Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
May 15th 2020 -Volume 10
Issue 30 21st Iyar 5780
Parshat Behar / Bechukosai
Shabbos Riddles
Let's start with a riddle this week. What is one thing Hashem can't
do? Now I'm not talking about the tired-old bored-yeshivish-pseudo-philosopher
thing about whether He can create a rock that He can't lift. You know that
paradox thing that those atheists try to throw at you to stump you. If He can't
lift it then He can't do everything- and if He can't create it then He also
can't do everything. I think that actually the Rambam discusses that long
before Thomas Aquinas did. That's not what I'm referring to. That one is
simple. Of course Hashem can create a rock that He can't lift. But the cool thing about being Hashem is that
He could even lift rocks that He can't lift. Wrap your brain around that one a
bit. It usually sends them away scratching their heads.
No, I'm talking about mitzvos. What mitzva is impossible for Hashem
to do? See Chazal- our sages tell us that Hashem is not like a flesh and blood
king who gives out decrees and doesn't keep them. Hashem as well fulfills and
binds Himself to the Torah in some spiritual capacity. The midrash is on the
verse in tehillim that we say in our morning davening.
Shemos Rabba (30:9) Magid devaaro l'yaakov chukuv umishpatuv
l'yisrael- “He tells His words to Yaakov, His statutes and His
ordinances to Israel.”
On this verse,
the Midrash comments: “There are those who give commands to others
to fulfill, but do not fulfill them themselves. However, what G‑d commands
to others He fulfils Himself, as the verse declares: “He tells His words
to Yaakov, His statutes and His ordinances.
The "His", the medrash is telling us, is that the
mitzvos He is giving us are the ones that He is fulfilling as well. The Talmud mentions
that Hashem even has a pair of teffilin, he observes the holidays, give
charity, keeps vows. Even on some type of spiritual way honors Father and
Mother (ponder that…). But there's one mitzva that Hashem can't keep. It's the
mitzva I've been spending a lot of time thinking about. Because pretty much
it's all I've got on my hands these days.
See pre-Corona my erev Shabboses were pretty hectic. Many times I
had a tour. I'm writing or finishing up my E-Mail to you guys. I've got my
sermons to prepare for Shul (3 of them!). That's besides bringing the chulent
over to Shul and many times hand-grating the potatoes for the kugel. My mother
taught me that it just doesn't taste the same out of the food processors. My
wife agrees, but doesn't feel it's worth the extra effort. I'm much frummer
about that than her. Then of course I've got to shower, change, trim, take-out
garbage… It's rush rush rush and we're always racing the clock. It doesn't make
a difference when Shabbos starts.
But do I really need to be so rushed? Technically Shabbos our day
of rest should start with nightfall not by sunset or candle-lighting time. That
would buy me of course some extra needed time, although I would probably still
be busy till the last minute. But we begin Shabbos, as we do all holidays, from
sunset. The reason is because we don't know exactly when the moment of
nightfall is. We have a period of time called bein hashemashos or
twilight that's in doubt if its day or night. So therefore, to be safe, we begin
our Shabbos early at sunset.
Rav Charlap in his classic work Mei Merom notes
that this ability to take a regular Friday afternoon before nightfall and turn
it into the holiest day of the week- Shabbos, is something that only we Jewish
mortals can do. For unlike Hashem we are
the only ones for whom it is possible the concept of doubt. Hashem knows
exactly when it is night. The second He "rests" is when the 6th
day of the week is over and the 7th day begins. Rashi even notes this on the first Friday of Creation from the
verse we recite each Friday night in Kiddush. The pasuk strangely says that
Hashem finished his work on the 7th day. But wait a minute isn't
that Shabbos already? I thought he finished on Friday- the 6th day. He thus notes in the name of our good friend
from this past week the Rabbi of Shabbos-Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai
Vayichal Hashem Bayom Hashevi'-And on the seventh day Hashem finished
— R. Shimon says: A person who cannot know exactly his times and moments needs
to add from the week-day and observe it as the holy day (Shabbos), but Hakadosh
Baruch Hu , who knows His times and moments, began it (the seventh day) to
a very hair’s breadth (with extreme exactness) and it therefore appeared
as though He had completed His work on that very day.
