeared to me".

 

Moshe knows our people. He doesn't wear a black hat. He doesn't have a shtreimel. He doesn't daven their nusach. He's a Baal Teshuva. He never learned in Brisk. His parents were divorced. He couldn't get his kids into a mesivta in Lakewood, probably not even into a camp in the Catskills, let alone make it to the Moetzes Gedolei Ha'Torah, Fuggedabout convincing the Jews to make Aliyah. Reb Aharon never moved to Israel, Reb Yaakov didn't. The Lubavitcher Rebbe didn't. Reb Moshe didn't. So what makes this guy called Moses who was raised in Egyptian palace and married a Midianite priests daughter and who has a jail record and outstanding warrant for his arrest for "Divine Name-icular homicide" think he's going to get through to this people.

 

And so Hashem gives him the answer. He asks him a simple question.

"What's that in your hand, Moshe?"

 

Now Moshe is obviously holding his staff and He knows that Hashem knows that as well. So he assumes probably that what Hashem is pretty much telling him is that the answer to how to get the Jewish people to listen to him is via the staff. Don't spare the rod. Smack 'em on the head. Give them some petch. Beat them. I've had rebbeim like that back in the day. Snap that belt. That should work. Except he's wrong.

 

Hashem's got a better plan. The beating people over the head thing never really does the trick. We've got thick skulls. We just dig in deeper. Rather Hashem tells him to throw it on the ground. Chuck the stick. Been there tried that. Time for a new plan. Rather what happens next is amazing. The staff turns into a snake and Moshe sees it and is frightened and runs away. Woahhh. Since when did a little snake scare Moshe. As we will see later in the Torah when Hashem brings a plague and tells them to put up a copper snake and it will heal them. It's not the snake that heals or kills. It's sin. So why is he scared? The answer is because, as Hashem tells Moshe, he sinned. He spoke Lashon Harah against the Jewish people. You said that they won't listen. That they won't believe you. That's Lashon Harah. That's looking at them with a bad eye. That's snake stuff. That's why Moshe runs away. He feels that now he's for sure done. He can't redeem the Jewish people anymore.

 

But then Hashem calls him back and tells him something even more amazing.

 

"Pick up the snake by the tail, Moshe"

 

Own your aveira. Don't run away from your sin. Grab it. Hold it by the tail. Turn it around. Make that your strength. And boom that turns into your new staff. That can become your tool do get them to listen to you. That will be the first sign that will start to convince them that I appeared to you. That they should start to listen to you. Staffs don't work, but you know what does? Speaking down to people with a stick, with a threat, with fear tactics, none of that stuff really works in the long term. Do you know what does? When you come to them and tell them. I sinned. I spoke Lashon Harah about you. I made the same mistake you did. I have the same flaw that when I left Mitzrayim, I thought that you had as well. Rashi tells us that after Moshe kills them Mitzri and he's confronted by Dasan and Aviram, Moshe says Achen noda ha'davar- Now I understand why they're in exile. They deserve it. They snitch. They speak lashon ha'rah. They look down on one another. And now Moshe himself falls prey to that same sin. He found the snake in himself. Now he can come back to them and tell them. I'm also guilty. I'm not holier than thou, or any better. I'm in the same Nile as you. Let's take our snake by its tail and own it as well. Now let's get out together.

 

But it's even more than that. Because Hashem gives him a second sign. Because there's still a problem. OK, Moshe, they might tell him. We believe you're one of us. But who says we can get out of this? We do have a problem. We do look down. We do judge. We don't accept others. Not in our schools. Not in our camps. Not in our shuls. How will we be redeemed? So Hashem gives him sign number 2.

