from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
May 1st 2026 -Volume 16 Issue 27 14h of Iyar 5786
Messages from the Other Side
Have you ever gotten a message from the grave? From someone that you loved and that had passed on. I'm not talking about a dream, where they come and talk to you. That's a bit too much. Although I have a friend and colleague of mine whose son passed away at a very young age and he claims to be constantly in contact and getting messages from him and even recently published a book about those conversations that have changed his life,
(You can check it out here https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/with-love-from-the-holy-land-shabse-werther/1149819450?ean=9798369467374 ), but that's not what I'm talking about. Rather I mean just being in a place and experiencing that person's presence as if they were manipulating you to send you a message, a sign, a hug and a hello. That happened to me this past week. It's a pretty amazing story.
So as my regular readers know, I've spent some time the past few weeks down by the Sinai desert. Man, I'm milking this thing for three E-Mails already, not bad! Well anyways I returned again this week, but this time not to work or volunteer vine pruning and weed whacking, but rather to interview some of the holy Jews that are living in the area for and article for my upcoming return to Mishpacha Magazine column this coming Shavuos edition. Hooray! Listen, a man's gotta put bread on is table one way or another… And the truth is I loved writing those columns about Eretz Yisrael and sharing the beauty, glory, history and holiness of the land, with the so many that I haven't yet toured or who haven't been here. Yet. The marketing is an added bonus, of course. So I figured what better place to start back up again then one where most have never seen or experienced. As well, what's more appropriate for a Shavuos edition than an article about Jews living in Midbar Sinai, keeping the Torah, hearing that voice calling out, returning to their roots.
Now my job there wasn't an easy one. As there is perhaps a handful of Shomrei Torah U'Mitzvos besides Yishuv Eretz Yisrael, of course, the one mitzva that all these chilonim are fulfilling every minute of the day, that you losers in America have for whatever reason not chosen to be zocheh in- yes, I called you losers. Nebachs. Anyone that doesn't have the ability to get mitzvos every step they take and every falafel they eat, forget about planting and growing stuff and just chilling in their home with their children, is a nebach, losing out on the easiest and best mitzva there is. But besides that mitzva, there is certainly not too many of the 900 or so residents, or 300 or so families that live in the four or five yishuvim there that keep Shabbos, put on tefillin, daven- at least formally, or are strict about kosher. I was able to dig up 5 or 6 and I don't think there's many I left out.
Yet, each one of these special souls had a story, that in truth is worthy of a column within itself. What I thought was going to be a rather short article, now has me taking my first draft of 8395 words and figuring out how to crunch it down to my allotted 3500 article word count. Aren't you glad this E-Mail doesn't have a limited word count…? Don't answer that. It was rhetorical.
One of the places I visited was Kadesh Barnea, or as its officially called Nitzanei Sinai, although the locals still call it by it's old name it had before it moved here after the 1979 Peace Accords from its original location on the Egyptian side of Sinai, near the original biblical site.
My visit here was with Lior, the Moshav's religious person or Ba'al Teshuva. We had schmoozed a bit in advance, and to be honest, Lior was even reluctant to meet. He claimed he didn't have much to say and that his story wasn't too interesting. But I was persistent and we had set up our appointment. I was a bit taken aback when Lior came out to greet me with a large Kippa, flapping tzitizis and a sefira beard. It didn't match the profile picture of a typical secular Israeli I had seen on my phone. He welcomed us in to his home, showed his chickens where he gets his daily eggs from, his book shelf reaming with a diverse potpourri of all your greatest sefarim and we sat down on his porch to take in the view of the midbar and to talk. Needless to say, I was intrigued.
Lior was raised in Lehavim in a secular home near Beer Sheva, where he had never heard kiddush in his life and even their Pesach seder was only a family meal. His father was a socialist lawyer who was a very special man of Chesed, that had left religion very young, however he was always involved and would bring Lior with him on his daily trips to the street picking up homeless people and taking care of them and eventually established the first shelter in Beer Sheva.
In a fascinating way his father also served as his shadchan. Their close family friend and neighbor had become sick and Lior's father who had at that time already moved on to becoming a hospice adviser, would visit him daily. Yet, as his condition worsened and with all of the overwhelming sorrow that he was experiencing himself, Lior's father died suddenly at age 51 years old. Meanwhile the neighbor would ask daily where his friend was, as they didn't want to tell him. Until he went up to the porch and saw the shiva sign for his friend and understood. The next day the neighbor died as well at the young age of 47. Shira, the neighbor's daughter was Lior's sister's best friend and Lior and she met being menachem avel one another. They hit it off and have been together since. The Rav that buried their fathers was the same that married the two of them.
