Am Habechirot- The Nation of Choices- Parshat Ki Tavo - 5779 /2019

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

September 20^h 2019 -Volume 9 Issue 50 20^th of Elul 5779

Parshat Ki Tavo

Am Ha’Bechirot- The Nation of Choices

We don’t really need a Prime Minister. Has anyone ever thought about that? Hey, look at Chabad they haven’t had a leader for almost 25 years now and they seem to be doing fine. Breslav seems to be flourishing and they haven’t had a Rebbe for over 200 years and Uman Uman Rosha Hashana just grows exponentially each year. And let’s not fool ourselves, you Americans out there, even the pro-Trumpers can’t be that proud that the Donald is the face of your nation…Stop smirking Canadians you’re not doin’ that much better…

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for elections. I think having a day off every few months to exert your civil duty of voting for someone that you don’t really like or approve of, but that have been diligently campaigning for and spending endless hours discussing is a good exercise in the futility of our situation here in galus Eretz Yisrael.  It serves a few very important purposes. First of all, it gives bored yeshiva guys and secular bored Tel Aviv college students or drop outs something to occupy their time with. It’s like what one of my Rebbeim used to tell me about the function of professional football; to keep 7 foot scary looking hooligans off the street.  I wouldn’t call Jews of any type hooligans, but they do have a tendency to stop traffic for demonstrations and scream a lot. So this way it would keep them off the streets.

Second of all it provides income to all of those sign-makers and poster makers. That’s not even to mention all of those Kollel wives who make an extra few bucks working for the polling and election committee overseeing and counting ballots. They pay well and it’s a good side income. Best of all though is that Reb Chaim Kanievsky gets to see the country a bit as they shlep him around the country on the campaign trail. It’s good for him to get a bit of fresh air. I wonder if he would be interested in a tour guide one of these elections…

I think perhaps the most ironic thing about these elections though, is the word in Hebrew that was chosen (maybe by Ben Yehuda) or created to call them by; Bechirot. See in the Torah there are no elections, as far as I am aware. It wasn’t really a democratic system back then in biblical times and even in Talmudic times. Either the mighty ruled, or the holy, appointed by God ruled. If you weren’t Jewish, the one that could fool the masses the most, that they were either holy, mighty or appointed by God ruled. So elections are a modern day type of phenomena. And the word selected upon creating the modern Hebrew language –or Ivrit, Bechirot means choices. We’re described in the Torah as an am ha’nivchar- a chosen nation. I think somebody must have thought that would mean that we were a people that were capable of choices. But perhaps as of late and for the near future we should be called the am ha’bechirot- the nation of choices or elections. The irony of course of all of this is that there really are no good choices. It sometimes feels like you’re in the inquisition dungeon and they ask you so what is your preferred method of going. Waterboarding, cat of 9 tails, or the good old thumbscrew and rack. That’s our bechirot… wonderful. Thank God for Democracy.

It’s interesting that there is another word that is used to describe the Jewish people that is phonetically similar to am hanivchar-the chosen nation. And that is that we are also called the bechor- the first born of Hashem. In fact, back in Mitzrayim Hashem tells Moshe to tell Pharaoh that we were chosen because we are considered His first-born. But the what does that even mean that we are the first-born? Aren’t we all, Jew and non-jew descended together from Adam and Eve. What does the term first-born of Hashem mean?

The Meshech Chochma has an incredible insight where he explains that the reason the first-born gets a double portion is because he is the one that makes the father into a father. So he takes his portion and his father’s portion as it is only because of him that his father achieves his new status in life. In the same way the Jewish people are the first-born of Hashem. We made him into our Father. We revealed him to the world as such. Anu Banecha V’Ata Avinu- We are your children and You are our Father. Until we came around Hashem was at best recognized as the Creator of the world, if even that by the idolatrous and pagan nations. We revealed Hashem as the father of the world. He has a personal, ongoing, caring connection with each of His creations. It is why we are His bechor. It is why we are his am hanivchar. It’s what we were selected and elected to do.

This week’s Torah portion begins with the fascinating related mitzva as well. It’s not a first-born mitzva rather it’s a first-fruit mitzva. The parsha is called Ki Tavo as it begins with the words
Devarim (26:1) V’Haya Ki Tavo- and it will be when you come to the land which Hashem your God gives to you as an inheritance and you will possess it and settle it.

It continues with the mitzva to bring the first fruits that grow each year to the place Hashem has chosen and one makes a declaration before the Kohen that recalls our history of Hashem taking us out of Egypt and bringing us to this land of milk and honey. Reb Shlomo Gantzfried notes that in most places the Torah describes our coming to Israel as V’haya ki yi’viyacha- It will be when I bring you to Israel. Over here, it specifically describes our coming as Ki Tavo- when we come. He suggests that the reason for this is to give us a hint as to the reason behind this mitzva.  This mitzva of the first-fruit is when we come to Israel and we think we came on our own. We don’t see the ki yi’viyacha- that Hashem is the one who brought and is bringing us to Eretz Yisrael.