 

"Now take your hand and put it in your chest.". That hand that you just picked up that snake with. That hand that is now holding that sin. That hand with which you looked down upon when your brothers raised it against one another. Take that hand and put it on your chest and on your own heart. Klop al cheit with it. Take that lashon harah hand and see the tzora’as on it. And say al cheit. Say you're sorry. Say you learned your lesson. Say you want to do teshuva. And then klop and put it back again and poof. It's back again normal. You've been restored. That's all it takes. One klop. One teshuva and Hashem forgives you. It's not hard. It doesn't take a lot. Our essence is really pure. We can jump and skip out of the 49^th level of tumah with one skip. With one sacrifice. With one statement that we want to be redeemed. Hashem wants us to come out. He saved me from death. He cleaned my impurity, my sin. He can do the same for you. He can bring us home. We can leave.

 

Those two signs are the way to get through to the people. It's the way that we can have our faith restored. It's how we can begin to come together. Exile, galus is when we are fighting. When the shechina can't shine and have one Bais Ha'Mikdash to come down to and shine it's light out of to the world. If we are divided then Hashem can't be one amongst us until we find that oneness amongst ourselves. Until we realize we are all on the same boat. Until we have that humility and that owning of our own sins then we can't speak to other people about theirs.

 

Yet, Hashem gives Moshe one more sign. He tells him that if there are still Jews that the first two signs are not enough for, there's one more sign that we all can agree with. There's one last thing that all Jews unite and can appreciate that will bring us to the redemption. He tells Moshe to take the water from the river and pour it on the ground and see it turn to blood. Do you know what that blood is? It's not the blood of the plagues. Because if it was, why would that convince them more than any other plague. Reb Zalman Sorotzkin suggests that perhaps it is the blood of their children that were drowned in the Nile. That blood-stained water of the Nile will unite us. All of us lost children to Egypt. We all suffer equally. Our neighbors, our enemies, our cousins, our "host" nations don't care what type of hat or Kippa we wear. They don't care if I'm a Kollel Rabbi or a left wing chiloni kibbutznik from Be'eri or even a Palestinian flag waving Harvard student or Neturei Karta-nik. We've all lost children in the Nile. Their blood is calling to us from the ground. We're all bereaved parents. We really are all in the same boat and know that we have to be redeemed. That Hashem won't let this go on any longer.

 

The book of Shemot that we have begun reading is the Book of Redemption. The Geula is around the corner. We have seen all of the signs. It's just time to open our hearts and our eyes to one another. To truly believe in Moshe. Our Father is talking to us. It's time to start listening.

 

Have a spectacular Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 " Der vos farshtait zein narishkeit iz a kluger."- He who is aware of his folly is wise

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

15. Synagogues in Israel in which there are no chairs and benches and instead worshippers use

prayer rugs, belong to the __________ stream of Judaism.

 

Which two sites in Nazareth are connected by the "Pilgrims' route" which serves tourist

and pilgrim groups in the city?

A. Catholic Church of the Annunciation and Mary's Well

B. Mount Precipice and the Catholic Church of the Annunciation

C. Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation and Mary's Well

D. Mount Precipice and Synagogue Church

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqp0a6E2hOo&list=OLAK5uy_mjwSa44x4OcZXT4s680UUq97iftEFv2WQ – Shwekey's latest Shabbos Drop Shabbos Tefillos- what amazing songs!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsOH-VEWUKE&list=RDCsOH-VEWUKE&start_radio=1   -  What an amazing long listen. A kumzitz for Yigal Calek first Yartzteit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYuZL9ZIOPs&list=RDEYuZL9ZIOPs&start_radio=1    – Yitzchak benezra amazing Shabbos medley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0GcF_HTAys&list=RDN0GcF_HTAys&start_radio=1 – A new Fried Shalom Aleichem ! nice… I like fast ones..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDzR-xHCcPQ&list=RDGDzR-xHCcPQ&start_radio=1   – MBD preforming Oy Rebbe in memory of the Ribnitzer Rebbe.

