Eagle One has Landed- Parshat Yisro Tu Bishvat- 2025 5785

 

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

February 14^th 2025 -Volume 14 Issue 16 16^th of Shevat 5785

 

Parshat Yisro

Eagle One has Landed.

The man is really serious. Gaza will become the new French Riviera. Terrorists will be expelled. The turn-turn-it-into-a-parking-lot joke that lots of people said, and that I never thought should be a joke, well it looks like the Donald has been reading my E-Mails or at the least watching my statuses. See, you’re in good company. Except whereas I said “parking lot”, he heard amusement park. Stay tuned for Gaza Disney, with fun underground tunnel roller coaster rides, fireworks every night and “it was a small world” with Bibi Mouse and Donald Duck leading the parade.

The crazy thing is that Israel really doesn’t know what to do with themselves with all this love and support coming our way. See, we’re kind of used to the whole being a victim thing. Yes, even 75 year of statehood and “Never Again”ing it and brave Israeli army yada yada had not knocked the galus mentality “whole-world-wants-to-kill-us” and we-better-not-upset-the-goyim mentality. Unless you live in Lakewood or Williamsburg of course where of course you feel that you’ve already been redeemed and own congress and the court system and are the “biggest tax-payers” around and are entitled to do whatever you want in the medina shel chesed Hashem has blessed you with living in…Shh… be quiet Hamas protestor down the block… Ouch…

But here in Israel that’s not and has never been the case. Despite the fact that we’ve won quite a few wars- miraculously. Despite the fact that we’ve flourished. We’ve developed the country. We clearly have everything that we have accomplished in such a short time here because we’ve worked hard, we haven’t stopped and we’re an incredible nation that’s out to help and build the world, and Hashem kind of loves us…usually. We still feel that we’re not worthy. We still feel that we have to answer to the goyim. We still feel that we’re really not entitled to anything. Certainly not to the entire land of Israel. Certainly not to the right to wipe out our enemies. We can’t even hit them with tariffs.

We feel we have to every day defend our behavior. We’re so pathetic despite all of our songs about Jewish pride and the so much we have to be proud of. We’re great and the best at making museums about Holocausts, Memorials for fallen heroes, for dead children, for murdered soldiers. Really cool and shticky monuments and memorials too. Some with good movies, others with virtual reality glasses and others with light and sound shows with real smoke coming up from blown up bunkers where Jews were killed.  But winning wars and celebrating the destruction of our enemies and building amusement parks on top of their graves and destroyed cities… that’s never been our strong point.

Quite the opposite in fact. We apologize. We’re so sorry we won. Of course, we’ll rebuild your churches, your mosques, we’ll even declare them protected holy sites. Here’s half of Mearas Hamachpela. Here’s the Temple Mount. The tomb of Yosef in Shechem, and take the whole West Bank while you’re at it. We’ll even arrest and bulldoze any Jewish kids that try to plant a vineyard there.

Sure you can keep your golden pimple. We won’t even daven there. We’ll stay down here on the bottom by the burnt remains of our retaining wall and mourn the Temple that we once had that you guys destroyed. We’ll give you equal rights in the land that you threw us out of and would do so again tomorrow. You even unabashedly say that that’s what you still plan on doing to us. October 7^th the sequel. River to the Sea Part II.  

We’ll make you Supreme Court justices. We’ll give you voting rights. We’ll even throw 14-year-old kids living on hill-tops and that are settling the land who seem to be the only ones with any brains or sense of true Jewish pride, meaning and appreciation of any historical significance in this county, into jail for even suggesting that we actually fulfill the Divine mandate we were given to settle in the land Hashem has given us and destroy anyone that stands in our way. Yeah… We’re really bad at winning. At being who Hashem raised us and brought us up to become.

This is not a new problem. This is perhaps the oldest problem of our nation. In fact it is even the prelude to us becoming the nation of Hashem. It’s the last thing the Torah tells us before He chose us and gave us the Torah. The blueprint and map of what we are here to accomplish. The book and the mandate and pathway to us becoming the “mamleches kohanim” -the nation that will establish a homeland that will shine the light of Hashem out to the world where all will recognize His glory. Our glory. The parsha of this week’s Torah reading and perhaps the one with the most essential Torah narrative of our role in the world is called and named after… would you believe it? A goy. Yisro. Do you know why? Because Hashem knows that we probably couldn’t and don’t have the guts enough or self-respect or confidence to do it on our own. We need Yisro to tell us how great we are before we actually believe we are worthy.

You know what’s funny? Do you know what the name Yisro means? More. Rashi tells us that the hidden meaning behind that name or spiritual essence is that he was called thus because it was in his merit that an extra parsha was added in the Torah. The parsha of the establishment of righteous judges. Judges without fear. Judges that will have the guts to stand up to evil. That will be inspired only by the word of Hashem. That won’t bow to societal pressure. That are concerned more about being spiritually correct rather than politically.

