Of Brothers Lost and Found- Then and Now- Parshat Vayeishev Chanukah 2023 5784

 

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

December 8^th 2023 -Volume 13 Issue 9 25^th of Kislev 5784

 

Parshat Vayeishev/ Chanukah I

 

Of Brothers Lost and Found, Of Then and Now

 

It’s not about them anymore. It’s about us. The past few week’s Torah portions taught us about the world around us. The threats and enemies who sought to destroy us; destroy our ancestors. There was Yishmael, there was Lavan, Esau, the Philistines. There still are. The past few weeks have brought home and made more real for the first real time to my generation and those younger than mine, that

“Shebichol dor va’dor omdim aleinu l’chaloseinu”- that in every generation they “will rise to annihilate us” is more than a song that we sing by our Pesach Seder or by Kumzitz sing-alongs. It’s real. It’s now. And it’s been forever.

 

But this week it’s no longer about them. The rest of our story in Bereishis is about us. Our self-destruction and our reconciliation. Our Exile and our Redemption. As we say on Chanuka, Ba’yamim ha’heim- in those days, Ba’zman ha’zeh in our times.

 

Last week Dinah was kidnapped by our enemies. This week Yosef is, by his own brothers. Last week Lavan was trying to trick us and steal our sheep, our goats and was trying to keep us captive. This week we fool our own father with those same sheep, Yehuda reneges on his deal and obligation to his daughter in law Tamar with those goats and we sell our own brother into captivity. Shimon and Levi were united last week as they took up swords to defend their family’s honor; the honor of Israel over the violation of their sister. This week we disgrace ourselves like harlots where both Yehudah and Yosef find themselves in cesspools of licentiousness and Shimon and Levi are ready to take up those same swords to spill their own brother’s blood.

 

And the story keeps going. While last week we began with Yaakov dreaming of connecting heaven and earth of angels and ladders. Yosef just dreams of everyone coming together, of ruling over one another, of bowing sheaves of wheat. Our story has shifted. It’s no longer them against us. It’s us against one another. It’s how our exile began. It’s why it began. Redemption and even retribution against Pharaoh and those that come up against us will only happen when that rift heals. When we come together again.

 

How did we fall so fast… so far? How did we lose that achdus and sense of family and brotherhood that we had when we stood together against Lavan, against Esau, against Shechem? When we were united. Our Parsha tells us it came when Yosef spoke badly of his brothers, it came from jealousy, it came from righteous indignation. But it wasn’t the hatred and the fight. It wasn’t the theological differences. It comes down to three words, and if one follows the text and the narrative it is those three words that follow the entire story.

 

V'lo yachlu dabro l’shalom- and they couldn’t speak to him of peace

 

They couldn’t talk. There was no communication. It wasn’t the fight. We Jews fight all the time. The problem was that they didn’t fight. They held it in. They assumed that there was nobody there to talk to. No one even worth fighting with. The Ibn Ezra notes that they couldn’t even talk about matters unrelated to their argument. Matters of the household, what’s for dinner, how about dem Mets.. nice new coat you got…The verse can even be read homiletically. They didn’t speak to him- dabro is a harsh term, l’shalom to reach a point of common ground that might have led them to peace. They had written him off. And once you write someone off, then it’s not too far to throw him into a pit. He’s no longer “fun unzereh”. He’s no better than a goy and perhaps even worse.

 

Yaakov sees that and hears Yosef’s dream, he sees the hatred and jealousy and his response is

 

V’aviv shamar es ha’davar- His father guarded the matter.

 

Davar… the matter… the words… the conversation. This needs to be fixed. We need to come together. We need to talk. The brothers head down to Shechem and Yaakov sends Yosef after them with a mission.

 

Lech na re’eh es shlom achecha v’es shlom ha’tzon- go please and see the peace of your brother and the sheep.

 

Find that place of peace. The peace that they couldn’t even talk to you about. Don’t make it about yourself even. Perhaps just talk about sheep. Talk about your job. Talk about me. But find that missing peace.

 

V’hashiveini davar- and return that davar- that word, that conversation….

 

The holy Rebbi of Phshicha gives an even deeper insight. He would tell his students that the eternal message that Yaakov sent him was to go and see the peace in within your brother. Find that light within them. Shalom is the name of Hashem- find and see that spark and godliness in them. In that way you can connect to them. You will have what to talk to them about. You can return the davar- the words.

 

But the brothers didn’t see that.

 

Va’yiru oso mei’rachok- they saw him from a distance.

 

They couldn’t see past the colored coat, the colored shirt, the different hat, the different dreams and visions. They couldn’t get close. They wouldn’t get close. He was off the derech. He was far from them. They threw him in a pit. They wrote him off and then they ate and drank, as if the greatest tragedy in the world hadn’t just occurred. He wasn’t one of them anyways. He wasn’t their brother.

 

In fact the angel that Yosef met along the way asked Yosef what he was looking for Yosef said famously

 

Es achai ani mevakeish- I’m looking for my brothers. For that brotherhood. For them to see that we’re family. That we have a shared legacy and destiny. Yet, the angel tells him

Nasu mi’zeh- they left this. As Rashi says they left that brotherhood. They’ve written you off. They don’t see you as one of them anymore.

