Video Study for Parsha Vaetchanan : Let Me Into the Land

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Shalom JTF readers,

This week we are reading the incredible portion called Vaetchanan. In this portion we hear about how much Moses desired to enter the land even after being told by Hashem that he would not be permitted to do so. Moses entire life was dedicated to bringing the Children of Israel into the Holy Land but because of events, and because of Hashems fore-knowledge of the iniquities of the Children of Israel, Moses would not be permitted to enter. Even though Moses prayer 500+ times to enter, he was told that it would not be so.

This portion contains a re-telling of the giving of the 10 Commandments (Aseret HaDibroth) at mount Sinai along with portions of the Shema prayer. It is a portion which is bitter-sweet to me because of the refusal of Hashem to permit Moses to enter the land.

Here is Chabads portion in a nutshell:

http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2260/jewish/Vaetchanan-in-a-Nutshell.htm

Moses tells the people of Israel how he implored G‑d to allow him to enter the Land of Israel, but G‑d refused, instructing him instead to ascend a mountain and see the Promised Land.

Continuing his “review of the Torah,” Moses describes the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah, declaring them unprecedented events in human history. “Has there ever occurred this great thing, or has the likes of it ever been heard? Did ever a people hear the voice of G‑d speaking out of the midst of the fire . . . and live? . . . You were shown, to know, that the L‑rd is G‑d . . . there is none else beside Him.”

Moses predicts that in future generations the people will turn away from G‑d, worship idols, and be exiled from their land and scattered amongst the nations; but from there they will seek G‑d, and return to obey His commandments.

Our Parshah also includes a repetition of the Ten Commandments, and the verses of the Shema, which declare the fundamentals of the Jewish faith: the unity of G‑d (“Hear O Israel: the L‑rd our G‑d, the L‑rd is one”); the mitzvot to love G‑d, to study His Torah, and to bind “these words” as tefillin on our arms and heads, and inscribe them in the mezuzot affixed on the doorposts of our homes.

We will start with the latest video from Rabbi Chaim Richman (of the Temple Institute).

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Rabbi Finkelstein on the portion:

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Now for a couple of Chassidus/Kabbalah discussions on the Parsha

Rabbi Chaim Miller of TorahInTen


Rabbi Avraham Trugman of BeThereIsrael

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Rabbi Richman has several great talks on this parsha over the last 6 years...

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Rabbi Machlis opens his home for in Jerusalem for Torah study each week. Here is his talk from 3 years ago on this weeks portion.

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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/13568#.Ueh-jnVDsjg

The Land of Israel: What's at Stake?

Moses begged to enter the land of Israel. Do we?
From Daniel Pinner

When Hazal, in the late Second Temple period, divided up the Torah into the 54 weekly portions with which we are familiar today, they determined that every year in Parshat D’varim, the parashah immediately before the 9th of Av, we would read Moshe’s rebuke of the nation, and specifically his account to the next generation of the sin of the spies. And they also determined that the first words we would continue with after the 9th of Av would be Moshe’s account of how he pleaded with G-d to relent of His decree and allow Moshe to enter the Land of Israel.

After describing, at the end of the previous parshah, the conquest of trans-Jordan, Moshe tells the nation, in the opening words of this week’s parshah: “I pleaded to Hashem at that time, saying: My Lord, Hashem G-d, you have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong arm – which power is there in Heaven or earth who can do like Your deeds and Your might? Please may I pass over and see the good Land which is over the Jordan, this good mountain and the Lebanon” (Deuteronomy 3:23-25).

This is the very first Torah-lesson that Hazal wanted us to absorb after Tisha B'Av – Moshe pleading to G-d to relent of His decree that Moshe would die without ever entering the Land of Israel, only ever seeing it from the outside.

