Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
January 17th 2020 -Volume
10 Issue 13 17th Tevet 5780
Parshat Shemos
Scar-Place
Things were not
going well for Yankel. He was already 24 and not married. Oy ah bruch!
In the yeshivish world that he was part of this was getting closer and closer
to being called an old bachelor. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't like he didn't
go out a lot. He was actually quite the dater. He had a good reputation. He was
a good learner, a nice family, great personality and had a heart of gold. The
problem was that five minutes into every one of the blind dates he was set up
with, the girls couldn't even look at him. They asked to be excused. Made up
some type of excuse and left. He cursed the day that he got that ugly scar.
See, Yankel's
problem was that right across the left side of his face there was a huge scar.
This wasn't some cute Harry Potter 'z' that he could just brush his hair over
it. It stuck out. It was really quite ugly despite his really cute face and
eyes and his light beard. It wasn't really something he could hide. So what do
young yeshiva students do when you need some extra divine help and direction to
solve a problem? What Sefardim and chasidim always knew and did, of course. It
has finally taken hold over the last few decades in the litvishe world as well,
despite the fact that they had made fun of the others for years for doing this.
But that's another discussion, that I just couldn't resist throwing in here.
Yankel went to ask the great miracle Rabbi- his litvish equivalent of a
chacham, a Baba, a Rebbe, who's every word is measured and holy; Reb Chaim
Kanievsky, for advice.
Pouring out his
heart and plight to Reb Chaim, he was pretty taken aback from Reb Chaim's
response. He told him that he was dating wrong. He suggested that on the next
date that he went on he should begin the date immediately- before anything,
with the story of how he got his scar. Don't try to hide it or ignore it. Don't
wait. As soon as she sits down begin your conversation with the "scar
story". Hmmm… This was a little scary for Yankel. It doesn't seem like
great opening light conversation line. But hey, it seems nothing else was
really working. If that's what Reb Chaim tells him to do. You don't mess.
Listen to the Rabbi, he has a track record.
So sure enough,
a week later Yankel found himself in the Ramada Hotel lounge waiting for his
next blind 'shidduch' date to show up and in she walks. Yankel greets
her takes a big swallow and then jumps right in.
"Hi, my
name is Yankel. I'm so glad you could come this evening. I want to just first
begin to apologize about the big scar that is on my face. I'm sure you see it.
See, about 5 years ago I was walking in the Old city of Jerusalem and I decided
to walk through the Shaar Shechem /Damascus gate. I never really go that way.
There's lots of Arabs over there, (It's almost as dangerous as Lakewood, Flatbush, Boro Park
and Monsey-editor's commentary) but I don't know, I guess I was feeling a
bit lazy and it's shorter that way. All of a sudden I see an Arab approaching a
young Jewish girl and he had a bad look in his eyes. I saw him reaching into
his robe. I knew there was trouble coming and so I started to scream and chase
him. Now, I'm not a brave guy, but my feet carried themselves and I started to
chase this guy away from her. She ran away, Baruch Hahem, but the Arab then
turned on me. I started to run the other way and he yanked out his knife and
swiped it at me and scraped my face. Thank God, some soldiers showed up and
they neutralized him before he could do worse.
So that's the
story of my scar. I know that it's not really pretty to look at and if it
bothers you I totally understand if you don't want to continue to see me. I
probably should never have walked that road that day. I really don't go to
scary places (like America-ed).But
it seems that Hashem wanted me to be there on that day.
As Yankel
finished his story, he finally looked up. He was a bit bashful so as he was
reciting the story he pretty much was looking down in his drink the whole time
and twirling his ice around with that little plastic straw thing. He was
shocked though to see the young girls face. It was white. She was crying. She
turned to Yankel and finally composed herself and said two words "Mazel
Tov!" Huhhh?
"That
girl was me" she continued. "I never knew who my hero was that
day. I didn't even tell the story to people because I was pretty embarrassed
that I went to that dangerous Shaar Shechem gate. But I always wondered who
that brave yeshiva bachur that saved me was. That scar on your face is the most
beautiful thing I have ever seen. Whereas for other people that scar is
deformity, for me it is a constant reminder of someone who was willing to give
their life to protect mine. I'm yours. I don't want to date anyone else. Mazel
Tov, I think we have finally found each other."