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

When Jews get too comfortable and public… - 370 BC- So as we said last week, Darius/ Daryavish ruled over the entire Middle East and lots of Asia too. He divided the empire up into three regions with 120 vassal countries and they were run by achashdarpanim- ministers of which Daniel was the head of them all. He had a special place for this yiddeleh- as do many smart heads of State, particularly since he foretold and interpreted the dreams and visions of Belshatzar that told of Dairus's victory and ultimate ascension to power. Yet with Jewish popularity and influence begins the protocols of Elders of Zion. We're running the world behind the scenes and the goyim don't like it. They never do…



Now Daniel's enemies though were in a bit of a bind. How do they get the Jew that Darius the King loves and respects. The answer is simple. They use the Supreme Court. Always the enemy of the people and the tool of those that seek to destroy us. They convince Darius that it's worthwhile to pass a law in honor of his ascension that anyone that needs anything, that has a special request could only bring that request to the King who will then fulfil it. It's forbidden to pray and make requests of other kings or even gods. For Darius is like a god himself. He's the all powerful. He's Trump. You don't mess with him and he is the only one that can make things happen. Anyone that is caught praying or requesting anything from any other being- divine or human, will be considered a traitor and will be sentenced to death by being thrown into a Lion's den. Nice.

Now Daniel had this funny custom that seems like started by him which was called davening three times a day. See while the Temple was around, nobody really davened, besides basically just asking Hashem for what they wanted. We had sacrifices instead in the morning and evening and cleared away the ashes and burnt the remains in the evening. Our prayers are in place of those korbanos. But Daniel insitituted his own custom of davening and thanking Hashem and prostrating. He would do this by the window where all could see him. He wasn't really asking Hashem for requests so he technically wasn't even violating he decree, which is why he would've never endangered his life for this custom. Yet, it didn't help him. He was arrested while davening and set to trial. And here we have the first Dreyfuss trial in Jewish history post-temple, with Daniel vs State and the King couldn't even do anything to save him. What happens next…? Stay tuned.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE LISTENING JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

I wish I'd listened to what my parents told me when I was young...

What did they tell you?

Me: I don't know, I didn't listen

 

I told myself I should stop drinking...But I'm not going to listen to some drunk who talks to himself.

 

When Beethoven passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard some strange noise coming from the area where Beethoven was buried. Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it...

The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave.

Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate. When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave, listened for a moment, and said, "Ah, yes, that's Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, being played backwards."

He listened a while longer, and said, "There's the Eighth Symphony, and it's backwards, too. Most puzzling."

So the magistrate kept listening, "There's the Seventh... the Sixth... the Fifth..."

Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned on the magistrate.

He stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the cemetery, "My fellow citizens, there's nothing to worry about. It's just Beethoven decomposing."

 

What kind of paper likes listening to music? Rapping paper

 

My wife said to me "Are you even listening to me?!"

Strange way to start a conversation.

 

People these days think all kids in the 90s listened to boomboxes. That’s just a stereotype.

 

My grandpa warned people the Titanic would sink and no one listened. He kept warning them until they got sick of it and kicked him out of the theater.

 

I asked my wife to rate my listening skills and she said, “You’re an 8 on a scale of 10.”

I still don’t get why she wanted me to urinate on a skeleton...

A woman is sitting at her husband's funeral listening to the eulogies being read...

A man in the pew behind her leans forward to ask, "Do you mind if I say a word?".

"No, not at all", she replies.

The man stands and clears his throat.

“Bargain", he says, and sits back down.

"Thank you", the woman responds, "it means a great deal."

 

After listening to me sing, my high school music teacher said that I should be tenor…

Ten or twelve feet away from all musical instruments at all times.

 

What was the drunk driver listening to? The Cars' Greatest Hits.

 

My wife let me listen to her audiobook, but I accidentally deleted it halfway through.

Now I’ll ….never hear the end of it.

 

What's the difference between a good listener and a kidnapper? A good listener takes people seriously.

 

A cowboy is riding across the plains when he comes across a Pawnee indian lying down with his ear placed against the ground & mumbling something.

Knowing what great trackers the Pawnee are the cowboy gets off his horse and puts his ear to the ground, but he can't figure out anything just from listening.

So he gets up close to the Indian to hear what he's saying:

4 horses.

Pulling covered wagon.

2 people riding in front of wagon.

1 man, one woman.

