Moshe's Final Song • Torah.org

 

Posted on September 24, 2009 (5770) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein | Level: Beginner

 

The final song of Moshe is the main subject of this week’s parsha. It is a dark one to contemplate. Though it promises a happy ending for Israel, at the end it outlines a long list of travail and challenges, tragedies and losses on the way. Moshe raises but does not   answer the underlying question of Jewish history: Why are the people of Israel apparently fated to suffer such continuing calamities?

The underlying reasons seemingly are connected to Jewish behavior itself, but to our finite and seemingly rational minds this reason is often deemed to be insufficient to justify the disproportionate troubles of Israel. Factoring our permanent and never ending minority status in the world population, it still seems to be highly unfair for the Jewish people to   bear the downturns that Moshe accurately forecasts for them in the song of Haazinu.

It is no accident of chance that the parsha is always read in public in the Yom Kippur  season of the Jewish year. It – the Torah reading -combines within it the awe and dread of the day of Yom Kippur coupled with its message of hope, forgiveness and healing. The parsha fits the season of the year with its mood of solemnity – as well as confident hope.

The parsha reflects the Jewish story and mood perfectly. Troubles and hope, trepidation  and optimism combine to define our personal and national lives. Haazinu speaks to us as a timeless gem of commentary on our current situation and circumstances.

Rashi on Haazinu quotes the two opinions of Rabi Yehuda and Rabi Nechemia regarding  who is the main subject of the bulk of the middle part of the parsha – is it the Jewish people or the nations of the world generally? Like many apparent differences of opinion that    appear in Talmud and Midrash, here also it is possible to say that both opinions are correct and accurate.

History has shown us time and again that the Jewish people are the canary in the mine and that the fate of other nations and even of the world as a whole is tied to the Jewish story    and its happenings. Europe was destroyed in the twentieth century because of the story of the Jews. The Soviet Union disappeared coincidentally and not accidentally because of  Soviet Jewry, the State of Israel and Jewish dissidents and refuseniks.

 

The troubles of the world are many and bitter, dangerous and threatening. Yet they somehow seem to have a connection to the Jewish people, their problems and status in world events, no matter how forced and tenuous it may appear. So, both opinions in Midrash are correct. Moshe’s song applies to Israel and to the nations of the world as well.

 

Their fate is bound up with our destiny and our challenges. And the eventual settling of accounts that Moshe describes at the end of his song of Haazinu affect the general world no less than they do the people of Israel. May the comforting end of the song be the beginning  of our great and good new year.

Shabat shalom. Gmar chatima tova, Rabbi Berel Wein

 

Rabbi Berel Wein- Jewish historian, author and international lecturer offers a complete selection of CDs,

audio tapes, video tapes, DVDs, and books on Jewish history at www.rabbiwein.com

 

Waking Up in Time • Torah.org

 

 

Posted on August 30, 2002 (5762) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah | Level: Beginner

 

I am asleep but my heart is awake… (Song of Songs)

 

I consider it a gift from heaven. I don’t know where it came from or why I was fortunate enough to be able to retrieve it. That year, I had an ambitious study partner that had me up early in the morning at a time bordering on late night. I’m still a little tired from that    time, though I don’t regret the learning a bit. We agreed to allow ourselves to sleep a little later on the Eve of Rosh Hashana so we can be rested and calm to deal with our families in the important days ahead. The inner alarm clock, however, woke me at the usual holy     hour, and I immediately pressed the inner snooze alarm, thankful I still had plenty of time.

While I lay there in a state of half sleep, I became aware of a thought that was percolating there in the back of my brain. Had I fallen back asleep it would have gone as geese and flown away. At that moment, amazingly a thunderstorm whipped up outside and with a brief crackle there followed an explosive boom that rocked the whole house. Everyone was shaken awake. The children started to cry and I was sitting up in bed consciously aware, now, of a new idea, not knowing, yet, what it really meant: “Rosh HaShana is the Krias Shema Al HaMita (The bedtime reading of Shema Yisrael) for the entire year!” Later that morning I shared what I thought it meant with one of my teachers who patted me on the back a said earnestly, “It’s the real truth, Label!” I didn’t dare argue with him.

