Insights and
Inspiration
from
the
Holy
Land
from
Rabbi
Ephraim Schwartz
"Your
friend in Karmiel"
May
10th 2024 -Volume 13 Issue 30 2nd of Iyar 5784
Parshat Kedoshim
Being Human
They are not humans. They’re animals. No, let me correct that. They are worse than animals. Animals only kill for food, or when faced with danger. These Hamas terrorists committed atrocities that no animal would ever do. The innocents that they slaughtered, the babies, the women. The bodies that they defiled and desecrated, the pain and torture that they afflicted, is inconceivable. It’s unspeakable. It doesn’t even enter anyone’s worst nightmares because we can’t even conceive a human being or even an animal doing such acts. So we tell ourselves that they’re just not human. We’re even scared to show it to the world and talk about it. It’s too horrifying. It’s unbelievable. And thus, perhaps, it’s why there are people that deny it or minimize it. Because if anyone actually saw “the video” there would be no way that they could ever justify it, or even sleep at night knowing that they still walk the same earth that we do. Let alone exist a few miles away from our borders.
But we’re wrong. We’re
as mistaken as those deniers are as well. We’re also still a little bit in
denial. And if we’re in denial, then there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be as
well. See, the mistake that we’re making, the denial we’re still suffering and
the lie that we ourselves are still perpetuating is precisely the one I started
out this essay with. Because they are human. They have a mother and a
father. They’re real people. They are not the Satan. They are not demons or
devils. They’re human beings. They’re just human beings that are evil. That do
not have Hashem in their lives. Humans can be that evil when they
remove God. They can fall to acts and are even prone to acts that not
even animals will do. Only humans, that have free choice, can commit
these levels of atrocities and evil.
To minimize this by
calling them an aberration, is to deny how essential having Hashem and faith in
the True God, as the Torah teaches us, is to our humanity. It is essentially
saying that one can be moral and just without Hashem and the Torah’s light. It
is declaring that human beings even without faith in Hashem could never fall so
low. And it’s just not true.
If you doubt me, take
a look at that demonstration going on out your window, in your city centers, on
your highways, bridges, and college campuses. Demonstrating for evil, for rape,
for baby burnings and for murderers, is only a knife blade away from doing it
themselves. Don’t fool yourselves. Don’t lie to yourselves. Don’t tell yourself
that these protestors are just dumb, unintelligent, unaware, pampered and
spoiled college students without lives. Don’t minimize them or fail to
understand what this is all about. They’re not dumb. They’re Godless. They’re
not naturally evil. They’ve just willfully removed God from the picture, or maybe
even more accurately, been indoctrinated that mankind has its own natural sense
of morality and goodness. That left to our own desires and natural state
mankind will behave civilly. That there is no need for Hashem or the light of
the Torah in the world to save it from itself. They missed the first part of the
Torah and the story of the flood in whose aftermath Hashem declared
Ki yeitzer lev ha’adam
rak rah mi’neuruv-
that the natural inclination of man is evil from its youth.
Without Hashem, without
the children of Avraham, without the Torah and its light, Man is lost. Man will
do the most evil of things. Animals aren’t
evil. They are instinctual. They’re programmed. Evil is only when one has a
choice. When one has free will. When one understands that there are two options
before him. When they see a right and a wrong and they choose the latter. Free
choice is only possible when one understands that we are not programmed. We are
created in the image of Hashem in that we can choose the actions we want to
take. We can choose the type of lives we want to live. We can connect to that
Creator and fulfill the purpose that He put us on this world to accomplish., or
alternatively we can deny that and thus the road that we will be driving one
will be Highway 232; the “Highway of death”, of destruction and godlessness.