The name of the parsha that this goy added is meaningfully called V’ata Techezeh-And you shall see. Open up your eyes. Take a look. See… Take off the blinders. Understand why you’re here. Look at the miracles. Look where Hashem has brought you. See how he destroyed Amalek. How He beepered them. How He split the Sea. How He gave you the Manna. Do you get it? We need a goy to tell us that. Thus the parsha of the Torah and of us becoming a nation is called Yisro, after the goy that saw and came and directed us on the path.

But is that really true? Is that really what happened. Here, comes the amazing part my friends and pay close attention. We have a rule, a bizarre, incongruous rule that is really a spiritual oxymoron. It’s called eilu v’eilu divrei Elokim Chayim- that whenever we have a debate or a dispute between our sages in the Mishna or Talmud, Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, Rabbi Akiva and Rebbi Gamliel, or even Rashi and Tosafos. There are truths to both sides of the debate. They both represent the word of Hashem Both opposing views are correct. It’s like the joke about the couple that comes to the Rabbi and she gives her complaints and the Rabbi tells her that she’s correct. The husband then gives his complaints and the Rabbi again turns to the man this time and says that he’s correct. The Rabbi’s wife is listening and objects. How can they both be right? The Rabbi turns to her and says that she is also right! Well, when it comes to the story of Yisro’s arrival, like all Jewish things there is a debate as well.And they’re both correct. They’re both truth.

Rashi, the Ibn Ezra and many of the commentaries that generally go with the simplest explanation actually read the story of Yisro as being a non-chronological one. He doesn’t come to Moshe until after the giving of the Torah. They follow the Talmudic opinions that understand that the reason he came is because he heard about the giving of the Torah. He wanted to be part of our nation. He was drawn to us and our mission. We inspired him.

The Ramban, Saadia Gaon and others however read the story chronologically and suggest that Yisro came before the Torah was given. He heard about our war against Amalek, our victory, the splitting of the sea. He was inspired by Hashem and the love and all He does for our nation and that drew him to our people. Fascinatingly enough, Rashi, although he goes with the opinion that Yisro came afterwards however understands that the Torah is relating to us that he came before, to relate to us that his coming wasn’t necessarily motivated as much by the giving of the Torah but rather it was because of the miracles. He came because of Hashem. He wasn’t going to wait until we caught on to how special and treasured we are. He figured that might be a waste of time perhaps. Rather he came to be our “eyes”. To show us how special we are and how much Hashem has set us up to accomplish.

Eilu V’eilu Divrei Elokim Chayim- both of these stories are true. There’s a lesson. A possible future. A reality that we were in then and that we are in today as well with two alternate and perhaps even opposite roads. Do we need the goy to see that we are chosen? That we have a job to do. A land to conquer. A world to light up with the truth. An Amalek to wipe out. Do we need Yisro to come and be our eyes. By the way… What’s the name of the secretary of State that just came to Israel and said we should build a Bais Ha’Mikdash? Rubi-o. Sounds like Yisr-o. What does the word Rubiya mean? Anyone remember that word from our Rosh Hashana black eyed peas? It means more. Yisro. One more added parsha. She’yirbu zechuyaseinu… That our merits should increase.  C’mon.. this whole E-Mail was worth the read just for that… 😊.

This Shabbos and every Shabbos before we bentch and thank Hashem for the Eretz Ha’Tovah the great incredible land that He has promised us and our forefathers that we have been privileged to return to. That we ask Hashem to have mercy on us, on Tzion, on Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. We sing and recite a Psalm.

Shir Ha’Maalos- A song of Ascents- of Aliya

 B’shuv Hashem es shivas tzion- When Hashem returns the captives of Tzion… our nation exiled for so long… our hostages.

Ha’yinu k’cholmim- we’re dreaming. We’re sleeping. We don’t get it… We don’t see what’s happening right before our eyes. We’re missing what’s happening. We think it’s just about getting out of Egypt. Out of the Holocaust. It’s a national homeland where nobody will bother us. Like America, but in Hebrew with falafel and shwarma too. We don’t realize that we have a job to do. A house to build for Hashem. A light to shine out to the world from there.

Oz yimaleh schok pinu u’lshoneinu rina- then our mouths will fill with laughter and our tongues with song. We laugh. We’re happy. We sing. The job is not done yet. It’s a nice dream. We think it’s over. We got them back. We’ve returned. We have our State. Thank You Hashem… We think the dream has come true. But we’re missing the boat. That’s not what this about. We need Yisro to tell us something. We need Rubio. We need the goyim to be our eyes. Because 2000 years of exile, of persecution, of fear and subjugation under them has blurred our eyesight.