 

Even when Reuvein tries to save Yosef, he doesn’t call him their brother, rather as the yeled. The child. His plea is don’t hurt a young boy. Yehudah though does still see him as his brother, when he says what will we gain by killing our brother. Yet even he doesn’t see that as a reason to bring him. Rather it’s to send him away. To keep him far. To sell him out.

 

It is at that moment that the Yishma’elim come take the stage. Yishmael, who himself was thrown out from his father’s house for one reason. One reason only. Yishmael was chucked because as Sarah said, he was not the brother that would inherit with Yitzchak,. His existence will threaten the line of Yitzchak. The children of Yaakov. The 12 tribes. The revelation of shalom in the world.

 

Yishmael was sent away, thrown away to the bush in midbar. But he comes back when we’ve destroyed that brotherhood ourselves. He comes back with a claim that we can’t answer. Why is he any different than us? He comes back to take us down to exile. To kidnap our children, our brothers, to sell them and use them as pawns. To remind us why we’re here. To make us look close at that gaping hole in our hearts that our brother’s loss, pain and absence has left. To make us wish that we could talk to him again.

 

The end of the story will occur at the end of this book when through Yosef’s machination the coin flips. It will be the brothers that are coming down looking for their brother, Binyamin. They return to deliver Shimon who was being held hostage by Egypt- in the form of what they perceived to be their viceroy who was in reality Yosef, their own brother that they had refused to recognize. It’s what happens when you don’t recognize your brother when he is with you. Hashem will make it and force your hand to the point where you realize that we are all brothers. If there is no Yosef, there is no Shimon, there is no Binyamin. If there is no Itai, there is Kfir, there is no Maia and there is no Yanky, Yoily, Shaindy or Brachie. We’re all one family. We’re all the children of one father and one Father. There was 12 of us. We lost one. And since then we’ve been losing more and more.

 

By the end of Chanuka when we read Vayigash we will read about the reunion of Yosef and his brother. When Yosef reveals himself. The verse tells us he

 

Ani Yosef- I am Yosef is my father still alive. It still isn’t over. The brothers still couldn’t answer. They still couldn’t speak. They were shamed. They were frightened. They didn’t feel connected. And then it finally happens.

 

Va’yomer Yosef el echuv And Yosef said to his brothers.

Geshu na eilai- come close to me.

 

 Come close. Remember when you couldn’t let me come close. How you only saw me from the distance. You saw my flaws, my sins, my different color coat, shirt, my long hair, my tattoos, my sins, my politics, my world-view different than yours. Come close. See me with you. Feel me. Hug me, embrace me. Cry with me.

And they came close… finally. And he said

 

 Ani Yosef achichem- I am Yosef your brother that you sold to mitzrayim

Don’t worry. Don’t feel bad. It wasn’t you. It was Hashem that made this happen. I was sent

 

L’michya- to revive us.

Lasum lachem she’eris ba’aretz- so that we will have with what to remain in the land.

U’lhachayos lachem l’flayta gedola- that so what we will live and merit to be a great refuge.

 

We will return from being held hostage. From being captives. We will be redeemed. We will be the brothers we are meant to be.

 

Va’yinashek l’chol echav va’yevch alehihem- And he kissed all his brothers and he wept over them. He wept and cried over the years that they had lost together. Over the brotherhood that for so long had been missing. For the pain their stubbornness had caused their Father. Our Father. For the place that it had brought them. For the future generations when this sin will occur again and again. It will be the destruction of the Mishkan and the two temples. It will be the final exile of Rome, of Edom, of Hitler and of October 7^th.

 

V'acharey kein dibru echav ito- and after that his brothers spoke to him. The conversation finally happened. We spoke. We were brothers. When that happened something else amazing happened as well.

 

V’hakol nishma beis Pharaoh la’imor- and the voice went out throughout the house of Pharaoh.

Ba’oo achei Yosef- the brothers of Yosef have come. They are brothers. They are one nation. That voice of Yaakov- that kol that will reveal the light to the world, that the whole world is waiting for is finally here.

 

Va’yitav bei’enei Pharaoh u’viei’nei avadov- and it was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and they eyes of his servant. For the entire world is waiting for us. They’re waiting for the brotherhood to reveal itself. It’s a story then. It’s our story today.

 

This past week I visited the Kibbutz of Be’eiri, the largest of the Kibbutzim on the Gaza border that was hit on the Shabbos Ha’Shachor- the black Shabbos that was Simchas Torah. The horrors we heard about, the destruction that we saw, the atrocities that were committed have kept me up at night since then. And what we heard and saw was only a tiny drop of what actually occurred. So much pain, so many tears, such darkness. When our tour was over I asked my friend Yardy who was born and raised there and was the only person that was non-military there- as he was singlehandedly trying to salvage the crops of avocado and citrus of the Kibbutz and pick them along with volunteers who came from all over to help, where we could daven Mincha he took us to the Kibbutz shul. And it was then that I had the shock of my life and one of the most powerful moments.

