I needed to catch that bus to the Kotel where I was meant to meet my tourists. I started to run up the block waving my hands frantically yelling “
…!”. I hate when this happens…
I’m
really not a public transportation person. I don’t like buses, trains, or
planes. I didn’t like them there in the States and even more so over here. I
think I get it from my father, who even prefers to drive 30 or so hours from
Detroit to Florida rather than fly for an hour and half. It’s not the sitting
on the plane, bus or train with a bunch of people squished in if you’re lucky
enough to get a seat. It’s not the waiting in the airport lines, the shlepping my
bags or luggage down long endless corridors or in Israel up and down escalators
that only seems to be working for some bizarre reason in the direction I’m not
going. If I need to go up to the main street then only the down escalators are
working and vice versa. Is this just me? I think there’s someone that is
sitting in some room somewhere just changing this thing around every time I
walk in the train section laughing behind a screen.
As well it’s not even the small plane or
public bathroom stalls that carry who knows what diseases. The coughing and
tushy bumping and sweaty smells of the people getting thrown back and forth
against you, or the loud annoying conversations on the phone that you really
are not interested in listening to, but for some reasons Dudu wants the entire
train or bus to know about his upcoming bowel problems that he’s talking to his
doctor about. It’s just having the freedom and control of leaving when I want,
stopping when I want, and not having to lock my destiny and plans on the whims,
delays, scheduling of an airline, bus or train transfer. Right now, as I run up
the block, as well the future of me making it for our morning tour is dependent
on the hearing skills of the bus driver as my shouts of “Regah !!” get
louder and louder and I wistfully watch those brake lights go off and see him
pull out. I knew I should’ve brought my
car.
He didn’t stop. I’m not sure if it was
intentional. I try to give the benefit of the doubt. I know he saw and heard
me. Ephraim Schwartz is not a quiet yeller. I think they heard me five blocks
away. The entire street turned around and looked at the tour guide rabbi
running with his knapsack to make that bus. But he didn’t stop. He was outta
there. And I huffed and puffed and took my seat on the bus bench and started to
check for when the next one would come while sending a message to my clients
that “I was stuck in traffic” and would be there shortly.
Now one of the nice things about Israelis and
bus stops is that people feel the need to talk to you, commiserate and even
share words of wisdom with you randomly. It’s not like NY where I think you can
get arrested for randomly saying “Good morning” to someone you don’t
know, as I believe they consider that perhaps rightfully so harassment or
unwanted confrontation. Hey, you might use the wrong pronouns…Not so in Israel.
We’re all family. We all need to share our wisdom and our love and caring for
one another. So as I sit down next to this smiling elderly Chasidic man with a clearly
cigarette stained yellowed graying beard. He offers me a drink, Kenny-Rogers-Gambler,
style and a cigarette too and told me to relax, the next bus should come soon.
When I complained to him exasperatingly that I couldn’t believe that the driver
didn’t hear me yelling at him. He told me with aa wry smile that the word “Re’G’A’”-
one moment, in Hebrew is the roshei teivos acronym for Reishis Goyim
Amalek- Amalek is the first of the nations. The bus driver must have
thought Amalek was coming and fled.
“So, ti’raga”,
he told me.
“Relax. Enjoy. That’s the way we wipe out
Amalek. Get out of the ‘rega’ and targish ha’roga- get out of the
moment and experience the calmness.”
Yup, there’s nothing like the wise words of a
wisdom you pick up by bus stops in Jerusalem.
This week’s parsha of Balak is unique in the
entire Torah. It’s the one parsha where we have an entire story that shares
with us the behind-the-scenes plots and genocidal attempts on our nation of
which we would have no idea of what was going on, if not for the Torah telling
us. It’s a little microphone and video transcription of the meetings in Tehran
between, Nasralla, Sinwar, whatever the Iranian leaders name is (c’mon don’t
tell me you know either…). It’s watching them plot October 7th. Listening
to their hatred for us. The money they’re willing to shell out to kill us. The
sacrifices they have no problem enduring and offering up on their altars in
order to achieve their nefarious goals.
