Insights
and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
January 18th 2019 -Volume 9 Issue 16-12th
of Shevat 5779
Parshat
Beshalach
New
Tourism
. Hishtalmiyot.
That’s what I spent this past Monday doing. See as tour guides in Israel, the
government is not satisfied with just licensing you and taking your payment
every two years to renew your license. You have to go on two tours every two
years provided by the Ministry of Tourism (at 100 shek a pop) as continuing ed.
It’s not a bad thing, truth be told. You get to see places you may not have
been before, updated discoveries or changes and shifts in some of the familiar
excavations and the theories about what they were. The problem is that thank
god with a busy touring schedule and when I’m off from that being busy with my shul, the
family and of course this weekly E-mail who has time to take off for a
MOT hishtalmiyot tour. So I fell behind, and now it’s the
beginning of the year and I’m scrambling to make-up the last two years required
tours so I can renew my license.
There are those that
like going on long hikes, or archaeological sites. Me? I just wanted the quick
and easy and perhaps interesting along the way. So I chose the “Mitzpe Ramon;
the new capital of the new tourism in Israel”. It promised a
visit to a winery, always a good thing and a walk along the new tourist center
called the spice trail with all types of attractions. Nothing too intense. I
had a tour the previous day there anyways. So it worked out perfectly, as I was
even able to snag a ride back to Tel Aviv at the end with the bus from where I
‘train’ed it home.
The day was a pretty
pleasant one, I certainly got a few more sites to put in my box. But perhaps
what was most eye-opening was the lecture our guide gave us about the concept
of “new tourism”. This seemed to be a theme of his and we had a half hour
power-pointed seminar on the changing trend in tourism in the world and in Israel.
See, in the old days people needed guides to take them places, to show them
things, and teach them about the sites. Today with Waze and other GPS’s and
this new-fangled invention called the internet and smartphones, people have
more information in that little rectangle box in their hand then even the most
knowledgeable tour guide will ever have. It’s a different world today and for a
tour guide to be successful you need to understand the trends or end up going
the way of 8 track cassettes, Kodak film and Blockbuster videos. So what are
tourists looking for today?
So our guide noted
some fascinating studies that were done that where over 12,000 Americans were
polled to think about their purchases that were made over the past year with
the intent of “increasing their happiness”. Fascinatingly enough, the majority
responded that their experiential investments not only did they feel more
accurately gave them more long-term pleasure, meaning after 3 months the
material purchase wore off, but it even increased each time they remembered
their experiences. The reason for this Dr. Van Boven suggests is threefold. The
first reason is that as opposed to the material purchase where it is what it
is, when one has an experience it generally becomes reinterpreted and
embellished upon in retrospect.
"For example,
if you go on a hiking trip, and the weather is terrible, you might not view it
as a pleasurable experience in the here and now," he said. "Instead,
you may view it as a challenge, and over time remember the positive aspects of
the experience more than the negative aspects. With material things you can't
do this, because they are what they are." (Science Daily)
As well he notes that
today’s world values accomplishing goals and challenging oneself. and
experiences tend to be associated more with deeper personal meanings than
possessions. Finally, he suggests that experiences foster relationships
because you tend to do things with other people, so there is a great social
aspect to it. As well people are more comfortable and less self-conscious
sharing stories about experiences because they're more fun to talk about than
material possessions. They are simply more entertaining.
This is the reason, he
suggested, that tourism is up. People would rather, tour, see, and experience
than spend their money on the better car, the new stereo or smart phone or even
the upgrade to their house. So to be an effective tour-guide one has to focus
on making the tours as experiential as possible. Off the beaten track hikes and
trails, meeting interesting and different people, doing activities that they
may never do otherwise, that’s what the new tourism is about. It’s no longer
destination, talk-about-a-place or point-out-an-interesting thing tourism of
the past. Tourists want to live it, to experience it, to touch, feel and of
course taste it. That’s what brings more real and meaningful happiness, that’s
what they will remember and as I told our tour guide, I believe that is what
Torah and Judaism are fundamentally built upon. And of course it all starts
with this week’sparsha.
