Hello everybody,
This week we start the final chapter in the drama that we call the Torah. The book is called D’varim (Deuteronomy) which means “words” in Hebrew, for these are Moshe’s (Moses) final words to the family of Yisrael before they go and take the land haShem (god) has promised them. This week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion), btw, is also called D’varim. 🙂
So, what does Moshe tell the people? Before I start, remember that he is talking, not to the people who left Egypt, or even to those who heard haShem speak at Sinai; he is speaking to their children. Ok, not exactly. Many of the women who left Egypt and heard haShem are also around. But Caleb and Y’hoshua (Joshua), are the only men left who heard haShem speak and were around when they left Egypt.
Before we read what Moshe says, we are reminded that they were just on the east side of the Jordan river, and it was the 1st of the 11th month of the 40th year after they left Egypt, and this was after the defeat of Sichon, king of the Emorites and the giant Og, king of Bashan. This is what he had to say: Moshe starts off by saying that god told them it was time to leave Horayv and go to the land of the Canaanites to take possession of the land god swore to give to Abraham, Yitzhak (Isaac) and Yaakov (Jacob). Moshe tells them that they had become too numerous for him to deal with, and so he asked them to bring wise men forward to be appointed as leaders. The people approved and it was done. He tells them to judge fairly. Their journey continued to Kadesh-Barnea, where the people suggest sending spies into the land. Moshe tells these children that he agreed, and the spies went and returned saying that the land was good. But, “You did not wish to go up and you rebelled,” says Moshe. He also says that they said that god hated them and that the spies discouraged them. Moshe tells them not to be afraid, for god is there to fight for them as he did in Egypt. God heard them, though and got angry, and said that not one man of these people were going into the land. God was also mad at Moshe, Moshe told them. God was so mad that at Moshe that Moshe was also forbidden to enter the land. They are then told that Y’hoshua will inherit the land for them, and that they should strengthen him.
After this, Moshe tells them of their further travels, of passing, “Our brothers, the children of Esav,” and of passing the Moabites, and the Amonites. As Moshe tells them of their travels, he also provides them with a history lesson of the region. They then come to Sichon and Og, and Moshe tells the people that god said, it was ok to fight with them, for god was giving them their land. Both kingdoms get wiped out and their land is taken. The parsha ends with Moshe saying he gave this land to the tribes of Reuven and Gad and half of Menashah and that only the women and children and livestock would remain until all the land is conquered. And he tells them that he told Y’hoshua that, “Just as haShem did to Sichon and Og, so will he do to all the other kingdoms that they will pass through, so do not fear them.”
Alright, so what do we have here? Well, to summarize my summary, we have Moshe giving the children of those who left Egypt a summary of their journey. What is interesting here is not so much what Moshe says, but how he says it. Moshe is telling them the history as if they themselves lived it. He is constantly saying, “You,” and, “Me.” He never says, “They,” or, “Your parents,” etc. Why does he do this? The other thing that struck me is how he describes the episode with the spies. Specifically, he paints the spies in a very positive light. Why?
These two seemingly unrelated “stretches” of truth have a very important function. Moshe is trying to teach a couple of very important lessons by doing this, as well as a secondary lesson (this is what I love about Torah, there are so many lessons within lessons; I am sure there are another three or four that I haven’t uncovered yet :). Let’s start with the first lesson.
The first lesson Moshe is trying to get across is how to talk about others. This is a very important lesson for just before the 9th of the Jewish month of Av, (which commemorates the destruction of both temples among other things and is this Sunday), because we lost the second temple due to baseless hatred amongst ourselves. What does that mean? This means we did not know how to talk positively about each other. Back at the beginning of the Torah, we learned that god created the world with speech. From this, we learn that what we say and how we say it helps to create the reality around us. A few weeks ago, we read in the Torah how the spies brought back a report on the land designed to discourage the people from entering the land. Moshe, in this parsha, turns that around. He says they gave a good report. Why does he do this? He does this because their report didn’t matter, and when somebody does something that doesn’t matter, you should always paint them in a positive way. This helps to create a positive reality around yourself, and also the positive energy of your words helps them as well.
The obvious question is: how can I say that the spies’ report didn’t matter? Moshe answers this very cleverly by saying that it didn’t matter what the spies said, “You didn’t wish to go up and so you rebelled…” What Moshe is saying here is that the people had already made up their minds, and were only looking for justification of what they wanted as they listened to the spies’ report. In fact, if you reread what the spies said, especially the first half, it can be taken as a very positive report. I said above that speaking positively can create a positive reality and change people for the better. Well, it can work both ways, and here we see the opposite – what happens when you speak negatively. If you recall, it was only after the people reacted negatively, that the spies really start speaking bad about the land.
The second lesson Moshe is teaching is that we MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHERE WE ARE IN LIFE!!! Sorry for shouting, but I consider this to be a huge, huge lesson that most people don’t get. Moshe says that he, Moshe, and YOU, the current generation he is talking to agreed to leaders of 10s and 100s and 1000s and also agreed to send out the spies and also lost faith in god and used the spies report to justify how they felt. He doesn’t say that it was the previous generation, he is saying that YOU, this generation. In fact he is talking to US, THIS GENERATION! We are the ones who create reality and make decisions and use the world around us to support those decisions. There is no-one else, only us who are here at this moment. By painting the spies in a good light, Moshe is saying that everything that is beyond our control, we must paint in a positive way, we MUST FIND the good in what we have no power over. For by doing so, we will be forcing ourselves to see the world in a positive light, and since god created the world, we can have faith that god has created a positive world around us. This is the lesson that Moshe is trying to teach to the children as they go forward in life and into the promised land… and to us as we go forward in our life.
The secondary lesson he is trying to teach is how to connect and really reach people. You do it by talking directly to them, by making everything about them. Because the truth is, everything is really all about them. And by making it personal, people really pay attention and connect.
Next week, we will be entering a period of hope in the jewish year wheel. After Sunday, the worst will be over, and we can start taking stock in what we have and what we have sacrificed, and why. This is a process that continues and gets more refined as we head towards Rosh haShanah, the new year (or literally, the head of change) and on to Yom Kippur and Succot.
May we remember the lessons of this week’s parsha: that we shape our world and how we shape our world, as we start to take stock of what we have, where we are, and where we are going.
Shavuah tov/have a good week everybody,
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.