TorahParsha

Correction to thought from this week

Important correction to this week: a large part of Menashe does, in fact, settle within the Land itself. See Numbers 32:33, Deut, 3:13, and Joshua  17:5. (Thanks to Yossi Kra for pointing this out, and my own apologies for a lack of knowledge of Biblical geography.)

But I think the idea of Menashe and Ephraim being splintered--or, as Yossi points out, Menashe itself being splintered--still bears considering.

 

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

When you are far away

for Parshat Devarim

 

 

i

The tribe of Menashe find its homeland not in the Land but in a region just outside the Land.

 

Most of the nation travels on. But Menashe stays put, opposite the river, just outside.

 

This is not only a schism of the people. It is a break in a family. Menashe is really a half-tribe, the other half of which is Ephraim; together, the two half-tribes make up the whole family of Joseph.

 

Menashe settles just outside the Land; Ephraim, within it.

 

Apart.

 

 

ii

Moses reminds Menashe that it must cross the river into the Land to help the people settle it.

 

Then, Menashe may return to its place.

 

So in settling the Land, Menashe will be united with the people. And Menashe will be united with Ephraim.

 

Not in where they live, but in the journey.

 

 

iii

Perhaps you are far from your true family.

 

Perhaps you are far from the Land.

 

But here is the lesson of this story:

 

If a people unites in the journey, in the work of the journey, then wherever the people may be—they are together.

 

 

______

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

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Why hearing is a responsibility

for Parshat Devarim

 

i

Moses retells

the story of the Spies:

That they spy out the Land

that they return to the people

that they say:

HaShem has given us a good Land.

*

And then the people’s response:

Our brothers have melted our hearts;

the Land is full of giants,

it is full of dangerous people,

it is a place God sends us to

in hatred.

*

For this lack of faith,

the people wander the Desert

for forty years.

 

ii

The people say

Our brothers have melted our hearts,

our brothers have immobilized us with fear,

yet the spies say just one thing:

that the Land is good.

 

iii

Here is the lesson.

People will say good things

and people will say bad things

but we will hear

what we will hear.

We decide

what that will be.

 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

How do we take part in history?

for Parshat Devarim

i

God says to Moses:

enough waiting by the mountain.

You and the people rise up,

inherit the Land.

*

Moses says to the people:

I cannot lead you alone.

Let us appoint men

to lead alongside me.

The people do this.

*

And the people say:

Let us send spies

to tell us how the Land is.

The spies come back

with a frightening story.

The people say:

Our brothers have weakened our hearts,

we cannot go on.

*

God becomes angry.

Then each man picks up his things

and rushes to the Land;

but God says:

They will not succeed,

I am no longer with them.

And the people wander the Desert

thirty-eight more years.

 

ii

Everyone says:

I cannot not go forward alone.

Moses says this,

the people say this.

*

Then each man says:

I, myself, will go—

many individual people,

each walking on his own.

*

Then God steps away.

 

iii

You must rise,

you must take your own action.

You must, too, act as part of the whole nation.

*

Only through both

is God with you.

 

_____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

Please pray for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther
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Should we live for a Truth?

for Parshat Devarim

 

i                                                                          

Pinchas

sees a man and a woman

fornicating in the camp.

He slays them publicly.

So Pinchas ends the sinning of the people.

And God gives him a Covenant of Peace.

*

God tells the people:

Go and wage war with Emor,

conquer that kingdom.

Israel sends words of peace to Emor

and only when Emor refuses peace

does Israel take it in battle.

 

ii

Pinchas kills for justice.

God calls Israel to war. 

But God says to Pinchas: here is My Covenant of Peace.

And Israel says to Emor: here are words of peace.

And the Rabbis say: One may lie for the sake of peace.

*

It is good to act in the name of what is True  

but Peace, too, is an ideal.

 

 

_________

Based on observations from others about Pinchas

 

________

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

 

Please pray for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, a one-year-old who needs a bone marrow transplant, and get your cheek swabbed today.

For further reading on Torah and the Parsha, consider: Hirhurim – Jewish Ideas Daily - Rabbi Jonathan Sack’s writings –Pardes  - The Virtual Beit Midrash – Yeshiva University Online

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Thought for Parshat Devarim

for Rav Yehudah Amital, in memoriam

 

Why there is good in a fractured community

 

i

Moses says:  you are a people filled with strife.

Moses says, make a system of judges:

judges over thousands; over hundreds; over fifties; over tens

to judge…between a man and his brother.

*
The people create this system of judges.

And the people travel forward.

 

ii

All the people approach Moses.

They say: Let us send men to spy out the Land.

And Moses sends spies.

And the spies bring back word.

And the people panic.

And the people reject the Land.

They murmured in their tents.

*
So God does not bring that whole generation into the Land.

 

iii

When the people divide up into thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens—to judge between a man and his brother—the people move forward.

When all the people ask for spies—a whole nation together—then the people run back to their individual tents.

*
The nation is a confluence of many lives.

We can unify those lives utterly.

Or we can become many different lives, together.

Only in this second choice do we find the way forward.

 

___________

Shabbat shalom, Abe

___________

(Note also Moses’ reaction in Deut. 1:23)

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Please continue to pray for Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah, and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther.

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Limits (For Parshat Devarim)

i
When the people come near to the land of Moav, God warns the people to not enter battle with Moav.

For I will not give you of that nation’s land, God says.

I have already given it to the children of that nation’s ancestor, Lot.

*
This warning comes before God gives the Israelites victory over the Kingdom of Sichon, and over the Kingdom of Bashan, and over the Seven Kingdoms of the land of Canaan.

*
Before great conquest, God warns the people Israel to not conquer.

ii
Even before we take, God demands that we ask: What will God not let me take?

*
We must know that there are limits.

~~   

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

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