Oz yomru ba’goyim higdil Hashem la’asos im eileh- The goyim will then get up and say. Hashem has done something great and big for this nation. They heard about the war against Amalek. They heard about the Manna. They heard about our hostages coming home. They understand more than us, that this about something much greater. Part of making America Great Again is first making us great again. They look towards us and ask us if we’re still dreaming or are we going to wake up. Will we just continue paying lip and tongue service to what is happening? Is it just something that fills our mouth and tongues with great new catchy songs? Or will we be truly happy. Will we take it to the next level and bring the simchas olam to the world as we’re supposed to. As we were chosen to. Do we have the strength to say

Higdil Hashem L’aasos Imanu- Hashem has made us great. He gave us the most important role in the world. We have a job to do. A message to scream out to the world. A land to liberate and rid of evil. A world to uplift. A home to return to and dwell in. Do we have the strength to tell the world what justice looks like? What the vengeance of Hashem and the Jewish people entails. What the borders of our country need to be. Can we truly bring the world to understand that we understand that our job is not merely to be free and to be live under our fig tree, grape vine around the corner from the Makolet and kosher pizza store, but it’s to truly bring the world to simchas olam-

Hayinu smaychim- to be truly happy…

The Geula is coming my friends. This past week on Tu’Bishvat I was riding on these cool EZ Rider bikes with my tourists through the ruins of the city of Caesarea, a city that our sages tell us that will be in ruins as Jerusalem will be rebuilt. Along our ride, we passed by the Roman theater where the great Rabbi Akiva, who laughed while the foxes came out of the ruins because he saw in the destruction already the seeds of redemption. Ha’zorim B’dimah- the fields of Jerusalem that were sown with seeds of tears, he saw already 2000 years ago, that b’rina yiktzoru- that they will be harvested in song.

Rabbi Akiva was killed by them there in that theater with the words Hashem Echad on his lips. He had started the first Messianic movement, too early, when he rebelled against them with his army of Bar Kochva. He wasn’t dreaming. He did what needed to be done. He wasn’t just davening and or even learning for Mashiach and the redemption. He went out to fight and bring it. 2000 years late Yaakov Shweky sings Vehi She’amda in that same theater and Shema Yisrael with our return. Rome is gone. The tears that were planted have begun to bear fruit and our lips began to be full of song.

We continued on our ride on Tu Bi’Shvat and passed families with children planting trees. It was Tu B’Shvat. In Israel we don’t just eat dry buktzer/carob and dried figs and sing about shkeydiyah porachat-. We’re not dreaming. We’re planting. They weren’t all wearing Yarmulkas. Yet even the most secular here know that this is a holiday of redemption. Of planting. Of settling the land. Tears came to my eyes just watching these beautiful yiddishe kinderlach with their shovels and saplings. Ha’zorim B’Dima. Throughout Israel at the many sites where our children fell, the burnt car park, the Nova Festival site, Sderot trees were planted this year. We plant with tears. We plant with tears right after the Goyim tell us that we are great. We need to be nosey alumosuv- we need to carry our burdens, but as well we need to be alim- we need to be strong. We need to gather our strength.

With Tu B’Shvat the sap has risen. Purim is around the corner. Amalek is just waiting to be wiped out. Maybe even by 12:00 this Shabbos afternoon, if we listen to the Goyim. Pesach is around the corner. The month of redemption and return is here and coming fast. Do you know what the Presidential plane that Rubio arrived on is called? Eagle One. Kanfey Nesharim has landed and Goyim are telling us we are meant to be “great again” and meant to be even greater. Are we ready to stop dreaming?

Have a explosively fantastic Shabbos,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Fun fartrikenteh baimer kumen kain paires nit arois.”.- No fruit falls from withered trees.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

8. Israel has implemented its "good fence" policy with which bordering country? ______

Which settlement among the "11 points" established in 1946 was within the territory of today's

Gaza Strip?

A. Urim

B. Kfar Darom

C. Nirim

D. Kfar Aza

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/vatem   - The words, the promise, our mandate… from this week’s parsha. My glorious composition V’Atem Tihiyu Li… You should sing this the whole Shabbos…

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/torah-hakedosha  -  Shabbos Yisro Kabbalas HaTorah is here and this composition of mine from the famous poem ( from selichos Tzom Gedalia) has incredible words that most- until my song- only knew the first part of it… Listen and take in the prayer to the Torah..

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/good-shabbos   – We read about this mitzva of Shabbos… what is it all about ..listen to this beautiful composition of mine that you will sing forever…

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ylBComcef4   Simcha Leiner’s latest… Kein Yehi Ratzon! Nice…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfNTo3GhK_M    – A beautiful Ilan Ilan for Tu B’Shvat..

