Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
April 25th 2012 -Volume 2, Issue 25 –3rd of Iyar 5772
Parshat
Acharei Mos/ Kedoshim
May
Their Memory be Baruch (blessed)
One by one the cars pulled over to the side of the road.
Many people get out of their cars and stand next to them in silence. It is 8:00
PM on Yom Hazikaron- Israel’s memorial day and I pull over as well. The radio station I had
been listening to begins to recite psalms. Tehillim as a merit and in honor of
the soldiers who perished in all of Israels wars and its civilian victims of
terror. I listen to the numbers. 22,993 soldiers- 126 this past year alone,
2,477 innocent civilians, 10, 524, bereaved families, 4,992 widows and 2,396
orphans. That we know the exact number of each one and name is incredible. But
even more touching and truly heart-wrenching is to hear the audio-biographies
and memories of the loved ones that have been carved in my brain and heart as I
listen to their stories as I drive home.
“Yishai was just a boy. He loved nature and animals. There
was nothing he loved more then hiking through the hills and streams of the
galile. I spoke to him at 7:16 PM and promised to cook him his favorite supper
when he came home the next day. At 7:33
august 2006 we were told he was killed in Lebanon. Until today whenever
I make that special rice stew I cry.”
“As I was sitting Shiva for my son Ilan, I went into the
next room and put on some classical music and closed my eyes and imagined it
was just the two of us sailing in our boat that he loved so much. I felt him
next to me, smiling… laughing…I felt him there with me. I miss him so much.”
“My husband Yoram was so brave. Me? I am a scaredy cat.
Maybe that was what attracted me to him. Whenever he would go out on Miluim I
wouldn’t sleep. He would call me each night and reassure me. I still here his
voice. ‘Don’t worry Danya, I won’t leave you alone’…Our boys are just like
their father. The oldest one remembers him and now serves in the same brigade
he did. He calls me as well. And when he does I pretend I am hearing Yoram
again. ‘Everything will be alright…I will come home soon…”
In America Memorial Day was never somber. Sure we know that
Soldiers died in wars and we should remember them. But the majority of the
country went shopping or to the beach. In Israel it is personal. It is real. I
have often noted how unique it is to Israel that when one goes to the graves of
our sages and other holy sites to pray one can find an inordinate amount of
secular Jews there davening/praying- places that in America one can’t possibly
imaging the average secular Jews frequenting. Yet here it is different. For the
prayers that are said by these sites are of mothers, fathers, brothers and
children who have family serving in the army, perhaps on the front lines or in
Gaza. They are prayers of families of soldiers to Hashem that their boys/men
don’t become a number.
This weeks Torah portion of Achareis Mos-Kedoshim begins
with the statement
“And Hashem spoke to Moshe after the deaths of the sons of
Aharon when they came close before Hashem and they died.”
The commentaries note they seemingly needless repetition of
the fact that they died; being that it already says a few words earlier that
Hashem was speaking after their deaths. The previous Rebbe of Lubavitch
comments that what the Torah is emphasizing in this statement is that the deaths
of the sons of Aharon was because they
were not able to complete the process of bringing that inspiration of drawing
near to Hashem to its completion. ‘And they died-’ their lives of
connection didn’t bring the fruits in this world that they were meant to have
been.
I recently read a beautiful story from Yitta Halberstam’s
book small miracles of the Holocaust (now on aish.com). Its message is one of
death that bore fruit. The chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yonah Metzger noted how
that one an Israeli soldier is killed the traditional Tahara (the body
purification ritual) is not performed
for those that fall and give up their lives for the sake of the protection of
the Jewish People and because they are Jews. They are already pure. They are
holy sacrifices whose death have meaning before Hashem and on behalf of the
Jewish people.
I share with you the story of Baruch Shapiro…
Chaim Shapiro went through the seven levels of hell. He
survived four concentration camps not to mention the ghetto and forced marches.
He began the War with eight children and a wonderful wife, and in a little over
a year, he lost his wife and seven of his children, without ever having the
chance to even sit shiva.
He was finally liberated from Buchenwald with his only
surviving son Baruch and they wallowed in the DP camps for nearly three years
until finally, in 1948, they found place aboard an immigrant ship and arrived
in Israel a week later.
Israel, in the midst of the War of Independence, was
fighting a desperate battle for survival against overwhelming odds, so Baruch
Shapiro volunteered to fight. With no previous training, he was taken to a
ravine, handed a rifle, taught how to shoot a few bullets, and sent off to war.
Meanwhile, with the stipend that he received from the Jewish Agency, his father
Chaim rented a small apartment outside Tel Aviv.
