THE LORD, YOUR GOD, HAS

MULTIPLIED YOU, AND BEHOLD, YOU ARE TODAY AS THE STARS OF THE HEAVENS IN

ABUNDANCE.

(Devarim 1:10)

And, behold, you are

today as the stars of the heavens But were they [the Israelites] on that day as [many as] the stars of

the heavens? Were they not only six hundred thousand? What, then, is [the

meaning of] "And, behold, you are today…?" [It means]-Behold, you

are compared to the sun, [signifying that you will] exist forever, as do the

sun, the moon, and the stars.

(Rashi Devarim 1:10, Judaica Press translation)

as the stars… One who looks up at the star-strewn heavens

will be impressed only by the innumerable multitude of stars, but it will not

occur to him to actually count the individual stars. So shall it be with one

who takes your general measure. Indeed, there were few opportunities in the

course of human history to take a census of an entire nation in one place; six

hundred thousand men, about three and a half million souls all told. However,

it seems that there is an additional significance to the comparison made

between the nation's multitudes and the stars in heaven. With this he dismisses

the mistaken conception which views the nation in general as an innumerable crowd, a crowd in which the individual lacks any importance.

Rather, the nation's multitudes are compared to the stars of heaven: while they

are not countable, each individual is independently important; each is "a

world unto itself." Each possesses its own value and God has providence

over it individually.

(Rabbi

S.R. Hirsch ad loc)

R. Abahu

said: Come and see the power of repentance from [the case of] King David. The

Holy One blessed be He had sworn to the Patriarchs

that He would multiply their seed like the stars of heaven, yet David wanted to

count them. The Holy One blessed be He said to him: "David,

I swore to the Patriarchs that I would increase their seed and you come to invalidate

My words. The sheep were given to you to feed them and seventy thousand men

have died in just three hours!" R. Shimon says: No one died in Israel save

Avishai ben Tzruya, who was the equal of 70,000 men in his good deeds

and in the Torah of his heart. [The proof of this is that] it does not say anashim [men] here, but rather ish

aside my sin, and he was granted this, for it says, and he said to the

"It is enough; now stay your hand." What does rav

mean? That a great man of Israel had fallen. David

could not leave him to seek God's counsel because the angel had taken his sword

and wiped it on David's cloak; when David saw the angel's sword all his limbs

began to shake, and they shook until his dying day.

(Yalkut Shimoni Shemuel Bet 165)

"A Vision of Peace"

Shlomo Fuchs

So

said the Lord of Hosts: The fast of the fourth [month], the fast of the fifth

shall be for the house of Judah for joy and happiness and for happy

holidays-but love truth and peace. (Zachariah 8:19)

Should

Temple is already under construction?

The

prophet Zachariah mentions the four days that commemorate the destruction of

the First Temple and then responds to the above question.

According

to the prophet the fast days do not merely relate to the physical hurban [destruction of the Temple]; they also commemorate

the destruction of society and the lack of justice and fairness. He prophesizes that when there is justice, fairness, truth, and

peace, then the fast days will become festive days.

What

kind of peace [shalom] is needed to transform fasts commemorating

the destruction into festivals?

On

the Shabbat just before the 9^th of Av, we read the parasha of Devarim. This parasha opens with Moses mentioning the stations of the

people's journey through the wilderness:

These

and Tofel and Lavan and Hazeroth and Di Zahav. (Devarim 1:1)

The

Talmud cites a tradition of the House of Yannai

claiming that the place-name Di Zahav alludes to a complaint against Heaven:

R. Eleazar said further: Moses cast words towards Him on high.

For it is said: And Moses prayed unto [el] the Lord (Bamidbar

11). Do not read unto [el]

but regarding [al]. For indeed, in R. Eliezer ben Yaakov's

place, they read alephs as ayins and ayins as alephs. They said at R. Yannai's school: From here we learn [about] and Di Zahav. What does Di Zahav mean? They

said at R. Yannai's school: Thus spoke Moses before

the Holy One blessed be He: Lord of the Universe, it was the silver and gold [zahav] which You gave to

Israel so plentifully that they said "enough" [dai]

that caused them to make the [golden] calf. (Berakhot 32a, following

El-Am translation)

