from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
June 24th 2022 -Volume
11 Issue 37 25th Sivan 5782
Parshat Korach
It was in my opinion it was the blackest day of the
history of the State of Israel. It was August 15th 2005. But perhaps
the more significant date was that it was the 10th of Av; the day that
we are told when the real destruction of our Temples burnt to the ground after
its fires were started on Tish B’Av. I was sitting with my tourists in the Gush
Katif Museum located in the Golan Heights where 20 families had moved to after
being thrown out of their homes by the Israeli government on that day. Yossi
was there and was sharing with us his story- but again, a more accurate word
would probably be the nightmare- that he and his family along with the other 8600
residents of the 17 settlements that had dedicated their best years building,
that had put suffered so many tragedies and overcame so many challenges developing.
On that one day that all came crashing down. The government that had sent them
there, that had encouraged them to settle the land of our ancestors and that
had repeatedly told them of the strategic significance of their lives there betrayed
them.
Yossi, recalled that day for us. They had naively
believed that it would never happen. There was so much support from communities
around Israel. In his house on that day there were 40 youths, friends of his
children and friends of those friends. He hadn’t packed a thing in his house.
Everything was the way that it always was. Their clothing in their drawers,
their silverware in their cupboards, their bookshelves full of all their holy
books. It wasn’t that he was fooling himself or living in denial. By that day when
thousands of soldiers marched in the gates of their settlement of Kfar Darom,
named after the city of the Mishnaic sage Rabbi Eliezer Ben Yitzchak who lived in
the ancient city of that same name nearby, to remove them, they knew that their
worst fears were about to be realized.
Yet, in Yossi’s word, he believed that if the soldiers
came into their house and they saw a Jewish home with all of it’s holy books on
the shelves, with it’s mezuza proudly on the door and with its Shabbos table candelabra
and Kiddush cup all set, that somehow they would realize the travesty of what
they were about to do. That the army of Israel and they themselves as soldiers
of that army who had dedicated their lives to ideologically and spiritually to
build and defend the State and its citizens was not there to throw Jewish families
as our enemies had done to us throughout our 2000-year-old exile in every other
country, from our houses, our homes and our communities.
But he was wrong. The soldiers that were selected for
this horrible task were brainwashed. They selected soldiers from elite units
that had too much to lose to disobey orders. It was like talking to robots.
They were given a few hours to pack up their things and then they would have to
leave or suffer being forcibly removed by the very army that Yossi was decorated
and had received heroic medals serving in. And so tearfully they packed up
their stuff.
As they exited their house an army of soldiers dressed appropriately
in black stood in their yard to escort them out of the settlement to the
waiting bus. Yossi, however told the soldiers that they needed to leave his
yard. He would leave and he would walk with his family and entourage to the
buses without any force, but he didn’t want any soldiers standing there. They
left his yard and stood out on the street and Yossi once again barked at them
to move out away from his home. This was a march that he felt strongly that he
didn’t want any military standing around him or his children when he walked it.
And once again the soldiers respectfully complied.
When I asked Yossi why he felt so strongly about this,
his answer brought tears to my eyes. He told me that he knew that what was
happening was a decree from Hashem. It was not something that was explainable.
It was something that had a bigger and greater plan. It didn’t make any sense
to him, but many things don’t. Yet he knew that his children would be
traumatized and that they would never forget this moment. What was most
important to him though, was that his children should never confuse what was
happening to them with the Israeli army; with the soldiers that were carrying
out this harsh decree of Hashem that was implemented by the secular if not
wicked government. He wanted his children to one day have the privilege and
honor, as he felt he had, in serving in the army. In putting their lives on the
line for the nation of Israel and to defend the country Hashem had promised our
ancestors and returned us to. He didn’t want this moment to scar their
relationship with the love and dedication to Eretz Yisrael and its brave fighters
that he spent his and their whole lives inspiring them about.
Much as the Jews that went into Exile in the times of Nebuchadnezzar
or the Romans after the destruction of the 1st and 2nd
Temples on this very day thousands of years prior to the expulsion from Gaza,
recognized that it wasn’t the gentiles that were culpable, but rather mipnei
chata’aeinu galinu mei’artzeinu- because of our sins were exiled from our
land. So, he felt that this was the plan of Hashem and that his children should
know that as Jews we need to point our fingers inward rather than at the
messengers of Hashem that carry out His harsh decrees.