2 children in back of wagon.

1 boy, 1 girl.

Girl have cake on lap.

Writing on top of cake say, Happy Birthday Jenny!

The cowboy jumps up in amazement & says to the Indian, "That's fantastic! You can tell ALL that just by listening to the vibrations from the ground!!!!!"

The Indian replies: "No. Them run over me half hour ago!".

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The answer to this week's question is A– So I definitely would've skipped this one, although I ended up getting the Xtian part of the question right by process of elimination. I had no clue about the first one, and the truth is if I would tour Jerusalem a bit more maybe I would've got it right. But the Karite synagogues really are not at the forefront of my mind. So I really didn't have anything to answer. As far as Part B. as I said I don't really do the whole Christian thing But I did remember Mary's well there. I think it had to do something with a story they stole from us I think about Hagar and an angel revealing and saying she's gonna have a kid. They never come up with their own stuff. The reason I remember it is because I found it funny that this was probably just a water hole used as a sewer in Byzantine times and wasn't even around back then. Another Bubbeh mayseh… But I wasn't sure if it was Catholic or GO and I went with he Catholics and was right! So I got that one half right and the new score is Rabbi Schwartz having a 11 point and the MOT having 4 point on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.

Brother Tours- Parshat Shemot 2024 5784

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

January 5^th 2024 -Volume 13 Issue 13 24^th of Tevet 5784

Parshat Shemot

 

Brother Tours

 

“So is it still possible to tour Israel?” my friend on the phone who had booked me 6 months ago wanted to know. They had first planned this trip before Corona and that threw an unvaccinated diseased monkey-or bat wrench into their plans. Then the post-Corona flood wave of tourism back here made it a bit prohibitive for them to come, as well they need to recoup a bit financially. It seems that they were from the few frum yiddelach that hadn’t figured out how to make a bundle off the pandemic. But they finally got everything together. We had planned a few amazing days together. The North, the South, fun activities, inspiration, history, connect with our roots and our land and then October 7^th happened. Now what? Are we still on? Can we still go? Are places still open? What’s the story…

 

They’re not the only ones that have called with that question. I’ve had others as well that were planning family trips, Bar Mitzvas, Grandparent-grandchildren trips. They all understand that things are not the same. That we are at war right now. They know that things are going to be different. But they want to know if it’s still l’maaseh- aktchualeet-realistic to come now. My response to them- despite the fact that there are tour guides doing the regular thing-incomprehensibly as it is to me right now, is that I feel that asking me for a “tour” of Israel right now is like asking me for a tour of Manhattan a month after 9/11. Sure, the Statue of Liberty might be open and the great restaurants, museums and Times square, but they’re not going to be getting a tour of Manhattan anymore. It’s a tour of 9/11. In Eretz Yisrael right now it’s not waterfalls in the Golan. It’s not Masada and Herod the Great. It’s not tunnel tours and it’s not jeeping in the Judean desert anymore. It’s a new world. And it’s one that you can and have to be part of.

 

Since Chanuka when my first friend remarkably called me up my life has changed. My phone thank god has been ringing off the hook from good Jews that have been calling me non-stop to join me on my trips around the country to give chizuk, strength, love and money to the so, so many that are in incomprehensible circumstances. They tell me that they feel like I did the first three days of the war. Stuck on their couches, in their offices and kitchens in Lakewood, Five Towns, Miami, the Midwest and around the country and feeling helpless, while their brothers, sisters and country are undergoing the most challenging crisis in the last 50 years. They need to come here. They need to feel. They need to be together. They can’t stay on their couch anymore.

 

For tours like that I’m available-although thank God I’m getting booked up and filled up with those requests as well. The benefit though of what I’m doing now though, is that I’m putting families together. Whereas when my clients in the past who were coming, I would almost never combine families or groups together. It’s just a big headache. This one wants to do this, and that one wants to do that. Things take longer, it’s a shlep and it’s a lot more coordination. As well I always felt that a trip to Eretz Yisrael was family-bonding experience. It’s something that everyone should have, discover and reveal their personal connection to Eretz Yisrael. To find their portion, their place, their experience. But these trips that I’m doing now are not about my clients coming. It’s about what and how we can maximally give and help those that we are visiting. And therefore the more people that I can bring to a place and give chizuk and help alleviate their overwhelming financial, material and emotional needs, the more we can do.

