In the Naaleh newsletter that appeared in my Inbox this morning, there was yet another wonderfully insightful dvar Torah on the parsha from Rebbetzin Shira Smiles.

Regarding the Plague of Darkness, she discusses how the darkness affected the Egyptians versus how it affected the Jews. The Torah says that the Jews had light in their homes.

But what kind of light? It wasn't just a physical light.

The Jews merited light because of their attachment to Torah and mitzvot.

She recalls the advice of Rabbi Pincus:

This is a running theme throughout Judaism. By keeping your eye on the ball moving forward by increasing light (even if it's only a very small light, like the flame of a matchstick), you can fight off your own darkness.

You add light, rather than adding more darkness to the darkness.

And those who run from light and embrace the darkness end up getting stuck there, helpless to harm you further.

But then she adds more depth and insight to the phenomenon of Darkness:

This describes the direction of our world today. Daat (the mind) is lost. Even something as simple as gender has become a confusing and controversial. (And I'm not talking about the very real scientifically diagnosable syndromes in which the actual chromosomes or body parts are atypical.)

"They had lost all understanding and couldn't even function in the world."

Today, young Leftist radicals are referred to as "snowflakes" due to their tendency to "melt" (or collapse into a meltdown) when faced with facts they don't like. On the non-political side, you have an increase of young people sitting at home with their smartphones and social media. (In truth, this has increased among people of all ages, but it's most extreme among teens.) Those who go to college often major in subjects that won't enable them to get a job. Suicide is up. Increasingly, many people truly cannot even function in the world.

Yet the way to create light is the same secret Gidon discovered during the Pesach Seder millennia ago: Yearn for Redemption!

As Rebbetzin Smiles concludes:

Related Links:
Naaleh Online Torah for Women
True Greatness Hides Itself before God Makes It Known (discusses Gidon the Judge)

There's an interesting couple of posts over at Emunaroma (links below) that fit right into what's going in the current parshas (Shemot & Va'era).

Throughout his commentary on the Torah, the Kli Yakar emphasizes that Hashem chooses the "מעט /m'at" -- the lesser, the minor, the small one, the insignificant.

Whether it was the more diminutive Har Sinai or the younger sibling (Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe Rabbeinu, etc.), God chooses the m'at.

I'm mean, look at Yehudah, the progenitor of Mashiach: a middle child.

And Tamar? She comes out of nowhere, has been married twice without ever producing a child (not ideal shidduch material), and is pretty quiet. In fact, our Sages note that the whole reason why Yehudah didn't recognize her on the road (despite her having been his daughter-in-law twice) was because of her great modesty and refinement when at the home of her father-in-law...she even covered her face, so he really didn't know what she looked like.

(You're not obligated to cover your face when visiting your in-laws. The Sages just note that Tamar chose to of her own accord, which later proved advantageous.)

Further down the line, you have Ruth. Again, her refined modesty and reluctance to stand out are what actually make her stand out. Her refinement and concern for modesty is even more startling considering that she comes from a particularly brazen nation. Furthermore, she's a convert from a nation despised (with good reason) by the Jews. To make things even more complicated, she looked different. Apparently, the Moavites had a distinctive look, making Ruth identifiable at first glance.

In other words, she was an ethnic minority of one from a most unpopular ethnic group.

(Note: I looked up Moavite archeology to get an idea of what the Moavites might have looked like, but found very little. Almost nothing remains of that once-powerful nation.)

Yet very quietly and unassumingly, Ruth swept up all the Moavite sparks of vitality with her when she left and elevated them with her conversion to Judaism.

And that was the beginning of the end for Moav.

Later, she married the great Boaz and their great-grandson ended up being King David...again, the direct line of Mashiach. Ruth also merited to have her story written out and an entire megillah named after her.

In Shemot and Va'era, we have Moshe Rabbeinu, the baby of the family and a stutterer. He actually spends significant parts of his life undercover:

• He's born in secrecy within a closed home to hide his light.
• He's hidden in a floating box in the Nile (while his sister hides herself to watch over him).
• He's locked up in an underground prison for several years.

Moshe Rabbeinu actually tries to get out of the leadership position Hashem has chosen for him. After his first official meeting with Pharoah leads to increased suffering for his beloved people, Moshe Rabbeinu tells Hashem: "Perhaps I was the cause, since You sent a stutterer like me to him?"

Moshe Rabbeinu is definitely not engaging in any self-promotion here. In fact, he thinks he's the wrong man for the job and is not afraid to tell this to God Himself.

Also, it's worth noting that Aharon Hacohen shows absolutely no jealousy over the fact that his younger and less silver-tongued brother is chosen as the great redeemer. Due to Aharon's profound humility and willingness to play second fiddle his entire life, his descendents are rewarded with the eternal priesthood.

Devorah Haneviah led the nation to military victory, but first she tried to avoid doing so.

There are many, many examples throughout Tanach of the lesser person, the one trodden upon or ignored, being chosen by Hashem for an exalted role.

Here's one of my favorites: Gidon.

The story of Gidon in Judges has always been one of my favorites. When I finally studied it with the commentaries, I found even more to love.

We come across Gidon during a downturn in Jewish history. Gidon is born to the Jewish nation as it's oppressed by the camel-riding crescent-bearing Midyanites (the precursors of today's Arabs).

Initially, Gidon is a member of the smallest tribe, Menashe. Furthermore, his family is one of the smallest and least significant of the Menashi families. And within his immediate family, Gidon is one of the younger brothers.

In other words, in terms of external status, Gidon is about as unimportant as you could be within the trodden-upon Jewish people at that time.

Gidon is working away in the threshing house.

Unbeknownst to Gidon and his father, an angel is invisibly waiting outside in the courtyard under a tree.

Knowing that discovery means death, Gidon tells his father, "Abba, you are old. And if the the Midyanim will come, you will not be able to flee. You go, and I will thresh."

That's according to Rashi. According to Radak, Gidon tells his father, "My father, you are old. Enter into your home and I will thresh because if the Midyanim will come, you don't have within you the strength to flee."

That's when the angel said in the name of God, "You have upheld the mitzvah of honor [honoring your father] and you are suited to that all of my children shall immediately be redeemed by your hand."

The angel became visible and declared, "God is with you, mighty one of valor."

