CHOCHMAS NASHIM: DEVARIM: zzzzzzzzzzS
By: Suri Davis
The Lubavitcher Rebbe was right. He created a tzivos Hashem/An army of people whose role was to advance G-d’s agenda. The Book of Deuteronomy is a rehash of past history, a retrospective. The Book starts with the words: “These are the words which Moshe spoke to all the Jewish People.” Ummmm, Moshe has been speaking to the people in the book of Exodus and Numbers as well, why suddenly, do these words lead us to believe that Moshe’s speaking to the Jews is something new? This is the last of the Five Books of Torah, and one might think that the Jews would be tired of hearing Moshe’s words. Yet, these words remind us, that every Torah book, no matter how many times reviewed in a lifetime, should be read anew and with excitement.
One wonders why it is with so much Torah to study and observe in our lifetime, G-d built in to the human system the need to sleep. The answer is for the same reason above, we need a reset button. For the time we sleep, our soul is returned to G-d. At the end of each day, we are exhausted from our efforts. Each morning, we thank G-d for returning our souls to us, from his supervision and tutelage, and for permitting us and providing to us the opportunity to renew ourselves and our efforts on this earth.
This week in our parshah, our haftorah, and the Book of Lamentations we read about the awful deeds of the Jews in sinning against G-d as incorrigible children, yet, let us see the end of all three:
Devarim: “Do not fear them (the enemy) for it is G-d, your G-d, Who is fighting for you.”
Haftorah: “The City of Zion will be redeemed through (the observance of) law, and those who return there (will come) due to (their acts of) righteousness.”
Lamentations: “Bring us back to you G-d, and we shall return, renew our days as of old.”
The second to last verse in Lamentations is starkly different than the last one: “For even if you had utterly rejected us, You have already raged sufficiently against us.”
We understand that we repeatedly sinned against G-d. G-d’s anger was so great He destroyed our joint home, where we interacted with G-d. Yet, G-d, as our father, is always prepared to forgive us, and renew his relationship with us, and continue to bestow His grace upon us.
I often ponder the humanity of our Torah. We learn from creation G-d made us in His image. In the Book of Numbers we are taught repeatedly that as G-d is holy, we are holy and we are to learn from G-d. Then why, often, does the Torah tell us that G-d was angered by us. What are we to learn from this anthropomorphism? What do we learn when Kain kills Abel, and Joseph’s brothers throw him in a pit.
Oh the humanity of this world. We err, we sin, we repent and we forgive, alonsy. All this pain is written in holy scripture, for the same reason last week, we read in the Torah about all the places to which the Jews travelled. Life is about the journey. Every place we stop in physically, emotionally and spiritually makes an impression on us, some more than others, but for eternity. Even the most holy G-d is pained, and He takes His wrath out on those who utterly betrayed Him, those of His Chosen Nation.
The Fast of the Ninth of Av is about destruction and reproachment. Sinning and forgiving, as we move speedily through the Jewish calendar towards Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
May we ponder, repent, forgive on our journey towards Messianic times, when G-d’s rulership will be acknowledged by all, and we will sit under our grapevines and turn weapons into plowshares, and we live unafraid of an enemy.
Meaningful fast.
Shabbat shalom.
Suri