Insights
and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
January 11th 2019 -Volume 9 Issue 15-5th
of Shevat 5779
Parshat
Bo
Galus
America
It’s It’s a big
country you have there. I just came back from my two-week family trip to the
States for my sister’s wedding. This was the longest I’ve been out of the holy
land since we moved here 8½ years ago and the first time the whole family was
back there together. I’m not the homesick type. My parents sent me to sleep
away camp when I was five years old-they wouldn’t accept me when I was four… So
that kind of cured me. But I tell you, it was rough being away from Eretz
Yisrael for so long. It really stinks in America. I don’t know how you guys do
it. Don’t you miss the holiness of our land? The beautiful mountains, valleys,
streams of Hashem’s promised country. I dunno. It was certainly not easy.
Now don’t get me
wrong, we had an amazing time. We were in Lakewood, a true city of Torah, with shuls
and batei midrash on every block. It wasn’t the Lakewood I remembered
from 25 years ago, when there was only one Kosher restaurant (R&S- best
kishka in the world) and Gelbstien’s that would sell Pizza out in the back with
the best tuna sandwiches. Now there was three pizzas in the same shopping strip
about a 15-minute drive from what was once the center of town. Yes, I ate in
all three so none would feel bad or left out. Jackson, Tom’s River places that
were out in the boondocks years ago now have large Jewish complexes and the
once simple yeshiva houses are these huge palatial Jewish mansions or estates.
My son asked me why they need such big houses here. When I took him to Gourmet
Glatt with its three aisles of herring, four counters of meat of all cuts and
cuisines and the endless rows of every type of delicacy a human could dream of-
truly what I imagine Gan Eden to look like- I explained to him, that they
needed the big houses to keep all this food in. It would never fit in our small
Israeli homes.
We then drove for Shabbos
Sheva Brachos to Detroit. Now, I lived in the States many years. I love to
drive. We used to drive to Detroit all the time. I even drove with my family
cross country for three weeks when we moved from Virginia to Seattle. But it’s
been a while. By the time we hit mid Pennsylvania after 5 hours I was wiped. I
told my kids that we could have just driven from Metulla to Eilat and we’re not
even half way there. What do they need such a big country for? We manage quite
well here with a lot less space. I know that there are a lot of gentiles that
live in America. But c’mon goyim don’t need a lot of space. How many kids do
they have anyways? I think it was the first time I ever had my wife drive
because I just needed a break. Maybe I have become an Israeli? Eich naflu
giborim-Oh how the mighty have fallen. On the way back after an amazing
Shabbos with all my old friends and family I couldn’t even make it the whole
way we stopped off in Clarion Pennsylvania for the night. I have definitely
lost my touch.
Now although for me
the highlight of trips to America is of course the restaurants. Israel is the
land of milk and honey and the best produce and vegetables in the world, but we
never got promised a country of good steaks. Certainly not Essen’s on Coney’s,
pastrami, corn beef and sino Steaks. For my wife and daughters though, they
came to shop. It was like the last day that the Jews were in Egypt in the
plague of darkness, they were hitting every place and cleaning them all out.
Now my wife had prepared for this in advance. I was only allowed to bring two
pairs of underwear and socks and one shirt on this trip because the rest of the
luggage space was already “spoken for”. We came back with 10 duffle bags. It
was like a second Aliyah. I wouldn’t say it was exactly vayinatzlu es
mitzrayim- they emptied out ‘Egypt’ the Torah tells us about. But I could
have used a few donkeys that our ancestors had for the Exodus to shlep
all this booty home.
But this trip really
got me thinking about our Exodus from Egypt. What was it really all about. Why
were we put there? Yes, we all know, the promise to Avraham by the bris bein
habesarim that we would be exiled and then inherit the land. We know that
the brothers sinned with Yosef and so we were sent down. We know that the Jews
sinned by the first Temple and the second Temple and then had to be sent out.