 

The shul was in perfect shape. It was untouched. All around us on all sides was destruction. Houses burnt, bullet-ridden kindergartens, medical clinics, grocery stores all looked like Gaza. Like Auschwitz. Yet in the middle the shul remained standing without even a broken window. There wasn’t a grazed bullet. I was astounded.  I would’ve thought it would be the first place the terrorists would’ve attacked. I had imagined Kristallnacht, with broken glass, thrown and strewn prayer books and chumashim, burnt talitot and desecrated sefer Torahs. Yardy didn’t have any answer or explanation why this was left. Why the terrorists never came here. Perhaps he suggested they assumed that nobody would be there. It didn’t make sense.

But then I walked outside and saw the name of the Synagogue emblazoned on the door. It was in wood in colorful letters. It said two words. “Ahavat Yisrael”. The of Yisrael. The love of brothers. It was as if Hashem looked down, just as He did, when He went to destroy the world with the flood in Noach’s era- because it was full of “Chamas”. It was like when He came down to talk to Avraham before destroying Sodom and turning those cities over. Yet, here Hashem spared the shul. He wanted us to understand that where there is Ahavas Yisrael, then Yishmael will never be able to touch us. We will be protected. We will be on. He will be revealed. He will have His home here amongst our Ahavas Yisrael- and the house of Pharaoh will find it good in their eyes.

 

This year as we light and celebrate the holiday of Chanuka, the blessing of those days in our time has more meaning than ever. The light will conquer the darkness once again. Yet for that to happen we need to find that shemen- the hidden cask of oil in our brothers. That fuel that every Jew has, that unites us. That is DNA of our family. That makes us brothers and sisters. When we ignite that spark as we see happening today like never before, then the entire world will join us in our Menora. They will help us rededicate our Temple once again. And then those days will be in our times forever.

 

Have holy hartzigeh Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

************************

YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Ganovim un farlibte hobn lib fintsternish.- Thieves and those in love both love darkness.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

17.Another name for the "Big Maktesh" is ___________.

What is the estimated size of the Bedouin population in the Negev?

 

A. 600,000

B. 150,000

C. 300,000

D. 450,000

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/maoz-tzur - It’s not Chanuka without my Rabbi Schwartz Compositions here’

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iky-KPl1-Og – Ari Goldwag’s latest Live to Give

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAmdS9AnUts   – Maccabeats We’re still here Am Yisrael Chai

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSj9pOUJ6tI   -  Y-Studs You can Light with me Chanuka Acapella

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXI0CLgK-Ds  - 613 Era-Luiton?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9PRlr2M4x4   – Dovid Lowy’s amazing new rendition of a Golden Oldie “Don’t hide from Me”

 

  

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK

 

Thanks and Praise – Chanukah is the holiday which the Rambam and Talmud tells us are all about one thing, and it’s not latkas or doughnuts. Its L’hodot U’l’Halel- to thank and praise Hashem. We will recite Hallel every day, we add in our bentching grace after meals an extra paragraph about Chanuka and the miracles. We say it again and again. I think its understandable to most that there is a concept of saying thank you and showing appreciation. If someone does something for you, then we understand that we “owe him” a big “thank you”.  Yet a whole 8 days of holiday seems like it is carried away. Songs, praises, again and again. Blessings, we seem to be obsessed with the idea. What’s it all about?

 

I remember hearing an incredible speech one about how every country and culture can be identified by its language and vocabulary. For example Italy has a lot fo different words for Pasta. That’s important. Pizza too. In Eskimo language there’s a lot of words for snow. Wet snow, dirty snow, soft snow hard snow. It’s a big deal to them. Americans have a lot of different coffee names. I’m just ana Americano type of guy. In Hebrew or the holy tongue there’s a lot of different words for praise. For thanks for showing appreciation. Take a look at Yishtabach, or the last paragraph of Hallel. There’s about 15 of them. Because that’s what’s important to us. In fact we are called Yehudim- because the tribe of Yehuda was thus named because Leah gave thanks to Hashem on his birth. It’s at the core of our identity.

 

What is praise? What is thanks in Jewish thought? It is us recognizing that Hashem does everything for us. That every moment we are alive is a gift. That gift is our purpose. It motivates us to do something. It makes appreciate that Hashem is standing with us. There are so many I have spoken to over the past month who have witnessed so many miracles. They can’t stop talking about it and they appreciate life differently than they ever did before. We do this ove the entire week of Chanukah, it is the reason why we are saved. It is the oil and fuel we are meant to reveal. This year more than ever, we need to appreciate that.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

 

The Leper King and Chanuka?!– It’s Chanuka and our thoughts and prayers are for the rebuilding of the Temple and the story of it’s rededication by the Chashmonaim/ Macabees. Fascinatingly enough the Ramban notes that despite the incredible miracle and rejoicnng of the holiday in the year 165 BCE within 50 years the Temple was back to it’s sorry impure state. The children of the Maccabees became Greek again. They assimilated. The defiled it. The essence of their sin, he writes, was that they tried to take too much for themselves. They were Kohanim, their role was to serve in the Temple. It wasn’t to be kings or rulers. The monarchy was always meant to be in the hands and through the descendants of the tribe Yehuda; the house of Dovid Ha’Melech. They took too much for themselves and they didn’t want to give up the power that they achieved in their victory over the Greeks. That was their mistake.