 

What will be doing on these trips? When I was guiding I always told my clients that there four or five ingredients that I put into every day that I toured that I had felt they needed to get the full Eretz Yisrael experience. Each day would have some history in it, some nature to take in the beauty of the land, some fun activities, some holy places and of course good food along the way. Today I’ve identified as well about six or seven different areas that I feel it’s important to try to cover on our trips so that we and they can experience, contribute and bring light to on their trips here. Places and people that desperately need the light that only someone that comes across the ocean to be with them can bring.

 

The first area is of course the Kohanim Gedolim- the High priests of our nation today, our brave chayalim-soldiers that are doing Hashem’s work and wiping the darkness and evil that has thrust its dark cloud over our country and the world with the great light of Hashem that they are shining out of their M16’s, F16’s and Merkava tanks. They need supplies, coats, scopes, gloves, helmets, boots- yes I know that army should be providing these things, but tachlis is they’re not. Go kvetch and complain and bad mouth the Israeli army that is overwhelmed and not only un-prepared, but who’s last major war had about 40,000 reservists called up in the Lebanon war and today had to in one day deal with over 300,000 that are serving. Or alternatively, don’t kvetch and go back to October 6^th conversation and rhetoric and do something about it.

 

As well our boys in green need good food. They need warm meals, they need BBQ’s after serving on Har Dov for 40 days on the top of our freezing mountains, or after 60 days in Gaza, or after the daily grind and terror of going into Shechem, Jenin and all of those “peaceful” Palestinian Authority occupied areas. They need good sandwiches for breakfast, they need Beef Jerky and protein to take with them on their missions. And they even need the little notes that you can and will write and send them on these packages that tell them that we are thinking about them. That we love them. That we can’t even express how much it means to us that they are putting their lives on the line daily for us. That we are awed by their heroism and bravery. And that they are our messengers to wipe all of these guys off the face of the earth and bring me a hotel in Beirut and a beachfront property in Gush Katif.

 

The next group of people that we need to visit and love are the so many that are experiencing such trauma right now. There are families that lost someone, it could be on October 7^th, it could be soldiers that have fallen, others that have gotten killed in terrorist attacks or missile fallings. There are families who have injured husbands, fathers, brothers and sisters that are in hospitals right now. Some that are in serious condition, others that have lost limbs, are undergoing trauma. They need our chizuk, our prayers, some hugs and light. There are families of hostages who for them it’s still October 7^th. They can’t move. They’re not functioning. They don’t sleep. They’re terrified that the world is forgetting about them. That the country has forgotten about their loved ones. It’s happened before in Israel, where for years they’ve had our captives. We need to hug them and tell them we’re here for them, We need to tell the mourners that we flew in to hear about their lost one. That these children are with us. That we want to know who they are so we can daven harder for them. With their faces emblazoned in our hearts and minds. That we can make kabbalot resolutions in their merit. We need to shed tears and take away some of their pain.

 

As well there are the farms and farmers whose entire livelihood and lives are going to pot. Whose crops are dying on their trees that they planted, and invested so much into. They don’t have workers anymore. They themselves may be serving in Gaza or at other places around the country protecting us from our enemies. Their wives are struggling. Their children don’t have a father and are not sleeping and all the while their entire winter crop just sits and spoils or is not being planted and tended to. We need to help them.