This week's
parsha we begin the book of Shemos. It is the book of our exile to a pretty
scary and dangerous place and it is the book of our redemption from there. Our
sages tell us that Egypt is the "mother of all Exiles". All of the
other exiles that we went through and endured until today have their roots in
the first one we experienced as a nation there. Not only that, but in fact
every personal challenge and struggle that we are faced with can be found at
their core in Egypt. We were beaten, tortured, tempted, challenged in our
faith…it was all there. And our redemption from Mitzrayim was our eternal
redemption that gives us the strength to eternally overcome it all. To be
redeemed. To go free.
What is the
point of Galus/ Exile? Why do we have to go down? Why can't we just live in
peace and worship Hashem like we want to. What are these dangerous places that
Hashem seems to be putting us in? I saw an incredible insight this week from
the Mei Marom, Rav Charlap Zt"l. He notes that those questions that I just
asked you above are not questions that we as a nation are asking. It's not even
questions that individuals are asking. You know who first asks those questions?
It's our soul, our holy neshoma which Hashem takes from heaven and places
in our physical bodies over here in this world. Why Hashem? It's so nice up
here in heaven. It's so spiritual. It's so holy. It's so bad down there. Who
needs the physical body? Let me stay up here in heaven. Why do I need to go
into Exile from you? From your heavenly abode...
Our entire life
is one big galus. We are sent down to this world to lift it up. It is a
world that at first glance looks terrible. It looks scary. We get scars. We
sin. We fall. But in fact it is the world that brings us redemption. It is the
only place where we can experience redemption from. The word galus/
exile in Hebrew is the same root word as l'galot to reveal. The function
of galus is to reveal the hand of Hashem, His holiness, our desire and
connection to him in the darkest of places. In our scars. In our beautiful
precious physical and spiritual battle scars that we suffered in the dangerous
places he sent us to reveal Him from.
The light that
shines at the end of those dark tunnels, the light of redemption is the most
powerful in the world. It's the exodus-of-Egypt light. It's the return-to-Eretz-Yisrael-after-the-
Holocaust light. It's the love of a groom who has waited for so long for his
bride wedding type of light. It's the Kallah who has finally found her hero
revelation. It's the light of Mashiach.
Each of us has
our scars and our challenges. We all have our questions and the answer to all
of them is that we are in galus. We have a revelation that we are meant
to unveil. At first glance we may want to turn our heads away. To curse the day
that we failed, that we got so scarred. But then we are missing the point of
why Hashem sent us through those gates. They may seem like the gates of
misfortune of misery and of pain, but in fact it is the pathway back to heaven.
Back to Hashem, to our land and to our home. Mazel Tov. Let the wedding begin.
Have a restfully
reviving Shabbos!,
Rabbi Ephraim
Schwartz
**************************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK
“Bei
mir bist du sheyn."– To me you’re beautiful.
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK
https://youtu.be/OFoScpzgcI4
– Check out the
Kinnerets disappearing island tahnks to the fantastic blessed rainy winter here
in Israel
The
https://youtu.be/Pe1mrlHneeQ - Jewish Blugrass- by Kol Ish-
Yigdal the 13 principles of Rambam… different…
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
answer below at end of Email
10) The Jindas bridge crosses the following river:
A.
Ayalon
- Alexander
- Sorek
- Lachish
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S PARSHA/MITZVA CONNECTION OF THE WEEK
Rasha Lama Taka
Rayecha– Striking
your fellow man – The Parsha this week introduces us to Moshe Rabbeinu, our great leader who
brought us down the Torah. Interestingly enough the first teaching that Moshe
gives a fellow Jew is when he sees one Jew striking another Jew. Moshe
intercedes and gives him Mussar- Rasha lama taka es rayecha- Wicked one
why are you hitting your friend. The Talmud derives from this first teaching of
Moshe that one who lifts up his hand to strike another Jew is called a rasha a
wicked person. This is because Moshe tells the man even before he hit the other
person "why are you hitting him" present tense-not "why
did you hit him" past tense. This is not just a description of the
person but rather it has practical ramifications as well. The RaMa in Shulchan
Aruch (CH"M 34) rules that one who raises their hand to hit someone is in
fact invalid to be a kosher witness in legal proceedings.