 

Similarly but at the opposite extreme we learn this week about the downfall of Azarya/ Uziya. With his tremendous success and even spiritual revival of the Jewish nation, the increase of the economy, the agriculture, the military achievements and the expansion of our borders, he like the Chashmonaim set his mind up to take more than his portion. To take the role of the Kohanim in the Temple. In Divrey Ha’Yamim it tells us that he entered the Holy of Holies with a pan of incense much to the outrage of the Kohanim. As he stood there while they rebuked him he broke out in Tzara’as a spiritual form of leprosy of which one of its causes is the sin of arrogance. Taken aback he immediately left the Temple, as he was the law mandates for a tamey person. He was taken out of the Old City and he was placed in a place called “Beit Chofshit” and it there he remained until he died.

 

Where is this Beit Chofshit? Fascinatingly enough with this as well there is a Chanuka connection. Jewish tradition places the location by Mt. of Olives in the Kidron valley by a cave and elaborate burial place call the Cave of Beit Chazir right next to Yad Avshalom. It is a burial cave from the 2^nd Temple period where the Kohanim of the Chazir family, mentioned in the Talmud as one of the 24 families that would take shifts in the Temple. It is elaborate and tradition has it that it is where the tomb of Zecharia, the Kohen Gadol that was murdered in the Temple in the period of Yoash was buried. As well tradition has it that Uziya’s grave was moved there from the city of David where he was buried, as this was where he lived.

 

Yet the irony is certainly remarkable. Uziya who was the King of Yehudah who tried to usurp the Priesthood from the Kohanim is buried in a tomb of the Chashmonaim, who were priests that tried to usurp the Kingship from Yehudah. The message for us today is that one person can’t do it all in Judaism. We need our brothers. We need to respect and appreciate that we each have different roles. If we do that, the b’yachad ni’natzayach. Together we will overcome the darkness and reveal the light.  

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FUNNY GAZA MEMES/ JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

Never ask a woman her age, A man his salary A Pro-Palestinain activist from which river to Sea and a Palestinian what Al Aktza mosue is built on top of.

 

@MuhammedSimry17 tweet- Bombing has started in Gaza please pray for us.

@benny.wol- Yisgadel V’Yiskadesh Shmei Rabba

 

Gaza Ministry of Health Latest numbers

Total Killed 26,334

22,304 children

4207 women (or dressed as women)

16 men

1 Hamas fighter

76 non-binary/gender fluid/ two-spirit

 

I’m definitely ordering my next phone from Gaza. I mean two months of battery life? Insane

 

For release a senior Hamas Operative responisblie for the on the hour missile launches has been elimanted. He has been identified as Allah Sh’aah (on the hour)

 

If you ever feel helpless remember that the UN still exists.

 

The answer to this week”s question is C – Another week another time I got one half right and half wrong. I wasn’t sure of the other name of the Mactesh Ha’Gadol. I remember it had one and they changed it, but forgot why and what the name was. The answer is Machtesh Yerucham. I think it was changed at the behest of the city of Yerucham to get more tourism there to the actual city near the MAchtesh crater, but I don’t think it worked. Nobody calls it that. On the other hand the Bedouin thing I got right. There are 300,000 of them. Which is a lot. There’s about another 150,000 of them everywhere else in Israel if I recall correctly So another half’and half score making the new score being Rabbi Schwartz at 12 point and the MOT having 4 point on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.

Home Alone- Parshat Vayishlach 2023 5784

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

December 1^st 2023 -Volume 13 Issue 8 18^th of Kisleiv 5784

 

Parshat Vayishlach

 

Home Alone

 

It was nice of them to call for a cease fire so that I could get away to the States for a week for two weddings. I don’t know how the soldiers would’ve survived without the Pizza, Mike and Ikes and good cheer I bring them. I’m not sure if the military would still be able to hold it’s strong position without me. But Baruch Hashem, we had a bit of a miraculous break to give everyone a chance to fire up again. We even were able to see the miraculous return of so many of our young children and women that these sub-animals kidnapped from us. May we soon see the return of the rest of them.

 

I got to recharge a bit as well, seeing family that I haven’t seen for so long. Aliza even was able to come along with me and it was very meaningful for both of us. We were able to visit her sister Yehudis’s grave for the first time, who is buried right next to my father and grandparents as well, where we were able to daven. That’s our mekomos hakedoshim holy place that we visit when we go to America. That and all the great kosher shopping and restaurants of course. We were in New York and LA primarily. A coast to coast trip. It was a week, and it was enough. I wanted to come home. To be honest, I wanted to bring everyone there with me home as well.

 

It was different this time going back to the “alteh heim”. The truth is every time I’ve gone back in the past 13 years since I’ve been here has been an evolution of emotion for me. In the beginning there was a sense of nostalgia, of getting some of the stuff we couldn’t get here and enjoying the visit back. From there it went to a sense that America was really not my home, and an amazement at how I never noticed how many goyim there were that lived there before. The next trip had me realize how artificial much of my Jewish experiences felt like over there. My Shabbos wasn’t a real Shabbos, my davening wasn’t a real davening, even my Torah learning, the tzedakah I gave, the rituals I preformed, it just felt very “Splenda”. Tastes like sugar, but just something not real about it.

