Insights and Inspiration
from the
Holy Land
from
from
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
"Your friend in Karmiel"
August 15th 2014
-Volume 4, Issue 41 -19th of Av 5774
Parshat Eikev
The Good
Book
I'm
not a mall person. I don't like shopping. I will wear my clothing until it
disintegrates on my body before I go shopping. To be fully honest, even then I
let my wife do the shopping for me. My wife on the
other hand could shop all day. It's why she opened a clothing business. I
became a tour guide traveling and exploring the country and having a great
time. We're just two people living out their dreams in the Jewish Holy Land of
opportunity.
With some cancellations in my touring schedule from people who
think that the US is safer than Israel (you know who you are JJ just joking no hard feelings I'll see you soon
IYH when you reschedule J) my wife thought it
would be a great time to take two days and do the family vacation thing,
something that a busy tour guide doesn't always get a chance to do…at least
with his own family. Whadaya know we had some free hotel night stays form
points with our credit cards. It's amazing what you can get if you build up
enough credit card debt L. Suspiciously, though
however the only place that had any availability was either in Ashkelon-under
missile fire not exactly peaceful get away right now (see even I have my
hangups), Nazareth-not my speed, or the Dead Sea…but in Jordan and the last
choice and only real one was at the Crowne Plaza in Tel Aviv and whadaya know
again right next to the Azrieli super mall. Hmmmm… Sounds like a scam to me,
but what do I know?
So never one to be a "party pooper" and deny my
incredible Eishet Chayil the vacation of her dreams we checked in for two days
to "the mall hotel". It took us about five minutes of dumping our
stuff before we found ourselves in the mall and five hours later…we were still
there. But I've learned since childhood when my parents would take us to the
mall- although my father was (is) always more of a Kmart blue-light special
type of guy- the way to survive these wonderful "family" outings. Two
words- Book Store. Yup that was my kind of place. My parents would pretty much
just drop me off there and I would just sit on the floor and read to my heart's
content. So here I was again and as we're walking through the mall I see a
Steimetzky book store up ahead. Not sure if I would be able to get out of this
"quality" family time safely, I was relieved when my little 4 year
old Tully runs up ahead to the store and
starts leafing through the comic books there. The apple doesn't fall far from
the tree. "Don't worry, Honey, I'll stay here and watch him…you just go
on up ahead and have fun.". So there we sat…on the floor. Tully with
his Israeli Spider Man comics and me with "The Prime Ministers" book
I've been dying to get a chance to read (anyone have a spare copy to
"lend" me?). Nothing like quality (without the facetious quotation
marks) family time.
What broke my quiet reverie
though was when three young chayalim/soldiers made their way over the
section of the floor that we had occupied and started perusing the
"religious/spiritual books". The nice part about Israel is that
overwhelming majority of them are not about these new fangled eastern
religions, meditation and certainly not Christianity or Islam. But even here in
Tel Aviv they were all about Judaism. Torah books. Cool! The soldiers though,
two of them non-kippa wearing and one older one with a kippa- seemed to be
having difficulty making a selection. The older one was making some recommendations. But they seemed to be looking for something more.
"I want something that will connect me more to G-d…something
that will teach me more about Shabbat…about prayer…This is my first day back
from the war and after the miracles I saw and the spirituality that I
personally experience for the first time being in those trenches of Gaza. I
know that I need more. I know that there's someone up there, that has been
waiting for 22 years for me to talk to Him…to come Home…"
The other Chayal wanted something more about Chasidut/Hasidism (I
recommended Eli Wiesels book 'Souls on Fire'). He was introduced to the joy of
Judaism while dancing before going out to battle with some of those funny
Breslav guys. "I have never felt such inner joy before…and trust me
I've had a lot of "fun" in my life. But this was something special.
Something real…something I think I need as part of my life."
Fascinated by this exchange I decided to walk around to a few more
book stores in the mall and interestingly enough in almost all of them I saw
Chayalim around the same area of books in the other two stores as well. Isn't
this just an amazing country! Aren't we just an amazing nation. Maybe Tel Aviv
malls are not such bad places after all…
This week's Torah portion Eikev to a large degree speaks for
itself. Anything that I would want to write has been said and written in the
most inspirational and prophetic words by Moshe in this last speech of his to
our forefathers right before they entered the land of Israel. Our mandate upon
coming to Israel, our objectives, the challenges we face, the dangers of a
false sense of personal power and strength and the way that we will succeed are
all put out quite plainly and simply for us. I merely excerpt and quote for
you.
