from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
August 7th 2026 -Volume 16 Issue 40 24th of Av 5786
Click here below for print edition
(Weekly Newsletter - Parshat Re'eh )
See, one of the reasons I became a tour guide, besides that I realized very quickly that being a Rabbi and having a shul here in Israel is going to cost me money rather than pay my family's bills, is because I'm a pretty lazy, selfish guy who is desperate for inspiration in life. It's pretty much the same reason I went into the field of Jewish outreach in America for 15 years. I wanted to be inspired by my yiddishkeit and I have no patience or interest in learning Mussar or really working on myself. So I figured the best way to be inspired is to interact, teach and be challenged by others who have never been exposed to the incredible beauty, wisdom and inspiration that is in our faith. They also haven't yet been jilted and stymied or exposed to the many not nice things and underbelly of our frum society as well. They lived in Iowa and Virginia after-all.
I figured I could suck off all of their inspiration and then grow and develop and heighten my own inspiration and appreciation of my own yiddishkeit by sucking it off of them, and the things I would teach them. It worked I loved it. And thus upon moving to Israel I took the same concept and went into the field of tour guiding. I didn't want to become one of those that find the myriad of things to complain about in this country. I wanted to be inspired daily. And what better way to do that, then to find a job that would enable me to share the passion and inspiration of Hashem's holy land with those that have never experienced or seen it before. And there you have it… My new career was found.
Now perhaps one of the most remarkable and amazing things and usually the first thing I point out to my tourists is as we're leaving Jerusalem the incredible miracle that they need to open their eyes up and see. I ask them, what the national bird of Israel is. This was in fact the first and only real joke I remember when I was a little 8-year-old tourist in Israel with my parents. That, and of course all the graves he shlepped us to pray by. The answer he gave us was that the bird is the crane. See, everywhere you look in Jerusalem you will see cranes- the machine kind of course, just putting up taller and bigger sky scrapers, buildings and houses. It's not just Jerusalem though. It's everywhere. It's nuts. The last two years it seems this country has gone crazy. Everywhere you drive, Afula, Beit Shean, Netanya, Nahariya, Akko even in Sderot and Ofakim and Netivot by the Gaza Strip. Entire cities are just rising out of the ground overnight, it feels like. 10's of thousands of housing units. I don't know who's buying or building them all. It's crazy.
It almost feels like this nesting thing that my wife had before our kids were born. The house is getting ready. We need new rooms. New beds. New closets. The baby is coming. Seem's like the land knows that there's a lot of Jews on the way over here soon. The land it seems is a bit smarter then some of those that are still building additions on their home over there. Which is kind of like adding on to your maternity ward in the hospital and fixing it up, where the new baby is. Which is pretty stupid, if you ask me, cause he ain't staying there for too long. I hope. You ain't either, by the way in Tom's River or Jackson or Lakewood. I'm not even gonna say New York, because the smart ones are already in Florida.
But its more than just miraculous. It's historic as well. See, a hundred years ago, none of this ever existed. When I take my tourists out of Jerusalem through what I call the "space tunnels" towards he Judean Midbar, or to the Gush, I point out that it feels like we went through a space warp and landed on another planet with pretty much empty hills and mountains and desert. Yet, what I point out to them is that about a hundred years ago this is what Yerushalayim looked like. Those forsesty hills and mountains as you drive out of Jerusalem towards Mevaseret over there, that's what Givat Shaul and Har Nof looked like. That desert valley with the Bedouins and their goats, that was Ramot. That tall hill over there near Efrat with the agricultural terraces that, was what Bakka looked like, Bayit v'Gan. That's why when you walk around in Jerusalem you're always walking up and down hills. Because that's what this was. And in 100 years it's a metropolis rivaling NY, Paris and London. That's a miracle. That's what we've done with it and they haven't.