(Please note that Gidon did not tweet, "Dude! Angel just appeared to me and declared me 'mighty one of valor'! Please follow me!" Nor did he upload a selfie of himself and the angel to Instagram. Nor did he update his Facebook page with the new twist of events along with a request to "like" the "angel 'n' me" post. In fact, he was rather hesitant about his newfound status. Okay, I'm kidding about the social media. I know there was no such technology back then.)

Both Radak and Malbim state that Gidon's mesirut nefesh for kivud av (putting his father's safety and well-being above his own) ignited the merit which caused the angel to make itself known and everything else that followed.

But there was one other reason why Gidon was chosen.

Radak explains that the night before was Leil Haseder of Pesach. Gidon said (in addition to the text of the book of Shoftim), "Last night, we read the Hallel and my father read me, 'When Yisrael went out of Egypt' -- If our forefathers were tzaddikim, then perform a miracle for us in their merit. And if they were reshaim, then just as you performed for them, perform a miracle for us too."

(Again, Gidon said this privately to God and the angel. He spoke quietly from the heart; he did not pass it on to the town crier.)

And Hashem said, "By your life! Because you acted as a defender [sanigor] for my children, you are worth Me speaking with you immediately."

VERY powerful stuff, as you can see.

Just the quiet self-sacrifice for his father and then arguing with God to perform a miracle not just for himself, but for the ENTIRE Jewish people...Gidon was suddenly catapulted from oppressed insignificant little Jew to prophet and national redeemer.

Not bad for a boy from a small tribe, eh?

There was no audience for Gidon initial actions. Just his father and an angel.

But Gidon's vocalized care and concern for everyone else apparently went viral in Shamayim.
____________
To sum up:

• Traditionally, our greatest Jews (regardless of gender) tried to avoid the spotlight.
• No need to go looking for attention; Hashem knows exactly who and where you are.
• The absolutely most powerful act you can ever commit is to care about others and to vocalize that care and concern to Hashem.
• Plead for redemption on behalf of others, whether they're good or bad!

Finally, I just want to say that as always, this is a process. Obviously, I have a public blog. So I am not exactly hiding myself under a bushel, am I? And sometimes, I feel more like gnashing my teeth than finding merits in my badly behaving fellows.

But the main thing is to try.

Knowing the goal and at least turning your face in that direction is a big part of achieving that goal.

Who knows if there's an angel waiting outside for you?

Emunaroma posts:
Does God Really Want My Face More "Out There"?
Two Sides of the "Images of Frum Women in Media" Debate
(Please see Miriam's comment in particular.)

The sparks Ruth's conversion swept out of Moav:
The Powerful Secret of Sincere Conversion

One of my favorite stories from Rebbe Nachman of Breslov is known as the The Prince Made Entirely of Precious Gems.

What follows is a very literal translation from the Hebrew translation because Rebbe Nachman produced his precious stories with the intention that every word is rife with meaning and a less literal translation loses some of those meanings.

(Even though any translation at all, by its very nature, loses some of the original Hebrew or Yiddish or Aramaic meaning, although when translating between these languages, very little is lost due to their similarities in linguistics and spirit.)
You can find smoother translations online and in books.

The words in curved parentheses () are also found in the original transcription of the story. The words in square parentheses [] are my own additions: translations or the Hebrew original for clarification, or the Malbim's definition of that original Hebrew word.

(For example, the Malbim defines bakasha/mevakesh as "requesting one's heart's desire.")
_______
Then follows a few commentaries on this story by Breslov Sages from past generations.
_______
Then a list of gemstones and their segulot [virtues/qualities] follows, in case you were wondering what were some of these segulot that the king and queen imbibed with the wine.
_______
It's a long post, and you may only be interested in parts of it, so I tried to label things clearly so that you can skip around and read only what's useful to you.

There is a story about one king, who didn’t have children. And he went and busied himself with doctors in order that his kingdom would not be turned over to strangers. And they were not useful to him.

And he decreed upon the Jews that they shall pray from him that he shall have children. And the Jews were requesting [their heart’s desire] and seeking a tzaddik in order that he shall pray and [actively] facilitate that he shall have children, and they requested [their heart’s desire] and found a hidden tzaddik and they said to him that he should pray that the king shall have children; and he answered that he doesn’t know anything.

And they made this known to the king, and the king sent his imperial decree after him and they brought him to the king.

And the king began to speak with him with goodness: “Do you not know that the Jews they are in my hand to do with them according to my desire, therefore I request from you in goodness that you will pray that there will be children for me.”

And he promised him that there shall be for him in the same year a child [vlad], and he went to his place.

And the queen bore a daughter, and this same daughter of the queen was of very beautiful form [yafat to'ar me'od - specifically the shape of the face] and when she was 4-year-old, she was skilled in all the wisdoms and to play singing instruments, and she knew all the languages, and kings from all the countries would journey to see her, and a great [perpetual state of spiritual] joy was upon the king.

Later, the king yearned greatly that he shall have a son in order that his kingdom shall not be turned over to a foreign man, and he decreed again upon the Jews that they shall pray that he shall have a son. And they were requesting [their heart’s desire] and seeking after for the tzaddik mentioned above, and they didn’t find him, because he already passed away.

And they requested [their heart’s desire] more, and found another hidden tzaddik and they said to him that he shall give to the king a son, and he said that he doesn’t know anything.

And they made known to the king, and the king said to him also as mentioned above: “Do you not know the Jews are in my hand, etc., as mentioned above.

The wise man (meaning, the tzaddik mentioned above) said to him: “Are you able to do what I shall command?”

The king said, “Yes.”

The wise man said to him: “I need that you shall bring all the types of good gemstones because every good gemstone, it has another segulah [virtue/quality]” -- because there is by the kings a book in which is written all types of the good gemstones.

The king said: “I will take out half my kingdom in order that a son will be for me.”

And he went and brought for him all types of the good gemstones.

And the wise man  took them and ground them, and took a cup of wine and passed them to within it, and gave half the cup to the king to drink and half of it to the queen; and he said to them that there shall be for them a son that all of him shall be from good gemstones, and all the segulot of all the good gemstones, and he went to his place.

And she bore a son, and a great [perpetual state of spiritual] joy was made upon the king. And the son born was not from good gemstones. When the son was four years old, he was of very beautiful form [yafeh toar – specifically the shape of the face] and a great wise one in all the wisdoms, and he was knowing all the languages, and they would travel to the king to see him.