The Code of Jewish Law begins with the requirement to “wake up like a lion” hungry for life’s important tasks. The only problem is that the law is directed at a sleeping man. How does one wake up in the morning like a lion? Simple! Go to bed like a lion! If one goes to sleep like a lion, he stands a fighting chance to wake up like a lion. If one goes to bed like a slug, he’ll probably wake up like a slug. Therefore, before we go to bed at night, we have a custom to say a “bedtime shema”. This helps set our mind on what we are getting up for. If we go to sleep with a sense of purpose we wake up on purpose.

 

If you were in a hotel in some far off city and the next day there was an important early morning business meeting, before retiring for the night you might do two necessary things:

1) Set that alarm clock there on the night table, and 2) Set off the alarm. Why set off the alarm clock at night? Two reasons: 1) To see if it actually works; 2) To tune your ear to the sound you will need to respond to in the morning when you are deep asleep.

That’s what the evening “bedtime shema” is meant to accomplish, and it could be what the blast of the Shofar on Rosh Hashana is doing as well. On Rosh Hashana we are arousing   our consciousness, if even temporarily, to be clear and intensely aware of our sublime mission here on earth collectively and individually. In accepting The Almighty as our sovereign authority, we are simultaneously crowning ourselves with a supreme sense of purpose. The Shofar, playing the conscience, hauntingly articulates the urgency implied by its potential.

Then (no cynicism intended) we are apt to fall asleep for the rest of the year, losing consciousness of the original who, what why, where, when, and how did we get into this, anyway? The Shofar installs that signal that will stir us from slumber, no matter how deep the exile of sleep. Just as Rosh Hashana impacts the whole year so too the Shofar. It has something strong to say almost all and every day.

Just where do we hear that call and cadence in the course of our daily lives? It’s no mistake that emergency vehicles know just how to get our attention. The tender infant has a song that opens a mother’s heart. Buzzers and birds nudge with a similar subtle urge. Even as I write, workmen saw and hammer. Elsewhere the traffic jams and a chorus of cars clamor. What one person can do to stall or advance the flow of history! Ask not for whom the    phone rings…

When the ear and heart are properly sensitized on Rosh Hashana we may merit to hear the ubiquitous and poetic message of the Shofar speaking directly to us at any time, and hope  to wake up just in time.

Have a good Shabbos

Text Copyright &copy 2001 Rabbi Dovid Green and Project Genesis, Inc.

 

The Spiritual Environment

 

Posted on September 6, 2007 (5767) By Rabbi Chaim Flom | Series: Short Vorts | Level:

Beginner

 

“I can’t believe that you spent so much time watching that wrestling show!! You always were so frustrated because it was so dumb and phony!!”

“After I watched it with the gang a few times, I guess it became entertaining.”

 

Hashem told Moshe and Bnai Yisrael that after we enter Israel  “You will  have seen their   (the nations in the land of Israel) abominable things, their idols, wood and stone, silver   and gold… and some of you who will serve the gods of these nations…” (Divorim 29:16-17)  If we thought that they were “abominable”, why would any Jew eventually worship it? The Brisker Rav said that this is the result of familiarity. First you think it is abominable, then   it’s an idol, then it seems like wood and stone, and ultimately you think it’s silver and gold!! Never think that you aren’t affected by your environment and by what you see!!

Even though subtle advertising taught you that your whole toothbrush needs to be filled with toothpaste, a pea’s worth is sufficient !!

Have a great Shabbos !! Rabbi Chaim Flom

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Counsel of My Heart Posted on September 23, 2019 (5780) By Mordechai Dixler | Series: Lifeline | Level: 

Beginner Our reading this week contains an extraordinary passage, one which is very relevant for the upcoming High Holy Days. Moshe gathers the Nation of Israel together, and describes to them a truly unforgivable sin. It is so terrible that “Hashem will not be willing to forgive him, but Hashem’s anger and jealousy will be kindled against him…” [29:19]

What is this great crime? What could a person do that is so terrible and degraded that it is certain to arouse Divine anger, rather than forgiveness? 