 

But as the years continued, I felt more and more disconnected from America to the point where whenever I went back I just felt tamey- contaminated. It was like I left the Holy of Holies, like I left Yom Kippur, like I left Shabbos and was just thrown into a cesspool of tumah, of death, of sheratzim. I returned to Israel and just wanted to go to the mikva. Like I needed to go. It was like after you walk out of a cemetery and you want to wash your hands afterwards. You just want it all off of you. To be honest, since my surgery even the great food and eateries there- which don’t get me wrong are truly unparalleled to anything here- are not a draw for me. I can only eat a few bites and I’m full. It’s not like before when I can spend hours gorging myself on all of the delicacies they have there (emphasis on the word deli). And for a few bites, that my stomach could handle…it’s just not worth it and I really don’t have much excitement even about going back.

 

Yet, this time was an entirely different level. It was the first time that I’ve been back to America where I was a bit frightened. We were in Passaic and Aliza didn’t even want to get out of the car downtown by Main street there because she was scared that someone would be beat her up. Why she wasn’t nervous that they would beat me up whom she sent out to do her errand was a bit confusing- but OK… It’s not like we actually experienced any antisemitism when we were there. We didn’t. In fact most of the goyim that I shmoozed with were quite friendly and even sympathetic. Yet there was a pervasive sense that I got from watching the News, listening to the Radio, checking out the papers and even the way many of the Jews that I met and talked were acting, that the Medina shel Chesed ain’t what it used to be. That perhaps the sand is almost at the bottom of the hourglass on the limited time we usually have in a host country before the tide turns. Before the end comes. Before we have to start packing and moving and making sure our passports are updated. Yeah… that’s what it felt like and it wasn’t a good feeling.

 

Yet, at the end of the day I was getting on a plane and coming home. I would return to a perhaps war torn country that was facing a resumption of missiles, of sleepless nights going to sleep and dreading to read about the soldiers that may have not made it through the night as I had been doing for the month before I went to the States. But it was home. It was where I was supposed to be. It was my family in my house. My “family” being my fellow landsman and my “home” being the land where the Torah Hashem tells us He watches 24/7 from the beginning until the end of the year. My thoughts, fears and prayers were for the ones that weren’t getting on that plane. For the 6 million that are left behind in America. 6 million….

 

As I sat on the plane and opened up my chumash with thoughts running through my mind, this week’s parsha of Yaakov’s return to Eretz Yisrael took on a whole new meaning. It shed light on everything that this journey that all of us are taking to come home like never before. It’s a parsha of the return from galus. It’s our encounter with Esau and his angels, his almost miraculous and anomalous loving embrace of us and our sages insight into that. It’s a story about what we undergo when we return. The kidnapping of our daughter, our sisters, their defilement by humans with animal names- Chamor being the first person in the Torah to be named for an animal, a donkey and his son Shechem. It’s us going to war. It’s Yaakov’s fear of the world outcry. It’s Kever Rachel mourning for her children. Binyamin, the child- like so many in Israel that comes into a world orphaned, without a mother, without a father, in a world of hate that would be destined for exile.  It’s conclusion is ultimately Esau leaving our land and the so many kings and fearful leaders and despots that stand against us. Torah reading each Shabbos has never been more real, than it has been since we started the cycle this past Simchas Torah. Ba’yamim ha’heim ba’zman ha’zeh has never been more on target as we get closer and closer to holiday of miracles next week.

 

There’s no time to go through it all though. That will have to be your homework this Shabbos. I’ll share with you though one pervasive thought though that to me is incredible. It is Yaakov’s approach to Esau. Our sages tell us that there are two major powers amongst the nations. There is Yishmael- which is the Arab nations and there is Esau which they always have seen as being the Western non-muslim world and we’ve spoken about that the past few weeks. Whereas Yishmael is compared by the Torah to a donkey- by Avraham by the Akeida where he tells him to stay behind with donkey, Esau is an oxe- he is the one that has thrown off his yoke. He is brute force. The Gaon of Vilna tells us that the essence of the prohibition to plow a donkey and oxe together is that the combination of these two nations can unleash a union that threatens to destroy us. It is why Esau after losing the blessings goes and marries the daughter of Yishmael. And it is the message that Yaakov sends to Esau with his gifts.

 

“Vayehi li shor v’chamor- I have an ox and donkey.

 

The midrash sees this description as referencing Yaakov’s later blessing to two of his children where he compares them to these animals. Yosef is compared to an ox and the donkey is Yisachar the tribe who studies Torah. Yaakov is telling Esau- I have the power to fight against you. We’re coming home.

 

Yet Yaakov is fearful. According to some of the commentaries his fear came from the fact that Esau had more merit than him. Some say it is the honoring of his father that Yaakov missed out on for all these years, others that Yaakov who although kept all of the mitzvos in chutz la’aretz but was still missing the mitzva of settling and fulfilling them in the land of Israel, the place he was supposed to. The place that Esau was living in. Perhaps Esau had a greater appreciation for Eretz Yisrael than he did. Perhaps the Christians and all of the nations of the world understand better than we do where we’re supposed to be living and where we’re not supposed to be living. And they make the ghetto smaller and smaller until we get it. Esau’s job is to remind us of our lack of the mitzva of settling the land. To make us feel small until we get it.