When that happens, that means we forget that we are his bechor. We forgot that our job was to come here and to declare His name, that He is our Father to the world. We viewed our coming to Israel as settlers, as pioneers, as Zionists, as Olim. We came. Hava Nag(r)eela.  We came and we planted. We feel pretty good when those first fruits sprouted. The land is flourishing. We were no longer yeshiva bachurim sitting by the feet of Moshe learning Torah all day. Those first fruits made us into farmers. We could make things grow. We can’t wait to taste those first grapes, those first pomegranates. To put our first man on the moon.

And then the Torah reminds us to go with those very fruits up to the place Hashem has chosen. He chose it, just like He chose us. Remember back there in Egypt… Remember how bitter it was, how we felt we were just numbers tattooed on our arms. Remember when no one else wanted to look at us. No one wanted to blow up those train tracks carrying our people to those camps. Remember those words we say each Pesach Seder from these verses and that we are obligated to remember a few times a day; in the shema, in our mezuzos that we kiss, on the tefillin we wear and on the Kiddush we make. How Hashem took us out. Took me out. Took his First Born out of there. How He brought us here. How he is the only King we really need. Those first fruits are our reminder. They refocus on the only bechira we really ever have. U’bacharta bachayim- We should choose life. We should choose a Father over a politician. We should be the first-borns that accomplish what He brought us here to this land to do.

Hashem works in funny ways. The last elections were Purim time. It was a time when we remember the persecution and almost genocide we suffer from our enemies while we were in the land that was not chosen by Hashem for us and that we were wayyyy too comfortable in. Purim celebrated Hashem us finding Hashem in the hiddenness. We voted this past year at that time for candidates. But Hashem said those are invalid elections. Let’s try this again. It’s Elul, the King is in the field. He’s not hidden anymore. We voted again and this time as well… He’s not letting anyone else step in His shoes. Sit on His throne. It’s good there’s no one else that we should to turn to before Rosh Hashana. There is only one person that will actually bring a real-not just a political-Unity government to the holy land. He doesn’t ride in limos. He doesn’t have big signs and fancy slogans or facebook pages or twitter groups. He’s coming on a donkey with a shofar. Is everybody ready to finally write in Mashiach Ben Dovid on their next ballots?

Have a royally redemptive Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“A nayer meylekh mit naye gzeyres, a nay yor mit naye aveyres.”- A new king with new decrees, a new year with new misdeeds..

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO  OF THE WEEK

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/lulay-heamanti-kavey   – (My newest composition!)You have not experienced the essence of Elul until you hear this incredible, beautiful, magnificent brand new composition hot from the studio of mine Lulay He’amanti- Kavey El Hashem from the l’Dovid you recite daily in this season. Listen like share… Its truly one of my nicest compsotions. Thank You Dovid Lowy for your arrangements and incredible hartzig voice!

https://youtu.be/MfyPLR71fWk   – Beautiful song by Bentzion Klatzko Avi- my father. I love the words and tune..

https://youtu.be/ECy3CMxShIQ    -Yishai Ribo singing an incredible new song Seder Ha’Avoda the service and feelings of Kohein on Yom Kippur…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3JR-j3gR8whttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3JR-j3gR8w – Incredible story of Reb AL Shteiman on boyfriend girlfriend relationships. Powerful insightful, holy and totally unconventional…Must watch…

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q    The “Theodotus inscription” is related to:
A) Prohibition to enter the Temple Mount
B) A synagogue from the Second Temple period
C) Robinson’s Arch
D) The New Church of the Theotokos (The Nea)

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

Parshat Ki Tavo– OK This week we’re going all out with a real lomdisheh piece. It has all the necessary components and puts together all of the tools we have spoken about until now. It’s a diyuk in rashi, it’s halacha, its understanding in a mitzva and its two denim- the breaking down of a concept to its core components and dividing the laws and applying them appropriately. Are you excited? Here we go.

So this week we have the mitzva of Bikkurim- the bringing of new fruits to Yerushalayim to the Kohen there. What fruits are part of this mitzva. Is it all new fruits? So let’s read the pasuk and accompanying Rashi.

Devarim (26:2) You shall take from the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you will bring from your land, which the Lord, your God, is giving you.

So the verse doesn’t tell us to take “the” first of all, rather it says “from” the first of all, which Rashi tells us teaches us that not all fruits are required to be brought for Bikkurim.