Since his army service, Lior had been working at various hill-top farms. A life of shepherding, living in a tent alone, smoking away whatever he was paid was the freedom he was looking for. Despite not being interested in religion per say, however he would read a copy of Rebbi Nachman's likutei Mo'haran a friend had gifted him. He found through it a connection with his neshoma, not unlike many of our Patriarchs and leaders as shepherds did. Yet, family life requires something more concrete and thus with the birth of their second child they made their way down to the new Yishuv of Kadesh that had just been established. The divine shepherd was calling him to Sinai.
In 2001 there were 40 families living there non were religious and most were farmers. He as well began taking out the free loans offered by the Jewish agency to open up a tomato farm, as many in the area did. Yet his first season his entire crop was hit by flooding and he lost his it all. Without options and debts piling up he turned to Hashem and asked for help and opened up a convenience store for Thailandi workers. That evolved into him eventually taking over the local makolet and life was good. Until…
Seven years ago, Lior was hospitalized with a serious infection that caused his liver to shut down. It reached a point where the doctors told Shira to bring the children one Friday to say good-bye, as Sunday might be too late. Friday night lying alone in his hospital bed, resigned and even accepting of his fate, his thoughts were interrupted by his roommate, a religious man that started making kiddush. It was the first time in his life that he ever heard kiddush and somehow those simple words of holiness penetrated his heart. He turned to Hashem and felt regret that he had never had that. He found himself wishing that he could remain alive, not for his wife, his children of even his life, but only to make kiddush. To have Shabbos. He made a vow, that if he would recover, he would stop smoking and other not healthy habits and highs and become a shomer Shabbos. It would be the only high he ever needed.
By Sunday he had miraculously recovered. The next week he was home, and thus his spiritual journey and Shemiras Shabbos began. Fascinatingly enough his biggest challenge was to daven from a siddur with vowelization. He had never read Hebrew like that. Each day his tefillos took him an hour and a half. He had always loved to read and study and slowly began researching online, listening to shiurim and thus he continues on his personal daily growth. Shira, although not fully observant herself, is the tzadekes that he describes that supports him. She is stricter about kashrus than he is in their house and vets all their invitations bringing only her kosher made food. She is involved in chesed projects as they share their open home with many that join them for Shabbat meals.
The next part of our conversation though is really what threw me for a loop and send shivers down my spine. Upon recovery Lior sought new work, as the makolet was not working out. One day Shira came home, and told him about a phone call that she had received from guests they had recently hosted for Shabbos. It was from an American family with a daughter that had a severe drug and opiate problem and was even suicidal. She had been in and out of rehab, and they felt that perhaps the only thing that would help her would be to send her away to Israel. Perhaps the peacefulness of the desert they experienced over that Shabbos could help her to recovery.
Shira, of course invited them yet Lior as a recovering addict himself told her that it was a bad idea. However, as Lior puts it "when Hashem sends someone to your door, you can't turn them away". So he began to research to find her a place. Yet, after a day or two of google searches and numerous phone calls, he understood that there was really no place available that had a Jewishly spiritual orientation, or one that wasn't even Christian, he saw this as a sign what the next stage and venture of his life should be. Thus the concept of Shivtaya spiritual rehabilitation center that would accompany their patients on their sobriety journey was conceived. Yet, they didn't have any funding or know how to get something like this off the ground and thus they turned to Reb Tzvi Gluck of Amudim to see if he could help them. It was at this point that I stopped him in the story.
Amudim, I told him was founded by my Uncle Mendy Klein Z'L who had passed away 8 years ago. Mendy was at the forefront of bringing awareness to many of the problems in our community and worked with gedolim to found Amudim and bring help to the many suffering in shame and in silence. When I told this to Lior, he turned white and told me that the only reason he was able to get started was due to Mendy. He had set up a meeting with Mendy and Tzvi and a few of their chareidi supporters. He stood before them without a Kippa, as he had not yet started wearing one publicly and told them that despite the fact that he wasn't religious, this was his vision, and this is what he felt he needed to do. After the meeting Tzvi called Lior to tell him that Mendy had told him that he wasn't sure how and what Amudim's connection and support may be for them, but one thing he was sure of… Lior would be successful. He would have siyata di'shmaya.