See unlike all other
religions and faith systems, Judaism didn’t start with one guy getting up and
preaching higher morals and values. Not some arab in a hijab on his camel in
the desert, not some renegade Jew preaching his Messianism next to some
money-changers, not some monk with a big belly button on top of a mountain in
Tibet. Judaism starts with slavery, persecution, murder, infanticide. It
continues with retribution, plagues, blood, frogs, wild animals, darkness,
hail. It culminates with the miraculous mind-blowing splitting of the sea, the
falling of the manna. This is a story! This is an experience that no other
nation ever even considered fabricating because it is truly too wild to
make-up. And it is precisely because of these stories that 55% of the world are
monotheists. You, can’t make it up. It happened and millions witnessed it. We
witnessed it. And the ultimate wisdom of the Torah is that for every single one
of those 3371 years since that sea split tens of thousands, to hundreds of
thousands and even at some point millions of Jews told over the story that they
heard from their parents and grandparents and relived that incredible
experience annually and even daily and weekly in our recitation of Shema and
Kiddush. We have never missed a generation. Because experiences, not ideas last
forever.
This is such a
critical concept and it is really the essence of what I believe is the secret
to the eternality of Judaism. (Obviously besides that fact that it is true, and
that Hashem watches us and promised that we will be eternal- besides all that
OK!). See Judaism is not just laws and mitzvos, ideas and even
Torah study. Lo hamedrash ikar- ela hama’aseh- the studying of the
law is not the main thing rather the action or perhaps even homiletically the
story or the experience. It is the Chanuka candles, sitting in the Sukkah, the
Pesach seder, the Purim costumes, the Shabbos table. The truth is
it’s not only the holidays and weekends either. Putting on teffilin is a mitzvah no
one else has. We are tying ourselves to Hashem daily with cow leather straps.
That’s pretty cool! Remember how cool and exciting it was by your bar mitzvah.
Lighting Shabbos candles-goyim don’t have that. These all are meant to become
part of who we are. Even the act of davening, shopping for kosher, putting on
your tzitzis and maybe even your shaitel. Judaism and the Torah
lifestyle is one where we are meant to experience every faction of our life…
ummm…. experientially.
But experiences aren’t
only about transforming myself. They are what binds me to other people. It’s
not just vacations that we do with family or friends. Much of our mitzvah system
is oriented on achieving precisely that goal. On tours we have what’s called
team-building experiences. Corporations do that a lot, recognizing that
programs and activities that bring people together to overcome challenges or/and
celebrate together will make a stronger team, will make them more efficient,
more satisfied and will discourage people from leaving and seeking other
employment opportunities. They’re part of a team and that engenders loyalty.
Well guess what? Hello. That’s what a minyan is all about.
That’s what loving your friend is all about. That’s what kol yisrael
arevim zeh lazeh- each Jew is the guarantor of the next means. And that’s
why we all sang together when we came out of the Sea. It was one big team building
exercise and we not only survived, we were thus born. Har Sinai, 49 days later,
when we all called out na’aseh v’nishma was just an
affirmation of that song of the sea. We were one. Hashem is one and his word is
the eternal secret how we will be forever.
We have lost many Jews
over the years and generations. We are losing Jews today. I wonder if it is
perhaps because they see their Judaism as old-outdated tourism. Someone
hammering information and rules into their heads when they know that they have
more in their smartphone than their parents or Rabbis ever will have. They
haven’t appreciated or connected the experiential Judaism as being the essence
of it all. The great head of the Yeshiva movement the Netziv writes when the
Torah tells us in Devarim not to forget what happened on Sinai, writes ruefully
that perhaps because we get so caught up in the study or extrapolation of Torah
that we will come to forget the actual story of the giving of the Torah. It was
a cool experience. That’s what we need to remember. It’s what we are meant to
attach to. It is something that when we think about it will make us fill with
nostalgia and warmth. Like when you remember the incredible marathon you ran,
the family vacation you had, the home run you hit, the performance you had and
of course the Israel tour you took with Rabbi Schwartz. I’ve done my hishtalmiyot.
I’m licensed again. And I’m all set to take on the world not just in tourism
with this new tourism outlook, but in my Judaism as well. May Hashem allow us to already experience the
ultimate experience, the shofar blast we await, the old man on the donkey, the
wings of eagles and the heavenly temple of fire descending on our mountain top.