There are no witnesses to these narratives
between Bilaam who was hired to curse us by Balak. We didn’t have any spies or
intelligence or bugs in the room or on their donkeys. Yet Hashem revealed this
parsha to us and it was written as a separate parsha, that our sages at one
point even felt was important enough to consider placing as a fourth paragraph
to be read twice daily with the Shema every morning, because its story contains
the essence of what we are all about and how we will be redeemed. It’s the story
of turning the rega- in to roga. Getting out of the moment and experiencing
the peace and blessing of faith.
Our sages point out that the partnership
between Bilam and Balak are in fact the collaboration of Amalek. It’s in their
names. Take of the beis and lamed of each of their names- which
is the letters that spell lev-heart, or to be more precise lev backwards.
A heart that is turned around. And you are left with the ayin-mem of
Bilam and the lamed-kuf of Balak- which of course spells Amalek- the
archenemy of Hashem and of our nation. Neither of them are in any danger from
the Jewish people’s journey to Israel. We were prohibited from attacking Moav
by Hashem. We had no fight with Midian- down near the Houtis in Yemen. We were
happy with a two-state solution. Let them keep their countries and leave us in
peace. But Amalek is never happy when we, the Jews, are settled in our land.
They know that from here Hashem’s shechina will shine down. That their
game is over. Their rega has ended. Our roga and that of the
entire world can finally begin.
The Talmud tells us that Bilam’s strength lay
precisely in that he knew the “rega” the one moment that Hashem gets
angry every day. He felt that if he could play up and extend that moment, and
hit us right then, he’d be able to win. They could wipe us out. Miraculously,
it was on that day that Hashem withheld Himself from that moment and the curses
that Bilam tried to throw at us were instead turned into a blessing. It’s a
strange midrash. What does that mean that Hashem has a moment of anger? Do they
not have anger management courses in heaven? Why does it take a miracle to stop
it? Why does this happen every day? Hashem doesn’t have any good days?
Obviously Hashem is beyond any emotion, so what’s this all about?
Rav Moshe Shapiro brilliantly explains this
concept on a very deep level. He notes that Creation and time begins anew each
day.
Ha’Mechadesh
B’tuvo b’kol yom tamid ma’asei bereishis- He renews with His goodness each day the act
of Creation, we say in davening each morning.
Why does He do that? What’s wrong with the world
that He put into place? The answer is that each day there has to be a sense of
a renewal and fresh start placed into it. All the baggage of yesterday, the
sins, the tzoris, the challenges and failures were in a different world
than there is today. It’s a new morning. We wake up in a new house, a new
world, a new reality. Yet just as in the first Creation of the world, our sages
tell us that Hashem originally planned on creating the world with the Middas
Ha’Din- His attribute of precise justice. So too every day when He
recreates the world, that rega of din- of expected and demanded
perfection is there. A new world demands that judgement. It needs to start with
din. Let me explain.
I’m sitting next to my wife right now and she’s
telling me that the “new” car I got last week- it’s a 2007 Ford Explorer just
like my old one that was going on me, but for the Schwartz family that’s
considered new- is already dirty from my client’s pretzels (shhh they’re mine…).
Why couldn’t I keep it clean for even one minute. For a “rega”…. When
you get a new car, a new house, a new shirt there’s a sense that you want it to
stay that way. It should remain perfect. You shouldn’t scratch it up -my
daughter did that the first day on the “new” car sshhhhh… You shouldn’t have
coffee stains on your shirt or the new counters. Keep it clean at least a bit,
for at least a rega. That’s the moment of Creation of din every
morning. But Hashem realized that the world can’t be sustained that way. There
has to be free choice. There has to be the ability for us to mess up. And so after
that initial moment, He combines that midda of rachamim, of mercy
that allows us to fail.
Amalek is that rega. They don’t want
the world to get to that place of free choice. Their plan is to say that Hashem
created the world, mankind and us only once. He’s now left it in our hands. Hashem
is not involved anymore. The world was created for us and now we are its
arbiters. There’s no Shechina to reveal. No holiness to bring down. No
King to subject ourselves to. They view themselves, as Bilam says in his curse-turned-blessing,
as the Reishis- they are the beginning of all. It’s what I
want, what I feel, what I desire, what I
accomplish. What I want in the moment. Time started and we are
handed the car keys to do whatever we want with it. There is no continuous revelation.
