The Perfect Partner-Parshat Vayigash 5779/2018

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

December 14^th 2018 -Volume 9 Issue 11-6^th of Tevet 5779

Parshat Vayigash

The Perfect Partner

Perhaps one of the biggest downsides of being a tour guide, and there really aren’t too many of them, is that it really doesn’t afford me the ability to have a chavrusa- a study partner. My schedule is too erratic. I’m never home for more than a few days. I start and end at all different times. It just doesn’t work. So all I’ve got is you guys and gals. And nothing personal, but you really don’t cut as chavrusos go. Don’t get me wrong, I love you. But I miss those days when I could have my regular one on one time with my intellectual sparring partner in our spiritual gym; the Beit Midrash.

It’s not a small price to pay either. I’ve had chavrusas since I’m 13 years old in high school. Back then though all I was really interested in was a guy I could schmooze the best with when the Rebbe wasn’t looking, or who could help me on my exams or with my homework. But as I got older, in my post high school beis medrash years, my chavrusa was the person that I would really develop my learning skills with. We would sit about 3-4 hours each morning together and plow through the pages of the Talmud, debating the nuances of the commentaries, the arguments and approaches of the different sages throughout the generations and offering our own solutions to questions and contradictions that needed to be explained. It was intense. Most of the time we would spend a week or more on a mere few lines of the Talmud.

 In the afternoon we had another few hours of study which was a little lighter. We focused more on “covering ground” and completing the rest of the particular tractate we were studying. There the chavrusa’s job was to keep me moving. Not to get bogged down in the minutia. We would get back to all our question another day. In the evening we had our night seder chavrusa who we would review the Rebbe’s shiur/class with. We had halacha chavrusos, extra-seder ones for optional learning and even a mussar seder chavrusa who we could work on our own personal ethical and spiritual development with. I skipped that seder a lot.

As I got older, married, and joined a Kollel, I switched my order of learning to studying halacha full time. As I studied for my semicha- rabbinic ordination, my study-partners had to be those that I could work with in not only learning and studying the various sugyas- (I guess topics is the best translation I can come up with, but doesn’t really do it justice, let me know if you have a better one)- but one that would help me remember it; that would be able to test me, challenge me and come up with practical ramifications of the 3000 year old law and 200, 300, 400, 500 etc… year old texts that we were studying.

There is nothing like a good chavrusa. They’re not easy to find, though. In my case I needed obviously someone that would challenge me, be able to handle my “exuberant” defense of my positions and insight and not back down, and someone as well that I felt I could learn from. He also needed to be a good schmoozer that in my down time I could banter with. If he was too serious or boring, then I would generally have to duck out occasionally for good conversation. When that happened I usually didn’t extricate myself quick enough and it was downhill from there.

I was lucky in many ways. I had quite a few great chavrusos. Tzvi, Ari, Yitzy, Yitzchak, Duvi, Chiely, Zevy, Leiby to name a few, just in case they’re reading this. The rest of my friends on this list could try to figure out who they were J.I even was privileged to have chavrusos with some of my Rebbeim. Mostly mussar seder though. I think that was the only way they thought they could get me to attend. It worked. The attendance, I mean. The mussar, I think the jury is still out on. Or not.

The critical role of a study partner in one’s life is spoken about in the Talmud. I share the story with my tourists when we visit the grave of Choni Ha’Maagel, the great sage in the times of the 2^nd Temple. Choni, the inspiration for Rip Van Winkle incidentally, the Talmud tells us slept for 70 years. Upon awakening he returns to his study hall and can’t find anyone that was on his level to learn with him. The next generation was just not up to his level. So he prayed the famous statement that Patrick Henry co-opted and paraphrased.

Talmud Taanit (23.) O’ Chavrusa O’misusa- Give me a Chavrusa or give me death

His prayers were answered and his life was taken from him. Similarly, the Talmud tells us about the incredible chavrusa-shaft between those two brothers-in-law; Rebbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish. After one disagreement, they “broke up” and Resh Lakish, is so forlorn that he dies. Not long after Reb Yochanan does as well, when he realizes that there is no one that can replace Reish Lakish. In the words of the Reb Yochanan bemoaning his fate

Talmud Bava Metzia (10.) ‘When I would say something he would ask me 24 questions and I would have 24 answers and that would be the way we would open up the Talmud. All these new students do are bringing me corroborating proofs to what I am saying.’

Reb Yochanan wasn’t looking for sycophants. He needed a chavrusa that would sharpen him. Interesting enough, I just noticed that it is Reb Yochanan, in Tannit, who records the previous story of Choni as well. It seems it is a reflection of his own experience.

This week’s Torah portion is perhaps the source for the chavrusa process of study with the establishment of the first yeshiva that is recorded in the Torah. After the reunion of Yosef and his brothers, the brothers return to bring their father Yaakov down to Egypt to join them. Yaakov however sends Yehudah up ahead on an important mission.

Bereshis (46:28) And Yehudah was sent before him to Yosef  “l’horos”- to instruct before him in  Goshen.

The Torah doesn’t tell us what he was meant to instruct however Rashi quotes the Midrash focusing on the words ‘l’horos’- which means teaching laws  and before him as a reference to building a Beit Hatalmud- a Yeshiva from where Jewish law will come out from.