Now wouldn’t that be cool.
Have a transformative
Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
*****************************************************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S
FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Az men lebt, erleybt men.” –As one lives-one experiences
RABBI SCHWARTZES COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
https://youtu.be/by8Vql0p0e8
-Wow! Talk about a golden oldie- in
honor of Shabbos Shira- Live footage of London School of Jewish song singing
Shir with Yigal Calek
https://youtu.be/WbtwqBLpetc
-
You
know Beshalach isn’t complete without Rau Banim the great Shwekey hit this one
sung by Maccabeats with lyrics and translation
https://youtu.be/uP-FDgTZJpY- Guess you need a bit of Fried Hisyatzavu Ur’oo
as well also from when Avremeleh didn’t have any white hairs. Not sure which choir
is accompanying him? Anyone?
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
Q The “Duc in Altum” church is found in:
A. Magdala
B. Tabha
C. Capernaum (Kfar Naum)
D. The Mount of Olives
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS”
CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Parshat Beshalach– The
next lomdushe tool is not for everyone. It’s called the shtell-tzu,
finding a question in one place and by connecting it to a “random” gemara
seemingly unrelated, one can answer the question. This is really more of pilpul
than lomdus. But it does take a lamdan to make the connections
that the mifalpel- the one that just brings together related topics
might not be able to make. Let me show you what I mean.
This
week’s Torah portion has the Az Yashir song that the Jews sang upon
leaving the Yam Suf and that we recite daily in our morning prayers. Rashi
notes that in that song the drowning of the Egyptians is described with
different examples. In one place it says the drowned like oferet- lead
another it says ka’kash- like straw and another like a stone. So he
explains that the wicked were like straw bouncing up and down and getting torn
apart. Whereas the average Egyptians drowned like a rock while the “kosher”
Egyptians were like lead- straight down to the bottom.
The
question however is that in the morning prayer that we recite of vayivarech
david (from Nechemia) each morning we recite the words
V’es
rodfeyehm hishlacta b’mitzolos ka’even ba’mayimm azim-
and their pursuers he threw into the depths like a rock in strong waters.
Reb
Chayim Kanievsky, a true lamdan who when reading these words in davening
automatically makes the connection to the previous Rashi, asks why are the
pursuers compared to rocks. Seemingly they are the evil ones and should be
compared to straw. As well he notes, (and this utilizes one of the tools we had
last week, of asking one question that can reveal the other one), why does it
say they were thrown in strong waters?
They drowned, fartig, who needs to know how the waters were?
He
answers with a connection to a gemara in tractate Baba Basra
BB(73b) Rabba Bar
Bar Chana went to bathe in water to cool off and a voice from heaven called out
and said he should not bathe there. Because the blade of an axe fell there 7
years before and has yet to have rested on the floor (and he might injure
himself)
The Talmud then continues
This is not because the water was so
deep, rather because of the forcefulness and strength of the current of the
river.
So Reb Chaim reads that Gemara and click! The prayer tells us
that the water azim- it had a powerful current. So therefore even though
the wicked were thrown in like a rock however unlike the kosher ones and the
average Egyptians that sunk like a rock and lead, the wicked pursuing Egyptians
were like a rock thrown into ‘wild waters’ and therefore they
bobbed up and down like straw. And it all works out. The prayer is talking about
the way they were thrown in and the song of Az Yashir which says straw
is talking about how they were consumed or destroyed…slowly and painfully as they
deserved for all they did to the Jews.
It’s nice to be Reb Chayim Kanievsky and know the entire Torah
and have the ability to make these lomdushe connnections.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S
AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Battle of Yericho 1272 BC We have finally arrived at
the first battle of Yehoshua upon crossing the Yarden, and it was a battle like
no other. By the order of Hashem Yehoshua has the men, all the men which numbered
hundreds of thousands to march around the city with the Aron- the ark, once a
day for 6 days. On the seventh day, which was Shabbos, they would march 7 times
around, blow their shofars and the walls would come tumbling down sinking into
the ground. And that’s exactly what happened. They Jews then strolled into the
city and by Yehoshua’s command all the booty was destroyed and the enemy all
killed, no prisoners were to be taken. This was Hashem’s war, His victory and
thus none were entitled to anything. As well this first battle was meant to
show the rest of the kings of Canaan, that the Jews were not “mucking about” as
my English friends like to say. We were here and unless they surrendered they
were in for trouble.