The ultimate evil is
denying that human beings have that capacity and choice. Because without that
understanding, anything goes. Nothing matters. Each person can define what is
right and wrong in their own eyes. What they deem to be holy and sacred is
nothing more than creating false ever-changing gods in their own image. Gods
that tell them that males are females and gender can be fluid, that murderers
are freedom fighters and that babies can be genocidal occupiers, that yours is
mine, that love is free, that life starts and ends when we decide it shall,
that truth is lies and lies are truth. And they would be correct. Because
without Hashem, without the Torah, without that tradition and revelation of our
Creator to us when He took us out of Mitzrayim and revealed Himself to us on
Har Sinai, then everyone could just make it up as they go along, and nobody
would be more correct than anyone else. Because if the world runs without a Master
plan and purpose, or if what happened was that Hashem just pressed a button on
the world after Creation and said do what you want and figure it out, I’m out
of here… then why not?
But He didn’t. He Had
a purpose in Creation. The purpose was to give us free will. It was to reveal
that spark of Him inside of us and uplift the world with it. It’s why He
created us in His image. It’s why He made us different than the animal kingdom.
It’s why He gave us the ability to think, communicate, build, create, believe,
and love like no other created life form could. It’s as well why He made us with
the same capacity to destroy, deny and hate in ways that the most violent rabid
animals couldn’t. Because we are like Him. There is a spark of Hashem within
every human being. Yes, even them… In
fact, here’s a fun side fact; the word human itself, some suggest is a
composite of the word hu and man. Hu is a “shortened abbreviation of the
word for God in ancient times” my google search tells me. Perhaps
the yud and hei and vav of that spell the Name of Hashem. A “human”
is a man with the spirit of Hashem within him. They are human. They’re just
humans who are on a mission to extinguish
their own and the worlds Divine spark.
There’s a fantastic story
I recently saw about a young student that was in his college professor’s class.
The professor had challenged his students by asking them if they believed that
everything that exists was created by God.
One student bravely
answered “Yes, God created everything”.
The professor glad to
have found his prey then continued his questioning.
“If God created
everything, then God created evil, since it exists. And according to the
principle that our deeds define ourselves, then God is evil.”
Don’t you love how
these guys work? How would you answer this question?
The student became
silent after hearing such an answer. The professor was very pleased with
himself, as these evil arrogant men generally are. He boasted to students for
proving once again that faith in God is a myth.
Another student however
was unimpressed and raised his hand and said:
Can I ask you a
question, professor?
"Of course," replied the professor.
The student then got
up and asked:
“Professor, is cold
a thing?”
“What kind of
question? Of course, it exists. Haven’t you ever been cold?”
The students laughed
at the young man's question. The young man answered:
“Actually, sir, cold
doesn't exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is
actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied on whether it
has or transmits energy.
Absolute zero (-460
degrees Fahrenheit) is a complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and
unable to react at this temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word
to describe what we feel in the absence of heat.”
The student then continued:
“Professor, does
darkness exist?”
Once again, the
professor responded, although this time a bit more hesitantly
“Of course it
exists”.
“You're wrong
again, sir” the student retorted.
“Darkness also does
not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light
but not the darkness. We can use Newton's prism to spread white light across
multiple colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You can't
measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness
and illuminate it. How can you tell how dark a certain space is? You measure
how much light is presented. Isn't it so? Darkness is a term man uses to
describe what happens in the absence of light.”
Finally, the young man
asked the professor his last question:
“Sir, does evil
exist?”
The professor took his
time with this one trying to understand where the student was heading finally answering:
“Of course, as I
said before. We see it every day. Cruelty, numerous crimes and violence
throughout the world. These examples are nothing but a manifestation of evil.”
To this, the student
answered:
“Evil does not exist,
sir, or at least it does not exist for itself. Evil is simply the absence of
God. It is like darkness and cold—a man-made word to describe the absence of
God. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exist as light
and warmth. Evil is the result of the absence of Divine love in the human
heart. It’s the kind of cold that comes when there is no heat, or the kind of
darkness that comes when there’s no light.”
The name of the student,
by the way as the legend goes was none other than Albert Einstien.