But it's not just a miracle or Jewish ingenuity and productivity. It's prophecies that were said thousands of years ago unfolding. Imagine if we were in Egypt and Moses said there was going to be blood in the river and then we saw it happen, that would be watching a miracle. Same for frogs, dead animals and first borns. Same for the splitting of the Sea. It's watching those prophecies be fulfilled. On the other hand of the spectrum imagine hearing Isaiah and Yirmiyahu talking about the exile of the Ten Tribes and the destruction of the Temple happening. Things that we thought could never happen. I mean, today, for some reason Jews think we can never get thrown out of America. It's the one place in 2000 years of history that it will not happen. After-all there's a bill of rights. Uh huh…
But imagine Jews back then by the times of the Temple in Yerushalayim. They for sure thought that it could never happen. Hashem would never destroy his own palace. He would never chuck us out. This was our home. He had promised it to our Patriarchs. Sure we weren't really keeping the Torah and our side of the deal, yet, come on. Hashem's not really gonna chuck us. And then it happened. We were exiled. The Temple was destroyed. The Jews saw the prophecies fulfilled. Hashem may have a lot of patience, but ultimately, we used it all up. And we saw every single word of those prophecies fulfilled, with bloody whipped cream on top.
Well, today, we're seeing the same prophecies being fulfilled. We're Rabbi Akiva who watched those foxes jumping out of the Temple Mount and laughed, because he only believed it was a sign that the future prophecies would be fulfilled. We're seeing it. Boys and girls laughing and singing on the streets of a rebuilt and populated city. Brides and grooms getting married in the hills of Yerushalayim. Torah returns to Zion. The nation being ingathered from the four corners of the earth. When Hashem was showing Yeshaya the prophet the vision of Messianic times he was literally showing him the exact image my tourists are looking out their window from our nice air-conditioned minibus. How's that for a tour. It's virtual reality glasses of what Hashem showed Yirmiyahu that we don't need special glasses to see. It's right outside our window.
Which brings us to this week's parsha. The parsha titled Re'eh-See. It's fascinating, that there is no Zohar on this week's Torah portion. The Zohar always uses the words ta chazei- come and see. That is different than our Talmud which uses the term ta shema- come and see. The difference between seeing and hearing is that hearing- or shema is an act of internalizing. It's taking information and processing it and making it part of our being and our core. Seeing doesn't require internalization. All it takes is opening one's eyes; cleaning your glasses. Last week, Hashem tells us about the land that we will go to. There's a lot of Shema going on. There's internalizing the punishments for not following the commandments of no rain and destruction and there's the rewards for keeping the mitzvos. It's a parsha that told us to remember our history, the sins, the mistakes, the revelation of Sinai. It's one that tells us to process the miracles that we witnessed of how Hashem helped us destroy our enemies and the need to find the strength and fortitude to come to the land and continue that job of inheriting it and cleansing it. It's a lot of hearing and internalizing.
This week's parsha though is not about that at all. It's about seeing what's in front of us. Things that you may miss. Thing's that you may find hard to believe. Things that may not even make any sense and seem counterintuitive. But it's there. It's in front of you. It's like these big cranes that you can't miss. But you're not realizing are miraculous. It's the good and the bad that is very clear in front of you. It's life and death. All you have to do is open your eyes and see it.
What's amazing though, is that what Moshe Rabbeinu is telling the nation to see, they can't see it yet. They're not there. They're not by the mountains of Blessing and Curse. They're not in the land Hashem promised them. He's telling them to see, but seemingly there's nothing yet to see. The answer though is that he's not talking to them. He's talking to us. He's telling us to see. He's telling us to process. He's telling us to stop burying our head in the ground. He wants us to open our eyes.
What does he want us to see? See the land has idols. See the land has Churches. See the land has bad enemies that will try to kill us. Do you see that? I see that. Anyone that drives around Jerusalem sees that. All we need to do is look up to the top of that burnt retaining wall of the Temple Mount, that we call the Kotel and that we pray to and we see that. So there we go. Yes, Moshe, we see it. What should we do about that?
Kill them. Destroy them. Wipe them out. Burn them. Build me a Temple when you're done and shine out my light to the world. Seek out my holy place. Bring me sacrifices. Visit Me on holidays. Be happy with Me. I am Hashem. I am your Father. You are My children. Even if you sin. I'm still your Dad. I want you to be with Me. Can you see that? Can you feel that? I'm bringing you to the Land. I've never lied to you before. I'm pretty strong and powerful. Don't close your eyes to Me. Don't close your eyes to who's Home this is. To whom I gave it to. Please Please see, the blessing. Please don't ignore what your eyes are seeing and find the curse instead.