There is no renewed Creation. There’s only the rega…
Yet a miracle took place. On that day Hashem
did not get angry. On that day Hashem didn’t renew the world. He allowed the midda
of rachamim to remain. He didn’t see any sins in Yaakov and faults in
Yisrael. That day the world remained in its perfection, for Hashem carried us with
our sins as if we hadn’t. It was the day that Amalek had no power over us. The rega
was roga, the curse turned into blessing, the vision of a Messianic era
was revealed in that failure of Amalek, as the star of Yaakov rose up. It’s that
vision and curse-turned-blessing of Bilam that is the only source in the entire
Torah of the world that we have been waiting for since Creation for the Shechina
to descend will look like. Its where we know that there will be Mashiach.
No one was there to see that world that was
being born and revealed in the hills or mountains of Moav overlooking our camps
as we stood on the cusp of entering the holy land. We didn’t see or understand
the peril that was just avoided and the Amalekite plots to prevent our
redemption. We may still have been under the conceptzia that if we left
them alone, they would leave us alone as well. But Hashem was there while the
curses were being fired at us. We could be b’roga. He was turning them
into blessing. Tosafos notes that Bilam’s plan in that one moment was to say
the word “kalem”- to destroy us. That we should be caught up in that
moment. That we should forget that we have a King. That we should think that
the world is all about us. Yet Hashem turned the letters of ka’le’m around
to spell Melech-King. He reigned. We could be redeemed.
The final battle of Amalek is in our
generation. Bilam’s blessing was that they thought they were first, but instead
at the end they will be destroyed. To win this battle and to destroy Amalek, we
need to get out of their small minded seeing-only-the-moment worldview. We need
to see beyond what is around us. To realize there are things that are going on
that we don’t know about and will not understand. Worlds where there are
donkeys that talk, angels with swords and curses that are turning into
blessings. We need to know that there is a Melech that is soon to be revealed.
That just as we don’t know the degree of the plots and curses that our enemies
have against us, we don’t have to worry or fear from them even if we did have
an inkling. Because this is all part of a larger divine plan. A plan that is
coming to an end that will reveal the real Beginning.
Ha’Magid
me’reishis ad acharis-
Hashem will reveal that He is there from the beginning to the end. He was there
for us against, Bilam, He was there for us against the Romans, the Greeks, the
Nazis and Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. The curses that we see are all really
blessings. They are the darkness of a day coming to an end and new dawn that is
being born and created. The rega we have been waiting for is almost
here. We didn’t miss any buses. The bus that He wants us to get on isn’t going
to take us to the Kotel. It’s going to take us to His new Home on top of that
Mountain top. That’s the bus we’re waiting for. And it’s already on the way…
Have a blessed Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
***************************************
I would as well like to personally express my
appreciation and the appreciation of the many soldiers and so many needy
families whom I have been privileged to bring food, Chizuk, supplies and of
course love and Ruach to since this war has started.
As I’ve mentioned to many that have contacted me I am
not running a campaign to raise money for this cause. I feel it is a personal
privilege and the minimum I can do help these young men that are standing on
the front lines of our nation. I however am more than happy to serve as an
agent or shaliach for any of you that feel similarly and would like to send
some love to these boys as well. This is
not a short war as our pundits and generals tell us and this is not a one time
partnership. It’s week after week and really day after day that I try to do my
part to visit the many bases and posts as I can and bring them stuff.
Each week I will post here the names of those that
have participated and whom the soldiers and families have asked me to express
their appreciation back to for your love for them.
This week I’d like to thank the Rosengard family, Reb
Sruly and Ruchi Koval, Tami and Marcel Scheinman and William and Baila Adler
and Faigy Schachner Thank You!!
You all have no idea how much
koach this gives to our chayalim! Thank you for giving me the zechus to be part
of it. And they have made me their messenger to say thank you to you!