This week’s Torah
portion of Kedoshim, begins with the command to Moshe to gather all of the
nation together. To a large degree our Parsha, which is jam-packed with what
seems like a random array of diverse mitzvos, really contains the essence of
the entire Torah.
“Rov gufei Torah
nimtzaot bo”-
the majority of the body of the Torah can be found in our Parsha.
The Ibn Ezra even
finds within the first few verses alone allusions to the entire Ten Commandments
(open the book and see if you can spot them…). Our parsha as well contains the mitzvos of
loving one’s friend like themselves, which Rabbi Akiva famously described as klal
gadol- the golden or general rule of the entire Torah and that Hillel, paraphrasing
it, suggests could even be taught while on one foot, as everything else is merely
a commentary of that principle. There are mitzvos of sacrifices, of agriculture,
charity, the types of clothing we are permitted to wear. As well there are laws
that run the gamut from the judicial, familial and civil and even of the observance
of Shabbos. It’s a hodge podge of everything. Yet there is one theme that
repeats itself over and over. One phrase. One sentence. The essence of it all. It
is the beginning of the parsha and the first statement at the onset of this
gathering when we are introduced with the mandate to be holy. And it is again
mentioned at its conclusion after all of
the warnings about the forbidden relationships that we must not engage
in.
Sixteen times in our
parsha the Torah repeats these two words
Ani Hashem- I am Hashem
Eight of those times
it is concludes with the word
Elokeichem- Your God.
Do you know what all
the laws in the Torah are about and premised upon? One principle. There is
Hashem. We are created to be like Him. Our purpose here on earth and the reason
why we were created is to become holy and reveal that holiness that he
implanted in all of us and to reveal that in all of creation. The number eight
is above this world. It is the seven days and planes of existence and the eighth
is rising above. He is Hashem in each of us. And He is Hashem Elokeichem, our
national God that is found in our nation that we can rise up this world and
connect to. That we can achieve holiness through and that uplift the world
with.
Kedusha- holiness is revealing Hashem in everything.
It’s in our marriages, in our workplace, in how we relate to our parents, our
neighbors, our converts, our servants and our children It’s in what we wear, how
we speak, what we eat. It’s our responsibilities and the respect we need to
have for the less fortunate, the elderly, the needy, the destitute. It’s about
having faith and belief in Hashem and not feeling the need to look to other
sources for answers, light or what will be in the future. Ani Hashem.
There is One God. One light. One source of goodness. And we were created to
connect and be part of that.
A world where that
truth has not yet been revealed and is not apparent to all yet, is one that
requires fixing. Tikkun Olam, the catchphrase that is bandied about by
many of those godlessly unaware Jews, is about l’takein olam b’Malchus Shad-dai-
fixing the world by revealing the Kingship of Hashem and His dominion over all
mankind. That is the world we davened so hard to finally be revealed to the
world in our prayers repeatedly this past Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur that
preceded that fateful “Shabbat Hashechora”- that black Simchat Torah,
when Hashem showed us what a world without Him looks like. What a nation that
wishes to destroy Hashem’s light-bearers is capable of doing to achieve their
goals. The ends they will go to. The atrocities they will commit. The depths of
depravity mankind can fall to.
The battle that we are
fighting is not one for our survival or for our existence. It is a battle of
good against evil. It is for a world that will either be one of holiness or a
world of godlessness. That is not a battle that is just in Gaza or in Lebanon,
or in Israel, although it all starts and is focused here. It is a battle throughout
the world. It’s a battle that we need to understand what we are fighting for
and who we are fighting against. If we don’t then there is no way we can win.
I’m not sure we get
that yet. Certainly most media and internet posts if they are reflective of
anything don’t seem to be indicative of that. The protests around Israel on
both sides of the street as well don’t seem to have posters that are screaming
the message out either. The ones in America certainly aren’t. There are posters
and billboards about returning the hostages, about destroying Hamas. There are prayers
for the soldiers, for the injured, for unity, for repentance and for Torah. But
what about for Holiness? What about for the total eradication of godlessness
from the world. Where are the signs that unabashedly call out for a Hashem
oriented and guided Torah world? Not a Judeo-Christian shatnez cheeseburger
one. Not a politically correct “western” pluralistic one where all religions
are respected, all cultures are regarded, all life-choices are acceptable and all
speech is permitted.