And the daughter of the queen saw that she isn’t so important, and became envious [believed he will diminish or take some benefit or purpose that she believes she deserves] of him; only this was her consolation: in that which the same tzaddik said that all of him will be from good gemstones—good that he is not from good gemstones.

One time, the son of the king was carving up [m’chatech] trees and he was wounded in his finger, and the daughter of the queen wanted to swathe/wrap/bandage his finger, and she saw there a good gemstone, and she became very envious [believed he will diminish or take some benefit or purpose that she believes she deserves] of him. And she made herself sick, and some doctors came, and they were not able to make for her a healing.

And they called for the sorcerers, and there was a sorcerer, and she revealed to him the truth, that she made herself sick as mentioned above. And she asked him if he would be able to perform sorcery to a person that he shall be leprous [metzora].

He said: “Yes.”

She said to him, “Perhaps a sorcerer will request [his heart’s desire] that the spell will be cancelled, and he will be healed.”

The sorceror said: “If they will cast the spell to the water—they will not be able to cancel it anymore."

And she did so, and she cast the spell to the water, and the son of the king was made very leprous [metzora me'od], (and he had) on his nose [chotmo] leprosy [tzaraat] and upon his face and upon the rest of his body, and the king busied with doctors and with sorcerers—and they weren’t useful.

And he decreed on the Jews that they shall pray, and they requested [their heart’s desire] the tzaddik mentioned above and they brought him to the king and the tzaddik mentioned above was praying always to Hashem Yitbarach in that that he was promising that the son of the king will be all of him from good gemstones—and it was not so.

And he was contending to Hashem Yitbarach: “Did I do this for my kavod [inherent beauty—i.e. to make me look good]? I did not do it but for Your Kavod [inherent beauty]; and now it did not come into existence/to fruition like I said.”

And the tzaddik came to the king, and he was praying—and it wasn’t effective, and they made known to him that it was a spell; and the tzaddik mentioned above was higher above all the sorcerers.

And the tzaddik came to the king and made known to the king that it is a spell; and that they cast the spell to the water, and there is no remedy for the son of the king—except that they shall cast the sorcerer who made the spell to the water.

The king said: “I give to you all the sorcerers to cast them to the water in order that my son will be healed.”

And the daughter of the queen became afraid [fear of a known thing], and she ran to the water to take out the spell from the water, because she had known where the spell lay; and she fell to the water, and a great commotion was made because the daughter of the king fell to the water.

And the same tzaddik mentioned above came and said to them that the son of the king shall be healed and he became healed. And the leprosy became dry and fell, and all the skin became peeled from him, and he was made of good gemstones all of him, and he had all the segulot of all the good gemstones (meaning, that after the skin peeled, then it became revealed that the son of the king, he consists entirely of good gemstones, as the tzaddik mentioned above said).

The End!

Remzei Hamaasiot [Secrets of the Stories] by the Tcheriner Rav (b.?-d.1894)
It is evident to every one who probes it that this story is awesome and wondrous – and by the way hints: "Hashem is with me, I won't fear; what can Man do to me?...Many plans are in the heart of Man, but only Hashem's counsel will come to fruition" because davka via what the princess did to him with occult powers he was made leprous and through that, he was healed and afterwards made completely of precious gems, etc.

And it is also wonderful encouragement that sometimes a descent is the reason for an ascent. Aside from the many secrets woven in this story, and that contained within is the whole Holy Name of 42 letters, and I heard this story is also about why the known thing fell sometimes in the water and almost drowned, etc.
 
Zimrat HaAretz [Song of the Land] by the Tcheriner Rav
There are those who say this story's meaning was heard from Rabbeinu [Rebbe Nachman] that contained within is the secret 42-letter name, etc., as is explained in another place [Zohar Chadash, the end of Parshat Ki Tavo]....Also what's explained here that the prince became leprous and afterwards, he was healed and the scabs dried up and all the skin peeled off and then it was revealed and seen that he was comprised entirely of precious gems and he had the special properties of each gem.

We find in this an inyan of inheriting Eretz Yisrael. Like the Sages said regarding the verse: "When you will come to the Land of Canaan and I will give you a blemish of tzaraat [leprosy] in the house of the Land of your inheritance," like Rashi explains there that through those means, they found in Israel hidden treasures of gold that the Emorites hid in the walls of their homes.

And in Midrash Rabbah, our Sages explained this verse to refer to the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. And it concludes there that they took other stones as it says, "Behold I am established in Tzion stone by stone, I scrutinize the corner of that which is precious, etc." And there lay the foundation stone that comprised all the 12 gems of Yaakov Avinu, which symbolize the 12 Tribes who contained within them the special properties of each precious gem. And that means the 12 gems of the Choshen as our Sages expounded in Bresheit Rabbah 17, regarding the bedolach, the shoham regarding Eretz Yisrael.
 
Sichot HaRan [Conversations of Rebbe Nachman] by Rebbe Nosson Sternhartz (1780-1844)
I heard from one of our men who said that before Rabbeinu told this story, he said, "I know a story which contains the entire 42-letter name." And then he told this story.

Nonetheless, we don't know if this is the story containing the 42-letter name. Furthermore, I heard from his holy mouth a few years ago that he said that the Besht knew a story which contained the 42-letter name and spoke with me then of the 42-letter name. And he asked me to find an explanation in non-Hebrew regarding 2 letters – Vav and Tzadi – which are found in the above-mentioned name, and I couldn't find them. Since it was evident that he already knew the secret of the whole name, only those 2 letters, he still couldn't incorporate them into the matter when he wanted to clothe it in that name. 

The Truth Reveals Itself in a Time of Trouble
Once upon a time, there was a king who had no children...and decreed that the Jews should pray for him – The nations know well that the Jews have the power to pray and bring healing and salvation through the power of their prayer. But because of the bad traits found in each of the 70 nations, they always want to uproot Yisrael from its roots. Yet when they undergo trials and tribulations, the come to the Jews so that the Jews will pray for them because in a time of trouble, the truth reveals itself in all its glory.
 
A Tzaddik is One Whose Prayer is Set in His Mouth
And the Jews were seeking and searching a Tzaddik who would pray and set things in motion for the king to have children – In Likutei Moharan, Rabbeinu writes that Hashem loves and strongly desires the prayers of tzaddikim and habituates continual (set, fixed) prayer in their mouth. Therefore, they sought out a tzaddik whose prayer is routine (continuous) and set in his mouth so that when he prays, he is answered, and that's how it was.
 
