Conclusions from the past to build the future and from destruction to sovereignty.
The Parasha in our everyday life – Devarim - Chazon - 5782
Rabbi Eliezer Shenvald - Head of the Hesder Yeshiva 'Meir Harel' Modiin
One of the main issues that have become more acute in the public discourse in recent times is: What will be the most dominant element in the State of Israel's identity? Will it be its identity as a Jewish state, or as a state for all its citizens? The root of the debate is related to the fundamental question: Is the State of Israel a continuation of the Jewish heritage of three thousand and three hundred years, or is it a new creation with universal Western values disconnected from its past roots? It seems that this issue will be at the center of the election campaign ahead of us. The State of Israel is at the crossroads of making a decision that will affect its future and identity.
The history of the people of Israel is a sequence of generations built one on top of the previous one, like one floor on top of another. The people of Israel are leading the world in a great ideological movement of holy and profane, spiritually and materially. It cannot be built and completed in one day or one generation. For the move to bear fruit, there needs to be continuity between the generations. Each generation adds its layer to the building that was built. דּ֣וֹר לְ֭דוֹר יְשַׁבַּ֣ח מַעֲשֶׂ֑יךָ "One generation shall laud Your works to another". However, for the floor that each generation builds to be worthy of holding another floor on top, it is necessary to correct the failures and corruptions created in it and to strengthen the successes that were added to it. Sometimes a shaky floor that is still standing does not allow the following floors to be properly built on it.
If by the time Shabbat begins, the Mashiach has not arrived, this Shabbat, the 9th of Av, will be 'Shabbat Chazon', and the fast will be observed on Sunday. On Tish'a Be'Av we commemorate the destruction of the first and second Temples and the loss of Israeli autonomy. Our generation - the sovereignty generation - is privileged to note the destruction from the momentum of building our country and our state and the restoration of our sovereignty which miraculously exists despite the destructions we have gone thru time and time again.
The process of building the floors continues, not only on a floor that was built but also on top of a floor that was destroyed. Not on a floor that left us with a good feeling for generations but on a floor of suffering and catastrophe. Out of the destruction a building was created. From the stones that were destroyed, a new and strong floor was built that holds many more floors. And still, there is a long and complex road with more challenges ahead. At the crossroads of making the decision where we stand, we thank G-d for what already exists and for what has been achieved and look forward with faith and hope mixed with concern and responsibility, towards the future.
On Shabbat, we begin to read Sefer Devarim - Mishnah Torah. Parashat Devarim is usually read on Shabbat Chazon before Tish'a Be'Av. In some Ashkenazi communities, it is customary for the Ba'al Koreh to read the Pasuk אֵיכָ֥ה אֶשָּׂ֖א לְבַדִּ֑י טָרְחֲכֶ֥ם וּמַֽשַּׂאֲכֶ֖ם וְרִֽיבְכֶֽם׃
"How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering!" (Devarim 1:12) to the tune of the Book of Lamentations.
One of Sefer Devarim's famous structure divisions is that of Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann (HaRaDaTz in his commentary on Devarim), according to which the book is divided into Moshe's three speeches: the reproof speech, the commandment speech, and the covenant speech. The speeches were given at the end of his term as leader of the Jewish people, from the Exodus from Egypt to the forty years in the desert. During the vital period of them becoming a nation, and the shaping of their special devout identity. And as parting words before entering the land of Israel, to a challenging and significant new era in their history, of a nation establishing its kingdom in its land. To paraphrase Rabbi Hoffmann's words in our time's terms:
*The first part of the Sefer: The period's summary, an unbiased 'constructive' review of the desert generation's conduct. Learning lessons and concluding successes and failures.
*The second part: continuing the process of studying and assimilating the Mitzvot, repeating some of them, and remembering additional ones.
*And the third part: the vision for the future - the 'Alliance' and the preparation for the challenges of the next era, in Eretz Israel.
There is a clear connection between the first and the third part. From the conclusions from the desert generation era to the preparations for their entry into Israel of the Eretz-Israeli generation. The legacy of the desert generation prepared the infrastructure for building the next floor of the land-of-Israel generation.
The words correspond to Rabbi Hirsch's interpretation: "And whereas the fifth book includes the words that Moshe said to his people before he parted from them; after all, from now on he would not lead this nation in fulfilling their role in the land they are about to take possession of. This seems to be the meaning of the names of the places mentioned here: seem to want to determine the location very precisely according to its geographical location, where Moshe lived his last weeks among his people, and where the people last saw their leader, where they last heard Moshe's words before his death. Every word of Moshe's last speeches expresses his eagerness for his people and his attachment to their future salvation; As it were, in these speeches he is at the mercy of his people to train them to withstand the trials that await them, etc. For one method in my book, all the names of the places mentioned here allude to the sins that the people failed in during their journey in the desert. It is possible that Moshe and the people called these places that surrounded; for in these places Moshe rebuked his people and told them words of wisdom and morality, and with these words, he completed his days of age; that is why he called these places names that testify to the nation's failings so that the people will remember the sins of their past and take it upon themselves to correct their future" (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Devarim 1:1).