Now Moshe's
Mussar schmooze reveals that hitting is a bad thing, but where in the Torah do
we in fact have a prohibition for hitting. So the Talmud tells us that it can
be found in a fascinating and unlikely place. There are court mandated and
executed lashes that are given when someone violates a biblical prohibition, of
course with fair warning and witnesses. The lashes are determined by how much
the person can sustain with a maximum of 39 lashes. The Torah in telling us
this law says
Devarim (23:5) Arbaim
Yakenu lo Yosif- He may be given up to forty lashes, but not more, lest
being flogged further, to excess, your brother be degraded before your eyes.
If the Torah is
telling us that you can't give any extra lashes or strike a wicked person than
certainly an innocent person one is prohibited to hit. The punishment for
hitting someone interestingly enough depends on the damage. If one causes a
bruise or wound that has a monetary value to it then one has to pay the victim.
If there is no monetary loss in the damage-it's not physically significant than
you get lashes from the court. This is because one only gets lashes if there is
not payment made. If you pay, then you get no pain it seems.
Now what about
play-hitting? Am I permitted to hit someone if he tells me to give him a punch?
What about football or other contact sports? Now the Talmud does say that one
can forgive any monetary damage to oneself and allow someone to hit him. At the
same time though the Shulchan Aruch Harav and other poskim rule that one still
violates the prohibition of hitting someone else. It would seem to make sense
as well. The concept is that it is not my body to allow someone to damage. Our
bodies are from Hashem. There are authorities though that say that one only
violates the prohibition when they hit someone else against his will. So it's
really not that clear if it would be permitted to play that slap-my-hand game hit-or-miss
that some people like to play. As well this column is not large enough to
explore the issue of why many of those contact sports might not fall into the
category of raising your hand to hit someone. Would love to hear what your
research might have to say.
Now there is an
exception where it seems that it might even be a mitzva to hit and that is of
course for educational purposes. Shlomo Hamelech says in Mishlei
Whoever spares the rod hates their
children, but the one who loves their children is careful to
discipline them.
Nothing like a
good potch! This is not only true for parents but even for teachers who have
the responsibility to discipline children it would seem that this is something
that is not only acceptable but even a mitzva. I certainly had quite a few
teachers that felt that way. Now although this was probably the standard 30 or
40 years ago, the majority of Rabbis today pretty much point out that today's
generation corporal punishment besides being
illegal is in most cases counterproductive. We are a generation that requires
the carrot rather than the stick. We've lost enough of our childen due to
teachers or parents that might have used the belt too often or hit them out of
personal anger and frustration which was never permitted in the first place.
This is certainly an important mitzva that Rabbeinu Yonah says is one that is
unfortunately very rampant amongst people and it is worthwhile to be careful.
It is after all the first Mussar schmooze of our teacher Moshe.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN
ISRAEL OF THE WEEK
Shimshon- the Lion, the
Wife and the Wardrobe – 959 BC-
Now as we will see Shimshon is not your typical judge or prophet. He had an
incredible ascetic, Nazirite upbringing. The
reason for this is because his spiritual drive was so strong constantly ringing
in heart in the words of the Navi and because he was going to be entering into
the most dangerous spiritual realms. As far low as you can go. The power for
greatness was countered with a drive for taking hold of the Philistines from
within and destroying it. It's an important introduction to understanding this
leader who the Torah tells us is a judge like Hashem. Not bound by your typical
rules laws and drives.
That being said, our story starts with him telling his
parents that he needs to marry a philistine woman he saw from Timna.