For those of you that wish to have
me deliver on your behalf this chizuk to our brave chayalim and chayalot-
Pizza, hot meals, Mike and Ikes ( they love those!) Cigerrettes, Nosh, energy
bars and just lots of love that I’m in the mood to bring them. Feel free to
Zelle or paypal me to Rabbischwartz@yahoo.com
If you’d like to watch and be part of the fun
vicariously you can as well send me your number and I’m happy to add you to my
contacts and you can then have access to my daily statuses where I post them!
*****************************************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE
WEEK
" Nit
mit shelten un nit mit lachen ken men di velt ibermachen..”.- Neither with curses nor
with laughter can you change the world.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer
below at end of Email
14.During which decade in the 20th century did Israel
have a policy of Austerity
(“Tzena Period”)??_______ .
What is the large gleaming tower next to Tlalim
Junction used for?
A. Security purposes
B. Weather forecasts
C. The production of solar energy
D. Agricultural research and development
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/achainu
– NEW RABBI SCWARTZ SONG FOR THREE WEEKS – acapella my Acheynu- just when
you thought that you’d sung the other version too long. Here’s my beautiful magnificent
heartfelt Acheynu. Brin them home now please Hashem. Thank you Dovid Lowy for
amazing vocals and arrangements!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYp5LCC1WrM
-Jerusalem Youth Chorus on America’s got Talent singing Home… Wasn’t what
I thought but still… What do you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v16YdKaDsKQ
– Love this group… L’Karveini Eleicha
from the Mizmor Shir group
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLIitRRHt0w
-
Avraham Fried’s Hebrew hits with Freilach and friends amazing to hear the good
oldies coming back…
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK
Bilam’s Prayer- Can you imagine that the first
thing that we would say when we came into shul in the morning would be “Allah
Akbar” or “Our Holy Father in Heaven
hallowed be your name”, or Omani Padma Hummm”- the Budhist prayer that means “praise
to the jewel in the lotus”. Yeah.. I don’t think so. Yet, in our shuls the
first prayer that we say when we enter in fact comes from the evil prophet
Bilam in this week’s Torah portion.
Ma Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov Mishkenosecha Yisrael- How good
are your tents Yaakov and your dwelling places Israel.
What’s pshat? Tzi felt ois? Are we lacking our own
prayers that we have to take this goys to start off our morning. Is there no
shortage of Tehillim written by King David?
The answer some suggest is that perhaps we utilize
the prayer and blessing of Bilaam to remind us that the purpose of our prayers are
not just about us and our great needs. Rather it is for Hashem to have a Beis Tefilla
L’kol Ha’Amim- a house of prayer for all of the nations of the world. When we
daven it’s not just for our own sake. Rather its to bring the shechina down
where the entire world sees Hashem. That the houses and tents of Yaakov is just
the starting place for that, but in truth the entire world is looking towards
our synagogues and waiting for us to bring the geula- the redemption.
How do we do that and accomplish that? The Panim
Yafos tells us that the secret lies in the two phrases “the tents of Yaakov”
and “the dwelling places of Yisrael”. He explains that a tent is a temporary
place. Yaakov refers to those that are only able to come and pray and study
Torah temporarily. They came daily three times and perhaps for a Torah class or
chavrusa here and there. But the rest of the times they have to work for a
living out in the field. The dwelling place though is that of Yisrael. Those
are the ones in Klal Yisrael that are full time learners. There permanent homes
are in the study halls. That’s where they dwell. Our secret is that we always have
two parts to Klal Yisrael. We lift up the world by going out and as well by
always having those that full time hold down the Torah and prayer fort by
dwelling in the Beit Midrash.
Alternatively the Malbim takes this to a different
place. He writes that the tents are the Jewish nation in galus. We haven’t
settled yet. We’re on the move. We go from place to place. It’s before we enter
the land. The dwelling place is of course the return the Israel. It’s the Beis
Hamikdash. Its’ coming home. That is what Bilam blesses us with. That the tents
and places of worship and Torah in the wilderness turn into the permanent home
that all can daven and come to Hashem with. That’s the way we start off each
morning. May that day come soon.