But what is this whole exile/ punishment thing really about. There is no nation
in the history of the world that has traveled so far and so wide across the
globe like ours has for millennia. Just when we get settled somewhere and
finally make it. Boom! We are thrown out. It generally isn’t a slow emigration
either. Usually within a very short time a country that was once teeming with
Jews is suddenly emptied and it was as if we were never there. Look around the
world through our exiles; Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, Africa, Rome, Greece,
Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe, Russia, France, it’s crazy when you think
about it. This not to mention that far out places like India, China South
America and other places that there are the ten lost tribes that have
disappeared. What is this all about?
There is an incredible
idea I heard from Rabbi Daniel Glatstien, that the Chasam Sofer notes in
various places that he received from his Rebbe the Panim Yafos. The Ohr
Hachayim Hakadosh mentions it as well and it is elaborated on by Rav Gedalyah
Shorr and the Sefas Emes. It’s deep, but in the words of the Chasam Sofer its
one of the most essential ideas in understanding the subject. Truth is it really
doesn't even make sense otherwise. The concept is that when Adam, who possessed
all the sparks and souls of holiness sinned by eating from the eitz hada’as-
the tree of knowledge, those sparks were scattered all over the world and
“captured” by the “dark side”. The role of the Jewish people is to gather all
those sparks back and bring them back to a united holy whole amongst our
nation. It is why Avraham first has to go down to Egypt to begin that work,
when his wife Sarah is captured by Pharaoh. She began the work of bringing back
those sparks. When he left the Torah tells us he went out laden with gifts-
those were sparks that he returned to the fold.
When Avraham
asked Hashem how his children will inherit the land. His intent was to ask,
that there are sparks of holiness all over the world that need to be restored.
The job in Egypt was not complete. Hashem told him his children will come down
and be exiled here and they will leave with rechush gadol- a great
bounty. The Panim Yafos, the Chasam Sofer’s rebbe notes that rechush gadol
plus 70 souls that went down is the gematria of eitz hadaas- the
tree of knowledge. The sin we are fixing. The bounty is that we will clean out
all of the sparks in Egypt. He continues and writes that we don’t eat
chametz on Pesach because the Torah says we should tell our children Baavur
zeh- because of this Hashem took us out of Egypt. Zeh in the “AT BaSh
method of calculation is the same letters as Eitz- tree. {At BaSh is the first
letter of the aleph beit is replaced with the last letter Aleph= Taf ,
Beit= Shin and so on}.
It is for this reason
Rav Gedalya Shorr notes that the Jews were sent into exile all over the world.
Each place we were exiled to our job there is to clean it out. Take all those
holy sparks back. We do that through mitzvos, through Torah study,
through drawing in the souls of the converts that have been scattered amongst
the nations. Once we finish our job, when there is nothing left, Hashem sends
out. We get chucked. We reach the peak of success and holiness, we have
uplifted the place we were sent to and "Mission Accomplished", Hashem
has them throw us out. The Chasam Sofer says that’s why the Jewish people are
told not to go back to Egypt. We finished our work there. It’s why when Pharaoh
tells Moshe that Moshe should not see his face anymore, before the final
plague, Moshe agrees and tells Pharaoh he is correct. There’s no point anymore.
I have it all.
If you ask me, I think
we emptied out all the sparks in Africa, Syria, in Persia and Babylonia and
even of Eastern Europe already. Yes, even in Uman. Russia is pretty much
cleaned out as well and they’ve got a few sparks left in the UK and few other
western countries. The US though is a pretty big country. It’s fascinating how
a lot of the old communities no longer exist. In the 1860’s The large Jewish communities
in Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi were expelled by Ulyssess Grant.
Galveston, Texas, Wichita Kansas, New Orleans, Oakland California and Newark
New Jersey all had huge Jewish communities today they are all gone. No more
sparks left. It seems that Lakewood got all its sparks out, so its movin over
to Tom’s River and Jackson and Brooklyn has Jews moving out to Mill Basin,
Sheepshead Bay and Bayswater. At least those that are not moving out to
Lakewood are.