A world where the primary
objective is to live and let live, is a world that doesn’t understand that what
it is really saying is that there is no need for Hashem’s presence to shine out
to the entire world. Humans are inherently good. Hamas is an aberration. That
thought process reflects a world that doesn’t yet get that without that light, evil
will always fill that void. October 7th will happen. The Holocaust
will happen. The Crusades will happen. Stalin will happen. For when Hashem is
not in the world, and the world feels that it is fine without Him, that we can
be human without Him, that we the nation of Hashem could somehow manage and
survive and even have a state and live in Eretz Yisrael without shining that
light and bringing that truth and revealing that holiness to the entire world,
then Hashem will bring us back to that realization that we’re missing the boat.
We will be made to realize that ultimately have no one to turn to. No country,
no party, no left- or right-wing Torah-less ideology, no Christian “friends”,
no conservative right, no humanistic liberal “me- too” advocates. A world
without Hashem, will always have that void filled by evil. And as we get closer
to end of days, that ticking clock when Mashiach must come, that face of evil
will get uglier and uglier.
This Shabbos in Eretz
Yisrael is referred to as Shabbat Tekuma- the Shabbos of revival or rebirth. It
is the Shabbos in between Yom Ha’Shoah this past week and Yom Ha’Zikaron and
Yom Ha’Atzmaut this coming week. It’s the segue from the Holocaust, from
destruction, from darkness and evil to our reestablishment and rebirth and
return to Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael with the establishment of the
State. It’s not coincidental that there is a Shabbos that is in the middle of
these two days. It is that way, just as a baby boy must go through a Shabbos
before his bris, because it lays at the heart of how we can actually experience
tekuma- revival and rebirth.
Shabbos is the day
when we most experience Ani Hashem. It’s the day that has one purpose;
to acknowledge that Hashem is the Creator of the world and that He chose us as
His nation taking us out of Egypt to share that knowledge with the world. In
order to get to our redemption, to bring the entire world to the eternal
Shabbos day that it is waiting for, we need to rise up. We need to be revived.
We need to internalize the evil of a world without that knowledge. We need to rise
and stand tall and shout it to the world. We need to testify that there is a
Shabbos to the world. There is a Creator. There is a plan. There is Holiness. If
we do that then hopefully this Yom Ha’Zikaron we will finally realize the
fulfillment of the prayers that we prayed on Rosh Hashana- the Torah’s Yom Ha’Zikaron
of
Va’Yomer kol asher neshoma
b’apo-
and all mankind which has a soul within it will say
Hashem Elokei Yisrael
Melech-
Hashem the God of Israel is the King
U’Malchuso ba’kol mashala- and He rules over all of its inhabitants.
Have a renewing Shabbos and festive and spiritual Yom Ha’Atzmaut!
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
CHIZUK/TZEDAKA
OPPORTUNITY OF THE WEEK
Culinary Campus - The Culinary Campus in Jerusalem jumped into action at the start of the war, cooking kosher l'mehadrin meals for soldiers on the frontlines, for ZAKA volunteers and for evacuated families. My dear friends and colleagues Rabbi Eli and Tami Meisels got involved early on, volunteering and recruiting volunteers, in addition to raising funds to cover the raw materials.
There was and still is, a tremendous lack of strictly kosher lemehadrin food, and the Culinary Campus is one of the few who provide it.
Their
focus on Shabbat meals for the soldiers who otherwise would only get canned
food, keeps them flooded with requests from different battalions, but they lack
budgets to continue!!
Because
all their workers are volunteers, they are able to provide a Friday night meal
with fish, meat, rice, vegetables and homemade challah for only $10 or
35₪/person!!
Here’s
an amazing opportunity for you to participate and be part of the mitzvah.
