MOSES WENT UP FROM THE STEPPES OF MOAB TO MOUNT NEBO, TO THE SUMMIT OF PISGAH, OPPOSITE JERICHO, AND THE LORD SHOWED HIM THE WHOLE LAND; GILEAD AS FAR AS DAN...

AND THE LORD SAID TO HIM, "THIS IS THE LAND OF WHICH I SWORE TO ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB, SAYING, ‘I WILL ASSIGN IT TO YOUR OFFSPRING.' I HAVE LET YOU SEE IT WITH YOUR OWN EYES, BUT YOU SHALL NOT CROSS THERE.

(Devarim 34:1, 4)

 

 

And the Lord showed him the whole land

This vision was a miraculous thing, since it is not naturally possible to view all of the land of Canaan from that spot, and so they said in a midrash: "The Holy One blessed be He said - I will pass it before you as a woman-servant passes before her master." In the Sifri they explained these verses as saying that He showed him all of the future events that would occur in the Land of Israel until the last of the generations. That is the plain meaning of the text, since He did show him - before it was conquered - how the land would later be apportioned to the tribes.

(Rabbi S. R. Reggio ad loc)

 

You shall not cross there...You shall not enter there

That is to say, it is not that you are unworthy of gaining the land of Israel. Rather, it is because I am giving it to the Israelites - that is why you will not be able to enter it as well. The main punishment [you received] was meted out measure for measure; you will not teach Israel rules for living in the Land of Israel. All of the preparations which the Holy One blessed be He made concerning the rock [out of which water flowed] were in order to teach the Israelites how to comport themselves during a drought, and since our Teacher Moses spoiled it [by hitting the rock instead of talking to it], his punishment was that he would not teach them there [in the Land of Israel].

(The NeTziV Mi'Velozhin's Ha'Amek Davar on Devarim 32:52)

  

 

Breaking and Change as a World View

Shlomo Fuchs

A) The Breaking of the Tablets as a Message! The Torah Finishes with a Command –We Must Break Conventions!

The final verse of the parasha, of the book Devarim, and of the entire Torah, reads: And for all the great might and awesome power that Moses displayed before the eyes of all Israel (Devarim 34:12).

Rashi does not interpret it literally:

And for all the great might [literally: strong hand] - [this refers to the fact] that he received the Torah that was on the Tablets, in his hands

and awesome power - the miracles and mighty deeds that were wrought in the great and terrible wilderness

before the eyes of all Israel - [This refers to the fact] that his heart inspired him to shatter the Tablets before their eyes, as it is said, And I broke them before your eyes (9:17), and the opinion of the Holy One, blessed be He [regarding this action] agreed with his opinion, as it is stated [that God referred to them as the Tablets] which you broke (Shemot 34:1) - Yiyshar kohakha ["May your strength be fitting" - an expression of thanks and congratulations] that you have broken [them]!

Why does Rashi explain that the Torah concludes with the breaking of the Tablets? Rashi bases his interpretation upon a midrash:

...and awesome power - from where do we know that this also refers to the breaking of the Tablet? Because it says earlier, And I broke them before your eyes, and here it says, that Moses displayed before the eyes of all Israel

What does Rashi want to teach us? Let us consult the Gemara (Yevamot 62a):

For it was taught: Moses did three things of his own accord, and God agreed with him: he stayed away from his wife, and broke the tablets, and added a day...

...Broke the Tablets - how did he learn [that this was appropriate]? He said: The Pesah offering is only one of the 613 commandments, and concerning it the Torah said no foreigner shall eat of it (Shemot 12), [when relating to] the entire Torah, and Israel are apostates, all the more so [that the apostate Israelites, who are like foreigners should not partake of the Torah].

And his view was in accordance with that of God, for it is written, which you broke (Shemot 34): Yiyshar kohakha that you have broken [them]!

Study of the sources points to the possibility that Rashi chose to mention the lesson of the broken tablets in his commentary on the final verse of the Torah in order to teach us that sometimes It is time to act for the Lord - transgress your Torah.

The Meshekh Hokhmah's statement (Rabbi Meir Simkha HaKohen MiDevinsk, 1843-1926) should also be counted as part of the message of the breaking of the Tablets:

That is the meaning of and when he drew near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing and saw that their error was so great that they did not doubt it at all, for they did not want to stand [watch to see] if Moses might have descended, to look out for his arrival at a distance. Rather, they were only sunk into their error, into the abominations of the calf which they thought was divine. He understood their error and Moses became angry and he threw the Tablets from his hands; that is to say, there is no holiness or divinity at all except in the existence of the Creator, may His name be blessed. If he had brought the tablets, they would have switched the calf with a Tablet without abandoning their error. When he broke the Tablets they saw that they had not reached the goal of faith in God and in his pure Torah.