The answer describes something so simple that, at first glance, we may not understand why it is so wrong. G-d, through Moshe, makes a covenant with the Jews that they will not follow idols or the immoral practices of idolaters, a covenant that we are sworn to follow. But then the Torah describes an individual, family or tribe that is drawn to idolatry. “And when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself in his heart, saying, ‘I will have peace, as I follow the counsel of my own heart,’ adding ‘the watered upon the dry.’” [29:18] 

 What is it that arouses Divine anger? Simply that he lies back, instead of trying to improve. “I will have peace — I can continue misbehaving, and nothing bad will happen.” As I said, we may not understand why that’s so horrible. Isn’t the actual sin what matters? Why is a person’s “lackadaisical attitude” more worthy of Divine wrath than serving idols? 

To be drawn to idolatry, or any form of misbehavior, is to be overwhelmed by a desire. We are human. We want things that we’re not supposed to have, whether power, tempting foods, someone else’s money or a forbidden relationship. And, sadly, we sometimes give in to those temptations. G-d knows we are human, and can forgive us if we turn back, express sincere regret, and commit to doing better.

 Not so the person who says, “I will have peace.” I remember my teacher, Rabbi Asher Rubenstein zt”l, speaking about how dangerous and wrong this is. Self-satisfaction with our own shortcomings? That’s what infuriates Hashem. 

Rashi explains what the verse means by “adding the watered upon the dry.” When a person is indifferent to his own wrongdoing, there is no longer any distinction between inadvertent error and deliberate sin. Once he is willing to callously do the sin deliberately, the fact that today he did it by mistake no longer makes his behavior easier to forgive.

 This thought applies to every person, no matter his or her spiritual level. We cannot be satisfied with where we are; we must look at our actions, and try to do better. And that, of course, is one of the key messages of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. We must grab the special opportunity of these Holy Days to turn away from our mistakes and our bad choices, and set ourselves upon a better path. Let us show HaShem that we are not indifferent to our wrong actions, but sincerely desire greater closeness to the Divine. 

May we all be Written and Sealed for a Blessed Year! Yaakov Menken

The Root Of Unhappiness

 

 

Posted on September 2, 2020 (5780) By Rabbi Yochanan Zweig | Series: Rabbi Zweig on the Parsha | Level: Intermediate Beginner

 

“Because you did not serve Hashem, your G-d, with happiness and goodness of heart, when you had everything in abundance”(28:47)

The Torah attributes all of the horrific curses which will befall Bnei Yisroel to not serving Hashem with happiness. The complaint is not that we will not serve Hashem, rather, although we will serve Him, the stress is upon the fact that it will not be done with  happiness. Citing the Zohar, the Ramban teaches that the admonition in this week’s parsha refers to the period of the second Beis Hamikdash through its destruction and the subsequent exile.¹

 

The Talmud states that the second Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of “sinas chinam” – “baseless hatred”.² This would appear to contradict the reason offered by the Torah, that the destruction was precipitated by Bnei Yisroel’s not serving Hashem with happiness. How do we reconcile this contradiction?

 

The Torah attests to the fact that we were unhappy, even though we had everything. This is mirrored by the contemporary phenomena which finds a high percentage of depressed and disenchanted people to be those who enjoy success and high social standing. Why do    people who apparently have everything that life has to offer, still exhibit a lack of   happiness?

A person can only be truly happy if he appreciates what Hashem has given him. However,     if a person is egocentric, considering himself deserved of all that he has, he will not be content by that which is already his; rather, he will be focused on those things which are     not yet his, but to which he feels entitled. If a person goes through life with the attitude that everyone owes him, he will constantly be miserable, never satisfied with what he has.

Furthermore, since he feels he is entitled to everything that he desires, a person who has something he desires becomes an immediate threat to him. He begins loathing that person for no reason other than the perception he maintains that that person is withholding from him an object which should rightfully be his. It is this type of loathing that the Talmud defines as baseless hatred.

Consequently, baseless hatred can be traced back at its inception to our lack of appreciation for what Hashem has done and continues to do for us. Therefore, sinas chinam is not a different reason than the reason offered by the Torah as to what precipitated the destruction of the Temple; it is a manifestation of being unhappy when serving Hashem.

1.28:42 2.Yoma 9b