When You Search, You Find
And they sought and found a hidden Tzaddik – One who seeks will find. As it says: "You strove and you found – believe..."
 
Through Self-Nullification, Prayer is Accepted
And he answered that he doesn't know at all – That is the way of a Tzaddik. He upholds perfect humility, meaning, "What" – as if he doesn't know anything and he completely nullifies himself to Hashem, then he can set things in motion through his prayer.
 
The Tzaddik's Entire Being is Via Dignified Reclusion – and When He becomes Renowned, He Disappears
And they sought and found a hidden Tzaddik...and the king began to speak with him about good things...and he promised him that he would have a child that same year...and the queen birthed a daughter...Afterwards, the king yearned for a son...and they were seeking and searching for the same tzaddik, but they didn't find him because he had already passed away. And they found another hidden tzaddik...and he told them that they'll have a son who will be made entirely of precious gems – Breslevers used to say here that there are tzaddikim that their entire reason for existence is only in hiding and dignified reclusion, and immediately – when they are revealed in This World – they are forced to die and disappear from This World. And therefore, when his promise was fulfilled and a daughter was born, he passed away. The second Tzaddik promised the king a son made of precious gems, but when the son was born, the precious gems couldn't be seen, therefore, he could continue living because his promise wasn't completely fulfilled.
 
The Extent of Envy and Resentment
The Daughter of the Queen saw that she was no longer so esteemed and she became envious of him – Take note of the extent of the Yetzer's power over jealousy and resentment. Solely because of her envy, she went to dabble in occultism in order to harm her brother [but the Guardian of Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers]. And the strongest envy is by the greatest ones, like the daughter of the queen, who as the only princess was highly esteemed and educated, and kings and emperors came to see her, and now – because of envy – she fell and did what she did until in the end, she fell in the water, may G-d have mercy.
 
The Precious Gem is Revealed After the Foul Blood Drains Out
And he was struck on his finger, and the queen's daughter wanted to bandage his finger when she saw there a precious gem – The Breslevers used to point out here that usually, when a finger is struck, it bleeds; that is to say that beforehand, there was foul blood that covered the precious gems. And therefore, later, when his scabs dried off, it was revealed that his entire being was made of precious gems. Rebbe Shmuel Eizik was one of the Gedolim who served Hashem of the talmidim of Rabbeinu. Once, Rabbeinu grabbed close to his heart and said, "For a quarter-cup of blood that lies in the chamber of the heart, you could lose two world at the same time – increase upon it groans and sighs and tame it. And you will merit the status: "And my heart is a hollow chamber within me."
 
A Little Bit of Sacrifice and One Already Sees the Precious Gem
And he was struck on his finger...when she saw there a precious gem – The draining of the blood via the blow to the finger indicates self-sacrifice. And even through a little bit of self-sacrifice, one already sees the precious gem. For every Jew contains within a precious gem, only that gem is covered and invisible. And through a little bit of self-sacrifice – sleep a little less, eat with a bit less taavah and the rest of the matters of kedushah – that precious gem is revealed.

This list is from Rabbeinu Bachaya's commentary on Parshat Titzaveh, Shemot 28:15.

He wrote it out according to the gemstones representing each Tribe on the Choshen, so that's how it appears here too:

Reuven – Ruby (Arabic: “Rubin” and is from the same family as the blashu stone, but is of better quality in color) – Every woman who holds this stone will not ever miscarry; and it’s good for a woman with difficult labors; and if it’s finely ground and added to food or drink, it enhances fertility like dudaim.
 
Shimon – [Emerald-smaragd?] Markadi, common to East Africa – a higher quality gem in radiance and sparkle and color than the “prashma,” although both are the same and the markadi is cut from the prashma/beryl) – It cools one’s taavah.
 
Levi – Chalcedony (“Carbuncle,” “Firestone”-- a kind of opal) – Grants wisdom to the simple and enlightens one’s eyes. Ground finely and added to food, drink, or drug, it grants wisdom and opens one’s heart.
 
Yehudah – [Higher-quality emerald?] Zamura – When one carries it, all one’s enemies flee.
 
Yissachar – Light Sapphire – It’s good for the light of one’s eyes when one passes it over one’s eyes; it relieves every pain and swelling in every place.
 
Zevulun – Pearl – It brings sleep upon a person
 
Dan – Topaz, Ashtapsis
 
Naftali – Turquoise – Horseriders make sure to keep one when they journey. It pulls a man along in his vehicle and makes his “riding all his days” successful.
 
Gad – Crystal, a common stone owned by many and known by many; it strengthens one’s heart when one goes to war.
"When worn on one’s finger, it enables one to see dreams." [Ibn Ezra, Shemot 28:9]
 
Asher – [Chrysolite\Peridot?] (kriulika) – It’s the color of oil although some say it’s light blue; it assists with digestion and when you ground it finely and mix it with food, it thickens and enriches the food.
 
Yosef – Onyx, Unikli – It grants a man chen [favor] in the eyes of all, and whoever carries it in a royal house will be greatly benefited and succeed and all his words will be obeyed.
 
Binyamin – Jasper, Yashfiz, red-black-green – This stone has the power to stop bleeding\hemorrhage.

It’s always a bit problematic to talk about why some kind of disaster happened to someone or to a group of people. It’s a kind of finger-pointing that seems holier-than-thou, and who am I to point even a pinky? I'm pretty flawed myself.

However, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the destruction in the Caribbean while reading last week’s Haftarah (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 60:1-22) for Parshat Ki Tavo.

Verse 60:2 reads:

Malbim defines choshech specifically as “an obstruction of sunshine.”
Arafel in Modern Hebrew refers to “fog,” which is dense cloudiness. I seem to remember arafel meaning a thick gloomy cloud in Tanach.
Malbim describes a le’um (plural: le’umim) specifically as a group united by the same religion or belief system.

(In contrast, Malbim explains that Am, which is also translated as “nation” refers to a group of people living under a common government; they don’t necessarily share the same belief system or religion.)

Hurricane Irma didn’t necessarily make things dark in the Caribbean, but it did obstruct the Sun to some extent. Certainly, there was massive clouding with a hurricane that more than covered entire islands.

