21 July 2023

"Shabbat of Vision"

 3 Av 5783
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Shabbat Chazon - Parashat Devarim

Can you see it?

The Stone Edition Chumash...

[Moshe Rabbeinu]  "Hashem, our God, spoke to us in Horeb, saying: Enough of your dwelling by this mountain.  Turn yourselves around and journey, and come to the Amorite mountain and all its neighbors, in the Arabah, on the mountain, and in the lowland, and in the south, and at the seacoast; the land of the Canaanite and the Lebanon, until the great river, the Euphrates River.  See!  I have given the Land before you; come and possess the Land that Hashem swore to your forefathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them and their children after them." (Devarim 1.6-8)

Chumash Commentary...

After almost a year at Mount Sinai, God gave the order to begin the journey to the Land.  Among the regions listed in this passage are the lands of Ammon, Moab, and Seir, and territory as far north as the Euphrates River, but none of them are within the boundaries delineated in Numbers 34:1-12.  These regions were among those promised to Abraham (Genesis 15-18-19; see Rashi there), and they would have been part of Eretz Yisrael if the Jews had gone directly to the Land at this point, as God commanded them.  Because they sinned in the affair of the spies, however, these parts of the oath to Abraham will become part of Eretz Yisrael only with the coming of Messiah.

Chumash Commentary on the Haftarah [Yeshayahu 1.1-27]...

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

 Rebbe Yochanan said, “The son of David will not come until the whole generation is meritorious, or blameworthy.” (Sanhedrin)  We can see now the true meaning of that statement as this generation, in the past few years, has been choosing which side it is on.  When HKB"H decides that the birrur is complete, every person will have earned his designation as either "meritorious or blameworthy."  This example from yesterday is a case in point.  Can anyone doubt how firmly this person has chosen their own fate...


Life is just chock full of these experiences right now.  It appears to be the main task of our present time as the Creator of the World contends with his creatures to know who is worth saving and who is not.  This world has always been about preparation for the World to Come.  Not everyone will make the cut.  But, if not, it was by their own choice.  

Right now, I just feel like the reward of the righteous would be to not have to live any longer in a world with people who wish to hurt others.

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~

3 comments:

  1. I’m 100% sure the reward is a lot more than just living without hateful people

    ReplyDelete
  2. May it be very soon and just as the world is in turmoil at this most confusing, chaotic and destructive period before the coming or Moshiach, so it will be the exact opposite in the upcoming new
    world of bliss and the knowledge of H' as the waters cover the
    seabeds!


    ReplyDelete