Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
April 7th 2017 -Volume 7 Issue 25 4th
Nissan 5777
Parshat Tzav-HaGadol/ Pesach
Edition
Imaginary Worlds
It would have been nice to wake up to
an imaginary world this morning. I lay in bed thinking about it. In this world,
our house would have been cleaned already for Pesach. I would have had a check
next to the hundred things my wife had on my list for me to do. All our
shopping would have been done. The dishes are all tovieled (that’s the act of sticking new dishes and
utensils in the Mikva before using them) and put away. The Chametz dishes are
gone. The car is clean. I can even smell our Kosher for Passover Shabbat meal
starting to cook in our already Kosher for Passover kitchen- is there anybody
that has the guts to have a non-kosher for Pesach home our chulent this week.
If so invite me over for some real chulent J. The Table is even set
for the Seder. I can just sit down and open up my Haggadah and start preparing
for the Seder.
“EPHRAAAYIIIIM!!! WHERE ARE
YOOOOUUU?? IT’S EREV PESACH, LET’S GO!”
Back to reality….sigh…
Yeah there is no imaginary world.
Right? I don’t know, take a little bit of the world we are living in today. How
much of it is real. Everyone I know has imaginary “friends” that “like” or
“unlike” things about them in a virtual world. The entire world is connected
all day and night to these little electronic devices that beep them things that
are happening all around the world. We communicate via little things that we
type into these little devices and the things that we write on them literally
run the entire world. Hundreds of millions of dollars exchange hands via the
few words that we type. Well not what I type, but other people, I exchange a
few shekels and E-Mails sponsor donations. Relations can be made and broken
via a few texts. The President of the
United States can and might even practically declare World War or Peace with
the 140 allotted characters of a “tweet”. A “tweet” can bring down world
markets, can get the entire world media sending off tweets of their own, can
literally change regimes. And in the real world nothing has changed. Just a few
taps on a screen. What makes this a real world?
I hate to sound like an old fogey,
I’m not, despite what my kids think. But there was a time when we had to write
letters to communicate with people. When we had to switch tapes or CD’s to
listen to music. When friends were people who we were there for, who we spent
time with who we enjoyed each others company and space with. Going to work
meant actually doing precisely that not just sitting in front of a screen and
tapping away. We carried around money to pay for things, if we didn’t have any
we didn’t buy it. We thought twice about wasting film when we took pictures.
And when we developed them and got them back it was really exciting to see
them. We would think about who to send them out to, who to share them with. It
was a different world. It felt more real.
Now the truth is to be fair, my
grandparents probably would tell me about entirely different world. One where
you didn’t drive everywhere. One where work meant manual labor. Where there was
not even time for a notion called entertainment, or energy for that matter. It
was a time when a chocolate bar was a luxury for a birthday present. Friends
were people that you ran with, jumped and rode with and even worked with. World
leaders were people that had earned that right and were respected, authority
was respected. People had a different sense of respect for themselves, for the
way they presented themselves, the clothing they wore, the way that they spoke.
The things that a decent person wouldn’t talk about because it was
inappropriate. I was a 70’s-80’s child and it was an entirely different world
then what my grandparents less than year prior had experienced in their world.
If someone would have described my world to them they would have thought it
ridiculous. Imaginary. The same way that I think anyone of my generation if
they actually stopped and though about it would think about today’s world. What
will tomorrow’s look like?
Virtual friends, disposable houses,
driverless cars, no more shopping stores- as everything is drone-delivered to
your house, ordered online by just opening your fridge and talking into some
headset. There will no longer be any written media or books, they will have
gone the way of 8 Track tapes and record players. There will be no more news
outlets as we will automatically be updated regularly of what we want to know
as it happens. Food will cook itself or 3D bake itself, even chulent. There
pretty much won’t be any sickness as all organs will be able to be reproduced,
probably by popping a pill or two. The state of marriage or relationships or
entertainment I don’t even want to think about. But we are not on a pretty
trajectory. Sounds crazy and imaginary? I’m not sure. One thing is certain. It
will be a very different world than what we are living in.