The

silver and gold which the Holy One blessed be He heaped upon Israel had been

taken in accordance with the Divine command received by Moses at the burning

bush:

And

I will put this people's favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and it will come

to pass that when you go, you will not go empty handed. Each woman shall borrow

from her neighbor and from the dweller in her house silver and gold objects and

garments, and you shall put [them] on your sons and on your daughters,

and you shall empty out Egypt." (Shemot 3:21-23; also Shemot 11:2)

And

later:

And

the children of Israel did according to Moses' order, and they borrowed from

the Egyptians silver objects, golden objects, and garments. The Lord

gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they lent them, and

they emptied out Egypt. (Shemot 12: 35-36)

In

gold as a "raw material" that can be used for various purposes:

R.

Shimon says: To what might this be compared? To one who would receive scholars

and their students and all would praise him. Gentiles came and he received

them, bandits came and he received them. Then people would say: "It

is his custom to accept everyone." Just as Moses said

Zahav – for the calf.

R. Benya says: Israel worshiped idols – they deserve to be

destroyed; let the gold of the Tabernacle come and make atonement for the gold

of the calf. R. Yossi ben Hanina says: And you shall make an ark cover [kapporet] of pure gold (Shemot

25:17), let the gold of the kapporet come

calf.

The midrash does not "blame"

the Holy One blessed be He for giving gold to the Israelites, but rather offers

directions for the service of God: God gives and commands, He sets up

challenges and temptations for those who left Egypt. He tells them to borrow,

to empty out Egypt. We shall see what the gold and silver will do to

you; we shall see what you do with the gold and silver, whether you will use it

to build a Tabernacle or a "calf." The responsibility rests on your

shoulders to translate the commands into actions; you must lend significance to

the "raw materials," to the gold.

It

seems the same is also true of hurban.. One would think that hurban

is a catastrophe, but one can also find in it an impetus for development, as

the Maggid of Kuznitz (Avodat Yisrael on parashat Massei) says:

The Rebbe [the great Maggid of Mezeritch, and it seems that all this derives from the Ba'al Shem Tov] has already preceded

us. "The verse all of her pursuers caught up with her between the

straights (Lamentations

1:3) hints that anyone who

takes up the pursuit of coronation of the Creator can achieve more in these

days of "between the straights." A parable: when the prince

dwells in his home he projects fear so that not just anyone can enter [to visit

him]. But when the prince travels through the markets and streets outside of

his palace, then he is close to all who call upon him and listens to the cries

of all who call his name.

Analogically,

one should know that at this season as a bird who wanders from its nest, so

a man wanders from his place (Proverbs 27:8), therefore permission is granted to every human being to approach the

King of the world and He answers them," end of quote.

Like

gold, the hurban invites many-faceted

interpretations. It can be viewed as a time when God hides His face, a time

when we are distant from His service. On the other hand, it can be seen as God's

way of drawing near to human dwellings. There is no need for a Temple or the mediation

of priests, rather all of her pursuers caught up with her.

Our parasha offers an example of how human beings are

responsible for investing a commandment with significance.

Moses

is commanded by God to go to war against Sihon:

Get

up, journey, and cross the river Arnon. Behold, I

have delivered into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king

of Heshbon, and his land: Begin to possess it, and

provoke him to war…

Moses,

however, makes a call for peace:

So I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth

with words of peace, saying… (Devarim 2: 24-26)

The midrash (Devarim Rabba 5:13) does not criticize Moses for this, but

rather teaches that God understood from Moses' deed the importance of making a

call for peace and added it to the laws of war. The midrash does not make do with a theoretical command;

it insists that the Book of Joshua contains an enactment of it:

When

you approach a city to wage war against it, you shall propose peace to it (Devarim 20:10) – this is a fulfillment of the verse You will make a decision, and it

will be accomplished for you, etc. (Job 22)…

You

will make a decision – R. Yehoshua of Sakhnin said in the

name of R. Levi; Everything that Moses decided, the Holy One blessed be He

agreed with him.

How

Moses went and broke them of his own volition.

