Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
"Your friend
in Karmiel"
June 16th
2023 -Volume 12 Issue
36 27th of Sivan 5783
Parshat
Shelach/ Korach
Acrophobia
Shani is scared of elevators. When she was checking out hospitals
where would be the best place to give birth to my grandson- or my twin
grandchildren to be precise, the primary criterion wasn’t the level of medical
care, it wasn’t the niceness and comfort of the rooms, it wasn’t even the
proximity to Karmiel where she lived. It was what floor the maternity ward and
obstetrics unit were on. How many flights she would have to walk up to get
there when in labor. She wasn’t getting into an elevator. She would walk twenty
flights if need be. But those big steel doors closing on her and that rush as
it soars up floor after floor, number after number never knowing if those doors
will ever open again or not sends shivers down her back and puts her in panic
attack mode. She’d sooner give birth in her bathtub.
Now interesting enough, she doesn’t have a problem getting on an
airplane, which seemingly and logically should be a lot more frightening.
After-all it’s not just a few flights you’re going up its tens of thousands of
miles. A lot more people die in airplane crashes then in elevator accidents. I
always thought that’s why they have those little boxes with moving pictures to
keep you preoccupied, so that you don’t think about the fact that that you’re
in a metal crate with wings on it that’s flying above the ocean and could any
moment drop. And no, I don’t have much faith in those little life jacket things
on the bottom of your seat that you calmly pull the strings on gently and place
around your neck (and then your child’s of course…hmmm) to save me while my
plane is plummeting a million miles down on fire into the raging waters below.
Yeah… that’s really gonna work… It’s a good thing Shani doesn’t read these
E-Mails, she might stop flying as well.
Me? I’m fine with elevators. I’m fine with airplanes. I don’t have
a problem with heights- although Aliza my wife is terrified of them. Maybe
that’s where Shani gets it from. I don’t get it. The heights aren’t going to
jump out at you and pull you down. What’s to be scared of?
OK I admit that I do get a little woozy looking over a cliff or
ravine, or when I was in Dubai on the tallest building in the world and looked
down. I did hold and grip a little tighter to the ledge and railing in case a
big gust of wind came suddenly and the good Lord felt it was time for me take a
little plunge- not that it would’ve helped any if He made up His mind. But I’m
not scared of being or climbing up high. Quite the opposite, I find it
invigorating. Aliza though wants me to stop reading this already… she’s getting
woozy just hearing me describe it.
Fascinatingly enough, this fear of heights in fact is a clinical
condition that is called acrophobia from the Greek word acro which means
summit. It is estimated that 3-6% percent of the population suffer from it,
making it one of the most common phobias followed only by the fear of public
speaking. 3-6% of the population is a lot of people that want to stay on the
ground. That are nervous going up. That
prefer the security of their own two feet on the terra rosa even if it means
missing out on the glorious view one can only have from up above. Ahh… well…
Different strokes for different folks.
Now this E-Mail is never just about sharing with you all of
families (and my own) personal skeletons as therapeutic as that is and
enjoyable upsetting my mother who complains about this all the time.
“Whadaya need to put
everything out there for! Nobody’s interested in all of your mishigas and
personal life. Not your surgeries, your chulent and your silly offensive
jokes!”
52 years and she hasn’t realized that it still goes in one ear and
comes out the other. Or as I corrected her once never even made it into the
first ear. Yet, there must be a parsha
connection to justify this weekly bitul zman, and to make people feel
less guilty about taking the half hour or so that it takes to read my
never-ending E-Mails. It’s a Dvar Torah right? Uhh. Huh… I know why
you’re really here…
Well this week, I’ve got to connect it to two parshiyot.
Shelach for you guys over there and Korach for us over here. And what better
way then to talk about your fear of heights, or perhaps as we in Israel forget
sometimes as well, our own fear of heights. Maybe the word heights is confusing
you. Let’s talk Hebrew. Let’s talk Aliya.
See in Shelach when Moshe sends the spies into the land of Israel,
it seems that there is a discussion going on between Kalev and the spies and
all of the Jewish nation. Can we go up or not? Kalev tells them
Alo Na’aleh
Ki yachol nuchal lah- Let us
go up and up because we can conquer it.