Indeed, Moshe may have had some spark of hope that he may yet enter the Land. G-d had told Moshe and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in Me…you will not bring this congregation into the Land which I have given them” (Numbers 20:12). Shortly thereafter, G-d decreed that “Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, for he will not come to the Land which I have given to the Children of Israel” (verse 24). There is a difference here: the first decree was that they would not lead the nation into the Land, the second was that Aaron would die outside of the Land.

Moshe, then, was resigned to not leading his beloved nation into the Land that G-d had given them; after all, he had already passed the task of national leadership over to Joshua (Numbers 27:18-23, Deuteronomy 1:38). Nevertheless, as the Ohr ha-Chayim (Rabbi Chayim ben Atar, Morocco and Israel, 1696-1743) suggests, he pleaded that G-d allow him to enter the Land, led by Joshua.

Rashi, based on the Midrash (Sifrei, Va’et’chanan 26), notes Moshe’s wording “I pleaded to Hashem at that time…”, and comments: “After I conquered the land of Sihon and Og, I imagined that maybe G-d’s vow [keeping me out of Israel] might be relinquished”.

The obvious question arises: What is the connexion between conquering these lands east of the River Jordan, and imagining that G-d might relent and allow Moshe to cross the River Jordan?

Rabbi Meir Kahane Hy”d (USA and Israel, 1932-1991) addressed this: “Apparently the connection is that Moshe’s punishment was a result of not sanctifying the Name of G-d when he struck the rock – that is to say, he did not demonstrate faith in Him. And therefore, when he faced this grave danger of Sihon and Og and G-d said to him: Have faith in Me! Do not fear, for I will help you, and Moshe had faith and went forth to war – Moshe thought that because he had trusted in G-d and sanctified His Name, maybe that would relinquish His vow” (Peirush ha-Macabbee, Deuteronomy page 7).

In support of this explanation, Rabbi Kahane cites the comment of the Ba’al ha-Turim (Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher, Germany and Spain, c.1275-1343). On the word “va’etchanan” (“I pleaded”), the Ba’al ha-Turim writes: “Earlier [the previous verse], it says ‘…you shall not fear them’. I strengthened Israel, maybe He will have compassion on me”.

In the event, as we well know, G-d rejected Moshe’s plea: “Hashem became furious with me for your sakes and did not listen to me; and Hashem said to me: Enough for you! Don’t talk to Me any more about this!” (Deuteronomy 3:26). Rashi explains “for your sakes” to mean “because of you – you caused this to happen to me”.

And the Sforno (Rabbi Ovadyah Sforno, Italy, c.1470-1550) explains further: “‘Hashem became furious with me for your sakes’ – because I yearned to sustain you in [the Land of Israel], such that you would never be exiled from it; but He had already decreed that you would one day be scattered”.

On the Shabbat immediately following the Ninth of Av, in the aftermath of mourning the disasters of destruction and exile, Hazal, our Sages, wished to infuse within us this message of who and what a true Jewish leader is, and how the Jew is enjoined to yearn for the Land of Israel. Moshe, who risked his life for the Jewish nation. Moshe, who yearned with every fibre of his being to enter the Land of Israel. Moshe, who braved G-d’s fury when pleading to come into the Land of Israel. Moshe, who after leading his beloved nation out of Egyptian slavery, to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, and through forty years of all-but-intolerable complainings in the desert, was now willing to enter the Promised Land not at their head as their leader, but as a humble follower of his own disciple Joshua.

In recent weeks we have witnessed the legal ban on shechita in Poland (which for economic reasons was until then one of the major suppliers of kosher meat throughout the European Union), and threats of similar legislation in Britain, France, Holland, and other countries. Jewish leaders, both rabbis and lay leaders, have expressed their outrage over such legislation, often asserting that banning kosher meat threatens these communities’ very survival.

We look back at the opening sentences of this week’s parshah, and we look back at Tisha B'Av just scant days ago…and ask: Have the Jews of Europe and their leaders learned nothing?! Indeed, ‘eichah’ – how has the message been utterly lost!