A week later, Lior got the call from Tzvi that Mendy had passed suddenly. Yet it was that chizuk, that allowed him to move forward. Although they are not connected with Amudim and didn't receive significant financial support. Yet from that meeting and those words of chizuk, Shivtaya was founded and has helped hundreds of people on their road to recovery.
I had goosepimples all over, and I turned to Lior, who was very emotional and did the math. It seems, that this meeting he had with Mendy, a week before he died, was actually on the same day that I was sitting there with him the 10th of Iyar. I felt my Uncle Mendy, looking down and smiling had sent me to this door, to hear this story. I wasn't sure why at the time. I'm still not sure why totally, yet I have some clues. I know there's inspiration there.
One of the things that came out of that discussion was that I sent this story on a little video clip to a few friends of mine that were close with my Uncle. I can't even tell you how many people responded that it was exactly the message they needed that day. They had personal dillemas and struggles, that some of them shared with me, others not. One even thought, I wondered what Mendy would tell me to do. And out of the blue they received my video and it was like a message from him. It opened up that door, that Mendy never would close.
This week's Parsha is Emor. It discusses the mitzva or more accurately the prohibition of Kohanim to come in contact with the dead. It seems like a strange and perhaps even uniquely Jewish prohibition. By most religions it is the priest that preforms the last rites and officiates the funeral. So to speak sends them off to the next world. As well, it seems strange that generally we view the Kohen as one who is always given more mitzvos than others. He is meant to be the intermediary between Klal Yisrael and Hashem, why isn't he there for this last special mitzva of burying the dead and accompanying the family.
The answer though is that the tumah that is associated with death, the Maharal and Rav Kook as well as many other commentaries explain come from the void created by the loss of the neshoma. There is a disconnect from Hashem. That exposure to our mortality and the finality of our lives creates a distance from Hashem. The process of coming back and purifying oneself from that is a personal one that requires a process of rebirth, the sprinkling of ashes of the parah aduma. It is there where the Kohen actually does get involved. For his role is to bring us back. The Kohen however in order to be able to do that, must always be in that state of purity himself.
Rav Sorotzkin notes that the Kohanim Aharon and his children of who experienced the death of their son and brothers Nadav and Avihu on the day and moment of their inauguration always had that balance in front of them. They symbolized the purity that stands free of the impurity. They were able to express the "va'yidom Aharon", the accepting of the fate and judgement of Hashem and yet remain in the mikdash and even eat sacrifices at that time. Klal Yisrael needs that pure pillar to turn to, and they have to always been in a state of purity to serve as the lighthouse that brings them home.
Yet there is a deeper concept as well. The world was not created with death. Adam was created to be immortal. Heaven and earth were eternal. Hashem was walking with us in his garden. Yet, when he sinned, death came into the world. Man became mortal. The world became contaminated and the sparks hidden and our role in life is to lift it up and purify the world, and reveal the godliness in it. When one dies, that job ends. We can no longer do or accomplish anymore. That spirit that connects us to that first sin and our exposure to it that we encounter when we come in contact with the dead, exposes us to tumah. The Kohen though, has been chosen to show us that death is not final. That we can transcend this world. That our exit from this world, is really just a birth into an eternal one. He has been sanctified by Hashem. He goes into the holy. And thus, every death enters one's soul into that holy state as well.
It is therefore when we talk about someone dying in Hebrew we call it being niftar. Niftar not only means being exempt or leaving a place, but it is also only used in the Torah as a form of birth, "peter chamor v'seh" the first born of a donkey or sheep. It is the first to come out of the womb. It is holy. It has entered a new world. The Kohen in his constant state of purity stands as a symbol of that to us. That holiness doesn't disappear. It continues on and is eternal.
Is it possible for someone to come back from the dead and send us messages? The Talmud is certainly replete with stories of that happening. I believe that there are many that can attest to stories, dreams, connections and supernatural events where they felt that their departed was with them. To a large degree we are all one soul. Lior was reminded of that when he tapped into that kiddush. It is perhaps as well the reason that the parsha that follows this one contains the mitzva of the sanctity of the holidays. It's a statement that just as the Kohen is constantly connected to Hashem, we each have that opportunity on all of our holidays. To transcend time and the mundanity of the world. To turn the chol to kodesh. To become one with Hashem, like we were back in that garden. Next week's parsha will take that theme even further to living in the land, to the entire Shabbos of the year of shemitta, to ultimately seeing the blessing of our redemption.