Any
amount will help!
All
donations are tax deductible (make sure to put currency in dollars if you want
US deduction)
You can see some of their videos here
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JzgHqVyxsfw
And here’s the link to donate
DONATE TO THE CAMPAIGN
https://www.charidy.com/food-hayal/11436
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE
WEEK
" Az
men git dem tayvl a hor, vil er di gantse bord.” If you give the devil a
hair, he'll want the whole beard.
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer
below at end of Email
5.
The image of the pagan god that appears in synagogue mosaics from the
Talmudic
period is______.
In
which of the following sites is there a synagogue from the Byzantine period?
A)
Banias
B)
Umm el-Qanatir
C)
Sussita
D)
Gamla
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IynusNhRce4
– Im not the biggest Acapella fan..but here’s a great playlist if your into it and are having music withdrawal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ESf8Frc8-0
- Thank You Hashem Chevra, bring
you this mesmerizing Sunrise Acapella meditation from Chaim Ghoori. Close your
eyes and be transcended to a different plane of existence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ESf8Frc8-0 – Reb Shlomo
Carlebach two incredible stories that You Never know.. loving and hating for
this week’s parsha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z9uokee5B4
– A Choir of hundreds of Levi’im singing
Hallel by the Shaar Chulda in Yerushalayim… wow!!
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK
Holy, Holy, Holy…- One of the high points of our
daily prayers, perhaps even the central piece is the Kedusha prayer. We say it
three times each morning; during our blessings of Shema, in the repetition and
in the Uva Li’Tziyon prayer afterwards. It
is the prayer, praise or statement that the angels in heaven recite daily. Our Kedusha that we recite is actually saying-
if you pay attention to the words that we should and are able to say that
prayer ksheim shemakdishim oscha beshmei marom- like Hashem is sanctified
in the heavens above. It’s the ultimate it’s the peak of everything. It’s what
we are all about. It’s what we are here to do.
What are these three kadoshes? These three levels of
holiness that the angels and we are talking about. Let’s figure it out. Rav Gedaliah
Shorr writes that if you pay attention the kedusha that we recite in U’va Li’tziyon
it explains it in the translation. The prayer states
And [the angels] call one to another and say: Kadosh
Kadosh Kadosh is Hashem Tzvaot: the fullness of all the earth is His
glory.”
And they receive [sanction] one from another, and say,
Kadosh- in the highest heights of heaven, the abode of
His Divine Presence;
Kadosh- upon earth, the work of His mighty power;
Kadosh-forever and to all eternity—
Three things. Hashem in the heavens. Hashem on Earth. Hashem
for eternity.
Rav Shorr explains each of these. Holiness, means that it is
separate. It is not connected to anything else. When one gets married in Hebrew
it is called kiddushin. The wife is separated from every other man. She is
entirely dedicated and committed to her spouse. It is a new reality that is
separate from the life prior. Similary when an animal is sanctified. It’s holy.
It’s separate. It is an entirely new and different purpose that is connected to
Hashem. When we say that Hashem is Kadosh in highest of heaven, what we are
essentially saying is that Hashem is above anything that is here in this world
that we can relate to. He is above time, space and any feeling or emotion that
we can relate to. The heavens can’t be discovered or understood with our frail
human minds. Hashem, being Kadosh, is as well incomprehensible and separate from
anything we can fathom.
At the other end of the extreme and almost paradoxically to
the first Kadosh is that Hashem is Kadosh upon this earth. He is
separate in that in everything in Creation He can be found. In the rain, in the
sea, in the battlefield, in the workplace, in the sun, the moon and the stars.
If Kadosh means that Hashem is separate, then how can he be found and connected
in everything. If He’s in everything then He’s not separate. The answer is that
is precisely what Hashem’s holiness is. He remains holy and disconnected from
all of Creation and hidden from it, whereas He is the source of it all, yet it
does not define Him. That crown of holiness, Rabbi Shorr suggests quoting a Midrash,
is the one that He shared with Bnai Yisrael. We as well are Holy like Hashem in
that way. We can engage in everything in this world. We are meant to be
involved with all aspects of Creation. We are even like Creators in that way,
with our free will, like Him. Yet, the world does not define us, rather we can
remain separate from it. We can uplift it and not be brought down by it.