 

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

 

Nevuchadnezzar -the King who gave honor to God?- 605 BC – It is mamash insane how important it is for us to learn Tanach and to understand and internalize the lessons and stories of our past that repeat themselves. Binu shnos dor v’dor- understand the lessons of each generation. This column somehow always seems to be caught up with what’s going on. Check it out this week…

 

We begin the story of the rasha, the evil king of Babylonia who in the fourth year of the King Yehoyakim exiles him and begins the process of our exile and destruction. Who is Nevuchadnezzar? So our sages tell us his fascinating origin story. It seems that he was the secretary of the previous King of Babylonia, Merodach Baladan whom we previously learned about. Baladan, was the king who had sent messengers to Chizkiya after he was miraculously healed from his illness that followed the miraculous defeat of Sancheriev’s Assyrian army right outside of the gates of Jerusalem. Chizkiya could’ve been Mashiach had he sung and praised Hashem after this victory. His failure to recognize the amazing opportunity that this victory brought and his continued alliances and reliance on other goyim to be on our team and give us their love led to his sickness.

 

When Baladan heard about his miraculous recovery and the defeat of his own mutual enemy that he shared with us of Assyria he sent messengers to Chizkiya. He sent his Rubio with great wishes. He wanted to make Babylonia great again as well. He sent him a letter that stated

 

“Peace be unto King Chizkiya, peace unto the city of Yerushalayim, peace unto the great God.”

 

When Nevuchadnezar who wasn’t present heard about the letter, he got upset. How dare they place Chizkiya and give him honor before Hashem?! They should’ve first written “peace to Hashem” before Chizkiya. He began to run after the messengers to stop them. And very quickly the angel Gavriel came down and stopped him. Yet, it was in the merit of those four steps that he rose to glory to become the king of Babylonia and ultimately became the one to destroy the Temple. It was only because the angel stopped him though that our exile was only temporary. If he would’ve actually taken more than those four steps, we’d still be speaking Babylonian today…

 

What is the message here? The message is that when the Goyim and their Kings stick up for Hashem and our honor and we don’t then we’re in trouble. In fact, the downfall of Chizkiya a and the Jews was because when Baladan’s whole entourage comes to Israel he shows them all of the glory of the Temple and our treasure houses. Maybe he even got them golden beepers. The Navi and story of Chizkiya and Nevuchadnezzar is that our job is not to talk about our greatness and glory. It has to be about Hashem. We can’t be impressed or influenced by the nations. We need to impress and influence them, but not to farkoyf them on us… Rather its’ to get them realize and appreciate how much Hashem’s glory needs to be revealed to the world.

 

Yes, my friends. It’s ba’yamim ha’heim- in those days. Ba’zman ha’zeh- in our times.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TERRIBLE TREE JOKES OF THE WEEK

What type of trees like to give High Fives? A Palm Tree

 What school subject is the fruitiest? History – because it is full of dates!

 What happens to grapes when you step on them? They wine!

 I was telling my children about the health benefits of eating dried fruits recently. It’s really all about rasin awareness

 A lumberjack went in to a magic forest to cut a tree. Upon arrival, he started to swing at the tree, when it shouted, “Wait! I’m a talking tree!"

The lumberjack grinned, “And you will dialogue!"

  What did one Jewish wheat say to the other one? What should we eat?

 How many olives did the girl eat? Olive them!

 I can cut down a tree just by looking at it. It's true, I saw it with my own eyes

 My friend told me “Did you know trees drop edible stuff that’s not fruit?” I said “that’s nuts”.

 Where do you buy barley? At the bar!

 What’s green, fuzzy, has four legs and will kill you if it falls out of a tree? A pool table.

 What do you give a sick lemon? Lemon Aid.

 Why you shouldn't trust trees? They seem shady

 When I see lovers' nαmes cαrved in α tree, I don't think it's sweet. I just think it's surprising how mαny people bring a knife on a dαte.

 What do you call it when your friend try to convince you eat more fruit? Pear pressure.

 What kind of tree does toothpaste grow on? Toiletries

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The answer to this week”s question is b – Finally! I got one entirely right. It helps a bit that these are war zones. The part A though I knew even before the war, The Good Fence which was our open door policy to Lebanon before the first Lebanon War in 2000. Thousands of Israelis would got to Lebanon to shop and even have farms there and Leabanese would come into Israel as well enjoying our better medical services and shopping. Yes, it was once good with Lebanon before it became today. Now we’re back hopefully returned to our biblical borders that we won’t give back…

Part B was also easy. Kfar Darom was in Gush Katif until Ariel Sharon threw us out in exchange for the wonderful peace we’ve been experiencing since then. So I got them both right this week and the  new score is Rabbi Schwartz 5.5 Ministry of Tourism 2.5 on this exam so far.