And while the Caribbean is populated by different religions, there is a strain of voodoo and other occultic witchrafty belief systems running through that part of the world. I mean, the area is known for that. And people can go to church, but also practice this stuff on the side. Of course Western Christians oppose voodoo stuff, but in places where the original belief system was occultic (like Africa and the Caribbean), many of proclaiming to be Christian do incorporate occultic elements into their Christian belief system.

The other thing popular in that part of the world is licentious behavior. In fact, there is a brand of Caribbean tourism which specifically caters to this.

Furthermore, what Hashem has done in the past century is introduce the Tanach to non-Jews around the world in every language. Yes, it was often introduced through Christian missionaries. But the point is that a great many people have been able to read the Tanach in their own language. While a tremendous amount is lost through translation, you can still get the gist that there is only One God and He hates witchcraft and occultism and idol worship and licentious behavior.

You can also get a sense of the consequences that await people (Jewish or not) who choose to run after that which God hates and has forbidden.

Furthermore, Chabad has been active in the Caribbean and Chabad promotes Noachide Laws to the non-Jews in whatever area they are found. I’ve even seen Chabad trailers with the Seven Noachide Laws printed from top to bottom. I don’t know if Chabad goes around with those vehicles in the Caribbean specifically, but my point is that Chabad promotes these values for all to see and hear.

And Hashem is very, very patient. He gives people so much time, even generations, to take the tiniest baby-steps toward the Truth.

Yet spiritual physics are what they are. At some point the measure fills up and the consequences spill over.

Verse 9 continues:

Again, the mention of islands is significant because during the week in which this haftarah fell, that’s what Hurricane Irma hit: islands.

The kind of hope mentioned (yikavu) is the root of the word tikvah.
Malbim defines tikvah as “expects something unclear, but hopes it’s good.”

What better describes the hope of those islanders before or during last week’s hurricane?

Needles to say, I am truly sorry for the human suffering, for the people who died in slow terror of roaring winds and rushing ocean waters, and for the innocent babies and Jews and Noachides who suffered destruction because of the society surrounding them.

But I didn’t invent these spiritual physics.

Hashem exhorts us repeatedly for generations regarding the behavior He expects of us.
I’m just reporting on what He says and what we’re seeing.

May we all return to the One True Creator with love and emuna.

In this week's Parshat Beshalach:

• The Kli Yakar discusses mental/spiritual illness, its cause, and its remedy, and its parallels to physical illness. (Unlike today's mere lip service to treating mental illness just like physical illness, the Kli Yakar actually does it.)
• We also take a look at what the Pele Yoetz has to say about addiction, its treatment and its cure.

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From an ancient discussion of what kind of wood Hashem showed Moshe Rabbeinu (olive, willow, or oleander), the Kli Yakar goes with olive.

He quotes Devarim Rabbah, which compares Torah to an olive because an olive is initially bitter, but becomes sweet in the end.

The Kli Yakar doesn't pull any punches here.

Although based on what he writes throughout his commentary on the Chumash, the Kli Yakar clearly loves the Torah and mitzvot and personally found immense pleasure in Torah and mitzvot, beyond any possible pleasure in this world.

Yet he still acknowledges that before you start to enjoy Torah's pleasure, you can initially experience Torah and mitzvot as bitter.

So Hashem’s intention at the bitter waters was that:

Later, regarding Shemot/Exodus 15:26, the Kli Yakar says:

Then the Kli Yakar explains what else God said:

Mental illness is nothing new. Even in today's modern Hebrew, a mentally ill person is still referred to as choleh nefesh: soul-sick.

The Kli Yakar was obviously familiar with “diseases of the soul” and clearly acknowledged there were such ailments back in ancient times, too.
 
Interestingly, the Kli Yakar, taking a lesson from how we treat physical illness, insists that bitter remedies are vital for healing the soul, too.
 
This is so different from today’s “just take a pill!” approach to mental illness.
It seems that we just want the mentally ill person to feel better, rather than to truly heal the illness at its core.
 
This superficial approach to mental illness isn’t done on purpose, of course, but is simply the result of a poor understanding of mental illness and its roots.

Yet the Kli Yakar clearly grasps and describes the roots of mental illness (or soul-sickness):

• Bad (or harmful or false) beliefs
• Stiffening your neck (i.e., being inappropriately mule-headed)
• Not trusting the Healer (i.e., God)
• Refusing to swallow the necessary and bitter "medication"  

 
Similarly, in his chapter on Drinking/Shtiyah/שתיה, the Pele Yoetz writes of the initial bitterness when breaking alcohol addiction. First, he advises the addict to refrain from even the most minimal ingestion of alcohol - except for Kiddush, Havdalah, and the 4 cups of wine during the Passover Seder.
(With the lack of refrigeration, I’m not sure whether switching the above with grape juice was a realistic solution.)

Here's what Rabbi Eliezer Papo writes in his book, Pele Yoetz:

(To read this extremely short chapter of Pele Yoetz in either English or Hebrew, or to hear Rabbi Mansour discuss it in audio, please click here.)
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Personally, I don’t differentiate between mental illness and addictions.

Addicts definitely talk like those suffering from personality disorders (which is also known as “addictive thinking” or “stinkin’ thinkin’”) and I just see mental illness as an addiction of sorts to certain behaviors, rather than to an actual substance.
I could be wrong, of course, but that is what my research has shown me.
 
So expanding on the Pele Yoetz’s attitude toward treatment and recovery from alcoholism, one should accept the initial pain and discomfort of self-denial as a kaparah, as an atonement, for all that he did while under the influence of his addiction or mental illness or soul-sickness.

Adapting positive behaviors and beliefs while resisting negative behaviors and beliefs is definitely distressing and bitter at the beginning.

But the sufferer can take comfort in the fact that the initial suffering is not meaningless.

On the contrary, the initial suffering is very meaningful and profoundly cleansing, spiritually speaking.

And then later, comes the sweetness of good spiritual and mental health.
 
May we all merit the complete healing of our bodies, minds, and souls. 

"And the first came out ruddy; he was completely like a mantle of hair and they called his name Esav" (25:25)
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The Kli Yakar states:

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Even people with yichus who seem born for spiritual greatness and look holy may actually be something very different on the inside.

The Hebrew term translated as “hypocrite” is tzavua—painted.

Like Esav, hypocrites “paint” themselves as special people who risk their lives and well-being to fulfill important mitzvot, like bringing fresh game to their father and asking pious-sounding questions like “Do I need to tithe the salt?”