I obviously share this
story whenever we have a lookout for Yericho, whether it is when driving
by on Highway 90- the Kvish Habik’a or from my lookout point in Mitzpe
Yericho. As well I like to note when I am by Nebi Samuel, which was
called by the Crusaders Mt. of Joy that it was from there that the
Crusaders arrived to Israel and looked over to Jerusalem seeing themselves as
Yehoshua returning to the holy land to liberate it from the Muslims. They as
well upon coming to the Old City surrounded it 7 times and blew shofars.
Only thing is that the walls didn’t budge. Can you believe that! So instead
they just blew right in and massacred everyone- at least fulfilling that aspect
of Yehoshua’s battle. Interesting as well to note and that I point out when we
are at various Jewish Rabbi’s graves like Rebbi Pinchas Ben Yair in Tzfat,
Yonasan Ben Uziel in Amuka, the Rashbi in Meron and
even by Kever Rachel in Bethlehem, many have a custom to walk
around the grave 7 times reciting psalms along the way and seemingly this
custom comes from this first battle of Yehoshua where we are told that those
sivuvim- those circles knock away all the forces of evil and allows the
spirit of Hashem to reign supreme. It’s as well why many suggest we have the custom
by a wedding for the bride to encircle the chasan.
Mazel Tov!
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S HOTEL JOKES OF THE WEEK
A tourist is traveling with a guide through one of
the thickest jungles in Latin America, when he comes across an ancient Mayan
temple. The tourist is entranced by the temple, and asks the guide for details.
To this, the guide states that archaeologists are carrying out excavations, and
still finding great treasures. The tourist then queries how old the temple is.
"This
temple is 2503 years old", replies the guide.
Impressed at
this accurate dating, he inquires as to how he gave this precise figure.
"Easy",
replies the guide, "the archaeologists said the temple was 2500 years old,
and that was three years ago."
The girl leaned over the counter and said, "Burrrrrrrr, gerrrrrrr,
Kiiiiing."
"That depends," replied the guide, "on how fast you carry the
flashlight."
A bus load of tourists arrives at
Runnymede. They gather around the guide who says, "This is the spot where
the barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta."
A fellow at the front of the crowd
asks, "When did that happen?"
"1215," answers the guide.
The man looks at his watch and says,
"OY! Just missed it by a half hour!"
Here’s
a guide to American
culture for Russians visiting the U.S., straight from
Russian tour books:
A)“Women play a greater role in
business. Often they insist to be treated exactly as an equal and not as a
lady.”
B) “As a rule, the [social]
invitation will be only on a weekend, and you don’t have to prepare for
something extravagant. Everything is the same as ours, only with far less
booze.”
C)“‘See you later’ should not be
taken literally. That is a courtesy, and no more.”
I didn’t realize how bad of a driver
my tour guide was I was until heard the GPS say, “In 400 feet, do a slight
right, stop, and let me out.”
************
Answer is A– I saw this question and groaned. I have no
clue. Never heard of it. Don’t know what Duc in Alcum means. Don’t really care.
More likely then not this would be one of those questions I skipped. But can’t do that with you guys. So I guessed wildly.
I figured I was at Capernaum- or kfar nachum where yoshka preached and was
chucked out by the Jews. Tabcha had something to do with fish “miracles” and
Mt. of olives is where he hung out till he was killed and has quite a few
churches there. So that left Magdala near Tiverya where I have never been. So I
went with that. And whadaya know? The Rabbi was right! Boom! Even better than
that I knew why I never knew it because it wasn’t even around when I did my
tour guiding course. It’s the new church complex right out of Tiverya that they
built just recently. Duc al Alcum means in the deep. Where yoshki told Peter to
throw his nets.. but who really cares?! I got it right!!
score is Schwartz 12 and 1 for MOT
(Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.