So here we have the first yeshiva being set up. The yeshiva will consist of two students. A chavrusa-schaft. Two unlikely candidates. Yehudah and Yosef. Incredible! I don’t think that there would be two more unlikely people that someone would throw together. Think about their history. Yehudah had sold Yosef down to Egypt and all that he had undergone in those 22 years were because of that sale. His imprisonment, his distance from his father, his family, his brother. Yehudah as well, was put through this incredible hoax, by Yosef. He was accused of being a spy, his brother Shimon was thrown into jail, he literally almost lost his World to Come as he had guaranteed to his father that he would return Binyamin’s to him and Yosef had him convinced that it was not happening. And you want to put these two together to build a yeshiva! To be study-partners?

Besides all that history, their styles were total opposites. Yosef was the tzadik. He withstood the temptation of the wife of Potiphar. Yehudah on the other hand was the Baal Teshuva. He failed. He sinned. Yet he admits and comes back. Yosef operates hidden, behind closed doors. Yehudah is out in the open. Yehudah was the king who lost his superiority after the sale of Yosef. Yosef on the other hand rises out of the pit to kingship. They are polar opposites. And yet they become the quintessential chavrusas, precisely for that reason.

See, the beauty of the study of Torah is that it is not about me. For Torah study to be true it has to be that way. One can’t inflict their personal baggage on the text. There can’t be any ego. But yet each one of us has brings so much of it to the table when we approach anything in our lives. L’havdil one can see that when it comes to archaeology in Israel. There are many Zionistic archaeologists that approach whatever they find with the intent of proving that Jews have been here forever. There are some that are religious and will see proof of authenticity of the Torah, its narratives, the stories of the Talmud and information contained there in all they find. Other atheistic archaeologists will try to prove the opposite. For many years, there were respected archaeologists that believed that King David or King Solomon, if they even existed, were mere tribal chieftains, rather than national kings. Ultimately they were quite embarrassed with all the discoveries that pretty much made the Torah version incontrovertible. But the study of Torah can’t be that way. It has to be pure. It has to be objective and can’t be subjective. And the only way to get that pure fire, in the words of the midrash, is by rubbing two hard stones together. Two opposing scholars who through their debate will reveal the pure light of truth of our Torah.

Yaakov sends Yehudah to form this first study-partnership and create a Beit Midrash that will instruct the Jews in how we will merit to leave the Egyptian exile that we were then entering. We will need the Yosefs and Yehudahs to get together. We will need the tzadikim, the righteous ones without sin to sit down and study with the baal teshuvas- the sinners who have returned. Not only to teach them, but to learn from them as well. We need the wealthy, successful ones, who have picked themselves up, to sharpen themselves in Torah study with those who have failed; with those who have lost it all. The quiet and the loud, the public and the private. The brave and the timid. The dreamer and the pragmatist. Each one possesses a truth the other doesn’t have and each one’s truth is incomplete because it is bogged down with the ego and personal agenda that detracts from the Divine mission. It is only when they unite. When they can put all that baggage behind them, when they can sit down and hash it out over the word of Hashem that the true light and redemption can come.

When we left Egypt and came to the Sea we are told that it split before the people for two reasons. The first was that the leader of the tribe of Yehudah, Nachshon, jumped in first up to his nose. The second reason is because the Sea ‘saw’ the coffin of Yosef and ‘said’ that since Yosef was able to overcome his natural inclinations to fulfill the will of Hashem, it must follow suit as well and split. It is no coincidence that the redemption came in the merit of these two. The sea split “before them” because Yaakov had sent Yehuda 210 years prior to that when we first came down to Egypt to open the Beit Midrash “before them”. As well, we are told that the ultimate redemption will have two Mashiachs; Mashiach from the house of Yosef and Mashiach from the house of David (the descendant of Yehuda). That chavrusa, that Beit Midrash, that undiluted Torah is what will bring that Temple once again to be rebuilt.

So here I am chavrusa-less. I have my congregants. I have you, my readers, and I have my daily tourists, who I try to challenge. But you aren’t chavrusos. As much as I love you and wouldn’t trade my life for anything else. But I miss it. It’s my sacrifice, I guess, for the meantime. Something to look forward to when I retire. Hopefully that is still a long time away despite my becoming another year older ( I had to get that in somewhereJ). On the other hand, God willing Mashiach will come, The ultimate Chavrusa will finally come to its fulfilment. We are half way there. Mashiach Ben Yosef has done his work. May we see his chavrusa Mashiach Ben Dovid join him very soon.

 Have a marvelous Shabbos!

