Hello everybody,

This Shabbat we read the torah portion (parsha) which is the song that haShem (god) told Moshe (Moses) to teach to the people.  As with most songs, this one is very poetic.  The parsha is entitled, “My ears,” which is the first significant word in the parsha, and it starts with a request to listen to the words about to come.  God is perfect and just, problems come from the children.  (Stay with me folks; I know to some of you this sounds harsh, but we are speaking from a parent’s point of view here).  Remember history and ask your elders; they will tell you.  Yaakov (Jacob) is the inheritance of god and he found them in a wilderness country.  She protected him like an eagle fluttering over its nest.  He flies with them.  He teaches them without strange gods.  They feed on the honey of rock and the oil of stone, on butter-fat of cattle and milk of sheep, and the fat of lambs and wheat.  Yshurun (another name for the tribes of Yaakov.  It comes from the word: upright or straight) grew fat and rebelled and did things to spite god.  God was angry and said he would hide her face and see what happens to them.  Then they make god jealous with a non-god, so he has her revenge on them via a non-nation and with anger that burns the land.  He would let the enemy win except they would believe they did it and not god.  She will then ask the people where is the shelter of their non-god?  “Know no power matches me; I live forever.”  God then takes out the enemies because of their savagery.  Moshe and Joshua then teach the people this song and tells them to pay attention for this song stands as witness today.  He then continues by telling the people to command their children to follow Torah, for it is their life and what will allow them to live on the land a long time.  The parsha ends with god telling Moshe to go up on the mountain, see the land, and die.

Wow. What a brutal summary, again, of the problems the people are going to have.  And haShem seems to be pretty viscous in all this.  What is the lesson here?  Is it to be violent when people step out of line?

Well that is not the lesson I find in it.  True it is violent, but I think that is, in part, dramatics and, in part, to get across how things will feel.  We have seen lots of teachings on personal growth in the Torah.  Here we have a final lesson on personal growth:  how to raise your children so they learn to grow as well (follow Torah) and live in their promised land a long time.

Now that last statement might be a tough one to swallow.  Let me see if I can show you what I mean.  I hinted at it above when I said the parsha is coming from a parent’s point of view.  One thing the Torah does is show a lot of points of view.  We have two creation stories, for example.  Why?  Well, one is from the point of view of creation and the other is from the point of view of the creator.  Why all the points of view?  Because everyone sees things differently, and to understand and have compassion, one needs to understand the other’s point of view.  In this case, the Torah is looking at a child growing up, from the point of view of a parent.

A child is a parents’ inheritance.  And to a child, the parent seems perfect, godlike even.  The parent too, believes that she knows best for her child.  The child will make mistakes; this is part of growing up.  It is up to the parent, though, to teach the child to be responsible:  actions have consequences.  And sometimes those consequences are not pleasant.  Nevertheless, parents are to provide good food and help teach their children to soar and to protect them like an eagle protects its brood.  One important teaching I see here it that a parent should instill his own values on his child and not let others, “non-gods” instill their values.  And do you know what?  No matter how good a job a parent does raising her child, that child will rebel.  I had a teacher describe this process as individuation.  At some point, the child needs to find out how he or she is.  And, like Adam and Eve, the only way to do that is to rebel against one’s parents.  What should the parents do?  Like haShem, they should hide their faces.  They should let the child do his thing, watching in case the child calls out to them, and when the child does, when the child decides that maybe mom and dad weren’t so wrong after all, then they, the parents and the child, have the chance to raise the relationship into something special.

Shavuah tov/have a good week,

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.