Baruch Shapiro distinguished himself in battle. As part of
the Harel Brigade fighting under Yitzhak Rabin to break the Arab siege on
Jerusalem, Baruch received a field commission as an officer and was awarded a
medal for bravery under fire.
And then, one day, as Chaim Shapiro was sitting in his tiny
living room in Tel Aviv, he glanced out the window and saw one of those
terrible delegations heading up the path to his apartment.
They say that Chaim Shapiro opened the door before they
knocked, and they say that he never even read the telegram, just crumpled it
over and over in his hands....
When a soldier in Israel is killed, the army takes care of
everything, including the funeral arrangements. Chaim Shapiro had only one
request: he wanted his son who had died fighting for Jerusalem to at least be
buried in Jerusalem, on Mount Herzl, the National Military cemetery.
The next afternoon hundreds of mourners gathered at Mount
Herzl. Most of them had never known Baruch Shapiro or his father Chaim, but
they had heard of the terrible tragedy and wanted to pay their respects. After
all, what Hitler had not finished in the crematoria had ended at the hands of
an Arab bullet; this was the last Shapiro son; the end of a line.
Yigal Yadin himself, the IDF Chief of Staff (who would
later discover Massada) stood by Chaim Shapiro's side.
And as the coffin was being lowered into the ground, Chaim
Shapiro began to sing.
People thought he had lost it; Yadin put his arm around
Chaim's shoulders and someone ran to get him some water. But he shrugged them
all off, and again, began to sing. People had no idea what to make of it, so
finally Chaim Shapiro looked at them and said:
"You know, I have been through a hell the likes of
which most people cannot imagine; I lost over seventy relatives in a little
over a year, including seven children, my wife and parents. I have no place to
mourn them, no grave; they are ashes in the skies over Europe, and I have no
idea why they had to die.
"But this son, at least this son, I know why he
died. He died so we could have a home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel,
and he has a grave, here on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. And that is not a reason
to cry, it is a reason to sing."
When Chaim Shapiro finished speaking, he began to sing once
more, and grabbing people's hands, to dance.
And as the flag-draped coffin of Baruch Shapiro was lowered
into the ground, three hundred mourners began to sing and to dance against the
setting sun of the Jerusalem sky...
The next time you visit Israel, go to Mount Herzl, Israel's
National Military Cemetery, her Arlington. And when you walk through the wide
stone gates, walk up and then down to the right where the graves from 1948 lie,
and you will find the lonely grave of one Baruch Shapiro. Close your eyes
there, and you will understand perhaps, why the Jewish people will never be destroyed.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Have a meaningful day, a festive Yom Ha’atzmaut and a
spectacular Shabbos
Rabbi
Ephraim Schwartz
RABBI SCHWARTZ COOL PLACE IN ISRAEL OF THE
WEEK!!
YOUTUBE CLICK first this could be you or
donate above…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIbEHwNA3ik
Army base in the Golan
with chaylim this yom ha’atzamut!!-
Hello all,
This Thursday, bring a warm family experience to our chayalim that are
remaining on their base on Israel Independence Day. The Young Israel of
Karmiel together with the international Young Israel movement and Standing Together would like to invite families in the North for a meaningful Yom Ha'atzmaut opportunity. At 10:30 am we are invited with our families to an army base in the Golan to bring cheer and support for our troops and to give the soldiers stickers of support. We are asked to bring bags of snacks and sodas as well, if we can. The above organizations have sponsored the burgers and franks for the soldiers and we can assist in the
preparation and mangal- BBQ.
This Thursday, bring a warm family experience to our chayalim that are
remaining on their base on Israel Independence Day. The Young Israel of
Karmiel together with the international Young Israel movement and Standing Together would like to invite families in the North for a meaningful Yom Ha'atzmaut opportunity. At 10:30 am we are invited with our families to an army base in the Golan to bring cheer and support for our troops and to give the soldiers stickers of support. We are asked to bring bags of snacks and sodas as well, if we can. The above organizations have sponsored the burgers and franks for the soldiers and we can assist in the
preparation and mangal- BBQ.
Please note that there is a limited amount of meat so families that wish to
join in the eating should bring their own grill and meat.
If you are interested in joining please contact Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
Via email Rabbschwartz@ yahoo.com
Or preferably by phone at 050-597-0649
Thanks so much and have a happy Yom Ha'atzmaut!
RABBI SCHWARTZ FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Talmud Bava Basra 10b
*************************
Rabbi Schwartzes YouTube Yom Ha’zikaron clip of the week
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oFt3El4qf0