Egg Births- Parshat Beshalach 2025 5785

 Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land

from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

February 7^th 2025 -Volume 14 Issue 15 9^th of Shevat 5785

 

Parshat Beshalach

Egg Births

 (my kids will appreciate the title)

 

Why are you asking me what will we be touring and visiting when you come for Sukkos this year? What our itinerary will be for the day that you booked me for on Chol Ha’Moed Pesach? What “the plan” is for your family trip to Israel will be when you come in three weeks from now… Yanky…

Yes, I understand that my daughter Shani is doing the rest of your weeklong itinerary planning and she wants to know, in order to plan around me and make sure that you’re not doing the same thing twice. But there’s a reason she didn’t ask me and told you to ask me. She knows that I won’t answer that question. I rarely plan or give people their itineraries much in advance, even before this war started. Yet since it has, I certainly haven’t wasted much time planning things and spending hours back and forthing it with them just to have it canceled because of the war changes. It’s just a waste of time. Time that I don’t have much of.

Yet, now certainly she knows that I’m really not planning things more than a day or two in advance. See, Mashiach is pretty much here. I don’t know if they got that E-Mail in America, and so I don’t really blame you for wanting answers. But here, at least to me it’s pretty clear that the geula is right around the corner.

I have a really hard time imagining not bringing the Pesach sacrifice in the new Temple on that mountain that has been cleared of that abomination and chilul Hashem that has been sitting upon it for way too long. I’ve been visiting those Red Heifers that are sitting in Shilo and that were brought here a few years ago from Texas and am imagining how immensely cool it will be if in a few weeks after Purim we will actually be burning them up and sprinkling their ashes in time for Parshat Parah, rather than just reading about the mitzva from the Torah as we have done for millenia. How this year Purim itself will be the day that Hashem allows us to finally destroy Amalek for the last time. The spring is here. The trees are blossoming. The dark winter is ending. The holiday of Redemption is around the corner. Your wife is already starting to make Pesach cleaning lists. Did you check if your hotel in Miami or Mexico has a Mashiach-coming- refundable-deposit clause? Don’t count on that great Rabbi who will be the scholar in residence there to have checked for you. I’m not sure he got the telegram either.

Now I know you’re thinking that I’ve been saying this for a while and it’s getting old already. But c’mon… Let me ask you what you would’ve told me, had I told you that the President of the United States just said that all the Arabs should be transferred out of Gaza. That Israel should return to its biblical borders in Judea and Shomron. That the Secretary of State of the America made a statement, that he sees no reason why the Bais Ha’mikdash shouldn’t be built on the Temple Mount already. You would’ve said one thing. That will happen when Mashiach comes.

Sadly, when you would’ve said that to me, it’s not because you believed that it would happen. Rather you would’ve said that because you heretically or perhaps to be more generous, exhaustedly after 2000 years of false hopes couldn’t imagine it really could happen. “When Mashiach comes” is just a way of saying “it ain’t really even happening”. It’s a euphemism for when “hair grows out of my palm”, “when dogs fly”, or what used to be a common one “when Ephraim Schwartz is skinny”. Yet guess what? All those above things happened this past week or two. We’re really heading into the end-game here.

Do you know how Biblical stories always talk about how the Jew in the Kings palace is giving him advice. Mordechai and Achashverosh, Daniel and Belshatzar, Moshe and Pharaoh, Avraham and Avimelech. We know it’s all true, but it sounds weird. Why would the greatest and most egotistical leaders of the world pay attention to this small Jew, who is such a minority of the world and is from a downtrodden nation? Why is all of world history so Israel and Jewish-people centric? Is it really? Or are we just looking at it with Jewish glasses, you wonder. Yet when in 2025, the first guest to the White House is Bibi Netanyahu, when the first statements and decrees of this new president are all about Israel, about borders, about Temples. When this tiny little land, and our tiny little people is all the world seems to be caring and talking and obsessed with. When we’re the only thing on the agenda of the now US sanctioned International World Court is Israel. That’s not Jewish glasses. That’s reality. “Jews is News” is on steroids these days. People… this is Biblical. This is what Chazal have foretold us to watch out for. It’s happening, dudes. It’s happening quickly. 

So don’t bother me please about itineraries and jeep tours and visiting graves of tzadikim or speedboating on the Mediterranean tour for Chol Hamoed. Certainly don’t ask me about Kotel tunnel tours to see the ruins of the retaining wall of the destroyed temple from 2000 years ago. They will be closed by the time you get here. It will be under renovations for the new Bais Hamikdash visiting center. You won’t need virtual reality glasses to see the show. It will be live and real. The day has finally come.

Now, do you know why you’re asking me this and this entire E-Mail until now seems just like a fantasy, a dream? It’s because it really in fact doesn’t seem real. A president of the United States should say we should throw the Arabs out of Gaza!? That we should build a Bais Hamikdash? That we need to destroy Amalek until the end?! That they will give us the bombs to do it? That the largest question on the entire globe today is are you pro or anti- Israel. That countries around the world at the far ends with millions of their own issues and problems are all only busy with one thing, which side are you on? The return of the Jews to their homeland and their borders and the destruction of our enemies or not. It’s a dream. It’s a prophecy. But that as well is exactly what we say each time we bentch when we say Shir Ha’Maalos. Hayinu K’Cholmim- we are like dreamers. Yet, the dream is almost over. We and the world are about to be Woke.