Rashi (ibid) of the first: but not all the first, because not all fruits are subject to [the mitzvah of] “first fruits”-only the seven species [for which the land of Israel is noted]. Here, in our verse, it says the word “land,” and there [in the verse describing the praise of Eretz Israel], it says, “A land of wheat and barley, vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil-producing olives and honey” (Devarim 8:8). Just as the earlier verse (Deut.  8:8) is referring to the seven species through which Eretz Israel is praised, here too, [the verse is dealing with] the praise of the Land.

Seems simple enough. We learn out the 7 speices are the only ones obligated in Bikkurim from the usage both here and there of the word “eretz-land”. Land means the 7 species. Now however Rashi does something strange. He continues and explains something that is seemingly irrelevant here.

(ibid) “Shemen Zayit-Oil-producing olives” [refers to] “aguri” olives,” olives that retain their oil, keeping it gathered-agur [as it were] inside it

Now our verse doesn’t mention olives here per say. It doesn’t mention any of the 7 species. If Rashi wanted to explain what olive oil means he should have done that over there in the parsha of Eikev where it lists the 7 species. Why does he explain that olive oil is only aguri oil here? Even stranger is that over there when the verse there says olive oil Rashi explains that it is “olives that make oil” end of story. It doesn’t mean specifically aguri oil. So what is going on? Why over here does he specify it means specifically aguri olive oil?

The answer the Avney Shoham derives from these two Rashi’s must be that whereas in regards to the 7 species all olives are included, when it comes to Bikkurim only aguri olives are obligated. That is why Rashi specifically mentions them here and not there. The question is of course why that would be?

The answer he suggests is that there is a law that all fruits are obligated to be brought whole and not squeezed into a juice form. (based on Mishna terumos 11:3 and Chulin 120J). Olives and grapes though one is permitted upon arriving in Jerusalem in squeezing them and turning them into oil and wine, while the other fruits have to be consumed whole. The reason for this halacha- law is that when fruits are squeezed they become something else; they’re juice. Olives and grapes on the other hand since the wine and oil are just stored inside of them- and those are the primary purpose of those fruits, then even when they are whole they are viewed as oil and wine already and squeezing them doesn’t change anything. You are just removing the oil or wine from within them. That being the case, he suggests that would only be true for aguri olives- where the oil is not absorbed in the fruit, “it is just sitting waiting to be removed”. Regular olives, one would be prohibited from squeezing as well as the oil is part of the fruit and squeezing them would change the fruit.

With this understanding it’s beautiful why Rashi over here brings the law of aguri olives, whereas over there he says all olives are included in the 7 species. All olives in Israel are blessed and special and are even obligated in Bikkurim, yet the only oil that one can bring is of the aguri olives. Thus when Rashi brings down the verse of the 7 species that mentions olive oil he has to qualify that by bikurim that is only aguri oil. Amazing! See how much fun and truth one can reveal by just pausing at Rashi and recognizing when there are words that stand out and don’t seem to fit in… Awesome!

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

Gideon and Midian 1084 BC –Terrorism is not a new thing for our country. It goes back to the beginning. Tanach teaches us that it comes as a result of us not following the mitzvos and “doing evil in the eyes of Hashem”. Well thank god that’s not a problem anymore for us. We’re all doing what we should be doing right? We all voted Gimmel this week right? Just joking…-Thank god that’s over already… right? But seriously we Jews are very hard struck to make that connection that the Torah tells us we should always make. Terrorism comes as a result of sins. Not because we stole their land, not because they are persecuted or raised on hate, not because of checkpoints. Plain and simple if we followed the commandments and didn’t do evil in the eyes of Hashem we wouldn’t have problems. We wouldn’t even need an army. But we don’t get it and we never really got it. The period of Gideon is a classic example I’d like to talk about it in a few weeks to really give it its due…and not make it too long weekly.

This week let’s focus on what the Navi tells us what they did to us and our typical useless Jewish responses that it tells us we tried doing. Let’s take a look at the fascinating verses

Shoftim/Judges (6:2-5) And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the children of Israel made for themselves the minharot- hideouts dens which are in the mountains and the caves, and fortresses. And it was, when Israel had sown, that Midian came up, and Amalek, and those of the east; and they came up upon it. And they encamped against them, and they destroyed the produce of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They would leave no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey. For they and their cattle came up, and their tents, and they came as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels without number, and they came into the land to destroy it.