 

Finally it’s not just individuals, it’s communities that need our help. That need your visit. That need your money and support. That want your love and hugs and empathy. That want a big brother and sister that care about them enough to come here and be with them and hold their hands. There are over 130,000 people that have been evacuated from their homes. They’re living in hotels and tzimmers around the country. Many have them had events and visitors and concerts, but they haven’t left their hotels and gotten out. Even worse are the communities that have not been evacuated. Some are over the 6 KM line that the government has not authorized alternate living space and they are getting slammed with missiles. They’re in bomb shelters regularly on the Northern border. Others like the families in Sderot are still there because they can’t or are unable to leave. They need meals and food and visitors to be mechazek them. So so many children who’s lives have been overturned. That are not only going crazy, but are driving their parents who may have a husband or brother who’s serving somewhere crazy as well. They are our brothers and sisters. We need to be there for them.

 

There are all of the kibbutzim in the South as well, that need help. They literally went through a pogrom that we thought went out of style in the times of the Cossacks, the Chmielnicki revolution, the Crusades. The type that we read about every Tisha B’Av. It’s heart-wrenching to walk through and still 90 days later smell the smoke and blood and see the destruction and havoc. I’ve had visitors that have come and told me that they didn’t want to go there. They felt it was too much. That there was no need. That they just wanted to do “uplifting” things. I disagreed with them. I said that as long it was an age-appropriate group that they needed to come there and see it for themselves. Let me explain why.

 

I have always been against the March of Living, Holocaust tours. I’m a positive guy. I feel we need to focus on the future. We are blessed with Eretz Yisrael. We can’t look back. The whole thing of “Never Again” happened again and it was never more than anything but a cool mantra and slogan, because it is Hashem that will decide what we will go through our not, and His decrees which we can never understand, are more about the way that we behave towards one another and the light we are successful in bringing out to the world, and the true desire to return to Eretz Yisrael where He wants us to live, so that he doesn’t throw us out of the places that He never wanted us to feel comfortable in. Yet this is different. This is now. This is the present.

 

Every soldier before going out to Gaza is brought to these Kibbutzim and terror zones. The army understands that the soldiers in order to truly fight the way that they need to fight they need to understand the extent of the atrocity that took place, the chilul Hashem that has happened, the vengeance that needs to be taken in order to restore the light to the world. The immensity of the evil that they will be facing. They need to see it with their own two eyes. It needs to penetrate their souls. In the same way all of us our soldiers as well. Our prayers, our resolutions, our Torah study, our charity, our unity and love is the firepower behind the bullets, missiles and bombs that we are leveling on them. We can’t fight with Pre-October 7^th spiritual ammunition. It’s not enough. We need prayer and Torah and charity and love on steroids to conquer this evil. Because we are not fighting just to wipe them out. It’s not about bringing security to Israel for the future. It’s about bringing Mashiach. It’s about the final redemption.

 

Which of course brings us four pages into this E-mail to this week’s Torah portion as we begin the Book of Redemption. To be honest, I thought Mashiach would be coming this week already. We finished the story of our family. We’ve fixed it all. It’s time already. Yet of course it seems that we’re still not entirely there. The Parsha begins with the story of suffering under Pharaoh, of the torture and senseless murder and enslavement of our nation and with the murder of our babies. It’s bad. It’s 210 years of October 7^th.

 

And then there is Moshe. He’s our shepherd and our savior. He’s the one that turns it all around. For 210 years Hashem has hidden Himself from us in the darkness of Egypt. And it all changes when Moshe does something remarkable. He called Rabbi Schwartz and left his cozy safe palace in Monsey, Lakewood, Cedarhurst, Los Angeles, America Egypt and he went out to his brothers to see their suffering.

 

Vayigdal Moshe- and Moshe got older,

Vayeitzei El Echov- and he went out to his brothers

Va’yaar b’sivlosam-and he saw their suffering

 

What was the purpose of Moshe Rabbeinu’s trip? Rashi tells us it was in order to “focus his eyes and heart to be distressed over them.” Moshe knew what was going on. He watched the News every night. He read the papers, he surfed Yeshiva World and even watched my daily status posts. But it wasn’t enough. He needed to go there and see it for himself. He needed to feel the pain and suffering. It needed to hurt so much that it would become his own pain where he would do anything to relieve that pain. So he got off his couch and came.