Consider the implications of the sentiment that the ban on kosher meat threatens Jewish communities. It means that while they can happily live in exile, they cannot live without chicken and steaks. It means that schnitzel and mutton are more important than the Land of Israel – the Land for which Moshe risked G-d’s fury! They can comfortably spurn the Land that G-d promised us – yet if they cannot get smoked turkey breast then their very existence is threatened! They will weep bitter tears over being deprived of burgers and sausages – bitterer by far than over being deprived of mere Redemption.

The juxtaposition of reading Parshat Va’et’chanan immediately after Tisha B'Av forces – or should force – every Jew to face the issue. What in all this world is more important, more precious, more desirable, than the Land of Israel?

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Rabbi Nagin discusses this weeks portion:

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Rabbi Svirsky from Jerusalem talks about the reason Moshe was denied entry into the promised land.

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Rabbi Nachman Wilhelm on the Halacha concerning remembering Mattan (Giving of the) Torah every day.

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Now for Rabbi Odze interesting tidbits on Vaetchanan.

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I don't really know who Willis Chai is but he is a Kahanist. Here is his commentary on our portion.

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Now for something completely 'hilarious'? Rabbi Benny Hirshcovitch from Cabo does his 'shtick'...

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One more for me then it's time to retire... Rabbi Machlis on the Haftarah (Prophets) we read this Shabbat...

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http://www.torah.org/advanced/ravhirsch/5770/vaeschanan.html

The Meaning of “One”₁

Hear, Yisrael: Hashem is our G-d. Hashem is One.

Nothing sounds more natural to the Jewish ear than this simple and elegant formulation of Jewish faith. It is the first verse of the Torah that a small child is taught, and the last on the lips of a person as he departs this life. For centuries, it was the lifeline to a community from which a person found himself estranged. Jews who drifted away nonetheless retained the belief system incorporated in this verse. It would appear to have no match in Jewish Scripture.

The appearances are deceiving. There is a parallel passage, and it should be regarded as a close competitor for compact statement of faith. Moreover, it came first. “You have been shown to be made to know that Hashem is the G-d; there is no other besides Him_[2]. You shall know today, and take it to heart, that Hashem is the G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is nothing else._[3]

The differences between these two passages are instructive..

In the earlier passage, we do not hear, but see. For Jews, seeing very much is believing. Others claim to discover G-d in nature, or in the progress of history. These, however, are not the traditional portals into Jewish belief. Arguments based upon them may be helpful and even convincing for individuals, but as a people, we have no use for them. We saw the truth, in a way that banished all doubt. Our forefathers watched the display of Hashem’s presence as He so dramatically freed them from Egyptian bondage. They stood at Sinai, and individually heard the Voice of Hashem proclaim His law to an assembly of an entire nation. Once belief was established beyond cavil, nature and history could assume their roles. They would not prove anything about G-d’s existence. That work was already done. Rather, once that belief was firmly rooted, both nature and history became important lenses with which to observe Hashem’s interaction with our world, and learn more about His ways. The same phenomena would mean little or nothing to the non-believer. To the Jew linked to our great past, however, every phenomenon in the natural world, whether large or small, points to His presence and wisdom; every event in the unfolding of history points to His guidance. Those who are unconvinced of His existence will be hard-pressed to prove it from nature or history. Those who are already convinced will look at the world and find nothing but His presence, confirmed in the greatness and majesty of the natural world, and the course of our history.

It then dawns upon us how different it is for us today – and indeed for every generation after the one that left Egypt. They saw. They experienced firsthand and directly. We, on the other hand, can only lay claim to what they understood by listening to what they have told us, to hearing their message. Hashem provided for us a firm basis of belief through a series of events and experiences unique in history. Provided once at the beginning of our peoplehood, they put our national belief on a firm footing, but they would not be repeated. They saw; we hear. Yet what we hear comes to us in an uninterrupted chain of transmission: a message of direct experience and certainty, not the speculation and wish-fulfillment of others.