Ok so a few things first lest talk geography. Midian is in Saudi Arabia south of Jordan and the Dead Sea. It’s really not Gaza or most of the settled parts of Israel. Not then and not now. Amalek is even further south. They came to Israel to terrorize us, plain and simple. We didn’t take their land. They would come to our fields with their animals after we planted in order to destroy them. They attacked us, interestingly and familiarly enough all the way to Gaza which is the western side of our country from the east. What did we Jews do? We built minharot- hideout dens. Kind of like our bomb shelters today. Other commentaries suggest they were hidden underground storage houses that they couldn’t find our grain that we hid. We built fortresses. Take a look at Kever Rachel today and you will get a feel for what a fortress is. Go to Mt. Bental and you can see a mountain where there are bunkers underneath, or the various trenches we have dug throughout the borders of Israel and the miklats- safe shelters we have in every settlement. Some things never change.

But none of it helped. They came anyways. They weren’t out for our wealth. They were out to “destroy it”. To burn it down, to destroy our fields, and to persecute our people. We would work we would plow we would plant and make the land flourish and much like today when they send over fire balloons just to wreak have they destroyed our land back then. All  our defensive “shields” and “domes” don’t help. They were out to destroy our economy and they were successful.

Now what’s fascinating over here the commentaries note, is that the salvation began not even with an act of repentance, or any repentance for that matter as we will see. The Jews continued to worship idols and not be observant. They still did evil. Yet they were saved when they did one thing.

Shoftim (6:6-8) And Israel was very impoverished because of Midian, and the children of Israel cried to the Lord. Now it was when the children of Israel cried to the Lord concerning Midian, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel…

Do you know what changed the tide? We stopped believing in our shelters and our “defense tactics” and our army and maybe even in our “friends” in the White House. We cried out to Hashem. We realized only our Father in Heaven has the ability to stop the crazy. To stop the terror. That’s when Gideon steps into the picture. It is his unique style of leadership we will study about next week that provides for some of the unique lessons in Tanach. 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S ELECTION JOKES OF THE WEEK

So the new Israeli Prime Minister just got word from the elections committee that he had been re-elected. Very excited he called his mother right after he hung up from them to share with her the good news

“Ima, I wanted to be the first to tell you, I was just elected to be the Prime Minister of Israel.”

“B’emet (Truthfully?)” the proud mother asked

“Well it was more with sheker (lies) than truth, but Ma why do you always have to spoil the moment with questions like that?”

A few months later the proud mother was talking to her friends and bragged that her sone was elected to the Knesset. Her friends very impressed asked her what does he do there?

“Nothing, he was elected already!”

It was the first week of school and the teacher was going around her first grade class asking the children what their father did for a living.

“He’s a doctor” said Moishe

“My father is a lawyer” said Avi

“My dad is in hi tech” said Noah

“My father is a tour guide” said Tully very proudly J

“And what does your father do Shlomo? “Asked the teacher to the boy that was sitting quietly in the back

“My father is a dancer, he wears funny clothing and goes to parties and people throw money at him, sometimes he works as a garbage collector when he can’t get enough jobs dancing.”

The teacher very quickly moved on to the next child and after class called in Shlomo.

“Tell me, Shlomo, is that really what your father does for a living?”

“No” Shlomo confessed, “Really he’s a member of Knesset. I was just to embarrassed to tell everyone.!”

Little Sarah asked her father the Prime Minister one night when he was putting her to sleep after reading her a story.

“Abba, do all fairy tales begin with the sentence ‘Once upon a time’ ”

“No dear,” he responded, “Some begin when I become elected I will…”

So the young religious man (shas’nik) meets his secular anit-religious by the polls and as they were waiting in the long lines to vote he tells him.

“Listen every year we come here. You vote for the anti-religious, I vote for Shas the religious party. Our votes just cancel each other out. Why should we both sit here and wait to vote. Let’s just both go home and then neither vote makes a difference anyways.”

His neighbor thought about it for a minute and agreed.

There was another yeshiva bachur listening in and he turned to his friend and he said

 “Wow that seems like an easy idea imagine how many people could save time and not voting.”

“Not really” his friend the shas’nik said. “I work for the Shas committee and I get a hundred shekel for every one I convince to go home! He’s my third today…”

So the chief Rabbi arrives up in heaven after 120 years and he sees that there are pictures of each of the world leaders and underneath there is a clock and every so often a different ones second hands jumps a few minutes. Puzzled as to what this was all about, he asked the local angel. The angel told him that these clocks were there to tell us when a member of candidate lies. Each time they lie it jumps by minutes.

“Hmmmm…” the Rabbi said, “so where is the clock of the Israeli members of Knesset?”

 “Ahhh… those the Angel of death keeps in his office as a fan!”

