from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
"Your friend
in Karmiel"
April 28th
2023 -Volume 12 Issue
28 7th of Iyar 5783
Parshat Acharey
Mos- Kedoshim
I think it was the serenity more than anything
that was the most awesome part of our recent trip the past week and a half. That
was the thought that hit me when I was out on my porch in middle of the jungle-
or bush as they call it in Africa. It seems that a jungle is densely giant trees
and vegetation, whereas the “Bush” is merely an uninhabited large area of
smaller and less dense trees, shrubs and bushes. About 1/3 of the land of the world
is forest, Bush and jungle. But for a city guy like myself, and most of you as
well if there’s no one there and there’s lots of wild animals we’ve only seen or
that belong in a zoo, it’s a Jungle. It’s what my father calls New York, by the
way.
But it wasn’t the amazing animals that we saw on
our Safari. It wasn’t the incredible wonder of Victoria Falls, the largest
downpour of water in the world. It wasn’t Table Mountain standing at the edge
of the cliff of Cape Town above the clouds looking down over gorgeous Ocean below
us. It wasn’t the crocodiles, hippos and water buffalos on our water cruise or
the giraffes we fed in the wild while impalas and Zebras frolicked around us.
Forget about the elephants, hyenas and leopards. They were all amazing and
wonderous. Ma Rabu truly. (Wait until you hear the latest song that I composed
while I experienced all of that…coming soon after Lag Ba’Omer). Yet it was that
morning out in the Bush in Krueger before sunrise outside our more rustic tents
while everyone was sleeping and I was sipping my coffee that most touched by
soul.
The world was perfect. It was rising. It was
being born anew. I heard in my head that “Waaaa Falenya… “Circle of Life-
Lion King” song playing in my head. The crickets, the small creatures, the
birds chirping, the predators returning after their nights hunt and the jungle just
awakening to a new day. It was the pristine natural world, and I was just
sitting there on my porch watching it all come together. It was perfect. It was
creation. It was sitting next to Hashem and experiencing Him sitting next to me
in that seat- just as I sat with my children the previous day in our Safari
jeep, shepping so much nachas at the sites and world I was
showing them. It was so holy. It was Yom Kippur in the Holy of Holies. It was
just the two of us together. Me and my Father in Shamayim. I didn’t want
it to end. I could have sat there forever…
It’s taken me a long time to write this next
paragraph. I didn’t want to leave the last one. But I have to write this E-Mail.
I have to find something that I can write and share with you that will inspire
you and even connect it to the Parsha. But the truth is words can never adequately
describe or make any more inspirational that moment there in the Jungle. Just
as text can never describe the music and magic of a beautiful song, harmony or
full orchestra. It’s a different sphere of experience. It’s separate. It’s
holy. It’s beyond words and letters. It’s the soul. It’s Hashem.
Fortunately, this week’s Parsha is actually
about precisely those emotions, that experience and that holiness that I’ve
just described. Yet fascinatingly enough it seems to be described and we are
told repeatedly is achievable in what feels like a counterintuitive process.
This week we read two parshiyot that often go hand in hand. We have Parshat Acharey
Mos which begins with the Temple service that is done on Yom Kippur by the High
Priest. The Parsha concludes then with the laws of all of the forbidden and
incestual relationships that we are meant to avoid.
The second Parsha we read appropriately titled
Kedoshim- Holy seems to run the whole spectrum of various and even unrelated
commandments. With 51 Mitzvos, 38 negative and 13 positive ones, it’s almost
ten percent of all of the mitzvos in the Torah. The Mitzvos touch on relations
between man and his fellow man, loving and rebuking one’s friends and judging
favorably and behaving honestly in business. It contains agricultural mitzvos of
the land of Israel and maintaining its crops. And it has laws relating to our relationship
with Hashem and prohibitions of idolatry of sorts and the awe of the Temple and
Shabbos. It’s all over the map.
You know how I said previously that words
detract from the spiritual description of what I felt that morning in Africa. Well,
that idea is only compounded when I think about how we feel about Yom Kippur or
being holy in general. When we think about the sanctity and purity or holiness
of Yom Kippur is the first thought that crosses your mind slaughtering animals?
Goat lotteries that get thrown off cliffs? Blood sprinklings, incest burning, clothing
changes and repeated Mikva dips?
If I asked you to describe me what a holy person
is do you think anyone would describe it as someone who doesn’t have marital relations
with a cow? With his sister or mother-in-law? Would it be someone who doesn’t
curse his parents? Someone who doesn’t sacrifice his child in fire, worship idols
or take on foreign pagan customs? Is it a person without tatoos or unshaven sidelocks?