The final Kedusha is that Hashem is eternal. He is
separate from time. Eternality isn’t just time that goes on and on without an
end. It’s an entirely different plane of existence. It’s past, present and
future all melded together as one. It’s a moment that doesn’t end. It’s being
independent of everything else. It’s being in the perfect moment forever. That
crown as well the Midrash suggests Hashem gave to Bnai Yisrael. We can achieve
that holiness, when we are connected to Hashem. In the world to come we are
told the tzadikim will sit in a circle and point with their finger to Hashem in
the center. A circle is infinite. It is a closed body of time. It is equal on
all sides. It is separate from everything else. It is Kadosh.
Fascinatingly enough, the angels in heaven can only
experience Hashem on that first level, up in the heavens. We down here are even
higher than angels in that regard. We are Kadosh down here in this world and we
can tap in to the eternality of Hashem as well. When we pray we are doing
precisely that. We are uniting the worlds. We are bringing all the Kedushot
together. We are bringing the entire world to day when as we say at the end of
Kedusha, Hashem yimloch L’olam va’ed- Hashem will rule forever and ever.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
708 BC-Appeasement and
War Prep- As we said Sancheirev was back again.
The years of trying to appease him didn’t really help. It generally doesn’t
when you have an enemy whose mandate is to wipe you off the face the off the
earth. Chizkiya thought that his big teshuva campaign would bring divine
mercy upon the Kingdom of Yehudah and he wouldn’t suffer the same fate
of exile that the Northern Kingdom of Israel did. Yet it seemed he was
wrong when Sancheirev came and started destroying the cities of Yehuda
in Lachish. The army of Sancherev the Navi tells us had 80,000
warriors in armor, 60,000 swordsman running in front of him and the rest were
horsemen. It spanned hundreds of miles. It was terrifying to say the least. Chizkiya
felt at this point that just like our forefather Yaakov prepared for war and at
the same time offered presents to Esau his brother, he needed to do the same.
What were the presents
he offered. It seems incomprehensible, yet he took the golden doors that he
recently put on the doors of the Temple and sent them off to Sancherev. It
seems hard to believe that we could be so pathetic. So desperate for peace to
even consider handing over the doorways to our Temple. But have things
changed much? Who’s sitting on the Temple Mount today? Where’s the one
place in the world that Jews are prohibited from davening? OK I mean besides Columbia
University…
Does it help? Nope.
Sancherev takes the money and keeps on coming. To prepare for the upcoming
siege, Chizkiya does a few things. First, he fortifies the walls of Jerusalem.
He builds what is called the Broad Wall. For those who would like to see
the remains of that wall, it stands still just behind the Rova in the Jewish
quarter and through the Cardo. It was about 180 feet and in some
places over 10 feet tall. As well he decided to plug up the springs on the
outside of the wall by Silwan and the springs in the Tyropean valley.
Welcome to the classic Ir Dovid tour today? How was the city supposed to
survive if the springs were dried up outside? The answer was Chizkiya’s
tunnel. Underground tunnels that were chiseled in from the spring that
would bring the water into the city.
For those who have been
through those water tunnels, they are truly amazing. It’s about 1/3 of a mile
and the gradient is only about .06 percent. Meaning that it had to be done with
precision with two groups each starting at a different end. Chiseling
underground from the Gichon spring to the Silwan pool. In case
you doubt the veracity of this find there was an incredible inscription
discovered in the middle that describes the euphoria when the two teams met.
That’s pretty cool.
Now our sages weren’t
happy with Chizkiya’s plan. We’ll talk about why next week and what
happened afterwards.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE EVIL JOKES OF THE WEEK
Why is the North Korean dictator so evil? Because he has no Seoul.
