WHEN YOU ENTER THE LAND THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GIVING YOU AS A HERITAGE, AND YOU POSSESS IT AND SETTLE IN IT, YOU SHALL TAKE SOME OF EVERY FIRST FRUIT OF THE SOIL, WHICH YOU HARVEST FROM THE LAND THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GIVING YOU, PUT IT IN A BASKET AND GO TO THE PLACE WHERE THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL CHOOSE TO ESTABLISH HIS NAME.

(Devarim 26:1-2)

 

Of every first fruit of the soil - Education towards Humility and Generosity and the Struggle against Self-Satisfaction

All first produces have been assigned to God so that the moral quality of generosity be strengthened and the appetite for eating and for acquisition be weakened. As for the reading on the occasion of the offering of the first fruits, it also is conducive to the moral quality of humility, for it is carried out by him who carries the basket on his shoulders. It contains an acknowledgment of God's beneficence and bountifulness, so that man should know that it is a part of the divine worship that man should remember states of distress at a time when he prospers. This purpose is frequently affirmed in the Torah: And you shall remember that you were a servant, and so on (Devarim 5:15; 16:12). For there was a fear of the moral qualities that are generally acquired by all those who are brought up in prosperity - I mean conceit, vanity, and neglect of the correct opinions: When you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses to live in, and your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered, beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget the Lord your God Who took you out of the land of Egypt... and you say to yourselves, "My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me" (Devarim 8:12-17). And it says: So Yeshurun grew fat and kicked - you grew fat and gross and coarse - he forsook the God who made him and spurned the Rock of his support (Devarim 32:15). It is because of this apprehension that the commandment has been given to carry out a reading every year before Him, may He be exalted, and in the presence of His Indwelling, on the occasion of the first fruits.

(RaMBaM, Guide of the Perplexed III:59, following Pines translation)

 

 

In honor of the forthcoming marriage of my daughter

Talia and Avishai Horowitz

Today You Become a People

Benjamin Segal

One thing God has spoke, two things have I heard. (Psalm 62:12)

In this week's reading, approaching the Blessing and the Curse, and at the same time approaching the end of the second of Moses' three speeches which make up the book of Deuteronomy, we encounter a verse most dramatic... and problematic.

Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying: Silence! Hear, O Israel! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God (27:9). We here focus on three difficulties.

Among the puzzlements is the word you, the singular in Hebrew. We would have expected an address to the group who were coalescing. Here the address is to the individual. One might reply that the change is of no import, for there are other such examples in the Bible. However, one can see from the beginning of next week's chapter that this is not so. There the people are all addressed in the plural, with the blatant exception of the two verses in the singular which describe the same process of becoming a people (29:11, 12). Clearly the emphasis on the individual is quite purposeful, and demands explanation.

No less difficult is the reference to today (which appears in an emphatic form, this today). Certainly we are not surprised to find the term. The book of Deuteronomy, based on speeches, uses the word today more than any other book of the Bible. The specific reference, however, is surprising, to say the least. Even though the text here describes the future pledge of the people to God (once they have heard the Blessing and Curse), and even though Moses described the very day on which he was speaking as the day of the giving of all the commandments (26:16), nevertheless the same process of becoming a people has been attributed before to two other events which would seem to have been more basic! Concerning the exodus, Deuteronomy itself states that the Lord took and brought you out of Egypt... to be his very own people (4:20), and the Song of the Sea speaks of Your people whom You redeemed. Exodus further indicates that the purpose of leaving Egypt was: I will take you to be My people (6: 7). The revelation at Mount Sinai is even more clearly identified as the moment of becoming a people - coming there, the Israelites are told: you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples... you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19: 6). This relative weight of the events was already noted as a problem by Rabbi Yehuda in the Talmud on our verse (Brachot 63b): "Was the Torah given that day?! That day was forty years after the event!"

After the exodus and the revelation at Sinai, the nation is frequently referred to in the Torah as a people. What, then, is the reference to today becoming a people? The modern commentary Etz Hayim laconically notes, "There were varying views as to when the Israelites actually became God's people." This is an insufficient explanation, for in any case the Torah includes all these events, and certainly Moses remembered the exodus and the revelation even as he spoke. How, then is the reader to understand today in our Torah reading?

A third difficulty is reflected in the word Silence!, a word appearing only here in the entire Bible. Moses, in Deuteronomy, had four times earlier called the people to attention through the phrase, Hear O Israel, perhaps reflecting the oral nature of the book. What was it that now called for the additional demand for quiet?

Concerning the individual becoming a nation: The Torah was given in the framework of human communication, and we limited human beings are often reduced to reliance on our experience for understanding. Indeed, by metaphor in miniature we can testify to the ability of the single person to become part of a collective, above and beyond him or herself. Certainly marriage is that example. The individual, even while not losing personal identity, becomes a defining (and at the same time defined) part of something other, something greater. This is within our power, and indeed this is part of the awe we experience at the wedding ceremony. If a person can become a couple, a person can become a people.

Our metaphor, however, is disturbing. The perfection of the wedding ceremony is not consistently reflected throughout life. In fact, the other "difficulties" of the verse serve to clarify and refine our metaphor as well.

Concerning today: What day is today? Three possibilities present themselves, and as is always best in biblical interpretation, if we detect three meanings, it is well to assume that all were intended from the beginning.