Yossi’s story seared into my heart and brain as I opened
up this weeks Parsha of Korach. I read the Rashi and Midrash about Korach’s
claim to Moshe of a house that is full of Jewish books shouldn’t need a Mezuza
on it. A Jew that is wearing a garment made entirely of blue wool shouldn’t
require tzitzis and I think about Yossi’s house. I think about Jewish houses
and how many of them just like his throughout all our generations we had to
leave. That we were exiled from. That had become swallowed up by the earth as
Korach’s house did. They are Jewish houses. They are holy. They are full of
Mitzvos. I can understand how an enemy of ours, A Nazi, A Crusader, an Arab
army or a Roman or Babylonian could so heartlessly throw us out of and destroy
those “small temples” we had built. But if Yossi was shocked that an Israeli
soldier could do such a thing, how can we not stand perplexed of how Hashem, Who
is really behind the scenes, could allow such a thing to happen to us.
This was the dilemma of Korach. This was his claim. The
nation is holy, our homes are perfect. We all heard Hashem, not long before reveal
Himself to us and we witnessed the miracles that took place. Can it be that we
would lose that stature? That we need an intermediary. That we would lose it
all one day and be swallowed up alive by the very ground that we were chosen to
elevate Him from?
Sadly and tragically the answer is yes. The answer is yes,
we can lose it all because we are missing the one most important component. We
are forgetting that it’s not about our homes, our sefarim, our families
and our ideologies. It’s about revealing the will and presence of Hashem in
this world. It’s not about what we think. It’s about what He wants. Our sages
tell us that Korach was a smart person, yet he was fooled by his vision,
perhaps even spiritual vision, of the way that history was meant to play it out.
He saw Shmuel that would anoint Dovid Ha’melech come out of his descendants.
But the problem was einav’ hi’ta’aso- his own eye fooled him. It’s not
about our vision, even our religious vision. It’s about Hashem’s plan and will.
Yossi stood outside of that bus with his family and told
them that this was not the first time that Jews were thrown out of our homes. In
Gush Etzion the four settlements were massacred by the Arabs in the War of Independence.
It took us 19 years until the 6- Day war to return and restore Jewish life to
the hills were Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and the tribes of Israel had lived.
We will return here, he told them. But that was easier. There it was the
gentiles that had thrown us out. The fact that this is happening by our own
people is much more harsh. It is a sign we have much more that we have to fix,
to rectify, to atone and do teshuva for. But we will return. It may take a year,
five years, ten years or twenty or fifty years. It may seem like a long time,
but we are an eternal nation, and relative to eternity fifty or even a hundred
years (god forbid) is not even a drop in the bucket.
When I asked Yossi, where he gets his strength and
conviction from, he told me about his daughter Chelli (short for Rachel). When
Chelli was in third grade, a young girl of 9, she was traveling on a bus to
school in the neighboring settlement and their bus suffered a missile attack from
Arabs from who had targeted the school bus with the knowledge that it was full
of school children. The two teachers sitting in the seat in front of her were
killed and she was grazed by the missile that flew over her head, that had it
been a millimeter lower…. Lo aleinu…we shouldn’t know. When he was
wheeling his daughter who had been injured by shrapnel in her wheelchair a few
weeks later around his Yishuv, she turned to him and said
“Abba, y’know that in everything bad that happens, one
has to see the and find the good”
He turned to her and looked incredulously into her
innocent and pure little 9-year-old eyes and asked her what she meant. And so Chelli
elaborated for her simple father. She said
“Hashem is good. And everything that He does has a
purpose is good. So therefore, if something happens it must be that there is
something good that is going on that we haven’t figured out yet. So we need to
look for it. He wants us to find it.”
Once again, my thoughts turned to this parsha of Korach
and it’s aftermath. The fire pans that remained and were burned from the incense
offering that was used were dedicated and used to cover the altar in the Mishkan.
It is mindboggling to think about. These tools that were used to rebel against
Hashem became the covering for the mizbayach were all of our sacrifices
were brought.