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“In shpigel zet itlecher zein besten freind.”- In the mirror everybody sees his best friend

RABBI SCHWARTZES COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

https://youtu.be/p3UiUDbkSqY   - Mind-blowing, to think 6000 Jews gather at Kremlin and sing Ani Maamin boys choir. Who wudda thought we would see this day…Truly Mashiach’s times

https://youtu.be/YBSDTrviNxI     I’ll be honest. I didn’t think I would watch more than 2 minutes of this but it is truly kept me transfixed. Let’s see if it happens to you. The Rubashkin Story a Nation United on the anniversary of his release

https://youtu.be/sN_S2RUGBds- Very hartzig new song at concert Hatei sung by Shea Rubenstien

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nEquYC2DzU -    Wasn’t easy finding this… Ani Yosef Achichem sung by Simcha Leiner a beautiful SY Rechnitz composition

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q The southernmost bird sanctuary in Israel is found in:

A. The Hai Bar in Yotvata

B. Yoash Mountain

C. Timna Mountain

D. Eilat

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

Parshat Vayigash– One has to be careful about being too “lomdish”. Or perhaps careful of getting carried away with your lomdus and then projecting it on the text. My Rebbi, used to call it having a “yiddisheh nose”. Being able to smell out whether a vort, or Torah idea was true or not. I’ll give you an example of course from this week’s Torah portion

The Torah tells us about Yosef and Yaakov’s long awaited reunion. The verse tells us that Yosef falls on his father’s shoulder. Rashi notes however that the verse does not tell us that Yaakov cried at all.

Rashi Bereshis (46:29) Our sages tell us that Yaakov was reciting the Shema

All of the commentaries pretty much are perplexed by this Rashi. Why is Yaakov reciting the Shema? Why isn’t Yosef, if it was time to recite it. Reb Chaim Soloveitchik Z”L answers in his traditional halachic and lomdushe manner, by noting that the entire way down to Egypt Yaakov never recited Shema. The reason being because that Talmud in Sukkah (25.) tells us that the Torah obligates one to say Shema B’lectecha ba’derech- in one’s walking on the path. Only when one is walking for your personal reasons are you obligated. However, if you are walking in the process of doing a mitzvah you are exempt. That being the case, then the entire journey down to Egypt which was a commandment by Hashem, Yaakov was exempt from reciting Shema. It was only when he arrived and met Yosef that he became obligated once again. And thus he recited Shema.

That part of the story is pretty famous. I recently saw an added part in the sefer Shai La’Torah that dramatizes it a bit more. There was an individual that was telling the Brisker Rav his own resolution of Reb Chaim’s kasha. He suggested that Yaakov was overwhelmed with such a powerful love for his own son that he feared that it would detract from his mitzvah to “love Hashem with all your heart”. He was sharing some of his heart with his outpouring of love for his son. He therefore recited the Shema to reinforce his love for Hashem.

When the Rav heard this he shuddered and responded

‘Mi’nemt Yaakov Avinu und m’macht ehm azoi vi zich; und noch dehm zogt min azah zelecheh verter- You takeYaakov, our Patriarch, and make him just like you and then you make up speeches about it.’

He continued and explained that by our forefather Yaakov there was no such thing as a personal love for his son that was separate from his love of Hashem. They were identical. He loved his son because it was an expression of his love for Hashem.

So as I said be careful, about lomdus. As Reb Kenny R used to say. You got to know when to hold em and when to fold em, when to lomdus them and when to not.

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

Septuaguint - 246 BC- This Sunday is the 8^th of Tevet. It was at one point a fast day but it got incorporated with the fast 2 days later of the 10^th of Tevet. It recalls a day that our sages tell us was as bad as the Golden Calf. It was the day of the writing of the Septuaquint or Targum Shivi’m in the words of our sages. Ever hear about it? Did you think it’s that bad?  Well you’ll be fasting for it this Tuesday why not learn about it.

See in about the year 300 BC or so a short little Greek Guy named Alexander who humbly called himself the Great came to Israel. With him comes all types of Greek culture. He’s good to the Jews but his generals that take over…not so much. The Egyptian King Ptolmey decides to have the Torah translated into Greek. He takes 72 Rabbis locks them into 72 rooms gives them a pen and boom get to work. Miraculously all 72 came out with identical texts, this was despite the fact that they all made politically correct changes to it. Although it was a miracle, our Rabbis saw it as a bad thing. For now, the Torah would become just another philosophy book on the shelf. Jews would assimilate more and more and Hebrew our sacred tongue as well would not be utilized by the next generation.

This phenomenon of the Septuagint and assimilating Jews during this period of the second Temple where I mention this can be seen all over Israel. In Jerusalem in the Herodian street under the old city one can see Greek writing all over the place and its influences. In the synagogues in the Ir Dovid and the north of Israel as well which id from a bit later period Greek is the commonly written language. In Tzippori one can see the illiterate Hebrew with words misspelled on the shul floors. In the cemetery in Beit Shearim we find graves that are inscribed in Greek with Greek epitaphs and names of daughters of Rabbis that are buried there that are entirely Greek; Atio and Atheon for example. Perhaps the place you see it most vividly is in the Israel Musuem where you see much of the assimilated Jewish Hellenists Mosaics and art that has been uncovered and at the museum of the Good Samaritan in the Dead Sea region as well.

It gives me, and my tourists, pause to see this striking Greek assimilation and it makes you think about what they might say about the plethora of English Torah books, if that’s a good thing as well. On the one hand it has certainly opened up Torah to many who would not have access. On the other hand maybe we should fast, and pray for the fact that we have lost Lashon Hakodesh as our mother tongue.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S JEWISH PARTNER JOKES  OF THE WEEK

One evening, Moshe and his partner Abe were having dinner together to celebrate a recent business deal. They were having a great time when suddenly Moshe began to find it hard to breathe.
He said, "Abe, help me, I tink I hev svallowed a bone."
"Are you choking, Moshe?" said Abe.
"No, - I’m being serious." 