But look at what else they’re doing.

(And I don't mean the mistakes or misjudgements we all make at times. You don't accidentally and repeatedly kill people, engage in occult worship, or violate young women as Esav did.)

As the Kli Yakar points out Toldot I, Esav didn’t need to hunt down his father’s meat—they had huge flocks of meat right there! (Sheep, goats, and cows…)

His father, Yitzchak Avinu, sent Esav out to capture wild game for the reasons explained in Toldot I, but those weren't the lessons Esav chose to learn.

I've noticed that dysfunctional people often do engage in deeds that demand hard work and dedication - and even courage.

The question is: For whom are they being so mosser nefesh...for God? Or their own ego?

And what ELSE are they doing when they think no one will catch on?

May we always merit the influence of the tzanuim and not the tzavuim.

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The Kli Yakar addresses one of the big sins of the Flood Generation:
chamas: stealing less than a prutah.
 
(Rav Moshe Feinstein defined this in the 80s as less than an American nickel.)
 
Why was this such a problem?
 
Let's say someone sells peanuts from a cart. If throughout the day, 200 people take a few peanuts in amounts worth less than a prutah, they effectively steal a large portion - if not all - of the seller's merchandise. Yet you cannot take sue someone in court for less than a prutah, halachically speaking. So this was non-prosecutable behavior.
 
And it was completely widespread.
 
Theoretically, you could spend your days taking a prutah from here and a prutah from there and quite enjoy yourself.
 
The problem is, this miniscule amount adds up over time.
 
And if everyone is doing it, well, there is no way to make an honest living for the seller.
 
Furthermore, the Kli Yakar explains that people did this in front of the judges, which is a smirky and brazen thing to do. You can imagine the impotent rage of the seller as he is continuously robbed as a judge stands there, yet no one can do a darn thing about it because each person takes less than a prutah.

The Kli Yakar explains:
"And with this reason, even a sinner stood in the congregation of the tzaddikim and said, 'I am a tzaddik like you'."
 
That's not surprising, is it? We see this all the time nowadays.
 
But the Kli Yakar's continuation IS surprising because he says that the righteous people agreed with them!: "Both dared to say, 'I am like you'."
In Hebrew: כמוני כמוך
Literally: "We are exactly the same."
 
But they weren't.
 
And despite the moral equalizing on both sides, Hashem wasn't fooled (of course!).
 
As the Kli Yakar states: "...it was obvious before Hashem Yitbarach who was the tzaddik and who was the rasha."

And isn't it interesting to learn that there were people who could be classified as tzaddikim in that generation?
 
I didn't know that.
 
I thought Noach was the lone tzaddik.
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Chanifah is telling a sinner that his or her sin is okay. Or not a sin.
 
And that is forbidden outright in the Torah.
 
Sure, you can give people chizuk; you can tell a sinner that he or she isn't innately bad, but has merely done a bad thing. You can speak about the sublimeness of the human soul and how it's possible to reach deep down and scrub it all clean. You can also say, "It's not that bad" - IF it's really not that bad and the other person is being too hard on herself.
 
But you can't say it's not bad at all.
 
You can't say it's okay when it's halachically not.
 
And you can't say that the permitted is forbidden.
 
You can't look at a rasha and say, "Hey, we're the same, bro!"
 
That's not humility - that's a lie. That's chanifah.
 
Yet isn't that what many well-intended and good-hearted people do today?
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As a formal Liberal and someone whose friends from the past and family are all Liberals, I've struggled with this a lot.
 
It's both easy and more comfortable to float into that mentality that says, "They just don't know any better. They mean well. They're basically good people."
 

Yet Liberals/Leftists go around supporting abortion, pseudoscience, anti-Israel policies, harmful immigration policies, socialist economic policies - policies that kill people, or at the very least, kill their livelihood and economic standing.
 
And they attack or mock or reject or ignore anyone who doesn't think like them.

And they refuse to listen to or discuss anything that opposes their ideas.
 
And they think it's okay because they're brainwashed into thinking that these are the compassionate ideas to follow and that this is the best way to act.
 
And like the prutah-snatchers of the Flood Generation, they do it all right in front of both the "judge" and the victim.
 

• Pro-abortion people will pressure a pregnant woman to have an abortion who doesn't want an abortion if the pro-abortion proponent has decided that it's the best solution.

 

• Family members will speak in front of a seemingly unconscious relative in a hospital about that person's death, plugging or unplugging them from life support, and even argue about inheritance - even though evidence has shown that the vegetative person can often understand everything, even if he can't respond.

 

• Anti-Israel mules will tell Jews living in Eretz Yisrael to concede to their attackers. They will pressure Eretz Yisraeli Jews to empathize with their murderers even as those Jews are still in mourning over their murdered brothers and sisters. With heartfelt sympathy, they will tell Eretz Yisrael Jews regarding their Jihad-thirsty neighbors, "I hope you guys will all be able to make peace with each other soon." Which is like a telling a violated woman, "I hope you and your assailant will be able to make peace with each other soon and just learn to get along. Ya know?"

 

• A Leftist will tell American policeman - while those policeman are standing in front of the open grave of a slain colleague - that there is bigotry in the police department (i.e., blaming the murdered cop for his own murder), and "not to dismiss peaceful protestors as troublemakers or paranoid" ("peaceful protestors" being the people who sympathize or even actively encourage the cop killers).

 
And how many times have you had to sit through a family get-together or a co-worker discussion or a university class and bite your lip while people openly yapped about the "virtues" of harmful Leftist values - biting your lip because you know that if you say anything, no matter how sensitively and tactfully, you'll "ruin" everything and cause "unnecessary" unpleasantness? (And that no one is interested or will listen anyway?)
 
And how many times have you been shut up by a smirk, a hostile stare, or a derisive comment or a dismissive response (accompanied by the person turning their back and leaving the room) when you "forgot" yourself and innocently mentioned God or a pro-life organization or a pro-Israel position or a Torah value in a positive light?
 
Yet how many times do we try to find common ground with them - just because? How many times do we consider them as good as us - and perhaps even tell them so - but it's just not true?
 
"They're doing the best they can with the tools they have." - That's true in one sense. But many of them just aren't trying. They don't even want to try.
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I have a Jewish friend since 8th grade who is intermarried and wholly secular and Liberal. She always aced honors classes and graduated with top grades from an Ivy League university. She's now a professor and an assistant dean. A huge part of her work involves the study of philosophy.
 