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Answer is B–  I don’t think a lot of the questions on this test are legitimate but this one certainly is. The inscription is a pretty important Jewish one. The inscription found in the City of David in Yerushalayim is one of the only ones that gives us insight into what Synagoguges were originally established for. It should bother most people if they thought about it. Why are they called Beit Knessets rather than Beit Tefillos; houses of gathering rather than houses of prayers. Well the Theodotus inscription which dates back to the 2^nd Temple period tells us that the Beit Kensset was established as a gathering place for Torah, teaching mitzvot, for guests to stay and even has washing facilities there as well. During the times of the Beit Hamikdash there was no organized prayer. Everyone worshiped in the Temple with sacrifices. Shuls were gathering places. More like JCC’s of today. Yeah this is an important one and a legit question, which of course I got right. So the score is Schwartz 36 and 8 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.

The Unlikely Candidate-Lech Lecha 5777/2016

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

November 11^th 2016 -Volume 7 Issue 3 10^th Cheshvan 5777

Parshat Lech Lecha

The Unlikely Candidate

The world came to an end last week. It was corrupt. It was evil in the eyes of God. It was a world that had little hope. It was once great, but that was long ago. It was before those self- declared children of God came down and took control. But now the game was over. It was destroyed. This week we wake up to a new world. A world still corrupt, but it is a world with a promise. There is one man that will change it all. One man whom God has selected. He stands on the opposite side of everyone else. To the right and the left. He is not afraid of kings, of fiery furnaces. He will travel the extra mile and will preach to whomever might listen. Many people wrote him off. They attacked him, his family, his beautiful wife, his children from his other wives. But miracles seemed to always surround this unlikely candidate. Those that cursed him were cursed and those that blessed him seemed to be blessed. At the end of the day he became the father of the nation. The light of the world. The one that would make it great once again.

So now that we reviewed last week’s and this week’s Torah portion of Noach and Abraham let’s talk a little about politics. Why what did you think I was talking about until now J?. The truth is I changed my mind. I don’t want to talk about politics. I’ve had enough. It’s coming out of my ears. It’s over. Move- On.org. I do want to talk about leadership though. Actually it seems that it’s not only me, but rather it’s the Torah that wants us to talk about. After-all it is to a large degree what this week’s Torah portion is all about. The unlikely leader. The leader that went against the popular opinion. The one that waged a world war. The man who became the wealthiest person in the world. The man who gave birth to both the arab nation and the Jewish nation. Who was promised that both of those descendants would become great both of them would have 12 tribes descend from them. Both would enter into a bris a covenant and treaty with Hashem. Sound familiar, at all? It’s the story of Avraham. The story of the world. The story of once upon a time a long time ago and the story of forever after. But I will not talk about politics.

As a child growing up we always were given this image of Avraham as this kindly old man that had a tent that was open on all four sides. He was a hospitality junkie. He loved having people over his house for Shabbos. Jews, non- Jews, idolaters, seminary girls and yeshiva bochrim. He’s that warm friendly outreach professional. That is true. But that’s probably not the way he was portrayed in the local media. Not that they seem to be able to ever get anything right. I’m not talking about politics. In the media of his days I imagine they would talk about the scandals of Avraham. His radical childhood roots breaking into his father’s idol store and smashing all of the icons of the other religions and faiths. That sounds pretty scary, extreme and intolerant. As he gets older he’s running around the world preaching about his faith and his god is really the only true. I mean doesn’t he know that there are a lot of gods out there? How arrogant is that to assert that only you have the real god? How dare he call the other ones false? Each person should be allowed to worship as he wishes to. What’s with diversity, respect, multi-culturalism?  No I don’t think the left wing media would have approved that much.

It gets even worse as the story of his aggressive meddling imperialistic tendencies take root. Avraham pretty much leads an army into a fight that has nothing to do with him. Yes his nephew was captured, but come on that’s not a reason to throw yourself into a full-fledged war. Negotiate, diplomacy, take it to the World court and Geneva. But not Avraham. He heads out from the south of Israel all the way up to the Golan to wage war and the largest and most violent army of his times. And not satisfied with just pulling an Entebbe like rescue. He actually liberates entwines himself in the Middle East politics restoring the government of Sodom back to its former ignoble glory. He’s a warmonger, they say. He’s certainly not fit to lead. To make matters even worse and just in case you wanted to suggest that he was trying to build a new type of Middle Eastern alliance. He doesn’t do that as well. Rather than making nice-nice and getting a great photo op with them. He spits the King of Sodom in the face as well spurning any of his gratitude. Who knows where he will take us next. This man just is a danger to the world