In the early 1900s, an old Jew was traveling alone in his compartment on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The train stops and an officer in the czar's army gets on. He and the Jew travel for a while in silence. Suddenly the officer grabs the Jew by the lapels and demands: "Tell me: how is it you Jews so much brighter than everyone else?"
The Jew is silent a moment, then responds: "It's because of the herring that we eat."
The officer quiets down and the trip resumes. Soon the Jew takes out a piece of herring and starts to eat it. The officer asks him: "How many more pieces of that herring do you have?"
"A dozen."
"How much do you want for them?"
"Twenty rubles" [a big sum of money].
The officer takes out the money and gives it to the Jew. The old man gives him the herring, and the officer takes a bite. Suddenly he stops. "This is ridiculous," he says. "In Moscow I could have bought all this herring for a few kopecks."
"You see," says the Jew, "it's working already."

O'Sullivan, Cabot, Kelly and Mendlebaum was one of the most successful law firms in New York . Of all the partners, Mendlebaum brought in the most business.
Lunching with him one day, a curious friend asked, "Why is your name listed last? O'Sullivan spends most of his time in the south of France . Cabot is at his club's bar every afternoon, and Kelly is at the race track all the time. Since you bring in all the business, your name should be first."
To which Mendlebaum replied, "All my clients read from right to left."

This happened in the English class at a chassidic yeshiva. The teacher presented the students with a list of vocabulary words and gave them a homework assignment to write each word in a sentence. On the list was the word 'devout'.

One student returned the next day with the following sentence: "My father has long devouts."

Upon reading it, the principal asked the student if he was trying to make a joke out of the assignment.

 "No," the boy replied with a sincere look, "I looked up 'devout' in the dictionary, and it said, 'pious.'

At Mr Silver's Bar Mitzva, he asks his Rabbi to speak for five minutes. The Rabbi says he can’t talk because he left his teeth at home, so he sends his Shamash to run to his house and bring him his teeth. When he gets the teeth he gets up and starts speaking. 5 min. then ten, 20, 30, 40 and he keeps speaking. After an hour he finally gets down. Mr. Silver is not too happy and asks the Rabbi, "I told you to speak for only five minutes, what happened?" The Rabbi says "oy, my Shamash brought me my wife's teeth!

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

Answer is D–  That was another easy one. I think I had it on an earlier practice test as well. But yes, Eilat is the southern most part of Israel and the half billion or so bears that migrate from Europe and Asia down to Africa and back again in the fall and spring make their way to that Arava valley to fuel up before hitting the Sahara dessert. Yoash is in Eilat mountains Timna has Solomons Pillars and the Hai Bar in Yotvata one can see birds, but its north of Eilat and not a sanctuary

score is Schwartz 8 and 1 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.

Jewish? Music? - Parshat Mikeitz Chanukah II 5779 /2018

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

December 7^th 2018 -Volume 9 Issue 10-29^th of Kislev 5779

Parshat Mikeitz / Chanuka II

Jewish? Music?

It has become the new holiday tradition. Like Kosher hotels on Pesach, Uman on Rosh Hashana, bonfires and chai rottel- whatever that is-on Lag Ba’omer, Chafetz Chaim Heritage and other videos on Tisha B’Av and asking forgiveness via mass WhatsApp and Facebook messages from everyone you might have ever un-‘liked’ before Yom Kippur. I could probably throw in Rabbi Schwartzes’ annual Rosh Hashana family-megilla update and our Purim top ten list, but that’s something only the devout, elite, privileged 2500 of you out there on our weekly list get to experience. But yes, it is safe to say that a new tradition has become part of our Jewish Chanukah experience as well.

What was once a holiday defined by its 8 simple lights on the menorah, obviously had to expand itself to have some gastrointestinal aspect to it, to match up to the Shavuot blintzes, Pesach matzah brie and Purim nosh. So we came up with latkas. Israelis having to be different have sufganiyot which are jelly filled sponges with scary looking white powder that blows all over your clothing when you take a bite. (They do that incidentally so you can’t hide the fact that you just had one from your wife when you come home.) It then expanded into Chanukah presents, chocolate gelt. In yeshiva it was “kvittlach” which were not little notes one hands to a Rebbe for a blessing or stuck into the Kotel. This was a late night card game that was kept far away from the Rebbe’s watchful eye. But welcome to the 21^st century. It’s a new world and as we all know Chanuka is no longer complete without the newest tradition of  the holiday. None other than Acapella funny(?), cool (!), shticky (?!) Youtube Music videos from groups with Funny, cool, shticky (?!?) sounding names.

You’ve watched them. Admit it. Your children play them endlessly. You’ve even Whatsapped and shared them around. They’re like the measles in chareidi schools- Ouch! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. -They’re contagious.  I know this because each of you have sent me the same ones repeatedly. OK I’ll admit. I’ve sent some to you, as well. I haven’t been vaccinated against them, yet. (STOP!). But, I think you can agree that it has become a tradition. And being a traditional guy and particularly one that likes music a lot, I go with the flow, groove with the beat, and move with the music.