Both of the passages encapsulate the experience of that first generation. The two passages are very different, and yet are really the same. While the earlier one speaks of learning through that experience of that generation that there is no “other,” the Shema distills a few choice phrases into a single word: echad, or One.

We can understand this best by considering the ancient competitors to Jewish belief – competitors that still manifest themselves in contemporary belief systems and attitudes. The Shema’s echad is, first and foremost, a monotheistic declaration by rejecting polytheism.

We may be dismissive of polytheism as a primitive belief, and miss how convincing it was (and continues to be!) to those who did not have the benefit of our national experience. Everywhere we look, we meet up with apparent disparity and difference – certainly not unity. Whether in the antagonistic relationships we observe in the macrocosm - life and death, light and darkness, rising and falling – or the tensions we feel within ourselves – love and hate, joy and sadness – we see and feel variety, not sameness and unity. Ancient man came to grips with these observations by attaching them to separate gods. Loosely, they divided phenomena into two groups – those they found to be agreeable, and those to which they objected. The first group were assumed to be within the domain of a benign deity of good, light and life; the others belonged to gods of evil, darkness and death. Whether through belief in two gods locked in eternal battle, or two groups of gods, each promoting antagonistic agendas, ancient man found it hard to escape a dualism that seemed apparent to him. This dualism still haunts modern man, who at times cannot find any way to bring the two sets of phenomena under one umbrella.

The first level of meaning in the Shema is the declaration that difference and tension are illusory. They are not the consequence of battle between two forces or powers, but flow from the One G-d.

This understanding alone would be a remarkable insight, and a huge step forward for mankind. It would not, however, do justice to the lesson of the Shema. Our pasuk does not merely claim that the battle is a sham, that G-d is somehow big enough to contain apparent opposites. The Shema goes much further. G-d is not the just the single Source of the different notes of one composition. Within Him, the dissonance and discord disappears, leaving only harmony. The name Hashem indicates love and compassion, while Elokim denotes judgment and consequence. In the Shema, they both come together: Hashem is Elokeinu; they are two aspects of the same Being. We may see them or experience them as opposite traits and phenomena, but this is inaccurate. In reality, G-d’s judgment is nothing more than a manifestation of His love. His achdus, His Oneness means that the opposites are not just resident in the same G-d, so much as that they are not opposite at all.

Some would translate our pasuk differently, and detect an altogether different message. We have translated echad as One, or the only One, and seen it as a declaration of essential unity in place of apparent disunity and antagonism. The Shema surgically removes the chief cause of belief in beings other than the One true G-d - our detection of many-ness rather than one-ness. The Shema declares that finding to be a sham, a massive misunderstanding. Some people, however, see in the Shema a description of G-d’s inner nature, a peak into His transcendence. Echad becomes not One, in the sense of the only One, without peer, but One in the sense of an essential unity, not composed of different parts_[4]. We do not find support for this in Chazal. Furthermore, it turns our most important lesson about how to practically relate to G-d, and turns it into an esoteric discipline that cannot have immediate meaning to us. It may also violate our understanding of our limitations as human beings to make accurate descriptive statements about the inscrutable reality of G-d.

The last letter of echad is written with a large letter. So is the last letter of acher, in an earlier pasuk about bowing to other gods_[5]. The Torah seems determined that we not get the two confused, and recognize the difference between the One G-d, and the false ones. Interestingly, the word acher is formed when the last letter is a reish, whose top left surface is round, rather that angular. The daled of echad is formed by simply turning that rounded surface into a sharp corner. So many others have missed the point of His Oneness by missing the sharpness of precise, rigorous thinking. They have taken the more accommodating and smooth, pliable route – but in so doing, distorted the truth of His uniqueness.

1. Based on the Hirsch Chumash, Devarim 6:4
2. Devarim 4:35
3. Devarim 4:39
4.His intention here is a bit obscure. The different translations present different approaches. I was unable to get to the German original to determine his actual intent
5.Shemos 34:14