"And it will be, because you will heed these ordinances
and keep them and perform, that the Lord, your God, will keep for you the
covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers And He will love
you and bless you and multiply you…
And you shall consume all the peoples which the Lord your God
gives you; you shall not spare them, nor shall you worship their gods, for that
will be a snare for you. Will you say to yourself, "These nations are more
numerous than I; how will I be able to drive them out"? You shall
not fear them. You shall surely remember what the Lord, your God, did to
Pharaoh and to all of Egypt. The great trials that your eyes saw, the
signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm with which the
Lord, your God, brought you out. So will the Lord, Your God, do to all the
peoples you fear…
You shall not be terrified of them, for the Lord, your God, Who is
in your midst, is a great and awesome God.
Not a bad deal? Huh? Yet once we get here Moshe reminds us…
"Beware that you do not forget the Lord, your God, by not
keeping His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes, which I command you
this day, lest you eat and be
sated, and build good houses and dwell therein, and your herds and your flocks multiply, and
your silver and gold increase, and all that you have increases, and your heart grows haughty, and you forget the
Lord, your God, Who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage…
Sound familiar?
"And you will say to yourself, "My strength and the
might of my hand that has accumulated this wealth for me." (the word here for
wealth is Chayil which can also mean army…interestingly enough…)
"But you must remember the Lord your God, for it is He that
gives you strength to make wealth, in order to establish His covenant which He
swore to your forefathers, as it is this day.
And just in case you were feeling good about yourself…
"Do not say to yourself, when the Lord, your God, has
repelled them from before you, saying, "Because of my righteousness, the
Lord has brought me to possess this land," and [that] because of the
wickedness of these nations, the Lord drives them out from before you.
I think that we can figure that out…but sometimes we can be
self-delusional..
"Not because of your righteousness or because of the honesty
of your heart, do you come to possess their land, but because of the wickedness
of these nations, the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and in
order to establish the matter that the Lord swore to your forefathers, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. You shall know that, not
because of your righteousness, the Lord, your God, gives you this land to
possess it; for you are a stiffnecked people.
Remember the golden calf. Remember all the sins in the wilderness,
the spies, the longing for those Egyptian pickles…in a nutshell-
"You have been rebelling against the Lord since the day I
became acquainted with you."
Really it's pretty simple-
"And now, O Israel, what does the Lord, your God, demand of
you? Only to fear the Lord, your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him,
and to worship the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and His
statutes, which I command you this day, for your good…You shall circumcise the
foreskin of your heart, therefore, and be no more stiffnecked…You shall fear
the Lord, your God, worship Him, and cleave to Him and swear by His Name. He is your praise and He is your God, Who did
these great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen. With seventy souls, Your forefathers descended
to Egypt, and now the Lord, your God, has made you as the stars of heaven in
abundance
And finally-
"But your eyes, which have seen all the great work of the
Lord, which He did. [Therefore] keep all the
commandments that I command you this day, in order that you may be strong and
come and possess the land to which you are crossing, to possess it, and in order that you may prolong your days on
the land that the Lord swore to your forefathers to give to them and to their
seed a land flowing with milk and honey.
Not a bad Book, don't ya think?
We are living in truly amazing times. For over 2000 years we have waited
for our chance our opportunity to once again return here…to our land… To
rebuild…rededicate…re-conquer…and fix the mistakes of our past. Our brave
soldiers witness the greatness of Hashem in our victories. They have come
looking for Him. Their souls seek to remember, to connect to be one. We are
removing the foreskins of our hearts. Even in the malls of Tel Aviv. The time
is now. We are writing the final chapter. The happily ever after is on the next
page. Let's all finish the book together.
Have a stupendous Shabbos
Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz
**********************************
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ROBIN WILLIAMS QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"No matter what people tell you, words and
ideas can change the world"
"What's right is what's left if you do everything else wrong"
“Some are born great. Some achieve greatness.
Some get it as a graduation gift.”
"“In England, if you commit a crime, the
police don't have a gun and you don't have a gun. If you commit a crime, the
police will say "Stop, or I'll say stop again."- Robin Williams
RABBI
SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK
(answer below at end of Email)
Q. Which is the most ancient of the following sites?
- The
Negev desert kites
- The
temple at En Gedi
- Metsad
Nekarot
- The
tunnel wells (fugarot)
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL GEMATRIA OF THE WEEK
This week the Torah introduces the biblical mitzvah to
"Bentch" meaning to make an after blessing after eating bread.