That is to say, the breaking of the Tablets is supposed to teach us that holiness never resides in matter, in stones, but rather in God's Torah. This message completes the yearly reading of the Torah. The fragments of the Tablets must rest side by side with the second Tablets in the Ark of the Covenant.

 

B) The Haftorah of Zot HaBerakhah - And Solomon stood or After the death of Moses

All Jewish communities say the haftorah from the beginning of the Book of Joshua, in contradiction to what is written in Meggilah 31a. Perhaps the change of practice was fueled by frustration over the way the Torah ends without the people entering the Land of Israel. We, like Moses, do not get to enter the land, but instead turn back to beginning of Bereishit. The justification for the change of haftorah for Ve'Zot Ha'Berakhah is that custom overrides halakhah!

Meggilah 31a states that on Simhat Torah we should read the passage beginning And Solomon stood facing the altar of the Lord, before the entire community of Israel, and he spread his hands out to heaven...(II Kings 1:8). This is the Gemara's formulation:

The following day [Simkhat Torah] Ve'Zot Ha'Berakhah is read, and And Solomon Stood is read as the haftorah.

The Tosafotists there point out:

There are locales which customarily read the haftorah [beginning] After the death of Moses. This is incorrect, since the Talmud does not say to do it. There are some who say that Rav Hai Gaon instituted the recitation of After the death of Moses, but they do not know his reason for changing the order set out by the Talmud.

Siddur Rashi also questions this custom.

The author of Or Zarua (2: 393) summarizes the halakhic rulings of the Rishonim regarding this deviation from the Talmudic law and justifies the custom:

Since during all the days of the festival haftarot are read that relate to the day [of the festival] and on Simkhat Torah the Torah is completed and we read about the death of our Rabbi Moses, that is why we read the beginning of the books of the Prophets which speaks of the death of our Rabbi Moses, peace be upon him, and his replacement by Joshua. And Rabbi Yitzhak ben Yehudah ztz"l answered: Since they have practiced this custom, let them practice it, for custom overrides halakhah. And it may be said that our Rabbis, the Savoraim, who arose after the Amoraim practiced this custom, and they had the power to do so, for they had learned Torah from their [the Amoraim's] mouths.

The justification for the Talmud's having chosen the haftorah And Solomon stood is explained in Mahzor Vitri: "It is also in order to juxtapose the king's blessing with Moses' blessing. For the king's blessing was made on the last day of the festival, as the Sages said, it [the last day] is separated from the [rest of the festival] and requires its own blessing." In other words, the dedication of Solomon's temple was completed on Shemini Atzeret, making it appropriate to read a haftorah that describes that event. II Chronicles5:1 (as well as I Kings 1:8) tells us: All the men of Israel gathered together to the king on the festival, that is, on the seventh month. And in chapter 7, verses 8-11, we read:

At that time Solomon kept the feast for seven days - all Israel with him - a great assembly from Levo-Hamat to the Wadi of Egypt. On the eighth day they held a solemn gathering: they observed the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he dismissed the people to their homes, rejoicing and in good spirits over the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and Solomon and His people. Thus Solomon finished building the House of the Lord and the royal palace; Solomon succeeded in everything he had set his heart on accomplishing with regard to the House of the Lord and his palace.

It is clear why the passage describing the dedication of the Temple would be read on Simhat Torah: they both occur on the 23 of Tishrei. However, those verses raise a question: How did the dedication of the Temple cancel the fast of Yom Kippur? Could that be the point of the expression everything he had set his heart on?

The Gemara in Shabbat 30a states:

Was it not correct for Solomon to say, and I praise the dead who have already died? It refers to that which is written: On the eighth day he sent the people and they blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and good of heart for all of the good that the Lord had done for His servant David and His people Israel (I Kings 8:65).

And went to their tents - they found their wives to be ritually pure. Joyful - they enjoyed the illumination of the Divine presence. Good of heart - that each and everyone's wife became pregnant and gave birth to a male. For all of the good that the Lord had done for His servant David and His people Israel - For His servant David - He forgave him for that sin. And His people Israel - He forgave them for the sin of Yom Kippur.

It appears that it may be said that by choosing And Solomon stood as the haftorah, the Sages want to teach us that - as in Solomon's case - it is permitted to cancel Yom Kippur in order to dedicate the Temple! This is similar to the message of the breaking of the Tablets, which I mentioned earlier. Solomon decided to cancel Yom Kippur in deference to the dedication of the Temple and in order to avoid "mixing one joyful event with another." For this, both he and the people were forgiven.