How about the Lox news network, right wing radio- Rasha Limboff, Shoin Henity and that once sweet Jewish kid Micho-el Savage Weiner. What would they say about this candidate? I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure that they were not too happy with what they might term his pacifist tendencies. He goes down to Egypt and tells his wife to lie about the fact that they were married in order that they should not do him any harm. Even worse when Hashem wreaks vengeance on them for kidnapping his wife. Avaraham leaves without any of his own personal vendetta. As well when his shepherds and his nephew Lot’s shepherds start fighting Avraham once again does not stand up and fight for what is rightfully his but rather tells Lot that they each would go their own separate way allowing Lot first choice of whatever he would want. I’m sure these pundits really freaked out when Avraham makes himself into the defense attorney for the worst and greatest, criminals and terrorists of mediaeval times; the 5 cities of Sodom and Gomorah. I mean even Hashem Himself is fed up and ready to wipe them, quite literally, off the face of the earth. And all of a sudden Allan Dershowitz- I mean Avraham Avinu gets up and wants to defend these slime. Maybe they’re not so bad. Maybe there’s some good in them? There’s no need for any civilian casualties. Oyy… they must have been going nuts over this horrible liberal candidate. Later on his pacifist peace accords that he makes with the wicked King of Gaza Avimelech, the man who as well stole his wife seem incomprehensible to any self-respecting gun-slinging Texan. Avraham even prays on his behalf when Hashem takes revenge on him for Avraham. I mean really? Let him get what’s coming to him. Enough with this let’s all hold hands and be friends Kumbaya.

I imagine both sides of the political spectrum would have been aghast at the personal life of Avraham. I’m sure there were quite a few Rabbis that weren’t happy that he went and married Hagar the daughter of Pharaoh, the wicked King of Egypt. Quite a few marriage counselors would probably be pretty upset that he just threw hew out on his first wife Sarah’s behest. I mean why not try counseling or something. Think of the children. Poor Ishmael. I’m sure many people noted as well quite cynically how it is obvious that this God that he claims to love and worship so much doesn’t really love him too much. I mean no children, no heirs. He’s already a hundred years old. Yeah God told him he’s gonna bless him. Right…I won’t even mention what the newspapers had to say about this guy when he takes his son up to an altar and ties him down and holds a knife to his neck. There is no way in the world that this man should ever have any position of leadership ever. If he does, I’m sure they promised, We are all moving to Canada. Right, Left, any sane person. This cannot ever work.

But you know what? They were all wrong. Avram’s name which meant the exalted father would now be Avraham the father of a multitude of nations. He will be the world leader. The one person that will change, transform, uplift and light up the world. The most unlikely of candidates. That is who Hashem has chosen. Mind-blowing isn’t it? He was probably the one candidate that anyone could’ve beaten in a popular election. But the world doesn’t work with popular elections. We have a divine electoral college that has chosen. What are we missing all the pollsters wanted to know the day after? How could we have been so wrong? What aren’t we seeing about this man? About ourselves? About Hashem.

And that is precisely the answer. It’s about Hashem. Avraham is chosen because he has no agenda. He is not a politician. He’s not a diplomat. He actually is a really nice guy that like to have people over for chulent. But he has one driving force that motivates everything that he does. Whatever God wants is what he transforms into his own will. Hashem and the Torah give Avraham a few titles. He is known as the one who fears God; a true servant who lives, breathes and is guided only by what Hashem wants him to do. He is also known as the Ivri- the Hebrew. The man who stands on one side- always while the rest of the world stands on the other. But he does not stand there in isolation. He stands there and draws the rest of the world to the source of the river that stands between them. He doesn’t read the daily paper and the media reports because he knows from the get-go that they are all on the wrong side. They are each on their own side. They each have their own world view and they will all read, interpret and distort the world based on that flawed and Divinely lacking view. His job is to be the bridge. To cross them over. To clear away the darkness where one human being feels he can assert themselves over another. It doesn’t matter if it is Egypt. If it is Sodom. It is the largest army of Nimrod or the King of Gaza. They all have to be taught that the only force in the world that can rule is Hashem; our creator. It’s not about politics. It’s about holy-tics.

Finally perhaps the greatest title given to Avraham is Ohavi- my Lover. Avraham is madly in love with Hashem our father, the source of all goodness. He sees that in every single person and will never write off anyone. He sees a world where the every blade of grass, every animal-even of Sodom has the potential to sing out the song of its Maker. He looks at the most evil and wicked of despots and he doesn’t foolishly or blindly close his eyes to their actions in some self-delusional dream of peace. But rather he sees in them the true spark of Hashem If God put them here in this world there must be some potential that they have. Some light that must be revealed. A piece of my beloved that I have yet to understand and appreciate.