 

Yaakov though prepares for his return with a multi-faceted approach. He tries to garner Esau’s support. Diplomacy, bribes, moral arguments, a recounting of the horrors of his exile by Lavan, by Hitler. He doesn’t claim to Esau that he wants the land because this is a fulfilment of the blessing, because this is our birthright, because Hashem wants us to fulfill our Divine mandate and we can only do it from here. We just want to come back because we need a place to live where we won’t be persecuted anymore, where we can raise our sheep, where we can develop our hi-tech, where we can flourish and not get killed, persecuted, kidnapped. And yes even where we can worship.

 

At the same time Yaakov is prepared for war. He will raise an army. He will have angels martialed with tzav shmona draft forms ready to start blowing things us. The Merkava tanks he has are those angels from the Maaseh Merkava- the chariot of Hashem. Esau, has to see we will fight for our land. We will even fight him for our land. There may only be 12 of us against 400 of them, but hey, we’re all in. We don’t have anyplace else to go- as Golda told Henry Kissinger. It’s our secret weapon. Esau has to know that we’re not asking permission. We’re locked and loaded. We’re ready to give our lives for the cause.

 

Finally, Yaakov davens. He prays like never before. He asks Hashem that he be worthy of the blessing, of the land, of the kindness and grace. He asks Hashem to save him from the hand of Esau. Esau who at one time can be his brother, yet at the next time can be the murderous enemy that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai tells us has a known Halachic status and assumption always hates us. Yaakov asks Hashem to save us from both of these Esau’s the friendly embracing one is perhaps even the greater threat to our nationhood and family as history has taught us that we have lost far more Jews to the assimilation and warm welcoming embrace and hugs of Esau than from the sword and Gas Chambers that he destroys us with.

 

With those prayers and preparatory actions Yaakov is ready. The party is ready to begin. He crosses the river, yet fascinatingly enough it seems he can’t leave. He can’t come home. He left some stuff behind. Pachim ketanim- small vessels, klaynehkeit, those really good little paper coffee cups that have a cardboard belt around the middle so that you don’t burn your hands and that have covers that actually close, so the coffee doesn’t spill on your white shirt when you drink from them. You know the ones that you can’t get over here. My wife actually brought a few back with us. They were free by the Rechnitz wedding 😊. So Yaakov goes back for them. He just can’t leave. He sent his kids and wives up ahead to make Aliyah, but he still had his place in Century Village…. Ok I’m getting carried away…sorry.

 

But what happens when goes back? It’s there that he must struggle with that angel of Esau. It’s the battle that wounds him. It’s that last fight that he has to go through in chutz la’aretz, the last epiphany that he needs before he can come and take his role as the First-born. Before he can start to deal with the rapists, kidnappers, terrorists and donkeys that are in the land.

 

Va’yivaser Ya’akov livado- Yaakov has to realize that he’s all alone. That there’s no one that will ultimately be there for him. They may say that we’re standing shoulder to shoulder- which in Hebrew is the word Shechem, fascinatingly enough. Yet, the true Shechem is with Chamor the donkey that is Yishmael. They are his children. They are his partners. They will try to negotiate a more peaceful co-existence- “ki’ilu- as if”, like they say over here, all the while Dina, our daughter and sister is still sitting in their tunnels.

 

The end of that battle with that angel. The conclusion of the struggle with Esau that appears like an angel sometimes, like a brother, is for Yaakov to get the blessing from him and recognition that he is in fact Yisrael. Our identity will not be the one that is grabbing onto the heel of Esau of anymore. That we are waiting to see if he will step on us or not. That we see ourselves as needing to hold and take our steps where he wants us to go as we grab onto his shoelaces. We are Yisrael. We are the children of Israel. We are sarim- princes. We are princes of Hashem. We will lead. We will be their light. When Esau sees that, then his name as Penu-el-being turned to Hashem will be revealed. Then we can come home and do what we’re supposed to. Then they will all follow us.

 

One last fascinating thought. Shimon and Levi’s strategy to liberate Dina is one where they circumcise the entire city thus weakening them. I remember hearing once that the reason for that was because they were also, as Yaakov was, concerned that the rest of the world might be outraged and join the battle to Free Shechem and Palestine from the hands of the occupying Jews. They figured though if they circumcise them, then the world won’t care about them. The world woll assume that they’ve also converted and are just dead Jews and no one will ever care or stand up for them. It’s just spilled Jewish blood. It doesn’t matter. We’re livado. Alone.

 

What makes this even more interesting is that the city of Shechem is ultimately given to Yosef as his portion. Yosef who we said is compared to an ox. Yosef, the ox, is given the city of Chamor- the donkey. Yosef, who ulimatly as well is kidnapped, by his own brothers. Yosef who is sold down to Egypt by Yishmaelim, Yosef who ultimately sends donkeys down to his father to bring him up to Egypt, who circumcises the entire Egypt. Yosef, who is brought down with his brothers back to Israel when they leave Egypt on donkeys laden with all of the booty. Yosef who is buried in Shechem our first stop when we come into the land. The kidnapped child has come home. He has brought all of the sparks of exile of Egypt with him. There is nothing left and the first commonwealth and the Temple of Dovid and Shlomo are on the way.