This mitzva of taking something entirely mundane like a regular weekday and infusing it with
the holiness of Shabbos is the essence of our role in this world. It's why
Shabbos and its observance is so critical to our identity of being Jewish. We
are called Shomer Shabbos. It is who we are. It's what we are meant to
accomplish in everything we do in this world. Something, that even Hashem who
does not have this element of doubt, can't accomplish without us. It's why
Shabbos is our covenant between us and Hashem. Hashem is the one who sanctifies
Shabbos, but we are the ones that sanctify Erev Shabbos.
Rebbi Shimon recognized this perhaps, on that erev Shabbos when he
came out of the cave. It was on erev Shabbos when he saw the man running with
the myrtle branches to honor Shabbos. It was then that nisyashva da'ato-
his previous troubled state of perceiving the dilemma of man being solely
involved in chayei sha'ah- a fleeting life was finally put to rest. For
Rebbi Shimon understood that it was precisely because we were involved and
connected to this world that we had the power to elevate and to bring it to a
state of Shabbos. Perhaps this explains the custom why many Sefardim recite the
song of Bar Yochai every Friday evening. For it is his day and his light that
revealed this to us.
Reb Moshe Feinstien notes in this week's Torah portion another
riddle. What pasuk do we find in this week's Torah portion that we have heard
exactly before- besides the usual "va'yidaber Hashem el Moshe leimor-
and Hashem spoke to Moshe saying"-s? There are not too many verses
where the identical pasuk is written twice in the Torah in two distinct
places. I'll wait for you to take out a chumash and find them… Ok got it?
That's right the last pasuk in parshat Behar. The other one was
two weeks ago in Kedoshim.
Vayikra (26:2) or (19:30) Es shabsosai tishmoru umikdashi tira'u
ani Hashem- You shall observe my Shabboses and have awe of my Mikdash; I am
Hashem.
The question he asks is why does the Torah need to tell us this
mitzva a second time. We know we need to observe Shabbos and honor Hashem's
house- his Temple. Rashi notes that the positioning of this mitzva is specifically
over here where it discusses the laws of someone who is sold as a slave to a
non-Jew. One might think that since his owner doesn't observe Shabbos he
doesn't have to anymore. Thus it repeats that mitzva here. It's a bit of a
strange "hava amina"- initial assumption. Hey, just because
you work for goyim doesn't make you one?
And that really still doesn't answer what the Mikdash has to do
with all of this.
Rav Moshe thus suggests an incredible and oh-so timely insight. He
notes that this repeated prohibition is to teach a Jew who lives and works for
his non-Jewish owner that he shouldn't think that we worship our God like they
worship theirs. By the Goyim it's all about the temple. Do you go to Church or
Temple or your local mosque or ashram. It's all about the services you attend. Judaism
is all about Shabbos. Even more than about Shabbos, it's about us elevating the
world that is symbolized in our Shabbos observance. In the prophetic words of
Reb Moshe
"Our main work is in our homes, in the market, in how we
eat, how we do business and how we work. We were never even explicitly
commanded on synagogues in the Torah.
And even the Beit Hamikdash that we were commanded on it is close to
1900 years that we are living without the Temple and we are still considered
Kosher Jews."
We can be Jews without our shuls, but a mikdash and a shul
without the holiness of the Shabbos that we bring to it- the words of the great
Reb Moshe "ain't worth anything". The Torah is thus telling us, that
yes, shuls and My Temple are awesome and you should fear them… But realize that
comes after you appreciate that you have Shabbos. You have a world outside of
shul outside of my Temple that you can sanctify. That you have to make holy.