The sparks are
finishing up. But do the people there realize it? Do they realize that their
job is almost done? That very soon like everywhere else, if history serves as
the ultimate barometer, Jews will be thrown out. I know it’s nice and cushy to
think “Never Again”, but a periphery look at our history tells us its “always
again”. That’s what Galus is all about. Does that make you feel
apprehensive? Insecure? Nervous? Well we’ve only been there a century or two.
Imagine how the Jews felt in Egypt after 400 years. In Spain for 1400 or so. Hashem
is accelerating it. We’re growing fast and furious and doing our work
incredibly in that big big country between the Pacific and Atlantic. Torah,
Kosher, Mitzvos, Outreach work, Baal Teshuvas and converts the sparks
are already gathering pretty much in and it is time very soon for those of you
still there to start getting a head start and coming home.
It’s really nothing to
be nervous about. There is no other exile after America. You are at the last
stop. There’s a few last strongholds it seems NY, NJ, California, Chicago,
Baltimore Miami are the biggies and a few more little ones. I understand you
need big houses and huge shuls to hold all of those sparks you are gathering
in. But Rav Shorrr says that the sparks at the end of days will not need Galus
to bring them home. Rather, Eretz Yisrael will serve as a powerful magnet that
all the nations will be drawn to. U’bau amim yachdov- the nations will
all come together. We had 4 million of them just visit this last year alone. My
wife took the first 10 duffle bags of the booty and clothing of the “Americans”
she still has a few more sitting there. Anyone want to bring the rest?
Have a holy,
redemptive Shabbos,
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S
FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Laig nit op oif morgen vos du kenst heint
bazorgen” Don’t put off till
tomorrow what you can do today.
RABBI SCHWARTZES COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
https://www.facebook.com/meir.kolko/videos/2255010514563048/?t=9
– Higlights of
Rivky and Luzy’s wedding (sorry only have facebook link) with my chupah song J
https://youtu.be/vmwEnzxcdy0?list=PLrNhyBkdiviMgKPseL4lT7Pdx1Y6rKeMI
–Run from the Egyptians cool!
https://youtu.be/fAF87cYHNk8 - Check out What
happens when I leave israel and pray that it should rain while I have no tours.
Awesome!! Look at the water that has returned. Keep on praying!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
Q The Jewish calendar year is based on:
A. The sun and the moon
B. The sun
C. The moon
D. None of the above is true
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS”
CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Parshat Bo– Another one of the tools in
the lamdan’s toolbox is utilizing questions which seemingly reveal
discrepancies in the text or narrative and through the questions one can reveal
the hidden idea, or the one answer that solves both problems. The more
questions that can be resolved with one answer, the better the answer is and
brings you closer to the truth.
Take
the story of the Exodus. In this week’s parsha. We are told that the Jews were
commanded to put blood on their doorposts so that the “destroyer / angel of
death will not strike their homes and kill their first-borns. Question A) Doesn’t
it tell us that Hashem is striking the first-borns, where does the angel of
death come into it? Question B) If it is Hashem, why does He need the blood to
tell, why can’t He know without the blood? A third question is the mitzvah of
pidyon Haben- redeeming the first born is mentioned in this parsha. The Torah
tells us that the reason for this mitzvah is because Hashem saved our
firstborns when He killed the Egyptians ones. Therefore they are His and we
have to redeem them. If this is the case, then why asks Rabbi Akiva Eiger, is
the law of pidyon haben only on the firstborns of the mother, in Egypt
the first born of the father (who may not have been in the first born of the
mother; eg; if the mother had a baby with someone else first) were also killed.
So why is this mitzvah of pidyon haben on these firstborns as well?