The parsha continues with other things we need to merely see. There will be all types of false prophets and tempters that will try to show you fake news. They will tell you that you can't do this. That there are other "gods" you need to follow and listen to. Some are called Baal- they will act like your masters. Some are Asheira. Some are Trump. Some are the United Nations. Some are foreign concepts such as secularism, humanism, Americanism, pacifism. Don't worship them. Don't allow them to exist in your land. In our land. Destroy them. It's just AI. It's just fake news. It's just false gods. It's darkness not light. It's free Palestine. Don't let them blind you to what you see is happening out your window. See truth. Count how many fingers they have. It's all fake. They have six.
Take a look at the animal world. The Parsha continues. There are Kosher ones and non kosher ones. Really? Isn't food, food? The answer is no. Some are pure some are tamei. Some are good for you. Some will turn you into a beast. Some will block your eyesight. They have signs. See the signs. Recognize that they're there for a reason. To show you. To allow you to see. And then once you see that, then understand the same is true for the nations that will be in the land. The nations of world. There are some that will be kosher and some trayf. Some may be allowed to thrive and prosper with you and others need to be eradicated. Some will help you achieve your spiritual goals and others will just make you blocked. They need to be cut out. They need to be removed. Don't just put everything in your mouth. Don't just let anyone stay in your land.
As well and on the opposite extreme look at your brothers, sisters, converts, widows and downtrodden. Help them. Take care of them. Tithe for them. Support them. Share with them. The land isn't yours its ours. We're a family. Can't you see that? Can't you see that all of your success is only because I gave it to you. All your blessing and prosperity comes from me. Well, the same is true for their poverty. I gave it to them, so you could help them. So you could partner with me. So we could become one close family who is responsible and bound to one another. See, that. Don't be blinded by your ego. Don't think that it all just happened by itself. It's a prophecy. See it. It's in front of you.
Our tour is coming to an end. There's been a lot to see and process. The world is a different world than it was a few years ago. The movie in front of us and the vision Hashem is showing us is like the stormy sea of this week's haftorah that describes our Temple being built. The doors are started to close around the world, the smart ones see this and are getting out. The others not so much. Theres more and more terror building here in the West Bank. The world is slowly turning against us like it never has before. The last story is the US will as well. It's prophecy boys and girls. It's the same prophecy that says there will be a war against Iran/Persia and it will last nine months, which is coming to an end this Sukkos. Then the Edom will turn against us and the final battle over Jerusalem will take place. Much like the Jews in the wilderness, we haven't seen that last and final part yet. But we've seen all the rest. And usually, that's a good sign it will happen.
The Shabbos before Tisha B'av was called Shabbos Chazon. The visionary Shabbos, where our sages tell us that he who sees the Temple in its destruction and mourns it will merit to see it being rebuilt. Yet, to see it, we need to come to Parshat Re'eh. We need to open our eyes. The Temple is in front of us. We have everything we need to return it to us. We just need to act on what we see and have seen and we will have already been redeemed.
Have a perceptive Shabbos and a blessed upcoming month of Elul
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Az men lebt, derlebt men zich alts.."- If you live long enough, you will live to see everything.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
11. In which country was the oil pumped and transported via pipelines to the refineries in Haifa during the Mandate period? _____
Where is it recommended to take a tour regarding the life of Rachel the Poetess (Rachel Bluwstein)?
A. The Moshava of Metula and nearby Nahal Ayun
B. The Moshava of Kinneret and the adjacent cemetery
C. Central Tel Aviv and the Trumpeldor cemetery
D. The German Colony in Jerusalem and the Moon Grove
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/eretz-tu-bishvat – This week's parsha Rabbi Schwartz composition best song ever!!! You should be singing this song of the words of Hashem on the amazingness of Eretz Yisrael all week long!
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/kum - Every four steps you walk this Bein Hazmanim is a mitzva if you're doing it here! Kum Hithalech Ba'Aretz my song is based on yesterday's Daf of Hashem folding up all of Israel under Yaakov to teach us that the whole Israel is 4 Amos conquerable. Dovid Lowy did both of these songs arrangements and Vocals… Rock Em!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnUk-oYYNLQ&list=RDBnUk-oYYNLQ&start_radio=1 s - Avraham Fried No Shtus…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blOaHJG7Y40&list=RDblOaHJG7Y40&start_radio=1 Aharon Razel Collab with Aviya- Me'Ata V'Ad Olam
https://24six.app/preview/music/content/448766/where-you-are – Nissim Blacks and Eli Dachs collab Where you are!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
A Welfare State? -333 BC In addition to building the walls, Nechemia's next agenda was the social structure and the immense poverty that was taking place in Jerusalem. It seems that there was a two class system. There were the wealthy officers and a lot of poor who were getting poorer, as the rich took advantage and lent them money and then took their properties and children as slaves and collaterals. Nechemia'immediately put a stop to this terrible practice. He instituted a tzedaka system where the poor would be supported by the rich rather than through loans. Their land was all returned so that they can work and prosper and their children came home.