It seems that the change of haftarot in the days of the Geonim sends a similar message. The reason for the change remains insufficiently clear, but, nonetheless, almost all synagogues read the haftorah "against the ruling of the halakhah"! There were some authorities who tried to follow the rule grasp this one and do not let go of that one that and called for both haftarot to be read. Justification of the change in terms of "custom cancels halakhah" - (the Yiddish expression: a minhag bracht a din - a custom breaks a halakhah, expresses this idea in an even clearer fashion) or in accordance with the notion that the Savoraim could change the halakhah because they were chronologically close to the Amoraim - they are very surprising!

Perhaps there is yet another additional significance to the change of haftarot, a significance that may have prompted the change.

Temurah 16a reads:

Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: When Moses left for the Garden of Eden [i.e., at his death] he said to Joshua: "Ask me about any doubts you may have!"

He said to him: "My Rabbi, is it as if I studied with you for a single hour and walked off elsewhere? Did you not write about me: And his attendant, Joshua son of Nun, a youth, was never absent from the tent (Shemot 33)?

Joshua's strength was immediately weakened, and he forgot three hundred laws, and seven hundred doubts entered his mind, and all of Israel was ready to kill him.

The Holy One blessed be He said to him: I cannot tell you [the laws you have forgotten], go and busy them with warfare, for it is said: After the death of Moses, servant of the Lord and the Lord said, etc.

According to this passage from the Talmud, the military conquest of the land resulted from Joshua's inability to ask questions; he had no doubts. It is interesting to think about how the conquest would have taken place if Joshua had not made this mistake. I would be so bold as to say that it may be assumed that Rahav's statement, fear has fallen upon all of the land's inhabitants, was accurate. It may be that the entire conquest by force of arms could have been avoided if they had waited at Arvot Moav - there could have been a victory "by peaceful means."

It may be said in this spirit that the passage from Joshua is read as the haftorah for the completion of the Torah in order to teach us to avoid repeating Joshua's mistake. Even upon the completion of the reading of the Torah, "even if we are all wise," - there remain - and there should be - doubts and questions.

The power of interpretation, the power of the Oral Torah, comes to teach us that the message of the breaking of the Tablets also belongs to the Torah's tradition. From it springs its power to change the haftorah by dint of a custom that breaks the halakhah. Doubts and questions are integral parts of this conception, which expresses humility.

Shlomo Fuchs teaches at Hebrew Union College, in Beit Shemuel and in Kolot. He is the educational director of the IDF project of Beit Morashah

 

 

At the Completion of Our Eighth Year of Publication...

On Shabbat parashat Bereishit of 5758 we started on our way "in love and fear," knowing that many parashat ha'shavua sheets were distributed in the synagogues every week. Some of them included articles by famous rabbis, figures of influence in the religious community. Most of them emphasized the importance of the commandment to settle the Land of Israel, sometimes by staking clear stands on controversial political issues, which were presented as the Torah view [da'at Torah]. Sometimes the impression was created that settlement of the Land was presented as being "equal to all the rest of the commandments," as a factor that overrides any other Torah-value.

Eight years ago we felt - and we believe even more strongly today - that it is important to let the community hear an alternative voice, a more complex voice, a voice which we hold to be the authentic voice of religious Zionism, one which views our Torah as a "Torah of life."

At first, we were unsure how a sheet expressing a different message would be received by the religious-Zionist community.

Great demand for the sheets, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, the responses we receive from our readers - including from those who disagree with some of the ideas we propagate - strengthened our impression that today, especially in times when deep disagreements divide the nation, there is room for discussion and debate to take place in a mutually respectful manner, and in cognizance of the notion that "the Torah has seventy faces." There is room for a "disagreement for the sake of Heaven" regarding fundamental issues as long as all agree that discussion requires attentiveness to the various standpoints and compliance with democratically decided matters of policy.

At this time, when Israeli society is grappling with difficult questions that sometimes require difficult solutions, it is important for us to continue emphasizing those Torah values that seem to us to be no less important than the commandment to settle the Land of Israel. It is important to remind all of us that human beings were created in the Divine image, that we are required to protect the rights of the stranger, that the Torah is a Torah of life and that therefore we must do everything possible to avoid bloodshed and to create a just society, a society committed to fulfilling the needs of its weaker members. These are among the foundation stones of a Jewish Torah society, and the pursuit of peace is also an important religious value.

We have managed to fulfill this mission, and, God willing, we shall continue to fulfill it with your help.  

With the completion of this cycle of publication and the beginning of a new year, I would like to thank Miriam Fine, who organizes the editorial work and is responsible for distribution both inside and outside of Israel, to Danny Lazar, who faithfully and devotedly attends to the graphic editing and online publication, to our English translator, who prefers to remain anonymous, to our printer, Graphos Print in Jerusalem, to all of our authors, contributors, distributors, and readers who make Shabbat Shalom possible.

Hazak hazak ve'nit'hazeik

Pinchas Leiser - Editor

 

 

 

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