 

We are told that there are two Mashiachs. The first stage is Mashiach Ben Yosef. That ox. That kidnapped child that must return. That force and leadership that can provide for all of the other brother. That can take a famine and turn it into plenty. That can take a desert and wasteland and make it flourish. And then there is Mashiach Ben David- who will be riding on a donkey. On a Chamor. He will unite our nation spiritually. He will bring us all to Hashem. He will do that while riding that donkey, like nobody ever did before. It is the donkey that Avraham took to the Akeida. It’s the donkey that saw all of the sacrifice and martyrs. It is the one that Moshe rode down to Egypt to take us out the first time. And it is the one that that will herald in the day that we are all waiting for. The day when we will no longer be alone. When the entire world will become one with us and with Hashem. The time is now.

 

Have peaceful soulful Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Es lacht zikh alain un es vaint zikh alain.” One laughs alone and weeps alone.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

16.The Bahai is an offshoot of the Islamic ___________ current.

In which mosque in Israel, can the translations of the Quran into different languages be found?

A. The Great Mosque in Ramla

B. The Al Jazzar Mosque in Acre

C. The Al-Nuzha Mosque in Jaffa

D. The Ahmadi Mosque in Haifa

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/al-hanissim  – Start Getting into the Chanuka Mode with my Al Ha’Nissim composition thank you Dovid Lowy for vocals and arrangements

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPxmKBmPfRI     – Gorgeous Bentzi Kletzkin and Choir

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5TNkVPmNs4   – Moshe Klein Tachzor Ha’Bayta

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuqYrHZzov8    -  Can’t get enough of this song Ata Zocher- MBD and Kempeh (Ribo does it better though..)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgkyLkXGM6g    - Just found this golden oldie redone “On Simchas Torah” amazing lyrics

 

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S PARSHA PRAYER INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK

 

A “Small” Wayfarers Prayer – He was facing an enemy that had sworn to kill him. Esau was on the way with a murderous army of 400 terrorists coming to wipe him out. So like every good Jew Yaakov davens. This prayer that Yaakov prays becomes the one of the most powerful prayers that in fact turns the tide and Esau and him part from one another like the brothers that they really were. It’s the tefilla that worked. The Talmud tells us that the great Tanna Rebbi would study this parsha before he went out to meet with the Non-Jewish Roman emperors and powers that he dealt with. In fact many of our sages teach us that the recitation of this parsha is a segula/ a good omen to recite each Motzai Shabbos and certainly when one is traveling and interacting with non-Jews. It works! Now we just have to reveal what the secret it contains is.

 

Yaakov introduces his prayer to Hashem as the God of his fathers, Avraham and Yitzchak. The God who told me to go down and that promised would be with me and the God that told me it was time time to go home for my own good. Now at that point one would think the next statement would be

 

“Well, look at me… I’m doing what you told me to. I’m following Your will. Please protect me… Save me… rescue me… After-all it’ only because of You that I’m here in the first place.”

 

Perhaps one could even be a bit cynical.

 

“C’mon Hashem You told me that You would be with me in Lavan’s house and to be quite honest it really wasn’t what I expected. I watched sheep day and night, I worked like a dog. I had to fight to get my wives, my children. I was getting ripped off every second. I had to ultimately flee and he came running after me. So that really wasn’t so great… Do you think you can do better this time around?”

 

Yet remarkably Yaakov has the opposite approach.

 

Katonti mikol ha’chasadim u’mikol ha’emes- I am so small compared to all of the kindness that You have done for your servant.

 

I’m not worthy. I don’t deserve anything. I’m overwhelmed by Your generosity. I’m small. I’m Your servant. That’s the Yaakov approach. That’s the way that we are supposed to come to Hashem. That’s how our prayers are answered best. That’s the essence of what prayer is in fact really about.

 

The Chozeh of Lublin notes that since the time that we were children we expect that everything is coming to us. We deserve to be fed, to be healthy, to get married, to make a living, to not get kidnapped and murdered. We are raised with expectations of the way that we believe life should work out. The way that we feel for some reason we are entitled for it to work out. Our job in life is to overcome that misconception. To recognize that we are small. That all that we have received in life is chesed of Hashem- undeserved kindness, grace, goodness that if we thought about it would make us realize how loved and fortunate we must be. How important we must be to Hashem. How precious our service of Him is.

 

What is that service? To reveal Hashem in the world. To connect the entire world to it’s Loving Creator who only wants goodness for them. To share that dream of the ladder that bridges heaven and earth with all His Creations. Yet, the only way that can happen is if it’s only about Him. If it’s only about that mission. If I’m able to minimize myself enough to bring that out. For as long as I feel that it’s what I deserve. It’s my merit. Tzi kumt mir- it’s coming to me- as they say in yiddish. Then Hashem’s benevolence is just “payback”. It’s Him being fair and just perhaps but not kind and loving.