Once, I mentioned to her how she was always smart one in our relationship.
 
She raised an eyebrow and said, "Actually, I always considered YOU the smart one."
 
I stared at her. "Me?" I said. "But you're the one who got straight A's in honors calculus in 12th grade while I went to summer school after flunking algebra. You have an Ivy League doctorate and I dropped out of college...."
 
"Well, yeah," she said. "But you think about things."
 
"So do you," I said.
 
"No," she said. "Not like you."
 
"But you and I have had conversations about the meaning of life. And your whole major and career --"
 
She shook her head. "But I don't really care about those things. I can discuss them intellectually. But you actually care about whether there's a God and the meaning of life and stuff like that."
 
Completely flabbergasted, I said, "But I thought that you cared, too!"
 
"No," she said. "If I cared, I probably would've taken the same path you did. I'd probably be an Orthodox Jew, too."
 
Then I "slipped" and said without thinking, "But how can you not care about these things? How can you not want to think?"
 
I got a glare in return (oops! just went too far! "exiting the comfort zone" alert!) and that put a halt to the conversation.
 
If you think about it, the above exchange is actually very disturbing.
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It's hard because you like your friends, relatives, and co-workers.
 
They're nice in other ways.
 
And unity and camaraderie feel so good.

And they may certainly have the potential to be good people - wonderful people, even.
 
But if they support harmful (or even deadly) policies, if they believe and act according to ideas that are wrong, then they aren't "basically good people."
 
"Misguided" and "pitiable" and "brainwashed" are better terms.
 
And of course, the best thing to do is daven for them.
 
As our Sages said, Noach's big mistake was not davening for his generation.

(Note: This idea is NOT referring to people who are just starting on or in the middle of their spiritual journey. Spiritual progress takes a lifetime and there are many stumbling blocks and pitfalls along the way.)

And I'm not encouraging rejection or hate. Neither is the Kli Yakar.
And of course we must find virtues in others, even really horrible people.
(See the Kli Yakar's advice in How to Avoid being a Pathological Pollyanna.)

But we must never justify anyone's bad behavior (including our own) or label someone what they're not. (Again, see the above Kli Yakar.)
The Torah says this, not me.
 
Remember, the tzaddikim of the Flood Generation accepted the reshaim as spiritual equals.
 
And look what happened.

In the Kli Yakar on this week's parsha:

• The great ease Hashem creates for us in doing teshuvah
  
• The purpose of life
  
• The root of all sin (stay on top of this and you're winning most of the battle!)
  

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Here, the Kli Yakar states that every mitzvah contains two aspects within it:

1. The actual performance of the mitzvah
2. The kavanah of the mitzvah, to understand and become learned in the secrets of the Torah, which Hashem hid from the other nations.

He ends up connecting this to teshuvah, saying:

The Kli Yakar goes on to say that no one need ascend to Heaven to find out whether Hashem will accept our teshuvah; the answer to that secret is already known to us.
 
But, the Kli Yakar asks theoretically, what if you claim that your transgressions were of the type that chased away the Shechinah from the Lower World, causing it to go far up into the Heavenly Heights? The Kli Yakar poses the logic of despair:

In other words, it's all my fault, so I deserve to be punished.
 
And I don't deserve a second chance.
 
But no, the Kli Yakar reassures us. Even from you - you, the one at fault - the matter of teshuvah is not concealed. 

In other words, if you're ready, then Hashem is more than willing to meet you more - much more - than halfway.
 
It all has to do with your heart.
 
What's in there?
 
And what do you really want?
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Why does life proceed love of Hashem here?

This is quite beautiful. He's basically saying that the only purpose of your life is to love Hashem. What else do you need your life for?
 
Being in love with another person is highly romanticized in the world at large. It's often accompanied by a feeling of being high, of joy, of feeling like nothing in the world can go wrong or bring you down. It's hard not to start humming or to hold back the silly little smile that keeps trying to spread across your face.

But this is how we should feel about Hashem.
 
And it seems like the Kli Yakar, based on his own words, did achieve this.
 
It sounds pretty nice, doesn't it?
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Despite present-day warnings to avoid temptations, the Kli Yakar emphasizes that the biggest gateway to sin and eventually destruction is...idleness.
 
Boredom.
 
With all the panic about guarding eyes, and avoiding bad influences, and so on, the root of it all seems to be something seemingly mundane.

This is very interesting in light of our generation.

Issue #1
Technology has freed us up in ways unimaginable a century ago.
Just as one of many examples: Getting breakfast ready no longer entails a walk to the well for water, heating up coals or chopping wood, grinding coffee by hand, or going out to the chicken coop to hunt down some eggs.
 

But what do we do with all this extra time? And despite this lightening of burdens, many people feel terribly stressed and busy.
 
People often feel they have less time, not more.
 
We've filled that technologically created vacuum with other things -- and not necessarily spiritual ones.
 
Technological advances have also placed increased expectations on us. You're expected to be available, to stay on top of things, to make it to remote locations if necessary, and to just plain know an incredible amount of information.
 
If there's any possible way to do something, and you can theoretically do it, then you are expected to do so.
 
But it's not necessarily meaningful or even truly essential. And it also leaves many gaps of idle time, like sitting in traffic, and waiting. Waiting for that call, waiting for that message, waiting for that email, waiting for that tweet, waiting for a reply, waiting for a person, waiting for the bus, waiting for the light to change....
 
Rabbi Avraham Twerski once mentioned that before microwaves, a baked potato took an hour in the oven. So you found something meaningful to immerse yourself in for an hour (in his case, he learned Torah). But now it takes minutes. So you find yourself waiting idly because it's hard to think of something meaningful to do in just, say, six minutes.
 
In some ways, we have time, but it's broken up into such short increments (not to mention all the distractions inherent in modern-day life) or else it's mixed with something that takes your attention just enough to kind of hold it, but doesn't allow you to do anything else useful, that the time becomes less useful and takes much greater discipline to deal with.

Issue #2
While the frum community's severest issue with the Internet is its easy and even unintentional access to unwholesome content, it has also been long observed that the Internet is like one long unending magazine that you can never stop reading.
 
For example, you can spend so much time looking for a good chicken-walnut recipe that you end up with no time to make it and order take-out instead. You can also spend forever checking your emails repeatedly, checking the news (in non-crisis situations), updating your Facebook page, texting and tweeting, and so on.
 