These past few months my Erev Shabbos experience has changed. The
house is ready. I'm ready. No speeches to prepare. No chulent to shlep. I've
even started saying my Shir Hashirim- love song to Hashem which is a custom
that I once had before my life got hectic to welcome in Shabbos and to sanctify
my Fridays. It's awesome. But it's not only Shabbos. The past few months we
have all spent more times in our homes than ever before. The learning that is
going on in our homes, the spiritual discussions, the family time that we are
engaging iand focusing on our relationships. The Temple is in our own homes
where it is meant to be. We are bringing holiness to the mundane. Making the chol-
kodesh. It is what Hashem is counting on us to do for Him.
My son's Rosh Yeshiva Rav Ariav Oizer responded to someone who
asked him why he was not yet opening up his yeshiva yet while many other Batei
Midrash are already opened. He responded brilliantly, that to shut a yeshiva
down and stop all of the Torah learning that would be studied there, is an
extremely difficult and heart-wrenching decision. But it is even harder
decision to shut down and close up the 100's of "branches" of our
yeshiva that have opened up all over the country the past two and a half months
in each and every talmid/students home where they are currently studying
in order to return to the one yeshiva in Jerusalem. Our homes have become
yeshivos.
Hashem has given all of us this time to find our inner Shabbos. to
take our Judaism out of our shuls out of our Temples out of our batei medrash
and bring them into our families, into
our home and our workplace-which for many is now just down the hallway on the
door on the left from one another. It's all smushed together. It's all
one. But that's what it was always supposed to be. In the merit of us fulfilling
this job the way it should, Hashem should merit us to soon fulfil the end of
the verse-u'mikdashai tira'u. may we see that Temple soon rebuilt.
Have a holy Erev
Shabbos and Divine Shabbos
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
" Der
mentsh fort un Got halt di laitses.!"- Man rides, but God holds the reins.
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
27) Palyam is:
A.
The military sea force of the Palmach
- The Jerusalem companies (plugot)
of the Irgun (Etzel)
- The name of an illegal immigrant
ship
- Lehi (F.F.I.) companies involved
in bringing illegal immigrants to Israel
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
If you haven't heard it yet.. it's one of my
best yet!!
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/rebbi-shimon-bar-yochai – In honor of Lag Ba'Omer my latest
composition and release!! Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai Omer… One of my most
magnificent compositions with vocals and arrangements by the extraordinarily
hartzig talented awesome Dovid Lowy- (non-acapella)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0wLky40mhA- Wow a great old Megama classic
sung by the son of the great Moshe Yess- Tali… definitely his father's son..
hope more of these
https://youtu.be/Ry-IkjyXPs8 - Lenny Solomon of Shlock Rock the
Lockdown video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktg070nrmYo–
New MBD
composition and song Dai!
https://youtu.be/aaDg2QbW6IE – Another awesome NEW Aharon Razel Lag Ba'omer song
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S
PARSHA/MITZVA CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Parshat Behar
Bechukosai-V'shavsa ha'aretz- Shemitta and Yovel- Biblical today? The concept of
Shabbos is not only a weekly event and it's not only a human event. The Torah
tells us in our parsha that the land of Israel also deserves some rest. In fact
it gets a whole year of rest. Every half century on the 50th year it
gets itself two years; the year of shemitta and the additional Jubilee year of
Yovel. Now interestingly enough these laws being biblically relevant are
predicated on the law of the Jewish people living in the land of Israel. Which
the Talmud seems to note is when the majority of the Jewish people are living
here. That hasn't happened since the destruction of the first temple over 2400
years ago. Meaning during the 2nd Temple mind-bogglingly enough most
Jews were very comfortable living in America I mean Bavel. They never
even saw the second Beit Hamikdash throughout the entire 400 years it sat in
Yerushalayim. They had better Pizza shops in Bavel I guess. So all of these
laws have been rabbinical in nature. Until possibly now.
See we have
pretty much reached a point when the majority of the Jewish people are living
in Israel. Today there are about 6.7 million Jews here. Now although the last
census that I could find of American Jewry as high as about 7.5 million. But
with an intermarriage rate of minimally 45% for the past 30 years and as high
as 70% in the last 10 years the amount of those people being counted as being
halachic Jews (as traditional Torah Judaism only recognizes matriarchal descent
and conversions done by a Jewish court that requires the acceptance of all of
the mitzvos) is probably at best half of that number. The rest of the world
total has about a million Jews that can probably be discounted by about at
least 30 percent. So if the total world outside of Israel is estimated to be
about 8.5 million people and at least 2 million of those are not halachic Jews
we have finally arrived at the moment perhaps when by the next shemitta comes
around in two years from now in 5782 or 2021-2022 it will be biblical.