This week is the yartzeit of my Uncle Mendy. If there was ever anyone that transcended this world and truly was full of love and compassion for every Jew, as a talmid of Aharon is described to have that trait, then it is him. His impact and the sparks that he raised and still continues to inspire continue to ignite menoras in many. His ner tamid is still lit. He also didn't sleep very well, and it seems he's not doing so there as well. He still is being a meilitz yosher, and maybe has even been given the ability to send us messages. May his neshoma have an aliya and may we soon be reunited in the geula shlaima.
Have a meaningful Shabbos and an uplifting Lag Ba'Omer
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Zicher iz men nor miten toit."– One is only certain of death.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxKtPDC7Rwg – Ba'Derech El Ha'ohr Moshe Klein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77b3QTOOPTI - A powerhouse podcast of Michael and all the Aliaya Geula voices at a El Chamis party, check em all out, The Eli's Friedman and Wolbrun, Nesanel, Yossi Rabin, Saadia, Nesanel Eisenman, Koby of Gat Ba'Selah and more…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJxvx08Dl6I - What a great Shwekey Acapella Medley all the greatest hits with Yonasan Stern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sYoAUa9G3Y&list=OLAK5uy_mnD6rUCFN1Y6VjE-U1vOGgdCddduGhGk0 – A great Acapella Journey at Sea Abie and son Chananya Rottenberg and Eli Shwebel… awesome
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
. For most of his life in the land of Israel, Hayim Nahman Bialik lived in the city of ______
_____________
Where can one find buildings in the so-called "International" architectural style in Israel?
A. In urban localities as well as in rural localities such as kibbutzim and
moshavim
B. In urban localities only, such as Tel Aviv and Haifa
C. In rural localities only, i.e. in kibbutzim and moshavim
D. In the city of Tel Aviv only within the boundaries of the UNESCO declaration
("the White City")
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Shomronim 352 BC- So today is Pesach Sheini and a bunch of friends of mine and guides made their way over to check out the one place in Israel where this holiday is being celebrated by Har Gerizim or as it's referred to as well Har Bracha, the mountain where the blessings were given when we came into the land. The people that celebrate this holiday though are not our fellow Jews. They're Shomronim, Samarians they are the only people living in Israel with dual Israeli and Palestinian citizenship and it seems that is the game that they always play. Who are they? What do they believe? And what do I think about them? Here we go.
So the Shomronim according to their claim, were a breakoff of traditional Judaism in the times of Eli Ha'Kohen and his corrupt sons, where their Kohen who had been jilted left and started his own mikdash on Har Gerizim, claiming that was the mountain Hashem had rested His name on, and it's where Akeidas Yitzchak took place as well. The claim to be from the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe who live in that region around Shechem and of course Levites. Our tradition rather places them in the times of Sancherev who after exiling the ten tribes, brought foreign nations and settled them here. Hashem, brought lions to attack them and out of fear many of them underwent questionable conversions that were ultimately proven to be inauthentic and they were not accepted into the nation. Although in the Talmud it refers to the Kutim as those that underwent that conversion, it seems that they intermingled with the Samarians who had not even undergone the conversion and the entire people were considered invalid.
After the destruction of the Temple and exile of the Jews in the times of Nevuchadnezzar, it seems that many of the shomronim were left to live in Eretz Yisrael and when Ezra returned with the Cyrus's permission, they tried to join the party and build the Bais Ha'Mikdash and were denied. They then sent messages to Cyrus and the entire project was halted. As well the history we will pick up with Nechemia getting permission from Darius the son of Esther and Achashveirosh will also encounter them and have problems. In the times of Chazal there were many different opinions about their Halachic status and even their origins. Rabbi Akiva held that they were true converts. Rebbi Meir in the Midrash that they were even from the tribe of Yissachar, yet ultimately the final ruling was they they're not legitimate Jews.