Why do I ponder all this now? Because
we are getting ready for Pesach and it will be a night to imagine ourselves in
two different worlds. Not just imagine but actually feel, understand and even
experience and taste each of those worlds. Literally taste them. The first
world with the Matzah and Marror and the second world with the Matza and wine
and reclining. The world of slavery and the world of freedom. The world that
literally changed for us over night pretty much. That will change for us in our
seder night. That’s what Pesach is all
about. In fact it’s why it’s called Pesach. To skip-over, which you have to
admit is probably the strangest name for a holiday. Seemingly it’s a minor
detail that Hashem skipped over the house of the Egyptian and saved our
first-borns. But the truth is that in that moment, the entire world changed. The
world skipped from a world before the Jewish nation as the first-born
connectors to our Father in Heaven, to a world that would be led and guided by
our nation. It would be a world that would forever have us as their conscience,
as their soul, as their compass and as their light. One skip of a door-post and
it changed. There would now be a voice in the world that would decry slavery
and the subjugation of another human being. There would now be a people that
would charged with pushing mankind to make a better world, to recognize its
Creator, that would shatter the pagan and hedonistic idols and lifestyles and
lead the world to its ultimate created purpose. That’s what we do on Pesach.
It’s what we remember happened and can and will happen once again. In a hop,
skip and a jump. With one tweet, for those that are skeptical.
The world is moving so fast, changing
for better and for worse so fast. Pesach is the night for us all to get on the
train, to get in our rightful conductor’s seat and start riding it in the right
direction. It is amazing when you think about what we do to prepare our house
for this holiday. Less than a month ago, on Purim our house was full of nosh,
snacks, cakes and Hamantash. Our kids hid their little nosh things all over the
house. If someone would tell us that in one month, there wouldn’t be a crumb
left in our house. That it would be spotless eat off the floor clean. That we
would go a week straight eating three meals a day, big meals without one bit of
Chametz, that our fridges and our cabinets would be stocked with all types of
strange potato starchy food and weird condiments if any, we would think them
insane. But yet we did it and do it every year. We transform our entire house
and lives for one week. Even the most secular Jews, at least here in Israel,
overwhelmingly participate in some way in this Passover world-changing and
certainly lifestyle changing activity. Its wild, it’s amazing. It’s almost
imaginary. Now imagine if every Jew did this. Imagine if every Jew lived in
Israel, where we are supposed to live. Imagine if we were all heading to
Jerusalem to eat our Pesach Sacrifice BBQ and visit our Beit Hamikdash. How
unreal does that seem. More or less unreal than you think our world might’ve
looked to your grandparents? Or how our grandchildren’s world might look to us?
Yes it might seem imaginary, but on
Pessach we realize and remember how imaginary and unreal the world of a
destroyed Egypt, a humbled Pharaoh and how a nation, persecuted for centuries,
of slaves were within one night redeemed, became fabulously wealthy and stood
at the foot of Sinai and witnessed and heard Hashem speak to us. How in one
night a people that were on the 49th level of impurity, of
assimilation, of idol-worshippers, were able to find the strength to turn it
all around. How we slaughtered the sheep, that symbol of the lives before and
put that blood on our doorposts, declaring we are the first-borns of God.
This Shabbos is Shabbos HaGadol. It
is the day and the Shabbos is that is bigger than any other. When something is
big it stands above everything else around it. Picture all the Shabboses of the
year in a line, or on a calendar. This one stands above the rest. This one is
in bold letters. BIG BOLD CAPPED LETTERS. Its
different, it’s a new world it’s a world and a Shabbos that we recognize has
the power to change the entire world, just as we’ve changed and cleaned our
house. Just as we are getting ready to make our Seder, to sit with our family,
to tell our seder and to skip between worlds. Not between imaginary worlds but
to the realest world. The world that Hashem has been waiting for since the
Beginning to see us realize. It will be the ultimate and only real world.
Have a huuuuuge Shabbos Ha’Gadol and Chag
Kasher V’Samayach
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
*************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S
FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Zingen ken ich nit, ober a maiven bin ich”.- I can’t sing, but I’m
an expert on it
choice RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL VIDEOS OF THE
WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/eliyahu-hanavi
– In honor of Pesach my latest composition hot
off the press..ELIYAHO…YAHOO… HANAVEEEE * warning this song is addictive and
you will sing it by your seder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Ng9-MZoxg
– Shlomo Katz Eliyahu Hanavi also an amazing version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8c-iuwpkD0
-My absolutely favorite Pesach song from Rav Nachman Seltzer and
Shira Chadasha choir! Chasal Siddur Pesach, beautiful
https://youtu.be/5kgbRusmqjs –Awesomely cool Korban Pesach reenactment of Temple institute. Wow!