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
701 BC- None of your Business – One of
the excuses why many Americans tell me that they aren’t moving to Israel is because
of their children. They’re nervous if they will be able to acclimate here. The
educational system here is different. They’re children have friends over there.
They are doing well in school. They’re “shteiging”. Why upheave their
entire world and move them to Israel?
To make matters worse,
they tell me, they hear about many children that move here that go off the derech.
They lose the inspiration they had in America and they fall off the path. Don’t
I know about all of those kids in Jerusalem, in Beit Shemesh, in
other communities that lose their connection to yiddishkeit in Israel? What if
they’re drafted- god forbid, in the army? Forget about it… They for surer can’t
be frum there… Yeah… that’s what they tell me. As if the teens at risk is not a
problem and crisis in America, in Lakewood and in Boro Park. No one goes off
there… Here at least they’ll probably at least marry Jewish… But hey… at least
they have an excuse, right? Or not…
*See here the Navi tells
us that Chizkiya had an even better cheshbon and greater fear
than those American Jews do? He was a prophet. He saw that if he would have a
child he would be not just not religious, but would be a murdering tyrant that
would not only go off the path that his father had fought saw hard to develop
in his mass teshuva movement in Klal Yisrael, but he would in fact take Am
Yisrael back to the worst of the worst times in our history. He would be a
sinner that took everyone down with him and would ultimately lead us on the
path of Exile and destruction. That’s bad. And he was right… by the way. Chizkiya’s
son Menashe, whom we will learn about ended up doing exactly that. So Chizkiya
much like these American Jews decided to make his own cheshbon so that
wouldn’t happen. He decided not to have children. What was the point. If you knew
your child would be Hitler or perhaps even George Soros- who’s a tzadik
compared to Menashe. Then just avoid the whole thing and the world would
be a better place.
And yet what happened?
Hashem made him sick. He was on death bed. Yeshaya comes to visit him and tells
him that this is happening for one reason.
B’hadei kavshei d’rachamana
lama leih- What business do you
have trying to meddle with Hashem’s plans for the world.
We have a mitzva to have
children, we have a mitzva to live in Israel, what business do you have not
fulfilling that mitzva because your concerned about a “yeahh.. but what if…”
. Even if you’re sure that they will turn out bad. You possibly couldn’t be
more sure than Chizkiya was? And yet our job is not to question or try
to outsmart Hashem’s plans. Our job is to follow the mitzvos that He tells us
and leave the big planning for Him. Chizkiya agrees to this Mussar of
Yeshaya and yet he still tries to hedge his bets. He tells Yeshaya to
give him his daughter’s hand in marriage and perhaps the merit and genetics of
both of them together will somehow impact and change the prophetic outcome of
his wayward progeny. Yet it as well doesn’t work. Menashe becomes Menashe.
Yet, because of this teshuva of Chizkiya he lives for another 15 years.
In those years he will still accomplish great things. It is not our job to
question Hashem. It’s our job to live where He wants us to. Let Him take care
of the rest. That’s not our business.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S BUS JOKES OF THE WEEK
So I was sitting on
the bus just reading a book when somebody tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned around and
saw an old lady. She said to me, "Sonny, would you like some nuts? I've
got a couple hazelnuts and almonds if you'd like."
"Sure.", I replied. Then she gave me a handful of nuts
and went back to sit with her friends.
"What a nice lady", I thought, while happily munching on
the nuts.
A few minutes later, I
felt another tap on my shoulder and there she was again, offering some nuts. I
gladly accepted and she went back to her seat. After about 10 minutes, she
tapped me on the shoulder, once again offering some nuts.
I asked her, "Why
don't you eat them yourself?"
"Because we've
got no teeth", she replied.
"Then why do
you buy them?", I asked.
"Oh, because we
just love the chocolate around them."
I was crossing the
street right next to some freaky dressed Free Palestine button wearing college
student in Kafyia when suddenly a bus swerved over and ran him over. As I got
up and picked myself up I thought to myself, “Wow! That could have been me!”