It’s a new world this week. Every week in fact we are told is a new world. Every week we have an opportunity to shine the light of Creation. Hashem did not choose the president of the United States to be the revealer of that light. He has better taste than that. He chose the descendants of that first unlikely candidate, Avraham Avinu, to be the bearers of that mandate. It is our job. To be the ones that are not scared to stand opposite the rest of the world and draw them in. We are the Hebrews. It is our jobs to put aside all of our personal agendas, our political strategies and pathetic self-righteous campaigns and start talking about and exhibiting a God-righteous one. We have to stop condemning, alienating and radicalizing everyone that doesn’t agree with our prospective and tap into that inherent love that filled the father of our nation for every created being because they represent Hashem in this world. A Shabbos chulent meal is a great place to start that process. A Shabbos meal with guests that perhaps have never experienced one before is an even better one. This Shabbos is dedicated around the world to precisely do that. There will be over a million Jews all the descendants of Avraham voting for that love, that restfulness and appreciation of our Creator and His universe this weekend. That’s an election that I know will certainly be a winning one. A winning one for us, for Hashem and for the entire world.

Have an absolutely amazing Shabbos!

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Aj5td_fpw Hillarious! Marcheshvan Song… Watch it again and again and laugh

https://youtu.be/Uzumwtp7kfc  – My favorite English Shabbos song

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/ma-yedidus – And my Shabbos compostion Ma Yedidos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TwRmX6zs4 – The video that inspired Donald Trump to run for President…

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Tu on a khazer a shtrayml, vet er vern rov?.”– If you put a shtreimel on a pig, would it make him a rabbi?

(I told you I’m NOT talking politics…J)

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q.   Cumulonimbus is a term connected to:
A. Geology
B. Botany
C. Anthropology
D. Climatology

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ILLUMINATING RASHI OF THE WEEK

It’s amazing to see how our greatest Rabbis examine Rashi and see in his words hidden meanings and sources. This year we will explore our examinations of Rashi by featuring the ways and idead that our greatest Rabbis explored in Rashi and thus the text of the Torah and a short bio of each Rabbi from around the world and the exiles and societies that all studied this same classic commentary.

As we always noted Rashi sees his job as explaining the simple understanding of the text. If Rashi brings down two explanations it is because there is something that he sees as problematic in the first one, despite it being the more simple explanation. Sometimes though there can be even a greater lesson in the second interpretation than the first. In the beginning of this week’s portion Hashem tells Avraham his first famous command and mandate.

Lech Lecha- You shall go for/to you from your land, your birthplace and your fathers home to the land that I will show you.

Hashem then makes Avraham a promise

And I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.

Pretty amazing! It almost sounds like a no brainer. But the blessings seem a bit vague. Almost-dare I say it- like campaign promises. I will make your name great- Sound familiar? What specifically does this blessing mean?

So Rashi opens his commentary and explains

 A great nation- refers to the promise of children. I will bless you refers to material monetary wealth.  A great name means I will give you stature and a good reputation and finally being a blessing means that Avraham will have the Divine power to offer blessings that will be fulfilled to those that he chooses.

Nice simple and detailed. Seemingly this would be a good pshat- simple understanding of the text.

Yet then Rashi brings another pshat.

I will make you a great nation- this is that they will say the God of Avraham

I will bless you- this refers to that they will say the God is Yitzchak

I will make your name great- is they will say the God of Yaakov

And you will be a blessing- that all of the blessings that will be said will conclude with you.

As you can imagine this seems to be a puzzling alternative pshat in the text. It certainly does not seem like the simple reading.

The Ohev Yisrael of Apt notes that Rashi brings this interpretation not as the simple understanding of the text but rather fascinatingly enough how Avraham understood the text. For, he suggests, that Avraham’s challenge and test over here, as this is a test, was not whether he would follow Gods command but rather- after-all he was just offered the deal and promise of a lifetime. Rather it was what would be his motivation. Was he out for himself and the promise of reward, children and a legacy or was it for Hashem?

The simple understanding of the text and promise was certainly what Rashi first said. Yet Avraham upon hearing this ignored the simple pshat. He had an alternate pshat. He told himself that the blessing meant that Hashem will be blessed as the God of Avraham, Hashem’s name will be known as the God Yitzchak and Yaakov. That’s all that counts. It was never about his own self-aggrandizement. It was about the Divine always. That is the motivation of a true leader. That is our father of Avraham!

Rabbi Avraham Yehosua Heschel of Apt - (1748-1825), A scion of famous rabbinic families, on both his father's and his mother's side, Avraham Yehoshua Heshel showed great promise even at an early age. Acquiring fame as a talmudic scholar, he studied chasidut under the all-time great master sRabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk . Becoming one of the foremost spokesmen of the growing chasidic movement in Poland and Romania, he began his career a Rabbi of Kolbasov. In 1800 he accepted the post of Rabbi of Apta. Although he held many other rabbinic positions, to the chasidim he remained always the Apter Rav. In 1808 he was chosen as Rabbi of Iasi, Romania. In the wake of communal strife there he was forced to leave his post and settled in Medzibosh, the birthplace of the Baal Shem Tov and the cradle of Chasidism, where he devoted himself completely to the study and dissemination of Chasidut.