Now one thing that most of the videos have in common is that they are non-Jewish songs that are being “yiddishized” into Chanukah Jewish themes. I don’t have a problem with that personally. I liked most of the “goyish” songs originally, but always felt awkward or “goyish” with most of the lyrics. Either I didn’t understand them because I was never as stoned as the composers and singers of the songs or I was frankly pretty embarrassed to be listening to, let alone singing some of them. That’s why I liked Shlock Rock, Variations, or Country Yossi as a child or a yeshiva guy. Because you could listen to the great tunes but not have the trayf lyrics. OK, maybe Country Yossi wasn’t such great tunes but he was just funny. But it is ironic I guess that the holiday that is meant to celebrate overcoming the influence of the Greeks and the pagan world, newest tradition for the past few years has been taking that ‘gentile-secular’ culture and ‘koshering” it- if that is even possible into Jewish songs and lyrics. Or maybe it’s not…

See the age old question and debate perhaps is, what is in fact “Jewish Music”? Growing up I always thought it was Shlomo Carlebach, until some people told me that he might not have been that perfect “Jewish” role model kind of a guy. Was it little kids Pirchei tapes and boy’s choirs? Well that worked when I was a kid, and they had really great songs. But someone then mentioned to me that the reason why Jews have kid’s choir’s tapes and gentiles don’t is because the goyim have lady singers. Our children’s choirs tapes are meant to serve as the Jewish antidote; to get that female voice. I don’t think Celine or Whitney were too nervous of the competition, but I’ve never been able to enjoy it as much since then. MBD was, is great, but remember when that “Yidden” song came out? It was pretty much straight out of some German rock group.  Piamenta’s ‘Asher Bara’ that rocked my wedding was from the Land Down Under with a few oy oy oy oy oy oys thrown in. They got that right.

So I’m confused. Is Jewish music composed by Jewish guys? Would that make Simon and Garfunkel “Jewish Music”?  ‘White Xmas’ and ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ can’t possibly be Jewish despite the Irving Berlin and Johnny Marks Jewish ancestry. Is it that the tunes have to be composed by Jewish people? By holy people?  Many great Chasidic songs that Rebbes sang came from Polish or French non-Jewish sources. The Baal Hatanya’s ‘Napoleon’s March’ and Ha’aderes v’haemuna or the Kaliver famous Solol Kokosh being good examples of that. But it gets better. Did you sing Maoz Tzur tonight? Shhhhh don’t tell anyone that it’s a German folksong that was used as choral music by Luther. And of course everyone knows that our Mishe Mishe Mishe Nichnas Adar is all about picking a bale of hay. Oy, so does that mean that they aren’t Jewish music either?!

In Yerushalayim, I will many times take tourists to visit a fascinating museum called the Music Museum. There, one can hear Jewish music and see their instruments from all over the world. The owner, Eldad, had a passion for Jewish music and he went all over the world from Africa, Asia, Europe, every continent where Jews lived and collected their music and instruments. It’s a cool fascinating and eye-opening place. You know, why? I’ll tell you another secret? Asian Jewish music sounds like non-Jewish Asian music that you hear when you go into a spa. African Jewish music sounds like it came right out of the jungle and was from the Lion King.  Spanish Jewish is like Spanish music, Latin Jewish like Latin and Middle Eastern sefardic Jewish music is the same as Arabic music. Inshalla… In fact, Chacham Ovadia Yosef in a responsa, justifies adapting the cultures music as our own, in sefardic communities, on the verse from Psalms that we sing of Al Naharos Bavel- on the Rivers of Babylon

Psalms (137)- Al Aravim b’tocha talinu kinoroseinu- On willows in its midst we hung our harps.

He reads the words homiletically as al Aravim-on the Arabs we have hung our harps. So does that mean that Mattisyahu’s reggae, Nissim Black’s rap and Acapella Chanukah songs are now Jewish?

I listened to a fascinating podcast by Rabbi Yossi Paltiel who asks an even more intriguing question that really cuts to the heart of this question as well. What makes anything Jewish? What is Jewish food? Sefardim will tell you it’s one thing, Ashkenazim something else, Ethiopians have their cuisine, Chasidim theirs and Litvaks don’t really eat. J  Each one again has food that’s pretty much similar to their culture. Today, American Jewish food is Sushi in a Pizza shop, or a Texas-haymish- grill or bagels and lox. So what makes something Jewish?

In the 1990’s there was a radio broadcast where that very question was posed to Vladmir Pozner, a former Soviet propagandist, by Phil Donahue. What is a Jew? He responded and argued that being Jewish was certainly not a religion, as he was an atheist and still considered himself Jewish. It wasn’t a race, as there are white Jews, black Jews, yellow Jews, all the colors of the rainbow. It wasn’t a culture either, as Sefardic, Ashkenazic and every place Jews lived have their own culture. It wasn’t an ideology. It wasn’t a belief. It wasn’t even a shared ancestry, as there are converts all over. In fact, most of our greatest Rabbis were either converts or descendants of them. Judaism and being Jewish is like no other division in the world and in history. So what does it mean to be Jewish? Vladmir’s response was “I sincerely don’t know.”