There’s another reason as well, though that I think we’re having a hard time adjusting to this thing and accepting it. It’s because, it’s not the way we imagined it. We’ve been looking for old men with white beards on donkeys dressed in a toga and sandals blowing a shofar. And who knows? Maybe he might come. But Trump? Really? C’mon… Bibi? That’s not the guy… What about the fighting? The army draft? The comfortable Jewish Torah life and new shuls and Beit Midrashes in exile we have built that are meant to fly up in the sky. The Eagle’s wings? Can our redemption really come from these natural in the Evening News type of occurrences?

The answer to that question and hesitation is yes and no. The answer to that question, the Sfat Emet tells us, is something that we need to appreciate and that we should’ve been internalizing every year on the holiday of our redemption of Pesach for the past 3000 years. Our redemption today will come k’yimei tzescha Mi’Mitzryaim- like the days that we left Egypt. As then, so now. The answer of how the redemption is meant to happen and is happening is not one big shofar blast, but rather two different Parshiyot. It’s last week, Bo, when we left. It’s this week’s Beshalach, when we step into the sea and it culminates.

Pesach is a strange holiday. There’s a custom to eat an egg by the Seder right before we start the meal. One of the reasons I saw given is that the chicken egg symbolizes a birth that takes place in two stages. The first is the mother bird creates the egg and it is brought into the world. Yet, the birth happens only later. The final birth of the chicken is when the baby bursts and breaks out of its own shell. The mother can only do so much. It can only bring it into the world. Yet, for the chick to be born, it’s gotta give the final kick itself. Mommy can’t do that for you. Neither could Pharaoh. Neither can Trump.

The Sefat Emet, whose Yartzeit was this past week, in almost every year of his commentary on this week’s parsha reiterates this concept. He notes that when we left Egypt in last week’s Parsha it was all from the hands of Hashem. It was in the merit of the promise to our Patriarchs. It was because if we would’ve stayed there any longer we would have been too far gone to redeem. It was the punishment of Egypt that had finally reached it peak and needed to be avenged and brought to judgement. It was to send an eternal message to the world that Hashem controls everything and we are His chosen nation. It was what the Kabbalists refer to as it’rauta di’li’ayla- it was an awakening from Above. It wasn’t because we did anything to be redeemed. It’s why it’s called Pesach- Hashem skipped over the normal protocols that would bring our redemption. But that’s not enough. That’s only good enough to bring the egg into the world.

This week’s Parsha is phase II. It’s called Parshat Beshalach- and begins with Pharaoh sending us out, because it’s about how we move from phase I to phase II. We didn’t leave Egypt. Pharaoh sent us out. They sent us out with gifts. They told us that we deserve to leave. That we deserve to have our own land. That our exile is over. Hashem gave us favor in their eyes. We went out from Egypt- “chamushim”- armed. Maybe they even gave us 2000 lb. bombs to blow up all the bunkers and tunnels when we got to the land of Israel. The boycott was finally over. The sanctions were removed. Egypt was on our side. But that doesn’t work.

If that’s the way we leave Egypt, as “shluchim of Pharaoh” then we’re really still servants. We still have to play by his rules. Mashiach is not here. The revelation of Hashem isn’t coming from us. It’s coming at best through us. The parsha tells us that when Pharaoh sends us out, we’re not ready to go conquer the Philistines in Gaza. Because it’s Pharaoh sending us out. It’s his rules. We will go back to Egypt and ask them if we’re allowed to do that when we face war with them. Can we get our hostages back or not? For us to make it home and to finally be redeemed, and to fight and win that battle of Amalek, which happens right after this story at the end of the Parsha, we need to understand that we don’t need Pharaoh. That Pharoah is meaningless. That Egypt is a nation that is irrelevant. That we have the power to redeem ourselves. Without him. Without them.

So what did Hashem do? He turned us around and sent us back to Egypt. He had us camp by Pi Ha’Chirot- on the edge of redemption. The was the last idol that remained that we hadn’t yet destroyed. The idol that said we need the approval of Egypt, we need the world to support us, that without the White House and our friend Pharaoh we can’t do it on our own. We would be walking right into a sea of death.

Hashem brought us back there in order that we learn the lesson of how to break that egg ourselves and be born. And then He told us to march. To enter in that sea as frightening and incomprehensible and counterintuitive as it may seem and watch how the sea and the waters split. The Midrash tells us that each Jew had to do this. It wasn’t just Nachshon, who was the first. Each and every Jew had to jump off into the deep end. And each Jew saw when they did that how the sea split before them. They saw that they could do it. That we could do it. That we don’t need Pharaoh. That if we do what we need to do, Hashem will take us all the way through.