 

What made this even more incredible was that the verse tells us that Moshe went out to “his brothers”. Were these really his brothers? Moshe since being an infant was raised in Pharaoh’s palace. He was aristocracy. He had a big 8-bedroom house and backyard. These were slaves. They were different than him. They were in Egypt “shlav beit “kids- not just second-class citizens but almost sub-humans. Yet, Moshe went out to his brothers. There was no disconnect. There was no Moshe saying yeah, but those Kibbutzim were left-wing secularists that brought it upon themselves. There was not but they were festivaling and violating Shabbos and Simchas Torah. There was no I’m better or frummer than they are, or I’m only connecting to those that are like me. He went out to his brothers. He wanted to know who they were and what they were going through and he needed to feel the pain. It’s just five Hebrew words, “He went out to his brothers and he saw their suffering” and yet it’s a whole world and it’s what brought the redemption.

 

What was it that Moshe saw? He saw an Egyptian man hitting a Jewish man. He saw the blows. HE felt each whip on his own back. He saw that the poor slave was an “ivri”. He was a “Yahud”. He hear Allahu Akbar. He smelled the smoke. He walked through the blood-stained sands and ash-filled rooms. He left with the stench of the death of babies on his clothing. He looked to the right and to the left. To the United Nations, to the all of those Me-Toos, to the civilized world, to the Universities for Social justice, to the Red Cross and he saw- ki ein ish- there’s nobody there. No one cares. That we are a nation alone. And saw he took action. He couldn’t not. He realized that everyone else was sitting comfortably and just talking and pontificating, but no one was smiting the Mitzri- Egyptian. So he did it. Because he understood that it was his brother that was getting hit and no one else was going to be there for him.

 

Yet he left with his faith shattered. How could this happen? How could this be? Why am I the only one that is here. Where’s the world? The next morning he got his answer when he returned. Because a one-day mission with Rabbi Schwartz is never enough. Because despite the fact that yesterday was exhausting and draining and emotional and took everything I had, my brother is still suffering. And I have to go out again tomorrow. Because there’s still something else I have to and can do. And there’s no one else that can or will.

 

Yet on day two. He got his answer. He understood it all. He said

 

“Achein noda ha’davar- Now the matter is known to me.”. What did he see? Two men fighting. Two Jewish men that just didn’t get that it was October 8^th and not October 6^th anymore. Two men that didn’t chap that we’re all in this together. That didn’t understand we’re all on the same boat. They didn’t appreciate that the only way to remove that hiddenness of Hashem in this dark world is if we bring his light his One-ness into the world by us coming together. By us stopping to hit our brothers. By not falling back into that fight that brought us down here in the first place between Yosef and his brothers. That’s the davar- the matter that started it all. It’s the davar that Yosef spoke about his brothers. It’s the davar that Yaakov sent Yosef to find and return the peace from his brothers and it is the davar that Yosef was able to reestablish in the house of Pharaoh at the end of the last parsha with his forgiveness, reconciliation and even support for one another. But now Moshe realizes that the davar is back again.

 

The world doesn’t care about us if we are divided and don’t care about one another. They can’t care for us, because when we are at each other’s throats, when we sit on our own coach and not there for one another, then we are not the nation that will shine the light to the world. Then the opposite happens. Then they have to remind us and persecute and pain us until we get back to where we need to. To where the light can shine from.

 

Moshe sees that and flees. And he waits until the tide changes. Until the pain gets so great that we have one voice and cry out to Hashem. The hiddenness is too much. We need You. And Hashem hears it finally. He looks down on His children and remembers His covenant. He remembers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.

 

Va’yar Elokim es Bnai Yisrael- And Hashem saw the children of Israel. He saw us a nation. He saw what the pain had brought us to. He saw that Moshe even far away in Midyan was still connected to his people and that it was time to come back for a second trip. He saw that the men who had sought out the life of Moshe were gone. The fighting was over. The pain was too great.