Is it someone who isn’t vengeful someone
who doesn’t lie, cheat, steal gossip or not pay his workers? Would even one of
those descriptions be the first that comes to your mind when you think about a
holy person? Yet that’s precisely what our parsha titled Kedoshim is all about.
Perhaps the best way to really get to the crux
of this and perhaps one of the most important aspects of understanding our
entire existence is really by understanding what this idea of holiness really
is. There are two concepts that come up repeatedly in our parshiyot that to
most of us seem to be interchangeable yet in fact they are worlds apart. The
first is purity- tahara and the second is kedusha holiness. Do
they sound the same to you? What’s the difference between them?
Rav Charlap in his incredible work Mei Merom quotes
the Talmud in Nidda that tells us that when a child comes to the world he is
sworn
“Know that Hashem is pure and His servants
are pure and the soul inside of you is pure- if you will keep it pure it is
good”.
He points out that the idea of kedusha-
holiness is not mentioned at this point. His explanation is that purity-tahara
is only a concept when there is impurity to differentiate and contrast it
against. Kedusha- holiness though, is an encompassing reality of the
universe in which only Hashem’s presence is realized, and impurity doesn’t exist
at all. Everything is holy. It’s all and only Hashem.
Before a soul enters the body, it is only pure.
This stands opposed to the mortal and finite body which is impure. It is only
when the pure neshoma enters the body that holiness can be achieved by uplifting
the body and transforming it with that pure soul into something divine and
eternal. It is the reason, as well that a fundamental part of Jewish belief is
the resurrection of the dead body. For in life and through our mitzvos and the
experience of the soul with the body the physical body has become holy and
eternal as well. It’s no longer impure. It’s kadosh. It’s as eternal as
the soul. It’s as holy as Hashem is.
The Zohar Ha’Kadosh reveals to us that the first
verse of our Parsha ‘Kedoshim tihiyu’ should not be understood as it
commonly is, as a commandment to be holy. For if so, it should say ‘yihiyu’.
Rather ‘tihiyu ‘is a ‘havtacha’- it is a promise and a
description. We will be holy. We are inherently and at our core holy
and should maintain that holiness. We should let it shine and naturally reveal
itself. The centerpiece of our davening each day is the Shemona Esrei, and
the center of that as well is the Kedusha prayer recited in the prayer
of the holiness of Hashem.
Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh- Holy! Holy! Holy!
Melo Kol Ha’Aretz Kevodo- the entire world is filled with His glory.
The angels wait for one another to make this
declaration. Even more amazing is that they wait for us to recite this first
each day. For it is only we who are in mortal bodies that can begin the process
of uplifting and transforming the physical world where Hashem and His holiness
is hidden, into a holy one.
Do you know what was so holy about that jungle morning?
It’s that there is a sense that the world is perfect as created. It’s that
Hashem’s glory is all around me. I only feel and see him. It’s the barest most
natural and untainted state of the world. It’s the garden of Eden and I was
like Adam Ha’Rishon walking with Hashem in it. Sipping my coffees to be more
precise.
That sense of holiness the Torah tells us is
what is meant to be found inside of us always. It is there. The problem is that
there is too much impurity that is preventing it from shining out. There’s blockage.
Tumah. It’s hiddenness. It’s shmutz on our glasses or camera lens.
It’s smashed moths on our windshields. The pure view that our never tainted
neshoma has, can’t shine out to see the holiness in the rest of the world. So
we have to clean it first. We have to get out to the pristine jungle without
any electricity and buildings and noise. We have to look at the stars and the
sky and the moon without the any “light pollution” and then Hashem’s kedusha
will shine out to us. Then our neshoma sees it all. The tumah has
all disappeared. Malah Ha’Aretz Kivodo- the world is only filled with
His Glory.
Acharey Mos, Yom Kippur begins with getting rid
of that tumah. It’s not about holiness yet. It’s killing the goats. It’s
sprinkling the blood. It’s chucking it all off the mountain. It’s getting clean
and then finally entering that Holy of Holies. When the Kohen Gadol, who
represents all of us comes out of there, that holiness and purity to change the
world and cleanse it comes out with him to all of us. Now we just have to let
it shine naturally. We need to keep our windshield clean. We need to make sure
that our natural physical desires are tuned into that correct channel by not
distorting them. We need to marry the person that will be connected to because holiness
first and foremost happens in that wedded state where the two souls become one
and build a home together.