From

whence do we learn that the Holy One blessed be He agreed with him? That it is

written: asher

shibarta [which you broke] (Shemot

34) – yeyasher

kohakha she'shibarta

The

Holy One blessed be He told him to make war against Sihon,

for it says: provoke him to war (Devarim 2), but he [Moses] did not do this, rather, So

I sent messengers, etc..

The

it, etc. Who fulfilled this passage? Joshua son of Nun.

Rabbi

Shemuel bar Nahman said:

What did Joshua do? He would publicize an announcement to the people of each

place he set forth to conquer in which it was written: "Whoever chooses to

leave, let him leave; whoever chooses to make peace, let him make [peace];

whoever chooses to make war, let him make [war]." What did the Girgashites do? They turned away from them and left, and

the Holy One blessed be He gave them a land as goodly as their [original] land,

i.e., [He gave them] Africa. The Gibeonites made

peace, and Joshua made peace with them. However, the thirty-nine kings who

chose to fight him, these the Holy One blessed be He cast down into his hand. We

know this because it is said: And he smote him until he left him no remnant

(Devarim 3).

What

going out to war?

The

enemy threatens our external existence, but that enemy is not the main problem;

it is the internal enemy who posses the greater challenge. It is easy to

blame the other, it is easy to blame the Egyptians or the gold – but their

responsibility is only apparent. The true struggle is internal – do we dare to

inspect our own deeds and understand our own responsibility? Will we know what

to do with the gold and silver, will we allow our eyes to be blinded by their

shine and bribe the legal system? Will we learn from Moses to be daring and

complain to Heaven when necessary, and to propose peace – even and most

importantly – when we are commanded to make war?

The

Talmudic discussion of dreams (in Berakhot 56b – the

Yishai number 11) may shed light upon this question:

R.

bird, and pot.

River

– as it is written: Behold, I will extend peace to you like a river (Isaiah 66).

Bird

– as it is written: Like flying birds, so shall the Lord of Hosts protect,

etc. (Isaiah

31).

Pot

– as it is written: O Lord, You shall prepare peace for us (Isaiah 26).

R. Hanina said: And regarding the pot that has no meat in it,

we learned: and broke them, as in a pot, and like meat within a cauldron

(Micah 3).

Are

extent are they to preserve their individual identities?

R. Hanina's dictum offers three images of peace and unity that

can be combined with each other.

The

unity of the "bird"

– Birds join together to form flocks in order to move quickly from place to

place. They know how to help each other without squandering energy. However, at

the end of the journey each individual bird goes off in its own direction.

The

unity of the "river" – Drops of water merge to form streams and the streams merge to form a

river, which itself pours into the sea or into an aquifer. Individual identity

is lost in this ingathering. However, the salmon returns to the precise stream where

the egg it had emerged from was laid. That is to say: each stream bears its own

peculiar character.

Pot – The unity which transforms the various parts

into a single dish, while each and every part taken out of the pot has

influenced the other parts and was influenced, in turn, by them as well.

The "pot

lacking meat" – perhaps this refers to a situation where no one is

willing to pay for unity with his own blood.

Love truth and peace

Does

each and every individual who preserves his own identity in our state and

society join together with others like the "bird" – only in order to

gain personal benefit? Or do they, God forbid, lose their identities like the "river"

while individual memory contains only a point of origin to remind each one of

where he came from? It appears that the people achieves its greatest strength

with the "peace of the pot," in which each individual imagines what

another member of the nation would do, in which there are restrained reciprocal

influences of each member of the nation upon his fellow. Not a homogeneous

leadership, but rather recognition of the fact that individuals who make up the

people are characterized by a variety of leaderships and acceptance of the

other.

Such a peace has the power to "propose

peace" and overcome the internal and external hurban

– until peace arrives…

Shlomo Fuchs teaches in the Hebrew Union College, in Beit

Shemuel, and in Kolot. He

is the educational director of the IDF project in Beit

Morasha.

Eikhah of Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah

There is a connection between the words of Meggilat

Eikhah, which relate to Tisha

B'Av and the parasha

itself. In the course of the story of Israel's arrival, or near arrival at the

Land, Moses complains of the people's failures: Eikhah