One would think that this would've brought a lot of resistance, however the prophet tells us that Nechemia inspired the people with his own actions and they all joined. They followed suit. The people were grateful and the nation was coming together.
Of course there remained the opposition, the troublemakers. Next week we will learn about Sanballat Ha'Chori who tried numerous times to stop Nechemia'and prevent our return from taking place. Where's he from Huwara, right near the Shomron and once again one of the most troublesome spots in Israel. Somethings never change.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE CONSTRUCTION JOKES OF THE WEEK
You guys wanna hear an Israeli construction joke? ..... hold on I'm working on it.
Not all construction work is equally enjoyable. For instance, drilling a large hole is boring, but fastening two pieces of metal together is riveting.
Berel and Yankel got a job as construction workers and have spent the week working on a street
Berel turns to the Yanke and says,
“I don’t want to work anymore, I will act crazy so the manager sends me home early”.
He then proceeds to tie himself by the feet and swings around shouting,
“Im a lightbulb, I’m a lightbulb!”
Sure enough, the manager tells him to go home. Yankel, seeing the success his friend had, decided to start packing up his things.
The manager asks, “What are you doing? The work isn’t finished yet!”
To which the Yankel responds, “How am I supposed to see without a lightbulb?”
Me: I had to quit my construction job because I wasn’t strong enough for the work.
Friend: Did you give them your too weak notice?
I never wanted to believe that my dad was stealing from his job at the construction site...But when I got home, all the signs were there.
A construction worker walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt.
The bartender asks: “What can I get you?”
The construction worker says “One beer for me, and one for the road.”
How does a Jewish mother change a lightbulb? "No, that's all right. I'll just sit here in the dark."
What do they call it when two construction machines get into a physical altercation? A CAT fight
A frog applies for a construction job.
The engineer asks, "What can you do?"
"Rivet."
Little Chaim is selling lemonade by a construction site. His sign reads “1 cup for 25¢, 3 cups for $1
A construction worker stops by and asks to buy one cup of lemonade.
"25 cents", says Chaim
The construction worker then buys another one, and another one, paying 25 cents each.
As the construction worker walks away, he turns around with a smile, and says: "Hey kid, you realize I just bought three cups for 75¢… Maybe lemonade stands aren’t your thing."
"I guess you're right" says Chaim good-naturedly as he sets up the next 3 cups.
David has done well for himself and is Mayor of a small town in Israel.
One day, David and his wife Ilana are walking past a construction site. Suddenly, one of the construction workers stops and calls out "What's new, Ilana?"
"Why, it's nice to see you again Avi," Ilana replies.
She turns to introduce David to the construction worker, and they speak for several minutes.
After David and Ilana continue on, he turns to her and asks how she knows Avi.
"Oh," Andrea said. "We went to the same high school. I even thought about marrying him."
David began to say. "You realise how lucky you are. If I hadn't come along, today you would be the wife of a construction worker!"
Ilana replied without hesitation, "Not really. If I had married him, he'd now be a Mayor!".
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The answer to this week's question is B- There goes my streak. I got the first part wrong. I thought it was Saudi Arabia, as I remember the TransArabian Pipeline which was supposed to come from there. It turns out it never made it because of the war of independence. So instead and before that it was from Iraq from Kirku instead. I got the second part right though. I knew that Rachel hung out and sung a lot about the Kinneret and was a farmer. She got Tuberculosis and was thrown out of degania her kibbutz. Nice. Then she moved to Jerusalem and died at age 40 and buried in Kinneret cemetery next to Naomi Shemer there. Her face is on 20 shekel bill. So 50/50 on this one and the score is Rabbi Schwartz having 8 points and the MOT having 3 points on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.