 

The Chozeh, even takes this a step further in reading the above verse homiletically. The recognition that “Katonti”- I am small- is in itself “mikol ha’chasadim”- the greatest kindness and truth that He Gives us. “Asher asisa es avdecha”- it is what makes us into His servants. The ability to step back from our preconceived faulty notions and see the Kindness which is in fact the truth of the way Hashem Loves us and Gives to us, that door that he opens in our heart is the greatest gift. For it is with that power and understanding that we can get the most out of our prayer and connection with Him. It’s the way that we can reveal Him to the world.

 

Each time that we daven and turn to Hashem, every venture that we embark upon, every interaction we have with the world needs to have this idea in the forefront of our mind. It’s not about me. It’s not about my mission. It’s about Hashem. It’s His presence we are meant to reveal. His kindness His grace. It’s our tefilas ha’derech. The prayer for all our walks through the journey of life. It’s the idea that will bring us to His final destination.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

 

Azarya/ Uziah- the Warrior King– Last week we discussed Azarya (who is also called in Divrey Ha’yamim as Uziya) who became King of Yehuda at age 16 and conquered Eilat and the South of Eretz Yisrael. Yet, the Navi tells us that in fact in his 52-year reign he brought Israel and its borders to its greatest borders and military might since the times of Shlomo Ha’Melech. His army- much like the one today numbered over 300,000 soldiers strong. His army- much like today, went into Gaza and conquered the city of Gat as well as the other Philistine cities, like Ashdod and Yavne and then made them Jewish fortified cities. As well according to some opinions besides conquering the South and Negev and Jordan valley his kingdom went up to Syria in the North as well.  In Yerushalayim he fortified the city like never before arming it to the teeth with catapults and fortresses. We were at our peak.

 

It wasn’t only militarily that he strengthened the country. Economically as well he created ports capitalizing on the crossroads that Israel was between Egypt and the rest of the middle East and Europe for merchandise shipping. Throughout Yehudah and the Shefela he created agricultural havens with water cisterns and large vineyards and farms for the cattle and crops. The Navi calls him a lover of the land and he developed the Carmel range as well in the North. The country flourished.

 

Even religiously he followed the ways of Hashem and removed idolatry from the land and returned the nation to the service of Hashem. His one failing though was that he was not successful in removing the worship of Hashem on the forbidden temporary altars- the bamos, that existed previously. He couldn’t get the people to drop their private “shuls” and gather together to the one place of worship of all of us; the Bais Ha’Mikdash. That failing led to his eventual downfall and to arrogance when he decided that with all his success he should do the service in the Temple as well. We’ll pick up on the sad tragic end of Uziya/ Azarya next week.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FUNNY GAZA MEMES/ JOKES OF THE WEEK

 

Permitted for Publishing- the Terrorist killed by Elor Azaria will not be freed in any deal with Hamas- neither will any other killed by good citizens…

 

Near Future Game Show- “Facts Don’t Matter

“Sorry Arthur, your answer was actually correct, but Paul shouted his opinion louder, so he gets the the point. And extra bonus point also go to Sue because she was offended by your answer.

 

Gaza officials confirmed that 5,000 Palestinians died at the US-Canada Border Explosion.

 

What’s the Middle East Word for Cease fire? Reload.

 

Hudna- When you are cornered and manage to get your enemy to stop fighting so that you reload, regroup and reposition to finish him off.

 

Dear Americans we are so glad that some of you are taking the day off from attacking Jews for Reclaiming their indigenous homeland to celebrate the holiday dedicated to the beginning of a colonial conquest of indigenous land. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Anti-semitic incident today that shook me up. A guy told me to shut up. I was wearing a Kippa, so he knew was I was Jewish. Also I was in shul and it was Torah reading so he must’ve known I was Jewish…

 

Why are women so attracted to Daniel Hagari Israels’ Military spokesperson? Because he’s the only man that bother to update you every day, at a set time, what he did today, what he plans on doing tomorrow and then answer all of your questions at the end.

 

Facing an overwhelming influx of Hamas Martyrs, the virgins in heaven are now calling for a humanitarian cease fire.

 

In just two generations we went from being gassed for not being blonde and blue eyed to bein smeared as blond and blue eyed.

 

Palestinian Authority warns that Gaza Hospitals are running dangerously low on ammunition.

 

People can be taught to Hate and people can be taught to spell but apparently it is one or the other.

 

Red Cross is that kid who contributes nothing to the group project but when it comes to presenting stands in front and takes all the credit.

 

Israeli companies are now adding their own “Boycott Israel” stickers to all their products after learning this only increases sales!

Saying that hostages were treated well is no different than saying “her husband beats her but buys her nice jewlery and flowers…”

 

Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, a Muslim what Al Asqa is built on top of…

 

Looks like there will be a public menorah lighting in Gaza this year… but not in London…

 

The answer to this week”s question is D – I got this one half right surprisingly. I guessed Sunni and the right answer was Shi’ite. Who cares? Not me… They’re all the same to me and to most of my tourists. Hamas is Sunni Hezbolla is Shi’ite and what does that do for us? I got the second part right though- not because I knew or care about the answer. Just because I know that the Achemedim are the peaceful new wave Arabs so it made sense that they would have in all languages and I was right!  . And thus the new score being Rabbi Schwartz at 11.5 point and the MOT having 4.5 point on this latest Ministry of Tourism exam.