The Shem MiShmuel powerfully explains that what drove
Korach and his men to the point of rebellion was their chutzpa. Their holy
audacity that would not stop at anything to achieve their goal. Jewish chutzpa
is a good thing. We are told that we should be bold like a leopard. Yet, it
needs to be humbled at the altar. When they brought their incense offering by
the command of Moshe they did so with holy intents. That holiness permeated
those pans. Yet they were misdirected. They weren’t humbled to accept the will
of Hashem. They needed to be integrated in the mizbayach where we
sacrifice our own will and desire to that of our Creator. We need Chelli’s and Yossi’s insight to recognize what is
Hashem’s will and what is our own and then to try to find the good in His will.
That then becomes the altar that atones for all of our sins. That is what will
then return us back to our home.
There is a shul in Gush Katif that was discovered from the
period of the Mishna 1800 years ago, with a mosaic floor that had a picture of
King David playing a harp on it. Dovid lived in the Gaza strip for many years
when he hid from Shaul. Our ancestors from the period of Avraham and Yitzchak
who lived in Gerar through the Mishna, the Talmud and in the 14th and 15th century
was the largest Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael. In Hebrew and in the Torah
it is called Azza- which also means chutzpa. It is that chutzpa that brought us
there. It is holy Jewish audacity that returned Jews to those desolate sand
dunes to rebuild and to plant in what the Arab for centuries called ‘cursed
land’. And it is that same Jewish chutzpa and those shovels and pans of the
sacrifices that have been made there and the recognition that the kavod
Hashem is what is most important. As He is always good. It is those holy
heroes that will merit for that harp of Dovid once again play the song of
redemption in our land.
Have a remarkably holy Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“A yid hot acht un tsvantzik pretzent pached,
tsvey pretzent tzuker, un zibentzik pretzent
chutzpe A Jew is twenty-eight percent fear, two
percent sugar, and seventy percent chutzpah.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION
OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
33) The ceremony of the declaration of the
establishment of the State of Israel
took place on (date): ____________
The "Declaration of Independence"
includes:
A) The Partition Resolution
B) The name of Jerusalem
C) The borders of the State of Israel
D) The construction of the Temple in the future
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE VIDEO OF THE
WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/yedid-nefesh
- BRAND NEW
RABBI SCHWARTZ COMPOSITION THIS WEEK- listen to my newest song arranged and
sung by Dovid Lowy! Use it this Shalosh Seudos and every one from now on and
get extra Rabbi Schwartz points…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e8aAdlfU5o - Mordechai
Shapiro’s new Dancing in the Rain with lyrics…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCZuNTdniDM
-Ba’Sof
Yehiyeh Tov- Perfect song for this E-Mail from Asaf Harosh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i558zXzbHg
-Loving Joey Newcombs latest
song also great for this week’s Email Hakol Mei-ito everythings from Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukmz7glYA7Q
-And check out his new
Morroco Medley
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/SHABBOS
CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Clothing Check- Korach – Korach has a place in infamy in Jewish history as being the man and
his congregation that rebelled against Moshe and was swallowed up by the earth.
Rashi notes that this parsha and story is adjacent to the mitzva of Tzitzit
and he brings the Midrash that tells us that Korach approached Moshe in a garment
made entirely out of the special blue Techelet thread that one wears on his 4
cornered garment to fulfill the commandment. He mocked Moshe saying that a
garment made entirely out of tzitzit shouldn’t be obligated in strings as it is
entirely blue. Similarly, the Jewish people shouldn’t require any special
spiritual mediators between them and God. The entire nation is holy. We don’t
need you or Aharon or the Levites to intermediate.
Korach was wrong. Our sages tell us that he was a great man; a
scholar and even leader. But he was motivated by an awareness of the greatness
of Hashem and his revelation in this world and expanding that. The thing that
he was missing was humility. An awareness of the frailty of man and his
distance from Hashem. The awesomeness of Hashem is certainly meant to engender
a feeling of greatness of us and our potential and particularly the nation
chosen by Hashem to reveal that to the world. But it has to be premised on a
sense of humility and a feeling of negating one’s own ego to reveal that.
The Techelet on our clothing is there to take the simple clothes
which cover up our bodies as just as Adam in the garden of Eden after he sinned
was aware of the desire that runs through him. We as well have that yetzer harah
that challenges us and can bring us down. So we wear clothing to cover that up.