Can’t wait to do it..
https://youtu.be/rO7MdSIk_uc
- Annual Technion Pesach story in one minute cool!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR
GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
Q The remains of a 19th century winery were
discovered in Tel-Aviv in:
A. The Tel-Aviv Port
B. Neve Tzedek
C. The Train Station Compound
D. Sarona
A. The Tel-Aviv Port
B. Neve Tzedek
C. The Train Station Compound
D. Sarona
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ILLUMINATING RASHI OF THE
WEEK
You know that famous story or line about that
man that asks his Rabbi why God didn’t answer his prayers. The Rabbi tells him
that Hashem did answer. “No” is also an answer. Well this week we learn another
lesson from Rashi, about another unlikely answer. It’s one that Rashi teaches
us numerous times in the Torah. “I don’t know” is also an answer.
At the end of this week’s Torah portion a week
before the month of Nissan when the Tabernacle/ Mishkan was erected, Hashem
commands Moshe to gather all the Jews together and sanctify and dedicate Aharon
and his children and make them Kohanim. For most of us that’s pretty much all
we can absorb and care about in the reading. But as we know Rashi is a details
person. Each word counts. He notices that as the Torah describes the ceremony
with Moshe pouring anointment oil all over them, the Torah says
Vayikra
(8:11) And he sprinkles from it (the oil) 7 times upon the Altar
OK, no big deal. Right? Wrong.
Rashi
says- “I don’t know where Moshe was commanded about these sprinkles”
I promise you if Rashi had not said anything I
wouldn’t have noticed anything. There was no reason for him to go out of his way
to tell me that he doesn’t know something. To spend time, money and ink on
letting us know that he didn’t know this one. But Rashi, the ultimate teacher
is teaching us something in this as well. “I don’t know” is also an answer.
It’s important to point out something troubling you and the text when you don’t
know something as well.
The Rama of Pano notes that this text is in
fact one of the most important texts in the Torah for it testifies to the fact
that there was an oral tradition as well as the written law. For Moshe a few
verses back (8:5) states that “This is what Hashem has commanded to be
done.” And since it does not say this commandment anywhere, this verse
becomes the ultimate proof that there was an oral command that wasn’t recorded
in the written Torah which we have through tradition.
It is precisely that which Rashi is noting for
us. Hey, there’s no command for this? I don’t know any at least… So what does
it mean that this was commanded? It must be there is an oral tradition.” See
what one simple humble “I don’t know” can lead to. One of the thirteen primary
principles of faith.
An important lesson for us to have the week
before the night of questions from our children and family. We don’t
necessarily have to have an explanation for everything that is asked of us. But
we need an answer. And “I don’t know” is a perfectly legitimate one.
Even ask Rashi.
Rabbi Menachem Azariah( The
RaMA) of Pano (1548-1620) – Rabbi
Menachem Azariah was one of the outstanding rabbis
and poskim of his time but he is even more well-known as one of the
leading Kabbalists. During the lifetime of Rabbi Menachem Azariah, which was
about three hundred years after the Zohar appeared, Kabbalah was
studied and taught by a school of Kabbalists in Safed in the Holy Land, It was
no small accomplishment to be an outstanding personality at a time when such
great names became famous in Jewish life.
Rabbi Menachem Azariah's teacher was
Rabbi Ezra de Fano, the Chief Rabbi of Mantua, who had gained fame as
a great Kabbalist. Like his teacher, Rabbi Menachem Azariah became a devoted
follower of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (the Ramak), whose teachings and
writings had blazed a new path in the study of the Kabbalah. Later on, Rabbi
Menachem Azariah studied Kabbalah under Rabbi Israel Saruck, who came to
Italy to teach the Ari's system of Kabbalah and he became an ardent follower of
the Ari. He considered the Ari's system to be a further development of Rabbi
Moshe Cordevero's system. He wrote an important work called Asarah
Maamaroth ("Ten Statements") based on the Ari's Kabbalah. This
work was published in Venice in 1597.
Altogether, including the ten
of Asarah Maamaroth, we know of twenty-four Kabbalistic treatises
authored by Rabbi Menachem Azariah. The following deserve special
mention: Yonas Illem, Maayan Ganim, Kanfei Yonah.