Whereas the spies seem to be busy infecting us with this eternal
acrophobia respond
Lo nuchal ha’am lalos ki chazak hu mimenu- the nation can’t go up for it is too
strong for them.
Do you know what the irony of their punishment is that Hashem
metes out to this acrophobic generation?
Bamidbar ha’zeh yiplu pigreichem- their corpses will fall in this
wilderness.
And in case you didn’t get the irony Hashem repeats it.
Upigreichem atem yiplu Bamidbar hazeh- and you are corpses and you will fall
in this wilderness.
Do you know what happens when we want to stay down because you’re
too scared of what will happen and of falling when you go up to high? You
become a corpse that is walking and that will fall down right here on ground.
You fall in the desolate wilderness. Not only did you miss out on the
incredible view and future that awaits you up on top of the world, but your
false sense of security on the ground is where you will trip fall and break
your head and die. It ain’t safer on the ground, particularly if Hashem tells
you that the elevator up is one that He wants you go get on.
This week’s Parsha of Korach which fascinatingly enough doesn’t
tell us when it occurs, It is a subject of much debate amongst the commentaries
if this was before the spies story or afterwards, in the beginning of our
sojourn in the wilderness or at the end of the 40 years, yet it contains the same eternal timeless
message. Which is why, some note, there is no date on this story as opposed to
every other story in the book of Bamidbar that has an exact date given for it. For
it’s lesson is above time. It’s way up there.
The Ramban though sees this story happening right after the spy
story. Dasan and Aviram and Korach with his cronies also seem to have a
different type of spiritual acrophobia. They don’t believe in elevators either.
I don’t know of another parsha that repeats the words up and down, above and
under as much as this one does.
Vayikahalu al Moshe v’al Aharon- and they gathered on Moshe and on
Aharon
Madua tisnasu al kahal Hashem- why do you elevate yourself above
the congregation of Hashem.
Elevate? Hmmm… Above…on…on..
Moshe tries to convince them to drop this thing… drop…?
Lachein ata v’chol adosecha ha’noadim al Hashem- therefore you and your entire assembly
who are joining together on Hashem.
V’Aharon ma hu ki salinu aluv- And for Aharon what is he that you complain on him.
Their response?
Lo Na’aleh-
we’re not going up.
It’s enough you too us up from a land of Milk and honey
(Egypt?!) to cause us to die here in the wilderness yet you seek to dominate
aleinu-above us even to dominate us further.
Even if you poke out our eyes- Lo Na’aleh! We’re not getting on
that elevator.
Moshe falls down upon hearing this… falls down…Just like the
tribes whose corpses will fall in the wilderness. And they ask Hashem to spare
this nation. Don’t kill them all. Don’t drop them.
Hashem responds to Moshe
Ha’alu
mi’saviv l’mishkan Korach- go
up from Korach’s abode.
Get on the elevator because these people are going down; way down.
Moshe goes with the elders to the camp of Korach and orders them
Suru na mei’al ohalei
anashim hareshaim ha’eileh- go
up from the tents of these wicked people
The nation listens. They get on the elevator.
Va’yeialu
mei’al Mishkan Korach- they
went up from above the abode of Korach, Dasan and Aviram
The punishment of Korach, much like the spies was that they went
down but even more dramatically. The ground swallowed them up and they got
their wish as Chazal ironically note. They didn’t want to go up- so they went
down instead as far down as they could go. If Shani will excuse me- its like an
elevator crashing down a thousand flights.
Moshe had asked for specifically that punishment for them
U’fatzasa ha’adama es piha uvala osam - and the earth will open up its mouth
and swallow them
V’yardu chaim
sh’ola- and they will go down alive to the pit.
And sure enough
V’yerdu hem v’chol
asher la’hem- and
they and all that was theirs went down.
What’s fascinating is that Moshe is generally the one advocating
for Klal Yisrael. In fact, his name even means “to pull up”. He was
called that because he was pulled up out of the water and yet here he seems to
be the one pushing the down button on the elevator.
The AR”I Ha’Kadosh, the great 16th century mystic,
sheds light on this story by of course in his holy mystical way sharing us the
secret of the souls of Moshe and Korach. This is not the first time we have the
ground swallowing up someone in the Torah. To understand when this once occurred
before we need to g back to the beginning of time. There we have two brothers fighting:
Kayin and Hevel. Kayin brings a sacrifice from the simplest crops that he possesses,
flax or linen. Hevel brings the best and choices of his sheep to Hashem. Their
debate? Kayin feels everything is holy. There’s no better or worse. It’s all
from Hashem.