In Hebrew the word for clothing is begged- which also means to rebel. The clothing
and our out-of-control desires are covered up to make us realize that naturally
left as is our desires and bodies can run us amok. We are rebels. The Techelet that
shows us upon that we can turn towards our purpose to service Hashem and keep
our eyes to him. Korach was missing that point. And only saw the higher Techelet
purpose. And thus, he sinned and failed.
Each Erev Shabbos our sages tell us
Chayav adam limashemesh begodov lifney Shabbos- Each Friday we need to check
our clothing before Shabbos in order that we don’t forget something in our
clothing and walk outside and carry it. The Nesivos Shalom sees in that phrase
a deeper lesson. The letters of the word Shabbos also spell when rearranged the
word boshes- shame. Each Erev Shabbos we need to check our begodim-
our clothing or rebellions before Shabbos. We need to think about our week the
sins we have committed and the distance we have grown in our weekdays from the
holy place of Shabbos. It brings us as sense of humility and busha and
we can then enter in Shabbos and reach our tachlis- the purpose of shamayim
and aretz as we say in our prayers. The essence of all of creation.
We all wear special clothes on Shabbos, but as we place them on
it our sages say we shouldn’t get carried away with this special day and
holiness that we will get and experience. Start off checking those clothing.
Remembering the humility of the week. Then you know you are truly wearing
Shabbos clothes.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES
AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Yonah Ben Amitai 750 BC –So, we’ll take a break
from our chronological People, places and Eras and quickly cover the reading
that is the crux of our Yom Kippur Mincha Torah reading; the Book of Yonah. Yonah
ben Amitai was a prophet in the times of the First Temple in the period of the
King Yerava’am the second, a few decades before the 10 tribes of the north
were exiled. There are various seemingly contradictory midrashim as to his
early roots, Chazal put him much earlier at the period of Eliyahu Hanavi,
being the child of the woman that he brought back to life. There are some
sources that suggest he was from the tribe of Zevulun and others from
the tribe of Asher.
It’s a famous story that
every kindergarten child learns. But here in Israel, as always I try to connect
and make the story more real and experiential by visiting sites where we can
live it. So in a nut shell there are three parts of the story. Part 1) Hashem
tells Yonah to go to Ninveh, which is near Mosul in Iraq,
and tell them to do Teshuva. Yep Iraq was wicked back then as well. Yonah
didn’t want to. He felt that if he got them to repent it would reflect bad on
the Jewish people who were not repenting despite the rebuke they had gotten. So
he goes to Yaffo/Jaffa to chap a ship to Tarshish
which it seems is a city today called Tarsus in in Central Turkey.
The idea being that if he fled the land of Israel then Hashem could not appear
to him, as Hashem only reveals prophecy in Israel. This of course is story that
I share by the port of Yaffo, today and you can even see a little film
in the visitor center there.
The second part of the
story is when he goes out to the sea and a huge storm comes and he allows
himself to be thrown overboard, once it becomes apparent that it was Hashem
sending the storm in his honor. The cast lots and his number came up… He gets
swallowed by a fish (or possibly 2 or 3 according to the midrash) and he davens
to Hashem and he is expelled he goes to Ninveh and gets them to repent. This
story I like to share when I stand by the water of the Mediteranean and
its stormy, so you can get a feel of what it felt like. That happens a lot by Rosh
Hanikra. As well when I walk down into the grottos there I always feel like
I’m going into the belly of the whale. Alternatively, in Eilat when you
go to the underwater observatory you get a feel for that underwater
experience of Yonah.
The third part of the
story or the epilogue is Yonah sitting in the heat and he complains about the
heat. Hashem lets a Kikayon tree grow above him. He feels great, until
Hashem sends a worm to eat up the tree and it dies. Yonah faints from the heat
and tells Hashem that it’s too much for him to bear. Hashem then points out to
him that if he is concerned with the death of a tree, Hashem certainly needs to
be concerned with an entire city. The Kikayon tree according to most biblical
botanists- yeah that’s a real thing is castor been tree- although I’ve
certainly seen it translated as a gourd tree, but I guess this castor must be
some type of gourd. At least that’s what they tell me it is when I take my
tourists to Neot Kedumim which the place to go to learn about biblical
agriculture.