Timna, the place where Yehuda met Tamar dressed up as a harlot, seems to have
been a place to pick up women that can get you into trouble. His parents asked
him why he couldn’t find a nice Jewish girl. But Shimshon seemed to tell his
parent then "when you know- you know." This is the one.
His parents take him from the city he lived in called Tzora,
which today is a yishuv near Beit Shemesh. He walks down from the city
with his parents and the pass by vineyards, which is pretty cool because there
are lots of vineyards there today. Shimshon not being able to walk
through the vineyards being a Nazir- a really frum one it seems, who just
happens to be going to marry a shiktza, goes around the vineyard. There he
meets a pretty scary young lion. This was sign that he was going to be
struggling with pretty dangerous things. No problem for Shimshon, though, he
kills the lion with his bare hands and keeps heading on the way.
He arrives at Timna which is actually a site that
you can visit today called Tel Batesh, south of Tel Shachar not
far from Tzora where you can see the gates, houses and roads of the
Philistine city that was there as well an olive press and some interesting
things right above Nachal Sorek. It's not a super packed site or
well-kept so I don't get there too often. There he makes marriage arrangements
they agree to wait the traditional year and he's set to go. A year later when
he goes back there he takes the same old lion route in order of course to make
the blessing of the miracle that Hashem provided for him there and he checks
out the lion which it now seemed some bees made a hive in and it was full of
honey. Cool! Not being one to pass up sweets Shimshon sngs some honey and heads
down to Timna to pick up his Philistine shiktza 'honey'.
The Philistine chevra decide to throw him a nice party
and to shake them up a bit he gives them a riddle and bets them that if they
solve it he will provide them with 30 sheets and sets of clothing. If they
don't get it than they have to pay up to him. The riddle is about his lion and
he asks them to explain the words "from the Eater comes out food and
from the strong comes out sweet." This is a pretty cheap riddle
because obviously know one would know what he's talking about. But the
Philistines were cheaters and they pressured his fiancé to pressure him and he
made the mistake of trusting her. As we'll see women had this power of Shimshon
that he just couldn't resist, particularly the plishti ones. They tell him the
answer is obviously the lion and the honey story and he knows he's been
betrayed. But a deal is a deal. At the same time, he's not paying these
cheaters out of his own pocket. So what does he do?
No problem. He heads down to Ashkelon, the next
philistine city kills 30 philistines and takes their clothes and gives them to
cheaters. Don’t mess with Shimshon is the message he was pretty much telling
them. They didn't get the message though it seems. His father-in-law gave his
daughter to someone else, rather than to this crazy radical Jew and then the
fun really starts. Stay tuned next week.
PS Like to share this story as well at Biblical zoo
or Ramat Gan Safari when we see lions, or in the Slifkin
museum of natural history not far from this story in Beit Shemesh
where I explain the different names for ages of lions; gur, kefir, lavi, aryeh
and layish. Yeah lions, are important animals to us so we have lots of
names for them. As well it's fun story to tell when I go visit some of the bee
farms in Israel in
Kfar Tavor in the Galil, Yad Mordechai in the South and Kfar
Sirkin and Kfar Bilu along coastline in the merkaz. There's lots of
honey places in Israel as well, after all it's the land of milk and honey (yes,
I know that is date honey in the Torah, but honey is honey).
RABBI SCHWARTZ’S TERRIBLE LION JOKES OF THE
WEEK
What's a lion
running a copy machine called? A: A copycat!
Q: What's the
difference between Simba and O.J.? A: One's an African lion the other a lyin
African!
Q. Why did the
lion loose at poker? A. Because he was playing with a cheetah
Q: What do you
call a lion with chicken pox? A: A dotted lion.
Q: What do you
call a lion who chases camels across the desert? A: a chameleon.
Q: What do you
call a lion wearing a stylish flower hat? A: A dandy lion
Q: Why are
lions religious? A: Because they prey frequently, and prey as a family!
Q: Where does a
lion sleep? A: Anywhere he wants to!
Q: What does a
lion do on a canoe? A: Use his Roar
Q: How does a
lion greet the other animals in the field ? A: 'Pleased to eat you.' !
