BS"D
YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kroizer SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva
PARSHAT VAETCHANAN/SHABBAT NACHAMU
13 Av 5767/27-28 July 2007
WHAT'S BOTHERING MOSHE?
"I implored Hashem at that time, saying: 'My L-rd Hashem, You have begun
to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand, for what power is
there in the heaven or on the earth that can perform according to Your deeds
and according to Your mighty acts?'"
Moshe Rabenu is holding out against all hope, that maybe - just maybe -
he would be allowed to enter into the Land of Israel. Literally hundreds of
prayers are set forth to Heaven by Moshe to break the degree against him not
to enter the Land. Still, Hashem holds fast and the decree stands: Moshe is
not allowed to enter the Land of Israel!
Our Rabbis in the Talmud question the reason why Moshe wanted so much to
enter the Land of Israel. They ask: Was it to eat of its fruits? Here,
though, we must take a moment and ask ourselves: Why would our sages of old
ask whether Moshe wanted to eat the fruits of Israel? Certainly Moshe, the
greatest prophet of all time, would not be in need of anything physical.
Certainly, a nice pear or banana would not be on the top-ten list of a
person like Moshe.
However, there is something to the question of our Rabbis. The
commentary Ba"ch tell us that the Land of Israel is sacred, with a special
holiness which is not dependent on any of the commandments that deal with
the Land; rather, it's holiness is from the beginning of time. If so, writes
the Ba"ch, how is this holiness manifested? The Ba"ch answers: Being that
the Land is holy and one cannot eat the soil of the Land, by eating the
fruits of the Land of Israel one gets the special holiness whose sparks are
in its fruit.
So, too, the Ramban writes about the year of Shmita - the seventh year -
that it is a positive commandment from the Torah - one of the 613 - to eat
the fruits of the Land of Israel from that year, being that they have a
special holiness in them. So we see that the question of the sages on the
motive of Moshe to enter the Land of Israel - to eat of its fruits - does
have value. In this light, we find the sages of Israel rolling in the dirt
of the Land because of its greatness and holiness.
Still, the Talmud answers that Moshe wanted to enter the Land to fulfill
the commandments of the Torah. Moshe answered: Not some of the commandments,
but all of them. Our Rabbis teach us that the commandments of the Torah were
given to the Jewish people only in the Land of Israel. So too, writes the
Ramban, who tells us that the only reason one does commandments in the exile
is so that upon his return to the Land of Israel they will not be new to
him. If not for this reason, a Jew would be exempt from performing the
commandments outside the Land.
In this light, we can sympathize with Moshe only too well: During his
whole life, Moshe was the faithful shepherd to the Jewish people - but now
that he was so, so close to the Land, how could it be that he could not
enter???
Our Rabbis tell us that one who lives outside the Land is as if he has
no G-d, and as one that worships idols. For all who walk four amot in the
Land have a place in the next world, and all who are buried in the Land,
their sins are atoned.
However, what seems to have been bothering Moshe is not really bothering
our brothers and sisters who live in the exile today. How can this be?
Something so fundamental to the Jewish people does not bother the great
numbers of Jews living outside the Land today! In previous years, over the
past 2000 years of exile when it was almost impossible to get to the Holy
Land and even harder to sustain oneself and family back then, it would be
understandable, but what will one say after his 120 years in this world to
the Master of the Universe? That it is difficult to live in the Land today?
True, it might be a bit more difficult living in the Land than in the exile,
but will that be a valid excuse in the next world? If so, then how is it
that some 5.5 million Jews live here in the Land today?
How great will be the portion of those who daily walk the streets of the
Land of Israel, who have become part of the Redemption process. And how
totally embarrassed will be those who are only doing the commandments today
so as not to forget them. And they don’t even know what was bothering Moshe…
With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen
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