That’s our story. Now
it’s up to you on Yom Kippur to find the deeper meaning and inspiration behind
this story.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S REALLY (and I mean
really ) TERRIBLE ISRAELI HUMMUS JOKES OF THE WEEK
The
definition of chutzpah:
Is the man
who killed his parents who asks for mercy from the court.
The judge
asks “On what grounds should we grant you mercy?”
Man “On the
account of I’m an orphan!”
What is the definition of
chutzpah – it’s when someone is being treated for a multi-personality disorder
and wants a……..group discount
Q: Did you hear about the Jewish
ATM? A: When you take out some money, it says to you, what did you do with the
last $50 I gave you?
A little old
lady sold pretzels on a street corner for a dollar each. Every day a young man
would leave his office building at lunch time and as he passed the pretzel
stand he would leave her $1.00, but never take a pretzel.
This
offering went on for more than 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day as
the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his dollar as usual, the
pretzel lady spoke to him for the first time in over 3 years. Without blinking
an eye she said: "They're $1.25 now."
2 Jewish
guys are walking down a street when they see a Catholic church with a sign out
front that says "Convert today and get $1000 dollars". The
first Jewish guy says "Can you believe their chutzpah, thinking someone
would convert for money?!".
The other Jewish guy says "A thousand
dollars?! I'm gonna go for it!" and runs into the church.
Well the
first guy is shocked, he stands outside waiting for his friend who comes out 30
minutes later counting hundred dollar bills. The first guy says to his friend
"I cannot believe you! How can you turn your back on your religion,
your family, forsake every spiritual thing you held dear, for $1000
dollars?!"
The other
guy looks up from counting his money and says "Wow, it's always about
money with you people, isn't it?"
A little
Jewish grandmother gets on the crowded bus and discovers that she doesn’t have
the correct change for the fare.
The driver
says, “I’m sorry ma’am but without the correct fare you can’t ride.”
She places
her hand gently on her chest and says, “If you knew what I had, you’d be
nicer to me.”
He lets her
ride. She tries to move down the crowded aisle, but people won’t make way for
her. She places her hand gently on her chest and says, “If you knew what I
had, you’d be nicer to me.”
The crowd
parts like the Red Sea. She reaches the back of the bus where there are no
seats. No one gets up. She places her hand gently on her chest and says, “If
you knew what I had, you’d be nicer to me.”
Several
people jump up and insist that she take their seat. She settles into a good one
by the window.
A woman
leans over to her and says, “I know this is none of my business, but just
what is it that you’ve got?”
The little
Jewish grandmother grins and says, “Chutzpah.”
Issy is
walking down the road with his friend Max after listening to him go on and on kvetching
for a n hour. when he suddenly says.
You know what, Max, You’re a walking economy”.
Whatever
do you mean by that?” Asks Max.
“ Well ,
it’s likely this…. your hair line is in recession, your stomach is a victim of
inflation and the combination of these factors about you is putting me into a
depression!”
Yankel from
Williamsburg puts up a sign that says “Boat for sale”
Yoily, his
friend says, “But Yankel you only own a house and a car”
“Dat’s
right” Yankel responded “And dey are
boat for sale”
********************************
Answer
is A – So I copped out a bit on this one, and imaginably I got
the answer technically correct. I wrote that the date was the 5th of
Iyar 1948. That was easy. I know when Yom Ha’Atzmaut is. On the other hand I
wasn’t sure of the secular date, so I didn’t write it. If I had to guess I
probably would’ve written the 5th of May which is wrong.
It was actually the 14th of May. If
they would’ve asked me when Cinco de Mayo is though I would’ve gotten that
right. But the truth is since they didn’t specify what date (Hebrew or secular)
I imaginably would’ve gotten the answer right. The second part of the answer
though was fairly easy. They didn’t mention Jerusalem, certainly Jerusalem’s
old city wasn’t even part of the State until 1967 and they didn’t know if they
would get it. It was even controversial if they would mention Hashem or God and
they settled on “Tzur Yisrael” the rock of Israel which could be open to
definition with Ben Gurion begging that should suffice and not be forced to put
to a vote, so forget about the building of the Temple. And no, they didn’t
mention borders as they had no clue what the borders would be when the declaration
was made what they would be.
The correct answer, which is the Partition plan was mentioned as part of the justification for the establishment of the State. This is the final answer on this exam for the multiple choice section and so the final score would be Schwartz 25.5 and 6.5 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam.