The truth is until about 300 or 400 years ago the question of what being Jewish meant was never asked. It was understood. Being Jewish meant being religious. It is only with the advent of the “Enlightenment” movement that the concept of a “secular” Jew even entered the lexicon. Rav Saadya Gaon, over one thousand years ago, made his famous statement-

Ein Umaseinu Umah Elah B’Torahseha- Our nation is only a nation with our Torah.

If that is the case than what makes something Jewish is what brings it closer to its Torah. What makes it more religious.

But it is deeper than that. There is something that Vladmir couldn’t put his finger on, but that he knew to be true. And that is, that what makes someone Jewish is that they have a Jewish soul. Religious, non- religious, Oriental, African, Indian, Ashkenazi. Sefardi, Chasidic, Reform and Reconstructionist, straight and crooked, tall and short, male and female, we all have Jewish souls. We all have a uniquely designed soul that is connected to Hashem and that is programmed to light up the world with His glory. Even converts upon their conversion receive that special soul. When something in this world is Jewish, whether it is cuisine, a language, dress, a practice, a tradition and yes even music it means that it is being used to bring that Jewish soul out to the world.

Parshat Mikeitz which is always read around Chanukah is precisely that story about Jews being able to find that spark. To see the Jewishness in someone, their own brother Yosef, who doesn’t look, talk, smell, eat or sing the same way that they did in their alteh heim. He’s an Egyptian to them. Not their type of Jew. He’s a Goy. It’s why Yosef puts them through all of this game. For they ultimately have to learn the lesson, that being Jewish is not the chulent you ate at Yaakov Avinu’s house or songs he sang by his Shabbos table. The style of his kippa, black hat or shtreimel or what nussach he davened. Being Jewish is finding that one spark that we all share. Seeing the light in our fellow brother and sister that only they possess that needs to be shined out to the world. Seeing the pinteleh yid in them.

Chanukah, that story is even more profound. So many of our brethren had become Hellenized. They bought into the “Greeks of the Mosaic persuasion” identification. They scorned and tried to eradicate and vanquish the one and only thing that truly defines us and that is our Torah, our religion, our spark and our mandate. Sadly, and tragically, they were like most of Soviet Jewry fifty years ago and American Jewry today-slowly disappearing, intermarrying and producing a generation that can’t even tell you what being Jewish means. But unlike today, back then there was a group of brave people that stood up and said we will not let that happen. We will not let you destroy that spark, steal our identity, obliterate us or our God. We will fight for you, even if that means we have to raise a sword against you. Because you are too precious to us, to let you disappear. For me to continue to hide myself behind my Talmud, my shtibel, my community, my kosher supermarket and forget about you and let you just dwindle away. You’re not a goy. You have a Jewish soul and we will fight to reveal that. And they did.

Is it any wonder than why Chanukah is not as much defined by the miraculous battle and victory against the World Empire of the Greeks? Rather, it is the story of us finding that pure oil and it miraculous lighting and lasting forever. That is what it was always all about. They could have used their halachically permissible impure oil. Every Rabbi there would have permitted. The Talmud and Halacha certainly do. But the Jews said that the point of this whole battle was to uncover the holiness, the purity where it seems unlikely to be found. If we can find the holy spark in our fellow Jews, then we can certainly find pure oil that will be eternal in the Holy of Holies, our Temple. That is what we celebrate on Chanukah. That is the energy and power that we are meant to take from these days.

So perhaps Jewish acapella is not the worst way to celebrate our holiday. Acapella has 8 letters after all in it. It is the sound of Jewish voices and souls unadulterated by any musical accompaniment. Sure the songs may not be Jewish, but the heart is. So bring on those Maccabeats, share those Six13 songs, Y-studs? Why not? If it brings you closer to Hashem then hey, you are finding that pure oil in the vessels that our enemies tried to contaminate, but that the Jewish heart and voice will always find that holiness in. Now can someone out there just do a little Livin’ on a prayer for me?

 Have blessed Rosh Chodesh, a lichtigeh Chanuka, and a rockin Shabbos!

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Tsu itlechen neiem lid ken men tsupassen an alteh nigen.”- To every new song one can find an old tune

RABBI SCHWARTZES COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/chasof-zeroah - Hot of the presses! Fresh this week in honor of Chanukah my newest composition Chasof, A really amazing song. Thank you Yitz for making this happen for me!

 And for those that missed it last week my other Chanukah song

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/haneiros-halalu    – in honor of Chanukah my Haneiros Halalu composition. Enjoy and like!

And of course the traditional Chanuka Acapella bands…

https://youtu.be/uu8DleqoVYc - Shir Acapella an Africa Chanuka song

https://youtu.be/uI74Bkc8j9k   – Y-Studs a Queen Chanukah

https://youtu.be/qtfmXU8fuxY -    And for those more yeshivsh or traditionalists this absolutely the coolest and most amazing Mimkomcha Carlbach rendition you have ever heard. Trust me.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q A mosque attached to a baptistery were found in:

a.  Shivta

b.  Mamshit

c. Nitzana

d.  Avdat

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

Parshat Mikeitz– One of the things that always excites me about a good ‘lomdishe vort’ is when you read a pasuk in Torah, you see the midrash that brings down the other side of the story and if you read the midrash carefully- as a lamdan always does, one can discover halachic insights into the story that you would never of even noted that were there, but that jumps out to every lamdan and posek-halachic decisor.