Taken to the next level and understanding this argument in terms
of the spies and Korach. We’re all holy. There’s no better or nor worse.
There’s no land of Milk and honey. Egypt is also milk and honey. There’s no
need for any elevators. There’s no need for a Moshe to take us up or an Aharon
to be above anyone. There’s no need to make aliya. We have our yeshivos here,
our kosher foods that’s even better than Manna. We have our chesed
organizations. We’re good. No land is better. In fact making aliya to the land
will only eat up our children. It’s an Eretz ocheles yoshveha- a land
that will eat up its citizens. If we go there we will go down. Better to stay
here on our stable Red white and blue land. The wilderness where your corpses
will fall…
The Ari teaches us that Moshe is the soul of Hevel. When Kayin
killed Hevel, the verse tells us the ground opened up its mouth and swallowed
his body. It is perhaps that trauma of Moshe’s shared soul that inspires him to
bring everyone up again. He understood that if we don’t go up. If Kayin wins,
if Korach wins, if the spies win- if their argument and ideology that we are
all the same and there isn’t any up or down, then the world will collapse. The
earth will fall out under our feet. And so he lifts us up again and again. He
brings us to those elevator doors of Eretz Yisrael and he urges us to go in. To
go up.
The connecting parsha between these two stories is the mitzva of tzizis.
The mitzva that we are told is a combination of wool and linen. It’s Kayin’s
linen and Hevel’s wool. Kayin wanted there to be a world without Hevel. A world
where there is no need for a blue string to bring up the white. It’s all good.
It’s all holy. It’s a talis as Rashi says Korach claimed, that is all
blue; all techeles, all the color of the sky and Hashem’s holy throne. To
a large degree Korach is correct, it is all holy it is all Hashem. Yet, what he
missed is that we all still have to up. We all have to connect to Moshe. Moshe
is the intermediary, the elevator that we need to rise higher and higher. That
will connect the heaven to earth. That will inspire us that we can make aliya. Alon
na’aleh. We can go up. And if we don’t we will fall.
Acrophobia is a real fear that all of us suffer from. It’s no just
Shani. It’s not just those Aliyah-phobes or those Korachs and spies that claim
to be Rabbis that tell us that we can’t go up. We can’t become better. We can’t
go higher and higher. We also like the comfort and security of the ground under
our feet. The stability we assume we have staying right where we are in life.
But what we need to realize is that the ground is shaky. It’s been that way
since the beginning of time. Life is not one of those airport moving floors
that just go back and forth across the airport of life. We need to get on the
plane and fly and soar. The flight is leaving. Please turn off all your
electronic devices. Buckle up. We’re ready take-off.
Have an uplifting Shabbos and chodesh Tamuz Tov!
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
************************
YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Iz
do a braireh, darf nit zein kain moireh.- When
there is a way out, there is no need for fear.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
26)
According to Catholic-Christian tradition, the "Transfiguration" took
place on Mount:
Which
figures are related to the "Transfiguration" according to The New
Testament?
A)
John the Baptist and St. Paul
B)
Melchizedek and St. Peter
C)
Jeremiah and Isaiah
D)
Elijah the Prophet and Moses
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/good-shabbos
- Not all of you
listened last week.. so it’s here again..! In fact I may just put this here
every week. Because how else can you come into Shabbos without my special song.
the next biggest klal yisrael hit- Dovid lowy on vocals and amazing
arrangements Here it is Good Shabbis Good Shabbis Good Shabbis!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk67SWHgiVk
– OK guys you really don’t want to
miss this song. Abie Rottenbergs timeless Shadchan song updated with the girls
version… in honor of Ohel Sarale organization for single girls. Amazing with
Baruch Levine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MST-1azpDYc
– Gorgeous Shulem Lemmer latest
song and video from vayitein lecha Umar Reb Yochanan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzF2pvTT1Yc
– Do you get more all star than Zanvil, Razel, Falkowitz, Meisels
with incredible Shabbos in Tzfat footage. Awesome..