Today might indeed be one of the two days related to the context - either the day of the ceremony on Mount Grizim and Mt. Ebal, which is here described (this is the view of Ibn Ezra - the day is "when he will establish the covenant with you") or the day Moses was speaking. (The latter is the view of one modern critical commentary referring to the joint commitment of God and the people reflected in Deuteronomy 26:16-19.) If so, the Torah seems to be teaching that one can almost move back in time, as if in some time tunnel through which one returns to the commitments of the exodus and Sinai. The implication is that there are major moments of reconfirmation of the past. In celebration or in trial (after all, there are both curses and blessings) there is opportunity, perhaps even demand, to reestablish that existence which is beyond oneself. And as in the case of our metaphor, the marriage, pivotal moments can and must become restatements of the original commitment to be more than oneself.

But a different explanation is possible. Today appears cut off from its context by the arrangement of the text, for it is a paragraph set apart. According to the approach of "lack of temporal order in the Torah text," perhaps the reference is to every single day. (So holds Rashi, basing himself on Rabbi Yehuda's statement in Brachot: "Every day must appear to you as the day you entered the covenant." Rashi is thus consistent with his earlier interpretation in our chapter on The Lord your God commands you this day... (26:16), which he interprets: "let them be new to you every day .") Despite all the grand moments, the verse might be teaching us that in all moments, each individual has the power and the ability to create or, Heaven forefend, destroy that larger identity. Again as in the case of our metaphor, the marriage, it is so grand and so fragile as to demand caution, concern and care every moment. In the words of the modern Israeli poem (by Amir Gilboa) - "Suddenly, a person gets up the morning and feels that he's a People, and begins to move forward." What power for change every one of us carries!

Concerning the call for quiet: There is yet a third possible implication of today, which is reflected in the use of the word Silence! It may be that the most important connection is between today and "quiet." One must stop all the running around, step back from the rush of time, seek refuge from the noise, and make an honest strong effort - to see, to understand and to build. The change of status, from individual to people, the creation of an entity that extends far beyond the limits of the lone person, will not just happen. Whether the moment is one of great excitement (and every bride and groom should, even under the wedding canopy, seek that instant of silence), or simply every single day (as in the case of marriage), the text seems to be telling us that being part of something greater does not "just" occur, independent of our determination, independent of our acts. It takes constant attention and effort. And just as in the case of our metaphor of the marriage, the reward of great effort is almost immeasurable.

As these words are written (a few weeks before they are published), it would sadly seem that for a while some of us forgot that every Jew every day has the power to be or not to be a people. Even when the people chooses a path which is not one's preference, one must not make use of his or her inherent power to destroy everything. It behooves all of us to take a moment of silence, to listen and to recall that each of us is addressed - you today can become the people Israel. That means going beyond oneself, not imposing oneself. Just as in marriage - with a little silence, listening and determination, one can bring heaven closer to earth. It is time for every individual to decide - to become the people, and we can again begin to move forward.

Benjamin Segal is the president of Melitz, the Centers for Jewish Zionist Education, in Jerusalem

 

 

And walk in His ways: "Clinging to God" Must not Justify Disregard for Ethical Commandments

The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord and walk in his ways:

If you keep [them] in such a way that one who wishes to practice holiness and clinging to God will not want to shun the observance of the commandments, for sometimes they [the commandments] disturb the clinging [to God]. In any case, it is necessary to observe the commandments, whether they be related to Heaven or to relations between people; that is the meaning of walk in His ways - just as He is merciful, so too, you should be merciful, etc...This admonition was already made clear in the passage dealing with tzitzit, that customs of holiness and piety should not detract from the observance of commandments - even of commandments dealing with relations between people...some commandments cannot be observed while one is in a state of clinging [to God], including that of walk in His ways, which deals with human concerns. Therefore one should break one's concentration from holiness in order to act. In any case the Lord will establish you as His holy people, and immediately after performing the deed you will again achieve the state of holiness and clinging that you had attained earlier.

(The NeTziV Mi'Volozhin's Ha'Amek Davar on Devarim 28:9)

 

And on those stones you shall inscribe... most distinctly

Most distinctly teaches us that the words should be explained and made understandable. They learned from this that this copy of the Torah included a translation so that the nations of the world might understand it, since Israel is far removed from the kind of particularism attributed to it by gentiles. Rather, it saw its mission from the very start as the bringing of spiritual and moral redemption to all of humanity, and the future salvation of all nations began with the Torah's entrance to the Land of Israel.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Devarim 27:8)

 

Cursed be he who perverts judgments involving the stranger, the fatherless, and he widow - And al of the people shall say, Amen.

(Devarim 27:19)

 

That is because he [the stranger] has no one to help him, and so it is with the fatherless and the widow, and it [the sin] also remains hidden - if the judge were to pervert judgments involving other people they would protest and publicize it, but the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless are without power.

(Rabbi R.Y.S.R Reggio ad loc)

 

...the widow is explained as being a stranger's widow, who only converted for her husband's sake. Because of that, she turned back from the way of Judaism upon her being widowed, and is in need of disciplining. In any case, judgments involving her must not be perverted.

(Ha'Amek Davar ad loc)

 

Taking them altogether these curses would express the thought:

Cursed - all blessing is denied to him who outwardly plays the pious man devoted to God, but in secret denies the exclusive existence of One God and His Rule; who outwardly is respectful to his parents but inwardly considers himself vastly superior to them; who in the eyes of men preserves the reputation of an honest man, but where it is unobserved does not hesitate to injure the rights of his neighbor to his own advantage; who is full of enthusiasm for the welfare of his neighbors in the presence of clever and intelligent people, but pushes shortsighted and blind people into misfortune; who grovels before the powerful, but denies the weak and the helpless their rights...who enjoys the highest confidence in his community but misuses it in secret corruption...

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch ad loc, Levy translation)

 

 

 

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