Then I remembered I
can’t drive a bus.
Two blondes are
standing at a bus stop.
One asks the other: "Which
bus are you taking?"
"Number 1. And
you?"
"Two."
The bus with the
number 12 pulls up and one of them says to the other:
"Look, we're
going together!"
A blind woman got on a
bus. Sadly, all the seats were taken.A man noticed that no one else on the bus
was willing to give up their seat for the blind woman, so he kindly guided her
to his seat and took a standing spot. As the bus started up, the man frowned at
the others for their selfishness.
Later that day, the man
came home in tears, covered in bruises.
"What's the
matter?" asked the man's wife.
"I lost my job as
a bus driver
So Achmed answers his
door to find a somber-looking police officer standing on his porch. “I’m
sorry to have to tell you this, sir,” the officer says, “but it looks
like your wife has been hit by a bus.”
The man replies, “Yeah,
but she’s got a great personality.”
A woman steps in front
of a bus and dies instantly. She finds herself at the pearly gates, being
greeted by God himself.He looks the woman up and down, and says "Hm...
Strange. It's not your time! I'm sending you back."
"Sending me
back? How long until it IS my time?" she asks.
"Worry not, my
child. You have many, many more years until it is your time. You will live
until the ripe old age of 108!"
She's sent back to
Earth and pops into her miraculously repaired body. She gets up, dusts herself
off, and with a huge smile on her face immediately heads to the plastic
surgeon. She proceeds to get a face lift, a tummy tuck, hair implants and more.
"If I'm going to live to the old age of 108, I might as well look my
best!" she happily thought.
After all the
surgeries and cosmetic procedures and makeovers, she looks STUNNING. Beautiful
pouty lips and a tiny waist and long luscious hair. She walks out of the salon
and BAM. She's hit by a bus and dies instantly.Once again, she is at the pearly
gates and again, is greeted by God.
"What in the
world was that?!" she exclaims, "You said I was supposed to
live until 108!"
God looks her up and
down and says "Well I didn't recognize you!
So a cement mixer and
a prison bus crashed on the highway near my house... Police advised citizens to
be on the lookout for a group of hardened criminals.
A boy excitedly
reports to his miserly father..."Papa!" the boy exclaims.
"Instead of buying a bus ticket, I ran home behind the bus and saved a
dollar!"
The father immediately
slaps the child. "Spendthrift!" he screams. "You could
have run home behind a taxi and saved twenty!"
Yankel is sitting on
the bus and sitting opposite him is a man trying to bite into an apple.
"What's the
matter?" asks Yankel.
"I left my
false teeth at home", the man replies.
Yankel puts his hand
in his pocket, "Here, try these", and hands him a set of false teeth.
"Thanks, but
they're too big".
Yankel hands him
another set, "Try these".
"Perfect",
says the man. "It's incredible that on the day I leave my false teeth
at home, I sit on the bus opposite a dentist".
"I'm not a
dentist", says Yankel, "I work for the chevra Kadisha in a
funeral parlor".
I went for my
interview to be an Egged bus driver.
I said, "Sorry
I'm late."
They said, "You're
hired"
**********************************
The
answer to this week”s question is C– This
one was really pathetic… But here I am shamefully admitting that I’ve been out
of America too long. For some reason I always get the words austerity confused
with prosperity in mind. I know… it’s mamash the opposite. The truth is had I
paid attention to the Hebrew word ha’tzena- which comes from the word tzniut,
modest and simple I would’ve gotten it right, merely by guessing that obviously
the roughest economic patch of the country was our first decade back in the
50’s when they had rations and all types of limitations on food and distributions.
I answered the 90’s and got that wrong. I did however get part B correct. It
was easy the huge gleaming tower in the Negev not far from Dimona that can be
seen from miles away is an incredible solar tower that beams the sun on miles
of panels on all side providing most of the electricity for the entire Negev.
So another 50/50 this time around. This is really getting frustrating And so my score is now Rabbi Schwartz 8.5 and
Ministry of Tourism 5.5 on this exam so far.