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR
PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
The Leper Strikes Again - 673 BC- After the relief of the famine and the miraculous salvation that Elisha
had prophesized about, Yehoram, the King of the North still had it in
for Elisha. On the one hand he saved the Jewish people miraculously and
foretold of the retreat of Aram. On the other hand, Elisha was
the cause of the famine in his eyes in the first place, as he cursed them. So
what does a King do when he needs to figure things out? He finds a good Rabbi
to commiserate with and that will hopefully be on his team. And fortunately, or
unfortunately for him he had just the man. None other than the leper Geichazi
Elisha’s former student whom he had chucked out and rejected after he
betrayed Elisha to make some money from Naama on the side.
So the two of them, Geichazi and Yehoram
were schmoozing about Elisha. Geichazi was answering Yehoram
about his great miracles and guess who popped in the door at just the right
moment. It was another flash from the past. None other than the Shunamite
woman, who had left the country to Gaza at Elisha’s behest
when the famine had started. When she had returned home to Shunam all of
her property and fields had been taken from her. So she came to the king hoping
for some justice. And whadaya know? It worked out perfect. Hashem arranges
these things and when Yehoram hears first hand about the miracles
preformed for her he makes sure she gets everything back.
It wasn’t just in order to help this woman that
Hashem timed her arrival for this auspicious time. It was that Hashem wasn’t
interested in Geichazi once again trying to look like a big knocker and
be the one to tell Yehoram about the great miracles of Elisha.
Hashem was sending him a message. I don’t need you. It’s not about you, as long
as you’re trying to self-promote yourself. Geichazi should’ve taken the
Mussar and returned. Yet he didn’t. He leaves the country entirely after that.
He moves over to Aram, the modern-day Syria. But as we will learn
next week. It doesn’t help. Things will get worse. Elisha heads over
there after him. The end is starting to come apart.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE FEAR OF
HEIGHTS JOKES OF THE WEEK
What do you call a bird that's afraid of heights? A
Chicken
A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I’m
afraid of widths
What do you call a mountain goat with a fear of
heights? A goat
I’ve always been afraid of heights.But don’t worry,
I’ll get over it
I'm not afraid of heights. I'm not even afraid of
falling from heights. I'm afraid hitting the ground after falling from heights.
Co-pilot: why did you become a pilot?
Pilot: to over come my greatest fear.
Co-pilot:
heights?
Pilot: no, dying alone.
I don't have confidence or trust in elevators
anymore. They always seem like they're up to something, but they also let me
down quite often.
Why is jumping from great heights the most
influential way to die? Because you make an impact
Once upon a time, there was a very brave but very
arrogant man…
This man claimed he could survive anything. He
survived falls from various heights, various guns, sharp objects and even acid.
One day, he declared he was going to survive a steamroller. So this brave man
went in the roller’s path…He sadly died that day, but the most important thing
was he proved that he had guts.
How can you tell birds are afraid of heights? Because
every time they look down they make in their pants.
If I owned a roofing company, and interviewed an applicant
with a fear of heights..........I wouldn't "higher" them......
I hate it when people go on about their phobias. I
have a terrible fear of heights, but you won't find me shouting about it from
the rooftops.
Today I started an argument with my wife while riding
in an elevator. I was wrong on so many levels.
Why is the elevator always sick? It keeps coming down
with something.
I’m terrified of elevators, I’ve been taking steps to
avoid them.
********************************
The answer to
this week”s question is D - So some people
get upset that I actually share this Xianity stupidity. It’s a fake religion
based on lies and they killed all of us in the name of their heretical Jewish
renegade “savior” if he even existed as they attribute to him. But the function
of this column is not educational, but merely to show you guys what type of
ridiculous course material we needed to undergo in order to become a licensed
tour guide. Now Christianity obviously is one of my weak spots- was never
interested and I knew it wouldn’t be my client base. But I actually remember
some things. Particularly they places I pass and visit occasionally. Now Mt.
Tabor is one of those that are hard to miss. The church stands on top of this
glorious mountain. Transfiguration is this body and soul meld like star Trek of
Yoshka Moses and Eliyahu Ha’Navi. Its stupid and bubbeh maysehs, but I got it
right So that’s what really counts. So now the score
stands at 19.5 for Schwartz and 6.5 for Ministry of tourism on
this exam so far.