Now for the yovel
year we have a question as to when that will fall out. See because Shemitta
we always kept track of because it's laws were still binding by rabbinic law,
although there were loopholes such as the prozbol that allowed one to
get out of nullifying one's debts and the selling of the land of Israel that
were instituted that seemingly would not be able be put into use if we achieved
that point already of the return to biblical shemitta. But the Yovel
required a full Sanhedrin to declare it thus and there were no rabbinic laws
that were established for its observance from the times of the destruction of
the first Temple. So the calculation got lost. That being said the Chasam Sofer
calculates that actually the upcoming shemitta would be the 49th
and thus the following year would be the yovel. The Rambam has a
calculation as well that would put it in about 30 years from now though.
Now there are
certainly halachic authorities that suggest that the majority of Jews living in
Israel is not sufficient we have to have representatives of each tribe living
in their actual biblical tribal portion for it to be a biblical obligation. But
there are certainly those that disagree namely the Chazon Ish. Now this would
be true for the laws of terumot and maasrot for sure. Yovel
though it would seem would not begin until each tribe is living in their
portion as well we would need the Sanhedrin so it certainly would not begin
before Mashiach. That puts shemitta in the middle on one hand it is
connected to yovel so it may not become biblical until yovel is. On the
other hand we have rabbinic laws of shemitta as we do of terumot and
maasrot so perhaps when they become biblical when most Jews are here
then the shemitta will be as well.
One last
interesting factor is that although I said the Jewish population is officially 14
million. There may be and probably are millions and millions more of people
identifying as non-jews that are in fact Jewish. Meaning if during the
holocaust or during the Spanish inquisition or in Russia Jewish women renounced
their Judaism for whatever reasons even if they converted out. They still would
be considered halachically Jewish as would their daughters and sons and then
those daughters and their sons for centuries. We have certainly lost more Jews
as a result of assimilation than from persecution. So there are certainly
millions more out there that might jack up the numbers a lot and then there
wouldn't be a majority of Jews in Israel. Whether these Jews that have disappeared
is also a question that would impact our count. Regardless this is certainly a
fascinating discussion and if you have time on your hand during this isolation
we are in feel free to research and send me your findings. I would love to see
them
Oh and by the way
in a nutshell the laws of shemitta is that one cannot plant, grow, or
harvest his own field during the year. As well he must leave it open for anyone
to take anything. It is a statement that Hashem is the owner of our fields.
Just as on Shabbos we stop our work and make the statement that Hashem is the
owner of the world. There is an additional law that all debts are canceled in
the year of shemitta. You're off the hook. The yovel year is all of that
but also all home and property sales go back to their ancestral heritage and
biblical portions. All slaves are set free. In the words that were written on
the liberty bell "Liberty shall be proclaimed to the land". May we
see the geula shlaima with all Jews back here soon!
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN
ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
The battle of Even Ezer -831
BC
– Shmuel's prophecy about the punishment to be inflicted upon
the family of Shmuel wasn't long in coming. Our old archenemies from the book of
Judges, the Plishtim were back and this time with a vengeance penetrating deep
into Israel and camping in Afek. Today the archeological park of Afek
or Antipatrus can be visited and is a national park. It is in between Petach
Tikva and Rosh Ha'Ayin where the Yarkon river begins. It was
an essential crossroads as this was the non-hilly path that led into the Shomron
from the coastline. Remains have been found there from ancient Egyptians
and Canaani periods as well as our period of Shmuel. Later on in the Roman
period Herod built a huge fortress here and named it after his
father AntiPatrus or Antipater in English. So that's where the Plishtim
camped.