In this weeks Torah portion we are told about Yosef, the vizier of Mitzrayim, meeting his brothers and sitting down to eat with them. They obviously don’t recognize him after all of these years and in his Egyptian disguise. The Torah tells us how he sat them

Bereishis (43:33) And he sat them the oldest according to his first born place and the youngest according to his youngest status.

Rashi brings the midrash that explains the story here.

He would knock on his goblet and say Reuvein, Shimon, Levi, Yehudah, Yissachar… are all the children of one mother should recline in this order which is the order of their birth. And so for all of them. Once he got to Binyamin he said ‘This one doesn’t have a mother and neither do I have a mother he should sit next to me’

Yosef wanting to keep the deception up pretended that he was a sorcerer with a magic goblet and put each of them in age order. The Birkas Ish, notes that Rashi seems to switch words in describing what the brothers were meant to do. By the brothers he had them recline and by Binyamin he was told to sit. Now to non-lamdans this doesn’t mean anything. But if you are Rav Moshe Feinstien, one of our preeminent halachic minds of the last century then the distinction jumps out at you. When someone mentioned this to him, his response was quite simply.

“He paskens like the Rema”

Huh? Now you understand? OK I’ll explain. The laws of reclining by a Pesach seder are that a son reclines in front of his father even if his father is his Rebbe.

Shulchan Aruch (472:5) A student in front of his Rebbe is not allowed to recline unless is Rebbe gives him permission as it is considered not kavod- treating him with the proper honor in doing so. A tremendous Rabbi who is known for his wisdom by all, even if he is not your rebbe, you may not recline in front of him

So it is not dignified to recline in front of someone who you are meant to honor.

The Rema qualifies that law though- he says that it is only applicable if you are sitting at the same time table as your Rebbe. If you are on another table though you may recline. And there you have it…

See the Torah tells us that

 ibid .And he placed himself alone, and them (his brothers) alone and the Egyptians who were eating with them alone

So Yosef’s brothers that were sitting on a separate table, Rashi points out, were able to recline- as was the customary way to eat back then. Binyamin, on the other hand, who was meant to sit on Yosef’s table would be prohibited from reclining as he was sitting with the vizier. It would be disrespectful. Thus Rashi says by Binyamin that he should “sit” rather than recline next to him. All of this Reb Moshe said in three words ‘he paskens like the Rema.  Being a lamdan, I’m sure when you saw that Rashi, and that midrash, and that discrepancy in words between the seating arrangements of the brothers and Binyamin, I’m sure that you automatically connected it to a little Rema out in the laws of Pesach Seder. Right? Well Reb Moshe, did, and that’s probably a good reason why you shouldn’t recline in front of him.

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

Chanukah - 165 BC- OK Let’s break for a week from our chronological sites and eras to talk about the holiday of Chanukah. So in the year 165 about 100 years or so after Alexander the Great comes to Israel and spares the country and Greek culture enters the Jewish world, the country is once again in turmoil. The generals of Alexander divide up the country and the Northern Syrian Greeks, known as the Selucids, led by Antiochus passes laws against the Jews and the revolt begins. It ultimate culminates with the liberation of the Beit Hamikdash and the lighting of the Menorah which miraculous oil that lasted for eight days. You learned all that in kindergarden. But where can you experience and relive that in Israel.

So obviously the places to relive these battles would be where they took place. Mod’in where the revolt took place is today a big city, but Umm al Umdan right outside of it a shul was found there from the Herodian post Maccabee period and underneath it another Chashmonean period shul was found, so perhaps it was there. There is nearby as well a great place the Chasmonean village that has been created as well as Neot Kedumim that have all types of activities including olive oil making for Chanukah.

The battles of the Maccabees are certainly sites that we are familiar with. At Latrun by the Ayalon valley, Yehudah fights off miraculously Nikanor. I like to play lazer tag with my tourist kids there, that’s really reliving the action. A little north of that by Beit Choron you have the amazing battle fights off the general Seron. Even as far South as Yavneh which is right above Ashdod you have the final battle when we threw off the yoke of the Greeks. On the other hand, in the Gush Etzion area by Tel Zekariah right outside of Elazar is when the Maccabees suffered a defeat and Elazar was crushed by an elephant. The yishuv is thus named after him. Further down as you head to Chevron the village of Karmei Tzur is named after the Chashmonean city Beit Tzur where they sent the Syrians and their general Lysisus back to Syria.

The truth is though everywhere you go in Israel everyone is trying to get in on the action all of the museums have Chanukah activities, the parks have games and period-era costumes, and everyone is getting in on the action. But of course the most important Chanukah experience is to walk through the streets of the old city of Yerushalayim at night and see the neiros b’chatzros kodshecha- the candles, just as they were 2000 years ago lit in the courtyard, streets and window of our holy city. Am Yisrael Chai!