So
Rabbi Akiva Eiger, very lomdushly notes, that the first-born of the
mother was distinguishable to all. Everyone knew who that was. Therefore, they
were killed by the malach hamaves- the angel of death, the destroyer
that carried out the plague. The firstborn of the father, on the other hand,
was only known by Hashem. An angel has no way of knowing, who the father of the
baby is. So those firstborns were killed by Hashem. When it is Hashem that is
doing the killing the Jewish first-borns of the father were never in danger.
Thus the mitzvah of redeeming them never applied. They were not at risk. Hashem
knows who’s Jewish and who’s not. The blood on the doorpost was only for the
angel of Death, tasked with killing the first born of the mothers. He at a time
of wrath, can’t tell the difference between the Jewish homes and Egyptians and
therefore the blood was necessary.
Now
you see how the question + question= an answer.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S
AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Givat Ha’Areilut- Foreskin hill! 1272 BC Upon crossing the Jordan
river, the Jews headed over to Gigal to fulfill the mitzvah that they hadn’t
done in 40 years in the wilderness; circumcision- brit mila. The mitzvah
couldn’t be fulfilled in the wilderness, as it is life-threateningly dangerous
to travel within 3 days of the bris and the Jews always had to be on call to
pick up and leave. As well now that they had to cross into the land and conquer
it they had to have a bris as this was the land of Avraham’s descendants which
of course had to be circumcised.
So the Jews gather
together on this hill. Yehoshuah personally circumcises them with charbot
tzurim, flint stone knives he was commanded to use. As this is the 11th
of Nissan this worked out quite well for the males, because they were now to
wiped out to doing any Pesach cleaning for this first Pesach seder to be kept
in 40 years and the first ever in Israel. This was another reason they had to
have a bris, as the Korban Peach could only be eaten by those had a bris. This
set a precedent, by the way of men not having to do Pesach cleaning J
Now we do not know where
the hill of the foreskins, which is what the Navi tells us it was called. As
they Jewish tradition is that we bury the foreskins and that is where they are
buried. Being that there were hundreds of thousands if not more than a million
of them buried there, they formed quite a hill.
There are a bunch of
hills that were found near Yericho, that had Cannanite period remains
there called Chirbat Jiljul in Arabic that archaeologists identify as
being Gilgal. They like it because the Arabic name sounds like Gilgal, as well
it is near Yericho as the navi says. On the other hand, other archaeologists
disagree, first of all Jiljul is on the western side of Yericho, and the navi
says it should be on the eastern side. In addition, it is too close to the city
of Yericho, the enemy city. He wouldn’t camp there and leave the people pretty
much unprotected after the circumcising the entire army. Yehoshua more liklely
would camp near the Jordan river, as it was a source of water, which is
Jijul doesn’t have any. So they rather place Gilgal by Ein Hijla, an
ancient spring near a Greek Orthodox Church Crusader period monastery called Deir
Hijla. One of the rules in archeology is if the Christians make it a holy
site there’s a good chance that it was a Jewish site previous to that, as they
were pretty unoriginal and tried to co-opt and build off of everything that we
had already. Actually Beit Hijla is a city mentioned in the book of
Yehoshua and this past year “settlement” families set up shop there with a good
old fashioned “illegal settlement” and
are trying to establish a settlement on this ancient important Jewish sites. I
have yet to visit but I understand they give tours of the area and even point
out a hill that they believe is the Givat Ha’areilut.
A few lessons I like to
share with my tourists about this story. This is not the first time we have had
mass circumcisions. In the early 1990’s with the Russian and Ethiopian
Aliya a whole clinic was set up in Hadassah hospital to circumcise
10s of thousands of Olim that were coming from countries that never had it
done. In fact a few years ago, the Israelis started Project Abraham, in
conjunction with the United States to fly down to Africa and circumcise
thousands of Africans as a form of AIDs prevention. Israel of course being the
experts on mass male circumcisions.