This includes seemingly educational videos, too: science, TED Talks, DIY, presidential debates, etc. Not ALWAYS, but it's wise to take a step back each time and ask if you really need it.
Maybe you do need a little of it.
Maybe you really do need one specific lesson given over in that video.
But maybe not?

And despite the businesslike usage of smartphones and other gadgets, they became yet another way to remain connected. It all feels very important at the time. But taking a step back, how much if it is really necessary? How much of it is just away to pass time? Some of it may be essential, but exactly how much? How much of it is to get that electromagnetic "hit" to which many people have become habituated?
 
I can't tell others what to do. I have my own issues to work on. And different people are on different levels with different needs. What works well for one is a disaster for another, and so on.
 
But it's good general advice to at least consider one's possibilities for those mindless empty minutes and to consider one's purpose for a moment before surfing or tapping on autopilot.

The Kli Yakar notes that the Moavites differentiated between the Erev Rav [the Am] and Bnei Yisrael. Apparently at that time, the Erev Rav had not assimilated enough into the Jewish people, so clear physical differences still existed between the two groups (i.e. the Erev Rav must have still looked obviously Egyptian, but likely dressed as Jews).
 
Why the Moavites Feared the Erev Rav
The Moavites feared the Erev Rav because of their sheer size. Quoting from the Mechilta, the Kli Yakar numbers the Erev Rav population at 1,200,000.
 
We see this kind of fear today in Western countries, who fear the massive influx of people from cultures very different than theirs who won't respect their values.
 
And to digress a bit, it seems both are justified.
While the Erev Rav damages the Jewish people more than any other, they certainly also do great harm to non-Jews--including to themselves, both practically and spiritually.  And just like the Moavites, the Western solution focuses on externals rather than internals, which ultimately will not help them.
 
Why the Moavites Feared Bnei Yisrael

The Moavite fear of Bnei Yisrael was Hashem's backing of Bnei Yisrael. The Hebrew word [v'yakatz] translated as "disgusted" comes from the word kotz [thorn]. The Kli Yakar notes how Bnei Yisrael is likened to the gefen, the grapevine in Tehillim 80:9:
You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out nations and planted it.


The Moavites feared Bnei Yisrael's God-given ability to uproot themselves from Mitzrayim and come to their Homeland and drive out the nations there, casting them (including the Moavites) out by the root.
 
As the Kli Yakar describes:

Exactly.
 
And who is "the Owner of the field"? And why are they messing with Him, especially in Moav's case, when they saw what He did with the Jews and Mitzrayim?
 
This is the mistake that foreign nations make repeatedly throughout history.
 
They see that the Jews have a special koach. And there are many of them who realize that this koach comes from Hashem. So why do they fight it?

How the World is Repeating Moav's Mistake
The following point has been hammered so many times already, but it bears repeating:
 
How was a decimated nation fresh from years in death camps--or weakened by years of poverty, disease, and persecution in their own Land--able to drive out the British Empire?
How was such a people able to revive their ancient language (and even their original currency?!) and bring forth the agricultural potential of a Land that had lain desolate for millennia under every kind of occupation?
How was it that within fifty years, this nation was able to make itself the hub of the world in the spiritual, medical, technological, and environmental arenas?

Throughout history, many of our enemies have believed in God and even held at least partly with the Torah.
 
Both the Christian bible and the Koran acknowledge the Jewish ownership of Eretz Yisrael and especially of Yerushalayim. And even secular non-Jews often proclaim the Torah as "a great history book!"
 
Yet the Christians and Muslims continue to make their assault on Yerushalayim.

And those same "great history book!" chanters choose to ignore the basic text that clearly shows the Land as belonging to us. 
 
The secular world and the Muslims fight us literally.
 
The Christian world tries to undermine us at the spiritual level via missionizing and replacement theology--though both warped ideologies end up uprooting the very attribute which provides us with our blessing and our right to be in this Land in the first place.
 
What the Moavites should have done and what the other groups should do now is:
 
Step aside.
 
Or support us--according to the Torah definition of support.
 
That way, nobody gets hurt--not them and not us.
On the contrary, such yielding and support brings blessing all around.
 
But it's not going down that way.
 
Yet the Kli Yakar reassures with the idea that Torah sources have always reassured us:
 
This field has an Owner.

Eventually, the grapevine will be planted in its Land.
 
And the thorns will be uprooted and cast away.
 
May we all make choices that cast our lot with the grapevine and not with the thorns.

So, the big question in this week's parsha is why did Hashem punish Moshe Rabbeinu so strongly for hitting the rock with his staff rather than speaking to it, as Moshe Rabbeinu and his brother Aharon Hakohen were commanded?
 
Millennia of scholarship shows many reasons, but the Kli Yakar also provides several, two of which we'll discuss here.
 
1) The Magic Wand Controversy

As we've seen throughout the Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu's staff was involved in several amazing incidents, the most visible being the parting of the Yam Suf, when Moshe Rabbeinu raised his staff and the sea parted.
 
And people weren't entirely sure whether he was performing all sorts of supernatural feats via occult powers and using the staff as a conduit OR whether these miracles were really just directly from Hashem.
 
In other words, was Moshe Rabbeinu the greatest sorcerer or the greatest prophet? Hashem wanted to make it clear to the Jewish people.

Hashem also wanted to make it very clear to the people that the staff itself held absolutely no power. His intention was for this moment to be a tremendous lesson and strengthening of emuna.
 
But it wasn't.

2) The Power of Mussar
The Kli Yakar refers to the famous verse in Mishlei 17:10:
"The humility caused by the rebuke of an understanding person [is more effective] than a hundred blows to a fool."
 
Out of Hashem's great Love for us, He did not want us to be the kind of people that you have to "hit" in order to get them back onto the straight path. He did not want to have to strike us will kinds of troubles and trials in order to return us to the Torah way.
 
He just wanted us to listen, listen to what's written in the Torah and to what the prophets say, and then that should have been enough.
 
Because of this, it was vitally important for Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon Hakohen to just speak to the rock before all the people, and not to hit it at all.
 
But with the best of intentions, they did the opposite: Not only did they not even speak to the rock at all, but Moshe Rabbeinu even hit the rock - and he hit it twice.

May we always merit the ability to listen to what Hashem wants from us and never have any need for rebuke or trials.
 
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia).
He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.