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S JEWISH MUSIC JOKES  OF THE WEEK

Berel walks into the doctor's office and says, "Doc, I haven't been able to go to the bathroom in a week!"
The doctor gives him a prescription for a mild laxative and tells him, "If it doesn't work, let me know."
A week later Berel is back: "Doc, still no movement!"
The doctor says, "Hmm, guess you need something stronger," and prescribes a powerful laxative. Still another week later poor Berel is back: "Doc, STILL nothing!"
The doctor, worried, says, "We'd better get some more information about you to try to figure out what's going on. What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a musician."
The doctor looks up and says, "Well, that's it! Here's $10.00. Go get something to eat!"

A Rabbi, a cantor, and a synagogue president were driving to a seminar when they were kidnapped. The hijackers asked the three of them to hand over all of their money and jewelry. When they replied that they hadn't any, the hijackers told them that immediately after their last wishes were fulfilled, they would be killed. 
"My last wish," began the Rabbi, is to give a fascinating, complicated, long sermon that I have always wanted to but never been allowed to give." 
"We will grant your wish," the hijackers replied. 
"My last wish," said the cantor, "is to sing a beautiful, Yemenite style song, one of my own compositions lasting two hours. I have never been allowed to sing it." 
"We'll let you sing it," replied the hijackers. 
"What is your last wish," the hijackers asked the shul president. 
"Please, please shoot me now." 

Leah walks into a pet shop and says to Hymie, the owner, "I want to buy a canary."
"We have many types," says Hymie, "is there any particular one you’re after?"
"Yes," replies Leah, "its got to be a very good singer. I'm prepared to pay good gelt (money) for a great singing bird."
"Lady, I’ve got the very one," says Hymie, "I’ve been in this business for a long time and this bird has the best singing voice I’ve ever heard. We don’t call it ‘Pavarotti’ for nothing. I’ll get it for you."
Hymie brings the cage, places it on the shop counter and says to Leah, "Just you listen."
With that, the bird begins singing one beautiful song after another. Pleasantly surprised, Leah murmurs, "What mazel (luck) - this canary really can sing."
But then, a few seconds later, Leah shouts out, "Oy Vay, this canary’s only got one leg. Are you trying to cheat me, or what?"
Hymie calmly looks at Leah and replies, "Lady, do you want a singer or a dancer?"  


As a fundraiser the local Hebrew School decided to hold a talent show for the community. The night of the show finally arrived and the auditorium was packed with community people. One of the performers was a teenage girl playing the piano and singing Hava Nagila. During her song the grandmother sees a man in the audience crying.   
After the show she walks over to him and says "Isn't it touching that the younger generation is carrying on our tradition?" 
The man says "I don't know I'm not Jewish".
"So why were you crying?" she asks him. 
"Oh that's because I am a musician"

Yankel received a parrot for his birthday. It was supposed to have a beautiful voice and sing Jewish songs. Yet when he came home he found that the parrot had a very bad attitude and worse vocabulary. Every other word was a yiddish swear word and curse.
He tried to change the bird's attitude by constantly saying polite things and playing jewish music for him. Anything he could think of. Nothing worked. He tried yelling at the bird, but the bird got worse. When he shook the bird, it got madder and ruder.
Finally, in a moment of desperation, Jimmy put the parrot in the freezer. For a few moments he heard the bird swearing, squawking, kicking and screaming and then, suddenly, there was absolute quiet.
Frightened that he might have actually hurt the bird, Jimmy quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto Jimmy's extended arm and said, "I'm sorry that I offended you with my language and my actions, and I ask your forgiveness. I will endeavor to correct my behavior. And I will sing the best and nicest Shabbos songs you ever heard.
Jimmy was astounded at the bird's change in attitude. Before he could ask what changed him, the parrot said, "May I ask what the chicken did”

Two grave robbers find Beethoven's grave so they dig it up. When they reach the coffin they hear a strange sound coming from inside. Carefully, they open the lid and see Beethoven himself, sitting there erasing musical scores. "What are you doing?" they ask. "Don't you know? I'm decomposing."

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Answer is A–  OK every streak has to end. But hey it took 8 weeks, right. If I had to get one question wrong, I don’t feel so bad about this one. Nobody I have ever taken or will ever take is interested in either bapistries or mosques of ancient Nabateans. I was barely interested in them in my course. I mean the Nabateans are cool a little bit the whole first second century Spice trail and the transformation from nomads to palace and nice city dwellers. It also ties in a bit with the Yosef being sold down by his brothers to spice traders, although obviously this was about a thousand years later. Anyways, I imagine most of you haven’t even bother to scroll down for this answer, just to see if I got it wrong or not. Well I did, I missed the day in our course when we went to Shivta and Nitzana. I only went to Mamshit and Ovdat, and I actually thought they mentioned something about a mosque in one of them, although I thought they were pretty much gone by the Muslim period. I took tourists once to Mamshit and didn’t remember it there, so I guessed Ovdat. I was wrong it was Shivta. Oh, well. I probably would have left this one for the end to see if I needed to answer it as you are allowed to skip 5 questions. But I got it wrong so the new

score is Schwartz 7and 1 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism) on this exam so far.