What's an evil gathering
called? A demon-stration
What is the opposite
of evil? Live… Cool!
Years ago, my
Mother-in-law began reading, "The Exorcist". She said it was the most
evil book she ever read. So evil in fact, she couldn't finish it, took it to
the ocean and threw it off the pier. I went out, but
another copy, ran it under the faucet, and left it beside her bed.
If the number 666 is
considered evil, is 25.8069758 the root of all evil?
I think my wife has
weekly sessions with the devil on how to be more evil. I don't know what she
charges him for it though.
I just opened a wig
shop for vengeful mad scientists and evil geniuses experiencing hair loss.
It's called
"There'll be hell toupee".
Where do evil wizards
do their shopping? Volde Mart.
The problem with the
American two-party system is that everyone agrees one political party is stupid
and the other party is evil. But they violently disagree about which one is
which.
What does an evil cow
say after it does something evil? “Moo hahaha…Moo hahaha”
who's the most evil
muslim person that ever lived? a guy named Muhahahahahamed, probably
What is the most Evil
letter of the Alphabet? Not Z!
What do you call an
angel that turned evil? A 180° Angel
What did the evil
fraction say? You will never stop my plans for world denomination.
An antivaxer has a
heart attack. He's rushed to ER, but during the emergency surgery, his heart
stops, rendering him clinically dead. Before he knows it, he's face to face
with none other than God himself, Author of the Universe, Maker of All. God
smiles beatifically and says,
“Don't worry. The
doctors working on you are good; you'll be back in no time. But as long as
you're here, do you have any questions you'd like to ask?”
The antivaxer thinks
and says, “I know there must be reasons, beyond our understanding, why evil
is allowed to exist. But why on Earth do you allow the evil, corrupt system of
vaccines to exist?!”
God shakes His head,
patiently. “My child,” He says, “It is not evil to be mistaken. Which
is to your benefit, because in this case, the mistake is yours. Just as so many
people have tried to tell you over the years, vaccines are effective and far
safer than the diseases they protect against. I give you My Word on that. Now,
return, with My Peace upon you.”
Suddenly, the
antivaxer is staring up at the ceiling of an operating room, as his heart starts
beating on its own once more. By the time he's able to receive visitors, the
man is desperate to talk to his antivax friends, to let them know the vital
truth he brought back from the other side. He calls them all and insisted that
they be there at his side the very minute he's cleared to see anyone - he has
huge, huge, HUGE news for them.
Finally, his friends
are gathered around him, and he motions for them to gather close. “It turns
out,” he starts, “the conspiracy goes a LOT higher up than we thought…”
**********************************
The
answer to this week”s question is B– This
one as well was pretty easy. Helios is the Greek avoda zara goddess we
fascinatingly enough find in many many synagogues from the period of the
Mishna. It’s strange it’s startling and puzzling. Why would there be mosaics of
a Greek goddess in shuls? In some more frum shuls her faces is not shown just
the horses on her fiery chariot. I don’t really have a great answer. I’ve heard
some suggest that this is to show that Klal Yisrael is above Mazal and thus the
Zodiac accompanies it and there are images of the mikdash above that. Others
suggest it was just a meaningless common motif. And of course some yeshivish
people would suggest that its just not frum place, or alternatively the level
of assimilation during the period of the Mishna.
In regard to Part B this was also easy I’ve been to Umm el Kanitir
or Ein Keshatot as it’s called in Israel in the Golan Heights many times. In
fact 1/3 of the shuls were found in the Golan Heights. The other options were
also no brainers, Banyas doesn’t really have shuls and is more of a Greek and
goyish site. Susita is as well as goyish as it gets, but maybe they were hoping
it would be convinced with sussia which has a nice shul from that period and is
in Chevron hills. Gamla does have a shul, one of the oldest in the world, yet
its from earlier during the Temple period. So got this one right and the score
is now. Rabbi Schwartz 4 and Ministry
of Tourism 1 on this exam so far.