 

Va’yeida Elokim- Rashi tells us Hashem put His heart and did not hide His eyes from us anymore. The redemption can come. We can move forward with the miracles. We can head home and wipe out the evil. We can finally finish the mission of Yaakov of Shema Yisrael Hashem Echad revealing His One-ness through our Achdus. We can finally go back and have the good old-fashioned Rabbi Schwartz tour of Eretz Yisrael once again. I’m booking them now for Pesach. So don’t wait too long for this once in a life-time achdus tour to bring that day sooner. It’s time to come out to your brothers.

 

Have a inspiring Shabbos and an uplifting Shabbos Mevorchim.

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

T

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Kirtser geshlofen, lenger gelebt”.- The less you sleep, the more you get out of life.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

21. According to the Bible, the first month of the year is ___________.

Which of the following characterizes the customs in a Reform Synagogue?

A. Women sit in front of men

B. Women will read from the Torah

C. The Temple will not be mentioned

D. The reading of the Torah will be in English.

 

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK

 

No Words – It’s the one thing that every one says after they see and hear about the atrocities perpetrated against us. The death, the destructions, the horrors, it’s just too much. It’s incomprehensible. We walk out and they all say they same thing. Ein Milim- there are no words. Words haven’t been created to encapsulate it all. It’s too much it’s overwhelming. It’s just tears and sobs.

 

To a large degree the Netziv notes in our parsha this week is the essence of all our prayers. To move beyond words. The Torah tells us that after the 210 years of exile finally Hashem saw what we were undergoing and

Vayishma es Koleinu- He heard our voices.

 

It doesn’t say He heard our prayers. It wasn’t the words. Perhaps we had even reached a point when we couldn’t even pray anymore. We just cried from pain. We were hurt and we were broken and we turned to Hashem and said hear our broken voice and our sobs. It wasn’t refa’einu- heal us, It wasn’t forgive us, it wasn’t even redeem us. It was just pain and hurt and a connection from the depths of our souls that Hashem is the only address to turn to with that pain. And then he answered us.

 

That is the prayer that we are looking for today. And just as then that is the voice that is getting louder and louder. And the day when the redemption from Egypt will be forgotten because the redemption that awaits will come soon and be so much greater. We just have to awake that voice. We just have to move beyond the words.



RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FUNNY NEW YEARS JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

“My New Year’s resolution for 2023? I will be less laz.”— Jim Gaffigan

“Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you’ve met your New Year’s resolution.”— Jay Leno

NEW YEARS PRAYER FOR THE ELDERLY

God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
The good fortune to run into the ones that I do, 
And the eyesight to tell the difference.

DIETING NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

2019: I will get my weight down below 180 pounds.
2020: I will follow my new diet religiously until I get below 200 pounds.
2021: I will develop a realistic attitude about my weight.
2022: I will work out 3 days a week.
2023: I will try to drive past a gym at least once a week.

“New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” -Mark Twain

Cindy was taking an afternoon nap on New Year's Eve before the festivities. After she woke up, she confided to Max, her husband, 'I just dreamed that you gave me a diamond ring for a New Year's present. What do you think it all means?'

'Aha, you'll know tonight,' answered Max smiling broadly.

At midnight, as the New Year was chiming, Max approached Cindy and handed her small package.  Delighted and excited she opened it quickly. There in her hand rested a book entitled: 'The meaning of dreams'.

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The answer to this week”s question is B – So first part is easy. Rosh Hashana the first of Tishrei is the new year. Although it is pretty cool you have to admit that this is the question that comes up right after the secular New Years day… The second part of the question is interesting I’m sure the correct answer is the wome reading from the Torah. Yet there certainly is a removal of the Temple in many of reform prayer books as well in old times and even still today, and there are some that have Torah reading in English. Interestingly enough in ancient Mishna times we had a translator that would translate the Torah for the community as well during the reading. I would give explanation in between aliya to aliya back in my Seattle TLC days as well. Yes, it was a long davening. But we’re there to learn the parsha not just ritually read it and especially today when there’s so many messages for us.   So this is another one right making the latest score is Rabbi Schwartz at 15.5 point and the MOT having 4.5 point on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.