The last thing I like to
point out is that Yehoshua is commanded to circumcise the men with swords made
out of flint stone. This is the second time that we find that the knives there
were made out of flint. The other time being when Tzipporah wife of Moshe
circumcised her son on the way down to Egypt. We use metal today, which seems
to be a change from the tradition brought down in the Torah. When did this
change? So usually when I’m at Tel Azeka near Beit Shemesh and
talk about the story of Dovid and Golyas I mention that the midrash tells us
that it changes over there. See Dovid throws his rock from the slingshot, it
hits the metal helmet of Goliath and the helmet refused to open. The rock cut a
deal- pun intended- that it would give the metal helmet the mitzvah of
circumcision in exchange for the metal helmet opening up and letting the rock
sink into Goliath’s skull. And there you have it!
RABBI
SCHWARTZ’S HOTEL JOKES OF THE WEEK
Rabbi Greenberg
was traveling through Georgia. He got off the bus by mistake in a small little
hick town. He walked through the village and approached a hefty old man sitting
in a a rocking chair and asked him
“Excuse me, would
you tell me where the local synagogue is?”
The southern
bigot turned to him nastily and said
“We don’t
allow Jews in this here town”
The Rabbi smiled
uneasily and said as he walked away
“I guess
that’s why it’s only still a little town!”
An elderly
Jewish couple on their way to vacation in Hawaii got into an argument about the
pronunciation of “Hawaii” He was
sure it was “Havyiee” while she maintained it was “Hawaii”.
As soon as they
landed they asked the first person they saw
“Would you
mind telling us the name of this island”
“Havyiee!”
the man replied
“Thanks”
said the husband
“Your
velcome” he replied
“Isn’t that beautiful?”
Mr. Cohen was
not impressed. He replied
“What’s the
big deal we have the same picture in our calendar in the kitchen!”
“I came for
rest and relaxation and food- not for exercise”
When it came
time to check out the owner met him at the checkout desk
“Mr.
Goldberg, I want to thank you for being our guest- but could you please do me
one favor?”
Goldberg replied
“Nu- vat do you vant?”
“I wonder if
you could do a simple exercise for me. You see in our advertisements we say every
guest exercises. Even just a bit is all you have to do, so I’m not called a
liar.”
“So what do you
want me to do?”
“Please”-
the owner asked “If you could pick up your suitcase over ther near the door
and bring it to the desk. It’s really simple and all I request.”
So Goldberg went
over brought the suitcase over to the owner begrudgingly.
“Now one more
thing, Could you bend down low and touch your suitcase?”
Goldberg does a
knee-bend and touches the suitcase, “Nu- Now what?!”
“Now”shouted
the owner “ Can you open it up and give me back my towels!!”
Sadie and Sam
were on a cruise ship when it broke apart and they found themselves in middle
of the ocean hanging on to a raft for dear life.
Suddenly Sadie
sees a sailboat on the horizon and starts to shour
“Sam a sail…
a sail… !
Sam shouts back
“We’re drowning and she wants to go shopping!”
************
Answer is A– Now this is really an easy and tricky
question. It’s this week’s Torah portion as well. It’s easy because most know
that we definitely don’t have a solar calendar. We count the months of the year
by the moon. On the other hand we know that the holiday of Pesach must fall out
in the spring and if we had a strictly solar calendar like the Muslims do than
it would shift from year to year (as we would be short the 11 day difference
between the 365 solar year and 354 lunar) so we balance that by making a leap
year every few years and adding an extra month of Adar as we do this year. So
that’s probably the answer they want. But the problem is that it’s not true as
well as in the times of the Temple when the month would be established by the
Sanhedrin court, there were other factors as well taken into account. It could
be crops, it could be politics or things going on in the country. So technically
speaking the real answer is that it would be none of the above. It was
established by the court. However, I don’t believe the ministry of tourism is
aware of this Talmudic law. So I went with A) but they should really lose a
point for this one for asking a bad question.
score is Schwartz 11 and 1 for MOT
(Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.