It was during this period in his life that he gained the veneration of thousands of followers, among whom were a number of the preeminent rabbis of the age. His outstanding character trait was his burning love of the Jewish people, which earned him the title of Oheiv Yisrael, Lover of Israel. Oheiv Yisrael became the title of his book, a collection of his thoughts arranged according to the weekly Torah portions. The work abounds with lofty kabbalistic insights and interpretations. It is one of the basic chassidic texts, and bespeaks the Apter Rav's passionate love of his fellow Jews. The Apta Rav lived to the age of 77 and was considered the elder tzaddik of his generation.
The day before his petirah, Reb Avraham Yehoshua Heschel walked through his house, taking leave of every object. He kissed each sefer and took leave of all his talmidim. He was buried in Mezhbizh, near the Baal Shem Tov. According to one hasidic legend, angels subsequently carried his body and buried him in the Holy Land, and in the Jewish Cemetery in Tiberias

NEW SECTION!

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TYPES OF JEWS IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

We’ve covered cool places in Israel, historical events, cool things to do in Israel this year we dedicate this column to each week appreciating the incredible diversity of Jews we have here in Israel as Hashem brings the ingathering of the Exiles rapidly to its conclusion.

Russians (over 900,000)- Who would have dreamed 35 years ago when the Iron Curtain was still up that in a few decades the largest Jewish Russian population in the world would be in Israel. It seems that Hashem takes this ingathering of the Exiles- kibbutz galuyot thing seriously. Today Russians comprise almost 20% of the population of Israel. There are over 300,000 of them though that are not halachically Jewish, making them an even greater political force as even those that are not Jewish 95% of them identify as such. In recent years Aliya from Ukraine has gone up over 50% as well in 2014 over 11,000 made Aliya, far more then Jews from North America. The first wave of Soviet Aliyah began began in the mid 70’s after the Yom Kippur war. It was very difficult and from 1970-1988 only 165,000 immigrated to Israel. When Gorabchev opened up the gates in the early 90’s mass Aliyah started to take place in the first two years over 200,00 immigrated right away to Israel and over the next decade and a half close to a million came. By 1996 the Russians had their own political party Yisrael B’Aliya led by Natan Sharansky a former refusenik. By 2009 they were the second largest right wing party after the Likud. An educated and yet non-observant people due to years of lack of Jewish education in Russia has created the Russian stereotype as a hardworking secular and even potential anti-religious right wing Jew. Particularly they face the challenge of the integration and confusion that surrounds many of their Jewish status because of the influx of either non-jewish spouses or relatives that moved here under the Law of Return but however are unable to marry and integrate into a Jewish halachic run Rabbinate and population. Yet at the same time over the years there have been a plethora of Jewish outreach programs and yeshivot as many of them are returning to the faith of their fathers in addition to their return to the Land of their forefathers. After-all isn’t that what the redemption is all about?

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE OUTER SPACE JOKES OF THE WEEK

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calls Trump and tells him, "Donald, stay out of political office because last night I had a wonderful dream. I could see America, the whole beautiful country, and on each house I saw a banner."
"What did it say on the banners?" Trump asks.
Ali replies, "United States of Iran."
Trump says, "You know, Ali, I am really happy you called, because believe it or not, last night I had a similar dream. I could see all of Tehran, and it was more beautiful than ever, and on each house flew an enormous banner."
"What did it say on the banners?" Ali asks.
Trump replies, "I don't know. I can't read Hebrew

How do you know you're reading one of Donald Trumps books? It starts on Chapter 11.

What airline does Donald Trump aspire to fly? Hair Force One!

Why does Donald Trump prefer E.T. to illegal immigrants? Because E.T. eventually went home!

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Answer is D – I have no clue what the answer to this question was. I never heard the term. I checked the Hebrew exam to see if there was perhaps a word in Hebrew that I was more familiar with but whadaya know the word in Hebrew is kumulnimboos as well. Hmmmm. Well I studied Geology well and never saw it there. It didn’t sound like botany either. Maybe anthropology. Where have I heard that word nimbus before? Hmmmmm. Oh yeah! Wasn’t that Harry Potters broomstick? So maybe it is anthropology. The truth is though the answer is climatology. Which I never studied. I don’t even think they even taught it in our course. Nimbus is a rainstorm. Cumul is a big heap. So it’s a big rainstorm. This is obviously a very important thing and term to know before becoming a tour guide in Israel. Huh?!!