Rabbi Menachem Azariah was not only a
great Kabbalist but also a great Talmudist and posek. For a time, he was
the head of the yeshivah in the Italian city of Reggio and many
scholarly young men flocked to study under him. Later he was elected Rabbi in
the famous Jewish community of Mantua. He received letters from near and far
soliciting his opinions on legal matters. His Responsa were later published.
He also wrote Alfasi Zuta ("Small Alfas"), an abridged
form of the great Talmudic compendium, the Alfas, by Rabbi Isaac from
Fez (the Rif).
Despite his preoccupation with his
studies, his teaching and his writing, Rabbi Menachem Azariah de Fano was a man
of extraordinary humility and he was most generous with his wealth. Beside the
large sums he spent to publish the writings of the great masters of the
Kabbalah, when he was a young man of twenty-six years of age,
Rabbi Joseph Karo entrusted him with the printing and editing of his
work, the Kesef Mishneh, a commentary on the Mishneh
Torah of Maimonides, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Rambam).
The Kesef Mishneh was first printed in Venice in 5334 (1574). Rabbi
Joseph Karo sent it to him to have it printed in Mantua.
Rabbi Menachem Azariah was a man of
noble character, of unusual modesty and charitableness. He never sought honor
and did not get involved in any heated controversy with anyone who disagreed
with his views. He took a keen interest in communal affairs and rendered
valuable service to various Jewish communities in Italy, where his authority
was widely recognized. He instituted certain regulations in regard to the daily
prayers, especially insofar as the nusach is concerned, and it was he
who introduced the custom of early rising for selichos. This custom
started in Venice and later spread to other communities, including those
following the Ashkenazic order.
Rabbi Menachem Azariah died on the
4th day of Menachem Av, in the year 1620), at the age of seventy-two.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TYPES OF JEWS IN ISRAEL OF
THE WEEK
Protesters – Two identifiable features of Jews. 1) We have opinions
and 2) we don’t keep them to ourselves. There was never any question that this
was going to be a country with freedom of speech, the right to civilly express
your opinion and to gather and to protest and strike. And there are almost no
Israelis that can claim to have never been in one type of protest or another.
It’s a way of life, here. From the beginning there were protests in this
country. Whether we should be democratic, religious, socialist. Whether there
should be one, two or even three states here. Whether we should take reparation
from the Germans, And of course the famous Shabbos protests in Jerusalem. There
has not been any issue in this country that hasn’t elicited some form of
organized protest.
In the past few months alone, I can
count at least ten different protests and strikes that have wreaked havoc on
this country. From most recent and vocal crazy bored yeshiva people protesting
the army draft, to disabled people protesting lack of services, to farmers that
their crops are not being supported and taxes are too high, to defend the right
of soldiers to kill terrorists, to pray egalitarian by the Western Wall,
Ethiopians aren’t getting enough support, Communities in the West Bank shouldn’t
be knocked down, synagogues shouldn’t be. The courts strike, the train strike,
the airport and airlines strike, the garbage trucks strike….I am not
exaggerating here all of this in the past few months. And I’m sure I’m missing
a bunch.
Now most protests are peaceful, they’re
just a hassle. If you’re an American you’re not used to this, you get
frustrated and angry at this change in your life, your schedule, your plans. If
you’re angry about protesters just organize a protest against them J. Israelis are used to
this already. It’s why most of them don’t really make plans. It’s also a great
excuse to not being on time for something. “Sorry I was held up at the
protest”. It really works and is totally acceptable. The truth is is
though as much as I wished these protests would get a life and stop already and
everyone would just get along. And as much as I disagree with the majority of
the things that people are protesting...It's nice to know that the innate
spirit and sense of Jewish outrage and perceived injustice is alive and well no
matter how misdirected or distorted that may be... The greatest enemy is complacency
in my book. And if there is a soul screaming to get up and make a fuss then
there is a Jewish soul that is still alive and seeking the truest tikkun Olam
and that is a good thing.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S REALLY TERRIBLE PESACH
JOKES OF THE WEEK
(Only for those old timers like me that
remember Manishevitz, Concord Grape and Malaga days)
Pharaoh told Moses the Jews were free to leave
Egypt. So the Jews packed their carts with their belongings and tried to leave.