There are two stages of redemption. Hashem didn’t birth us in a second. The entire story of our Exodus is about first getting the world and Pharaoh to understand that we need to be free. That we need to go home. That we have a job to do. A Temple to build. Perhaps Hashem understood that after 210 year of Exile, we wouldn’t even have the dream that this could ever happen. That we could ever get there. Perhaps He understands that even more-so today after 2000 years of Exile.



So, He turned the heart of Pharaoh around. He hardened it. He punished them. He then made him realize that the world will not be fixed and Egypt itself would only be better off if we did what we were supposed to do. We saw this all happening for an entire year. We saw miracles. We saw the hand of Hashem. As well tragically we saw many of our brothers and sisters killed in this process. We lost, according to the midrash, perhaps even as much as 4/5^th of our nation on the way back from the Holocaust of Egypt to the Promised Land. But the time came and we were on the way. But that’s still not a redeemed nation that can be the light to the world. That’s merely a proxy and slave of a world that wants us to be its human shield from the terror and evil that shines in a godless world.

So Hashem turned their hearts against us. He brought us to the point where we had to look the world in the eye and tell them that we deserve it on our own. That we will jump into the sea with or without you. That we understand that Hashem wants us to do this, and he doesn’t need the approval of the Pharaoh. He wants us to drown that concept and flush it down the proverbial Red Sea drain. A lowly maidservant, our sages tell us, saw more on that day, than even the great Prophet Yechezkel who was privileged and holy enough to see the throne and chariot of Hashem itself when the heavens opened up before him. Do you know what that maidservant saw that he didn’t? She saw

“zeh Keli v’anveyhu- This is my personal God and I can glorify Him”.

Yechezkel saw the awesomeness of Hashem and the heavens. The maidservant however saw the incredible power that she herself possessed to bring the glory of Hashem down to the world. That she herself could glorify Hashem. That we could break out of our shell and enter a new redeemed glorious world if we just kicked a bit out of our comfort zone. The shell is not hard. It just needs us to push on our own.

We’re at the end game, boys and girls. Pharaoh has armed us. He’s told us to go ahead and take our land. Hashem has given our favor in his eyes and the eyes of all of Egypt. The only question that remains is if we are ready to jump into the sea and do it on our own without him as well. Are we ready to say that we don’t need you Pharaoh. That we can clean out Gaza. That we can destroy Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and even face-off with Iran and return to our biblical borders and conquer and settle the land as we were meant to so long ago… in its entirety. That we are prepared and feel confident that Hashem is b’kirbeinu- that Hashem is within even the most lowly maidservant of ours. The maidservant who perhaps five minutes ago was serving idols and didn’t have Shabbos. That might have been dancing on Simchat Torah at a festival and in one minute, on one black Shabbos, discovered Hashem within herself. Discovered her faith. Recited Shema Yisrael. Understood that she couldn’t rely on anyone else besides Hashem and that faith. That took upon herself on that moment to become that light. To declare her faith. To sing a song.

Parshat Beshalach- the Parsha of Pharaoh sending us out is not called Beshalach. It’s called Shabbos Shira. It becomes transformed from a story of Exodus at the permission of Pharaoh to one of us all finding and singing a song of redemption that we can sing. We can’t sing a song if Pharaoh is sending us out. We sing when we accomplish and reveal the most inner part of ourselves. The song we sing is not God Bless America and doesn’t have any spangled banners in it. It’s a song of Zeh Keli V’Anveyhu. It’s the God that I have revealed by jumping into the sea that I am glorifying.

We each have a sea in front of us. A sea that is not easy to jump into. For some it’s moving to Israel and leaving Egypt. For some it’s observing mitzvos, learning Torah, Shabbos. And for others it’s finding and uplifting the godliness, the spark of Hashem in the maidservants that we don’t believe have Hashem in their midst. But for all of us there is that sea and we have to understand that the pathway to redemption isn’t through Washington D-SEA. Through declarations of Pharaoh, the UN and even our “Friends” in the Bayit Ha’Lavan. Its within us. So now I ask you. What are you planning on doing this Sukkos?

Have a musical Shabbos and a fruitful Tu Bi’Shvat!

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz 

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YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

 

“Di eyer viln zayn kliger fun di hiner”.- The eggs think they are smarter than the chicken.

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

 

6) Following the Mamluks, the Land of Israel was ruled by the ______________?

Which of the following sentences about the Pool of the Arches in Ramla is true?