Today there is about 900 of them living in Israel divided between Har Luza near Shechem and city of Holon. They're rather peaceful and kind of like the Amish in America, a bit of a freak story to watch and gawk at. Yet to me it is unquestionable that they are an abomination as is their service that needs to be destroyed from the land. The role of Klal Yisrael here has always been to rebuild the Bais Ha'Mikdash and to shine out the true light from Jerusalem to the world. As long as we allow their candle be lit, and we attend with awe and respect their ceremonies, we are darkening and bringing and supporting tumah in the land. And to me that is unconscionable.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE AFTERLIFE JOKES OF THE WEEK
Did you hear about the new Italian restaurant that just opened in the afterlife? It's called Pasta Way.
A killer Dies and meets his victim in the Afterlife. The killer stares awkwardly at the victim, the victim stares back. Unsure what to do, the killer finally says, "Well... This feels pretty tense."
The victim replies, "Oh, we're past tense."
A young couple dies in a car wreck on the way to their wedding. They arrive in heaven where they are welcomed by the angel. Before they are admitted to heaven they ask if they can get married in heaven.
The angel scratches his chin. “Hmm, I’m not sure. Let me find out.”
He goes into heaven to find someone who might know.
Well he’s gone for a very long time, days at least. The young couple were starting to worry when the angel finally returns. He looks very flustered.
“Yes, you can get married.” He says.
So the couple go into heaven, get married, and enjoy the afterlife. However not long after they begin to realize how terrible eternity with the other person would be and decide to divorce.
They go to the angel and asks if they can get a divorce in Heaven. The angel throws down his quill and growls in consternation.
“Do you know how long it took me to find a priest up here?! Now imagine how hard it’ll be to find a lawyer!”
So a Rabbi walks up to an atheist and says afterlife. The atheist stares and says I don't get it.
The priest says I know.
Our local cemetery reported problems with kids going into the cemetery at night to take flowers off graves so they can sell them on street corners the next morning. I have a hard time believing this, but I did see a kid selling flowers this morning with a sign that said "reincarnations, $10.00"
How can you tell if being a suicide bomber really guarantees you blessings in the afterlife? You have to C4 yourself.
An Anti-Vaxer goes and arrives at the gates of heaven. Upon meeting God, she asks him a question.
"Do vaccines really work?"
God replied simply with, "Yes."
The Anti-Vaxer mumbled to herself, "The lies do spread that far..."
My dad died, and I wanted to talk to him in the afterlife. So I went to a woman who could speak with the dead. I told her my situation, and described my dad. She went into a trance and, after a few moments, said "I'm communing with your father."
Then she smiled, so I punched her.
"What did you do that for?!" she demanded, shocked.
"It's what my dad would have wanted," I told her. "He always said it's important to strike a happy medium."
Bill Gates dies and goes to heaven, where the angel gives him a nice, modern six-bedroom house with a pretty garden and a tennis court. Pleased with his lot, Bill quickly settles into the afterlife.
One day he is out walking when he bumps into a man wearing a fine tailored suit.
"That's really nice," says Bill. "Where did you get it?"
"Actually," says the man, "I was given 50 of these, plus two mansions, a yacht, a golf course and four Rolls-Royces."
"Wow, were you a pope or a doctor healing the terminally ill?" asks Bill.
"No, I was the captain of the Titanic."
Bill storms off to see Saint Peter. "How come the captain of a sunken ship gets all that while I, the inventor of the Windows Operating System gets a crummy little house?" he asks.
Saint Peter replies, "The Titanic only crashed once."
People ask whether I’ll make cheese in my afterlife. I tell them, “There’s no whey in hell.
Ancient Egyptians who worked to preserve the Pharaoh for the afterlife are known for having being very good businessmen. In fact, they even invented what we know today as the "return policy."
It was know back then as the "mummy back guarantee..."
A doberman, a golden retriever and a cat enter the afterlife. God asks the golden retriever to tell him about himself, the dog says “I’ve been very loyal to my master,”
God says,”That’s wonderful why don’t you take the seat on my right,”
God asks the Doberman to tell him about himself, the dog says “I’ve been a great protector of my whole family,”
God says,”That’s great why don’t you take the seat on my left,”
The cat walks in and says to God,” You're in my seat,”
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The answer to this week's question is A– Ok another 50/50 here. The first part was easy. Bialik is a big Tel Aviv/ Yaffo name. I knew that. On the other hand architecture has never been my strong point. I guessd Tel Aviv and Haifa as I knew they both have unique artchitecture. I was wrong, the international construction is the basic simple apartment buildings they have all over in rural and urban areas as well as the cities. So half right and wrong on this one score is no Rabbi Schwartz having a 21 points and the MOT having 9 points on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.