Vachalta V'Savata U'Verichta and you shall eat, be satisfied and bless
Hashem. There is law that when one makes the blessing on bread one should place
their 10 fingers on the bread. The Baal Haturim suggests that this corresponds
to the 10 mitzvos that are entailed in bringing the bread to one's table. 1)
Not plowing with an ox and donkey 2) not plant mixed species( Klayim) 3)
leaving in the field the dropped gleanings, 4) the forgotten ones 5) the corners
6) not muzzling your animal 7) giving a portion to the Kohein (termua) 8) the
first tithe 9) the 2nd tithe and 10 challa. Also interestingly
enough there are ten words in the blessing hamotzi recited on bread, ten words
in the verse describing the species of the land of Israel and ten words in the
blessing of Jacob/ Yackov Vayiten Licha Mital Hashamayim that Hashem
should give us from the dew of the heaven and the fat of the earth. Feel free
to use any of those verses or blessings to count people with next time you need
to count for a minyan.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL PLACES IN ISRAEL OF THE
WEEK
Azrieli Mall, Tel Aviv – My oldest daughters favorite spot in Israel this huge super
mall, one of the largest in Israel has three floors of "great
shopping" great restaraunts (kosher and even a few mehadrin ones!) and
lots of different activities. Built in 1999 on the former Tel Aviv dump truck
depot the three towers of the Azrieli are a centerpiece of the "new
Israel" Tel Aviv experience. There are always fun activities going on for
kids and the families here as well. This summer they have a great kids Dinosaur
park and exhibit as well as mini water park with slides and bikes and jumpy
things. Conveniently the train comes right here to the mall so it is an easy
commute as well so you don’t even have to deal with the infamous tel aviv
traffic situation to spend a fun day in Tel Aviv.
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
A new CD by my friend Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz with all his
songs-all proceeds go to Tzedaka
A beautiful song and video tribute to our chayalim
Israeli soldiers composed by Reb Michel Twersky- get the tissues ready…very
moving
*******************
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S MALL JOKE OF THE WEEK
An Amish boy and his father were visiting a
mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two
shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again. The boy
asked his father, "What is this, Father?" The father [never having
seen an elevator] responded "Son, I have never seen anything like this in
my life, I don't know what it is."
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights with numbers above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction.
The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out. The father said to his son, "Go get your mother."
********************
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights with numbers above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction.
The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out. The father said to his son, "Go get your mother."
********************
בלונדינית אחת אומרת
לחברה שלה: "ביי מאמי, אני זזה"
החברה שואלת :"לאן?!"
הבלונדינית: "לקניון"
החברה: "מה
עכשיו קניון?!"
בלונדינית: "מה,
לא שמעת? יש מבצע! זה בכל החדשות!"
החברה: "מבצע
בעזה מאמי, יש מבצע בעזה!"
בלונדינית: "איזה
מפגרים, מי יסע עד שם?"
Translation- although the Hebrew is really much
better!!!
"Bye honey, I'm leaving" the "blonde" clueless teen
ager says to her friend
"Where to?" her friend asks
"To the mall"
"What! Now to the mall?!"
"What? You didn't you hear there's a Mivtza
(the Hebrew word for sale-
the word is not mitzva). It's on all the News channels" said the blonde
teenager"
"The Mivtza (also same word for battle- I can only guess
why this is the same word) is in Gaza dear, Theres a Mivtza in Gaza!"
"That's crazy! Who would go there for a
sale!"
*************************************************************
Answer
is D: Wheww.. this was not an easy one. I mean parts of it was. The
Metzad Nikarot, which was a fortress that watched over the water sources in the
desert for the spice trail of the Nabateans was obviously not the answer as
they Nabateans nomads of the lived from the the year 90 BC (Bayis Sheni) until
the third century or so when they became Roman was not the answer. At least
that’s what I thought but the the truth is that the wells in the desert with
its cool underwater tunnels was built even later and were in the early muslim 9th
century period. (I thought they were earlier…) The hard part was the other two
which is the temple in ein gedi which I knew was Chalcholite meaning the copper
period which is about 3500 BC (according to scientists calculation-not the
Torahs) and the correct answer though was the Desert kites which were ancient
ways of trapping wild animals by making stone formations in a triangle kite
shape that would lead at the tip to a
trap. Which turns out was the Neolithic period-meaning the new stone age. Like Flintstones
times 6-7,000 BCE according to scientists and Hanna Barbara…I Got this one
wrong… Maybe because its older than the Torah says…
In.
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