The Jews on the
other hand camped in a place called Even Ha'zer. That site as well can
be visited today although it is not a nature reserve park. Located in
the forest of Rosh Ha'ayin there is a place called Izbat Tzarata
not far from Kfar Kassem. It was a small village where the local farmers
stored their crops. They uncovered many of the 4 room houses that were typical
for that period there as well as an ostracon (pottery shard with writing) with
the entire Aleph Beit in ancient Hebrew prior to our current ksav ashuris which
was established after the Babylonian exile.
So now we have
the locals now for the story. The Plishtim come and attack the Jews and wipe
out 4000 of them. The Jews are terrified and they attribute their loss to the
fact they didn't have the Aron/Ark of the covenant with them. The Aron
had been based in Shiloh and had pretty much never been brought out for battle
since the times of Yehoshua when it was used by Hashem's command to surround
the city and the walls fell down. The difference was the win wasn't because of
the Aron it was because Hashem had promised them they would win and they turned
their hearts to Hashem in prayer. It wasn't a magical charm. And they learned
that lesson the hard way.
So they sent
back to Shiloh. Chofni and Pinchas Eli's sons brought the Ark and the
Jews with their new founded false faith felt that the time was here. They blew
the shofar and the Plishtim heard and they got scared. But then they marshalled
their inner strength and fought like never before. And much to their surprise
they won. They slaughtered 30,000 of the Jews including the sons of Eli and
they captured the Aron and brought it back to Ashdod their Philistine city.
Shaul Hamelech according to the midrash grabbed the luchos out of the
hand of the Plishti general (It was Golyas/ Goliath) and ran with them back to
Shilo to Eli. When Eli heard the bad news he fell backward and died. As well
his daughter-in-law, Pinchas's wife, died in childbirth of her son whom she
called Ichabod- a conjunction of two words ee- and kavod- the honor is gone. Thus
ends the tragic story of Eli.
This is
obviously the key story to tell over when one visits in Tel Shiloh the
place where the Mishkan rested. The Plishtim destroyed the city after that
attack and the Mishkan was then moved to the city of Nov where it rested for 13
years. The location of the city of Nov is still a mystery we will
discuss it more as we continue in Shmuel with the famous story of Dovid and
Shaul that took place there.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S AND EVEN MORE TERRIBLE CORONA JOKES OF
THE WEEK
FUNNIEST MEME's of the WEEK
Just when you
think it can't get any worse…what if these killer hornets are attracted to hand
sanitizer.
My friend told
me that his refrigerator last week had 7458 views!
I miss people,
places and things… So essentially I miss nouns.
Just went to
the men's Mikva on Zoom…. Never again…
The fitness
clubs are finally open… Thank God I was wondering when I would be able to go
there and cancel my membership.
Mommy when will
we go on our annual camping trip by the beach and sleep in the tent and swim?
This year there is no camping trip honey, when we go to the beach Mommy will be
wearing the tent
I hope at the
end of the year all the teachers will raise money to buy a gift for the parents
What's made of
a leather and sounds like a sneeze? A shoe…. Oyy…
We're allowed
back to work but remember for it to work you have to avoid
MEN
Mouth
Eyes
Nose
Instead follow
WOMEN
Wash your hands
Obey social distancing
Mask up
Exercise and eat well
No unnecessary traveling
Telling your
luggage there will be no vacation to Israel this year will be the hardest.
Emotional baggage they say is the worst…
Maybe murder
hornets are just regular hornets that
have been quarantined with their kid hornets for 2 months and suddenly are
feeling like biting off heads of everybody and stabbing things.
Now that all
the gyms are closed for the past two months shidduchim are all about
personality.
My wife likes
to keep the mystery in our relationship for example, I never know what's going
to come today from Amazon.
**********************************
Answer is A– Shmeezy this one was a giveaway.
I think. Pal Yam was the navy/ sea forces of the Palmach in pre-State Israel. They
were involved with a lot of the illegal immigration to Israel back then and
attacks on British ships. so the score
now is Schwartz 18 and 9 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam. Let's
keep this well needed streak going!