The problem was, with all the dead Egyptians, the funeral homes could not
handle the
demand. The end result was streets littered with coffins. With the streets impassable, the Jews couldn't get there carts out of their driveways. They complained to Moses. "We can't get out of Egypt unless you
do something about these blocked streets". Moses in turn, called out to G-d. "Lord, please do something about this coffin problem." Understand with all the commotion it was hard for G-d to hear what Moses was saying.He thought Moses said 'Coughin" and responded by turning all the wine into cough syrup. And that is why, to this day, we drink Passover wine that resembles cough syrup.
demand. The end result was streets littered with coffins. With the streets impassable, the Jews couldn't get there carts out of their driveways. They complained to Moses. "We can't get out of Egypt unless you
do something about these blocked streets". Moses in turn, called out to G-d. "Lord, please do something about this coffin problem." Understand with all the commotion it was hard for G-d to hear what Moses was saying.He thought Moses said 'Coughin" and responded by turning all the wine into cough syrup. And that is why, to this day, we drink Passover wine that resembles cough syrup.
At Passover, we read the story of Moses and
how God brought 9 plagues onto the Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And we read that
because the Pharaoh was stubborn and still wouldn’t let the Jews leave Egypt,
God had to unleash Plague number 10, despite his previous warning. This was the
death of the first-born of every Egyptian family. Only then, after this greatest
of terrors, did the Pharaoh release the Jews from slavery and let them leave
Egypt to journey to the Promised Land.
But in the face of such convincing evidence that something really bad would happen, why didn’t the Pharaoh release the Jews after the first nine plagues? It took years of research by leading Israeli scholars studying the Dead Sea Scrolls to find the answer. “The Pharaoh was still in deNile”.
But in the face of such convincing evidence that something really bad would happen, why didn’t the Pharaoh release the Jews after the first nine plagues? It took years of research by leading Israeli scholars studying the Dead Sea Scrolls to find the answer. “The Pharaoh was still in deNile”.
Did you know that the horseradish root goes back in time as far as the matzoh does? The horseradish root also crossed the Red Sea with the fleeing Israelites. The Israelites were slaves at the time and only had access to a few vegetables. The hard and woody horseradish was one of them and was a household staple.
Nearly all the fleeing Israelites took horseradish with them. Moshe and Sadie, however, while gathering up their scant belongings, found to their dismay that they had run out of horseradish. Sadie immediately sent Moshe into the field to dig up a large horseradish root to take with them. However, because it was dark and everyone was running around in panic, Moshe dug up a ginger root by mistake.
After forty years in the desert, the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land – all, that is, except Moshe and Sadie. It took them forty-one years to arrive. When asked where they had been, Sadie, now grown old, shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Moshe insisted on taking an alternate root."
And a Seder Song for you to sing
These are a few of our Passover Things
(sung to the tune of "These are a few of my favourite things")
(sung to the tune of "These are a few of my favourite things")
Cleaning and cooking and so many dishes
Out with the chametz, no pasta, no knishes
Fish that's gefillted, horseradish that stings
These are a few of our Passover things.
Matzoh and karpas and chopped up charoset
Shankbones and kiddish and yiddish neuroses
Tante who kvetches and uncle who sings
These are a few of our Passover things.
Motzi and maror and trouble with Pharoahs
Famines and locusts and slaves with wheelbarrows
Matzoh balls floating and eggshell that cling
These are a few of our Passover things.
When the plagues strike
When the lice bite
When we're feeling sad
We simply remember our Passover things
And then we don't feel so bad
Out with the chametz, no pasta, no knishes
Fish that's gefillted, horseradish that stings
These are a few of our Passover things.
Matzoh and karpas and chopped up charoset
Shankbones and kiddish and yiddish neuroses
Tante who kvetches and uncle who sings
These are a few of our Passover things.
Motzi and maror and trouble with Pharoahs
Famines and locusts and slaves with wheelbarrows
Matzoh balls floating and eggshell that cling
These are a few of our Passover things.
When the plagues strike
When the lice bite
When we're feeling sad
We simply remember our Passover things
And then we don't feel so bad
**************
Answer is D – I would’ve skipped this one had this been on my exam.
(This exam was from winter of 2015). You’re allowed to skip like 5 questions
out of 50 I believe. If pressed I
probably would have guessed the right answer. As the train and the port were
not really wine places and were at end of 19th century and early
1900’s. Neve Tzedek, the first neighborhood outside of the walls of Yaffo was
late 19th century, however it was also not really agricultural just
a nice neighborhood. Which leaves Sarona, the German Templar neighborhood which
was agricultural. But like I said I would have skipped this one, so it’s
certainly alright if you got this one wrong.