Q: On which day
do lions eat people ? A: Chewsday !
Q: What's a
lion's favorite soccer player? A: Lion-el Messi
Q: Why did the lion spit out the clown? A:
Because he tasted funny.
Q. How does a
lion stop a video? He presses paws (pause).
Q: You’re riding a horse at full speed.
You’re being chased by a lion and there’s a giraffe in the way in front of you.
How will you escape this highly dangerous situation?
A: Get off the carousel
A: Get off the carousel
Dov is an
Jewish actor, so down and out he's ready to settle for any acting gig that he
can find. Finally he gets a lead, a classified ad that says: "Actor needed
to play ape."
"I could do that, " says Dov.
To his surprise, the employer turns out to be the local zoo. Owing to mismanagement, the zoo has spent so much money renovating the grounds and improving the habitat, that they can no longer afford to import the ape they needed to replace their recently deceased one. So until they can, they'll put an actor in an ape suit. Out of desperation, Dov accepts the offer.
At first, his conscience keeps nagging him, that he is being dishonest by fooling the zoo-goers. And Dov feels undignified in the ape-suit, stared at by crowds who watch his every move. But after a few days on the job, he begins to be amused by all the attention, and starts to put on a show for the zoo- goers: hanging upside-down from the branches by his legs, swinging about on the vines, climbing up the cage walls, and roaring with all his might whilst beating his chest. Soon, he's drawing a sizable crowd.
"I could do that, " says Dov.
To his surprise, the employer turns out to be the local zoo. Owing to mismanagement, the zoo has spent so much money renovating the grounds and improving the habitat, that they can no longer afford to import the ape they needed to replace their recently deceased one. So until they can, they'll put an actor in an ape suit. Out of desperation, Dov accepts the offer.
At first, his conscience keeps nagging him, that he is being dishonest by fooling the zoo-goers. And Dov feels undignified in the ape-suit, stared at by crowds who watch his every move. But after a few days on the job, he begins to be amused by all the attention, and starts to put on a show for the zoo- goers: hanging upside-down from the branches by his legs, swinging about on the vines, climbing up the cage walls, and roaring with all his might whilst beating his chest. Soon, he's drawing a sizable crowd.
One day, when Dov is swinging on the vines to show off to a group of school kids, his hand slips, and he goes flying over the fence into the neighboring cage, the lion's den. Terrified, Dov backs up as far from the approaching lion as he can, covers his eyes with his paws, and prays at the top of his lungs, "Shma Yisrael Ado-nai Elokeinu Ad-nai echad!" (Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G‑d, the Lord is one!)
The lion opens its powerful jaws and roars, "Baruch shem k'vod malchuto l'olam va'ed!" "Shut up, you idiots," a panda bear mutters from a third cage. "You'll get us all fired
"
A group of
interfaith religious leaders were getting a tour around the Jerusalem Zoo by
its administrator, Shmuel Shapira. Shmuel showed them one cage where a lion was
lying together with a young lamb.
The head of the
delegation was amazed. "For 2000 years, we've prayed for signs of the
messianic era and the prophesy that the lion will lie down next to the lamb.
How did you do it?"
“It was
quite easy,” Shmuel replied, "All it needs is a new lamb a
day!"
***********************************
Answer is A– As opposed to last week where I
thought it was a no-brainer this one I had absolutely no clue. I don't remember
any bridge called jindas and had no clue what nachal it went over. I figured it
had something to do with the Mamaluk Baybers bridge with a leopard on it, which
was this 13th century Arab ruler of Israel, and I was right about
that. Where it was I had no clue. I guessed Sorek as I thought that might be
close to Lod and Ramla the Mamaluk headquarters, but the correct answer was
Ayalon also on road to Lod and Ramla and it was the Baybars bridge. Thankfully
I don't have tourists that have any interest in Mamluks and so I pretty much
deleted most of my information on them and certainly of their bridges. So I got
this one wrong although it is probably one I would've skipped as I really had
no clue. So the score is Schwartz 6 and 4 for MOT (Ministry of Tourism)
on this exam.