The Sefat Emes notes that whenever we preform a
mitzva the blessing we say is asher kidishanu b’mitzvosuv- He
sanctifies us with His commandments. The word ‘Kidishanu’ doesn’t only
mean sanctify us, but rather it can also mean that He marries us with His
commandments. Hashem becomes betrothed to us again and again and again. Each
mitzva deepening and furthering the level of our relationship with Him. With
every act we shine the beauty of the holiness of Hashem within us out to the
rest of the world. We fill it with His glory. He compares it to a gift. When
one gives a gift to a friend there is two things that happen. There is the
actual gift that we receive and there is the love and emotion behind that gift
that is even more significant; that is really the crux of it all.
Asher Kidishanu- that is the love and the holiness. V’tzivanu
is the mitzva, is the connector, is the gift that brings that love out and
brings us together.
Being holy doesn’t mean doing anything more than
getting away from all the things that prevent the natural holiness from shining
out. We recite the word Kadosh three times as there are three planes of
existence. There is time, place and the soul- A’Sha’N -Olam, Shana and Nefesh.
In the sphere of time that holiness is our Shabbos. It is the day without any
distractions. It is all holy. Don’t taint it. Let the holiness of it shine out.
In Nefesh. It means not hating. It means
not being vengeful and not speaking gossip. It is not having idolsnor feeling
the need to alter one’s body. It means not only loving and seeing the holiness
in every Jew and human but rebuking them and bringing them close to the truth
and uniting us all together.
In place there is Eretz Yisrael, our holy land. We
shine its holiness by not thinking its ours. We leave parts of the fields for
the poor, we don’t distort and intermingle our crops. Let the kedusha of the
land shine out. Even more so it is the Bais Ha’Mikdash. It is the palace of the
King. It’s the place where we come to see Him three times a year. It is where
we come close to Him. It’s the source of where all of the holiness of the world
will shine forth from.
One of the jarring fascinating things that
continuously struck me when I was in Chutz La’Aretz- as I am saying
Kaddish currently for a neighbor of mine that passed away and had no one to
recite it for him, is that there is an additional word in Kaddish that you only
recite in Israel. In the Rabbinic Kaddish in the diaspora when we ask for
blessing for all of Israel and its Rabbis and studiers of the Torah we say ‘B’Asra
Ha’dein’- in this land. In Israel though we add in the additional word of ‘Asra
Kadisha Hadein- this holy land. As I said
Kaddish here I always felt that the reason for this addition was to remind me
that Israel is a holy place and different than everywhere else. Yet upon my trip
there something else became clear to me. The opposite effect actually happened.
As the words started to roll off my tongue- as my kaddishes are usually on
cruise control and by rote, I had to stop myself and catch myself from saying the
word “Kadisha”. I wasn’t in a holy land. I was in Africa. There is only
one holy land. And as beautiful and remarkable and as awesome and even as a
spiritual as it felt, it still wasn’t holy. I wasn’t in an Asra Kadisha.
The world will only be malah ha’aretz kivodo-
filled with the glory of Hashem, when all of Israel is here together shining
out that kedusha from its source. When every last piece of our national
body is together as one in wedded harmony fulfilling our mitzvos here and celebrating
our Shabbos here. When our Father is in his House together with us. When just
as we were by Sinai, we are Ish Echad B’Leiv Echad. We are all one.
Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh- The Magid teaches us is Israel, Hashem and the
Torah. That is the light we are waiting for. The period of Omer when we count
to that moment on Sinai when that once happened is the time when we long to
once again experience that. It’s the day and the beautiful morning when the whole
world will soon experience that ultimate holy serenity.
Have a serene and wild Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Es iz
nit azoi tei’er der geshank vi der gedank.” - The gift is not as precious as the thought
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
19) The
ancient period in which the "Agricultural Revolution" took place is
called:
Among the
following periods, which is the earliest?
a) Iron I
b) The
Chalcolithic
c) The
Paleolithic
d) Early
Bronze I
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tQGfoyZcnw
-
Sefira Acapella time of year- Baruch Levine’s Beautiful new Yehi Ratzon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4lnqE93w84
-Benny Friedmans Latest Acapella incredible original
words for Siyum Ha’Rambam of Messianic times… beautiful…U’Voso Ha’Zman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy-PFu1feJ8
– Joey Newcomb’s Acapella for
Hatzala museum- Mi Shoamar Dai- nice but I still like SYR’s version better of
these words..
feast!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhBwBSoeTr4
– Cool
Reb Shaya Ben Reb Moshe Sand art song and video… Cool!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Floating Metal- 680
BC- With
Geichazi the Metzora (this week’s parsha) being sent away, it seems that
Elisha’s yeshiva went up in popularity. Lots of prophet students gathered to
Elisha to study by him. It seems the Yehsiva was bursting at it’s seams to the
point where the students approached
Elisha and asked to begin an expansion campaign to build a wider
facility near the Jordan River. Elisha acquiesced and the campaign began.