A. The pool was first built during the Second Temple period

B. The dating of the pool is uncertain despite excavations at the site

C. Some researchers see the pool as a source of inspiration for the Crusaders’ pointed arches

D. Some scholars believe that the arches in the pool were built by the Crusaders

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S COOL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

 

https://soundcloud.com/ephraim-schwartz/shiras-hayam-the-song-of-the-sea-vayosha - Shabbos Shira is not complete without singing the original tune that we sang when we crossed the Sea, that of course I remembered and composed for you, right here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ti_vBpxYM8  – Funny Eretz Nehedert Red Cross Uber!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmctIbvWe68 - Also from the parsha Ki Lashem Hamelucha this haunting song is done beautiful by Pesach Eidensohn

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgExmPv1Jqg – Motty Steinmetz, Baruch Levine, Hershy and Zanvil Weinberger doing an incredible Memkomcha of Ben Tzion Shenker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljIX-UoDMx0  – Shuki Solomon and Shlomi Meir singing a Shir Shel Eretz Yisrael… a love song of the land…

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

Yehoyakim the wicked- 609 BC – With the youngest son of Yoshiyahu, Yehoyachaz taken to exile in Egypt by Pharaoh Necho after a mere three months of ruling, where he dies, his older brother become the king next. This brother, Elyakim, as he was called when he was born, had his name changed to Yehoyakim by Pharaoh Necho. It seems the custom was that when you put someone new in charge, they get a new name. Fascinatingly enough, and perhaps even bizarrely as well, there is a moshav and intersection right by Har HaCarmel that is named after his original name Elyakim. I say bizarrely because this king was really not good news and non one you wanted to be named after. If you thought however that his brother Yehoyachaz was bad. Yehoyakim really took things to a whole new level.

 

The Navi itself doesn’t really tell us that much about what this king did. The prophet Yirmiyahu however looked at his 11-year rule as being the one that finally brought Nebuchadnezzar to town to being the process of the destruction and mentions that it was sins one the level of his grandfather Menashe that brought this down on the nation. Our sages though didn’t spare any words about this king. There are some that describe him as being an atheist that denied Hashem has any power over the world. Others describe his incestuous relations with his closest relatives, his removal of his circumcision, tattoos of idolatry and heresy on his body. This is 25-year-old almost last King of Israel. It is he that brings the fate of the people to its sad destruction.

 

His end will come and will be bitter as we will see in the coming weeks. However fascinatingly enough his downfall begins when he reads the political map a bit wrong. Pharaoh Necho who appointed him levied a huge fine against the nation of gold to pay and punish Israel for the insurrection of Yehoyachaz his brother. Yet in his third year of rule, Nebuchadnezzar the King of Bavel took control, and he captured and sieged Jerusalem taking Yehoyakim as a prisoner to Babylonia in copper chains along with vessels from the temple. There he subdued him and sent him back to be his faithful vassal king in Israel.

 

The end is near. Nebuchadnezzar is already in Israel and exiling kings. The Kings of Israel are pawns to the world leaders and their decrees. They’re not taking their cues from the prophets, from Hashem, from the Torah. This is bad news. Does it sound familiar?

 

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S GAZA RETURN MEMES OF THE WEEK

Where in the USA can you keep one day Yom Tov? Gaza

 

In America they started saying last night by Mariv- Ha’Maavir Aravim… (you either get it or not…)

 

Hamas before Trump’s announcement

“We are refugees for 75 years Gaza is not our homeland”

After Trump’s announcement

“We will not move to Egypt Jordan or Syria, Gaza is our homeland.”

Make up your mind this is too confusing…

 

If Gaza becomes an American State as least they will be able to keep guns in schools…

 

The US taking Gaza will be the largest US takeover of Israeli land since Ramat Eshkol

 

A cannibal tribe in New Guinea announced that they would be willing to take 10 Palestinians a week.

 

The concept of the US having sovereignty of a mostly ruined lawless enclave of Hamas supporters is disturbing. But so it goes in Detroit.

 

It turns out the two state solution was Israel and America.

 

For Palestinians a new two State Solution- Jordan, Egypt.

 

Trump saw Free Palestine posters and said “Hey, I’ll take it…

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The answer to this week”s question is C – Ok, I’m getting annoyed now. Another half and half credit. The first part was easy. I knew the history of different empires of Israel and the Ottaman Turks came after the Mamaluks in 1517 and ruled for 400 years on the nose, until WWI. The second part though stumped me. I don’t think I ever took anyone to these fun little pools that you can rent boats in and sail through in Lof under a the mosque there. My tourists just don’t seem to be the type to be interested in ancient Muslim buildings or pools. Despite how fun they might seem. That being said I really had no clue as to the answer. I remember the arches looked Crusaderish, but I didn’t remember ever learning that it was perhaps the source of Gothic mediaval Crusader architecture and Arches. But I guess I was wrong, that seems to be the correct answer. The Crusaders started building that way after they saw this mosque and pools. I guessed answer B that we don’t know when it was from. But actually the opposite is true. This is the only building that has a sign and inscription from the year 789 BC Abbasid period when it was built! So I got them half right this week and the new score is Rabbi Schwartz 4.5 Ministry of Tourism 2.5 on this exam so far.