SHABBOS NACHAMU: VAETCHANAN and LAMENTATIONS
AT THE CROSS ROADS
By: Suri Davis
We have the torah portions for the last few weeks, and really now until the end of the Jewish year, through Simchat Torah, where Moshe is standing in front of the Jews, in one of the longest soliloquys. He is talking to the Jews as he knows he is about to die, at the same time pleading with G-d not to cut his life short at this important juncture in Jewish history, to permit him to lead the Jews into the holy land. JOY, HOPE, TREPIDATION.
The torah portion is juxtaposed to one, nee two, of the greatest tragedies to befall Jews, the destruction of the two temples in Jerusalem. The soliloquy is a Nonlinear narrative, where Moshe is has flashbacks to the past, jumps to the present, the near and distant future. The past discusses G-d’s beneficence towards the Jews, and their constant and consistent rebellion. The present has joy and hope for settling the holy land. The future has joy of the building of the holy temple, and fear and trepidation of the evil influence of the natives of the land upon the Jews, re: idolatry and adultery. It is recurring throughout Deuteronomy, flashes of the past, resolve for the present, hope and trepidation for the future.
Lamentations meets Vaetchanan this week. Jeremiah mourns the destruction of the temple, Jerusalem, the torture and destruction of the Jewish nation on the Jewish homeland, and their exile into the diaspora. Jeremiah flashes back to Jerusalem’s days of glory interspersing it with the turmoil he sees currently before his eyes, and looks forward to G-d’s forgiving the Jews and their return to Jerusalem.
Together they bring the 360 degree panorama of the landscape of Jewish interaction with G-d. G-d has a barrel of blessings for us, yet we appear before Him with a thimbleful of Trust and Gratitude. G-d bestows more, in the hopes of expanding that hope and gratitude, so that man appears before G-d with increased amounts of Trust and Gratitude and as man expands his trust in G-d, he is able to receive more from G-d.
We learn from Shaar Habitachon that even though we are undeserving, in that we sin daily, G-d continues to bestow.
Let’s imagine ourselves 75 years ago, before the Jews returned to the land. How powerful Jeremiah’s words would have to sustain a Jewish nation for an indeterminable time. It was only 70 years between the destruction of the first temple and the Jews’ return to the land. How the Jews over 2,000 years must have pined for the land, any knowledge of when they would be self-ruled back in the holy land. How some may have given up on the idea of a Jewish nation. Yet we never gave up hope, we stuck to HKBH and His torah, and we have survived threats to our existence in every generation.
At the end of the Book of Esther, Esther asks of the Rabbis that they canonize her book and story for all generations. In fact, we learn that even when the Moshiach comes, all other festivals might be void, but not Purim. The Book might have been called the Book of Mordechai, for it was his idea that Esther go to the king to beg for the survival of our nation. The Megillah text reveals that it was Esther’s idea to fast for three days, understanding that we had to strip ourselves of our material pleasures and turn to our spiritual needs and take the time to search ourselves and ask G-d for what we need.
So too, as we embark on the fast of Tisha B’av, we have to recall that there was a time in Shushan, Persia, when we were in exile, and our lives were on the line, that G-d sent an orphaned girl to a drunken king, and in the most unanticipated plot, saved the Jews of Persia. Esther had a child, Cyrus, who permitted the Jews to return to Israel to build the second temple.
Our fast is not about food depravation, it is about spirituality enhancement, time devoted to showing G-d that we know He can redeem us in any fashion at any time, and a revelation that part one of our millennia of prayers has succeeded in having us return to G-d’s homeland, where we can see firsthand the remnants of the temple in its ruin, and grieve for its rebuilding.
How fortunate we are to have two examples of great men with keen insights, the two prophets, Moses and Jeremiah. They reveal to us the importance of history as a means of learning lessons for the future, and the optimism with which to look forward to life as man steers clear of the pitfalls which made him stumble in the past. Man’s glass can always be disputed as half full and half empty, it is in our hands as to how we see the glass and how our actions influence our own outcomes and the lives of those around us and our nation.
So where am I now, sitting in my study, just having said Avenu Malkenu, realizing that the next time I say this prayer will be for Rosh Hashanah. I look at the shofar in my breakfront and realize that in twenty days we will start blowing it. Today, when we look back at what we had in the days of the Temple and its glory, today as G-d has given us the freedom to live in our land, still constrained by galus/exile, we understand the importance of today’s fast, placing us in a frame of mind of teshuva/repentance, and mechilah/forgiveness, forgiving others so we can reunify as a people and nation, so that G-d forgives in a few short days on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and brings the final and ultimate redemption and return to G-d’s home in a rebuilt Jerusalem speedily in our days. Amen
Have a meaningful Tisha B’av.
Be comforted over Shabbos nachamu.
-Suri