"From Desert to Destiny"

8 Av 5782
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Devarim - Shabbat Chazon

From the Stone Edition Chumash Commentary on Parashat Devarim... 

...R. Hirsch explains that Devarim was Israel's introduction to the new life it would have to forge in Eretz Yisrael. Once they crossed the Jordan, the people would no longer see God's constant Presence and daily miracles, as they had in the Wilderness. They would plow, plant, and harvest. They would establish courts and a government. They would forge social relationships and means to provide for and protect the needy and helpless. They would need strong faith and self-discipline to avoid the snares and temptations of their pagan neighbors and false prophets. To stress these laws and values and exhort Israel to be strong was the function of Devarim, its laws and Moshe's appeals.

Thus, Devarim is not merely a review of the earlier four Books of the Torah, since "of the just over a hundred laws which are contained in this Book, more than seventy are completely new." Rather, in his final weeks, Moshe reviewed and taught all the laws of the Torah and the entire history of Israel - but in this Book, the Torah records the parts of his teachings that were most relevant for Israel's new life in its Land.

From the Stone Edition Chumash Commentary on Haftarah Devarim...

This Haftarah, the final one of the "three of affliction," is always read on the Shabbat that precedes Tisha b'Av. As R. Mendel Hirsch points out, the prophet does not lament because the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed; rather, he laments over the underlying causes of that destruction. And this annual lesson serves to focus the national mourning of Tishah b'Av not to the past but to the present. 

It is not enough to bemoan the great loss suffered by our people with the Destruction of our Land, our Holy City, and our Holy Temple. We must use our mourning as a way of initiating an examination of our present-day feelings, thoughts, and deeds. 

• What have we done to eliminate the attitudes and practices that thousands of years ago sent our ancestors into exile - not once, but twice?

• How have we improved our approach to the Divine Service as a way of life, a life devoted to duty rather than a substitute for it?

• Are our verbal offerings, like the animal-offerings described by the prophet, merely perfunctorily performed rituals, never internalized, never spoken from the heart, just from the lips and outward?

And, as R. Hirsch puts it...

• "Is our Jewish contemporary present already so deeply imbued with the Jewish spirit, so filled with the Jewish way of thinking, with knowledge of Judaism, with knowledge of the all-comprising and deep contents of the Torah that it could form a worthy environment for a Temple of God to be erected in our midst?"

• "Does not the gulf between Israel and its God yawn perhaps wider than ever?"

"Every generation in which the Temple is not rebuilt, is considered as if that generation destroyed the Temple." (Talmud Yerushalmi, Yoma 1:1)

~ ~ ~

One of the things I promised to do in honor of Jonathan Pollard's birthday (which is today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY YEHONATAN!!) was to publicize some good news.  Well, one of the best, most positive and most hopeful news stories I have seen in recent weeks involves Jonathan himself.  

It seems that Jonathan Pollard has been involved with setting up a religious gan yeladim - Gan Esther in honor of Esther Pollard, a"h - for children in the center of Tel Aviv who, as I understand it, are coming from mostly secular families. 

Reportedly, when the parents were questioned about their choice of a religious environment for their children, they replied that they themselves were not given an opportunity to have any knowledge of God or their reason for being in this world, and their hope is that they might learn from their children.

וְהֵשִׁ֚יב לֵֽב־אָבוֹת֙ עַל־בָּנִ֔ים וְלֵ֥ב בָּנִ֖ים עַל־אֲבוֹתָ֑ם"

( 3:24 מַלְאָכִ֔י)

This is what is going to restore our Beit HaMikdash to us, to benefit not only us but the entire world.

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~