Now back then an expansion campaign wasn’t about fund-raising or
Charidy campaigns. It meant that the students actually did the work of chopping
down trees and building the new structure. Not having much money, the even
borrowed the tools to chop down the wood. And
wouldn’t you know it? Lo and Behold one of the students- who it seems
was a bit of a shlemazel knocked off the bladed of his Axe and it went down
down down the Jordan River. Now, I take tourists all summer long rafting down
the Jordan- and yes, where I do it is the Upper Jordan River. I can tell you
that it was more than a few times that they’ve lost glasses, water bottles,
goggles, slippers or Crocs down the river. When that happens, you pretty much
give up hope- although I’ve had some that have found them. But only by diving
in immediately. The Jordan River today is a about2 % of the size that it was
back then. You can imagine that there was no way you were getting that back.
I’m standing today, by the Zambizei River in Zambia (I’ll tell you about that
in a future upcoming E-Mail- don’t worry). There is no way- your finding an Axe
blade that sinks in it.
Yet, if you’re a student of Elisha, you don;t
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE WILD
ANIMAL JOKES OF THE WEEK
What animal has more lives than a cat? Frogs, they croak every
night!
What did the grape say when the elephant stepped on it? It gave a
little wine.
What do you call an exploding monkey? A baboom.
Why couldn’t the leopard play hide and seek? Because he was always
spotted.
Can a kangaroo jump higher than the Empire State Building? Of
course. The Empire State Building can’t jump.
Why did the lion always lose at poker? He was playing with a bunch
of cheetahs.
What’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? One is really
heavy, and the other is a little lighter.
Yankel went on safari with his wife and mother-in-law. One evening,
while still deep in the jungle, the wife awoke to find her mother gone. Rushing
to her husband, she insisted on them both trying to find her mother. Yankel
picked up his rifle, put on his hat, and started to look for her. In a clearing
not far from the camp, they came upon a chilling sight: the mother-in-law was
backed up against a thick, impenetrable bush, and a large male lion stood
facing her. The wife cried, "What are we going to do?"
"Nothing," said Yankel. "The lion got himself into this mess,
let him get himself out of it."
Berel was a Jewish dog who went on a safari with his owner
Shemerel. One day Berel the dog starts
chasing butterflies and before long he discovers that he is lost. So, wandering
about he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the obvious
intention of having lunch.
The dog thinks, "Uh Oh, I'm in trouble now”. Then he noticed
some bones on the ground close by, and immediately settles down to chew on the
bones with his back to the approaching cat.
Just as the leopard is about to leap, the dog exclaims loudly,
"Man, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more
around here?"
Hearing this the leopard halts his attack in mid stride, as a look
of terror comes over him, and slinks away into the trees. "Whew",
says the leopard. "That was close. That dog nearly had me."
Meanwhile, a Achmed the monkey who had been watching the whole
scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and
trade it for protection from the leopard. So, off he goes. But the dog saw him
heading after the leopard with great speed and figured that something must be
up.
The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and
strikes a deal for himself with the leopard. The cat is furious at being made a
fool of and says, "Here monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to
happen to that conniving canine."
When Berel saw the leopard coming toward him with the monkey on its
back, he thought to himself, "What am I going to do now?" But instead
of running, the dog sat down with his back to his attackers pretending he
hasn't seen them yet. And just when they got close enough to hear, the dog
says, "Where's that monkey, Achmed,. I can never trust him. I sent him off
half an hour ago to bring me another leopard, and he's still not back!!"
********************************
The answer to this week”s question is C –Ancient civilizations or what is known as pre-history was never one
of my strong points. I probably would’ve known this answer 12 years ago when I
studied for my exam, but that information which I never use in my guiding
really has long been deleted from my limited brain space. I have to leave room
for where the latest kosher restartaunts are. So when I looked up the answer I
remembered that it was in fact called the Neolithic or New stone age which was
the agricultural revolution. Scientists put that about 10,000 years ago. We of
course know that started with Noach only about 5000 or so years ago. As far as
part two I got that right. Calcolithic I knew was copper age. And stone is
first so Paleolithic is way before the Iron Bornze or copper and that of course
is the right answer So I got this one half
wrong or half right depending on how you want to look at it. So that makes the
score as of now 15 for Schwartz and 4
for Ministry of tourism on this exam so far…
